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The path toward architectural licensure (and beyond).
Tag Archives: television
Allow me to confess to one of my not-so-guilty pleasures… I'm a fan of Grey's Anatomy.. This coming Thursday marks the 10th season premiere, and I will most likely be in front of my TV when it airs. I've seriously watched the show since the very beginning, when it began its life as a mid-season replacement before becoming a Nielsen juggernaut and next-morning's-watercooler television, complete with companion soundtrack(s).
Early influences: Dr. Carter…
What I like most about Grey's is its focus on the youngest members of Seattle Grace's medical staff — the surgical residents. They are young, ambitious, and fresh out of medical school. They make mistakes. They have career-defining successes and soul-crushing failures. In other words, they are just like us. And in spite of the slightly declining quality of the show in recent seasons, despite all of the crazy plot devices over the years (Izzie resurrects a deer! Owen stabs pigs! George gets hit by a bus! A plane carrying 75% of the cast crashes in the woods!), it's that dynamic — the uphill stuggle that comes with being at the lowest rung of the professional ladder — that keeps me interested.
…and Dr. Dorian.
(I've already noted the dearth of architectural role models in primetime television, so instead, I look for inspiration tangentially instead of directly. I'm drawn to depictions of the coming-of-age story, which I feel is at the core of any internship experience. Medical series tend to be rife with this dynamic — in college, I became an instant fan of ER thanks to Noah Wyle's earnest portrayal of John Carter, and Scrubs, which drew humor out of Zach Braff's inexperience, was one of my all-time favorite comedies, especially during the first few years of my internship. I looked at these guys — doctors, not architects, but equally as wet behind the ears — and in their perseverence in the face of constant challenge , I saw myself.)
But back to Grey's, which seems to strike a balance between ER's melodrama and Scrubs' tongue-in-cheek zaniness… A subplot near the end of the eighth season involved the residents … wait for it … preparing for, and taking, their board certification exam. Really. The drama came less from the exam than from seven years' worth of interplay, seeing these characters simultaneously encouraging one another while competing at the same time. Even the results were as varied as the personalities themselves. Cristina passed with flying colors… Meredith handled the challenge competently and confidently… April failed miserably. Probably the most realistically, Alex (who was originally not even going to take the test in the first place) felt the pressure of being left behind by his colleagues, and rushed in at the last minute to sit for his exam. This arc –about a professional exam, mind you — lasted for several episodes. Imagine, for a minute, if the setting of this show was the architectural profession instead of the medical one. Would the exam settting have the same inherent drama? Would anyone want to watch? Would we have to call the show Graphic Standard?
(If there ever were a weekly series about architects, I'd hope that it would contain this kind of dynamic — the passing of the baton to a new generation, the transfer of wisdom that comes with experience. And if they need someone to play the good-looking lead character, with perfect hair, living in his Airstream trailer out in the woods… give my agent a call.)
"…I can't believe they used to be us." (Grey's Anatomy episode 9×08, terrible screen capture by the author)
To me, one of the most effective parts of the show has been its dedication to refreshing the cast through a new crop of surgical interns. We've watched the core cast develop and grow, over the course of seven seasons, into confident, experienced professionals. This past season, in their place came a new group of recent graduates — recurring guest stars last season, now promoted to the regular cast — and it's through their perspective, their inexperience, that we are able to appreciate how far their peers have come. This was illustrated quite poignantly in one of last season's early episodes (x9.08, "Love Turns You Upside Down," for those of you keeping score at home), which saw the interns pull their first grueling 24-hour shift. On their way out of the hospital, physically and emotionally exhausted, they literally run into their mentors, now level-headed fully-minted physicians, acting during a triage situation.
Two groups, at opposite ends of the spectrum, with only time and experience separating them from one another. The students have become the teachers, and with a new group of interns, have an opportunity to share what they themselves have learned. The silence is broken when one of the interns exhales: "I can't believe they used to be us."
http://youtu.be/8muVZ4nnriM
Posted in Examination, Professional Development
Tagged community, exam, mentorship, television
Every once in a while, life hands you an opportunity that you just have to take, no matter how far out from left field it comes. For me, one of those opportunities presented itself last summer… I was invited to audition for Wheel of Fortune. The audition was held, mid-week, at a local hotel, and i just happened to be in between deadlines, with nothing immediately pressing on my plate. So, I did something very rare for me — I burned off some sick time and played hooky from work.
Long story short, "I H_D _ BL_ST." The audition was based largely on simulated game play, in groups that kept getting increasingly smaller as the day wore on. Between two rounds of play, I solved two puzzles — "WHITE COTTON BATHROBE" and "CHOCOLATE LABRADOR RETRIEVER" are now two of my favorite phrases — before advancing to the last round of the tryouts. Just like the show, we were divided into groups of three, in order to play the game against each other… and just like on the show, each candidate had to introduce themselves to the panel (and to the rest of the group). (I was prepared for this — I swore to myself that I wouldn't use the word "wonderful" to describe my wife, since there are so many more adjectives that I could use. Failed miserably. You'd be surprised how easily the words "wonderful wife" just slip right out. Must be the alliteration. Anyhoo…) Of course, I mentioned that I'm an architect. Why wouldn't I?
Later, on a bathroom break, I made casual conversation with two of the other auditioners; both commented on my profession. The first said that architecture was something he had considered, but when he saw how much work went into it, and how relatively little money architects make, he decided against it. The other guy, hearing this, offered this pearl of wisdom: "yeah, a buddy of mine went to Drexel, got his degree in architecture… he runs a nightclub now. Makes a LOT more money!" Yeah… thanks. This officially became the second-most awkward conversation I've ever had in a public bathroom.
The bottom line is, no, we dont make a lot of money as architects, certainly nowhere near what doctors or lawyers (or, apparently, nightclub managers) are bringing home (and I suppose the fine print, below the bottom line, is that I don't need to be reminded of that by complete strangers, thankyouverymuch). I'm not going to lie — the thought of making tens of thousands of dollars, in less than half an hour, didn't hurt… but quite frankly, there's more to life than money. I have the good fortune of doing what I love for a living, working in a career that uniquely suits my skill set (so much so that I couldn't imagine doing anything else)… and allows me enough of an opportunity for a balanced lifestyle. I have a great deal of responsibility and often too much work to do in too little time, but in a job setting that allows me a certain degree of flexibility (I could be wrong, but I don't think a doctor or lawyer could necessarily drop everything mid-week and audition for a syndicated game show). When I have a deadline, I may work through lunch and stay late for a week straight… but if my family needs me, I can usually make arrangements to be there. And if an oddball opportunity pops up, one that might make for a good story later, I might just be able to take advantage of it. And that, I feel, makes me a very fortunate person… even if I didn't get to meet Pat Sajak. (That's okay — I'm holding out for Jeopardy!, anyway…)
Posted in Professional Development
Tagged balance, career, television
I promised myself that this blog would focus on architectural licensure, not my own personal hobbies and interests. But I suppose that I can allow myself the occasional non-sequitur…
I woke up Sunday morning wondering if Mad Men's time has passed. After all, we haven't seen Don and company since June of last year — it's conceivable to think that the world has moved on, more interested in some of the other quality dramas (True Blood, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey…) that have risen to prominence in the months since. For a show that defines itself through its high sense of style, now six seasons in, I feared that Mad Men could be in danger of going out of it.
"Just show me who you really are." Easier said than done.
Wrong. The show is as compelling as ever, thanks mostly to Jon Hamm's indelible portrayal of (anti-) hero Don Draper. Don's inner battle with his own personal identity crisis (I won't spoil it for the non-fans out there) is metaphoric for any of us — particularly men — who struggle to define ourselves. Season 6 appears to find Don confronting his mortality, going so far as to seep into his ad campaign for an idyllic Hawaiian resort. Don's best pitches have always been his most personal ones (I'm thinking of the lump-in-the-throat presentation to Kodak in the season one finale "The Carousel"), but this one might have strayed a little too far into somber territory. (The client's reaction to this pitch is as scathing of a review as you'll ever receive in architecture school, cringe-inducing for anyone who's ever been on the receiving end of an unappreciative client.)
Mad Men's constant focus on Creative — the department in the advertising agency that conceives of and then develops the ad campaigns for Sterling Cooper Draper Price's varied clientele — is just one of the many things that I find compelling about the show. I can think of very few other mainstream dramas that make the design process so riveting, without dumbing things down for the sake of the audience. It's not just the inside view of the craft — it's also the personal expression that informs it. Don does his best to hide his true self from everyone else around him, but it's through his art that he reveals himself. (Talk about truth in advertising!)
I think I'll leave it at that, lest this start to become a forum for critical review of television dramas. Safe to say, though, that my favorite excuse for a Sunday night martini has returned, and I'm more than happy to be along for the ride.
Tagged craft, design, Mad Men, television
Not Quite Ready for Prime Time?
The set of "Partners" — models, books, material samples… it must be an architect's office! (That being said, I would kill for that monitor…) (CBS Studios)
Now that the holiday season is well behind us, I'm trying to get back into my old routine, which includes a fair amount of primetime television. Last night, I tuned in to find that the CBS series "Partners" has, not surprisingly, been canceled. (Apparently, I should have spent a little more time over the holiday break catching up on my entertainment news — it was canned in November, and the network has no plans to burn off the unaired episodes.) The sitcom, about best friends who go into business together, was surprisingly run-of-the-mill except for one small detail: the partners in question were architects. How do we know they were architects? Take this sample line of dialogue: "Maybe you should focus a little more on architecture, which is what we do, instead of (insert plot device here)." Subtlety at its finest. The humor was often lowbrow and the plot derivative — One's gay, the other isn't! One's incredibly rigid, the other is free-spirited! Hilarity and hijinks ensue! — but at least it was a weekly dose of architecture in pop culture each week.
Architecture isn't a part of the zeitgeist in the same way as other professions. Doctors, lawyers, police officers — all of them have been a constant part of the prime-time landscape for almost as long as television has been a mainstream medium, and for good reason. Each of these professions brings its own inherent drama with it, which makes for good ratings… and means that the general public ends up with a pretty good idea of what a career in medicine, law, or law enforcement is all about. Even a relatively obscure line of work can benefit from a prime-time phenomenon — after the series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" premiered in the fall of 2000, the demand for criminal forensics programs increased exponentially; the forensics programs at some universities had doubled in size in 2004, a result of what was dubbed "the CSI effect," proof positive that the right show at the right time can work wonders for your profession. (No data exists on any subsequent decline after David Caruso's over-dramatized turn, when its spin-off "CSI: Miami" hit the airwaves.). However, as we noted at the Summit20 last March, there isn't an "ER" or a "Law and Order" for architects. Imagine for just a minute how many more people would have a better understanding of what it is an architect does, or what it takes to become one, if our profession was a weekly staple — must-see TV with plots worthy of the office watercooler. A series like "Partners," that referenced the architectural profession even tangentially, felt like a step in the right direction.
Ted Mosby: Our generation's Howard Roark…? (CBS Studios)
We are left with Ted Mosby as our last man standing. The central character of CBS' series "How I Met Your Mother" (and the former lead-in to "Partners" — lest we spread out our situational comedy architects into any other night of the week, or on any other network), who tells his future children the incredibly lengthy tale of how he came to find the love of his life, is unabashedly an architect. Creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas must have known an architect or two in their time (or perhaps head writer Kourtney Kang — a CMU grad, she might have known a few aspiring archies — had something to do with it) — Ted is an earnest and heartfelt homage to at least one (if not several ) of them. Ted is anal-retentive and fastidious, wearing his heart on his sleeve but labeling his belongings. He watches the Star Wars trilogy once every three years, judging his success in life by how much he's achieved since the last time he "tril'ed it up." Ted spends a great deal of time with his four best friends (note: none of which are architects — how realistic is this again?!) hanging out at the local bar, but is not above leaving it to run upstairs to grab one of his books in order to settle an argument. A quirky but lovable dork, Ted probably very closely resembles some — if not all — of the architects you know. From the looks I get from my wife during any typical episode, you'd think Ted was based almost entirely on me. (For the record, I stand by my statement that any similarities are purely coincidental.)
Ted's story, without delving too deeply into the mechanics of our profession, actually has been a quite honest portrayal of architecture. As the series began, we find Ted working in a mid-sized architecture firm in Manhattan. The downturn in the economy leads to the loss of his job. Ted then tries his hand at a sole proprietorship — Mosbius Designs (was I the only one who laughed at the title? I think not.), complete with intern/ receptionist — which, unfortunately, also fails (actually, that might be a good thing — Ted's biggest commission was a new restaurant, shaped like a cowboy hat). Ted is forced to consider a slight course correction in his career path — he takes an adjunct professorship position at a local university, teaching an introductory course on architectural history. Teaching may be a solid gig, but practicing architecture remains his first love, and after a particulary significant lecture (on Antoni Gaudi and the Sagrada Famiglia — "unfinished" — which actually was quite inspiring), Ted takes a commission for the headquarters for a major financial institution, the fictional Goliath National Bank.
Ted then finds himself, inexplicably, designing a new high-rise office building — in the middle of Manhattan. Single-handedly. Out of his apartment. On the site of a former historic landmark building. With nary a consultant or engineer in sight. (Adios, realism. Cue "The Price is Right's" farewell music…Wah-wahhhhhhhhhhhhh…)
As the sole architect in prime-time television, I wish that Ted's career were a little more realistically portrayed… but it's not the focus of the show, nor is it meant to be. (And yes, I do cringe whenever the series tries to "make" Ted an architect — such as when the contractor for the GNB Headquarters put him on the spot by asking which parabolic lamp he'd like to use in every fixture in the building — but I can't fault them for trying.) Maybe the details aren't exactly correct, but the sincerity is. Ted is a decent, hard-working, introspective guy. He has boatloads of insecurities; in a moment of self-doubt over his ability to handle a project like the GNB Tower, he actually tells the story of the architect that designed a library, but forgot to account for the weight of the books (Cringe!! General public, stop listening now!). Ted stressed out over that cowboy-hat restaurant, even giving up his birthday celebration in order to work toward its deadline, because he was serious about it — it was his project, and he wanted it to be the best cowboy-hat restaurant that it possibly could be.
Ted is certainly no Howard Roark, the self-righteous, unflappable heroic architect of The Fountainhead. Ted's career has been littered with setbacks and self-doubt, reinvention and redirection. If Roark was the iconic architect of his generation, Ted might just be one for ours. Roark was an symbol of individuality in the face of conformity. Ted is an idealist, a romantic… a real human being. Ted strives to be succesful because he wants the same things as the rest of us — a respectable career spent doing what he loves, the person of his dreams to share it with, a story worthy of boring his children to death with somewhere down the line. As architects, we may not have many prime-time heroes, but we do have Ted. And, for now, I'll take it.
Posted in Experience, Professional Development
Tagged architecture, CSI, CSI effect, ER, How I Met Your Mother, Law and Order, pop culture, Ted Mosby, television
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Takau Lutua (born Haveluliku, circa 1963) is a Tongan former rugby union player who played as prop.

