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Meet our 2016 12 x 12 Scholarship Winners!
Home BLOG 12 x 12 Scholarship Fund Meet our 2016 12…
Darshana KhianiJamie LB DeenihanMatt TesorieroMeghan DanielsWe Need Diverse Books
Let’s ring in the New Year by congratulating and welcoming our 2016 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge Scholarship winners!
In 2014, the 12 x 12 community generously donated funds to provide four scholarships in two categories — Diversity and Financial Need — for pre-published picture book authors. The generosity continued in 2015–our members donated again to fund four scholarships. The purpose behind these scholarships is to cultivate underrepresented voices in children’s picture books and to provide an opportunity for dedicated writers to join 12 x 12 who might not otherwise be able to.
It is with great pleasure, and sincere thanks to the 12 x 12 community, that I announce the 2016 scholarship recipients.
Diversity Scholarship Recipients
Darshana Khiani is a second-generation Indian-American who was raised in the United States. Darshana is also an engineer who has worked in the computer industry for over twenty years.
Darshana is a SCBWI member and a member of the 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge. She served as a judge for the Cybils Book Awards in 2011 for the Early Reader category and then again in 2012 for Fiction Picture Books. She recently completed a picture book mentorship with author Kathi Appelt.
Darshana says, “One of my writing goals is to write stories about Indian-American characters that center on universal kid themes so readers of any race can relate. As an engineer working in the computer industry for over twenty years, I also hope to be a role model for other Indian-Americans by showing them that members of our community can become writers as well as pursuing medical, law, engineering, or business careers.”
Matt Tesoriero was born into a large Italian American family in rural Upstate New York. He was first exposed to children’s picture books while listening to his mom read aloud to a couch full of five siblings.
As a young man it took Matt many years for me to the world and to himself that he was gay. He hopes to channel his struggle and triumph into writing both sensitive and humorous LGBTQ-themed picture books.
Matt is a member of SCBWI and the 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge. Matt lives and breathes fitness, cooks Grandma’s meatballs, and volunteers helping people living with HIV AIDS and Breast Cancer.
Matt says, “I want to share funny, lovable characters who happen to be gay but illustrate that although these characters face unique challenges, in the end we all face one universal truth–wanting to be be accepted.”
Financial Need Scholarship Recipients
Jamie L.B. Deenihan lives in Connecticut, near the family farm she grew up on, with her husband and their four feisty boys (two human, two canine.) She’s an Elementary Education teacher and certified Reading Specialist who has taught first grade in Western Massachusetts since 2005. She’s a member of SCBWI, the 12 x 12 Challenge, and two remarkable critique groups. Jamie is currently taking time away from teaching to be a stay at home mom and advocate for her husband who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in April 2015. Besides supporting her husband through two surgeries and a year-long chemotherapy treatment plan, Jamie spends her time doing picture book research and enjoys outdoor adventures with her sons. She writes early in the morning, during naptimes, and late at night (always with her journal, a cup of tea, and stash of dark chocolate within reach).
Jamie says, “There’s nothing more satisfying than reading an exceptional picture book to my students or sons, or watching a child snuggled up, reading/reciting their favorite book. As a writer, my goal is to create beautifully crafted picture books with unique perspectives and unexpected twists. I want to write books that children will read over and over again because they find them humorous, heartfelt, or relatable. I also want to show my family that with hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.”
Meghan Daniels has been writing for as long as she can remember with a focus on picture books for the last few years. She is an active member of her local SCBWI chapter. In the summer of 2014 she attended Super Children’s Book Boot Camp at the Highlights Foundation with the help of a partial scholarship and crowdfunding. Since then she has taken online classes and attended multiple workshops and classes at the Writing Barn in Austin, TX. She has done this while working full time and dealing with a series of medical issues. She is currently revising, revising, revising, and hoping 2016 brings her good health and her very own agent.
Meghan says, “I can be a pretty verbose person so I was surprised to discover when writing picture books that I really love the task of making a meaningful story in so few words. It’s such a great challenge to write a story that has heart, is fun and/or meaningful for kids, but isn’t too didactic.”
Congratulations to this talented group of writers, and WELCOME to 12 x 12!
*General registration for 12 x 12 in 2016 will be open from January 12 – February 29.
Meet the 2019 12 x 12 Scholarship Winners!
Let's ring in the New Year by congratulating and welcoming our 2019 12 x 12 Picture…
News From the 12 x 12 Scholarship Fund
I like to think of 12 x 12 as the greatest writing community on earth.…
2018 12 x 12 Scholarship Winners!
Meet our 2017 Scholarship Winners!
Kerry Aradhya says:
Congratulations to all the scholarship winners!!
Congrats everyone. Way to go Darshana!
Jeanette Bradley says:
Congratulations to all of you! Here’s to a great 2016!
Sunny Walker says:
Your stories inspire – so pleased you were honored in this way. Congratulations one and all@
Rita Lorraine says:
Congratulations scholarship winners. See you in the forums!
Congratulations! You’re all winners in my book!
MaryMunson says:
Wow this is so inspirational, congratulations everyone!
Leave a Reply to Rita Lorraine Cancel comment reply
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Here’s how Blackstone and Allianz respond to rising interest rates As rates rise, RE investors shift to cheaper cities, debt
From left: Nadeem Meghji, Gary Phillips and Brahm Cramer
UPDATED, Apr. 25, 1:22 p.m.: On Tuesday, the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds hit 3 percent for the first time since January 2014, heightening fears that the real estate market could be entering a period of rising interest rates and falling property prices.
At Mazars USA’s commercial real estate summit Tuesday, some of the country’s largest institutional real estate owners discussed how to cope with this changing environment. They pointed to two trends: a shift from cities like New York to secondary markets like Nashville or Portland where price growth is higher, and a growing interest in issuing debt.
“For us, at this point in the cycle, the focus is really avoid super-long-term leased, bond-like real estate that doesn’t grow in what is potentially a rising interest-rate environment, and really focus on those places where you can see that cash-flow上海夜网
growth.” said Nadeem Meghji, head of the Blackstone Group’s real es阿拉爱上海同城
tate business in the Americas. He cited warehouses across the U.S., lab offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and West Coast cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles as areas where he sees potential profits.
“The high-cost states are really paying the price,” said Brahm Cramer, co-head of real estate investment at AllianceBernstein. Last year, the company decided to move employees to cheaper cities to cut costs, and Cramer said the internal deliberations reinforced his belief in the strength o爱上海同城对对碰
f Southern cities. “What was interesting to me was when we were pitching this idea of moving people to a different geography, how compelling and competitive some of these other low-tax, high-growth states are, and the opportunities that come with it,” he said.
Meanwhile, a growing number of real estate investors are issuing debt, rather than buying properties, in an attempt to cash in on rising interest rates and protect themselves against a market downturn.
“Every developer has a debt fund now. I’ve never seen more debt funds in the market in my career,” said CBRE Global Investors’ Gary Jaye.
Avison Young s James Nelson also noticed growing interest in debt. “It seems that every developer that we speak to with a piece of land says Maybe I won’t buy, but maybe I’ll lend on it,’ he said. “I don’t want to call them loan-to-own or predatory, but they probably wouldn’t mind if they got the keys back to the property.”
While the panelists acknowledged that the New York market as a whole faces headwinds, no one expects doom and gloom. One reason: the sheer amount of institutional money seeking investments.
“With who we have in the White House right now, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Gary Phillips, head of U.S. real estate acquisitions at Allianz, which bought a stake in 1515 Broadway last year. “We’re not hitting the pause button like some others in the market. We just can’t do that, and there’s too much capital on the sidelines that needs to get to work.”
CBRE Global Investors, meanwhile, is turning to an u阿爱上海同城
nlikely asset class in its hunt for yield: retail. Last week, news broke that the CBRE subsidiary agreed to buy stakes in certain malls owned by General Growth Properties as part of the REIT’s acquisition by Brookfield Property Partners.
“As (interest) rates go up, are cap rates going to go up, or are we just爱上海
going to settle for a lower return? And I think the answer is we’re going to settle for a lower return,” said CBRE s Jaye. “The darker that it looks right now, and the uncertainty that’s out there, the more of that, the better the opportunity.”
Correction: an earlier version of this post wrongfully attributed a quote to Brahm Cramer. It was Gary Jaye who said “Every developer has a debt fund now.
Tags: blackstone group, Commercial Real Estate
[how does the biscuit that bake do without butter] _ does _ how to do –
Article introduction Surging thoughts or emotions of a lot of moment comes of blood when wanting to make small cookie, disappointed however him discovery does not have butter in the home and abandon, set those who do biscuit to cannot do not have butter to participate in without who however. Butter is used in great […]
“My expectations were way too high”: Related CEO Jorge Pérez slas爱上海 hes price on his condo Jorge Perez paid $4M for his penthouse in 2016, then first listed it for $20M Jorge Pérez and his Miami Beach condo (Credit: Douglas Elliman) UPDATED, May 8, 1:52 p.m.: The vi爱上海同城手机版 ew from the throne is looking bleak […]
Telangpu faces proposal of punish of beautiful congress thrust ” the Incantation of the Golden hoop “
Washington of Xinhua News Agency on July 26 report (Liu Jiafei of Zhou Erjie of reporter Liu Chen) Boule of United States Congress is held with 25 days with 419 tickets, 3 tickets object vote the result passes second reading, the requirement implements new sanction to Russia, Iran and Korea the Three Kingdoms, restrict American […]
East Hampton home of actress Dina Merrill, whose mother built Mar
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Galaxy Note 9 launch video leaks online
Tópico: Galaxy Note 9 launch video leaks online
Galaxy Note 9 launch video leaks online - tech
(hx) 10:04 AM EDT - Aug,03 2018 - Post a comment
Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 isn't being unveiled until August 9, but with so many leaks arriving right now, will there be much left to reveal at the Unpacked event? The latest comes from the company itself, which appears to have accidentally leaked the official launch promo video online. Samsung refers to its upcoming handset as "super powerful" in the clip. We get confirmation that the rear fingerprint sensor has moved from the Note 8's annoying off-center position next to the flash, to a central point below the dual cameras. There's also a USB Type-C port on show, along with a headphone jack-something Samsung is sticking with, despite many other phone manufacturers abandoning the port.
Samsung calls the device "1 terabyte ready," which relates to the 512GB SD card being removed from the machine, rather than the Note 9 somehow boasting 1TB of internal storage. But it does mean a 512GB variant will be available. It also mentions the Note's "all day battery," which it focused on in a teaser video last week. The handset is said to feature a 4,000mAh battery, besting the Note 8's 3,300mAh version.
The video gives us a look at the "all new powerful" S Pen, but there's no mention of the Bluetooth functionality we heard about in previous rumors. Maybe that's something Samsung is holding back until the press event.
Samsung already has a launch page up and ready for those wishing to pre-order a Note 9, and an alleged spec list has been leaked by a Russian retailer. It lists a 6.4-inch QHD+ sAMOLED display and a variable aperture dual 12-megapixel camera setup like the one from the Galaxy S9.
Navegação Rápida Hardware e Software Topo
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For further information about its price, provenance, packing and handling etc., please contact us at galeria.artyzm@gmail.com
Koniczek - Three Windows (02295)
Krzysztof Koniczek
"Three Windows”
acrylic on canvas,
Krzysztof Koniczek was born in Olecko. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan in the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture. Graduated from Prof. Waldemar Swierzy Studio.
He had his first individual exhibition in the middle of 1980s - at the time when the young were really angry as a result of the crisis of the avant-garde from 1970s, both European and American. When we add that it was accompanied by the disappointment with politics, sociotechniques and mass culture, the phenomena prevalent at that time, such a search for new aesthetics and attitude in general, become clear. That search appeared in such radical form that the critics did not hesitate to call those extremely expressive actions of young artists “a safety pin in the chick of modern art”. That was the time when the artist expressed himself, and only himself, without rationalism and logic. All the old and new canons of Beauty were discarded; punk rock and reggae were performed, and video art and performers, the new “wild” ones, reigned in galleries.
Koniczek’s earliest canvases were the planes ostentatiously neglecting the classical composition, in addition with the colouring built upon the clash of red and green or blue and orange. Kasimir Edschmid wrote about such painting in one of the most important confessions of expressionists: “An expressionist does not see, but looks. He does not record, but lives. He does not reproduce, but creates. He does not select, but seeks.” Salome’s press comment from 1980 also perfectly squares with Koniczek’s first individual exhibition in Poznan: “ For me it is not a question of style, but the attitude to life. It is connected with the feeling of being free, with unconstrained work...”
In the second stage of his artistic activity, and he is the artist who works a lot, Koniczek, not resigning from the painting “full of paint and brush”, enriches it with the forms characteristic of the poster. At that time he creates more organized, less intuitive and spontaneous canvases, nevertheless always very expressive. It is always, and above all, the expression of colour pertaining to the world of emotions. It is the aesthetics based on contrast, the contrast of both the tones, saturation, brightness and the temperature of the colour. The painter, being aware of the intensity with which the colour operates, both in the cultural and the physiologic sense, aware of the symbolic nature and the psychology of the perception of colour, composes his canvases around the basic pair: red and green. This contrast forms an axle around which conspicuous colours appear, such as “squeezed out of tube” orange, yellow, blue, which form a dialog, often changing into a shout. Such an expressive colour is in a natural way accompanied by the texture of the canvases: rough, sometimes approximating a relief in which the trace of the master’s hand has been impressed. The mark of a brush, the lumps of paint, all this is visible in a purely physical way, but on the other hand, there are the trails of light and some glowing points, because it is due to the light that these canvases are amazingly both material and metaphysical.
Most of Koniczek’s canvases are abstract compositions, because in such unlimited space the mystery of colour may be accomplished much easier. These were the paintings pulsating with just volcanic energy, and it is no wonder that many of them are dominated by the colour of flowing lava. Yet, it does exhaust to the end neither the painter’s curiosity nor his need to dwelling in the mystery of forms. Therefore, the geometric shape appears in his compositions, what is more in the form of the sphere – the most perfect one of all. In this way the painter transfers the viewer from the space of the mad colour into a space of the cosmic order, but this is not the end of the journey because the composition of his canvases clearly begins to resemble a landscape.
The first experience is the mysterious sight of a fracture in a rocky massif, but soon there appear canvases clearly referring to Turner’s landscapes.
Luteracki, Jaroslaw | Tylek, Sophia and Andrew | Hulewicz, Jerzy (1886 - 1941) | Domurat, Pawel | Jaśko, Mariola | Pennards-Sycz, Justyna | Zietara, Robert | Izdebski-Cruz, Krzysztof | Zywolewski, Stanislaw | Dybala, Beata i Jan | Kulesza, Jozef | Gulbinowicz, Barbara | Mularczyk, Urszula | Minciel, Eugeniusz | Wisniewski, Krzysztof | Adamczyk, Piotr | Zarow, Diana | Wiszniewski, Eugeniusz | Trzaska, Krzysztof | Kaleta, Dariusz | Mozyro, Elzbieta (Mirela) | Selin, Marlena | Palucha, Jacek | Setowski, Tomasz | Maslanka, Mariusz | Ralicka, Justyna | Stokfisz Delarue, Jan | Garwol, Pawel | Kukowski, Jaroslaw | Kazmierczak, Halina | Szumska, Joanna | Sumiga, Jan | Dabrowski, Krzysztof |
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Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia.
Join Date: Oct 29, 2015 9:30:42 GMT
Last Online: Jun 13, 2016 9:16:02 GMT
Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 6, 2016 10:41:12 GMT ben545 likes this
Post by Brendan on Apr 6, 2016 10:41:12 GMT
Do you think the book would make a good movie?
Yes, because I have seen the movie as well as read the book and I believe it has similarities, but I feel that the movie did an extraordinary job better on capturing an adventure and feeling especially the scene when "Regina Spektor ~ The Call" executes the end scene I thought that was perfect for fitting the mood and by the way, I absolutely love her music I thought she added a great sense of imagination I believe that C.S Lewis would have picked that if he was still able. So yes it was a great movie but it had the same issues within the book that Aslan saves the day at the end. You should definitely go check it out.
Did you feel it was the kind of book you couldn't put down because it was so engaging? Was the book well paced?
Yes, it was somewhat addictive because his writing was so nice and easily one of the most renowned children's authors around. So effective within simplicity and creatively captures the true imagination and heart. He writes with passion within the surroundings and to achieve an individual message. The book was, in fact, a nice story was well paced within the adventure, however, I believe his weakness was, in fact, Aslan, I stated in my previous ranting about him seems to use him as get away card a lazy way out I just wished he created Aslan more like a creative feedback.
Do you think Caspian would have been able to step up and lead the old Narnians in the fight against Miraz' army and won his rightful throne?
Sadly I'm afraid he would lose. Because it seems that Aslan always appears when the chosen four is around in Narnia which it's a shame because C.S Lewis didn't execute the religion part really well because did not Caspian believe within the narratives of the old Narnia? He believed in talking trees, talking creatures and even lions but Aslan does not seem to appear only to Lucy, at first, he also didn't lose his faith also. I would love to have read that Aslan gives him some guidance and some strength and some inspirational feedback within his hardest and darkest of times without the four within his personal scenarios.
Have you guys given any thought as to how space and time communicate between the worlds?
It's like in BTVS Anne when Buffy goes in that dimension but over 100 years pass but it's only a day in our reality so I believe it's just different worlds within different time scales colliding together.
Last Edit: Apr 6, 2016 10:42:44 GMT by Brendan
My favourite actress in action.
ezzz
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Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 7, 2016 22:34:41 GMT Dillon, Avengium, and 1 more like this
Post by ezzz on Apr 7, 2016 22:34:41 GMT
How do you think the book would have differed if the four children had not been involved/ returned to Narnia? Do you think Caspian would have been able to step up and lead the old Narnians in the fight against Miraz' army and won his rightful throne?
I think that if the children had not returned then Miraz would have won the fight against the old Narnians. The old Narnians were all quite divided on what they believed in, such as Caspian, Cornelius and Trufflehunter having faith that the children would return and Nikabrik wanting to bring back the White Witch. Alternatively, had Nikabrik succeeded in persuading the others then perhaps she would have won the battle but then Narnia would only be dictated in a different, equally bad way.
