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5/18/2020 0 Comments Sad13 WTDSpeedy Ortiz leader Sadie Dupuis has shared a new song from her Sad13 project as the latest entry in the Adult Swim singles series. Sad13 released their debut album, Slugger, back in 2016, and their last proper single, 2017’s “Sooo Bad,” also came out through the Adult Swim series. This new one’s called “WTD,” and the acronym stands for “What’s the drama?” “It’s about eco-fascism, climate gentrification, and the depopulation of species, caused by human selfishness and industrial greed,” Dupuis explained in a statement. Listen to it below. The post Sad13 – “WTD” appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/3dVTVil
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Cada escritor emplea una dinámica distinta a la hora de trabajar; hay quienes prefieren escribir una única obra, hay quienes escriben cientos de ellas a lo largo de toda su carrera, y otros que prolongan en el tiempo la publicación de las mismas. En las siguientes líneas hablaremos de este último perfil, y concretamente de aquellas sagas que por motivos dispares, se han ido retrasando, provocando así la desesperación entre algunos de sus lectores más fieles e insistentes. La demora en la publicación de estas obras no significa que el autor haya desechado la idea de proseguir, o que haya perdido el interés en continuar la historia, sino que el motivo de alargar la presentación de la publicación puede responder a infinidad de causas; desde una estrategia de marketing bien planificada, la falta de tiempo para escribir prestando atención a cada detalle, conflictos o desavenencias surgidas con la editorial o la propia organización personal del autor, entre muchas otras. A continuación, hablamos de tres famosas sagas pendientes de concluir y que los lectores esperan con gran interés: Las aventuras del capitán Alatriste, de A. Pérez-Reverte: “No era el hombre más honesto ni el más piadoso, pero era un hombre valiente. Se llamaba Diego Alatriste Y Tenorio, y había luchado como soldado de los tercios viejos en las guerras de Flandes”. Así comienza el primer libro de la saga del valiente capitán escrito por el cartagenero Pérez-Reverte. El autor relata la historia de un veterano de los tercios de Flandes que malvive como espadachín a sueldo en el Madrid del siglo XVII. El primer volumen de la saga (El capitán Alatriste), fue publicado en el año 1996, y durante los 15 años posteriores se fueron publicando el resto de las obras: Limpieza de sangre (1997), El sol de Breda (1998), El oro del rey (2000), El caballero del jubón amarillo (2003), Corsarios de Levante (2006) y El puente de los asesinos (2011). En el año 2016, y con motivo del 20 aniversario de la publicación del primer libro, se publicó en un solo volumen las siete novelas que hasta el momento componían la saga, titulándose dicho libro como Todo Alatriste. La saga de Pérez-Reverte fue llevada a la gran pantalla en el año 2006, dirigida por el director de cine Agustín Díaz Yanes, y protagonizada por el actor estadounidense Viggo Mortensen. Sin embargo, aunque en dicha película se muestra el que podría ser el final de la historia, el autor aún no ha escrito el verdadero final en ninguna de sus obras. En una entrevista ofrecida a un medio de comunicación en el año 2016, Pérez-Reverte confesó que aún tenía pendiente concluir la saga del capitán Alatriste con al menos dos novelas más, pero que no sería hasta dentro de un par de años cuando volviese a retomar esta aventura. Parece que de momento, tendremos que esperar para ver como acaba sus días el famoso capitán. Canción de hielo y fuego, de George R. R. Martin. Se ha convertido en una de las sagas de novelas de fantasía heroica más relevantes e influyentes de los últimos tiempos. Con más de 100 millones de copias vendidas en todo el mundo y traducida a más de 50 idiomas, la saga del escritor estadounidense está compuesta en la actualidad por cinco volúmenes: el primero de ellos, Juego de tronos (publicado en 1996), Choque de reyes (1998), Tormenta de espadas (2000), Festín de cuervos (2005) y Danza de dragones (2011). Actualmente está en desarrollo el sexto libro de la saga, Vientos de invierno, que posiblemente sea publicado a finales de este año 2020 o a comienzos de 2021, y dejará pendiente un último volumen que ya ha sido anunciado y se titulará Sueño de primavera, cerrando así la saga. George R. R. Martin ha manifestado en incontables ocasiones la gran influencia que tuvieron las novelas de fantasía de J. R. R. Tolkien en su obra. Si bien es cierto que Tolkien se inspiró en la mitología, Martin se basó en la historia medieval mezclándolo por supuesto, con grandes toques de fantasía. La productora televisiva Warner Bros, a través de su canal HBO, trasladó la saga a la pantalla, emitiéndose el primer capítulo de la serie en el año 2011 y finalizando en el 2019, convirtiéndose en una de las series más premiadas y mencionadas de la historia televisiva. Aunque en la serie se reflejase el final de cada uno de los personajes así como de la historia, los lectores desean ver acabada la saga del puño y letra del propio autor, ya que la serie no adaptó