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Tag: fortnightly
Old School Movie Reviews: Lethal Weapon (1987)
On January 6, 2017 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
The movie that launched a thousand parodies, Lethal Weapon occupies a special place set aside for movies that set a standard for a formula which all others must now live up to. Even if it's not particularly great.
I mean, it's not bad. In fact I'd even go so far as to call it good. But it's not great. The acting is often hammy or mediocre, the story is at best ridiculous and at worst senselessly fucking bonkers (why the hell did they use a recognisably CIA-quality bomb to blow up a hooker's house? They could've just stabbed her or something), and the action is contextually over-the-top. Good fun to be sure, but that's about it. Good fun.
And yet this film occupies a position of greatness. Believe it or not, that's for a good reason. Now I don't know if the buddy cop film existed before Lethal Weapon (and quite frankly I don't wanna know), but it was the film that set the standard for what a solid buddy cop film was supposed to be. Created the formula, if you will, that all good buddy cop films follow. And most of that's on the relationship between cranky veteran Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and young possibly-bonkers Riggs (a young possibly bonkers Mel Gibson).
Aside from the fact that Glover and Gibson have excellent chemistry together – they really bounce off one another and you buy the friendship that quickly develops between the characters – the film manages a "these guys are complete opposites" situation without falling into cliche by focusing on a difference in situation rather than a difference in values. It's not "this guy is neat, but this guy is messy," or "this guy is a playboy, but this guy a monogamous-to-a-fault virgin," or even "this guy is honest and straight-laced, but this guy is cynical and not to bothered about committing the odd petty crime himself. Rather Murtaugh is a family man with everything to live for, able to put his experiences in the Vietnam War behind him, while Riggs is a widower with nothing to live for, possibly suicidal, who feels that the only time he was ever really good and useful was when he was breaking things and hurting people back in 'Nam. Murtaugh need Riggs' skills, but Riggs needs Murtaugh's friendship and stability. Surprisingly brilliant for such a silly film.
Throw in the odd bit of social commentary (Murtaugh is obviously uncomfortable when a bunch a African-American children begin asking about his record of shooting black people) and there are more than a few vets these days recently returned from America's latest failed foreign wars, and you end up with a timeless classic. Surprisingly timeless for such a silly film.
If you haven't watched Lethal Weapon before (in which case where the hell have you been for the last thirty years?) I'd recommend giving it a go. It might not be great but it's definitely worth watching.
Old School Reviews: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
On December 17, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
I think what I love about British crime movies is that they have no issue with building their film around a cast of good honest villains. Career criminals who don't feel the need to lament their lot in life or the cycles of poverty, abuse and violence that led them to a life of crime, who don't need to show guilt over their violent, thieving ways, to be likeable. American gangsters are relatable and empathetic. British crims, proper British crooks, are entertaining.
Case in point we have Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie's 1998 classic (I'm pretty sure it made it into 1001 Movies to See Before you Die) about four mates, a crooked card game, violent loan sharks, drug dealers, the guys who rob drug dealers, and a pair of antique shotguns. Y'know, guns that fire shot.
Now, I don't think at any point do any of the characters show any real remorse for the life they'd lived. Well, not 'til it all goes to shit at least. Even then, as the threads come together and the bodies start dropping no one blames 'the life.' For our four central characters this isn't one final score that goes horribly wrong. This was a chance at the big leagues that goes horribly wrong, and you know they're going to go straight back into scamming and thieving as soon as they're out of the Barney Rubble. Heh, cockney rhyming slang.
Real funny thing though is that the points that in a Yank film would lead to a heel-face-turn (my family/friends/only people I care about are in danger!) and cause the career criminal to make a determined effort to get out the life (go legit, go to the cops, fake their own death) don't even register. Shit, Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) takes his son out debt collecting with him, despite the danger this can and does lead to. At the end of the film though, the kid's still coming along, even if the business has changed slightly.
Guy Ritchie has long set himself up as a solid (even if not always necessarily brilliant) director and writer, and his feature length debut will always be remembered as one of his best. He gets great performances out of the actors, most notably debuts Vinnie Jones as Big Chris and Jason Statham as Bacon (both of whom are now staple British hard men), and the script is tight and unapologetic of its origins. It starts with Statham rattling off a sale pitch for stolen jewelry ("It's not stolen, it just hasn't been paid for!" and according to the legend part of Statham's audition) and in one notable scene preferring to use subtitles over dumbing down the language. Shit mate, that scene right there is how you do a character introduction. Forces you to pay attention, then reveals cunning, creativity and a predilection towards violence. Everyone's solid though, sometimes a little stilted on occasion but they carry the emotional parts well. Then of course there's the soundtrack. Guy Ritchie knows how to pick a song for a scene, switching through jazz, funk and rock'n'roll to pull you into a and a mood, and when to not bother with any noise at all.
But it all works out in the end. Except for the people who died, of course, but most of them deserved it. Not that anyone really judges, it's just part of the life. The only lesson really learned for our luckless antiheroes is to pick their battles better.
So you should watch this film. It's fun, a little absurdist, Sting tells someone to fuck off, and you get to watch some villains being villains. And then there's a girl named Gloria with a Bren gun. Even if the rest of the movie was shit, it's worth is for Gloria with a Bren gun.
On December 2, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
It's funny, once upon a time the only folk that could be regularly relied upon to turn beloved books into television series were the Poms. They'd often start (or remain) a made-for-TV movie and, if it earned enough interest from the right people, would eventually become a series. Murder mysteries for the most part, as with the Yanks for a long time, but there was also a much firmer place for fantasy and/or period pieces. The Discworld books, some stuff by Neil Gaiman, the odd bit of Arthurian legend, whatever work by the Bronte sisters was most popular that year (I really need to sit down and read Pride and Prejudice one of these days), and of course the works of C.S Forester and Bernard Cornwell. And that is what I find to be most peculiar about Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, that fact that it was a proper work of cinema and not a TV series.
Not to say that it's a bad film. Quite the contrary, I think it's fuckin' fantastic. The violence is excellent. Damage to the ship is big and brutal, splinters flying, ropes snapping and masts cracking. At the same time it's an intimate thing, closeups following the men as they fire the cannons and receive fire. Easy to follow, tense, and with little-to-no plot armour (name another film that will cut off a boy's arm within the first half hour), but most of all detailed. The good doctor calling for more sand to make the floor less slippery, doors removed from the captain's cabin to allow access to the guns stored there, ignoring the swords and grabbing the captain's silver to be stored safely during an action. Good stuff, humanising stuff.
The soundtrack adds. Simple strings to fit the mood and drums that provide a rhythm to every desperate battle and gambit, with dead silences used to ramp up the tension right before something is due to happen.
The best part is the characters. Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany and Max Pirkis are the peak of an enormous and excellent cast. Director Peter Weir does a great job of getting so many great performances out of so many great actors creating so many great and (most importantly) memorable characters. The ship is a closed environment, with different politics, relationships and superstitions presented across four perspectives: the crew at the bottom, cannon fodder, driven by rum, fear of the lash and loyalty to their commander; the junior officers, the midshipmen, terrified and uncertain, walking a fine line (not always successfully) to earn the respect of the men beneath; the good doctor, outside of the traditional hierarchy and often in opposition to Naval discipline (in many ways a surrogate for the audience); and at the top of it all the Captain, the commander, bound by tradition, duty and his own orders.
Crowe does a fantastic job as "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, a charismatic captain able to summon incredible loyalty from the men beneath him, yet one that struggles to find his tongue when faced with the horribly maimed son of a dear friend who still idolises him. Bettany plays the doctor, the forward thinker, the only man on the ship allowed to question Jack's command (within reason), but one that can never truly understand the men around him and whose protestations often fall on deaf ears. Their relationship is brilliant and real, arguments are common but the care is genuine. The bromance is probably the best part of the film.
But, as much as I enjoy this film and going back to what I was saying in the first paragraph, I cannot understand why and how this film was made. This is a film about relationships punctuated by the odd bit of action, based on a book from a series I'd never heard of until well after the first time I watched this movie. It lacks the epic scale of other period action-dramas like Gladiator, or the famous source material of other based-on-books like the Lord of the Rings trilogy or The Green Mile. Yet they spent 150 million dollars turning this into a film. A highly rated film, that made back its money, but still.
And it's funny, 'cause I doubt I would have thought so back in 2003, before the current golden age of television shows was even a twinkle in HBO's eye. I watch the film now and can't help but feel that the adventures and relationships of the crew of the HMS Surprise would have made a fantastic television show, though of course when it was greenlit that wasn't even close to an option. It's funny how perspectives change like that. Maybe it's because the film now feels far more like it was planning on becoming a series. Yes, the plot is self-contained, and half the named crew… well, yeah, lack of plot armour, but there's still this air that they were hoping on bringing Jack, Stephen and the HMS Surprise back for another cruise around the Atlantic and/or Pacific. Maybe it's just the second part of the title, The Far Side of the World. You don't usually stick a colon there unless you're planning on using the first part of the title again later.
Anyway, watch this film. Tell me if you agree, tell me why if you don't and we can argue a bit. Regardless, it's a film worth watching.
On November 18, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
I recently found myself reading a book called Agincourt: The King, The Campaign, The Battle by Juliet Barker, a fascinating look into King Henry V's famous victory over an overwhelming force of the French nobility. Great book, really interesting stuff, bloody hard to remember all the Johns, Henrys, Thomases and (delightfully enough) Lancelots. Anyway, it got me in the mood for some knights and chivalry, and I narrowed my choices down to a bit of Shakespeare or 2001's Heath Ledger-led rock'n'roll-anachronism laden romantic-action-comedy/sports film, A Knight's Tale. I made a decision, and I believe it was the right one.
As I said, Heath Ledger stars as William Thatcher, a peasant who poses as a noble born in order to compete in that most medieval of sports, jousting. Along the way he and his fellow peasant squires, Roland (Mark Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk), are joined by blacksmith Kate (Laura Fraser) and Geoffrey fucking Chaucer (Paul Bettany), love interest Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon) and mortal enemy the Count of Adhemar (Rufus Sewell). He achieves fame, fortune and a loyal fanbase, including the Black Prince himself (James Purefoy). Gotta love the Medieval name drops.
There is a lot to love about the cast. Perfect fits across the board, fantastic chemistry and even the accents aren't too bad. Shannyn Sossamon is able to convey so much through a coy smile or an irritated frown, and seems to be having an absolute ball in the role. Paul Bettany is always a delight to watch, a showman playing a showman with a gambling problem and an absolute conviction that his place in history is assured even if no one else can be convinced. Rufus Sewell plays the subtle arsehole like few others, maintaining a keen poker face so that every small display of overt emotion seems far more dangerous. Even smaller roles are well filled. James Purefoy makes for a prince who understands and respects the points and price of chivalry and knighthood. Scott Handy, playing Adhemar's herald Germaine, is excellent, a little out of his depth compared to the swagger of Chaucer but a professional entertainer nonetheless. You feel quite proud of him when he gives his final introduction of the film. And of course there's Heath Ledger. We lost a good one there and I will say no more.
The script is excellent. I mean the story is okay but the dialogue, the lines and delivery are brilliant. It's actually surprising that this film never became one of my go-tos for quotes. I mean, "The pope may be French but Jesus is bloody English!" How fucking good is that? Very good. The answer is very good. And "why don't I use some variation of that more often?"
The really genius part of this film though is its understanding of the subject matter, as demonstrated by, amongst other things, the music. Y'see, A Knight's Tale is a sports movie. That's what it is, dealing with class and privilege while pushing morals such as the joys of ambition, courage, bravery, determination and that good sportsmanship will always triumph over being a dickhead. We hear this in the music, with great rock anthems playing between, during and after the matches just as they do at any arena today. The film starts with 'We Will Rock You' and ends with 'You Shook Me All Night Long.' 'The Boys are Back in Town' plays during a parade and they dance to 'Golden Years' at a feast. And it's fucking brilliant. Not just a fantastic soundtrack but one that forces the viewer to accept the analogy and frame of reference. The familiar absorbs the distant.
Sport is sport is sport. Something that I noticed reading that book I mentioned about Agincourt was that many of these nights and princes were, in fact, the honest to god sports stars of their time. Codes of chivalry and knighthood crossed borders, cultures and religions, and people of all classes held onto stories of epic deeds, duels and jousts. Fashion, sledging, rivalries and WAGs were as much part of the sport then as they are now. It's honestly just a surprise that no one thought of this before (and no one's really done it since). At the same time the film never forgets its time frame, the religion, filth and racism, making it all the grander.
If you like a sports film, watch this. It's more light-hearted than Gladiator and just as quotable.
Good God! Are we getting back onto our regular schedule? We'll see. We will see.
Old school reviews: Young Frankenstein (1974)
On September 1, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Questions of culture, Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
Not long before I left Australia the family gathered around and slid our copy of Mel Brook's 1974 monster movie satire, Young Frankenstein, into the player. Early in the film, Frederick Frankenstein, is giving a lecture to a group of medical students only to have one of them stand up and begin asking questions about the work of his late grandfather, the famous Victor Frankenstein. The scene goes on, poor Mr Hilltop gets kneed in the balls ("give him an extra dollar") and irritating medical student becomes even more irritating. And then, at some point as he brings up Dr Frunk-en-shteen's heritage, my dad points out that "He looks like Kevin Rudd!"
We all watch the scene, and the actor a little closer. "Oh my god," I think it was my mum then said, "he even talks like Kevin Rudd!" The whole family cracked up laughing. Then cracked up again when Gene Wilder stabbed himself with a scalpel.
There's no point to this anecdote really, beyond saying that loving this film has always been a family affair. Y'see, this is my dad's favourite film. It's not all that hard to make my dad laugh, but when he really loves a bit of comedy, when he's really enjoying himself, well, let's just say it's fucking infectious. As a result Young Frankenstein became something of a family meme. I've talked about how my best mates and I are able to talk almost entirely in movie and Simpsons quotes, but amongst my family the go-to was always something from this movie.
Goddamn, especially that scene where he's dreaming in bed. "DESTINY! DESTINY! NO ESCAPING THAT FOR ME!"
I think that a great film, a really great film, always has this communal aspect. That ability to fit the jokes into other situations, or simply cause a chuckle by invoking memories. Group reverence rather than individual reverence.
This is also the mark of a great actor. It's an amazing thing that even, what, twenty years after he was last in a cinema, Gene Wilder's death has marked so many people so deeply. He had and still has such a profound influence on the popular consciousness. I mean shit, every actor that plays the role of Willy Wonka from now until forever will be compared to the Gene Wilder version, a role that has become subject to some of the longest running memes I've seen on the constantly evolving internet.
A true entertainer and clown, and I say that in the best way possible. Watching him be hilarious seemed like the best tribute I could think of. Watching with my family will be one of the first things I do when I get home.
Old School Movie Reviews: The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
On August 18, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
