The history of political stability and conflict in Mozambique has not been generally stable and peaceful. This has disrupted the economic growth and development of the country. The first three decades of post-independent Mozambique were characterized by armed conflicts. An estimated 7 million conflict-related victims are reported. From an economic perspective, the annual average growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 6.0% a year before independence. It changed to -9% in 1985 in the middle of the conflict. In 1995 the GDP growth was registered at 2.0% following the cease-fired accord signed between the belligerents. In subsequent years the growth rate had been 9.0% (2005), 7.0% (2015), 3.0% (2017) and 3.0% (2018). Meanwhile, poverty in terms of severe deprivation of water, sanitation and shelter in particular has been experienced throughout. Children being the most affected. Having no records prior to 1996, the proportion of population living below the national poverty line went from 69.0% (1996/1997), 54.0% (2002/2003), 55.0% (2009), 40.0% (2015) and 46.0% (2017/2018).
In fact, the conflict erupted soon after independence, in 1975, when Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO) opposed the ruling party Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO). Attempts by FRELIMO to institute socialism was the point of contention. The Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) government and the apartheid regime of the South Africa were backing the RENAMO's agenda to their own interests. The first clashes between the two sides occurred between 1976 and 1988. This resulted in over 100,000 victims. The intensity of the atrocities led people to flee whenever they could. They had to abandon and separate from their families, homes and villages. Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe were destinations for most of the refugees.
Between 1980 and 1990, the country registered what is termed, "one of the world's largest population of internally displaced – an estimated 3.5 million" in addition to over 1.5 million estimated population who sought refuge to neighbouring countries (e.g. Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Swaziland). This implies that above a third of the total population of the country at that time was directly affected by the war. They were forced to relocate from their land and original place. The total and urban population between 1980 and 1990 ranged between 12 to 13 million.
Statistics suggest that the country emerged from civil war as "one of the most impoverished and capacity constrained countries in the world". Currently ranked 180 in Human Development Index (HDI) out of 189 countries. The trend of the HDI points to a slow improvement in living conditions in Mozambique with the rates going from 0.2 in 1990 to 0.3 in 2000. The trend continued at the same rate in the early 2000s to reach 0.4 in 2010. In more recent years, the HDI has improved only slightly which shows slowing improvement in living conditions given that Mozambique's score only increased to 0.43% in 2017. At these levels the Mozambican HDI rating remains below the 0.55 threshold for low levels of development.
Over and above the economic situation, the country has been striving to consolidate the fragile political stability established following the peace deal signed in Rome in 1992. This has constantly been under threats. The most significant threat saw RENAMO retreating to the bush in 2013. Until recently, RENAMO had been undertaking repeated rebel's activities in a protest against the government intention to arrest its late leader Afonso Dhlakama. Such activities led to unrest within the rebel-controlled regions of the country. The population was compelled to flee and abandon again their families, homes and villages in search for peace and protection.
As events unfolded over the last five years, many Mozambicans found refuge in Zimbabwe. In 2016, a report reads "953 people arrived from Mozambique in late September, with 703 recorded in Zamuchiya, 341 in Bvuma and the rest in Fungai Amos, Zikuyumo and Gwasha". Later in the same period, more Mozambicans followed suit in the region of Tongogara in Zimbabwe. An estimated 926 registered refugees and asylum seekers. In Southern Malawi, they were already over 10 thousand Mozambican refugees and asylum seekers in the Mwanza region. These were joined, until the end of April 2017, by over 3,000 new comers fleeing atrocities perpetrated by the RENAMO rebels.
Basically, the post-independence armed conflicts in Mozambique is politically motivated. Two sides have mainly been involved namely FRELIMO and RENAMO.
FRELIMO is the side that led the fight for the country's independence against the Portuguese colonial rule under the leadership of Samora Moises Machel. Upon independence on June 25, 1975, Machel became the first President of Mozambique. He died in a plane crash in 1986 in South Africa and was subsequently succeeded by Joaquim Chissano. As a political party currently in power since independence, FRELIMO had never lost the general elections winning all five organised thus far (1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014). The organisation of the first ever multi-party general elections in 1994 signalled the beginning of a new era in the political sphere in Mozambique. It was an emerging democracy as a political system.
The President is elected by direct popular vote for a 5-year term. The Electoral System consist of two round (Run-off). The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. Members of the Assembly of the Republic are elected by direct popular vote in multi-member constituencies using the party-list proportional representation system. They serve 5-year terms. Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza both from FRELIMO won the elections in 1994, 1999 and 2004, 2009 respectively. Filip Nyusi, also from FRELIMO, is the current head of state elected in 2014.
RENAMO emerged in 1975 mainly from FRELIMO's dissidents in the aftermath of the country's independence. It was an anti-government guerrilla receiving foreign supports particularly from the apartheid regime of South Africa and white minority government in Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia). André Matsangaissa, a former senior member of the military branch of FRELIMO, took the leadership of RENAMO until his death in 1979. He was succeeded by Afonso Dhlakama who also died earlier in 2018. Dhlakama led RENAMO through a deadly civil war against FRELIMO during, particularly, the first three decades of post-independent Mozambique. RENAMO lost all five general elections to FRELIMO to date since the advent of democracy in Mozambique.
Expectations are that Mozambique consolidates peace. Political stability will have significant impact on the economic growth by bolstering confidence on stakeholders, investors in particular. Investments in various sectors will boost job creation. These, in return, will provide income which will have a positive impact on the socio-economic conditions of the country and citizens.
It has become apparent that the armed conflict had a significant impact on the economic growth and development of the country. The conflict caused an estimated 2 million deaths and around 5 million displaced both internally and outside the country. Poverty and inequality are the major legacy of the four decades of armed conflict as demonstrated above.
Reducing poverty and income inequality constitutes a priority for the Mozambique leadership. Mozambique has demonstrated a great stride in the fight against poverty despite limited peace with sporadic conflict with the RENAMO's armed wing that is still operational in the bush. Nevertheless, the country has recorded, over the last decade, a substantial economic growth. In fact, the country's GDP grew by 3.7% in 2017 and the GDP per capita was calculated at USD 466.2 in the same year out of a population of 28.9 million. Current economic indicators suggest 3.4% of GDP growth. All in all, the "improvement" of the political stability and the economic related activities is yet to demonstrate significant implications in the social life of ordinary citizens. This touches particularly on the quality of education, health and social assistance to mention but a few. It is for such a reason that, the country's leadership, in spite of priding itself of the work accomplished thus far, acknowledges that a lot still needs to be done to impact in a meaningful way the life of its citizens whom most are considered living below the poverty line.
 HRW 1992. Conspicuous Destruction: War, Famine and the Reform Process in Mozambique, Human Rights Watch: New York, Washington, D. C., Los Angeles and London. Available At: https://www.hrw.org/ [Last Accessed: 30 January 2019]; Gersony, R. 1988. Summary of Mozambican Refugee Accounts of Principally Conflict-Related Experience in Mozambique, U.S. Department of State: Washington, D. C. Available At: http://images.huffingtonpost.com/ [Last Accessed: 30 January 2019]; Sundberg, R. and Melander, E. 2013. 'Introducing the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset', Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 50, Issue 4, pp.: 523-532; Croicu, M. and Sundberg, R. 2017. UCDP GED Codebook Version 18.1, Uppsala University: Uppsala. Available At: http://ucdp.uu.se/ [Last Accessed: 17 November 2018].
 UNCTAD 2018. UNCTADStat Database, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: Geneva. Available At: http://unctadstat.unctad.org [Last Accessed: 7 December 2018].
 WHO 2018. File: Mozambique 2.jpg, on the World Health Organisation Website, viewed on 14 December 2018 from http://www.aho.afro.who.int; World Bank 2018. Mozambique Country Profile, viewed on 14 December 2018, from http://databank.worldbank.org.
 Gersony, R. 1988. Summary of Mozambican Refugee Accounts of Principally Conflict-Related Experience in Mozambique, ibid.; Sundberg, R. and Melander, E. 2013. 'Introducing the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset', ibid.; Croicu, M. and Sundberg, R. 2017. UCDP GED Codebook Version 18.1, ibid.
 UNHCR 1994. UNHCR's Operational Experience with Internally Displaced Persons, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Geneva. Available At: http://www.unhcr.org [Last Accessed: 5 October 2018]; UNHCR 2000. 'Chapter 6: Repatriation and Peacebuilding in the Early 1990s', in State of the World Refugees 2000: Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Geneva, http://www.unhcr.org [Last Accessed: 5 October 2018].
 UNDP 2018a. About Mozambique, United Nations Development Programme: Mozambique Country Office, Maputo. Available At: http://www.mz.undp.org [Last Accessed :7 December 2018].
 UNDP 2018b. Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update, United Nations Development Programme: New York. Available At: http://hdr.undp.org/ [Last Accessed: 30 January 2019].
 UNDP 2018c. Mozambique: Human Development Indicators, United Nations Development Programme: New York. Available At: http://hdr.undp.org [Last Accessed: 17 December 2018].
 UNDP 2018d. Technical Notes: Human Development Indicators – 2018 Statistical Update, United Nations Development Programme: New York. Available At: http://hdr.undp.org/ [Last Accessed: 6 February 2019].
 UNHCR 2016a. Assessment Report on Mozambican Influx into Chipinge District, Zimbabwe, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Geneva. Available At: https://data2.unhcr.org [Last Accessed: 30 November 2018].
 UNHCR 2017. Mozambique Situation: Outflow into Zimbabwe and Malawi, Zimbabwe, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Geneva. Available At: https://data2.unhcr.org [Last Accessed: 30 November 2018].
 UNHCR 2016b. UNHCR Begins the Relocation of Mozambican Asylum-Seekers to Luwani Camp, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Geneva. Available At https://www.refworld.org [Last Accessed: 30 November 2018].
 UNHCR 2017. Mozambique Situation: Outflow into Zimbabwe and Malawi, Zimbabwe, November 2018, ibid.
 GoM 2019. Constituição da República, Government of Mozambique: Maputo. Available At http://www.portaldogoverno.gov.mz/ [Last Accessed: 4 February 2019].
 INE 2018. Statistical Yearbook, 2017, National Institute of Statistics: Maputo. Available At: http://www.ine.gov.mz/ [Last Accessed: 30 January 2019].
 GoM 2018. Economy, Government of Mozambique: Maputo. Available At http://www.portaldogoverno.gov.mz [Last Accessed: 17 December 2018].


