Book Readings: Bar vs. Bookstore
Column by Brandon Tietz June 15, 2012 3 comments
The experiment takes place over Memorial Day weekend, a converged idea of four different authors in various stages of their careers. It's at the behest of Phil Jourdan, founder of Perfect Edge Books and touring author of the recently released Praise of Motherhood, that the remaining trio of us (Brandon Tietz, Caleb J. Ross, and Gordon Highland) are left to devise a couple of live readings: one bar, one bookstore. Both in the Kansas City area.
Naturally, when setting these things up comparisons come to mind, the advantages and disadvantages of a particular venue and its amenities. The author tends to choose these the same way they would a restaurant or local watering hole. It's a certain criterion of need and a much longer wish list of wants. After it's determined that there will indeed be a stage from which to speak and chairs for an audience to occupy, the inner-diva of the author rears its ugly head in the form of frivolity and technical requirements. We've surpassed simply getting up on our soapboxes and saying what we want to say; the soapbox should have Wi-Fi. It should run on the 4G network and take HD video. We can't just get up there and read; we need a live Twitter feed and corresponding hash tag to go with it (in this case: #shitauthorssay).
Much like the game of literature itself, the art of the live reading has evolved. We have to go bigger, be bolder, and it may be to the point where the local bookstore can no longer contain these youthful ambitions. So let us compare:
The Venue:
The Thursday night venue is Czar Bar, an almost hole-in-the-wall dive that pours heavy on the drinks and serves up some of the best greasy food in the city. It's a long dark room capable of holding about eighty people, bar on one side and then many chairs and tables throughout. The vinyl seating is slashed and duct taped. Most of the tables wobble. It's reminiscent of the Bat Cave, but filled with hipsters and chicks who drink Stella and Newcastle because "PBR is out." At the far end of the bar, the house lights beckon for an author to get their ass up there and put on a performance, but as I always tell people, "These things never start on time." So we drink, occasionally stepping out onto the patio for a cigarette while we go over our prose pieces one more time. People mingle or get reacquainted, the din of conversations getting louder as the audience files in two or three at a time. And there's a tension that builds in the air unlike that of a normal author event. I never, not once hear the word "reading." Everyone keeps asking, "When does the show start?"
The Saturday venue is Prospero's, a literary staple here in Kansas City as far as independent bookstores go. You can read LitReactor's Indie Bookstore Spotlight article about it HERE. Of course, this article only covers the main two floors where consumers can pick up books, movies, and vinyl records. There's a semi-secret third floor to Prospero's, a performance space that's only open to the public when authors are laying down live prose. It's charmingly unfinished: the door to the bathroom is actually an industrial curtain, wood shavings everywhere, shop tools are pushed against the walls. The space is very much a work in progress, and unyieldingly hot as there's no air conditioning set up for this particular area of the building. There's no stage per se, but the designated area in which the author reads is apparent by way of the plastic folding chairs and how they're angled off. Patrons file in, some of them stowing cans of beer in the oversized sink filled with ice. There's no off-the-street foot traffic or randoms like there was on Thursday. Everyone knows exactly why they're here and what they are about to see. It's a literary reading, your classic "stand up and recite what's on the paper" kind of affair.
The Performance:
The Czar Bar crowd...
is abundant (45-50) and a bit rowdy with the beginnings of a beer buzz already turning on, so the author must rise to the occasion. Attention will not simply be handed over; it must be earned, and this instills the feeling of being on some kind of proving ground. We can't simply walk under the bright lights and spit words. We have to perform. We have to win the crowd over like some literary version of Gladiator. If there was ever a time to turn on the charm, the charisma, if only for the sake of being engaging—it's here. So we push the buttons of the audience with a Lane Bryant talent search cold opening, with poetry that smokes, and readings about mothers who've passed on that make a table of girls cry their mascara off. We do skits and give away drinks. We read, but only what we think will garnish the most attention. For a place like this, the piece that looks good on paper isn't always the best option. Sometimes you have to consider what's going to entertain or emote a wave of laughter. Bottom line: you have to put on a show.
At Prospero's...
the crowd is thin…about ten people total. It's quiet. Compared to the din of bar noise and loose talk, the silence is a bit disconcerting. The audience plays by movie theater rules: they turn their cell phones off, sit quietly, and sip their beverages in a way that generates the least amount of noise possible. It's complete submission to the author and what they're about to do, and so the performance changes. There's opportunity to be a little bit more complex and deep. The stories don't have to jump out and grab the audience by the balls. We're off the proving ground, having inherited a ready-made, attentive audience simply by showing up. There's no battle or competing for anyone's ear. The reader reads; the crowd listens. Prospero's is not only a safe environment where it feels like nothing can go wrong, but it's also nurturing of the literary art form.
Although my contemporaries would probably disagree, a large part of me has always believed that live readings should do more than what the prose does on paper alone. It is the difference between simply buying the album and going to the concert. Therefore, we should not simply read. We should perform. We should do the things we can't do in print, and the bar reading appears to be more encouraging of that. Or perhaps I've become desensitized to the unnerving nature of getting up in front of a crowd of strangers and am now compelled to up the ante. As filmmakers and musicians take more risks, so must the author, it seems.
This isn't me saying that the bookstore reading is dead. Far from it. But the game has most definitely changed from how it was ten years ago. The emerging author doesn't have the luxury of having a tour laid out for them. They have to book their own gigs, and sell it in a way that goes beyond "come watch me read stories." We're integrating Twitter and prizes and booze. A certain amount of showmanship is required to get the people onboard. This is a literary affair, but one with a party-like social element to it. Coming off stage and having an audience member buy you a whiskey shot or ask for a photo to put on their Instagram feed is not uncommon. In the book store we're authors, but in a bar, we're a little bit closer to rock stars.
Of course, this is a 'different strokes for different folks' type of scenario. Some live readers relish the quiet, submissive audience hanging on their every word. Others long for the social experience of the bar after being locked away in the writer's cave for so long. Each venue has its own advantages, but when we examine the statistics, one of these clearly worked better than the other: the bar had more people, we sold more books, we got better footage, and I think I can safely assume that we had more fun. When I wish to simply read literature, I think of the bookstore. When I want to celebrate the written word, I head to the bar.
Column by Brandon Tietz
Brandon Tietz is the author of Out of Touch and Good Sex, Great Prayers. His short stories have been widely published, appearing in Warmed and Bound, Amsterdamned If You Do, Spark (vol. II), and Burnt Tongues, the Chuck Palahniuk anthology. Visit him at www.brandontietz.com
Follow @brandontietz
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Gordon Highland from Kansas City is reading Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore June 15, 2012 - 3:05pm
Though, in defense of the bookstore . . . one of the attendees did offer to smoke me up beforehand. The only offers I got in the alley behind the bar were of the gear-schlepping-help variety.
I agree that the bar readings are more fun. Certainly from the audience standpoint. It's more inviting for the kinds of people who mightn't usually attend such highfalutin events. But I also feel pressure to "entertain" there, rather than present myself as the serious writer I claim to be. Like I'm competing with everyone's texting and pic-posing and assgrabbery. So my gunslinger mentality comes to the fore there, wanting to best anyone else who steps on that stage, the same way an opening band tries to blow away the headliner. I'll also heckle your ass in a bar; fair game.
At a more literate location like a bookstore, I can read whatever I want, feeling like the audience is willing to be challenged. Plus, those are the kinds of people I can actually hold a conversation with afterward, comparatively-speaking.
Regardless of the setting, any anxiety I feel (usually not much, anyway) will be inversely proportional to the size of the audience. If it's going to be in a bar, I'll take the diviest, grimiest one: something with a little history and character hewn into the walls.
Class Facilitator
ReneeAPickup from Southern California is reading Wanderers by Chuck Wendig June 15, 2012 - 3:01pm
I've only been to bookstore readings, and they are nice. I'd love to go to a more raucous reading and have a few beers. Look, books are cool. Reading is fun. Authors and readers can be cool and fun, too. Let's combine all the awesome stuff about life (people, good beer, books, music) and go to town!
I wouldn't say we should do away with the quiet bookstore readings, because they have their audiences, and the authors who prefer them, and I've been to some awesome ones--where the author takes the time to make it engaging and interesting--but I'd love to see more readings where the social aspect is amped up.
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs June 15, 2012 - 8:53pm
Bar readings are always better unless writers have to read over loud people who are just there to hang out rather than to attend a reading.
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|In Spirituality, Thinking
Another one of my heroes in life is Tim Keller. He is the senior pastor of a large church in Manhattan, New York City. Tim has an exceptional ability to convey wisdom and spiritual truth in a way that is both accessible and winsome, challenging and inspiring equally to the head and the heart.
