A new industry, aiming to address a growing epidemic in schools and online, is gaining steam in the US.
A new industry is mushrooming in America, one that is largely unregulated and is attempting to address a growing epidemic – bullying in schools, workplaces and on the Internet. The anti-bullying industry consists of psychotherapists, motivational coaches and even software, all looking to counsel people on how to avoid being bullied. But as Newsweek explains, those looking for anti-bullying prevention programs need to perform their due diligence before hiring these experts.
But, as in any industry, where expert opinions range from trained professionals to snake oil salesman, buyers of anti-bullying prevention programs need to beware. School systems should watch out for experts more concerned with slogans or banners than with interpersonal dynamics or school culture, Rosalind Wiseman [author of "Queen Bees and Wannabees: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World"] says. Even the best-intentioned parents or volunteers need to tread carefully when tackling the nuances of bullying. "This is high stakes. There is not a lot of room for mediocrity," she adds.


text:
Bullying song by 14-year-old inspires kids around the world to keep fighting
Ruby O Kelly
It's hard to believe that Ruby O Kelly is only 14 years old, but even at this tender age, she is inspiring kinds around the world to not give up when they are facing bullying.
Seeing the effect that bullying had on your older brother inspired her to compose the song You Won't Stop Me when she was only 12. Ruby explains. For over 10 years my brother was tormented. I have seen the effect it had on my parents and the worry they went through about him."
With the experience came an act of compassion motivating Ruby to 'take a stand through music.' Ruby says " I decided to make a stand and through music to I decided to make s stand and through music to try my best to make a difference and wipe this epidemic that is killing the youth of today in our world."
While statistics vary on this topic, some 150,000 students in the UK miss school daily as a result of bullying and experts acknowledge the link between school shootings and child suicide.
With shocking figures such as these, it's encouraging to see young people working hard to end the pain and suffering of other youths being bullied.
Ruby has performed in front of royalty and has donated any prize money she's won to children cancer charities.
The selfless act of Ruby reminds us all that no matter who we are or where we're from, we can make a difference in this world.
"I'm a secondary school student based in Ireland who loves to sing and music is my passion," Ruby expresses. It's this passion coupled with her enormous heart that is sending a message of comfort and hope to all those being bullied.
You can listen to her video below!
FB / Twitter / Instagram
@missrubymusic
Supreme Court Justice Roberts' new counsel arrives at the High Court
Biden-Harris Administration Expands Efforts to Hold Nicaraguan Government Accountable
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the Continued Wrongful Detention of Brittney Griner

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's a warm summer evening and Uğur Vata is sitting outside on Woodbridge's Market Hill welcoming his guests for the evening - much like he's always done. Inevitably there are kisses and handshakes all round before being welcomed indoors - because Uğur knows literally anyone who is anyone round here. And while there can't be many restaurateurs who are on first name terms with most of their customers there are even fewer who can remember exactly what you ate or drank last time you visited and the time before. Oh, and even the date of your birthday too. Whether or not Uğur's consummate hospitality is hardwired into his Turkish ancestry, this standard of service has ensured that The Galley is known just as much for its warm welcome and bonhomie as its food.
Twenty years ago, when The Galley first opened in Ipswich, Uğur was very much the new kid on the block and way ahead of his time insisting on sourcing his food locally, seasonally and from the very best producers. Nothing has changed much there but consistently maintaining exceptional quality for two decades is to be much applauded. However it's this commitment to excellence that's kept him and his restaurant, which ten years ago moved to new premises in Woodbridge, in the forefront on the Suffolk food scene.
Dining at the Galley can be a different experience every time. Offering two private dining rooms, one on the upper floor and one in the refurbished wine cellar along with the two main restaurant areas to choose from, you can enjoy the ambiance of the Galley and the beautiful views over the Market Hill and when the sun is shining, sitting outside is always very popular. For Uğur summer has always been about lobsters, seafood and the menu certainly didn't disappoint. The only problem was, after admiring his taste in art and views over the Market Hill from our table, that we had to decide what to eat.
Probably the bravest choice of starter would have been asparagus and rhubarb soup - but there were 14 other possibilities to go for too. Smoked salmon, squid, duck pate, hummus, fish soup smoked mackerel, Falafel all ready to turn a girls head, but I couldn't resist giant scallop in Champagne and dill sauce for its rich sweet softness. I would make the same choice again. My companion had new season sardine fillets with herb and garlic sauce - a generous portion but too good to hold back for the mains and pudding to come.
Meat eaters are well served at The Galley with Scottish Aberdeen Angus, calves livers, duck breast, Suffolk pork, Welsh lamb and Turkish lamb stew. Decisions, decisions but if fish is your favourite there was local cod and skate from Orford or sea-bass and of course lobster - so of course there was no decision. Thank you Uğur your lobster with herbs was heaven on a plate, an absolute treat, the King of shellfish, a winner every time. Across the table my friend had skate with caper-berries, which she reports was soft and succulent. All main courses at The Galley are served with an appropriate side dish - we had gently roasted new potatoes which were firm, tasty and swiftly dispatched plus a salad of baby leaves from Newbourne.
Of course Uğur is as much an expert with wine as he is about food - I've learned over many years that his recommendations are to be listened to. This passion for the noble grape extends further too - his beautiful wine cellar below stairs with its long wooden tables and temperature controls bears testament to this. So it's inevitable that the wine list will doubtless delight connoisseurs with its quirky depth and breath. On the day we ate, for example, he was offering a Kir Royale with sparkling wine from Brazil, sourced from an importer in Ipswich, to mark the start of the World Cup. He also chose a dry Riesling made in the Alsace style to go with our fish which was honey-coloured and tasted deliciously of delicate peach and apricot.
When it comes to desserts - well I'm not really a pudding eater, cheese is and always has been my thing. Well that is except for when eating at The Galley - where in my opinion you get the best creme brûlée in the world rich with the flavours of vanilla and caramel. There were other choices - rice and vanilla pudding with red berry sauce, a compote of Izmir dried figs and apricots with pomegranate molasses, Turkish Delight ice cream or chocolate brioche bread and butter pudding. But of course it was the creme brûlée and I watched as my friend clearly enjoyed a sticky toffee pudding that was topped with excellent stem ginger ice cream - obviously another triumph.
With the soft midsummer evening light bathing the streets outside as we left it was with memories of a great meal and the knowledge that we'll be returning again.


text:
Q: Third Party HTML5 .HTA Application? Is there any chance there is a program just like .hta applications only it supports HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, etc? I'd love to be able to run my local files without chrome...
Anybody know if this exists? Maybe even some way to make .hta application fully support those programming languages?

A: <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie-edge">

This gives functionality of edge into a .HTA file.
Very handy!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Image Title: Jewelry Chest Armoire In Armoires With Of Drawers Design 8. Post Title: Jewelry Chest Of Drawers. Filename: jewelry-chest-armoire-in-armoires-with-of-drawers-design-8.jpg. Image Dimension: 633 x 733 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: opani. Uploaded Date: Wednesday - January 16th. 2019 10:39:08 AM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: decoist.com. Amazon Com BestMassage Jewelry Cabinet Chest For Of Drawers Inspirations 2. Aubrey Jewelry Armoire Classic Cherry Powell Target Intended For Chest Of Drawers Plans 16. This May Be The First Jewelry Armoire I Ve Ever Liked And Love It For Chest Of Drawers Idea 4. Lovely English George III Mahogany Miniature Chest Of Drawers Or Throughout Jewelry Design 5. Melanie 7 Drawer Glam Jewelry Armoire Target For Chest Of Drawers Decorations 19. Table Stand Vintage Small Storage Cabinet Sundries Jewelry Chest Of Within Drawers Decorations 13. Jewelry Chest Of Drawers Ideas On Foter Pertaining To Decor 0. Linon Amethyst Six Drawer Jewelry Armoire With Mirror Walmart Com For Chest Of Drawers Remodel 11. Amazon Com Giantex Jewelry Armoire Chest Cabinet Box Standing With Regard To Of Drawers Plan 7. Jewelry Chest Of Drawers Ideas On Foter Throughout Plan 12.


Americans submit over 13 million mortgage applications each year. For the borrowers that make it to the closing table, they must wade through 300 pages of disclosures, reports, and documents that need to be initialed, signed, and notarized.
We are excited to provide Redfin customers and mortgage professionals alike with technologies that offer a quicker, safer, and more verifiable closing process, while also reducing the world's paper footprint.
Redfin is a fantastic steward for the online home-buying process, and we are proud to partner with them build a digital experience that enables people to get into their dream home faster.


text:
Die Wolfspinnenartigen (Lycosoidea) sind eine Überfamilie der Echten Webspinnen bestehend aus Jagd- und Raubspinnen mit drei Tarsalklauen (vgl.: Dionycha). Zu ihr gehören über 3200 Arten. Die größten Familien stellen die Wolfspinnen (Lycosidae) mit rund 2400 Arten, die Luchsspinnen (Oxyopidae) mit etwa 450 Arten und die Raubspinnen (Pisauridae) mit rund 330 Arten.

Lebensweise
Die Angehörigen dieser Überfamilie sind meist tagaktive Jäger, die ihrer Beute nachstellen. Trotzdem bauen einige von ihnen auch beeindruckende Netze: Die Trichternetze der südostasiatischen, bis 2 cm großen Psechridae, die sich auch im Hochgebirge wohl fühlt, erreichen häufig eine Ausdehnung von einem Meter. Die Ähnlichkeit der Netze gab früher Anlass, eine Verwandtschaft zwischen Lycosoidea und den Trichterspinnen (Agelenidae) anzunehmen, und man ordnete einige Gattungen den Agelenidae zu. Dank genetischer Untersuchungen weiß man inzwischen jedoch, dass diese Verwandtschaft weniger eng ist.

Das aktive Jagen am Tage wird durch größere, nach vorne ausgerichtete Mittelaugen ermöglicht, deren Gesichtsfeld sich überschneidet und Entfernungsabschätzungen zulässt. Dennoch ist der Sehsinn nicht soweit entwickelt wie bei den Springspinnen; Jagd- und Raubspinnen dieser Überfamilie orientieren sich, wie die meisten Webspinnen, hauptsächlich durch akustische, taktile (Behaarung: Trichobothrien) und chemische Sinne (lyraförmiges Organ). Aus geringer Distanz wird die Beute aber auch optisch fixiert. Der Sehsinn spielt auch bei der Balz eine Rolle.

