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Which Actor had the best run in the 50s?

Best run in terms of anything and only Male Actors
Jack Lemmon: Some Like it Hot, Mister Roberts, Three for the Show, Phffft, It Should Happen to You, Once Too Often, Cowboy, Hollywood Bronc Busters, You Can't Run Away from It, Fire Down Below, My Sister Eileen, It Happened to Jane, Operation Mad Ball, and Bell, Book and Candle.
Max von Sydow: The Seventh Seal, Miss Julie, Ingen mans kvinna, Rätten att älska, Wild Strawberries, Prästen i Uddarbo, Kvinnlig spion 503, The Magician, and Brink of Life.
Frank Sinatra: From Here to Eternity, The Man with the Golden Arm, Pal Joey, Suddenly, Double Dynamite, Meet Danny Wilson, Young at Heart, Not as a Stranger, Guys and Dolls, The Tender Trap, Meet Me in Las Vegas, High Society, Johnny Concho, Around the World in 80 Days, The Pride and the Passion, The Joker Is Wild, Kings Go Forth, Some Came Running, A Hole in the Head, and Never So Few.
Gene Kelly: Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris, Invitation to the Dance, It's Always Fair Weather, Summer Stock, It's a Big Country, Black Hand, Love Is Better Than Ever, The Devil Makes Three, Brigadoon, Seagulls Over Sorrento, Deep in My Heart, The Happy Road, Les Girls, and Marjorie Morningstar.
Ernest Borgnine: Marty, China Corsair, Vera Cruz, From Here to Eternity, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Mob, The Whistle at Eaton Falls, Treasure of the Golden Condor, The Stranger Wore a Gun, Johnny Guitar, The Bounty Hunter, Demetrius and the Gladiators, Violent Saturday, Jubal, The Catered Affair, Run for Cover, The Last Command, The Square Jungle, The Best Things in Life Are Free, The Vikings, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Torpedo Run, and The Rabbit Trap.
James Stewart: Bell, Book and Candle, Vertigo, Winchester '73, The Glenn Miller Story, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Naked Spur, Rear Window, Harvey, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Man from Laramie, Strategic Air Command, Anatomy of a Murder, The Spirit of St. Louis, Bend of the River, Thunder Bay, Broken Arrow, No Highway in the Sky, The Jackpot, Carbine Williams, Night Passage, The FBI Story, and The Far Country.
Ward Bond: The Searchers, Mister Roberts, Johnny Guitar, Hondo, The Quiet Man, Singing Guns, Riding High, Wagon Master, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Operation Pacific, The Great Missouri Raid, The Halliday Brand, Rio Bravo, On Dangerous Ground, Only the Valiant, Hellgate, Bullfighter and the Lady, Thunderbirds, The Moonlighter, Blowing Wild, Gypsy Colt, The Bob Mathias Story, The Long Gray Line, A Man Alone, Dakota Incident, Pillars of the Sky, The Wings of Eagles, China Doll, and Alias Jesse James.
John Wayne: The Searchers, Hondo, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo, Operation Pacific, The Wings of Eagles, Big Jim McLain, Flying Leathernecks, The Sea Chase, Trouble Along the Way, Island in the Sky, The High and the Mighty, Blood Alley, Jet Pilot, The Conqueror, Legend of the Lost, The Horse Soldiers, and The Barbarian and the Geisha.
Paul Newman: The Rack, The Silver Chalice, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Long, Hot Summer, The Helen Morgan Story, Until They Sail, The Young Philadelphians, Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, The Left Handed Gun, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Marlon Brando: The Men, A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, Julius Caesar, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Désirée, Guys and Dolls, The Teahouse of the August Moon, Sayonara, and The Young Lions.
Orson Welles: Othello, Touch of evil, Mr. Arkadin, Royal Affairs in Versailles, The Long, Hot Summer, The Vikings, High Journey, Ferry to Hong Kong, Compulsion, Masters of the Congo Jungle, South Seas Adventure, The Roots of Heaven, Napoléon, Man in the Shadow, Moby Dick, Three Cases of Murder, Trouble in the Glen, Disorder, The Black Rose, Return to Glennascaul, Little World of Don Camillo, Man, Beast and Virtue, and Trent's Last Case.
Montgomery Clift: The Big Lift, A Place in the Sun, I Confess, Indiscretion of an American Wife, From Here to Eternity, Raintree County, Lonelyhearts, The Young Lions, and Suddenly, Last Summer.
Tony Curtis: The Prince Who Was a Thief, Flesh and Fury, No Room for the Groom, Houdini, The Black Shield of Falworth, So This Is Paris, Six Bridges to Cross, The Square Jungle, Trapeze, Mister Cory, The Midnight Story, Sweet Smell of Success, The Vikings, Kings Go Forth, The Defiant Ones, Some Like It Hot, Operation Petticoat, Sierra, Winchester '73, Kansas Raiders, Forbidden, Son of Ali Baba, Meet Danny Wilson, All American, Beachhead, The Midnight Story, The Perfect Furlough, The Rawhide Years, The Purple Mask, Francis, Woman in Hiding, I Was a Shoplifter, and Johnny Dark.
James Dean: East of Eden, Has Anybody Seen My Gal?,Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.
Kirk Douglas: Young Man With a Horn, The Glass Menagerie, Along the Great Divide, Ace in the Hole, Detective Story, The Big Sky, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Story of Three Loves, The Juggler, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Man Without a Star, Lust for Life, Top Secret Affair, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Paths of Glory, The Vikings, Last Train from Gun Hill, and The Devil’s Disciple.
Alec Guinness: Last Holiday, The Mudlark, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, The Promoter, The Captain’s Paradise, Malta Story, The Detective, To Paris with Love, The Prison, The Ladykillers, The Swan, The Bridge on the River Kwai, All at Sea, The Horse’s Mouth, The Scapegoat, and Our Man in Havana.
Charlton Heston: Julius Caesar, Dark City, The Greatest Show on Earth, Ruby Gentry, The President’s Lady, Arrowhead, The Naked Jungle, The Private war of Major Benson, Lucy Gallant, The Ten Commandments, Touch of Evil, The Big Country, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, Ben-Hur, The Far Horizons, The Buccaneer, Three Violent People, Secret of the Incas, Bad for Each Other, The Savage, The President's Lady, and Pony Express
Rock Hudson: The Fat Man, Bend of the River, Scarlet Angel, Has Anyone Seen My Gal?, Magnificent Obsession, All that Heaven Allows, Never Say Goodbye, Giant, Written on the Wind, Something of Value, The Tarnished Angels, The Earth Is Mine, Pillow Talk, Winchester '73, Tomahawk, Horizons West, Twilight for the Gods, A Farewell to Arms, This Earth Is Mine, Captain Lightfoot, One Desire, Seminole, Bengal Brigade, Sea Devils, Gun Fury, Back to God's Country, The Golden Blade, Taza, Son of Cochise, The Lawless Breed, Peggy, The Desert Hawk, Iron Man, Here Come the Nelsons, Bright Victory, and Air Cadet.
Burt Lancaster: The Flame and the Arrow, Mister 880, Jim Thorpe—All-American, The Crimson Pirate, Come Back Little Sheba, From Here to Eternity, Apache, Vera Cruz, The Rose Tattoo, Trapeze, The Rainmaker, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Sweet Smell of Success, Run Silent Run Deep, The Devil’s Disciple, Ten Tall Men, South Sea Woman, and Three Sailors and a Girl.
Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, and King Creole.
William Holden: The Horse Soldiers, Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, Stalag 17, Picnic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Union Station, Father Is a Bachelor, Submarine Command, Born Yesterday, Force of Arms, Boots Malone, Executive Suite, Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach, The Moon Is Blue, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Escape from Fort Bravo, Forever Female, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, The Country Girl, The Key, The Proud and Profane, and Toward the Unknown.
Cary Grant: An Affair to Remember, North by Northwest, The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, To Catch a Thief, Indiscreet, Crisis, People Will Talk, Room for One More, Dream Wife, Monkey Business, Kiss Them for Me, and Operation Petticoat.
Toshiro Mifune: Samurai Trilogy, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, Scandal, The Hidden Fortress, Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka, Engagement Ring, Elegy, Escape from Prison, Beyond Love and Hate, Pirates, Meeting of the Ghost Après-Guerre, Fog Horn, Conclusion of Kojiro Sasaki:Duel at Ganryu Island, The Life of a Horsetrader, Golden Girl, Who Knows a Woman's Heart, Vendetta for a Samurai, The Life of Oharu, Swift Current, Tokyo Sweetheart, Sword for Hire, The Man Who Came to Port, The Last Embrace, My Wonderful Yellow Car, Sunflower Girl, Eagle of the Pacific, The Black Fury, The Sound of Waves, All is Well part 1 & 2, The Merciless Boss: A Man Among Men, No Time for Tears, I Live in Fear, Rainy Night Duel, The Under World, Settlement of Love, Scoundrel, A Wife's Heart, Rebels on the High Seas, A Man in the Storm, Be Happy, These Two Lovers, A Dangerous Hero, Yagyu Secret Scrolls 1 & 2, Downtown, The Lower Depths, Holiday in Tokyo, Rickshaw Man, All About Marriage, Theater of Life, Yaji and Kita on the Road, The Three Treasures, Life of an Expert Swordsman, Boss of the Underworld, Desperado Outpost, and The Saga of the Vagabonds.
Henry Fonda: Mister Roberts, The Wrong Man, Pictura: An Adventure in Art, 12 Angry Men, Stage Struck, The Man Who Understood Women, Warlock, The Tin Star, and War and Peace
Dean Martin: Some Came Running, Rio Bravo, Career, Ten Thousand Bedrooms, The Young Lions, Little New Orleans Girl, Pardners, Hollywood or Bust, Artists and Models, Living It Up, You're Never Too Young, 3 Ring Circus, The Caddy, Road to Bali, Money from Home, Scared Stiff, The Stooge, That's My Boy, Sailor Beware, Jumping Jacks, My Friend Irma Goes West, and At War with the Army.
Anthony Perkins: The Tin Star, Friendly Persuasion, Fear Strikes Out, The Matchmaker, On the Beach, Desire Under the Elms, Green Mansions, The Actress, The Lonely Man, and This Angry Age.
Gregory Peck: Only the Valiant, Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, Captain Horatio Hornblower, Pork Chop Hill, Beloved Infidel, David and Bathsheba, The Gunfighter, Pictura: An Adventure in Art, The World in His Arms, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Designing Woman, On the Beach, The Hidden World, The Bravados, The Big Country, Night People, Boum sur Paris, The Million Pound Note, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and The Purple Plain.
Clark Gable: Mogambo, Run Silent, Run Deep, Teacher's Pet, Betrayed, Never Let Me Go, The Tall Men, Key to the City, Across the Wide Missouri, To Please a Lady, Lone Star, But Not for Me, Soldier of Fortune, The King and Four Queens, and Band of Angels.
Gary Cooper: It's a Big Country, Blowing Wild, High Noon, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, They Came to Cordura, Ten North Frederick, Love in the Afternoon, Man of the West, The Hanging Tree, Friendly Persuasion, Vera Cruz, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Garden of Evil, Springfield Rifle, Return to Paradise, Starlift, You're in the Navy Now, Distant Drums, and It's a Big Country.
Robert Mitchum: Not as a Stranger, His Kind of Woman, River of No Return, Fire Down Below, The Night of the Hunter, Macao, The Racket, Where Danger Lives, The Lusty Men, River of No Return, Angel Face, White Witch Doctor, My Forbidden Past, Second Chance, One Minute to Zero, She Couldn't Say No, Bandido, Track of the Cat, The Wonderful Country, The Hunters, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, The Enemy Below, Thunder Road, and The Angry Hills.
Humphrey Bogart: The African Queen, The Caine Mutiny, Road to Bali, Deadline – U.S.A., Sabrina, The Barefoot Contessa, In a Lonely Place, The Left Hand of God, Sirocco, Chain Lightning, The Enforcer, Battle Circus, We're No Angels, The Love Lottery, Beat the Devil, The Desperate Hours, and The Harder They Fall.
Sidney Poitier: Band of Angels, The Defiant Ones, Porgy and Bess, Edge of the City, Virgin Island, The Mark of the Hawk, Something of Value, No Way Out, Cry, the Beloved Country, Go Man Go, Red Ball Express, Good-bye, My Lady, and Blackboard Jungle.
Takashi Shimura: Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Rashomon, Scandal, Elegy, The Idiot, Ikari no machi, Boryōku no Machi, Ore wa yojinbo, Ma no Ogen, Shunsetsu, Tenya wanya, Ginza Sanshiro, Yoru no hibotan, Ginza Sanshiro, Ai to nikushimi no kanata e, Kedamono no yado, Mesu Inu, Aoi shinju, Nusumareta koi, Hopu-san: sarariiman no maki, Muteki, The Life of a Horsetrader, Vendetta for a Samurai, Nangoku no hada, The Life of Oharu, Bijo to touzoku, Sengoku burai, Oka wa hanazakari, Minato e kita otoko, Hoyo, Fuun senryobune, Tobō chitai, Yoru no owari, Godzilla, Taiheiyō no washi, Jirochō sangokushi: kaitō-ichi no abarenbō, Asakusa no yoru, Kimi shinitamo koto nakare, Haha no hatsukoi, Shin kurama tengu daiichi wa: Tengu shutsugen, Shin kurama tengu daini wa: Azuma-dera no ketto, Bazoku geisha, Mekura neko, Mugibue, Godzilla Raids Again, No Time for Tears, Sanjusan go sha otonashi, Shin kurama tengu daisanbu, Muttsuri Umon torimonocho, Sugata naki mokugekisha, Asagiri, Geisha Konatsu: Hitori neru yo no Konatsu, I Live in Fear, Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, Shin, Heike monogatari: Yoshinaka o meguru sannin no onna, Wakai ki, Kyatsu o nigasuna, The Underworld, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, Arakure, Narazu-mono, Tōkyō hanzai chizu, Bōkyaku no hanabira, Throne of Blood, Sanjūrokunin no jōkyaku, Kono futari ni sachi are, Yama to kawa no aru machi, Bōkyaku no hanabira: Kanketsuhen, Kiken na eiyu, Yuunagi, Dotanba, Aoi sanmyaku Shinko no maki, The Mysterians, Ohtori-jo no hanayome, Edokko matsuri, haha, Forty-seven rōnin, Seven from Edo, Ten to Sen, Uguisu-jō no hanayome, Jinsei gekijō, The Hidden Fortress, Nichiren to Mōko Daishūrai, Ken wa shitte ita, Sora kakeru hanayome, Tetsuwan tōshu Inao monogatari, Kotan no kuchibue, Taiyō ni somuku mono, Sengoku gunto-den, Kagero ezu, The Three Treasures, Beran me-e geisha, Shobushi to sono musume, and Kēdamonō no torū michi.
James Mason: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Star Is Born, The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, North by Northwest, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Bigger Than Life, Julius Caesar, A Touch of Larceny, The Decks Ran Red, Island in the Sun, Cry Terror!, Charade, Forever, Darling, The Desert Rats, Prince Valiant, The Man Between, The Tell-Tale Heart, Botany Bay, The Story of Three Loves, Face to Face, The Prisoner of Zenda, 5 Fingers, Lady Possessed, One Way Street, and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
Sterling Hayden: The Last Command, The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, Johnny Guitar, Hellgate, The Star, Journey into Light, The Golden Hawk, Denver and Rio Grande, Flaming Feather, So Big, Flat Top, Crime Wave, Fighter Attack, Kansas Pacific, Take Me to Town, Suddenly, Naked Alibi, The Come On, Top Gun, Battle Taxi, Shotgun, Timberjack, The Eternal Sea, Arrow in the Dust, Ten Days to Tulara, 5 Steps to Danger, Crime of Passion, Valerie, Gun Battle at Monterey, Zero Hour!, Terror in a Texas Town, and The Iron Sheriff.
Harry Belafonte: Calypso, Carmen Jones, Island in the Sun, Odds Against Tomorrow, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, and Bright Road.
Laurence Olivier: Richard III, Carrie, Father's Little Dividend, The Magic Box, The Beggar's Opera, The Prince and the Showgirl, and The Devil's Disciple.
Jose Ferrer: Cyrano de Bergerac, Crisis, Anything Can Happen, Producers' Showcase: "Cyrano de Bergerac", Moulin Rouge, Miss Sadie Thompson, The Caine Mutiny, Deep in My Heart, I Accuse!, The High Cost of Loving, The Great Man, The Shrike, and The Cockleshell Heroes.