Why do think Peter battles Miraz in the duel and not Caspian?
Admittedly, I was a little disappointed when Caspian did not stand up to fight against his uncle but I understand that Peter would have been the better, more experienced warrior. It did seem a little as though everyone with the exception of Nikabrik was deferring responsibility onto the children because of the stories that they had heard about them, so I suppose it was only appropriate there their grand return culminated in Peter taking the mantle and deciding to fight on their behalf.
Was anyone else surprised about how long it took the children to realize that such a great deal of time had passed between their previous visit to Narnia and this one?
I suppose that the children would have expected Narnia to be the same as when they left it. They would have had an image of the time that they spent there in their head, and stored that as the image of how they would hope that Narnia would stay in their absence, so when they returned and found that life was no longer what it used to be, it that would be difficult to wrap their heads around.
Do you think it would have made more sense if the children had returned to Narnia in the same state in which they had left (adults)? Have you guys given any thought as to how space and time communicate between the worlds?
Narnia seems to exist on a different realm from Earth so it seems plausible to me that they would return the way in which the entered it from the train station. You could liken it to time travel, where although they may be in a realm where time moves differently from Earth and they can age to the laws of that place whilst they are there, their bodies are still following the laws of nature on Earth when they return home to England and because time moves faster whilst they are away, then they won't have aged as much when they return. It's a little complicated for what is essentially a children's book, I quite understand why it wasn't addressed in much detail.
Last Edit: Apr 7, 2016 22:37:26 GMT by ezzz
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Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 8, 2016 2:41:30 GMT Brendan likes this
Post by Dillon on Apr 8, 2016 2:41:30 GMT
Brendan , I love the Buffy reference!!
@ezzz , I liked your answers. I think the children provided Caspian and the Narnians guidance by presenting themselves through their status and power. Since they had been the kings and queens in Narnia's past, they used their power and authority to make the final decisions. It was them who decided which path to take from Cair Paravel to Aslan's How and it was them who decided to present a duel to Miraz rather than fighting a full-on battle. Brendan , I think Aslan's guidance to Caspian comes after the book's end; it is revealed that Peter and Susan have learned all they need to know from Narnia, that Edmond and Lucy will return since they have not, and that in the meantime until Edmond and Lucy's return it is up to Caspian to rule the new era of Narnia. As the children return home, I think Aslan stuck around the new kingdom to help Caspian gain his footing in becoming the leader of Narnia.
ben545 , it is never revealed how old Caspian is, right? I assume Caspian is approximately the age of Susan, at least. Peter would therefore not be much older than Caspian. I think the reason that Peter was the one to request the duel was that Miraz would be much less likely to duel Caspian, his own nephew; whereas Peter is this ancient king of old Narnia who Miraz has no reason to believe he even exists because its been so long since Peter has been in Narnia.
I liked the innocence and naivety that was shown of the children when they were unaware that they happened to be in Narnia; however, it makes me wonder if at first they wondered if they were still in the Earth realm while first arriving on the beach.
I had never thought of the time and space relationship like that, @ezzz . You're basically saying that they follow the time and space laws of the location in which they are present, but the time laws of the location in which they reside will always be dominant. So like you are saying, the children will age according to Narnia time whilst in Narnia, but will always revert back to whichever state their home realm would have had put them in. To put this in perspective, if the scenario was flipped and a Narnian transported to Earth, he would age according to Earth time, but would return to Narnia greatly aged?
Last Edit: Apr 8, 2016 2:41:58 GMT by Dillon
Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 8, 2016 8:40:16 GMT Dillon likes this
Post by Brendan on Apr 8, 2016 8:40:16 GMT
Dillon and ezzz amazing posts I absolutely loved reading them!
I always had this theory ever since when I finished the first book. Do you think Narnia is a place that the children can heal for example, like a daydream or asleep to dream the impossible, but feeling confident and happier within each other because of their journey? Because to me it feels like when there go back to Narnia and here in England it feels there have some kind of emotions of anxiety, feeling scared or nervous about something all their inner emotions in England, travel with them to Narnia so everything seems to be different because it's a different fear there are fearing and need to conquer? just some thoughts.
I always thought... Please don't laugh at my theories just my imagination going wild. I always thought Aslan was there...
SPOILER: Click to show
Dad. He died in the war and departed to the world where he can watch over to his children and send substances of assurance also self-confidence so when there do return to England there would seem more positive and headstrong within that unpleasant world especially within the era of the second world war. Personally, I don't believe Aslan is their father that just being wacky. Aslan is a mimic of the messiah. But it would have been cool even better I would say if Aslan was their dad it would have made a huge significance and sense why he is so involved within the four.
Do you think Aslan created adventures for other children in our reality not just those four?
Last Edit: Apr 8, 2016 8:45:14 GMT by Brendan
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Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 8, 2016 11:34:33 GMT via mobile Brendan likes this
Post by Avengium on Apr 8, 2016 11:34:33 GMT
I'm trying to finish "Prince Caspian" but i'm not engaged with the book. I'm 80% but is difficult. We can continue with the following book.
The Aslan appeareance in the river that noone believes reminds me everytime i think a metaphor about believers in a faith, that they don't practice. And for this reason they can't see Aslan in this circumstances. Only when they believe.
Aslan for me is the messiah, can be "Balder" (scandinavian, apilgriminnarnia.com/2014/11/26/baldar/), "Jesus" or another messiah. His death in the stone table is like Jesus death in the cross.
Last Edit: Apr 8, 2016 11:51:09 GMT by Avengium
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Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 8, 2016 12:49:36 GMT Brendan likes this
Post by Dillon on Apr 8, 2016 12:49:36 GMT
Personally I never saw Aslan as a representation of a messiah. I'm not much of a religious person because I am not quite sure yet what I believe when it comes to religion and faith; it's because of this that I tend not to find many religious allusions within book. After you have mentioned it though, I can see the connection you are making. I don't see Aslan as a messiah or any particular religious figure nor do I see Aslan as a representation of the childrens' father. I choose to believe that their father is still safe while away at war; I want to believe that despite their Earth problems that their father will eventually come home to them. I want that for the children as I'm sure that some of their problems stem from not having their father home with them.
But since I am not much of a religious person, I can see something like Aslan being killed on the stone table as being a secular act. It does allude to the crucifixion, but from my pov, it's a heroic act performed by Aslan while a pure evil pleasure by the White Witch and her followers for them to kill Aslan. Although my pov is different, I appreciate yours'; I like that we can all contribute different thoughts and opinions.
I definitely think that Narnia is a way to escape their home problems, but I think that is where the line is drawn. I do think they learn valuable lessons while there that will help them later in life as they grow up in England; but until then I think Narnia just acts as sort of a precarious oasis. I feel that when the children return to England that they also return to their problems. The children will always have their memories of Narnia to look back upon on a rainy day in which they need a reminder of better times, but I don't think their experiences in Narnia relieve any pressures from their home lives. I also see that Narnia helped the children bond and strengthen their relationships with each other; they are all definitely closer than they were before. Maybe not their second trip to Narnia, but their first trip in which they grew into adults, I think this gave the children a great opportunity. Because they matured once already in Narnia, it might be a little easier the second time around as they mature on Earth. All in all, Narnia was a tremendously beneficial experience for the children.
Hmmm… I really don't know. The Pevensie children seemed to stumble into Narnia due to a prophecy that they would become the kings and queens of Narnia after defeating the White Witch and her terrible reign. The Pevensie children seemed to be a big deal. I'm not sure how Narnia could have helped other children. Perhaps other children have happened to stumble into Narnia (hopefully not while under the Witch's rule since humans were thought of a threats), but they didn't fulfill prophecies of any sort. Other children would most likely see some creatures, most likely not Aslan considering his scarcity, have a little fun and shortly return home.
MOTM March '16
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Join Date: Jun 28, 2015 9:36:36 GMT
Last Online: Jul 19, 2019 4:34:38 GMT
Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 8, 2016 14:14:09 GMT Avengium, Brendan, and 1 more like this
Post by ben545 on Apr 8, 2016 14:14:09 GMT
Just wanted to say that it is widely accepted that C.S.Lewis was a devoted Christian and that the Narnia books have been described as an allegory to that of the stories in the Bible, just saying. (I know some of you know this already).....Looking forward to the next book now, come on @ezzz!! Get a move on. Hopefully your book choice will be free to download too.
^ Thanks for the insight. Knowing that going in I may have noticed more allusions to Christianity; but perhaps not since I am not familiar with the more intricate details of the bible.
Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. Apr 8, 2016 20:51:07 GMT via mobile ben545 and Brendan like this
Apr 8, 2016 14:14:09 GMT ben545 said:
also nordic mythology and specially the Myth of Balder resounded a lot with C. S. Lewis. And Balder dies at the hands of Loki. But after the ragnarok, in the new world, Balder lives again.
Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. May 10, 2016 14:22:46 GMT
Post by Brendan on May 10, 2016 14:22:46 GMT
I created these when I was reading The Lion, The Witch, and The wardrobe. Tumblr style graphics.
Queen Of Narnia (Susan)
^ Planing to make more well, if I eventually have the time. And this a picspam of the film.
The Lion, The Witch, and The wardrobe.
I hope you guys like these fan arts.
Book Club 1: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. May 11, 2016 21:38:43 GMT Brendan likes this
Post by ezzz on May 11, 2016 21:38:43 GMT
May 10, 2016 14:22:46 GMT Brendan said:
These are great! You definitely have an eye for aesthetics.
@ezzz WOW, thank you so much!
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Posts by Topic: Costa Rica RSS feed
Relive the USA vs. Costa Rica snow game as it happened on social media
By Daniel Boniface
United States forward Clint Dempsey (8) scores a goal against Costa Rica goalkeeper Keilor Navas (1) during the first half of a FIFA 2014 World Cup Qualifier at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on March 22, 2013, in Commerce City, Colorado. The United States led Costa Rica 1-0 after the first half. (Daniel Petty, The Denver Post file)
Denver got about a foot of snow in Wednesday’s blizzard, but spring snow is nothing new here in Colorado. And it happens in a flash.
Lest we forget, it was exactly three years and a day ago that Colorado hosted its most epic soccer game in state history: the “SnowClasico” — USA vs. Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifying game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The USA battled through the snow for a 1-0 win.
Conditions were sunny and clear hours before the game, but things quickly deteriorated as snow and wind moved in. Soon, the conversation turned to whether officials would use an orange or yellow ball. Or whether the game would be canceled entirely.
Using the power of social media, here’s a retelling of that crazy night in Commerce City that no U.S. national team fan will soon forget. You can find an archive of our live blog from the March 22, 2013 match here.
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Categories: Colorado Rapids, International, U.S. National Team
Costa Rica vs. Colombia women’s national teams to play at Metro State
By Joe Nguyen
Mexico’s Greta Espinoza, left, vies for the ball with Lady Andrade of Colombia, during the women’s football final of the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games, in, Veracruz, Mexico, on Nov. 27, 2014. (Ronaldo Schemidt, AFP via Getty Images)
The Costa Rica and Colombia women’s national soccer teams will play a friendly match at 6 p.m. May 31 at The Regency Athletic Complex at Metro State, the school announced Thursday.
The match is in preparation for the 2015 FIFA World Cup, which begins June 6 in Canada. Costa Rica is in Group E with Brazil, Korea Republic and Spain. Colombia is in Group F with France, England and Mexico.
Admission to the game is free.
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Categories: World Cup
Colorado Rapids’ Clint Irwin optimistic about U.S. World Cup chances in “Group of Death”
United States head coach Jurgen Klinsmann from Germany arrives for the draw ceremony for the 2014 soccer World Cup in Costa do Sauipe near Salvador, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. (Silvia Izquierdo, The Associated Press)
The soccer gods smiled on the U.S. in 2010, when they landed in a World Cup group with England, Algeria and Slovenia. But, the Americans weren’t so lucky this time around.
“It’s definitely the hardest group there is,” Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Clint Irwin said Friday. “You look at the teams, and this is probably the toughest World Cup there’s ever been, and the U.S. are in the toughest group, the ‘Group of Death.’”
If you take any stock in FIFA’s world rankings, they support the “Group of Death” label for Group G, made up of Germany (2), Portugal (5), Ghana (24) and the United States (14). As Greg Lalas, Editor In Chief of MLSSoccer.com pointed out in a Tweet, the average rank of the four teams in Group G is about 11th. Group D made up of Uruguay (6), Costa Rica (31), England (13) and Italy (7), came in next with an average rank of about 14th.
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Categories: Colorado Rapids
Clint Irwin comes from nowhere to light up Colorado Rapids’ net
By John Henderson
[media-credit name=”Karl Gehring, The Denver Post” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Clint Irwin.
COMMERCE CITY — The United States is ranked only 33rd in the world, dragged down by a dearth of creative strikers and shotmakers. But it has always had goalkeepers, and another one emerged in a Colorado Rapids uniform Saturday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
You had to be impressed with 24-year-old Clint Irwin who blocked the strong penalty kick of Real Salt Lake’s Alvaro Saborio, the best player on Costa Rica’s national side, to preserve the Rapids’ 1-0 victory.
Irwin came out of nowhere — unless you’re a huge fan of the Canadian Soccer League and the United Soccer League. And if you know the location of his old CSL team from 2011, Capital City FC, then you need to get out more. (It’s in Ottawa and the club no longer exists.)
If temp hits forecast of 19 degrees, it will be coldest game U.S. soccer has played in at least 12 years.
COMMERCE CITY — It’s 90 minutes before game time and the poor Costa Rican reporters are praying to St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. It’s 30 degrees and dropping nearly as fast as the snowflakes. Wind has turned flags as stiff as pennants on a wall.
And Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, site of Friday night’s Costa Rica-U.S. World Cup qualifier, is open air.
Forecast is for 19 degrees with, ahem, “possible snow and rain showers.” Michael Kammarman, U.S. Soccer’s terrific public relations man, said if the temperature meets the forecast it’ll be the coldest game the U.S. soccer team has played in his 12 years at the post.
Still, plenty of tailgating fans were dressed in American flags and buffalo heads.
Comments Off on If temp hits forecast of 19 degrees, it will be coldest game U.S. soccer has played in at least 12 years.
Categories: International, U.S. National Team, World Cup
Clint Dempsey thinks U.S. could use cold to its advantage against Costa Rica
[media-credit name=”Daniel Petty, The Denver Post” align=”alignnone” width=”495″][/media-credit]
U.S. Men's National Team captain Clint Dempsey speaks during a press conference on March 21, 2013, in Denver, Colorado, a day before the team's World Cup qualifying match against Costa Rica.
COMMERCE CITY — Two elements that may or may not be factors in Friday’s 8 p.m. World Cup qualifier between the United States and Costa Rica will be weather and altitude. The weather forecast is for 21 degrees with a chance of showers.
Altitude may be a bigger factor than weather. While Costa Rica is near the equator, eight players on Friday’s roster play in Northern Europe. That includes four in Norway and one each in Denmark and Sweden. Some games in Norway are played in as low as 5 degrees. Star forward Alvaro Saborio plays for Real Salt Lake.
Both teams play regularly in Mexico City. However, both teams remarked that their shots during practice this week were sailing more than usual. In their practice Monday at the University of Denver, Americans were regularly airmailing shots over the crossbar.
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Categories: English Premier League, U.S. National Team, World Cup
Costa Rica star captain Alvaro Saborio “110 percent” after knee injury scare
Costa Rica star forward Alvaro Saborio rated himself “110 percent” for Friday’s 8 p.m. World Cup qualifier at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park after a knee injury scare Wednesday.
Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto said Saborio was “doubtful to start against the U.S.” after he took a shot to the knee in Wednesday’s practice. However, Saborio participated in Costa Rica’s full practice Thursday.
Saborio has 30 goals for Costa Rica and is Real Salt Lake’s all-time leading scorer with 53. His seven goals in World Cup qualifying leads all players in North, Central and South America. He also led Costa Rica to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Costa Rica enters Friday on nine-game unbeaten streak and has not lost since a 1-0 decision to Mexico in the first stage of World Cup qualifying on Sept. 11.
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Categories: International, Major League Soccer, U.S. National Team, World Cup
Watch Live: Talking U.S. soccer World Cup qualifying with Tony Sanneh, Chris Armas and Jared Montz
By Nick Groke
[media-credit name=”Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] American goalkeeper Brad Guzan tends the goal during practice of the U.S. men’s national team practice at the University of Denver on March 18, 2013, ahead of their World Cup Qualifying match on Friday against Costa Rica.
One loss in to the Hex round of World Cup qualifying, and already U.S. soccer fans are starting to fret. The U.S. team, behind suddenly embattled coach Jurgen Klinsmann, are pointless heading into the second game against Costa Rica on Friday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Colorado. They (maybe desperately) need points on the road to World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
Ex-U.S. national players Tony Sanneh and Chris Armas join retired MLS player Jared Montz and I on a Google hangout to talk at 4 p.m. about the Americans’ chances against Costa Rica and next week at Mexico.
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Categories: U.S. National Team, World Cup
Jurgen Klinsmann sees improvement in U.S. soccer, but “It has a ways to go”
[media-credit name=”Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post” align=”alignnone” width=”495″][/media-credit] Jurgen Klinsmann talks to midfielder Maurice Edu at U.S. training Monday in Denver.
I’ve been a huge fan of international soccer ever since I joined a packed stadium of 20,000 people in Bangkok to watch Thailand play vicious historical rival Burma in the 1978 Asian Games. A year later, in my first full-time newspaper job, I wrote that more kids played soccer in the state of Washington than baseball. I wrote, like many other writers in the late ’70s and ’80s, that soccer was America’s sport of the future.
It’s more than 30 years later and the U.S. still hasn’t gone past the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Entering Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the U.S. world ranking is 33rd. That’s one behind Hungary.
The biggest difference between American players and South American and Europeans are the shot makers.
U.S. goalkeeper Brad Guzan finally got his chance this season at Aston Villa
[media-credit name=”Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post” align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Brad Guzan.