Brutpflege
Wolfspinnen (Lycosidae) betreiben eine auffällige Brutpflege. Das machen zwar auch viele andere Spinnen bis zum Füttern, jedoch wird der Eikokon von den Wolfspinnen bei den Jagdstreifzügen an die Spinnwarzen (Pardosa) geheftet, mit den Kieferklauen (Raubspinnen, Pisauridae) oder auf dem Hinterleib (Wasserjäger, Pirata) mitgenommen, um ihn vor Feinden verteidigen zu können. Versucht man, einer Wolfspinne ihren Eikokon wegzunehmen, wird er energisch verteidigt. Dabei geht sie bis zum äußersten, versucht zu beißen (einigen größeren gelingt es durchaus) und hält den Kokon mit den Kieferklauen fest. Nimmt man ihr den Kokon weg, wird sie noch Stunden nach ihm suchen und in ihrer Verzweiflung gar ähnliche Kugeln, beispielsweise Papierkugeln, versuchen als Kokonersatz anzunehmen.

Die Spinnenmutter leistet Geburtshilfe, in dem sie den Kokon aufbeißt. Die Jungtiere klettern sofort auf ihren Rücken. Während bis zu hundert kleiner Jagdspinnen sich an den Haaren der Mutter festhalten und sich von ihrem Eidotter ernähren, streift die Mutter umher, vermutlich um möglichst optimale mikroklimatische Bedingungen und gute Verstecke zu finden. Um sich nicht allzu großer Gefahr auszusetzen, verzichtet sie während der etwa acht Tage dauernden Phase auf die Jagd. Welche Rolle dieses Verhalten spielt, ist jedoch unklar; die Jungtiere wachsen auch von der Mutter isoliert relativ erfolgreich auf.

Einem Wolfspinnenweibchen kann man sogar einen artfremden Kokon "unterschieben", um welchen sie sich ebenso kümmern wird. Die schlüpfenden Jungtiere klettern dann auf die Stiefmutter und lassen sich herumtragen. Sie klettern aber auch auf Männchen – für diese sind die Jungtiere allerdings ein gefundenes Fressen.

Raubspinnenweibchen (Pisauridae) hingegen umgehen dieses Risiko, in dem sie vor dem Schlüpfen der Jungtiere zwischen Pflanzenstängeln in der Krautschicht ein schützendes Gespinst anlegt und den Kokon darin aufhängen. Die Jungtiere bleiben einige Tage nach dem Schlüpfen dicht gedrängt in diesem Gespinst bis zur ersten Häutung und gehen dann allmählich ihrer räuberischen Lebensaufgabe nach.

Systematik
Die Zugehörigkeit der Familien ist noch nicht endgültig geklärt. Familien nach Hallan (2005). Die Zorocratidae wurden mittlerweile mit den Zoropsidae synonymisiert.

 Ctenidae, auch Kammspinnen genannt; 41 Gattungen, 503 Arten
 Lycosidae, auch Wolfspinnen genannt; 123 Gattungen, 2403 Arten, davon 70 heimisch
 Neolanidae
 Oxyopidae, auch Luchsspinnen oder Scharfaugenspinnen genannt; 9 Gattungen, 454 Arten, davon 3 heimisch
 Pisauridae, auch Raubspinnen genannt; 51 Gattungen, 356 Arten, davon 3 heimisch Stand: 24. April 2019
 Psechridae; 2 Gattungen, 61 Arten, keine heimisch
 Senoculidae
 Stiphidiidae
 Trechaleidae, auch Fischerspinnen genannt, 16 Gattungen, 140 Arten
 Zoropsidae, auch Kräuseljagdspinnen genannt, 25 Gattungen, 117 Arten

Literatur
 Rainer F. Foelix: Biologie der Spinnen. 2. Auflage, Thieme, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-13-575802-8.
 Dick Jones: Der Kosmos Spinnenführer. Kosmos, 1990, ISBN 3-440-06141-8.

Weblinks
 Kang Fang et al.: Phylogenetic Corroboration of Superfamily Lycosoidae Spiders (Araneae) as Inferred from Partial Mitochondrial 12S and 16S Ribosomal DNA Sequences (PDF; 111 kB).

Einzelnachweise

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING: The Firm was retained to assist Jose Palacios, Jr. with his direct appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The client's former appellate attorney had abandoned his appeal. The Firm was successful in having the appeal reinstated after filing a motion to recall the mandate.
The Firm argued on appeal that the lower court had erred in failing to give Palacios an opportunity to speak before being sentenced. The right of a defendant to speak before a judge imposes sentence is known as "allocution." The appeal presented difficult issues of law because Palacios' former attorney failed to object to the district court's error. Reviewing the matter for "plain error," the Fifth Circuit agreed with the Firm's argument that Palacios was improperly denied the right to allocute. The judgment of the district court was accordingly vacated and the case was remanded for resentencing. United States v. Palacios, Jr., No. 14-40279 (5th Cir. 2016).


This is a hands-on, archaeological excavation-based course currently run collaboratively between staff from the School of Archaeology & Anthropology, ANU, and the Archaeological Studies Program (ASP) at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Manila. The main emphasis in this course is the development of competency and familiarization with a range of practical skills associated with excavation driven archaeological research; particularly excavation, recording and post-excavation analysis. While the emphasis is on these 3 aspects of archaeology, students will also be introduced to a range of other archaeological skills such as mapping, survey, site location, assessment, sorting, artefact analysis and inventorying. Given the stress on practical skill development, this intensive field-based takes place on a 'real' archaeological site that is important in elucidating aspects of the ancient past in thePhilippines.
*While the venue, and country, may change from year to year, the fundamental structure and content of the course will not change.
The cost of the course will be charged directly to students. Enrolment will be limited, and selection will be based on evaluation of marks to date and specific research interest in archaeology.
1. Better appreciate and understand archaeological research designs and their impact(s) on excavation-based strategies.
2.Demonstrate a high level of competency in archaeological excavation and recording (documentation) techniques and methods; including, but not limited to, context-based excavation techniques, basic site surveying and mapping, depth control (using both basic dumpy techniques and string levels with local datums), and stratigraphic profiling.
3. Understand basic problems in tropical archaeology stratigraphy, taphonomy, and site formation (positive and negative) processes.
4. Demonstrate familiarity with tropical archaeological site surveying and excavation.
5. Demonstrate an ability to work in a remote field setting (e.g. more than 50km from a major metropolitan area with potentially limited access to communication and facilities such as electricity, running water, flushing toilets etc).
6. Show appreciation of the practice of archaeology in an international setting (e.g. working in a country with a potentially very different national language, culture, customs and traditions, religious, political, economic, educational and legal systems etc).
7. Be in a position to evaluate the context of archaeological finds.
130 hours taught as an intensive three and a half week teaching and fieldwork course in the Summer session (generally January each year) and takes place in-country. Two and a half weeks of this time will be spent in the field and the lab.
You are not able to enrol in this course if you have previously completed ARCH3004A.
You will need to contact the School of Archaeology and Anthropology to request a permission code to enrol in this course.
Solheim WG II. The Archaeology of the central Philippines. University of the Philippines press: Archaeological Studies program.


text:
using System;
using OrderDynamics.WebApi.Client.BasicApiClient.Core;

namespace OrderDynamics.WebApi.Client.BasicApiClient
{
    internal sealed class WebApiClientFactory : IApiClientFactory {
        private readonly IHttpClientProvider _httpClientProvider;
        private readonly IRequestBuilder _requestBuilder;

        public WebApiClientFactory(IRequestBuilder requestBuilder, IHttpClientProvider httpClientProvider) {
            if (requestBuilder == null) {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("requestBuilder");
            }
            if (httpClientProvider == null) {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("httpClientProvider");
            }

            _requestBuilder = requestBuilder;
            _httpClientProvider = httpClientProvider;
        }