I don't normally do sequels, do I? I mean, I can't think of any I've done so far. Definitely none in the next review after the original. So this is a first.
Released five years after The Three Musketeers, 1998's The Man in the Iron Mask is more spiritual rather than direct sequel. Different actors, slightly different relationships, some similar treason.
In this case we have Gerard Depardieu as Porthos, John Malkovich as Athos and Jeremy Irons as Aramis pitting themselves against Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan in a plot to replace King Louis the IV, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, with his twin brother Philippe (the titular Man in the Iron Mask), also played by Leonardo DiCaprio. We also have Anne Parillaud as the Queen Mother and Judith Godreche as the lovely Christine, who becomes Louis' mistress after he murders her fiance (Athos' son Raoul, played briefly by Peter Skarsgard). Great actors at the worst of times, some of them obviously having an absolute ball with the characters (Jeremy Irons and Gerard Depardieu in particular). The best has got to be a young but still talented Leonardo DiCaprio, going from the petulant and arrogant Louis to the gentle, kind and generally overwhelmed Philippe. He plays two genuinely different characters and showed his skill early on. Great actor.
The action is, if I'm to be perfectly honest, a little disappointing. There are fewer fights than you'd expect, and most of them are honestly a little disappointing, except for the final desperate fight against the King's Musketeers in the bowels of the Bastille. It's meant to be more of a heist film, more character driven rather than a straight up action film and it more or less works. But you still expect a little more swashbuckling from any movie that involves the famous musketeers (something that even Porthos complains about at one point).
I don't know. This film is a weird one. It's not as good as I remember it being but I can't exactly put my finger on why. Probably lot's of little things. Like, it's got a good sense of humour but a few of the jokes fall a little flat. It does a good job of setting up Louis as a monster who believes his crown (ordained by god) makes him immune to consequences both in this world and the next, but a couple of his decisions are just stupid for the plot's sake. At one point some rotten fruit is thrown as D'Artagnan and he skewers it with his sword. This is used as a moment to remind both the audience and a mob of rioters what a fucking badass D'Artagnan is supposed to be, but the fruit spends so much time flying through the air (while shocked rioters look on and D'Artagnan decides which piece of fruit he's going to skewer) that it becomes less impressive than it should have been. Little shit like this, it adds up.
But, as good as I remember or not, I still like this film. Helps that I'm a big fan of Jeremy Irons though. I'll push through some pretty awful fucking movies if it means I get to enjoy a bit of Jeremy Irons, and this is far from awful.
Life in the Avenger's barracks (17)
On August 11, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Longer rants, Not at all trueLeave a comment
Chapter 17: For the Children
There was a knock on the hotel room door just as Tiffany Martz pushed her eldest daughter, Elle, into the wardrobe after her sister Lizzy. The two little girls hugged each other close and looked at their mum with big scared eyes, but didn't make a sound. Tiffany whispered an "I love you," just in case, then quietly slid the door shut.
They had been sleeping soundly until about two minutes before when some errant sound – an elevator perhaps or too many footsteps for this time of night – had set every well-honed instinct in Tiffany's body screaming in alarm. The girls had woken up without fuss and staggered over to the wardrobe in the dark, rubbing sleep out of their eyes but not complaining. They knew it wasn't a game, knew what to do when mummy woke them up in the middle of the night.
Hide, don't make a sound, don't come out till mummy said you could.
There was another knock on the door, louder and more aggressive this time.
"Coming!" she yelled, trying to make her voice sound as groggy as possible (not hard since she was actually tired as fuck).
She switched one of the bedside lamps on and looked around the room. Two queen beds (but her and the girls had only been using one), bags packed and ready to go at a moment's notice, beige curtains drawn and the walls and bedsheets coloured an oddly ugly shade of eggshell white. Her pistol was hidden beneath the pillow of the unused bed, and for a moment Tiffany considered tucking it into the waistband of her trackies then decided against it. Talking her way past whoever was on the other side of the door was always the best option, but that wouldn't be possible if they spotted her ceramic handgun hanging out of her trousers.
Two deep breaths to calm her nerves and she opened the door. Just a crack, just someone who's been woken in the middle of the night and wasn't sure who could possibly be on the other side. Two women – one blonde and one redhead – and two men – both brunettes but one was quite tall and the other a bit of a short-arse. Christ, sounded like the start of a mildly sexist joke.
The taller of the two men had his hand raised to knock for a third time but stopped when he saw her peeking at him the gap between door and frame. He smiled at her, as did the three others. The kind of fake-arse smiles you saw on dead-eyed salespeople just going through the motions.
"Miss Platt?" he said through his too-good-to-be-true grin.
It was always odd to hear other people say the lies she told, as if it made them true somehow through the stranger's belief. She nodded anyhow, gave them a meek smile and said, "Can I help you?"
"We work for the government, Missing Persons," the knocker kept smiling as he produced a badge, the ADVENT sigil besides a Southern Cross, the Coalition's local lapdogs. "Would you mind letting us in? We have some questions for you."
"I would mind actually, it's very late and-"
"We know what time it is, and we're going to have to insist Miss Platt," he was still smiling but there was an edge to his voice now.
Not much choice then. Tiffany nodded and opened the door wide, stepping out of the way as the knocker and redhead walked past.
"Thankyou," knocker's voice was all sweetness and love again, "Y'see we're looking for some missing-"
Tiffany swung the door as hard as she could into the short-arse's face as he tried to follow his friends in. It bounced off the bastard and back into her hand. He staggered back into the blonde and Tiffany hurled the door back into its frame, slammed, shut, locked.
The knocker stared at her, open-mouthed and wide-eyed as her open palm crunched against his nose. Redhead was faster, pulling a mean-looking pistol from a holster that had been well-hidden within the lines of her suit. There was an even meaner looking suppressor fitted over its barrel, probably so they wouldn't bother the other hotel guests. Tiffany grabbed the redhead's hand before she could draw a bead, twisting it to the side while grabbing her hair and pulling her head back, making her screech.
You don't hesitate when you're fighting for your life. Doesn't matter how unpleasant a thing you have to do is, you fucking well do it without blinking. You hesitate and you die.
Tiffany came in close and bit down on redhead's bare neck. Redhead's screech became a choked gurgle. Hot blood filled Tiffany's mouth, poured down her chin, her chest. She ground them in deeper, deeper, pulled, tore, ripped back with skin and whatever else clamped between her teeth. Redhead clutched her neck, shock written across her face, blood spurting between her fingers. Then she fell backwards onto the bed.
The knocker was only just getting up. Tiffany spat the blood and whatever else onto the carpet (beige, like the curtains) and charged at him, using the second bed as a platform, leaping and bringing her knees together against his chest. She felt his ribs crunch as they came down together. He gasped, gasped again, and it sounded dangerously wet. Tiffany rolled off him and realised that short-arse and blonde were slamming their shoulders into the door, trying to break it down. She wondered why they didn't have a key, decided that knocker or redhead must have had it.
The door began to splinter as Tiffany stomped on the knocker's face, neck, neck again, felt the bone crack against her bare foot, keeping in time with the thumping against the door. The knocker finally stopped trying to breath though his feet were still twitching. Satisfied she looked around for redhead's gun, couldn't see it, realised that the knocker was probably armed as well, then remembered her own gun was two steps away beneath her pillow.
Too late. The door finally gave way with an angry creak and short-arse and blonde charged in behind it, an ugly bruise on short-arse's furious face, guns out but down, not having had time to process their dead mates.
You don't hesitate in a fight.
Tiffany charged, crossing the tiny distance before her two new dance partners had time to react. She went low, hooking an arm between short-arse's legs and lifting up so that his own momentum helped carry him over her shoulder and onto the floor. Then she was slamming into blonde, shoving her hard against the doorframe and driving the wind out of her. Cracked blonde's head against the painted wood once, twice, threw her aside and turned back on short-arse.
He was on his hands and knees, pistol up. Fired a shot, the suppressor reducing the sound to a still-loud hissing pop instead of its normal roar.
Tiffany was already charging forward, the bullet missing her by a wide mark as she kicked him in the head with a snarl. Short-arse rolled backwards, gun still in hand. She jumped on top of him, grabbed at the pistol. He punched her, she punched back, writhing on the floor, growling, swinging, trying to get leverage on the pistol. They rolled and short-arse was on top, using his weight to twist the barrel of the gun slowly towards Tiffany's face. She snarled again, kicked him between the legs, then again, then a third time, snarled once more.
Tiffany threw her head up and bit into his cheek, felt new, fresh blood stream into her mouth and nearly gagged this time. The gun went off beside her head, grazing and deafening her left ear. Short-arse screamed and pulled back, a ragged chunk of skin hanging off his face. Tiffany twisted the gun up, her finger finding his over the trigger. Pop, pop, pop, pop. Short-arse shuddered, then collapsed limply on top of her.
No time to stop. There was one still breathing. Tiffany rolled the corpse off of her and stood up on shaky but still strong legs just in time to see the blonde crawling out the door. Couldn't have that now. She walked up behind the fleeing woman, grabbed her by the hair (bloody from where Tiffany had smashed her head against the doorframe) and dragged her back inside the bloody hotel room.
"No! No, no. Please! Please no!" The blonde was whimpering, crying, begging.
Tiffany kicked her in the head, laying her flat. She rolled blonde onto her stomach and straddled her back.
"N-No! P-p-please! I have children too!"
One hand on the blonde's jaw, the other on her crown.
"Please I have children t-too!"
"Then you shouldn't have come after mine."
Jaw and crown, twist and lift. Tiffany felt the crunch of vertebrae, the body shudder, the legs continuing to kick for what felt like a long time before finally going completely still.
Two deep breaths to calm herself.
Tiffany grabbed one of the lapdogs' pistols and tucked it into the waistband of her trackies, fished out two spare magazines from within the blonde's suit. Then her wallet, then the others. She grabbed her own pistol and dropped it into the backpack sitting with the other already packed bags and zipped it up tight.
Only then did she step over to the wardrobe and slide the door open.
The girls looked up into her face and rushed forward, wrapping their arms around her and sobbing quietly as she clutched them back, clutched them like a drowning woman grabbing onto a piece of driftwood in a storm. They didn't care that their was blood on her face, her chest, up her arms, splattered across her legs, in her hair, in her teeth, surrounded by the corpses she had just made. She was alive, she had won, and they loved her.
That was the only thing in this whole fucked up world that could make Tiffany Martz cry.
Michelle King tilted her head against the cold metal of the skyranger's hull and shut her eyes, just for the moment. Shit, she was tired. Her armour felt like it weighed a tonne (almost as much as her eyelids) and every movement tiny movement made her muscles ache.
There was a clank and clunk of armour being readjusted and Michelle felt a head lay itself on her shoulder, hair tickling her cheek.
"Are you alright Bull Rush?" she heard Li Ming Cheng ask softly over the hum of the engines through the hull.
The big Chinese woman couldn't see her smile, but smile she did. Michelle liked the nickname. The others had started using it after she'd organised a game, right before Gerry O'Neill had been smashed into bloody pulp by a half-dead andy.
"Yeah, I'm alright," Michelle's voice sounded unconvincing in her own ears, "just feeling a little burnt at the moment."
She felt Li nod at that, "Perhaps it's time for a holiday?"
Michelle snorted back a laugh at that, "Go kick up our heels on a beach somewhere?"
"Swim in the ocean. I haven't swum in a long time." There was something in Li's voice as she said it, something beneath the casual, offhand tone she usually used, that made Michelle wonder if Li Ming was actually being serious.
"Beaches in West Australia are the best in the world."
"Are they?"
"I only went to the west coast once, on a job before I got locked up, but shit, I fucking loved it. Met this guy. We went to this beach a few hours out of Perth. Purest, whitest sand I've ever seen. Clearest water."
"That sounds nice," Li sighed, "do you think the aliens would let us lay on a pure white beach for a week?"
"You can ask them."
Li laughed at that, "You're the one who's good at talking."
That earned a gentle punch to the arm, which Li responded to with an elbow beneath the ribs.
There was an adorable squeak that was probably Emily being tended to by James. She'd been grazed by a muton's plasma rifle. Unfortunately, when it came to energy weapons, "grazed" usually at the very least meant "severe burns." Still, she was breathing and upright, as was Gerard Dekker whose leg had been sliced open pretty bad. The Dutchman had endured James' patch-job in stoic silence, face barely betraying any of the pain that he was no doubt in. Only 'cause there were ladies present, mind you. He didn't want them to think less of him by admitting that getting your leg cut up and then bandaged back together hurt. James had told Michelle that when there was nobody else within earshot he moaned and groaned like the best of them. Fucking idiot.
Dekker was actually a good guy. Dependable too. But he cared a little too much about what the opposite sex thought of him, and he had some pretty backwards ideas when it came to the subject. Macho shit. A bit stupid when the biggest, hardest bastard in the room was the person right now laying her head on Michelle's shoulder and talking about going to the beach.
"Are you alright Artillery?"
"I'm a bit burned out as well," she said and then added offhandedly, "I'd stopped making friends before I joined X-Com."
"I had… I had trouble trusting new people, and so many old friends were killed or left the movement," there was regret in the quaver of her voice as she said, "I can't think of a single friend I had left before Central recruited me."
Well, shit, what do you say to that?
"Wanna watch 'Die Hard' when we get back to the Avenger?"
Probably not that.
"No, not tonight." Li Ming chuckled gently and didn't remove her head, so it actually might have been.
Emily squeaked again, even more fucking adorably, and Michelle heard James call her a big baby. Li and Michelle both began to shake with laughter. It might have been the mental exhaustion, but right then and there everything seemed fucking hilarious.
The day after Gabriella Navarro died a handful of the Avenger's crew gathered on the rear observation deck, which was outside but protected from the wind and gave them a clear view of the sun sinking over the treetops to the west. Cesar Vargas brought a bottle of Mezcal that he'd been saving for the right occasion. Li Ming Cheng brought the dead woman's tobacco pouch. Emily Adams, Lily Shen, Thierry Leroy and Gerty Wilders brought themselves and a few stories worth sharing.
They each rolled a cigarette – exactly how Gabby had taught them – and leaned against the railing, passing the bottle around and coughing up smoke, telling the stories about the Spanish woman that they felt were worth sharing. If they were being honest (and they were being honest), the only person who actually knew her well had been Gerry O'Neill, and they'd buried him a week before. But she had always been there taking another drag on her cigarette, a private individual who tried to keep herself surrounded by people.
They finished the bottle and tossed it and their cigarette butts into the trees trying to hide within the dark of the approaching night. They cheered at the sound of glass shattering somewhere out of sight.
The door to the Psionics Lab was going to need oiling soon. There was a slight squeak as it hissed open that'd only get worse if nothing was done. Neil Perry wondered if he should tell someone or even just do it himself when they next let him out of the chamber. Dr Tygen and his scientists weren't the sorts who'd notice a squeaky door, and none of the engineering staff had been needed to maintain the machinery lately so they hadn't been around to notice. It was probably part of the scheduled maintenance but maybe it needed moving up.
"This ain't the armoury, is it."
Neil looked up from his voice at the unfamiliar voice coming from the doorway, where an unfamiliar woman was smiling at him and Galina, who was in the other Psionic chamber.
"Hello." Galina said cautiously,
"How's it going?" The woman asked back, casual and relaxed, maybe even a little amused.
"Good, thankyou. How are you?" Neil could see that Galina's reply was automatic, would've done the same if she hadn't beaten him to it.
"I'm alright, thanks for asking."
"And how are you darl?"
Neil realised she was looking at him and squawked out, "I'm good man, how about you?"
"I'm alright," the woman was definitely enjoying herself.
She seemed to take their greetings as permission to enter and stepped through the door, staring about the place with sharp eyes. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties, on the taller side, with a wiry build, black hair tied back in a messy ponytail. A lot of laugh lines around her eyes, or maybe they were worry lines. Neil wasn't sure why he thought that, but he did. There was something in her eyes, maybe, that made her look like she'd seen and done more than a lot. Something that made Neil feel like a little kid in comparison.