I have a relatively long story in Wednesday’s paper about Brad Guzan, the U.S. goalkeeper called up to replace injured veteran Tim Howard against Costa Rica in Friday night’s World Cup qualifier. He spent four years mostly riding the bench in England’s Premier League and behind Howard on the national team.
This season he has his chance. He’s the star of an Aston Villa team that’s three points above relegation and must replace Howard for at least Friday and Tuesday’s game at Mexico. Friday’s 8 p.m. game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park will be his sixth World Cup qualifier.
“Playing games is going to make you better,” he said after Monday’s practice at the University of Denver. “It’s about experience. You get confidence when you play well. You continue to try and get better. For me, it was a long wait, a long process but you need someone to give you that opportunity. Fortunately, for me, it came this year and when you get that chance you have to take it.”
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MLS player salaries 2016 released by Major League Soccer Players Union
Let’s cast the inevitable Leicester City F.C. film
Colorado Rapids have won more home games than the Colorado Rockies this year
WATCH: Jermaine Jones’ first goal, assist for the Rapids in his debut
It’s snowing sideways at DSG Park, but the Rapids game is on
Stan Kroenke's other soccer team suffers a mauling at Milan — 42 comments
Was U.S. soccer's Nashville nightmare the product of a coddling system? — 28 comments
Seattle's Zakuani has broken leg; MLS punishment coming for Rapids' Mullan? — 14 comments
If you don't like soccer, don't watch, but stop ridiculing it — 12 comments
Rapids unveil new 'alternate' road jersey inspired by Colorado state flag — 12 comments
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“Not lately. I moved on to soccer. But I do get your point :)”
— Starkie
On “What are we doing on this planet?” Pablo Mastroeni’s epic post-game sermon
“Ever watch a basketball game? The hoop is not a cup, hole, cylinder, etc. the list is endless.”
— qman
“It’s like this. The harder your work, the luckier you get.”
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Finau earns final United States of America wild card selection for Ryder Cup
— Сен 13, 2018
This year's United States squad is absolutely loaded with Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods leading the way. Finau, who has one career PGA Tour victory, said he was ready for the pressure of the Ryder Cup.
Finau will be competing in his first Ryder Cup, becoming the third rookie on the USA team, joining Justin Thomas, the 2017 PGA champion, and Bryson DeChambeau.
Finau had been expected to get the 12th and final spot on the Ryder Cup team based on his overall play, particularly of late. According to the Billy Horschel rule, however, Furyk still has one more pick to make this week.
Finau was always a clear favourite to go to Le Golf National at the end of the month after a consistent display of results over the summer, including finishing in the top 10 in three of the four major championships. I'm excited to add him to the team. The team dominated the Ryder Cup last time around and might even be deeper this year, making the team a worthwhile play on the betting lines.
Читайте также: Russians accused over Salisbury poisoning were in city 'as tourists'
Eight other USA players made the roster after last month's PGA Championship after a two-year qualifying period - Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Webb Simpson, Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson.
"I liked what I saw", Furyk said of Finau's play on the French host layout. He turned professional right out of high school in 2007, but it took him seven years to earn his PGA Tour card. Finau was raised in a tough section of Salt Lake City known as Rose Park.
"Hey guys, Tony Finau here". "To me, to be a member of the Ryder Cup team - a dream of mine - is really humbling and satisfying". It's been a long time.
This year's United States squad is absolutely loaded with Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods leading the way. Finau, who has one...
http:///2018/09/finau-earns-final-united-states-of-america-wild-card/
In Saudi Arabia have arrested a man for Breakfast with a woman
Alabama pastor cuts up Nike gear during sermon
Hurricane Florence: Residents told to 'heed the warnings'
Horror: Five People Were Killed In A California Shooting Spree Last Night
The story apparently began with the suspect and his wife going to a trucking business on Maxwell Street just before 5:30 p.m. The husband then went to another location on Breckenridge Road where he confronted two males at a residence and shot them.
Oil hits $80 as Iran fears mount
Brent crude futures traded at $79.20 a barrel while US crude futures rose 61 cents to $69.86 a barrel. Novak said global oil markets were "fragile" due to geopolitical risks and supply disruptions.
Microsoft reportedly warning users not to install Chrome, Firefox on Windows 10
In any event, users will still be free to ignore Microsoft's entirely baseless warnings about installing a rival browser. To do that requires focusing on making Edge better than the alternatives and marketing it as such.
Don't look back: Lexus launching first digital side view mirrors
However, Lexus' new camera system will only be available in the Japanese market for the ES 300h version L. Lexus claims that the system results not only in improved visibility, but also in reduced wind noise.
Prince William shares his struggles as a first responder
More often than not, it is the fear of losing the job, or shame that prevents them from talking about their mental health. The charity Mind conducted the survey, which included almost 44,000 participants.
Pence heading to Georgia ahead of Hurricane Florence
Its governor, Roy Cooper, told residents "the time to prepare was nearly over". "Disaster is at the doorstep and is coming in". Heavy rains were forecast to extend into the Appalachians, affecting parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Wednesday morning fog, Florence track shifts west
One trusted computer model, the European simulation, predicted more than 45 inches (115 centimeters) in parts of North Carolina. In Holden Beach, North Carolina, in the storm's path, longtime residents were busy securing their homes and possessions.
2 new polls show sharp drops in Trump's approval, honesty, intelligence ratings
Still, Carter stressed, Democrats nationally must "appeal to independents" who are souring on the current administration. In the new poll, less than half (46%) say Trump can manage the government effectively compared to 56% who say he cannot.
Some steadfast residents to stay put as Hurricane Florence approaches
As of 11 p.m., the storm was centered 280 miles east southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina , and was moving northwest at 17 mph. Duke Energy has around 4 million customers in North and SC , and says it could take several weeks to restore the electricity.
Miners in Australia discover massive chunks of gold worth millions
The Beta Hunt mine, where the giant nuggets were found, had been used to extract nickel until the discovery last week. The largest rock weighs about 198 pounds (90kg) and took three men to lift it onto the back of a pick-up truck.
Fortnite Battle Royale is getting a new mobility item next week
On Chronicle's gracious Fortnite web page online, the weapon is speculated to reward precision over snappy fireplace. Though the Sneaky Silencers was a fan-favorite LTM, it makes sense Epic is doubling down on their High Stakes event.
Putin: Peace treaty first, N. islands later
At the heart of the dispute, which dates back to the end of World War II, are the four southernmost islands in the Kuril chain . On Monday, Mr Putin seemed to pour cold water on suggestions that the dispute could be resolved soon.
Google to shut down Inbox app in March 2019
Many of these features slowly became redundant though, as both Gmail and Android itself started adopting Inbox's core features. Google launched Inbox while it still tried to make Gmail better, but not as an alternative to the latter.
'DUCHA--': Meghan Markle’s sister slams her for acting ‘fake’
And she's also now one of the most scrutinised, with her every move and outfit picked apart during every public appearance. I know her smile. "My thing about my daughter right now is that I think she is terrified", said Thomas.
Hurricane Florence Tracking South
ET, Florence was 530 miles southeast of Cape Fear, N.C., moving west-northwest at 17 mph, the National Hurricane Center says . Now a Category 4 storm , it's possible that it could strengthen even more as it moves swiftly through the Atlantic Ocean.
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Frieze Week /
Six Creative Duos Choose a Favourite Spot in London to be Photographed
The couples, friends and relatives who are helping shape this year’s Frieze Week
Click here for tickets to Frieze London 4-7 October
The Otolith Group
Sarah & Anna
Nicoletta & Patrizio
Lydia & Christopher
Conrad & Marina
Kuba Ryniewicz, Otolith Group, 2018. Courtesy: the artist
At home, Northeast London
Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar founded The Otolith Group in 2002. Working across moving image, performance and installation, The Otolith Group are acclaimed for their expanded and critical visions of science fictions that draw on futurisms from Africa, America, Asia, Britain, the Caribbean and Europe. For Frieze Film, curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt, The Otolith Group present their new work Message of the Forest. Towards O Horizon (2018). The film sets a recording of a made at the Hotel Esplande, Berlin in 1921 of Rabindrath Tagore – the Nobel Prize-winning poet, educator, songwriter, dramatist, painter and novelist – lecturing, to contemporary scenes performed and filmed in and around the rural landscapes of Santiniketan, West Bengal, where Tagore founded Visva-Bharati University in 1921. Message of the Forest screens alongside the other Frieze Film commissions daily at 3:30pm in the Frieze London Auditorium, and will be broadcast on Channel 4 in the Random Acts series.
Kuba Ryniewicz, Sarah & Anna, 2018. Courtesy: the artist
At Peckham Bazaar, 119 Consort Rd, London, SE15 3RU
Anna Colin and Sarah McCrory have been friends since 2003, when they joined the same MA curating course at the Royal College of Art. Anna is Associate Curator for Lafayette Anticipations: Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, which opened its innovative Rem Koolhaas-led transformation of a Paris hôtel particulier into a state-of-the-art production workshop and exhibition space in March. In addition, she is co-director, with Laurence Taylor, of the Margate-based Open School East – a free, inclusive workspace in Margate, Kent which offers an alternative training to art school – of which Sarah is board member. As Director of Goldsmith’s Centre Contemporary Art in Lewisham, South East London, Sarah oversees the city’s newest free public art gallery: a stunning and unconventional space carved out by Turner Prize-winning practice Assemble from a disused Victorian bathhouse. Its opening exhibition, a survey of American artist Mika Rottenberg – who, coincidentally, had her first UK commission in 2006 as winner of the first Artist Award at Frieze – is a standout for any Frieze Week schedule. Anna and Sarah chose to be photographed in Peckham Bazaar, a south London restaurant where the daily changing menu draws on a landscape of flavours stretching across the former Ottoman empire, from the Balkans to the Maghreb and beyond, and making extensive use of an outdoor firepit. The vibe is energetic, serious-minded but emphatically unfussy. A bit like these two.
Kuba Ryniewicz, Nicoletta & Patrizio, 2018. Courtesy: the artist
At Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London, N1 2ANE
Selected from more than 70 applicants, the recipient of this year’s Contemporary Art Society Collections Fund Prize – awarded to a UK institution outside the capital to acquire work from Frieze London – is The Box, Plymouth. So for The Box’s Contemporary Curator, Nicoletta Lambertucci, Frieze Week will be the fulfilment of months of research and negotiation. With the acquisition announced at the fair on 3rd October, all Nicoletta will reveal in advance is that she has been looking at work on the theme of movement across the seas: reflecting both the ongoing urgency of global migration and Plymouth’s proud history as a port city (it celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage in 2020, when The Box opens). Nicoletta wed artist Patrizio di Massimo in London in 2017, wearing a gown by the artist Than Hussein Clark, inspired by Carlo Carrà’s Leaving The Theatre (1910). The painting is a jewel of the Estorick Collection – the UK’s only institution dedicated to modern Italian art, home to masterpieces by Giacomo Balla, De Chirico, Modigiliani and Giorgio Morandi - which the couple chose as a reception venue. De Chirico was an early influence on Patrizio, whose recent large figurative paintings meld elements of Salvador Dali, Otto Dix, Pierre de Klossowski and Christian Schad into something uniquely charming and disarming. Nicoletta has often been Patrizio’s model, though new characters entered the works shown at Volcano Extravaganza in Stromboli this year. Next up, another collaboration: a baby, due in November.
Kuba Ryniewicz, Lydia & Christopher, 2018. Courtesy: the artist
At Rochelle Canteen, 16 Playground Gardens, London E2 7FA
Invited to co-curate Frieze Talks this year, Lydia Yee chose to explore the theme of autobiography – a response to cultural phenomena such as the #MeToo movement and the return of ‘autofiction’. Happening daily at 12:30pm and 4:30pm in the Frieze London auditorium, Frieze Talks this year features artists and writers for whom personal experience is valuable material: from Laurie Anderson, Alexander Chee and Berni Searle to Nan Goldin and Olivia Laing. The Chief Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, Lydia’s most recent exhibition is Ulla von Brandenberg’s ‘Sweet Feast’, on view during Frieze Week, which draws a political allegory from a real historical incident at Whitechapel, when a display of European confectionary was consumed by visiting children. Lydia’s partner of more than 25 years is the American-Swiss artist Christian Marclay. This autumn, Tate Modern presents Christian’s lauded installation The Clock (2010): a 24 hour video collage which, through dialogue and pictured timepieces in film, tells the actual time. As this sublime, meticulous montage attests, Christian was an experimental DJ early in his practice – in November, he will premiere a new composition for 20 pianos for Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Lydia and Christian chose to be photographed at Rochelle Canteen, located in a walled garden in east London. Fashionistas, rock-stars, foodies – and the odd curator and artist – flock here for its casual elegance and Chef Margot Henderson’s thoughtful, seasonal menu.
Kuba Ryniewicz, Conrad & Marina, 2018. Courtesy: the artist
At Frieze Sculpture, The Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4JL
Conrad Shawcross is no stranger to public space. Last year, his The Interpretation of Movement (a 9:8 in blue) (2017) stretched across the lofts of St Pancras Station, while his lauded architectural intervention The Optic Cloak (2016) towers 49 metre high above North Greenwich: a monolith of moire effect, perforated aluminium panels. Little surprise, then, that the artist’s Optic Labyrinth (Arrangement I) (2018) is a stand out of this year’s Frieze Sculpture – a free exhibition of outdoor art selected by Claire Lilley (YSP), sited a stone’s throw from the fairs – which coincides with Conrad’s show at Victoria Miro Mayfair in Frieze Week. Fortress-like from a distance, Labyrinth’s manipulation of moire optics means its whole form throbs and shimmers, inviting viewers to navigate the sculpture in all dimensions. During the photograph, this engagement was eagerly undertaken by Conrad’s son Hartley, under the eye of his Nonna, Marina Warner. A writer of criticism, essays, and fiction, Marina’s works – many of them landmarks in their field - examine the powers inherent in the stories we tell, from legends of female heroism to the Arabian Nights, fairy tales and lullabies to Ovid. One of our leading public intellectuals, last year she was elected President of the Royal Society of Literature. Marina’s latest book, Forms of Enchantment: Writing on Art & Artists (Thames & Hudson), makes ideal reading for Frieze Week, gathering thirty years of her thinking on artists including Louise Bourgeouis, Damien Hirst, Joan Jonas, Sigmar Polke and Kiki Smith.
Published in Frieze Week, London, 2018 with the title ‘Together!’
Frieze Week 2018
Anna Colin
Sarah McCrory
Nicoletta Lambertucci
Patrizio di Massimo
Lydia Yee
Whitechapel Gallery
Christian Marclay
Conrad Shawcross
Marina Warner
Christian Marclay Wants Us to Stop, Look and Listen
Allied Editions Returns To Frieze New York
‘Is This Tomorrow?’: Artists and Architects Step into an Uncertain Future
Sarah McCrory on Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro
Murderous Writing: An Interview with Enrique Vila-Matas
Marina Warner on Marion Mahony Griffin
Frieze Week: Sunday
Frieze Week: Saturday
Frieze Week: Friday
West End Night
Collaborative Relationships: How Living and Loving Informed New Ways of Making Art
In Pictures: Fashion in London’s National Gallery
More Frieze Week
Possibilities of Creation
Linda Goode Bryant: Burning Up
Patrick Charpenel talks to César Reyes
Brett Littman on The Shock of the 'News'
This is Competition
Artist Anri Sala Revisits an Old Communist Hymn
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Home Budgets/Taxes Judge Blocks Illinois’ Pension Reforms; Will Governor Block Chicago’s Reforms
Judge Blocks Illinois’ Pension Reforms; Will Governor Block Chicago’s Reforms
written by Steve Stanek June 5, 2014
Steve Stanek
Steve Stanek is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and a former managing editor of two Heartland publications, "Budget & Tax News" and "Finance, Insurance & Real Estate News." Stanek's articles have appeared in numerous local, state and national publications since he began writing for Heartland in 2003, and he has been a frequent guest on local and national radio and television programs discussing government budget and regulatory issues.
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A judge in Sangamon County Circuit Court has blocked a modest reform of Illinois’ pension system for state workers and retirees outside Chicago from taking effect June 1, giving Gov. Pat “Four Counties” Quinn the excuse he’s probably been looking for to block reforms for two of Chicago’s pension plans. (I’ll explain “Four Counties” in a moment.)
This isn’t to say Chicago’s or Illinois’ pension plans should stay as they are. If they do, we’ll probably end up with a bankrupt city and a state that is effectively bankrupt but not legally so because states cannot go into bankruptcy.
The Quinn-supported state pension reform blocked for the time being by Judge John Belz would raise the retirement age for many state workers and reduce and delay some annual cost-of-living increases. In return, the state would slightly reduce the amount of money taken from workers’ paychecks as pension contributions.
Supporters of the reform tried to make it sound momentous, but as the Illinois Policy Institute notes, it shrinks the state’s unfunded liability only to 2011 levels, when “crisis” and “Illinois pensions” went together like ham and eggs. So the state still has a pension crisis even if the reforms take effect.
And Chicago? Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes Quinn will sign a reform plan for the city’s pensions for city laborers and municipal workers. The plan includes a $250 million property tax increase in Chicago over five years, more money out of workers’ paychecks to cover their share of pension funding, and smaller cost-of-living increases.
Chicago’s four pension plans (including for teachers and public safety workers) are some $20 billion short. They have barely 36 cents for every dollar needed to pay benefits. Absent changes in state law, the city’s pension spending next year will nearly double to $1 billion. This year’s city budget totals $7 billion.
Moody’s Investors Service earlier this year downgraded Chicago’s debt to just three notches above junk. The only large U.S. city with a lower credit rating is bankrupt Detroit. The Northbrook-based watchdog Truth in Accounting estimates, on a per-person basis, Chicago’s state and local taxpayer burden is worse than Detroit’s. (The burden includes debt repayments and unfunded retirement promises.)
Emanuel inherited this problem, but he and the City Council worsened it earlier this year by borrowing another $1.9 billion. The City Council approved the borrowing just two days after Emanuel announced the plan, with almost no deliberation or discussion. The job description for a Chicago alderman must read “mayoral lapdog.”
