you will eventually overcome this, remember this- socialising is a skill, the more you go outside the more outgoing you become, the more you socialise the more social you become if that is what you deeply want. I am 23, but till 2023 I was a loner and only had couple of friends, more like 2 buddies. I once went on a journey with my classmates 84 in total for 8 days. It was hard to socialise even then as I restricted myself because of my 2 friends who were very similar to me. we were kinda boys who wanted to socialise but never tried to put effort ,fearing embarrassment and awkwardness. After graduation, I joined some programming exam preparation course, Now I had 2 options. They offered same course in 2 ways, one was online and second was offline. I knew that to get better at interaction with people I have to meet people offline(I was tired of being a loner and decided to change it). Even though the tuition was far away I opted for the second. It was a new environment where nobody actually knew me. They didn't know my cringey past or embarrassing moments, or I was rejected in hallway by a girl that I tried to propose. To them I as a person was a total blank page which they had no info about. So it was easy for me to fake my confidence and Interact with people. Everyone there thought I was a very social person. I used to interact with everyone, even kids from other batches. Some friends there used to call me to the go outside and hangout at first and then after sometime everyone formed their own group, it wasn't like they ghosted me or stopped talking to me, but like just stopped inviting me to go outside with them. I for a long time wondered what went wrong and what wrong did I do. Our 1 month course got over and everyone went their own way, made a few connection with boys but never interacted with girls as I was bit awkward around them. After 3 month or so after that I cracked the exams and I joined the 6 month crash course(currently 2 months in) and have made good friends here, the difference is now I am getting Invited to parties, to hang out at night, to go go-karting, music fest, and a lot. This time I got my answer as to why I wasn't getting invited when doing 1 month course. It was because I wasn't taking the initiative to invite. Things I have learned: 1. Its easy to get into new group of friend than to enter a already long formed friend circle, humans are territorial and possessive, we feel infiltrated when someone tries to barge in our group. 2. Things take time, you can't force friendship on others, let it be natural and people will naturally come closer to you. 3. Start doing activities you like and you will find like minded people who enjoy doing same things as you. 4. you should know when to let go and when to hold on to people. Some people I have tried to stop from leaving me and they still left no matter how hard I tried and some only needed me to remind them only once that lets stay in contact and we still have that connection. 5. Don't try to be alone everytime, go out and interact. being alone for longer time can lead to loneliness and sad state of mind. it's a slippery slope or a spiral downward, nothing good comes out of it. 6. Initiate- be the first to interact, if you are uncomfortable with girls just start by interacting with boys, men, older men. Most people don't mind and are sweet. The more you do it, the better you get. 7. Hang out with people who you want to be like, try socialising with social people more, Interact with everyone but don't try to hang out with people who are not willing to(e.g- I went for drinks with my friends and this one good friend we tried to invite her and she was not feeling like it, we still tried to convince her twice and after that we just went on our own and enjoyed, cracking joke,dancing,singing...) 8. Do it anyways- if you want to go out with friend or group and they are not in the mood, don't let their mood affect yours. Go out anyways without them but also at first try to invite them to hangout, if they say yes then it's good, if no then just say to yourself I am going regardless , I enjoy my own company. 9. Don't limit yourself to certain group of people or friends. If you feel like going out and some friends say no, its good to have many people that you can ask. 10. Now as a social person I am looking for more social people to hangout, age, gender, race don't matter to me. what you are is what you attract. 11. live in present, start new. Just think you are a social and spontaneous person and act according to it. Now I just think and do it without giving a second thought. If I want to go to a bar, I just put my shoes on and go(ofcourse ask if anyone is down for it), If I want to travel to certain city I just pack my bag and leave(if possible due to work or else I follow my plan and travel on holidays) Don't wait for things to fall in place or right time, there is no right time. 12. I wish I started interacting with people a long ago, but yk the best time to plant apple tree was 10 yrs ago and the next best time is today. Start it from today. 6 months are enough to change a person. At first I thought this is all bs, but for me it took only 6 month. for 23 years I was in your position, and it only took 6 months for a better start. If anyone wants to talk more about this or just have a convo, don't mind DMing me. I love interacting with people and I don't judge(positivity is what I seek and positivity is what i radiate)

I've got a MSc from a top 5 university here in the UK. My job title says Head of X. And I'm 39.
My pics are a mix of a couple selfies, me and my dog, a party pic with friends and a couple of travel pics.
So far 6 of my last 7 dates have been more successful or richer than me.

1. She was a VP at fortune 500 company
2. Was a Senior Manager at another fortune 500 company and owned 3 homes
3. Another was a PhD and founder of a bio tech startup
4. Another PhD who was buying her 3rd property
5. Owned her own bakery chain (3 outlets) and also quite academic and left that career to bake.
6. Was a solicitor, very smart, doing her MSc and had a big shot job. Drove a BMW X6 and owned a 4 bedroom home in Ealing London.
7. Only one who didn't fit this mold was a Nurse, but she had an MSc too.

So what gives, it can't be a coincidence?
It's odd because so many of my friends in my field and with even more money or education are dating women often with no degrees.
I'm a tad confused, but quite happy with this.
All of the above except 2 have been really nice, attractive and mature people.

When I was a kid there there was a cartoon of a mouse Family living in a ww1 helmet. It was like an odd old one off cartoon, looked like the old hand drawn style. I think it was on cartoon network? Any one remember this cartoon? I've tried Google a couple times.

So a lot of things happened behind the scenes in the last couple of months. No one expected this community to become this big and for that reason a lot of the old ID distributors like myself decided to stop trading here and focus on keeping the good ID's secret on the other platform because, as anyone with an IQ above 80 can see that the ID's that are currently traded on this forum are unhearable / unplayable / innovative / fake and annoying.

1. You are literally hyping ID's that are not to be hyped (because they are not good)
2. Half of you don't know music theory
3. 90% of you never opened a DAW to produce music
4. 80% of you are not communicating in understandable English
5. 20% of you are scammers with double accounts
6. Some of you are trading with fake ID's (changing the names of the ID's with famous DJ's/producers)
7. 80% of you don't know how trading works. Trading works when you value some ID the same or more than the other trader. It's really sad that you trade &friends / Arthur Miro / Choujaa / Kimotion ID's for AJNA (BE) / Marasi / Liva K / Samm (BE) / MAZ (BR) / Moojo / Rampa and others because you don't understand music.

There is a legal ungoing case from some of the prominent names that I've mentioned above that clearly are annoyed and feel threatened by the fact that a big group of people trade their music without their consent.
For these reasons, we really hope that some of our special ID's like 'Say What' and others stay secret until they are released and are shared in a small DJ / producer circle because you clearly don't deserve them.
P.S. To know how serious we are, I'll leave a spek screenshot in the comments.
All the best, The Soulseek Community

It's a Bird is a 2004 Graphic Novel by Steven T. Seagle. It is about Seagle being offered writing duties on the Superman comic and his despair at this. You see Seagle doesn't identify with Superman. He hates him as a character who is perfect in literally every way and therefore unwritable. He's under a time limit before the comic is offered to other writers. The book is about how he came to find a window into understanding Superman through his own personal medical circumstances.
Sounds riveting right? Yep, just as it sounds. The artstyle is washed out colour and for at least the first 50 pages of a 132 page book, I was rather bored senseless as things seemed to be going nowhere.
And then there were a couple of pages which gave me a revelation. Mr. Seagle is an INTP and It's a Bird is, on the surface, about his struggles with Superman, but under the surface is a literal graphic representation of the INTP thought process.
I've written this out a few times and tried to link to images of the pages, and automod keeps deleting the posts, so I'm gonna have to do quotes of speech bubbles. Edit. Reddit formatting is a pain. Different scenes are separated by -------

Seagle: "One thing writers have in common is the need to procrastinate. People don't really understand this, but it's not avoiding work. It IS work."
Seagle's Girlfriend Lisa: "What's wrong? And Don't say 'Nothing' or I'll pour this on your receding hairline"
Seagle: "This... guy on the train... construction worker. He was asking me all these questions about comics. He was going on and on about justice and super heroes but he... he had no idea what he was talking about."
Lisa: "Wait, aren't you always complaining that no one is interested in comics anymore? This guy was interested but that's a problem too?"
Seagle: "This is the face I make... when Lisa repeats things I'd previously said to prove that what I'm saying now contradicts what I said before. Doesn't she understand that I'm trying to be depressed and angry? And that logic is only going to get in the way of that?"
"Why do you always side with the people I'm complaining about? I'm your well-educated boyfriend and this guy was a construction worker. He obviously doesn't..."

