text:
Ministerpräsident des Jahres ist eine zwischen 2003 und 2012 vergebene Auszeichnung der Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft und der Wirtschaftswoche. Den Titel erhält derjenige Ministerpräsident eines deutschen Bundeslandes, dessen Land in den zwei respektive drei Jahren zuvor die "größte wirtschaftliche Dynamik" vollzogen hat. Grundlage für die Auszeichnung ist eine Erhebung der IW Consult GmbH, zwischen 2003 und 2005 gemeinsam mit der GWS GmbH ausgeführt.

Der sächsische Ministerpräsident Georg Milbradt (2004, 2005) und sein saarländischer Amtskollege Peter Müller (2003, 2006) erhielten den Titel jeweils zwei Mal zuerkannt und sind damit, mit dem brandenburgischen Ministerpräsidenten Matthias Platzeck (2010, 2011, 2012) die Rekordpreisträger.

Bisherige Preisträger

 2003: Peter Müller, Saarland
 2004: Georg Milbradt, Sachsen
 2005: Georg Milbradt, Sachsen
 2006: Peter Müller, Saarland
 2007: Günther Oettinger, Baden-Württemberg
 2008: Ole von Beust, Hamburg
 2009: Wolfgang Böhmer, Sachsen-Anhalt

Die Studie wurde auch in den Jahren 2010 bis 2012 fortgeführt; der Titel "Ministerpräsident des Jahres" wird darin jedoch nicht mehr erwähnt.

 2010: Matthias Platzeck, Brandenburg
 2011: Matthias Platzeck, Brandenburg
 2012: Matthias Platzeck, Brandenburg

Einzelnachweise

Auszeichnung (Politik, Deutschland)
Erstverleihung 2003


text:
NewYorkTimes: Running Away With the P.G.A. Championship Is All in a Day's Work for Brooks Koepka
2019-05-19 (59 Days Old)Total Views: 83 | Last 7 Days: 10
Koepka, despite shooting only a par 70 in the third round, has a seven-shot lead amid a dominant run that smacks of Tiger Woods in his prime.
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods
Brooks Koepka fires 63 to break course record at PGA Championship. Brooks Koepka began his PGA Championship title defence with a record round that left Tiger Woods and everyone else in his wake. Without making birdie on the par 5s, Koepka still broke the course record Thursday with a 7-under 63. >>
Brooks Koepka makes history, Tiger Woods misses cut at PGA Championship. Koepka leads the field by seven strokes, and Woods finishes at 5 over par and will miss the weekend. >>
For Tiger Woods, the Love Is as Big as Ever. He was never all that lovable a figure, and he is hardly an exemplar of fine behavior off the course, but fans love golf's past and current king. >>
Garcia, Stricker miss the cut at the PGA Championship. Tiger Woods wasn't the only prominent player who missed the cut at the PGA Championship >>
Happily in the Shadows, Brooks Koepka Sets Bethpage Black Record. The crowd was there for Tiger Woods, but Koepka shot a 63 in the first round of the 2019 P.G.A. Championship. He believes he could have done even better. >>
On Golf: Tiger Woods Misses the Cut at the P.G.A. Championship by 1 Stroke. Woods, hoping to build on an exhilarating Masters win in April, missed the cut at the P.G.A. Championship on Friday after two rounds of bogey-filled golf. >>
PGA Championship opens with statement by Brooks Koepka and introduction to Danny Lee. Koepka, in a group with Tiger Woods, extended his major success with a course-record 63 before the unheralded Lee came in with a 64. >>
Rory McIlroy and the Fall of the Mighty. He was supposed to be the heir apparent to Tiger Woods. On Friday at the P.G.A. Championship, McIlroy was just happy to make the cut. >>
The Latest: Tiger back at Bethpage, ready to go. Tiger Woods, after a day off, back at Bethpage to begin opening round of PGA Championship >>
The Latest: Tiger double bogey on 1st hole, Koepka birdies. Tiger Woods got off to a struggling start to the PGA Championship when he double-bogeyed his first hole, the 10th, in the opening round >>
The Tiger Boom That Never Materialized. Tiger Woods has reclaimed golf's spotlight heading into the P.G.A. Championship, but his stardom has not produced a diverse array of stars, which some had predicted. >>
Tiger Woods flirting with a missed cut at the PGA Championship. He'll need a strong round Friday to move on to the weekend. >>
Tiger Woods is projected to miss cut for PGA Championship. Despite his stunning Masters victory last month, Tiger Woods failed to make the final cut in this weekend's 2019 PGA Championship. >>
Tiger Woods live updates: PGA Championship round is underway. Woods is on the course in a threesome with Brooks Koepka and Francesco Molinari. >>
Tiger Woods winds up on wrong side of PGA tourney's cut line. Despite his stunning Masters victory last month, Tiger Woods failed to make the final cut in this weekend's 2019 PGA Championship. >>
Tiger Woods won't make cut for PGA Championship. Despite his stunning Masters victory last month, Tiger Woods failed to make the final cut in this weekend's 2019 PGA Championship. >>
Woods shoots 73, 5 over for 36 holes, misses cut at PGA. Tiger Woods shoots 3-over 73 in 2nd round of PGA Championship to finish at 5 over for 36 holes and miss cut by 1 stroke >>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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I've often found it comforting that most of Tom Hiddleston's alter-egos seem incapable of making good choices. Whether it's the PTSD-inspired alcoholism of Freddie Page in The Deep Blue Sea or the Shakespearean sibling angst of the Marvel villain Loki, most of his characters are dogged by despair and failure.
For any devotee of Hiddleston, the chance to see him as Hamlet in a tiny central London theatre, nestled within the walls of his old drama school, felt akin to seeing The Beatles at the Cavern Club – the sense of a colossal talent scaled down while losing none of its potency. The result was little short of magical.
Up close and personal in RADA's 160-seat auditorium, the play opened with Hamlet sitting in near-darkness at the piano, crooning out a low wolf-howl of defeat.
Hamlet's alienation and sense of betrayal over his mother's hasty remarriage was, particularly for those in the front row, frighteningly visceral, made manifest through kicking and screaming, spit, sweat and tears. In turn, Hiddleston masterfully depicted Hamlet's inability to be what those around him needed – supportive, vengeful, loving, or even just consistent.
Much has been made of how HiddleHamlet's madness was undoubtedly feigned; yet the production's great strength was the ease with which he switched to an all-too-real malice and vindictiveness. His brushing aside of Ophelia (Kathryn Wilder), triggering her fatal sense of abandonment, combined with his shrugging off the deaths of his informant friends, were shocking in their callousness.
Yet one couldn't shake the feeling that the derangement and loss of control in Hamlet's eyes after murdering Polonius (Sean Foley) was genuine. The final duel resulting in the Prince's death, barely two feet from my seat, was no less agonising for its portrayal of one man imprisoned by grief, with its destructive effects spiralling outwards.
Yet on the night, for those in attendance it was three hours of uncomplicated happiness. Watching Hiddleston seamlessly recite 'To Be Or Not To Be' right in front of me was enough to make me feel thankful for my pulse. As much as I loved Benedict Cumberbatch's 2015 turn at the Barbican, it couldn't rival RADA's Hamlet for intimacy and intensity of craftsmanship.
Wonderful review. Describes exactly the sentiments of my experience. And I think I was in the same seat :D. To be or not to be recited only a few feet away….. incredible.
Thanks for this review. It's delightfully detailed and lets me feel the spirit of this evening… and it makes me cry (again).
There are some plays I wasn't able to watch over the years. But missing this one is the hardest. I love this play (I played Hamlet by myself one year ago) and I love Tom Hiddleson. In my opinion it's the best combination ever.
I hope every lucky one who was there appreciates the huge gift he or she was able to recieve. And to the writer of the review: Thanks for sharing this evening with us.


Between state and local police and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, dozens of drivers of motor vehicles and boats have been arrested and ticketed for a variety of violations. And we still have a full weekend to go before the holiday is officially over.
As we said in our July 1 post, the statewide "Booze It or Lose It: Operation Firecracker" anti-drunk driving campaign kicked off on June 28. That first night, officers from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area filed 46 charges against motorists. The DWI Checking Station was one of seven sobriety checkpoints in the state.
Only nine charges in Charlotte were for alcohol-related offenses — eight motorists were cited for driving while intoxicated and one for an open container. At the Durham checkpoint, six of 34 charges filed on July 3 and July 4 were for DWIs. What drivers may forget is that officers at checkpoints are looking for any violation, not just DWIs.
Last year's Operation Firecracker resulted in nearly 2,000 DWI citations across the state. There were 361 alcohol-related crashes and 17 deaths.
Boating while intoxicated is just as dangerous as driving under the influence. Just as the highway department and police target drunk driving enforcement efforts over holidays, the Wildlife Resources Commission used the weekend before the Fourth of July to remind people that drinking and boating is also illegal. The campaign, "Operation Dry Water," ran from June 28 to June 30.
According to the commission's law administrator, officials arrested more than 20 people for boating while impaired. The number is down from last year. Each person faces a fine and the possibility of jail time.


