Damn this show is dope

my jaw dropped.

That scene was legit suspenseful.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

Kept yelling it too as the scene further unfolded.

that I totally want to see.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

small touch but it's the mark of a show that is with the times. madden is washed and 2k is getting there. fifa def the most played sports game these days even in the hood.

>

2k been dethroned around my way.

just sayin'

The introspective on Hot Cheetoes was great too...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/23/the-flamin-hot-cheetos-movie-how-a-frito-lay-janitor-created-one-of-americas-most-popular-snacks/?utm_term=.f4854b4fff04

The Flamin' Hot Cheetos movie: How a Frito-Lay janitor created one of America's most popular snacks

Flamin’ Hot Cheetos — the spicy red version of the classic cheese-flavored snack — are something of a cultural phenomenon. A group of children rapping about them racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube. Pop star Katy Perry even dressed as a Flamin’ Hot for Halloween.

Although several schools banned them, saying they were unhealthy, the snacks enjoy the kind of high profile that research chefs and food scientists employed by big companies like Frito-Lay spend their careers chasing. But Flamin’ Hot Cheetos weren’t made by any experts.

They were invented by a janitor, the son of a Mexican immigrant who dropped out of school because he struggled with English.

His name is Richard Montañez, and Fox Searchlight Pictures is making a movie about his life.

Lewis Colick, who wrote “Charlie St. Cloud” and “October Sky,” will pen the first draft of the screenplay, based on the initial pitch from Montañez and producer DeVon Franklin, Variety reported.

The biopic, titled “Flamin’ Hot,” will follow Montañez’s real-life rags-to-riches tale.

He grew up on a farm migrant labor camp in Guasti, Calif., a tiny town centered on winemaking. As a child, Montañez — one of 11 siblings — picked grapes at the vineyards and ate a communal table with several other families.

But he had an entrepreneurial streak even then.

In his memoir, “A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie,” he described arriving at his white elementary school during segregation. His bus was green, while the white children rode a yellow bus. Speaking only Spanish, he couldn’t understand anyone.

He felt like an outsider, especially at lunchtime when he pulled out a burrito. In the 1960s, Mexican food wasn’t the popular staple in white communities it is now. The other kids, with their bologna sandwiches and cupcakes, stared on in confusion until he grew embarrassed and put it back in his bag.

He begged his mom to make him the same food as everyone else, but she refused. Instead, the next day, she made him two burritos for lunch and told him to make a friend.

By the end of the week, he was selling burritos to his white classmates for 25 cents each.


“I learned at that moment that there was something special about being different, that there was a reason that we all just couldn’t fit into the same box,” he wrote.

His background would prove useful again later in life, but first it presented an obstacle. Montañez’s struggle to learn English was so severe that he dropped out of school at a young age. He worked various low-paying jobs, from slaughtering chickens to gardening around town, picking up English along the way.

When he was about 12 years old in 1976, Montañez landed a job working as a janitor at a California Frito-Lay plant.

One day, as he told Lowrider magazine, he saw a company-wide video of then-CEO Roger Enrico saying, “We want every worker in this company to act like an owner. Make a difference. You belong to this company, so make it better.”

Montañez took these words to heart.

“Here’s my invitation. Here’s the CEO telling me, the janitor, that I can act like an owner,” Montañez later recalled at the 2014 League of United Latin American Citizens’ National Convention. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. Didn’t need to. But I knew I was going to act like an owner.”


As he tells it, one day an assembly line at the plant where he worked broke down. A batch of Cheetos didn’t receive the orange, cheesy dust that make them so popular. So he took a few home to experiment.

He had formed an idea while watching a street vendor in his neighborhood make elote, or grilled Mexican street corn — corn on the cob covered in cheese, butter, lime and chili.

“What if I took the same concept and applied it to a Cheeto?” he thought, according to his memoir.


A bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. (Frito-Lay)
So he did. His friends and family loved the result. Thinking back to the video and figuring he had nothing to lose, he decided to call Enrico to pitch the idea.

Enrico took his call and told Montañez to present his product in two weeks. So the janitor went out and bought his first-ever tie for $3, then stopped by a library to get a book on marketing and copied a strategy out of it to recite during the presentation.

“I’m a little bit of an artist so I even designed the bags and put the Cheetos in it,” he told Fox News Latino.

Against all odds, it worked. Enrico loved the idea, and a new line of spicy snack food was born — with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos as its flagship. Montañez has since served in various positions throughout the company, including as an executive vice president.

“Many times, greatness will come in ridiculous forms, a ridiculous idea might be a billion dollar idea,” he told Fox News Latino.

He now travels around the country, giving speeches on the importance of diversity in business. His message is always simple, as he told the audience at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Power of Diversity event, according to the Kansas City Star.

“If you have confidence, you can walk into any room,” he said. “Your job is to prepare yourself to walk through the doors.”

It certainly worked for him. And while his wardrobe has grown considerably since he walked into that room with Enrico, he still holds onto that $3 tie.

https://media.giphy.com/media/zeBFsk3zkMra8/giphy.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnnniIsw3b0

It was fantastic; looks like this season gonna be dark as shit

Dope episode

Man, so many great lines. Katt's delivery was superb.

The writers are borderline genius.

How the hell dude miss with the chopper?

Atillah is Darius.

Kart Williams was hilarious. I just knew he was coming out in some fly pimp shit with some gator boots.

the reaction to the gold gun.. lol

>How the hell dude miss with the chopper?

much different situation when your target is moving AND returning fire. er'ybody ain't 'bout that life.

>Atillah is Darius.

with all due respect, its bigger than atillah. darius is OKP.

>Kart Williams was hilarious. I just knew he was coming out in
>some fly pimp shit with some gator boots.

casting kat in that role was simple genius. he nailed it. and that closing scene???

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!

which leads me to...

>the reaction to the gold gun.. lol

hilarious.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/files/2018/02/ATL_104_0535d.jpg&w=1484

It was a wooden Japanese sword but yeah lol uncanny parallel

cynical, smart as shit, still fucking up but pretty spot on when it comes to most things that don't involve women or throwing hands.

Darius tho.. that nigga is Atillah. Darius be knowing random ancient facts that no one gives a shit about and everything is a conspiracy.

trust me on this one.

..reads like it was a collaborative effort written on the boards of okp.



*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

Yes, we deserve this and much more.

i aint smacking away tv shows while niggas raise their outstretched hands like oliver twist.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/atlanta-season-2-tries-to-redeem-serial-abuser-katt-williams



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

White people are funny

Katt Williams or his victims.

They Like Glover. And it's causing them cognitive dissonance that Glover would be cool with Katt Williams. They just want the part they like.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

.

>Katt Williams or his victims.
>
>They Like Glover. And it's causing them cognitive dissonance
>that Glover would be cool with Katt Williams. They just want
>the part they like.



^^^^^^^^^^^^

You got it.

Because its like our hatred only makes them grow stronger

or at least have 1 or 2 eps a season that are.

who was just playin Katt


I swear the writers have perused these boards too...

>I swear the writers have perused these boards too...
>

just wondering, cuz i hear this all the time on here, which bits stuck out to you specifically? or is it more of a general vibe/aesthetic?

I swear there is no woman in the back seat while they are ordering. She suddenly appeared while they are driving off? What up with that?
Where did she come from?

or so I heard...

prolly just to show all the wild shit that happens in the A.

Like while watching that opening sequence you are in a constant state of "what the heck is going on"

I was wondering what these dudes relation to Donald Glover and his ppl were.

I was wondering what they were talking about when they were talking about (what's the name of the drive through?)

When I finally thought I got my barrings (sp), and realized they were talking about a drive through you could order weed, they flipped it and it turned into a robbery story.

It took a second for me to realize those guys were the robbers.

Then when I thought I had the story again, they reveal there was a woman in the backseat.

The could have had a scene in which you see the decision to rob the place and the woman in the backseat, but way more interesting to tell the story the way they did.

It reminded me a lot of the Wire when I was constantly wondering what the fuck was going on, and was rewarded hugely when I figured out what was going on.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

but everything else seemed obvious...

until the woman popped out the car.

Why the fuck you stop and let her out right there?

it was dramatic but it wasn't believable at all to me.

I could see stopping around the corner but not right there after getting lit up by the chopper.

evidence nigga

like they told her they were gonna get some chicken and to roll w/ em even though they were gonna rob the joint.

I think they were next in line.
The woman was withe the robbers, who didn't expect to wind up in a gun fight. They left her there so an ambo could pick her up without them having to bring her to the hospital

but you could be right

So, no explanation of the girl.

and how innocent bystanders are usually the victims in a lot of these crimes.

Like the nutella sandwich man in season 1

and then ol girl get shot up. i'm like, damn.

whole thing was wild and, as was mentioned above, how they told it.

i'm mentally patting myself on the back for recognizing that they went through the drive through to get some smoke (the order came to $51??? they had a lotta food too before ordering that #17).

and then, dude jumps through the window.

and then i'm thinking (remember in Santa Claus Is Coming to Town cartoons where the kids / audience be like, 'so THAT's why he wear a red suit' ? ) , THAT's why drive throughs be having them little ass windows.

and dude was a lazy ass robber. looking for the weed and he puts his gun up on the top shelf for a minute. lol.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

maybe I'm missing something but I thought that was obvious.

and when they ordered the 17 the total came to $61 dollars which was why dude said

"I told you!"

i'm not even sure that's the crime scene Earn and Darius are looking at at the gas station....

still, it's such an excellent opening: unique and captivating, not only in what happens but how it was shot.

Hiro Murai is the muthafucn man

It was just an opening to show it’s robbing season. It ain’t that deep.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they circle back or update that crime later in the season. Prolly the last episode.

i'm saying even with it making little sense as a cold open, it still works, and like you said to frame the "robbin season"

was bout to happen

Never heard of it

https://youtu.be/a3PpYLI4c2o



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thefader.com/2018/03/02/atlanta-donald-glover-season-two-premiere-playlist/amp

in season 1 also confuse you?

Dude was incredible .

Where you finally got to see Eddie’s range as a legit actor

Hope he gets a chance in other dramatic roles

the bedroom, you see the mini-library, including what's either a French textbook or dictionary. Then Earn reveals that Katt has always been a smart dude. I was slightly suspecting that about his character, and then it was confirmed.

Earn are talking?

Thought that was a cute Easter egg

I feel like most sitcoms would end it with Al sayin "Hey Regina pass me that" so you KNOW it wasn't her but they just let it be for those that notice.

It totally said "Niggaaaaaaaaa" without saying a single word lmao.

i cackled

He gets advanced copies for his job.

After everyone on FB praised the 1st episode he was like “let me go back and watch it again, I didn’t get it and thought it made no sense”

I think the problem is he wants Atlanta to be something it isn’t. It’s not a traditional show with that old ass formula.

>I think the problem is he wants Atlanta to be something it
>isn’t. It’s not a traditional show with that old ass
>formula.

Which is why it's great and kinda oddly aligns more with the black experience than what we usually get if you think about it. The A to B to C tv sitcom/drama may lend some Shakespearian gravitas to the black experience in the hood , but it doesn't capture the essense of just how strange the shit is.

How many times you think back to some random shit that happened when you were young and shrugged it off at the time but now are like 'WTF, that shit was crazy'.

And its small random shit too; like it popped in my head recently where I was walking to work one day from my old apt and NYPD was outside this house wearing bulletproof vests, AR-15's, and a battering ram pulling off a raid on a random ass weekday morning at 7am. I didn't even lower the sound on my headphones when i walked by, LOL.

That randomness doesn't happen when resources to ensure that things go smoothly a la suburbs/well to do areas.

Which is a pretty black experience.

Like being black in america can mean moving from discussing avocado toast and favorite type of Kimchi with your white co-workers and then getting a collect call from prison from your cousin.

Black movies and tv up until this point weren't great at capturing that duality. Either it's hood shit or boogie shit.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

.

Someone opened our front door and said hello a few times and then closed the front door. I went out to see who it was and when I opened the door there was an ATF officer standing there and 4 more ATF officers and 2 cop cars. I sobered up completely and he said someone told him the van in the middle of the street with all the doors open belonged to us. I said NOPE and closed the door.

Told to put the blunt out and go upstairs to the back of the house... so we could finish the blunt cause you know, it’s college.

So we are smoking in my roommates room and see a homeless dude crouches down to take a shit. We screamed for him to stop but he ignored us. My boy was eating an apple at the time and threw it at high in the air and and hit him on the head. We died laughing. Dude looked up, apologized and KIM.

We looked at each other and said “man, it’s been a crazy day and it’s only 2PM.

half those art school kids are tripping on something at any given time

and yeah, I worked at a homeless shelter AND I was an art student so I seen and heard some really wild shit.

a dude I knew put us on Ecstasy when it first made its way to VA. He ended up getting kicked out of college. Dude was up in a tree with no shirt on and a fur scarf.