Galina turned to Neil and gave him a look that seemed to say, "should we be letting her in here?" Neil shrugged back a, "not sure." He didn't see how they could stop her from inside the psionic chambers. It weren't like they were locked in, but there was a procedure for leaving outside of an emergency (like the ship being about to explode), 'cause of the unknown dangers of unshielded psionic energy to the rest of the crew (Neil's and Galina's heads hadn't exploded yet, but that didn't discount anybody else's). If the stranger meant harm, there wasn't much they could do to stop her in time.
"Call me Tiff," the woman said, a bit absentmindedly with her attention focused on the machinery now.
"Tiff?" Sounded wrong for this lady. Too childish for this person with her old eyes.
"It's short for Tiffany."
"Oh," Neil tried to think of something clever to say back, but thinking of clever things to say had never been a talent of his so he simply said, "you're looking for the armoury?"
"Yeah. Just got here and a guy named Leroy was showing me the way, but he got called away to prep the infirmary or something. Pair of injured coming back from a mission or something. He gave me directions, but…" She shrugged and gestured around the room.
"Well you are on the wrong floor to start with," Galina said, a little more relaxed after hearing Mr Leroy's name but still suspicious since the Psionics Lab was pretty clearly marked. 'Cause of the dangerous psionic energy that might make you bleed out of your eyes and ears. She also seemed far more interested in the machines than Neil had seen anyone else, most people keeping their distance from the strange blend of alien and human technology. 'Cause of the dangerous energy that might make your head explode.
"The Armory's up one level," Neil continued when Miss Tiff didn't reply to Galina, "on the far end of the ship."
"Yeah, alright. Up and across. What's your name darl?"
"Neil. Neil Perry."
Miss Tiff nodded, "And you?"
"Galina."
"You two are the ones who can float stuff around with your minds, right?"
"Yeah," there was something off about the question, but no point in lying that Neil could see. Didn't stop Galina from shooting him a look. He shrugged.
"Could you float stuff around before you came here, got put in those glass rooms?"
"No." Neil said, still not seeing a point to lying.
"How'd they know you'd be able to afterward then?"
"I don't know. Miss Annette just did."
Miss Tiff's smile wavered slightly at that, quick as a blink but Neil still spotted it.
"Miss Annette," smile back and perfectly friendly, "I've heard of her. The Night Witch. Yeah. Well, upstairs and far end of the ship. It was nice meeting you both."
"Nice meeting you too." Neil said, as automatically as Galina had earlier.
And then she was gone, waving as she walked through the door.
"That was fucking weird, yes?" Galina said in her hodgepodge accent.
"Yes," Neil agreed, "that was damn weird."
Damn, damn weird.
Michelle didn't fall asleep on the skyranger, but she came fucking close to it. If it wasn't for the fact that the technical crew had to unload all the supplies they'd nicked from the aliens' train she might have stripped off her armour and left in a pile on top of her plasma cannon for someone else to carry back to the armoury. But they did, so she slung her big gatling gun over her shoulder and headed towards the hatch.
Managed to make it five steps before Li pointed out that someone should grab Emily's gear, her long rifle and webbing, left behind in the skyranger. Michelle groaned and looked towards Dori and her brother James, both standing by the hatch waiting for them and pretending to have not heard Li, then at her Chinese friend who already had Dekker's storm gun and blade hung over her shoulder by their straps.
"Guess it's going to be me then."
"Thank you Michelle."
"Fuck you Li."
Tired as she was, tired as they all were, everyone was in a good mood as they tromped down to the armoury. After two missions in a row that had ended with someone being buried or burned, it felt good to get through with only a couple of burns and bloody leg. They were chatting and joking and generally feeling pretty positive.
So none of them noticed the noise coming from the armoury until they were right outside the closed hatch and James asked, "Is that singing?"
They all paused then, listening. Someone was indeed singing inside, sweetly and a little off-key (just enough to notice). Not a voice from the Avenger's crew, but Michelle knew it like a muggy Sydney morning. Judging by the look on his face, so did James.
Michelle shouldered past Dori and James as the Scotswoman opened the door and found a familiar face inside sitting on a bench, singing to herself as she fiddled with a familiar looking plasma lance. When the door opened she looked up and said, casual as if she was sitting in a cafe nursing a flat white, "Hey Michelle, how's it going?"
"TIFF!" Michelle yelled and made a sound that she didn't quite recognise as she rushed forward and scooped up Tiffany in a bear hug, her cannon and Emily's lance falling to the deck behind her.
"Easy darl, you're a bit jagged at the moment." Tiff grinned, probably talking about Michelle's armour. Michelle didn't care.
"When did you get here?"
"'Bout an hour ago. Sent a letter saying I was coming."
"I didn't get it."
"Probably arrive in a week then. You gonna let go sometime soon?"
"Seems like you haven't changed much then," Tiff waved over Michelle's shoulder, "Hey Jimmy. Your parents send their love."
"Hey Tiff, I'll give you a hug when Shelly's done."
"You done yet Michelle?"
"No. Yes." Michelle finally let go, "Did the girls get my last presents? How are they?"
"The necklaces made out of snake teeth?" Tiff rubbed her shoulders and neck but stayed within arms reach, "yeah, they got those. They're doing good. Lizzy's still reading everything she can get her greedy mitts on. Elle's been moping around the camp like a proper teenager. Tash," her voice became just a bit less casual for a moment, "is Tash. Misses you more and more every fucking day."
"I miss her as well." James would've definitely noticed the strain in Michelle's voice, Li might have, "So much. She's the reason I'm here. They're all safe?"
"Yeah, nowhere safer than with your parents I reckon."
"I reckon you're right. It's good to see you," she wrapped her arm across Tiff's shoulders, "C'mon let me introduce you to the others. Then we can talk about Tash and the girls."
"Alright. I've already met a few people."
"Yeah? Who?"
Old school movie reviews: The Three Musketeers (1993)
On August 4, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
Way back in the tail end of the nineties and beginning of the aughts there was a bunch of movies that would be played (it seemed) every few months during the 'family' slots on the commercial free-to-air stations, basically 7:30 on a saturday evening. For a good few years one of these films was the 1993 version of Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling epic, The Three Musketeers.
I can't in good conscious call this film epic. It's not big enough, not grand enough. Too localised, too personal. But it is swashbuckling good fun, and that is all it needs to be.
The acting, while nothing I would call Oscar worthy, is cheerful and entertaining. Kiefer Sutherland broods appropriately as Athos and Charlie Sheen plays the relaxed, smooth-talking Aramis fantastically straight. A much younger Chris O'Donnell plays a rosy cheeked and curly-haired D'Artagnan that is endearing instead of annoying (which often seems a challenge for the generally much younger, less experienced actors required to play a brash, naive and often foolish character). Rebecca De Mornay hits the correct notes as Milady De Winter and Gabrielle Anwar does a decent job with Queen Anne, both of whom are badly underused characters. The three that I really enjoyed, however, were Tim Curry, Michael Wincott and Oliver Platt as, respectively, Cardinal Richelieu, Captain Rochefort and Porthos. Lotta commas in that last sentence. I am not rewriting it though. Anyway, Tim Curry as always brings his wonderful voice, sense of timing, flair for the dramatic and smug smile to the maniacal villain. He's always a joy to watch and he looks fantastic in red. Michael Wincott is fantastically menacing, an appropriate foil for the fast-talking musketeers and has such an excellent voice for villainous roles as well. And Oliver Platt gets Porthos so right. I don't know if I should be surprised that the talented character actor is able to bring such a larger-than-life persona to, well, life, but he does. Someone who revels in battle and destruction, the one who laughs in the face of danger and jokes around death, so that you never actually believe them to be in danger in the first place.
The plot is a little nonsensical but it hits the right notes (D'Artagnan pissing off and planning to duel the musketeers, Cardinal bad, possible war with England and the Duke of Buckingham, Queen Anne may or may not want to fuck someone other than the king, D'Artagnan finally becomes musketeer), but a film like this doesn't need to be perfectly accurate to either history or its source material. You don't expect it to, and at least it doesn't have any fucking moronic flying warships. The fights are entertaining. Generally on a smaller scale than what we tend to expect in out swashbucklers these days, but that makes them more intimate, allowing us to see more of the characters in each fight.
It's definitely not perfect, of course. My biggest gripe is that Milady De Winter, Queen Anne and Constance, three excellent female characters, are largely delegated to the sidelines. We're told that Milady is dangerous, but we don't actually see her being particularly dangerous. Queen Anne spends most of her time being threatened and terrified by Cardinal Richelieu or complaining about how long it's been since she last got some. Constance appears, I dunno four times? Once to tell D'Artagnan her name, once to tell the queen how bad she wants in her bloomers, once to pass D'Artagnan a sword and then at the very end for him to kiss her. Not exactly a compelling character, aye?
But yeah, I enjoyed watching this movie. It's a little dated but not horribly so, and the characters are, for the most part, wonderful fun to watch hamming about on screen.
On July 26, 2016 July 24, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Longer rants, Not at all trueLeave a comment
Chapter 16: Life after death
According to Cesar Vargas, who had fought his way up and down South and Central America, the forests and jungles had all gotten quieter over the past twenty years. There were fewer birds and bats, insects, snakes, reptiles and other predators, all despite the fact that the jungles and forests of the world had been allowed to expand unchecked across the agricultural land that humanity had been forced to abandon.
Vargas blamed the aliens, though he didn't know the exact cause. Dr Tygen had delivered some hypotheses – an alien virus working its way through the native fauna, an unseen and undiscovered pest species introduced into the ecosystem, hunting and trapping by the aliens for their own experiments – but it was never something he had the time to give any sort of priority. Whatever the reason the results were the same. Fewer animals. Less noise. Eerily quiet jungles and forests, especially at night.
They crept through the forest in a ragged line, quietly dodging from tree to tree. Cheng was more or less in the lead with Donaldson on her left and Leroy on her right, Michelle King and Dekker on the flanks and Navarro hanging slightly back with her long rifle. There'd been a flutter of wings as they'd rappelled from the skyranger but otherwise the only thing they could hear was muffled crunch of their own footsteps and their own deep breaths.
It was a clear night and a clear crescent moon provided long shadows for them to hide in as they came to the edge of the forest and spotted the ADVENT research facility. There was a new road out front, bordered by the waist-high alloy barriers that the Administration liked to strew liberally about. An empty watchtower stood on their side of the road and piles of crates made out of the same sort-of-metal as the barriers stood on the other.
Cheng pushed herself tight against her tree as she peered at the darkened facility, scanning the squat, ugly building for movement and colour. There was nothing out front, no patrols or guards as far as she could see, but there were shadows on the rooftop swivelling back and forth with inorganically perfect timing.
Turrets, Cheng thought, at least two of them. That'd be the first line of defence, but what about the rest?
Like the Blacksite they'd raided weeks before these ADVENT facilities relied more on stealth and secrecy than overt displays of brute force to deter attack. But, like the Blacksite, they were still well defended enough to warrant more than a little caution and at least a little planning.
The turrets are above us, we need to take higher ground.
"Gabby, Dori, get up into the tower when we advance. Let's take it slow, advance to cover and take up overwatch positions. We take out the turrets first, then clear out the facility. Room by room."
There was a second's hesitation as the rest of the squad waited for the Commander to add any additional instructions or say anything else. King seemed to tilt her head towards the sky, as if that would make him easier to hear. The Commander stayed silent in her ear, indicating his approval. The rest of Menace One nodded.
"Okay. Let's be quick, quiet and watch each other's backs. Let's go."
There wasn't much of a funeral for Gerry O'Neill. They found a hill in the north of Ireland covered in long grass, far enough away from any settlements and homesteads that the grave would go undisturbed. They scraped up what was left of him into a body bag, along with what was left of his armour, his knives and his whetstone. So he could stab any angel that looked at him funny, according to Karen Nilsen trying very hard not to stutter while she said it. Most had laughed at that in that polite, sort-of-respectful way people chuckle about the recently deceased. For all that people ask that their funerals not be sad affairs, that it be a cheerful celebration of the life they lived, it's a rare friend that is truly capable of following through on this particular part of the will and testament.
They dug a hole in the muddy soil, about six foot deep as was the old custom, and lowered the body in. Cremation had been suggested, but Gabby Navarro had shaken her head at that. He hadn't been fighting for the whole Earth really, just one particular patch and the people he knew from it. Someone had offered to build him a coffin. Li Ming Cheng had shaken her head. He would have hated to be trapped in a box. Far too similar to far too many memories that had haunted him until the end. Chief Engineer Lily Shen had provided a body bag she insisted was biodegradable, would melt away within a month, and O'Neill's body would rejoin that patch of Earth he'd fought so long and so hard for.
They gathered around the hole. All the combat operatives who operated in Menace One, a few members of the technical crew and the Commander himself standing in a loose circle as the rain began to fall, except for Banerjee who was pushed out in a wheelchair since he'd only recently woken up from surgery after being stabbed in the gut by an Archon. Navarro pulled the cigarette from behind her ear and lit it with a scowl, dark hair falling across her eyes and sticking to her face. Leroy produced a set of rosary beads and said a quiet prayer, then he and Cheng hefted their shovels and began scooping mud over the shapeless body bag.
"Does anyone have anything they want to say?" The Commander asked, looking in Navarro's direction with a kind smile. She just took another drag on her cigarette, the tip glowing bright red in the approaching gloom.
"I honestly didn't know much about him," Adams said after the silence became uncomfortable. "It's gonna be weird not having him around though."
"He wasn't the type to open up," Michelle King agreed, "but he was always there."
"Honest," Cheng said as she dropped another clump of mud onto the body, "he was an honest guy. And reliable as a Swiss watch."
There were nods around the hole. It was an odd idiom for the Chinese born and battle-raised fighter to use, but no one noticed or had reason to disagree.
"I'll always remember the one time he opened up to me," Cheng continued to speak, continued to shovel, "not long after we dealt with the Russian woman." She paused her work long enough to raise thumb and forefinger against her temple and fire an imaginary bullet. "Me and him, I don't know, we had an understanding after that. One night I told him some things that I couldn't forget. He told me some things that he couldn't forget. We got drunk," Cheng laughed, "only time I think any of us would have seen him drunk."
Navarro finished her cigarette and lit another one.
"He told this story, about how he got nabbed by ADVENT when he was a boy. All short hair and acne, he said. He borrowed his father's pocket knife and used it to steal a car." There were some incredulous smiles at that, "Don't ask me how, he refused to tell me. Anyway he took this car and began driving around, a scrawny little thirteen year old who could barely reach the pedals and see over the dashboard at the same time. He drove until he found the first ADVENT security network tower he could," she smiled at the memory, "the one's that look like lampposts. And he rammed it. Apparently it didn't do much beyond scratch the paint on the fucking thing. ADVENT came in and scooped him up, put him in a cell."
Cheng hesitated for a moment, her shovel hovering over the hole for a long second before she shook her head and tossed the mud.
"What happened to him then doesn't need to be repeated. What I'll always remember is the smile on his face as he talked about stealing the car. He knew how ridiculous it was, barely able to see where he was going, looking for something to knock over. It was a knowing smile. He knew what he was, and didn't try to be anything else. He was honest with us and he was honest with himself. I think that's something we should all try and be."
There were nods and murmurs of agreement. James King muttered a "too right" and Louise Seo rumbled out a "definitely."
And that was it. No one said another word. They stood in the rain for a little longer than began to drift off wordlessly in ones or twos, until it was just the burial party and Navarro. Them filling the grave and her watching from its edge, smoking her cigarettes.
When it was done, not long before sunset, they built a small cairn over the freshly turned earth out of the stones they'd unearthed while digging the grave, piling the stones around a metal cross that Shen had made. There was no name, but no one thought it necessary. The location was marked and they'd find a proper headstone when they won. If they won.
Navarro was the last to leave the grave, smoking away as the sun sank and the grey clouds became a black sky and only the tip of her cigarette could be seen in the darkness. No one knew what to say to her and no one tried to coach her back onto the ship. No one knew how, Navarro having always been almost as withdrawn as O'Neill.