Illinois, of course, has the nation’s worst credit rating among the 50 states, largely because of the many lies lawmakers have told when they’ve promised to fund pensions and then have spent the money on other things.
Quinn has made clear he opposes higher taxes in Chicago, where he won overwhelmingly in his bid for a full term as governor in 2010. Yet he’s working to make the massive “temporary” state income tax increase of 2011 permanent. Cook County was one of only four counties to support Quinn. The other three were tiny rural counties. In other words, Quinn lost 98 of the state’s 102 counties.
“Four Counties” knows if he can get another huge win in Chicago and Cook County, he can secure reelection. If he blocks higher property taxes in Chicago, he wins votes there. He cares little about winning other counties. He didn’t need them last time.
Even if Chicago’s and the state’s pension reforms do become law, though, the city and state will be nowhere near sound financial footing.
Steve Stanek (sstanek@heartland.org) is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute in Chicago.
Judge Blocks Illinois’ Pension Reforms; Will Governor Block Chicago’s Reforms was last modified: June 3rd, 2014 by Steve Stanek
fiscal reformillinois debtpension plan
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Formula DRIFT – Round 3: Uncharted Territory // Event Coverage
Post on: Jun 17, 2015
Devin Dees
Words by: Devin Dees and Kendra Aceto
Photos by: Kendra Aceto, Devin Dees, and Jeremy Stoutamyer
The hottest round of the 2015 Formula Drift season brought us to an entirely new track, with only a few turns the track made up for numbers with size. For the past few years Round Three has been held in Palm Beach and Miami, but this year the series took on Uncharted Territory at Central Florida’s Orlando Speed World, set up in a classic figure-8.
The weekend not only marked a first at the new venue, but it marked the first Pro 2 event of the season! Introduced last year, Pro 2 is now the stepping stone for Pro AM drivers who have earned their license by finishing in the Top 4 in their respective regional series. This allows an easier transition into the Pro atmosphere, pinning the top Pro AM competitors against each other for a ticket up. While Pro 1 is a 7 event series, Pro 2 is on just 4 of those stops. Travel, wear and tear on the vehicle, and other expenses can be difficult to cover as a driver coming into their rookie pro season.
That being said, this group came prepared. 34 competitors showed up in Florida to qualify for just 16 spots! This made for an intense qualifying session. Friday looked quite promising with Alex Heilbrunn qualifying in first place in his supercharged Ford powered E46 BMW and local driver Kelsey Rowlings rounding out the field at number sixteen.
This was after Kelsey broke a rocker arm during a practice run; luckily Mazworx, who provided the turbocharged SR22, was just down the road from the track and able to get the Nissan 240SX back in the race.
Just as we were preparing to watch the competition, mother nature barged in as she so often does and drenched the track… a foreshadowing of conditions for Saturday’s main event. The mood of the crowd darkened as they assumed the change in weather would make for a boring show, but the first two to hit the wet track were determined to lift spirits and prove them all wrong. Jeff Wolfson attacked the bank in his lead run against Ryan Litteral’s RB25 powered 240SX, making contact with the wall in his Scion FRS, but kept his composure to complete his run and ultimately win the match up.
The great 8 showed no signs of slowing down. The banking dried quickly, making the transition into what we would later call “No Man’s Land” no easy task. The bump in the transition, still wet from rain, would be the cause of a few drivers’ undoing. As the sun began to set, two drivers in particular began to shine.. Andy Gray drove his Toyota Chaser like his life depended on it.
This 2JZ powered super saloon made 700HP right off the boat from Japan, making it one of our favorite cars in the series. Andy’s ability to follow and anticipate the lead driver was incredible, but the real star of the show was Alex Heilbrunn.
Alex completed a perfect event, qualifying in first place and finishing out on top in the finals over Gray. Whispers throughout the crowd suggested that these two could be competitive at the Pro 1 level, we’re inclined to agree. Keep your eye on these two – we have a feeling that this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of either of them.
Living in Florida, you learn to expect the unexpected when it comes to weather conditions. Just like at Friday’s Pro 2 race, The weather took a turn for the worst as it came down to the last few tandems of Formula Drift’s Pro Series. Lucky for us, local sponsor Enjuku Racing profited off of their forward thinking and came prepared with $1 ponchos for sale to keep those of us dry who didn’t bring or buy an umbrella. To account for the drastically changing weather conditions, drivers were each given one practice run on the wet track before the tandem that would ultimately determine their standing in the competition. Many drivers spun out in the center of the track, deemed “No Man’s Land” by FD announcer Jarod DeAnda.
Top 32 was looking promising.
This “No Man’s Land” was where the action heated up – quite literally – during the Great Eight competition. Even during dry conditions drivers found themselves catching air or sliding sideways, but in the wrong direction. Rookie driver Masashi Yokoi advanced to the Top 8 before his S15 caught fire in No Man’s Land. His team was able to make repairs in time to get him back on track for his lead run against Ryan Tuerck, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for him to advance further.
Another rising star in FD is driver Matt Field. He’s not afraid to push his S14 to its absolute limits, and he shows improvement every time he puts tire to pavement. He was knocked out of the Final Four by Tuerck, but we are confident that it is only a matter of time before he finds himself on the podium.
After taking out Vaughn Gittin Jr., Chris Forsberg found himself in a fiery battle against Ken Gushi in his FR-S – a chassis that has gained traction crazy fast in the drifting world. The platform is also currently being used by previous FD winner Fredric Aasbo as well as Ryan Tuerck, who would ultimately take the win here in Orlando. While chasing Forsberg and coming around the first turn into No Man’s Land, Gushi failed to initiate his drift in line with Forsberg causing their front ends to collide, then their rear ends, and flames shot out the back of Forsberg’s 370Z. Because of this mistake, Forsberg advanced to the final battle leaving Gushi in third place.
With his teammates yelling “Fire!” Forsberg made the decision to be safe rather than sorry and engage the fire suppression system after his tandem with Gushi, however, the fire turned out to be nothing more than a large backfire and the suppression system caused damage to the engine. The team was unable to get the car to start in time for his final battle against Ryan Tuerck. It wasn’t the most exciting way to win, but because Forsberg couldn’t get his car back on track, Tuerk took first place with Forsberg in second and Gushi in third.
Next month, Formula Drift travels to a crowd favorite venue in New Jersey, The Wall. With Odi Bachkis getting knocked out early in Round 3 followed by a win for Tuerck, the battle for first in points is heating up!
Follow the photographers
Kendra Aceto: @becausekendra
Devin Dees: @dees_photographs
Jeremy Stoutamyer: @jeremy_s_photo
Tags: 2015DriftDriftingFDFloridaformula driftformuladlivelowloweredloweredlifestylemiataOrlandopro2proamround 3s14
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Disneycember
Posted by: Doug Walker in Channel Awesome, Disneycember, Doug Walker, Videos December 9, 2015
Yikes, this is a sequel that surprised everybody! What can one say but “Hail Hydra.” Doug looks at The Winter Soldier.
captain america captain america the winter soldier channel awesome disney disneycember doug walker movies 2015-12-09
Tagged with: captain america captain america the winter soldier channel awesome disney disneycember doug walker movies
HMorris73
Yeah for me this is the only Marvel sequel so far to surpass the original, which is saying something because the first Captain America was pretty darn good in its own right.
Fran Ohmsford
I really didn’t like Winter Soldier!
1) It’s an X-Men Movie with Captain America – And I didn’t like the X-Men Movies {any of them!}.
2) The Winter Soldier himself has zero character – You ask why they didn’t have more of a rivalry well…
a) He’s powerful enough to kill pretty much anyone but Cap without breaking a sweat.
b) As soon as Cap realises who he is it’s blatantly obvious Cap is going to do everything he can NOT to kill him despite all the deaths he’s racked up!
c) There’s literally no reason given or even implied for why Bucky cannot be reasoned with other than that he’s an unthinking machine!
Basically – There’s nothing there! No way to have a real hero-villain rivalry – Bucky is simply an unthinking Assassin {A Bullseye if you will only without the charisma!}.
3) The Spy plot where the lead is being chased by his own people has as you say been done to death and in far far better films {US Marshals to name just one! Heck the entire Bourne storyline relies upon it!}.
4) The complete and total Hydra takeover of SHIELD is not even close to believable – Agents of SHIELD took this to absolutely ludicrous levels and I’m really worried that Civil War is just going to be more of the same X-Men storyline of Humans hating anyone different!
5) After the really very good First Avenger Winter Soldier was for me one hell of a let down – As indeed was Dark World after Thor.
Maarons
1) No it’s not. There is nothing X-Men about this as…
a) no superpowers.
b) no split public opinion on the characters.
c) it’s a guy with limited allies making it more like a Bond movie where he’s cut off from MI6 or Mission: Impossible 4 and 5.
2) Winter Soldier has always been a tool for higher organizations or characters. He’s essentially Darth Vader to Cap’s Luke.
3) Just because other films have done it doesn’t mean this one is bad for it because the Bourne sequels would be bad as a result. (And U.S. Marshals was a bad attempt to cash in on The Fugitive.)
4) This infiltration and takeover is very realistic as many governments and groups have been taken over from within like this through history.
BobLogical
“Not realistic.” This is literally what the United States government did after World War II. We rounded up all the Nazi scientists and doctors we could find and gave them full amnesty for their crimes against humanity, then put them to work for us. This is 100% a realistic and believable plot.
Jaxsparrow25
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and I’m not going to criticize but I’d really like to hear an explanation for reason #1.
Soupy
Thank you!!! Finally someone else who didn’t like this movie!! I was left bored and cold by this movie. However my reasons for not liking it are different to yours:
1) Zero character – What is Black Widow’s character arc? Non-existent. Cap starts the movie trying to find an emotional link to his past, and he ends the movie…. trying to find an emotional link to his past!
2) Cap has no character – Chris Evan’s godawful portrayal of Steve Rogers. He has that one serious-yet-confused look on his face throughout the entire movie. In the comics Cap is a wise yet occasionally stubborn leader. Chris Evan’s Cap barely looks like he could lead a halftime parade, let alone a team of Shield agents! I never get the feeling like he’s leading in this movie, always that he’s the on being led.
3) The guy with the wings – Can’t remember his name. But for a guy who’s only met Cap for a fraction of the movie’s run time, he sure does have a hard-on for following him around. He volunteers to be Captain America’s Robin after only barely meeting the guy. He couldv’t been implemented better.
4) Serious / goofy story. The first movie’s plot was very fantasy-based. The sequel is more realistic, more akin to Bond than a comic book. The problem is that by bringing back Hydra, they’re essentially putting something portrayed as supernatural or slightly silly, into a film that doesn’t need it. I would really have preferred a different source of antagonism that fits better into the movie’s more realistic take on Captain America. It’s like putting Loki in Spectre! Yeah it’s a good villain but he has no place there!
5) The MCU – Normally this is a good thing as most MCU movies have been great. But by having a lot of Cap and the MCU’s story developing over multiple movies, this one movie is lacking any of it’s own. It’s as if the directors couldn’t put too much of Cap’s story here because they were told it has to happen in another movie somewhere. The result feels half-baked. Want Black Widow to do something personal? No, it’s going to happen somewhere else. Want Bucky to fully reunite with Cap? No, wait for the sequel. Is Nick Fury really dead? No, we need him back for future stuff. This is the only movie I’ve seen of Marvel’s where the MCU actually makes it a worse-off movie.
There, ranted long enough. Cap 2 blows.
Leeran
I think a lot of these points have to be with personal opinion and point of view, so they’re hard to argue with. But I do want to argue with the first point:
Okay, no. These two actually have complicated character arcs that are very similar.
By the time we get to see Cap in this movie, he’s already had some development since the end of CATFA. When we meet Cap in Avengers, it’s like he isn’t even TRYING to adapt to the modern times. He’s angry and frustrated and even though he feels like he doesn’t belong, he’s not trying to belong either. He can’t let go of the past. His first scene in Avengers shows very well just how angry he is. And also, just look at his clothes… He dresses like a grampa. He seems very reluctant to move on and accept he has to live in this time– And it’s not like you can blame him for it.
But when we meet him in CATWS, he finally started to adapt to the times. He seems to fit in a lot more than before, and he even admits the good things about the current times. However, he still can’t let go completely. Well, it’s not easy. The most difficult part is his job in SHIELD: Cap WANTS to be a soldier. He WANTS to follow orders, to fight for what’s right and to protect the people. But he doesn’t really feel like he can trust SHIELD. We see this clearly when he argues with Fury after seeing the three helicarriers, and later when he speaks to Peggy. He feels like things aren’t so easy anymore. He wants to fight for what’s right, but instead he has to face complex moral questions and decide what he’s willing to do. And he doesn’t know (he shows this clearly the second time he speaks to Sam). He’s a soldier, but these aren’t times of war (in the MCU at least), and so, things aren’t so simple anymore.
By the end of the movie, he already knows he wasn’t wrong about distrusting SHIELD. He’s left thinking that he can’t simply follow the lead of just anyone– that he must do what he feels it’s right. This feeling of his is probably what will motivate him in Civil War, honestly. He’s seen what organizations like SHIELD can do, how badly they can mess up. And he can’t trust a government that allowed this to happen to make a better organization this time. But I digress– The point is that he goes through an emotional and moral journey. He starts the movie feeling lost, but by the end he finds a motivation and new beliefs. He has to face a lot of painful things during the journey, but now at least he knows what he wants to do.
Natasha goes to this journey but… in reverse, I guess. She actually trust SHIELD, she trust Fury very much, and she doesn’t have doubts about what she’s doing. Sure, she has to do “shady” things now and then, but she believes it’s for the greater good. She has a good motivation. (Not that she doesn’t have issues of her own. She has! But those are mostly identity issues. Who is she really? and all that).
But she loses Fury, and this actually hits her hard. And then, SHIELD turns out to be infiltrated by HYDRA. It turns out that she’s worked for yet another despicable organization who has used her blind trust against herself. And she blames herself for letting them use her (“I thought I knew whose lies I was telling. I guess I can’t tell the difference anymore”). Now she’s the one who’s lost, who doesn’t know what to do. She chooses to follow Steve, because she knows for sure that he has a good heart and that she can at least trust him.
By the end of the movie, she also releases all the information about her past to the public. She isn’t invisible anymore. And she says it herself: she has to figure out a new cover. Or actually figure out who she really is, and what she wants to do from now on. Her arc is one about carefully destroying everything she was so sure of, and forcing her to chose for herself. We don’t get to see what happens next, sure, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t develop through the movie. She definitely grows, and she’s forced to become her own person now, to stop just following organizations and decide for herself what’s right. It’s something her character really needed.
And for all this rant, there are scenes in the movie that clearly hint everything I’ve said. Maybe the character development feels a little lost under all the political drama, but to me it’s clearly there.
Damn this was a good movie. 2014 was a great year for Marvel! (This one, not so much) I can’t wait for Civil War!
Surprised not to hear a comment on how it’s another guy in a suit who’s the villain. Either way, Robert Redford was having a blast in this and was one of the best parts since he’s such a A-level actor who can do affably evil.
nblaw95
Cap can’t really have that same rivalry relationship with the Winter Soldier imo for a couple reasons. He is trying to save him, not defeat him (well, not at first). This is one of the last people that he knew from his own time, so it makes sense he’d do whatever is in his power to save him. Which brings up the second point, he’s trying to do exactly that in Civil War, which would be at least a little awkward if they’d had the kind of relationship you wanted. He was once essentially his sidekick. This is more akin to Batman fighting a Robin who he had believed was dead (crazy, right? 😛 ).
MidnightScreeningsman2014
Glad you liked it as much as we did Doug. It truly was my favorite marvel movie of phase 2 and leading up to the avengers age of ultron it was awesome and man black widows way hot int this one(there I said it so nobody else would have to admit that we get it). I kinda felt like Robert Redford wasn’t on screen that much but for the time he did get it was fun. Buckle up cause next time where headed to the galaxy(guardians of the galaxy that is).
The Scarlet Ninja
I wasn’t that big of a Captain America fan until this movie, now I’ve got his shield hanging up on my wall. Really ties the room together lol. I’m so happy with what they did in this movie, I’d add nothing to it, I’d take nothing away. I’m eager to see what they are going to do with Bucky now. Is he really back to normal and going to fight for the good side, is it all an act to kill Cap., or some other route. Can’t wait to find out!
Saw this movie after watching the first Captain America on the same day… it was awesome!
mbellardini
Couldn’t help but notice that this movie has a similar premise to another movie with Robert Redford, Three Days of the Condor in which Redford’s character faces similar challenges. It’s not a copy, but it’s along the same lines as that move.
Snorgatch Pandalume
The whole movie is basically an homage to the conspiracy thrillers of the 70s, of which Three Days of the Condor is one of the best examples. That’s no doubt why they cast Robert Redford in it.
Morkez Marihser
This is my favorite standalone movie, tied with the Avengers. It’s made in a much better way, enough to match the hype going for Avengers. I could go into it for over two thousand words but I’ll pass n that.
Darinas
Yes, this one was great. And I agree, of the three, it was the one I least expected to be THAT great. But they made it awesome. I do kinda have to disagree about the filler part though; I mean, this movie made things move by having SHIELD disbanded.
Zeroman2
To me Winter Soldier has to be one best Sequels of all time. Easily in the top 15 with Dark Knight, Wrath of Khan, T2, and Empire Strikes Back. Because they build on the story and action. To be honest none of the MCU sequels are that great to me, not bad just not great. I was just as shock as everybody about how much effort they put on this movie.
I do like this one even more than I like first one and I already liked first one a lot. To me it’s that they made Winter Soldier spy movie but with superheroes that makes it so interesting. Yeah sure big bad of this movie was another guy in suit but least he worked for Hydra so that gave him reason to be bad guy.
Ergotth
actualy calling it a filler movie is a slight mistake. While captain America was half the setting for Avengers (the other half being iron man, Hulk and Thor) this one s the COMPLETE setting for Civil War. The very basis and foundation of what is going to happen this 2016.