Career
Lutua started first his career in 1985 as member of the first Toloa Old Boys team who won the Tongan Secondary Schools Premiership. He then played for Police, where he played alongside his former Toloa team mates Tevita Vaʻenuku, 'Eukaliti 'Aukafolau, Tevita Palenapa and 'Esafe Taufa. Lutua was first capped for Tonga in 1990, against Korea in Tokyo, on 15 April. He was also called up in the Ikale Tahi squad for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, where he only played the match against Ivory Coast in Rustenburg, which was also his last cap.

Personal life
After working 22 years as Policeman, in 2007 he received his pension. He is married to Kato Kakala Lutua and has five children. His son, Nalesoni Lutua is the prop for the Grade 3 team.

References

External links
Takau Lutua international statistics

1963 births
Tongan rugby union players
Rugby union props
Tonga international rugby union players
People from Tongatapu
Living people

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Gaster is a morphological term that is very useful and yet imprecise for the purpose of comparative anatomy as it is currently used in ants. It comes from the Greek for "belly" and it refers to the collection of segments in the metasoma that remain after the pedicel of ants and wasps. It is the bulbous part of the body that hosts the insect viscera.


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Q: UI Glitches in windows mobile 10 App I'm developing new application on Windows 10 (UWP) but I'm suffering UI Glitches in the resources (icons & images) when the application loading.
there any solution to solve this problem??
For Example :when I added the background Image for the root Grid in the XAML Page its loading with large delay when app run, it causes Glitches for page the however the image size is small .

A: We'll I'm not sure what you mean by UI Glitches, but have a look at resource dictionaries...
ref: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/controls-and-patterns/resourcedictionary-and-xaml-resource-references

