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Maxey & Gordon’s Biggest Assist Yet: Expecting First Child!
Tyrese Maxey, along with his partner Myra Gordon, is anticipating the arrival of a baby, as revealed on Gordon’s Instagram account.
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Gordon disseminated the information this past Sunday via social media channels, sharing numerous photographs, some of which featured both her and Maxey.
Maxey subsequently re-shared Gordon’s update – which bore the caption “I carry her while he…
Maxey & Gordon’s Biggest Assist Yet: Expecting First Child!
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A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (2021) | Movie | Movies Dock
🎬 Title: A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks
A new wave of artists influenced by a legendary figure.
Story: This documentary explores the remarkable journey of Gordon Parks, a multifaceted talent who started as a staff photographer for LIFE magazine. It details his artistic growth as he captured the lives of everyday Americans and later transitioned into writing novels and making…
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (2021) | Movie | Movies Dock
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Post your questions for Kim Gordon | Kim Gordon
She’s one of the icons of American alt-rock, and a heroic example of someone who maintains perfect balance as they put one foot in the mainstream and the other in the underground. After decades with Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon is continuing her remarkable solo career – and will be answering your questions.
Born in New York and raised in LA, it was back in New York where she immersed herself in the…
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Thomas and Friends Retrospective: Calling All Engines! Review
Hello all you very useful engines and welcome back to my Thomas and Friends retrospective. For those just pulling into the station for the last few years i’ve been reviewing all things Thomas for my client turned friend but one who still pays me large sums of money to review trains @lachievpoststhings. I’ve went from mostly there for the weird nonsense like bricking up trains for always and always, chocolate collisons, conflicts with bulls, indignation meetings, sentient boulders who forever live in my heart, our lord and savior schemer, questionable alec baldwin vehicles where he’s not a vehicle and so much more, but have come out with a genuine respect for the model craft, simple but likeable characters (And Gordon), and charming tone. So far i’ve covered 8 seasons, a bit of shining time station, the spirtual spinoff tugs, and both cuts of the Magic Railroad available at the time. If you’d like to help support these train dreams, puff over to my patreon
Jacob Mattingly | creating Animation And Comic Reviews | Patreon
So with all that out of the way we’re at a milestone for this retrospective: our first Thomas the Tank Engine Special! In the 2010’s i’d see these just about anywhere DVD’s were sold like any good children’s product, and it seemed most young children’s shows at the time followed this trend: One hour specials they could easily put on dvd alongside a few episodes and market as a big event both on disc and on PBS. They were everywhere with one in paticular standing out
But that’s a story for probably.. 2036 I recon. For now we’re at the one that started us all, the 60th anniversary special Calling All Engines!
This special is unique as the first attempt at making a much longer Thomas story in the series usual style. The Magic Railroad IS longer but serves as a massive break from what the series usually does: there’s some confusion and delay sure, but the main thrust is helping a strung out Alec Baldwin and a small child save a magic train from a slightly less magic train.
As much of a tire fire as Magic Railroad is, both by it’s own hands and by studio meddling, it rasies a valid question: How do you take the sedate style of thomas with adventures usually in 4 minutes and just upgraded to 11 that already feel a tad over paded, and make that a longer story?
Calling All Engines attempts it in the simpliest way possible: take a normal story and blow it up to fit the scale of a special or film. This strategy can really work: The Bob’s Burgers Movie takes the normal money woes and simply makes a much bigger one in a pipe burst that leaves a giant hole in front of the restraunt leading to a murder mystery, Simpsons takes Homer’s jerkass evolution and deconstructs it when he causes the whole town to get trapped under the dome, Codename Kids Next Door fleshes out it’s already deep lore by explaning where the KND came form and presenting the ulimtate expression of an evil grandparent. Even bluey in doing it’s own experiment of taking a very short show, 7 minutes in their case, and making it a special found gold with the sign, which explores both the family possibly moving and a wedding.
Thomas and Friends likewise simply takes the usual pillars of the series, some new project for the trains , operatic disasters and some pissing match between the trains causing confusion and delay and combines them: It’s almost Summer in Sodor and the Holiday Makers are coming. So to prepare and get even more visitors to their tiny island paradise Sir Topham “Fat Controller” Hatt is having an airport built. Where Harold has been parking all this time I dunno.
The problem is one of the oldest in the series: Train racisim. Our main group the Steam Team, the original 6 trains and green ranger Emily, have to work with the Disels and the ones they actually like like Mavis and Salty are conviently just off screen, leaving them with prized asshole Disel and his friends Arry and Bert. Their racisim leads to the “Steamies”
Being train racist in return calling the Disels dirty… no one comes off looking good here, even Thomas who just backs away when he sees a familiar face he’s meeting for the first time: Disel 10, the villian of the Magic Railroad.