They ended up taking him to an institution and his dad had to come pick him up. His dad was an Ambassador to Columbia or Panama too.

kids jumping out windows, our friend ended up kiling his friend and we still don't know why..

a homeless white dude who used to say racist shit when he was drunk didn't return to the shelter. They found his head sliced clean off on the pedestrian bridge at Belle Island.

homeless dudes would creep out the alley at 4AM and my date would scream and they would be like "yo.. what up man, sorry I ain't been in the shelter but this weather been nice.. and sorry for scaring your lady, peace man"

cus that just took me back lol

one of the best cities I ever been to for food

I get home from work on Thursday of All Star Weekend, and get home to change real fast and go DJ an all Trap concert (which ended up being SUPER random). And while I'm changing, I hear noise outside. I look outside, and................

https://twitter.com/dj_RTistic/status/964333241028128768

Them niggas were spread and frisk ready, all professional trap dudes and shit.

Bet, his mother was disabled so he had a hardship license when we were 15.
We pull up to the spot, I unbuckle my seatbelt and dude is like nah you staying in the car. He reaches in the center console, pulls out a brick, dips in the house and out
I knew he smoked, didn't know he sold up until that moment, and for damn sure didn't know that I was going along with it.

We didn't kick it much after that

our best friend from college was from the beach we had our summer house at so we'd hang out w/ him like everyday when we weren't at work.

since we moved down there mid-month and didnt lock our jobs in until almost the end of the month we were gonna be short on that first month's rent. me and him went up to the gas station one day and he hits me like "i know yall are good to pay me back once yall get a few checks saved up, how much do yall need for right now?"
"none man, we'll figure it out."
*reaches in the center console and pulls out a roll of $100s. had to be at least $5000 on it. "here's 2k man that should cover it"

my face
https://media.giphy.com/media/xyPmHxOoIc9Hi/giphy.gif

anywhere we went with that dude we were golden. got mad free shit. didnt have to pay for drinks/covers. folks would let us into exclusive resorts and shit out there. it was wild hanging out with that dude. and if we werent w/ him all we ever had to do was just drop his name and it was like the floodgates would open up.

sitting up in my own crib that i pay a mortgage on.

too many quotables in that one scene.

>sitting up in my own crib that i pay a mortgage on.
>
>too many quotables in that one scene.
>

On Katt's performance....He needs to do more drama/comedy.....

He was perfect.
He had to have improvised or written some of his own lines.

I never knew I wanted to see Katt Williams in film
And now I do,

ps when his little ass frame was running as fast as it could, i damn near died.

that got katts fingerprints all over it.

.

and looked around the room like "where's the lie?"

shit to po-po like its they amanda rights:

"I ain't DONE shit so i ain't gotta DO shit!"

you know somebody gonna try it.















**miranda








peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I died at amanda...thought it was on purpose

>ps when his little ass frame was running as fast as it could,
>i damn near died.

because if they do, he should get one

>ps when his little ass frame was running as fast as it could,
>i damn near died.

great form. down the middle of the street so he ain't trip on no roots breaking up the sidewalk.

that was a great scene. needs to be a meme / gif.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

he's afraid of fucking up his shot in life like he did was POWERFUL

Also WTF at fast food dude apparently hitting NOBODY in that opening sequence

goddamn that line hit me like a ton of bricks


I can feel damn near every emotion watching the right episode of this

Earn IS a fuck-up, or at least failing at adulthood.

When we first met him, he was staying at his baby mother's, not paying pay rent, turned away by his parents and even Alfred wasn't trying to mess with him at first. Also, jail.

Flash forward to now- STILL homeless, with a charge that has nothing to do with the shooting from the first episode?

Because of the kind of black dude Earn is, and because he's the protagonist, it's easy to gloss over, but he is a fuck-up, and his fears about ending up like his uncle are founded.

>
>Flash forward to now- STILL homeless, with a charge that has
>nothing to do with the shooting from the first episode?

neither him or albert caught any charge "connected" with a shooting. ern was arrested for the 1/2 spliff ...al for disorderly conduct

Between "Florida Man", the cold-ass sliders and "The vibe in here is starting to feel more and more like jail," I was in stitches.

LMAO

Because he was arguing with my aunt and neighbor called the police.

My small framed uncle who walks around with a chip on his shoulder (almost got into a fight and threatened to pop the trunk at my babyshower).

Had to walk out an office meeting to take the call.

Atlanta is real.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

no fight?

No nothing?

.
.

"I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that. ~ Francis Collins

lol

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

if he had to vacate quickly

At that point it's more effort than it's worth

Unless you just want to get out some aggression

most of that shit probably aint worth keeping and he aint got nowhere to take it lol

plus, why would we expect that out of Earn?

What's he fighting for?

What I look like fighting a nigga over a lamp that used to be mine.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

he would have had to COMPLETELY made himself look unrecognizeable.

each ep is gonna have to have it's own post, lol.

They didn't go as far as have someone killed (that we saw alive at some point) in the first episode but I can see how they setting the stage for a darker season.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I don't want this to turn into Atlanta SVU

i don't mind seriousness but i can't take any more black despair.
i don't like that thing where the only way to get deep is to get dark.
there has to be another way.

i love this show and i liked the good mix of lightness mixed with heavier themes last season.

i mean the uncle willy shit was "dark" but it was funny as hell too. life is like that.

The worst moment of last season is when them migos dude shot that dude in the back. Just didn't fit into anything tone-wise the show was doing.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

when Earn was going to get his jacket.

I just want to know if Darius and Earn are going to make money off those puppies.

Black dude in the woods wasn't funny though.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

but that scene didn’t move me at all.

It felt hokey IMO. Shooting someone in the dark with shades on? Shit was corny.

White dude getting shot was a mind fuck because we never see that happen.

and Earn still fucked it up.

>i mean the uncle willy shit was "dark" but it was funny as
>hell too. life is like that.
true

somebody explain this gift card scam to me.

and we was just talkin about when Earn was gonna get the come up
*SPOILERS*
























off the puppies. darius is that dude. 4k. and then this ni&&a go and put it all on what's behind door #2.

plus, earn on double secret probation. he can't be fuckin w/ no illegal shit. c'mon, son.

and *dead* at 'no chase policy'.

He just had to give dude the full 4K

THAT dude?!

Start off with a light 500, see how that goes

Also lol/smh at the trio of failed connects

nm

and try to flip the entire 4k?!
Nigga!
Start with $500!
WTF!
Dumbass.

always looking for a finesse, a corner to cut. instead of knowing when to fold em.

i dont begrudge him for trying to come up but my nigga you are broke. give like a G of that to your baby mama and then take care of yourself. maybe try to finesse 500 of it.

supposed to go to Zazie.

I figured Earn to understand that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Maybe this is insight into why his life is fucked, despite being very intelligent.

when the israelites stay doing dumb ish. it's a mirror.

watching from that good outsider perspective, or from hindsight, it's easy to see. but when you in the middle of life making fucked up decision after fucked up decision, it don't seem that way.

but, word. start off light. he gave bruhman the WHOLE 4k.

ni&&a, your drug class is like $350. you could have at least set that shit aside so you can not get a warrant.

damn.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

.

I didn't go to anything prestigious, but I chose the state school because I wanted to go to the football games. I didn't think about my living situation or how I'd react to being away from home or how interested I was in the campus culture or whether I'd want to meet anybody new; I just picked the school because I wanted to get cheap tickets to football.


Unlike Earn I was a slacker ass student but I definitely had potential; I was 1 point away from an ACT score that'd have earned me a full ride so I ran off with a bunch of grants and low-interest loans. But college just wasn't for me, I hated the culture I was surrounded by and the friends I kept mostly stayed making the situation feel weird, like I was missing something or didn't get something fundamental about the experience. Wound up meeting some trapper dude that lived near a fraternity party house and rather than go to class, I just turned that semester into the only period of my life I ever professionally sold drugs then moved back home to city college (and that's a whole other story).


But I'm thinking what probably happened with Earn is something somewhat similar (though obviously more to do with race than the general anxiety I dealt with); he went to Princeton because of one or two Big Ideas he had about what that experience would be like, quickly found that it was something else entirely (you see how quickly he bucks back at white-laced spaces like Craig's house last season or the marketing start-up in episode 2) and decided he'd rather try to cut corners or straight up fuck up than play that game. And it's dogged him ever since to the point he's looking for any shortcut he can find to put him in the position he saw going to Princeton putting him in in the first place.


I'd also read a comment in some season preview article that said one of the more interesting things about Atlanta is how its characters exist in that weird middle ground of high-poverty where you mostly feel comfortable with your station in life whether because it's all you've ever known or you're familiar enough with the idea of happiness that you can manufacture it moment to moment. But these characters let themselves get trapped by those moments of happiness and constantly forget or put off how dire their situation is in the grand scheme of things; Van's episode last season was a perfect example of that mindset I'm all too familiar with, of fucking up right when you're on the cusp of leading a normal adult life because somehow your mind convinces you you might not have been worth that regular life anyway. It's definitely refreshing to see in a non-David Simon, comedic setting, but the laughter doesn't necessarily hide the pain.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

and not his manager at the streaming place (I think that's what it was.) Because that's the type of place where you should lead with your professional relationship. But at the same time, it's hard to take him seriously in a "manager" role when he gave that dude $4k and thought he'd get double that back ON A MALL GIFT CARD. I know he only did it in part because Al told him to trust him, but Earn's managerial skills don't seem to go much farther than "can talk to white people that Al's too frustrated to talk to."

this nigga gave 4000 to a nigga fresh out for gift cards?

Like.. you can't buy no weed with gift cards bruh

.

Just Epic. Earn was right too, it actually was dope. LMAO!

.

commercial episode

he should've had al ready for that meeting and in a better mood (idk what he can do with no money and resources, but if he's a manager, he's gotta manage)

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Dude has the super Ray Liotta/Gillie the Kid face when something pisses him off

https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/atlanta-review-sportin-waves-recap-spoilers-paper-boi/

One of the great joys of watching Atlanta, ironically, is the look of withering disdain that Brian Tyree Henry can conjure up whenever Alfred’s unhappy with the world around him. It’s a look at once so pronounced and so pure that it wouldn’t be out of place in a sitcom from TV’s first golden age (Henry’s size, plus the sheer exasperation on his face, can feel positively Gleason-esque), even as it also fits perfectly into the half-surreal/half-raw world of this one.

Much of “Sportin’ Waves” is about Al reckoning with the many downsides to Paper Boi’s popularity, which makes it a particularly delightful showcase for that scowl of his.

The episode opens with Al getting ripped off by a longtime drug connect who assumes he’s too rich from the musical career to miss the money. The problem — beyond the guy taking Al’s car keys — is that the music business doesn’t pay the way anybody thinks it does, and weed is still where Al gets most of his income. This leads him looking for a new reup, but his fame keeps getting in the way: One guy sneaks a selfie of him (and posts it to Instagram even as he’s lying about doing it), while another is a big fan with a girlfriend who does a sensitive acoustic cover of Paper Boi’s single, and sends him so many texts in a row that an infuriated Al chucks his phone out the window.

The music biz does offer opportunities this time out, but they come with their own irritations. A good chunk of the episode takes place at the office of a music streaming service, who are offering Al and Earn a big check in exchange for a series of awkward meetings — the moment where no one can figure out how to play the new Paper Boi album was pitch perfect (I’ve experienced plenty of similarly mortifying and interminable technical glitches at technology companies) — and a performance for a group of bored cubicle drones who can barely be bothered to pay attention to this week’s celebrity guest meant to reward them for working too many hours for not enough pay.

At least Al comes out of the event with some money, albeit not as much as another local rap star, Clark, who in addition to getting a more enthusiastic response from the streaming execs lands a lucrative Yoohoo commercial. Earn finally lives up to his name when Darius gives him the belated payment for the dog trade he made back in season one’s “The Streisand Effect” — a nice bit of continuity on a show that can be agnostic about it — but blows it by getting too greedy and going along with Tracy’s(*) promise that he can double the money via a bootleg mall gift card. So instead of having four grand to spend as needed — say, to help make Earn a bit less homeless — the scam gets discovered and Earn has to race to spend whatever he can in about twenty minutes, which proves to be less than the original amount, much of it used to buy stuff he doesn’t even need. And Tracy, meanwhile, manages to walk out with several boxes of stolen sneakers, due to the store’s no-chase policy, though the job interview he’s so confident about doesn’t go quite as well, transforming his assured smile into an angry and profane rant about racist hiring practices.

(*) Game recognize game: Tracy, a character on one of TV’s best and most unusual comedies, offers a brief bit of critical analysis of another when he tells Earn his conflicted feelings about BoJack Horseman, and how he admires the show’s artistry but isn’t sure he can tolerate BoJack himself. A beautiful and unexpected TV nerd joke.