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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By Ed Dutcher August 5, 2017
It's debatable whether Fullbright's GONE HOME created a genre, but it is without a doubt responsible for the inception of the phrase "walking simulator." Four years and one engine overhaul later, and the game is still held up as the standard for which all interactive environmental storytelling is measured against. This isn't to disparage its successors: OXENFREE dissolved the line between cinematic and exploration-based narratives, and time will tell how history will remember this year's exceptional WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH. Rather, I want to stress the effectiveness, specificity, and poignancy of that depiction of one girl's adolescence. It's an achievement in storytelling and design whose influence can be felt throughout the industry. Heck, even the newest Resident Evil features a healthy amount of rummaging through desks and inspecting photographs.
To put it lightly, I couldn't wait to see what Fullbright had prepared with TACOMA, a game that can be most easily be described as "GONE HOME in space." This is admittedly a simple comparison, because while extrapolating information based off of environmental clues is still a central element, there are multiple factors at play that distinguish TACOMA from its predecessor, science-fiction scenery aside. But with massive shoes to fill and years of hype to deliver on, TACOMA has more than its fair share of work set out for it. So is TACOMA a revolution in gaming to rival GONE HOME? In all likelihood, no, but that doesn't stop it from being a singular and affecting experience in its own right.
Gone Dome
Like with GONE HOME, to explain more than the bare essentials of TACOMA's premise would ruin the magic. All you need to know is that you are Amy, a contractor assigned to recover the AI black box from the titular space station after a malfunction caused the crew to evacuate. In their haste to abandon ship, the inhabitants left all of their belongings behind, which the curious player is more than welcome to rifle through to gain some insight on their owners. Additionally, Tacoma's AI provides audio recordings and crude holographic depictions of the astronauts from various moments over the past week. Naturally, people tend to meander in a station of Tacoma's size, and it's impossible to follow all of the recordings at once. Replaying each scene from different positions and following different characters is necessary to get the full picture.
With this concept, TACOMA feels like half-walking sim, half-interactive theater. Surprisingly, the presence of a direct feed to what transpired does little to tarnish the feeling of discovery that GONE HOME's brand of environmental storytelling so excels at. Most of the information illuminating what went wrong on the station, and what exactly happened to the people on it, is provided by these spectral holograms while completing the tasks that are mandatory for completing the game. However, what drives and motivates each of the crew is only revealed if you take the time to investigate the smaller details. TACOMA follows the genre convention of "you get out what you put in." Obviously, not everyone is who they first appear to be, and those quiet moments of revelation you get after reading a letter in the trash or snooping through a chatlog are all still present.
"Guys, what's the deal with space food anyway?"
Even though the space station lacks the labyrinth complexity of GONE HOME's Greenbriar Mansion, it's safe to say the one arena where TACOMA is indisputably superior is world-building. Recreating 1995 with the aid of player nostalgia and historical context is hard enough as it is, but envisioning 2085 is an entirely different matter. TACOMA's personal tale is driven by the times, and the future Fullbright envisions is rather oppressive. I'm not even talking about the grim implications of the "EUSSR" and a Balkanized USA, but rather the infinite smallness the individual assumes in a globalized, corporately-dominated economy, and how eerily reminiscent this dystopia is to the real world. This is a world where Amazon and Taco Bell dictate who and what you'll be from childhood, and you will never play a game where Carnival Cruise Lines wields such terrifying control over characters' lives. The really impressive feat is that TACOMA is able to set this stage within the three-and-a-half hour average playthrough time, and that it does all of it without ever making the player feel like an idiot.
That being said, it is TACOMA's own scope that ends up holding it back from perfection. TACOMA is about as long as GONE HOME, but in that space it attempts to tackle a far greater number of themes with over twice the number of characters (all while in a sci-fi setting, mind you). It's a lot of assets to juggle at once, and while TACOMA does play favorites, none of these actors are ever given the same level of attention as GONE HOME's central subject. There is also a noticeable lack of interpersonal drama at play, which is puzzling considering the number of moving parts, as well as considering how seamlessly GONE HOME blended internal and external conflict. I wonder what would happen if Fullbright had diverted the resources dedicated to creating their vision of the future to instead fleshing out their cast? TACOMA's story isn't so ambitious that it couldn't work in such a truncated timespan, but it feels as if concessions had to be made in order to make room for the sci-fi universe.
Bar Games DLC release date TBA
The one component that feels completely out of place is the player themself. Amy's role in the game is so incongruous to much of the plot that it makes it a challenge to relate to anything or anyone. There is certainly a voyeuristic aspect to walking simulators, but almost always with context. In both EDITH FINCH and GONE HOME, you are returning to your childhood residence, and the stories of the people who cohabitated those spaces with you are as much yours as they are theirs. In THE VANISHING OF ETHAN CARTER, you are a detective idolized by the eponymous missing person, whose persona shapes him as much as it foils your true self. In TACOMA, you are essentially a janitor: your presence is purely custodial and your snooping is more out of bored curiosity than genuine attachment. By the time the credits rolled, I didn't really know anything more about Amy than when I started.
I don't think anyone actually expected TACOMA to surpass GONE HOME in terms of quality, even if that speaks more to the latter than the former. In fact, TACOMA would probably stand out more prominently among 2017's releases if it weren't for the inescapable shadow of it's forefather. It's almost tragic how TACOMA will never be discussed without also referencing GONE HOME, especially since it's no fault of the newer entry. It has its flaws, but nothing that will prevent the player from being enraptured the tale it tells. The setting and crew of the station were all intriguing enough to capture my full attention for the duration of my brief visit, and I left the game with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and contentment. If you're looking for an intense fight for survival or a heart-wrenching journey of self-discovery, this adventure may leave you wanting. That being said, if you want a feel-good tale in a lovingly constructed world, you'd be hard pressed to do better than TACOMA.
Verdict: Recommend
Reviewed on PC
Fullbright
Gone Home
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Ed Dutcher
Ed Dutcher is a Video Games Editor for Merry-Go-Round Magazine. The last time Ed had a meal that wasn't microwaved, George W. Bush was president. He only learned to read so that he could play Pokemon.
FLOWER BOY by Tyler, the Creator
BRIGSBY BEAR Review

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Keyboard shortcuts for spatial navigation between open windows (Switch to the window to the left/right/top/bottom of the current one) Is there a program or utility that would let me map keyboard shortcuts for switching between open windows according to their relative placement on the screen? For example: I have three windows, one on the left, one on the right and one below them. The top-left one is currently focused. I press Win + → (for example) and the focus jumps to the window to the right. Then I press Win + ↓ and the focus jumps to the bottom window. You get the idea.
So, is there an utility for that? Or perhaps some settings in Ubuntu or Compiz? I don't seem to find anything like it.
For me, this would be much more usable than switching with Alt + Tab.
Also, I don't want to use a tiling window manager. I'm quite happy with unity. Just having this spatial navigation on top of it would be great.

A: Even after some quite extensive googling, I couldn't find anything like this, so I threw together my own solution: Spatial Window Switcher. It is very simple and probably has bugs, but so far fulfills my needs.

A: Neither I found something useful for Lubuntu. So I ended up with my own small WindowsSwitcher
Now to navigate to the necessary windows it's enough to click  Windows+1, Windows+2 and so on.