fielmente muchas de las tramas y acontecimientos que ocurren en las novelas, permitiendo así que el autor pueda sorprendernos en las siguientes entregas. Crónica del Asesino de Reyes, de Patrick Rothfuss. Esta trilogía inacabada es una de las más leídas del género fantasía del siglo XXI. Su autor, el estadounidense P. Rothfuss, publicó en el año 2007 la novela titulada El nombre del viento, y 4 años más tarde, la segunda parte titulada El temor de un hombre sabio. Aunque ya han pasado más de 9 años desde la publicación de la segunda novela, el autor aún no ha anunciado la fecha de la publicación de la última, aunque sí que sabemos su nombre: Las puertas de piedra. El protagonista de esta historia, llamado Kvothe, es un joven que goza de gran talento. Desgraciadamente, se queda huérfano a una edad muy temprana y se ve forzado a sobrevivir como ladrón y vagabundo. Gracias a su talento y habilidades naturales, sobrevive y consigue llegar a la universidad, caracterizándose por su determinación, fuerza de voluntad e inteligencia. La historia, en esencia, relata la biografía y aventuras de Kvothe. Como podréis imaginar, los seguidores de esta saga llevan años esperando el desenlace final, que además, puede que se prolongue varios volúmenes más, tal y como ha afirmado en un par de ocasiones su ilustre creador a quien ya se le reclama fervientemente y por redes sociales, la continuación de la historia. De hecho, y como dato curioso, hace algunas semanas, el propio Rothfuss afirmaba mediante un tuit, que si alguien le dijese: “Espero que no mueras antes de escribir el libro que quiero leer” no se trataría realmente de un cumplido. A lo que muchos de sus fans contestaron que más allá de su obra, es una persona maravillosa y que ojalá puedan leer pronto la obra. Prueba inequívoca de las ansias por tener en sus manos una nueva entrega de la historia. The post Tres sagas de libros pendientes de concluir desde hace tiempo appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/36hnAAc 5/16/2020 0 Comments YOULL LEARN QUICKLYI Has A Hotdog ChannelsCheezburger ChannelsUpvoted]]> The post YOU’LL LEARN QUICKLY appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2LBNdlH 5/16/2020 0 Comments And they like itI Has A Hotdog ChannelsCheezburger ChannelsUpvoted]]> The post And they like it appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2X3yUvp Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth Luchita Hurtado: Untitled, 1971 It wasn’t until Luchita Hurtado was ninety-nine years old that she would witness the opening of her first museum retrospective. Titled “I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn,” the exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) showcases the artist’s paintings, drawings, and sketches spanning eighty years. Inside the galleries in early February, she addressed the press, smiling, “This is one of the best moments of my life.” Hurtado spent much of her life mingling with and befriending some of the twentieth century’s best-known artists. She was close to Isamu Noguchi and once attended a party in Frida Kahlo’s hospital room. When she first met Marcel Duchamp, he gave Hurtado a foot massage. Jackson Pollock “scared the hell” out of her. But none of them knew Hurtado herself was an artist. There was never a time when Hurtado wasn’t making art, but for years, she hid her art, turning her canvases to the wall when she had visitors. As she told The New York Times, “I always felt shy of it. I didn’t feel comfortable with people looking at my work,” adding that “there was a time when women really didn’t show their work.” Hurtado kept her proclivities a secret ever since she was a teenager. After moving with her mother and siblings from Venezuela to New York City at the age of eight, Hurtado decided to study art in high school. But she did so against the will of her mother, who thought Hurtado was studying fashion design—and did not learn of her daughter’s aspirations as an artist until graduation day. “I felt it was my right to decide who I would be,” Hurtado reflected, eighty or so years later, at a public talk with LACMA curator Jennifer King and Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator at London’s Serpentine Galleries, where the Hurtado exhibition was first shown. Lacking encouragement and a community to nurture her development, Hurtado continued to work privately and secretly. Two years after graduating high school, in 1938, she was married, and by the early 1940s, she had two children. Still, she managed to work into the night while her children were asleep. Making art “was a need,” she’s said, “like brushing your teeth.” But this isolated existence also gave her a sense of independence and allowed her to create a startlingly original and prolific body of work. Reflecting back on her life today, she often refers to this idea that she went her own way. At the kitchen table, she made crayon drawings of dancing, totem-like figures and invented a technique by which she’d spill dark ink that resisted the waxy crayon surface and pooled into the paper gaps. She called these “resist” drawings—a title and technique that feel only apt for someone who’s acknowledged