James Cagney: Mister Roberts, Run for Cover, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The West Point Story, Come Fill the Cup, A Lion Is in the Streets, What Price Glory, Love Me or Leave Me, The Seven Little Foys, Tribute to a Bad Man, Man of a Thousand Faces, These Wilder Years, Never Steal Anything Small, and Shake Hands with the Devil.
Farley Granger: Strangers on a Train, Our Very Own, Side Street, Behave Yourself!, Edge of Doom, O. Henry's Full House, I Want You, The Story of Three Loves, Hans Christian Andersen, Senso, Small Town Girl, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, and The Naked Street.
Bing Crosby: High Society, Alias Jesse James, Say One for Me, Anything Goes, The Joker Is Wild, Man on Fire, White Christmas, The Country Girl, Road to Bali, Scared Stiff, The Greatest Show on Earth, Little Boy Lost, Just for You, Son of Paleface, Angels in the Outfield, Riding High, Here Comes the Groom, and Mr. Music.
Chishū Ryū: Tokyo Story, The Munekata Sisters, Home Sweet Home, Early Summer, Carmen Comes Home, The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice, Arashi, Twenty-Four Eyes, Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, Rickshaw Man, Floating Weeds, and Good Morning.
Ray Milland: Three Brave Men, A Man Alone, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, A Woman of Distinction, A Life of Her Own, Copper Canyon, Dial M for Murder, Lisbon, The Safecracker, The River's Edge, High Flight, Something to Live For, Jamaica Run, The Thief, Close to My Heart, Rhubarb, Bugles in the Afternoon, and Night into Morning.
Alan Ladd: The Badlanders, The Big Land, Branded, Captain Carey, U.S.A, Shane, Botany Bay, Boy on a Dolphin, A Cry in the Night, The Man in the Net, Island of Lost Women, The Deep Six, The Proud Rebel, Saskatchewan, Drum Beat, The McConnell Story, Desert Legion, The Red Beret, The Black Knight, Santiago, Hell on Frisco Bay, Red Mountain, Hell Below Zero, A Sporting Oasis, The Iron Mistress, Thunder in the East, and Appointment with Danger.
Ben Johnson: Wagon Master, Shane, Rio Grande, Fort Bowie, War Drums, Slim Carter, Wild Stallion, Oklahoma!, and Rebel in Town.
Walter Brennan: Rio Bravo, A Ticket to Tomahawk, Singing Guns, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Far Country, Good-bye, My Lady, The Way to the Gold, Tammy and the Bachelor, God Is My Partner, Glory, At Gunpoint, Sea of Lost Ships, Come Next Spring, The Proud Ones, Surrender, Curtain Call at Cactus Creek, The Showdown, Return of the Texan, Best of the Badmen, The Wild Blue Yonder, Lure of the Wilderness, Along the Great Divide, Four Guns to the Border, and Drums Across the River.
Ralph Meeker: Kiss Me Deadly, Paths of Glory, Jeopardy, A Woman's Devotion, Glory Alley, Somebody Loves Me, Teresa, 4 Num Jeep, The Naked Spur, Big House, U.S.A., Run of the Arrow, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown, Code Two, and Desert Sands.
Edmond O’Brian: The Turning Point, The Hitch-Hiker, 1984, The Girl Can't Help It, Julius Caesar, The Barefoot Contessa, The Greatest Show on Earth, Denver and Rio Grande, Pete Kelly's Blues, The Rack, The Restless and the Damned, The World Was His Jury, Sing, Boy, Sing, A Cry in the Night, The Big Land, Stopover Tokyo, Up Periscope, D-Day the Sixth of June, The Shanghai Story, Shield for Murder, China Venture, The Bigamist, Cow Country, Man in the Dark, Backfire, 711 Ocean Drive, The Admiral Was a Lady, The Redhead and the Cowboy, Between Midnight and Dawn, Silver City, Warpath, and Two of a Kind.
Lee J. Cobb: The Left Hand of God, On the Waterfront, 12 Angry Men, The Brothers Karamazov, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Party Girl, The Trap, Green Mansions, But not for me, Man of the West, The Garment Jungle, Miami Expose, The Three Faces of Eve, The Racers, Day of Triumph, The Road to Denver, The Fighter, The Family Secret, Yankee Pasha, Gorilla at Large, The Man Who Cheated Himself, and The Tall Texan.
Karl Malden: Baby Doll, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, The Hanging Tree, I Confess, The Gunfighter, Halls of Montezuma, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Diplomatic Courier, Time Limit, The Sellout, Bombers B-52, Ruby Gentry, Phantom of the Rue Morgue, Ruby Gentry, Take the High Ground!, and Operation Secret.
Rod Steiger: The Harder They Fall, Cry Terror!, Teresa, On the Waterfront, Oklahoma!, The Big Knife, Jubal, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Al Capone, Back from Eternity, Run of the Arrow, The Unholy Wife, and Across the Bridge.
Aldo Ray: The Marrying Kind, Pat and Mike, Let's Do It Again, Battle Cry, God's Little Acre, Nightfall, The Naked and the Dead, Men in War, The Siege of Pinchgut, Three Stripes in the Sun, The Barefoot Mailman, My True Story, and Never Trust a Gambler.
Richard Conte: I'll Cry Tomorrow, The Fighter, The Sleeping City, Hollywood Story, The Raging Tide, The Raiders, The Blue Gardenia, Desert Legion, Slaves of Babylon, Highway Dragnet, New York Confidential, The Big Combo, Mask of Dust, Full of Life, The Big Tip Off, Little Red Monkey, Bengazi, Target Zero, The Brothers Rico, This Angry Age, and They Came to Cordura.
Tab Hunter: They Came to Cordura, That Kind of Woman, Gunman's Walk, Damn Yankees, Lafayette Escadrille, The Lawless, Gun Belt, The Island of Desire, Battle Cry, Track of the Cat, While We're Young, The Steel Lady, Return to Treasure Island, The Sea Chase, Fear Strikes Out, The People Against McQuade, The Burning Hills, The Girl He Left Behind, Mask for the Devil, Forbidden Area, Hans Brinker and the and Silver Skates.
Robert Ryan: Born to Be Bad, The Secret Fury, Flying Leathernecks, Hard, Fast and Beautiful, Clash by Night, On Dangerous Ground, The Racket, Horizons West, Beware, My Lovely, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Naked Spur, Best of the Badmen, Inferno, City Beneath the Sea, About Mrs. Leslie, Alaska Seas, Back from Eternity, The Tall Men, House of Bamboo, The Proud Ones, Her Twelve Men, Escape to Burma, Men in War, Odds Against Tomorrow, Lonelyhearts, Day of the Outlaw, and God's Little Acre.
Charles Laughton: Witness for the Prosecution, The Blue Veil, O. Henry's Full House, The Strange Door, Salome, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd, Young Bess, and Hobson's Choice.
Lee Marvin: Teresa, You're in the Navy Now, The Big Heat, Gorilla at Large, The Caine Mutiny, The Glory Brigade, The Stranger Wore a Gun, Bad Day at Black Rock, Gun Fury, Attack, Seven Men from Now, Raintree County, The Rack, The Missouri Traveler, Violent Saturday, I Died a Thousand Times, Not as a Stranger, A Life in the Balance, Pillars of the Sky, Shack Out on 101, The Wild One, The Raid, Down Among the Sheltering Palms, The Duel at Silver Creek, Hangman's Knot, Eight Iron Men, Seminole, Diplomatic Courier, and We're Not Married!.
Marcello Mastroianni: Lulu, It's Never Too Late, Black Feathers, Sunday Heroes, The Mute of Portici, The Most Wonderful Moment, Fathers and Sons, Sand, Love and Salt, White Nights, Girls for the Summer, The Bigamist, Piece of the Sky, Three Girls from Rome, The Eternal Chain, Il viale della speranza, Schiava del peccato, Tom Toms of Mayumba, The Island Princess, The Miller's Beautiful Wife, Too Bad She's Bad, House of Ricordi, Lucky to Be a Woman, The Law, Ferdinando I, re di Napoli, My Wife's Enemy, Everyone's in Love, Love and Troubles, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Doctor and the Healer, Chronicle of Poor Lovers, A Slice of Life, Days of Love, Sunday in August, A Tale of Five Cities, The Accusation, Tragic Return, Eager to Live, Barefoot Savage, Paris Is Always Paris, La valigia dei sogni, Against the Law, A Dog's Life, and Hearts at Sea.
Glenn Ford: The Big Heat, Blackboard Jungle, 3:10 to Yuma, Appointment in Honduras, The Violent Men, The Man from the Alamo, Plunder of the Sun, The Americano, Cowboy, Don't Go Near the Water, Trial, Jubal, The Fastest Gun Alive, Ransom!, It Started with a Kiss, The Sheepman, The Teahouse of the August Moon, Imitation General, Torpedo Run, The Gazebo, Human Desire, Interrupted Melody, The White Tower, Convicted, The Redhead and the Cowboy, The Secret of Convict Lake, The Flying Missile, Follow the Sun, The Green Glove, Young Man with Ideas, Time Bomb, and Affair in Trinidad.
Walter Matthau: The Kentuckian, Bigger Than Life, The Indian Fighter, King Creole, A Face in the Crowd, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Onionhead, Voice in the Mirror, and Ride a Crooked Trail.
Jeff Chandler: Broken Arrow, Female on the Beach, Deported, Away All Boats, Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, The Desert Hawk, Double Crossbones, Two Flags West, Sign of the Pagan, Taza, Son of Cochise, Drango, The Tattered Dress, Pillars of the Sky, The Lady Takes a Flyer, Man in the Shadow, Jeanne Eagels, Ten Seconds to Hell, Stranger in My Arms, The Jayhawkers!, Thunder in the Sun, Raw Wind in Eden, Foxfire, The Toy Tiger, The Spoilers, East of Sumatra, Yankee Pasha, Girls in the Night, War Arrow, The Great Sioux Uprising, Iron Man, The Battle at Apache Pass, Smuggler's Island, Meet Danny Wilson, Flame of Araby, Bird of Paradise, Son of Ali Baba, Because of You, Yankee Buccaneer, and Red Ball Express.
Vincent Price: While the City Sleeps, Serenade, The Ten Commandments, Son of Sinbad, The Fly, The Vagabond King, The Baron of Arizona, Adventures of Captain Fabian, Pictura: An Adventure in Art, Champagne for Caesar, His Kind of Woman, Curtain Call at Cactus Creek, Born in Freedom: The Story of Colonel Drake, Dangerous Mission, House of Wax, The Tingler, House on Haunted Hill, The Big Circus, The Story of Mankind, Return of the Fly, The Bat, Casanova's Big Night, The Mad Magician, and The Las Vegas Story.
Joel Mccrea: Wichita, Stranger on Horseback, Stars in My Crown, The Outriders, Frenchie, Saddle Tramp, The San Francisco Story, Hollywood Story, Cattle Drive, Rough Shoot, The Oklahoman, Black Horse Canyon, The First Texan, The Lone Hand, The Tall Stranger, The Gunfight at Dodge City, Fort Massacre, Trooper Hook, Gunsight Ridge, and Cattle Empire.
Van Heflin: 3:10 to Yuma, Shane, Gunman's Walk, The Prowler, Tomahawk, Week-End with Father, South of Algiers, Tanganyika, Black Widow, Woman's World, Wings of the Hawk, The Raid, They Came to Cordura, Tempest, Patterns, Count Three and Pray, My Son John, and Battle Cry.
Fred Macmurray: Woman's World, Borderline, Pushover, The Rains of Ranchipur, At Gunpoint, There's Always Tomorrow, Quantez, Gun for a Coward, The Oregon Trail, The Shaggy Dog, Good Day for a Hanging, Face of a Fugitive, Day of the Badman, Fair Wind to Java, The Caine Mutiny, Callaway Went Thataway, A Millionaire for Christy, Never a Dull Moment, The Far Horizons, and The Moonlighter.
Zbigniew Cybulski: A Generation, Ashes and Diamonds, Wraki, Kariera, Tajemnica dzikiego szybu, Trzy starty, Krzyż Walecznych, Night Train, and The Eighth Day of the Week.
Sam Jaffe: The Asphalt Jungle, Ben-Hur, The Day the Earth Stood Still, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, The Barbarian and the Geisha, Main Street to Broadway, and Les Espions.
Richard Widmark: Panic in the Streets, Hell and High Water, Warlock, The Tunnel of Love, Pickup on South Street, Don't Bother to Knock, Halls of Montezuma, Time Limit, Night and the City, Take the High Ground!, No Way Out, O. Henry's Full House, Destination Gobi, The Frogmen, Red Skies of Montana, My Pal Gus, Backlash, A Prize of Gold, The Trap, The Law and Jake Wade, The Last Wagon, Saint Joan, Garden of Evil, The Cobweb, Run for the Sun, and Broken Lance.
Yul Brynner: The King and I, The Ten Commandments, Anastasia, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer, Solomon and Sheba, The Sound and the Fury, and The Journey.
Jack Warden: The Asphalt Jungle, From Here to Eternity, 12 Angry Men, That Kind of Woman, Darby's Rangers, The Sound and the Fury, The Bachelor Party, The Man with My Face, Red Ball Express, Run Silent, Run Deep, Edge of the City, You're in the Navy Now, and The Frogmen.
Fred Astaire: The Band Wagon, Funny Face, Silk Stockings, On the Beach, Daddy Long Legs, The Belle of New York, and Royal Wedding.
Anthony Quinn: La Strada, Viva Zapata!, Lust for Life, Wild Is the Wind, The Brave Bulls, Mask of the Avenger, The World in His Arms, Funniest Show on Earth, Fatal Desire, East of Sumatra, The Magnificent Matador, Attila, Seven Cities of Gold, The Long Wait, City Beneath the Sea, Seminole, Ride, Vaquero!, Warlock, Last Train from Gun Hill, The Black Orchid, Hot Spell, Van Gogh: Darkness Into Light, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ride Back, Man from Del Rio, The Naked Street, The River's Edge, Angels of Darkness, Ulysses, Ulysses, The Brigand, and The Wild Party.
Donald O'Connor: Francis, Curtain Call at Cactus Creek, Double Crossbones, The Milkman, Francis Covers the Big Town, There's No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, The Buster Keaton Story, Walking My Baby Back Home, Francis Joins the WACS, Singin' in the Rain, Francis Goes to the Races, I Love Melvin, Francis Goes to West Point, Call Me Madam, and Francis in the Navy.
John Gavin: Imitation of Life, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Quantez, Behind the High Wall, Four Girls in Town, and Raw Edge.
Richard Basehart: Fourteen Hours, Time Limit, Moby Dick, Tension, Outside the Wall, The House on Telegraph Hill, Side Street, Titanic, Avanzi di galera, Le avventure di Cartouche, The Restless and the Damned, The Brothers Karamazov, Jons und Erdme, The Intimate Stranger, Love and Troubles, Golden Vein, The Stranger's Hand, La Strada, Canyon Crossroads, Miracles of Thursday, Il bidone, Decision Before Dawn, Angels of Darkness,Fixed Bayonets!, and The Extra Day.
Arthur Kennedy: Bright Victory, Peyton Place, The Lusty Men, Trial, Impulse, The Man from Laramie, The Ten Commandments, Twilight for the Gods, The Rawhide Years, Some Came Running, Home Is the Hero, The Desperate Hours, A Summer Place, The Glass Menagerie, Bend of the River, The Girl in White, Red Mountain, Crashout, and Rancho Notorious.
Andy Griffith: A Face in the Crowd, No Time for Sergeants, and Onionhead.
George Sanders: All About Eve, King Richard and the Crusaders, Ivanhoe, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Black Jack, Assignment – Paris!, Call Me Madam, Journey to Italy, The King's Thief, That Certain Feeling, While the City Sleeps, Never Say Goodbye, Jupiter's Darling, The Scarlet Coat, Witness to Murder, The Light Touch, Moonfleet, From the Earth to the Moon, Rock-A-Bye Baby, The Seventh Sin, The Whole Truth, That Kind of Woman, and Solomon and Sheba.
Jack Hawkins: Mandy, Angels One Five, Twice Upon a Time, Fortune Is a Woman, The Prisoner, The Intruder, The Seekers, Front Page Story, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Man in the Sky, Ben-Hur, Gideon's Day, The Two-Headed Spy, Touch and Go, The Long Arm, Land of the Pharaohs, The Cruel Sea, The Planter's Wife, Malta Story, The Elusive Pimpernel, The Black Rose, State Secret, No Highway in the Sky, The Adventurers, and Home at Seven.
Spencer Tracy: For Defense for Freedom for Humanity, The Actress, Bad Day at Black Rock, Broken Lance, The Old Man and the Sea, Desk Set, The Mountain, The Last Hurrah, The People Against O'Hara, Plymouth Adventure, Pat and Mike, Father's Little Dividend, and Father of the Bride.
Sonny Tufts: Gift Horse, Cat-Women of the Moon, Run for the Hills, The Seven Year Itch, Serpent Island, No Escape, The Parson and the Outlaw, and Come Next Spring.
David Niven: The Moon Is Blue, Separate Tables, Happy Anniversary, Ask Any Girl, My Man Godfrey, Bonjour Tristesse, Around the World in 80 Days, The Little Hut, Oh, Men! Oh, Women!, The Birds and the Bees, The King's Thief, The Silken Affair, Happy Ever After, Carrington V.C., The Love Lottery, The Toast of New Orleans, The Lady Says No, Appointment with Venus, Soldiers Three, Happy Go Lovely, and The Elusive Pimpernel.
Off of Personal Preference Glenn Ford, Gene Kelly, and William Holden are my top three.
submitted by Britneyfan456 to classicfilms [link] [comments]