Lisa: Oh, so his opinion matters less because he works with his hands? Supposedly 'all men are created equal'. When did you get so superior?"

Seagle: "I... I... I'm going to stay at my brother's for a while."
Lisa: "What? You hardly even talk to your brother. Why? Wait are you saying you're moving out?"
Seagle: "I need quiet. I can't think here. I can't... work."
Lisa: "And the reason you can't work is me? Isn't it you who says "Ideas come from everywhere?" Everywhere but me I guess. You can't write Superman because I'm bothering you too much?"
Seagle: "Even Superman has his fortress of solitude"
Lisa: "Do not even start talking comic book crap to me as a justification for your lame behaviour."
Seagle: "What? It's the first thing I've related to about him... A place to go and just THINK. A place not to be badgered 24 hours a day by people who have to know everything about him."
Lisa: "I badger you? Asking if you're alright is having to know everything about...? You know what? You stay and I'll go."
Seagle: "I want to stop her... but her heartbreak is easier to accept than my own."
Seagle then stays in bed for weeks, ignoring all phone calls until everyone thinks he is dead.

Eventually Seagle does have a redemption arc, I won't spoil it but it does make the slog through the first half of the book somewhat worth it. In the grand scheme of things, the story of a writer overcoming writer's block really isn't worth much, but in terms of visualisation of the INTP thought process - especially for people who don't understand INTPs, this book is fucking gold. This should be on the bookshelf of all INTPs. Highly recommended. Especially to people with a Lisa in their life.
So. Do you relate to Superman?