I have had the most amazing summer this year and I am so so grateful! From being live on British Muslim TV, to writing a piece for Stylist Magazine to finishing university and graduating! Shortly after graduation, it was finally time for my three week trip to Southeast Asia woohooo. We went to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and had an incredible time. In this post you'll read all about my time in Singapore, but stay tuned for Malaysia and Thailand soon!
On the 25th July, we boarded a 13 hour flight to Changi Airport, Singapore. I need to tell you that this is possibly the best airport ever. It has a cinema, a swimming spool, a jacuzzi, a slide and an orchid garden to name a few. If you're ever having a stopover… you know where to go!
We stayed at the Orchard Hotel, on the famous Orchard Road. It was in a great location, however the service was not amazing and they even made a mistake with our rooms. Not a great start to our holiday. Although… we did get some complimentary drinks and food which made up for it (kind of).
First stop was at Gardens by the Bay which is one of the most magical and beautiful places I have ever seen. It has numerous attractions such as the Flower Dome which is filled with over a million plants from all over the world.
My favourite was the Supertree Grove where we got an amazing view of Singapore. Come here in the evening too for their famous light show!
FOOD: Don't forget to try McDonald's which is situated at the entrance. I know it sounds boring but it's halal and they do a nasi lemak burger and cendol ice cream! We ended up having the ice cream every evening in Singapore.
Hop on a boat at Clark Quay and take a river cruise where you'll spot some famous sites such as the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Merlion.
FOOD: We didn't eat at Clark Quay but there's a lot of restaurants there! I'd suggest going in the evening as the atmosphere is meant to be great.
Hop on a tram that takes you around 6 geographical zones of the world and keep an eye out for all the animals. Walking trails are also available.
FOOD: There are a lot of restaurants here. It was a little confusing to figure out which ones were halal as people were saying different things. We opted for Indian food as they had a halal certificate!
As soon as you step foot in Chinatown, you'll be greeted with the fragrant smell of traditional cuisine.
FOOD: Make sure you try out the famous buns filled with pandan and taro from the street stalls. Be aware that some stalls will sell non-halal meat products too.
Grab a fresh juice too but make sure to ask for it without sugar syrup (unless you like it)!
Sentosa Island is a whole new world in itself. Here you'll find a beach, Universal Studios, cable cars, Madame Tussauds, an aquarium, two golf courses and much more!
Just outside Sentosa you'll find Kopitiam food court at Vivo City. They have an immense amount of halal options so we ended up here for lunch!
Saba fish set served with rice, anchovies and kimchi.
Arab St is home to the beautiful Sultan Mosque which is a must see! One of my followers pointed out that it could be Jasmine's palace from Aladdin and I couldn't agree more!
FOOD: On surrounding streets you'll find lots of Middle Eastern restaurants and cute cafes.
We visited Mak Doner, a Lebanese restaurant which had average mains but the best knafeh ever!! It was served in a pool of cream and chocolate which was unique to me and sooo delicious!
Working Title is a burger joint round the corner from Sultan Mosque. I was told they serve the best burgers in Singapore and couldn't stop raving about it to my family. Unfortunately, it ended up being the worst meal we'd had *sigh*. My family weren't to keen on trusting me after that ha!
Nearby on Bussorah St, you'll find Konditori – a European artisan bakery selling delicious pastries and sweet treats.
I'd also recommend trying murtabak at Zam Zam restaurant just behind Sultan Mosque.
Epic Korean fried chicken burger!
JAJANGMYEON – Korean noodles with fried chicken!
Come here if you want to shop! It's home to a zillion stores and you're bound to find something.
Singapore was amazing and is a place I would definitely return too! We only spent 3 days there which was enough to see everything. Next time I'd come back just to relax, explore further and eat more of their amazing food!
Did you not go to Serangoon Road or the famous Mustafa dept store situated in little India . You should also try the fish head curry and eat at the hawker stalls in Tekah market.
NO We didn't get time!! But thanks for letting me know – I will save it for next time!
YAY 😀 I'm glad you do!
Did you also get a chance to go to Singapore zoo?…it's one of the best zoos i went too and they have Orangutans!


\A 22-year-old epilepsy individual is risking arrest, and refusing to leave her hospital room at Vancouver General Hospital, stating that the medical system has failed to provide her with a plan of care and that her life is at risk\.
It has been 45 decades, but the details of the tornado that struck at the curling club continue to be apparent for Windsorites.
A 30-year-old Nakoda girl who says she had been a casualty of coerced sterilization at a Moose Jaw, Sask., hospital last December is thinking about filing a criminal complaint, in accordance with her attorney.
The president of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. claims that his agency wants to increase millions more dollars to help Canadians afford places to live, regardless of the billions currently accessible government financing.
Over three years after the legislation was initially introduced in Parliament, the Commons fisheries committee has passed a bill banning whale and dolphin captivity.
A third canola exporter has received a non-compliance notice from China over quality concerns, that the agriculture minister said the most recent development in an escalating feud with the Asian nation.
\Former hostage Caitlan Coleman's cross-examination continued Tuesday in the trial of her estranged husband Joshua Boyle.
The inaugural season of the National Arts Centre's Indigenous Theatre will proceed ahead in a'greatly diminished capacity' this year after $3.5 million of asked federal funding was denied.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has cut short his visit to Canada and has been returning to Israel to be with his wife.
Alaska's governor has requested U.S. President Donald Trump for permission to expand an Alaska railroad to northern Alberta, according to officers.


The tourism industry's growth framework, which aspires to grow annual tourism turnover to $41 billion by 2025.
The only independent association that represents all sectors of New Zealand's large and diverse tourism industry. TIA is leading the Activating Domestic Tourism project with support from industry partners.
The annual TSA provides a picture of the role tourism plays in New Zealand, including spending by domestic tourism.
The MRTEs measure the expenditure of domestic and international visitors in regions across the country. Users can filter the information, e.g. by country of origin, tourism product grouping such as accommodation, passenger transport and retail sales, and by year.
Total domestic (and international) guest nights spent in short-term accommodation (hotels, holiday parks, backpackers and motels), by month and year.


Community Flights will analyze current community air service.
We'll research and rank community air service market target opportunities.
Community Flights will recommend the best airlines for flight markets.
Community Flights will help find other flight support resources.
We'll coordinate the crafting of community sales points based on airline(s) target(s).
Community Flights will development with the client, the airline pitch to acquire air service.
Community Flights will coordinate flight support efforts with airline partners.
We'll Identify/coordinate community marketing and support organizations and resources.
Community Flights will estimate the resources needed to support targeted new air service.
We'll check on the progress of achieving passenger and revenue benchmarks.
Community Flights will manage strategy/tactics to meet revenue and passenger performance goals.
Community Flights will set air service passenger and revenue benchmarks.
We'll analyze current local passenger segments and inbound passenger opportunities.
Community Flights will study and quantify the opportunity to move drive travelers to fly.
We'll reset strategies, as needed, to meet passenger and revenue benchmarks.
Community Flights will regularly check resources and organization structure against the communities air service development efforts.
"Effective air service development requires actively working in a constantly evolving airline environment. Communities should not rest on their laurels if they wish to sustain or grow air service.
Rate will depend on scope of work involved.
Scott Stewart is the principle of Community Flights; an air service support, development and management company. Community Flights works with communities, organizations or businesses on leveraging air service for economic gain. Scott formed Community Flights in January 2012. His goal was to mobilize community support efforts and aid clients, bridge the "air service understanding gap" with the airlines. Scott works to create an airline and community win-win air service support and performance environment. You can find more info about Community Flights at: www.communityflights.com.


The 13th International Sándor Ferenczi Conference, Ferenczi in Our Time and A Renaissance of Psychoanalysis will be held in Florence, Italy, May 3-6, 2018.
This Conference is organized by the newly formed International Sándor Ferenczi Network (ISFN). We invite those who are interested in taking part in the conference to become members of the ISFN.
Closure: Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 2:00 pm. The General Assembly of ISFN will take place from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
We expect to feature about 160 speakers (including plenary lectures, 4 panels, and parallel sessions) at the conference in Florence.
The maximum capacity of the conference auditorium is 400 persons.
The conference fee (for ISFN members € 400, before March 31, 2018) includes a Welcome Cocktail, 5 Coffee/Tea Breaks, and 3 light lunches.
The ISFN organizes a Facilitation Program for Students, Candidates and Professionals from Disadvantaged Countries. It consists of a discounted fee of € 250. Applicants have to be members of ISFN. Up to 100 persons may benefit from this program. The number of discounted fee registrants will be proportionally determined by the number of full paying registrants. Applications will be evaluated for eligibility by the ISFN.
The General Assembly of ratified ISFN Members will be held on Sunday, May 6th 2017, following the conclusion of the 13th International Sándor Ferenczi Conference. Please see our ISFN Member's Area for full details (member login required).
In the last three decades the International Sándor Ferenczi Conferences have played a crucial role in reviving Ferenczi's legacy in contemporary psychoanalysis. Inspired by Ferenczi's ideas, these stimulating international meetings became vital spaces of thought for psychoanalysts from different schools and orientations.