How likely is every NFL stadium to host WrestleMania? An investigation

With the announcements of WrestleManias 37, 38, and 39, some users were critical of WWE selecting the same venues every year. Every WrestleMania since 23, with the exception of three in Orlando (two at the Citrus Bowl/Camping World Stadium and one at the Performance Center due to COVID-19), has been held at an NFL stadium. As something of an NFL stadium expert, I decided to examine each NFL stadium's likelihood of hosting a future WrestleMania. Please note that some stadiums are located just outside of the city limits listed, but I listed the major city most associated with it (so for instance, while AT&T Stadium is technically in Arlington, it hosts the Dallas Cowboys, so I listed Arlington.) I'm also giving WWE a significant benefit of the doubt and assuming they'd be interested in hosting a Mania outside of their usual go-tos.
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV
Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO
AT&T Stadium, Dallas, TX
Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC
Bills Stadium, Buffalo, NY
Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, CO
FedExField, Washington, DC (stadium located in Landover, MD)
FirstEnergy Stadium, Cleveland, OH
Ford Field, Detroit, MI
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, FL
Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA
Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI
Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA
Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN
Lumen Field, Seattle, WA
M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA
Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA
MetLife Stadium, New York, NY (located in East Rutherford, NJ)
Nissan Stadium, Nashville, TN
NRG Stadium, Houston, TX
Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, OH
Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL
SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL
State Farm Stadium, Phoenix, AZ
TIAA Bank Field, Jacksonville, FL
US Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN
submitted by iamnotacola to SquaredCircle [link] [comments]

Album of the Year #5: The Weeknd - After Hours

Artist: The Weeknd
Album: After Hours
Listen:
YouTube
Spotify
Apple Music
Tidal

Background by nullplotexception

The Weeknd is the stage name of Abel Tesfaye, the son of Ethiopian immigrants Samra and Makkonen Tesfaye. Abel was born in Toronto on February 16th, 1990, where he lived for the first two decades of his life. His parents separated early in his life, and Abel was raised by his mother and his grandmother. He met his father a few times in his adolescence, but they never gained a close relationship. Abel notes that he doesn’t necessarily harbor any ill will towards his father, saying “I'd see him for, like, a night. I'm sure he's a great guy. I never judged him. He wasn't abusive, he wasn't an alcoholic, he wasn't an asshole. He just wasn't there.”
Tesfaye began experimenting with marijuana at 11, and quickly moved on to harder drugs like cocaine, Xanax, and mushrooms. In his teen years, he was kicked out of school and briefly became homeless. He at one point went a year without talking to his mother.
Not much else is publicly known about Abel’s early life. Musically, he was part of the production group Noise and rapped briefly under the stage name Kin Kane. There’s this video of him rapping and a small collection of leaked songs that are roughly from this era], but that’s it.
Somewhere around 2010, Abel Tesfaye met produce Jeremy Rose, a producer who had been wanting to work on a ‘dark’ R&B project. Rose produced a number of songs for Abel, with three of them being eventually uploaded to Tesfaye’s YouTube channel ("What You Need", "Loft Music", and "The Morning"). These were the first songs released under the anonymous pseudonym “The Weeknd.” The three aforementioned songs began to gain traction on the internet, earning the attention of fellow Toronto artist Drake. They were subsequently released as part of the first The Weeknd mixtape, House of Balloons in March of 2011.
House of Balloons turned The Weeknd into one of the hottest newcomers in the R&B world seemingly overnight. This groundbreaking mixtape merged modern trap and electronic production with R&B vocals and drugged out lyrics based on the last few years of Abel’s life. It started a whole movement of artists who have given their own takes on the House of Balloons “moody” R&B aesthetic.
He quickly followed it up with two more mixtapes, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, later that year. He later re-released these mixtapes as Trilogy, which was eventually certified as a Platinum record.
In mid-2011, Tesfaye collaborated with Drake on four songs for Drake’s sophomore album, Take Care. Tesfaye also performed at OVO Fest and opened for Drake on a few different occasions that year. This all led to Abel Tesfaye signing a record deal with Republic Records and starting his own XO imprint in 2012. The decision came as a surprise to Drake, who had hoped that The Weeknd would join Drake’s own OVO imprint, creating tension between the two artists.
The success of his three mixtapes gave Abel the opportunity to travel for the first time in his life. He toured the United States and parts of Europe. The Weeknd took his experiences abroad and channeled them into his studio debut album, Kiss Land. Kiss Land took some of the same lyrical and musical themes as Trilogy, but pushed them in a slightly different direction. Like Trilogy, many of the lyrics focus on Abel’s insecurities, heavy drug use, failed relationships, and spending quality time with groupies. That said, this time, as we get closer to the end of the project, Abel blames himself more and more for his inability to create meaningful connections with women.
Though Kiss Land was not met with as much critical acclaim as Trilogy, it still was reviewed in a fairly positive light. The album eventually was certified Gold in the United States.
Over the next few years, The Weeknd became a household name, with singles like “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face” topping the Billboard Hot 100. He released his sophomore album, Beauty Behind the Madness, which sold a whopping 400k units in the first week. He collaborated with pop artists like Ariana Grande and Beyoncé. He did a song for the 50 Shades of Gray soundtrack. His signature long haircut became the topic of many internet memes. He was seemingly everywhere.
He followed Beauty Behind the Madness with Starboy in 2016, where he adopted a more 80s-influenced style. This album featured Daft Punk multiple times, and their influence could be seen on many of the rest of the tracks as well. The album was roughly as successful as some of his previous works—it went triple platinum and won a Grammy—but it didn’t get as warm of a critical reception as those albums.
Abel was a little quieter after Starboy, releasing mainly guest verses for the next couple of years until he finally released an EP called My Dear Melancholy, in 2018. This was a return to a darker sound for The Weeknd, more in line with some of his work on Trilogy.
Throughout his rise to fame, The Weeknd had a few public relationships with other celebrities. He dated model Bella Hadid and musician Selena Gomez on an off in the years leading to 2020. These relationships had more and more of an effect on his music as he grew older. He admitted that the older he got, the more he wanted a serious relationship over flings with groupies.
This all lead up to 2020, where The Weeknd teased on Twitter that he was working on darker music (“no more daytime music”). He premiered "Blinding Lights" in a Mercedes commercial, and it became the first single for the upcoming album, After Hours. He used his Beats 1 radio show, Momento Mori, to promote the new single, saying that his next album was coming soon. He described this next venture as “a new brain melting psychotic chapter.”
And so, on March 20th, After Hours was released.