        public IApiClient GetApiClient() {
            return new WebApiClient(_requestBuilder, _httpClientProvider);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q&A: FDA Updates: BIMO – What Sponsors Need to Know
By Joan Versaggi, Principal, Consulting Quality CoE and Leslie Paul, Director, Consulting Quality CoE
Advarra experts Joan Versaggi and Leslie Paul answer questions from the first in the webinar series – FDA Updates: BIMO – What Sponsors Need to Know.
Q: How are inspections assigned domestically in the United States (US) versus outside the US?
A: The BIMO CPGM (Bioresearch Monitoring Compliance Program Guidance Manual) addresses in Part III (Inspectional), section V (International Data) what a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigator looks at during an inspection. Section B. 2. notes the Centers (e.g., CDER, CBER) issue sponsor inspection assignments. Domestic inspection assignments are issued through the ORA OBIMO headquarters to the appropriate ORA BIMO division. Foreign inspection assignments are issued to ORA OBIMO headquarters
Q: What are remote "assessments" and how do they differ from the "regular" inspection (i.e. no 482, no 483 etc.)?
A: This webinar covered the changes to the BIMO CPGM 7348.810 (Sponsors and CROs) and how the FDA conducts "regular" inspections. For details regarding the conduct of remote interactive evaluations of BIMO facilities, see FDA's Guidance for Industry Remote Interactive Evaluations of Drug Manufacturing and Bioresearch Monitoring Facilities During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.
Q: Where is the complete response letter in the chain of events?
A: After the FDA conducts their review of the sponsor-provided information, a complete response letter is issued indicating they will not approve the application at that time. This is outlined in 21 CFR 314.110.
Q: Can you give an example of a sponsor-investigator?
A: A sponsor-investigator is an individual who initiates as well as conducts the clinical investigation. A sponsor-investigator must comply with regulatory requirements applicable to both sponsors and clinical investigators.
Q: How transparent should a sponsor be with the FDA investigator during a pre-approval inspection (PAI) when there were issues in unblinding (e.g., mistake at sponsor)? Should the sponsor inform the FDA up front during the inspection? Or just be prepared to talk about it *if* the FDA investigator finds it?
A: Our advice is to be transparent with any quality issues, such as unintentional unblinding. While sponsors should have reported this in the clinical study report, they should be forthcoming with a serious issue and provide an explanation as to what happened, why it happened, and what was done or what controls are now in place to ensure the non-compliance does not occur in the future.
Q: Given that many sponsors are now working remotely due to COVID-19, can we expect that FDA would reach out in advance to schedule inspections, versus coming to a sponsor location unannounced?
A: Inspections under this program are generally pre-announced, unless otherwise instructed in the inspection assignment and at the discretion of the ORA BIMO division. Pre-announcements are generally no less than five calendar days in advance of the inspection.
Q: Can you please comment on FDA collecting more and more data on USB drives? Sponsors have started putting standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place restricting USB drive use due to security issues.
A: It's best practice to have written procedures governing how electronic data is provided to a regulatory authority if they request it during an inspection. Chapter 5 of the Investigations Operation Manual (IOM) section 5.3.8.3.1 – Electronic Records, provides specific instructions to the FDA Investigators on the collection of electronic records. The IOM states in part, – If there are no mechanisms available for a firm to securely transmit the data electronically to the investigator, the data may be provided to FDA on a CD, DVD or a USB…The information obtained from the firm is commercial confidential information (CCI) and as such must be protected to the greatest extent possible. It is the responsibility of the investigator to make sure the physical data source remains secure. Likewise, data obtained from extra-governmental sources may contain viruses or malware that may be included with the information provided to the investigator either on purpose or accidentally. The transfer of electronic data must be evaluated along with concerns related to safeguarding the security of both FDA and firm information.
Q: What is the expectation of evidence for a sponsor to show oversight for a vendor's subcontracted services as required by ICH E6 R2?
A: New Section F – Outsourced Services specifically states the following:
Review and evaluate the sponsor's oversight of outsourced services as appropriate and as defined in contracts, written processes and procedures, and SOPs. Focus on the outsourced services playing a significant role in the clinical trial (e.g., management of primary efficacy endpoint or safety data) and/or were involved in any significant FDA regulation deviations. Determine if the sponsor has processes and procedures (e.g., SOPs, plans, or other work instructions) for selection of outsourced services and activities, and determine what criteria were used to select the CRO (and as applicable, other individuals or organizations providing outsourced services) and whether they meet those criteria.
Q: What documents are available to inspectors prior to the BIMO audit visit?
A: Centers will provide background materials when they issue sponsor inspection assignments, such as:
Case report forms (CRFs)
Data line listings
Complaint summary
Any additional information
Q: In providing the list of SOPs, should we provide only current SOPs or all versions in effect during study conduct?
A: The FDA investigator should receive SOPs in place during the conduct of the clinical trial(s). If you have updated SOPs addressing any deficiencies in the SOPs in place at the time of the study conduct, they can demonstrate the sponsor's improvements.
Q: What's the thought/guidance for providing a BIMO reviewer's guide in a marketing authorization application (MAA)? Is it a best practice as it's optional?
A: I have never provided this with an application, I suppose there may be a good reason to provide one. For example, if the drug has gone through several owners and the sponsor wishes to clearly outline who was responsible for what, when? Further I found the Bioresearch Monitoring Technical Conformance Guide, which is referenced by the Draft Guidance Document: Standardized Format for Electronic Submission of NDA and BLA Content for the Planning of Bioresearch Monitoring (BIMO) Inspections for CDER Submissions.
To learn more about recent BIMO changes, watch the on-demand webinar FDA Update: BIMO – What Sponsors Need to Know.
Reporting RequirementsResearch Compliance
Tagged in: BIMO, consulting, CRO, quality coe, sponsors


text:
Not in Kansas Anymore is the second album by the group Basehead, released in 1993 via Imago.

Music and lyrics
The music style of Not in Kansas Anymore fuses elements of funk, hip hop, psychedelic, rock, rhythm and blues, and soul. The first half of the album is about racism; the second half deals with dating norms and rituals.

Reception
Rolling Stone reviewer Danyel Smith called the album "an alternative to the benign bullshit music that floods the chain stores and commercial radio waves." Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "although it retains many of the same qualities of their critically acclaimed debut [...] there's nothing that has the same sense of discovery that made Play with Toys an interesting record."

Trouser Press called it "a shade less ambitious" than the debut but "nearly as good." Colson Whitehead, in The Village Voice, gave the album a mixed review, writing that it possessed even more of an indie rock sound than the debut.

Spin listed it as one of the 20 best albums of 1993.

The album didn't receive much airplay or sales.

Track listing

Personnel
 Michael Ivey – guitar, vocals and other stuff

References

1990 albums
Basehead albums


Brandon J. Hill is a top-rated attorney practicing in the Tampa, Florida area. Providing legal representation in Florida for a variety of different issues, Brandon Hill was selected to Super Lawyers for 2019. He is admitted to practice before the courts in Florida.
After completing undergraduate studies, Brandon J. Hill attended law school. Brandon Hill was enrolled at Florida State University College of Law. He earned a juris doctor degree in 2006. Brandon Hill would be admitted to the practice of law in 2007.
Attorneys like Brandon J. Hill are recognized by their peers for their outstanding work and commitment to the spirit of the legal profession. Their knowledge of the law, professional work ethic, and advocacy on behalf of their clients allow them to stand out among other attorneys in the field.
Brandon Hill represents clients with Employment & Labor: Employee issues. Additional legal issues represented include Consumer Law.


text:
Sony turnaround plan no great shakes, say analysts
Apr. 16, 2012 01:46 pm JST Apr. 16, 2012 | 02:03 pm JST
By Peter Brieger
wtfjapan
Apr. 16, 2012 09:48 am JST
10,000 job cuts bet theyll be outside Japan, truth is Sony will need to move most of its production outside Japan to stay competitive which means a lot of Japanese job cuts, unfortunately with years of procrastinating Sony is too far behind to catch up, as with many other J companies.
Lots of cuts in Japan too.
Got calls from friends of my old company which was bought by Sony and they are being cut. Most of the J-Companies bought up start-ups a few years back and are now trimming dead-wood.
They do a LOT more than just electronics but also outsourcing, banking automation, etc.
James Kirkham
I hope to see Sony turn it around, as I've always loved their products. I've never bought anything from Sony that I wasn't impressed by.
Jan Claudius Weirauch
I guess in years to come there will be a relatively high unemployment rate in Japan too, just like some places in the US or Europe - certainly Tokyo is not going be the location where 25% of all the Japanese people want/have to live to make a living.
herefornow
Sony has little chance of winning back its reputation as an innovator or vaulting ahead of stronger rivals with the "ordinary" turnaround plan its new chief unveiled last week, analysts say
Spot on. Japan's institutionalized unwillingness to face the truth square on and make major changes as needed will be Sony's undoing. That along with the fact that the divsions there refuse to cooperate with each other, and that their leaders cannot truly bring about a culture change. They know only one way of managing, and all the senior executives who would have to be willing to implement any sweeping reforms have too much vested interest in the current structure, and came to Sony in the 70's, when it ruled. And, unfortunately, they still have that arrogance. 10,000 jobs is just a spit in the wind. As the analysts say they cannot cut their way back to prosperity, they must find innovative growth strategies and products. And they have not had those in years.
that korean guy
before they can grow again, they have to cut and cut fast. and that's precisely what they are NOT doing.
(why keep TV business when it's a lost cause? why keep Sony pictures when it's about the only thing left at Sony that
can bring some much-needed cash?)
there won't even be 10000 jobs left at Sony pretty soon
Disillusioned
Apr. 16, 2012 12:47 pm JST
The electronics market is flooded and too many other companies have already moved their manufacturing to cheaper countries. I used to own quite a lot of Sony electronics, but the simple fact is, a lot of their products are also turning to crap along with the company.
How do they lose money making televisions? I know the Koreans make great stuff and cheaper too, but still.
timtak
What about the OLED TVs with integrated computers/Internet? I want OLED colours and internet/youtube in my TV. Sony can do it.
I did not know that they were smaller than Samsung.
Samsung dwarfs Sony, as for global sales Toyota only out sold Samsung last year by $10billion, $135billion to $145billion
tairitsuiken
More and more things about Japan just feels old... That goes for Sony and the other big tech giants. I get the feeling that now, when being a rich nation, complacency and contentment has fully set in and new ideas and inventive thinking is all but gone. What has Sony come up with in the last 30 years that was interesting? Sony will probably never dissappear but they would do well to streamline their business and focus on doing fewer things better.
Oh, an while they're at it, they might as well learn to not name products H/481-UM 32a. Go with easily recognizable model names.
anglootaku
@timtak sony has crystal oled in the pipeworks as you can see on the youtube clip below though for now you can buy any sony lcd led tv with wifi youtube etc already integrated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dxXUtx2RN0
http://www.sony.jp/bravia/
Sony is much larger then samsung, sont forget they own sony pictures, columbia, sony bmg music, sony computers, playsyation, financing etc to name a few. Samsungs strebgths are in its semiconductors which has beat toshiba as the worlds leader in semiconductors, ram etc
@anglootaku- market cap of sony is about $18bil and is shrinking daily. that of samsung is about 10 times that of sony and growing.
Japan's job availability in 2022 improves for 1st time in 4 years
Renault to reduce stake in Nissan, rebalancing alliance


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DTZ acquires Cushman & Wakefield
Published in Property on 11-05-2015
The Italian Agnelli family, who also owns car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler, has sold real estate company Cushman & Wakefield to its competitor DTZ for two billion dollars (1.8 billion euro).
250 offices
Cushman & Wakefield, founded in 1917 in New York, currently has 250 offices in 60 countries and employs 16,000 people. It gained a foothold in Europe when it acquired British real estate broker Healey & Baker. In 2007, the Agnelli family took control through its investment firm Exor. Prior to that, the Rockefeller Group used to be a long-time majority shareholder.
Exor has now sold its 75 % stake to its competitor DTZ, a Chicago-based company which offers several real estate services. DTZ currently employs 28,000 people in 260 offices in 50 countries. Venture capitalist group TPG Capital took control of DTZ last year.
Zalando to build XXL-distribution centre in the Netherlands
German internet company Zalando is about to build a new mega-distribution centre in Bleiswijk in the Netherlands. The project will yield 1500 jobs and involves an investment of 200 million euros.
Belgian Retail Estates invests extra 100 million in Netherlands
Belgian retail investment fund Retail Estates continues its Dutch expansion, buying 56 stores for 97 million euros. Its total Dutch investment now stands at 422 million, for 218 properties.
"Uplace" becomes "Broeksite": new life for mega project?
'Experience shopping mall' Uplace in Machelen, just north of Brussels, has been controversial for years. A new name and a complete redesign aim to get the project afloat again, but the classic mall is gone. Instead, the new plans aim for SMEs and more green.


Ameren Corporation is a Fortune 500 company with assets of $23 billion. It is the parent company of Ameren Illinois, based in Collinsville, Ill., and Ameren Missouri in St. Louis, Mo. Ameren was created by the merger of CIPSCO Incorporated and Union Electric Company. The name comes from combining the words American and Energy. Employing more than 8,500 personnel, Ameren companies serve 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers across 64,000 square miles in Illinois and Missouri. Ameren Missouri ranks as the largest electric power provider in Missouri, and Ameren Illinois ranks as Illinois' third largest natural gas distribution operation in total number of customers. Ameren companies generate a net capacity of nearly 10,300 megawatts of electricity. Ameren's rates are some of the lowest in the nation.