I ended up buying a house at the edge of this town.... before i knew all the bullshit that was goin' on around here. Got bored and went down to the local sheriff Jack and asked about an opening, Didn't even fill out an application, got the job on the spot. For the first few months it was the usual, speeding tickets, drunk and disorderly, normal shit right? Well... let the fuckery commence....
I had been a deputy for 7 months when one of the local farmers called in and reported he had some animals killed last night and wanted someone to come out to his house. John Nixon was a 60 year old farmer who lived by himself. His wife passed away years ago, but he never remarried and they never had kids. We met one day at the local tackle shop. Me being new in town, he took me to some of the good fishin' spots. The man was a huge military history buff and would always ask about my time in. I thought I knew him personally, so i took the call.
As I rolled up to the gate on his property, I saw John standing at the gate with a shotgun. " Hey john, can I ask why you are standing there with that cannon in your hands?" No response, he just stared at me. "John! put that damn shotgun down!!" I yelled. Its like he snapped to out of a trance. "Mason, i need you to come round the back side of the house to the barn, now!" he snapped.
"OK, OK, let me get outta the car and grab some gear." I said opening the car door. While i was grabbing my gear, John was standing there with his eyes scanning the tree line. "Come on mason! you need to see this!" He said heading towards the back. I closed the trunk and started walking over in his direction.
"So what the hell is going on that's got you walking around here with that damn bazooka?" No response, he just keeps walking and scanning the tree line. We finally got to the back of his house where the barn is. It looked like a horror movie in that pen.
"What the fuck happened here!?!" I said covering my mouth. There were pieces of chickens and goats everywhere, a few pigs looked like they had been filleted. "Its back mason, after all these years" John mumbled. "John what the hell are you talking about? what did this?" I asked.
John took his eyes off the tree line and looked me dead in the face. "Your not from here so you dont know." "Know what man? what are you saying?" I asked getting annoyed now. "Years ago this same thing happened to a few guys I know. All of their livestock had been killed. Not killed and eatin', just killed. It got people 'round here up in arms. Well, a few of us got together and decieded we were gonna look for whatever did it" he said. "What the hell are you telling me john?" I interrupted. "There were four of us. We were young, thought we were bullet proof. We went out into the woods one morning, determined to find the damn thing that had been killing our animals.
Tommy was the first to say something. "Hey, did you guys hear that?". The rest of us didnt hear a thing, so we kept moving. We got about three miles deep into the old pine forest at the edge of town. Will was the next to say something, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" he yelled out while looking down at the mud. We ran over to where he was standing to find him wide eyed. "I dont know what the actual fuck did this, but we..we need to go and I mean right fucking now!!!" he said pointing. This track was huge, at least 14 inches long with huge claws. Gerald spoke up "Let's fuckin' go guys!!".
We started back tracking out of the area, when we were stopped cold in our tracks, we all heard it this time. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same damn time. A sickening, shrieking laugh was coming from all around us. We panicked and starting runnin'. As soon as we did that, whatever was making that noise centered as if right behind us, and it was coming fast, ungodly fast" John said eyeing the remains of a chicken that was torn apart.
"We were about a mile from the trucks when I heard a thud and a scream, when i looked back Gerald wasn't there. Will and tommy were right behind me, terror all over their faces. Tommy pulled his pistol and started shooting backwards. Only one shot rang out before something tackled him and Will. I stopped, raising my rifle, but they had already been torn apart. It was seconds, and they were in shreds" John said.
"Mason, what i saw standing over their shredded bodies has haunted me since then. The fucking thing was nine feet tall, shaped like a man, but not. Its skin, or or scales was a mixture of black and grey and it looked slimy. It looked like a damn bodybuilder with hugh claw like hands. Its head was massive, with what looked like horns coming from the jaw to around the chin. Its eyes, glowed bright green in the middle of the fucking day, and it had a mouth full of fucked up jagged teeth." He said lowering his head.
"I jus.. just stood there, waitng for my turn. This thing paced back and fourth, staring at me, with this creepy damn smile. It looked down at Will and Tommy, then it looked back up at me. My heart almost stopped when it pointed and shook its head at me. It started making that shrieking laugh as it grabbed what was left of my friends in each giant claw and walked off into the woods, still fucking laughing. I fell to my knees as it vanished into the trees."
I stood there, thinking he lost his damn mind. John had stopped talking, he had this way off look in his eyes. "John..., john.., JOHN!!" his eyes snapped back to mine. "So what are you telling me? A nine foot creature with claws killed your friends and animals?!" I half mocked. "Yea.... thats what i'm telling you. Its back for me, i know it." "What makes you think it was this thing you say killed your friends? It could have been coyotes" I asked " I know mason, i heard that same horrible shrieking laugh in the woods behind the barn last night."
Now I’ve heard some real bullshit in my time, especially during my time in the contracting field... But this was the most out there shit I had ever heard.
"Alright, alright... let's just take a big ass step backwards. I need to wrap my head around all of this." I said takin a deep breath. John laid the shotgun down to his side. "I'm telling you the truth mason. i'm too old and tired to lie about shit" he said shrugging. I looked deep into this man’s eyes. When I did, I saw something that told me this was the absolute truth as he knew it. " You haven’t given me any reason to doubt you... but fuck man... this is hard to swallow. I need proof John, that's the way this works." A look of frustration washed over his weathered face.
"Proof?! you want proof huh? follow me" John groaned.
He started walking towards the tress behind the barn. As we got closer to the trees, I started to smell rusty copper. Blood I thought out loud. John raised his shotgun as we walked closer. That damn gun had to be illegal, but this wasn’t the time for that. Him raising that gun made me a lil' uneasy, so I pulled my Glock 9mm out and flipped the safety off.
John owned about 90 acres, most of it unkept. A lot of the land was behind the barn which butted up to a state forest. We took about 12 steps into the wood line when the smell of death hit me like a brick. "I'm taking you to where I heard the noise coming from last night... your PROOF is out there Mason" He said with a slight edge to it.
We walked almost a hundred yards into the woods when john stopped in front of a tree. It looked twisted and warped all the way to its top. I stepped around John and saw huge claw marks cut deep all the way around the base of the tree, it's hard to even call it that. "What the hell is this?" I said looking up. "This is a marker, it's territory starts here" John replied. I looked at john like he was crazy, which at this point I thought he was. "This thing travels throughout these woods. I've found five more of these trees in our town" he said putting a hand on the tree.
"This isn’t telling me anything John, just that you've got a weird ass tree on your property" I said back to him. "Do you hear that?" So we could move this mess forward, I stopped talking and just listened. I hadn't noticed that during our walk into the woods it had got quiet, and I mean not one sound. " What the hell? where did all the animals go?" I asked looking around. "They're scared mason... you should be too. Let's get back to the house."
We turned and started making our way out of the woods. We were damn near the tree line when I heard a snap. I turned around, gun raised to see a black streak dart back deeper into the woods. "What the fuck was that?!" All John said was "we need to leave, now!" We turned and started sprinting the rest of the way out of the woods. I was surprised at how fast john was for an old man. We got all the way back to my patrol car. "I don't know what that was, but I don't think you should stay here tonight John. Pack some stuff and come to my place" I said pointing my gun at the trees. John just let out a sigh as if frustrated and defeated.
"You weren't listenin'. The pine forest, these trees, it’s all connected. I’m talkin’ bout before this area was even inhabited by native peoples. This fucking thing has been around for a very long time. I have been looking into this since that day, I had to find out what it was and if it can be killed" he tried to explain. The whole time john was talking I had my eyes and weapon pointed at the trees. " You can put that down mason, it just wanted you to know it's here" He said.
"John, I to need process this shit. I've never seen or heard anything like this and to be straight with you, I’m at a loss right now" I said opening the trunk. "I get it, I get it. The sheriff jack was a deputy back then. When you see him... tell him I said the dark is here..." And with that, he just turned his back and walked back into his house not saying another word.
I got back in the car and sat there. Looking at the treeline. After a few minutes I went back to the station. I must've walked in with that universal what the fuck look on my face, because Cathy the clerk asked what was wrong with me. I told her I was fine and asked if she had seen the sheriff? "Yeah, he is in the gun cage. Are you sure you’re ok Mason?" She asked again.
"Yeah, I'm good, just need to talk to Jack." I started walking towards the back of the building, when Jack came around the corner. "Hey mason, what's up?" he says walking up to me. "I just got back from John's house." The look on his face completely changed. "He had a bunch of animals killed last night. It looked like a slaughterhouse. He told me to tell you the dark was back?" I told him noticing his reaction.
Jack stiffened up and not saying a word gestured for me to follow him towards the back security door. We headed towards the back and out the door. Jack had stopped to make sure the door was secure then pointed at his truck and said "get in."
After getting in he looked over "I need some coffee" then started the truck up and headed west out of the parking lot towards the coffee shop. He ordered a large black coffee with extra sugar then asked if I wanted one. "I'll take a small black, no sugar." We pulled out and headed east back past the station. We ended up driving towards the edge of the county. "What's going on and why are we heading way the hell out here?" I looked at jack and said.
Jack just took a long sip of his coffee then placed it back in the holder.
After a long breath "You want some answers about what happened at Johns' house... I’m sure he told you about a few other things about this town... well we're gonna go get you some answers" He said looking at a black sedan passing in the opposite direction. "Aight so, like you mason, I’m not from here either. I was a trooper in New York for a few years before I came down here. I resigned after a call to an old couple’s house" He said reaching for his cup. "My partner Jake and I responded to what was thought to be an animal attack. We were the first on the scene, having been a couple miles away lookin' for speeders.
When we rolled up an older woman came running over to the cruiser. She had a panicked look on her face and just kept repeating "they're dead, they're dead!!" We hopped out and sat her in the back of the car then asked what happened. "I...I... came over to talk to gloria and... and I saw the door open. I walked in yelling her and Alan’s name, but they didn't answer... I found them upstairs... it's horrible!!" She said sobbing. Jake and I drew our weapons and started making the move inside. Like the witness said the front door was open, so we moved in. It smelled like sulfur and blood when we entered. We started clearing rooms. The first floor was clear, so we made our way up the steps.
The smell was overpowering now. We cleared the bathroom, and the two smaller rooms were clear also. The door to the master bedroom was slightly opened. I motioned to Jake and we hit the door.... it looked like some movie shit!! I kid you not. Jake turned and went back into the hallway and threw up. I stepped into the room and... listen I had never seen anything like this before" Jack stammered out.
"These two people were in shreds on the bed, they're insides had been yanked out and thrown around the fucking room. After looking at the bodies I noticed these huge claw marks in the wall, I’m talking if Andre the giant had had a Krueger glove. I stepped back out of the room and radioed to dispatch that we needed more units. I walked back to the front door where Jake was standing hunched over looking out of it.
Parked outside were 3 black SUVs and a black sedan. I counted 11 men dressed in black tactical military gear, some with a type of rifle I had never seen before, but you could tell it was large caliber. The rest with SMG weapons. When i looked over towards the patrol car, one of the men had the door opened and was talking to the witness. He saw us and started our way. He was dressed in all black too and carried what looked like a desert eagle in a chest holster.
When he got closer I got a better look at him. He looked to be in his late 40's with salt and pepper colored hair and a big ass scar that ran down the right side of his face. He got about ten feet from the steps "We appreciate the assistance, but you are no longer needed" He said in deep voice. As he is saying this, one of the other guys escorts the witness out of our car and into the back of that sedan.
The guy started walking away from us "Who are you? and what the fuck is going on?" I yelled at him. He turned with a look on his face that you only see in movies then took a few steps towards us. "Your command has been informed and you are to leave now!" He said raising his hand up towards that holstered pistol. Jake looked at me and shook his head "fuck it, let's go, let them deal with that mess upstairs" he said still coughing then started heading towards the car. I followed him down the steps... looking this guy up and down, checking out the vehicles... for anything that might tell me who we were dealing with.
The only thing I saw was on the assholes uniform... there was a patch on his shoulder. It was an all-black diamond with a weird looking black M in the middle on it. The guy stared us down until we were in the car driving away. He had that pistol in his hand and the other men starting moving into the house. Jake and I didn’t say a word until the radio squawked and we were told to head back to the barracks.
When we got there, we were told to report to the troop commander’s office. Commander Thompson was sitting in his office along with a man in a nice 2-piece suit. The man in the suit stood there quietly while Thompson told us that we never responded to any call out to that farmhouse, and that this was the first and only time he would say it. With that, he dismissed us and and we walked out. The shit didn’t sit well with me, and I ended up resigning a few months later.
I came down here and then that shit in the woods happened. I was on the scene, I saw the claw marks. They looked just like the ones in New York, and the same damn trucks showed up with different personnel. I knew just to shut up and walk away, and after making that choice I have had a pretty good career here." he finished grabbing his cup out of the holder.
My brain was in overdrive. I was just about to completely question bomb jack when he said, "We're here." He pulled off onto this overgrown driveway and drove for about a quarter mile. We pulled up to an old two-story house that looked like it was in ruins... but the lights were on. "Where the hell are we?" I asked As the last word of that question left my mouth, the front door of the house opened... standing in the doorway was a old man, dressed in weathered black clothing. Jack leaned over to me "You wanted answers... well.... there they are."