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Through One Door Mental Health, people living with mental illness and their families find an inclusive community, innovative services and advocacy support.
For many years One Door, has designed and delivered expert mental health programs that are now available through the NDIS.
To find out more about our vision and mission, click here, and to learn more about the One Door team, click here.


text:
Jay Willis
Jay Willis is a staff writer at GQ covering news, law, and politics. Previously, he was an associate at law firms in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, where his practice focused on consumer financial services and environmental cleanup litigation. He studied social welfare at Berkeley and graduated from Harvard Law School in 2013.
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The Republicans' Most Bizarre Impeachment Defenses of Donald Trump
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Trump May Have Lied to Robert Mueller, and Democrats Are Investigating It
More than just the Ukraine scandal.


text:
Maryland Weather: Severe Thunderstorm Warning Issued For Anne Arundel CountyThreats include 60 miles per hour wind gusts which could damage trees and cause some large branches to fall.
Over 3K Power Outages Reported After Snow, BGE SaysAs many as 3,098 BGE customers were impacted by 84 outages on Sunday night, according to the utility company.
Maryland Assistant Faces Prostitution-Related ChargesMaryland assistant basketball coach Bruce Shingler faces charges of procuring or soliciting prostitution or assignation, according to online court records.
Meg McNamara Has Your Updated Forecast 1-16-2022Meg McNamara Has Your Updated Forecast 1-16-2022
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5 Best Hostels In The UKThe best hostels in the United Kingdom also rank among the best in the world
Top 5 Tech Tours In Silicon ValleyFive must-see places in Silicon Valley that the public can visit
Foodie's Guide To New OrleansRecommendations on the best restaurants to visit and best food to try while visiting New Orleans
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5 Tallest Buildings In The Entire WorldThere are many megatall skyscrapers found around the world. All of these offer plenty of space for commercial, recreation and residential use.
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With Omicron's Prevalence And The Testing Shortage, Anyone With Symptoms Should Assume They're Positive, Doctor SaysLeaders in multiple states are working to expand access to testing as a surge in demand paired with a lack of supply has led to numerous shortages.
West Virginia Wants To Administer 4th COVID-19 Vaccine DoseWest Virginia has the nation's third-oldest population with nearly 20% of its 1.79 million residents over age 65. The state also eclipses most others in the percentage of people affected by diabetes, heart disease and obesity.


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Inge II Bårdsson (1185 - Nidaros, 23 april 1217) was van 1204 tot 1217 koning van Noorwegen. Inge was een zoon van Bård Guttormsson en Cecilia Sigurdsdotter, een dochter van koning Sigurd 'Munn' en een oud-tante van Guttorm.

Achtergrond
Inges moeder Cecilia was eerder getrouwd geweest met Folkvid 'de Rechtspreker' in Värmland, Zweden. Haakon 'Galen', de regent tijdens Gotturms regeerperiode, was hun zoon. Nadat haar broer in Noorwegen koning was geworden verliet ze Folkvid en reisde af naar Noorwegen. Nadat ze verklaarde dat ze tegen haar wil was getrouwd, annuleerde de aartsbisschop haar huwelijk met Folkvid. Zij zou hertrouwen met Bård Guttormsson, een van Sverres betrouwbaarste volgelingen, en een prominent leenman uit de regio van Trøndelag. Inge was hun enige zoon.

Troonsaanvaarding
Nadat koning Sverre in 1202 was overleden zouden ook zijn zoon Haakon III en kleinzoon Guttorm binnen twee jaar sterven. De Birkebeiners konden nu geen koning uit de mannelijke afstammingslijn van Sverre meer kiezen, nog onwetend van het bestaan van Haakon Håkonsson. De oude tegenstanders van Sverre, de Bagli-partij, maakten gebruik van deze situatie en begonnen een nieuwe invasie in Viken (het gebied rond het huidige Oslofjord) onder leiding van hun koning Erling Steinvegg. De Birkebeiner-partij hadden een sterke leider nodig om tegenstand te kunnen bieden. De Birkebeinse leiders wensten de jarl Haakon 'Galen' als hun koning. Maar aartsbisschop Erik van Nidaros en de boeren van Trøndelag stonden erop dat Inge Bårdsson, die tot dan toe alleen in Trøndelag de leiding had gehad, als koning werd gekozen. Er werd een compromis bereikt: Inge werd koning, terwijl jarl Haakon de militaire leider werd en de helft van de koninklijke inkomsten zou ontvangen.

Regering
In de jaren 1204-1208 zouden intensieve gevechten plaatsvinden tussen de Birkebeiners en de Bagli-partij. Koning Erling Steinvegg stierf in 1207 en de Bagli-partij zou de strijd voortzetten onder hun nieuwe koning Filippus Simonsson. De Bagli's heersten in het Viken-gebied rond Oslo en Tønsberg, de Birkebeiners onder koning Inge (II) controleerden Trøndelag met Nidaros als centrum, terwijl de macht in het westen van Noorwegen, rond Bergen, enkele keren tussen deze twee partijen werd gewisseld. Op 22 april 1206 zouden de Bagli's een aanval plaatsen op Nidaros tijdens het huwelijks feest voor Inges zuster Sigrid en Inge zelf kon ternauwernood ontsnappen door de toen ijskoude rivier Nidelva over te zwemmen. Het jaar daarop plaatsten de Birkebeiners een geslaagde tegenaanval op Tønsberg. Maar de oorlog zou voortduren zonder dat beide partijen in staat was een doorslaggevende overwinning te boeken. In de herfst van 1207 zouden de aartsbisschop Tore van Nidaros en bisschop Nicolaas van Oslo, en fervent aanhanger van de Bagli-partij, onderhandelingen beginnen om tot een akkoord tussen de beide strijdende partijen te komen. Het lukte hen om in de herfst van 1208 een ontmoeting tussen Inge, Haakon 'Galen' en Filippus in Kvitsøy in Rogaland te bewerkstelligen. De drie kwamen tot een overeenkomst waarbij Filippus akkoord ging om zijn koningstitel en zijn koninklijke zegel op te geven. Hij zou wel in oostelijk Noorwegen, het Viken-gebied, blijven regeren, behalve Bohuslän, nu met de titel jarl onder koning Inge. Jarl Haakon 'Galen' zou de macht in westelijk Noorwegen, het gebied rond Bergen, krijgen. Inge zou direct regeren over Trøndelag en de enige koning over geheel Noorwegen zijn. Om het verdrag te bezegelen zou Filippus in het huwelijk treden met Christina, een nicht van Inge en een dochter van koning Sverre.

Het vredes verdrag hield de rest van Inges regeerperiode stand. Niettemin zou Filippus de bereikte akkoorden niet nakomen en bleef hij zich koning noemen en behield hij ook de koninklijke zegel. De onderlinge verhoudingen tussen Inge en zijn halfbroer Haakon 'Galen' waren van tijd tot tijd ook gespannen. Toen het duidelijk werd dat Filippus zich koning bleef noemen, ondernam ook Haakon pogingen om zich tot koning te verklaren. Inge weigerde dit te accepteerden, en in plaats daarvan ondertekenden ze een overeenkomst die inhield dat de langst levende broer de erfgenaam zou zijn van het gebied van de andere en alleen een wettige zoon de erfgenaam van hen beiden zou zijn. Haakon had een wettige zoon, terwijl Inge alleen een buitenechtelijke zoon had; Guttorm (in 1206 geboren bij een concubine Gyrid genaamd). In 1214 onderdrukte Inge een opstand onder de boeren van Trøndelag, een opstand waarvan Haakon 'Galen' verdacht werd deze georganiseerd te hebben. Een openlijk conflict tussen de beide broers bleef echter uit. Toen Haakon kort na Kerstmis 1214 een natuurlijke dood stierf, kwam ook Haakons gebied onder de heerschappij van Inge.

In 1217 werd Inge ziek en tijdens zijn ziekte benoemde hij zijn jongere half-broer Skule Bårdsson tot jarl (lees: regent) en opperbevelhebber van het leger. Op 23 april 1217 zou Inge overlijden. Hij zou begraven worden in de kathedraal van Nidaros. Zijn opvolger was de dertien jaar oude Haakon Håkonsson, en de buitenechtelijke zoon van Haakon III van Noorwegen die was opgegroeid op de hoven van koning Inge en jarl Haakon sinds zij in 1206 van zijn bestaan op de hoogte waren gekomen. Jarl Skule Brådsson zou de komende jaren de regent blijven.

Beoordeling van Inge
Menige historici zien Inge als een zwakke koning. Hij verwierf nooit de controle over geheel Noorwegen en ging ermee akkoord om de macht te delen met de Bagli-partij en waaraan hij zelfs vasthield toen Filippus de gesloten overeenkomst aan zijn laars lapte. Andere historici geven het inzicht dat Inge juist een sterke regeerder was. Hij is in staat geweest om de druk te weerstaan van de oorlogszuchtige Birkebeiners en een halt toe te roepen aan de vernietigende burgeroorlogen.

De Bagler saga's, een gelijktijdig geschreven bron, beschrijft Inge als een uiterst rustige en kalme man die ver van feesten bleef en bij voorkeur zijn tijd doorbracht in zijn eigen hoofdkwartieren met zijn naaste vrienden, een karaktertrek die sommige van zijn aanhang tegenstond. Sinds zijn noodgedwongen zwempartij over de rivier de Nidelva tijdens de aanval op Nidaros in 1206 had Inge een zwakke gezondheid.

Bronnen
De hoofdbronnen over Inges regering zijn de Bagler saga's, die geschreven zijn tijdens en kort na Inges regeringstijd. Inge wordt ook genoemd in het begin van de Haakon Håkonsson saga.