In not much time, Tracy’s proven to be a fine addition to the group, even if he’s cutting into the amount of Darius a bit. “Sportin’ Waves” didn’t have anything quite as surprising as the premiere’s fast food robbery or alligator saunter, but it’s one of the series’ most consistent — and consistently funny — installments yet.

We was dying when dude put the pistol
on Al in the beginning talk bout
"Paperboy, my bad bruh. I'll pay you back"


When Homie took off the durag and they did the
slow close up from behind, oh ma god!
Dude had that hard ass line on the forehead too
*dead*

My boy woke up with a pistol in his face. Dude who sold him some weed after a basketball game circled back and got him.

They were sloppy as shit and way too trusting to deal with grimey Philly niggas.

First mistake was letting him know where you live, second was letting him inside to see your goods.

Dude tied up my boy and was like “sorry man, but someone robbed me so I have to rob you”

my boy said.. can you leave me $20. Dude was like “aight... “ and put a 20 in his shirt pocket , then he took a few steps and was like “naaah, sorry man, imma need that 20”

>my boy said.. can you leave me $20. Dude was like “aight...
>“ and put a 20 in his shirt pocket , then he took a few
>steps and was like “naaah, sorry man, imma need that 20”

to get them to change the locks

landlord: so they picked the lock, kicked the door in, how did they get in?

Silence... then we look at our friends roommate who never locks the door.

Friend screams: "but we should still change the locks right?"

landlord: yeah. that would help... by the way...I watched Law & Order Special Victims Unit last night

we look at each other, get up and leave

landlord: where you going? ah cmon.. no sense of humor?

>My boy woke up with a pistol in his face. Dude who sold him
>some weed after a basketball game circled back and got him.
>
>They were sloppy as shit and way too trusting to deal with
>grimey Philly niggas.
>
>First mistake was letting him know where you live, second was
>letting him inside to see your goods.
>
>Dude tied up my boy and was like “sorry man, but someone
>robbed me so I have to rob you”
>
>my boy said.. can you leave me $20. Dude was like “aight...
>“ and put a 20 in his shirt pocket , then he took a few
>steps and was like “naaah, sorry man, imma need that 20”

>
>my boy said.. can you leave me $20. Dude was like “aight...
>“ and put a 20 in his shirt pocket , then he took a few
>steps and was like “naaah, sorry man, imma need that 20”

WOW.

sucks for him, but this is a good story

Dude was a good sport when retelling the story tho...

I told the nigga “whatever you do, please don’t gag me”

Bruh, you out here reminding criminals how to do their job?

>When Homie took off the durag and they did the
>slow close up from behind, oh ma god!
>Dude had that hard ass line on the forehead too
>*dead*

yooooo. that scene kilt me. b/c at first you're transfixed by this ni&&a's waves. the way that they shot it was brilliant. tracy's waves embodied all his hopes and dreams. we watching the interview w/ a picture of the hiring manager framed by these pristine waves (and i was dyin that they had dude wait until he actually crossed the threshold of the damn door before he took the doo rag off. smh)


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

He strikes me as someone who absolutely would have started out with a lower amount to see if it works.

Other than that cool ep.

but that could mean he gave him 2K and dude put 4K on it

Ain't no way if you still got $2k on you you don't just grab an Uber.

He gave him half

... when you're homeless, but Earn is his own worst enemy

he wasn't able to spend the 4K because the scam was found out. he had to get what he could which didn't even come out to the 4K he initially put into it, let alone the 8K he was supposed to have had.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

.

$4K--he can, for example (among everything else $4k brings to a broke person), comfortably get a redo on the embarrassing dinner date from S1..and he just lets it ride on something as flimsy as that? don't see it either

Rewound it a few times to make sure.

Also, was that Biebs from last season standing on the table rapping at the media company?

"Comedy about depressed people in LA" is it's own subgenre at this point.

My question is though, what level is Paperboi at? Cuz from the sound of it, he's a low level mixtape rapper with one semi-popular street song....is he really getting a showcase at NPR/Spotify (looked like some tiny desk concert shit) off of that? I know this is the kind of show that wouldn't just show you everything, but has he done any concerts? worked with anyone? put out anymore music? etc.

I'm just a little taken out of it when he's getting these looks based off of some shit that has a couple thousand youtube views

So it’s not really uncommon for local companies to jump on board...

and these days you don’t even have to do shows. It’s strictly streams, YouTube, IG and buzz.

It’s hilarious watching him not feel like doing to promote his music.

a lot of these tech/media companies have people coming through every other day if their name is trending or they seem vibe-y at all.

It's a bit weird that they've got an ATL office but not really, I can think of offices in detroit that would have a day that looked like that.


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

and it seems like "Paperboi" has a lot of legs though I'm also getting the feeling this season is just a couple months after the end of the last one.

If I had to put him at any sort of tier, I'd say he's definitely not Trouble but he's probably somewhere between VL Deck and Bambino Gold? Leaning more toward the former than the latter since we don't really hear about him getting features like that.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

it was a much different in tone from the previous eps, and it worked well

it was a great exploration of the shit Black men have to do to get by in America and how much we fuck up, get fucked, are frustrated, yet still hella smart/talented/resourceful...

the Spotify/NPR office scene(s) was eerie as fuck (Get Out vibes) and so accurate (I worked next to NPR a couple yrs ago) and they repp'd the Black-White office space relationships so fucn well

Darius and Al trying to get a new connect was weed/hood-suburb culture to the nth degree

the opening scene was a bit much for me, it felt forced funny

but yeah, i really love the levels of this show

the three weed incidents underscored aspects of coming up.

1 - Al's plug robbed him. he starts off w/ some of what seems like banter, tellin dude how much he like his new shit. Al seemed like he was lightweight annoyed w/ that to me, but he always seems uneasy w/ fame. (side note: showing dude all antsy in the backseat and all the pauses was great for setting the tone that something was about to jump off). ultimately, weedman's praise is indicative. he robbed dude b/c he thought (like so many of us think) that notoriety == bank. Al got mad and was like, "i ain't makin no fuckin money off that shit" but it was too late at that point.

2 - darius' homey putting dude up on social media. so now Al can't buy his weed in peace, b/c dude is putting him on blast on s/m. again, the compliments on his music, etc. again, al is uneasy w/ that. fool takes ANOTHER picture and posts it immediately. so the assumption of paperboi's fame would have been a come up for this weed man, b/c he could stunt on social media and prolly pick up new customers.

3 - white dude w/ the farm connect. seems like he about that business. he not blasting out the info in public, but he line stepping in assuming familiarity and putting dude in a group chat w/ his girl.


so, to sum, if you een LOOK like you making moves,ppl gonna start

- assuming you got $$$ and try to take you for bad
- using your fame to big up themselves
- ingratiate themselves into your life in ways you ain't ask for or need

that's a lot, and especially when the come up is on the up slope, meaning you haven't reaped the benefits but people making assumptions about different shit you can do or be to them.

that has got to be all kinds of frustrating.

any of our okfamous folk wanna add on?


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

You see Al and Earn with all of these white people who can't relate and aren't really interested in trying to connect with them.

Add to that, there's that vibe that Earn calls out where the black people there seem.....iono decorative or something like that. There's a token black employee and there's a kid rapping on a table in the board room similar to those videos of rappers like Bobby Shmurda and Ugly God.....modern-day minstrelsy? As someone else already noted, this felt like the silent auction scene from Get Out.

And the scene's point becomes obvious when that white guy from the radio station in S1 is an employee there.....because of course a white dude who uses the N-Word flippantly would be there somewhere.



SN: Two episodes in, I think I'm starting to grasp why this season is called Robbin' Season. Perhaps the point of this season isn't so much on the narrative but on the feeling of having something taken. So far we have actual robberies and scenes where people think they have something only to be disappointed when they don't.

I don't know where y'all work, but at a lot of "we're getting money" ass offices, they have artists of various stripes come in and perform. any artist who has come to your town on tour prolly has a few of these lined up that same day.

if it is a media office? allllll the time.

at least tiny desk is going to be seen by somebody. having to do a couple songs at midday for 40 year old white people because the office manager heard your song on spotify and they tossed you a few grand has to be some hellish shit.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

>at least tiny desk is going to be seen by somebody. having to
>do a couple songs at midday for 40 year old white people
>because the office manager heard your song on spotify and they
>tossed you a few grand has to be some hellish shit.

they played the backing track and it was all tinny, and paper boi was mailing in his ad libs. and you look into the 'audience' and it's frank, from marketing, eating a banana and staring at you like you an exhibit.

conversely, that other black dude on the table in the office across the building was TURNT. some people got patience for that, i guess?


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

that can lead to more money, streams, commercials, etc...

can be called minstrelly.

I don’t think it is tho..

Unless you actually work there and they you perform at lunch for the fuck of it.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Even though the setup is similar, the point there is that there is an appreciation of the artist present in ways that don't seem as evident is those 'rapper on the table' videos.

The Tiny Desk performance are basically a companion to whatever piece NPR is doing on the artist.

When I see the rappers on the table, there's more of a desperation in their performance.....as if those rappers have to nail it in order to come up so they overcompensate by jumping on the table.

Also, the vibe in those videos just feels off. There are clearly people there in those videos that couldn't care less about the artist outside of trying to figure how they can capitalize. I'm not saying that doesn't happen at NPR as well but it's not as evident in those Tiny Desk videos to me.

Bottom line: The more I type, the more I realize my gripe is probably more with how white people choose to engage black culture in spaces they control. There's a detachment that many of them have that feels off to me.

---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

have to rap and sing for obvious reasons.

I don’t think it’s desperation tho

Just performing for people who may help you make money... so you can help them make money

I was about to say relatively few black folks get on any ways. But I just checked their most recent uploads and it's looking real colorful lol.

But no. Nothing problematic with Tiny Desk. It's just normal performances in an unorthodox setting

It’s Black folk... prolly performing for mostly white folk.

and that’s what this is really about.

Performing for white people.

I guess Tiny Desk is okay because we get to watch it too.

they literally dancing for label deals; Shmurda def. had the bodies he on him in the back of his mind when he hopped on the table.

NPR Tiny Desk came out of a bunch of indie rock videos that would have bands play in different places (like la blogotheque). While we can make the argument is still performing for white people (which, lol, is hard not to do in 2018) , a least in the later its a live document linked to a news story along with presumably interested folks in the crowd. There ain't no real difference between Tiny Desk and MTV Unplugged outside of the venue.

With that table dancing shit its literally for the entertainment for the 12 people in the crowd with the insinuation that you gotta 'impress them, or else'

I think y'all reaching with this shit.

>I think y'all reaching with this shit.

In that case everyone who performs live is shucking and jiving.

My thing is there's a big difference between someone shooting a live video performance to be showcased on their website...

...and a nigga dancing in hopes that the white people in front of him MIGHT cut him a check/put him on a splash page for more streams.

You show up at NPR, they shoot the video, you get a nice writeup on their site, they get content you get free advertisement. You scratch my back, ill scratch yours. No diff. then a network tv appearance except for the millennial generation since they don't actually watch tv

You show up dancing at Atlantic records; ain't no professional video footage going up on youtube, ain't no link to their website, ain't nothing. You gotta HOPE you totally win over Chad and them to give you that deal and still even if you get that deal you may get no further than dancing on that table, lol

>It’s Black folk... prolly performing for mostly white folk.
>
>
>and that’s what this is really about.
>
>Performing for white people.


Most big concerts in the Country for big artist are for white audiences.




>
>I guess Tiny Desk is okay because we get to watch it too.
>
>
>
>


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Lithuainian Alt Rock

Madagascar Folk Singer

Trap Rappers

Opera Singers


Eh'ry body

and google?

i assumed it was somebody Earn new from college.

that makes it even more foul that dude was like, 'if he ain't getting it done, get at me'.

earn got dissed pretty much by his cuz and by this asswipe in the same scene.

only one who's self esteem still intact is darius.



peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

i thought it wasnt at first because they introduced him to paperboy and he already met him in S1.

at all

>You see Al and Earn with all of these white people who can't
>relate and aren't really interested in trying to connect with
>them.
>
>Add to that, there's that vibe that Earn calls out where the
>black people there seem.....iono decorative or something like
>that. There's a token black employee and there's a kid
>rapping on a table in the board room similar to those videos
>of rappers like Bobby Shmurda and Ugly God.....modern-day
>minstrelsy? As someone else already noted, this felt like the
>silent auction scene from Get Out.
>
>And the scene's point becomes obvious when that white guy from
>the radio station in S1 is an employee there.....because of
>course a white dude who uses the N-Word flippantly would be
>there somewhere.
>
>
>
>SN: Two episodes in, I think I'm starting to grasp why this
>season is called Robbin' Season. Perhaps the point of this
>season isn't so much on the narrative but on the feeling of
>having something taken. So far we have actual robberies and
>scenes where people think they have something only to be
>disappointed when they don't.
>
>

I don't remember anyone calling him a coon at the time tho

and I'm sure every rapper since then is trying to be the next Ye

folks had no issue with it but when Schmurda did it this place called him all types of coons

a few white business people for business, forever.