Sonia isn’t going anywhere, but she’s become tired and her storyline with Reiss is dire.
I think she would have been good in the Six.
Perhaps the return of a recast Bex would help, but Sonia needs a moral conflict to shake up her character: a crime, an affair, a secret.
I’d love to see some big scenes with Natalie showing off her acting skills, with a proper showdown or reveal that makes her ACT and nail a duff-duff.

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.
Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten
Critics Consensus: Back to Black's sympathetic approach to its subject's story is an overdue antidote to the tabloid treatment she often received in life, even if the end results are disappointingly pedestrian.

	Score	Number of Reviews	Average Rating
All Critics	36%	69	4.50/10
Top Critics	38%	24	4.50/10

Metacritic: 49 (18 Reviews)
Sample Reviews:
The film’s snaky on-and-off power begins with the British actor Marisa Abela, whose lead performance nails Amy Winehouse in every look, mood, utterance, and musical expression. - Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Back to Black is, like its heroine, flawed and fallible but frequently very affecting. - Leslie Felperin, Hollywood Reporter
Tells the story of Amy Winehouse but shows no passion in telling it and has nothing to say about the events that transpire. It’s the utter minimum of what a biopic can be. - William Bibbiani, TheWrap
There are other, tougher, bleaker ways to put Winehouse’s life on screen – but Abela conveys her tenderness, and perhaps most poignantly of all her youth, so tellingly at odds with that tough image and eerily mature voice. 4/5 - Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
There are moments when Abela disappears and Winehouse bursts on to the screen, like a magic eye picture blinked fleetingly into focus. But the film is wildly uneven and prone to catastrophic misjudgments. 2/5 - Wendy Ide, Observer (UK)
Because of the cautious gloss, the film is perhaps less enlightening or truly tragic than it might have been. 3/5 - Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph (UK)
The final scene, in particular, with its completely and utterly baseless, sensationalist implications, made me physically gasp in horror. 1/5 - Hamish Macbain, London Evening Standard
The ending, of course, is sad... Yet, for all its faults, the film is more celebratory than tragic. 3/5 - Ed Potton, Times (UK)
Back to Black is a fitfully enjoyable little package that will do wonders for the careers of Abela and O’Connell. But unlike Winehouse’s oeuvre, it’s not worth taking seriously. It’s just too afraid of the dark. 2/5 - Charlotte O'Sullivan, Independent (UK)
The film seems too tame, too tasteful, too frightened of alienating the fans: everything that Winehouse was not. 2/5 - Tom Shone, Times (UK)
[Amy Winehouse's] music remains in a different creative galaxy to this dispiriting film, which is at once twee and ghoulish. 2/5 - Danny Leigh, Financial Times
Sure, you will learn more – and hear more of the original recordings – in Asif Kapadia’s great documentary Amy, but Taylor-Johnson does a decent job of making a tight drama from the same tragic yarn. 3/5 - Donald Clarke, Irish Times
This is a middle-of-the road biopic about a musician who was anything but. It’s not great and it’s not terrible. 3/5 - Stephen Romei, The Australian
It has such reverence for Winehouse that it lacks the honesty the 2015 Oscar-winning documentary Amy was able to present. 2.5/5 - Wenlei Ma, The Nightly (AU)
A solid performance let down by a script that cherry-picks the facts and ultimately tells us less than we already know. Watch Asif Kapadia’s Amy instead. 2/5 - Hayley Campbell, Empire Magazine
Offers a pallid account of Winehouse’s story, ironing out some thornier issues, and bringing little that’s new, either in fresh revelations or distinctive angles on the familiar. - Jonathan Romney, Screen International
This is better than I expected (although my expectations were low). It does seem softened at the edges, and one can never forgive a falling-in-love montage set at London Zoo -- ever -- but I (mostly) didn’t cringe and it is respectful, if painful. - Deborah Ross, The Spectator
In her attempt to put the woman back at the centre of her own life, Taylor-Johnson has at least captured an addictive personality and achieved a powerful portrait of doomed love. - Kate Mossman, New Statesman
It is as salacious and cruel as any tabloid cutting from the noughties – only invested in the bloody ballet pump left in the street, not the complexities of living a very public life with addiction. 1/5 - Rogan Graham, Little White Lies
Everyone involved in the film approaches the late artist with love and respect, but its tawdry instincts and misguided sense of responsibility let her memory down. C- - Vikram Murthi, indieWire
Bizarrely, the one thematic thread that Back to Black does seek to tie its tale together with is the singer’s desire to have a child. 1.5/4 - Ross McIndoe, Slant Magazine
Like Winehouse herself, the film teeters on the edge, hovering restlessly between genre-subversive brilliance that complicates celebratory narratives about artistic genius, and well-worn, re-hashed tropes about tragic women. - Rebecca Harrison, Sight & Sound
A strong cast, in particular a stirring performance from Marisa Abela, is not enough to effectively convey the chaos and the tragedy central to the story of such a beloved artist. 2/5 - Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
Its punchlines lack punch, [but] what it does have is a frankly dynamite central turn from Marisa Abela. - Mark Kermode, Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube)
SYNOPSIS:
The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.
CAST:

• Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse
• Jack O'Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil
• Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse
• Lesley Manville as Cynthia Winehouse

DIRECTED BY: Sam Taylor-Johnson
SCREENPLAY BY: Matt Greenhalgh
PRODUCED BY: Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, Nicky Kentish-Barnes
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sam Taylor-Johnson, Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern, Joe Naftalin
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Polly Morgan
EDITED BY: Martin Walsh
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Sarah Greenwood
COSTUME DESIGNER: PC Williams
MUSIC BY: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
MUSIC PRODUCTION BY: Giles Martin
MUSIC SUPERVISOR: Iain Cooke
CASTING BY: Nina Gold
RUNTIME: 122 Minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2024

It can feel exhausting and unproductive to invest time crafting a profile and remaining optimistic in the hopes of finding the right person.
Yet, amidst the sea of profiles, encountering a genuine connection is a refreshing rarity. What's perplexing is how quickly some individuals dive into intimate topics like love and sex after just a couple of messages.
Does putting yourself out there automatically label you as desperate for love? And for those still navigating the online dating scene, what has your journey been like thus far?

My team is dysfunctional. It's a leadership issue that's spreading to everything. We don't even play well together anymore. I've looked into other teams but I can't make the commute right now. I really want to play derby and this the only option for me if I want to keep it up.
The board is really cliquish. They all party together and if you're not drinking with them, you basically don't exist. Friends of the board get special treatment. If a board member or their friend is injured, has a big accomplishment, or has a birthday, they get a card. If you're not in that circle, they ignore you.
How do I just play and ignore the middle school drama? I mean that literally. I can give specific examples without doxxing myself. There are several people who have expressed that they feel unwelcome. The board acts sympathetic and I think they really are. They're not willing to make any changes that would inconvenience them.
I should leave the league. I just really want to play for another couple of years. Anyone have an advice?
I know several of my teammates read this subreddit. I also know this problem isn't uncommon, especially on WFTDA teams. If you're reading this and think it's about you, don't ask your teammates. Do better. We can all work to be a little kinder and supportive.