Perhaps that was why the two of them had found comfort in each other's arms for a small amount of time.
The Commander sat in his usual place on the Bridge, elbows resting on knees, hands steepled beneath his chin and eyes glued to the 'Doomsday Clock' – the bright red countdowns that represented the best predictions of Resistance intelligence networks for the next ADVENT attack or advance – above the holographic world map.
Neil Perry stood at a rough idea of attention, beanie held tightly in one hand and eyes fixed firmly ahead. He'd never been any sort of military until Miss Annette had brought him with Galina to join X-Com, and they'd spent more time teaching him how to use the plasma rifles and put on the armour or preparing him for his eventual turn in the Psionic Chamber to teach him more than the basics of military discipline.
Not that they seemed to care all that much about military discipline round here anyway. Miss Michelle, standing to his right, looked more outlaw than soldier, with dark blue hair shorn short on the sides and gelled into spikes on top, and tattoos covering both her bare arms. Mister Leroy, standing to his right, wasn't much better with his thick black beard and a stained uniform. Then there was Miss Li Ming a full head taller than everyone else and looking like she'd just come straight from the gym, arms dripping sweat and the tuft of hair on top of her otherwise cleanshaven head slicked back with more of the same. Cesar Vargas somehow seemed the worst of the lot, with cheeks covered in stubble and uncombed hair, his posture slightly slouched and irritated boredom written plain as day across his face. Hardly the highly disciplined guerrilla army Neil had expected to find when Miss Annette had asked for volunteers back at the Ranch, but then again he'd also half expected him or Galina to have exploded by now.
Truth be told it was the non-combat personnel on the Avenger, the technical crew, who were most concerned with issues of regulation and discipline. Looking around the bridge he could see Martin Singh, clean-shaven and wearing a neatly pressed uniform, snapping off a tight salute as he handed CO Bradford a tablet computer. Or Gertrude Wilders with her long locks tied back in a perfect bun (not a single hair out of place) and even sharper creases in her uniform, running through a checklist that Neil strongly suspected she knew better than her own name, but ticking things off anyway because those were the rules. She seemed a sharp difference to the members of Menace One. Tidy, controlled, disciplined with a friendly smile on her face as she went about her work. Not the lazy smile that Miss Li Ming wore, like she'd rather watch paint dry than deal with what was in front of her. Like she was only humouring you when she listened to you speak. Or Miss Michelle's arrogant grin, like she was the only person in on some big joke and everyone else its victim. Made him nervous, Miss Michelle's grin. No, Miss Gertrude had a much prettier smile than them. She looked like someone who was good at what she did and enjoyed doing it, like she smiled because she was happy. Much prettier.
Neil realised he was staring and looked away, finding that spot directly in front of his eyes and focusing on that. He realised that Central had begun talking to the Commander, loudly enough that it was likely best he started listening.
"… Dr Lynch would again like to remind you that he isn't a trained psychiatrist, psychologist or counsellor, so his opinion should not be taken as-"
"Just tell me what his goddamn opinion I'll decide what to think of it."
"He says Navarro wants to be put back into the field straight away and he can't think of any good reason to keep her off. She's processed O'Neill's death as well as can be expected and is keeping her emotions in check."
"I sense a 'but' coming."
"Dr Lynch believes she should still be kept off the next few missions. Give her time to grieve properly. He believes that she keeping a leash on your emotional state in the ship's bar is a lot different to the stress of a battlefield."
The Commander grunted, still not looking away from the Doomsday Clock, not even for a second.
Bradford shrugged, "If she thinks she can do it, I think we should trust her."
The Commander nodded, sighed and finally dragged his attention away from the Doomsday clock and towards his troops still standing at attention.
"At ease," he smiled Neil saw the exhaustion in his eyes, shot through with red and surrounded by heavy bags. Dr Tygen said he took deaths under his command harder than others. By the looks of things that still wouldn't stop him from sending them back into the meat grinder.
Bradford took a step forward.
"The Commander," he said in that slow, careful way of his, "has concerns about our personnel levels that he'd like to discuss with you."
"They wanna get you recruiting?"
Michelle gave her brother a sideways look, "That really so hard to believe?"
"A little, yeah."
She snorted and threw her sweaty towel at his face. James snatched it out of the air with a laugh tossed it under armed back to her. She in turn caught the damp cloth and used it to mop up her glistening forehead. They were in the Guerrilla Warfare School, better known as the Gym since that was what it was used for the most, spotting each other as they worked out.
"I'm just saying you're not the recruiting sort." James walked over to the pull up bar on the wall, drying his hands on his own towel before grabbing the bar and crossing his ankles.
"I'll have you know I can be very convincing."
"Convincing. Someone that. You nicked. A truck full. Of gold bricks. Is different. To. Convincing. Them to fight. For you."
Michelle waited for him to finish his set before replying, not wanting to limit their conversation to what could be said between breaths and reps.
"I know that. But recruitment's not the problem."
"What is then?"
"We got no shortage of volunteers, but fucking half of them are children. The other half might have some experience dodging peacekeepers, but they got no experience fighting andies and muties."
James raised an eyebrow and gave her a half grin, and she knew what his reply would be before he said it.
"Neither did you once upon a time."
"No I didn't, but when I joined the proper fight the aliens still weren't taking us seriously. I had time to learn how to kill'em before I had to know for certain. These kids'll get tossed into the deep end straight away and the Commander is worried half of them won't survive the first mission without us babysitting them all the way through."
"So what does the Commander want you to do then?"
Michelle took a long pull from her water bottle before replying, "Ask around. Apparently me, Cesar, Leroy and Li talk the most with our old cells. He wants to see if we can get a few veterans on board. Kind'a hard bastards who've seen at least some of the shit we've seen. Won't need their hands held when the shooting starts."
"We've done well so far. Only two deaths ain't that bad. The Commander really think we need the help?"
Michelle hesitated before she answered. She'd barely been able to blink without images of O'Neill's corpse popping up behind her eyelids, fucking headless and mangled by a dead andromedan's hissing metal fists. Bits of brain and bone splattered across a nearby car, blood fucking everywhere. Just. Fucking. Everywhere. Yeah, only two deaths. But Michelle wasn't about to forget what happened to Gerry, and she knew that Li still muttered Eva Degroot's name while she slept.
James saw the hesitation and there was a flash of panic in his eyes, "I'm not saying that their deaths weren't tragedies. I'm just saying that during the first war most frontline combat units had, what, an eighty percent casualty rate? And we've achieved more than entire brigades have. We're hardly what I'd call understrength."
His sister shook her head, took another long drink from her water bottle.
"How many weeks have you spent in the infirmary since you got here? I've lost count, and I reckon you have to," Michelle didn't keep the edge out of her voice as she said it. She'd spent a long time worried about his suicidal tendencies. "What happens if you're in here again for an extended stay and then Leroy gets put out of commision as well? Now I'm not too bad with a medkit, but with both our combat medics out of action that'd be just asking for trouble." She gave her brother a firm look, the kind meant to show she'd not listen to any further argument. "Shit. Yeah, we're not understrength yet but we're not far fucking off it either."
"Fair enough," James said, "but why tell you?"
Michelle laughed, shrugged, "'Cause I know people."
"You 'know people'?"
"I know people."
"Fair enough. Who d'you know?"
"You'll find out if any of them decide to join up."
"You mean I might finally get to meet your friends?"
"I promise nothing."
The mission went to shit when the squad was halfway through the clearing between the trees and the barrier along the edge of the road.
Cheng heard a roar and turned to see a muton charge around the corner, followed by a second and a stun lancer. She heard curses in four different languages as she threw herself into the barrier just as the first spray of plasma fire melted the dirt and grass were her feet had been a few seconds before. Another roar from another direction and Cheng poked her head up long enough to see another muton storming out through the front door, followed by an andromedan and a red armoured officer.
"Now we've got ourselves a fucking party!" Cheng heard King laugh and looked over in time to see the Australian lean over the barrier nearby and let rip with her gatling cannon, unleashing a steady stream of plasma that ripped apart the andy's armour in a hail of sparks.
The mutons roared and chased her back behind cover with a splattering of fire. One of them jerked as a pistol shot from the tower smacked into its too-thick skull, causing it to turn its attention up to where Navarro and Donaldson had managed to climb. It turned towards them and Cheng saw an opportunity, spinning the barrels on her own cannon as she stood out of cover and unleashed a torrent of plasma. Half the muton's head disappeared in a cloud of pink and orange, the rest following the body down as it collapsed in a twitching mess. Leroy and Decker fired at the turrets, as did Dori, both of them starting to smoke and hiss and one of them exploding like a roman candle.
Then they were all forced down by a barrage of fire from the aliens. Leroy cried out and spun, hitting the ground and growling through clenched teeth. He pushed himself back against the barrier, muttering curses, right hand wrapped around his rifle and left arm a smoking mess.
Then Dori screamed at Gabby to get her fucking head down. Cheng looked up to see Navarro leaning over the railing, about to take a shot at one of the mutons distracted by King's laughing taunts. The surviving turret twitched in her direction and fired a burst, catching the Spaniard in her shoulder and causing her to miss her shot. The muton felt the lance of energy pass by its waist and roared as it shot back.
No. No. Nononono. Not again. Not fucking again.
Donaldson screamed again. Gabby didn't make a sound, just slapped a hand against the missing chunk of her neck and half toppled over the tower's railing before Donaldson grabbed her belt and kept her from falling all the way. Cheng saw the blood stream down her face and hair and her arms fall slack before Donaldson managed to haul her back into the cover of the tower's railing, screaming that Menace Three was down! Navarro was bleeding out! Gabby was hurt!
Gabby is already dead.
"Oh fuck."
Cheng looked towards King, saw that she was staring at the facility roof, heard a loud metallic thump and felt it reverberate through the ground beneath them. She turned in time to see a second andy had just dropped from the roof, where another pair of troopers were aiming over the railing.
"I think we need to leave!" Gerard Dekker yelled from over on the left flank, his voice perfectly calm despite the rapidly escalating situation.
One dead, one wounded, heavily outgunned and outnumbered. Cheng agreed. So did the Commander when he spoke into her ear.
"Firestarter's above you now," his voice was more strained than she was used to hearing, "Drop smoke and she'll pull you out of there. Bring Navarro home."
"Affirmative," Cheng was proud of how even her voice was, all things considered, "popping smoke. Michelle, help with Gabby."
King was already up and jogging with her head ducked towards the base of the tower. Cheng pulled a blue taped smoke grenade from her armour, pulled the pin and tossed ten paces away. It sparked and powder blue smoke began spewing into the sky. Five seconds later a half dozen roped dropped from a shadow hovering steadily a hundred metres above, close enough for them to hear the whine of skyranger's engine as it waited for them to board.
Cheng, Dekker and Leroy were already up and firing at the aliens in wide arcs, trying to keep their heads down as the squad backed towards the smoke. Donaldson gently dropped Gabby's limp form down into King's waiting arms, then slid down the ladder, both women running full pelt at the waiting lines where they were pulled up by the skyranger's powerful winches.
Cheng kept firing all the way back to the skyranger, firing in short bursts wherever she saw movement. She spotted another muton go down, and one of the troopers on the roof pitched forward and splattered on the ground below. They reached the ropes and she kept firing, screaming obscenities about the alien's mothers and fathers and family and whatever bastards and whores they cared about.
Dekker tapped her on the shoulder and yelled into her ear that she was the last one, then she heard him pulled up towards the skyranger. She kept firing till her magazine ran dry, then wrapped her arm in the second-to-last line and was pulled into the sky with shoulder-wrenching force.
At the top Simmons, the navigator and deck-chief, and King grabbed her and pulled her onto the loading ramp. The last line, empty and unneeded, was reeled in. The ramp closed, the interior emergency light that had been bathing them in its red glow switched off.
Cheng felt the change in inertia as the skyranger's engines whined louder and it sped away into the night, nearly stumbling backwards.
Gabby was laid out between the seats that lined either side of the skyranger's hold, a quarter of her neck and the left edge of her jaw blown away by the muton's shot. Blood everywhere. Her face was slack, lips slightly open, and glassy eyes still opened. No pain there, no surprise, no shock. Just blank, lifeless calm.
Donaldson looked at Cheng, the Scot's own eyes betraying more shock than Cheng had hoped to see. She seemed right on the edge of panic.
"Gabby died Li."
"Yes," Cheng said, "she did."
What the fuck else was there to say?
Reviewing the Old School: Down Periscope (1996)
On June 16, 2016 By longandshortofitallIn Quick and dirty, Up for reviewLeave a comment
There was this period in the eighties and nineties where films about groups of ragtag misfits in the US military are able to achieve seemingly impossible success thanks to the unorthodox efforts of the misfit-in-chief. This era of screwball military comedies probably started with Private Benjamin (1980) and Stripes (1981) but saw a real renaissance through the nineties with Renaissance Man (1994), In the Army Now (1994), Major Payne (1995) and – that great Steve Martin vehicle – Sgt. Bilko (1996) just off the top of my head. Not always great films, but usually enjoyable enough.
Down Periscope – released in 1996, directed by David S. Ward – stars Kelsey Grammer as Tom Dodge, a navy veteran with two decades of experience and a tattoo on his penis. Yep. As you might expect from such a person, he's known for his lack of discipline and relaxed leadership style. Having been prevented from taking command of his own submarine for years by a vindictive commanding officer, Admiral Graham (played by Bruce Dern), he's finally given an opportunity by Admiral Winslow (Rip Torn) with an impossible task: sneak a diesel sub (a recommissioned museum piece) into two heavily guarded US Navy bases, launch flares and blow up some dummy warships. He's given a handpicked crew of the submarine fleet's losers, washouts, dropouts and special cases and the wargames begin. Hijinks ensue.
I don't know. It's sort of like if Tom Clancy wrote comedies. I mean, it probably doesn't have the same sort of accuracy that Mr Clancy put into every detail of his books, but the jargon, the tension, the obstacles at times remind me of The Hunt for Red October except, y'know, funner. The ruses are clever and not completely unbelievable. You believe that, as outrageous as it seems at the time, Dodge has always got a plan, one that relies on both research (keeping an eye on the schedules for civilian traffic for example), experience (he knows how his fellow commanders think) and instinct (adapting on the fly). Looking at it, Dodge is a remarkably sympathetic character. He's someone who cares about the wellbeing of his crew, and tries to get the best out of them by listening and encouraging them as individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses. He acts the father figure and it works well. You want him and his misfits to win.
The acting is good. Kelsey Grammer is the standout, but everyone brings a level of enthusiasm to their roles that makes them a delight to cheer for. Or cheer against. It's not perfect. Far from it. Too many stereotypes and typecasts. Rob Schneider is playing exactly the kind of character you'd expect Rob Schneider to play in this film. He doesn't do it badly per se, it's why they kept on giving him these roles. But it breaks the suspension a little bit, if you take my meaning. Same with a few other characters but he's the obvious example. Nothing movie breaking, but perhaps some a little better casting would have been in order.
And then there's the ultimate question we have to ask about any comedy: Is it funny? Yeah. Yeah, it's alright. Nothing gut-busting, I didn't even really laugh out loud. But most of the jokes land right and I enjoyed it all the way through. A few lines fall flat, but nothing I'd write home about. Plenty of screwball and a bit of dry wit. Good stuff.
So yeah, go watch it. Remind yourself of a time when we made military comedies. We don't really seem to make them any more, do we? Well, Hollywood doesn't at least. I mean, it's pretty understandable. America's basically been in a state of war for the past fifteen years (and it ain't ending anytime soon). The number of dead and wounded, veterans languishing in bureaucratic nightmares and unable to make the transition to civilian life has skyrocketed. The films being made, movies and series like Hurt Locker, Jarhead and Generation Kill kinda reflect that. Maybe that's not a good thing. Maybe we need to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all sometimes. Maybe we need to have a look at the military films of the nineties. Maybe I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.
Ah well, have some fun with Down Periscope at least. The Village People sing at the end.