FRANKFURT—Germany's jobless fee hit the cheapest amount in almost 24 many years in November, in accordance to information launched Tuesday, but unemployment amongst migrants from the Center East and Africa is rising, highlighting the difficulties the region could face in integrating the countless numbers who are crossing its borders every working day.
The jobless rate between migrants from nations around the world the place most of the migrants now arriving hail from—Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria—rose to 42.one% in September, up 4.four percentage factors from September final calendar year, the IAB, or the Federal Work Agency's research institute, said Tuesday. All the migrants surveyed are qualified to function in Germany.
"Unemployment amongst migrants from crisis nations around the world is high and it is growing, a indicator that most people that got the right of asylum are unemployed at 1st," said Herbert Bruecker, a analysis director at the IAB in Nuremberg.
The jobless rate amid men and women from war-torn Syria hit sixty three.5% in September, the most recent month for which information are obtainable.
Labor marketplace authorities predict that unemployment amid folks fleeing war and persecution will rise further, as much more migrants are entering Europe's biggest financial system. They argue that it will consider time for them to discover German and purchase other skills.
This suggests Germany, despite its healthy economy, near-complete employment, and even capabilities shortages in some sectors, faces an uphill struggle in integrating the migrants that continue to pour into the region many thanks to its open-doorway refugee plan.
The IAB estimated that it can take in between 5 and fifteen several years to get refugees durably into work, citing historic proof. The quantity of immigrants to Germany is envisioned to achieve a post-World-War II document of shut to one million this year.
Migrants who are eligible to operate but have not located a occupation in Germany typically get the most simple form of social gain. About 258,000 people—many of them children—from strife-torn nations in the Middle East and Africa received basic unemployment rewards in August, the latest thirty day period for which data are offered. That marks an enhance of about 37% from August previous year.
But a increasing unemployment rate amongst migrants from outside Europe hasn't but dented Germany's buoyant labor industry. The federal labor agency said Tuesday that German jobless promises in November fell by 13,000 from the preceding thirty day period, modified for seasonal effects. That was far more than double the five,000 predicted by economists polled by The Wall Road Journal.
"Germany's jobs industry is in excellent condition to cope with the forthcoming difficulties," said labor agency head Frank-Juergen Weise.
Germany's altered unemployment charge, meanwhile, declined to 6.three% in November from 6.4% in October, the lowest degree considering that the beginning of the information collection in January 1992.
"The impact of the present refugee crisis on Germany's labor market place will probably be tiny and, importantly, I really do not count on it to drive up Germany's all round jobless price in the in close proximity to term," Mr. Bruecker of the IAB stated. "But its medium expression influence is dependent on whether migrants can be quickly integrated in the employment marketplace," he added.


2 bedroom duplex located in the Western Heights school district. Features include: New carpet, stainless steel range, microwave, dishwasher, breakfast bar, washer/dryer hookup, central H&A, vinyl plank flooring, fireplace, ceiling fans, garage door opener, & fenced backyard. Near FAA complex with easy access to I-40 & Hwy 152.