her own “built-in resistance” to “the commercial world.” Photo by Genevieve Hanson/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth Luchita Hurtado: Rules for Conduct, 1940s; click to enlarge The marriage did not last long, and in 1947, Hurtado married the artist Wolfgang Paalen, moving her family to Mexico City, where he lived. There, she met and befriended many Surrealist artists, but even then—in a new city, with a new husband, and among new friends—she continued to keep her own production hidden. Paalen knew about Hurtado’s work, though she says he was not particularly interested in it. He did reserve a corner of his studio for her, where she turned her drawings the other way when she was done. In 1951, after suffering the trauma of losing one of her children to polio, Hurtado moved to California with Paalen. She longed for another child, but Paalen did not want one, so the couple parted ways. Hurtado eventually settled in Santa Monica with her third and final husband, the artist Lee Mullican, with whom she had two more children. Since then, Los Angeles has been her home. It was in Santa Monica that Hurtado, at the age of forty, got her first studio (Mullican was also aware of his wife’s work, though Hurtado says she was still private about it). At long last, with a room of her own, she began painting self-portraits that are, I think, her most powerful works—the ones in which she found her voice. They show the perspective of her looking down at her body, mostly naked or in underwear. As viewers, we’re forced to look from her perspective, to embody it, as we dodge her children’s toy cars left behind on the floor. For someone who hid her work, the paintings are surprisingly generous, open, and curious, but also assertive in their direct and intimate viewpoint. They teach, perhaps even demand us, to look with empathy.
Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Self Portrait, 1971
Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Untitled, 1971 In 1968, she relocated with her family to Chile for a year—being married to a successful artist required traveling for Mullican’s exhibitions and sometimes moving for his job opportunities. Without a studio, Hurtado worked inside a closet—a far cry from her own room with windows—where she continued to make this series of portraits. But their mood darkens and adapts to their environs; in some, she is ghostly or faintly visible, and in others, you can see a shaft of light coming from the partially opened door. When the family returned to Santa Monica, something shifted in Hurtado. Now that her children were older, she had more time. She took up a one-month artist’s residency in New Mexico. Inspired by the landscapes of Taos, she made paintings of desert hills that look like breathing bodies; she called these Sky Skins. In these works, she continued to direct the viewer’s gaze through her own. In one painting, she lets us view the sky as if we were laying on our backs, the moon a glowing circle, like a belly button in the night sky. She named it, “The Umbilical Cord of the Earth is the Moon.” After years of painting her downward gaze in the domestic indoors, her eye moved outward and upward. Some have connected these works to the Surrealist school, but Hurtado resists this interpretation. In an interview with Obrist, she says her work has always been “more intuitive” than theirs, which she calls “calculated, intellectualized.” While her art is certainly dreamy, it does not seek to transport us to an otherworldly or subconscious place, but rather offers a clear-eyed vision of what she sees. Like the self-portraits, the Sky Skins are eager to communicate—to give us a directive in how to look at the world. Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth Luchita Hurtado: The Umbilical Cord of the Earth is the Moon, 1977 Not long after her residency and starting the Sky Skins, Hurtado finally found her audience and began her foray into the art world. In 1971 she attended a meeting of women artists organized by her friend Joyce Kozloff. In a story Hurtado likes to repeat, she introduced herself as Luchita Mullican, only to hear a voice across the room say, “Luchita what?”—prompting her to respond, in a moment of revelation, “Luchita Hurtado!” Together, these women organized the Los Angeles Council of Women Artists and issued a report on the underrepresentation of women in Los Angeles museums, including LACMA. This encounter would radically change Hurtado’s own relationship to her work. Since then, she said, “I have never again faced my paintings to the wall. Quite on the contrary, I am quick to show them.” Just a few years later, in 1974, she had her first solo show, at the Woman’s Building, in which she exhibited paintings that look like abstract patterns but are actually shaped by words. In some, you can’t make out what they say, while others are spelled in clear, all-capital letters: “I AM,” “SOY,” and “WOMB”—words that seem to voice what her previous paintings were about. Hurtado has also called these word paintings self-portraits, but instead of inviting us to look through her perspective, they confront us in loud, unmistakable terms.
Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Untitled (WOMB), 1970s
Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Self Portrait, 1973 Although Hurtado was ready to show her work by the 1970s, it was nearly fifty years before the art world finally took notice. In 2015, the director of the Lee Mullican’s estate, Ryan Good, came across 1,200 undated artworks in Mullican’s files with the initials “LH.” Good was astonished when Hurtado identified them as her own (she thought these works had been lost), and he helped set in motion the series of shows that led at last to the institutional recognition Hurtado enjoys today. “Now that they’ve discovered me again—I live again,” Hurtado said in 2018. That she uses the term “again” suggests that a first moment of discovery took place in that room of women in Los Angeles. Hurtado’s story recalls the stories of many other women “discovered” in old age—like Zilia Sánchez, Carol Rama, and Etel Adnan—who exhibited abroad or in smaller circles, and were studied by a few dedicated scholars, but only received wider recognition after major American museums took notice and showed their work. To some, Hurtado’s story might seem to belong to another time. But on the same week that I saw her show, I heard echoes of her story in the words of three contemporary artists in Los Angeles. Nancy Fraser, Shinique Smith, and Liza Lou had been invited by the Creative Artists Agency and Anonymous Was a Woman organization to talk about women making art. They shared the “pain, shame, and disappointment” (in Fraser’s words) of trying to make a career in an art world that has historically undervalued women. Smith said it took years before she could give herself the “permission to be an artist.” Lou added that this feeling of “being on the outside” has nonetheless pushed her to “find and sustain meaning” for herself, alone, in the studio. Fraser concluded that, as a woman, one must “carve a place for oneself” and establish one’s own set of “criteria” when making art. Because of this, arguably the work of women artists has often been more independently minded, different from what has been accepted or deemed valuable by institutions. Even ten years ago, Hurtado’s work might have been thought too “female”—nude self-portraits, images of giving birth, and canvases emblazoned with words like “womb.”
Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Untitled (Birthing), 2019
Photo by Genevieve Hanson/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth
Luchita Hurtado: Untitled, circa 1951 At the LACMA talk, I was curious whether Hurtado took issue with being identified and discussed as a “woman artist,” as some artists have, and asked her during the Q&A whether she identified as one. She didn’t answer yes or no, but instead began sharing memories of the Woman’s Building. “For the first time you had women talking together about art,” she said. “For the first time I realized I wasn’t Luchita Mullican as an artist. I was Luchita Hurtado.” In a way, her indirect answer points to how difficult this question has been for women who are artists. But it also suggests that while some of us may not like the term “woman artist”—“excellence has no sex,” as Eve Hesse once said—the phrase can still feel relevant, even necessary. For Hurtado—like Fraser, Smith, and Lou—identifying as a woman has proven to be an obstacle but also a source of insight and even artistic liberation. Working in seclusion, in a sense, allowed Hurtado to create art unencumbered. Just as important, perhaps more so, the Woman’s Building banded together as women artists to find a way forward together. Today, as witnessed at the LACMA exhibition, people become giddy around Hurtado’s work, making it all the more disappointing that the exhibition, like many others, had to close early due to Covid-19. For now, we can hold out hope that, conditions allowing, “I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn” will travel as planned to the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City this fall, when Hurtado will celebrate her one-hundredth birthday. Photo by Jeff McLane/Luchita Hurtado/Hauser & Wirth Luchita Hurtado: Untitled, 1970 “Luchita Hurtado: I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn” opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on February 16, and is now temporarily closed. The post Luchita Hurtado’s Persistent Perspective appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2X34Q3a
di Roberto Giuliani
Un anno in più di bottiglia e ora è davvero notevole, frutto dell’esperienza di Claudio e della “visione” della figlia Nicoletta.