The wealth of customer data these days presents a challenging task for brands. Metrics such as abandonment rates, first contact resolution, and average handing time certainly provide insights into the quality of customer experiences being delivered. However, most brands also recognize the critical importance of big data in getting a truly global view of what their customers want. From email content to social media posts and text messages, unstructured data can be found across all channels and hold precious answers to how your brand can improve customer service. Here are six tips for using big data to transform customer experiences for the best.
Analyze feedback across all channels.
Big data may be obtained from all your contact center channels, and beyond. Be sure to pay close attention to all social media sites, where customers have a high tendency to leave comments. Using advanced social listening tools to detect customer concerns can empower your brand to take proactive measures. SMS, email, and app communications are also full of valuable feedback, especially due to the growing trend of conversational commerce. More than ever, customers are showing a preference for communicating with brands through messaging, making direct demands that shed light on what they are looking for in a brand. Lastly, big data can be found in other places outside of mainstream channels: blogs and feedback surveys should also be analyzed.
Use big data to save customers time.
Getting a comprehensive view of customer preferences will eventually enable your company to offer overall stronger customer experiences, including saving customers time. Specifically, big data may be used to save time at various points along the customer journey. For example, brands can track a customer's preferred channel to ensure that all outbound communications are delivered on that channel. When customers are browsing a brand website, analytics may also be used to determine when live chat pop-ups should be offered to provide prompt customer service.
Use analytics to offer enhanced customer experiences.
A variety of analytical tools may be used to offer enhanced customer experiences. For example, Vocalcom text and speech analytics offer critical insights into what exactly customers are saying about a brand, making sure that no comments are ever lost. The text analytics engine works across multiple languages to reveal customer insights for delivering stronger service. In addition, voice emotion recognition software can detect numerous emotions on both sides of a customer service call, enabling better customer relationship management. Lastly, the all-important net promoter score (NPS) is essential to measuring customer loyalty. Vocalcom software, for example, computes a brand's NPS but also uses native text analytics to automatically analyze verbatim feedback and determine what companies need to improve and what is working well.
Make marketing offers that actually matter to your customers.
How about using big data to making marketing offers your customers actually want? Geolocation tools have changed marketing practices thanks to big data. Customers are increasingly mobile these days, and those who opt in for mobile marketing offers can benefit from perfectly timed messages that assist them in making a purchase or entice them to buy. For example, if a customer is geographically close to the location of a retail store, brands may offer a special discount or notification that there is a sale currently on at this location. Once customers are in-store, brands may also offer customer service options to assist them with purchase through channels like live chat or SMS. And don't forget messaging apps: Customer conversations reveal direct information about their product and service interests, empowering brands using conversational commerce to offer bot-assisted personalized recommendations.
Analyze internal contact center communications.
Big data can also be gleaned from internal contact center communications. Customer service agents frequently take notes on customers, which may be contained in a CRM database. Paying close attention to agent comments on customers can provide further insight into how to improve service practices and offer stronger marketing offers that cater to customer preferences.
Use big data to empower customers through self-service.
Big data is also paving the way for cutting-edge self-service. For many brands, big data can help predict problems before they even arise, essentially eliminating a need for any customer-initiated contact. For example, if a utilities company detects a technical issue, it may be resolved before the customer is even affected. Using big data to inform customers proactively therefore saves them time. In addition, tracking deliveries to provide customers with real-time information prevents them from having to reach out for assistance.
By analyzing multiple sources of big data available on customers, brands may develop optimized customer service practices as well as stronger marketing campaigns for greater overall customer experiences. To deliver the very best in customer service, learn about Vocalcom, a global leader in cloud-based contact center software solutions and premium conversational commerce platform .


