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"I finished coaching four or five years ago and haven't had any involvement in the game. |
"Really enjoy it, good to be watching it and commentating on it." |
Hird said he still held resentment towards "some people" in the media, but was keen to move on. "The family went through a lot - as everyone's family at Essendon did during that time - but to step back in wasn't an easy decision and something that we've been weighing up for a couple of years," he said. |
"It was a hard time for everyone, the game, Essendon people, for the players for, our family, but there's a point where you move on and say 'enough is enough'. |
"Football has been a huge part of my life and given me a lot of things and I'd like to be part of it again." |
Hird also opened up on his mental health battles of 2017, when he spent five weeks in a specialist mental health care facility. |
"When you're going through something like depression you feel like you're at the bottom of a deep well and people are throwing bricks at your head and you can't get out of that period it takes its toll," Hird said. |
"It's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy but then when you come out of that, life feels even better. |
"When you spend five weeks in a mental institution trying to recover from severe depression I suppose you look at it and you say, 'Is there something to be ashamed of?'. |
"For me, what I'm more ashamed of is as a coach, not giving depression and mental health the respect it deserves. |
"We had a couple of players in institutions when I was coaching and the natural reaction was, 'Can't we just make them happy and they'll be okay?'. |
"That's the thing I'm more ashamed of than actually going through it. It was a very difficult time. |
"I was incredibly lucky that (wife) Tania was around and made the decision to put me in that institution to give me a chance to recover. But it's something I'd hate to go through again." |
premium_icon AFL Barometer: How will your club cover injured stars? |
The Mezquita-Catedral is the attraction everybody talks about, because it’s incredible. Originally a mosque, built in the 10th century, it later became a cathedral. Being local I don’t pay to get in, but anyone can get in for free by showing up at 8.30am while they’re preparing for the service – although they push you ... |
Locals don’t really feel at home in the bars and restaurants around the mosque; we go to places by the river at La Ribera, or in the commercial centre, the real centro, where most people live and shop. Jugo, my current favourite, is just outside the centro on Plaza San Andrés. A cross between bar and shop, it’s light, ... |
I go to La Bodega every day: it’s where I meet my parents. It’s a traditional taberna cordobesa, with barrels and bullfighting posters. It serves montilla fino (sherry) and really good cold dishes based on local produce, including – for me – the best salmorejo (cold tomato soup) in Córdoba, with really fresh tomatoes. ... |
Over the past 10 years people have tried to promote more independent, arty activities, but it’s hard because Córdoba is focused on history. The C3A gallery opened 18 months ago, and while there’s not much going on there yet, the “empty” concrete building designed by Nieto Sobejano is wonderful: it’s gorgeous how the co... |
Old-school summer cinemas run from the middle of June to mid-September. They’re perfect: you can watch films in the open air, on big courtyard patios surrounded by family homes. They have a small bar, and tables and chairs so you can bring food you’ve cooked at home, and the whole concept is very family-friendly. There... |
When visitors are looking for a house to stay in, rather than a hostel, I recommend Apartamentos La Alberca. Manuel and his family converted their home into seven flats, each with kitchen and sitting room, all sharing the alberca (an Arab-style plunge pool) and beautiful patio. It’s in the old town, near Plaza de la Co... |
We say in Córdoba that, as a city, we turned our backs on the river, and now we’re starting to face it again. La Ribera has a lot of interesting new bars. La Bicicleta cafe serves good coffee and natural fruit juices during the day, and is a good bar at night. I also like Clandestino, a cosy retro bar with good music a... |
Noor is the city’s most famous restaurant, run by chef Paco Morales and with a Michelin star. As a good, affordable alternative, I like La Tinaja: it’s on the river, with tables outside, and specialises in local dishes. Go for the white salmorejo (made from almonds instead of tomatoes), and the flamequín: pork wrapped ... |
The two-week Unesco-listed patio festival in May is very popular and can be too much. I never go, because visitors miss what’s most important – the social aspect, the local host explaining how they take care of their plants. The Alcázar Viejo Patios are in the old town, but quiet – like a little village inside the city... |