Koning van Noorwegen
Ynglinge
Persoon in de 13e eeuw

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Compound leverage tongs type wrench; the advantage is ability to grip and turn pipe very close to walls, or other closed-in situations. The jaws are thin at the ends, and enclose 2/3rds the circumference of a pipe. The wrench fits a predetermined size, so a range of pipe sizes would require several wrenches. The specifications note the leverage is sufficient to have the jaws adapted to form hoof nippers.
Contemporary "new product announcements" suggest one use for the wrench was in conjunction with electrical conduit; it was also promoted for use on air, steam and water piping on railroad rolling stock and locomotives.
Known example marked LA ROCK WRENCH 1 IN is approx. 16 1/2 inches long.


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text:
huddl.ai Wants to Bring More Intelligence to Online Meetings
As the pandemic has shut down in-person meetings, and pushed us online, products like Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have become part of our daily lives. Into the fray jumps huddl.ai, a 3.5-year-old startup from a serial entrepreneur who wants to bring a dose of artificial intelligence to meeting technology.
Company co-founder and CEO Krishna Yarlagadda says while these companies have introduced the video meeting concept, his startup has a vision of taking it further. "As we move forward. I think the next [era] is going to be about intelligence," Yarlagadda told TechCrunch.
That involves using AI tools to transcribe the meeting, pull out the salient points and help users understand what happened without poring over notes to find the key information in a long session. "Primarily there's a purpose for every meeting, or essentially we're meeting for outcomes, and that's where Huddl comes in," he said.
Yarlagadda said that current solutions simply give you a link to a cloud room and everyone involved clicks and enters. Huddl wants to bring some more structure to that whole process. "We've developed a very user-centric architecture and also added a layer called meeting memory, which essentially captures the core aspects of the meeting — the agenda, action items and moments and then added search," he explained.
They call these meeting elements moments, and they involve capturing three key aspects of the meeting: the agenda and collaborative notes participants take during the meeting, screen captures the user takes using a built-in tool and, finally, audio, which captures a recording of the meeting. Users can search across these elements to find the parts of the meeting that are most relevant to them.
Further, it integrates with other enterprise applications like Slack or Salesforce to move to applicable tools items discussed during these meetings when it makes sense. "Essentially what we're trying to do is create a five-minute version of your 60-minute meeting that is stored in your memory and that becomes part of your search. Post-meeting this content has a life, and through APIs and integrations, we can [share it with the right programs]," he said.
For instance, if it's an action item in a sales meeting, it would go to Salesforce, and if it is a software bug in an engineering meeting, it could be shared with Jira.
The company was started in 2017, and has raised $8.7 million in seed money to date. It has 50 employees, with 10 in the U.S. and the others in India, and has plans to hire 15-20 additional people this year between the U.S. and India offices.


text:
The Little Red Yellow Black Book: An introduction to Indigenous Australia, Fourth edition
AIATSIS, with Bruce Pascoe
Paperback | Sep 2018 | Aboriginal Studies Press | 9780855750527 | 228pp | 210x135mm | Out of stock | GEN | AUD$19.95, NZD$24.99
Originally published in 1994, The Little Red Yellow Black Book has established itself as the perfect starting point for those who want to learn about the rich cultures and histories of Australia's First Peoples. Written from an Indigenous perspective, this highly illustrated and accessible introduction covers a range of topics from history, culture and the Arts, through to activism and reconciliation. In this fourth edition, readers will learn about some of the significant contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made, and continue to make, to the Australian nation. Common stereotypes will be challenged, and the many struggles and triumphs that we've experienced as we've navigated through our shared histories will be revealed. Readers will also learn about some of the key concepts that underpin Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander worldviews including concepts such as the Dreaming, the significance of Ancestral Heroes and Country.
The Little Red Yellow Black Book is for readers of all backgrounds and provides an opportunity to discover more about the diverse, dynamic and continuing cultures of Australia's First Peoples.
Historical Guide to New South Wales
Phillip Simpson
Profiles of American Colleges 2019
Barron's College Division Staff
The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca
How Well Do You Know Your Bible?: Over 500 Questions and Answers to Test Your Knowledge of the Good Book
James Bell
Bruce Pascoe
Bruce Pascoe is a Bunurong man born in Melbourne. His bestselling book Dark Emu was Book of the Year at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2016, as well as being shortlisted for numerous other awards.
Also by Bruce Pascoe
Dark Emu: Black seeds agriculture or accident?
Fog A Dox
Mrs Whitlam
Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with your Country
Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture
The Little Red Yellow Black book: An Introduction to Indigenous Australia
Bruce Pascoe, AIATSIS


When 18-year-old Tiffini Baldwin decided to take part in a peaceful sit-in to speak out against the possible closure of Catherine Ferguson Academy (CFA), a public school for pregnant girls and teen moms in Detroit, Michigan, she didn't think she'd be arrested.
Baldwin graduated from CFA last year and is now a freshman in college studying to be a physical therapist's assistant. She said enrolling in the school is the best decision she's ever made.
According to Conaway, all of the 65 young women who graduated from CFA last year were accepted in a postsecondary program. No other public school that she knows of in the state can boast such an impressive record.
And yet, pregnancy is the number-one reason girls drop out of school, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Approximately 70 percent of teenage girls who have children leave school.
So, why would a school for pregnant girls and teen moms with a 97 percent average daily attendance rate and a 100 percent college acceptance rate be slated to either close or turn into a privately run, nonunion charter? CFA is just one of more than 50 Detroit Public Schools on Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb's list.
When Bobb announced the plan in March, he said it would help cut the district's $327 million deficit. In April, he issued layoff notices to all of the district's 5,466 public school teachers.
The Broad Foundation, along with the Kellogg Foundation, pays Bobb $145,000 a year, on top of his $280,000 government salary. For those of you not familiar with Broad, it is one of the leading foundations promoting school choice and privatization across the country. One might almost think that paying a public official hundreds of thousands of dollars a year might amount to nothing short of bribery, especially given the very specific agenda of a foundation like the Broad Foundation.
Herrada, who is running for the school board, said government officials might cancel upcoming elections, claiming they're too expensive.
Because the situation is so dire in hundreds of school districts across the country, students are standing up, raising their voices, organizing and finding inspiration from each other's actions.
On April 26, nine members of UNIDOS chained themselves to the Tucson School Board members' seats before a Unified School District meeting was scheduled to begin. The board was expected to introduce a resolution to turn ethnic studies courses into electives. The nonviolent demonstration, which received widespread support from the audience, forced the board to postpone its vote. Because the board ordered Tucson police to remain outside, no arrests were made.
Like Baldwin, this was Feliciano's first action.
*On Monday, over 1,000 California teachers, students and their supporters kicked off a weeklong "State of Emergency" for public education, with rallies, teach-ins and protests planned across the state.
Over the past three years, education funding in California has lost a whopping $20 billion, forcing school districts to cut back on basic services and lay off more than 40,000 teachers, nurses, counselors and support staff. Some schools no longer have any counselors.
California Watch reports that State Treasurer Bill Lockyer recently suggested that budget cuts might shorten the school year by two months.
Over 65 demonstrators, including several teachers, were arrested for staying inside the California State Capitol in Sacramento after closing time to speak out against massive education cuts.
About 100 educators gathered at 5:30 AM in San Francisco and marched to the offices of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).
"I think it's time to get mad as hell and say, 'Enough.' This is a disgrace, a national disgrace," said SFUSD Superintendent Carlos Garcia to the early morning crowd.
The district recently passed a resolution to issue layoff notices to more than 300 teachers, administrators, aides and civil service employees.
Also on Monday, hundreds of citizens protested in front of the Washington, DC, American Federation for Children summit, which featured Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee as keynote speakers.
*On Tuesday, over 300 Huntington Park High School students walked out of class to protest budget cuts and layoffs proposed by the Los Angeles Unified School District. KTLA reported that the district is considering a plan to require all faculty and staff to re-apply for their jobs.
If California fails to find a source of revenue, 7,000 Los Angeles district employees might lose their jobs.
"Three of our most dynamic teachers all got pink slips. I'm pissed!" said parent Francine Nellis in an interview with VenicePatch.
California educators held "grade-ins" at malls and farmers' markets across the state to let the public know about all of the extra work they do after the last bell rings.
*On April 30, over 1,000 teachers, education advocates and their supporters rallied outside the University of Michigan's commencement celebration to speak out against Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's proposal to move money from the state's K-12 funds to give businesses $1.8 billion in tax cuts.
A few dozen students turned their backs on Governor Snyder while he spoke.
*On April 26, 12 UC Berkeley students began a hunger strike to oppose the consolidation of ethnic studies with gender and women's studies and African-American studies, resulting in staff reductions and the demotion of faculty to half-time. University officials say the consolidation would save $500,000 in staff costs.
"We're still here, we're still fighting, and, basically, we're not going anywhere," said Lara-Cea in an interview with New America Media.
As of Wednesday, seven people were still striking.


text:
Q: Edit UserSettings from *.config file using C# <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
      <section name="Tests" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>
  <userSettings>
    <Tests>
      <setting name="var1" serializeAs="String">
        <value>value1</value>
      </setting>
      <setting name="var2" serializeAs="String">
        <value>value2</value>
      </setting>
      <setting name="var3" serializeAs="String">
        <value>value3</value>
      </setting>
    </Tests>
  </userSettings>
</configuration>

Can someone help me to write a piece of code to dynamically edit setting "var2" from "value2" to "abcd" and "var3" from "value3" to "xyz" and save the file?