Track by Track Breakdown by nullplotexception

Alone Again

It’s immediately clear that this is going to be one of his most personal albums in a while, as the first song starts with the somber lines “Take off my disguise // I’m living someone else’s life”. The song starts with The Weeknd singing about how numb he feels and pleading for someone to break his “little cold heart” to remind him who he truly is. The beat crescendos after the end of the first verse, with the drop coming in during the hook while Abel singings about an overdose and worries if he can be alone again. There’s many interpretations of what this may all mean, but it sounds to me like the beginning of the track is him hoping that drugs will make him feel some sort of lost euphoria. He ends up taking too much, and finds himself worrying that he can no longer trust himself to be alone as this will lead him on the same path again.
The production on this track is beautiful, starting with eerie synths and lots of texture in the background. As it builds up, it draws the listener into the world of this album. By the end of the song, it sounds like a more typical synth-pop track, with the main hip-hop influence coming from the drums in the hook of the track.

Too Late

The second track starts with Abel asking for forgiveness to a woman and hoping that she’ll guide him through some impending darkness. He ends the verse repeating that he’s too high and that he’s lost it, transitioning to the hook where he says that it’s too late to save our souls. It sounds like he’s trying to come out of the overdose he sent himself into on “Alone Again” but he needs someone else’s help to fully pull himself back. He’s paranoid that he’s gone too far. He goes on to say that he can’t trust where he lives, calling it a hell disguised as a paradise. This further drives in to the theme of him not feeling comfortable in his own life, a theme that was earlier mentioned in the first lines of the introductory song.
This track features more shimmery production than the first. Almost right from the start, there is a booming bass drum and some excellent synth leads, pushing the energy to the max on a lyrically rather dark song.

Hardest to Love

This track focuses more on The Weeknd’s love life than the two previous ones. He explains that he’s “been the hardest to love,” but his partner keeps trying to keep the relationship alive. He says that he “can’t believe you trust me,” and yet “you still call me up.” Throughout the song, there’s many lines about his love interest being dead inside but trying to hide it. It sounds like Abel may have pulled out of the tailspin he was in in the last two songs, but is now wondering why his partner decided to stick by his side for this episode. It sounds like the relationship hasn’t even benefited that partner, and he has been the problem in their relationship so far.
Again, the theme of Abel not loving being The Weeknd is brought up, as there’s a line where he sings that “I don’t feel it anymore, this house I bought is not a home”.

Scared To Live

The next song starts with Abel lamenting a past relationship, singing about how he should have let her go instead of staying with her and harming her. The track continues down this direction, with Tesfaye admitting that he’s “the reason you forgot to love.” Towards the end of the track, though, the lyrics start to turn, with Abel singing that he refuses “to be the one who taints your heart” to the same melody as the previously mentioned lyric. He clearly has a lot of regret for things he’s done in and out of the relationship and ends the song “praying that you find yourself.” He hopes that his ex-girlfriend finds happiness in life, but keeps it vague as to whether he wants that happiness to come as part of a relationship with him or with some other person.
Sonically, this wasn’t one of my favorites on the album. The pre-chorus has a nice build, but the song remains pretty simple throughout the actual hook, which sounds a little jarring. Though there’s still plenty of synths in the foreground and background of the track, much like the first three songs, it doesn’t totally fit the synth-wave style that had been previously established on the album. It sounds a lot jazzier than the rest of the songs here, which obviously isn’t a bad thing, but because it doesn’t sound as well executed. It doesn’t help that the lyrics are a little more vague and unfocused than some of the previous songs.

Snowchild

Abel moves to more of a rap-sung style on this next track. The first verse is almost entirely about his rise to fame. Abel raps that “I'd probably make my wrist bleed” if he didn’t make it in music. He goes on to talk about continuing to do drugs as he rose in stature and getting famous to the point where supermodels were star-struck by him. The verse concludes with the line “Cali was the mission but now a nigga leaving.” This completes the journey he started on “The Morning,” off his debut mixtape House of Balloons, where he sang “Cali is the mission.” It’s very interesting to see Abel looking at fame from the other side now, almost regretting that he’s gotten to this point in the first place. In the next verse, he further explains the more superficial details of his lavish lifestyle, talking about his Mercedes sponsorship and private jets. The song transitions to a mellower chord progression towards to the end, and Abel expands on some of the drawbacks of his success, like dealing with the paparazzi, owning an expensive house that he never sees/doesn’t feel like home, and fighting off accusations about plagiarism and homophobia. The song transitions into an outro, where he restates that’s he’s “leaving,” like in the hook. Leaving can mean many things here. Is Abel going to give up fame, drugs, or a relationship? It’s not really clarified, but it can definitely mean some combination of this.
This is definitely one of the strongest songs on the album. The beat is rather simple compared to some of the other ones, but it fits with the more rap focused track, allowing for the verses to stand out more.

Escape From LA

Abel goes back to singing more on Escape From LA. He sings about being with a girl who pillow talks about her infidelity. He says that he’ll give her space, but adds “Girl, when you're ready, you know where I stay,” implying that he’s not scared that she’ll truly love anyone other than him. He goes on to sing about having “everything that I wanted, but I’d be nothing without you.” Abel focuses more on his own life in the hook and the second verse. He pleads in the hook, “take me out LA // take me out of LA.” The lack of the word “of” in the first line makes it sound like he’s literally asking for his LA party lifestyle to kill him. The song moves to the bridge, where Abel goes back to talking about a girl, presumably the one from the first verse. He tells the story of a girl “pulling up to the studio” and having sex with him in the studio. He concludes the story by saying the girl is all his until her boyfriend calls her line. This is a nice reversal of the first verse, where he’s confident that the girl he’s talking to will come back to him if he gives her space. Now, it seems that he’s the side man and that his love interest found someone better than him. More tragic is that it sounds like she found someone else while he was struggling.

Heartless

Heartless, produced by Metro Boomin, was the lead single for the album, has much in common with many of The Weeknd’s past songs. He sings about being heartless, doing drugs, being a low life, not being a man worth wedding, and getting “so much pussy it be falling out the pocket.” He comes to regret this life of excess in the bridge, where he admits that he lost his heart and mind, and he wonders why a girl came back into his life. This sounds like a reference to the vignette told in the first few songs, where Abel was in a tailspin and turned to an (ex?)-girlfriend for help.

Faith

The Weeknd wastes no time here, starting the song talking about smoking blunts, doing lines of coke, and rolling, because he “lost his faith.” He was “sober for a year”, but he’s relapsing now. Getting high only makes him lonelier, so he says “If I OD, I want you to OD right beside me.” He goes chasing someone from his past, “driving down the boulevard” but not being able to see because he’s so high and the streetlights are blinding. He starts to come down, but that only makes his feelings worse. The song ends with Abel being arrested and thrown in the back of a cop car, and he truly hits rock bottom. The sequence draws from when Tesfaye was arrested in Las Vegas for punching a cop.

Blinding Lights

The theme of drunk driving continues on Blinding Lights. The Weeknd, after coming down, begins to have withdrawals. He’s comments on the superficiality of Las Vegas, saying that it’s a “cold and empty” place to live. This all leads to him falling back into his old habits. This again makes him lonely and desperate, so he goes in search of his past girlfriend once more, this time to try and talk to her and express his love for her. Still, he has a hard time driving because the street lights are so bright, and his eyes are sensitive from taking MDMA and other similar drugs.
The addictively catchy hook, nostalgic synths, and booming bass made it one of the hottest of songs of the year, and it charted in the top 10 for more than 40 weeks.

In Your Eyes

The Weeknd examines both his own and his partner’s infidelity in their relationship. He pretends he can’t see her cheating and that he’s in the dark. He doesn’t want to get hurt, since he feels like he’s already at rock bottom and he “can’t take a loss.” He can see that he cheated in her eyes, but he ignores it. He admits that he’s also “tried to find love in someone else,” and that he can tell that his girlfriend is also hurt by it.

Save Your Tears

The story of the last song continues here, where Abel ends up breaking off the relationship because of each person’s cheating. At first, his ex seems happy that it’s over, but when she sees him at a bar, all the pain of the relationship returns, causing her to get uncomfortable with the situation and leave. He wants to tell her he gave up on the relationship because his heart was broken by someone else, and that he now he realizes that he should have stayed committed. He ends up giving up hope, and admits that she “deserves someone better.” He thinks that he’s not even worth her sorrow and he tells her to “save your tears for another day.”

Repeat After Me (Interlude)

This interlude concludes the story arch from the last two songs. Abel’s ex-girlfriend tries to move on, but she can’t fully commit to her new boyfriend because she’s still thinking of him. He points out that she’s just treating her new boyfriend like he treated her, making her new relationship as doomed as the previous one.
The song is produced by Kevin Parker, and has a very dark, psychedelic sound. It’s a perfect bridge between the jazzier Save Your Tears and the upcoming title track.

After Hours

The climax of the album comes on its title track. Abel sings about an overdose (which he calls a “dream”) that almost resulted in his death. He admits that he’s doing all of this to himself because he can’t live without his ex and ends the first verse with the somber reflection “without you, I can't breathe.” Throughout this section of the song, the beat is quieter and has a more ambient feel than any of the previous tracks on the album. After the first verse, it builds up more and more, finally ‘dropping’ at the beginning of the second verse, where Abel details his “darkest hours.” He says that he dated groupies to distract himself from his ex, then he put himself “to sleep” so he could “dream” about being with her once more (again, dreams are used as a metaphor for drugs). The beat continues to build as the hook comes in, with Abel pleading to his ex, “where are you now that I need you most.” Finally, there’s a bridge, where Abel admits that the failures in the relationship were his own fault. The beat becomes more subdued, and the chorus is sang for one final time, this time with a more forlorn tone.
The instrumental on this track is simple, but beautiful. It becomes louder and softer as the track goes on, underlining Abel’s emotions towards the the topics he’s singing about. If there’s one song on the album that captures the theme of the whole album, it’s probably this one.

Until I Bleed Out

The album ends with Abel talking about how he feels “paralyzed” and he wants “it” (likely drugs) out of his life. He sings “I want to cut you out of my dreams // ‘Til I’m bleeding out.” At this point, it sounds like he’s willing to do basically anything to shake his addiction, including harming himself. It’s a very sad but appropriate way to end the album, with Abel continuing to spiral out of control.

Conclusion by nullplotexception

So, After Hours is the story of a man who keeps doing drugs to escape his past relationships, but this results in him overdosing and feeling worse as he comes down. He wants to prove to his ex that he won’t hurt her if she gives him another chance, but he can’t even keep himself sober enough to prove to himself that he’s worth loving. He’s disappointed in himself and wants to kick his addictions, but isn’t certain that he’ll be able to do it. The high pitched synths give it a happier sound on first listen, but the lyrics make the songs devastatingly dark.
It’s an album that leaves the listener almost wondering if Abel Tesfaye is doing OK as a person, one where the line between art and artist starts to blur as more and more of his personal life is brought into the focus of the music.
Still it’s a fantastic album that came out at an interesting time. The album released roughly at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, so many people associate quarantine with this album. It actually was a perfect time for an album of this style to come out, as it focuses on The Weeknd’s ability to be alone, while millions of people were forced to distance themselves from their friends for months.
Unsurprisingly, this has been one of the most successful albums of the year, selling 444K units in its first week. Over the past few months, nearly every song has gotten its own music video or official live performance in lieu of the world tour that was originally planned for the album, which has now been postponed over COVID-19 concerns.
It’s become one of my personal favorites for how dark and honest it is, and how it uses shimmery production to complement these themes. It’s personally my favorite album that’s come out this year.