Get around the city by bike early in the morning or late at night, when there are fewer people about. For the best views of the city across the Guadalquivir river there’s a great route from Puerto de Almodóvar, along Calle Judíos, around the Mezquita and then across the Roman bridge; this is especially good late in the... |
The cartoon the Palestinian Authority’s official newspaper used to promote its libel against Israel. Photo: Palwatch.org. |
JNS.org – In a bloody twist on the Christmas spirit, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) official newspaper used Santa Claus to promote its libel against Israel claiming it carries out “executions” of innocent Palestinians. |
According to Jerusalem-based research organization Palestinian Media Watch, the cartoon is part of a larger libel against Israel surrounding the surge in terrorism that began a year ago in September and has been characterized by knifings and car-rammings. |
“After many Palestinian terrorists were killed while carrying out stabbing attacks during the terror wave in 2015-2016, the PA started to claim that Israel planted the knives next to the “innocent” Palestinian “victims,” Palestinian Media Watch noted. |
Another cartoon featured in the PA daily also depicted Santa Claus being accosted by two Israeli soldiers with Stars of David on their helmets. |
“Santa is held at gunpoint while the second soldier is holding a knife, presumably about to plant it next to Santa to fabricate a stabbing attack by Santa to create a pretext to murder him,” Palestinian Media Watch said. |
Creating a series based on true events comes with a unique set of hurdles, whether it's unraveling a complicated narrative, creating tension when the ending is known or casting actors who look and feel like the real people. |
In recent years, true crime and real-life events have seen a resurgence on scripted television. And while it's often said that truth is stranger than fiction, turning fact into compelling drama comes with its own challenges. |
"Reality is messy," says Rene Balcer, veteran producer of Law & Order, who this year spun the franchise that often rips cases straight from the headlines off into the NBC limited series True Crime: The Menendez Murders. "While a true-life story can offer the writer an abundance of ready-made riches, if you get into nar... |
In the case of the Menendez brothers' murder trial, source material was, indeed, abundant. "The logistics of the storytelling were daunting," says Balcer. "The Menendez case stretched over eight years, involved two trials — one trial had two revolving juries — two defendants, two sets of defense lawyers, two sets of pr... |
Not only did Balcer have to truncate the events into palatable form, he also had to tell a controversial story while keeping a risk-averse legal department happy. "If we were going to offend certain members of the family, we would only do so if the facts backed it up," he says. "Most of the family members believed that... |
As if creating a dramatically engaging narrative about one of the most sensitive events in U.S. history wasn't hard enough, in turning former FBI Agent Ali Soufan's and Lawrence Wright's accounts of the events leading up to 9/11 into a series, The Looming Tower creator Dan Futterman and his writers also had to have all... |
"We had a researcher who was footnoting every script, and often the lawyer would task her with coming up with some more footnotes: 'Where did this come from? What are you relying on? What's the conjecture here?'" says Futterman. "We were working under that kind of scrutiny." |
The issue they often faced was that their research appeared to contradict itself. "You have to decide what you believe is the most likely thing that actually happened," says Futterman of conveying the persistent conflicts between government agencies that rendered their counterterrorism investigations fatally ineffectiv... |
While both The Menendez Brothers and The Looming Tower take calculated liberties in regard to chronology and composite characters, Discovery Channel's Manhunt: Unabomber takes more dramatic creative license regarding one key event in particular. |
Centering on FBI agent Jim Fitzgerald's (played by Sam Worthington) investigation of the Unabomber case, which led the agency to Ted Kaczynski (Paul Bettany) based on his manifesto, the series features many key scenes of the two men going head to head — events that in reality never took place. |
"I said to everyone, 'There's no version of the show without the cop and the killer meeting,'" says executive producer John Goldwyn. Real-life Fitzgerald, who acted as a consultant on the series, initially took great exception to the scenes. "It was a very legitimate position for him to take," says Goldwyn. |