A: You can use the ConfigurationManager to update your config file. Taken from MSDN:
 var configFile = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
            var settings = configFile.AppSettings.Settings;
            if (settings[key] == null)
            {
                settings.Add(key, value);
            }
            else
            {
                settings[key].Value = value;
            }
            configFile.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified);
            ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(configFile.AppSettings.SectionInformation.Name);

A: I don't know what I was doing wrong, finally this worked for me!!! Sorry for bothering...
{code}
        string settingsFilePath = Path.Combine(_asmblyFolderPathInHost, "InstallerTests.dll.config");

        XmlDocument installerConfig = new XmlDocument();
        installerConfig.Load(settingsFilePath);
        try
        {

            XmlElement machineName = (XmlElement)installerConfig.SelectSingleNode("//configuration/userSettings/InstallerTests.Resources.InstallernTests/setting[@name='MachineName']/value");
            if (machineName != null)
            {
                machineName.InnerText = machinename;
            }

            XmlElement vmName = (XmlElement)installerConfig.SelectSingleNode("//configuration/userSettings/InstallerTests.Resources.InstallernTests/setting[@name='VMName']/value");
            if (vmName != null)
            {
                vmName.InnerText = vmname;
            }

            XmlElement snapshotName = (XmlElement)installerConfig.SelectSingleNode("//configuration/userSettings/InstallerTests.Resources.InstallernTests/setting[@name='SnapshotName']/value");
            if (snapshotName != null)
            {
                snapshotName.InnerText = snapshotname;
            }

            installerConfig.Save(settingsFilePath);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            _consoleLogger.LogMessage(e.ToString());
        }

{code}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Sonorella neglecta is a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the subfamily Helminthoglyptinae. Sonorella is a genus of large land snails consisting of over 80 species, with new ones continuing to be described. The shells typically differ only rather subtly, but proportions of the genitalia differentiate species. The genus is distributed in the southwestern USA (Arizona, New Mexico and NW Texas) and northern Mexico, with individual species often restricted to a single mountain massif ("sky island") or to a small part of one. Sonorella neglecta is such a narrow-range endemic from the Chiricahua Mountains. Its official vernacular name is the Portal Talussnail.

Discovery and description

Sonorella neglecta was described by Wendell Gregg in 1951 following its discovery in 1948 by Gregg and M.L. Walton on a rocky, south-facing hillside in the Chiricahua Mountains in south-eastern Arizona. The location is 3 miles west along the road from Portal to the town of Paradise (31.94°N 109.18°W), at an altitude of about 1750 m (5300 ft). They also found it at two or three other localities within a few miles of this type locality. At least six other Sonorella species occur in the same massif, of which S. virilis is known from particularly close by.

Like other species of the genus, the shell of S. neglecta is a little flatter than spherical, pale brown in colour with a chestnut peripheral band. Distinctive features of the shell are its relatively small size (15–17 mm diameter, c. 9 mm high), an umbilicus about a seventh of the diameter, and the surface sculpture of the protoconch. The type specimen is now in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM 1451).

Walter Miller later visited the type locality and found the first living specimens, describing their genital anatomy in his doctoral thesis.

Phylogenetic affinity
On the basis of the surface sculpture, Gregg (1951) considered S. neglecta to be most closely related to S. hachitana. On the basis of the genital anatomy Miller (1967) considered it most closely related to S. imperatrix. Bequaert & Miller (1973) put both S. neglecta and S. imperatrix in the "Sonnorella binneyi complex". A later reanalysis by McCord (1995) also placed S. neglecta with S. binneyi, but S. imperatrix was more distant; however, this work has been criticised. A molecular phylogeny is lacking.

Conservation status
NatureServe has classified S. neglecta as "critically imperiled" on account of the few known localities and lack of recent records. This prompted a petition in 2007 to classify S. neglecta, along with hundreds of other species, as "endangered or threatened with critical habitat", which was turned down by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 2009. Sonorella neglecta currently has no special state or federal legal status. This reflects the lack of information available about distribution and threats to the species.