Every Good Endeavour is the title of a book by Tim on the subject of finding fulfilment in the work that one does. The link below is an interview that he gave on American television. I would strongly encourage you to take 8 minutes out of your day to reflect on it. After the inital advertisements and light heartedness it addresses some very important issues about how we view our life and work.
The surprising assertion that Tim makes in the interview is how being obsessed with work and success is actually one of the great sins of modern life in the 21st century. When you make your work your identity, then if you succeed you are in danger of becoming proud and arrogant, while if you don't succeed you are at risk of feeling devastated and going into despair. (We have discussed some end of life examples of that in the blog post entitled How Do You Define Success part 3.)
The reason for this is that making work the basis of your identity is a form of idolatry. When we use the word idol we refer to something as being more important and significant in our life than the God who is the originator and source of the universe and every good thing in the world. Quite literally work becomes too important to us and becomes our ultimate source of security and satisfaction. But work was never meant to do that – it is a good thing that can so easily become an ultimate thing. We are at risk of giving work qualities that are God-like and that only God can ultimately provide.
So how can we strike the balance? How can I find joy in what I do without becoming so obsessed with it that I neglect my health, family, friends and important relationships? Or so that if and when I make a mistake I don't become paralysed with fear and self-loathing?
Tim uses the example of a Jazz musician called John Coltrane who had a spiritual awakening in his life that changed his attitude to his own work and his ability to make music. He came to realise that before his spiritual awakening making music was mainly about himself. He made music in order to make him feel good about himself. However, once God filled his soul the music became about other people. Music now became a means to serve other people.
What is so liberating about this insight is that it means all work no matter how apparently trivial it may appear has intrinsic worth and dignity. My work becomes a means of serving and blessing other people in the same way that God seeks to bless and provide for us. Using an illustration from Martin Luther, the Bible teaches that God feeds everyone he has made. But how does he feed us? There is the farm girl who milks the cow; there is the truck driver who delivers the milk and there is the store keeper who sells the milk. In other words, God feeds us through other people's work. So all work is God's work and all work has intrinsic dignity.
The problem is that we tend to look beyond serving our neighbour to self-advancement for its own sake to make ourselves feel better than other people. Quoting another of my heroes, C.S. Lewis:
"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about."
That is why pride drives us to take on more work than we should or neglect ourselves and our important relationships. It also works the same way in justifying our own laziness as well!
Part of the solution is the wonder filled bold humility we have talked about previously.
(For a further discussion on service see the posts on the law of addition, level 5 leadership and the art of the basin and towel).
The key Tim concludes, quoting the author Robert Bellah, is capturing the idea of work as a calling to serve the greater good rather than a means to individual advancement.
So how about you? Do you work to live or live to work? Is that an unhelpful dichotomy?
What are your thoughts on the video and making work a joy rather than drudgery?
It would be great to have your thoughts and comments.
Feeling stuck? When you don't know how to do something


Celebrities Entertainment Carolina Dieckmann: Top 10 Must-Know Facts About TV Actress
Carolina Dieckmann: Top 10 Must-Know Facts About TV Actress
Carolina Dieckmann (TV Actress) was born on the 16th of September, 1978. She was born in 1970s, in Generation X. Her birth sign is Virgo and her life path number is 5. Carolina's birth flower is Aster/Myosotis and birthstone is Sapphire. What does this all mean? Let's find out!
Discover all the facts that no one tells you about Carolina Dieckmann below ↓
NAME: Carolina Dieckmann
REAL NAME: Carolina Dieckmann
NICKNAME: Carol Dieckmann, Carolina Dieckmann Worcman
PROFESSION: TV Actress
BIRTHPLACE: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Carolina Dieckmann, best known for being a TV Actress, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Saturday, September 16, 1978. Actress who has earned widespread acclaim for her work on Brazilian series like Laços de Família, Salve Jorge and Cobras & Lagartos. She has been nominated for multiple Prêmio Contigo and Extra Television Awards for her performances.
Family: She married director Tiago Worcman, with whom she has a son named Jose, in 2007. She was previously married to actor Marcos Frota, with whom she has a son named Davi. Carolina Dieckmann father's name is under review and mother unknown at this time. We will continue to update details on Carolina Dieckmann's family.
Dating: According to CelebsCouples, Carolina Dieckmann is married Tiago Worcman.
Net Worth: Online estimates of Carolina Dieckmann's net worth vary. It's easy to predict her income, but it's much harder to know how much she has spent over the years. CelebsMoney and NetWorthStatus does a good job of breaking most of it down.
2. Carolina Dieckmann's zodiac sign is Virgo
Carolina Dieckmann zodiac sign is a Virgo. Dates of Virgo are August 23 - September 22. Those born under the Virgo zodiac sign have capable, organized and analytical minds, which often makes them a pleasure to chat with. Even when they have rather fantastic stories, the charming way they tell them can make those stories convincing. They are modest, humble, orderly, altruistic, logical, responsible, and organized. Although, they can be obsessive, critical, excessive attention to insignificant details, and perfectionist.
The Brazilian tv actress has been alive for 15,821 days or 379,722 hours. There were precisely 536 full moons after her birth to this day.
BORN: September 16, 1978
Carolina Dieckmann was born on a Saturday. Saturday's children come courtesy of Saturn, the god of wealth, freedom, and agriculture. People born on Saturdays are modest, studious, wise, practical, and strict. Fun!
Countdown to Carolina Dieckmann's next birthday.
Carolina Dieckmann will be turning 44.
4. On Carolina Dieckmann's birthday
The world's population was 4,304,377,112 and there were an estimated 122,638,528 babies born throughout the world in 1978, Jimmy Carter (Democratic) was the president of the United States, and the number one song on Billboard 100 was "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste Of Honey.
1795 – British capture Capetown, South Africa, from the Dutch.
1810 – Mexico issues Grito de Dolores, calling for the end of Spanish rule (Mexican Independence Day).
1848 – Slavery abolished in all French territories.
5. Carolina Dieckmann's height and weight
We're currently in process of confirming all details such as Carolina Dieckmann's height, weight, and other stats. If there is any information missing, we will be updating this page soon. If you any have tips or corrections, please send them our way.
Carolina Dieckmann was born in the Year of the Horse. People with Chinese zodiac Horse zodiac sign like entertainment and large crowds. They are usually popular among friends. Their strengths are clever, kind to others, perceptive, and talented. But they can also talk too much and stubborn. Their lucky numbers are 2, 3, 7, and lucky colors are brown, yellow, purple.
7. Carolina Dieckmann's life path number is 5
Carolina Dieckmann was born in the middle of Generation X.
9. Carolina Dieckmann's birthstone is Sapphire
Sapphire was once thought to guard against evil and poisoning. It was believed that a venomous snake would die if placed in a vessel made of sapphire.
10. Carolina Dieckmann's birth flower is Aster/Myosotis
Aster is known as a talisman of love and an enduring symbol of elegance.


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Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight Review: An E-Reader That Truly Lets You Read Anywhere
By Melissa J. Perenson
PCWorld Apr 24, 2012 11:02 am PDT
Built-in LED light for reading in the dark
Responsive touchscreen interface
Easy-to-hold, lightweight design
Physical page-turn buttons are still too stiff
The Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight's built-in light makes it the best e-reader you can buy today.
Barnes & Noble has made the best e-reader currently available even better by integrating a light source into it. Priced at $139 (as of April 24, 2012), the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight E Ink-based e-reader sets the standard for silky-smooth reading and shopping. And even better, you can enjoy reading it wherever you happen to be, whether you're lounging on the lawn in bright sunlight, or sitting under the covers with little to no light in the room.
Although monochromatic E Ink e-readers make sense in many circumstances, reading in the dark is not one of them. The bedside lamp, or the overhead light in an airplane, can often be overkill, and a disturbance to other people near you. With this e-reader, you're paying a $40 premium for the honor of having a built-in light, but the versatility that the integrated reading light offers you is well worth the extra bucks.
The GlowLight makes the Nook Simple Touch e-reader highly adaptable to your environment–and it makes Barnes & Noble the first company to truly deliver on the promise of a built-in light source. Sony tried to do so four years ago, with its Reader PRS-700, but that model's LED lighting, while useful in a pinch, barely reached the center of the page.
Barnes & Noble's Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight doesn't have that problem. The LED light guide sits inside the Nook's bezel, at the top of the 600-by-800-pixel, 6-inch E Ink Pearl display. The light shines down on the display, creating a mostly evenly lit surface. The illumination runs a little brighter near the top of the screen, but not distractingly so. While testing the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight, I found that the GlowLight transformed spots I formerly considered e-reader dead zones into bona fide reading spaces, whether I was in bed reading in the dark, or sitting on a red-eye flight looking to unwind with a book without disturbing my seatmates with the too-bright overhead light.