The first SRT-10 was produced November 11, 2003. Ram SRT-10 production ended after the 2006 model year. Total production for the 2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10 was 3,057.
For 2005, the total production was 4,097 and the 2006 total production was 2,373. Over the 3 year lifespan of this truck, just 9,527 Dodge Ram SRT-10s were manufactured.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 is a sport pickup truck that was produced by American automaker Dodge in limited numbers. It was introduced at the January 2002 North American International Auto Show, but was not put into production until 2004. Unlike previous Ram trucks, the SRT-10 was built solely for the purpose of speed.
The 2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10 is a high performance pickup truck with the biggest engine ever installed in a production passenger pickup truck in the USA.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 features muscular looks, stylish body structure, one of the largest engine, tires, wheels and brakes.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 features an aluminum 8.3 L Viper V-10 with a capacity of 8277 cc. The engine features an increased size in the bore and stroke; it also consists of cylinder heads with combustion chamber cooling and exhaust port. The engine contains a Heavy Duty Cooling System for the cooling of the engine at all times.
The engine delivers an output power of 500 bhp at 5600 rpm and 525 lb-ft torque at 4200 rpm. It reaches the speed of 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and the top speed is about 153 mph. The Dodge Ram SRT-10 features T56 six speed manual transmission and the gear shifts can be performed easily at higher speeds.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 features independent suspension and tuned suspensions which makes the truck to drop an inch on the front and two inches on the back, as a result the truck moves smoothly even at high speeds at all conditions.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 features 22-inch aluminum wheels also the largest wheels in the Dodge. These wheels are wrapped with high performance Pirelli tires with shock absorbers, piston calipers and Anti Braking System that ensure a better braking even at high speeds.
The exteriors feature the mirrors, muscular looks of the body, SRT-10 badge and door handles. The interiors feature the instrument panels, airbags, start button, leather seats and steering wheel.
The Dodge Ram SRT was created by DaimlerChrysler's PVO (Performance Vehicle Operations) division, using Dodge Viper and Plymouth Prowler engineers. Extensive wind tunnel testing was used in styling the exterior of the Ram SRT-10. This is the second time that Dodge has put a Viper engine into a Ram pickup. At the 1996 Chicago Auto Show, Dodge introduced a concept Dodge Ram with a Viper Generation 2 engine, but it was not put into production. The Dodge Ram VTS was painted Banzai Blue with dual white skunk stripes, housed a 488 cid V10, a six-speed Borg-Warner manual gearbox, and 17-inch (430 mm) Viper GTS wheels wrapped in BF Goodrich 275/60-HR17 Comp T/A HR4 tires.
The SRT-10 featured an 8.3 Liter Viper V10 This engine produced 510 bhp (380 kW; 517 PS) at 5,600 rpm and 525 lb·ft (712 N·m) of torque at 4,200 rpm. The regular cab, with a total curb weight of 5,130 lb (2,330 kg), reached a top speed of 153 mph (246 km/h), and could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4.9 seconds, whereas the Quad Cab, weighing 5,618 lb (2,548 kg), did 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and reached a top speed of 147 mph (237 km/h). The regular cab could complete the 1⁄4 mi (400 m) in 12.6 seconds at 110 mph (180 km/h), the Quad Cab in 13.8 seconds at 104 mph (167 km/h). The engine produced one horsepower for every 10.3 lbs of vehicle weight in the regular cab. The regular cab generated .86 g of grip on a 300 ft (91 m) skidpad, while the Quad Cab generated .83 g. The regular cab was rated by the EPA at 9 MPG city/15 highway, while the Quad Cab was rated at 9 city/12 MPG highway.
The V10 Viper engine delivered 90 percent of its torque from 1500 to 5600 rpm. The cast aluminum cylinder block had cast-iron liners and cross-bolted main caps. The bore and stroke had been increased over previous Viper models. Compression ratio, firing order, rod length, block height and block length were unchanged from the second-generation Viper engine. The regular cab featured a Tremec T-56 transmission, while the Quad Cab utilized a 48RE four-speed automatic transmission modified from the Ram Heavy Duty transmission. Both regular cab and Quad Cab used a Dana 60 rear axle.
PVO engineers modified the Ram Heavy Duty's rack and pinion steering and independent front suspension for use in the Ram SRT-10. A fully hydroformed Dodge Ram frame was used in conjunction with a custom-tuned suspension, lowering the Ram SRT-10's ride height one inch in the front and 2.5 inches in the rear. Bilstein shock absorbers, performance-tuned springs and unique aerodynamic aids were used to enhance the Ram SRT-10's higher-speed performance. An additional 5th shock was used on the rear axle to prevent wheel hop during wheelspin.
The Ram SRT-10 had a unique hood that featured a wide power bulge and hood scoop. The hood scoop allowed cool air to enter as well as forcing hot air to exit from the engine bay, thus helping the engine to run cooler. "Viper Powered" badges were added to the sides of the power bulge, to indicate the SRT-10 engine under the hood. Another exterior feature was a tonneau cover with an attached spoiler that was supposed to come standard on the 2005 Quad Cab version and all 2006 models, but due to manufacturing problems was not installed on nearly half of the Ram SRT-10s intended. To help remedy this situation, Dodge added a $1000 credit and a regular spoiler to the Ram SRT-10s that did not receive the tonneau cover. In addition to style, the spoiler also helped with air flow and provided a reduction in lift and drag. The Ram SRT-10 had a bed size of 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), giving the regular cab an overall length of 17 ft 7 in (5.36 m), and 19 ft 2 in (5.84 m) overall length for the Quad Cab. The Ram SRT-10 also had a lower ride height than regular Ram trucks.
The stock stereo system of the Dodge Ram SRT-10 consisted of 8 Infinity brand speakers. It also came with a leather trimmed steering wheel and with heavily bolstered racing-derived suede-trimmed charcoal leather seats. The center stack was adorned with silver trim, and a silver trim strip with the SRT-10 logo resided under the passenger-side air bag cover. Taking a cue from the Dodge Viper, the Ram SRT-10 came with a red start button on the dash. The manual transmission regular cab featured a Hurst shift lever, which sprouted from a silver metal shift bezel and was fitted with a Viper shift knob. Aluminum performance-inspired pedals replaced the stock setup. The gauge cluster featured satin silver-faced gauges and Viper font and graphics. The speedometer and tachometer were recalibrated to match the Ram SRT-10's increased performance.
Excluding the special editions, the 2004-2005 Ram SRT-10 came in three colors: Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat, Bright Silver Metallic Clear Coat, and Flame Red Clear Coat. The redesigned 2006 Ram SRT-10 came in Mineral Gray Metallic, Inferno Red, and Brilliant Black Crystal Clear Coat.
The stock 22-inch (560 mm) wheels were fitted with Pirelli Scorpion P305/40R-22 performance tires and modeled after the 10-spoke wheels available on the Viper. The brakes for the 2004 model (front and rear) and 2005-06 (rear) were modified from the Ram Heavy Duty truck for use in the Ram SRT-10. The standard ABS-equipped brakes were fitted with 15-inch (380 mm) rotors in front and 14-inch (360 mm) rotors out back. 2004 models used red-painted two-piston sliding brake calipers front and rear; these were replaced with larger four-piston monoblock calipers up front in 2005-06, designed by TRW and unique to the SRT-10. Two Nascar-inspired brake cooling ducts integrated into the front fascia provide cooling for the Ram SRT-10's brakes.
Following the success of the Ram SRT-10 regular cab, Dodge decided to introduce a Quad Cab version starting in the 2005 model year. The new Quad Cab was aimed at the performance truck enthusiast who wanted a performance pickup, but not at the expense of room for passengers and towing capacity. The Dodge Ram SRT-10 Quad Cab was fitted with a 4.56 final-drive gear ratio to improve low-end acceleration and was rated at 7,500-pound (3,400 kg) towing capacity. A body-color aluminum tonneau cover with an aerodynamic spoiler came standard on the Quad Cab. The Quad Cab was only offered with a 4-speed automatic transmission, a 48RE borrowed from the Ram Heavy Duty.
Dodge released several limited editions of the Ram SRT-10 alongside the standard regular cab and Quad Cab versions.
VCA (Viper Club of America) Edition - 52 produced, released at the 2004 Daytona Motor Speedway Race in February. Its paint scheme was white rally stripes on Electric Blue. Engine was also signed by Wolfgang Bernhard, Chrysler Group's former Chief Operating Officer. Available as a 2004 model.
Yellow Fever - 500 produced, painted in Solar Yellow exterior paint and black "fanged" stripe on top of hood, came with two-tone interior which featured a yellow center stack bezel, yellow door spears, yellow stitching on steering wheel, seats and Regular Cab manual transmission shifter and yellow embroidering on the SRT-10 floor mats. Also came with special Yellow Fever Edition badges and a serialized Yellow Fever dash plaque. Available as a 2005 model.
Commemorative Edition - 200 produced, featured Bright White exterior paint with Electric Blue stripes. Interior enhancements included blue stitching on the seats, shift boot, shift knob and steering wheel. Floor mats were embroidered in matching stitching with the SRT-10 logo. In addition, the Commemorative Edition included standard polished wheels, brushed aluminum scuff plates, and a hard tonneau cover. Available as a 2005 model.
Night Runner - 400 produced, painted in Brilliant Black exterior paint, came with Dark Nickel Pearl finish 22-inch (560 mm) wheels, black chrome grill inserts, unique Night Runner badges, a black center stack and center console bezel overlay, and a serialized Night Runner dash plaque. Available as a 2006 model.


