Any time you hear relationship advice, you have to ask yourself if that’s right for you. Only you know what goes on inside your relationship. Only you really knows how you and your partner work. You’re also the only one who understands your tolerance for certain dynamics, or fully understands your partner’s intentions and values. Not every piece of relationship advice is for everyone, even some advice that would generally seem good.
That being said, there is some antiquated relationship advice that has just got to go. I can’t believe anyone is still slinging it. It’s left over from some era when men didn’t view women as equals, women didn’t demand to be treated as equals, and, generally speaking, romantic partners weren’t friends. They were two people who were sexually attracted to each other and then engaged after months of game-playing, each trying to get the upper hand, until they got married too quickly to the wrong person because that’s what ya did.
“Play hard to get.” That’s one of the quintessential pieces of advice from this general category of garbage advice. That’s one we’ve all heard before, and it’s so juvenile. But it’s a symbol of the type of advice I’m talking about. It’s the advice that implies that romantic partners are competitors, rather than teammates, and that a relationship is about being in control rather than helping each other out. It’s a tyranny rather than a democracy. When I hear a woman say things like, “Play hard to get,” I feel she sets the women’s liberal movement back decades. Any piece of relationship advice that sounds more like a tactical move is BS. Here is relationship advice you can feel free to ignore.
“Make him always wonder if he could lose you,” “Make him work for it.” These are in the same family—the idea that a man should never fully feel secure in the fact that he has you. But that is so unhealthy, and nobody winds up happy there. Two truly happy people are two people who say, “I’m fully yours and you’re fully mine and I want to make you feel secure in that.”
Any time you hear relationship advice, you have to ask yourself if that’s right for you. Only you know what goes on inside your relationship. Only you really knows how you and your partner work. You’re also the only one who understands your tolerance for certain dynamics, or fully understands your partner’s intentions and values. Not every piece of relationship advice is for everyone, even some advice that would generally seem good.
That being said, there is some antiquated relationship advice that has just got to go. I can’t believe anyone is still slinging it. It’s left over from some era when men didn’t view women as equals, women didn’t demand to be treated as equals, and, generally speaking, romantic partners weren’t friends. They were two people who were sexually attracted to each other and then engaged after months of game-playing, each trying to get the upper hand, until they got married too quickly to the wrong person because that’s what ya did.
“Play hard to get.” That’s one of the quintessential pieces of advice from this general category of garbage advice. That’s one we’ve all heard before, and it’s so juvenile. But it’s a symbol of the type of advice I’m talking about. It’s the advice that implies that romantic partners are competitors, rather than teammates, and that a relationship is about being in control rather than helping each other out. It’s a tyranny rather than a democracy. When I hear a woman say things like, “Play hard to get,” I feel she sets the women’s liberal movement back decades. Any piece of relationship advice that sounds more like a tactical move is BS. Here is relationship advice you can feel free to ignore.
“Make him always wonder if he could lose you,” “Make him work for it.” These are in the same family—the idea that a man should never fully feel secure in the fact that he has you. But that is so unhealthy, and nobody winds up happy there. Two truly happy people are two people who say, “I’m fully yours and you’re fully mine and I want to make you feel secure in that.”
Rep. and professional sycophant Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) appeared on Fox News today to willfully share dangerous and wrong information about COVID-19. Nunes was a guest on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, and proceeded to encourage viewers to ignore recommendations for social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak.
“If you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country…go to your local pub” pic.twitter.com/jXdhOfwe9R
Nunes said, “There’s a lot of concerns with the economy here because people are scared to go out. One of the things you can do, if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant ― likely you can get in easily. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going. Just don’t run to the grocery store and buy $4,000 of food. Go to your local pub.”
Nunes’s advice directly contradicts what doctors and medical experts all over the world are saying, but are we honestly surprised? Nunes’s number one priority is and always has been sucking up to Donald Trump and covering his own ass. He has been embroiled in his own set of quid pro quo scandals and fake cow lawsuits.
Many took to Twitter to call Nunes out:
“Do normal things, rub your eyes after holding handrails, French kiss everybody in the big meeting, raw dog handshake the lonely coughing man at your local kidney dialysis center. Smear animal feces on your children, become blood brothers with a fruit bat, https://t.co/QaclzEA3sv
Devin Nunes is going to get Americans killed. And there will be a number of real lawsuits that begin. pic.twitter.com/MpmhAupIwL
— Nabilah Islam for Congress (@NabilahforGA07) March 15, 2020
This is agitprop, not just misinformation. Republicans don’t care much about “the working people” when they’re depressing wages and busting unions. Sooner things are “normal,” the better it is for Trump. @DevinNunes is covering the president’s ass. Period. https://t.co/vS1oaFybbd
Just when we think republicans can sink no further here’s Nunes, putting Americans in danger just so the crisis can look a little less crisis-y. What a stain on humanity. And what an opportune time to donate to his challenger, Phil Arballo:
We’re building a movement to defeat @DevinNunes & replace him with a representative who will follow the facts, believe science, & do what’s best for the American people & his constituents.
If there’s one thing that’s been consistent with Donald Glover’s career as an artist, he does things his own way.