Favorite Lyrics

Oh, oh, oh, how much to light up my star again And rewire all my thoughts? - Alone Again
I never thought I'd be here without you Don't let me drown inside your arms - Too Late
I used to pray when I was sixteen If I didn't make it, then I'd probably make my wrist bleed Not to mislead, turn my nightmares into big dreams - Snowchild
Cali was the mission but now a nigga leaving - Snowchild
She like my futuristic sounds in the new spaceship Futuristic sex, give her Philip K dick - Snowchild
You pillow talk to me about the men who try to get in between us They buy you bags and jewelry, yeah They think your kindness is so weak No, you don't give it up so easy, baby - Escape from LA
But if I OD, I want you to OD right beside me I want you to follow right behind me I want you to hold me while I'm smiling While I'm dying - Faith
You look so happy when I'm not with you - Save Your Tears
My darkest hours Girl, I felt so alone inside of this crowded room Different girls on the floor, distractin' my thoughts of you - After Hours
I wanna cut you outta my dreams - Until I Bleed Out

Discussion Questions

What’s your favorite song?
Does the synthy production work for this album, or would you prefer the same lyrics to be sang over the dark R&B beats that The Weeknd became popular singing on?
Where does this album rank among his previous works?
Does this album fulfil Abel’s promise of putting out “no more daytime music”?
submitted by nullplotexception to hiphopheads [link] [comments]

BU's Poor Treatment of Faculty (and Students)

Hello--first time posting in this subreddit. I received my Ph.D. from BU in 2019 and have been teaching as an instructor in the Writing Program there since 2014. I have loved learning and teaching at BU, but have been dismayed by how poorly they treat their faculty--poverty wages, no affordable insurance, no PPE during the pandemic, and so on. After this fall, after nearly 7 years of teaching at BU, I finally had to quit due to the simple fact that I cannot afford to be employed by BU anymore. Over the course of the Fall 2020 semester, I wrote this essay about my experiences and why I have to leave BU, trying to figure out this frustrating situation. I shared it with my students last semester and they were grateful to have the insider information about how BU operates as a educational institution. I thought this subreddit might appreciate reading as well. I have copied the entirety of the essay below.
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TL;DR: BU has a demonstrable record of failing its faculty and devaluing the classroom experience for its students.
-BU doesn't believe its teachers need living wages even amidst a pandemic and despite record fundraising and endowments. Or, in other words, students pay full price for classes taught by exhausted faculty who often live on publicly subsidized health insurance and work many other jobs to make ends meet.
-In a moral sense, it's repugnant for other reasons: BU paid $13,000 in security fees for the right wing commentator Ben Shapiro to speak for one night on campus in the Fall of 2019 while also paying members of their faculty just $6,000 dollars to teach a semesters-long course.
​
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ESSAY:
November 22, 2020.
Post-Doc 2020
Dr. Sam ShupeCollege of Arts & Sciences Writing Program Boston University
I am writing because I need to figure some feelings out. First, I feel embarrassed. I must quit my beloved job teaching at the elite private research university where I earned my Ph.D. because I can no longer afford to live on the meager salary they pay, even with publicly subsidized healthcare, multiple roommates, and second jobs. Second, I feel a growing sense of anger toward my institution that is unproductive, unsettling, and in need of translating. Third, and finally, I feel deeply saddened. The very institution that taught me to think and write about the intricacies of the human condition does not care if I can afford basic housing, healthcare, or financial stability while I teach their students. The institution that taught me how to see humanity with depth has chosen to see me as a number to be flattened on a page. I love teaching truth where I myself learned to access it, but my university does not care about that. My university does not pay me or dozens of other part time lecturers and adjuncts enough to be fully alive in their classrooms. They know they do not pay enough for many of their teachers to live, that many of their faculty work other jobs to survive. They know it and are okay with it. I can be okay with it, too, but I need them to admit it. I need them say it out loud: we do not believe living wages are essential for the optimum performance of teachers for our students. Or, we are okay with our students paying full-price for courses taught by faculty who cannot afford to pay their full attention to those students.
The fact that the university entrusts me to teach the analytical skills it takes to see and communicate their low standards is the most difficult truth for me to live with.I cannot ignore this topsy-turvy world they have empowered faculty to both teach and struggle within. I am one of many thousands of vastly underpaid lecturers and adjuncts teaching hundreds of thousands of American college kids. We are the backbone of every university. They cannot serve what they purport to offer without us. It nears amusement to consider how oblivious American universities have become to the growing resentment resulting from their mistreatment of the most diverse and trained generation of thinkers in American history. Do they think we are stupid? They taught us. Sometimes it feels like satire. They want teachers smart enough to teach critical thinking, but too stupid to realize they are being taken advantage of. It is as if they want architectural historians who see no physical and symbolic differences between the Pyramids of Egypt and the facades of Las Vegas or literature scholars who can only pull a fishing trip out of Moby Dick. You can blame Millenials for irony in pop culture but blame the prior generations in charge of the academy for forcing irony into education. Ironically, they helped Millenials understand that.
I write this amidst the pandemic. COVID is freezing budgets in seemingly every industry. But even with some belt tightening, my university's endowment recently hit 2.3 billion and freshmen deposits for September enrollment surpassed administration's goals. A little over fifty percent of the university's revenue—some $157 million in 2019—comes from student tuition while the rest is made from sponsored programs, donations, and research grants. In the last year's financial report, the university's treasurer happily reported the institution "experienced another successful year of strong financial growth and continued support of our primary mission of teaching and research, ending the year with assets totaling more than $7 billion."1 Things look financially rosy. But somehow, at the same time, I have woken up to the news that the university will not provide PPE to faculty. I read emails on my department's list-serve soliciting donations for a faculty-funded stock of masks, face shields, gloves and sanitizer. I am one of dozens of part time lecturers in just one single university department who walk into billion-dollar-backed- classrooms without affordable healthcare or provided PPE. Can anyone supply a good argument beyond cost saving as to why this is?
While the endowment grows, so too do the numbers of students, parents, faculty, and staff who can no longer trust their university to do the right thing with that money. My university is but one of many and will defend themselves by comparing their awful numbers to the similarly awful numbers of other private institutions like them. They will probably counter my arguments by showing how other universities also pay similarly low wages. But that does little to allay my criticisms of how educational institutions have decided to handle themselves, not as leaders of purveying intellectual truths, but loyal followers of steady business. We expect it from Walmart, but not a school. My university can continue its path but I feel called to ask them to be honest about their choices. In a time of chaos and pain, I am selfishly asking for attention. I am asking students, faculty, administrators, parents, and all degree holders to consider my story and ask is this what we want for each other?
The Facts
I teach in the College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program at Boston University. Beginning as a graduate student and in the years following, I have designed and taught sixteen total undergraduate class sections over the course of eleven semesters, seven as a Graduate Writing Fellow (GWF) and nine as a Part-Time Lecturer (PTL). According to my union-won contract, I am scheduled for a modest raise of my per-class rate after teaching eight classes as a part-time lecturer. However, BU Labor Relations has denied me this raise by arguing that four of the nine classes do not count because I was still in my last year of school while teaching them and technically still a student. Despite paying me the lower PTL rate per class and allowing me to teach two sections a semester (which is not allowed for GWFs), they have reasoned that I was a productive and responsible enough educator for the workload but not the basic financial security. My contract allows me to purchase a health plan through BU, but it costs more than twenty-five percent of my annual salary—three times as much as my current public subsidized plan. Public health is my best option.
The numbers are funny in a sad way. Fresh out of school PTLs like myself make roughly $6,000 per class at BU. If you're lucky and get offered to teach the maximum four total classes, you will make a little over $25,000 a year. The reality is more likely less as PTLs typically teach only two or three sections a year. The raise provides a little over $2,000 extra per class. Raise or not, PTLs still make below $30,000 a year without benefits for Ph.D. level work in one of the most expensive cities in the country and only after teaching for two years at an even lower rate. Each course, capped at around eighteen students and costing them each at least $5,000, generates close to $100,000 for BU. PTLs can make the university upwards of $400,000 in a year and receive less than ten percent of that. The funny: I am a highly educated and impressively employed thirty-one year old professor whose physical life resembles his students'. The sad: the raise would do little to change that.2
I am single, white, straight, and male with a Ph.D. in New England. I have near fantastical odds of financially surviving. This sort of pain is a more easily weathered storm for a guy like me. I know that because I am an historian and my field of study clearly shows us how this world is set up for me to thrive. I have this wonderful luxury of being able publicly detest money for philosophical reasons and live more or less accordingly without mortal fear. Writing this essay critical of my employer, for example, is an immense privilege. So when I really pick apart my pain, the deepest source comes from the violation of intellectual truth imbedded in this struggle. It is the principle of the thing.
I got the news they were denying my raise a month before the start of the fall 2020 semester. It was a Saturday. The week before was filled with faculty meetings on Zoom and I answered texts from colleagues. Did your raise go through? I still haven't found out myself. I opened up my personal email account to follow conversations with my union reps and comrades discussing all the ways BU was refusing to help teachers prepare for mandatory in-person teaching amidst the pandemic. It was not all bad. I wrote a letter of recommendation for a student applying to a study abroad program—a joyous task as it was in support of a motivated freshman who refused to let COVID interrupt his spring semester and completed my course with style and grace. (For the sake of transparency, I feel I must disclose that those summer meetings and student advising sessions were paid for by the State of Massachusetts Unemployment Office.)
Summertime can open up all sorts of beautiful moments for teachers. The most passionate learners come out of the woodwork. At the request of another student, I took and emailed iPhone photos of an out-of-print essay I had by Howard Zinn, BU's own radical professorial patron saint of yore, so that they could expand their already graded research paper. Their essay deals with Depression Era Boston and the beginnings of a politically and socially radical yacht club for working-class youth and they needed some background history. Zinn's essay is a historiographical introduction to a collection of speeches and essays by New Deal politicians and progressive journalists. In a Zoom meeting, my student and I discussed a striking quote, "Their thinking does not give us facile solutions, but if history has uses beyond that of reminiscence, one of them is to nourish lean ideological times with the nectar of other years."3 What a wonderful summer reminder. It might be a lean time, but that does not preclude it from nourishment. Nice work if you can afford it. If I got fired today, I would be content with having introduced just one BU student to Howard Zinn. He, along with Martin Luther King Jr. and now Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, are among the institution's best.
My writing courses tend to focus on the history of play and public space in America, mostly in the late nineteenth century. We examine bicycles, boats, baseball, and boxing alongside urban public parks, racetracks, stadiums, YMCAs, and underground fight clubs. I put the word "sport" in my course titles whenever possible. Surprisingly, I have never had more than half of a section comprised of athletes. Similarly, my courses have also been divided somewhat equally along gender identities. My students initially often think they have signed up for a writing course about sports history, which makes sense as I use overtly flashy titles like "American Sweat: Origins of Modern Sport and Recreation." However, they end up diving deep, sometimes uncomfortably so, into how sports culture does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, a major take away from units on Boston bicycling in 1890s is how male politicians and cultural leaders of all kinds publicly argued that women should not be allowed to sweat in public space. Studying early twentieth century boxing, students dwell on the full-bodied paintings of George Bellows and grainy silent films of semi-legal pugilism to get a grasp on the history of toxic, violence-dependent masculinity.4 At the end of every semester I make the same joke: I tricked you all. When I look at my pay stubs, though, it seems like I have been tricked, too.
The Symbols
The recent denial of my raise is little more than the small financial tip on top of a larger conceptual iceberg that has been floating in my professional life for a while. The fall of 2019 was my first semester teaching with a Ph.D. I taught two sections at the entry rate. $12,000 was not enough to pay my normal bills and the newest additions of publicly subsidized medical insurance and student loans, both of which had been previously covered and deferred by my graduate student status. I got a part-time job as a bicycle courier in Boston, a stimulating gig for a historian of play and cities. Tuesdays and Thursdays I spent my days on campus teaching and holding office hours. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I was downtown on my bike with a sling bag full of legal fillings and architectural plans, rushing to move them to and from court houses and office buildings for stamps and signatures. There is not a lot of money in the bicycle courier world, but it was enough for me to make ends meet. I was happy to alternate between leg work and mind work as the leaves of Boston changed. I graded papers in high-rise lobbies while on standby, delighted to watch the city breathe in front me.
Halfway through the semester, I started to worry about more than BU's payroll strategies. In November, the right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro came to campus to give a talk titled, "America Was Not Built on Slavery, It Was Built On Freedom." The BU chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom, a national conservative student group, sponsored the talk and successfully gave away 1,500 tickets to mostly white college aged young men. In the weeks preceding, I started opening my classes with brief warm-up discussions about Shapiro. Should he be allowed to speak at BU? I looked for guidance from my administration, but found little more than vague quotes from the deans about free speech and safety in the university's daily press release, BU Today.5 We tackled the issue anyways. Many of my students were motivated to understand how someone who champions the phrase "facts don't care about your feelings," could be so controversial. After all, we were in a nonfiction writing class learning how to research facts.