Sam the Sandown Clown is a mysterious entity witnessed by 2 children on the Isle of Wight in May 1973, the links below provide more detailed information, but the summary is simple: the children met a bizarre clown-entity who claimed to be All Colors Sam and they even spoke to him for quite some time, the entity's strange apperance and behavior stand out among humanoid sightings, he or any other being like him were never seen again, it's a case that deserves to be discussed once again.
https://theghostinmymachine.com/2022/05/30/encyclopaedia-of-the-impossible-sam-the-sandown-clown/
https://www.paranormalcatalog.net/ufos/sam-the-sandown-clown
https://obscurban-legend.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sandown_Clown
https://www.curiousarchive.com/sam-the-sandown-clown-alien-man-in-black-or-folie-a-deux/
https://thommquackenbush.com/20210329-clown.php
https://bufora.org.uk/documents/BUFORAJournalVolume6No.5JanFeb1978.pd
Let's start with the appearance of the entity, he was very tall but not inhumanly so, his skin was paper-like and the colorful face and and the few digits on his hands and feet are very odd and it's to hard say if they were part of his face or it was part of a mask or helmet, his behavior is very strange but the children were able to communicate with him anyway.
He was a little clumsy and didn't write the sentence in the correct order, but he wasn't hostile and feared people, he also stopped the loud sound when he noticed the kids were scared, he was evasise to their questions and it stands out how he didn't wish to neither help nor harm the kids or other humans, he didn't seem to have many plans besides eating berries in a way that is too strange to make sense.
Keep in mind he's only called a clown because that's what he reminded the children of, but his similarity to a clown is rather superficial and his description vaguely reminds me of a doll too, we don't even know what was his real name as he said he wasn't actually named Sam, making me think he was actually calling the children Sam and his name really was simply All Colors.
His house and the machine he used to speak are a little unusual but nothing that couldn't exist in the early 70s when he was sighted, he said he had another base in the mainland but I'm unsure if he meant Great Britain or mainland Europe, it's also easy to miss the detail he said there were others like him, but none of them were ever sighted.
The remaining question is who or what was Sam? He could have been a lie made up by the children or perhaps a shared hallucination, he could have been somebody playing a prank on the kids or perhaps an abuser preying on them, but then we would have to wonder why he never tried to harm them when they were alone, another possibility is that he was a mentally ill hermit wearing a very unusual costume and that could explain his weird behavior and looks.
If he was a supernatural being, it stands to question what exacly he was, he vehemently denied being a ghost and I believe this is true, if we picture a ghost as a dead human I cannot think of any person acting so strange, still he claims to be kind of like a ghost in an odd sort of way, making me think he meant he was a supernatural being while not revealing what he truly was exactly.
It's been suggested he was an alien and his house was really an UFO, it could be true, but it was never seen flying despite having disappeared later, I've read suggestions he was a robot, if that is true, he was certainly not from Earth, because even over 50 years later we cannot build robots that look and act like him.
For some reason he reminds me somewhat of older accounts of fairy encounters, it makes me wonder if the kids didn't step into another reality by accident, or maybe it was Sam who stepped into our reality by accident and left later, of course there is no proof there is any truth to this sighting, but it's so unique and vaguely disturbing it's worthy of being remembered, for the children could have truly met something that wasn't quite human. Let's just be glad he didn't have a red balloon with him.

Before I got married to my wonderful husband we had gone months and months stressing each other out with trying to plan the perfect day. Neither of us particularly had the flair for planning large occasions and being both introverted we were really only planning the day to appease our families. We had spent months planning and I had the idea that I wanted to surprise him with a sentimental and personal gift. I wanted the gift to show my cheeky and slutty personality that would be for his eyes only. After speaking to one of my girlfriends she mentioned that I should consider a boudoir photoshoot, which she said she had done in the past for her husband. I completely fell in love with the idea and rushed to do my research and book it in. Within a couple of days I had found a photographer that wasn’t too far from my home and made a midday booking.
The photographers name was Christian and we emailed back and forth as we spoke about the finer details and what would be involved. I picked out a number of sexy outfits and pieces of lingerie and eagerly awaited the big day.
When the day finally came I drove to Christians studio which was a gorgeous ultra modern house located in an affluent area. I knocked on the door with my gym bag in hand and was wearing some very slutty makeup. My lips were pink and my black hair was straightened and fell down past my tits. Christian answered the door and I was stunned at how gorgeous he was. He was tall and wore a white shirt and suit pants. He had a full head of sandy hair and a really chiseled face. I got so nervous and was acting like a school girl.
He invited me in and we immediately started innocently flirting with each other. He was looking me up and down and there was definite chemistry. I couldn’t wait till he saw me in my first outfit.
I changed in a nearby room and wore a sexy black gstring that barely covered anything. I wore a matching black bra that had tassels that was insanely hot. As soon as I walked out Christian smirks and says “wow!” I said, “do you like it?” To which he nods his head. We begin shooting and I have no idea what to do but Christian guides me into all different positions. I felt like a total pornstar and was loving every bit. We continued to flirt and after a bit I got the courage to say, “you know this is kind of hot.” Christian smiled again and said “you’re very beautiful. Your husband is very lucky.”
The next pose I was in was a doggy style pose on a bed. Things were starting to heat up between us and I could see his bulge in his pants. I said, “this is my favorite position you know & by the way I know you’re hard under there.” He got so embarrassed but then got closer and was taking more closer shots. As he got closer he looked at me and kissed me on the fucking lips. At that point I totally freaked out and realized that I had crossed the line. I was being a total slut but his kiss made me instantly wet. I made up some dumb excuse and then left the house. A few weeks later he emailed me the photos.
Enjoy seeing what only my husband has ever seen before.

Hello Reddit,
I come seeking some insight into my actions this past Mother's Day to see if I am truly out of touch with reality and everything good in this world.
Let me set the stage, this is important; We met over 2 years ago. As with any new relationship there's that initial period where everything is new, you're exploring each other. A few weeks later she was celebrating her daughter's birthday. We had bought her an iPad together. She set it up while everyone was eating cake with the family and unfortunately never checked what synced. Her daughter saw photos and videos of me and made a big scene. She turned 8. She also has a son she adopted away a few years back before going to prison.
Since then she has freaked out every time I am mentioned. Full on meltdown. As such we've had to keep our relationship a secret and hidden. Removed me from all social media and has me muted on Messenger, just to keep the peace with her daughter. This has been going on for almost 2 years in a couple of months.
This Saturday before Mother's Day she went camping with her kid and sisters kids. I didn't know at first, we usually talk in the mornings before she spends the weekend with the kids, our usual morning routine. Sent her 3 messages in the morning, one around lunch and one in the afternoon. She didn't respond until nearly 6pm where she said she went camping and sent pictures.
It was raining for me so I told her I was jealous and wish I could be there. I love her, I'll see her tomorrow, have a great evening and all that. If she or the kids needed anything to just let me know, I'll make myself available. Like 3 short messages and one just spanning 4 lines.
Mother's Day comes around and I sent her a message in the morning telling her shes the best mom and woman in the world, she works so hard for us, try her best and take care of business. She's a gift and a blessing. Told her she's amazing and I love her.
I got a single "Love you" back an hour later. I went to my parents for lunch a little after 9 and texted before going saying I had saved $200 for that day for her so if she or the kids wanted anything to use my card and hoped she liked my gift. (Scented candles and a silver necklace with her birthstone in a heart shape)
Get back from lunch a little after 11 and sent her another message and told her I made a post on FB. Basically just recognizing her for the amazing woman she is and attached 3 of the most beautiful pictures I have of her, two of them where she posed with her daughter. Told her to get something for herself or take the kids out to eat.
3:35pm rolls around, she hadn't seen any of my texts so I text her saying I'm sure she's being kept extra busy today and I wish we weren't apart on special days like today and holidays but hopefully it changes soon and that she liked the gift I had gotten for her.
I didn't expect her to respond so after sending her the text, I went on FB and saw she had posted a new header picture of her kids playing the ipad while sitting on the bed with them, being visited by the son she adopted away. I thought it was beautiful and shared it to my FB with a heart emoji.
Not even a 2 mins later she responds back telling me to "Chill the fuck out, I'm spending time with my daughter!!!"
Followed by: "Dude I'm fucking blocking you! Who the fuck are you to put pictures up of are you fucking serious!!!"
I quickly respond: "I'll remove it"
And she said: "Posting pictures of my daughter so she could possibly see or her dad flip the fuck out!!!" and she blocked me.
Later that evening she still hadn't unblocked me so I sent her an email telling her to please talk to me, I apologize if I did something wrong or to upset her, all she needed to do was voice her disapproval and tell me to remove it. (As I already had) Why do it like this?
She responds back telling me to "Leave her the fuck alone" because she's not "dealing with this psychotic behavior all the fucking damn time. Your mom can be in the hospital dying and you don't post a thing about it, but you put a fucking picture up of my adopted son! Are you fucking serious!".
My response back was I don't post sad shit on Facebook. Never have, never will. I post things that make me happy. I didn't make a post when any of my grandparents died, (last one this Jan), when I was going through 2 surgeries + 7 months of chemo and radiation for melanoma, and certainly not with tubes and wires coming out of my mom. Wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind in the middle of it.
So, Reddit, was I wrong here? Am I so morally wrong and out of touch with reality that I got what I deserved?
I haven't heard from her since. She has used my card though.