Personally, I've never found a clip-on light, usually at least a $20 option, to be adequate; it's just one more thing for me to remember to carry around. More important, the light that the Nook SimpleTouch With GlowLight delivers is more subtle and targeted than anything a clip-on light or overhead light could ever hope to achieve, and that alone makes the built-in light a win. It even came in handy in ambient-light situations, such as in a sunlight-kissed airplane with no cabin lights on; in this environment, the GlowLight caused the text on the Nook Simple Touch to pop more, and made it easier to read.
In practice, accessing the GlowLight is dead simple, and requires no fumbling in the dark. Just tap and hold the 'n' button at the bottom of the screen, and the light comes on; the longer you hold, the brighter it gets. (You tap and hold again to turn the GlowLight off.) You can also adjust the light directly from an on-screen slider control, by tapping at the top status bar of the Nook.
As you might expect, the GlowLight takes a toll on the Nook's battery life. With the GlowLight on for about 30 minutes a day (and Wi-Fi off), Barnes & Noble says, you can expect to get about one month of battery life; that's half of the over two months quoted for the original Nook Simple Touch. If you fall asleep while reading, however, you won't drain the battery: The light will time out automatically after 5 minutes of inactivity.
This new model retains the dimensions of the original Nook Simple Touch e-reader, measuring 6.5 by 5.0 by 0.47 inches. That means it is a half-inch wider than the fourth-generation Amazon Kindle. (The original Nook Simple Touch remains in B&N's lineup, and drops to the second spot on our Top E-Readers chart behind its GlowLight cousin.) In spite of the addition of the GlowLight, this e-reader weighs ever-so-slightly less than its predecessor, shaving 15 grams, or 0.03 pound, off the Simple Touch's 0.47-pound weight. It's still slightly heavier than the $79 fourth-generation Kindle With Special Offers (0.37 pound). Unlike Amazon's e-readers, though, Barnes & Noble continues to offer an ad-free experience, at no extra cost.
Without the light on, the new GlowLight e-reader stands out only due to the decorative gray trim surrounding the outer edge of the front bezel. Although I generally prefer all-black bezels, since they help text pop from the screen, I found that the gray trim didn't detract from the readability of text.
Like the Nook Simple Touch before it, the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight uses Neonode's Zeforce infrared touch technology. The touchscreen is a pleasure to use; it was highly responsive to my swipes and taps, even when I was rapidly typing out searches in the Nook store or setting up the e-reader's Wi-Fi connection. I also found the new Nook to be remarkably well balanced to hold, in one hand or two.The e-reader's front and back both have a rubber finish, and the backplate cover dips comfortably, effectively giving the Nook a built-in hand grip.
Using the Nook, Revisited
So much of the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight is an echo of its non-glowworm cousin. It remains intuitive to navigate. A button with a lowercase 'n' beneath the screen serves as the home button (in addition to activating the GlowLight). The 'n' starts the Nook's wake-up process; you then slide your finger along the screen to wake the device fully. The button also returns you to the on-screen quick-navigation buttons (home, library, shop, search, GlowLight, and settings).
At the back of the e-reader, you'll find the power button, shaped to match your fingertip. The power button doubles as another way to wake the e-reader, and it can serve to power down the unit entirely.
My biggest gripe with the Nook's design concerns its physical navigation buttons. Though they're slightly improved over the controls on the original Nook Simple Touch, the page-forward and page-back buttons on the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight are still stiff, and require a very precise and deep press to activate.
One other nitpick: The contrast is not as good on the GlowLight version as on the plain Nook Simple Touch. This problem appears to result from the antiglare protector on the GlowLight model; the background of the display is a darker gray than on the plain Nook, and that in turn causes black text on the GlowLight version to lack the same oomph as on the ordinary Nook.
I hold out hope that the contrast might be adjustable via a future firmware update. The original Nook Simple Touch had suffered from contrast issues, and that model got a firmware update in November 2011 that greatly improved the contrast of text and graphics; as a result, blacks appeared darker, and text and graphics jumped off the screen. That firmware update introduced the Nook's text-smoothing enhancements, too. Thanks to those improvements, plus the flexible font options, Nook models now have the best-looking text you can buy on an e-reader today.
The Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight also provides speedy page-refresh rates and page turns. The e-reader still does a full refresh once every sixth page, but by performing what appears to be a fast dissolve between pages, B&N lets you effectively move ahead through dozens of pages, while mitigating the annoying page-flashing effect long associated with E Ink. B&N does targeted refreshes on a page that has just graphics changing (for example, in the e-reader's bookstore), and on areas that have a heavy redraw.
Navigating the Interface
You can turn pages by tapping on the left or right side of the screen, though if you prefer you can swipe left to right (and, on some screens, even vertically) to change pages too. While reading, you can tap at the top of the screen to reveal a status bar, which shows the battery status, a clock, and a tap-to-add bookmark; it also reveals the same book-navigation buttons that you would get if you tapped in the center of the page. The buttons jump you to the table of contents, let you search for a word or passage within a book, help you move to a specific page within a book using a slider (and kudos to B&N for including here just how many pages are left in the chapter), or allow you to adjust text options (you can choose from six not-so-different fonts and seven very different font sizes).
I found it annoying that I'd often have to move my hand all the way up to the top to find the X icon to close out of a page. Practically all other on-screen navigation is in the lower half of the screen, which made that finger travel feel inefficient. Beyond that one interface hassle, though, B&N's otherwise clean, logical software design is impressive. The company clearly gave some thought to the layout, as well as to how things operate. The interface is good, at times even great–but not perfect.
An example is how B&N has implemented its notes and highlights features. Really, these remain the most usable examples of such features that I've seen on an e-reader to date. You tap and hold your finger on a word to select it; afterward, you can either drag the pins to select a passage, or choose an action such as adding a note or looking up the word in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Unfortunately, you can't view all notes, highlights, or a combination of the two; instead, you see just a teaser of the passage under a tab for notes and highlights in the table of contents.
For now, you can view and share highlighted quotes with Gmail contacts, via Facebook or Twitter. You can also share information about books you're reading, to make a recommendation, post your reading status, rate and review a book, or like it on Facebook. The Nook Simple Touch has the same Nook Friends capabilities as the Nook Color and Nook Tablet do; this social platform moves reading away from being a solitary exercise, but it does so in a less intrusive, less all-about-me way than on competitor Kobo's social platform. And it makes the functions far easier to use than on Amazon's Kindle.
The bookstore portal has been redesigned. Its new interface, coupled with the touchscreen, makes shopping far simpler than before. The Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight has 2GB of built-in storage, plus a MicroSDHC card slot for additional storage hidden beneath a secure flap on the side. In addition to sideloading ePub and PDF files, the Nook reads JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP image files. Unlike many other e-readers, however, the Nook reflows PDF text, which makes it great for reading words, but a mixed bag if you're trying to view a document that's heavy on its particular layout.
The e-reader runs Android 2.1, which makes changes and tweaks via firmware update viable. But the device has no Web browser and no on-board e-mail client, disappointing omissions given how central these items can be to reading.
Setting up the 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi is easy. The device automatically searches for and reconnects to your last network, even when booting up after a complete shutdown. Users get free Wi-Fi access at AT&T hotspots nationwide.
At $139, the Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight is the best e-reader you can buy today. The built-in light makes for a compelling addition, and puts this speedy e-reader in a class by itself until other manufacturers play catch-up. The illumination alone is worth the premium, but honestly it's not so much of a premium when you consider that archrival Amazon continues to sell its Amazon Kindle Touch, without "Special Offers" advertisements and lacking a light, at $139. That alone should make bookworms bask in the glow of the Simple Touch With GlowLight.
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The Provincial Veterinary Office of Marinduque was created by virtue of Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 092 Series of 1994, separating the said office from the umbrella organization of the Provincial Agriculturist. Its legal basis was excerpted from Article 19 of Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the "Local Government Code of 1991", where Section 489 of said Act stipulated the mandatory appointment of a Provincial Veterinarian, and mandated the office to take charge the day to day operation of the Provincial Veterinary Office, and shall be responsible for the effective delivery of basic veterinary services with separate administrative appropriation from that of the Provincial Agriculture Office making the two offices co-equal and distinct from each other.
The office leads the front-line of veterinary related activities, such as in the outbreak of highly-contagious and deadly animal diseases with economic and public health importance and in situations resulting in the depletion of animals for work and human consumption, particularly those arising from and in the aftermath of man-made and natural calamities. likewise, the office was mandated to enforce all laws and regulations for the prevention of cruelty to animals, tasked to institute measures to eradicate, prevent or cure all forms of animal diseases and to regulate the keeping of domestic animals.
josue victoria
eric ricafrente says:
Gandang araw po.
Where is the Office located in Boac and what contact number can be called?
seven × 2 =


A look at the candidates in Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola
KELOWNA – One of six new ridings in the province, the riding previously known as Okanagan-Coquihalla is now Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola.