But the exec producer, whose casting of actors Worthington and Bettany was a major coup for Discovery Channel's relatively new foray into scripted fare, was adamant that this was a situation where taking liberties within the narrative was not just warranted but non-negotiable. |
"I said to [Fitzgerald], 'Jim, I understand. I really do. But when you have the opportunity to have actors of this caliber in your show, there is going to be an unspoken expectation from the viewer to see them face off,'" Goldwyn recalls. "He accepted it, and I think, in the end, embraced it." |
In his true crime anthology series Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac & The Notorious B.I.G. for USA, showrunner Kyle Long took similar liberties, creating a fictional meeting between the two detectives who put everything on the line for the investigation into the murders of the rap icons. |
"Greg Kading and Russell Poole never met," admits Long. "The meeting happened in real life between [police officer] Daryn Dupree and Russell Poole. It didn't happen with Kading there, so I cheated a little bit." |
Long wrestled with the decision, but ultimately found it was important for the show. "I knew it didn't fundamentally change the truth," he says. "These guys really did put everything into this case and they kind of got screwed over by the departments in the same way. I just felt like it was necessary and tied everythin... |
While Long dealt with sensitive material that implies both police corruption and criminal activity on the part of well-known entities that still roam free, the legal implications were not the reason he thought the show would never get made. "When I wrote this, part of the reason I thought it's just too hard [to realize... |
Long deferred to director Anthony Hemingway (Red Tails) when it came to the hiring of Marcc Rose as Tupac Shakur (the actor's only previous credit was a turn as Shakur in 2015's Straight Outta Compton) and the entirely unknown Wavyy Jonez as Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls. "One of the things Anthony and I are m... |
Jonez was discovered through a cellphone clip he sent in. "He'd never been at an audition," says Long. "It could have gone so wrong. They really stepped up." |
A retelling of any real-life event is guaranteed to invite critique. After they created Waco, Paramount Network's miniseries about the 51-day standoff between David Koresh's religious cult (known as the Branch Davidians) and the FBI and ATF that resulted in a fatal fire, killing 76 Branch Davidians, brother filmmakers... |
Appearing too sympathetic to the Branch Davidians is a reproach that they can accept. "The whole project came from a place of looking at the story differently," says Drew. "We were writing a 'bad guy' character, and to flesh it out more we wanted to give him a backstory, like, maybe he grew up at Waco and that insanity... |
Drew adds that reading David Thibodeau's 1999 book A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Storybook was "such an eye-opening experience for both of us. It was totally different from any narrative of Waco we had ever seen before." |
It is a story they feel could not have been told accurately without consultants from both sides of the conflict. While Thibodeau was on set to inform the actors about life inside the compound, FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner filled them in on the events outside it. "I remember, one day, looking over and seeing Thib... |
Adds Drew, "There were times in the script stage where Gary Noesner would say, 'Hey, this scene isn't completely fair.' We really wanted to honor that. Not just so they would stand behind the show, but so that we could feel that we got it right." |
While the challenge often is truncating an abundance of material, sometimes the dilemma is the opposite. In producing the follow-up to the hit limited series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, producer Nina Jacobson found that FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace proved a more difficult story to tell... |
"Whereas with the O.J. Simpson trial virtually every person involved with the story had written a book, in the case of Versace, we had much less information available to us," she says. |
The series creators based many of the key events in the story of Andrew Cunanan, who murdered the famous fashion designer outside his Miami home, on Maureen Orth's 2000 book Vulgar Favors. They gathered additional information from newspaper accounts and available video footage. "But what happened between David Madsen a... |
That's where the storytellers must rely heavily on what they call "emotional truth." "Marcia Clark used that phrase after she saw [People v. O.J.]. She said, 'It's not a documentary, but they captured the emotional truth of what happened,'" recalls Simpson, adding that producers did not, for either season, contact any ... |