LaserBunny
I found it weird that they changed him to hydra but kept the communist red star on his bionic arm.
Sijo
That could have been a misdirection on Hydra’s part. If he was ever killed or captured, everyone would have assumed he was a Russian assassin.
Alaster Boneman
I think Cap has got to be my favirte hero in these movies, he not some closed minded idoet whos stuck in the past, in my mind he is what a super hero is supposed to be, a guy with power that tries his best just to help. no pretension, no meaningless speeches just a good guy being a good guy
TragicGuineaPig
“But you don’t have to be a genius to know that Evil Is Bad! And Good…. ISN’T!”
– The Tick.
Sypoth
Wow, you have low standards if you actually LIKED this movie, Numerous plot holes, scenes that you know how they are going to end long before they even start simply because you’ve seen it in literally EVERY OTHER CHEAPLY MADE ACTION MOVIE YOU’VE MADE FUN OF! Literally all the scenes are tropes, lets also not forget, explanation that simply cut the question off at the knees without any real details being given, which is ANOTHER thing you’ve complained about in multiple other bad movies like Never Ending Story 3, After Earth, Never Ending Story 2, Shark boy and Lava Girl, The Animated Titanic Movies, need I go on? You say Yes? Then how about when they are saying that Hydra can with just one carrier override the other two however they can’t override one with two? That’s never explained. How did Nick Fury who just came back from the dead for no reason get to a Helicopter and get it more than fourth stories in the sky through an A.A. barrage from one of the carriers to be in the right spot for hawk to jump and land safely inside all without knowing where he was? Those carriers are obviously easily boarded by slow moving helicopters apparently, lets not forget how the hell did the doctor make an exact copy of his mind up until the moment he died? Why did they ever need hawk in teh first place? When they have hijacked two carriers why not have them target the one they haven’t jacked yet and blow it out of the sky? For that matter When they have absolute control of the carriers why didn’t they just keep control of them rather than blow them to pieces? Ugh, so much Stupidity from this movie it’s making my head hurt just thinking about how much better this would have been had some logic and effort put into it! Oh lets also not forget that the names Captain America and Winter Soldier are literally in the title however the tertiary story character, Hawk, almost gets more screen time than either one of them, the two that get the majority of the screen time are Black Widow and Nick Fury each one totaling more screen time than EITHER of the main characters COMBINED! The complaints I have with this movie are nearly endless, it’s boring, it’s dull, it’s one long trope train, and it loves to show off it’s explosions, wait a minute, Did Michael Bay direct this movie? I bet he did! If it wasn’t him then he had a MAJOR impact on the ones who did because Winter Soldier has all the ear marks of a Michael Bay Film, it also has ear marks from Shyamalan, oh no, Don’t Tell me, This flaming pile of anal excrement is the flaming love child of Michael Bay and M. Night! Because at this point that’s EXACTLY what this movie looks like!
Jon McKenzie
Who hurt you?
I think Reb Brown kicked him in the junk before he went in or something.
Almost forgot that before he was Blast Hardcheese he was Captain America.
Giant text wall of butthurt.
That part about Cap not expected to be a great character, and yet somehow pulling it off great: that describes my attitude to a tee. I didn’t expect anything good from Captain America. What, he’s a guy with pretty lackluster powers, and his whole schtick is that he dresses up like a flag and beats up Nazis. And yet, this film – and to a large degree its predecessor – really hit me hard and impressed the hell out of me. I never thought I would love Captain America, but these three films (CA:FA, Avengers, and WS) really proved him to me. Now, he’s one of my favorites, right up there with Batman and Wolverine.
And it’s for the very reasons you specified: you see his journey. You see him as the underdog who just wants to do what’s right, you see him as the diehard friend who puts his life on the line for those he cares about.
The Man out of Time. In almost any other movie, this aspect of his character would make him goofy. Kind of like Thor in his first movie. But with Cap, there’s awkwardness, but most of it is just pain. Pain from the life he left behind, pain from a world that has forsaken the values he holds dear, pain from the loss of friends and family, pain from losing his true love in a way that only the elderly truly understand. Frankly, I think they did a much better job of portraying that than I had ever seen in the comics.
I like that, in the final battle, he fights because he absolutely must. But when the fight is over, he is willing to lay down his life to redeem his friend, even though his friend wants nothing of it.
It has been suggested that the title “Winter Soldier” applies not merely to the villain, but also to Cap himself. Because the winter soldier is the man who keeps fighting through it all, and doesn’t give up. The summer soldier only fights when he knows he can win; Cap keeps fighting even when there seems to be nothing left for him to fight for. And through the entire film, you feel this.
Next time around, we get to watch him scold his teammates for their potty mouths (even though he swears a cuss or two himself in this one). And we get to see Black Widows complex character journey boiled down to just needing a man in her life.
amrothery
I just signed up for an account in order to say this. One of the things I love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole is that, despite generally starring superheroes doing superhero-y things, the individual films are not solely superhero movies. Thor is epic fantasy, Iron Man is techno-thriller, Incredible Hulk is a monster movie. First Avenger was as much a war drama as it was anything else, and Winter Soldier is a political conspiracy thriller with Robert Redford in a major role (albeit with a lot more explosions than the Seventies could have produced). And still to come are things like the Space Opera, the Heist, and the Gritty Urban Crime Drama.
And Avengers? Avengers shows that all these great tastes can taste great together.
I wouldn’t really call this a ‘filler’ movie, as it delivers some pretty big plot bombshells that really shake up the world in the movies in the way something like Thor 2 doesn’t.
I have always loved Captain America. To me, he personifies what is best in superheroes: brave, kind, humble, generous, self-sacrificing, and yes, patriotic. Patriotism doesn’t have to be preachy or self-righteous or intolerant, and Cap is none of those things. He is a humane, compassionate man who loves his country but more than that, loves the values upon which it was founded. There is nothing phony about Cap. Plus, he kicks ass. People say they can’t identify with Superman because he’s too powerful. Cap is basically Superman without the powers.
I am delighted that the MCU has apparently caused many people to change their minds about Cap, among them, my wife. She said she never got Cap until she watched Captain America: The First Avenger. Now she does. He hates bullies.
cdrood
This is exactly it. It plays to both the grandeur and humanity of the character without being corny or preachy. I loved the line where Falcon asked if Steve rehearsed his speech. For those who don’t know, one of Cap’s things is big inspirational speeches. I loved how just by talking he got people on his side. A computer tech stood up to a trained field agent with a gun just on Cap’s word.
I think too many people expect naivete from such a character. That’s not Captain America. He understands there’s corruption. He’s just not going to let it make him cynical. It just makes him fight harder and he looks others who’ll join him. He’ll fight alone if he has to, but always believes he’ll find allies who share the core of his beliefs. Likewise, his companions are truly loyal because they see he has the courage of his convictions and are inspired to do the same.
Yeah, this was the first part of phase two that I LOVED. Heck, this video made me want to see again! I’m going to look for it On Demand! LOL.
Katicus
I feel like on paper, on a purely technical level this is probably the best of the phase 2 movies. I was engaged, it expanded the presented the protagonist’s specific corner of the Marvel Universe and challenged his (and by extension our) moral understanding of the functional world. It demonstrates how malleable the superhero genre is by giving us a top notch political thriller… and yet I tend to think I have a harder time bringing myself to watch this one than any of the other Phase Two entries. Going by the “rewatchability” metric, it doesn’t have check off the boxes that make some of the “less good” entries enjoyable. It wasn’t fun the way I want a Marvel superhero film to be. I was a Marvel fan way before the films, so buoyant character dynamics and broad (oft-times bonkers) adventure are the name of the game for me. With the exception of Cap’s scenes with Black Widow, who is the MVP in every Marvel film she appears (with the exception of Iron Man 2, in which everyone went home a loser), I didn’t get the same level of engaging character interplay that you get in just about any other Marvel film. And with the exception of Falcon’s flying and Cap’s shield throwing, it didn’t feel like the film had enough spectacle. I appreciate that the director wanted to show how flexible the superhero genre is, but I feel like in order to make the espionage action-thriller they wanted, it came at the cost of a lot of visually interesting superheroics. It’s the first Marvel film that really felt scared by the fact that these characters aren’t based in reality. Falcon has an unusual and potentially very fun power set to play with in the comics. He can communicate and control birds. There could have been some really out there, visually interesting, Hitchcockian use of his abilities in combat, but the film makers were afraid of the comic book source material getting in the way of the spy movie they wanted to make. Now, he’s just a guy in a military issue flight pack. In a universe with gods, gamma giants, and armies of aliens, they had to pulp all sense of wonder out of him? By pulping out all the fantastic superhero imagery they could get away with, they may have made a good spy/action film, but a disappointing superhero movie. Do I think this is a bad film? Absolutely not. Do I think it’s disappointing as an entry in the Marvel film series? Kinda, yeah. I don’t hate it, but it falls into, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” territory.
ErichoTTA
I remember watching Marvel: Agents Of Shield. They said Nick Fury was dead, but then I found out he wasn’t in this movie. Uh, spoilers? Come on, everyone familiar with the comics knows who the Winter Soldier is! I’m so glad my dad loved this with me. It’s probably his favorite movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Under The Shadow – Blood Splattered Vlog
The Spirit – Nostalgia Critic
Steven Universe Vlogs: Episode 62 – Chille Tid
Freddy Got Fingered – Tamara’s Never Seen
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Sunday Psalms: The Mermaid
Sunday Psalms: Fictional Narratives Inspired by the Psalms, Proverbs, & Other Biblical Works
The mermaid had been spotted three times, and from the perspective of the village council, every sighting had come from an unreliable source.
“Can’t trust a thing Old Man Samson says. He’s been senile for years.”
“Can’t trust what little Tommy Mark says either. Why, he’s not more than ten years old. What’s a boy his age know?
“Well you certainly can’t believe a word that comes out of Priscilla Dunlap’s mouth. A woman like that? Tongue’s as slippery as an eel.”
It was a foggy evening and the more prominent members of the community were gathered around the stove in the village lighthouse. This had become the official meeting place for the wise sages, and with Priscilla Dunlap being the third to spread the erroneous report of a mermaid in the harbor, an emergency meeting had been called.
“Folks are beginning to think there might be some validity to their story. We’ve got to do something before it gets out of hand.” The concern was voiced by Albert Rawlings, a tall man bearing the title of head elder. He generously presided over the village affairs like a young mother hovering over a newborn babe.
“Once people start believing in mermaids, they’ll go making up stories of dragons and unicorns and forest fairies,” continued Albert, shaking his fist as he spoke. “We can’t have a community full of nincompoops. People will think the village has run amuck.”
By the time he finished his impassioned speech, Alfred was standing, his mass seeming to occupy most of the room. To describe him as a tall man would be unfair, for he was in fact, the tallest man in the county. Indeed, Albert had often found himself towering above the majority of life.
“But what do you expect us to do, Albert?” Of all the elders, Robin Bletchley was the least motivated, and he frequently voiced a sense of despondency. Unlike Albert, Robin was a man who preferred to ruminate. He often encouraged others to adopt his cautious approach.
Unfortunately, Albert had no suggestions, which only served to heightened his concern. He slumped down on top of a barrel that had been turned over as a makeshift chair and pulled an old pipe from his jacket pocket. He always smoked when he was distressed.
What to do? What to do? The little group was silent as they mulled over the situation.
“Hasn’t there been a full moon every time?” Martha Olinger was the only feminine presence on the council. She was the least emotional and was only inclined to speak after pondering a subject for some time. Priscilla Dunlap had burst into her store early that morning, spouting out the story of the mermaid, and Martha had been chewing on the details for hours.
“I think you’re right, Martha. They claim she comes out every full moon, precisely at midnight.” Horace was the village lighthouse keeper. His lamp had been protecting the village for decades, and although he was skeptical about the mermaid, he paid close attention to any local conversation involving the sea.
“Ridiculous,” Albert muttered. “Complete and utter nonsense. Mermaids at midnight.”
“That may be, Albert. But don’t you see? Next full moon we’ll go down to the rocks and see for ourselves. Why, with all of us as witnesses, that will surely be enough to prove there is no mermaid.” The suggestion came from Riley Jefferson. He was the village banker and was, by far, the best at coming up with ideas.
By now Albert had finished lighting his pipe. He took a deep puff of tobacco and considered the matter. “Riley, I think you’re on the right path. It’s the only thing to do. We’ll prove this mermaid business is a lot of cockamamie nonsense.”
♦⊗♦⊗♦⊗♦⊗♦
On the evening of the next full moon, the sky seemed to understand the council’s mission. The weeks of persistent fog had suddenly dissipated, and every star in night sky was eager to be out.
“Perfect weather,” Horace remarked. It was just before midnight, and the council had gathered in the belly of the lighthouse to finalize their plans.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Albert began, discounting the need for pleasantries. “Martha, you go up top with Horace. Make sure you shine the lamp out on the harbor right where they claim to have seen the mermaid. Robin, Riley, and I will hike down to the rocks where we can get a close look at things. We’ll stay until half past twelve. When she doesn’t show, we’ll insist that everyone ignore the rumors and make no further mention of it.”
The other elders seemed comfortable with the arrangement and headed to their prospective stations. Martha was pleased to accompany Horace. She’d loved him for forty years but had never found the right moment to tell him.
“Hurry,” Albert called to Robin and Riley as he scrambled down, convinced they were both moving too slow.
“I’m coming, Albert, but it’s rather dark out here. Wouldn’t want to take a tumble,” Robin said as he held a lantern out in front of him. Riley followed close behind, picking his way to the edge of the precarious rocks.
Meanwhile, Horace and Margaret were already patrolling the water with the lantern. Like artists on a canvas, they swept wide brushes of light back and forth across the sea, their eyes searching for something other than the waves.
“Got anything to eat?” Robin asked Albert as they settled down onto the rocks.
“Eat? Robin, there’ll be plenty of time for that. Let’s get this matter over with it.” Albert flipped open his pocket watch and began clicking his tongue. “See? What did I tell you. Midnight and not a mermaid in sight.”
“There. There! Mr. Rawlings, do you see it?” A shout rose up from the cliff, and the men turned to see little Tommy Mark scampering out to them. “Out there! Don’t you see her?”
“What are you talking about, boy? I don’t see anything,” Albert said and rubbed his eyes.
“Right there,” Tommy insisted, pointing out to sea. “You don’t see her?”
“Of course not,” Albert grumped and turned to the other elders. “You two stay here with Tommy. I’m going to find out if Horace or Martha can see anything from up there.”
By the time Albert had hiked back up to the lighthouse and climbed the stairs to the tower, Horace and Martha were out on the balcony, leaning over the edge.
“I think Tommy Mark has lost his mind,” Albert said as he joined them.
“Quiet,” Horace whispered without diverting his eyes from the sea.
“What are you two looking at?”
“The mermaid, Albert,” Martha said, her voice reverent. She was pointing to the same spot Tommy had indicated.
“I swear, I think you’ve all gone mad. I don’t see anything.”
“You can’t see her, Albert? She’s beautiful. Her long hair and tail?” There was a catch in his voice as Horace described the mermaid’s fluid actions, and Martha felt it appropriate to reach out and grasp several of his fingers. Horace was happy to oblige.
With his binoculars Albert examined the spot off the rocks where the others’ attention was focused. Granted, he could see the water splashing about. A jumping fish, perhaps? That’s all it was.
“I don’t see any mermaid and neither do you,” Albert insisted. What was wrong with them? They were the village elders. They were responsible for maintaining the integrity of the community. What was he going to do with them?
“Did you see it, Albert? Did you see it?” Robin and Riley nearly collided with Albert as they ran back into the lighthouse, their faces beaming like children at Christmas.
“Not you too,” Albert growled and pushed his way past them. “Has everyone gone insane?” He stormed his way back down to the water and firmly planted himself on one of the rocks.
“You still don’t see her, do you Mr. Rawlings?” There was compassion in Tommy’s voice as he sidled his way over to Albert.
“I can’t see something that doesn’t exist, Tommy. Why doesn’t anyone understand that? Mermaids aren’t real.” Albert hung his head in frustration. How could he make them see this was all wishful thinking? A mere hallucination.
“It’s okay, Mr. Rawlings.” He felt Tommy reach out and pat him on the shoulder. “You’re just not ready to see her.”
“What do you mean, Tommy?”
“The mermaid. Not everyone can see her. Only some people.”
The boy looked back out at the water where the mermaid continued to swim. The moon highlighted the orange and yellow hues of her long hair as it billowed in the water around her. Little Tommy Mark had never seen anything so beautiful.
“But what about me. Why can’t I see her?”
“You could if you wanted to,” Tommy said. He giggled when the mermaid jumped into the air then dove back under the water, her tail splashing water everywhere.
“And why wouldn’t I want to see a mermaid?”
“She scares you, Mr. Rawlings. When you’re not afraid, then you’ll be able to see her.”
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalm 119:18 (ASV)
In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. And turning to the disciples, He said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I say unto you, that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not. Luke 10:21-24 (ASV)
-Question to Ponder: Is there anything that scares you about God?
-Song Recommendation: How You Forgive Me by Enter the Worship Circle
-Read Previous Sunday Psalms: Season One Episodes, Season Two: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10
Written by Heidi Sadler, Inspired by Psalm 119 & Luke 10. Copyright © 2016 by Heidi Sadler, All Rights Reserved.
Lighthouse, Mermaid, Village
The Wilderness – Chapter 9: The Waterhole
Sunday Psalms: The Elevator
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Pingback : Chasing Ebenezer Back next week... | Chasing Ebenezer
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New Miami Hurricanes WR Dayall Harris on his skills, role in Mark Richt’s offense
CORAL GABLES — Wide receiver Dayall Harris, a junior college transfer who started his college career at Mississippi, is rooming with cornerback Adrian Colbert, formerly of Texas. They’re getting along well, being that they’re both older players who have previous college experience and are thankful for their fresh starts.
But there’s a little rivalry brewing between them, as is natural between receiver and cornerback.
“He was looking pretty good yesterday in 7-on-7,” Harris said last week, as Miami took a break from summer classes and workouts to visit Carver Elementary in Coral Gables. “But they were playing zone. When they get in man, we’ll see.”