This is not something new.



>I don't remember anyone calling him a coon at the time tho
>
>and I'm sure every rapper since then is trying to be the next
>Ye
>
>folks had no issue with it but when Schmurda did it this place
>called him all types of coons
>
>


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

It's hard to explain why different situations are different. They just feel "off".

When you watch the vid of Designer dancing on a boardroom table, you get a negative vibe (at least I do). Like an "entertain me clown" vibe.
Kanye was up on a table at Facebook HQ, but it wasn't the same vibe. Hard to explain why. It just feels different

designer and shmurda up there jumping around like crackheads

even blac youngsta didnt look as odd as they did.

that we know about?

Damn bruh, Ye got you triggered like shit

He got his deal with Epic records after that meeting. God dropped before the album came out though. I get that people need to feel the energy of the artist before signing them so it's not so cut and dry. That said, what they showed on Atlanta had that "vibe" to it where I was thinking there's gotta be another way.

Knight and then getting their ass whipped.

Artist performing on the spot for music executives isn't something new is my only point.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

He was going to different A&R meetings jumping on people's desks when he performed/presented his work at the time (College Dropout).


---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

It was a red flag for meeting with Trump and everything else like that he would do years later.

earn getting robbed and played in various ways.

donald firing wiiiiild shots at the rap game too

Michael Vick running races outside Onyx haha

https://twitter.com/DragonflyJonez/status/974474946419265541/

Michael Fucking Vick. LMAO

That line from the series premiere pretty much summed up Earn the entire episode. Dude couldn't stop getting stunted on. Even the strip club DJ kept calling him out.

also Clark County got me weeeeeeeeeeak
i would never put hands on you...but im not the only person in the world with hands you know

I haven't laughed that hard since, "I threw that shit before I came in the room."

>Even the strip club DJ kept calling him out.

im still laughing at that. "yeah you..with that wackass coca-cola tshirt.."

Only to immediately freestyle about weed and liquor. Hmmmmmm


Al's going to fire Earn by the end of this season (or at least try to.) If Al was his own manager, how would his career even be different right now?

>Al's going to fire Earn by the end of this season (or at least
>try to.) If Al was his own manager, how would his career even
>be different right now?


the hands of that DJ.

Also it seems like Earn is the one who got Al hooked up with that streaming company.

game breakdown was a Black sociological masterpiece

I LOVE that they had a remake of the lady crying about Norf Norf's lyrics.

And the fact that it pushed a single to 500K copies sold was the perfect catapult of his career for this show.

hahahaha

hold it together anymore.

Not the stuff about suckin my tree sap or whatever.

.

I was like wow...so that's the line that pushes everything over the top?!

Dope how that was portrayed

but the strip club DJ had me rolling!!

Van and Earn seem to be on better terms

Who takes their straight (?) girlfriend to a strip club?

>Who takes their straight (?) girlfriend to a strip club?

.. who have taken their girls to strip joints, and a few whose sig others actually love them like men do. So that wasn't all that alien to me.

some girls don't look at strip clubs as exploitation at all and see it more as like, "I just could never put myself out there like that"


I'm really not about strip clubs at all, it's not the vibe for me. a girl I used to date took ME to the club lol.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

on some feminist supporting women and being cheerleaders for them...i love that shit.

d

but last episode he DID actually try to pull a Gift card scam.

So he isn't exactly above suspicion (not that THEY knew that)

yeah guess it was only $2k

http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/atlanta-robbin-season-every-pop-culture-reference.html

Dude got played by a hookah-bar owner. That was just awful.

i aint even gonna link it so yall dont give them the clicks. they'll never understand we still love Mike Vick.

In 2001, Michael Vick was selected as the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons. Not only that, but he was the first African-American quarterback to be taken with the top pick, after registering the fastest 40-yard-dash speed of any QB in the history of the NFL combine.

In other words, he’s a hugely popular figure in Atlanta who’s well-known nationwide for his quick feet. And if that’s all there was to the retired athlete’s story, the third episode of “Atlanta: Robbin’ Season” would’ve gone off without a hitch. Up until Vick’s cameo in the final minute, Episode 3, “Money Bag Shawty,” is an exemplary illustration of institutionalized racism — with Donald Glover’s Earn spending an entire night trying to stunt on people, only to end up getting shut down time and time again.

But once Vick shows up, the conversation shifts. Why is Michael Vick in this episode? Why is he on this show? More specifically, why are the producers of “Atlanta” paying and, arguably, celebrating a man who spent 21 months in federal prison for running a dogfighting ring?

Read More:The Best TV Shows on Each Network, Right Now – March 2018
To set the scene (for those who haven’t watched), Earn emerges from a strip club to discover Michael Vick outside racing people for money. “Is he doing OK?” Earn asks, concerned about an athlete who signed a $62 million contract as a rookie and earned $5 million for one season as recently as 2014 (years after he filed for bankruptcy). “Oh, he’s fine,” an onlooker says. “It’s just a good hustle. Drunk people just want to race him. It’s his sixth race in the 10 minutes I’ve been standing here.”

At this point, a winded runner vouches for the game, saying competitors get three-to-one odds. So Earn says he’ll do it, much to the surprise of Van (Zazie Beetz). “Sometimes you’ve just got to stunt on people,” Earn says, summing up his main goal for the night. “And also I haven’t run six races in 10 minutes.”

Earn steps to the line, gets a knowing glance from Vick, and takes off. The music swells and he even beats Vick off the jump… but he loses. Van sums it up plainly in the dejected limo ride home: “It’s Michael Vick!”

As a joke, it’s executed flawlessly. Earn tries everything he can think of to show off and make himself feel like a big shot — not in a bad, egotistical way, but as a means to lift his morale and boost a depleted ego. After all, Earn’s the guy who buys a homeless man McDonald’s, and the homeless guy throws the food away. (And Earn, himself, was homeless just a few episodes back. He might still be homeless.) Earn deserves to feel proud of his accomplishments by spending his hard-earned money, but be it a racist cashier (or theater policy), a racist lounge owner, or a hustle that’s too big for Earn to topple (“You don’t save money at a strip club,” Alfred says), he can’t find a way to stunt on anyone in his hometown.

ATLANTA Robbin' Season -- "Sportin’ Waves" -- Season Two, Episode 2 (Airs Thursday, March 8, 10:00 p.m. e/p) Pictured: Donald Glover as Earnest Marks, Brian Tyree Henry as Alfred Miles. CR: Guy D'Alema/FX

Not even Michael Vick. But why did it have to be Michael Vick? Why did this joke need Vick to be the punctuation mark? There doesn’t seem to be a good answer for that. Though the former quarterback holds a special place in Atlanta sports culture (especially for black fans — his groundbreaking position in the draft and unprecedented speed gave him game-changing potential, making him an instant icon in the community), the fact remains he comes with baggage outside of football and so many other Atlantan athletes do not.

Read More:‘Atlanta’ Review: A Shocking First Scene Sets the Table for ‘Robbin’ Season,’ But Let’s Not Forget ‘Florida Man’
Current stars like Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman might have balked at playing themselves while racing for money outside a strip club, but retired athletes like Josh Smith (nine seasons with the Atlanta Hawks), Roddy White (10 years with the Falcons), and Herschel Walker (born in Georgia and won the Heisman Trophy while playing at Georgia University) could’ve subbed in without the troubling background. It didn’t really have to be an athlete: Throw in a line of dialogue about how there’s a track star racing people out back or a former Olympic athlete or anyone who’s known for running (but an amateur might think they can beat), and the scene would’ve played out similarly — minus Van’s kicker, “It’s Michael Vick.”

So why employ someone who, mildly put, is a controversial figure? (Less mildly put, he’s a man who drowned and/or hanged multiple dogs and tortured countless others.) Some believe Vick is a rehabilitated man; a criminal who served his time and worked hard to repair the damage he caused. He’s become somewhat of an activist for animal rights after his prison stint, advocating that spectators at dog fights, let alone the organizers, face harsher penalties. But no matter what you believe about his current state (since he has financially benefitted from fixing his image), his presence is still a confounding distraction.

Is the fact that he’s gambling on himself instead of gambling on dogs supposed to be part of the joke? Is there a purpose to making that association? Should we be focusing on the fact that this is Michael Vick at all? Such questions don’t lend themselves to the main theme of the episode (Earn looking to become the stunter instead of the stuntee), nor is it a meta “stunt” to see Earn get beat by someone the audience would’ve loved to see humiliated. Vick isn’t humiliated in the show or by it; if anything, he’s celebrated.

Writing this as a white person invites comparisons to the episode’s opening, where an offended suburban mom complains about Paper Boi’s lyrics being played on the radio. And while there might be a communication breakdown because this author (and other white viewers, presumably) aren’t in tune with Earn’s world, typically “Atlanta’s” writers (Stephen Glover, in this case) do a thorough job of making sure everyone understands their perspective. Often the clarity invoked through situational comedy and drama is the entire point of the episode, and the rest of “Money Bag Shawty” illustrates as much.

The final scene feels different. In general, it doesn’t seem pertinent to be discussing Michael Vick again in 2018. It feels like an uncommon and unwanted hindrance for a show that’s typically streamlined in its messaging, and it puts a blemish on an otherwise exquisite episode (and season so far). Will Vick play a bigger role in future episodes? Will his purpose become clearer as we learn more about “Robbin’ Season” and Earn’s new journey? For now, Michael Vick didn’t just earn money from “Atlanta”; he’s validated by being part of its cast. And that doesn’t feel like what the episode wants us to focus on.

Katt sucked for his domestic issues but lets not forget it was tied directly to his drug addictions/mental health and everyone got it, man, woman and more often than not Katt himself.

Vick we’ve discussed ad nauseum on the boards.

I see the hustle tho; these white writers need to fill their article quota and its hard to stand out in the crowd where all the reviews of that show is, “Another classic episode”. Glover and co are squeaky clean so might as well nitpick on what will get news, and the lowest lying fruit with least resistence are black boogymen. Thing is these are the same liberal white writers who believe they have no racist bones in their body.

>>I see the hustle tho; these white writers need to fill their article quota and its hard to stand out in the crowd where all the reviews of that show is, “Another classic episode”. Glover and co are squeaky clean so might as well nitpick on what will get news, and the lowest lying fruit with least resistence are black boogymen. Thing is these are the same liberal white writers who believe they have no racist bones in their body.


Same wit BP

Just let it slide

It was fucking funny, Vick did his time, let him live, every little pang of discomfort you feel isnt worth 100 paragraphs of fake deep thought

>Vick did his time,

Dude went out of his way forever to make amends. Above and beyond what was necessary. He more than paid his dues.

He did wrong. Got arrested, did his time, made amends. At some point, you either believe in the justice system or you don't. If you wanted him punished for life, he should've gotten a life sentence.

He didn't. He's done. That shit was the biggest laugh of the episode and I loved it. No, it wouldn't have worked with another athlete and fuck aliens.
______________________________________________________________________________

"To Each His Reach"

but.....

Fuck aliens.

But I also don't think Louie (our his stand-ups) should've been scrubbed from the world just because Louis CK jerked off in front of some women who didn't ask for it, or that it's hard to watch "The Usual Suspects" now because Kevin Spacey is a freak.


Herschel Walker is in wild shape but he's also 56 damn years old and, like, NEVER gave off a strip club vibe anyway. That's when you know this writer is just looking to be messy for the hell of it.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

they just killed all his current deals, and productions. But his stand up's are still on Netflix, Louie and Horace and Pete are still on Hulu, etc...

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Mike Vick fighting dogs wouldn't be into a show like Atlanta in the first place lol

>But once Vick shows up, the conversation shifts. Why is
>Michael Vick in this episode? Why is he on this show? More
>specifically, why are the producers of “Atlanta” paying
>and, arguably, celebrating a man who spent 21 months in
>federal prison for running a dogfighting ring?

playing at the theater

That made a pretty great episode go to GOAT put that shit in text books and teach it at Harvard episode.

Is Donald Glover trolling White People with Michael VIck...and White People's favorite negroes like Pharrell?!?!?




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I think the rapper dude is more supposed to represent Donald himself.

Nigga said “he’s already ran 3 races”

Cmon b.

made me smh.....I knew that money was gone.

He honestly thought he stood a chance in a foot race against a professional football player who made his name on his speed.

How Earn?

Hopefully there's a point with Earn where he stops being a fuckup and actually gets some shit done.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

and by that I mean Vick is still a God to Black Atlanta and folks like Glover prolly grew up hearing about these type of stories.