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The movie Ava was never meant to have this title. The spy thriller was beset with trouble when the original director, Mathew Newton, dropped off the project after domestic abuse accusations resurfaced. Jessica Chastain, serving as star and as producer, reached out to her Help director Tate Taylor to come aboard and helm the project. Even with that upheaval, the movie went through production under the title of Eve, the name of Chastain's character. Every person refers to her by this name throughout the movie, and it wasn't until after the film was complete that some studio executive said, "What if her name was Ava instead?" The filmmakers then had to re-record every line of dialogue referencing her name to replace with this new identity. I cannot fathom a reason for doing so unless some exec really had a thing for that name or it was a concerted move to further distance themselves from Newton, who also wrote the screenplay. Just like that, Eve becomes Ava, and suddenly it's a whole new creative project. Too bad they didn't go further because whatever you call it, Ava is a fairly lackluster genre exercise for all involved.
Ava (Chastain) is a former soldier who was discharged from the Army and battled an addiction to drugs and alcohol. She's gotten better and found a job that suits her, namely killing people for hire. Her fatherly handler (John Malkovich) tells her the marks, she dispatches them, and then collects the payouts. She assumes the men on her kill list are specimens of evil but begins to have her doubts, enough so that Simon (Colin Farrell) sends agents to snuff Ava out.
There's very little presented in Ava you haven't seen in any litany of other spy thrillers before except with this pedigree of cast. I kept questioning why all these actors had agreed to be part of this project. The characters aren't exactly complex or original. The scenarios aren't exactly intricate or subversive. The action isn't exactly well choreographed or well shot. The movie isn't even that long at 95 minutes or so. The screenplay by Newton is unremarkable in every way, no different than any direct-to-DVD genre entry. I could just as readily see, say, Kristanna Loken (BloodRayne) filling the role of Ava than I could an actress as accomplished and in-demand as Chastain. That nagging question of what made a generic spy thriller so appealing will never be answered, because Ava offers little to a viewer already steeped in genre thrillers. It's more of the same, just with A-list talent voluntarily "slumming it" as underwritten archetypes.
By no means am I against genre movies as a whole. I love genre movies. They can be some of the most entertaining and exciting film experiences, and under the right guidance, they can be thoroughly compelling and rewarding and even enlightening. Plus they're just fun. Matt Damon resurrected his career as Jason Bourne. If Ava was trying to do something along those lines, re-calibrate the spy movie as a jangly, nerve-wracking thriller grounded in realism, that would have been something. Or if the movie had embraced its genre tropes knowingly, with tongue firmly placed in cheek, it could have been an over-the-top hoot. Instead, Ava just presents the same tropes without any sense of self-awareness. Ava really feels like an imitation of one of the lesser Luc Besson (The Professional, La Femme Nikita) action thrillers, or maybe one of those Besson imitations of a Besson work (3 Days to Kill). It's going through the motions of motions.
The domestic side of Ava's life feels like a messy soap opera intruding onto a spy thriller, bordering into farce though without the awareness. Ava's father died while she was out murdering others, and her sister Judy (Jess Wexler) hasn't forgotten. Ava's ex-fiancé, Michael (Common), is also now dating Judy. Michael is also struggling with his own gambling addiction and the debts he owes to local loan shark, Toni (Joan Chen), who has bad blood with Ava. Then there's Ava's mother, Bobbi (Geena Davis), who has gone in and out of the hospital for heart problems and wants her family to get along. As you might assess, for a 90-minute movie, there is way too much going on there to keep checking in with. Every time we gain more understanding of the people in Ava's life, the more ridiculous her life seems to evolve, and remember she also is a recovering addict who is wavering over the possibility of relapse. That's a lot of capital D drama but the screenplay lacks the follow-through to make it matter. It feels like Newton just keeps piling on the complications rather than developing and twisting them. There's one genuinely strong moment when Bobbi has a sit-down with her daughter and warns her about the costs of being honest and expresses her content to luxuriate in the lie of Ava's cover story of a career. As Ava contemplates having an affair with her ex, her sister's boyfriend, you may start to forget that you're watching a movie about a trained assassin.
Taylor (The Girl on the Train) shows just as much affinity for directing spy thrillers as directing horror with last year's Ma. It's not a good fit, folks. Taylor lacks the innate ability to stage action in a pleasing and exciting manner. The fight choreography is mundane and there is no scenario that develops and transforms with complications. The final confrontation is literally a limping slow-walk foot chase that will draw more unintended laughter than suspense, especially as it keeps going and going and I questioned the character walking speed. There is one standout moment and it's a knock-out, drag-out fight between Ava and Simon that breaks just about every stick of furniture in a hotel room. Both are left bleeding and bruised and fatigued. It's nothing exceptional in choreography but the sustained duration is what makes it stand apart. I'll grant Taylor some leeway considering he was a late hire for a project already moving forward. However, with the results of Ava as a finished film, I wouldn't advise hiring Taylor for any other action movies.
Chastain (It Chapter 2) is of course a strong anchor. She taps into some of that ferocious power she had with 2012's Zero Dark Thirty, and I would have loved to see her kick all sorts of ass in a spy thriller worthy of her talent. Even something like 2012's Haywire, which was built to showcase the raw fighting skills of MMA-fighter-turned-actress, Gina Carano, or 2017's Atomic Blonde, which was expanded upon due to the balletic precision and capability of Charlize Theron. We needed something more for Ava. Chastain kicks and punches and stalks the grounds with her cold badass stares, but she could be doing so much more. The soapier plot elements betray her. At one point, she's crying, laughing, holding a bottle and contemplating putting a gun to her head. It's just so much that, again, it points to farce but can't quite tonally commit.
I'm trying to fathom the reason anyone should watch Ava. It's short. It's got talented actors. It's not offensive in any technical or storytelling regard. If you had 95 minutes to waste, you most certainly could do worse. But there's nothing that separates this spy thriller from any other mundane, mediocre, cliché genre exercise. What about this script excited Chastain to produce and make sure the world could have the opportunity to see this story? Maybe it was her commercial gambit to tell more meaningful indies later, like when Michael Fassbender produced Assassins' Creed. I'll never know the full appeal. Maybe it all just sounded a lot better when her name was Eve.
Tags: action, addiction, colin farrell, common, drama, jessica chastain, john malkovich, killers as leads, spy thriller, tate taylor
The Kitchen (2019)
Mob movies are culturally beloved. I could watch Goodfellas every time I see it on TV. We know these movies, we know this lifestyle, in so much as it's been demonstrated in our art. A feminine perspective is often the dame, the moll, the panicked wife who worries her husband will never come home and see his bratty kids again. Rarely in mob movies are there roles for women that can be considered three-dimensional. Even Diane Keaton gets shortchanged in The Godfather series. In comes Oscar-nominated Straight Outta Compton screenwriter Andrea Berlof, tackling her directorial debut and adapting a graphic novel about three mob wives fighting the system. It's about time this under-represented perspective in some of our favorite movies got its due spotlight. It's too bad then that The Kitchen finds ways to still leave the women behind where it counts.
Set in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in the late 70s, three mobsters get arrested one evening by the FBI and sent to prison. Their wives are now left alone to raise their families, struggle for employment, and to not be forgotten with the new pecking order of those mobsters left behind. Ruby (Tiffany Haddish) and Kathy (Melissa McCarthy) think they should take over their husband's rackets while their men are indisposed. Claire (Elisabeth Moss) is more worried about what will happen when her abusive husband comes back from prison. The three women work together to make a stake at their own claim, butting heads against the existing power structure of dismissive men who don't think organized crime is any place for a woman.
The Kitchen has such potential but it's too often running off the fumes of other mob movies. Beyond the obvious similarities with last year's more refined and polished Widows, this is a movie that gobbles its mafia movie clichés like a heaping helping of pasta (more clichés!). The characters aren't terribly well defined and the story oddly moves in starts and stops, with moments either feeling too long or too short, and especially abruptly transposed, using montage to hurdle through what should have been needed onscreen development. People rightfully complained about the final season of Game of Thrones skipping over needed steps along a character's journey to get to its intended destination, and The Kitchen is deserving of the same charge. We want to see these women in charge and others afraid, except the movie doesn't show me any reason why these women would rise in power and what sets them apart from their steely competition. I get that they're underestimated and they are determined, and that works in a general sense, but by the half-hour mark they're already successful mobster entrepreneurs and I'm unsure how. Even after their rise, there is little that seems to deter them. Every new obstacle is comically taken care of in such casual fashion that you never worry for their well-being. It feels like Berloff wants to skip through all the hard work and just get to the enjoyable desserts or a life of crime, but moving up the ladder is an essential part of any power struggle story. As a result of the sloppy plotting and pacing, there is an over-reliance on clichés to stand in place, relying upon the audience's warm understanding of the genre territory and what to expect to relieve the movie from having to do more work. It's all telling and hardly any show.
The characters are kept as archetypes as well, at least 2/3 of the leads. Both McCarthy and Haddish seem miscast for their roles. Both are splendid comic actresses and have dramatic capabilities beyond what they get credit for, but they seem to rely upon comic instincts to get through their underwritten scenes, which further hampers the lack of tension. Each actress gets one solid scene to open up their character but it's just so little. Ruby has a sit down where her mom credits beating the "soft" out of her daughter for Ruby's success. That little glimpse into her past and her fraught relationship with her mother served as a tantalizing hint at what could be explored further with the Ruby character. The same with the fact that she's a black woman who married into a very rigid Irish-American family set in their prejudices. There's such dramatic potential to be had there. Alas, she's tasked with being a hardass and that's all The Kitchen asks of Haddish, treating her more as symbol than person. For McCarthy, there's a late scene where another character tries to soft-peddle her involvement in crime, saying she did what she had to for her children, and Kathy corrects, saying, no, she did it all for her. She was tired of being a deferential doormat and wanted to feel important. That degree of self-empowerment through selfishness could be a fascinating character angle to explore, but we don't get that. She clarifies the lens for us to view her with but by that point it's far too late. The film is top-heavy with underwritten women and that's a shame.
The most interesting character by far is Moss' abused wife-turned-budding killer. Claire is the one starting at the lowest point and the one who takes to the life of crime as means of salvation. These characters are doing some pretty heinous acts but with Claire I felt the most empathy for her plight, bullied by her husband and feeling trapped, more worried about the impending release and her return to being the scared woman cowering in the corner again. She doesn't want to go back to that life and I believed every moment of Moss blurting out her despair and desperation. That's why her relationship with another oddball killer played by Domhnall Gleeson (The Last Jedi) was what I cared about most in the movie. You watch them grow together, him mentoring her on how to cut up a body and dispose of it down river, and you watch how each of these two people finds something missing in the other. They may not even be good for one another, enabling their darker impulses and past a point of no return, but it's the only evolving relationship we were given an entry point to empathize with fully. This segment is also criminally underwritten but it's clearly where the focal point of the movie should have been. This was the perspective the movie should have been locked into and the character's journey we follow through every step.
The Kitchen isn't a bad movie at all. The production design and period appropriate costumes are to die for. There's always going to be a visceral enjoyment watching the underdogs move ahead and topple their doubters and competition. The ensemble doesn't have a bad actor in the bunch. Bill Camp (Molly's Game) shows up with a real sense of veiled menace as a Brooklyn mobster both irritated and impressed by the ladies' advancement. The soundtrack is packed with Scorsese-riff-approved tunes, including three instances of Fleetwood Mac. There are pleasures to be had. It's just that the ingredients to a better movie were all there, plain as day. If you're a fan of mob movies in general, you may find enough to satisfy with The Kitchen, which has its moments but ultimately feels too much like an under-cooked dish you've had one too many times before (metaphors!).
Nate's Grade: C+
Tags: andrea berloff, comic book, common, crime, domhnall gleeson, drama, elizabeth moss, james badge dale, mafia, melissa mccarthy, period film, strong heroine, thriller, tiffany haddish
Nobody quite expected the second act that Liam Neeson is currently having. Before 2009, he was seen a dramatic leading man best known for portraying the titular businessman in Schindler's List. And then Taken came out, and the world decided they liked their action stars with a dash of actorly gravitas, the kind of which was all too lacking from the likes of your Van Dammes. After so many films of Neeson pointing guns and barking at people, you forget that the man can act. That's because, with few exceptions, the Neeson canon of action vehicles have been found enjoyable but insubstantial, momentary pleasures to be forgotten. The same can be said of Run All Night, a promising urban jungle thriller that's a step above in several areas but ultimately another mildly entertaining film where Neeson points guns and barks at people.
Jimmy (Neeson) is a man haunted by his memories of his life as a hired gun for his pal, mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Jimmy is a drunk who is living off of Shawn, holed up in a crummy home, and eking out his lonely days. He walked out on his son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), when he was young because he wanted him to have a better life. Jimmy thought his misdeeds would create a bad influence. Shawn is also experiencing his own problems with fatherhood. His son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook) is ambitious, dangerous, and addicted to drugs. He agrees to a business arrangement with Armenian mobsters before dad gives him the A-okay; when dad balks, Danny is on the hook. He murders the two Armenian mobsters who are looking for their money back. Unfortunately, Mike just happened to witness this execution. Jimmy defends his son, shooting and killing Danny. For the rest of a very fraught night, Jimmy tries to protect his son from the many forces of violence that Shawn has sent for vengeance.
The premise of Run All Night is strong unless you say it out loud and examine it. I admire the film's manner of weaving together storylines in a way that they feel like they're crashing into one another and yet you could see their trajectory coming. That's not to mean it's predictable, which it is of course, but that the conflicts are properly established and set in motion. However, when you analyze the revenge-laden intricacies, it can seem like self-parody: "You murdered my son before he could murder your son. So I'm going to murder you." "Oh yeah? Well I'm gonna murder you before you murder me for murdering your son before he murdered my son." Gentlemen, commence your murdering. It reminded me of 2002's Road to Perdition where a crime lord who readily admitted that his son was a dangerous hotheaded screw-up and had made a mess of things… and yet, he had to stick by him because… family. It's a frustrating contradiction but it's believable enough to hold onto. I just wish these crime guys could objectively calculate how guilty and irresponsible their kids are and cut them loose. Seriously, what exactly was Danny thinking when he killed the Armenian mobsters? Did he not think they were going to retaliate? Danny is the kind of irritating screw-up you want to strangle because he endangers others with his constant failures.