Dayall Harris talks with a reporter as UM players visited Carver Elementary in Coral Gables. (Matt Porter)
Harris, a former four-star recruit who signed with Ole Miss in 2014, hasn’t played in a college game. A 6-foot-3, 195-pound redshirt sophomore, he believes he will be a good fit for Miami’s offense — which is good, because UM needs him.
“I’m more of an end-zone threat, a long body,” said Harris, who was assigned No. 80. “You’ve got Stacy [Coley], a burner who’ll outrun you. I can outrun you, but I prefer to go over you.”
Harris had a clear-cut reason for choosing the Hurricanes.
“I picked Miami because they had five scholarship receivers,” he said. “Once I heard that, I knew I could come in and play right away. No doubt about it. That was my No. 1.
“And just look,” he said, gesturing toward a sunny, humid May afternoon sky. “The weather.”
He said coaches are “expecting me to step up and lead right away. In weight training, they expect me to already know some of the workouts and not just fold up like a freshman, you feel me? I’ve been vibing with the coaches. I have high expectations for them, and high expectations for myself.”
His first 7-on-7 session went “pretty good,” he said. “I had a couple catches. It was more adjusting and going full-speed learning the plays and recognizing coverages.”
As he becomes comfortable in Mark Richt‘s offense, Harris said he was lining up at ‘Z’, or flanker, in 7-on-7 drills, while freshman Ahmmon Richards took the ‘X’, or split end (furthest away from the tight end). Coley switches between the ‘Z’ and ‘Y’, or the slot. Braxton Berrios plays the ‘Y,’ but can move around as well.
“I just know I can learn a lot from those guys,” Harris said. “Looking at Braxton, they had Braxton in the slot, then he came outside. I was like, what’s this little dude doing outside? But, it’s just a sense of how dynamic the receivers are. You can put them outside and inside.”
He caught passes from four UM quarterbacks — Brad Kaaya, Jack Allison, Evan Shirreffs and Malik Rosier — and said Kaaya was the most impressive.
“He’s pretty good. He’s got a pretty nice arm,” Harris said. Asked if he gets the ball in on time, Harris replied, “Every time.”
* In addition to Harris, Coley, Berrios and Richards (who enrolled May 16), UM has Malcolm Lewis, Lawrence Cager and Darrell Langham. Freshmen Sam Bruce and Dionte Mullins are expected to arrive in June.
Former Hurricanes Jelani Hamilton, Earl Moore find new teams
Miami Hurricanes LB Darrion Owens talks comeback from major knee injury
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Category Archives: New Releases
MM! 1080p BD
By Sakura Kinomoto | April 29, 2015 - 11:58 am | November 19, 2015 BD Rips, Dual Audio Anime, New Releases
MM一族！ (Chinese (Taiwan))
Молодые Мазохисты! (Russian)
えむえむっ！ (Japanese)
엠엠! (Korean)
Themes: after school club, androphobia, cross-dressing, fanservice, Harem, moe, s & m, tsundere
Plot Summary:High school student Taro Sado comes to realize that he is an extreme masochist and attempts to conceal this from his crush. To fix his problem, he enrolls in his school’s “2nd Volunteer Club”, where Mio Isurugi and the other members attempt to cure him through various “training” regimens.
Number of episodes:12
Video Codec: x/h.265
Audio Codec: DTS-MA
Subtitles: PGS
XDCC Download
The Familiar of Zero (Zero no Tsukaima) BD 1080p
By Sakura Kinomoto | November 17, 2014 - 3:26 am | December 19, 2014 BD Rips, Dual Audio Anime, Dubbed Anime, New Releases
Louise Valliere is a second-year student at the esteemed Magic Academy High School, but all of her classmates call her ‘Zero Louise‘. While no one doubts her magic ability, it is just that all of the spells that she casts go wrong, usually with disastrous and explosive results. Rumour has it that none of the spells that she tried to cast have ever gone as expected, which is how she picked up her nickname — Zero.
One of the most import second-year student rituals is the summoning of a familiar. A familiar once summoned will stay with the magician for rest of their life. A mage’s magical familiar can appear in the form of any creature — as small as a mouse, as a fearsome fire salamander, and perhaps even as a dragon for an exceptional mage. True to form, Louise’s familiar summoning spell goes very wrong and pulls Hiraga Saito from his life as a high school student in Japan into the magic world. The ritual is sacred and once started, cannot be changed, so Louise accepts her fate and gives Saito a kiss (on the lips) to seal their bond. The other students take delight in teasing Zero Louise at having summoned an ordinary commoner as a familiar, but they have forgotten that familiars are magical creatures and by their nature — are never ordinary or common.
Source: R1 BD
Video: x264 CRF18
Audio: AC3 2.0 English/Japanese
Torrent will be made later
XDCC
New Releases as of November 14, 2014
By AquaFox | November 14, 2014 - 11:54 pm | November 22, 2014 Dubbed Anime, HDTV Rips, New Releases, TV Releases
Tenkai Knights – 40-44
Attack on Titan – 17-23
Gurren Lagann – 04-09
Watamote: No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular! (2013) BD 1080p
By Sakura Kinomoto | November 2, 2014 - 9:46 pm | December 19, 2014 BD Rips, Dual Audio Anime
At the tender age of 15, Kuroki Tomoko has already dated dozens and dozens of boys and she’s easily the most popular girl around! The only problem is that absolutely none of that is real, and her perfect world exists only via dating games and romance shows. In fact, the sad truth is that she gets tongue tied just talking to people, and throughout middle school she’s only had one actual friend. All of this makes Kuroki’s entrance into the social pressure cooker of high school a new and special kind of hell.
While Kuroki desperately wants to be popular, she’s actually worse off than she would be if she was completely clueless as to how to go about it. After all, the things that work in “otome” games rarely play out the same way in reality, especially when the self-appointed “leading lady” isn’t the paragon she thinks she is. There’s not much gain and plenty of pain ahead, but even if it happens again and again, there’s always someone else to blame!
Source: Blu-Ray
Video: x/h.264 1920×1080 crf:18 VFR
Audio: AC3 448kbps 2.0 English/Japanese
Batch Torrent
New Releases as of October 11, 2014
By AquaFox | October 11, 2014 - 12:11 am | November 15, 2014 Dubbed Anime, HDTV Rips, New Releases, TV Releases
Blue Exorcist – 25
Cardcaptor Sakura Dual Audio BluRay Encodes Completely Uncut
By Sakura Kinomoto | August 19, 2014 - 9:32 pm | December 19, 2014 BD Rips, Dual Audio Anime, New Releases
Ten-year-old Sakura lives a pretty normal life with her older brother Toya, and widowed father Fujitaka. Or she did… until the day she returned home from school to discover a glowing book in her father’s study. After opening the book and releasing the cards within, Sakura is tasked with collecting each of these magical cards, while trying to live the life of a normal fourth grader. In the monumental task of collecting all the cards, Sakura must rely on her friends and family, and decide what she finds most important in life.
Sakura’s journey to recapture the Clow Cards continues. With most of them captured, she finds that the remaining cards are going to put up a fight. Along the way, she must also navigate the struggles of moving on to the fifth grade and contend with the ever-evolving romances in her life. And before long, she discovers that there’s a not so pleasant surprise waiting for her at the end of her card-capturing journey…
After a harrowing journey to collect the cards and prove her worth as their master, Sakura finds herself in a whole new world of trouble as mysterious events begin to threaten the small town of Tomoeda. To make matters worse, Yukito seems to be having some unexplained troubles of his own. With no cards left on the loose, Sakura must form a special bond with her cards to quell each new disturbance, and discover what could possibly be causing them before the lives of Tomoeda’s residents are damaged beyond repair!
Audio: Dual Audio AAC, English 2.0 (mono)/Japanese 2.0
Video Res: 1440×1080
Batch Torrent 72GB
New Releases as of August 01, 2014
By AquaFox | August 1, 2014 - 11:59 pm | September 8, 2014 Dubbed Anime, HDTV Rips, New Releases, TV Releases
Dealing with family drama and Time Warner Cable being a dork and breaking my internets. Hopefully things remain stable from now on.
We got a new series, Gurren Lagann, premiering in 2 weeks, and Tenkai Knights resumes next month.
New Releases as of June 20, 2014
By AquaFox | June 20, 2014 - 1:58 pm | August 2, 2014 Dubbed Anime, HDTV Rips, New Releases, TV Releases
Got some more awesome stuff for ya.
Pokemon the Series: XY – 21
Attack on Titan – 07
Bleach – 348
One Piece – 258
Getting anxious for the new Space Dandy, coming in July!
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Viewers won’t forget ‘Rolling Thunder Revue,’ even if Bob Dylan does
Rare exhibit of Jesuit artists’ work in China displayed in Washington
Truly understanding Christ can transform Christians, author says
‘Chasing the Moon’ offers surprises in Apollo 11’s story
Book describes ‘triumph of beauty’ of Catholic art
‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ spins a snappy, substantial tale
Girl falls for gills in ’60s period film, ‘The Shape of Water’
Michael Shannon, Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer star in a scene from the movie "The Shape of Water." (CNS photo/Fox)
By Kurt Jensen • Catholic News Service • Posted February 8, 2018
NEW YORK (CNS) — Can a lovelorn yet sensuous cleaning lady in 1962 Baltimore find true love with a blue and yellow and sometimes glowing fish-man from the Amazon?
“The Shape of Water” (Fox Searchlight), which evenly splits elements of romantic fantasy, classic horror and musical nostalgia, makes the case for girl meets gills. And without Old Bay seasoning, no less.
The sexual content on display is, however, so strong and so pervasive as to make this unsuitable for the casual moviegoer, and to require a restrictive classification.
Nothing about this element of the film is intended to appear prurient or shocking. Rather, it’s a matter of sheer quantity.
Writer-director Guillermo del Toro likes to underline his points in this mix of “Beauty and the Beast” and “Creature from the Black Lagoon” — in the case of sexuality, with the cinematic equivalent of a bright, thick Magic Marker. In many other places, he makes gentler observations about the prevalence of prejudice in a variety of forms.
Sally Hawkins is Elisa, a cleaning lady at a secret government underground lair. She’s been mute since childhood as a result of having her vocal cords cut. She lives with a gay advertising illustrator, Giles (Richard Jenkins), who is fighting to stay employed and relevant. Octavia Spencer is her co-worker and friend Zelda, who translates Elisa’s sign language and is, unfortunately, the old stereotype of the sassy black friend.
Elisa is very much alone, and she and Giles, although they live above a movie theater showing wide-screen Technicolor fare, prefer to watch old musical pictures on a black-and-white TV — and practice dance steps.
Alice Faye, a screen siren of the 1940s, is their particular favorite, and as a result, she gets a lot of screen time here and is heard singing the melancholy “You’ll Never Know” (from 1943’s “Hello, Frisco, Hello”) quite a bit.
Suddenly, the way plots in these stories occur, the lab receives a tank containing the Amazonian amphibian (Doug Jones). The lab is a military facility, but is bossily ruled over by civilian Richard (Michael Shannon). He’s pugnacious, racist, in a stale marriage with a by-rote sex life, hates being stuck in Baltimore, and likes to torture the fish-man with an electric cattle prod.
Complicating matters further is the presence of a Russian spy, Robert (Michael Stuhlbarg), since the Russians also are interested in retrieving this “asset.”
Richard, though, would prefer that the lab take the amphibian with the soulful golden eyes, and cut him into pieces to see how he works, since he can breathe on both land and sea. Richard purports to know that the amphibian is an affront to God, since he’s not “made in his image.”
The tank is in an area Elisa and Zelda are assigned to clean. It gets messy in there when the amphibian attacks Richard and tears off two fingers. But Elisa retrieves the digits, although they soon turn gangrenous (It’s not one of del Toro’s subtler analogies).
She also bonds with her new equally mute fishy friend over lunches of hard-boiled eggs and big-band ballads played on a portable phonograph.
Just like in her beloved old musical pictures, she and the amphibian fall quickly into interspecies love, and she and Giles hatch a plan to spirit him out of the lab and to their apartment, where she installs him in the bathtub.
There’s also some improbable skinny-dipping when Elisa floods the bathroom. Subsequently, it turns out that her expressive sign language is a very convenient way to explain to Zelda how the sex works. This is earthy stuff, and may also constitute, for many, an instance of too much information.
Will the amphibian make it to the ocean? (Technically the Chesapeake Bay, but let’s not pick that nit.) Can his and Elisa’s love survive? And does he have godlike healing powers?
Take it away, Alice Faye: “If there is some other way to prove that I love you, I swear I don’t know how.”
All the glorious formulaic elements of a lush period romance mashed up with too many sexual references. Somehow, Alice’s warbling from beyond the grave manages to pull all of it together.
The film contains strong sexual content, including graphic marital lovemaking, bizarre activity and several glimpses of male and female nudity, fleeting gore and frequent rough language. The Catholic News Service classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Jensen is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.
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Midsummer (a play with songs) by David Greig and Gordon McIntyre
Midsummer (a play with songs) by David Greig (writer/director) and Gordon McIntyre (songwriter). Traverse Theatre Company, Edinburgh, at Canberra Theatre Centre, The Playhouse, March 28-31, 2012.
What an interesting play! It’s like pass the parcel: surprise after surprise at the unwrapping of each new layer, right until the very centre at the end. Surely it’s a rom-trag? But no – the last revelation is still to come. Rom-com after all.
The play, its original structure, sparkling design and presentation by actors Cora Bissett and Matthew Pidgeon, proves the truth of the announcement by the supposed (or is it real in Scotland?) parking ticket payment machine: CHANGE IS POSSIBLE.
The storyline, after all, is no different than Shakespeare’s tale of Beatrice and Benedick or Shaw’s of Bluntschli and Raina. An unlikely couple meet in highly unprepossessing circumstances and find that love happens regardless of what they think they feel. For Shakespeare it was all much ado about nothing – except that it was really about the nature of proper governance of the nation. For Shaw it was really about the taking up of arms between nations. For David Greig it is about the human disaster of modern urban consumer society. Com though it might be for the characters as they “dance ere we are married’, give her hand “to my chocolate cream soldier” or board the ferry for Belgium, the fun of realising that love conquers all cannot completely hide the trag behind
My lord, your brother John is ta’en in flight / And brought with armed men back to Messina, or
Time’s up, Major. You’ve managed those regiments so well that youre sure to be asked to get rid of some of the Infantry of the Teemok division, and
the need for Bob, at the age of 35, to have had to depend on being a criminal’s courier to survive in modern Edinburgh, the pointless lives of the youthful ‘Goths’, the irresponsibility of ‘nightlife’, and the sadness of Helena’s desire for a child and fear that at 35 she may be too late. Using Bob’s ill-gotten gains to flee to Europe for a few weeks’ fun may not be all that it promises on the Monday after this midsummer’s wild weekend. We can only hope that the parking machine is right, and change is possible after all.
So, if the plot is traditional, what makes this play original? The answer is the same as it was for Much Ado About Nothing and Arms and the Man. It’s in the language and the relationship set up between the characters and the audience. Change in writing for theatre is possible. It was Shakespeare who used the soliloquy as a device for a character to speak directly to the audience, it was Shaw who put the bluntness of Bluntschli on stage, and in the last century Brecht who had characters sing songs as singers rather than as the characters they otherwise were playing, while Tennessee Williams wrote characters who separately observed and commented on the action.
Greig has taken this tradition a step beyond. Bob and Helena switch moment by moment from being their own character to describing what the other was or is doing or playing out other characters in the other character’s life. The play constantly shifts the ground beneath us, which is often funny even as it can make us feel insecure.
This is a new style of theatre suited to today’s 24/7 culture, but does not fall into the common trap of using technology just because it is there. In fact the clever design, by Georgia McGuiness, uses perfectly old-fashioned visual and audio techniques, while the one more modern device which does the trick for the play is the simple continuous roll-along brightly-lit message from the ticket machine. Change is possible, indeed, but is most effective when introduced sparingly and only to make a specific point. The script is about a wildly out-of-control weekend, but is tightly written, giving the actors every opportunity to make the most of every minute. As they do.
As always, discipline and being true to the right style is what makes theatre work. It certainly does in Midsummer.
Tales from the TARDIS…
LA meets Dr Who
Finding theatre in unfamiliar places is a good sport so although I’d gone to Gallifrey One’s February Dr Who convention in Los Angeles for the fan in me that has loved science fiction ever since H G Wells’ lot and Radio BBC’s Journey Into Space in the 1950s, I kind of hoped that there would be some theatre pay offs. I like the stories actors and directors tell about their experiences and can listen to the yarns and legends all day.
Top this off with some side gallops into Los Angeles proper to get a glimpse of Hollywood and to have a go at the two Getty museums all complicated by the time it takes to get around such a spread out town and you can see why I did not quite manage to follow up on a chance to see an experimental Richard III (which had had mixed reviews). That I also managed to have a glimpse of President Obama flying past Santa Monica pier in a helicopter phalanx while I was paying homage to Ray Bradbury, the tents of Cirque du Soleil and the end of Route 66 (where a busker was singing Here’s to You, Mrs Robinson) was just plain luck.
In Hollywood the acting starts as you come up out of the train station down the road from Grauman's Chinese Theatre. There’s all these people dressed as everything from Captain Jack Sparrow to Darth Vader and his Imperial Storm Troopers. Their job is to get you to tip them for having your photo taken with them and to make it just that bit more difficult to find Jean Harlow’s foot and hand prints that you’ve promised to find for your 100 year old mother outside Grauman’s. ‘She’s just up from Elizabeth Taylor’, says the man in the kiosk and so she is. Tiny feet, tiny hands and dead at 26 from renal failure, much to the sorrow of fans like my father who wrote to her, got a signed photo back but lost it in the numerous moonlight flits round the Cross in Sydney when the rent couldn’t be paid.