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See "selfies" from 300 years ago
A woman admires paintings during a press preview of an exhibition called "Dutch Self-Portraits - Selfies of the Golden Age", at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Wednesday Oct. 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)
By: Mike Corder, Associated Press
These days, anybody with a smartphone can snap a selfie in a split second. Back in the Dutch Golden Age, they were called self-portraits. And they were the preserve of highly trained artists who thought long and hard about every aspect of the painting.
Now the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands, is staging an exhibition. It is focusing solely on these 17th century self-portraits. It will highlight the similarities and the differences between modern-day snapshots and historic works of art.
The museum's director is Emilie Gordenker. She said there has never been such an exhibition of Golden Age Dutch self-portraits before. Her museum was keen to tie the paintings to a modern-day phenomenon, the ubiquitous selfie. Those are captured with smartphone cameras. They are spread via social media.
The exhibition runs through Jan. 3. It features 27 self-portraits by artists ranging from Rembrandt van Rijn, a master of the genre, to his student Carel Fabritius, best known for "The Goldfinch." That painting hangs elsewhere in the Mauritshuis. Another artist's works come from Judith Leyster. Her self-portrait is on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
A less well-known artist is Huygh Pietersz Voskuyl. He is the poster boy for the exhibition. His striking 1638 self-portrait features a classic selfie pose. He is staring over his right shoulder out of the frame. It does not take much imagination to picture him gazing into the lens of a smartphone rather than a mirror. The mirror is what Golden Age artists used to capture their images for self-portraits. Giant mirrors are spread through the exhibition space. They create reflections within reflections of paintings that are themselves mirror images.
While the similarities between selfies and self-portraits are obvious, the differences are also apparent. A selfie is often shot speedily with little concern for composition. But these self-portraits are carefully conceived works of art. A video made for the exhibition highlights the thought that went into the paintings and what today's selfie makers can learn from it to improve their snapshots.
And, yes, you are allowed to take selfies in the museum.
The Voskuyl is a good example of the richness that can be found in such an apparently simple picture.
"He brings out all these little details, like his beard or the little embroidery on his shirt. Even a kind of fake wood-paneled wall behind him," Gordenker said. "So he's thought very hard about the textures and the things that make him who he is. At the same time, you can see the skill with which he painted this. And this will have definitely been a very good advertisement for what he could do."
That kind of attention to detail and quality made the self-portraits almost a Golden Age calling card. They showcased the artist and his or her talents to potential clients.
"A lot of artists in the 17th century painted self-portraits, not only as portraits of themselves but also as an example of the beautiful art that they could make," said the exhibition's curator, Ariane van Suchtelen. "For instance, Rembrandt was very famous for his very virtuoso sketchy way of painting. If you would buy a self-portrait by Rembrandt, you would not only have a portrait of this famous artist but also an example of what he could do, what he was famous for. His art."
Source URL: https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/see-selfies-300-years-ago/
Filed Under: Art Culture
Why are people compelled to make pictures of themselves?
emilyd-mci
10/19/2015 - 11:35 a.m.
I think it's pretty cool that we can take selfies in a museum. COOL.
TehyaWhite-Ste
I don't really think self-portraits are considered selfies but I do find it amusing that even people 300 years ago thought that they needed to document what they looked like.
sarahn-sjo
They were compelled to make pictures of themselves because they wanted to show an example of the beautiful art they could make.
nathanielk-sjo
Because now most people now are very self-centered thinking the world revolves around them and so they think everybody needs to see their face on a screen.
cierrau-sjo
A lot of artists in the 17th century painted self-portraits, not only as portraits of themselves but also as an example of the beautiful art that they could make
alexisl-sjo
People are compelled to make pictures of themselves because they want to be remembered. They want to be remembered how they see themselves not how other people see them.
alexandero-sjo
I think it is to get more fame among their friends and to show off what they think of themselves.
zoeb-sjo
People are compelled to making pictures of themselves because they want something of them. And they probably want to save the memory of taking that picture or just having the picture.
garetb-sjo
WoW so many people never think about selfies but back 300 years ago people wanted it to look so good
samanthag-sjo
People are compelled to take picture of themselves because, they like to see how they look. They also do it because, it's kind of fun to do. At least that's what I think.
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Tag Archives: Lily Tomlin
Posted on May 13, 2020 by carlosdev
A gathering of Spiders.
(2018) Animated Feature (Columbia) Starring the voices of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Zoe Kravitz, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber, Chris Pine, Natalie Morales, Oscar Isaac, Jorma Taccone, Lake Bell. Directed by Bob Perischetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman
Spider-Man has been perhaps the most popular character in the history of Marvel Comics. So much so that the hero has progressed beyond Peter Parker; there are a number of iterations of the character in the comics; some serious, some not.
Miles Morales (Moore) is one of those characters. A young, African-American/Hispanic teen, he likes hanging out with his Uncle Aaron (Ali), and less so with his cop father (Henry). He's a very smart kid, but not so interested in school and a little on the timid side. When he's bitten by a radioactive spider, he gets the powers of Spider-Man. He relies on the comic books to kind of guide him through.
But then the Kingpin (Schreiber), a corpulent villain, opens up gateways to a multitude of parallel universes, threatening all of them. Spider-men from all around the multiverse begin to flood in, including a tired and nearly broken Peter Parker (Johnson), an iteration in which Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld) becomes Spider-Gwen, a black and white character from the 30s called Spider-Noir (Cage), a porcine cartoon pig named Spider-Ham (Mulaney) and a sprightly teen from the future named Peni Parker (Glenn). Together they will have to face down against the Kingpin and his scientific advisor Doc Octopus (Hahn) if they are to save the multi-verse.
Visually, this is a striking film that is meant to look more like a comic book than conventional animated features. It is certainly meant to appeal to Spider-Fans, with lots of little in-jokes and Easter Eggs for those who follow the character in the comics, but even for those unfamiliar with the various Spider-Man characters, there is some clever dialogue to keep the story moving, even though at just a hair under two hours long it might be too much for the attention-challenged. Still, this was the Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards and quite honestly, it deserved to be.
REASONS TO SEE: Wonderful animation. Plenty of Easter Eggs for fans. Clever dialogue.
REASONS TO AVOID: A bit too long.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some cartoon violence, mild profanity and thematic material.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Both Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, the original creators of the Spider-Man comic, passed away during production of the film.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Amazon AMC On Demand, AppleTV, Fandango Now, FlixFling, Google Play, Microsoft, Redbox, Vudu, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 5/12/20: Rotten Tomatoes: 97% positive reviews, Metacritic: 87/100
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Incredibles
FINAL RATING: 8.5/10
NEXT: Hope Gap
Posted in VOD Review | Tagged animated feature, Aunt May, Brian Tyree Henry, Chris Pine, cinema, Cinema365, Columbia Pictures, cop, Films, Hailee Steinfeld, hero-in-training, Jake Johnson, John Mulaney, Jorma Taccone, Kathryn Hahn, Kingpin, Lake Bell, Liev Schreiber, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, Mahershala Ali, Marvel Comics, movies, multiverse, Natalie Morales, New York City, Nicolas Cage, Oscar Isaac, portals, Shameik Moore, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, VOD Reviews, Zoe Kravitz | 2 Replies
New Releases for the Week of December 14, 2018
Posted on December 14, 2018 by carlosdev
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE
(Columbia) Starring the voices of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Lily Tomlin, Nicolas Cage, Zoë Kravitz, Liev Schreiber. Directed by Bob Perischetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman
Brooklyn teen Miles Morales is the Spider-Man of his dimension. He's new to the job but shows a lot of promise. However, a threat to all of reality brings different Spideys from a variety of dimensions to face down the threat in this first feature-length animated film from Marvel to hit theaters.
See the trailer, clips, interviews and video featurettes here
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard, 3D, 4DX, DBOX, DBOX 3D, Dolby, IMAX, IMAX 3D, RPX, RPX 3D, XD, XD 3D
Genre: Animated Feature
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language)
Mortal Engines
(Universal) Hugo Weaving, Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Jihae. Based on a series of young adult books, this introductory film to what Universal hopes will be a major franchise for them picks up after a cataclysmic event has decimated the Earth. Cities have become mobile, scavenging for dwindling resources and London is the most predatory of all of them. A mysterious girl whose memory of her mother may unlock the key to her survival, joins forces with a dangerous outlaw, a defector from London and a brave young man to stop the ambitions of the mad Thaddeus Valentine.
See the trailer, clips, video featurettes and B-roll video here
Release Formats: Standard, 3D, Dolby, IMAX, IMAX 3D
Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of futuristic violence and action)
The Mule
(Warner Brothers) Clint Eastwood, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest. An old man, broke and alone and facing nearly insurmountable financial problems, takes a job driving a load of cargo. What he doesn't know is that he's inadvertently become a mule for a vicious Mexican cartel. He does so well that he gets more and bigger cargoes until he finds himself on the radar of the DEA.. He must also face the mistakes of his past before his present deeds catch up to him.
See the trailer and a clip here
Rating: R (for language throughout and brief sexuality/nudity)
Once Upon a Deadpool
(20th Century Fox) Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Fred Savage. Essentially, this is Deadpool 2 re-cut to a PG-13 version with all the naughty bits edited out and some new footage edited in.
See the trailer and stuff (mostly for Deadpool 2) here
Genre: Superhero Comedy
Now Playing: Wide Release (Kinda)
Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action, crude sexual content, language, thematic elements and brief drug material)
(NEON) Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe (voice), Jennifer Ehle. America at the beginning of the 21st century is seen through the eyes of a jaded pop star. This festival favorite is just now making its way into local theaters – with a whole lot of buzz over Portman's performance.
See the trailer and video featurettes here
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Disney Springs, Regal Oviedo Marketplace, Regal Waterford Lakes, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: R (for language, some strong violence, and drug content)
ALSO OPENING IN ORLANDO/DAYTONA:
DriverX
ALSO OPENING IN MIAMI/FT. LAUDERDALE:
Becoming Astrid
ALSO OPENING IN TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG:
ALSO OPENING IN JACKSONVILLE/ST. AUGUSTINE:
SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:
Mortal Engine
Posted in Weekly Preview | Tagged 2018, cinema, Cinema365, Clint Eastwood, December 14, Dianne Wiest, Films, Fred Savage, Hailee Steinfeld, Hugo Weaving, Jake Johnson, Jennifer Ehle, Josh Brolin, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Liev Schreiber, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, Michael Pena, Morena Baccarin, Mortal Engines, movies, Natalie Portman, Nicolas Cage, Once Upon a Deadpool, Previews, Ryan Reynolds, Shameik Moore, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, The Mule, Vox Lux, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Kravitz | Leave a reply
Posted on September 21, 2015 by carlosdev
Something new and a couple of classics.
(2015) Dramedy (Sony Classics) Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Judy Greer, Marcia Gay Harden, Sam Elliott, Laverne Cox, Elizabeth Peňa, Nat Wolff, Sarah Burns, John Cho, Colleen Camp, Lauren Tom, Don McManus, Missy Doty, Willem Miller, Meg Crosbie, Skya Chanadet, Frank Collison, Mo Aboul-Zelof, Carlos Miranda, Amir Talai, Marlene Martinez, Kelsey Scott. Directed by Paul Weitz
The thing about families is that there is often baggage. Even the most seemingly loving family has a few skeletons lurking in the most inaccessible of closets. When a family appears to be dysfunctional, it is often with good reason.
Elle Reid (Tomlin) is a once respected poet who has fallen into irrelevance. She has spent the morning breaking up with her much younger lover Olivia (Greer). On the surface, Elle seems to be hard-hearted, even cruel, dismissing Olivia with a "You're a footnote," referring to her own partnership of 38 years which ended a year and a half ago when her partner passed away.
It is an inopportune time for a visitor but one arrives; her granddaughter Sage (Garner) who is desperate and scared. You see, she's pregnant, wants an abortion and her somewhat irresponsible boyfriend (Wolff), who was supposed to come up with half the money but failed. Now Olivia needs $600 and has just nine hours to get it.
So Elle pulls off the dust cover off of her 1955 Dodge Royale (which is actually Tomlin's car by the way) and heads out to find the money for her granddaughter. You see, Elle is broke for the moment; she does have money coming in from a speaking engagement but it won't arrive for a couple of weeks and the $40 that she has is not nearly enough so it's off to see some of Elle's friends, most of whom turn out to be as broke as she is or as unreliable.
As the money proves to be more elusive than Elle imagined, she is forced to turn to people in her life that she would rather not have to owe, like Carla (Peňa), the bookstore owner who once expressed interest in some of Elle's first edition feminist literature, like Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. It goes from bad to worse, as she is forced to go hat in hand to her ex-husband (Elliott) whom she unceremoniously dumped when she came out as a lesbian but more terrifying still, the prospect of asking help of the one person she actually is intimidated by – her own daughter Judy (Harden), Sage's mom who is not only a lawyer but a force of nature.
Elle is an acerbic curmudgeon who isn't easy to get along with, but as we see the layers peeled away we see that like many of that nature there's a good deal of vulnerability just below the surface. While I'm not sure if the role of Elle was specifically written for Tomlin it may as well have and she comes through, big time. This is a performance that is going to be remembered and I don't just mean during awards season; she is almost assuredly going to get an Oscar nomination for this but even more importantly this is going to be one of the performances that defines her career (Nashville is the other and yes, this is at that level).
Although the focus is primarily on Tomlin as Elle, this is by no means a one woman show. Elliott turns in one of the finest performances of his distinguished career as the tough guy veneer he has worn like a comfortable old Stetson falls away and we see his pain in his one extended scene with Tomlin. Harden, one of the most reliable actresses in Hollywood and a former Oscar nominee herself, does some fine work as well.
Garner must have looked at this cast with wide eyes, but the young actress holds her own. In fact, she thrives. It really is nice to see three actresses of differing generations given such meaty parts to work with in the same film and to have all three hit it out of the park is icing on the cake. Anyone who likes to see terrific acting performances will no doubt be drawn to this movie. This is definitely a film aimed at women although it isn't exclusively a woman's film. It does present the point of view of a lifelong feminist however, and that's a POV that is sadly lacking in Hollywood these days, comparatively speaking. It's also good to see that in a modern movie as well.
Then there's the abortion. It is treated very matter-of-factly without much fanfare. It is simply a part of what is happening. Certainly those who are strongly pro-life will likely take issue; as the movie gathers steam in the Oscar sweepstakes I wouldn't be surprised to see some cries of outrage on the right about "Liberal Hollywood" (cue eye rolling here). I found the movie to be somewhat low-key in its treatment of the subject; the fact is that abortions are legal and young Sage is doing nothing illegal here. This isn't a movie about abortion, but the subject plays an important role here, and not just Sage's procedure. I'll be counting the days until this becomes a cause célèbre but until the protesters show up at the theaters I would strongly urge you check this out, particularly for Tomlin's performance which is one of the best you'll see this year.
REASONS TO GO: Lily Effin' Tomlin. Great cast. Short but bittersweet. Realistic relationships and characters.
REASONS TO STAY: Occasionally quirky for quirk's sake. Pro-life sorts may find this offensive.
FAMILY VALUES: A fair amount of cussing and a bit of drug use.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: This is the late Elizabeth Peňa's final film appearance.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Thing About My Folks
NEXT: The Transporter Refueled
Posted in New Releases | Tagged Abortion, Betty Friedan, breakup, broke, cinema, Cinema365, clinic, Colleen Camp, credit cards, Don McManus, dramedy, dysfunctional family, Elizabeth Pena, feminism, Films, granddaughter, Grandma, grief, intimidation, irresponsible, John Cho, Judy Greer, Julia Garner, Lauren Tom, Laverne Cox, lawyer, lesbian partners, Lily Tomlin, Los Angeles, Marcia Gay Harden, movies, Paul Weitz, poet, protester, reviews, Sam Elliott, Sony Classics, The Feminine Mystique | Leave a reply
New Releases for the Week of September 18, 2015
(20th Century Fox) Dylan O'Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Patricia Clarkson, Jacob Lofland, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen. Directed by Wes Ball
In the sequel to the 2014 hit adaptation of a young adult sci-fi novel, the sequel takes the survivors of the Glade into a new environment; an underground post-apocalyptic world in which humanity has left the surface of the Earth which has become too dangerous to support life. However, what they thought was safety proves to be far more sinister as the WCKD corporation seems to have plans for them – plans that might be hazardous to their health. Before long, they are fleeing to the outside world, the Scorch where they discover that the truth isn't what they thought it was.
See the trailer, clips, interviews and B-roll video here.
Rating: PG-13 (for extended sequences of violence and action, some thematic elements, substance use and language)
(Warner Brothers) Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson. Irish mobster James "Whitey" Bulger held Boston in an iron grip during the 70s and 80s. One of the great crime bosses of modern times, he played both sides against the middle, reputedly an informer for the FBI – certainly he manipulated the bureau to his own advantage, while running amuck on the streets. The Jack Nicholson character in The Departed is based on him.
See the trailer, clips, interviews, a featurette and B-roll video here.
Rating: R (for brutal violence, language throughout, some sexual references and brief drug use)
(Paramount) Kate Mara, Mimi Rogers, Michael K. Williams, David Oyelowo. A young mother struggling with drug addiction is taken hostage in her own apartment by a desperate escaped convict, who murdered the judge assigned to his case. Using an inspirational self-help book as a guide, she helps find purpose not only for her own life, but also a more peaceful resolution for the convict. Based on the true story of Ashley Smith and Brian Nichols.
See the trailer, interviews and B-roll video here.
Genre: Faith-Based True Life Drama
Rating: PG-13 (for mature thematic elements involving violence and substance abuse)
(Universal) Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Jason Clarke, Keira Knightley. Mt. Everest has become a commercial goldmine as companies have sprung up offering to shepherd climbers to the summit. It's no laughing matter as it is a dangerous venture to say the least, and on one day in 1996 two expeditions taking their clients to the top are hit with a massive storm, resulting in one of the deadliest days in the mountain's history. For those who don't live near a large format screen (i.e. IMAX etc.), don't fret; the movie will hit general release next week in both 3D and standard formats.
See the trailer, interviews, clips and B-Roll video here.
Release Formats: Standard, 3D, IMAX 3D
Genre: True Life Thriller
Now Playing: Large Format Theaters
Rating: R (for language, violence and brief drug use)
(Sony Classics) Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden, Judy Greer. While recovering from the breakup with her girlfriend, Elle receives an unexpected visit from her granddaughter who needs $600 for an abortion. Unfortunately, Elle is temporarily broke so the two go to find the money among old friends, family and acquaintances, dislodging quite a few skeletons from quite a few closets in the process. Word is that Tomlin is an early favorite for this year's Best Actress Oscar for this role.
Genre: Dramedy
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Downtown Disney, Amstar Lake Mary, Enzian Theater, Epic Theaters of Clermont, Regal Oviedo Marketplace, Regal Pointe Orlando
Rating: R (for language and some drug use)
Katti Batti
(UTV) Imran Khan, Kangana Ranaut. One is an architect, who is stable and secure. The other, a free spirit who lives life to its fullest. Each one loves the other for those very same qualities. This Bollywood film follows their five year live-in relationship which isn't all dancing and rose petals.
Now Playing: AMC West Oaks, Touchstar Southchase
Posted in Weekly Preview | Tagged Aidan Gillen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Mass, captive, cinema, Cinema365, Dakota Johnson, David Oyelowo, Dylan O'Brien, Everest, Films, Giancarlo Esposito, Grandma, Imran Khan, Jacob Lofland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Johnny Depp, Josh Brolin, Judy Greer, Julia Garner, Kate Mara, Katti Batti, Kaya Scodelario, Keira Knightley, Ki Hong Le, Lily Tomlin, Marcia Gay Hardin, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Michael K. Williams, Mimi Rogers, movies, Patricia Clarkson, Previews, Thomas Brodie-Sangster | Leave a reply
Posted on April 2, 2013 by carlosdev
Two people who know just how cute they are.