I just got offered a job with a national home remodeling company. I have no prior job experience in this industry, or in sales in general. I have a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from a state university, and the job was advertised in “Marketing” and while it is technically is marketing the business , I’ll get into that in a minute.
This company honestly sounds amazing, on the Fortune Magazine top companies to work for list, the office I went to interview at seemed like it had amazing culture (kinda set up like what you’d imagine a small boujee start up company would look like with pingpong tables, Xbox’s PS4s all around), the second-round interview discussed office culture as being a big focus of theirs. There’s an all expenses paid trip to Cancun for all employees and a plus one at the end of every year, and they book some pretty insane music acts for it. Good benefits, 401k with company match. Also apparently all career promotions come from within, with the exception of some executive level positions at the Headquarters, but every middle manager all the way up to Branch Vice President is promoted from entry level.
The VP guy who did my interview even pulled up the paychecks of various employees around the office in the marketing role I was being hired for, who are in various stages of their employment to show the earning potential (30days in, 60 days in, 90days, 6 months, middle managing “Mentors” etc) and there were some crazy numbers in there, well into 6 figures, and a couple 5 figure paychecks.
The one hangup I have, while the job is Base + Commission, the “Marketing” is Door to Door appointment generation. Every employee is hired into this role in order to understand the business from the ground up. I obviously have my reservations about this, but with the numbers he was showing me, the plentiful relocation opportunities (they open up a couple new offices each year and pay a large relocation bonuses for anyone picked for the staff)… Hell…. I’d do that job wearing roast beef underwear on in a trailer park full of junkyard dogs.
Anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, experiences working for a similar company or in a similar role? It seems too good to be true and Im supposed to start within 2 weeks, and I have another actual Marketing job offer I’m considering, but idk this one intrigues me I feel like I could be good at this.. thoughts?
I ALREADY HAVE A JOB OFFER SO THIS IS NOT IN VIOLATION OF RULES ABOUT LANDING AN INTERVIEW

SORRY IT'S LONG I JUST HAVE TO VENT
I moved into this share house 6 months ago, Alex moved in two days after me.
Our other two housemates have lived here for over a year and are barely home, they don't do much around the house but they also aren't the ones making the mess. Even though they are barely ever here they still buy replacements for things we all use and take out the trash and tidy up after themselves. They are very low maintenance and respectful.
Alex doesn't do a single thing to contribute to the house. He piles dishes on the drying rack until every single pot, pan and bowl we own is out on the bench, uses the communal items but has never replaced a single thing, brings rubbish down from his room and stuffs it into the already overfull kitchen bin, never takes it out. He has never picked up after himself or cleaned a mess he makes. He doesn't wash his hands, ever. Leaves pools of water over the kitchen after doing dishes and the bathroom is basically flooded after he showers.
Usually I will just sort of move his mess out of my way as best I can and don't clean up after him. I'll make a pile of the food he leaves in the sink (often raw chicken) on the side of the bench. One time I finished the dish liquid, there were three more bottles under the sink and I didn't get a new one out. Alex piled up his dirty dishes on the side of the bench for 8 days because he didn't look under the sink or just go buy more. He uses the kitchen 2-3 times every single day. We also have a dishwasher he could have used...
I can't tell if he knows what he's doing, I think he just doesn't care but he also hates being called out and he gets upset and seems guilty/embarrassed about his behaviour?? He is very sensitive and acts like's a child. It's clear he never realised how much his parents did for him around the house and just thinks nothing is ever dirty and there's an endless supply of toilet paper and cleaning products but isn't aware of the fact that someone has to be cleaning and buying those things. I don't know if he's lived out of home before, I've asked but never got a yes or no.
Yesterday I sent a message to the group chat. I gave a couple of examples in areas where "we" could improve, literally all of them were purely about Alex but I didn't specify that it was him. Alex was immediately defensive and replied how I expected.
He said it's not fair that he has to buy communal things when other people use more of it. He will buy and use his own things from now on. Even if he does do that, this entire time he's been using the communal stuff. One of the housemates said why don't we just all contribute a small amount each month and she will be responsible for buying everything. Alex said no. Instead of just starting to contribute he gets angry and always reacts with something along the lines of "fine! since you all hate me, i'll just buy my own stuff!" or "it's not my fault there's lint in the dryer tray". I pointed out that the rest of us also make mess but we just clean up after ourselves, he doesn't believe me and says I'm just blaming him.
He also started to talk about bills (they are split evenly) and said it's not fair that certain people use more than others but we all pay for it. I said there will be things you use more than us, he is usually up all night so has the lights on when the rest of us don't. He takes very long showers, he is here 7 days a week when the other housemates are only here a couple days. He didn't reply to anything I said and just kept going on about how it isn't fair and he will just stay in his room from now on to "not cause problems".
He also is quite strange around the house, he doesn't know where certain things go or how to use appliances but instead of asking somebody, or googling it, or just LOOKING for it he will just leave it. He is not proactive at all. One time I was rearranging things in the linen cupboard to make room so I could use a shelf, it was all old crap that past housemates have left here, I knew that because I asked our other housemates about it. He walked past and said "I didn't know we were allowed to do that"...bro its your house too! He clearly wants to use things but just doesn't fucking ask or take initiative and do it himself. He has never messaged the group chat to ask about anything, he will just suffer if he can't find something he needs which is just stupid.
I'm so tired, I hate having to keep my things in my room. I want to live somewhere that isn't disgusting with rotting vegetables and mouldy open cans of sour cream in the fridge, to be able to walk around bare foot without stepping in food and slipping in pools of water, to be able to touch door handles and light switches without thinking about the fact that my housemate doesn't wash his hands after he shits. Anything you say he has a very dramatic reaction and a defence waiting. I'm currently saving but don't have enough to move out yet. Why are people like this? He just makes everything so hard. I can never decide between living in a clean space and doing most things myself, or letting everything rot and hoping that other people will pick up the slack even though I know they probably never will.

Idk if this question was ever asked, But i kinda thought about it after seeing most of Telltale games, Like Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy and Walking Dead with the chosen main character, But i'm kinda surprised that Spiderman doesn't have that kind of thing.
Idk if it's about rights and who owns the character, But i say he deserves to have his own Telltale game as most of Spiderman's franchises with characters, Plots, Story expansions and more are so well developed while also tends to have bad sides to his sufferings. The tons of choices you can do with both Peter Parker and Spiderman depending on the actions you choose can create some strange fates of paths and consequences. Not to mention that Peter has so many girls to have head over heels for, Just imagine how you choose who will be your girlfriend and friend while eventually have to come with one choice as you can't choose both.
Then of course after making a choice it will pop a notification stating ("The Character" Will remember that). The story could start in Episode 1 where as usual Peter Parker having a straight normal school days before the radioactive spider part but more extended, Can even have a scene what Peter does when he suffocates a bit of illness side effect and have choices like go to the infirmary or go home and more. The Episode 1 can end also where Peter chase down the burglar who killed his Uncle Ben and then when reaching to that point, You get the option if you should spare and arrest him or kill him.
Especially when it comes to Peter Parker as you could make him act in a way he doesn't act like that before, Just like with Batman Telltale with a bunch of choices in interactions that can make his character act different depending what you choose. Can have a friendly Peter or a more rebelious Peter on edge.
Any thoughts?