But how does one tell the most compelling story where the outcome is already known? "I think it's really challenging," says Ken Biller, creator of National Geographic's Genius series, which this season features Pablo Picasso (played by Antonio Banderas). "So much of the tension of drama comes from the audience wonderin... |
Biller, who based much of the dialogue on letters and events on research, turned to nonlinear storytelling to create suspense within the narrative. "It's a technique where we could inject surprise and irony into events by juxtaposing what the younger character was expecting was going to happen with what really happened... |
While the consensus is that spinning reality into a working narrative is often a tougher nut to crack than fiction, those who have turned it into an art form have learned to embrace the challenge. |
"I've really gotten to enjoy it," says Biller. "We might know what happened when these characters emerge from the room, but we have to ask ourselves, 'What could they possibly have said to each other that would make them emerge from the room with this outcome?' It's a really fun challenge." |
Palin got to smoke pot without worrying about legal consequences and now wants to deny that assurance to fellow Alaskans doing exactly the same thing. "Palin doesn't support legalizing marijuana," the Anchorage Daily News reported in 2006, because she worries about "the message it would send to her four kids." |
It's Palin's job to teach her children that certain pleasures are reserved for grownups. The government should not continue to arrest adults who are harming no one simply because her children are easily confused. |
If I were Palin, I wouldn't be going around pontificating about the responsibility of adults to send the right messages to their kids, would you? |
Photo by Cody Tomer The OVAC High School Tennis Kick-off is slated for Saturday. To promote the event, players and coaches gathered at the Wheeling Park Bubble for a picture. Front, from left, John Marshall’s Sabrena Palmer, Wheeling Central’s Carmen Alexander and Debbie Pickens, president of the Wheeling Oglebay Tenni... |
WHEELING — The Wheeling Oglebay Tennis Club will present the fifth annual OVAC high school kick-off on Saturday at the Wheeling Park Indoor Tennis Facility. |
All prospective OVAC players are invited to attend the three-hour event, which will run from 1-4 p.m. Participants are asked to sign up with the WOTC by emailing the organization at wheelingoglebaytennisclub@gmail.com. Please provide name of the player, school name, grade level, email, and phone number. |
Players should arrive by 12:30 p.m. to complete paperwork and receive instructions for the various activities. Athletic attire and tennis shoes should be worn. Water will be provided. |
On-court drills and tennis fitness activities will be presented from 1-3 p.m. From 3-4 p.m., the participants will play competitive games/matches. |
Members of the West Liberty University men’s tennis team, under the supervision of Coaches Sam McCullough and George Frazier, will run drills focusing on forehands, backhands, volleys, overheads, and serves. McCullough said that the community has been very supportive of the WLU tennis program, and the team enjoys givin... |
George Frazier, exercise physiologist and assistant WLU men’s coach, will guide participants through activation exercises and warm-up drills. |
This event will provide players the opportunity to improve their skills before team tryouts. Although coaches are not permitted to work with their players prior to the official spring season, they are invited to observe the training and drills that will be shared at this one day program. |
In case of inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled for Saturday, Feb. 23. |
Approximately 70 players from 12 OVAC schools attended last year’s kick-off. |
In addition to this event for OVAC athletes, the WOTC will be hosting an elementary play day, Millie Mulhern Youth Tennis, and summer camps at Oglebay this year. For information on any of the programs sponsored by the WOTC, email the club at wheelingoglebaytennisclub@gmail.com. |
Animal Paradise Wild happens to be another casually entertaining game for the Nintendo DS…although I can’t say that it looks bad. In fact, it’s one of the best looking games to come out for the DS, ever. And if you don’t believe me, feel free to pass your own scrutiny over the screenshots. |
Well, with graphics like that why wouldn’t the game sell? Ah, right…casual gamers don’t care about graphics. Anyway, gamers will venture throughout Animal Island Park with ranger Natalie as their guide. 18 various animals will be available for the love and care only a gamer can impart. How quaint. |