It includes a good chunk of Kelowna – including the city's Mission area – and a huge part of the southern Interior stretching from the U.S border to just south of Kamloops. The reconfigured riding also includes Keremeos, Princeton, Summerland, Peachland, West Kelowna, Merritt and Logan Lake.
There are four candidates running hoping to represent the roughly 105,000 constituents in the riding.
Conservative MP Dan Albas is the incumbent. First elected in 2011, some of his proudest accomplishments include helping to eliminate inter-provincial barriers for the wine industry as well putting measures in place to prevent aquatic invasive species from getting into our lakes. He says if re-elected, the economy will be among his top priorities.
"Working together to increase the quality of life and to make sure families can put food on the table so that people can retire with dignity, that to me are the big issues for this riding," says Albas.
The Green Party's Robert Mellalieu is trying to unseat Albas. The longtime Okanagan resident campaigned for the green candidate in the last federal election, but this time he wants to be the representative in Ottawa.
He says he's learning issues important in the riding, including the controversial topic of bio-solids being trucked from the Okanagan to Merritt. And there are many others he wants to tackle.
"For this valley we have water quality issues," says Mellalieu. "I'm also a small business owner making sure all that works. We don't want to be so dependent on the oil industry."
Liberal candidate Karley Scott has also thrown her hat into the ring. Once a bureaucrat, now a lawyer, the West Kelowna woman says she may not have political experience, but she's a trained advocate used to standing up for her clients. She says those are the same skills needed in Ottawa to represent constituents. Scott says the environment and economy are among her top priorities.
"We need to grow it in ways that have a positive impact on our environment," says Scott. "The other thing that would apply to all the communities in this riding is assisting the middle class, empowering and growing the middle class. We know when the middle class is strong, our economy is strong."
Finally, Angelique Wood is the NDP's candidate. The Similkameen resident is in full campaign mode, with her signs already scattered throughout the riding. The former regional district director says healthcare, taking care of the senior population, and climate change are key priorities.
"Climate change, we need to make some changes right away to actually combat what we all see is a slow moving glacier coming towards us," says Wood.
"So one of the first things the NDP promises to do is cut massive subsidies to oil industries and redirect that money to other priorities."
The federal election takes place October 19.
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Bombardier announces definitive agreement to sell aerostructures business to Spirit AeroSystems Holding, Inc.
Bombardier today announced a definitive agreement to sell its aerostructures business to Spirit AeroSystems Holding, Inc. (Spirit), supporting Bombardier's strategic decision to focus on its two strong growth pillars, trains and business aircraft.
With this transaction, Spirit will acquire Bombardier's aerostructures activities and aftermarket services operations in Belfast, U.K.; Casablanca, Morocco; and its aerostructures maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Dallas, U.S. for a cash consideration of $500 million and the assumption of liabilities with a total carrying value in excess of $700 million, including government refundable advances and pension obligations. Following the transaction, Spirit will continue to supply structural aircraft components and spare parts to support the production and in-service fleet of Bombardier Aviation's Learjet, Challenger and Global families of aircraft.
2019 revenues for these activities are expected to be approximately $1.0 billion , while generating adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 12%. On this basis, the transaction implies an enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of approximately 10x.
The transaction follows the formation of Bombardier Aviation earlier this year and streamlines Bombardier's aerostructures footprint to focus on core capabilities in Montreal, Mexico and its Global 7500 wing operations in Texas. The transaction also further strengthens Bombardier's liquidity as it moves toward the deleveraging phase of the turnaround. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020 and remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
"This transaction represents another strategic milestone in the reshaping of our portfolio to focus on our strong business aircraft and rail franchises," said Alain Bellemare, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc. "We are confident that Spirit's acquisition of these aerostructures assets is the best outcome for customers, employees and shareholders, and we are committed to ensuring a smooth and orderly transition."
Press release issued by Bombardier Inc. on October 31, 2019
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Election (1999)
Cynical - just the way I like them!
AsharaDayme20 February 2000
This is quite simply one of the finest movies I have ever seen. It has incredible pace and flair, with both the script and the direction demanding equal attention. And it just works so well on so many levels. Whilst it is a political satire, it also stands well as a story in its own right. It's great to see Matthew Broderick in a good film. Reese Witherspoone turns in what I consider to be a career-best, and Chris Klein is wonderfully endearing as a jock with a heart of gold.
What I really love about Election is the way its pace doesn't let up at all. By the time you've finished you feel like you've seen a good two and a half hours of movie. It's the only film I know that seems longer than it is in a good way.
This film made me laugh out loud more than any other I can remember that isn't just a dumb comedy. But Election also doesn't take itself too seriously. The direction can accurately be described as deadpan - with Chris Klein, stripped of his ability to play football, gazing soulfully out to sea, and falling asleep over a book on philosophy. The way that each major character is afforded a voice-over, giving us an amusing insight into their psyche, is a wonderful technique, and the freezeframes of Reese Witherspoone's contorted facial expressions truly are moments to treasure.
What more can I say? Election is smart, funny, and biting. It maintains its brilliance for the entire duration of the movie, and the ending is wholly satisfying. In fact, I can't actually think of one word of criticism. You'll have to search long and hard to find a better film anywhere, which is why I'm giving it a stellar nine out of ten.
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Looks like you could use a cupcake
tieman6414 November 2011
Everyone's a politician in "Election", Alexander Payne's dark comedy about a student presidential election. Genius and overachiever Flick (Reese Witherspoon) acts like a chirpy angel on the outside, but look closer and she's vindictive, mean spirited and sexually precocious. Teacher Jim McAllister, who enthusiastically helps his students and school, is no better, as he cheats on his wife and embarks on a plot to ruin Flick's electoral chances. And on and on it goes, Payne peeling back pretence to reveal a cast of nasty, predatory schemers. Teachers suck up to students for sex, students selfishly run for candidacy in an attempt to get kicked out of school, and others merely take part in the election because they were manipulated into running. The point: life's a political rally, everyone has an ulterior motive, everyone's a spin-doctor, everyone's constantly maintaining their own little user generated political campaigns, designed to mislead, sucker, curry favour and win votes of confidence. Open your mouth and you're playing the game too.
"Election" does well to depict human behaviour as a cycle of neural elections, biochemical ballots held in our heads in which conflicting aspects of our messy personalities vie for what we say and do. But there's no democracy in our heads, and often instead a predisposition to tyranny; a kind of soft, interior fascism.
Payne traces the damage and consequences of this, each of his characters unwittingly leaving a trail of pain and destruction in their wake. They all pretend to "mean well" but no one means what they say, self-interest trumps altruism and altruism masks darker, swirling emotions anyway. It's a hopeless film.
"Election" was released a year after Wes Anderson's "Rushmore", a film whose plot it heavily resembles. But Payne's tone is closer to Todd Solondz and to a lesser extent the follies of the Coens, Neil Labute and Woody Allen. It's a conceited film, too impressed with its own cynicism, pessimism, and cast of cartoonish cretins, perverts, jerks and losers, but Payne is also perceptive in the way he forces you to continually reassess his characters. Little Flick, for example, seems like Payne's villain, but on the other hand she's a marginalised, lonely, sexually abused girl whose drive to succeed is the result of external pressures working on her. A similar inadequacy fuels her teacher McAllister, who sabotages Flick's campaign because his own life is in shambles. McAllister rationalises his actions as being ethical because Flick sabotaged the campaigns of other candidates – and on one level he's right to do this – but Flick's plot to exclude the other candidates, which echoes McAllister's plot to exclude Flick, itself merely echoes the social exclusion (deleted scenes further highlight that Flick lives in poverty) or alienation that drives Flick into politics. It's a kind of feedback loop, selfishness and jealousy breeding selfishness and jealousy, in which every subject justifies their action as being ethical because the other has no ethics.
"Election" is often touted as a satire on political campaigns. But the film is barely a satire, and has very little to do with politics, other than its broad jabs and your typical US candidates. In this regard you have the stuck up conservative who is secretly liberal in her private life and eventually reveals herself to be a kind of joyless Orwellian freak. Then there's the rich airhead candidate who's privately moral and upstanding but nevertheless knows and stands for nothing. Meanwhile, another candidate embodies a form of very modern, impotency and apathy. She eventually ditches the system to make out with her lesbian lover. Matthew Broderick, formerly known as a youth star of 1980s high school movies, is well cast in a somewhat ironic adult role. In the 80s, his characters typically rallied against the type of character he plays here.
8/10 – Worth one viewing.
Flick for President?
evanston_dad5 December 2005
The Academy Award attention heaped on "Sideways" helped to make Alexander Payne a mainstream name among casual film goers, but many of us knew about his talent as a film maker long before. And his two more recent films--"Sideways" and "About Schmidt"--have been much gentler (thought still terrific) than his earlier efforts. Before "Election," Payne had already made "Citizen Ruth," a caustic, bracing satire of the abortion issue, and "Election" continued his penchant for harsh, uncomfortable comedy. I mean that in a good way, though. Payne's movies are funny, but they make you uneasy for laughing at them, and they have sharp, intelligent insights into the attitudes that drive American values.