Screenwriter Brad Ingelsby (Out of the Furnace) has done his genre homework, and Run All Night is a slightly above average thriller that finds ways to flesh out its tropes amidst the urban jungle. After a steady first act, the majority of the movie is a series of chase scenes, several of which are shot and edited well by Neeson's favorite director of his run and gun pictures, Juame Collet-Sera (Non-Stop, Unknown). The chase scenes make smart use of geography and the way Collet-Sera cuts back and forth with his parallel lines of action does a nice job of quickening pulses. A chase through a train terminal is well choreographed with Jimmy having to out run and out muscle goons and Mike ducking from encroaching police presence on the platform. Ingelsby has a knack for setting up organic suspense pieces and letting them loose. The final act feels a little pat from an action standpoint as well as a moral climax, but it does work. While the characters are birthed from familiar genre archetypes, the film adds interesting shadings to them. Jimmy's loyalties are tested and he has a strong personal revelation that ties into this theme. The movies finest moment is likely a tense sit-down between Shawn and Jimmy shortly after the events of the night has been set in motion. It's like Harris and Neeson are competing to see who can be more intimidating Oscar-nominated actor. Bonus: Bruce McGill (Lincoln) plays Harris' number two and I love some Bruce McGill.
And yet, I kept wishing for Run All Night to go back to the power of its possibilities. There's a segment where the movie truly feels like it's being taken to the next level, namely after the crooked cops have been taken out. Instead of just Maguire's muscle coming after them, now Jimmy and Mike have the NYPD hot on their tail and none too happy about cop killers. That's another category of antagonists, another chase participant. I also wanted the movie to keep going, bringing in the Armenian mob, which would be incensed and seeking vengeance after their ambassadors were killed. This movie could have had three categories of antagonists (Shawn's goons, NYPD, Armenian mob) chasing after Jimmy and his son, and the ongoing conflict would have been terrific. The more people that are on the hunt, for their varied reasons, the more possibilities there are for strong and escalating suspense pieces. It could have easily gotten too complicated and convoluted for a mass audience, which is probably why the movie doesn't reach its true suspenseful potential and follows a conventional route. The NYPD angle is only really incorporated during a building-wide search of an apartment complex where Jimmy and son are hiding. Likewise, the addition of a contract killer played by now Oscar-winner Common (Selma) is a wasted antagonist that doesn't add much more to the group of bad guys. He's better at killing, sure, but he doesn't offer anything new except some hardware. He's essentially an elevated heavy. He's meant to serve as the threat after the threat, and no surprise, he does. I wish the character had more personality because he's just too rote to separate himself. He's just another ho hum killer in the mix.
There's a plot point that annoys me to the point that I need to talk about it in more detail, though to do so requires some spoilers, so tread carefully, reader. At one point, Jimmy insists his son does not pull the trigger and kill Common. His wish is that his son would turn out better, and so he doesn't want him to be forced to commit murder. They leave the contract killer who, you guessed it, continues to try and hunt them down and kills innocent people in the way. I understand the moral imperative Jimmy is going for, but let's analyze this. It's self-defense, he's determined to come back and kill you, and you know innocent lives will suffer if he stays alive and well, whether on this job or future jobs. If ever there was a situation where maybe Mike isn't going to be racked with guilt into the odd hours of the night debating the descent of his soul into moral decay, this might be the one. It's one of those moments where the characters have to behave this way because the plot demands it and we need, as stated above, a threat after the main threat. Again, I'm reminded of Road to Perdition, which had a much better additional hitman.
Some things are better enjoyed at your leisure, and Liam Neeson's action ouvere fits into that category. With few exceptions, a Neeson action film checks the boxes of what you're looking for in genre entertainment, and with a strong Neeson finish, but rarely will you be surprised or elated. Entertained, sure, for the time being. Run All Night is an action thriller that has its moments and some well-drawn suspense sequences, and I appreciate that it tries to provide more depth to the main characters besides their preferred killing weapon of choice. However, there's just too much squandered potential, underwritten supporting characters, and heavy-handed messages about the sins of the father. Run All Night is a solid genre thriller that does enough well to be worth your time, though you certainly don't need to exert any energy to run out and see it.
Tags: action, common, crime, drama, ed harris, father/son, joel kinnaman, liam neeson, mafia, thriller
Here is a classic example of two game comedians elevating substandard material. The contrived premise revolves around an ordinary if somewhat bored married couple (Steve Carell, Tina Fey) being chased all over New York City in an extreme case of mistaken identity. Carell and Fey have a terrific comedic dynamic and watching them play and riff is when the movie feels sharp and alive. Sadly, this is another action comedy that thinks people will lap up action that's slightly skewed. Note to filmmakers: most action sequences are not inherently funny without effort made via context and surprise (see: Cop Out, Bounty Hunter, Killers, or better yet, don't). The more bad action comedies I see from 2010, the better The Other Guys keeps looking to me in the rear view mirror of memory. When Carell and Fey switch into action mode is when the comedy takes a back seat to lame mayhem. When the movie manages to squeeze in small moments where the actors have space to breathe and the banter is amusing. At best, Date Night is an amusing excursion when it lets the adults get to behave. When they have to go bug-eyed and yell at all the noise, then the movie just becomes exasperating. Good enough for a rainy day, with some lowered expectations, but this movie wouldn't be nearly worth watching without the resolute comedic efforts of the two leads.
Tags: action, comedy, common, mark wahlberg, shawn levy, steve carell, taraji p. henson, tina fey
This is a wildly overwrought and sleazy drama is hoping to come across as edgy but everything is so overdone. It fulfills all the requisite elements of the modern crime picture; double crosses, forlorn anti-heroes, bloody violence, but Street Kings misses the mark big time when it comes to any nuance. Every beat of this murky, convoluted dirty cops mystery is plain and obvious. If you cannot guess within minutes who the eventual culprits will be then you haven't seen enough movies. Every character is a cliché of a cliché, every unrestrained actor is constantly speaking in nothing but exclamation marks, and the dialogue is some of the worst I've heard all year. Keanu Reeves is a listless leading man who is blank and lifeless, unable to wrestle the dark and complicated emotions needed for a "cop on the edge" role. I can practically feel Forest Whitaker's spittle every time he speaks. Street Kings feels like a route retread of rogue cop pictures, which are director David Ayer's specialty. It wants to shine a light on the seedy underbelly of the law but it can't stop from feeling like a lobotomized version of L.A. Confidential (Note to Ayer: Jay Mohr + mustache = an arrangement that benefits neither party).
Tags: chris evans, common, cops, crime, david ayer, forrest whitaker, gangsters, hugh laurie, keanu reeves
Wanted isn't so much a movie as a fetish vehicle for teen males, with sexy cars, sexy guns, and sexy tatted-up Angelina Jolie, daring the predominantly male audience to decide which is sexiest (I am not a car aficionado nor a gun person, so I'll say that Jolie easily outpaced her competition).
Wesley (James McAvoy) is a pathetic office drone that sweats out his days never raising his voice. His best friend is constantly screwing Wesley's bitchy girlfriend, his boss constantly harangues him into panic attacks, and, saddest of all, a Google search results in nothing for Wesley Gibson's name. He tells us he has done nothing with his life. This all changes when a mysterious woman named Fox (Jolie) tells Wesley that the father he never knew has just died. Not only that, Wesley's father was one of the world's greatest assassins and he might just be a chip off the old block. Wesley is recruited into The Fraternity, a thousand year-old organization whose membership includes the best-trained killers. Sloan (Morgan Freeman) is the leader who assigns the targets. He gets his orders, literally, from the Loom of Fate, a weaving loom that writes binary letters via stitches. The Loom of Fate decides whom the planet would be better off without. Fox and her cohorts train Wesley to accept his destiny and avenge his father's murder.
The movie fails to establish any form of internal logic or continuity, so anything preposterous suddenly becomes accessible. That means people can jump from one skyscraper to another, you can outrun a moving train, cars will do the damndest things, and that you can curve a bullet simply by rotating your hand and shutting off that little part of your brain that says, "This is defying all laws of physics." For some reason, people are able to shoot bullets down in mid-air as a defensive maneuver but they rarely take aim at the person, surely a bigger and slower target. It's like The Matrix outside of the Matrix with no reason for being Matrix-y. The idea is that these super assassins have super hearts that beat like 400 times faster, which pumps more blood and allows their senses to heighten. This somehow allows them to slow down time, zoom in on subjects, and react extra fast. It doesn't make any sense but then again this is a movie where the killers are taking orders from the Loom of Fate. While I'm on the topic, really, a loom that stitches targets in binary code? Isn't there an easier way for fate to decree who should be bumped off than someone scrutinizing the stitch work of a rug? What happens when it lists a name with more than one owner? How many "John Smiths" must be killed to secure that the correct Mr. Smith has been erased? My father thought the Loom of Fate was the most bizarre and interesting aspect of the movie.
Despite the freewheeling action, there is something decidedly depraved about fully embracing Wanted. The premise of awesome killers demands awesome carnage, and Wanted dishes out violence as an act to be savored and glorified. Wesley's self-actualization is linked with getting better at making others suffer, and in the end the film advances a questionable message to follow suit. The movie exists in a hyper-realistic video game universe devoid of consequences. I can see future news reports of idiot teenagers playing their own deadly game of curving bullets (they may have to establish a Wanted category for the Darwin Awards). But yet the most disconcerting feature of Wanted is its dismissive nature toward human life. I'm not even talking about the assassin premise, though trained killer flicks usually work better when the pros have some sort of personal code. Wanted is a fetishistic worship of human bodies being taken apart in loving, gory detail under the auspices of being "cool." Innocent life barely merits a half-hearted shrug. When Wesley and Fox bring their fight on board a train the eventually force the vehicle off a cliff, and the movie makes no mention of all those innocent people plummeting to their doom. That would get in the way of the film being "cool."
With all that said, Wanted can feel like a high-octane rush to the senses. This film is soaked in adrenaline. The stunt work is astounding and the action is ramped-up to ridiculous levels. I say ridiculous because the film never establishes any form of internal logic or continuity, but I also say ridiculous because the action can be tremendously exciting and embellished with stylistic flourishes. Wanted is a slick and imaginative action movie, and the fact that it often dances with satisfaction makes me sick for enjoying it so. Summer is the perfect opportunity for empty calorie movies with style to spare, and Wanted is a five-course meal of glossy, disposable artifice. Director Timur Bekmambetov previously directed the Russian vampire films Night Watch and Day Watch, but Wanted is a giant leap forward in budget and sheer scope. Life inside this man's head must be crazy. He takes the outlandish and makes it seem common.
The story is rather derivative and smashes the plots of Fight Club and The Matrix together, proving that not only were screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas alive in 1999 but they were also furiously taking notes. The whole notion has been done to death, a loser who secretly harbors superior talent and ability waiting to be realized. It still proves to be a popular and mostly pleasing storyline because it taps into a universal desire to be special. Brandt and Haas aren't so much constructing a story as they are constructing a series of eye-popping moments. There is very little substance beneath all the fireworks (stand up for yourself and slay your antagonists?). Normally I'd take issue with a film's trashy vapidity; however, when that film happens to be so good at being so good looking.
McAvoy is rather believable when he plays the dweeb eking out a miserable existence. He knows how to play meek and anxiety-riddled while maintaining a vulnerability that stops his character from coming across as a figure of annoying inaction. He sure gets beaten up a lot and I'm not quite sure why this is supposed to make him more inclined to join The Fraternity, but then again it hasn't stopped thousands of college males from wanting to join their own fraternities. McAvoy is less believable when he suddenly transforms into a super soldier, like a pint-sized Rambo. Jolie relies on her exceptional sex appeal in lieu of acting, which is fine with me. It's good to see her in a role where she can fully make use of her physical talents. Freeman is essentially in the Samuel L. Jackson role and even gets a chance to drop an MF-bomb.
Wanted is a crazy cool and mostly crazy action thriller that is more than a little sick in the head. Its video game universe covets beautiful bloodshed and exquisite carnage. It's rather depraved and morally questionable not in approach but in execution (no pun intended, well maybe). Wanted is a gory, profane, darkly humorous action movie that secretes adrenaline with every frame. The imagination on display is impressive but you may wish that it had been used for better purposes.
Tags: angelina jolie, chris pratt, comic book, common, gory, james mcavoy, killers as leads, mark millar, morgan freeman, strong heroine, thriller, Timur Bekmambetov
Smokin' Aces (2007)
Writer/director Joe Carnahan (Narc) wants to impress an audience so bad with his muscular and macho gangster flick, but his Smokin' Aces is vapid, nihilistic, and opines not to simply be a Tarantino rip-off, but a rip-off of a Tarantino rip-off. The premise seems ripe enough as we follow a rogue's gallery of hitmen and killers trying to be the first to knock off a mob snitch/Vegas magician (Jeremy Piven) for a million dollar bounty. The colorful characters are introduced and some are quickly and unexpectedly taken out, but Carnahan never fully knows what to do with his bushel of baddies after he establishes their character quirks. The killers don't really interact that much with one another and some of them hardly have any screen time at all; perhaps less would have been more in this jumbled stew. Carnahan throws out a few nifty visual tricks but it's all superfluous and empty. Smokin' Aces moves quickly, doesn't make much sense in the beginning and end, and little to any of the characters have satisfying conclusions. So much of the writing feels like lame macho posturing without anything new or interesting to add to an overstuffed shoot-em-up. There are cops, robbers, plenty of gunfire, lesbians, and all sorts of convoluted twists, but it never holds together. Carnahan throws a lot of different elements together but they never extend beyond the elemental stage, so every storyline and character feels like an introduction that?s never capped off. The man has no idea what to do with what he's started, and a karate kid on Ritalin is all the proof I need. Guy Ritchie did this territory far better service with the marvelously entertaining 2001 film Snatch. Rent that instead and save yourself the headache.
Nate's Grade: D+
Tags: action, andy garcia, ben affleck, chris pine, common, crime, gangsters, jason bateman, jeremy piven, joe carnahan, joel edgerton, kevin durand, killers as leads, matthew fox, peter berg, quirky, ray liotta, ryan reynolds, taraji p. henson