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Tlaxcala, amtlich Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl, ist eine Stadt im Valle de Puebla-Tlaxcala im zentralen mexikanischen Hochland mit ca. 15.000 Einwohnern und liegt im gleichnamigen Bundesstaat. Der Name führt zurück auf die Tlaxcalteken, einen mexikanischen Volksstamm der Nahua-Familie, die dort angesiedelt waren.

Tlaxcala ist die Hauptstadt des Bundesstaates sowie des Municipio Tlaxcala. Es ist die kleinste aller mexikanischen Hauptstädte sowie die zehntgrößte Stadt des Bundesstaates Tlaxcala.

Im Regierungspalast der Stadt kann man das Werk eines mexikanischen Vertreters der Muralismo-Bewegung, Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin, bewundern: ein auf 450 Quadratmeter verteiltes Fresko, das die Geschichte der Tlaxcalteken detailliert wiedergibt.

Toponymie
Tlaxcala ist ein deverbaler Ortsname, abgeleitet von einem Verb der Nahuatl-Sprache, der Sprache der Tlaxcalteken: Tlaxcallan (gebildet aus tlaxcalli "Gebackenes" – das lokale Maisgebäck, im Spanischen tortilla genannt – und assimiliertem Lokativsuffix tlan "Ort", also "Ort, wo Tortillas gebacken werden").