In "Election," Payne uses a high school class presidential election as an opportunity to lampoon everything that's goofy about the American political system. Just as in our national elections for president, the winner is not necessarily the person with the most integrity, and honesty is a liability, not a virtue. The person who is willing to play dirtiest comes out on top, and elections aren't about who is most qualified but rather about who is most popular. And, the best part about the movie is its acknowledgement of voter apathy. Most Americans don't really give a damn, something that makes them not so different from the majority of high schoolers who don't even understand the point of having a class president to begin with. In fact, in the film's best scene, the assembly at which each candidate gives her/his campaign speech, one of the candidates (who joins the race out of spite) gets the best reception from the crowd when she encourages everyone not to vote at all.
Reese Witherspoon gives a wonderful performance as Tracy Flick, the school's most likely to succeed, whose goodie-goodie exterior hides the fact that she's willing to do just about anything to get ahead. Matthew Broderick is refreshingly unlikable as a social studies teacher who would like to see Tracy fail just once, until the fact that his own life is falling apart turns this wish into an obsession. And Chris Klein has some fun as the dopey, Jesus-following popular guy who becomes Tracy's arch rival, but never really even knows it.
Payne doesn't tidy up his film's moral messages. On the one hand, Tracy is obnoxious, and we want to see her fail as much as Broderick's character does. But she does know how to play the game, and isn't that part of what makes someone a good leader? We sympathize with Broderick up to a point, but his motives really are driven by a personal vendetta, not by any altruistic ideal of right vs. wrong. So if you normally need someone to root for in order to enjoy a movie, you're probably not going to like this one.
But who expects a hero?...I mean, come on, we're talking about American politics here.
Alexander Payne's uncompromising look at highschool politics. Foul-mouthed, sharp and funny
Camera-Obscura28 October 2006
With me, Alexander Payne can do no wrong. Before he entered Hollywood's big league of directors with ABOUT SCHMIDT and SIDEWAYS, he made this remarkable film about a highschool election. But this is hardly your average highschool flick, this is an intelligently written, foul-mouthed film, filled with colorful characters and plenty of laughs in the process.
In a pitch-perfect role, Reese Witherspoon is Tracy Flick, one of those irritating girls that are always in the front row, always raise their hand and wanna do something for the sake of the school, read, for their own resume. Tracy Flick is one of those, a fiercely calculating careerist who will stop at nothing to get the main prize, the office of student body president at Carver High. Since she's running unopposed, nothing seems in her way at getting what she wants, again. History teacher and student government adviser Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick, Ferris Bueller reversed) seems content with his life, but is worn out by his love-less marriage, and by the plight of his best friend and colleague, sacked for sleeping with consenting but under age Tracy Flick. With the coming elections, McAllister is appalled by the prospect of working closely with this little nagging career bitch, and charged with overseeing the proceedings, discreetly sponsors a rival candidate, dumb but popular jock Paul Metzler (Chris Klein), to enter the election. But when Paul's sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell), an embittered and unpopular girl announces her candidacy, the election becomes a really back-biting and nasty affair, with Jim McAllister getting more than he bargained for.
I think this film might appeal even more to adults than teenagers. If you like Alexander Payne's uncompromising approach to his subjects, this will definitely be up your alley, with everything from lesbianism to adultery thrown in the mix. Ideally casted all the way, with Matthew Broderick, after a number of uninteresting roles in lame movies, really making his mark. He gives his role a sort of understatement that makes Mr. McAllister a hopelessly tragic, but utterly lovable loser.
Camera Obscura --- 9/10
One of the best dark comedies ever
Timmy21015 July 2003
Election is easily my favorite comedy and one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. It brings out the best in most of it's cast and the stylistic quality of the film is both outrageous and subtle at the same time. However, the most amazing part of Election is that it makes an incredible movie and bases it around a subject so simple as a high school election.
But do not be fooled by it's simplicity in basic plot because hiding behind it's summary is a film that truly was underappreciated and very underrated. MTV has never and will never again get a movie as stunning as this.
Reese Witherspoon gives the performance of her career by playing Tracy Flick, a neurotic, self-obsessed go getter with a somewhat dark past that puts her on edge with Jim McCalister, a teacher who truly will stop at nothing to bring her down.
I will not say any more about Election except that those who have not seen this movie are truly missing out on an amazing film
One of the best 'high school' movies
napierslogs7 July 2010
"Election" is a dark comedy - dark and funny. Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is an over-achiever and creates havoc in the life of her teacher (Matthew Broderick) as the school elections approach.
I have to echo the sentiment that this is one of the best (if not the best) movie set in a high school. It's hard to even call it a high school movie as the topics encompass a broader range, and it's a very intelligent and thoughtful script. It's dramatic with its dark situations, and at the same time it's a very smart comedy.
Starring a young Reese Witherspoon who proves her bright future and Matthew Broderick who is perfect in the role and floats effortlessly between drama and comedy. A well deserved Oscar nomination for Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for the screenplay. Their other movies include "About Schmidt" (2002) and "Sideways" (2004).
"Election" is one of the best films of its kind. I recommend it.
An outstanding satire
androoren1 February 2005
I'm not generally a fan of excessive voice-over and quirky, stylised direction but here it's all done so well. It seems to suffer from that classic "this film didn't make sense" style of review, but it clearly does. A wonderful script with a great mix of slapstick and intelligent comedy and winning performances from Broderick, a brilliant Reese Witherspoon and the normally hapless Chris Klein.
And, yes, it has sex in it. It's hardly titillating and is always completely relevant to the plot. But if you simply hate seeing sex (not nudity, of which there is very little) in films then you won't like it.
It beats Rushmore to the 'best film set in a high school' award.
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One of the most pleasurable aspects of the film is its total lack of sentimentality
Nazi_Fighter_David6 December 2008
High-school comedies became popular because the milieu was familiar to a large proportion of the film-going audience… But the best examples of the genre in the 1980s and 1990s satirized not only the constant battle of the sexes, but other elements in American life… The frequent struggles between jocks and nerds were a kind of microcosm of the class difference which is supposed not to exist in the United States
In "Election," one of the best examples of this popular genre, much of the humor is at the expense of the 'democratic' process… The film's guiding insight is that in practice democracy reduces to a popularity contest, in which dirty tricks are the norm
Tracy is a Nebraskan high-school blonde who is brilliant and hard-working… She is standing for election as student president… Played by Reese Witherspoon, Tracy is bright and intolerant, eaten up by ambition and her ruthless determination to win… She is regarded with disgust by a career teacher and student adviser, Jim McAllister, for her self-righteousness, and also for her role in the dismissal of his fellow teacher Dave after a sex scandal… Jim encourages student football star Paul to stand against Tracy
A Year Early.
tfrizzell4 July 2002
A unique microcosm of politics in the U.S. is shown in "Election", one of the most interesting productions of 1999. Set in a high school, young over-achiever Reese Witherspoon feels that she should be the next student council president. Teacher Matthew Broderick feels that Witherspoon is an evil and manipulative person who just thinks about herself and her own status. Enter dumb jock Chris Klein, who does have a good heart and a fair amount of popularity. Broderick talks him into running and the madness begins. Add Klein's lesbian sister, Broderick's torrid affair and ballot tampering and you have a film that shows its intelligence and shows the lengths that people will go to further their own lives at the expense of others. Neat and smart little satire. Some parts seem to be foreshadowers to the awful presidential election of 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush. 4 stars out of 5.
A fun, cynical film
Agent1029 April 2002
For some reason, this film has always brought a laugh to the bottom of stomach. Some people may call it boring due to the fact its not some gross-out teen comedy, but this is really the antithesis of a great satire. One can't see the scaly nature of politics simply because its always drowned in newspeak and bad reporting. But to see it at this level of understanding, it proves to be quite entertaining. It also provides a precursor to our most recent (2000) election. We have the longtime politician, the incompetent who people like, and the iconoclast who wants to shake up government. And of course, there is the cheating regulator who gets the wrong person elected for his own slimy means. Who would have guessed life would imitate art. A great film for all to see. Matthew Broderick is at his best, Reese Witherspoon really sells her role, and I actually tolerated Chris Klein's role in this film.
Not totally convincing but an enjoyable dark comedy that swipes at politics and sexual relations
bob the moo10 July 2004
James McAllister is a contented high school teacher who is presiding over the elections for school president this year. However, the only student running for the position is the overly keen Tracey Flick – a driven student who he feels is callous and blames for his best friend being fired for falling in love with her. Desperate to prevent her becoming president, James convinces injured jock Paul to run, prompting Paul's love-scorned sister to also stand. Where once the presidency was a good clean-cut race, Tracey takes the competition badly, and it descends into something a lot more sinister.