(2013) Romantic Comedy (Focus) Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Nat Wolff, Michael Sheen, Gloria Reuben, Wallace Shawn, Michael Genadry, Christopher Evan Welch, Sarita Choudhury, Rob Campbell, Sonya Walger, Olek Krupa, Travaris Spears, Camille Branton. Directed by Paul Weitz
Getting into a good school can make all the difference in life. Princeton University, as one of the best schools in the nation, has to rigorously check potential students, culling out the wheat to get to the chaff. Looking for the best and the brightest isn't always easy.
Portia Nathan (Fey), as one of Princeton's top admissions officers, has that unenviable task. The simple math is that there are far more applicants than there are open spots so much of what she does is telling young students that their application has been declined.
This year it's particularly vital because the director of admissions (Shawn) is stepping down at the end of the year and he doesn't want to go out as number two, which Princeton has fallen to for the first time in years. His position will go to either Portia or Corinne (Reuben), her supercilious rival. Portia, whose territory is the northeast, is given the directive to find some new blood from schools not normally associated with Princeton.
Then she gets a call from John Pressman (Rudd), a former classmate at Dartmouth with Portia who knew her roommate well. He's got a progressive school called Quest Academy in New Hampshire and has a student he's particularly high on that might make a nice addition to Princeton's student body. He invites her to talk to the student body about the advantages of going to Princeton. Oh and by the way, the student in question – Jeremiah (Wolff) – may possibly be the child she gave up for adoption just after she graduated from college. Whoops.
Of course now this puts her maternal instincts on overdrive and her impartiality on vacation. In the meantime her personal life is in chaos as her longtime boyfriend (Sheen) has dumped her for a bitchy English professor (Walger) and her relationship with her goofy feminist mom (Tomlin) is pinballing around her life like a pachinko machine gone berserk. On top of that John is looking kinda cute and sexy, even though she tells herself she wants no part of him. Which of course means she does.
Weitz, who's made some pretty nifty pictures in his time (including About a Boy and American Dreamz) doesn't quite have that kind of material here. This is, to be honest, a pretty pedestrian story, full of your basic romantic comedy clichés. Fortunately, that's not all it is – there's a bit of satire on the higher education system and how cutthroat it has become. There's also something about embracing the differences, and understanding that people are more than the sum of their parts.
Fey and Rudd make appealing leads and that should come to nobody's surprise – they are two of the most likable actors in Hollywood. They are not only an attractive couple, they play off of each other well. Both of them are pretty low-key however; there is nothing frenetic here and so the movie has a curiously muted feel. I suspect Weitz didn't want to play this strictly for comedy (despite casting comedic actors in nearly every role) and wanted a dramatic edge to it but it winds up really settling into a middle ground that is neither funny nor dramatic.
Tomlin makes the movie worth seeing alone. One of the greatest comedians of all time (male or female), she infuses Susannah with just enough grouchiness to be funny, but just enough tenderness to give her the potential for redemption. Tomlin is definitely the comedic highlight here, which I'm sure that Fey as a longtime admirer doesn't mind.
I actually liked the movie overall – but I didn't love it (obviously). I wish it had been written a little bit better – perhaps Fey, one of the better writers working today, should have had a hand in it. Having not read the novel that is the source material, I can't say for certain whether the fault lies in the source material or the adaptation but either way the plot is far too predictable – one of the main twists was predicted by Da Queen early in the movie and not to say that Da Queen isn't a savvy moviegoer (she is) but it shouldn't have been that easy for anyone to get it. With the summer blockbusters just a month away from the theaters, this is probably easy to overlook and is just as viable a choice for home viewing as anything else out there.
REASONS TO GO: Nice chemistry between Fey and Rudd. Pleasant and charming in places.
REASONS TO STAY: Formulaic. Lacks big laughs. Is curiously lacking in energy.
FAMILY VALUES: There's a bit of language and some sexuality but not a lot.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: While some of the scenes were shot on the campus of Princeton, more of it was shot at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 4/2/13: Rotten Tomatoes: 42% positive reviews. Metacritic: 49/100; the reviews are mixed, trending a teensy bit to the negative.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Wanderlust
NEXT: The Burning Plain
Posted in New Releases | Tagged academia, Admission, admissions officer, adoption, based on a novel, cinema, cows, dumped, feminism, Films, Focus Features, getting dumped, Gloria Reuben, Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen, movies, Nat Wolff, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Paul Rudd, pressure, Princeton Univeersity, progressive school, reviews, romantic comedy, test scores, Tina Fey, Wallace Shawn, workaholic | Leave a reply
New Releases for the Week of March 22, 2013
Posted on March 20, 2013 by carlosdev
(DreamWorks) Starring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman, Chris Sanders. Directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMarco
A family of cavemen have their safety ripped away from them when the cave they've lived in all their lives is wiped out. They are forced to explore the prehistoric world around them which can be pretty beautiful but pretty dangerous as well. They will come to rely on one another and learn that different isn't such a bad thing after all.
See the trailer and a music video here.
Release formats: Standard, 3D
Rating: PG (for some scary action)
(Focus) Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Lily Tomlin, Michael Sheen. A prissy admissions officer for an Ivy League school visits the alternative school run by an old college friend who drops the bombshell that the student she's recruiting might be the son she gave up for adoption back in the day. Now she finds herself bending her own rules for the young man who may well be the cause of her losing everything she's worked so hard to build or finding the thing she truly wants – or both.
Rating: PG-13 (for language and some sexual material)
InAPPropriate Comedy
(Freestyle Releasing) Adrien Brody, Rob Schneider, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan. A sketch comedy that explores all facets of crude and inappropriate behavior, from the Amazing Racist to a metrosexual cop, from a curmudgeonly porn critic to Lohan's ultimate revenge on the paparazzi who stalk her. Don't say you weren't warned.
Rating: R (for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language and drug use)
John Dies in the End
(Magnet) Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown. The new designer drug du jour promises an out-of-body like no other but users are coming back…different. It seems that the drug takes them on a trans-dimensional drift and what returns isn't human. A massive alien invasion is underway and there's not a ship in the sky. It remains for two college dropout slackers to save the world. The world is pretty much screwed my friends – but whatever you do, don't give away the ending….oh crap.
Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
Rating: R (for bloody violence and gore, nudity, language and drug content)
Murph: The Protector
(Mactavish) Michael Murphy, John McElhone, Daniel Murphy, Kristin Bishop. Lt. Michael Murphy was a U.S. Navy SEAL who gave up his life for his men during an operation in Afghanistan in 2005. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor two years later. This is his story.
Rating: PG (for thematic material and some language)
(FilmDistrict) Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd. When the White House falls, only a disgraced Secret Service agent stands between the terrorists and their agenda. However, soon he discovers that there is a much more monstrous fate in store if he can't rescue the President and retake the White House.
See the trailer and featurettes here.
Rating: R (for strong violence and language throughout)
(A24) James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson. A group of college girls, broke and bored during spring break, decide to rob a fast food joint to finance their trip to sun and fun. However once there, the fun goes a little bit too far and the girls wind up being arrested. Bailed out by an infamous local criminal, they go on a Spring Break trip that is one for the books. However, just how far is too far?
Genre: Crime Drama
Rating: R (for strong sexual content, language, nudity, drug use and violence throughout)
(Millennium) Jim Sturgess, Kirsten Dunst, Timothy Spall, Holly O'Brien. A man and a woman meet and fall in love. They're from different social strata which makes it difficult. They also live on twinned planets whose gravitational pulls go in opposite directions which makes it nearly impossible. The despotic society that runs things doesn't want to see these two together and takes great steps to keep them separate. But love is stronger than gravity…isn't it?
See the trailer and a featurette here.
Rating: PG-13 (for some violence)
Posted in Weekly Preview | Tagged 2013, Aaron Eckhart, Admission, Adrien Brody, Ashley Benson, Ashley Judd, Catherine Keener, Chase Williamson, cinema, Clancy Brown, Clark Duke, Cloris Leachman, Emma Stone, Films, Gerard Butler, Harmony Korine, InAPPropriate Comedy, James Franco, John Dies in the End, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, March 22, Michael Sheen, Michelle Rodriguez, Morgan Freeman, movies, MURPH: The Protector, Nicolas Cage, Olympus Has Fallen, Paul Giamatti, Paul Rudd, Previews, Rob Schneider, Ryan Reynolds, Selena Gomez, Spring Breakers, The Croods, Tina Fey, Vanessa Hudgens | Leave a reply
Carol Channing: Larger Than Life
Posted on January 5, 2013 by carlosdev
Life is a musical number when you're Carol Channing
(2012) Documentary (EntertainmentOne) Carol Channing, Harry Kullijian, Lily Tomlin, Chita Rivera, Barbara Walters, Tyne Daly, Debbie Reynolds, Phyllis Diller, Loni Anderson, Bruce Vilanch, JoAnne Worley, Rich Little, Angela Lansbury, Bob Mackie, Tommy Tune, Tippi Hedren. Directed by Dori Berenstein
There are names and then there are Names. A lot of younger people aren't that familiar with the name of Carol Channing but to those of my generation and before, she is virtually synonymous with Broadway. She originated the roles of Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and more notably, Dolly Levi in "Hello, Devi." In both cases her signature roles were handed off to other actresses for the film versions, Marilyn Monroe for the former, Barbra Streisand for the latter.
These days she is pretty much retired from the stage although she does make appearances from time to time; for example she does a show number at the Kennedy Center Honors with Chita Rivera and Angela Lansbury (which begs the question why hasn't she gotten one yet) and a number from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" for a benefit.
Still, she's recognized as the Ambassador of the Great White Way; while she's taking a stroll pointing out the various theaters she's been onstage in, she is seen by members of the chorus line of "Next to Normal" out taking a break between performances and is shown the reverence and love that those who love Broadway understand that she deserves.
Channing (who was 90 when this was filmed – she's 91 now) is an ebullient force of nature, one who tells stories with genuine wit and warmth and has lots of stories to tell (such as of her first screen kiss from none other than Clint Eastwood). She's one of those people you can't help but like after spending just five minutes with her, and that personality shows through here.
There was a lot about her I didn't know – about her support for gay rights causes and for other liberal touchstone causes. She has been a tireless worker in helping young actors survive the often brutal financial realities of life as a struggling actor, and for the furtherance of theatrical preservation. The more you see here, the more you like and respect her.
She hasn't always had it easy. Not much is said about her marriage to her third husband of 42 years other than that the marriage ended abruptly and but before the divorce could become final her ex passed away. There have been allegations that it was a loveless marriage in other sources, but none of that is discussed here. Instead, the focus is on her fourth marriage to Kullijian, whom she met at Aptos Middle School in the San Francisco Bay Area and who turned out to be the love of her life, although sadly he passed away one day shy of his 92nd birthday in December 2011. However it's obvious that they have an easy familiarity that comes from time and simpatico.
This is less of a documentary than a tribute; Berenstein really doesn't linger too much on the unpleasant aspects of Channing's life and rarely asks insightful questions. Not that a Mike Wallace-like approach would have been preferable but a look at the person behind the persona would have been welcome.
I still liked the movie a great deal however and wound up really falling in love with the subject a little. She may not be your cup of tea in terms of her life on Broadway, but nonetheless she's great fun to spend an hour or so with. "Always leave 'em wanting more" is an old show business saying and it's very true here – I wanted to spend more time with Carol Channing after the movie was done. I just wanted to get to know her better than the filmmakers allowed me to.
WHY RENT THIS: Gives you a glimpse into an amazing woman who's had an incredible career.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Focuses overly much on "Hello, Dolly" and not enough on maybe her thoughts about certain aspects of her life.
FAMILY VALUES: Nothing here your kids haven't heard or seen before. There is some smoking and a few mildly bad words here and there.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Channing appeared on Nixon's enemies list, which she later claimed as "the highest honor of her career."
NOTABLE HOME VIDEO EXTRAS: The DVD is packed with 'em, including a Barbara Walters interview, a look at the opening night of "Hello Dolly" and much more.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $22,740 on an unknown production budget; probably lost money.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Ahead of Time
NEXT: Desert Flower
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged activism, Angela Lansbury, autobiography, Barbara Walters, Barbra Streisand, Bob Mackie, Broadway, Broadway icon, Bruce Vilanch, Carol Channing, Carol Channing: Larger Than Life, childhood sweetharts, Chita Rivera, cinema, Debbie Reynolds, Documentary, DVD Reviews, EntertainmentOne, Films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Hello Dolly, JoAnne Worley, Kennedy Center Honors, Lily Tomlin, Loni Anderson, Marilyn Monroe, movies, personal appearances, Phyllis Diller, Rich Little, San Francisco, Seattle, soulmate, Tippi Hedren, Tommy Tune, Tyne Daly | Leave a reply
Ponyo (Gake no ue no Ponyo)
Posted on November 8, 2010 by carlosdev
Escaping a tsunami in a small car is never a good idea.
(2008) Animated Fantasy (Disney) Starring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Noah Cyrus, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Frankie Jonas, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Cloris Leachman. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Perhaps the most honored and beloved director of Japanese anime is Hayao Miyazaki. An Oscar winner for Spirited Away, he's also directed some of the most enchanting and beloved anime films ever, including Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Tortoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and my personal favorite, Princess Mononoke among others. He remains one of the few feature animation directors working exclusively in the hand-drawn animated style that established Disney (who distributes the output of his Studio Ghibli here in the U.S.) and is as imaginative a director working anywhere in any medium today.
His latest may well be one of the most beautiful animated features in recent memory. It begins with a 5-year-old named Sosuke (Jonas) finding a goldfish trapped in a jar on the seashore which he names Ponyo (Cyrus) – the fish, not the seashore.
But Ponyo is no ordinary fish. She is the daughter of Fujimoto (Neeson), a sea wizard with incredible powers who has renounced his humanity to rule under the sea. When Sosuke takes her from her natural environment, it causes the balance between the sea and the land to be sundered and soon tsunamis are buffeting the small port town where Sosuke lives.
He brings the fish to his mother (Fey) who is having issues with her husband Koichi (Damon), a merchant sailor who is away more than he is at home. When he visits the retirement home his mom works at, a trio of the residents (Tomlin, White and Leachman) there realize immediately that Ponyo is no ordinary fish.
Sosuke has a paper cut and when Ponyo licks the cut and magically heals it, the taste of human blood allows Ponyo to take on the attributes of a human and she magically grows arms and legs. This causes further imbalance which even Fujimoto is powerless to prevent.
When Sosuke and her mom get separated by the tsunamis, Ponyo transforms a toy boat into a large sailing vessel to go searching for her in the now flooded town. However, the cost of all this magic is taking its toll on Ponyo and the continued imbalance between sea and land threatens to completely undo the world – unless Sosuke and Ponyo can intervene.
The tale told is a simple one, and it is meant to be appealing not just to the adults who make up the core of Miyazaki's audience to date, but also to small children, a market he hasn't really gone after up to now. Quite frankly, he's successful at capturing both with this film which is destined to be considered among his very best.
Miyazaki's imagination seems boundless, and his underwater scenes are filled with strange beauty, the kind heretofore found in nature films but given a touch of wonder that is entirely man-made. Miyazaki is telling on one hand a cautionary tale; the sea bottom is badly polluted with trash and sludge, while above the waves the adults are blissfully (and perhaps criminally) unaware of the damage their society is inflicting on the sea, which doesn't endear them to the powerful creatures – including Ponyo's mother, Gran Mamare (Blanchett) who is literally a goddess.
There are other lessons as well, with the familiar "we all must be who we are, not who others want us to be" which is a staple in children's films, but certainly the ecological issue seems to be the one most pointedly presented.
Miyazaki isn't all about the fantastic, however; the human characters have a great deal of depth to them. Sosuke's parents aren't the perfect couple; they squabble and bicker, and neither one is wrong and neither one is right. Lisa is frustrated with having to raise her child essentially alone, and Koichi certainly isn't doing what he does by choice; the family needs the income he brings in to survive, and when additional work is available, he has no choice but to take it. It's a problem that isn't an unfamiliar one in tough economic times.
Even peripheral characters like the three elderly women from the retirement home have distinct personalities and play crucial roles in the story. The mark of a great storyteller is not that he creates characters that move the story along (how often do we see characters in movies both live action and animated that exist only to perform a singular function in the film) but that he utilizes the characters he has to make the story flow; in other words, the characters belong in the story and they drive what happens in it, rather than exist as a reaction or an action within that story. It's all a bit complicated, I know, but trust me – I can recognize great writing when I see it.
Japanese culture has a thing about cute; you can see it in everything from Hello Kitty to Sailor Moon. At times, that cuteness goes over the top and makes you feel like you just drank a gallon of Kool-Aid with twice the sugar added; you just want to gag. Miyazaki is not known for embracing that cultural element, but it does appear from time to time in this movie, and while I can understand that it helps to make the movie relatable to small fries, I have to admit as a curmudgeonly middle aged man it was annoying to me.
Be that as it may (and it is an admittedly personal bias) I can still give this movie a very strong recommendation. For those who might be skeptical about Japanese anime, be assured that there are no subtitles here; the story is recorded completely in English with an all-star cast as you can see in the credit list at the top of the review. Disney has made a great effort to make this very special movie work in an American market, hiring Melissa Matheson, screenwriter of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to pen the Japanese translation, and the opening and closing sequences were redone to be more appealing to American audiences (on the Blu-Ray if you choose the Japanese language version you will see the Japanese openings; if you choose the English language you'll see the American version).
This is a marvelous movie whether an animated feature or not; you will probably not see a movie so beautifully drawn as this for a very long time. Those who are admirers of Miyazaki have probably already seen it, and will no doubt look to purchase the Blu-Ray version which is packed with features enough to keep you occupied for awhile. Those unfamiliar with his work can do worse than to start here. It's well worth your effort to do so.
WHY RENT THIS: Miyazaki creates an imaginative world that you want to explore. This is one of the most beautiful animated films of the past decade. The characters are strongly written and are more than one-dimensional cardboard cutouts to advance the plot along.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The plot is a bit simplistic, aimed squarely for younger children. The Japanese penchant for the overly cute rears its head here.
FAMILY VALUES: Although there are some scenes of jeopardy for Sosuke and Ponyo, the movie is certainly meant for small children and can be recommended for all audiences on that basis.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The character of Sosuke is based on Miyazaki's son Goro when he was five years old.
NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: Not surprisingly, the Blu-Ray version of the movie is chock full of interesting features, including a visit to the Studio Ghibli compound, with one specific feature showing how the establishment of a day-care center led directly to the creation of Ponyo and very nearly became a setting for the movie. We also visit the village on the Seto Inland Sea that became a model for the one in the film, and examine the father-daughter relationship at the center of the film, and how it relates to Japanese culture. There is also a marvelous interactive guide to the World of Ghibli, which depicts the various films released by the studio as locations on an island, several of which you can visit (and is tied in to the video release of three other Ghibli films for the first time in the U.S.).
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $201.7M on an unreported production budget; the movie was a major hit.
TOMORROW: Montana Amazon
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 5-year-old boy, animated fantasy, anime, Betty White, Cate Blanchett, cinema, Cloris Leachman, Disney, DVD Reviews, ecological disaster, Films, Gake no ue no Ponyo, goddess, goldfish, Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese cinema, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, magic, Matt Damon, merchant sailor, movies, natural balance, pollution, Ponyo, retirement home, Tina Fey, tsunami, wizard | Leave a reply