Excluding story errors, like why Jax wanted a bazooka when he was going to use his shotgun or why he chose to ram them when Pomni was on board instead of right when they caught up to Gummigoo’s tanker.
We got:

• The troupe were miles behind Gummigoo’s tanker, but when Jax threw Pomni out, suddenly they were right beside them.
  
• When Max was being dragged behind the tanker, you see a shot of the back of the tanker with the spikes already out, but by this point, Gummigoo hadn’t deployed the spikes yet.
  
• When Gangle turns the tanker to chase after the bandits into the rocky terrain, the background outside the window doesn’t change to show the tanker being turned.
  
• Pomni was on top of the truck hanging onto the sunroof while looking towards the troupe’s tanker after Gangle rams the bandit’s tanker, but when Gummigoo deploys the spikes, suddenly Pomni is hanging on the side of the bandit’s tanker, which one spike narrowly misses her, but then when Max climbs back on top of the tanker, she’s back to being on top of it.
  
• When the troupe’s tanker drops to the canyon below, the rope attached to the anchor is gone.
  
• Pomni is thrown off the map when the tanker glitches out, which is fine, because she was outside the tanker when it happened, but Max who was also outside of the truck did not fall off the map, but Gummigoo who was inside the truck was. When the tanker comes back down again, Max is inside the tanker with Chad, despite being at the back of the tanker when it was sent hurtling.
  
• There are no holes on the side of the truck when the spikes penetrated it. Granted, if it did, the tanker would have sunk a lot faster, but The Fudge could have kept it afloat.
  
• Ragatha who was stabbed by one of the spikes doesn’t have the hole she was stabbed from in the scene in the fudge river. There was also no patchwork done to it like she has all over her dress.
  

After rewatching the episode a couple of times, I just picked up on these little errors. I hope this won’t be an issue going forward, since Glitch Productions have done pretty consistent animations with Murder Drones. Did anyone else catch any other errors?