I wasn't totally sure about this film but I had heard good things about it and, even though the fact that it was an MTV Production put me off a bit, I decided to give it a try. The film is quite clever for the most part and takes the worn genre and clichés of high school movies and makes them into a quite good little political satire of sorts – albeit one that is rather downbeat at times. The comedy is not laugh out loud funny and maybe that's a problem, but I enjoyed the parallels with modern politics (and sexual issues) and found it to make some good points in a funny way. Of course the end is rather downbeat but only because it is sadly believable.
I must say that I was rather put off by a couple of different things. The first was the amount of sexual material in the film – not a real problem but I was a little put off by how graphically the subject of underage sex was dealt with. This was a minor problem (if you can pardon the pun!) but what I found a little worrying was Payne's apparent misogynistic touch on the film – all the men were hapless saps and the women held the real power all the way; I'm not saying this is not true but Payne has little sympathy for his female characters and they may come off better overall but there is no love lost for them.
The cast opens with an amusing bit of role reversal that sees everyone's favourite high school student become a teacher in the shape of Matthew Broderick. Hardly having the best run of roles for a while, he is actually pretty good here even if some of what happens to his character doesn't seem to fit very well. Witherspoon is annoying but the difference here is that it is intentional! She easily fits into the character and her role has a great touch to it – I'm not saying it is easy to enjoy her performance but she is good. Klein does his usual dumb jock thing but is fortunate that he has the material to support (this time) but I felt Campbell was left with a sympathetic character that was placed on the sidelines too much.
Overall I enjoyed this film but it had its limitations. It isn't hilariously funny as many coming to this genre may expect but it is quite cleverly written. The story struggles a bit as it goes along, with threads left hanging that stop it being as tight as it maybe could have been but generally I enjoyed it but can see why some others have problems with it.
Witherspoon and Broderick make this work
SKG-219 November 1999
I don't know how many people who saw ELECTION saw Alexander Payne's previous film, CITIZEN RUTH(1996). That film was a satire on abortion, with Laura Dern as a pregnant homeless woman with several children already taken away by social services, and who is caught in a tug-of-war between pro-choice and pro-life activists. I've never seen an abortion satire before, so that was fresh, but all the characters where instead caricatures, so it was difficult for me to laugh. And the points were made with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer swatting a fly.
ELECTION suffers somewhat from that problem, but most of it works. Much of that, of course, is due to Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. Both of them embody their characters down to a T, and while they show us their flaws and their laughable parts, they also made them human beings. As much as we're meant to dislike Tracy, for example, I actually felt sorry for her when she talked about being lonely. And how events proceed between them is logical and well-told.
Less well-done is Chris Klein as the jock who runs against Tracy. He's likeable at times, but I could see Klein condescend to him and make him a boob at times(as his sister Tammy, on the other hand, Jessica Campbell makes a good impression; I was actually surprised at an action she took, though it does make sense). I also thought the sexual repression stuff was obvious and overdone, especially when Broderick sees and hears Tracy when he's making love. We got that already. Nevertheless, this is often funny and biting.
And that's our electoral system, folks!
lee_eisenberg17 January 2006
"Election" is a satire on our electoral system, set in an Omaha high school. Reese Witherspoon is overachiever Tracy Flick, trying as hard as possible to get elected. But teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) will try as hard as possible to stop her, even if it means a few unethical actions.
Probably the best scene in the movie is the debates. After Tracy and Paul debate, Paul's sister Tammy says something to the effect of: "What's the deal with school elections? Class president is just something that people like to put on college applications. If I get elected, I think that I'll eliminate these positions altogether." As far as I'm concerned, that's a totally accurate statement. All in all, anyone who wants to really understand our electoral system need only watch "Election". Perfect.
Vote for Election...
MaxBorg8929 December 2005
Okay, so we know one side of American high schools, the one where students'only concerns are related to alcohol, sex and drugs, a situation we've witnessed in both comedies (American Pie etc) and serious movies (The Rules of Attraction). In this cynical satire, on the other hand, we get to see what really goes on in all the classes, offices and hallways that mean so much to US people.
As the title says, the movie is about an election, more precisely the one which will decide who is gonna be the new president of the student body. There are three candidates, and they couldn't be more different: Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is an annoying, over-intelligent, overambitious, spoiled girl who wants nothing less than the best and is willing to do anything to obtain it (if Lisa Simpson and King Kong's Carl Denham had a kid, it would be her), Paul Metzler (Chris Klein) is an ex football champion who thinks he can do good things for his fellow students, as well as gain some popularity, while his sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell) is running for president only because Paul "stole" her "girlfriend". Actually, a fourth person is involved, too: Tim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), a teacher who just loves his job, tries to keep his marriage together and wishes he could prevent Tracy from winning the election. These people's paths are gonna cross, with unusual, unexpected results...
Election is one of the most original comedies of all time, and it's suggested to anyone who's considering a screen writing career: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's script breathes fresh air into the genre, with dialogue so sharp you usually hear it only on HBO (some of the exchanges are worthy of Six Feet Under or, outside subscription channel territory, Desperate Housewives). And that dialogue works thanks to the actors who got the wonderful job of delivering it: Broderick, in particular, has an impeccable comic timing, making us laugh with no difficulty, even when he's being serious (I wonder what he will do replacing Gene Wilder in The Producers), but it's Witherspoon who grabs all the attention, giving us the performance of a lifetime. More than her most famous character, Elle Woods, Tracy Flick is the ultimate proof "blonde" doesn't equal "totally stupid".
Tired of conventional comedy? Watch Election, it's really worth it.
The Freshest Teen Movie For A Long Time
emperor_weevil22 July 2004
This film was a real gem. ITV showed it over the midnight hour and I think Election deserved a better time slot than this.
The film is told from several different points of view, so all viewers will enjoy watching it because they will like one of the intertwined story lines, in my opinion.
Matthew Broderick is excellent as the helpful teacher, as is Reese Witherspoon as the overambitious high school girl with a mean streak. Election contains a good mix of drama and comedy, especially some of the end scenes which almost remind me of the last scene in The Butterfly Effect. However, it doesn't linger on the drama for too long in the final scenes, which is a good thing as it left me with a smile on my face after having seen the film.
Overall, an excellent "teen" comedy which I highly recommend, if only for the sort-of feel-good ending.
tedg26 August 2002
Spoilers herein.
Writing a film must be a challenging balancing act, eversomore in the case of comedy. Part of what you write has to be so exceedingly familiar, so that viewers can get established with the basic physics of the world you introduce them to. But to make it engaging, you've got to introduce quirks, and twists, and ironies, and comic annotations and reversals.
You've got to make that first choice about what is ordinary before you even think about being clever. The two most accessible experiences for the largest demographic (at least in the U. S.) are high school and obsessive sex. With a few words and images in each, you can register which common scenario you are in, before the voyage begins.
The setup here isn't particularly deft, but it doesn't have to be. High school. Simple people. Simple motives, in fact every dramatic turn in this project is triggered by some slight impression or annoyance. Each trigger leads to the extreme: infatuation or obsession of some type. Each trigger (dumbly noted by an apple) leads to a downfall except for the two clueless kids, and I suppose the tragicomic point is that they have no idea of the damage left in their wake.
The twists and turns were pretty edgy I thought. More clever than Wes Anderson and less visceral than Harmony Korine. But all this is of the same school which is anti story architecture, pro capricious twists. The twists have to seem that they just happened to the writer based on random selection or happenstance, not deliberation, like say the stream in `Go.'
Witherspoon is good enough, but the part doesn't demand much. All her comic timing is from the playbook, as it should be because of the setup. She, with Julia Stiles is part of a post-Ricci crop of moon-shaped flatfaced actresses. Odd how these things go -- fashion in facial appeal -- not much unlike the dynamics of the election portrayed here.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.
mikeysazulita20 July 2001
The book was incredible, and the movie didn't let me down either. "ELECTION" is hilarious. It's such a dark and twisted movie, I found myself liking Matthew Broderick again. Reese Witherspoon was unbelievable as the awfully annoying Tracy Flick. You find yourself laughing at all the characters and wondering if you feel any sympathy for the meddling Mr. M, who was a cool teacher I liked solely because he loathed Tracy Flick, but turned into a loser as the movie went along. If you enjoy comedies like "Office Space", you'll enjoy this crazy film. It's one of my favorites!
One of the funniest films I have seen in a while!
Smells_Like_Cheese13 July 2006
The great thing about "Election" is that it's not really a laugh out loud type of film, but it just makes you laugh from beginning to end. You just know at that last second of the film you just saw a good movie. It's about a teacher played by Matthew Broderick, Mr. Maccaslister who seems to have a doubtful life but thinks highly of himself. He is a little overwhelmed by Tracy Flick, she's the overachiever of the high school, you remember those people?