text:
Q: How do I serialize habtm relationships in Ruby on Rails with fast_jsonapi I created a Ruby on Rails API application where I wanted to implement a JSON api with fast_jsonapi. Now I'm struggling with the relationships, which aren't shown. What do I have to change?
This is my schema.db:
create_table "candidates", force: :cascade do |t|
  t.string "place"
  t.string "zip_code"
  t.string "address"
  t.string "date_of_birth"
  t.string "title"
  t.string "profile_picture"
  t.string "first_name"
  t.string "last_name"
  t.string "email_address"
  t.boolean "confirm_terms_and_conditions"
  t.datetime "created_at", null: false
  t.datetime "updated_at", null: false
end

create_table "candidates_degrees", id: false, force: :cascade do |t|
  t.bigint "candidate_id"
  t.bigint "degree_id"
  t.index ["candidate_id"], name: "index_candidates_degrees_on_candidate_id"
  t.index ["degree_id"], name: "index_candidates_degrees_on_degree_id"
end

create_table "degrees", force: :cascade do |t|
  t.string "degree"
  t.datetime "created_at", null: false
  t.datetime "updated_at", null: false
end

And these are my models:
class Candidate < ApplicationRecord
  has_and_belongs_to_many :degrees, dependent: :nullify
end

class Degree < ApplicationRecord
  has_and_belongs_to_many :candidates, dependent: :nullify
end