I remember the first time I went to Atlanta was for Freaknik. Shit was WILD because you have 2 parent households with educated Black kids, Spelman, Clark, Morehouse, transplants from the northeast living the good life in these big houses, southern hip hop just taking off AND you have local ATL kids who are hood as fuck robbing all these cats during Freaknik.

Add in the strip clubs and ball players and it’s a melting pot of WTF did I just see on any given weekend.

and I think Glover was trolling himself and hip hop in 2018. Niggas can say and do anything in the studio and the nicest cats still have grimey dudes on their team to handle shit.

That ending in the studio was foul.

>That ending in the studio was foul.

and i'm actually disappointed that we saw that coming..they set it up and we knew the guy would fail again and he did

but just knowing what happened off screen was hella disturbing to me

d

e.
>
>Is Donald Glover trolling White People with Michael VIck...and
>White People's favorite negroes like Pharrell?!?!?
>
>
>
>
>**********

Yeah, I was thinking Clark County was Pharrell too because he always talks about having goons or someone on payroll to take you out; but I can also see how it could be Donald himself. Shit was still funny as hell. Poor soundboard guy though.

His face said "Gaaaaahdamn".

I had a horrible engineering night like that once, but they didn't beat me up, lol. Shit be choosing the worst fuckin times to not work.

<=========================================
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYzh4v9cSf4FDnq3yMQyqNqh79o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4079674/jlio.0.gif

i thought they were just referencing him, but then they actually showed him and i was like, oh, damn.

"he just like racing people".

when he walked out the club and ppl was buzzing i legit thought it was another invisible car sighting.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

thing. I've had them check my big bills many times. Never flat out refuse though.

Is this a common experience for folk?




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

But I don't go to clubs and what not so I've never had it refused 'cause the promotion wanted to flex on me or was paranoid about not squeezing every dime out of their clientele.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

just didn't have enough change to break it, but that's about it.

I know a lot of people are in "I don't carry case" mode but there are still a lot of people that do carry cash and I've never seen somebody have a particular hard time breaking a $100.

The whole scene with the club owner getting to cops to throw him out for what was actually a real 100 was particularly bizarre but I guess that's kind of the theme for the show.

and usually they use the “we don’t have change” as an excuse

I remember there was an OKP who kept getting upset the place he went for lunch wouldn’t break a hundred or gave him a hard time.

At the time I shrugged but now it sounds hilarious.

places where people are spending large amounts of money whether its a club, restaurant, grocery store, department store, etc. its usually not that big of an issue lol

Clubs and strip clubs, sure..

>Clubs and strip clubs, sure..
>
>

i get got off a bad 20, fool me once...


i get got off a bad 100, won't fool me a second time (c) dubya.

i kinda read into it as earn never be having no money so he's out there doing shit he thinks ppl w/ money do. flashing 100s is almost a different era of stunting? i don't be in the skreets like that no more so i can't call it on how real that is.

that's how i took it, tho.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

or a guy like Earn.

Part of it was racial, and part of it is Earn just doesn't look like a guy who would have 100s

My wife doesn’t follow the show so she was chiming in heated as shit

I wanted to put her up on the joke but I thought it was hilarious watching it go down in real time.

Paperboy even said it.. “you don’t look like a guy who spends hunnids”

and real talk, besides the strip club I think damn near every time someone pulls one out it seems to cause more trouble than it’s worth.

I guess it helps that he looks like Donald Glover who is super successful in the real world, but to me he looks and dresses like a nerdy Black dude with an office job on his day off

White boys can look bummy as shit and no one assumes they broke. Black dude does it and it don't work that way.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

how black friends were clowning him for wearing the same shirt he wore 2 weeks ago

early early bill burr

there's a reason that a white dude dressed just like you can walk into a bank and get a loan, and you can't even spend a $100 bill.

but yeah, dude looks mad bummy on this show for obvious reasons

for the look you're describing the detailing would have to be on point

like, you can have a nappy beard, natural hair and a vintage shirt
BUTYATOTALLYGOTTA
add in some fresh nikes, vans, a herschel bag, nice watch....just a few small things to signify money

everybody was playing Earn.


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

But a bigger takeaway for me was how douche it is to even have a $100 bill lol

>But a bigger takeaway for me was how douche it is to even
>have a $100 bill lol

outside of that context I can't see getting such a hard time dropping a hundo.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and most times they are annoyed because even if they have it..

Surely there will be more people buying stuff.

That was definitely some bull. Dude showing the gun was random and unnecessary but everyone gets to stunt on Earn

probably $20 a pop shouldn't have been a big deal.

And most clubs welcome people that are carrying $100 bills lol

And they took him with no problems

but I thought it was obvious what this ep was trying to show

It ain’t just about money. Folks think once they get money they can stunt but honestly, stuntin’ is dumb as fuck. Get all that money so you can give it right back and you cant even get respect/appreciation while doing it?

when he flashed the gun?

I audibly reacted with a "bitch-ass..."

nm

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

He just seems like one of those characters added to a show so one of the "main" characters can die without really effecting anything.

Like them characters from the Sopranos that gets out of jail and you knew they wouldn't make it to end of the season.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Like stealing gum at the gas station

First we was really good. Now I kind of see why my friend wasn’t feeling the first 3 episodes when he was sent a teaser. But after the first episode and fan reaction he cjanged his tine because he didn’t want to be THAT guy.

Just didn't know what you were going to get each weak. The first episode was like that too with the robbery opening.

The last couple of episodes have been more of a traditional 30 minute series about young people dealing with coming up in the music industry.

Now it has more of a familar structure like Insecure or something. Last season there was barely a continuous storyline (what happened to the dude that got shot?!?)

It will still be a good show if it stays like the last two episodes. But it won't be as special as last season.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>

Where they go to the German fest....

Thankfully hopefully that means after this ep all the spoilers in that article will be accounted for.

First half was a quirky make fun of european festival shit so ya think it's gonna be a lighthearted episode

Then they hit you with the tyson blows:

Van's absolutely dope; pretty, smart, engaging, yada yada yada...but that motherfucker hast taken more L's than anyone on the show by miles. She can't buy a win.

Ern was a fantastic overview on how shellshocked men are concerning their feelings; it was a car wreck the whole episode. Even white boy put him onto game early and still he found a way to be a continuous dick. Even in the end he couldda saved the day but he was too out of touch of his own feelings to commit either way. We all know this road: I can even tell ya whats gonna happen off screen. He's gonna get into some weird fight with Paperboi or some random dude, might find himself in some easy pussy..basically for days he's gonna wonder why he's in a pissy and weird mood pushing thoughts of Van to the side cause conciously he thinks he's just giving her space to 'get over it' when subconsciously he knows he fucked up major and his brain ain't catch up with reality yet


Also notice that flex on marijuana use to avoid dealing with feelings. It was less about a critique on drug (cause Darius) but their use of it to avoid confrontaton

The episode reminded me of 'Tell Me You Love Me', an old HBO show that buzz for 'realistic' sex had a plot following three different couples where you think its gonna be fucking and fun; instead it was the most horrifying thing on TV. Just merciless closeup ring side seats to relationships tearing apart in slow motion...like Game of Thrones but meaner, lol.

Was a fan of Tell Me You Love Me.
I was invested and wanted the couples to win in the end.
Good and sad show.

...bu really keeps shooting himself in the foot with a fucking bazooka.

Like Reg said above, the white dude put him up on the game early on, but he still chose to be a dick.

And clearly he didn't listen at all to his uncle.

But yeah, that Germantown shit was so strange. I felt like I was stoned for the first half of the show, and then the emotional gut punches.

It's worth it if we don't gotta really deal with her again. Paperboi and Darius are the real entertainment, so without them at all, the show lacked.

How come all of Van's friends are all so awful? I'd like if the show had a woman that's actually likeable, and dark skin...

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my homey from school wrote the episode.
**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

for a second i felt like a saw a few exes in Van

and i saw myself in Earn, not realizing when a woman is fed up and you are losing her

This was the type of date a woman takes you in when she wants you to break up with her.

That shit was brutal.

she regrets choosing Black, definitely regrets choosing Earn

Earn didn’t help himself but damn, that was some wack white white white shit and all the rules/games/costumes screamed GET OUT

she just wants Earn to be something he's not and will never be.

>she just wants Earn to be something he's not and will never
>be.

White.. and German.

she was tight at that hilarious dinner party last season because Earn pretended to be the husband/dad of her dreams and showed how easy he could do it if he wanted to.

edit: for the record that german fest was wack as shit. i dont blame him for being annoyed.

but it sure seems like all the stuff she wants Earn to do compromise his Blackness. Juneteenth at white dudes house with slave drinks and shit. Germantown weirdo shit where he is the only Black man for miles.

it really looks like she wants Earn to be a white dude.

Yeah, you had the subtext of white vs black but that was with the homegirl.

Ern wouldda been salty if it was some boho holistic festival where it’s a bunch of black women getting into their chakras listening to Badu, he wouldda been salty if it was her homegirls ‘Living Single’ themed party. Ern wasn’t into anything that wasn’t on HIS time and things outside of that were seen as an annoyance (him being her date at the bougie party last year). That’s the line that delineates a true relationship: when you’re obliged to do stuff you don’t want to do, LOL.

There was a meme on twitter I came across that was like, ‘Dating men is pretending you like watching someone else play videogames’. Ern was a dick; he flexed on her when he was like ‘who’s paying for all of this’ when he just recently got a little cash in his pocket in the middle lf the party, etc. He did what a lot of us do in relationships; thinking that just ‘showing up’ is enough.

White dude* put him onto relationship game in the middle of the episode and he still dropped the ball.

*on the low the fact they use the same white dude anytime they need to have a generic white character is pretty hilarious. Homie is a radio DJ, a manager for an up and coming rapper, and still finds time to be Van’s homegirls boo hundreds of miles away, lol.

>*on the low the fact they use the same white dude anytime they
>need to have a generic white character is pretty hilarious.
>Homie is a radio DJ, a manager for an up and coming rapper,
>and still finds time to be Van’s homegirls boo hundreds of
>miles away, lol.

And I thought that was him but couldn't be sure, lol.

and maybe that’s exactly how SHE feels when she goes to rap concerts or strip clubs.

Also the DJ calling her a white girl. I thought it was odd because she ain’t that lite but this episode kinda proved their point.

and ionno, white dude speaking germs and putting him up on game just felt like another blow to Earns ego.

As dudes, we know what we have to do in relationships but when it pretty much means compromising who you are it’s a problem.

That Juneteenth shit, he was supposed to lie about who he was in order to exist in that space and that’s wack as hell.

The Juneteeth episode I can see your point; imho it was a mix of him trying to fit in the space to make her happy vs him compromising himself (dealing with the white dude who knew black people). But remember that was about Van getting a job after getting fired and for their daughter (‘Why else do you think im here?” – Ern) and even then he wasn’t 100% with it (remember in the beginning of the episode she had to pick him up at a jumpoff’s house). I rewatched the episodes before the new season started so everything is fresh in my mind, lol.

I just wrote below that this is the second event Van has taken Earn to where Vans female friend has told her she is doing it wrong by being with a Black dude.

and as a Black man who has tried to date mixed girls who only dated white, trust me, that shit is THE worst feeling when you keep getting dragged to spaces where your SO’s people are looking down on you.

This ep was great and terrible.

like damn you cant even block everything out and focus on just you and your BM. you really dont want to be w/ her like that then.

but at the same time...


That shit was soooooo wack. Lmao. Van iOS hot as shit but seeing her in that outfit, speaking German and being comfortable in that space had Earn like “nahhhhh, this ain’t gonna work”

I hate when folks go into a situation with no plans to enjoy themselves. Why invite Earn to that shit and ruin a good time.

>As dudes, we know what we have to do in relationships but when
>it pretty much means compromising who you are it’s a
>problem.
>
>That Juneteenth shit, he was supposed to lie about who he was
>in order to exist in that space and that’s wack as hell.
I hear you on that, but she DOES shit she DOESN'T want to do for HIM. The fact that he can't do the same is selfish as hell.

Don't want to be compromised, but if she's willing to do the shit for you, you gotta take the L on occasion and suck it up for her...especially considering she was willing to put up with atomic levels of bullshit before you got the Paperboi checks

She has/had a limit

if they were married I would agree.

I just don’t think 2 people who have a kid at a youngish age have to put up with these things when it feels like the only reason they are still trying is because they had a kid together.

I know what I’m willing to sacrifice as a married man, I know what I was willing to put up with before I was married... but everyone has a breaking point.

