DramatistDreamer

I wonder if RT is still shut down?

JMO, but I don't think it has to be an either or...both can be true at the same time. He just seems increasingly desperate and willing to look this way if it gets him to achieve his aims that much quicker, whereas in the past, it just seemed as if the image of looking completely self possessed (and blame-free) was just as important as his ability to pour on the aggression. Putin, after all has always regarded himself as being well above the likes of Kadyrov, who he regards as something of a brute. Well, his behavior is much closer than ever to the Chechen despot these days. As for Xi Jinping, they are allies of convenience, as Xi would love to do to Hong Kong and Taiwan what Putin is currently doing to Ukraine. Mainland China has been trying coercion, ethnic cleansing (Tibet, Xinjiang, in particular), pressure tactics, veiled threats (Taiwan) and trying to claim uninhabited islands in the South China Sea (Japan, South Korea, Philippines, etc.). Xi is no doubt, waiting to see what happens and if he can do a similar maneuver with regions it considers to be part of it's own territory. China considers Taiwan to be a rebellious breakaway republic that they want to bring to heel. Hong Kong has a Sinophile for a Chief Executive, so they have made far more successful strides there. Tibet, well.😔Suffice it to say, Xi is watching what happens in Ukraine with keen interest.

Oh, I have never doubted that this was his aim, he has never made a secret of his disdain for the decisions made in the wake of Perestroika and Glasnost, as it goes against everything a former KGB/FSB man like Putin and he has always aimed to reverse the policies of Gorbachev.

When Coppola talked about how low a value Paramount placed on The Godfather, that the was a failure to properly preserve that film's negatives, it just made me think that if a company like Paramount can express such disregard for a big film studio production, think of how the likes of corporate-minded P&G must really place an utterly low value on its vintage soap operas.

For several years, going on a full two decades it seems, Vladimir Putin had apparently put a great deal of effort into cultivating this image of having a self-possessed persona (to the point of being bloodless and cold, some might say) but his recent actions now make him look unhinged. Perhaps he has gradually been getting to this point since the invasion of Crimea and it went all but unnoticed. For the Ukrainian people, it has to be a dire place in which to exist, at the virtual mercy of the unhinged and powerful "neighbor" intent on usurping your sovereignty with no foreseeable recourse for you to stop this.

JG just gets worse and worse. There's really no reason for me to ever return to regular viewing where this show is concerned. As someone who grew up watching Y&R, it should feel sad but at this point, I feel nothing but indifference. I really am just here for the comments when I visit this thread. You all keep it lively enough to keep my interested because it sure isn't the actual stories on this show.

From what I remember, Bragg was touted as having "progressive" credentials, whatever that means. I haven't been paying much attention to Bragg tbh, but the last time I read anything about him, from what little I read, it seemed as though he was beginning to waver. It seems he is perfectly willing to leave everything in Tish James' lap. And James can only deal with the civil aspect, not the criminal aspect of this. I no longer reside in Manhattan but it sounds like residents should at least be demanding some answers of their D.A. perhaps bring some pressure to bear on him.

What will the ATP actually do though? What was their decision about Sharypova? Was any action ever taken? Were things left open ended, or did the ATP simply wash their hands of the entire thing?

To piggyback off the posts that have been discussing that ridiculous homophobic legislation that is under consideration, it seems that the timing is suspect.

Tennis Channel is trying to report it without explicitly showing the actual footage, it seems. They could've embedded the video on their tweet but chose to embed the link to the article instead.🙄 And here's the weak tea statement put out by Zverev or whomever is in charge of his PR.

The ATP has been pulling clips off Twitter, citing copyright violation. I think pretty much everyone had seen it by then anyway. I guess Amazon prime must be one of the accounts that has authorization to post. Penko dismantled Krejcikova in another match I didn't see.

Dubai may be a snore but apparently Acapulco is heated. Did anyone see that infamous Zverev tirade? I didn't see the match beyond that clip.

This will likely get little traction (for the obvious reasons) but it is noteworthy. I admit, I have yet to read this article (I will do so later).

Soaps have practically been ruining themselves doing this over the past two decades now and it makes no sense. Also, some on screen deaths were totally unnecessary too.

My response to the ATP Dubai tournament this week. screen-20211230-234422.mp4

Ethan Wayne seemed have have good chemistry with all the actresses and could have had good romantic chemistry with Johnson, Linn and Kozlow but seems woefully underutilized. At least with the paternity case, he got a chance to see his character put in an active storyline, but it was weird that he was only ever teased as a romantic interest. Perhaps he made it known that his time on the show wouldn't be long-term? Or else, why wouldn't they have Storm at least date one of the main characters for even a brief amount of time? I always assumed Wayne got fed up with his character getting short shrift and left, lol.