After midnight, he released Donald Glover Presents, a 12-track body of work streaming continuously on donaldgloverpresents.com. Previous reports cite guest appearances by SZA, Ariana Grande and 21 Savage plus the re-release of songs “Feels Like Summer,” “Warlords” and “Algorythm.” Although Glover, nor his alter ego Childish Gambino, have not confirmed titles, the respected site Genius.com has taken an educated guess at the track list:
Intro (Warlords)Little Foot Big FootWhy Go To the PartyFeels Like SummerDon’t Worry About Tomorrow (The Violence)Under the SunWe Are (Interlude)AlgorythmTime (Ft. Ariana Grande)Vibrate (Ft. 21 Savage & SZA)To Be BeautifulSweet Thing / Thank You
The album’s release isn’t the only enigma, as not much has been shared from Glover’s representatives. (ESSENCE has reached out for more info.) The mysterious release shouldn’t surprise fans, as he’s known for sharing minimal information in regards to the followup of his 2018 megahit “This Is America” and 2016’s Awaken, My Love! During an interview with WNYC, Glover’s “This is America” producer Ibra Ake had this to say about the future of Childish Gambino: “We’re working rapidly to just get as much out as we can. Especially this last run, to really make a big bang, because this is Donald’s last album.”
Could this be it? No one knows. Until then, for those actively practicing social distancing due to COVID-19, fans can happily spend the next few days deciphering Donald Glover Presents cover art, a four part panel of an unfinished black and white illustration of people running—or reveling—in chaos. One fan has already submitted the cover art’s multiple meaning. Posting on Genius.com, user StoRmEy4124 offered this explanation:
“The sharp, aggressive drawings (even minimalist in the background) emphasizes the terror and strong confusion ruling the scene. While people jump from smoky windows or go down by emergency stairs, those on the ground are shared between anxiety, atrocity and pure joy, raising their fists onto the sky.”
StoRmEy4124 continued: “One could perhaps remember ‘The party’, underrated track from his classic ‘Because the Internet’ of 2013, letting the audience know how an escalation could lead to brutality, even if the beginning seemed safe and calm.”
Whatever the meaning behind the art or why its release came shrouded in secrecy, fans—including this one—are happy Glover has given us new bops as we self-isolate.
Nick Bruno and Troy Quane walked into the room one after another with bright eyes and high energy.
Blue Sky Studios’ new film Spies in Disguise is a kid-friendly film that is entertaining for the entire family. While on the studio visit, families were allowed and encouraged to bring their kids. When the directors sat down, they had the opportunity to speak about specifics that really stood out to the kids. Both of these talented men were ready for a barrage of questions from kids and their parents from a round table interview. BGN had a few questions of our own.
How big of a part would you say music played
in the film?
Troy: Music was a huge
part of this movie for us, all the way back to before there was even a movie.
Nick and I both read the script and separated from one another. Then we started
to put together songs that popped into our heads. So, we made a playlist. We
just found songs that we liked, songs that had the right energy, the right
sound, or the right rhythm that would help inspire certain sequences or just
moods that we liked. And then we’d share and put that together.
Nick: Music is so inspiring. I’m sure when you listen to music, sometimes you can picture yourself going on cool adventures and saving the day. Even our animators when they’re animating Lance Stirling or Walter Beckett, they would animate to music. They sometimes put music in the background and you never hear that music in the movie. Lance would move with more swagger. He’d have a rhythm to the way he walks where Walter would have got great music. So, everything about him was a little bit more awkward and silly.
Troy: So, music is a huge part of filmmaking.
What is the biggest challenge in
developing the narrative for this story?
Nick: That’s a great question because there are so many challenges with it. The biggest thing for us is we always have that teamwork message and the nonviolent philosophy. So, you hold those up as your North Star, like that’s your theme and everything has to be based around it. But it’s really hard because you have to service so many things. You have to service entertainment, story, making sure that everything that you’re doing is revolving around that theme, making sure it’s funny, making sure it’s sad and scary. If you’ve ever put together a paper for school, [sometimes] you put it together and you read it, you’re like, “This is not good.” Right? It’s hard. So, the great thing with our story team is we get to put stuff together. Often when we get to writing our pages, we’d sit in a room with our writers and come up with ideas, jokes, and feelings.
What did you look for when hiring your
main protagonists?
Troy: With this movie,
we started with Lance because we knew he was going to be a pivotal character
for everything else in the story. He needed to be cool and smooth, and a little
bit overconfident at times, which can be unlikable. So, he needed to be funny
to offset that aspect of his personality. We looked at who was big when we were
growing up, like who were those actors who embodied all that. Both of us kept
coming back to Will Smith in Fresh Prince [of Bel-Air]. He was
cool. He had musicality. He had a lot of swagger. But he was kind of dorky and
at the times he had that, he was approachable. He had charisma.
Walter had to be somebody who was vastly different from Lance. So he had to be a little bit geeky, but sweet, naive but optimistic. So we had all these aspects. And we just found that Tom Holland had all those things; he was a genuinely nice guy. For this part, he had used his American accent.
How much input do big actors have when the
film is being developed?
Nick: It’s less about
official input and more about casting people for their talents, in every aspect
of the movie, but especially with that, and you want them to have input in some
of that.
One final question, when will the DVD be
out?
Troy: Great question, it comes out March 10th.
There is something mesmerizing when two powerhouses decide
to present on their work. Both Nick and Troy speak with such grace and eloquence
that it feels as if they are directly talking to you. With their soft tones and
funny jokes, the brief time that was allotted felt like anything is possible. I
guess that is just the magic of Blue Sky Studios.