When nobody decides to run against Tracy, Mr. Maccalister is sure to destroy her and nominate the most popular jock in high school, Chris Klein. When he takes his sister's crush away, another girl, his sister runs against him and Tracy for president. The whole movie just goes around how horrible these people truly are, despite their high opinions of themselves.
I highly recommend Election for a good laugh, this is a true comedy that I really enjoyed. I think you will too, so think not what you can do for your movies, but what your movies could do for you. That made more sense in my head. :P
"Dear Lord Jesus, I really must insist that you help me win the election tomorrow"
Terrell-41 April 2008
"Dear Lord Jesus," prays Tracy Flick the night before the election for student body president, "I do not often speak with you and ask for things, but now, I really must insist that you help me win the election tomorrow because I deserve it and Paul Metzler doesn't, as you well know. I realize that it was your divine hand that disqualified Tammy Metzler and now I'm asking that you go that one last mile and make sure to put me in office where I belong so that I may carry out your will on earth as it is in heaven. Amen."
Tracy (Reese Witherspoon) is an overachieving senior in suburban George Washington Carver High School (where the student body is all white). What Tracy wants, she gets, using a combination of single-minded hard work, bright smiles as phony as a television infomercial, eager volunteering and a ruthlessness that varies between chirpiness and squinted eyes. As Tracy says, quoting her Mom, "The weak are always trying to sabotage the strong."
Then one of Tracy's teachers, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) decides the world needs to be saved from Tracy. He talks one of the school's popular football athlete's to run against Tracy. From now on Jim has his hands full trying to sabotage Tracy's relentless campaign, impregnate his wife, convince himself his next door neighbor, a recent divorcée, is really going to understand him if they can only check into a motel for a couple of hours...and deal with the consequences of everything he set in motion.
Election, written and directed by Alexander Payne, is one of the funniest, darkest satires of human behavior since Jonathan Swift recommended that the poor should simply sell their children to be eaten by the rich. There are a lot of teenagers in this movie, but it's not just another teen-age movie. We're looking at the ludicrous depths to which ambition and good intentions, when mixed with politics, can take us. If that seems ponderous, it's about as ponderous as Tracy Flick's mom writing compulsively to people like Connie Chung and Elizabeth Dole asking for advice. (Never give up on your dreams is the usual reply.)
The script moves from the exaggerated to the outlandish with great style. The actors deliver the goods with deadpan sincerity and self-serving honesty. Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick hits the bull's-eye with unnerving accuracy. She is so sincere in her insincerity, which is, in Tracy Flick's own way, completely sincere, that Witherspoon makes us smile and shudder at the same time. As outstanding as she is, Matthew Broderick is the heart of the movie. Jim McAllister is part lech, part nebbish, but mostly good guy. It's a funny, almost poignant performance. Payne's script and Broderick's acting give us a perfect ending that's just as brittle, cool and amusing as the rest of the movie.
I like Election a lot. I hope as time passes the movie isn't forgotten.
When it focuses on the High School it's at its best
estebangonzalez1027 December 2013
"You see, you can't interfere with destiny, that's why it's destiny. And if you try to interfere, the same thing's just going to happen anyway, and you'll just suffer."
Election is Alexander Payne's sophomore film and many consider it to be his best work since it uses some slick and witty dark humor to make a satirical political comedy. Payne manages to mix this political satire with High School life by using the school elections as a metaphor for American politics and in doing so the film is rather successful. Just like that famous short essay written by Robert Fulghum "All I Really Need to Learn I Learned in Kindergarten" where he claims that if we sticked to the basic rules we learned in kindergarten we would live in a better society, here Payne compares politics to High School elections and shows how corrupt the system actually can be and how selfish these people are. The dirty campaigns all begin in High School and these people seem to be doing things for themselves rather than to help others. I think this is what works best in Payne's ambitious film. I enjoyed the scenes that took place in the High School, but when Payne takes us out of the school to the characters homes it kind of loses its magic. I didn't care very much about their lives outside of school. One of the things that Payne does best is create interesting characters and that is why the actors give engaging performances because they have a lot to work with. These characters are usually dislikable, but somehow we end up routing for one despite all their flaws. Reese Witherspoon's character is so annoying that we actually want Matthew Broderick to succeed despite all the immoral acts he is committing. They both give strong performances, although compared to other Payne films I thought they were the weakest characters. Sideways still remains as my favorite Payne film, but his work here obviously opened a lot of doors for him. Payne is one of the best when it comes to creating Midwestern American characters.
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is a very driven and ambitious student from Carver High who has high goals and expectations for her life. One of those goals is becoming class president, and despite the fact that she is running unopposed she still dedicates most of her time in school to achieving this. Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is one of her teachers, but he doesn't like her very much because she had an affair with his best friend, Dave (Mark Harelik), a former teacher who got expelled from school when the director found out. Jim, who is married to Diane (Molly Hagan), decides to complicate things for Tracy by convincing the school jock, Paul (Chris Klein) to enter the race. When Paul's lesbian sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), discovers that he is campaigning for class president, she decides to run as well to pay him back for dating a former love interest of hers. And soon what seemed to be a simple election becomes chaotic as the dirty campaign begins. Will Tracy achieve her goal or will her teacher crash her dream?
The film has each character describe the events that are going on through voice over narrations. At first I thought it didn't work very well as it took me out of the story, but then I understood what Payne was trying to achieve (or at least this is what it transmitted to me), by letting his characters narrate what they were experiencing we understood what they were trying to achieve, the way they wanted others to see them, but of course their actions were completely opposite to the way they wanted to be perceived. It was like their own mask, because they were nothing like what they wanted to be perceived as (take Jim for example who considered himself a likable and influential teacher, but really he ends up being quite the opposite). The characters in this film are very well developed, but they were probably my least favorite from a Payne film. I wasn't a big fan of Chris Klein's performance, but the rest of the cast was pretty strong. The dark humor was witty, but it just wasn't my cup of tea and didn't care for any of the characters. Election may be one of Payne's most ambitious and satirical films, but I would rather sit through Sideways a hundred times than seeing these characters again.
A splendidly wicked satirical treat
Woodyanders16 January 2009
Popular, but frustrated high school civics teacher Jim McAllister (an excellent performance by Matthew Broderick) locks horns with ruthlessly driven and ambitious overachiever Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon in peak aggressively obnoxious form), who's determined to become president of Carver High's student body. McAllister convinces amiable dumb jock Paul Metzler (played with endearingly goofy charm by Chris Klein) to run for class president. Complications ensue when Paul's sassy lesbian sister Tammy (the adorable Jessica Campbell) decides to join the presidential race. Plus McAllister's personal life is starting to unravel. Director/co-writer Alexander Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor concoct a hilariously savage, cynical and unsentimental no-holds-barred satire on American society as a general whole which ingeniously uses high school as an apt microcosm of the world at large: we've got fiercely barbed commentary on such worthy topics as morals, politics, teen sexuality, marital infidelity, the lonely price of success, how all actions beget consequences that can change the rest of your life, jealousy, and blind ambition run totally amok. Kudos are also in order for the uniformly fine acting from a sound cast: Broderick and Witherspoon spar with each other beautifully well; they receive top-notch support from Klein, Campbell, Phil Reeves as ramrod principal Walt Hendricks, Molly Hagan as Jim's loving wife Diane, Delaney Driscoll as Jim's sweet and attractive lady best friend Linda Novotny, Mark Harelik as disgraced ex-teacher Dave Novotny, Colleen Camp as Tracy's supportive mother Judith R. Flick, and Frankie Ingrassia as the saucy Lisa Flannagan. James Glennon's slick, agile cinematography makes neat occasional use of freeze frames and superimpositions. Rolfe Kent's jaunty full-bore orchestral score likewise does the trick. An absolute hoot.
Built On Scathing Wit and Blistering Integrity, "Election" Creates A Moralistic, But Defeatist Paradox Like No Other
Det_McNulty8 August 2007
1999 was another year marking the end of a decade in film, a year which has provided some of the finest films ever to grace celluloid. Election was released to a small box-office intake, but a hugely positive critical response, which has since made it a cult film. It launched the careers of actors, such as, Chris Klein, who after his debut performance in Election went onto to star in the teen-garbage of the American Pie series. Yet, "dead in the water" actors like Matthew Broderick found that the film re-launched his career, notably due to the polar-opposite casting choice when you look back at his Ferris Bueller days. Then you have actress Reese Witherspoon who provides an unmatched performance (in fact one of the best I have ever viewed) in Election, which warranted all the critical acclaim it could muster and was the perfect display of acting needed to launch her continuously expanding career.