Geschichte
Tlaxcala war das politische Zentrum der mit den Azteken verfeindeten Tlaxcalteken. Ihr Reich blieb während der gesamten vorspanischen Zeit unabhängig von den Azteken. Nach anfänglichem Widerstand wurden die Tlaxcalteken während der spanischen Eroberung Mexikos die treuesten Verbündeten Hernán Cortés' gegen die aztekischen Feinde.

Die Kirche San Francisco im Stadtzentrum wurde 1521 geweiht und ist die älteste des amerikanischen Festlandes. Seit 1959 ist Tlaxcala Sitz eines römisch-katholischen Bistums.

Söhne und Töchter der Stadt
 Octaviano Márquez y Tóriz (1904–1975), Erzbischof von Puebla de los Ángeles
 Beatriz Paredes Rangel (* 1953), Politikerin
 Julio Pérez Cuapio (* 1977), Radrennfahrer
 Sandra López (* 1984), Leichtathletin

Bibliographie, Literatur

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Ort in Tlaxcala

Hauptstadt eines mexikanischen Bundesstaates
Ort in Nordamerika

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


If I Could Turn Back Time singer 1989 NYT Crossword Answer(s) are displayed below. We try to find as many nytimes crossword answers as possible. If you are faster than us in solving the clues of nyt puzzle then please share them in the comments section. Some clues are repeated and might have identical answers if you came here looking or a similiar looking nyt clue then use the search function to find the exact clue answer.
means : A river of central France that rises in the Massif Central and flows 350 km (220 miles) northwards to meet the River Loire near Tours.