At the beginning of each day, we examined different examples of Shapiro's writing— tweets, book chapters, articles from his website—and placed them against whatever writing lesson was on the docket for the day. Without fail, his work broke nearly every rule of valid argumentation outlined in our textbook. During a unit on balancing sources, we read a short article from November 2019 he wrote amidst the heated Democratic Primary.6 Shapiro rails against the Democrats for being "too ashamed to stand with an actual pro-Israeli group." Nearly every sentence reads in this exclamatory language that my students quickly recognized as argumentative, and thus requiring evidence. If you argue the existence of a fact (Democrats feel ashamed), our textbook suggests showing how and why you believe that in order to build trust with the reader and thus convince them (evidence of a Democrat expressing shame). The article continues without a single quote, mention of an explicit source, or any voice other than Shapiro's. Under the freshman magnifying glass, we discovered that very little of his writing passes the basic standards of our BU-recommended writing textbook. We concluded that Shapiro was easily the most untrustworthy writer we had encountered all semester. He is a New York Times best selling author and host of a wildly popular podcast, but we could not find any of his work that would receive a passing grade in our class. My students, wonderfully growing as researchers and thinkers, kept asking, "Why is BU supporting this?" Free speech is important on campus and student groups can and should sponsor speakers at their schools, but BU did little to contextualize Shapiro and left anyone who did not know of him already relatively aimless in determining what he really means on their campus.
I attended the evening talk in order to investigate on behalf of my class. Shapiro's lecture only led to more questions. There were so few facts to be found. The title alone had sparked righteous outrage on campus and when huge full-color posters with his face draped exterior dormitory walls, many students made their feelings known through protest and anticipated Hitler mustache graffiti. It was hard not to see his planned visit as a stunt to rile up emotion. Before the talk, I waited in a closely packed pre-COVID line, holding a notebook, some printed out articles and tweets, and my textbook. There was a group of four male BU student Shapiro fans in front me. It was cold and they all wore those thousand dollar coats with dead Canadian coyotes on the hood. They asked what all my stuff was for. When they learned I intended to ask a Shapiro what he thought of my students' critique of his writing methodology, they told me I was going to get "owned." I was able to hold the ear of one of them. He told me he had earned an A in his required writing course. I explained how his fellow students found that much the work from the man we were about to see would not earn the same grade. "Hm," he said.
The actual talk lasted forty-odd minutes and concluded with a brief question and answer section. I sat near a microphone with the intention of getting first in line but perhaps for the best, eager students beat me to it. I did not get to ask him to respond to our class findings that his writing possesses little reliable fact and startling amounts of plainly alarmist language. But I did not need to. He gave us the evidence anyways. Shapiro lectured at a lightening fast and near impossible to follow cadence, slowing down and stopping only when protestors stood up with signs. He recited Atlantic slave trade statistics from a few historians and a great deal of quotes from the slave holding Founding Fathers to support the tired and beaten argument that early America was merely a mild sinner in the context of many western colonial powers who owned even more slaves.7 However, like a lot of struggling students, he clearly stopped researching after page one and forgot to mention that America alone developed chattel slavery. He omitted mentioning that America pioneered the system in which it was legally decided that human beings could be born slaves, a system that required violent enforcement easily traceable through documentation to today's police forces. This system of course allowed the Founding Fathers, who were mostly skilled white businessmen creating wealth from trading slave-made goods with other colonies, to eliminate the need to import slaves at the high numbers of other Western powers.8 I sat quietly and gave thanks to my history professors at BU for teaching me how to read and understand the truth. I will never go Vegas and believe to have seen the Pyramids.
While he rattled off quotes and sprinkled in jabs at the left, much of the lecture time was given to a mic'd up Shapiro calmly talking over yelling protestors. A YouTube search reveals this to be a signature feature of his public appearances. On the Daily Wire channel, chopped up videos of him clashing with protestors have racked up millions of views. Most have aggressive all-caps verbs in the titles: "DESTROYS," RIPS," CRUSHES."9 At BU, he opened his talk saying, "The lecture that I'm giving is almost pointless, because if America was built on slavery, not freedom, then we wouldn't have a bunch of protestors outside exercising that freedom—and good for them." Later, he offered "no thanks to the leftists who sought to have this lecture cancelled out of apparent fear of my wretched evil... who wrote that BU should ban me to protect its students from me. Look at me. Saying things."10 None of the half dozen questions asked by students after the talk related to the content of the lecture. Most were requests for Shapiro to comment on Twitter feuds he was in with politicians and celebrities. We watched a grown man brag about his life's work winning emotionally charged battles of his own creation. Cellphones and video cameras were everywhere. We had all collectively participated in a wrestling match to be broadcasted on the Internet later. His fans were there to watch their man play- out the verbs they read in his video titles, hopeful of becoming an extra in a whole new recorded scene filled with USA chants and police escorting protestors out of the venue. Fittingly, the talk was held not in a lecture hall, but the track and field building, a place where students' hard physical work leads towards clear winning or losing. In the night's match for truth, BU lost.
I returned to my class to discuss the lecture. The disappointment of not getting to ask a question was real. We had all this evidence from Shapiro's writing and passages from our textbook, but ultimately our work was unfinished. Thankfully, academic work is always unfinished. Good arguments built on solid research should always lead to more questions. We discover truth not to win anything for ourselves, but to simply understand it better so we can all have more of it. But we still could not understand why BU supported the talk. My lecture observations were another source and BU Today put the above Shapiro quotes on the official record for us all. We wondered, can he explain why believing slavery contributed to America precludes you from also celebrating your right to free speech? It would have been great to get Shapiro on the record directly responding to my class. We still want comment. Mr. Shapiro, if you are reading this, please respond to our argument: "Your work is controversial on college campuses not simply because of the content, but also because your methodology rarely meets basic standards of college-level research, writing, and thinking*.*"
Three students reached out to me individually with the desire to discuss more about truth, free speech, and the role of the university during office hours. My bike messenger schedule made it near impossible to meet with more than one student at a time in my shared office with six PTLs, two desks, two computers with Windows 7, and no actual windows. Still, our conversations were productive and enlightening. Teachers dream of moments like those, where students excitedly build a bridge between the classroom and the real world. We had energy, we had momentum, we had ideas for an op-ed or letter to the editor. But I got tired and slow, increasingly soggy and cold from delivering packages on my bicycling between days of teaching through a rainy late November. I let a really powerful potential student project slip away. Sometimes on a slow job from downtown to the Back Bay I would incorporate the Charles River Esplanade into my run. Long straight paths protected from cars can let a cyclist's mind wander. I would think about all the excited student questions that I would never have enough time to answer, the conversations left in their cocoons. I hope those students remember and I hope they know I am sorry for letting them down.
It eventually came out that after some debate, BU folded to pressure and agreed to pay the roughly $13,000 in security costs for the hour-long lecture.11 In other words, BU paid the same amount of money for one night of blatantly elementary history lecturing as they do to members of their faculty for teaching two semester-long courses. Resentment grew. It was especially hard because the better I did my job the easier it was to feel indignant. Experiences that helped me feel like a meaningful teacher revealed deeply uncomfortable truths. When I did the work of my mentors, I saw pain not just in the past, but also in my life. When discomfort turned to depression, I was happy to be on my bicycle three days a week, downtown and far away from campus.
Facts and Symbols: Boston University, 1970 and 2020
The students kept me going. No matter how much I loved the respite of riding downtown, I always felt like I was failing my students. I would ride and think and think and ride and their work always filled my head, reminding me I was still a teacher. A month before the spring 2020 semester, my program director offered me a third class, which would be enough compensation to leave the courier work behind and teach full time. In fact, teaching five sections in a year—two in the fall, three in the spring—technically counts as a full-time load. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to be a full-time academic. Even as COVID blew my course plans apart mid-semester, my students and I still crafted some valuable time together. I made the PTL rate of $18,000 dollars for those three classes and I felt rich. I saved a little and even bought myself a hand-built boutique road bike from 1991. This summer, in between preparing for my two classes this fall and sifting through emails, I have been riding it far out of the city without a bag on my back, delivering nothing but fresh landscapes into my mind. The student who asked for a recommendation for a study aboard program ended their email with a similar sentiment. The cycling history we studied in class inspired them to follow their uncle into the sport when the pandemic forced them to move home. Biking far and fast, they told me, was a nourishing break from studying organic chemistry over Zoom all summer.
Like Howard Zinn suggests, I look to history and the work of others to maintain my mind and water ideological droughts. Diving into the history of BU has helped me understand and contextualize my experiences. Years ago as a graduate student, I completed a project for a class on construction of BU's mid-1960s concrete buildings designed by Spanish architect Josep Lluís Sert. My favorite sources were the photographs of the buildings from the student-run yearbooks, The Hub. I found powerful images of blocks' worth of brownstones being demolished with the Prudential tower under construction and cleverly framed into the background. When I found the shelf of the yearbooks in the library, I did as all historians do and sat on the floor of the stacks to read before I decided what I wanted to check out. When I looked at the 1970 yearbook, I chuckled with plain joy. There were beautifully photographed full-page spreads of poorly rolled joints and "END THE DRAFT" buttons. The kids are always all right. But the section for portraits of university administration stood out the most. In simple two-tone black and white, four silhouetted figures stand with their arms stretched out in the seig heil position.12 Revisiting these sources, it is clear how those students saw their university leaders. Historians wonder, what has changed over time?
Zinn was in the middle of his educational career when BU students went on strike in response to the Vietnam War and closed the university in May of 1970. A radical spirit filled the campus. The yearbook included a timeline. "Thursday April 30th: U.S. Forces start Cambodian operation." "Sunday, May 10: Rock concert held at Nickerson Field. Collection taken for Black Panther Defense Fund. Press praises BU for handling of tense situation."13 The demonstrations culminated when students succeeded in forcing BU to fund a summer program of courses on community engagement they designed and cleverly titled, "Communiversity." The goal was to "deal directly with such critical problems as war, inflation, the deterioration of cities and civilian services, and the pollution of the environment."14 In so many ways, the challenge and work students face with their universities remains the same.
Like 2020, there was no in-person commencement ceremony for BU students in 1970. Instead of a pandemic, however, the students themselves had shut it down. Ironically, it rained that day, meaning there ceremony would have been cancelled regardless of the collective action. In a short essay printed towards the end of the yearbook, a student flexed their analytical skills and described a silver lining in the storm clouds. They wrote, "The irony lies not in the lack of a cap and gown, or in the optimistic rhetoric of some, nor even in this climax or anti-climax of maturity. It lies in the fact that we, the Class of 1970, ended our stay profoundly." It is a bright student who can understand what the university is really for, reason and action not regalia and rhetoric. They concluded, "We either learned something new, or began to apply our 'knowledge.' Maybe we had a Commencement after all."15
I wonder if Zinn loved teaching at BU and how he felt during that heady year on campus. I assume it was invigorating. His classes were regularly overenrolled and it is clear he motivated students to not just think like an intellectual, but act like one too. I imagine he flipped through that yearbook with delight. I have also loved teaching at BU. The Writing Program has been an intellectual home most young academics like me can only dream of. But the administration above my department makes it feel like just that, a dream of some distant place in my mind far away from reality. Boston University is on a dangerous path towards becoming an institutional facsimile our president: just another business stripping people of resources to make themselves feel whole. Is that the role of higher education?
I am here to report that approach does not work for creating substance, truth, or happiness. It merely creates a façade, a shell, a balloon. BU might be a balloon, but my colleagues and I are not. Neither are our students. And we are still free to think and write, even if that means wading through painful truths. History shows us that. I have decided to take an optimistic approach and believe that BU is still the institution for teachers, students, and alumni like Zinn, King, and AOC. Indeed, the history of the university and its students reveals a pattern of love and action that fills me with hope. If the balloon pops, or the façade falls over, I believe there will always be students and teachers there to build something real on campus. I am just sad and sorry I will no longer see them in class.
NOTES
1 Martin J. Howard, "Letter From the Treasurer—Fiscal Year 2019," in Consolidated
Financial Statements: June 30, 2019 and 2018, (Boston University).
2 "Cost of Attendance for 2020-2021," BU College of Arts & Sciences, (https://www.bu.edu/cas/current-students/ma-and-ms-students/cost-of- attendance/), accessed August 12th, 2019.
3 Howard Zinn, "Introduction," in New Deal Thought, Howard Zinn, ed., (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1966), pp. xviii.
4 See Robert Haywood, "George Bellows's 'Stag at Sharkey's': Boxing, Violence, and Male Identity," Smithsonian Studies in American Art, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Spring, 1988).
5 "Ben Shapiro's Visit to BU: 20 Questions and Answers You Need to Know," BU Today(http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/ben-shapiro-at-bu-20-things-to-know/), November 11, 2019.
6 Ben Shapiro, "The J Street Democrats," The Daily Wire,(https://www.dailywire.com/news/shapiro-the-j-street-democrats), November 1, 2019.
7 Young America's Foundation, "America Wasn't Built on Slavery, it was Built on Freedom | Ben Shapiro LIVE at Boston University," YouTube.com, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEEGm-CkrE), November 13, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020.
8 There are many works of recent scholarship that hold this view. For a representative example, see Calvin Schermerhorn, The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815-1860, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015).
9 Ben Shapiro and Daily Wire Channels*, YouTube.com,*(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQC_G5Xsjhp9fEJKuIcrSw), accessed August 12, 2020.
10 Young America's Foundation, "America Wasn't Built on Slavery, it was Built on Freedom | Ben Shapiro LIVE at Boston University," YouTube.com, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEEGm-CkrE), November 13, 2019, accessed August 12, 2020.
11 Anna Facciola, "Negotiations for Ben Shapiro Event on Campus Lead to Decrease in Venue Size," The Daily Free Press, Boston University, September 24, 2019.
12 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 241. 13 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 298.
13 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 298.
14 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook (1970), pp. 299.
15 The Hub, Boston University Student Yearbook( 1970), pp. 299.
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The Top 50 Prospects in NASCAR: A Study of the Next Generation of NASCAR Stars, 2021 Edition [OC]