She has hers and he has his. Now, she could pull the same thing at a Paperboy concert and be totally in the right. However, when I saw Earn looking around that Germantown celebration I felt him because as a Black man who had a thing for mixed girls who were different... there were certain points when I w like “I can do a lot but I can’t do THIS”

When Earn said “this isn’t me” and they showed Van I said “this isn’t her either”

a relationship is a relationship

their relationship is weird but he was being a bitch

i'd have hated that shit too

but u suck that shit up when they do the shit for you or else you're a self-centered selfish bitch lol

>She has hers and he has his. Now, she could pull the same
>thing at a Paperboy concert and be totally in the right.
>However, when I saw Earn looking around that Germantown
>celebration I felt him because as a Black man who had a thing
>for mixed girls who were different... there were certain
>points when I w like “I can do a lot but I can’t do
>THIS”
>
>When Earn said “this isn’t me” and they showed Van I
>said “this isn’t her either”

folks thought he was in black face and came up pinching his skin

i woulda left immediately

to enjoy the event. He was just using his initial aversion to it as an excuse to be a dick about it. As Van said in the episode, she was willing to go places with him but he's not willing to do the same.

The fact of the matter is that Earn isn't willing to make moves to be in a relationship with Van. He is treating her like an accessory. Van was completely right.
---------------------------------------


---------------------------------------

>she regrets choosing Black,

Don't see that at all, but ok.

>Earn didn’t help himself but damn, that was some wack white
>white white shit and all the rules/games/costumes screamed GET
>OUT

Much as I like the character, I'm glad Darius wasn't in the episode for that reason. Would've felt too on the nose or like they were specifically referencing the movie.

he would've been the tiger woods of that hoosegoose ball game shit.

and struck up an earnest conversation about how fun it would be to live life as a frog or something.

Earn doesn’t know shit about these games or this type of outting. Any other Black dudes at this event? Nope.

Only other Black person there chose white and while Van pushed back, why the fuck you out there in the first place if you don’t fuck with ole girl? Maybe she really likes that event but it felt like a set up.

It’s like asking Van to go to a house party in the hood and letting her wear rival gang colors.

Nothing wrong with going to white spaces if you are on the same team but it always feels like Vans events pretty much show Earn ain’t what she wants.

About 75% of Donald Glover's acting on this show is comprised of looking annoyed/bemused/confused

>
>she regrets choosing Black, definitely regrets choosing Earn
>

and then got critical of her friend for suggesting it by calling her out on her bullshit.

Van gave no indication she wanted a man that was more in tune with white culture and made comparisons between her and her friend's past as examples.

She has German ancestry and it was part of her upbringing which is why she felt comfortable.

Like that white dude said, she just wants Earn to be a bigger part of her life and share experiences together.

She ain't stupid, she was aware it wasn't Earn's type of shit. But Van had reasonable expectations of him to roll with it because she had done the same (now to be fair, if she was aware of that blackface incident that would be grounds for bouncing out of there and if their relationship was stronger he might have been comfortable telling her about it).

That said, I never got the impression she had regrets about Earn, given she specifically said she didn't and even tried a love and basketball move with the ping pong game. She was fighting for them to be together.

In that one article in the New Yorker they mentioned the casting of the germantown woman and how Glover felt she was too dark but they felt the scene worked anyway. IMHO it worked better than if she was like, Zendaya, where her looking multiracial would make her choices ‘easier’.

BTW, i wonder about Van and her homegirls vs skin color. Seems the women in the show tend to hover around barely passing/barely failing the paper bag test, even Van aint that light bright if ya think about it. They do focus on the negatives of female on female relationships

He was an asshole the whole episode.

And this episode was great.

but I think this is what happens when you realize your hot sometimes SO ain’t the one because you don’t have anything in common besides sex, weed and a kid.

Earn is over here


Van is over there


and I can’t get over the fact that the stuff Van wants to do pretty much screams that Earn ain’t white or right for Van.

I spent the whole episode hating Earn. I never really liked him to begin with, but now this episode cemented it.

Maybe because I've been Earn before......*cries*

Hopefully that shit was in high school or early college. Ern’s the least self actualized and comfortable in his own skin person on that show: his issues is deep. My man was emotionally frozen when she asked him a simple ‘wassup with us’ question, couldnt even muster up a lie

in front of this dude you act like you want to be your man? she gets the strooooooongest of FOHs for that shit. that was a bird move.

That’s what set him off

and why I think she regrets not choosing white.

Even if you don’t know the language of know when shit don’t sound right. Then he gives Earn those words of wisdom right after she walks away.

Nope. Flag on the play.

>
>and why I think she regrets not choosing white.
>

i think she just wants a different type of black dude. more of a smiley, people pleaser social climber dude.

altho IRL she is (was?) dating a white dude. and my white friends that watch Atlanta LOVE her (I just think she cute) so she does have that appeal.

and they always went back to their roots.. lol.

Childish dates white too IRL too so I can’t hold that against her when watching the show.

Kinda wonder if Van is Earn in real life. Someone who tried to date Black in ATL but always found himself in white spaces with Black girls looking at him like “cmon dawg”

>
>Kinda wonder if Van is Earn in real life. Someone who tried to
>date Black in ATL but always found himself in white spaces
>with Black girls looking at him like “cmon dawg”

and displays the dichotomy and complexity of relationships

she's not trash... at all...
he's not trash... at all

they both had legit gripes that many relationships go thru

that shit me DIRECTLY cause of shit I been thru

her looks/complexion didn't have much to do with anything other than I guess to symbolize the new age corny Black chic type

it wasn't a light episode but I can't think of a man alive who's never had to be somewhere/do something with or for their lady that they absolutely didn't want to do and women who have done the same w/o complaint due to 'love'
if you haven't....wellll................lucky you

it wasn't a light episode but I can't think of a man alive
>who's never had to be somewhere/do something with or for their
>lady that they absolutely didn't want to do and women who have
>done the same w/o complaint due to 'love'
>if you haven't....wellll................lucky you

From my (limited) experience the difference between men and women in relationships:

Woman: I like "X", so we should do "X" together

Men: I know she doesn't like "Y", so I'll wait till she's not around to do "Y"

but I'm sure there are women who
-have watched a dude play a video game
-attended/watched a sports/music function they had 0 interest in
-been around his friends/fam when she prolly didn't want to

I've noticed that sometimes women who have no interest in those things in particular, but will go along/invite themselves with the guy 'just because'....

and that 'because' can be a plethora of things but more often than not...they just be bored or nosey...i think they also call that love too...idk

Whole town is that German Village stuff

and should've at least explained the rules of whatever game they were playing before they started.

Earn still needs to at least try. If not for Van, than at least for himself and his own career.

Van's friend or whatever has a LOT to unpack. I used to work with a biracial woman who would complain about her siblings in kind of the same way (never said anything like the phrase "choosing black") and I couldn't put my finger on why it was so weird at the time. I could've watched more of those two, that was a terrific scene.

magazine interview a few years ago.

Ole girl basically said “If you just dated a white dude you would be having so much fun right now”

Basically said Van is miserable because she got a negra on her arm. Also
Makes me wonder how many convos they’ve had over the years about choosing white.

This is the second “friend” of Vans who basically told her to get a white dude if she wants happiness.

Or certainly places waaay outside of her comfort zone: the strip club, Paperboi concerts, etc.

It cuts both ways. Earn takes her places that he's comfortable going because that's the kind of life he's interested in, and he's happy with the status quo with her because it works for him. He's just kind of happy to coast. And she felt like she's playing the good soldier by dutifully supporting him, and expect some support from him in return. But then he sulks through an event that's obviously important to her because "it's corny."

They obviously weren't communicating and were taking each other for granted. And shit just bubbled over.

-He gets invited to play in celebrity basketball games and go on talk shows
-He's making money to the point that Earn can support him AND Van (and their kid) on just Paper Boi money
-He bought his uncle's house
-He still has to sell weed to make ends meet

I would say this sounds like a case of a star musician who must be getting 80's New Edition/NWA-type screwed by his management, except his manager is a fucking idiot with seemingly zero actual managerial skills. Is this a case of "big locally/still unknown nationally" or is he just as successful as the episode requires him to be for that moment?

.

Sometimes your lady wants to do some shit you find corny and hang out with her friends you find wack, but you do it because you love her and want to see her happy. And you do it because you know she does it for you all the time.

And when you do it, don't half-ass it and complain the whole time.

#TeamVan

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and real talk. They are “together” because they had a kid.

If you going out and doing stuff with your SO involved her being lobbied to date white by her friends every time you guys went out, it might change how you feel about the relationship.

While Earn doesn’t know these convos are going on I’m sure he can FEEL that vibe.

Ionno, I couldn’t hang out with my SO if her friends looked at me like I was a mistake every time we did something that was considered fun.

that's earn's character. even his parents treat him like that


>Ionno, I couldn’t hang out with my SO if her friends looked
>at me like I was a mistake every time we did something that
>was considered fun.

but true.

Hopefully Katy comes back they and schools Earn at the end of this season.

because of where his life is (vs. where his life "should" be). This isn't Van's fault or her girlfriends' fault. If Earn had ended up like his most of his classmates from Princeton, the homegirl wouldn't be talking that kind of shit, and Earn probably would have been having more fun because he'd be in a better place in his life. Everything is more fun when you're generally happy. Earn isn't happy.

have changed him.

It’s still early but now that he see’s where this managing Paperboy could take him I wonder if he is over these type of events that Van considers fun.

He kept saying “this isn’t me”

and the conversations Van is having with her friends pretty much solidifies it.

He’s not a Germantown dancing type of dude. There was a shot where she was sooo happy at that event and Earn is looking at her like “damn she white”

Clearly they show evidence they get along great when it's just the two of them.

The issues they face is when they go out and everyone sees this great woman and homeboy basically being a bum dude. Being broke is hard on any relationship, no matter how perfect they are for each other.


I think the reason the other people are side-eyeing Earn is because dude is broke and treating old girl like a dick and they all think that she can do better ( and I think so too at this point. they fucked up because they think doing better is doing white).



>and real talk. They are “together” because they had a
>kid.
>
>If you going out and doing stuff with your SO involved her
>being lobbied to date white by her friends every time you guys
>went out, it might change how you feel about the relationship.
>
>
>While Earn doesn’t know these convos are going on I’m sure
>he can FEEL that vibe.
>
>Ionno, I couldn’t hang out with my SO if her friends looked
>at me like I was a mistake every time we did something that
>was considered fun.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and he made sure to remind Van

there is a reason why they keep showing Van having these convos about dating white.

and more than likely it has to do with DG in real life.

One other thing I noticed. All of Vans friends are shallow as fuck. Like, theee worst type of people.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

cause it seems like anytime she steps back she realizes her friends ain’t shit

Earn may not be shit but when IMJ is world she is appreciated. At least it appears that way, like Paperboy and Darius prolly joke her but got mad genuine love for her.

from what I remember, the first event (the slave themed house party) was suppose to be some some sort of networking event for a job or business connect... not really for fun..

this germantown event seems more about celebrating her German culture and nostalgia. isn't it implied that she is part german? also this event seems to be a made up celebration that combines oktoberfest and carnival which don't even happen during the same time of year and in different regions of Germany. so this is not even a real event but written to be weird. carnival is celebrated all over the world so it's not really a "white" event, but more of a religious/cultural event.

and nah, this has nothing to do with carnivals celebrated all over the world. This was HER event, her fun thing and it was presented as some weird white shit on purpose.

It shows that Earn and her idea of fun are different.

and that networking event was another sampler of how different she wants/needs him to be when she is around her people

when earn was trying to stunt and it didn't go well and he ended the day feeling the same it was okay because she didn't make him go, it was his initiative and they weren't white events?

This is worse.

I’m not saying Earns outings are all positive and fun. Just seems like Vans outings with her “friends” are terrible.

This is HER shit...she made sure she told Ern she was the Serena Williams of this shit, and just dominated

And she got MAD AS FUCK when Ern put the balls in the jug and everyone was stunned (shit was funny to me)

Part of this episode was her trying to "stunt" and the day going way left

I can't figure it out. Shes dope as fuck, but, I go back and forth between thinking "Shes fly as hell" and "What an interesting looking person"

And I know it was purely because her hair was pulled back with the German braid. For some reason the boho/'Playery look she usually rocks doesn't work for me.

i like her w/ the big blowout look

She fine either way to me.

by weird I don't mean unattractive, I just mean...they don't look like anyone else you would see randomly and if you did you would definitely have to keep yourself from staring

she looks naturally attractive as hell

>I can't figure it out. Shes dope as fuck, but, I go back and
>forth between thinking "Shes fly as hell" and "What an
>interesting looking person"

Cut that out!

She's fly as hell. She's pretty in a way that may not ever go away. She can do whatever with her hair and it is gonna work for the most part. And yeah...she's holding assets too. I'm a big fan of Van.