Thomas isn’t scared of him because he tried to kill him, that was another universe, another Thomas. No he’s jsut scared because he has a big murder claw he might do murders with and backs away slowly every time. This bit.. makes Thomas look way worse than the writers imagined. The only way to make it more awkard would be thomas shouting “WHELP ABOUT TIME TO HIT THE OLD DUSTY TRAIL” as he backs out.
Thomas gets back at the Diesels for bullying them and being dicks by pranking them causing them not to do their work.. and it’s here the special’s biggest problem sets in. As I covered in the season 8 review, the episodes are usually paired with Songs and Educational segments, little bits to help reach the runtime for PBS. Nothing harmful and nothing bad for kids but insufferable for grown men covering this years later. I expected to never see them again.
I was naive as Calling All Engines thought it’d be fun to integrate them into the plot, make them part of the episode. My sanity would disagree with the fun aspect but I do get why HIT would try this: This was a year after Dora the Explorer and a few years after Blues Clues. Interactive tv was all the rage and since they already had a narrator to interact with the audience, I get the impulse.
The problem is pacing: when these are just interludes after stories it’s a break, something older kids and stupid train mainchildren such as myself could flip over to another channel to avoid or in modern day just skip past. When their part of the plot they slow down the entire special for what feels like padding. And for parents who bought this on dvd for their kid because they love thomas they’d have to watch this again, and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and i’ve sufficently annoyed you enough to understand their pain. I’m an uncle I haven’t experinced that as much, but I can vouch young kids like repetition, they like watching the same thing over and over. I watched a LOT of spongebob and not always the best of it as a babysitter. So imagine a parent having to turn this on again and again and listen to this crap.
Now the children’s entertainment and education SHOULD be the first thing in a show like this… but a show for younger audiences can be made not to be as painful to them. See bluey: while it likely gets exausting after a while, my surrogate sister can vouch, it’s not nearly as grating as they get Adults will also be watching this so made it an all ages show. Thomas usually strives to at least be soothing and entertaining. I’m not the target demo but I get why this series has a large fanbase. I’m part of it now. Thomas shoudln’t be the kind of franchise that actively punishes parents for letting their kids watch it. There are better ways to teach them stuff than “which is useful , wood, brick or bananas?”. It also makes it so parents can’t conviently skip the segments if the kids dont’ notice.. not that that ever really works but they can dream dammit.
Padding a special out just so you can both ride trends and get a nice dvd headliner is gross and this franchise is better than this. There are other things you could be doing like segments on the engines or their history, not too deep but enough to get kids really into trains even more into trains. There’s a lot of fascinating stuff about the trains and their makes Lachiev has taught me and condensing it down into a few facts for kids would be great. There’s a lot of education you coudl do if you want edutainment including puzzles. Instead it’s just bad cg segments that grind an otherwise okay special to a halt.
The actual content of the special that’s not filler.. is decent. The idea is really good: the feud continues to escalate and after the Disels pour paint on thomas in a glorious display of carnage this show is known for, we get a beautiful two minutes of trains pushing each other into shit as a full on turf war breaks out. It’s some of the greatest train nonsense the series has ever provided.
It also leads to actual consequences as the trains can’t sleep in their sheds as Tidmouth isn’t finished from the last two days shenanigans so for two days the trains have to sleep wherever the Fat Controller can put them.. and it does feel like he’s having way too much fun with this as James ends up in the dirty coal plant, Gordon ends up in a ramshackle tent, Henry and Percy end up in the smelters and Thomas… ends up just next to Emily whose used to sleeping single in a double shed and not used to talking about the day like the others. Sir Hatt you have another railway and a massive island you had to have better options you just choose to punish them ironically because you missed your thearpy sessions. Doctor Connie is very worried about you Fat Controller please go back.
Eventually the great train war escelates to the point the airport won’t finish in time and Percy will never get to see a plane. Also the island might not get vacationers even though it has boats still. Devistated we get more delightful train nonsense, and I gotta say this special has more than made up for how stiff and unfun series 8 was with it’s nonsense: not only do we get the paintsaster, not only do we get the great train war we now get train nightmares of horrifying nonsense they could be if htey stop being useful! Percy becomes a coconut shy! James part of a farm! Gordon a children’s playset, apparently the worst of all though I think being dressed as a clown while children throw coconuts at you that have to really hurt your train face is much worse. It’s so good and a nice blend of the horrific shit the series can get into like poor old smudger being trapped forever as a living battery, but softened just enough by just being dreams. Still gonna give kids nightmares.
Thomas lucks out and instead gets a vision from Lady. We take a look at her now, and she’s with Disel , making a very obvious message to thomas that “the job is easier when we work together”. Given who we’re dealing with being obvious is probably the right route otherwise we might get more train violence and no finished airport.
Instead Thomas decides to rally the trains and go to Mavis to have her talk to the Disels while he spends the day gathering every train he can to meet at the coal plant for a meeting. Sadly not an indignation meeting.