It's finally time the 2021 Edition of my Top Prospects feature! For reference, here's last year's edition. Thanks in advance for reading!
A little about my criteria:
Honorable Mentions: Stefan Parsons, Mason Massey, Bayley Currey, Mason Diaz, Jordan Anderson.
Drivers from last year's list who dropped off: #50 Kyle Weatherman, #48 Joe Graf Jr, #47 Matt Mills, #46 Tommy Joe Martins, #45 Chad Finchum, #43 Codie Rohrbaugh, #42 Austin Wayne Self, #41 Jordan Anderson, #40 Ray Black Jr, #39 Spencer Boyd, #35 Josh Bilicki, #32 Vinnie Miller.

50. Parker Retzlaff (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 17
Status: ARCA
Parker Retzlaff is off to a decent start to his ARCA career. The 17 year-old scored five top tens in six starts in the ARCA Menards East Series last year, as well as one top ten in two starts on the main ARCA circuit. It's hard to make long-term projections when someone hasn't yet breached the top three series, but Retzlaff's results have been so far so good to this point.

49. Ryan Truex (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 28
Status: Truck Series
Though he's been kicking around the top three series on and off since 2010, Ryan Truex has finally seemed to lock in something resembling stability. Truex, younger brother of Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr., is set to pilot the #40 Chevrolet in the Truck Series full-time in 2021, and he'll have the opportunity to establish himself as a title contender.

48. Colby Howard (2020: #49)

Age: 19
Status: Xfinity Series
Colby Howard didn't exactly light the world on fire in his part-time 2020 Xfinity schedule, but immediate results can't be expected from someone so young. Howard showed flashes of talent down in the ARCA Menards Series in four starts across 2018 and 2019, and it's earned him a full-time Xfinity Series gig in 2021. With Howard piloting the #15 car for JD Motorsports, he'll have every opportunity to show what he's really made of.

47. Spencer Davis (2020: #44)

Age: 22
Status: Truck Series
2020 was a bit disappointing for Spencer Davis, seeing his average finish drop and scoring no top tens in his 14 starts. Still, Davis was decently competitive in his time running ARCA in 2017 and clearly shows the ability to improve over time. Look for Davis to potentially up his game in the 2021 season.

46. Nick Sanchez (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 19
Status: ARCA
Nick Sanchez made a big splash running ten ARCA races in 2020 (4 in ARCA Menards, 6 in ARCA Menards East). The teenager scored top tens in six of those starts, and top five in two of them. With an announcement coming on January 15th, Sanchez might well be on his way up through the NASCAR hierarchy.

45. Ty Majeski (2020: #37)

Age: 26
Status: Free agent
Let's face it: Ty Majeski probably isn't going to one day drive full-time in Cup. But the talent is definitely there, as evidenced by a win in the Snowball Derby and a renowned track record in iRacing competition. Still, Majeski just hasn't been able to break through in any of NASCAR's three major series to this point. If he secures a top Truck ride or even a decent Xfinity seat, Majeski could always be a surprise, but for now there isn't much reason for optimism.

44. Tate Fogleman (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 20
Status: Free agent
Despite a not-entirely-horrible showing in his rookie campaign last year, Tate Fogleman is now out of a ride. Though he didn't score any top ten finishes, Fogleman finished 17th in the season standings, but he did only finish lead lap in ten of them. If Fogleman finds another seat for 2021 he's certainly got the potential, but at the moment it's all hinging on some good news.

43. Ryan Vargas (2020: #31)

Age: 20
Status: Free agent
Let me be clear: Ryan Vargas' 12-spot drop from last year's rankings isn't any sort of diss on him or his performance. It's more because I looked at, and included, a wider scope of drivers this year. Vargas (ryanvargas_23) scored a top ten in one of his nine Xfinity Series starts last year, and there's plenty of optimism about his as-of-yet unannounced 2021 schedule. And for what it's worth, Vargas scoring a TikTok sponsorship says good things about his marketability and capacity to land sponsorship.

42. Jeffrey Earnhardt (2020: #38)

Age: 31
Status: Xfinity Series
Though he's not quite the driver his uncle Dale Jr. or grandfather Dale Sr., Jeffrey has been quite successful at finding himself in a ride and getting the job done relative to what the sponsor wants. And let's face it, part of being a prospect is the ability to find a seat and a sponsor, something Jeffrey will perennially have the ability to do. Don't expect Jeffrey to start winning races and competing for championships, but it's easy to imagine he'll one day retire from the Cup Series instead of his current Xfinity gig.

41. Josh Williams (2020: #29)

Age: 27
Status: Xfinity Series
Every year Josh Williams runs Xfinity, he gets better. A criminally underrated and underdiscussed prospect, Williams is now a solid threat to qualify for the series' playoffs.

40. Chase Purdy (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 21
Status: Truck Series
After a stellar ARCA Menards Series effort in 2018 and a year off from major racing series in 2019, Purdy adjusted nicely to Trucks last year. Any time someone under age 22 can bring the vehicle home intact and even start seeing top ten finishes (Purdy had one in 2020), it's generally a good sign that the learning curve is working. Purdy will drive full-time for GMS Racing in 2021.

39. Kody Vanderwal (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 19
Status: Xfinity Series
Kody Vanderwal didn't quite have the rookie Xfinity Series season he wanted last year, but at the tender age of 19, he doesn't exactly need to be winning yet. On the other hand, Vanderwal was stellar in two and a half seasons in the K&N Pro Series West, winning twice with an average finish of 11.2. 2021 will present Kody a real chance to prove himself in a main NASCAR series.

38. Alex Labbe (2020: #25)

Age: 27
Status: Xfinity Series
A successful veteran of the NASCAR Pinty's Series, Alex Labbe has been steadily upping his game in the Xfinity Series. 2020 was a breakout year for Labbe, seeing him get his first top five and a total of five top tens compared to only two in his entire career to that point. Improvement that sharp usually means a driver is well on their way to better things.

37. Tanner Gray (2020: #28)

Age: 21
Status: Free agent
Though his status for 2021 is uncertain, there's absolutely no reason Tanner Gray shouldn't be in a competitive Truck or Xfinity ride. Gray came in 14th in the Truck Series standings last year, and scored four top fives in 28 races. Add that on to the consistency shown at the ARCA and K&N Series levels, and Tanner Gray seems to be a well-rounded, high potential young prospect.

36. Thad Moffitt (2020: #33)

Age: 20
Status: ARCA
Though he's most famous for his Carrot Top hair and lineage in the Petty family, Thad Moffitt is also getting a decent stir for his 2020 ARCA Series season. Moffitt scored his first three top fives, was top ten in more than half of his starts (8/13), and finished ninth in points despite not running seven of the Series' 20 scheduled races. There are a lot of reasons to expect the young Moffitt to soon graduate to Trucks, so don't be surprised if 2021 is his final season at the ARCA level.

35. Santino Ferucci (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 22
Status: Xfinity Series
The young Santino Ferucci is making the big leap from the IndyCar Series over to NASCAR's Xfinity Series next year. It's pretty tricky to gage just how successful he'll be, but being a rising star from the open wheel world, it's easy to imagine Santino will have ample opportunities to hone his craft and learn how to wheel a stock car.

34. Jesse Little (2020: #30)

Age: 23
Status: Xfinity Series
A young driver with even a little Cup experience to his name, Jesse Little is quickly making a splash across NASCAR's three levels. 2020 probably wasn't the season Little wanted to see (19th in points, 21.0 average finish), but many in the sport still have faith in his ability. One such person is BJ McLeod, who recently inked Little to a full-time Xfinity deal in 2021.

33. Tyler Ankrum (2020: #18)

Age: 19
Status: Truck Series
It's hard not to be high on Tyler Ankrum following his 2020 campaign. Ankrum scored career highs in nearly every major stat category and finished top ten in points for the second straight year. Though he never quite found victory lane, Ankrum will look to build on the growing prowess of GMS Racing to make 2021 his most successful season yet, possibly even with a championship in sight.

32. Ty Gibbs (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 18
Status: ARCA
Though he only just turned 18, Ty Gibbs has already made a strong impression in his first batch of ARCA races. Eight wins in 27 starts is incredibly solid, even if Ty may be in the best equipment on the circuit. With 2021 slated to be his first full-time ARCA season and Kyle Busch Motorsports not exactly overflowing with prospective talent at the moment, it's very possible we don't see Ty stay in ARCA that much longer.

31. Carson Hocevar (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 17
Status: Truck Series
Carson Hocevar (aka carsonhocevar) is finally set to go full-time Truck racing in 2021 after showing steady improvement in two part-time stints and consistent competitiveness in the ARCA Menards Series. His seat with Niece Motorsports is bound to be a competitive one, so if the teenage Hocevar really is the real deal, this will be his time to show it.

30. Michael Self (2020: #27)

Age: 30
Status: ARCA
I'm really barely still even considering Self a prospect. He's now taken on a GM role at Silver Hare Racing, he's now into his 30's, and he hasn't made any starts in one of the main three series since 2015. But on the other hand, he's just so darn good in ARCA. He'll pretty much always be able to get looks from Truck teams if he keeps putting up multiple wins a year in ARCA and contending for championships. Maybe he's not thinking about ascending the ranks anymore, but I'd have to think he could if he wanted to.

29. Brandon Brown (2020: #21)

Age: 27
Status: Xfinity Series
Brandon Brown is getting better every year. In 2020 made the playoffs, got his first top five, a career high in top tens, and leapfrogged his average finish by 3.7 spots in just one year. Though 27 is a little old for a prospect these days, if Brandon Brown keeps improving at this rate he'll likely soon be competing for an Xfinity Series championship, and that could easily land him a Front Row/Spire caliber ride in the Cup Series. Brandon Brown's path upward is clear, and he looks like the kinda guy who might just be able to seize the moment.

28. Drew Dollar (2020: #23)

Age: 20
Status: ARCA
Coming off a rock solid rookie season in ARCA, Drew Dollar will run NASCAR's fourth highest circuit again this year looking to win multiple races and possibly a championship. He adjusted from K&N remarkably well, securing an 8.8 average finish and fourth place finish in points. And being that Dollar is from Atlanta, are we soon to see Chase Elliott be dethroned as NASCAR's resident Georgia boy? Time will tell.

27. Riley Herbst (2020: #19)

Age: 21
Status: Xfinity Series
The case of Riley Herbst is one of upsides and downsides. The upsides: he's young, he's got a championship-caliber ride, and he'll probably always bring sponsorship. Hard to not succeed with all that, right? Well the downside is, he's kinda bad. Driving the #18 Monster Energy Toyota last year for Joe Gibbs Racing (another championship-caliber ride), Herbst had 8 DNFs and 12 races where he didn't finish on the lead lap. Herbst may be ahead of almost two dozen drivers on this list, but a majority of them could probably outdo 21 lead lap finishes in the Gibbs #18. But part of being a prospect is all about those upsides I mentioned, so Herbst is likely not going anywhere anytime soon.

26. Bret Holmes (2020: #36)

Age: 23
Status: ARCA & Part-time Truck Series
Along with teammate Sam Mayer, Bret Holmes will be taking his self-owned team part-time Truck racing for the first time in 2021. It's a natural progression for Holmes, who's the defending ARCA Menards Series champion. Holmes comes off a positively scorching 2020 ARCA campaign, having won only once but finishing in the top ten in 19 out of 20 races. That kind of consistency will be highly desirable if Bret decides to market himself to an Xfinity Series owner in the future.

25. Myatt Snider (2020: #9)

Age: 26
Status: Xfinity Series
Despite taking a big drop from last year's rankings, there's still reason to be excited about Myatt Snider. Though somewhat inconsistent throughout the 2020 season, Snider found himself quite competitive in a good handful of races. And with it being his rookie campaign in the Xfinity Series, it's easy to chalk Snider's lesser finishes up to inexperience. Look for Snider to be a playoff contender in 2021.

24. Natalie Decker (2020: #26)

Age: 23
Status: Truck Series
Though her Truck Series results have been a little on the underwhelming side, Natalie Decker is still primed to be moving up through the ranks at some point in the next five years. She's a marketable commodity for one thing, but also shows flashes of driving prowess at the plate tracks. It's still to be seen how Natalie will progress in her next year of full-time Truck competition, but the groundwork is there for her to prove a lot of doubters wrong.

23. Raphaël Lessard (2020: #23)

Age: 19
Status: Truck Series
Raphaël Lessard didn't exactly have a world-beater year for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2020, but clinching a first win and coming in 12th in points is certainly far from horrible for an 18 year-old's rookie season. Still, Lessard was let go by owner Busch at the conclusion of 2020. The young star will look to make the most of his second chance at GMS Racing in 2021.

22. Todd Gilliland (2020: #11)

Age: 20
Status: Truck Series
Another released Kyle Busch Motorsports driver, Todd Gilliland has also been out to prove that Kyle made a mistake. The junior Gilliland has been the picture of consistency these last few seasons in the Truck Series, winning only once but putting together steady marks in the top fives and tens columns year after year. And though Todd is only 20, he's an experienced 20, giving him a great head-start over fellow youths on the ARCA and Truck circuits.

21. Jeb Burton (2020: #34)

Age: 28
Status: Xfinity Series
Jeb Burton's stock has risen dramatically over the last months. Transforming from a journeyman backmarker who appeared sporadically across the three major series to now having a title-contending ride that's proven to be a pipeline to the Cup Series is quite the glow-up. If Burton has what it takes to be an Xfinity Series mainstay or even B-level Cup driver, we're about to see him prove it this year.

20. Ben Rhodes (2020: #13)

Age: 23
Status: Truck Series
Many fans had their opinion of Ben Rhodes dinged at the end of last year due to his run-in with Christian Eckes, but Rhodes is still a talented Truck regular with a promising future should be make the leap to the Xfinity Series one day. Rhodes once outmanned Kyle Busch in a Truck race, and would've gotten the victory had it not been for a fluke piece of debris puncturing his grill. Keep an eye on Rhodes this year to contend for his first Truck Series title.

19. Hailie Deegan (2020: #17)

Age: 19
Status: Truck Series
Hailie Deegan has a long way to go before we see her fulfill her full potential as a driver, but it's hard to argue with the observation that she's off to a good start. Nearly winning in ARCA, winning several times in K&N from age 16, and most recently bringing home a solid top 20 in her Truck Series debut, Deegan is poised to make the most of her full-time Truck ride in 2021. Combined with a healthy ability to bring in and maintain sponsors, Hailie will probably be an important part of NASCAR for many years to come.