If you're like me, then you couldn't wait to check off the first thing on your New Year's to-do list.
We'll hear the first piano concerto composed by an American woman, the New Federal Overture by one of America's first composers – Jams Hewitt – and Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine. And we'll take the Gospel Train to a new destination with one of Morton Gould's Spirituals for Strings.
Join me for American music for a good beginnings on The American Sound, Saturday at 6 pm on Classical 101!


I wanted to tell him this was how it should always be. I wanted him to know, that when his lips were on mine, kissing me until all I could feel was the pulse in my veins, and all I could taste was him, his breath, I'd give anything to lose myself inside his body, or let him lose himself inside mine. i fit wouldn't ruin everything about this night, I'd kiss him until he realized he'd wanted the same thing all along. Until my unspoken word became a reality.
Take my poor, battered heart already, why don't you, A.M. Johnson?!? I kid you not when I tell you that Let There Be Light, the first in the new Twin Heart duet and a spin-off of the Avenues Ink trilogy, was one of my number one most anticipated read for this last quarter of 2018. I've read five of Johnson's novels in the past (Sacred Hart, all three of her Avenues Ink novels, and Breakaway), so I knew just how good of a storyteller she was. In short, expectations were high. Add to that the fact that this was going to be an M/M romance, and well, I make no secret of this particular romance sub-genre being my absolute favorite, so let's just say that my expectations had a whole lot of anticipation and trepidation stacked on top of them. No one wants to be disappointed going into a book, more so when it's an author whose writing you're already a slave for. I could have played nice, especially since this was, as far as I could surmise based on checking out Goodreads, A.M. Johnson's first published M/M romance, but again, I knew what this author was capable of. Those expectations? Absolutely obliterated in the best way possible.
Let There Be Light is the story of nineteen-year-old Royal O'Connell, son of Declan and Paige O'Connell (Possession, book one of the Avenues Ink series) and twin brother of Indigo, better known as Indie, whose own story is told in the second book in the Twin Hearts duet, so no, this is not your typical duet that has book one ending in a cliffhanger and involving just one couple. The twins are off to St. Peter's College, a private Catholic college located in the town of Pines Hollow in Oregon. Life away from their family in Salt Lake City, Utah, would take some adjustment, but getting to attend college on scholarships they earned should ensure that brother and sister have their priorities straight. Proving his worth to the swim team, keeping his GPA up, working at the library, and making sure Indie was okay would leave little time for much else. Then Royal meets his team captain's roommate, and his reaction to sophomore Camden Morgan is not what he expected. He isn't all that sure as to what to do with the pull he feels towards the quiet student, but Royal wants nothing more than to dive into everything that is Camden.
A musical virtuoso, Camden Morgan has always surrounded himself with music more than with people. After all, his parents made it seem as if his worth was based solely on that. It was certainly not on who he was as person, not after being made to feel as if there was something abhorrent about him when he was sixteen. Away from a mother who criticized more than she cuddled and a father who couldn't seem to be bothered to care, Camden has preferred his own company compared to that of his peers. The only sounds that have enveloped him are those of the notes and melodies of the music he plays and composes and that of silence...until he meets his roommate's new best friend and teammate on the swim team. Freshman Royal O'Connell is like sunlight that permeates through the darkness that has been Camden's life. He doesn't look at Camden as if he's some weirdo lacking social skills. There's curiosity, and oddly enough, interest of a sort that Camden is afraid to hope could be more. Being with Royal has his heart beating at a peaceful rhythm, but will fears and doubt lead it to be discordant in the end?
Purchase Let There Be Light on Amazon.


Hitachi IoT Appliance Accelerates the Time to Insight and Value of IoT Solution Deployments for Industrial and Commercial Enterprise Customers.
Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., today unveiled a new appliance for internet of things (IoT) deployments: Hitachi IoT Appliance, powered by Lumada, Hitachi's IoT platform. Delivered as a turnkey system, the appliance's "hyperconverged meets microservices" architecture combines Hitachi's best-in-class storage and compute with industry-leading networking technologies and comes fully integrated with Hitachi's latest Lumada software.
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Hitachi IoT Appliance is purpose-built to address these issues. From factory floors and solar farms, to water treatment plants and enterprise datacenters, analysis of connected data is helping organizations to optimize their operations. The expected result is greater performance and output, efficiency, efficacy and extended life of industrial equipment and capital assets. It simplifies IoT deployments in any number of industrial settings and can be placed at a location of a customer's choosing—from edge to core—where data privacy, compliance, network limitations and other challenges can be more easily addressed. This can significantly reduce the associated risk, complexity and uncertainty of IoT deployments in enterprise and industrial environments, with faster time to insight, value and better business outcomes. Outcomes like streamlined operational efficiencies, improved asset utilization and product quality, better customer experiences and creating new revenue streams.
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 Gartner Inc, Internet of Things Primer for 2017, January 2017 by Mark Hung, Ted Friedman, Sanjit Ganguli, Erik T. Heidt, Venecia K. Liu, and Tracy Tsai.
Hitachi IoT Appliance will be generally available later this year, wherever Lumada IoT Platform software is offered. For more information, visit https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/products/internet-of-things/iot-appliance.html.
To learn more about Hitachi's newly enhanced Lumada IoT platform, visit: https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/products/internet-of-things/lumada.html.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2016 (ended March 31, 2017) totaled 9,162.2 billion yen ($81.8 billion). The Hitachi Group is a global leader in Social Innovation and has approximately 304,000 employees worldwide. Through collaborative creation, Hitachi is providing solutions to customers in a broad range of sectors, including Power / Energy, Industry / Distribution / Water, Urban Development, and Finance / Government & Public / Healthcare. For more information, please visit http://www.hitachi.com.


This community curates current and old versions of the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database. This project is a continuing work in progress with updates and fixes in each new version. Please note that older versions will have issues which are addressed in subsequent versions.


text:
Meet Rachel Parent — the teen fighting for GMO labelling in Canada
By Allison Vuchnich	& Erica Vella	Global News
Posted October 6, 2014 1:09 pm
Updated November 6, 2014 3:53 pm
Watch: Rachel Parent is a 15-year-old activist. Her goal: mandatory labelling in Canada of all genetically modified organisms, or GMOs that are found as ingredients in food. Allison Vuchnich has part one of a four-part series on GMOs and labelling.
UPDATE: Rachel Parent has met with Health Minister Rona Ambrose. Global News reporter Allison Vuchnich will have details of their meeting on Global National at 6:30 p.m. AT/ET and 5:30 p.m. MT/PT, on Thursday, Nov. 6.
Standing in the grocery store aisle surrounded by processed and packaged food, examining ingredients and scanning labels: this is shopping with Rachel Parent, and it is a thorough process.
"About 70 per cent of the (processed) food on all our grocery store shelves is genetically modified or has GMO ingredients in it," Parent told Global News as she reached for a container of relish and examined its ingredient list.
So for instance, glucose fructose is a derivative from corn and it's high-fructose corn syrup basically, so there really is a 90 per cent chance that it is GMO," she said.
"Of course, I would never know unless it was labelled."
READ MORE: Vermont's food fight over mandatory GMO labelling
Parent is a 15-year-old activist. Her goal: mandatory labelling in Canada of all genetically modified organisms, or GMOs that are found as ingredients in food.
"This isn't a matter of whether you want GMOs or not, this is a matter of freedom of choice and our right to know," Parent contends, also noting more than 60 countries already have GMO labelling.
WATCH: Rachel Parent explains how she first became interested in GMOs, and why she thinks Canadians deserve mandatory labelling.
Her interest in GMOs started at the age of 10 at the breakfast table, when she was eating cereal. "My grandmother pointed out that it may have GMOs in it and I kind of brushed it off," said Parent.
"The thought of GMOs really stayed in my head and a couple years later, having to do a speech for school, I wanted to do something that would really impact a lot of people and how they really lived their lives."
Drivers stuck along major Toronto-area highways as winter storm blasts southern Ontario
After that speech, Parent dedicated her life to mandatory GMO labelling, even starting her own foundation, Kids Right to Know, when she was 12.
Despite her age, she has become the face for the GMO labelling battle in Canada. Polling shows close to 90 per cent of Canadians want mandatory labelling.
Parent attends rallies, delivers speeches and for a year has been trying to meet with Health Minister Rona Ambrose.
During her tenure as health minister, Ambrose has worked on making food labels less confusing and more relevant for Canadians. Despite Health Canada's own information that shows Canadians want information about GMOs on labels, the government is not budging on mandatory labelling.
"Currently, there is no… scientific evidence, that says genetically modified foods are unhealthy," Health Minister Rona Ambrose told Global News. "It is impossible for us to mandate a label, because our labels have to be based on evidence that it is an unhealthy product for Canadians."
Andrew Casey, President and CEO of BIOTECanada, a national trade association, agreed, arguing the scientific research is vast and sound and GMOs are highly regulated.
"Once you put a warning label on it, you are immediately identifying it as a negative and there is a danger in that," said Casey. "There is no evidence to say that these things are negative that they are going to harm you, why would you label them as such, it's just not right."
WATCH: Andrew Casey, President and CEO of BIOTECanada explains why he thinks mandatory GMO labelling is not needed
Opponents, including Parent, disagree and believe the scientific research government regulators rely on, is often funded by the same companies that benefit from the sale of GMOs, arguing there is science that proves GMOs do pose a health risk.
After being asked by Global News why she has not answered any of Parent's correspondence or requests to meet, Health Minister Ambrose agreed to a meeting.
"I would be happy to meet with her," Ambrose told Global News, adding there is no scientific evidence that GMO foods are unhealthy for Canadians.
Parent looks forward to meeting the health minister and already knows what she wants on the agenda.
"I want to ask her for GMO labelling, and ask her for independent testing, that way, until proven safe, we have our right to know."
WATCH: Allison Vuchnich meets with Health Minister Rona Ambrose to talk GMOs and labelling and ask if she will meet with 15-year-old activist Rachel Parent.
Global News is airing a four-part series on GMOs and labelling, and the food fight over consumers' right to know what they are eating. Allison Vuchnich's reports air on Global National Oct. 6 – Oct. 9.
© 2014 Shaw Media
Food tagHealth Canada tagRona Ambrose tagactivism tagGMO tagGMOs tagGMO Labelling tagRachel Parent tagGMO Foods tagGenetically Modified Organism tagHigh-fructose Corn Syrup tagBIOTECanada tagAndrew Casey tag
COVID-19: Some Alberta classes move online as teaching positions go unfilled
Canada approved Paxlovid, Pfizer's new oral COVID pill. What you need to know

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


See an example of a ballot, or enter "5208 ALACON CT, 94568" above.
You must have registered by May 19 to vote on June 3.
Call (510) 267-8683 for questions about voting or to determine your voter registration status.
The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro will be using a new voting method to elect members of their City Councils.
To learn more about this system, see this page of the Registrar of Voters Web site.