These are my serializers:
class CandidateSerializer
  include FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer
  attributes :place, :zip_code, ...
  has_many :degrees
end

class DegreeSerializer
  include FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer
  attributes :degree
  has_many :candidates
end

A: You can do this:
class CandidateSerializer
  include FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer
  attributes :place, :zip_code,...
  has_many :degrees, if: Proc.new { |record| record.association(:dregrees).loaded? }
end

class DegreeSerializer
  include FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer
  has_many :candidates, if: Proc.new { |record| record.association(:candidates).loaded? }
end

And in your API action (here for example with show route):
def show
  @candidate.degrees.load
  render json: CandidateSerializer.new(@candidate, options).serialized_json if stale?(@candidate)
end

private

def set_candidate
  @candidate = Candidate.find_by(id: params[:id])
end

def options
  { include: [:degrees] }
end

Result:
{
    "data": {
        "id": "20",
        "type": "candidate",
        "attributes": {
            "id": 20,
            ...
        },
        "relationships": {
            "degrees": {
                "data": [
                    {
                        "id": "713",
                        "type": "degree"
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    },
    "included": [
        {
            "id": "713",
            "type": "degree",
            "attributes": {
                "id": 713,
                ...
            },
            "relationships": {}
        }
    ]
}

A: you need to do changes in your CandidateSerializer and DegreeSerializer.
Instead of writing the separate HABTM relation in serializer you can directly right in attributes
e.g
class CandidateSerializer
  include FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer
  attributes :place, :zip_code,:degrees
end

response
{
  :data=>
    {:id=>"",
     :type=>:candidate,
     :attributes=> {
       degrees: {}
     }
 }

same for DegreeSerializer
  class DegreeSerializer
    include FastJsonapi::ObjectSerializer
    attributes :candidates
  end


SEOUL (REUTERS) - Retired US basketball star Dennis Rodman was to visit a North Korean ski resort on Thursday, possibly along with dictator Kim Jong Un, as his advisers sought to quell an outcry over comments the former player made on an American jailed by Pyongyang.
A source with direct knowledge of Rodman's itinerary said the 52-year old was on a helicopter to a new multimillion dollar resort which is one of the leader's showcase projects.
It was not immediately clear if Mr Kim was with Rodman on the flight. The source declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Rodman, on his fourth visit to North Korea, led a chorus singing "Happy Birthday" to the leader of the isolated and heavily sanctioned country at a basketball match on Wednesday that Mr Kim attended with his young wife.
North Korean state media said the song was "reflecting (Rodman's) reverence" for Mr Kim, and that he had organised the game as a gift for his birthday, confirming for the first time the young leader's date of birth. He is believed to be 31.
Rodman's visit has drawn criticism from human rights activists and the family of imprisoned US missionary Kenneth Bae after Rodman appeared to suggest in an interview peppered with obscenities that Bae, rather than the North Korean authorities, was responsible for his incarceration.
Rodman's advisers issued a statement attributed to the retired player apologising for the comments and saying that he had been drinking on a stressful day.
"I want to apologise, I take full responsibility," he was quoted by CNN as saying in the statement.
Bae's sister, Terri Chung, has said her family was outraged by Rodman's comments and that he should use his access to the North Korean leader to advocate on Bae's behalf, rather than"hurl outrageous accusations".
"He is playing games with my brother's life," she said in a statement.
The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, dedicated its front page on Thursday to coverage of the basketball game and published photos of Mr Kim sitting and laughing with Rodman.
"Dennis Rodman said he was overjoyed and teared up when he met the Dear Respected Marshall again," the front-page article said.
The fading basketball star's trips had been financed by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, although it has now withdrawn its funding.
It is not known whether Rodman has the capacity to fund another trip. North Korea rarely pays for this kind of visit, according to experts on the country.
Rodman has described Mr Kim, who has been in power for just over two years as his "friend".
While North Koreans suffer from food shortages and malnutrition, according to United Nations assessments, Mr Kim has pushed ahead with massive building projects such as the Masik Ski Resort that Rodman will visit.
South Korean officials estimate it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and North Korea aims to make US$43.75 million (S$55.6 million) in annual profit from the resort, according to documents prepared for potential foreign investors. It expects up to 5,000 skiers to visit per day.
Pictures released at the resort opening late last year showed just one ancient chair lift for the resort and an assortment of snow equipment that appeared to have been imported despite a United Nations ban on the export of "luxury" goods to the North.


text:
Q: Laravel csrf token gives an error in laravel 5.4 Guys I used <meta name="csrf-token" content="{{ csrf_token() }}"> in the head section. And I use ajax to submit some data to controller, and that works fine.
But I got one form in the same page to upload a image. When I submit data from that form laravel gives me a TokenMismatchException error in in VerifyCsrfToken.php (line 68). What I'm missing here?

A: For each request you send, if you use jQuer ajax you can get the value of token and pass it to data.
data: {_token: $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')}

A: try put this inside your form
<input type="hidden" name="_token" value="{{ csrf_token() }}">

A: Add csrf-token into ajax request in page scope:
$.ajaxSetup({
    headers: {
        'X-CSRF-TOKEN': $('meta[name="csrf-token"]').attr('content')
    }
});


Ok, he's not exactly the world's dumbest dog, but he's just kind of not all there.
Kassidy literally left me as soon as we moved in and went to Costa Rica for "work" and I was like ok, I remember my first "work trip."
So I've been left with her child, Winston (sometimes we call him Winnie), and this dog is on a new level of ignorant.
I guess Kassidy only feeds him dog food (that smells like feet), but if I'm in charge of anything for more than a day, then my habits will begin to rub off. I got McDonald's late on night and they didn't give me ketchup. I wasn't angry or anything. I had just paid $3 for some fries and they didn't give me the one basic necessity to eat the fries, but it's fine, McDonald's. I'm not mad. So I had all of these fries and I wasn't going to eat them, so I dropped one down to Winston. He just let it sit there. He sniffed it and put it in his mouth and then spit it back out. It took him maybe four minutes to eat the fry and I was like, ok, this isn't my child.
He was running away from a bunch of people he didn't know and ran right into a glass door and he's a great guard dog.
He's like an actual male. I guess when I say sit the first time, it's just for fun. It literally makes me want to hurt the dog after I have to say it for the second time.
I haven't turned on the heat in days because Winston loves to snuggle and he's furry and fat, so he keeps me warm.
I actually cut down on his breakfast, so maybe he'll lose some weight.
I took him out to go potty and I see Bacon the Piglet. Bacon is basically Instagram famous because he's a pig living in an apartment complex and it's my apartment complex and also his daddy is really, really attractive. He has a man bun and I also saw him sitting on his motorcycle earlier in the day. Well, I tried to flirt with him, you know, 'Oh, that's a pig,' you know, my usual pick-up lines. And Winston wasn't having it. Winston took one look at Bacon and ran. He drug me up the stairs and I haven't seen Bacon's daddy since and I just miss him.
bacon and his hot father.
These are actual real-life photos I took of him all up in my grill.
Everything was going fine. I had a bunch of people over and we were all having a good time, making jokes, and whatnot. Then a girl walks in and Winston went nuts. I thought he was going to murder her. Well, turns out she didn't laugh at my Malaysian Airlines joke, so Winston has good instincts.
Like, I think at one point he wanted me to start breastfeeding him. He calls me mom. Everyone thinks I'm his mom. He hasn't mentioned his real mom in days. I asked if he missed her and he just stared at me blankly. Adoption is hard.


Thanks Scott... glad you approve. As I've told you before with the snakes I've acquired from you... never seems as if I actually "own" them, you've just entrusted them to my care for some undefined period of time. Still appreciate it as much today as the first day you sent them my way.


Onward and Upward. Thank You, G.
Healing, liberation, restoration, and renewal are just a few of the words that describe it.
For starters, I wrapped up a brand new essay and submitted it three weeks early. That alone would have been cause to celebrate.
But…this morning, G asked if I had plans for today.
He wanted to know if I was "ready" to go through the garage. Oh, yes, I replied. I'm ready.
I've waited over a decade to clear out a particular corner of the garage. I always imagined that my sister would ignite a bonfire in her park-like backyard, and I would bring my past up to her house in the form of three bins and dump it all into the blaze. However, the years passed by, and that never happened.
Today, G said he would build a fire right in our driveway, and I could have at it.
I looked at ten years' worth of letters from another time. Cards. Documents. Pictures. Scrapbooks. And then, I respectfully set them each into the blaze. A long time ago, a wise and wonderful woman I know told me that releasing something into fire brings healing and a special kind of energy. Today, fifteen years after she gave me that bit of wisdom, I did just that.
I am not done; as it turns out, you can't burn a decade of one's life in one afternoon. But the process has started. Don't misunderstand; I am a keeper of history. But this bit of history needed to be set free.
Why do I have a smile on my face?
This is the same guy who helped me pack up and move out of my past life in the middle of the night over ten years ago. He has been through it all with me. He's helped me in every way imaginable. And he's still here. I don't see him a lot, and we've missed a lot together, but he's still here. For me.
As always…onward and upward. Love you, G. And thank you.