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Masters of Science (MScs) in National Security in District of Columbia USA
National Security ›
The Master of Science, or MSc, is an academic degree awarded to those who effectively complete about two years of intensive study on a given topic. Many MSc courses offer a combination of classroom and research-based curriculum.The United States of America is a large country in North America, often referred to as the "USA", the "US", the "United States", "America", or simply "the States". Ame… Read more
The Master of Science, or MSc, is an academic degree awarded to those who effectively complete about two years of intensive study on a given topic. Many MSc courses offer a combination of classroom and research-based curriculum.
Best Master of Science (MSc) in National Security in District of Columbia in USA
Online | Courses | BScs | BAs
3 Results in National Security, District of Columbia
MSC in The Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) - Graduate Fellowship Program
In response to the present crisis, the National Defense University's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Graduate Fellowship Program offers an opportunity for Department of ... +
In response to the present crisis, the National Defense University's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Graduate Fellowship Program offers an opportunity for Department of Defense and interagency employees, both uniformed and civilian, to earn a Graduate Certificate or a Master of Science degree in Weapons of Mass Destruction Studies. -
MS of Strategic Intelligence
What does the term "Strategic Intelligence" mean? At the National Intelligence University, it means the role played by the entire Intelligence Community in supporting the proc ... +
What does the term "Strategic Intelligence" mean? At the National Intelligence University, it means the role played by the entire Intelligence Community in supporting the processes, development and execution of the United States' national security strategy. It encompasses regional as well as global issues; military and civilian concerns; political and technical processes; and includes the assessment of physical, cultural and economic environmental considerations. The Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence covers the entire U.S. Intelligence Community and its mission, the environment in which it must function, and the potential adversaries it may deal with now and in the future. The program also focuses on the intelligence required to support the National Security Strategy and component strategies. The National Intelligence University, through the MSSI program, brings together students from across the entire Intelligence Community, including its military elements. By studying with and about each other's agencies, and being guided by the NIU faculty through curricula on global issues, regional studies, intelligence practices, and capabilities (including those of potential adversaries), MSSI graduates earn a broader understanding of the entire IC, its challenges, and its role in supporting national security strategy. -
Master of Science and Technology Intelligence
The requirements of science and technology intelligence begin with a sophisticated understanding of the technological and engineering base. Only in that context can the intell ... +
The requirements of science and technology intelligence begin with a sophisticated understanding of the technological and engineering base. Only in that context can the intelligence question be framed and taught. -

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Work Style, forex trading is like that too. Making lots of money through Forex trading is completely dependent on some special conditions. You have to keep on learning and practicing until you become a consistently profitable trader. The more important question is how? The remaining 6 of DAO is used to finance approved projects in trading (software, web sites, algorithmic trading systems, startups, improvement of iqcash ecosystem) provided by traders. His Appaloosa Management hedge fund firm, which manages 15 billion, produced returns well in excess of the.S.
In Pictures: The Richest People on the Planet. However, you have to be patient, because it cant be done overnight, or even in one year. When someone has the proper conditions, he can make millions through Forex trading. Active febonacci forex Roboter Promotion will be made at all m Events. None of the real millionaires or billionaires, like George Soros, have made their wealth through full-time Forex or stock trading: How Did George Soros Make His Money? He is not overseeing day-to-day operations, but Soros remains involved. Join Our 24,000 Loyal Followers Now Receive Our E-Book For Free! He pulled off his biggest trade during the depths of the credit crisis in early 2009, when he took positions in big.S. That is why I emphasized on having a strong source of income earlier in this article. I have two clear answers for this question and I explain about each of them in details: Yes, you can.


The music which David makes spreads far beyond conventional concerts and recording projects. He has produced theatrical scores and film soundtracks and performed at art installations and gallery openings; created audio / visual backdrops for hip hop dance projects and worked closely with writers and poets, even performed an original 'spoken word football drone opera' at the Linbury Theatre of Covent Garden's Royal Opera House. Recent work includes sound for an installation by artist Lindsay Seers at The Hayward Gallery and a number of collaborations with award-winning, Cannes nominated director, Keith Allott.
'Nowhere Less Now'. October, 2014 - January, 2015. Video installation by Lindsay Seers. Part of the Hayward Gallery's Mirrorcity exhibition.
'Butterfly'. 2015. Short film collaboration with Keith Allott et al. Music by The Frozen Vaults ( see Cello / Composition section ).
'Space'. 2013. Short film by Keith Allott.
'Silent City'. 2011. Short film by Keith Allott.
'The Act Of Looking Up'. 2011. ( Voice over ) short video animation by Jacqueline Cheval. video animation nominated for 'Austrian Content Award' in the category 'Shorts'.
'Aurelie - In Residence'. 2007. Performance and moving image project looking at examples of Leicester's vanishing industrial and commercial architecture as part of a residency with the Haymarket Theatre ( now Curve ).
'Good Friday'. 2012 - 2013. Clinical Depression Concept Album Show, by David Parkin.
'Showcase Smoothie'. 2008 - present. An ongoing mental health poetry project. David has been musical director since 2008.
'Reading The Body'. 2012. Multimedia spoken word show by Lydia Towsey.
'No View From The Window'. 2010. ( Prerecorded score / sound design ) One woman play by Kim Jackson and Beki Mahon.
'An Unorthodox 1-2'. 2009. The Barrow AFC spoken word drone opera. Performed at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. by Glenn Boulter and Aurelie Group.


Wonderful single level end unit 2 bedroom 1 bathroom condo conveniently located near Oliver's market, Starbucks, SMART station, SSU & more. The home features hardwood flooring in the bedrooms, dual paned windows, AC, newer garbage disposal & dishwasher. Relax and enjoy the private fenced front patio. Washer, dryer and fridge are included in the sale. The complex has a pool. 1 assigned carport parking. There is extra storage in the carport.


Beautiful 5BR 3BA home in the Brookhollow subdivision. Sitting on 1.5 acres, you won't want to miss out on this charming house! Includes a study/office, game room, balcony, updated kitchen, walk in pantry, and so much more! Must see today!
© 2018 Lufkin BOR MLS. All rights reserved. The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Internet Data Exchange Program of LBMLS. Information provided is for viewer's personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties the viewer may be interested in purchasing. Information provided is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Listing courtesy of Savannah Haney.


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KEYSER LAW BLOG
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Minnesota Militia Activity: Lawful or Unlawful?
NOV. 9 2020
Category: Gun Crimes | Militia Groups | Weapons Charges
Militia groups have been making headlines lately – and not in positive ways. First, the FBI uncovered a plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan and now Minnesota militias like the Boogaloo Bois are arming themselves for a revolution.
In the wake of George Floyd's death and throughout a summer of protests, these groups have been more active than we've seen as their movements have gathered steam. Still, one question remains among some participants: Isn't militia activity a citizen's right in Minnesota?
Learn here about the differences between lawful and unlawful militia activity and where the line is drawn in this state between citizens' rights and criminal charges.
What Constitutes a Legitimate Militia Group?
Most people have heard the term militia before – it's in the constitution, after all. What some may think of as a militia, however, may not be how state and federal governments define it.
According to both state and federal laws, a militia is defined as a resident of the state between certain ages who may be called up to defend the state or the country by the government.
The key difference between a legitimate militia and fringe militia groups is that a legitimate militia does not activate itself. Instead, they are only officially activated by the government.
Surprised by that fact? Many are, but according to law, it's true.
If you are a part of a group that has organized themselves and then attempts to activate themselves to duty, then understand you are not considered a Minnesota-sanctioned militia.
Therefore, your group is not considered to be operating within the confines of the law.
When Can a Private Militia Be Legal in Minnesota?
While there is no law that prohibits getting together with others who share your same interests or political beliefs and call it a militia, there is no legal circumstance in which Minnesota sanctions the actions of private militia groups – their formation is simply not legal.
Minnesota isn't the only state, either. All 50 states prohibit unauthorized, private militias or military units from engaging in activities that are considered to be reserved for state-sanctioned groups such as the national guard or law enforcement.
Under Minnesota statutes, a group must have the permission of the state to form. If they operate outside of government approval, then they are committing an illegal act.
When you attend protests dressed in tactical gear with weapons with your unauthorized militia group, remember, you are technically violating the Minnesota Constitution.
Are There Consequences for Private Militias Operating Illegally?
Yes, there are legal consequences for groups operating outside of the law. In Minnesota, it is considered a gross misdemeanor to teach others or to demonstrate to others how to make or use the following without proper credentials:
incendiary devices
This is especially true when there is reason to believe the group you are teaching intends to use these skills unlawfully.
It is also a gross misdemeanor to assemble with others for the purpose of training, instructing, or practicing with firearms and other incendiary devices that can cause injury or death with the intention for the knowledge to be used to contribute to civil disorder.
It is historically true that the laws against the formation of private militias have rarely been enforced in Minnesota (and across the United States, frankly).
This can be due to the fact that legal thresholds are hard to meet due to the proof they require that the activities engaged in by the militia are meant to provoke civil disorder or violence.
With the statistical rise in hate crimes and activities thought to be based on white supremacy beliefs, however, that seems to be changing.
What About My Second Amendment Rights?
You are correct to believe that your Second Amendment rights protect the right to carry a firearm. What it does not cover is any protection for the formation or participation in a private militia group or the organization of non-sanctioned activities.
The Supreme Court of the United States has twice ruled that the Second Amendment does not protect private militias, so there's really no legal leg to stand on.
What Can Private Military-Style Training Groups Lawfully Do?
Groups that get together privately to enjoy recreational obstacle courses and military-style training or target practice-type activities are legally allowed to do so.
When you and your friends wish to participate in these kinds of activities and gatherings, it would be wise to ensure every participant can present the proper licensing for any weapons they may be carrying at any given time.
If you are a part of a group and have questions or concerns about whether you are within the bounds of Minnesota (or Federal) laws, your best bet is to reach out to a seasoned Minnesota legal professional who has experience with the laws surrounding legal and illegal militia activity.
Christopher Keyser is an AV-Preeminent rated criminal and DWI defense attorney based in Minneapolis who is known for fighting aggressively for his clients and utilizing innovative tactics to get the most positive results. He has been featured in numerous media outlets due to the breadth and depth of his knowledge and named a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law by the Minnesota Bar Association. Mr. Keyers is Lead Counsel rated, and he has received recognition for his criminal law work from Avvo, Expertise, Super Lawyers, The National Trial Lawyers, and more.