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Questa voce raccoglie le informazioni riguardanti l'Obiettivo Risarcimento Volley nelle competizioni ufficiali della stagione 2015-2016.

Stagione

La stagione 2015-16 è per l'Obiettivo Risarcimento Volley, che riporta nella denominazione la città di Vicenza, sede del campo di gioco, la prima in Serie A1: la squadra infatti ha conquistato la promozione a seguito della vittoria dei play-off della Serie A2 2014-15. Viene confermato l'allenatore Delio Rosetto mentre la rosa è completamente cambiata con le uniche conferme di Elisa Cella, Valentina Pastorello e Alessia Lanzini: tra i nuovi arrivi quelli di Laura Partenio, Arielle Wilson, Mina Popović, Lora Kitipova, Bianka Buša, Marta Drpa e Lucia Crisanti, queste ultime tre cedute a metà campionato, mentre tra le partenze quelle di Marilyn Strobbe, Laura Baggi, Joanna Frąckowiak, Irina Smirnova e Elena Fronza.

Il campionato si apre con due sconfitte: la prima vittoria arriva alla terza giornata, in trasferta, contro il Promoball Volleyball Flero. Sempre in trasferta arriva la seconda vittoria, alla sesta giornata, ai danni dell'Azzurra Volley San Casciano, seguita da altri due successi rispettivamente sul Volley Bergamo e sul Neruda Volley; l'Obiettivo Risarcimento Volley chiude il girone di andata con quattro sconfitte consecutive, chiudendo all'undicesimo posto, fuori dalla zona di qualificazione per la Coppa Italia. Il girone di ritorno si apre con cinque stop di fila, seguito poi da tre vittorie: la regular season procede esclusivamente con gare perse, chiudendo al decimo posto in classifica, non utile per accedere ai play-off scudetto.

Organigramma societario

Area direttiva
Presidente: Flavio Grison
Vicepresidente: Paolo Simioni
Segreteria genarale: Laura Seganfreddo
Area organizzativa
Team manager: Amelio Spiller
Direttore sportivo: Delio Rossetto
Consigliere: Roberto Simioni, Massimo Buggiarin, Laura Seganfreddo

Area tecnica
Allenatore: Delio Rossetto
Allenatore in seconda: Adriano Cisotto
Assistente allenatore: Alessandro Delia
Scout man: Jacopo Palazzi
Area comunicazione
Ufficio stampa: Alida Pretto

Area marketing
Ufficio marketing: Amelio Spiller
Area sanitaria
Medico: Annalisa Pauletto
Preparatore atletico: Carlo Recher
Fisioterapista: Claudio Salvato

Rosa

Mercato

Risultati

Serie A1

Girone di andata

Girone di ritorno

Statistiche

Statistiche di squadra

G = partite giocate; V = partite vinte; P = partite perse

Statistiche dei giocatori

P = presenze; PT = punti totali; AV = attacchi vincenti; MV = muri vincenti; BV = battute vincenti