Malvasia puntinata e trebbiano giallo, un gioco elegante di fiori, frutti e miele che lascia il segno anche al palato. Una bellissima espressione di bianco laziale.
www.cantinadeltufaio.it
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di Roberto Giuliani
Era tanto che non assaggiavo una vecchia annata del Serraboella di Renato Cigliuti, la lunga sosta a casa dovuta alla quarantena mi ha spinto a cercare in cantina se ci fosse ancora qualcosa di questa storica azienda di Neive e ho trovato questa 1997. Devo dire che stappo sempre con un certo timore questo millesimo, definito allora annata del secolo, più che altro per ragioni commerciali, eravamo all’apice del successo con il vino italiano, si vendeva “en primeur”.
In realtà, man mano che passavano gli anni, ci si è resi conto che si trattava di un’annata decisamente pronta, grazie anche al caldo estivo che aveva portato a maturazione il frutto e anche a una certa concentrazione materica, vini più fitti che particolarmente eleganti. Il tempo ha poi mostrato qualche limite di tenuta, a macchia di leopardo, a testimoniare che non sempre un vino, soprattutto se parliamo di Langhe, particolarmente apprezzato appena esce in commercio, ha le carte per mantenere le promesse iniziali.
Ma qui abbiamo di fronte uno dei cru più amati e contesi dell’area del Barbaresco, giunto alla ribalta soprattutto grazie a Renato Cigliuti e Paitin (ma ci sono altri nomi di spicco come i Barale, Massimo Rivetti e Fontanabianca). La prima annata di Serraboella di Renato risale al 1964. C’è da dire che non tutto il Serraboella riesce a dare grandi vini, parliamo di una superficie totale di poco più di 54 ettari, ma quelli dove il nebbiolo è in grado di esprimere il massimo sono meno di 30, tutti posizionati sul crinale che guarda a Neive ed esposti a ovest e sud-ovest.
Mi decido ad aprirlo, per fortuna senza difficoltà grazie a un tappo da 5 cm. che ha tenuto perfettamente per quasi 20 anni la posizione orizzontale del vino.
Una volta versato lo lascio ossigenarsi per un bel po’, diciamo almeno mezz’ora, non senza accostarlo periodicamente al naso per sentirne l’evoluzione espressiva.
La riduzione è minima sin dall’inizio, si apre senza particolari difficoltà, mostra un colore ancora solido sul granato, con unghia che inizia a virare verso il mattone.
Ecco, all’olfatto emerge chiaro che il vino ha tenuto bene, anzi, direi benissimo, si respirano note quasi fresche, le componenti terziarie sono contenute, sottobosco e funghi, felce, ma c’è anche la liquirizia e un frutto maturo per nulla stanco.
In bocca è sorprendente, prima di tutto perché testimonia come Renato ha saputo interpretare bene l’annata, non c’è alcun affaticamento nel vino, l’acidità è lì, ben percepibile, il tannino solido e di grana finissima, il sorso è davvero fresco, non c’è massa ma eleganza, il meglio che possa offrire questo cru di Neive; il vino sembra dichiarare con fermezza che a 23 anni dalla vendemmia la sua ultima ora è ancora lontana.