References

Gastropods described in 1951


text:
The Creeps Choice That Should Become Reality
Detailed at Freddy in Space, Sony is letting the fans vote for the cover amongst a selection of three for their upcoming Night of the Creeps - Director's Cut DVD arriving October 20th.
Option 1 is by far the best of the lot, despite not utilizing any of the three original poster designs for the film, conveying the campy throwback tone well and sorta looking like product from Shameless Entertainment. Option 2 looks too much like a 30 Days of Night graphic novel design and I'll be damned if Option 3 wasn't going to be cover if Sony didn't let us decide. Just an awful phoned-in piece of quickie Photoshop crap using a focal point (Pillsbury Doughboy alien) that's nearly inconsequential to the story. So thrill me, but why can't we have art like below?
Posted by Jayson Kennedy @ 4:36 PM 2 Comments
Keepin' Tabs: DVD
Torrents Are No Fun
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't see the appeal in downloading anything "forbidden" for free. I did use Napster back when it wasn't a big corporate entity, but even then I'd primarily search for rare b-sides or live tracks. Downloading whole albums was no fun and what's the deal with movies?
Sure, you'll find a bunch of rare flicks, but it sucks the fun out of digging and searching, sometimes for years, for a real copy. That and digital copies on hard drives are worthless with wildly wavering quality. This especially holds true for recent releases. Nothing like watching a low quality, heavily compressed video on a monitor through shit speakers. I'd rather buy old VHS dups from establishments like Video Search of Miami from back when the Internet was in its infancy than do it the easy digital way. There's nothing like finally uncovering that "holy grail" either by a fluke on an e-tailer or in a dingy cardboard box at a yard sale.
So no, don't ask me for torrent links because I have no idea. Hard copies rule the day.
Devil's Crude (1971)
Directed by Tommaso Dazzi
85 Minutes / Trans World Entertainment / Cropped from 1.85:1 to full screen
A sun baked, scruffy, and thickly bearded Franco Nero stars as Nick, a salt-of-the-Earth sailor with a pet pelican whose sailboat is destroyed by a far off course oil tanker. After marching into the oil company's headquarters demanding compensation and being chased throughout the building, Nick befriends Paco, the young heir to the corporation. Nick and Paco run into each other repeatedly and eventually Nick saves the boy from electrocution from a sabotaged wading pool. Upon learning about threats on Paco's life for his inherited fortune, Nick takes an offer to become his guardian in exchange for payment on his boat. It becomes clear these threats are coming from within the boy's family when he's kidnapped and with the help of Paco's grandfather (Francisco Rabal) Nick sets off to save his young friend from an evading tanker.
This is simply a steady family-friendly adventure, but that by no means is condemnation for what the film sets out to do. There's very little action with the height being quick fist fights. Not even a single gunshot is fired or profanity uttered. The reason to watch is Nero, who brings a rugged warmth to the role creating a character every boy would love to tag along with on an adventure. The relationship between Nick and Paco never seems "weird" and as the characters interact Nick becomes a father figure the boy never had. Francisco Rabal is in old coot mode getting all the good quips. What's also interesting is that the film isn't in the mold of any popular American trends and doesn't resort to exploitative aspects to lure an audience. A wholesome and good spirited waste of ninety minutes with sunny locales that is one of the few back-in-the-day Italian genre efforts you can enjoy with a young child without the fear of a sudden boob shot or explosion of gore.
On a sidenote, even though the IMDB doesn't link the two, this appears to be a made-for-Italian-TV sequel or remake.
VHS Picture: 8/10 (considering the film and tape's ages, the PQ is great)
VHS Sound: 7/10
Keepin' Tabs: VHS
STRIKE COMMANDO (1987) - AVID Box Scan
BoGD Review
Greatest IMDB Comments Ever.
This film insults the country of our fathers
Author: lao zing from Viet Nam
"To think that a entire army failed and one geeky man could destroy my home country seems insulting to hear and impossible. After all who is this Reb Brown guy and i am sure that Amercanski is not really Russian for American added to that some of the most awkward one liners in the history of world cinema. The boy is also a stereotypical Vietnamese peasant. I would like to see more Vietamese cinema like (literal translation) Du Xing's lama. The only people who would enjoy this insulting mess is patriotic American idiot who believe America won in the Vietnamese war (i myself am Vietnamese and didn't support the war)"
Happy Birthday You Crazy Old Bastard
Gary Busey turns 65 today!
"Drinking your own blood is the paradigm of recycling."
Posted by Jayson Kennedy @ 10:03 AM 0 Comments
First Review of Mya's Horrible DVD Appears
10K Bullets just posted their review of Mya Communication's DVD of D'Amato's Horrible (Rosso sangue, Absurd). This was released under a variety of titles with most knowing it by Monster Hunter from the Wizard Video big box. EDDE Entertainment also released this in the mid-'90s as Zombie 6: Monster Hunter in an extremely color pumped tape. I've never seen the whole movie so I'm looking forward to this July 14th release. As mentioned prior, Mya has a great upcoming slate of more obscure Italian offerings that will act as much needed fill-in for the pasta catalogs of Blue Underground and Shriek Show.
Some quick thoughts on Friday the 13th on Blu-ray
Chi-chi-chi-*groan*-*groan*-*groan*
Not seeing this in theaters, I gave in to the peer pressure of other bloggers yesterday and plopped down a twenty and a ten for ze Blu-ray at Wal Mart--Always. ®
Not the smartest choice. Now, I wasn't one of these fans who automatically balked at the mention of this remake. I can honestly say I didn't care either way, didn't follow the progress of its creation online, and even forgot who directed it until last night. Boy, it ain't what it used to be.
One of the first things that struck me and endured throughout was how flat out annoying the group introduced after the opening title was in comparison to the group that was on the brunt end of Jason's machete in the opening attention grabber. Natually, persons 18ish or older are tantamount to cattle for the slicing, but these twenty-somethings on vaca we're forced to stick with are so grating you wish Jason would suddenly crash through a window and get down to some gory skullfucking. Okay, maybe not literal insertion of Voorhee's dork into cranial cavities, but you get my point. Danielle Panabaker (Jenna) looks like a young Leah Remini and one gets the distinct impression Travis Van Winkle (Trent) is a douche both on and off the screen. The on-screen sibling leads also do nothing to move the viewer or even simply side with them being just two attractive, vanilla, and definitely all-American young adults. How boring.
This leads to the interpretation of Jason by Derek Mears. I had heard he was more methodical this go around and upon watching everyone's favorite killer momma's boy it's all maybe a bit too much for my liking. I've always favored the killer an unstoppable "sentient brickwall" whose original rage towards his mother's death has been gradually replaced with a unsettling rendition of a ubiquitous backwooods boogeyman that can molded by an individual's own fears. Michael Myers is another example. This "re-imagining" takes Jason away from that and into something closer to a more "cinematic" horror flick mass-murderer. He's still Jason, albeit less so. The lack of any of real hero shots of the character certainly doesn't help matters. The few that are there, like Jason ominously standing on the roof in the moonlight, are far too short to leave any impact. Lastly, why does he throw shit around or act frustrated? Talk about a load of bullshit.
There's also small things that tweaked my brains the wrong way. The score is essentially electronic droning compared to Manfredini's work. There's nearly no sense of geography concerning the positions of Trent's parent's summer house, Camp Crystal Lake, and Jason's lair. Nispel has no marked directorial style and merely seems to be leaning on the talents of the crew surrounding him. Where's the dilapidated camper cabins inside the camp's boundaries? Why does Jason need to reside in the room that Trent Reznor floated around in from Nine Inch Nails' music video for Closer? Why are the locations so damn cluttered with junk/set dressing? Why does the Nispel/Bay/Pearl "sister film" to this remake (TCM '03) also have sweaty, bizarre, and southern-fried locals?
At least the kills are generally decent, especially the brutal killing and tow truck dragging of Trent. I hope the sequel is better...
New Line's Blu-ray (and DVD) scream re-release as the slim extras are pure short-running fluff. Even the Picture-in-Picture trivia track isn't particularly in-depth. The 1080p VC-1 encoded transfer looks good despite issues with subtle noise reduction and a surprising number of shots both in-and-out of the action sequences looking slightly out-of-focus. The lossless Dolby TrueHD is extremely active to the point I opted to hear it through the TV speakers halfway through. The choosing between the rated and extended rated versions is confusing. The disc defaults to the extended version and the menus speak of no selection between the two, only the theatrical version. If you select the theatrical version, the only way to get to the extended version is by picking a scene to jump to in Scene Selection. Sound confusing? Yes, it is.
Keepin' Tabs: Blu-ray
Fuck Dude I'm Buying It!
MEGA RARE SEALED BETA EDITION: $1,5000,000, EMAIL ME, SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY!!!
The eBay feeding frenzy off Michael Jackson's still fresh corpse is in full swing and I came across this million dollar auction for a Making Michael Jackson's Thriller VHS. I'm planning on buying it and the domain name MICHAELJACKSONSHIT.com since I'm out spending the big bucks anyway.
The nerve and complete stupidity of these sellers...
Posted by Jayson Kennedy @ 12:58 PM 6 Comments
Keepin' Tabs: Randomness, VHS
Spasms (1983)
pardon the Betamax cover
Directed by William Fruet
92 Minutes / Thorn EMI Video / Cropped from 1.85:1 to full screen
(spoilers)
Wealthy explorer Jason Kinclaid (Oliver Reed) enlists the knowledge of a doctor who specializes in telepathy, Tom Brasilian (Peter Fonda), to examine a mythical snake captured in a small tribal island. Kinclaid is troubled by horrible experiences of feeling the surrounding turmoil and killings by the serpent and believes Dr. Brasilian can lead to an answer, but a sect of Californian snake-worshipping cultists are also aware of the discovery. The snake arrives and is interned at a local college, but that night men working for the cult break in with one getting totally fucked up when the beast escapes from its pen. The survivor (Al Waxman) informs the cult leader who demands he not fail again in his recovery mission.
At this point, authorities are alerted and the search begins as the snake randomly kills in its slithery trail. Waxman gets spasmed real good during an attack and Kinclaid travels to his summer home armed with an AK to finally face down the creature after getting a track on its whereabouts through a controlled telepathic session with Brasilian.
I had put off watching this one given the generally negative reviews, however; it's not nearly as bad as some make it out to be. This doesn't mean it's void of several crippling problems. First, the whole telepathy angle is a device of convenience being only used to give some connection between the protagonists and the snake. There's also a glut of blue tinted snake POV shots which might sound like a trivial detail, though it's so ridiculous the whole film is cheapened by a noticeable degree whenever we see victims facing the menace of a shaky camera. Worst of all, the editing is sloppy particularly derailing at the climax. After enduring some delirium inside the summer home; Kinclaid confronts the snake, gets killed, Brasilian with love interest Keane arrive, machine gun the snake, walk off, the slain serpent catches ablaze, and the credits roll. All this in under five minutes. It's as if Fruet and company simply said "fuck this" and ended it. Before I forget, the cultist aspect is completely dumped after the phone call at the end of the first paragraph above.
There are a scant few redeeming qualities. Despite there being only one real entire body spasmodic "bloating" (Waxman), it's pretty disgusting and horrifying with the spongy final shot illustrated on the cover art. The other attacks involve no spasms, but are surprisingly brutal and fast-paced. When the men break in to the college lab the resulting attack is furious with one of them torn up and thrown around the room like a ragdoll from ceiling to floor. In another a woman is savaged in midair in her home, thrown through a bathroom door, and bloodily strikes a glass shower door much to the terror of the nude girl on the other side. The performances are decent enough as well, with the pleasant and learned British-accented Reed faring the best. We don't see much of Fonda.
The cover art is so promising, oh well. I believe Code Red has the rights, so maybe we'll see an uncut DVD release in the future.
VHS Picture: 6/10
FlashFulci? LucioDance?
The Italian Domo Video VHS of Lucio Fulci's Murderock - uccide a passo di danza arrived today. The interesting thing is that the tape is in the primarily U.S./Japan NTSC video standard instead of the European PAL standard. Otherwise, this edition is 100% identical to the "real" Italiano tape, right down to the untranslated back synopsis and no subtitles for the Italian audio. I've never seen the flick (no real desire), but the price was right and I figured this is much rarer than the Shriek Show DVD being a horder of obscure Fulci videos.
Why Can't Horror Be Funny Anymore?
or better yet why can't horror be funny and financially successful anymore?
I'm sure this has been mulled over ad nauseum on horror forums, but while watching a trailer for Zombieland on Youtube, the first comment was the following:
"This looks more funny than scary, but i'm still going to see it."
This seems to be the prevalent sediment amongst the younger mainstream moviegoer. Not so much the "see it" part but the negative connotation surrounding horror movies being funny. Why the stigma, people? The same feeling comes when assessing Drag Me to Hell's domestic box office performance. With a take just over nine million its production budget, Raimi's return is somewhat of a disappointment essentially nightcapping the production and advertising budgets. If there was any hope for a true Evil Dead 4, Drag's reception just snuffed it out and Raimi finally has a credible scapegoat for that constant question. To which I'm sure Mr. Spider-Man is quietly pleased. Of course, the fun Slither fared significantly worse in not breaking even with worldwide gross. Even the hugely popular Shaun of the Dead barely crossed the thirty mil mark worldwide, but granted the budget was an amazingly low four million(?!) according to the IMDB. Not to mention Warner royally fucking over Trick 'r Treat.