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

2015-2016
Villaverla

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Alexandra Erin
AlexandraErin
So I'm going to be doing one of my Drunk Disney threads in about twenty minutes. This week because I didn't have two good days to do it on, it's going to be Not Quite Disney - when I did Mr. Boogedy the other week, I hit on the idea of watching couple 80s toyline specials.
As I mentioned then, as a kid I had never realized how short Mr. Boogedy was because Everything Is Feature Length when you're a child still learning about the concept of time.
Which as an adult, it was wild to find out how many of the "movies" my mother had taped off of TV or copied off other cassettes were actually specials that were barely 20 minutes long. Like those classic Charlie Brown holiday specials.
Among the video treasures of my youth there were a few "movies" that had been pilots for toy-line tie-in cartoons that... never quite made it to series, which I guess helped them stand out as being special.
Each one's about 22 minutes...
...and since 44 minutes is about how much I cover in an afternoon of drunk movie analysis, my idea for day two after Mr. Boogedy only took a day was to revisit two of those dubious classics of the genre that happen to be available online.
But that was around when I started really not doing so great with the sleep schedule and focus, so I didn't end up doing it.
If you're trying to guess which toylines/cartoons... probably a lot of the obvious ones popping into your head aren't it, because the obvious ones, the enduring ones, spawned at least one actual ongoing cartoon series.
So it's not Transformers, it's not G.I. Joe.
Our household didn't really put much stock in gendering shows or toys or playtime activities, so the stuff I watched included stuff targeted at both of the genders known to Madison Avenue in the 1980s. Without trying, the stuff I picked included one "boy" show and one "girl" one.
I'm going to get my drinks together, double check that the videos haven't been taken down by a copyright claim from some zombie IP attorney, and I'll get started at around 4:00 PM.
Okay! And a reminder that I provide this little bit of escapist performance art/film criticism as a way of raising money for groceries and household expenses. It's been a lean couple weeks when I wasn't up to doing this, so feel free to tip in.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=RR84V5CDS9UP4
I tweet for everybody, but today I especially tweet for the people who can hear the Hi-Tops video logo in their heads when they see it.
Recognize this spherical singer? You probably don't. Not only was this particular toy line never turned into an ongoing cartoon series in the 80s, she was never part of it. They had to add women for the cartoon.
Buckle up.
Sparta? THIS. IS. MAD BALLS.
Madballs was this line of creepy cool gross-out toys that were little rubber balls mostly based loosely off public domain monster concepts. Not much in the way of characterization or story or lore to it, really. Just... mad balls.
The cartoon didn't have the budget to depict all that grotesque detail, nor did anyone want to make a kids' show that showed it.
So even one of the more mild ones went from this to this.
Also, they're in a band. That's what animators did when they didn't know what else to do.
Here's the whole band.
Notice there's seven of them including the singer. Each of the other characters in this shot is supposed to be the animated version of those six balls in the first picture.
They're singing their signature (only? From my memory. It's a short movie.) song, which is... what else? Great Balls of Fire. Except too much love drives a *ball* insane.
The toy line didn't really have a deep lore story so it didn't have heroes or villains, either, so they solved this by taking the second series of balls released and making them into Commie-Nazis From Outer Space.
Their motivation is they hate music, is my recollection.
Also the thirty second opening sequence basically shows the entire plot/premise of this short film: they're having a concert, they see the Commie-Nazis From Outer Space and flee to earth, where they have another concert.
That's about how it goes, if I recall.
We get opening narration explaining the premise: the planet Orb has been taken over by BAD Balls, lead by the fearsome Commander Wolfbreath, who has outlawed laughing, bouncing, and singing and is forcing the other balls to build a giant sphinx-like monument to his hubris.
Two of the Mad Balls, who we're told are the last rock band on the planet, are shown among those toiling on the monument. The lead singer and the baseball are carrying a heavy block and she complains that it's ruining her manicure, then lets go to check her nails. Comedy gold!
The baseball, whose name is Screaming Meemie, then explains the plot of the movie we're watching for the third time in two minutes.
They didn't put much trust in their audience.
They're caught malingering by "Bruise Brother, a Bad Ball" (the singer explains, in case the uniform doesn't help).
Between the simplified designs, the arbitrary characterizations, and the uniforms, I don't think as a kid I realized that the Bad Balls were part of the toy line
Like this was my favorite one as a kid.
I don't think I ever connected it to his TV design, here.
Anyway. The lead singer lady, whose only monstrous feature is the slight Bride of Frankenstein streak in her hair, is apparently named "Freakella", as Meemie calls her by name as she starts to go into a berserker rage at the Bad Ball calling her "mophead".
She threatens to flatten him, fold him into a paper airplane ,and throw him into a brick wall.
This is the second instance in the movie of ball-flattening being mentioned as a punishment. Risque for the time?
In addition to adding Freakella, they also made "Dustbrain" the Mummy Madball into "Dusty", whose bandages act like hair. Seen here with what I think is a nameless background ball who more resembles the eye toy more, but canonically the Bad Balls are supposed to be the other toys
It seems to take most of the band plus the eye guy to deliver one stone block and fit it into place on the statue, breaking it in the process. This is accompanied by measurements that serve no apparent purpose. Never let anyone tell you that totalitarianism is efficient.
Meemie explains to the others that Freakella is in a bad mood because they're being forced to labor for a cruel dictator. I mean, his enforcer called her a "*whispers* mophead". The big red horned one repeats the m-word at a normal voice but is cut off by the closing whistle.
Having completed their compulsory labor for the day, they walk off together, discussing their illegal musical gig at an underground club.
The skeleton one is very nervous to hear that their illegal gig is after curfew.
Oh, maybe the eyeball is supposed to be the toy. He's with them, apparently. One of them tells him to "keep your eye peeled for Bad Balls".
I haven't seen this since the 90s and trying to reconcile memories with stuff I learned about it since then is a little bewildering.
And yes, it's from the 80s, but we had this on the same VHS tape as The Transformers: The Movie, so I did see it a few times just because it was easier than trying to fast forward to the start of Transformers. Also younger siblings and daycare kids watching it.
We get a long shot of Bruise Brother pointing out Freakella to General Wolfbreath, reporting her for humming, as "the one with the mop top".
Is... is... I mean, is that what a mop top is? I always heard like Beatles haircuts called that.
I feel like once they settled on the "they're in a band!" and "the bad guys hate music!" angle they went looking for things that anti-rock crusaders had said about rock and/or roll music that could be put into a kid's show, and "mop top"/"mophead" was about it.
And if the script was developed separately from Freakella's look, maybe there was just no time or budget or interest in reconciling this because what do kids know anyway?
Okay, the eye wearing the beret is definitely the toy character. Oculus is his name. I didn't remember that until I heard it. He's a squeaky non-speaking character because of the lack of mouth.
So a weird thing about this movie is they gave the balls arms and legs. But they are retractable.
One thing I never caught watching as a kid: Meemie and Oculus look around and make sure they're alone before ball-forming because bouncing is illegal.
I feel like if you have a planet of balls and you've made it illegal to bounce and roll that is already a better and more rich story than "rock and roll is illegal". Did General Wolfbreath learn that on most planets people walk and he thinks it's modern and forward-thinking?
If I were doing this as a YouTube video nostalgia series or whatever I would definitely make a sound clip of Screaming Meemie saying "A BAD BALL, OH NO!" one of those things I just queue up and repeat over and over again until you're all sick of it. The voice acting.
I feel like they wanted to make Screaming Meemie the main character. He seems to have the most lines so far. Hear me out: you need to make one of them a singer for your story and you want to make some of them girls. You've got one named Screaming Meemie.
I wonder if the pitch started with that and it was decided they can't make Meemie a girl because Boys Like Sports. He's also the most "wholesome" one, as he's based on a ball and not a monster, and they excised the gruesome elements of his design.
Oculus's toy design can be disturbing but when rendered in cartoon form he's just kind of this cute eyeball guy who squeaks and wears a hat. Classic cartoon sidekick.
Apparently the Mad Balls have enough tactical opsec to all go to their gig separately, as individuals or small groups. We go from Meemie and Oculus to Freakella, who is bouncing AND humming AND out after curfew. She spots her reflection in a window and backs up to admire it...
...which is how she catches Bruise Brother following her (and also, Girls Are Vain II: Electric Boogaloo).
It may not be super apparent in that image, but she's hovering at leg-height in ball form. She backed up *mid bounce*. The balls can fly.
I may be remembering wrong but I think in a chase scene there's a bit where they just accelerate mid-air. It's not just that bouncing is more natural to them, they literally don't need to walk.
I want to know more about this.
I don't know if this is intentional or just easier to animate, but when Bruise Brother is chasing her, he starts doing this hopping motion on his legs without really moving them... in other words, he's bouncing on his feet. Hypocritically skirting the law.
Okay, while watching I also searched out the Mad Balls wiki (of course there's one) and learned Oculus *was* a series 1 Mad Ball. I figured he wasn't because he didn't seem to be in the opening sequence with the rest of them.
The one that's marching with the Space Commie-Nazis is apparently this guy, Fist Face, who is even less recognizable as the animated cyclops after they take out all the gross stuff.
So Freakella lures Bruise Brother into an alley, and as soon as he catches sight of her, the person he was chasing, he drops his bat and starts begging. We cut to outside the alley see and hear the standard cartoon signs of a one-sided fight... and she does exactly what she said.
that's him as a paper airplane, if it's not super apparent. The reason it's blue is apparently his helmet is the outer layer he's been flattened into.
We cut from that to two more characters who were in the opening sequence but aren't apparently in the band... the Frankenstein's Creature looking one with a dislocated eyeball and one who has a tiny mouth on his uvula, which is more disturbing than anything else here so far.
They're rooting around in the garbage for a technobabble compressor that will let them finish their spaceship, and this scene... okay, earlier I was going to say that the red Horn Head guy was being established as that terrible cartoon staple of "The Stupid One", but.
The one of the two who knows what they're looking for forgets it right after telling the other, and when asked to describe it, he pulls one out of the dumpster and says "It looks like this" and then throws it over his shoulder, where the other one finds it.
I gather this is supposed to establish why the spaceship they are building out of literal garbage might not fly so great but it's painful to watch.
Freakella seems to be the last one arriving at the club, where we find out that Oculus is the person watching the door. Okay, that much thought went into it. We also see a *different* Bad Ball than her vanquished nemesis successfully tailed her. Also slightly better writing!
Then we see the dumpster divers (Slobulus, and I think Aagh?) finishing their spaceship, basically by driving nails and screws into the broken gizmo they had been searching for and breaking it the rest of the way. I actually kind of like this?
Kind of a Dragonlance gnomes meets Warhammer 40k orks vibe as far as the technology goes. They know the spaceship needs an ionic compressor or whatever so they nail one to it.
Like there are wires coming out of the compressor that are visibly not hooked up to anything
They then hurry off to the Mad Balls concert because this is a short movie and they need to be where the plot is.
At the concert, the Mad Balls are singing another song. It's not Great Balls of Fire. I don't know if it's a real song. I can't quite make out the words.
The secret rock concert is clearly audible from the street, though, when we see General Wolfbreath and his troops approaching from the street.
So of course they raid the nightclub and order everybody to "stop bouncing" (I think only the band itself has anyone in legs mode) and proclaims them under arrest. The crowd scatters, the band makes a break for it.
There's a bit of Cheap Animation Weirdness where Dusty has one of her bandages snagged and goes into an unraveling spin, but her model doesn't change at all, she just a stream of bandage behind her.