E più passano i minuti più si accende, vibra, scalpita, mi tocca pure ringraziare mister covid-19, altrimenti chissà quando avrei aperto questa bottiglia…
The post F.lli Cigliuti – Barbaresco Serraboella 1997 appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2Z6r1bb 5/15/2020 0 Comments Spider-Man Fuses With Ghost Rider for New Sideshow Collectibles Statue Bleeding Cool NewsThere have been people who have taken up the mantle as Spider-Man throughout the spider-verse. Some of them are their own person like Miles Morales and Miguel O’Hara and others are different versions of Peter Parker. Sideshow Collectibles is bringing one of those many versions of Spider-Man alive with their newest 1:10 scale statue. Spirit Spider is here and ready for some vengeance with this delicious statue. The statue shows off the ghostly white body of Spider-Man with a skeleton chest symbol and skull covered in blue flames. The textures and sculpting on this piece are quite amazing and very sinister. The Spirit Spider is a very simple design but is an amazing version of our iconic webslinger. The Sideshow Collectibles Spirit Spider 1:10 Scale Statue will be priced at $84.99. The statue is set to release between December 2020 and February 2021. Pre-orders are already live and can be found here. This character is most known for his costume in the PS4 video game, Marvel’s Spider-Man. However, that is not his first appearance as he came from the 3 part mini series between Amazing Spider-Man Annual #38, Incredible Hulks #1, and Deadpool Annual #1. The story involved Deadpool, Spider-Man, and Hulk traveling to a new dimension. They each met their alternate counterparts and Earth-11638 Peter Parker still had his Uncle Ben. The uncle and nephew dynamic duo saved this Earth ten times over but there was a secret to his power. The alternate version of Uncle Ben was bringing in alternate universe Spider-Men and draining their power to give to this world Spider-Man. After some stern fists and a harsh talking to from our Peter Parker, he quickly realized what he has done. The confrontation between the two Spiders and alternate Uncle Ben led to the demise of that Earths Peter only to be resurrected from hell as Ghost Spider. He chose to return back to life and pay for the crimes he has committed. “I remember when they used to scream in terror at the sight of me.” “Sideshow and PCS Collectibles present the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Spirit Spider Suit 1:10 Scale Statue, joining the Marvel Armory Collection inspired by the hit video game, Marvel’s Spider-Man.” “Faithfully based on the costume’s in-game model, the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Spirit Spider Suit Statue measures 7.8″ tall on a circular black base that evokes the game’s scientific interface. This highly detailed Marvel collectible captures Peter Parker’s unique ghostly look as though possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance. His eerie appearance features a textured white and blue body, two distinct spider symbols on his chest and back, and a skeletal portrait complete with blue translucent flames. Ethereal energy practically ripples from the Spirit Spider Suit as our hero stands, fists clenched in a battle-ready pose.” “The Marvel’s Spider-Man: Spirit Spider Suit Statue joins the Marvel Armory Collection alongside the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Advanced Suit 1:10 Scale Statue. Assemble a roster of Peter Parker’s unlockable costumes with this exciting collectible offering for Marvel fans and gamers alike! Upgrade your armory and web up the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Spirit Spider Suit 1:10 Scale Statue by PCS Collectibles today.” Enjoyed this article? Share it!About Tyler RobertsHe has been the Collectibles Editor since late 2019. Funko Funatic, Historian, Air Force Veteran, and dedicated collector of many things. The post Spider-Man Fuses With Ghost Rider for New Sideshow Collectibles Statue – Bleeding Cool News appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2y4a7im World-renowned trading cards producer, The Topps Company, is migrating to the blockchain today in a long-awaited collaboration with crypto-centric e-commerce start-up WAX. Since 1938 Topps has manufactured popular trading cards ranging from major league baseball stars to Star Wars characters. Now, after partnering with WAX, The Topps Company is immortalizing its famed trading cards on the blockchain. And it’s starting with a classic. Kicking off with the Garbage Pail Kids, the Topps-WAX collab will enable purchasers to showcase, sell or trade collectables, instantly, with anyone around the world on WAX’s global marketplace. Along with providing ownership records and trading history, the immutable and verifiable nature of the blockchain means that counterfeit cards—something has riddled the trading card community for years—will become a thing of the past. To mark the launch, buyers of the Garbage Pail Kids pack will be entered to win an “ultra-rare golden card,” of which there are only 100 in existence. The decision to start with a digital rework of Topps’ most popular trading cards is no coincidence. Originally released in 1985, the physically manufactured version of the Garbage Pail Kids now fetch a hefty sum—anywhere between $1,000 – $7,000 depending on the condition. But the Garbage Pail Kids pale in comparison to Topps’ major league baseball cards. During an auction in 2016, Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps card joined the exclusive club of million-dollar trading cards, fetching a cool $1.13 million. Blockchain collectibles have also reached expensive prices. The highest