Thomas ends up sleeping out under the stars and we get some character development from emily I didn’t expect but should’ve: She misses Thomas talking and realized having a roomate was actually nice.. it wasn’t as noisy and annoying as she expected.
So the next day the meeting has indeed become an indignation meeting to my delight as Thomas is late and the rest of the trains are bitching.. mostly the disels and I don’t really like the series message of: if a bunch of people are assholes ot you consitently you still need to make absolute peace. Instead of “Being a dick back only creates more negativity” The onus is put on the steamies to tolerate the racist bullies: they shoudln’t of BECOME racist bullies, but they shoudlnt’ be punished for.. not wanting to be fucked around with and after Disel, Arry and Bert have bullied them for a full season, big D doing it much longer. The cycle of violence is a good message to teach but just “you can solve conflict by just.. talking to your bullies over a common goal” sadly dosen’t always work.
Before they can fight Thomas stops them right thereeeeee there’s no cause for attack, so they need to swallow their pride cast their bloodlust aside these bitches better fall back. Thomas makes the valid point: if this dosen’t get built NO ONE benefits. The asshole disels reluctantly agree to help as do the ones we actually like, and after peace is restored Sir Topham hat arrives via harold to wonder what the fuck was going on. I love that the workman just called him because the trains were all gathering and had no idea what the fuck was going on. As usual once he find sout their doing smart train things for once, he couldn’t be prouder of his children. He still could’ve you know, repremanded the disels too, but he can only do so much> He’s got cream buns to eat.
While the Trains do get most of the work done, the sheds repaired, the damage from a storm cleaned up the airport almost ready some debris falls. OH NO IF ONLY WE KNEW SOMEONE WITH THE EXACT SPECIAL POWERS FOR THIS. So Thomas is forced to talk to D10 and I do like that he’s not , as genre convention woudl dictate this hiddne sweety: He’s gruff and kind of an ass. He’s no longer a murderer and i’m fine with that; this isnt the same continuity and it’s good to see him agan. But Thomas does play to his ego and the others help and train racisim is solved for five minutes, Percy gets to see a plane and the island is okay.
The ending is really good as we do get a major status quo shift.. or as major as this show can muster besides “here’s new train” but it’s still neat they did this. Emily is actually sad thomas is going back.. but finds a suprise. There are now SEVEN sheds in Tidmouth. Emily was already part of the Steam Team but now it’s offical: she’s part of the family. While Emily was already bumped up to main i'ts nice to have this moment of conformation. It will also bite them in the cast for later cast edits but for now it works.
Calling All Engines.. is mid. It’s a pretty typical thomas story. It has some highlights, it has all the chaos I was missing from my season 8 pop by condensed into one special , the dreams being the easy highlight. I missed this kind of weird nasty nonsense from the show. But it’s padded out, the solutions to things are obvious, and while it has it’s moments it’s not enough to justify this being an hour long. Half an hour would’ve been more tolerable. It’s a solid attempt, the idea is there and it does show it’s POSSIBLE to do this, but it’s clear the writers just haven’t quite gotten how to really jazz it up enough. it’s a bigger story but not so big it justifies not just being a multi part episode but a movie sold on it’s own.
Sometime This Year, Next Time: We take another Detour this time for JACK AND THE PACK, the ill fated spinoff!
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‘The camera is my weapon of choice’: Gordon Parks’ era-defining shots of segregation – and those who defied it | Photography
In the summer of 1956, the American news magazine Life dispatched its first Black staff photographer, Gordon Parks, to Alabama, with a brief to document racial segregation in the wake of the Montgomery bus boycott. The trip was a perilous one, but Parks, then in his early 40s, was already on a career trajectory that would mark him out as one of the most consequential artists of his generation.…
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Wyoming Gov. Gordon on tariffs, energy and environmental stewardship
Geoff Bennett:
President Donald Trump welcomed both Democratic and Republican governors to the White House this morning for a bipartisan meeting.
As that gathering was under way, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its major ruling on tariffs, a decision that could affect a number of states, including Wyoming, where trade and energy production play an important role in the state’s…
Wyoming Gov. Gordon on tariffs, energy and environmental stewardship
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Howe Unlocks Gordon’s Central Vision at Newcastle
Newcastle’s head coach, Eddie Howe, indicated that striker Anthony Gordon would likely favor featuring as a central offensive player instead of his accustomed position on the left flank.
At 24 years old, Gordon has secured a spot on the left flank for both his team and national squad since his transfer to St James’ Park.
During the week, he had the opportunity to feature as the most advanced…
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Being Gordon Ramsay review – did we really need six hours of him setting up restaurants? | Television & radio
Six hours of advertising yourself on Netflix and – presumably – getting paid for providing streamer content at the same time? Nice work if you can get it, and Gordon Ramsay has got it. Being Gordon Ramsay, a six part – six part – documentary, follows the chef ’n’ TV personality as he embarks on his most ambitious venture yet. It’s “A huge undertaking”, “high risk, high reward”, a “once in a…