Most models are kind of odd looking/have SOMETHING about their face/body that stands out

like, in episode 4 when she was with her sister, her sister was very traditionally pretty but Van has a different kind-of exotic look

play that MFer RIGHT!" - © Chris Rock

ain't feeling it so you bounce

I think thats what we just witnessed

This was "Insecure" in Atlanta.

Pass on this episode.

So my wife took me to Hamilton in Chicago for my bday in January...

I had missed about 3-4 eps of the Chi after watching the series premier...

I catch up and I'm on the episode with Easy-E's cousin hooking him up with the food truck and she's like...

"That's dude from Hamilton!"

o_O

Yup:

https://usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/chris-desean-lee-jose-ramos-wallace-smith-miguel-cervantes-hamilton-c-joan-marcus-2016.jpg?w=1000&h=600&crop=1

https://1z1pdp2cr5ea30i3a81fh4af-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Cast-Chris-DeSean-Lee.jpg

The actor(Brian Tyree Henry) who plays paperboy was in the play "The Book of Mormons" and he was on Boardwalk Empire. He's been in a lot and he has more stuff coming out.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3109964/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

I think he was in the crib when Chalky was on the run. Was one of the sons of the blind dude I believe.

I think I peeped that season 1.

Did NOT know he was in book of Mormons...WTH?!!?! Nice.

>I think he was in the crib when Chalky was on the run. Was
>one of the sons of the blind dude I believe.
>

I had to look it up, couldn't remember his character when I first read it.

>I think I peeped that season 1.
>
>Did NOT know he was in book of Mormons...WTH?!!?! Nice.

He played the general. I have never seen the play.

the ex hubby of the former principal

I've never seen that I might check it out.

Sucks because i think the last pure Earn/Van ep was Juneteenth which was pretty damn great

and yes I know folks have a myriad of friends/experiences but I wouldnt have took her for getting down with that Oommpa ish

actually (half) German herself.

at very least she could have put him on to what was going on a bit more so he wouldn't be so lost, but in reality he was never going to "get" it. all he had to do was go along with it. it's clearly her heritage and something she's in to. she just wanted to share something of herself with him. she was fully aware of how cringe worthy it was. this seems to be the first time she's ever asked him to do this. there's no evidence that she wanted him to do this all the time or "become German" or anything like that. there was also no reason to believe that she wanted a white dude. she easily could have done that if she wanted to. she's trying to make things work with Earn and he don't know how to just go with the program. being married myself for 10+ years, this was so low on the scale of things your woman could ask from you. Earn a clown for this big time.

that was a violation

>that was a violation

Plenty of women don’t mind the strip club.

Especially in ATL.

And while she was there, she was only interested in helping the "hard luck" stripper, who Paperboi knew was running game anyway.

the picked up Darius and Paperboy in the limo.

She wasn't pouting.

I could def see her getting there and being like "boo, this is wack"

Earn at least tried to have fun the week before with her and his shit kept falling apart but even she was like "was that racist?" when it was white folk but "THATS DEF RACIST" when it's Black folk.

Earn did.

had an in.

Earn was in the wrong, and he doesn't deserve Van. Luckily, she's starting to realize that.

it's what they do

they stepping to her... and if drinks are involved it usually going to be disrespectful.

my boy had a mixed chick and the shit I watched her put him thru was ridiculous. He said it was the worst relationship he ever had. I heard her tell him to STOP trying to protect her from her drunk white bro friends at bars that she went to school with because she can handle it herself.

THAT SAME NIGHT

She comes over and asked him why he didn't step in and gets mad and leaves the bar.

You can't win at those places when folks want you to lose.

1) Not prepping Earn for what was to come. There's NO WAY my wife is gonna take me to something that far off of my radar and not coach me on it so I go in semi-prepared. There would have been:

-Some history of the event, it's purpose, etc.
-Insight on how to play the games
-What the festivals events were and how to respond to certain things
-A few German phrases/greetings
-Rules on what and what not to do (like, no random conversations in German with dudes and DEFINITELY none without a proper translation...sh*t's just rude)

2) She got aggy that he actually did something 'good' during a game and won (how you gonna get mad your man shining?)

3) The event was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more about her than it was about them. She disappeared a few times, went off and had random convos with people without him. She seemed to want him to enjoy what she wanted to do rather than them enjoy the event together on comfortable terms (there's a key difference in them I'll point out later).

4) Allowing German dude to sneak a shot in (twice) that came off like 'friend' advice when dude don't care about their relationship or he'd be respectful enough to discuss it in English. But he knows it's a violation and didn't want to cross lines 'that way'. It left him plausible deniability but the fact that she played into it only confirmed that he had an opening. How you gonna let dude go in when y'all supposed to be ordering drinks? And who the hell is dude anyway to be just randomly discussing the inner workings of your relationship with? O_o

5) All of Van's friends look down on her and Earn, yet these are the people she seeks approval from. She keeps dragging him around them and it always goes sideways on HER end. Slave reenactments and 'you chose black'. These are not the type of people you should clamor for your relationship to evolve around. It's like she wants a trophy to 'prove them wrong'. Everyone around her has been foul and instead of it cementing her bond with Earn, she then internalizes her insecurities and starts to look at him like he's not enough. Which is fair on it's own merit, but THOSE situations shouldn't provoke it. And all of Earn's friends treat her like crew/family.

6) Lastly, when Earn wanted to do things with her the week prior, yes...he wanted to stunt but he wanted to do nice things with/for her as well. It wasn't just "let's go to the strip club". He was trying to take her to a nice restaurant/movies. Even the $100 bill thing which was hella racist, she didn't even take as much of a slight. Ole boy flashed his side arm on Earn and she was like 'oh well'. O_o Also, if Van said once, 'this isn't my thing, I'm not enjoying it, can we bounce' Earn wouldn't have hesitated (especially at the strip club...they didn't even stay that long and HE wasn't really enjoying it). But if Earn voices that, he's a jerk.

Man, the optics on relationships these days are so off-base and fickle. Nobody understands it's supposed to be a partnership.

And trust, I'm not absolving Earn of his part in this. He was extremely extra and probably feeling himself a little as he's supporting Van who's unemployed (which she was just as extra with him when he was unemployed and she was the captain of the ship...and let's not forget, she got fired for smoking weed of all things). Difference is, Earn pandered as he knew he needed to and Van isn't willing to.

She's just as much of a loser as Earn if you look at their lives. The biggest difference, he has a legit shot at some real money via Paperboi's career. Van wants "Princeton Earn" yet she ain't done nothing herself to even deserve that type of dude.

I definitely thinkg Van and Earn are EXACTLY alike.. both aren't where they want to be in life.

But like you said. When Van is around Earn and his people she is shown mad love (maybe joked a bit but it's all in fun)

When Van has Earn around her people? It's all judgement and be fake Earn so I can feel better about where I am in life.

I dont think Earn would have been game or listening if she tried to prep him about what to expect. He probably waved all that shit off like "nah, why even give a shit, this is corny"

she prepped him for the networking Juneteenth and both of them were still caught off guard with that shit

seeing her get up and how excited she was, I'm sure he got a little prep but that was some weirdo shit that you only get if you've already been to one.

>I dont think Earn would have been game or listening if she
>tried to prep him about what to expect. He probably waved all
>that shit off like "nah, why even give a shit, this is corny"

Based on the car ride up there, Earn seemed to be in good spirits and open to going. I sensed no dread and he was even joking that if it was wack, they could stay in and have 'adult' fun.

He looked lost when they played the games, didn't seem to know what the stuffed animal was about and the dancing? C'mon.

I think if she showed him the game at the crib, explained the rules so he felt invested, he might have been more into it. And the stuffed animal was weird. She should also have had the optics to know certain stuff ain't gonna fly with her man same way men know certain stuff won't fly with their women. For example, black men know not to invite most black women to go swimming right after they've gotten their hair done. It'd be like getting mad at her for not wanting to get her new hair-do wet because he wanted to swim.

1) this is the only one that's somewhat legit. she could have put him on a little bit more before hand. how do you think he would have received it thought based on the way we saw him act? do you think a quick history lesson would have made him more receptive?


2) this is very minor.

3) what's wrong with this? it's her heritage. how could it not be more about her? everything you do in a relationship isn't going to be something that you both love.

4) now she's supposed to control other people? again, this was after her and Earn weren't having a good time already. what incentive did she have to make sure dude speaks English just for the sake of the dude who's giving her a hard time right now?

5) I love how we've seen her "friends" events all of twice so far and we're acting like "she's always doing this...". for all we know she rarely makes him do stuff like this which doesn't warrant his reaction at all.

6) would it have made you feel better for her to make a scene? what exactly she supposed to do when a gun is pulled? the fact that she didn't make a scene about not wanting to be a the strip club was the whole reason she was upset with Earn at the German thing. if she can bear with it even though she wasn't feeling it, why couldn't he?

4. you cant control other people. the only thing you can do is no engage with them when they are being disrespectful towards your relationship in front of your mate

she was not obligated to flirt back in a different language

>1) this is the only one that's somewhat legit. she could
>have put him on a little bit more before hand. how do you
>think he would have received it thought based on the way we
>saw him act? do you think a quick history lesson would have
>made him more receptive?

Possibly...he came to the event, seemed like he/they were in good spirits on the car ride up. Also, if he shows resistance to it at home, she can gauge if she even wants to try it with him or could relay to him that it's something she wants to share with him so he gets to know her better. And you can have that discussion away from judging ears and eyes and without distraction.

>2) this is very minor.

Might be but it didn't help. He's already feeling out of place and instead of encouraging him because he won something, you throw out "you got lucky" to make it worse? WTH?

>3) what's wrong with this? it's her heritage. how could it
>not be more about her? everything you do in a relationship
>isn't going to be something that you both love.

If it was about her, she should have went by herself. If it was about THEM, then she should have made sure he felt comfortable and invested. This is the problem with the narcissistic culture we live in. If I invite someone to a place I KNOW they aren't going to be comfortable in but it's something I want to share with them, I'm going to make every effort to set a good stage so they come in feeling ok about it and I'm going to make sure they are good the entire time they are there.

That whole damn festival was weird as hell. She didn't put in enough work to make sure Earn was good. And if he wasn't, leaving without it being some huge issue shouldn't have been that dramatic.

>4) now she's supposed to control other people? again, this
>was after her and Earn weren't having a good time already.
>what incentive did she have to make sure dude speaks English
>just for the sake of the dude who's giving her a hard time
>right now?

No, she's supposed to respect her relationship. None of that was cool nor appropriate. Order the drinks and move on. Then she leaves and dude is telling you how your woman feels about your relationship? Which means they were discussing you in your face in another language. That's cool though huh? Violation on both their parts. Her incentive was Earn is her man! Just because they having an issue doesn't mean line stepping is appropriate. That's just fickle as sh*t. You want something deeper with Earn but you do THIS as a precursor?

>5) I love how we've seen her "friends" events all of twice so
>far and we're acting like "she's always doing this...". for
>all we know she rarely makes him do stuff like this which
>doesn't warrant his reaction at all.

Well we haven't seen her at a ton of his stuff either but it's definitely a much better vibe from Earn's people toward her than her people toward Earn. And the key point here is, she's always expecting Earn to pretend for her. Like she doesn't like who he is and needs him to be 'Princeton Earn' to elevate her status and make her feel good about choosing him. Earn NEVER puts those qualifiers on her. And being around his friends never makes him question if he should be with her. Though she ain't much of a catch outside of looks given what we know about her station in life.

>6) would it have made you feel better for her to make a scene?
> what exactly she supposed to do when a gun is pulled? the
>fact that she didn't make a scene about not wanting to be a
>the strip club was the whole reason she was upset with Earn at
>the German thing. if she can bear with it even though she
>wasn't feeling it, why couldn't he?

She supposed to react at how bigoted the whole situation was. How extreme it was and she's supposed to have his back and empathize. She just kinda shrugged it off.

As for the strip club...that was the last thing they did that day. He asked what she wanted to do and said they could stunt. That's why they went to the first few places. None of what she wanted Earn to be subjected to was done with him in mind....well outside of, come be there with me (as opposed to come and be in it with me). And Earn wouldn't have made some episode out of her wanting to leave the strip club either. Especially not one that would have made him question their relationship. And let's not act like she turned up at the strip club. She was just 'there' and then threw a few dollars at a stripper she thought was 'sad'. That's about as equivalent as Earn playing the game with them at the Festival.

The difference between the two are facilitation. Earn facilitates for her much better than she does for him. Nevermind he's covering all her expenses while she's down right now (after being fired for smoking weed with her girlfriend). Because he found the German festival corny, that she didn't do a good job at prepping him for, and because her oreo girlfriend ignorantly implied all she'd be is a babies-mama because she chose 'black', now she's questioning this man's commitment to her?

Now? When he's having her back and sharing his success with her?