Tennis as a sport has made a lot of miscalculations in terms of cutting off access to the sport. They have made it much too challenging for fans and potential fans to watch. When the sport was more accessible to basic cable (not just ESPN) and broadcast television (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX TV) people can just click on any given weekend and catch some tennis on television. Those days are over and the audience has dwindled as a result. Many of us picked up racquet (myself included) for the first time because we a Monica or a Zina playing on television. I mean, the ATP doesn't even want fans to create GIFs to post on social media and has threatened those who do, in the past. It wasn't always stars and faves who sold the sport (it certainly helps) because there were times when the Tours were in transition periods (Martin VerKerk getting to the Roland Garros final) and when only hardcore fans knew the names of the players contesting big titles (Coria vs. Gaudio for the RG title) but people still tuned in in larger numbers than some matches featuring today's current #1 players, simply because people happened to click on NBC on a Sunday morning in early June and become interested in what they saw. We don't have that anymore. As nice a person as Barty seems, she's not compelling many non hardcore tennis to get up at 3:30 am EST to watch her keep her head down and work her way through a match. By the look of the current crop of Top 50 players, tennis is going to need a different approach than trying to use "stars" to promote the sport. There's only a half-dozen or so of those anyway. And tennis with its numerous fiefdoms seems unlikely to coalesce around a single multi-tiered streaming platform where tennis fans (even in the U.S.) can go to watch non-glitchy tennis matches from every tournament.

Clarke is the very embodiment of the word hubris. I feel like very early 1980s Craig Montgomery (ATWT) was in a similar character vein- a cad who became mired in his own chaos, except Craig's troubles spiraled to the point of him going to prison, so it was more pathetic than amusing. Both were the architects of their respective misfortunes. I know that it was done to accommodate Kozlow's pregnancy but I still think the story could have been written more artfully. I think it was a missed opportunity to add more complexity to the story by adding another thread. Margo and Bill had a pre-existing relationship that the writing revisits anyway, so it would not have taken much to add that connecting thread a little earlier. TBH, leaving those scenes where Margo and Clarke would have consummated their relationship off screen, makes me wonder whether the writing wanted to leave things a bit open to a possible retcon, just in case but perhaps was dropped when the principal characters (Margo, in particular) left the canvas.

So many in their early 30s passing away these days and it's so sad.

She was also at Grigor's match, with Serena in tow. Uh, did anyone see this match?

@JaneAusten and they have such ardent supporters, it's inexplicable to me. People were joking that, after the pronouncement that Camilla was on the track to one day be Queen, the Cornwalls had decided to put their foot on the gas. With the disgusting situation with Andrew's settlement to Virginia Giuffre without admission of guilt, of course, and Charles' honours payola scheme, it should be clear how trashy these folks truly are.Of course, royalists will always spin it as outsiders and commoners being the problem. I wish that other islands that are in the Commonwealth would follow Barbados' lead to becoming a republic. Great Britain has done absolutely nothing for them but extract the wealth from their respective islands (including human capital) to build the United Kingdom. I get so angry every time I think about this.

Really??? 😂 Was Terri Conn on there too? Both Venus and Serena have been spotted in Delray Beach taking in the tennis earlier this week.

From a writer's perspective, I am enjoying seeing Clarke Garrison try to extract himself from every predicament that he gets himself into. Also from a writer's perspective, I do take issue with the aspect of hiding that Margo and Clarke had consummated their relationship until the reveal of Margo's pregnancy. It seems like a cheat, especially on a soap opera where romance and betrayal are totems of drama. I get that they wanted to surprise, even shock the audience but it also undermines Margo's claim of having a loving, serious relationship (one in which she believed was leading to marriage) I saw no evidence of Clarke even pretending to have anything close to a serious relationship with Margo, so I don't even know where she draws that conclusion, other than she ran away with some fantasy. It made me wonder if the possibility of pulling out Bill Spence as a father were not under consideration and honestly, it would have added an interesting wrinkle if Bill were genuinely a candidate for Mark's father, but Margo didn't want to even entertain that notion due to her desire to have that long lasting tie to Clarke. Decades later, I think it would have been much more interesting if Mark were a Spencer rather than a Garrison.

It's an interesting discussion. We had the era of "peak TV" (are we still in this era? That is up for debate) and some say we are in the era of 'too much TV' and the proverbial wheat is being separated from the chaff, so to speak. Six months to a year from now, who knows? It feels as if television as we know it has been in the midst of a dynamic period.