text:
Gay in 2011: How Homophobia Lost Its Cool
By Michael Murray | Think Pieces | June 19, 2011 |
The other night my wife and I watched X-Men: First Class.
I hadn't mentioned anything, but I wanted to see Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Mystique, which is another way of saying I wanted to see Jennifer Lawrence naked. We all know how Rebecca Romijn had perfected the role with her body in earlier versions of the franchise, but I wanted to see how the plain-spoken determination that Lawrence displayed in Winter's Bone would translate into nudity.
I was optimistic.
However, very, very quickly I found myself utterly mesmerized by Michael Fassbender.
He was sexy. Jesus, he was dead sexy. And then there was James McAvoy. He was sexy, too. Sexy in a different way, but still sexy. Together, the chemistry they shared burned through the screen and I simply couldn't take my eyes off of them. I mean, I wanted them to do stuff. Pulling myself together, I asked Rachelle, "Where's Jennifer McLarwebender?"
Rachelle pointed her out.
"So she's the blue one? Man alive, I just wish she'd get out of the way, sometimes she makes it hard to see Fassbender and McAvoy!"
Rachelle pursed her lips, "So, you want to have a better view of the guys, do you?"
I felt a little defensive at first and said nothing, but I couldn't contain myself, "Yes! Look at them! They're hot as hell! Way better than anything on "True Blood"! And don't you judge me, you'd be in there like a dirty shirt in a second!"
And after just a moment of looking at one another we both nodded and returned to the movie.
Some 20 years ago when I was in high school, to say that you found another man sexy, let alone two of them, spelled certain doom. And it's not that I grew up in an unusually parochial environment. As far as these things went, the school I attended in Ottawa — one of the larger Canadian cities — was relatively liberal minded. No matter, if you were gay or suspected of being gay, your life was to be misery.
A climate of unceasing and vitriolic homophobia completely smothered the culture in which we existed. This homophobia was more like a rampaging panic than it was anything else, and it trampled whomever might have been standing in the general vicinity of it's path. This was the norm, not the exception, and with an irony that is almost too great to comprehend, the model of heterosexual masculinity to which we all aspired were the characters in the movie Top Gun.
Fucking.
Could there have been a queerer movie? And we thought this was the roadmap for what it was to be a straight guy? I tell you, those were some pretty mixed-up times.
Regardless of all the confusion, one thing was clear, if you were gay, if you even danced well, you were considered deviant by the mainstream. You were made fun of, avoided, insulted and sometimes you were beaten. That was the daily reality. It truly must have been a terrifying experience to go to school each day, and only the bravest and strongest of human beings could have survived that experience with a confident sense of who they actually were.
Many, of course, didn't.
The wreckage of this is everywhere. I know men, now 40, who always seemed to have had an orientation unique from the mainstream, who have yet to freely embrace the core of who they are. It's a secret they've kept from their families, churches, peers, and in some cases, even themselves, and typically it would manifest in all sorts of different ways.
You could see it in the man sitting at the local bar, his personality changing as he gets drunk and lets slip the rigid control he'd always maintained over the tone of his voice and the type of hug he'd share with another man. Or in the friend who suffers from chronic depression, plagued by migraines, chewing his nails to the quick and going for long walks at night, a man who never seemed at home in his own skin.
It always frustrated me to see this. A generation had passed, things had changed. Why did they deny themselves the happiness, the peace they deserved? But as a straight man who resided in the comfort of an accepting, even nurturing, mainstream, I have absolutely no idea what it must be like to have been shaped by such prejudice and to be burdened by the baggage those days imposed.
Not a clue.
I don't know what it's like to have been reared by an imposing Roman Catholic mother or a hard-ass military dad to whom your very nature is a disappointment and point of shame. To not have the opportunity to marry, to be in fact, denied basic human rights is beyond my ken. I can't even begin to conceive of being reared amidst these constraints and pressures, and if I had, well, I have no doubt the closet would be a likely place to lock myself. Obviously, this denial of self is an immense tragedy.
The Dan Savage inspired "It Gets Better" movement is a stroke of genius. Hopefully, in the struggle for LGBT rights it sparks a great leap forward. The videos, all so well known now, are heartbreaking, beautiful and sincere. Made by geniuses and morons alike, each person tells their story, encouraging those who are going through the living hell that I saw so many live back in high school, not to despair, that things will get better. It's impossible not to be deeply moved by these, and I honestly think Dan Savage should get a Nobel Peace Prize for so brilliantly placing these survivor stories in the middle of the Civil Rights narrative of North America.
Of course there are myriad obstacles before the LGBT community feels the right kind of invisibility in the dominant culture, and one of these obstacles is the Christian Right, which stands obdurately in the face of the very world in which it lives. At this point, their posture, and other antipathetic religions, seem ridiculous. We all know gay people, we all have gay people in our families, how can one sustain the belief that God hates these people? That they made some choice ( and so what if they did) to be who they are? My mind spins at the increasingly desperate, practically mystical arguments that get trotted out to defend a clearly untenable position.
No matter, things are changing. Making fun of gay people, threatening them or discriminating against them is no longer cool. Whether you think that Tracy Morgan was exercising the artistic freedom a comedian needs to explore dissonances in the world, or if you think he was merely a bigot with a stage, the result was the same. Contrite, he had to beg forgiveness:
"I know how bad bullying can hurt. I was bullied when I was a kid. I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it. I never want to use my comedy to hurt anyone. My family knew what it was like to feel different. My brother was disabled and I lost my father to AIDS in 1987. My dad wasn't gay but I also learned about homophobia then because of how people treated people who were sick with that. Parents should support and love their kids no matter what. Gay people deserve the same right to be happy in this country as everyone else. Our laws should support that. I hope that my fans gay, straight, whatever forgive and I hope my family forgives me for this."
Whether Morgan's mea culpa was sincere, prodded by his boss and LGBT champion Tina Fey or merely an example of economic self-interest is almost beside the point. Power is shifting and the darkest days of fear and shame for those in the gay community are surely disappearing, and hopefully nobody will ever have to hide in the closet again.
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'The World According to Jeff Goldblum' Is Precariously Close to Too Much Jeff Goldblum
Review: 'Playing with Fire' Lacks Any Spark of Life
Review: 'Doctor Sleep' Combines King And Kubrick For An Impossible Sequel That Really Shines
Review: 'Last Christmas' Offers Romance, Holiday Cheer, And Plenty Of WTF