Part 1
I ended up buying a house at the edge of this town.... before i knew all the bullshit that was goin' on around here. Got bored and went down to the local sheriff Jack and asked about an opening, Didn't even fill out an application, got the job on the spot. For the first few months it was the usual, speeding tickets, drunk and disorderly, normal shit right? Well... let the fuckery commence....
I had been a deputy for 7 months when one of the local farmers called in and reported he had some animals killed last night and wanted someone to come out to his house. John Nixon was a 60 year old farmer who lived by himself. His wife passed away years ago, but he never remarried and they never had kids. We met one day at the local tackle shop. Me being new in town, he took me to some of the good fishin' spots. The man was a huge military history buff and would always ask about my time in. I thought I knew him personally, so i took the call.
As I rolled up to the gate on his property, I saw John standing at the gate with a shotgun. " Hey john, can I ask why you are standing there with that cannon in your hands?" No response, he just stared at me. "John! put that damn shotgun down!!" I yelled. Its like he snapped to out of a trance. "Mason, i need you to come round the back side of the house to the barn, now!" he snapped.
"OK, OK, let me get outta the car and grab some gear." I said opening the car door. While i was grabbing my gear, John was standing there with his eyes scanning the tree line. "Come on mason! you need to see this!" He said heading towards the back. I closed the trunk and started walking over in his direction.
"So what the hell is going on that's got you walking around here with that damn bazooka?" No response, he just keeps walking and scanning the tree line. We finally got to the back of his house where the barn is. It looked like a horror movie in that pen.
"What the fuck happened here!?!" I said covering my mouth. There were pieces of chickens and goats everywhere, a few pigs looked like they had been filleted. "Its back mason, after all these years" John mumbled. "John what the hell are you talking about? what did this?" I asked.
John took his eyes off the tree line and looked me dead in the face. "Your not from here so you dont know." "Know what man? what are you saying?" I asked getting annoyed now. "Years ago this same thing happened to a few guys I know. All of their livestock had been killed. Not killed and eatin', just killed. It got people 'round here up in arms. Well, a few of us got together and decieded we were gonna look for whatever did it" he said. "What the hell are you telling me john?" I interrupted. "There were four of us. We were young, thought we were bullet proof. We went out into the woods one morning, determined to find the damn thing that had been killing our animals.
Tommy was the first to say something. "Hey, did you guys hear that?". The rest of us didnt hear a thing, so we kept moving. We got about three miles deep into the old pine forest at the edge of town. Will was the next to say something, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" he yelled out while looking down at the mud. We ran over to where he was standing to find him wide eyed. "I dont know what the actual fuck did this, but we..we need to go and I mean right fucking now!!!" he said pointing. This track was huge, at least 14 inches long with huge claws. Gerald spoke up "Let's fuckin' go guys!!".
We started back tracking out of the area, when we were stopped cold in our tracks, we all heard it this time. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same damn time. A sickening, shrieking laugh was coming from all around us. We panicked and starting runnin'. As soon as we did that, whatever was making that noise centered as if right behind us, and it was coming fast, ungodly fast" John said eyeing the remains of a chicken that was torn apart.
"We were about a mile from the trucks when I heard a thud and a scream, when i looked back Gerald wasn't there. Will and tommy were right behind me, terror all over their faces. Tommy pulled his pistol and started shooting backwards. Only one shot rang out before something tackled him and Will. I stopped, raising my rifle, but they had already been torn apart. It was seconds, and they were in shreds" John said.
"Mason, what i saw standing over their shredded bodies has haunted me since then. The fucking thing was nine feet tall, shaped like a man, but not. Its skin, or or scales was a mixture of black and grey and it looked slimy. It looked like a damn bodybuilder with hugh claw like hands. Its head was massive, with what looked like horns coming from the jaw to around the chin. Its eyes, glowed bright green in the middle of the fucking day, and it had a mouth full of fucked up jagged teeth." He said lowering his head.
"I jus.. just stood there, waitng for my turn. This thing paced back and fourth, staring at me, with this creepy damn smile. It looked down at Will and Tommy, then it looked back up at me. My heart almost stopped when it pointed and shook its head at me. It started making that shrieking laugh as it grabbed what was left of my friends in each giant claw and walked off into the woods, still fucking laughing. I fell to my knees as it vanished into the trees."
I stood there, thinking he lost his damn mind. John had stopped talking, he had this way off look in his eyes. "John..., john.., JOHN!!" his eyes snapped back to mine. "So what are you telling me? A nine foot creature with claws killed your friends and animals?!" I half mocked. "Yea.... thats what i'm telling you. Its back for me, i know it." "What makes you think it was this thing you say killed your friends? It could have been coyotes" I asked " I know mason, i heard that same horrible shrieking laugh in the woods behind the barn last night."
Now I’ve heard some real bullshit in my time, especially during my time in the contracting field... But this was the most out there shit I had ever heard.
"Alright, alright... let's just take a big ass step backwards. I need to wrap my head around all of this." I said takin a deep breath. John laid the shotgun down to his side. "I'm telling you the truth mason. i'm too old and tired to lie about shit" he said shrugging. I looked deep into this man’s eyes. When I did, I saw something that told me this was the absolute truth as he knew it. " You haven’t given me any reason to doubt you... but fuck man... this is hard to swallow. I need proof John, that's the way this works." A look of frustration washed over his weathered face.
"Proof?! you want proof huh? follow me" John groaned.
He started walking towards the tress behind the barn. As we got closer to the trees, I started to smell rusty copper. Blood I thought out loud. John raised his shotgun as we walked closer. That damn gun had to be illegal, but this wasn’t the time for that. Him raising that gun made me a lil' uneasy, so I pulled my Glock 9mm out and flipped the safety off.
John owned about 90 acres, most of it unkept. A lot of the land was behind the barn which butted up to a state forest. We took about 12 steps into the wood line when the smell of death hit me like a brick. "I'm taking you to where I heard the noise coming from last night... your PROOF is out there Mason" He said with a slight edge to it.
We walked almost a hundred yards into the woods when john stopped in front of a tree. It looked twisted and warped all the way to its top. I stepped around John and saw huge claw marks cut deep all the way around the base of the tree, it's hard to even call it that. "What the hell is this?" I said looking up. "This is a marker, it's territory starts here" John replied. I looked at john like he was crazy, which at this point I thought he was. "This thing travels throughout these woods. I've found five more of these trees in our town" he said putting a hand on the tree.
"This isn’t telling me anything John, just that you've got a weird ass tree on your property" I said back to him. "Do you hear that?" So we could move this mess forward, I stopped talking and just listened. I hadn't noticed that during our walk into the woods it had got quiet, and I mean not one sound. " What the hell? where did all the animals go?" I asked looking around. "They're scared mason... you should be too. Let's get back to the house."
We turned and started making our way out of the woods. We were damn near the tree line when I heard a snap. I turned around, gun raised to see a black streak dart back deeper into the woods. "What the fuck was that?!" All John said was "we need to leave, now!" We turned and started sprinting the rest of the way out of the woods. I was surprised at how fast john was for an old man. We got all the way back to my patrol car. "I don't know what that was, but I don't think you should stay here tonight John. Pack some stuff and come to my place" I said pointing my gun at the trees. John just let out a sigh as if frustrated and defeated.
"You weren't listenin'. The pine forest, these trees, it’s all connected. I’m talkin’ bout before this area was even inhabited by native peoples. This fucking thing has been around for a very long time. I have been looking into this since that day, I had to find out what it was and if it can be killed" he tried to explain. The whole time john was talking I had my eyes and weapon pointed at the trees. " You can put that down mason, it just wanted you to know it's here" He said.
"John, I to need process this shit. I've never seen or heard anything like this and to be straight with you, I’m at a loss right now" I said opening the trunk. "I get it, I get it. The sheriff jack was a deputy back then. When you see him... tell him I said the dark is here..." And with that, he just turned his back and walked back into his house not saying another word.
I got back in the car and sat there. Looking at the treeline. After a few minutes I went back to the station. I must've walked in with that universal what the fuck look on my face, because Cathy the clerk asked what was wrong with me. I told her I was fine and asked if she had seen the sheriff? "Yeah, he is in the gun cage. Are you sure you’re ok Mason?" She asked again.
"Yeah, I'm good, just need to talk to Jack." I started walking towards the back of the building, when Jack came around the corner. "Hey mason, what's up?" he says walking up to me. "I just got back from John's house." The look on his face completely changed. "He had a bunch of animals killed last night. It looked like a slaughterhouse. He told me to tell you the dark was back?" I told him noticing his reaction.
Jack stiffened up and not saying a word gestured for me to follow him towards the back security door. We headed towards the back and out the door. Jack had stopped to make sure the door was secure then pointed at his truck and said "get in."
After getting in he looked over "I need some coffee" then started the truck up and headed west out of the parking lot towards the coffee shop. He ordered a large black coffee with extra sugar then asked if I wanted one. "I'll take a small black, no sugar." We pulled out and headed east back past the station. We ended up driving towards the edge of the county. "What's going on and why are we heading way the hell out here?" I looked at jack and said.
Jack just took a long sip of his coffee then placed it back in the holder.
After a long breath "You want some answers about what happened at Johns' house... I’m sure he told you about a few other things about this town... well we're gonna go get you some answers" He said looking at a black sedan passing in the opposite direction. "Aight so, like you mason, I’m not from here either. I was a trooper in New York for a few years before I came down here. I resigned after a call to an old couple’s house" He said reaching for his cup. "My partner Jake and I responded to what was thought to be an animal attack. We were the first on the scene, having been a couple miles away lookin' for speeders.
When we rolled up an older woman came running over to the cruiser. She had a panicked look on her face and just kept repeating "they're dead, they're dead!!" We hopped out and sat her in the back of the car then asked what happened. "I...I... came over to talk to gloria and... and I saw the door open. I walked in yelling her and Alan’s name, but they didn't answer... I found them upstairs... it's horrible!!" She said sobbing. Jake and I drew our weapons and started making the move inside. Like the witness said the front door was open, so we moved in. It smelled like sulfur and blood when we entered. We started clearing rooms. The first floor was clear, so we made our way up the steps.
The smell was overpowering now. We cleared the bathroom, and the two smaller rooms were clear also. The door to the master bedroom was slightly opened. I motioned to Jake and we hit the door.... it looked like some movie shit!! I kid you not. Jake turned and went back into the hallway and threw up. I stepped into the room and... listen I had never seen anything like this before" Jack stammered out.
"These two people were in shreds on the bed, they're insides had been yanked out and thrown around the fucking room. After looking at the bodies I noticed these huge claw marks in the wall, I’m talking if Andre the giant had had a Krueger glove. I stepped back out of the room and radioed to dispatch that we needed more units. I walked back to the front door where Jake was standing hunched over looking out of it.
Parked outside were 3 black SUVs and a black sedan. I counted 11 men dressed in black tactical military gear, some with a type of rifle I had never seen before, but you could tell it was large caliber. The rest with SMG weapons. When i looked over towards the patrol car, one of the men had the door opened and was talking to the witness. He saw us and started our way. He was dressed in all black too and carried what looked like a desert eagle in a chest holster.
When he got closer I got a better look at him. He looked to be in his late 40's with salt and pepper colored hair and a big ass scar that ran down the right side of his face. He got about ten feet from the steps "We appreciate the assistance, but you are no longer needed" He said in deep voice. As he is saying this, one of the other guys escorts the witness out of our car and into the back of that sedan.
The guy started walking away from us "Who are you? and what the fuck is going on?" I yelled at him. He turned with a look on his face that you only see in movies then took a few steps towards us. "Your command has been informed and you are to leave now!" He said raising his hand up towards that holstered pistol. Jake looked at me and shook his head "fuck it, let's go, let them deal with that mess upstairs" he said still coughing then started heading towards the car. I followed him down the steps... looking this guy up and down, checking out the vehicles... for anything that might tell me who we were dealing with.
The only thing I saw was on the assholes uniform... there was a patch on his shoulder. It was an all-black diamond with a weird looking black M in the middle on it. The guy stared us down until we were in the car driving away. He had that pistol in his hand and the other men starting moving into the house. Jake and I didn’t say a word until the radio squawked and we were told to head back to the barracks.
When we got there, we were told to report to the troop commander’s office. Commander Thompson was sitting in his office along with a man in a nice 2-piece suit. The man in the suit stood there quietly while Thompson told us that we never responded to any call out to that farmhouse, and that this was the first and only time he would say it. With that, he dismissed us and and we walked out. The shit didn’t sit well with me, and I ended up resigning a few months later.
I came down here and then that shit in the woods happened. I was on the scene, I saw the claw marks. They looked just like the ones in New York, and the same damn trucks showed up with different personnel. I knew just to shut up and walk away, and after making that choice I have had a pretty good career here." he finished grabbing his cup out of the holder.
My brain was in overdrive. I was just about to completely question bomb jack when he said, "We're here." He pulled off onto this overgrown driveway and drove for about a quarter mile. We pulled up to an old two-story house that looked like it was in ruins... but the lights were on. "Where the hell are we?" I asked As the last word of that question left my mouth, the front door of the house opened... standing in the doorway was a old man, dressed in weathered black clothing. Jack leaned over to me "You wanted answers... well.... there they are."

Waaadup!
I'm playing in a Garage/Psych band. Massively influenced by the australian scene, but experimenting with other genres as well.
Hope this is okay to share here, as we are releasing our Debut album in a couple of days!
We released some singles recently, hit us up and let me know if u can dig it :D
PARKS - Desert Daze
PS: Tomorrow GIZZ are coming to Brussels, WOOOO can't wait!