Horror seems to be more of a home video medium ever since the '80s rental boom. I'm sure these films and others like it have/will recoup and prove their longevity on the DVD racks. It's just a damn shame the majority of moviegoers have chosen the "horromedy" the red-headed stepchild of silver screen ticket sales.
Money isn't everything (in a broader sense, not in studio exec standards) and horror needn't be an episode of Laugh-In, but this trend further stymies the overall pursuit of fresh ideas delivered on a grand scale in the genre. At least on the lines of bullshit walks producers and investors. The foreseeable pinnacle will arrive when Christian Bale is cast in a Rob Zombie Halloween sequel. That level of glumness and hyper violence might just cause a rash of unexplainable suicides to sweep the nation upon release. Maybe then people will start giggling.
...buuuttttt this doesn't put a damper on how nifty Zombieland looks!
Try and Find It: Master Movies' DVD of THE TERROR
This is another decent little chesnut that got sucked into "no copyright" hell like these two. Anyone is free to release these and seemingly everyone has including your very own dear grandmother. What? Like you didn't know. If you don't a copy, there's probably one within a half mile radius...wherever you go.
Now because of this, the majority of copies look like refried video ass and are often unwatchable. Though this one released in year one of the DVD format (1997) by "Master Movies" somehow features the best picture of all the copies I've seen. While still looking like a budget disc, the transfer has color and detail completely absent from the heaps of fuzzy bleached out copies at Dollar Tree or your local Chinese market.
The only problem is that the disc has been out-of-print for years and is fucking hard to find. It took me a long time to finally dig one up after initially hearing about it at The Pulsing Cinema years ago before they dumped all their articles. Note the case sucks being a slim CD case-like "LaserFile". The tray only slides out as far as in the picture and has no spindle to hold the disc. Needless to say the disc's data side looks annihilated. Though it plays and that's little payment for the great PQ.
Click Here To See More Captures»
Voorhees Part Deux - Quick Thoughts and Little DVD Comparison
They blew one of the biggest sequel potentials in slasherdom here. I can't think of any other fright flicks that had such potent makings of one of the biggest reveals in mainstream Horror history than Friday the 13th. Mrs. Voorhees' cherished son could have made one incredible introduction, but instead F13 II blows that wad in nonsensical fashion before the opening credits. If things had been so quiet for five years after the massacre; how in the hell could have Jason found Alice? Let alone crawl out from his shack down by the river to even walk suburban streets and then find his way back?
would you like fries with your hotness?
This sequel is full of questions like that. Why does Jason run from a lone sheriff? Why does he move the whistling pot off the hot element? Where did all the camper teens go? How does Ginny defeat Jason? Ginny pees herself? How does Terry's little furry feces factory magically re-animate? Where's Paul? It's so downright frustrating that even the small questions annoy. One can imagine the surprise hit that was the original spurred a quickie sequel that forced a gloss over on these things and more. The introduction of Jason is there, however as noted; Miner and Kurz mostly squander an opportunity that seems so obvious...and rip-off a Mario Bava kill from Twitch of the Death Nerve.
I am coming down hard on the film. It goes for what's easy and reduces itself down to an (albeit good) stock standard slasher. Though maybe it was a degree of uncertainty whether or not eleven and a half more additions would be the future. Well, twelve and a half more...
*fap fap fap*
The above capture is one of the things the film gets so right. If there's one featured actress I would want to see undress, skinny dip, dress, and then die--it's Kirsten Baker. Jason is at his most human and his actions act as a good refresher for the whiners of his intelligent antics in the most recent installment. Also the big lingering reveal of sack head in the cabin's bedroom is perfect and little shots like Vickie's bloodied shoes limply dragging down the stairs eerily stick with you. Otherwise, there's so much the story could have done to be much more suspenseful and epic feeling in scale. I guess so is life and at least it's not Freddy's Revenge.
Paramount's new High Definition-sourced transfer is generally great looking, especially evident in the earlier daytime sequences. There is some noise reduction, but the bright and lively image topples the original 1999 DVD presentation with little problem. Also kudos to the studio for including the original mono soundtrack.
1999 DVD / 2009 Deluxe Edition
Jaws Returns (1981)
A.K.A. L'ultimo squalo / The Last Shark
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
88 Minutes / Albatros Film Japan / 1.85:1 Widescreen
Police chef Martin Bro...I mean Peter Benton (James Franciscus) and salty seaman Ron Hamer (Vic Morrow) face off against a gigantic stiff-as-a-board Great White after a stubborn mayor (Joshua Sinclair) refuses to halt a windsurfing contest that resulted in a massacre of a terrifying pink buoy shredding knocking people into the water. I know, holy shit. Benton vows personal vengeance over his daughter's eaten leg after a failed attempt by a few local teens to kill the sea beast. An unscrupulous television reporter (Giancarlo Prete) sees these events as his meal ticket as he films the attacks for his own ends. Also the mayor is a complete dumbass when he decides to battle solo with a hunk of chuck and a chopper. Sound wholly original? Indeed!
The Italian superpowers of director Castellari with writers Vincenzo Mannino and Ugo Tucci align under the musical stylings of the brothers De Angelis to deliver a mealy piss in the bearded mouth of Spielberg. This is the gloriously timed rip-off that caused Universal to shit themselves, take legal action, and effectively "ban" this flick in the States. Surprisingly, it's not that bad and just might edge out Michael Caine's Jaws 4 paycheck.
James Franciscus isn't really worth discussion as his character and performance are as vanilla as white bread. Though you gotta wonder what Vic Morrow thought of running through Robert Shaw's fantastic turn in Jaws with such obvious intent. He's in the same gruff and stand-offish template, but the character isn't nearly as tough. First, he's stunned in an attempt to dynamite he and Benton's way out of a oceanfloor cavern that the shark intentionally covered to entrap the two. Then he's simply dragged off when the shark seems to realize the man is entangled in rope. Romano Puppo shows up and gets a cool little introductory shot as a badass shark killer/denim-clad cowboy only to be shiftly eaten ten minutes later. The rest of the cast like Franciscus aren't too notable, Micaela Pignatelli is Benton's wife who just blends off into the background.
As noted above, the film goes out of its way to cast the fish as intelligent, but its ridiculous appearance and mismatched stock footage hamper all hope. The Great White just sorta emerges robotically and slowly behind victims that then act pulled under. The actual attacks are slim in number and usually are just bodies being reluctantly ripped in half with a few splashes of watery blood. It sounds like a recipe for laughs yet usually fails to tickle the throat.
The combined elements pull together just enough to be watchable, but it's all pretty disappointing, but how else could it have been? Castellari seems out-of-sorts in the water as opposed to the mean asphalt of Rome and probably knew this was merely a bill payer. Our friend Bruno Mattei revisited the theme, stole directly from this film and Jaws, and cast a Hulk Hogan look-a-like for '96's Cruel Jaws. On paper at least that sounds like what this should have been.
6/20/21 Swap Meet Finds
Sponsored by Vincent Price and football
Keepin' Tabs: DVD, Swap Meet, VHS
K-TEL 2-Horror Classics Double Feature
Here's one of the rarer editions of these two films I found today amongst a box stuffed with loose rap CDs at a swap meet. Of course, NOLD and Dementia 13 have for better-or-worse long slipped into public domain, so copies will survive global nuclear holocaust, but this double feature VHS set from 1984 is quite scare like any of K-Tel's obscure tapes. Their only other video release I know of is Antonio Margheriti's Mr. Superinvisible. I've only seen this set one other time on eBay in better shape going for around forty bucks.
Both tapes are recorded in SP mode and watching NOLD right now I'm surprised how good it looks. The restored DVDs from Elite and Weinstein Co. naturally take it to task, but the presentation is miles ahead of the bottomless pit of hellishly awful EP-sourced cheapies on tape and disc being very stable and mostly free of print damage. I find myself watching it instead of typing. The case is massive resembling a double-decker soft clamshell case. It was terribly dirty and after cleaning the entire rag was literally black. Also worst of all there was a "Horror" and big price sticker on the cover! Too bad about the top damage, but it has character and the cool unsigned artwork is clean.
Keepin' Tabs: Swap Meet, VHS
Strange Shadows in an Empty Room (1975)
A.K.A. A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta / Blazing Magnum / Shadows in an Empty Room
Directed by Alberto De Martino
97 Minutes / Vestron Video / Cropped from 2.35:1 to full screen
After the mysterious poisoning of a girl at a college get-together, the brother of the slain who also happens to be a hard-as-nails police captain (Stuart Whitman) sets out determined to find her killer. He and his sergeant (John Saxon) believe it to be a doctor (Martin Landau) known to have something on the side with the girl, but their assumptions are tested when questioning her blind roommate (Tisa Farrow) and the discovery of an expensive necklace.
This is a pretty big case of false advertising judging by the "gialloish" re-title and box artwork above. This is definitely action/crime first with a small slice of euro-thriller on the side. Though this isn't a bad thing since it's quite a crackling mix between the Italian and American cop action aesthetics. Whitman is essentially Dirty Harry with an acute hint of British harshness as he beats the piss out of thug and non-thugs alike in his personal quest. He even gets in an apartment-destroying tussle with three transvestites and nearly falls off the side of the building in the process. Saxon amounts to tough wallpaper with nothing to do besides be to Whitman's left throughout. Landau is dependable as usual and Farrow looks distinctly younger than when seen a few years later in Fulci's Zombie.
There's a seriously kick ass car chase sequence towards the latter half ripping through urban streets, highways, and sharp grassy knolls. Being shot in Canada gives the added advantage of seeing '70s Plymouth boats clashing together instead of the usual needling Alfas in Italian actioners. Armando Trovajoli's score really adds to the poliziesco feel, but becomes repetitive being mostly subtle changes to the main theme. Twists and turns come logically and the climax is well handled making the proceedings feel even more worth the time. Now where's the damn DVD?
Leprechauns are boring even in the ghetto...
Could somebody tell me why I can't get into the spirit of either the Leprechaun or Child's Play/Chucky series?
I just half-watched a good chunk of Leprechaun in the Hood and despite its reputation as a sorta prime example of B-grade shit on the restroom wall of "straight-to-DVDdom"--ultimately a sudden "hit the stop button" realization comes to pass midway in for no particular reason. Minimal gore and unfunny lines make Lep a dull boy, but it's also innocuous enough in a "I wanna shoot a nigga homeboy in his motherfuckin' head while his bitch is watchin'" kind of way. The characters tend to wallow in the worst of African American stereotypes and frankly this old song-and-dance wears raw. What's even more condescending is a convenient vibe of a "do the right thing" mentality that seems inserted to soften any potential offensiveness given off by the characters and the gun-totin' thug life situations they're placed in.
There is one line I did legitimately grant a laugh. Upon encountering a frisky muscular transvestite, Leprechaun says something along the lines of "Sorry, I don't play with fruit, I just needs me flute..." Besides that, this one is destined for the giveaway pile...
One of the Greatest DVD Transfers Ever. Period.
When someone asks what's the best picture quality I've seen on the DVD format, V.I.P.'s Swiss disc of Women in Cellblock 9 (Frauen für Zellenblock 9) is the only choice. There are films considered beloved cornerstones of cinema that haven't been given nearly the same amount of love and care.
The painstakingly restored transfer is incredibly film-like, unfiltered, and it's more than a little amusing the material is a Jess Franco cheapie W.I.P. flick with an abundance of skin and exploitative titillation. Franco's camera does waver with the focus at times, even within singular shots, but when sharp the resulting images put quite a number of Blu-ray transfers to shame.
The fourth pair are V.I.P's editions of Jack the Ripper and Barbed Wire Dolls. Unforunately, Jack looks from a video master and Barbed has been digtally noise reduced creating a very unpleasant smeary "video" appearance. I don't have any of the studio's other Franco discs, but Women in Cellblock 9 certainly seems the high-water mark.
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Some quick thoughts on Ghostbusters on Blu-ray
Why can't they make movies like this anymore?
I should just end it there. This is the comedy classic that typifies the seemingly lost assumption of the audience not being lackey vagabonds that need (or desire) to be spoon-fed or talked down to. There aren't long diatribes about how Stay Puft is New York's favorite marshmallow, Egon's theories behind the equipment, or the transformation of battleship ambulance into ECTO-1. You just know if this never existed and were made today the runtime would push three hours from an inches thick slather of gross over-explaination and bomb at the BO. Of course, the lack of techie details let The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series go apeshit with wild fill-in.
This economy of "intelligent design" also translates through a dream cast that doesn't quite look so on paper. We know almost instantaneously Murray is part scientist/mostly mac, Aykroyd is the passionate dork, Ramis is the stuffy yet lovable geek, and Hudson is the everyman (the voice of the audience) who tempers the three giant personalities. Weaver is gorgeous, Moranis is intentionally annoying, Potts is a Knickerbocker through-and-through, and Atherton is dickless. Yes, this man has no dick.