Actually all of the talent seems to have been tiny. I am spruiked into Grauman’s Chinese Theatre by a young Pom offering short tours of the inside (came out to break into Hollywood… well, he’s gotten as far as Grauman’s…) The film costumes on display in the foyer of Grauman’s don’t go above a size 10 and come to think of it the hands and feet in the cement outside are all on the small side too. Even John Wayne’s boots don’t have heft – R2D2’s footprints look bigger.
(Later on, back at Gallifrey One, Paul McGann (Doctor Number Eight, The Monocled Mutineer, Withnail and I) also turns out to be physically tinier than his performances would ever indicate. He has a superb singing voice that would go down a treat at the National Folk Festival.)
Inside Grauman’s it is all red and gold and restored Chinoiserie from the 1920s. That’s not as tinselly as it sounds. Between the wall paintings worked on by performers like Key Luke (a long CV but you might best remember him as the old bloke who passes on the gremlins in Gremlins with a warning) and Xavier Cougat and the silk house tabs and the Chinese gods and the dragons woven into the carpets this theatre that started out as a home to the old silent films has a gorgeous ambiance for film and live performance.
Outside they are getting ready for the Oscars, techie heaven with people in black with mobile phones, lights going up, the street blocked off, the seating going in for the red carpet entrance and a huge sweeping gold curtain set into the archway of the Kodak Theatre. Snapping away with a digital filmless ‘point and shoot’, I am not unaware of the ironies of the name.
Next door is the greatest of follies. I live near to a video shop that actually carries a copy of D.W.Griffith’s Intolerance but I hadn’t realised that the set for the Babylonian section was left up long enough to become a landmark and that the shopping mall next to the Kodak has been constructed as a kind of a homage to it. This means mad Babylonian architectural elements and elephants trumpeting from the ramparts. Encouraging quotations from those who ‘made it’ are immortalised on the pavements. You can walk in and view the HOLLYWOOD sign on the faraway hills from a great height or downstairs next to a sculpture of a huge couch – the ultimate casting couch upon which tourists can now cast themselves for pictures.
You can take one of those topless double deckers for a do it yourself hop on hop off tour. So I do that, being hopelessly out of time for anything else, and we rampage around Hollywood, spotting Hollywood High with its paintings of alumni like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, the old LA police department which was the exterior of Kane’s castle in Citizen Kane and resonant places like the La Brea Tar Pits. I end up eating at a Singaporean place in the Farmers Market where they actually seem to have heard of real food. As it gets dark I manage a snap of the Paramount parking lot’s outdoor sky screen which features in Star Trek IV and in The Ten Commandments when the Red Sea is being parted, get a glimpse of the cemetery where Rudolf Valentino is buried and see all lit up above the city the Griffith Observatory where James Dean carries on like a two bob watch in Rebel Without a Cause. We also glimpse a demo on Hollywood Boulevard on behalf of the Syrians, passed by Snow White and The Flash who are walking the other way, talking on mobile phones, apparently undisturbed.
Next to this the corridors of the Marriott Hotel, thronging with Daleks and people dressed in TARDIS costumes, are positively sedate. I don’t have a costume to put on but I’ve failed to arrive in America with a haircut and so I’m wearing a Harris Tweed flat cap and a bright red Thai silk scarf so I won’t disappear in a crowd of 3000 fans. A genial older bloke setting up for autographs hails me and says, ‘I like your hat!’ It’s the charming Richard Franklin, the slightly tragic Captain Mike Yates from Second Doctor Jon Pertwee's era.
But it’s the origins of the show in the 1960s that draw me and there’s William Russell, one of the first companions ever, now in his late 80s. Courtly and bemused by American teenage fans who stand in the queue muttering ‘What am I going to say to Ian Chesterton?’, he’s done stage and film and television, the Ghost in Hamlet with the RSC at Stratford, opened the New Globe in London in Henry V, has a son (Alfie Enoch) in the Harry Potter films and has a passion for teaching young actors stage work and Shakespeare. (He says ‘I like your hat’ too, which makes my weekend.)
Maureen O’Brien, another early First Doctor William Hartnell companion (Vikki) who has also had a long stage and TV career as well as being a crime novelist, has a fascinating conversation with me, not about liking the hat or the Zarbi or being chased around Nero’s Rome but about the lovely complexities of As You Like It and playing Rosalind despite it being traditionally the part that goes to a tall woman.
Michael Troughton (son of Patrick, the Second Doctor, and an actor himself) is signing copies of his biography of his father and that’s got more actor stories in it. Respected director Waris Hussein, the East Indian from Lucknow who directed An Unearthly Child, the very first episode of all, is gently describing the circumstances that led to Dr Who being born.
(1963 and change was about, even at the BBC. The show’s creator, Sydney Newman, was Canadian, Hussein, despite an English education, was seen as Indian, Anthony Coburn, writer of that first episode, was Australian and producer Verity Lambert was a woman. And Australian Ron Grainer composed the theme tune which was then arranged by BBC Radiophonic’s Delia Derbyshire. True, they’d been thrown a job that no one else much wanted but look what came of this combination of colonials and females.)
Daphne Ashbrook (companion Dr Grace Holloway in the 1996 McGann Dr Who TV movie) turns out to have actually done David Williamson’s The Coming of Stork in Los Angeles, for which the cast had to learn an Australian accent. I laugh out loud at the ironies of all those elocution lessons in the 50s and 60s that were supposed to rid my generation of women of such a thing when she admires the way I speak.
All of this is bloody wonderful but the unexpected bonus comes when I wander over to an older bloke who has a raft of pictures on a table of him in every kind of role from the Civil War to a Klingon prison governor and a rather kindly looking Vulcan.
‘I LOVE your hat!’ he says and he’s got my attention.
I don’t immediately register that he’s the older Canton Everett Delaware III in Dr Who’s The Impossible Astronaut and that the bloke nearby who, on hearing my accent, begins to talk about how good the Dr Who orchestral concert that just ran in Melbourne was, is his son Mark, and the younger Canton Everett Delaware III. (Fancy me having to scramble to keep up in Dr Who territory…) Aha. Penny drops. We are talking to W. Morgan Sheppard, Anglo-Irish, face with the wandering of the world upon it, trained at RADA, worked with Peter Brook and Grotowski, played in Pinter’s The Caretaker (‘Horrible characters…horrible...’) and was in the RSC’s Australian tour…
‘1970? Adelaide Festival?’ I ask.
Saw Judi Dench in Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale, I did, and never forgot her voice with that expressive break in it. Nor the bear that pursues Antigonus when, caught between the fires of his wife and his king, he abandons a baby on a sea shore…
It was a bit like that moment in Oedipus when the shepherd says ‘Here stands your baby boy’ except it wasn’t tragic. Here was that Antigonus (and also Antonio from Twelfth Night), calling out to passing Daleks and Tom Bakers, ‘She remembers! She remembers!’ and going on to remember himself how as Antigonus he would look across the stage at Brenda Bruce’s Paulina and say to himself ‘I love her, she’s so lovely…’ and how that became the drive for the character.
I extend the story by telling him that I’ve just done that very scene with a group of Thai performers in a workshop on Shakespeare in Makhampom’s Chiang Dao theatre north of Chiang Mai and we part with a signed picture of him as the scholarly Vulcan elder because there isn’t one there of Antigonus and somehow this one seems to have the proper gravitas. And that all does not even begin to touch on his knowing the story of Paul Robeson singing to the workers at Sydney Opera House and how that resonated later with singer John McLaughlin who was singing in Sydney when an old bloke in the front row requested Joe Hill and it turned out he’d been an electrician on the building of the Opera House and a car drew up and a big black man got out of it and said ‘I won’t be able to come back and sing here when it’s finished but I’ll give you a really good concert’ and he sang Joe Hill to the workers and it was Paul Robeson…*
I had a go at both the Getty museums and they were quite wonderful, what with the reconstructed Roman theatre in the Getty Villa and the way the bigger Getty museum crouches on top of a ridge overlooking Los Angeles and divides your attention between the art and the views of a city on the shore that will be chaos if a tsunami ever arrives. I rode the buses and the trains and listened to Spanish being spoken and saw how this city is not all glamour and gold curtains. But I reckon it was the actors’ tales that made the trip.
That, and being able to say that Ian Chesterton, Captain Mike Yates and Canton Everett Delaware III all said they liked my hat.
William Russell (Ian Chesterton) and The Hat.
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg7bPgrosAE
By Alanna Maclean
LA TRAVIATA - HANDA OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR
TRIUMPHANTLY SINGING IN THE RAIN.
Report by Bill Stephens
Photos by Len Power
Emma Mathews in "La Traviata"
An invitation to attend the final dress rehearsal for a sneak-peek at Opera Australia’s spectacular new production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” was irresistible. Particularly as this new production is being staged under the stars on Sydney Harbour, at a cost, according to Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini of $11.5 million, and stars Emma Mathews, in her role debut, as Violetta teamed with Italian heart-throb tenor Gianluca Terranova, as Alfredo.
Later in the season, a no less sensational casting has Rachelle Durkin taking over the role of Violetta, with the Korean tenor, Ji-Min Park as her Alfredo.
As luck would have it, the day of the dress rehearsal dawned overcast, and by dusk, a light drizzle had set in. However, buoyed by the advice from Opera Australia that the performance would only be cancelled if weather conditions made it dangerous to proceed, I invested in a new umbrella and headed for the harbour.
As we arrived, my colleague, who was reporting for Artsound’s radio program “Dress Circle”, and I, along with the rest of the audience, was thoughtfully presented with complimentary ponchos, a practical gesture which certainly enhanced our enjoyment of the event despite the relentless drizzle.
We were invited to enjoy the catering facilities, which included three glamorous, al fresco eating areas and mobile champagne bars, while busy stage-hands mopped the amazing stage, designed by Brian Thompson in the shape of a huge trompe l’oeil painted gilt-framed mirror, secured on pylons drilled into the ocean bed. Resting on the stage was an amazing chandelier, which was raised above the stage for the performance.
At 7pm, the advertised starting time, Lyndon Terracini announced that as weather radars indicated that the rain would soon pass over the site, the commencement of the performance would be delayed. Canvas coverings were quickly pulled over the stage area to keep it as dry as possible.
However the rain didn’t ease up as expected, and after a couple more postponements, it was announced that the performance would proceed, despite the rain. However, because of the late start, Act 11, the act in which Alfredo’s father visits Violetta to ask her to give up her relationship with Alfredo, would be omitted. The canvas coverings were whisked away, the huge chandelier rose, dozens of guests, dressed in Tess Schofield’s glamorous La Dolce Vita inspired costumes, flooded on to the stage, and Violetta’s fabulous party was underway.
The Australian Ballet and Opera Orchestra under Brian Castles-Onion sounded magnificent, and the amplified sound balance between singers and orchestra was crystal clear and exciting.
Emma Mathews
As Violetta, Emma Mathews was magnificent. Dressed in a gorgeous 1950’s-style, ankle length, scarlet gown, with a Grace Kelly hairstyle, she looked and sounded ravishing, and despite the huge the stage, was immediately the focus of attention, the perfect hostess, acknowledging and flirting with each of her guests.
When the handsome Alfredo (Gianluca Terranova) arrived at the party, their attraction was immediate and obvious, and even though this was a dress rehearsal, there was no holding back.
Gianluca Terranova and Emma Mathews in "La Traviata"
Director, Francesca Zambello’s flair for staging large-scale spectacles is masterful. Her staging of both the party scenes, for which she keeps the stage filled with swirling imagery, while carefully maintaining focus on the principal characters is particularly impressive, and the way she has included the fantastic harbour backdrop as an integral part of her production is at times breathtaking.
Stephen Baynes has contributed dazzling choreography which includes lilting waltzes for Violetta’s party guests and a spectacularly costumed gypsy floorshow for Flora’s party.
The use of fireworks at the end of the famous “Libiamo” chorus was stunning and remarkably appropriate for such a party. The perfectly-timed final burst of fireworks at the moment of Violetta’s death created another unforgettable moment, as did the sight of Violetta soaring into the night sky in the huge chandelier at the climax of “Sempre Libre”.
Brian Thomson’s stage setting is a masterpiece of scenic design, holding its own against the magnificent Sydney skyline, and with the addition of elegant props, providing satisfying environments for each of the acts. The much-heralded chandelier, a particularly spectacular scenic element in its own right, was also integral to the production design, floating above the party scenes or descending to the stage to form a succession of moodily lit backdrops.
At some point in the evening the rain stopped, but I was so engrossed in the opera, that I hadn’t noticed precisely when. The realisation struck me that even though I had expected to enjoy this production as a spectacle, even with an act missing; I had been caught up in the story-telling.
Emma Mathews and Gianluca Terranova were a stunning couple, completely believable as the glamorous courtesan and her young lover. The combination of Mathews’ stunning appearance, glittering soprano and confident acting, and the good-looking Terranova’s soaring Italianate tenor was both thrilling and moving.
Then there was Jonathan Summers, also in glorious voice, bringing great presence and gravitas to the role of Alfredo’s father, especially in the final scene in which he seeks Violetta’s forgiveness. The rest of the cast, including the chorus and dancers, had woven their magic so effectively that I had forgotten any discomfort caused by the rain, and simply didn’t want it to stop.
Surely the mark of a great production.
Don’t let the weather deter you. This is a triumphant production which works on every level, guaranteed to provide you with an opera experience you will cherish for years to come.
La Traviata - Opera Australia
Telstra Ballet in the Park
The Australian Ballet
Reviewed by Samara Purnell
Knowing full well that the impending rain was keeping away at least a few people who had planned on attending this event, the size of the crowd gathered at Stage 88 was impressive.
This one-off, free performance from The Australian Ballet was a gift to Canberra for the Company’s 50th birthday, as we no longer have the pleasure of being part of their regular season.
A short rainfall just before 7pm stopped right as the performance was due to commence. The night was mild and no more rain fell, so apart from soggy picnic blankets and muddy shoes to deal with, there were no more dramas with the weather, as anyone planning an outdoor event in Canberra recently would have worried about!
And those who came were well rewarded, once a vantage point was found, between umbrellas and those standing or preferring chairs to braving the wet grass. It wasn’t an easy feat, as the venue was about as crowded as I’ve seen it.
Thankfully, due to the antics of an over-zealous man in a high-visibility jacket, (whom we mistakenly took to be an official, later to realise he was simply a patron of the arts like the rest of us who had taken it upon himself to enforce a rigid policy in no uncertain terms that you “MOVE to the side with umbrellas or SIT DOWN so those behind can see”) meant we umbrella-less souls were able to see for most of the performance.
It was exciting to see Commonwealth Park used for this event, and the setting was actually quite magical – bats rustling overhead, even the prospect of watching ballet in the rain seemed romantic.
A blank canvas for the dancers - no sets, and only simple light projections onto the back wall left all the focus rightly on dance. No interval would be included, which worked well with this programme of about one-and-a-half hours.
Lana Jones and Daniel Gaudiello opened the show in the energetic and colourful La Favorita. They danced fabulously together, clad in red and gold ornate costumes. Gaudiello impressed with his personality and confidence. It felt as though both dancers were holding back a little with the absolute abandon in their aerial work lacking, perhaps due to any residual rain on stage or an unfamiliar dancing surface. But this hesitancy seemed to have vanished by the next act and indeed by the next time these dancers took to the stage.
If the chance arises to see Molto Vivace in full, choreographed by Stephen Baynes, I will possibly jump as high as some of the dancers at the opportunity. With simply a projected full moon and dark lighting, monotone costumes by Anna French and set to a beautiful Handel score, Amber Scott and Adam Bull created a sensual dynamic, smooth, silky movements blending into effortless lifts and slow releases. The beautiful rawness of the choreography executed with fluidity and control, was for me, seeing it for the first time, one of the highlights of the evening’s performance. The mood was momentarily broken by one of our party commenting that if one of the bats flew past the projector thereby making the batman signal on the full moon it would be pretty cool. True, but this was by no means a reflection on their interest or enjoyment of the show and said party thoroughly loved the whole evening.
A pas de deux from Don Quixote followed with Chengwu Guo and Reiko Hombo taking the stage. Guo gave an enthusiastic rendition, with a strong, masculine performance. The chemistry between Guo and Hombo was not entirely convincing. However their solo performances were impressive.
The familiar notes of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” wafted across the audience, who enthusiastically applauded the solos of Juliet Burnett and Andrew Killian.
And then there was Giselle. A staple in the repertoire of any ballet lover. It was fantastic to once again watch former Canberran, Rachel Rawlins, a stalwart of the Australian Ballet, dance. And how perfect she was. Floating across stage en pointe, as if suspended above the ground, Rawlins completely encapsulated the sheer beauty and skill of a life dedicated to the art of classical dance. So captivating was her Giselle that Albrecht, Ty King-Wall, was barely noticeable until his solo.
I was particularly anticipating Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake, having not seen it live before. Typically giving his contemporary edge to classical ballet, his interpretation was low-key and required maturity and subtlety to pull off Odile's seduction of Prince Seigfried and the jealousy of Odette, which Scott and Amy Harris achieved. In this instance, Bull’s lanky, casual dance style just missed the mark and so did a couple of turns, with his landings a little shaky at times.
Murphy’s pas de trois and ensemble work usually leaves one wondering how the dancers did not tie themselves up completely in knots. And this pas de trois was no exception, with wonderful emotion and timing, especially from the females. The choreography gave a feeling as if underneath the smallest or seemingly simplest of manoeuvres, lies a world of unbelievable choreography, skill and layers of meaning waiting to explode out at any moment.
The most obvious audience response to an individual was in Le Corsair. Guo received enthusiastic applause mid-dance for his acrobatic display of spin-turns that just seemed to hang in the air far longer than gravity would dictate possible for mere mortals. The dancing from Kubota and Guo really had the wow factor, with the showy and acrobatic choreography suiting them very well.
An ensemble piece from La Bayadere closed the show. This didn't highlight the strongest dancing or most captivating choreography of the evening, but it was fitting to end with a traditional, ensemble piece, with dancers donning white tutus. With a solo from Dimity Azoury, another Canberra-trained dancer, the dancers from the Australian Ballet bid us goodnight.