Election has what the vast majority of high-school films do not, which is a profound aptitude of control and dissection of politics. Adapted from a novel by Tom Perrotta, Election creates a contrast of high-school politics against western country politics. Reese Witherspoon embodies the personality of Tracy Flick, an ego-driven, overly ambitious and obnoxious "go-getter" who –as with everything educationally related- decides to run for the school president elections (certain that she will win). Matthew Broderick plays Jim McAllister, a teacher who has grown to resent Tracy for obvious reasons, as well as deeply-seated personal grounds. Tracy is the only student running for president and because Jim does not want to see Tracy succeed yet again he decides to bring a little competition into the game by persuading Chris Klein's character Paul Metzler to run for presidency too. Paul is one of the most popular guys in the school, meaning that Tracy feels a sting of competition due to his popularity advantage. From then-on-in the story starts to convey the personal trials and tribulations of each character as they desperately attempt to succeed in some form or another.
Alexander Payne crafts not a comedy, but a satire on corruption and the clash of morals and ethics. Built on a screenplay of sarcastic, cynical hatred for a flawed system, Election puts school into an entirely unique, yet distinguishable perspective. On first viewing of Election (I have always been very fond of it) I felt the narrative was slightly unfocused and heavy-handed at times, but on a subsequent viewing I decided that, in fact, it is not. The editing is the primary key to the film, automatically engrossing the viewer to become engaged with a narrative which is recited through four diverse character perceptions. The body language of the characters is another fundamental element of the picture, being that it echoes a considerable amount of information on the traits and general persona of each person.
Technically, the school is an allegory for the parable of school life being so prominently like that of the real world, but just not quite as unforgiving as that of the outside world. Many subtleties are littered throughout the film, for example, I noticed that seeing fruit within a scene would mark the perception of an unfortunate incident soon to occur (as well as the joke of Paul Metzler contradicting his choice of "favourite fruit" when he picks a banana from a fruit bowl). The non-linear tone of Election is what gives the film its instantly recognisable trademark style. It is the detailing of the subtleties and subtexts of school life which makes the viewer become engaged, since you want to digest everything the film is stating on the battle of justifying one's morals, while retaining society's ethics.
Election says so much about school life, it enabled me to realise just how much a teacher knows about their pupil, and ultimately that they can read a pupil like a book, which is fairly intimidating. I cannot begin to express how much I recommend this to anyone who can appreciate the peculiarities of high-school personalities and the consideration of thought-provoking comedy Alexander Payne has poured into this modern masterwork. Do believe the hype.
paul2001sw-116 April 2007
Sometimes it's hard to know what's worse, a brain-dead comedy, or a comic movie of a little more substance that labours under the delusion that it carries a moral weight equivalent to Dostoeyevski. But 'Election' suffers from neither of these faults: it's a superbly timed little satire that hits all its myriad targets with exactly the right weight of punch. Matthew Broderick is excellent, while for those (like me) who can't stand Reese Witherspoon playing cute, she's much better here, playing obnoxious. Although it's superficially a high-school comedy, this film does have some serious points to make about wider life: but it's also impossible to watch without a smile on your face. It's a winner.
Surprisingly a really good comedy!
highkite24 June 2006
"Election" really works. It's not often a comedy comes out that presents us with both really good acting, good directing, but also a decent script and intelligent humor. Matthew Broderck and Reese Witherspoon shine with such humor and insight into their characters, it's almost as though they were born to play those roles. The story is very unique and makes no attempt at being pretentious, and just tells it the way it's meant to be told. Witherspoon's character, Tracy Flick, remains one of the most memorable characters in the history of comedy, as well as her own performance, which was snubbed at the Oscars for a nomination.
The movie is about Jim McAllister, told from his perspective, as he takes us through both his life and the school's most vicious students. McAllister is a respected high school teacher who partakes in many extra curricular activities including student council. As his own life slowly falls apart, Jim McAllister becomes obsessed with ruining Tracy Flick (Witherspoon) and her reputation as the smartest girl in the school by making her lose the upcoming election for school president. Chris Klein and Jessica Campbell co-star as Paul and Tammy Metzler who both run for president, ruining Flick's chances of winning.
Acclaimed director Alexander Payne creates a subtle work that communicates a highly typical and hysterical idea about jealousy, lust and betrayal. There's much more to the story than a simple back-and-forth feud between the teacher and student. The deep psychology of the characters often becomes the motive of a much bigger problem. McAllister's lack of luck is a result of his own clumsy behavior, proving that revenge is not always the best choice. Tracy Flick's troubled past comes into play to fully produce a character who's stuck-up and perfect in every way. And although "Election" is a satire, the goofy antics of almost each scene makes you scream in laughter. Truly, a movie to watch to uplift the mood.
The unique style of "Election" makes it one of the best movies of 1999. The simple, yet sophisticated screenplay and Reese Witherspoon's career-best performance keeps the movie really high on the list of Best Movies. Each second of the movie is entertaining and it never seems to be "too much". Avoiding clichés, Alexander Payne found a way to tell a typical story and intertwine some pretty funny ideas about society, as well as hilarious characters that we just love to hate. An amazing movie. Audience-friendly for everyone and anyone who enjoys a good flick.
other recs
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Naming a Street or Park
Ever wonder how a street of park gets named in Regina. It is a complex and can sometimes feel like a secretive process.
The Civic Naming Committee uses guidelines approved by City Council to adjudicate applications for street and park names submitted by members of the public, developers and members of City administration. Approved names go on the Master Lists for Street and Park Names. Only names on the Master Lists for Street and Park Names may be used to name streets and parks within the City of Regina. As Regina grows, developers select names from the mater list for street and parking naming. Names on the list remain until a Community Developer select the name for use.
The Civic Naming Committee consist of six City of Regina staff members chosen by the City Manager.
It seems simple, but were it gets complex is the amount of names a on the approved list has grown exponentially faster than the actual growth of our City (roads and parks) creating a significant back log of names.
The last review of the Civic Naming Committee Guidelines took place in 2009. However the City of Regina is conducting a Civic Naming Committee Guidelines Review with the intent to address several issues with street and park naming. The goal is to create a single, harmonized guideline that addresses street and park naming, cleans up a number of housekeeping issues relating to street and park naming and addresses the backlog of names on the current Master Lists of Street and Park Names. This initiative has come from City Council and is a direct response to the City of Regina Cultural Plan. Issues such as translating street signs into Indigenous languages, street renaming and creating a sense of community and belonging within the larger community will be addressed.
One can appreciation of the complexity to name new streets and parks. It is important to understand and support the need to work with regional partners to harmonize naming practices, aid in wayfinding and safeguard health and safety. Also the goal of ensuring the process is efficient and does not create costly delays in the planning process must be realized. If the process and policy is to be implemented effectively, decisions made by the Civic Naming Committee must be clear and transparent.
Several recommendations in the report that was tabled at the May 2nd Regina Planning Commission meeting, as part of the Civic Naming Policy review.
There are many positive aspects to the recommendations like:
Prohibiting duplicate and soundalike names for safety reasons;
Utilizing street and park naming as an opportunity for diversity and reconciliation;
Establishing policy for renaming of a street or park; and
Coordinating with regional partners.
There are also concerns:
Compelling additional quotas of using backlog of names;
The policy document itself is vague and will be subject to interpretation, which is not helpful. Example, it may be interpreted that no new names may be added to the list until all the names on the current list are used. This may have the causal effect of loosing the ability to acknowledge new members of our community. At the same time forcing recognition of others who, by Administration's proposed recommendations would no longer meet the criteria. At the current rate of City growth, it could be decades until many of the names are utilized;
Individual names on residential streets that may be perceived to have negative attributes.
Example, referring to the 2013 Regina Planning Commission needed to address concerns raised about Dethridge Bay. Dethridge Bay was named after Stanely Dethridge, a 30 year City Engineer who retired in the 1940's and moved to Ottawa. There maybe great significance to this name, but it is not evident. A simple Google search only brings up the 2013 controversy. The reason for naming a street after him is lost, as there does not appear to even be any family members of Stanely's left in our community;
Exclusion for "sponsored parks" to be somewhat ironic in that in new neighbourhoods, the developer/land owner dedicates the land to the city with zero compensation, and pays all costs to landscape the park, including play structures and play fields, but then have been stripped of any input to name the park;
What criteria would define an Indigenous name;
The Development and Planning process is delayed significantly because the application requires a name for each street and park, yet the neighbourhood plans are tied up in the Civic Naming process. It is important to note that updating of these requirements should not hinder parallel processes. Roadblock have emerged from City of Regina Planning Department to not allow using names from the current approved list in what appears to be anticipation of the recommendation taken to the Regina Planning Commission. This places the development industry in a naming purgatory; and
How the Civic Naming Committee completes its duties and makes decisions is not clear or transparent. We are concerned that when an inquiry about a street name is made, that a perception can continue by the City of Regina that the naming is a decision by the Community Developer.
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