And when she gathers it up and starts rolling the loose bandage into a ball, the ball just instantly forms at full size and stays the same size as she keeps winding more bandage into it.
The whole thing happens in like two seconds ,of course, which is how they get away with stuff like that and why they don't spend more effort on it, in a cheap one-off special.
Other than Bruise Brother's enmity with Freakella, none of the other minions of Wolfbreath really seem to have any characterization at all.
The Mad Balls escape by bashing a hole in the wall of the hole in the ground club.
And General Wolfbreath and his minions abandon the pretext of walking to bounce after them (bouncing seems to be faster)... subtle commentary on how the rules he adopted are arbitrary and meant only to bind others to his will?
Slobulus and Aargh rescue the Mad Balls from a dead end with a rope ladder from a manhole (ballhole?) above, comically letting the ladder go right as Wolfbreath reaches the top.
There are introductions all around and in a movie that has explained its own premise and plot over and over again, they waited until the halfway point to do this? I know they were toys first but I kind of doubt even most kids who actually had them knew all their names.
Speaking of being halfway through a very short movie, Meemie very casually asks these two total strangers, "Say, do either of you happen to know a way off this planet?"
When they see the rickety trash ship, Freakella begins to insist there's no way she's going anywhere near it until the Bad Balls show up and then she jumps on the heads (balls?) of the others saying, "A girl can change her mind, can't she?"
There's just nothing like female characters written by women, you know?
In this, I mean.
There's nothing like female characters written by women in this.
Globulus and Argh argue over which button starts the ship and Freakella tells them to just hit the big red button "Because it's ALWAYS the big red button!"
That's a line that stuck with me without conscious recollection of the source.
The rocket totals the unfinished monument to Wolfbreath on the way out of the planet.
The visuals of the solar system... er, baller system... are interesting and maybe the best drawn thing in the show.
Speaking of drawing, I mentioned in my Black Cauldron viewing how animation sometimes uses a very different level of detail when something is part of a background vs. when it's being animated. Hard to believe these are the same ship.
I mean, you can match elements between them.
They start talking about all the fun stuff they can do. Horn Head mentions he can "bounce through walls whenever he feels like", which seems like an ominous pronouncement given they're on a spaceship.
But instead Freakella immediately proclaims she can "SING!" by singing the word "SING" loudly, and that buffets the ship badly, because the girl who is full of herself has to be terrible in every scene she's in.
Globulus and Argh caution her to tone it down "or someone will have to fly this thing", then reveal their frantic control-fiddilng we just watched was somehow them "making parachutes".
The realization that nobody is steering causes the ship to go into a nosedive (in space), and after control is regained, Horn Head finds a TV and picks up a transmission of a rock concert which helpfully mentions it's happening on earth.
Dusty proclaims that everybody on earth is allowed to play music, and when questioned how she knows, we get to the one really kind of solid joke in this so far.
Guess where she heard it. Guess.
They decide to go to earth, which might seem like a superfluous decision since no one knows how to steer, but the ship glances of a planetoid and its death-spiral is now taking it directly towards earth.
(Which had to be close enough for the TV signal to be intelligible, I guess
Down on earth, the concert is turning ugly as the promised headliners have been given the wrong address ("in Alaska... and they're not coming back!", with a dramatic Soap Opera Sting) and the crowd is about to riot.
We're also introduced, two thirds of the way through, to the human characters who I'm sure would have been part of any actual ongoing story about the Mad Balls on earth, a nebbishy concert promoter looking for his big break and I'm gonna say maybe his sister?
I know we've been watching animated semi-humanoid monster balls for the past 17 minutes but these two, this whole scene, it feels like it belongs to a completely different cartoon.
Different style, different use of music.
Also I have to say that the simplified ball design was a gift to the animators as they have a much harder time matching the humans up to the actors' delivery.
Back on the ship, Wolfbreath interrupts a montage of "rock and roll on every channel" by breaking in with a broadcast, asking if they thought they'd gotten away. Answering en masse: "Frankly, we never thought of it."
The writing picked up in the second half, honestly.
The junk ship flies into an asteroid field, which Dusty compliments as a tactical choice by the pilots until being reminded that they have no control over the ship.
The bathtub strapped to the roof of the ship pays off, kind of, when it comes loose and gets lodged in the mouth of Wolfbreath's him-shaped ship. ("They've released a photon bathtub!")
This stops the ship, somehow. Everybody celebrates, except Freakella, who is angry because "I was just about to take a bath!" because she needs to be mad about something pointless and to remind the audience she's vain.
I take back my compliments, Mad Balls writers.
Then the wolf-head ship coughs up the bathtub, propelling itself backwards and the bathtub forwards, which hits the junk ship and dislodges some pipes in a way that fills it with water.
I don't understand the propulsion systems in play here.
Back on earth, Skip the Concert Promoter is trying to keep the crowd happy with chicken jokes. The audience is mostly not impressed, except that redheaded guy who is slightly amused but kind of mad about it.
Because this is a very short movie, the Mad Balls crash land directly on the stage and everybody bounces safely to a stop directly next to their instrument of choice.
I was much more impressed with this as a six or seven year old. I remember wishing they'd get a real cartoon series and come out with toys that could sprout arms and legs.
So we get a kind of mixture of a Scooby-Doo and Marx Bros. chase scene (though worse animated than either of them) as the Bad Balls catch up to them, without interrupting the music performance until the very end.
But just like when Bruise Brother caught Freakella in the alley, all it takes is her getting angry at being called a "mophead" for her to defeat them... this time, all of them at once with a sonic scream of anger that sends them rolling back into their ship.
Which is then hotwired and sent back into space. I know they have to leave the threat open in case they get a sequel or series, but this seems like a five minute solution at most. They can just turn around.
The balls agree to let Skip manage them and Freakella pays off her tacit resemblance to the Bride by showing off her "new do", to which one of the other balls says she now "really looks like a mophead"... which, not remotely?
I mean, it's not even close.
He gets paper-airplaned off screen and then proclaims "That's the last time I give her a compliment." Everybody laughs, roll credits.
That was Mad Balls: Escape From Orb. I got to say of everything I've rewatched for your entertainment, I think this might have held up the worse. Heck, of 80s cartoons I have rewatched as an adult, it held up the worst. He-Man was less of a disappointment.
It's not just that it was thrown together on a shoestring budget to tie-in a toyline... lots of shows were. It's that the source material being adapted (and as I said about She-Ra, the source material for 80s toy cartoons is the toys, not the cartoon) was completely unsuitable.
Mad Balls did get some kind of web cartoon revival in the 21st century, but I know nothing about that.
This cartoon got one follow-up, Mad Balls: Gross Jokes, which I think solved the "we don't really have a story" problem by not telling one. Instead, it told.. well, you get it.
So my other selection for the day is coming up after a quick pit stop. If you've enjoyed this bouncing stroll down memory lane, please throw something in the jar.
And we're back. I have to say, engagement and tips are both higher when I do Disney stuff. I guess name recognition counts for something. Ah, well. Everything I do is an experiment! That means some things turn out better than others.
So my next selection is from the same realm of Toys That fit Up Your Baby Brother's Nose as Polly Pocket or... Polly Pocket But For Boys, whose name I can't remember: teeny tiny little figures that live in jewelry box-style dollhouses.
But these ones had a twist...
See those little loops on their heads? You could wear them on a bracelet or necklace, like a charm. Yes, truly these adorable little people are akin to charms. They are, you might say, The Charmkins.
Remember the Charmkins? They're neither back, nor in pog form.
But their half hour TV special that failed to launch anything IS on YouTube so I'm watching it.
We open with a scene of a parrot teasing a dog with a bone, because the people who made this toyline understood what the best game designers understand today: EVERYBODY WANTS A PET. WE WILL PAY EXTRA TO HAVE PETS.
A very ear-wormy chorus tells us that these are charmkins, we're in charmland, and today is festival day. Seriously, if you hunt this one down, expect to get music stuck in your head. I *still* have these songs in me, like wounds that will never close.
Then a disembodied yet pleasant voice throws me a curveball I absolutely was not expecting:
1. Ben Vereen is in this.
2. He's playing the bad guy.
3. He got star billing for it.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say this had a bigger budget than Mad Balls.
Oh, and another curve. Really didn't see this coming, and yet Poison Ivy's voice has never once left my brain in almost 38 years.
After those surprising revelations we go to BEN VEREEN AS DRAGONWEED, watching the Charmkins through a telescope. His villainous rabble bemoan the fact that they never get invited to flower festivals, despite the fact that weeds flower.
The others immediately decide it's because Skunkweed smells and start laughing at him. Maybe it's because you're jerks, did you ever think of that?
So high concept thing here - the Charmkins in Charmland are apparently all flowers. The only one whose name I remembered was Brown-Eyed Susan, whose name I never forgot for reasons that I'll elaborate on later. The bad guys are weeds.
I'm not sure the bad guys got toys... they're not very "girl toy" in design. Funny thing about 80s cartoons. My Little Pony's first TV movie created a whole bunch of D&D-looking villains and monsters for them to fight, in a setting with no resemblance to the rest of the movie.
And most of the villains that She-Ra fought in her cartoon, including Hordak and the Evil Horde, were part of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe line. She-Ra: Princess of Power didn't have a lot of villain figures and they were mainly portrayed as catty rivals.
So even with this highly gendered toys, stories, and cartoons... they broke the gender lines when dramatizing them, at least when it came to the antagonists.
I could do a whole separate thread or post about that, but I've got to get through this in time to make dinner.
Anyway, Dragenvereen declares he'll have his vengeance on the Charmkins this time, and we cut back to the Charmkins, where a boy named *checks notes* Willy Winkle has a clumsy fall and complains about his luck.
I think he's supposed to be a periwinkle boy? To judge by his coloration. His name is from a nursery rhyme. I guess there aren't a lot of flowers with masculine sounding names.
Anyway. Brown Eyed-Susan cheers him up by singing about how lucky they are to live in Charmland, but the thing that tips him into believing in his luck is that he doesn't live in "gloomy old Thistledown", with the weeds.
Susan, by the way, is played by Aileen Quinn, who the same year she won the "Worst Supporting Actress" Razzie for having played the title role in Annie the year before. I don't know what's the bigger insult, the award or that she wasn't considered the lead.
I don't think they should give Razzies to children, though. I doubt she had much to do with the creative choices behind her performance.
The song ends with them watching a ballet performance, which we then see the villains creeping on through the telescope.
Dragonweed is smitten and declares "she floats like a butterfly."
Thus follows a brief argument where Skunkweed is the only weed-minion who admits to having no idea what a butterfly is, while the others can't describe it. Dragonweed begins fondly recalling having seen one.
Comically, there is a butterfly in the scene that they keep barely missing seeing (at one point it's on the lens of the telescope.) Not particularly vibrant but definitely a butterfly and not a moth, as you can see from the style of antennae and how the wings are held.
Half a second later the butterfly smells that flower in front of him and falls stone dead, so I guess it's not *just* comedic business, but also showing why they don't see many butterflies in these parts.
Here's where we get into the Villains Are Villains For Villainy's Sake stuff - Dragonweed wants to go to the festival, they all do, they all appreciate beauty in the sense that the Charmkins do, Dragonweed longs to see stuff that isn't in his swamp home.
Does he ever leave?
Take the plant metaphor and assume that this is their environment, they flourish here in a way they wouldn't across the river in Charmland. But there's a public festival in Charmland. They keep grousing about not being invited. Do they need one?
Can they not just show up and be "Howdy, neighbor! Heard you're having a shindig."