If you want to have that talk, have it sometime after he shows you the check for Paperboi's royalties. Success is realistic after a gold single and decent money to cover her life right now. Temptation will grow, so finding out where his intentions are before the rocket takes off would be wise. But her motivation for it reeks of how messed up her racial identity is.

you giving her a lot of passes all thru this post that she SURE don't deserve.

lol.

we all want the best right?

but we don't always put ourselves in a position to get the best.

with #451 when it was said about Earn...I'll attribute it to not seeing the post but that's kinda why I used "deserved" in the first place.

>1) Not prepping Earn for what was to come. There's NO WAY my
>wife is gonna take me to something that far off of my radar
>and not coach me on it so I go in semi-prepared. There would
>have been:
>
>-Some history of the event, it's purpose, etc.
>-Insight on how to play the games
>-What the festivals events were and how to respond to certain
>things
>-A few German phrases/greetings
>-Rules on what and what not to do (like, no random
>conversations in German with dudes and DEFINITELY none without
>a proper translation...sh*t's just rude)



We don't have any idea that she didn't do any of these things. It would even seem like he did prep her because he was familar with the place, said he been before, and he wasn't at a total lost as to what was going on.



>2) She got aggy that he actually did something 'good' during a
>game and won (how you gonna get mad your man shining?)

She didn't give him any real shit about it. That wasn't a source of any real beef. Definitely not enough to merit him acting like he did.



>3) The event was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more about her than it was
>about them. She disappeared a few times, went off and had
>random convos with people without him. She seemed to want him
>to enjoy what she wanted to do rather than them enjoy the
>event together on comfortable terms (there's a key difference
>in them I'll point out later).


Man you sound like this girl I use to date who would get soo many whenever I left her side at parties. Was she really expected to stay at his side and not mingle at have fun at the party she wanted to go to? When I am at an event like that with my girl and I have no interest I usually chill at the bar and strike up a convo with the bartender or someone and let her do her thing.




>
>4) Allowing German dude to sneak a shot in (twice) that came
>off like 'friend' advice when dude don't care about their
>relationship or he'd be respectful enough to discuss it in
>English. But he knows it's a violation and didn't want to
>cross lines 'that way'. It left him plausible deniability but
>the fact that she played into it only confirmed that he had an
>opening. How you gonna let dude go in when y'all supposed to
>be ordering drinks? And who the hell is dude anyway to be
>just randomly discussing the inner workings of your
>relationship with? O_o


It's a little rude to speak a foreign language in front of someone else (definitely about someone else) but there really wasn't major line stepping. (But I'll admit, I've never been one to handcuff a woman when we are out socially, or like to be handcuffed)


>
>5) All of Van's friends look down on her and Earn, yet these
>are the people she seeks approval from. She keeps dragging
>him around them and it always goes sideways on HER end. Slave
>reenactments and 'you chose black'. These are not the type of
>people you should clamor for your relationship to evolve
>around. It's like she wants a trophy to 'prove them wrong'.
>Everyone around her has been foul and instead of it cementing
>her bond with Earn, she then internalizes her insecurities and
>starts to look at him like he's not enough. Which is fair on
>it's own merit, but THOSE situations shouldn't provoke it.
>And all of Earn's friends treat her like crew/family.

I admit that Van's "friends" seem terrible but a couple of things. The Juneteenth people weren't here friends. She did that for career and for the good of her daughter.

Secondly, at the second event folks were cool to Earn at frist but he was being a dick.


>
>6) Lastly, when Earn wanted to do things with her the week
>prior, yes...he wanted to stunt but he wanted to do nice
>things with/for her as well. It wasn't just "let's go to the
>strip club". He was trying to take her to a nice
>restaurant/movies. Even the $100 bill thing which was hella
>racist, she didn't even take as much of a slight. Ole boy
>flashed his side arm on Earn and she was like 'oh well'. O_o
>Also, if Van said once, 'this isn't my thing, I'm not enjoying
>it, can we bounce' Earn wouldn't have hesitated (especially at
>the strip club...they didn't even stay that long and HE wasn't
>really enjoying it). But if Earn voices that, he's a jerk.

your argument here is based on speculation of what he would have done in the situation. We don't know what he would have done if she wanted to leave. We know that she was down with whatever he wanted to do.




But at the end of the day, none of this matters. What matters is she wanted a committed relationship with a dude that values her for more than ass and he couldn't say that he was willing to give that to her.

It was over when he said I don't know what I want.

It all reminded me of the Nas lyrics:

Saying "why did Nas trust her?”, but look at yourself, speak louder bro
You live with your baby moms and scared to make an honest woman out of her
And make her your bride, fake pimps you ain’t even alive
At least I can say I tried plus enjoyed the ride
Plus we got our little boy, my little joy and pride
He got my nose, my grill, your color, your eyes
Next go round I hope I pick the truest type and watch me do it all again
It’s a beautiful life, aight
Goodbye



>Man, the optics on relationships these days are so off-base
>and fickle. Nobody understands it's supposed to be a
>partnership.
>
>And trust, I'm not absolving Earn of his part in this. He was
>extremely extra and probably feeling himself a little as he's
>supporting Van who's unemployed (which she was just as extra
>with him when he was unemployed and she was the captain of the
>ship...and let's not forget, she got fired for smoking weed of
>all things). Difference is, Earn pandered as he knew he
>needed to and Van isn't willing to.
>
>She's just as much of a loser as Earn if you look at their
>lives. The biggest difference, he has a legit shot at some
>real money via Paperboi's career. Van wants "Princeton Earn"
>yet she ain't done nothing herself to even deserve that type
>of dude.
>


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>We don't have any idea that she didn't do any of these things.
> It would even seem like he did prep her because he was
>familar with the place, said he been before, and he wasn't at
>a total lost as to what was going on.

True, I just read the cues. He looked like "WTF" the entire time he was there. Like it was all new and weird to him. Someone who had been in that environment before would have been more comfortable and looked less shell-shocked about what was going on. He looked completely lost during that game. If he had been before, it wasn't to that type of festival. And to counter, we don't have any idea she did prep him either but the cues say he had no idea what he was really in for. He even said 'if it's wack, we could go back to the cabin'.

>She didn't give him any real shit about it. That wasn't a
>source of any real beef. Definitely not enough to merit him
>acting like he did.

Nah but it lead to her being ultra competitive about everything (see the ping-pong match after) and he was already showing signs of being visibly uncomfortable. Let's keep it 100, most dudes from the hood are not going to be comfortable in that type of environment. So he tried to isolate them a little bit so he could get some comfort and she was like, "Whatever, game, set, match. Come hit this Schuhplattler with me."

>Man you sound like this girl I use to date who would get soo
>many whenever I left her side at parties. Was she really
>expected to stay at his side and not mingle at have fun at the
>party she wanted to go to? When I am at an event like that
>with my girl and I have no interest I usually chill at the bar
>and strike up a convo with the bartender or someone and let
>her do her thing.

I ain't saying they had to be tied at the hip but soon as they walked in, she got pulled off somewhere. It wasn't clear how well Earn knew any of those people or if he knew them at all. Based on his reactions, I took it as he was very unfamiliar. You don't leave someone you're with like that in a new situation. Survey the room, let dude warm up to a few folx, explain some stuff, grab a drink, THEN do your individual rounds. And to my point, how is it doing something 'with' her and learning more about her if you're posted up at the bar talking to the bartender while she's off doing her thing?

>It's a little rude to speak a foreign language in front of
>someone else (definitely about someone else) but there really
>wasn't major line stepping. (But I'll admit, I've never been
>one to handcuff a woman when we are out socially, or like to
>be handcuffed)

Man, watch the whole scene over again. Look at how the bartender leans in and his looks at both Van and Earn when he talks to them. Dude was shooting a ghost missile. Gauging what their deal was and seeing if he had an in. What Van should have done was explain to the dude that Earn doesn't speak German and instructed him to conduct the order in English. At minimum, she should have curved him once he got personal. Earn didn't know dude from a hole in the wall but 5 secs later he's telling him what his woman wants?

It's one thing to handcuff and it's another to check inappropriate behavior. That whole scene (and the follow up convo) was alllll out of bounds.

>I admit that Van's "friends" seem terrible but a couple of
>things. The Juneteenth people weren't here friends. She did
>that for career and for the good of her daughter.
>
>Secondly, at the second event folks were cool to Earn at frist
>but he was being a dick.

Juneteenth were her people though. She got the invite, she wanted to pretend for the hosts and she got aggy at that party too when things got too real and he started saying what he really felt about her. And that's when he was dead broke and couldn't really help. Now that he's helping she chooses to question his motives. Which, as I stated is fair game but not over your homegirl saying 'you chose black, that's what you get'.

Let's look at the facts:
-He's sharing his success with her (episode before was all about that)
-He's THERE at the festival with her
-The ep opens with him going down on her

Dude is giving to her and showing he wants her there but she aggy cuz what? She doesn't have a ring? What is she expecting? Earn may have been ill equipped to have that conversation with her or could have just been being an a** when he said "I don't know what I want" or could have just been dodging the pressure but she has to tell him what that means. "I want to get married, let's move back in together, etc". I mean, I'm watching their relationship and I'm trying to figure out what her issue is.

And c'mon, the folx at that festival were maaad extra. It was off-putting. Yeah, Earn could have been more friendly but let's not act like it was a 'normal' situation. That was a spectacle to Earn.

>your argument here is based on speculation of what he would
>have done in the situation. We don't know what he would have
>done if she wanted to leave. We know that she was down with
>whatever he wanted to do.

Again, Van was just there. She didn't turn up like she expect Earn to do. And true, this is based on speculation. But he'd agreed to go to a weird a** Fastnacht festival, why wouldn't he leave a strip club early for her? It's not like he was having the best time anyway.

>But at the end of the day, none of this matters. What matters
>is she wanted a committed relationship with a dude that values
>her for more than ass and he couldn't say that he was willing
>to give that to her.
>
>It was over when he said I don't know what I want.
>
>It all reminded me of the Nas lyrics:
>
>Saying "why did Nas trust her?”, but look at yourself, speak
>louder bro
>You live with your baby moms and scared to make an honest
>woman out of her
>And make her your bride, fake pimps you ain’t even alive
>At least I can say I tried plus enjoyed the ride
>Plus we got our little boy, my little joy and pride
>He got my nose, my grill, your color, your eyes
>Next go round I hope I pick the truest type and watch me do it
>all again
>It’s a beautiful life, aight
>Goodbye

Thing is though, that's not the place to have that convo. That's not the motive (her friend calling her a career babies mama) that should provoke it. They both all aggy about the night and you wanna put the relationship on the line?

That's a calm head discussion. I would have told her I dunno too after watching her blatantly facilitate a flirt with the bartender (twice!). It hasn't been shown that Earn is seeing anyone else or sleeping with anyone else. From the last few eps, he's been with and all about Van. Why would she assume he isn't committed to her? Because of ole girl? Where was this convo on the way up to the festival? Where was this convo week prior when he was 'stuntin' with her?

Y'all wanna keep blaming Earn but it's BOTH of them. Van is just as much to blame for where things are as he is.

They get there and she says she is the Serena Williams of the party. For the first 10 minutes of the show Van is shooting looks at Earn and rolling her eyes when he doesn’t do exactly as she wants. White dude immediately says “why are you here?” Wtf? Then a white girl thinks he is in Black face? Awkward.. lol.

They play the lil ball game and she gets upset because he got the room in awe. She just wanted him to play the background while she got her shine on. It’s her weekend/festival and she wants to be the center of attention.

The whole German flirting shit was foul as hell. She even asked if he understands what dude just said. When a Earn says no she laughs and keeps the convo going.

To end it, she finally gets to be the center of attention but by that time she doesn’t want it even though that’s what she really wanted the whole time.

My wife watched it for the first time and immediately said “ I get it, she wants to share her heritage with him but why is she acting so mean to him?” She doesn’t follow the show but it was interesting to see her reaction in real time.

</sarcasm>


I agree. Just feels cheap.

I’m hearing all types of curse words on regular tv after 10 pm.

dating an Extrovert.

I am reading this post and having flashbacks of past arguments I have had.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

i have a cousin, mid 20’s, married to a German girl, that went to one of these

i remember the picture he posted amd he (and the other males) were dressed up just like this

so many questions next time i talk to him

bruh.

this largely why i cut my own hair.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

So glad I shave bald for the last 2 decades

His barber was a fool.

>So glad I shave bald for the last 2 decades

Me too. But I've been known to go to the barber to get my beard trimmed and lined perfectly. Fortunately, both the really good ones I've used haven't been like that.

And I know that a good barber is fucking hard to find.

Darius has the lines and is rightfully a fan favorite


But I think Paperboy has the potential for the most interesting character arc on the show.



Seems misunderstood at best; depressed at worst. Most of the people around him want to benefit off his success - and it looks like it weighs on him.


That unending pressure of being the golden ticket

can't even cop trees without being put on blast