18. Christian Eckes (2020: #16)

Age: 20
Status: Truck Series
Though Christian Eckes is currently without a ride for the 2021 Truck Series season, it's hard to imagine some top team won't snatch him up by February. Eckes is probably a ways off from thinking about Xfinity opportunities, but his 8th-place points finish in the 2020 Truck standings shows he's just a few adjustments away from becoming a hot new title contender as soon as he gets the chance.

17. Derek Kraus (2020: #24)

Age: 19
Status: Truck Series
Derek Kraus is the real deal. I was criticized a little for how low I ranked him on 2020's list, and Kraus's performance over the course of the season proved to me that the criticism was right. Kraus is a K&N champion, and his first full season in a truck led to an 11th place finish in the final standings and an average finish in 13.0. I'd be quite surprised if he didn't go deep into the Truck Series playoffs in 2021.

16. Brett Moffitt (2020: #10)

Age: 28
Status: Xfinity Series & Truck Series
While it's not yet known which series Brett Moffitt will be dedicating points to, running full-time in both Trucks AND Xfinity is a surefire way to get on some people's radars. Of course, Brett might be well content with the successes he's found in NASCAR's junior circuits, but the amount of talent he has makes it hard not to think of him as a potential Cup driver down the line. And for what it's worth, Brett does already have some Cup experience. That'll likely go a long way for a Cup team with an open seat.

15. Chandler Smith (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 18
Status: Truck Series
My biggest mistake on last year's list was not including teenager Chandler Smith. Smith is a proven winner, finding victory lane a staggering nine times in just 33 ARCA starts. In the Truck Series, through Smith's age 17 and 18 seasons he finished in the top five at a rate of 50%, something nearly unheard of for a driver so young and so inexperienced. And with Chandler moving to Kyle Busch Motorsports' #18 Safelite Toyota Tundra, I'd say you can hang your hat on him being a Final Four contender in 2021.

14. Brandon Jones (2020: #14)

Age: 23
Status: Xfinity Series
Brandon Jones has gone from being a disappointing mid-pack driver to a sneaky good potential title contender in the Xfinity Series. It helps that Jones drives elite equipment at Joe Gibbs Racing, but even then, finding 3 wins in a series with Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe is difficult. Jones got some serious Cup Series speculation in the 2020/21 offseason, and while he'll be staying in Xfinity another year, he's becoming one of the most primed candidates in Xfinity to take a lower-level Cup ride once one opens up for him.

13. Sam Mayer (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 17
Status: Part-time Truck Series & ARCA
In the same boat as Chandler Smith but without any full-time ride, Sam Mayer has been winning pretty much everything in sight. Five wins in 23 ARCA starts last year, a first Truck win before even turning 18, a 6-2 win-loss record in ARCA East and West, four wins in 20 K&N starts...the list goes on. Sam Mayer wins, plain and simple, and we've yet to find a series that he can't win in. Until Mayer finds a level of competition he can't stomp the competition in, I'm gonna remain pretty high on him.

12. Zane Smith (2020: #15)

Age: 21
Status: Truck Series
Coming off a runner-up finish in the 2020 Truck Series standings, Zane Smith is poised to contend for the championship in 2021 and potentially compete for opportunities in Xfinity in the years after that. Smith won two races last year, finishing top ten over half the season and only suffering two DNFs the entire year. Smith was also quite consistent in his ten-race Xfinity Series schedule back in 2019, scoring an average finish of 10.3 at just 20 years of age.

11. Austin Hill (2020: #12)

Age: 26
Status: Truck Series, Part-time Xfinity Series
Though he wound up finishing 6th in the Truck Series standings last year, Austin Hill may well have been the series' second best driver after Sheldon Creed. Hill won twice, and only finished outside the top ten in six races out of the year. Now that his ride and sponsorship are fully covered for the 2021 season, Hill will have the opportunity to usurp Creed and add 'Truck Series champion' to his resume. Hey wait a minute...challenging a defending champ named Creed? Is it too late to nickname Austin Hill 'Rocky'?

10. Harrison Burton (2020: #7)

Age: 20
Status: Xfinity Series
Harrison Burton did a lot to improve his stock in the 2020 racing season. Many saw him promoted despite no wins in the Truck Series and were skeptical that he could live up to the results put down by Erik Jones and Christopher Bell in the 20 car. Burton might not've had that same championship-caliber season, but he did win four times in a season very much dominated by Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric. Burton certainly isn't ready for a Cup promotion, but with one of the series' two primary race winners now gone, we could easily see him come into his own in 2021.

9. Kaz Grala (2020: Not Ranked)

Age: 22
Status: Part-time Cup Series
Kaz Grala turned a lot of heads filling for Austin Dillon last year at the Daytona International Speedway road course. The young Massachusetts native led laps and finished 7th in his unexpected Cup debut. Grala was reportedly close to earning the #38 ride that ultimately went to Anthony Alfredo, but though that fell apart, he found himself in another lucrative gig driving for Kaulig part-time in the Cup Series. Kaz will attempt to qualify for his first Daytona 500 next month, competing on a track he won at back in 2017 in Trucks. If he does well, Kaz Grala might become a permanent fixture of the Cup Series once Kaulig goes full-time Cup racing in 2022 or beyond.

8. Sheldon Creed (2020: #8)

Age: 23
Status: Truck Series
Sheldon Creed exploded onto the Truck scene in 2020, winning five races and earning his first national series championship. Creed is also a former ARCA Menards Series champion, showing a diversity of skill and indicating a potentially successful Xfinity campaign in the coming few years. I actually was advocating for Joe Gibbs to sign Creed to the #18 in Xfinity before the Daniel Hemric signing. The 23 year-old Alpine, CA native will stay in Trucks another year, but will likely continue to prove that he really is the real deal.

7. Anthony Alfredo (2020: #20)

Age: 21
Status: Cup Series
One of the biggest unexpected moves this offseason was Anthony Alfredo inking a deal to run in Cup for Front Row Motorsports in 2021. Alfredo has only run one partial season each in Trucks and Xfinity, so it'll be a learning curve having his first full-time season on the big stage. But the #38 has shown to be a competitive car under the right circumstances, and Alfredo (Fast_Pasta on Reddit) has consistently demonstrated that he can perform well above and beyond his expectations. Look for Alfredo to match and perhaps improve upon John Hunter Nemechek's results from 2020.

6. Daniel Hemric (2020: #6)

Age: 29
Status: Xfinity Series
Daniel Hemric might be the greatest NASCAR driver in history who's never won a thing. Hemric has driven for top teams (Brad Keselowski Racing, JR Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing) all throughout his career, but has always fallen just short of reaching victory lane. This year, Hemric will take over a potentially title-contending car for Joe Gibbs Racing, and will have perhaps the best opportunity yet to shake that devil off his back. But on the flip side, after having this many chances in top equipment, if Hemric can't win for Gibbs, there's no guarantee he'll get another shot somewhere. The clock is still ticking on Hemric's potential Cup career, and he's now in what I'd consider to be a bonus chance.

5. Justin Haley (2020: #4)

Age: 21
Status: Xfinity Series & Part-time Cup Series
Scorching hot take: outside of a few select names like Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, Justin Haley might be the best plate racer alive. His dominance on superspeedways in the Xfinity Series is nigh-unprecedented, and he even managed to parlay it into a Daytona victory in the Cup Series (albeit born mostly from rain strategy). Haley will always contend at those plate tracks, but he does have to hone his game at other types of tracks if he plans on becoming a well-rounded Cup competitor. I've been high on Justin ever since that Coke Zero 400 win, and I think his 2021 season will see many others hopping on the hype train.

4. Ross Chastain (2020: #2)

Age: 28
Status: Cup Series
Although Chastain has already run about two full Cup Series seasons, I still consider him a prospect. His focus was always still in the lower levels, and those Cup runs were mostly experience-builders. But 2021 will see Chastain in his first serious Cup Series effort, taking the wheel of the #42 Chevrolet in place of Matt Kenseth and the displaced Kyle Larson before that. Chastain was once considered one of the sport's ultimate wheelmen, but his stock has dropped slightly after a disappointingly winless 2020 campaign in the Xfinity Series. Ross is still embowed with boundless potential, but he might have more doubters to impress now than he did before he landed a Cup ride.

3. Noah Gragson (2020: #3)

Age: 22
Status: Xfinity Series
At the end of the day, no one will hold Noah Gragson back more than Noah Gragson. The young driver is a product of Kyle Busch Motorsports, and his driving style is reminiscent of his former owner's worst periods. He still gets into too many run-ins, overdrives himself out of too many races, and gets too caught up in the pro-wrestler personality he puts on for the masses. But Noah Gragson has talent, enough so for current owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. to be willing to put up with the controversy. Gragson will make his Cup debut in this year's Daytona 500, and it's hard to imagine he'll try for anything less than the win. Set your watch by Gragson finding a full-time Cup Series opportunity within two or three years.

2. Austin Cindric (2020: #5)

Age: 22
Status: Xfinity Series & Part-time Cup Series
I don't think anyone did more to raise their game in 2020 than Austin Cindric did. Most considered Cindric a road course specialist who barely even deserved his Xfinity ride coming into the year, and now many see him as the easy favorite to take home the 2021 Xfinity Series title. The rebuttal, of course, would be that Cindric was capitalizing on the vacuum left by Reddick, Bell, and Custer departing for Cup, but where a lot of Bell's wins (and the other two to lesser extents) were races where their cars were far and away built fastest, Cindric was seen hammering out wins where it took pure guts and wheelmanship. Four different road course wins, one of them in the rain on a part-superspeedway, a weekend sweep at Kentucky, and nearly beating Kyle Busch in an illegal car is not done by just anybody. Austin Cindric is the absolute genuine article, and in his limited Cup Series schedule with Team Penske in 2021, we could very easily see him becoming a first time Cup winner this year. Going forward on a now road course-filled Cup schedule, Cindric is going to be a threat almost immediately when he steps into the #21 in 2022. A successful Cup career is all but written in stone.

1. Chase Briscoe (2020: #1)

Age: 26
Status: Cup Series
This one's a no-brainer. Although Austin Cindric was last year's champion and beat Briscoe in a few stats, it's not even a contest to crowns the Xfinity Series' best driver last year. Chase Briscoe absolutely exploded, doing everything from outmanning Kyle Busch after family tragedy, to beating out two road course masters on a course he'd never once set foot on, to battling back from several laps down under green at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Chase Briscoe could be the best prospect since Brad Keselowski (I'm admittedly lower than others on Christopher Bell), and stands to make Stewart-Haas Racing a solid double-threat for the Cup championship, assuming Cole Custer isn't also about to join the party. Look for Briscoe to be competitive pretty much everywhere on the Cup schedule; he's won everywhere from intermediate to road courses to plate tracks to dirt tracks to short tracks. All this not to mention having Tony Stewart as an owner, a near-perfect parallel to Chase Briscoe in his own early career. Not much more could be going right for Briscoe at this point in time, and he has a reputation of not squandering good opportunities. My prediction: C_Briscoe will cruise to Rookie of the Year honors this year, and be a Cup champion within the decade.
So that's my list! I did the original 2020 version midseason, but from here on out I'll be making it an annual January feature. It'll be fun to track how these prospects do, and one day maybe I'll have been the first to hype up a future champ!
I hope you guys have enjoyed this, because I certainly loved making it! I'm a budding news writer in my hometown, and am aspiring to a career writing or working PR in the sport of NASCAR.
Did I get anything wrong here? Anyone I missed? Anyone I have too high? Let me know about it in the comments below!
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LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -- After hosting one "Last Great Party Weekend," the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Monday officially closed its doors. The property, which opened in 1995, will undergo a complete... Hard Rock is Officially Closing for Most of 2020 As we just mentioned, there was talk that the Hard Rock would close its doors for four months while the 8-month rebranding process took place. Late last week, Richard Bosworth announced that the hotel is now being closed for eight months. Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas is set to close for the majority of 2020 from February onwards, during a $200m renovation project to relaunch the resort as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Though plans had previously been to stagger closure of the venue over eight months, the hotel and casino will now shut its doors completely until October at the earliest. “We determined that a phased closing of four ... Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas has updated its construction schedule and will now close for eight months in 2020 as it transitions into Virgin Hotels. The eight-month duration of the renovation hasn’t changed, but originally the resort was to be closed for half that time. Oh, that’s right, we broke that news, too. Thanks for remembering! Heads up, Las Vegas travelers: Sin City's Hard Rock Hotel and Casino will close for eight months starting in February 2020 for renovations, according to multiple reports. Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will close its doors Feb. 3, capping 25 years of rockin’ memories and making way for the newest Virgin Hotel. Of course, it won’t end without a party. The Last... PREVIOUS STORY: Hard Rock Hotel close for Virgin Las Vegas rebrand The hotel and casino is expected to reopen no later than January 2021. However, it could be done by October 2020. Las Vegas is going to rock a lot less for more than half a year. For eight months, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino will close its doors while it undergoes renovation. The iconic Vegas location is... We all knew that the Hard Rock will be closing its casino doors forever after the Super Bowl. What’s surprising me is how emotional I’ve been getting about a casino I’ve barely visited since moving to Las Vegas. I don’t have really close ties to many casinos. Looking back, there’s one specific experience at the Hard Rock that I’ll never forget. This memory will keep the Hard Rock ... According to a news release, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will close its doors on Feb. 3, 2020 to begin the transformation to Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, which is slated to open next fall. “Anybody...

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