Louise just won an EBay auction, several pages from on old photo album, 70 or so snapshots with 20+ of cross dressing women. We don't have them, yet, and it's difficult to see details, but there seem to be other queer images: 2 women dancing cheek-to-cheek, woman down on one knee in front of another. The body language says she's proposing. Louise is beside herself.


text:
Nup358 regulates microridge length by controlling SUMOylation-dependent activity of aPKC in zebrafish epidermis
Indrasen Magre, Vikas Fandade, Indraneel Damle, Poulomi Banerjee, Santosh Kumar Yadav, Mahendra Sonawane, Jomon Joseph
Indrasen Magre
National Center for Cell Science, S.P. Pune University Campus, Pune 411 007, India
ORCID record for Indrasen Magre
Vikas Fandade
ORCID record for Vikas Fandade
Indraneel Damle
Department of Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, India
ORCID record for Indraneel Damle
Poulomi Banerjee
ORCID record for Poulomi Banerjee
Santosh Kumar Yadav
ORCID record for Santosh Kumar Yadav
Mahendra Sonawane
For correspondence: mahendras@tifr.res.in josephj@nccs.res.in
Jomon Joseph
ORCID record for Jomon Joseph
The Par polarity complex, consisting of Par3, Par6 and atypical protein kinase C (aPKC), plays a crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity. Although activation of aPKC is critical for polarity, how this is achieved is unclear. The developing zebrafish epidermis, along with its apical actin-based projections, called microridges, offers a genetically tractable system for unraveling the mechanisms of the cell polarity control. The zebrafish aPKC regulates elongation of microridges by controlling levels of apical Lgl, which acts as a pro-elongation factor. Here, we show that the nucleoporin Nup358 (also known as RanBP2) – a component of the nuclear pore complex and a part of cytoplasmic annulate lamellae (AL) – SUMOylates zebrafish aPKC. Nup358-mediated SUMOylation controls aPKC activity to regulate Lgl-dependent microridge elongation. Our data further suggest that cytoplasmic AL structures are the possible site for Nup358-mediated aPKC SUMOylation. We have unraveled a hitherto unappreciated contribution of Nup358-mediated aPKC SUMOylation in cell polarity regulation.
This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
Conceptualization: I.M., I.D., S.Y., M.S., J.J.; Methodology: I.M., V.F., I.D., P.B., S.Y., M.S., J.J.; Software: M.S.; Validation: I.M., V.F., I.D., P.B.; Formal analysis: I.M., V.F., I.D., P.B., S.Y., J.J.; Investigation: J.J.; Resources: M.S.; Data curation: I.M., V.F.; Writing - original draft: I.M.; Writing - review & editing: I.M., V.F., M.S., J.J.; Visualization: J.J.; Supervision: M.S., J.J.; Project administration: J.J.
This work was supported by funding from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology (grant number BT/PR727/BRB/10/932/2011 to J.J.), Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (500129-Z-09-Z to M.S.) and intramural funding from NCCS and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (12P-0121), and through fellowships from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India to I.M., P.B. and S.K.Y., and from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to V.F.
aPKC
Cell polarity
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Landing Ship Tank (LST) was the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore. For further reading, Wikipedia has an article about the LST designation and the construction of the ships during WWII.
Armament (varied with availability when each vessel was outfitted.) Retro-fitting was accomplished throughout WWII.