CryptoKitty sold for $160,000 with total sales nearing $28 million. Can Topps capitalize on this digital future? The post Trading card giant Topps is now offering crypto collectibles – Decrypt appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2WXO5Gy I read Cowboy Wolf Trouble because I rarely read cowboy or shifter romances, and I was in the mood for something different. Well, I got something different, all right. Many of the things I disliked about this book will be pure catnip to other readers, but a few things were straight up problematic. However, I can’t deny that I zipped right through this book wondering what was going to happen next. Forgive my frequent use of bullet points here as there’s just SO MUCH to unpack in this story which involves humans, multiple kinds of shifters, and not one but two different kinds of vampires. The basic plot is that Naomi, a rancher and biologist, accidentally traps Wes, a wolf shifter. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in a complicated history of feuds between vampires and various shifter clans. Shifters and Humans are forbidden to have romances, but Naomi and Wes have immediate pants feelings for each other, and they two proceed to have passionate sex on every possible surface while battling the vampires and rival packs who want to take over her ranch. This book is the first in the Seven Range Shifters series, but the exposition is so crammed in, and everyone already seems to have such long histories each other, that I assumed it was a middle book. Honestly this does not remotely come across as the first in a series and the emotional beats don’t work without the required build up about the long history of these characters. The plot is compelling when it is simple, but multiple different kinds of shifters, human enemies, pack politics, and two kinds of vampires, one of which is new, plus corporate takeovers and Wes’ personal history as an enemy pack leader and killer, is too much for a single book. The plot of this book is overstuffed and bonkers, but when it settles down it really shines. I loved the scene in which a nervous Naomi meets the women of the Grey Wolf Pack, and her first breakfast with the pack during which the pack medic gently gets her to relax, chat, and eat despite her nervousness at being in a room with the entire group for the first time. Naomi and Wes have a few quiet conversations out in the woods that feel real and that give a hint of how these people might act as a couple when not surrounded by drama. I also loved the chapters that depicted ranch work as messy, smelly, exciting, and filled with teamwork. Wes and Naomi are complex characters who work well together. Wes is tormented by his past and can’t seem to decide what he wants in the present. If you like brooding, violent, angsty alpha heroes you will like him. Naomi is competent, good at ranching and fighting, smart, and not a pushover. I appreciated her pointing out that she’s spent her whole life having to stand up to alpha men so the men of the Grey Wolf Pack aren’t that different. I regret to inform you that on occasion both Wes and Naomi make incredibly stupid decisions for the sake of plot, which undercuts their established attributes of good strategic sense. Romance is a personal genre, and what to me is a bug might be a feature to another reader. Here are some not-for-me, but maybe-for-you, aspects of the book:
I have the following questions:
For most of this book, I figured just because it wasn’t my cup of tea didn’t mean it might not be someone else’s. As I’ve mentioned above, the plot was compelling most of the time, and in quiet moments the book works well. However, two major elements were NOT COOL, and these two elements dropped the book from a mileage-may-vary C to a D+. One is the Grey Wolf Pack’s obsession with maintaining “pure bloodlines.” This is a really problematic, disturbing, and dare I say gross concept to have our heroes harping on about. The pack wants all relationships to be within the wolf shifter community, and although I presume secrecy is a factor they specifically mention “purity of bloodlines.” I have practical questions here about why they can’t just use birth control, but the bigger issue is that that phrase has White supremacist connotations that make me deeply uncomfortable.
TW for Sexual Assault
The other moment I found to be deeply disturbing comes when Wes believes that Naomi has betrayed him and reacts by sexually assaulting her (he pushes her down, forces a kiss on her, and sticks his hand down her pants, then mocks her for what he thinks she may have done with someone else). Wes’ intent is clearly assault. It’s a terrible breach of trust and violation of Naomi’s body. It’s abuse and as far as I’m concerned that should have been the end of the relationship, not something resolved with a half-hearted apology and a slap from Naomi. A romance should have the reader invested in the couple, and I was invested in Naomi and Wes for most of the book. However, their mutual tendency to make assumptions and to engage in physical violence with each other worries me, as does the lack of any real healing on Wes’ part. Wes’ traumas are literally cured by the love of a good woman. I landed at a D+ because of the assault, the bloodline obsession, and the fact that the love of a good woman will only take a person so far before they need to get some fucking therapy. For the most part, I did enjoy reading outside of my comfort zone, but I won’t be reading more in this series. The post Cowboy Wolf Trouble by Kait Ballenger appeared first on Guaripete Magazine. via Guaripete Magazine https://ift.tt/2T5DZlQ |
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