What a wonderful night. If ballet inspires young, non-dancing men to post about it on Facebook, as was the case, then that must be saying something. Telstra Ballet in the Park was a blatant reminder of how keen we are to turn up to see the Company perform – rain, hail or shine. I can only hope that the Powers that Be decide to reinstate our city on the Australian Ballet calendar or at the very least that we will be graced again with an event such as this. Perhaps for Canberra’s 100th birthday next year?
DON'TS FOR DANCERS
Choreographed by Nerida Matthaei
Musical Direction by Nicole Canham
Courtyard Studio – Canberra Theatre Centre.
14th – 17th March 2012
Nicole Canham - Nerida Matthaei - Andy Ferriari (not in performance reviewed)
Choreographer, Nerida Matthaei and musician, Nicole Canham, have combined their talents to devise an imaginative, entertaining and good-humoured new dance work.
Using a book on dance etiquette, published in 1925, as their starting point, and the additional talents of dancers, Leah Shelton and Alex Bryce, they’ve interpreted and de-constructed the advice, in often hilarious and startling ways.
The Courtyard Studios were converted into a glitzy dance studio for the program, complete with twinkling lights and functioning bar from which the audience was encouraged to purchase pre-show drinks and chat with the performers already dressed in 1920’s inspired costumes.
The performance commenced with one surprised audience member being given a cleverly choreographed, introductory dance lesson by Leah Shelton, drawing on quotes from the book. These quotes set the tone and theme for the rest of the performance which consisted of a series of pas de trios, pas de deux and solos inspired by the theme.
Nerida Matthaei’s choreography, particularly in the first half, was clever, complex, demanding, and mostly, beautifully danced. Matthaei, Leah Shelton and Alex Bryce are all experienced professional dancers, each exhibiting excellent techniques and individual dance personalities which were beautifully displayed by Matthaei’s choreography. Among the many highlights was a clever pas de trios in which Matthaei attempted to intrude between Shelton and Bryce, and a brilliant catfight between Matthaei and Shelton. Alex Bryce’s solos allowed him to show off his extraordinary flexibility and delightfully mobile face.
Leah Shelton and Alex Bryce
Nicole Canham is the least experienced dancer of the group, but her contribution to the work was absolutely integral. Some sections were danced to recorded music, some of which came from the 1920’s. The rest was either contemporary or specially written. At various points Canham played live clarinet to a recorded background while negotiating choreography, and in one instance she and Shelton played clarinet and wind-organ for a solo danced by Matthaei. The results were often surprising, always fascinating and quite intriguing.
It was a pity however that the work was interrupted by an interval, as this allowed the mood to dissipate somewhat, and given that the second half was very short, and the content rather less interesting than in the first, allowed the impression that perhaps the ideas had run out.
Stage 88, Commonwealth Park, Canberra,
16th March 2012.
Dimity Azoury - Rachel Rawlins - Alana Jones
Canberra dancers featured in Telstra Ballet in the Park
News Limited photo - Kym Smith
If anyone needed proof of the importance of art in daily life then surely the attendance at the Telstra Ballet in the Park is a shining example of the value people place on it.
Thousands braved the prospect of a drenching to attend this one-off performance of the most beautiful and esoteric of the performing arts, classical ballet, offered on this occasion by the Australian Ballet as a gift to celebrate their 50th Year.
Many who attended had probably never been to a ballet performance before, but their curiosity was rewarded with a truly remarkable performance which they are likely to remember fondly for years.
Crowd gathering in front of Stage 88
Throughout the afternoon dark storm clouds hovered over the city, drenching various suburbs in turn. But encouraged by radio reports that the performance would proceed as advertised, people began arriving in their hundreds from around 5pm in time to watch the company go through their warm-up on stage 88 in preparation for the performance timed to begin at 7pm.
The warm-ups proved a welcome diversion, especially for the little girls who mimicked the dancers movements while their parents staked out soggy patches on which to settle into the ingenious cardboard chairs provided free by Telstra. They also provided an interesting and rarely seen insight into the more mundane side of the dancer’s preparation. However, just as the warm-ups were winding up the heavens opened again and another heavy shower drenched the area.
Miraculously, right on 7pm, the rain stopped. Australian Ballet Artistic Director, David McAllister took the stage to introduce the Telstra representative, who welcomed the audience, before the lights lowered and the program commenced with a prettily costumed pas de deux, ”La Favorita”, choreographed by Petal Miller-Ashmole to music by Donizetti, and danced with panache by Canberran Lana Jones and her husband, Daniel Gaudiello.
Amber Scott and Adam Bull followed with an elegant performance of another stylish pas de deux, “Molto Vivace”, this time choreographed by Stephen Baynes to music by Handel, following which Reiko Hombo and Chengwu Guo took the stage for an electrifying performance of the famous “Don Quixote” pas de deux”.
This was the first time Canberra audiences had had the opportunity to see Chengwu Guo, but even those with only the most rudimentary knowledge of ballet, quickly realised that they were watching an extraordinary performance from a remarkable young dancer, so that when he made his second appearance, this time in the showy “Le Corsaire” pas de deux, for which he was partnered by Miwako Kubato, Chengwu was greeted with cheers.
Less showy perhaps, but equally exciting, was the beautiful “The Nutcracker” pas de deux, elegantly danced by Juliet Burnet and Andrew Kyllian to the music of Tchaikovsky, and the supremely romantic “Giselle Act 11” pas de deux, for which Ty King-wall partnered another Canberran, Rachel Rawlins, who appeared to float around the moon-lit stage as lightly as thistledown.
Among all these very classical showpieces, the Act 111 pas de trois from Graeme Murphy’s “Swan Lake” was an interesting inclusion. Stripped of dramatic context in this environment, it nevertheless provided, for those who had never seen Murphy’s version of this ballet, a tantalising glimpse of his mastery of utilising classical technique in a contemporary setting, and was superbly danced by Amber Scott, Adam Bull and Amy Harris resplendent in elegant Kristian Fredrikson costumes.
An excerpt from Act 11 of “La Bayadere”, featuring a corp of dancers in white tutu’s, and Lana Jones and Daniel Gaudiello returning to perform the pas de deux, provided a suitably elegant conclusion to an evening of superlative dancing, and the opportunity to see Queanbeyan dancer, Dimity Azoury, together with Amy Harris, both among the six dancers competing for the 2012 Telstra Ballet Dancer Award, and Reiko Hombo, each of whom performed solos during this item.
Despite the vagaries of the weather, Stage 88 proved an excellent venue for this program. Following the rain, the evening remained balmy and calm for the duration of the 90 minute program which was presented without interval.
David McAllister had wisely chosen a program to please ballet enthusiasts and the wider audience alike, without in any way comprising the high standard of dancing and production expected of our flagship ballet company. The procession of pas de deux allowed us to enjoy the dancing of many of the current principal dancers, including several past winners of Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards who are now soloists and principals, as well as several of the nominees for the 2012 Awards.
The Australian Ballet is set to return to Canberra in 2013 to premiere a new ballet as part of the 2013 Centenary Celebrations. Given the numbers attending, and the enthusiasm demonstrated for the Ballet in the Park event, is it too much to expect that Canberra once again will be included in the Australian Ballet’s annual touring schedule?
Meanwhile, thank you Australian Ballet for your delightful and very cherished gift.
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
Until 24th March 2012
Performance 6th March reviewed by Bill Stephens
Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) Joshua Bloom (Figaro)
Michael Lewis (Count Almaviva) Elvira Fatykhova (Countess Almaviva)
Artists of Opera Australia
For his first production for Opera Australia, director Benedict Andrews has come up with a cracker of a production. Working from a witty English translation by Jeremy Sams, the story-telling is clear, light-hearted and funny, completely in harmony with, and indeed illuminating, the gorgeous Mozart melodies.
Don't be put off that the production is played in a contemporary gated community setting. Ralph Myer's inventive set design and Alice Babidge's costumes are so in tune with Andrews’ concept, that everything seems completely logical. It’s is a concept that is a delight from the very first moment of the overture until the curtain comes down on the final glorious notes.
The opera opens in a stark white box relieved only by a rack on each side bearing pale green uniforms of the type seen in hospitals and factories. During the overture the chorus arrive singly or in groups, remove their street clothes and banter as they dress in the uniforms. Among them is Susanna, who has brought her wedding dress to show the girls, before they set off to undertake their duties.
Then the setting starts to move across the stage, revealing other rooms in the building, all of them white, until we come to the room allocated by the count for Susanna and Figaro to occupy once they are married. It appears to be a laundry, because it contains a large washing machine around which much of the hilarious early action takes place.
Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) Dominca Mathews (Cherubino)
Keeping within the white box theme, Meyer's intriguing set design adapts endlessly to suit the action of the various scenes. Among them, a wedding banquet played out among tables dressed in long white tablecloths, gleaming wine glasses and floating silver balloons. This scene ends dramatically with the table-settings being gathered up in the tablecloths as the tables are folded, whizzed off the stage, and the white plastic chairs are formed into a large circle, upon which multi-coloured confetti flutters down throughout the following scene.
Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) with artists of Opera Australia.
Andrews' direction is continually fascinating and inventive, and he has a marvellous cast to work with, who really embrace the concept.
Joshua Bloom is a fine Figaro. Good looking, with an expressive face and a warm rich baritone voice, he's as equally at home with the comedy, as with the dramatic elements of the role. He’s delightfully teamed with the marvellous Taryn Fiebig, whom it seems, can do no wrong. As Susannah, she not only looked gorgeous, but also sang like a dream, acted intelligently, and most importantly, made the audience care about her character.
Joshua Bloom (Figaro) Taryn Fiebig (Susanna)
Having only seen Elvira Fatykhova as a heart-breaking Violetta in “La Traviata”, it was a revelation to see her as the Countess Almaviva in this production. Her superb singing of 'Hear My Prayer” at the beginning of the second act was breathtaking, and her duet with Fiebig, “Can you hear the gentle breezes ?” in Act Three, were among the evenings many vocal highlights. But her lightness of touch with the comedic possibilities of the role, was as unexpected as it was charming.
Michael Lewis is magnificent as Count Almaviva. In fine voice, mature, dignified, but always on the look-out for the opportunity for a little lechery on the side, his is a performance that is deliciously nuanced and totally riveting.
Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) left Conal Coad (Dr. Bartolo) seated Jacqueline Dark (Marcellina)
Jacqueline Dark and Conal Coad are marvellous together as Marcellina, the delightfully imposing housekeeper and Dr. Bartolo, complete with oxygen tank in tow, never missing an opportunity for visual and aural silliness, while Kanen Breen, as the music master Don Basilio, continues to delight as he adds yet another memorable characterisation to his already huge repertoire of outlandish characters.
At this performance Ann Yun stood in for an indisposed Dominica Mathews as the page Cherubino, and was so spectacularly successful in the role that at the end she was rewarded with well-deserved cheers from the appreciative audience.
Michael Lewis (Count Almaviva) Taryn Fiebig (Susanna) Joshua Bloom (Figaro)
Conductor Simon Hewett insured an excellent balance between orchestra and stage, and seemed to be enjoying the proceeding as much as the audience. Choregrapher Lucy Guerin contributed delightfully funky movement for the wedding scene, in keeping with the mood of the production.
This is a production which works so successfully on all levels, and is so jam-packed with brilliant ideas and performances, that one can hardly wait for a second viewing. Make sure you see it at least once.
Joshua Bloom (Figaro) Michael Lewis (Count Almaviva)
Conal Coad (Dr. Bartolo)
Courtyard Studio
“Don’t be frightened of your partner” and “Gentlemen should follow their partner’s idiosyncracies” was some of the advice demonstrated in “Don’t for Dancers”. Inspired by the book of the same name, Nerida Matthaei and Nicole Canham interpret and play with dance etiquette from the 1920’s and blend it with today’s music, dance styles and social mores.
On arrival, audience members are approached to fill the performers’ dance cards (a fan), and if they politely decline, they are offered the option of stepping into the “dehypnotising” den for those who are of the anti-dance persuasion. An eclectic set included the bar on stage, (explaining the absence of champagne in the foyer on arrival!)
Matthaei and Canham were joined by Alex Bryce and Leah Shelton (and a few game audience members!) Bryce gave a wonderful performance as the debonair, albeit “wet” dance partner portrayed in old movies, and followed it up with a very funny, camp, jazz routine to Lady Gaga, where he flamboyantly accepted “belle of the ball”. His characterisation was engaging and entertaining, and he danced with flair and grace. Shelton, as chaperone, perfectly fit the stereotype of the 20’s flappers. She mixed humour with poise and strong dancing. Matthaei demonstrated strong technique and control and Canham’s dancing, which was not as strong as the others was overshadowed by her musical talent and creativity, which formed a large part of the show.
Some partner work seemed a little unnecessarily awkward, but on the whole was well executed and fluent. Cutting-in, sulking over not being chosen to dance, girl-on-girl fighting and the whole nightclub experience of trying to yell over doof-doof music, the awkward moment when you try to coordinate dance "moves" and of seeing your partner in full light at the end of the night are all touched on.
The toe-tapping audience was kept laughing as the Charleston seamlessly became the Nutbush, the Macarena, krumping and much to the amusement of the YouTube generation, Beyonce’s "Single Ladies" even gets a look-in.
The cast created a good chemistry and maintained a high level of energy throughout the performance. They exemplified just how silly, beautiful, awkward, exciting and challenging social dancing and etiquette can be!
After the curtain call, and filled with sage advice that Nanna would be proud of “Don’t go to unknown clubs and bars, they usually turn out to be sordid dens”, audience members bopped away on stage with the cast, or each other, to Whitney’s “I wanna dance with somebody”.
“Don’t for Dancers” was lots of fun with laugh-out-loud moments and a clever mix of dance, music, sound, comedy and social commentary, that seemed to leave the audience wanting more.
Then again, etiquette would dictate that’s precisely how it should be.
A version of this review appears in The City News, online from March 15.
The Mousetrap – A Near Death Experience at The Q
The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie presented by Queanbeyan City Council. Directed by Jordan Best at Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, March 7-24, 2012.
This is a misconceived production of a play which, despite its 60 years of continuous performance in London, is essentially a farce. It certainly got some laughs on opening night, despite the director’s apparent intention from her Director’s Notes that we should have been scared and spooked by ‘a cracker of a mystery’.
Christie’s crime fiction consists of nothing but artifice – an artificial plot on which is hung artificial characters with motivations which have nothing to do with psychological truth. Her stories are interesting as games, working out possible directions to take in a maze which has already been predetermined by the designer. The more unexpected twists and turns in the design, the more fun it is to play the game. But that’s all there is to it.
Best, unfortunately, despite her professional training and previous excellent productions, has missed the point here. Naturalistic playing of these characters is boring because it is the wrong style for this type of play. The cast worked hard, but only Jim Adamik’s over-the-top Mr Paravicini and to some extent Brendan Kelly’s Christopher Wren had the exaggerated characteristics a farce requires.
The director’s decision to place the play in Australia (with such a blizzard in, presumably, Katoomba, that would cheer the cockles of a climate skeptic’s heart) compounded her problem. This play is quintessentially English, filled with stock characters, stock references to the weather and places like Majorca, and entirely in the style of English farces of its day, the 1950s before rock’n’roll, such as those by William Douglas Home who, like Agatha Christie, looked back with some kind of sentimental awe to the hey-day of English culture – the 1930s. Australia was never like this.
Mind you, it is true that my first acting role, in Australia in 1963, was as an upper-class twit in Home’s 1956 play The Reluctant Debutante. No-one, but no-one, would bother to present that even in a country town today, and presenting The Mousetrap could only work if it was made thoroughly absurdist – a spoof of the very crime fiction it represents. When you consider what we watch on tv nowadays – Silent Witness for example – the idea that we might be scared or spooked by the ‘horrors’ of The Mousetrap is the ultimate absurdity.
I would like to praise the set design (the indomitable Brian Sudding) and construction (Craig Francis and Ian Croker), except for one point – the door that should have creaked, didn’t. There was also a sound problem – almost inherent in the script – when the loud radio drowned out the characters’ voices. We needed to hear what they said because there were clues to the plot in their words.
So The Mousetrap is a disappointment, which is a pity because The Q has presented so much better local productions in recent times, and I hope will do so in the future.
Dance scholar unveils findings
Three members of the Canberra Critics Circle were present at the National Film and Sound Archive on February 29, when Canberra dance scholar, Michelle Potter, also a member of the circle, unveiled some of her findings made as part of the NFSA’s Scholars and Artist in Residence program for 2012.
The first of this year’s scholars, Potter has undertaken research on theatrical designer Kristian Fredrikson, (1940–2005) a giant figure in the world of Australian theatre designed best known for his work with the Australian Ballet and in her view, “perhaps the most awarded and acclaimed designer to have pursued a career in theatrical design in Australia to this point in our cultural history.”
“In a highly diverse and prolific working life that spanned some 40 years and resulted in the creation of around 140 works, Fredrikson was equally at home designing for dance, opera, theatre, musicals, film and television and was also one of a team of designers who worked on the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympiad.”
While Potter’s ultimate aim is to produce a book on the work of Fredrikson, this research project was specifically aimed at Fredrikson’s film and television commissions.
After giving an account of Fredrikson’s long career, Potter outlined his work as a costume designer for film and television, drawing some fascinating contrasts between the highly artistic and colourful artist’s impressions of the costumes for “Oedipus Rex” at Wal Cherry’s Emerald Hill Theatre in the 1960s, to the more austere black-and-white pencil drawings of costumes for a TV mini-series about Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war produced by George Miller and starring Nicole Kidman.
But the main focus of her work was on “Undercover,” the 1984 Palm Beach Pictures’s film about the Berlei underwear promotional enterprises of the early 20th century. Potter’s trained eye discerned connections between the original costumes of dancers promoting the Berlei product and those created by Fredrikson for both the film and other productions, like the 2001 Sydney Dance Company-Australian Ballet collaboration, “Tivoli.”
Finally, Potter unveiled some of her preliminary findings about Fredrikson’s designs for an eccentric film, never made, called “The Magic Telescope.” We look forward to further revelations after she has a chance to meet the director.
Helen Musa, March 3 2012
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