As if you didn't know all this already. I was going to peruse the "Hated It" comments on the IMDB for the hell of it, but let's not and just say fuck those people. Ghostbusters is a massive achievement in the form of an unexpected bond between child-like spooky wonder and no bullshit laughs. How can you not love a PG-rated film where nearly everyone smokes...repeatedly. Hell, the last shot of Dr. Stantz is he lightin' up another cig. Well, Egon doesn't, but he probably assessed the risks using the scientific method and reached the conclusion after arduous research the action wouldn't be proactive towards the longevity of his being. Much better to stick with collecting spores, molds, and fungus whilst pondering Tobin's Spirit Guide.
The 1080p MPEG-4 AVC-encoded Blu-ray transfer is the subject of a mild controversy in A/V groups. Like the the 2005 DVD re-release, the image has been brightened, loosing the warm reddish look of the original 1999 DVD. "Purists" have bitched, but The Digital Bits has confirmed the BD image had been D.P.-approved shortly before this death. Otherwise, the transfer is a stunner for a 1984 release. Extremely grainy, which it should be, though the grain is "tight" and if erased we'd merely have DVD resolution again. It's a substantial jump being the best the film has ever looked on home video in every way. The lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 isn't nearly the same leap, but Bernstein's score is crystal clear.
The picture-in-picture "Slimer Mode" is awesome with a plethora of new interviews and behind the scenes footage in real time as the film plays. My only complaint about the supplemental material is the lack of the film's trailer and the fact the original ECTO-1 looked days away from the junk yard compactor (seriously?!?) before being beautifully restored as seen in the "Resurrecting a Classic Car" featurette.
Posted by Jayson Kennedy @ 9:33 AM 2 Comments
Tinkering with the Background
Is it easily loadable (it's only 155kb) and most importantly is the text still readable, guys? I got tired of the dark gray....
The new background is a heavily degraded picture of La fille de Dracula's poster from Wrong Side of the Art's collection.
Keepin' Tabs: Sidenotes
Jason Lives - Quick Thoughts and Little DVD Comparison
Does he think I'm a farthead?...YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Despite knowing Part 6 will eventually debut on Blu-ray just like Parts 1-3 so far and owning two other prior DVD editions...thirteen bucks later (har har) the new Deluxe Edition was in my Wal Mart bag yesterday.
Admittedly, I just never got deep into slashers. Probably stemming from seeing all of these guy's exploits out of their prime after first discovering Romero's zombies and Fulci's fixation on super Leone-like close-ups. The only memory I have from the era when Freddy was in full jig was my father bringing home an Elm Street poster around '86 or '87. I freaked and demanded it taken down while crying.
Enough about my stupid ass, this is my favorite F13 sequel, which is no big surprise since it's the charmer to many others. The opening stunner with Jason resurrectus is simply fucking awesome. I remember cheering upon Tommy's friend falling into his final resting place my first viewing. It's the first in the series to go out-of-the-way to place Jason in a more self aware iconic spotlight with badass shots like Mr. Hockey Mask atop a smoldering camper. C. J. Graham embodies Voorhees just as well as Hodder and adds subtle touches (much like Kane) like re-adjusting a pole in his hands after driving it through the Volkswagen's windshield.
Thom Mathews makes for the strongest male lead in the series and it's welcome to see the Jarvis role not reshaped for another Feldman return in the same fashion as the recent Bale/Terminator Salvation debacle. Jennifer Cooke is also a cut above your average final girl in her last role before retirement. The comedy is much less campy than Part 5, looking past the paintball sequence, taking a darker edge with wry editing. Not to mention Jason's head-crushing panache and the Alice Cooper tuneage.
Now on to DVD comparison. The biggest difference is the color cast. The first two Paramount discs are essentially identical with a brighter blueish hue. The new Deluxe Edition has a darker greenish hue which I suspect is more appropriate since a new high definition transfer was minted for this release and forthcoming Blu-ray. The new transfer also has a more solid appearance with a more apparent grain structure. It's not a big leap, but the Blu-ray might just exhibit a surprising leap in quality since it seems Paramount didn't try very hard in squeezing every ounce of the DVD format's potential here.
2001 DVD / 2004 Ultimate Collection / 2009 Deluxe Edition
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Surprise Among the Living Dead: The Recon Mission
finding a home amongst its brethren
This is a follow-up to Surprise Among the Living Dead
I've just run through this oddity and wanted to address the kind Robert Monell's questions (see his excellent Jess Franco blog here) pertaining to this release. Visit this film's thread on The World of Jess Franco forum for further details.
On-Screen Title: "VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD"
Language: English w/ English credits
Ratio: Full Screen
Runtime: 1:28:03 (88 minutes, 3 seconds) (from film start to fade to black)
Tape Type: T105 (105 minutes)
Playback VCR: U.S. Sony SLV-640HF (60Hz NTSC-only)
- NO BBFC Certification at the beginning of the tape
- The film ends with Christina "going mad" and the final shot is her lying on a bed with "THE END" imposed along the bottom of the picture.
The nudity is either cut, blacked out, or blotted out by a purple halo.
Rollin's zombie inserts are included.
How to Properly Treat Trash: Vipco's The Zombie Dead
Vipco's U.K. disc of Bianchi's Italian cheeze cold cut on rye Burial Ground (Le notti del terrore) arrived today under stupid "Zombie Dead" title. I already have Peter Bark's incestuous piece de resistance on DVD from Shriek Show and Italian Shock, but figured if a Brit on Amazon's Marketplace is okay with shipping a disc to the States for a grand total of $2.99--I'm game. Anyway I popped the disc in and was very pleasantly surprised by the transfer especially considering the now defunct studio's dubious reputation. Without checking I knew it was superior to Shriek Show's presentation, but upon further digging this transfer even beats Shock's solid treatment. The Vipco features actual film grain, producing a picture that's closest to the original negative and the most finely detailed of the lot. The Shriek Show being the worst despite sporting anamorphic enhancement; very boosted brightness, slightly cropped, and swimming with ugly digital artifacts. The Vipco edition is out of print so keep an eye out on eBay and such. It's a keeper!
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Contractor needed for £50m road job
Tags: construction, doncaster
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Work on an important link road between Doncaster Robin Hood Airport and the M18 motorway could start next summer.
Doncaster Country Council has just started the search for a contractor to build the 4.4km Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme, or FARRRS as it is otherwise known, after securing funding earlier in the year.
The £50m road scheme won Government cash for its potential to galvanise further development of Robin Hood Airport, the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange proposal adjacent to Junction 3 of the M18, as well as the reclamation of Rossington Colliery.
Around 4.4 km of new highway will be built across low lying open farm land to the north of Rossington and will connect the M18 motorway with the the A638 Great North Road and B6463 Sheep Bridge Lane, known locally as Parrot's Corner.
The risk of flooding means that most of the highway will be raised on an embankment, needing 700 000 cu m of fill material.
The first 1.5km from the motorway is designed as dual carriageway, the remaining 2.8km from a new Rossington roundabout to Parrot's Corner is to be single carriageway.
The scheme also includes a 1km spur from the roundabout to the former Rossington Colliery.
Reclamation and redevelopment of the colliery site is due to start in early next year. This will includes the recovery of coal from the colliery spoil tips and development of an eco-village.
Several structures will be needed on the route, including crossings over the Brancliffe to Kirk Sandall railway line and the East Coast Main Line and two subways to maintain public access for vehicles and pedestrians.
There will also be extensive ditch and flood relief culverts as well as attenuation ponds built to control discharges into the local watercourses.
Contractors have until 6 February to submit PQQs, which are available at the procurement site: https://scms.alito.co.uk
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3 Exotic Caribbean Festivals to Experience in 2016
Features & Advice	Brian Major February 26, 2016
PHOTO: Boat racing, Anguilla's national pastime, will be featured at Festival Del Mar in March. (Photo by Brian Major)
The Caribbean is rich not only with sun and fun, but outstanding cuisine, culture and traditional pastimes. All are available to visitors throughout the year in the form of numerous festivals celebrating music, food and athletic and cultural events.
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This year, three exotic Caribbean destinations are featuring exciting, distinctive celebrations tied closely to local cuisine, culture and customs.
Anguilla's Festival Del Mar
In addition to traditional Christian celebrations, Easter weekend in Anguilla will offer one of the Caribbean's premier food festivals. In a region known for outstanding seafood, Festival Del Mar, scheduled for March 26 and 27, will feature traditional cooking and culinary competitions dedicated to Anguillan fish and shellfish pulled fresh from the sea.
READ MORE: Late-Night Ferry To Link Anguilla With Sint Maarten
Attendees will find gourmet fare crafted from local lobster, crab, crayfish and octopus ("sea cat"). The menu will also feature several varieties of fried and grilled fish. Events will take place at Island Harbour, a small fishing village on Anguilla's eastern tip. The picturesque harbor looks much as it did in the early 1900s, with colorful boats bobbing in the blue waters, and a small fishing pier extending out from the shore.
Sponsored by the Anguilla Tourist Board and the country's Ministry of Youth and Culture, Festival Del Mar will offer deep sea fishing competitions, swimming races, volley ball exhibitions and crab races.
Two days of live music and boat racing, the island's national pastime, will highlight the activities. Visitors are invited to wear swimsuits in case they desire to take a dip in the sea. Tented areas for lounging in the sun and domino games will be provided.
Turks & Caicos' Race for the Conch
One of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean will provide the setting for a signature Turks & Caicos competition and cultural celebration.
The annual "Race for the Conch" open-water swimming competition on Providenciales' Grace Bay Beach will take place on July 2. Open to all competitive and recreational swimmers, the three main events consist of a half-mile, one mile and 2.4-mile race along Grace Bay Beach. Several world-class swimmers are scheduled to attend, and race funds will support local reef protection and children's charities.
The events also include a 100-meter children's "Race for the Conch" for swimmers 12 years and younger. Admission is free and parents can sign kids up on the day of the contest. The race hotel is the Riyal West Indies Resort, which is offering a 25 percent discount on studio rooms during the event. Race organizers have also issued a list of recommended hotels.
British Virgin Islands Food Fete
This fall the British Virgin Islands will again host what has become a signature event for the destination: BVI Food Fete, a month-long culinary event celebrating the territory's cuisine and culture. Scheduled to take place November 12-27, the Food Fete, sponsored by the British Virgin Islands Tourist Board (BVITB) will present culinary competitions, demonstrations, exhibits, events and opportunities across the archipelago.
BVI Food Fete "offers a blend of events curated for epicureans, tastemakers and novice culinary explorers," said Sharon Flax-Mars, the British Virgin Islands' director of tourism. "Through our numerous festivities we aim to introduce our guests to our culinary tourism product in a platform that blends discovery and adventure."
READ MORE: The Turks & Caicos' Tourism Flourishes Through Adversity
While the complete event program is still being determined and will be announced later this year, the festival is again expected to include "A Taste of Tortola," held last year at renovated Queen Elizabeth II Park on Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands. The event features cuisine from top British Virgin Island restaurateurs, chefs and drink creations from leading mixologists as entertainers provide music and dancing along the water's edge.
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BSC KUCHING: The Blessed Sacrament Church parish recently celebrated the first anniversary of the introduction of the English Children's Liturgy of the Word (CLOW) to the Saturday sunset Mass and Sunday morning English Mass.
The occasion was celebrated on 20 January 2019, with a fellowship lunch among the volunteer teachers and helpers, as well as several faith formators who have been assisting with CLOW. Also invited to the lunch were BSC's rector, Fr Felix Au, and Br Mark.
What is Children's Liturgy of the Word? CLOW is a liturgical platform to introduce children to the deeper understanding of the Gospel through simple yet relatable explanations. The activity is carried out in a simplified sequence of the Liturgy of the Word during Mass, with prayer recitals, sing-alongs, Gospel readings, and a homily.
During this time, children are also taught basic etiquette at Mass such as making the sign of the cross, and putting their hands together during prayers.
They are also given the opportunity to ask questions and discuss about the readings so they may easily relate to the teachings of the Gospel with their everyday lives. Further to that, CLOW also introduces sing-and-dance music as well as class activities for the children.
While the core mission is to help younger children understand the Gospel better, CLOW also helps build a young community of Catholics within the church through the classroom and communal settings. Through simple bonds of friendship developed during CLOW, there has been an increase in enthusiasm from participating children in attending Mass and CLOW.
The BSC English CLOW would like to take this opportunity to thank the rector, Fr Felix Au, who spearheaded this project, as well as all the parents who have enrolled their children in this activity. We will continue to strive forward to develop the budding faith of our adolescent members of the parish.
The Children's Liturgy of the Word is led by a small group of volunteers who have dedicated their time and expenses in preparing the weekly lessons and activities for the children.
However, while the number of children participating increases, the number of teachers and helpers have not. Thus the English CLOW are looking for more parishioners who are interested in serving God and the church for this noble cause.