I gather there is history here because he knows the Charmkins and they know, or know of, him.
But because they're doing elementary grade TV villainy, they don't get into the backstory or the motivations, just he has to live in a gross dark place while simultaneously longing for and despising beautiful things.
And he immediately proclaims he doesn't need butterflies anyway, and we go into a musical number. And Ben Vereen is absolutely killing it as a voice actor here. He's distinctly doing a voice. I don't think I would have picked out this is him without the big credit.
Which I guess he and his people were 100% right to insist on getting an onscreen and spoken credit because he's throwing himself into this.
This song, which I don't know its actual title but it might be "Here's to the Gloomy Swamps", is really really good for a TV animated villain song in both writing and animation.
Immediately after having talked himself and his minions into forgetting about Charmland because their swamp is so awesome, he remembers that he's supposed to have whatever he wants as king and he *does* want the ballet dancer (Ladyslipper, by name) to dance for him.
Like if you *know* this is Ben Vereen you can recognize him under the voice. But I wouldn't have guessed, seriously.
They take some kind of muck catapult to their side of the river, where Ladyslipper is snoozing in a leaf boat that's tied up to the shore. Dragonweed declares he'll have her with a single shot, and doesn't hit the boat or the rope.
Instead, his shot wakes up a snoozing cat in time to see a dog get pasted in the face with swamp mud, causing the cat to laugh, the dog to get mad and chase the cat, knocking the boat free in the process.
Very short, clever cartoon sequence... and Dragonweed's kind of incredulous "It worked!" seems like they were actually subverting the idea of a ridiculously convoluted scheme working by coincidence, like he was trying to knock the boat loose directly and only succeeded by luck.
Oh, yes, two seconds later, it's canon:
"But didn't you miss the vine?"
*very quickly* "I DECIDED TO HIT THE DOG INSTEAD."
I guess he specified "One smack of the vine and she's mine." I thought he was talking about the catapult's line.
Brown-Eyed Susan, Willy, all the animals, an actual baby she has with her for some reasons, and maybe some other characters see Ladyslipper asleep and drifting towards Badguyland and all pile into another leaf boat to follow.
I guess the baby's the only other human Charmkin in the boat. The scale is hard to tell in some of the shots.
The rescue party has oars in their boat and are close to rescuing Ladyslipper when a freak windstorm blows up, and not only do they miss her, but it changes her course so she drifts down river faster than across it.
The fact that there's a waterfall right there (like quicksand and lava, SURPRISE WATERFALLS were a thing cartoons taught me to fear every time anyone was near a river for any reason) probably had something to do with it.
I know Dragonweed's not exactly a "planning guy" but trying to abduct someone by hoping they float across the river to you when you're only about fifty feet upstream from a giant waterfall seems ill-thought out.
Willy tries to throw her a rope and she desperately grabs for it after missing the first time... and gets pulled ashore by Dragonweed, who had also thrown a rope. Nicely done sequence.
Also there's clearly stuff on his side of the river that's not Thistledown so if he just wants a change of scenery but there's bad blood with the Charmkins he could just, like, take a walk.
The rescue party consisting of two children, a baby, and their pets walk back upstream and see that a branch blown loose in the storm has ruined their third boat, because they're only leaves. But also they're leaves. You can't find another leaf?
Willy declares that saving Ladyslipper now will be impossible, which prompts Susan to sing about how "There's No Such Thing As Impossible" as she and the parrot improvise a rope bridge.
I had not processed as a child how many of these songs are just Susan lecturing Willy for being pessimistic.
Also I do not know the actual ages of these characters but there were definitely more adult-looking Charmkins at the festival and I feel like there's a step they're skipping before they simply walk a tightrope into Mordor.
Also, this is *EXACTLY* the song you would write for your TV special if you were hiring Little Orphan Annie fresh off her big movie role to sing it.
I unironically love the last line of it,
"and even though our plans may go astray,
it's POSSIBLE... we still might save the day."
A little more measured and nuanced than a "We can do literally anything! We can't fail when our hearts are pure!" song.
Back in Thistledown, Dragonweed is on his throne explaining to Ladyslipper that he wants to watch her dance, with a tone of voice that suggests he's starting to realize that he was already watching her dance before he kidnapped her.
He's very insistent that it has to be FOR HIM, and HERE in Thistledown, though, which might be how he rationalizes the impulse. What he really wanted, I think, was to take something away from the Charmkins.
Ladyslipper says she can't dance for him, because he's "a mean rascally weed who wants to be king of everything!" Which didn't come up at all in any scene where the weeds were talking among themselves. But it fits the weed metaphor, I guess? Weeds spread.
He has her thrown in a cage and has a giant thistle-filled hourglass brought out, telling her she has until they run out to change her mind, "...OR ELSE."
If you're thinking thistles would not make a great substitute for sand in an hourglass, I think the movie is actually there with you, from what I recall.
One reason I think this always seemed "like a movie" in length to me is how many songs they pack into it. We're up three, not counting the opening chorus, and there are at least two more that I remember.
Back with the rescue party, Susan is telling Willie they have to hurry, but he's slowing down to pick flowers, when one of them has a long, unusually strong root that trips him up... because it's a dragon's whisker.
Check out that dragon design. Four arms and I think four legs?
I remember in 90s Shadowrun stuff part of the environmental lore stuff they put into the books was BB discussions about how most awakened creatures still had clear terrestrial roots but dragons were vertebrates with six fully developed limbs and that marked them as otherworldly.
It's always interesting when someone decides to give dragons their own twist, like batwinged wyverns or whatever. Don't think I've ever seen one like this before or since.
Anyway, it's mad as a dragon who had its whisker pulled, and chases them all into a cave... well, not quite all of them. Susan realizes the baby she decided to bring on their journey to the heart of darkness is missing.
The baby, whose name is Tulip, has decided that the dragon' unusual limb arrangement hints that not all is at it seems, or something. And decides to tickle it.
The dragon literally dissolves into giggles, revealing... Sally Struthers as Poison Ivy, THE ITCHY WITCH OF THE WOODLANDS.
Now that he knows it was illusion, Willy wants to see more, but Susan insists on pushing on. Poison Ivy reveals she knows their mission and will help them out... but without using magic, as that makes things too easy.
She then uses magic to teleport around Susan, disorienting her and convincing her that Ivy's only going to mess with them.
I said earlier that Ivy's voice is something that stuck with me over the years. Here we get to why.
She goes into a song cue now.
At any point since I was a toddler if someone put a gun to my head and demanded I recite a line from the Charmkins TV special by memory I could have spat out "Not true, Brown-Eyed Sue! Here's a clue just for you!"
Context?
She conjures a magic wand (which she didn't actually need to do any of the magic we've seen so far, including conjuring the wand, BUT. The theme here is that things aren't what they seem and some things are for show, so well done?)
And she begins singing a song about hocus pocus and "subterfugus" and lots of nonce words and magician patter while using her magic to change the appearance of everybody in the group.
It's a pretty good song and it's got some great lines, including "Even when you're certain, you can certainly misjudge." which I didn't specifically remember from here but my long-time followers know I've apparently been paraphrasing it for my whole life.
While she's doing all this actual magic, like turning Willy into a blender, the lesson she's imparting is a very Pratchettian witch one: a body isn't always what a body seems to be.
The actual reason she appeared to them like this is the same reason when I am DMing I ask "Are you taking any particular measures in particular as you approach the encampment? Any special manner of approach?"
Or to put it another way:
One does not *SIMPLY* walk into Mordor.
Having convinced them it'd be maybe worth their while to make a few Dexterity (Stealth) checks along the way, Poison Ivy departs into the sky and Brown-Eyed Susan immediately shouts "LET'S GO RESCUE LADYSLIPPER!" while heading into what is clearly a more evil-coded neck of woods.
She's definitely a Valor Bard.
I was holding back from saying Lady Slipper could definitely fit through the bars of this cage on the basis that maybe her head is too big but then this happened.
She could totally fit.
...oh, and right after that, she physically leans out through the bars, holding onto them to avoid falling out.
I know she's surrounded and outnumbered but this cage seems more like an affectation.
Skunkweed interrupts to ask what will actually happen when the thistles run out, and we see behind him as the Charmkins have taken Poison Ivy's advice to heart, if not to heart: they are disguised as bright, pretty, flowery bushes of exactly the type thistledown lacks.
By the way, thistle flowers are very pretty. Skunkweed was right to feel that the whole flower/weed divide is a social construct.
Anyway, Skunkweed wants to know "or else what?" on Dragonweed's continued ultimatum to Ladyslipper.
Now comes a real bit of cartoon fun! You can probably think of one or two things that would be the implied threat, but a kid's cartoon can't go either of those places.
So what we get instead is the one and only Ben Vereen lyrically inviting his minions to "Imagine me at my worst..." and then telling them they're being too kind.
This is seriously a top-tier villain song.
As the song ends, two of the minions stumble into the bushes hiding the pets, which they guess to be "dogwood" and "pussy willow" from the sound of it.
The parrot was clutch with the rope bridge but I feel like the cat and the dog are liabilities on this mission.
Through this, the bushes with the baby, the boy, and the cat and dog are caught, but Susan and the parrot manage to stay still and stay back and are still in the mix.
The others get tied up, and when asked what he's going to do with them, Dragonweed says, "I'm not sure yet." Maybe his whole song, as awesome as it was, was to cover for the fact that he's not really an idea guy.
Meanwhile, as the last four thistles slide out, the other bushes make their way over to the muck catapult and take Dragonweed out just after he kicks the last thistle free (there's a reason most people use sand).
Apparently they have a whole line of mud-slinging siege engines and handheld mud weapons? Nobody actually gets hurt in a mudball fight which is convenient for the kind of cartoon this is. The weeds get overwhelmed and the parrot, again in the clutch move with a rope, ties them up
Now caged, Dragonweed tries to play it off as a joke and insists he never wanted to hurt anybody, he just wanted some sunshine... while filing at the bars behind his back.
Susan responds with a song about how you can find a rainbow anywhere (again, they hired Annie for a reason) and while everybody is distracted by the fantasy sequence of Thistledown blossoming, Dragonweed stops hiding his escape attempt.
When he gets loose, the kids run back to the rope bridge... seriously, Thistledown is like five minutes away.
Predictably, the rope bridge is severed by the parrot to dump the weeds into the drink, just upstream from a waterfall.
Back at home, Susan is telling her parents the story and her mother's "My goodness! You're lucky you got away!" response works better if you assume she thinks her daughter has an overactive imagination.
Susan goes into a reprise of the lucky song from the beginning, and that's our show.
This one definitely aged better than Mad Balls, despite being older. I don't want to say money is the only thing that matters but it's a good proxy for a lot of things that matter more, like how much care and attention go into a project.
And you can't get Ben Vereen for Mad Balls money.
I didn't want to dwell on it at the moment because seriously who pauses Ben Vereen, but his second song? Hoo. If you were a child in 1983 and you're a kinky adult today, there just might be some formative stuff in there.
"Use her face as a welcome mat?" is one of the guesses.
And for those of us with very specific interests, "Bake her in your favorite recipe?" is another.
Anyway, I think a big difference between these two is that Charmkins had fun playing with some of the conventions of child-appropriate storytelling (villains who only say "or else" and never make explicit threats) whereas Mad Balls just played mad libs with them.
Although I think Charmkins had better fodder to work with in terms of character and lore, when making an age-appropriate show.
Anyway, that's my thread. If you got something from it, please give something back. I'll keep doing it as long as it pays off.
Next week I'll start aiming for doing this stuff on Monday again.
You can follow @AlexandraErin.


text:
Piper pervelutinum är en pepparväxtart som beskrevs av William Trelease. Piper pervelutinum ingår i släktet Piper och familjen pepparväxter. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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