Processing a current order after receiving the payment (amount due is zero).
This function will set the order status as "paid" and will process the purchased items.
Maybe the currency was changed in the Store configuration before processing the order.
An error occurred while processing the order.


Maekawa, T.; Bouffard, J.; Itami, K.
The 5th Symposium on Materials Synthesis Joint Project of Chemical Synthesis Core Research Institutions, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, November 18, 2009.
Maekawa, T.; Sekizawa, H.; Itami, K.
Maekawa, T.; Segawa, Y.; Itami, K.
Highlighted in Synfacts. Highlighted in Org. Proc. Res. Dev.
Maekawa, T.; Segawa, Y.; Itami K. Chem. Sci. 2013, 4, 2369.
Highlighted in Synfacts. Selected the Synfacts of the month.


text:
Home Nigeria: Recession Will Be Short-Lived - Finance Minister
Nigeria: Recession Will Be Short-Lived – Finance Minister
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, instructed licensed bureaux de change operators to sell dollars to customers at a rate not higher than N386 to the dollar.
This came as the Federal Government, yesterday, said despite the N2.3 trillion Economic Stimulus Plan put in place to contain impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy, there is the possibility that the third quarter, 2020 (Q3'20) Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth rate will be negative, while the economy will relapse into a recession.
The apex bank in a circular signed by the Director, Trade and Exchnage Department, O.S. Nnaji, said the directive would take effect on Monday.
"As part of efforts to enhance accessibility to foreign exchange, particularly to travellers, following the announcement of the limited resumption of international flights by the Ministeer of Aviation, commencing with Abuja and Lagos, the CBN hereby wishes to inform the general public that gradual sales of foreign exchange to licensed BDC operators will commence with effect from August 31, 2020.
"Please be advised that the application exchange rate for the disbursement of proceeds of IMTOs for the period, Monday, August 31 to Friday September 4, 2020 as follows:1: IMTOs to banks N382/1USD; Banks to CBN N383/1USD; CBN to BDCs N384/1USD; BDCs to end users, not more than N386/1USD; Volume of sale for each market is USD 10,000 per BDC.
Read more:2021 Budget: Nigerian govt proposes N11.9 trillion total expenditure
On the recession, the Government, however, said it would be a short-lived recession.
The government's position is now in line with private sector projections for the economy against the backdrop of the second quarter 2020, Q2'20 GDP figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on Monday which put the GDP at -6.1 per cent, the worst performance in three decades.
Earlier in the week, many economy observers have indicated that Nigerian economy would certainly sink into a second recession in four years with effect from the third quarter 2020, Q3'20.
Technically, an economy enters recession when it records two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Reflecting on this, the Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, Muda Yusuf, had stated: "Given the protraction of the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of a vaccine, there is high possibility that the economy would contract, though marginally, in the third quarter and this would mark the second recession under the watch of the current administration."
Though optimistic on the future GDP performance especially in the remaining two quarters of this year, analysts at CardinalStone Finance, a Lagos based investment house, projected that full year 2020 GDP would be around -4.6 percent.
Also, Uche Uwaleke, a Professor of Finance and Capital Market of Nasarawa State University, Keffi, and former Commissioner of Finance of Imo State, in a chat with Vanguard, said the negative growth would continue into a recession in the Q3'20.
He stated: "A negative real GDP growth is also most likely to be recorded in Q3'20 but the size will be smaller as the economy gets restarted and crude oil price gradually picks up."
He added that though the current GDP downturn is the worst, the economy has not yet entered into recession until end of third quarter when another negative growth is most likely.
The Federal Government's projection came at yesterday's meeting of the National Council of State, NCS, which also ratified the presidential post-humorous pardon extended to former governor of defunct Bendel State, late Prof. Ambrose Alli.
Meanwhile, former President Olusegun Obasanjo was absent at the Council of State meeting attended by other past Presidents and Heads of State.
Govt repositioning economy — Finance Minister
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the virtual meeting attended by past Heads of State and Presidents, except Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa Abuja, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed said that the current coordinated efforts of the Federal Government to contain COVID-19 pandemic and especially the N2.3 trillion economic stimulus plan would reposition the economy on a sustainable part of rapid recovery.
The minister, represented by Director-General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, said she briefed the council on the trouble facing the economy, arising from the drop in crude oil price and the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said the essence of the briefing at the Council of State meeting was to bring members up to date on the state of the economy, the reforms being initiated by the Federal Government to address the challenges the country was facing as well as provide some perspective on the micro-economic outlook on the economy.
She said: "The key message is that the Nigerian economy is currently facing serious challenges, with the macro economic environment significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And globally, it has been a very challenging time for economies. The global economy is in recession currently.
"Basically, for the Nigerian economy, our exposure to economic shortfall manifests in the following areas – export earning fluctuations, reliance on import to service substantial part of our expenditure and needs, whether energy, food or industrial supplies, our reliance on export to finance the import and lack of diversification, especially in terms of resources of government revenue.
"The vulnerabilities we face pre-COVID-19 have been exacerbated by the onset of COVID-19 and the Nigerian economy is disproportionately vulnerable to the twin shock of oil price collapse as well as health crisis because of our over-dependent on oil revenue and the low levels of foreign and domestic investments as well as the decline in foreign reserves.
"All of this is at a time the fiscal buffers are currently lean and the developments in the world oil market further make it difficult to rebuild those buffers this time, the foreign reserves, the excess crude account or the sovereign wealth fund.
"Recently, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS, released our Q2 2020 GDP report which showed that for second quarter 2020, GDP growth was negative of 6.1 percent, bringing cumulative half year 2020 GDP growth to – 2.1 percent.
'Nigeria's GDP performance better than major economies'
"However, it is noteworthy that Nigeria GDP performance was better than major economies.
Real GDP growth for full year 2020 is being projected at -4.2 percent by the NBS, but for 2021, we are projecting a recovery of 3.3 percent. This is consistent with the mass recoveries projected across different countries and other regions of the world.
"Inflation is expected to remain above single digit over the medium term, given the structural issues impacting in the course of doing business, including the high cost of food distribution. And overall our fiscal risks are somewhat elevated likely due to COVID-19 related disruptions which have exacerbated the structural weaknesses in the economy.
"We continue to face significant challenges, especially with respect to revenue generation and that is why the key reforms, such as the strategic revenue growth initiative that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning is driving hard will continue to be implemented with increased vigour.
"The implementation of the reverse 2020 budget will also be accelerated. Capital releases which stood at N445 billion at the end of June before the reverse budget was passed, is now up to N1.2 trillion.
"The current coordinated efforts of the Federal Government to contain COVID-19 pandemic, especially the N2. 3 trillion economic stimulus plan, would reposition the economy on a sustainable part of rapid recovery, though it's likely that the Q3 GDP growth will be negative, which means relapsing to a recession, our hope is for a short-lived recession."
Pardon for Ambrose Alli, others ratified
Also briefing, Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said the Council of State also ratified the pardon granted to Col Moses Effiong, Major E.J Olarenwaju and Ajayi Olusola Babalola.
Alli was convicted 30 years ago for misappropriation of N983,000 under the Robbery and Public Property Decree, 1984 by the Special Military Tribunal.
He later paid back the money, while Col. Effiong was convicted for conspiracy and treason and plan to overthrow the military government in 1986 under the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
Major E. J. Olarenwaju was convicted for collecting N2.3 million from oil bunkerers and was dismissed from the army, while Ajayi Olusola Babalola was convicted for obtaining by false pretence.
Recall that President Buhari had granted pardon to the aforementioned personalities in April this year.
Malami said the ratification was a result of the memo he presented to the council at the instance of the President relating to the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy.
The AGF said a total of 45 persons were pardoned, including two inmates and 39 others who received clemency.
He said: "The memo presented for consultation in line with one of the constitutional requirements and consideration of grant of pardon to 45 persons; two inmates for pardon, 39 inmates for clemency and four ex-convicts for presidential pardon.
"To further clarify on the prerogative of mercy, Mr. President with COVID-19 pandemic, has directed the decongestion of our correctional centers across the country. And by way of collaborative action, the governors, heads of courts across the nations, have worked assiduously in collaboration with the presidential committee on decongestion of our correctional centres and at the end of the day, we have succeeded in taking out over 4,000 inmates out of our correctional centers across the country.
"Four people pardoned are: Prof Ambrose Ali (former governor Bendal State, over N900,000 which he later paid but was convicted), Col Moses Effiong, Major E.J Olarenwaju (attempted in the IBB era) and Ajayi Olusola Babalola."
New members for NPC, JSC
Malami also announced the ratification of the appointment of two legal practitioners into the Judicial Service Commission.
He said: "The two members, who represent Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) are Namoso Ekanem (SAN), from Akwa Ibom state representing the South South geo-political zone and Mammud Abubakar Mogaji (SAN) from Niger State. representing the North Central geo-political zone."
The council also ratified the appointment of former deputy governor of Nasarawa state, Silas Agara, as the Chairman of the National Population Commission, NPC.
This was announced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, during the post-council press briefing.
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