We’ll keep you posted on further news and updates regarding the release and price of Animal Paradise Wild. Until then, be sure to stay tuned in with Blend Games for more news and updates on all things gaming. |
What's the solution to Apple's stinginess about Google getting an official Google Voice app on the iPhone App Store? A webapp that has about all the functionality, but usable on any HTML5-capable smartphone. |
The webapp mimics the functionality of hitting up Google Voice on your desktop. You can make calls, send texts, listen to voicemails, change your settings and access your contacts all from your phone's browser. It syncs up with your Google account's contact list—not your iPhone's contact list—so you'll have to make sur... |
Unlike the Google Voice app now, which calls your phone first and then connects the other party, you actually dial out directly into the Google Voice service, which then hooks you up with who you're trying to reach. It's going to be like the 406 numbers that Google Voice users are used to using for shortcuts to their c... |
Google also tells us that you can add dialing credits directly from the phone if you want to make overseas calls, saving you the trouble of having to get on a computer. |
All in all, the experience is solid and fluid, mimicking an iPhone app as best as possible on a web interface. If we had any gripes, it would be that when you're texting someone from your contacts list, it only grabs the phone number and doesn't display the name after it. Also, that you can't text multiple recipients. ... |
Between 1,500 and 2,000 students protested in Galway today in the run up to next month’s budget. |
STUDENTS FROM NUI Galway, the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and Athlone IT gathered in Galway city centre this afternoon in protest before next month’s budget. |
Gardai estimated a turnout of between 1,500 and 2,000 students who were protesting against proposed fees of €3,000 in 2015 as well as further grant cuts. |
The protest was organised as part of the ‘Fed Up? Stand Up’ campaign by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). |
The protest came as tens of thousands of students continue to wait for their student grants to be processed. |
Led by the USI, the march started in Eyre Square before moving to the offices of Labour TD for Galway West Derek Nolan. |
Students should be allowed to lobby and it is healthy to protest. As a government TD, I can see the rationale for them marching to my office. I don’t see it as being hostile towards me. I have previously met students from both NUI Galway and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and understand the pressure that they ... |
USI and Students’ Union representatives are set to present their own set of arguments against fee increases and grant cuts to government tomorrow, as well as alternative ways in which third-level can be funded. |
USI President John Logue said their campaign was starting to build momentum. “Our public meetings on the cost of college are attracting hundreds of students, parents and concerned members of local communities,” he said. |
Email “Students in pre-budget protest against fee increases and grant cuts”. |
Feedback on “Students in pre-budget protest against fee increases and grant cuts”. |
Recreational drones as small as 9 ounces will have to be registered, but users should be able to go through the process online, with no fees, and the same registration number can be used for multiple drones: Those are among the reported recommendations emerging from last week’s meeting of a task force charged with prop... |
The task force, which includes representatives from Amazon, Walmart, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and other industry types as well as hobbyists, met in Washington under the auspices of the Federal Aviation Administration. It hasn’t yet issued any formal findings, but reports from The Associated Press, The Washing... |
The FAA and the Department of Transportation want to hustle up the establishment of a registration system – in part because of some high-profile drone fails, and in part because so many of the small-scale flying vehicles are expected to be sold during the holiday season. By some accounts, there could be 700,000 drones ... |
One of the task force’s jobs was to suggest where to draw the line between drones that have to be registered and toys that can go unregistered. The line was reportedly set relatively low – at 250 grams, or a little less than 9 ounces. As a trade-off, the registration system would be made free and relatively simple: Use... |
William “Bill” Samuel Dunsmore, 79, of Rainycrest Home for the Aged, Fort Frances, Ont., passed away Sunday, Dec. 14, 1997 at his residence. |
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