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What Fashion Week Is All About, For Those Who Have Absolutely No Idea
By Nikki Lakin
Every year, the women of New York leave the past behind and look forward to the future. This is known as Fashion Week.
"Sex and the City's" leading lady, Carrie Bradshaw, could not have been more accurate with that statement. Maybe you've read about it on Twitter; maybe you've seen clips about it on the news, but you have certainly heard about it.
No matter where your interests lie or even if you try to escape it, you are surrounded by Fashion Week.
Fashion is a key component in cultures all over the world. Certain fashions represent groups of people, thoughts that can't be expressed in words and art that you can mask your body with.
Since fashion is so exciting and always changing, it must be celebrated with its own event.
While many women (and men) of the world fawn over the constant revolutionary fête that is Fashion Week, most of us observe the commotion from afar and tilt our heads in bewilderment, pondering questions such as, "What is the point of this? Who are these people and why are their names so long? What even is Fashion Week?"
No need to raise your hands, students; you won't have to attend fancy dinners and soirées with friends, family or (men, this is for you) girlfriends and find yourself in awkward conversation where you don't know what "RTW" stands for anymore.
We have all the basics of Fashion Week that you need to know here before the mayhem begins in New York on September 4.
What even is Fashion Week?
If you've ever been to a trade show, you may recall that certain brands or companies put their products out for display. These products are examined by retailers to put in stores and journalists to write about them. Fashion Week is very similar, just way more extreme.
Fashion Week is the largest and possibly longest media event for the fashion industry. Renowned fashion designers, brands and up-and-coming designers (if they're lucky) get the chance to display their collections for the following season to potential buyers, journalists and celebrity influencers.
This is the most exclusive way for the media to gain access to the next big fashion trends. Journalists and retailers alike go bonkers for "exclusives," so they all want to be the first to know -- and spill -- the secrets of the most exciting moments and pieces of Fashion Week.
When is Fashion Week again?
It starts in September and ends in October. Then it happens again in February.
Wait, I thought it was Fashion *Week.* Why is it so long?
Although the event is called Fashion Week, it is true that it turns into a month-long marathon. This is because there are four major fashion cities in the world: New York, London, Milan and Paris.
Each of these cities hosts its own Fashion Week events, and yes, each one is a week long.
…And why does it happen twice?
The fashion industry operates like its own planet with two seasons: Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer, usually dubbed as A/W and S/S.
That means each designer and each brand has to produce two different collections per year and present each one at each Fashion Week show.
Remember what was mentioned earlier: The main idea of Fashion Week is to get an early look on the next season's trends. That means that A/W shows are for next fall, so the shows are in February, the preceding spring. Therefore, the S/S collections are displayed in September, before that upcoming spring.
So what do those other crazy letters and words like "RTW" and "haute couture" mean?
RTW stands for "ready to wear," famously referred to in French as "prêt-a-porter." Clothes that are RTW are created for the masses so that anyone can buy and wear them once they're in stores.
Haute couture, however, is not made for the masses. In fact, a haute couture piece may only be one garment. A couture garment is designed and sewn from scratch, while also rare, expensive and extremely elegant.
Okay, this is crazy. Who even made this a thing?
Not to make this a history lesson, but it started out during World War II. A publicist named Eleanor Lambert organized the first "Press Week," where journalists were invited to take a look at designers' work.
A name you may hear be passed around is Fern Mallis. While she didn't create the concept of Fashion Week, she is credited with putting New York on the radar of international fashion capitals and moving all of the city's fashion shows to one location.
Then who the heck is Anna Wintour? Doesn't she have something to do with this?
Anna Wintour is the editor-in-chief of Vogue, the most influential and popular fashion magazine. She's not a designer, but because she is a renowned magazine editor and fashion maven, she is an influential figure in the industry and highly regarded.
Is there anyone else I should know?
Some designers with the biggest crowds for shows are names you may see a lot in department stores or on the front displays of their own brick-and-mortars in your mall: Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Nicole Miller, Nanette Lepore, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger…
There are way too many to name. It is a week long, so that means there's a week's worth of names to know. This list may help you out.
This might actually be fun. Can I come, too?
Wouldn't that be fun? The shows are invite-only, but you can host a movie night (or movie week), pop some popcorn, and beg your crew to watch live streams of the runway shows on your computer with you.
Photo Courtesy: Paramount Pictures/Zoolander