text:
The Diary of a Film Cricket
About the Film Cricket
March 1, 2014 · 7:56 pm
12 Months a Film – Predictions for the 86th Academy Awards
Cue the spotlight
Holy jaysus it's Oscar time again!
Another year fades into memory. Remember how Argo didn't surprise anyone but Life of Pi winning best director did? Remember how Seth MacFarlane had seen people's boobs? No, me neither. Let's move on with 2014 so
Rudely pushed from February by the Sochi Winter Olympics (which I totally watched a minute of, honest), March kicks off with the death knell of awards season, and supposedly the tightest race in recent Oscar memory. Awards have been split between three major players thus far; the relative outsider being Gravity (superb production, but a philosophic tabula rasa), while American Hustle (lively gloss with undercooked ideas) and 12 Years a Slave (harrowing majesty) will test the Academy's love for art versus entertainment. It really could go either way.
Ellen DeGeneres hosts again, having put in a passable performance at the 2007 awards, but the big moment will likely come when the PowerPoint of the recently deceased plays, following a series of sad and shocking deaths in the American film industry in the past months. Much of the rest of the events are unpredictable, but that's not gonna stop me from trying to guess the winners. Here goes.
His master's voice: Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) listens to the cruel whispers of Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) in 12 Years a Slave
Once more the line-up is nine, suggesting the Academy really can't decide what to do with the expanded 10-position nomination hole it's opened up for itself. Philomena, Nebraska and Captain Phillips are strong seat-holders. Her, Dallas Buyers Club and the cruelly maligned Wolf of Wall Street remain outside bets, that could've had great chances with bigger buzz and better campaigns behind them. Gravity is this year's Avatar, although with the added benefit of being a great movie; it will likely choke in the airless vacuum of being too commercial. That leaves Hustle and Slave. The chance to make a little bit of history won't be lost on the Academy.
Should win: 12 Years a Slave
Will win: 12 Years a Slave
Starman: Alfonso Cuarón directs Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity
Alexander Payne did a solid, gentle job with Nebraska, but that film has been slid under the awards mat for months now. Scorsese has earned an Oscar for the first time in decades, but sure when has he ever been given an Oscar he deserved?! David O. Russell (American Hustle) has been lucky with the surge of positivity his film gotten, but it won't get him anywhere in this race. It comes down to Cuarón (Gravity) or McQueen (12 Years) – either win would be historical. In such a tight year, a split seems likely.
Should win: Steve McQueen
Will win: Alfonso Cuarón
The man with the plan: Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof
Leonardo DiCaprio found a new peak in his career with The Wolf of Wall Street, but whether or not the Academy will reward him thus is uncertain given the often negative reaction that film has received. Chiwetel Ejiofor gave an overpowering performance in 12 Years a Slave, but his name remains unduly obscure in Hollywood, whereas Matthew McConaughey's comeback, of which Dallas Buyers Club is but a brick, is now legendary.
Should win: Leonardo DiCaprio
Will win: Matthew McConaughey
Blue is the loneliest colour: Cate Blanchett as Jeanette Francis in Blue Jasmine
Cate Blachett.
Should win: Cate Blanchett
Will win: Cate Blanchett
Trans-formation: Jared Leto as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) once more stands in the wing, as will Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street). No, unless there's an unexpected surge for Michael Fassbender (12 Years) or Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), this one is in the bag for Jared Leto's impressive but unexceptional performance in Dallas Buyers Club.
Should win: Michael Fassbender or Jonah Hill
Will win: Jared Leto
Darling of the Academy: Jennifer Lawrence as Rosalyn Rosenfeld in American Hustle
Last year's Best Actress winner Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) was an early call for this one, but there is new energy behind Lupita Nyong'o for her astonishing role as an indoctrinated slave in 12 Years a Slave. As that film begins a late surge towards best picture, this award could clarify things right from the beginning of the night. Julia Roberts (August: Osage County), Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) and June Squibb (Nebraska) are all worthy but out of the race.
Should win: Lupita Nyong'o
Will win: Jennifer Lawrence
Recent allegations against Woody Allen have surely crippled Blue Jasmine here, while Nebraska and Dallas Buyers Club are likely to have to sit this one out. Spike Jonze's Her has deserving energy behind it after a win at the Globes, but don't rule out American Hustle just yet, especially if it targets a clean-up on the night.
Should win: Spike Jonze
Will win: Spike Jonze
Despite everything, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke don't stand a chance for their superb Before Midnight. Billy Ray's Captain Phillips screenplay sticks out here like a sore thumb, while Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope's Philomena is just too slight to win this one. The split comes down to Slave (John Ridley) and Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter). It can really only go one way I think…
Should win: Terence Winter
Will win: John Ridley
Snow chance of losing: Disney's Frozen
Despicable Me 2 was too slight (and racist?), while The Croods was too inconsistent; neither has the buzz behind them to pull this one off. Speaking of buzz, there's been so little word on Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner's Ernest & Celestine that I'd be shocked if a single member of the Academy even watched their screener of it (assuming they received it). Miyazaki's final film The Wind Rises is truly deserving and it would be a glorious capstone to his career, but the public adoration behind Frozen will surely propel it to victory. And in fairness, Miyazaki's already won this Oscar; Disney has not!
Should win: The Wind Rises or Frozen
Will win: Frozen
Of this lot I must confess I have only seen Disney's Get a Horse!, and while amusing I daren't think of it as an Oscar competitor. The other nominees are Feral, Mr. Hublot, Possessions and Room on the Broom. I shall make a monumental guess.
Should win: Not Get a Horse!?
Will win: Room on the Broom (only because I once read my niece the book and it was lovely)
La Dolce Via: Tony Servillo in The Great Beauty
Some strange nominees here, with films from Palestine (Omar) and Cambodia (The Missing Picture) in the running. The Broken Circle Breakdown is Belgium's entry, but there's no energy behind it. Thomas Vinterberg's superb The Hunt has become little more than a Netflix blip, meaning Paolo Sorrentino, outrageously overlooked years back for his sensational Il Divo, will now win for his stunning but over-indulgent/rated The Great Beauty.
Should win: The Hunt
Will win: The Great Beauty
Hearts of darkness, minds of light: Anwar Congo and Herman Koto re-enact their dreams in The Act of Killing
Honest to god if The Act of Killing doesn't win I will break something. Cutie and the Boxer winning might appease my wrath. The Square winning will make me break a person. Dirty Wars and 20 Feet From Stardom are also nominated.
Should win: The Act of Killing
Will win: The Act of Killing
Had better win: The Act of Killing
Best Documentary Short
Two years in a row I have succeeded in not seeing any of these! Why do I draw such attention to my own failings?
Should win: ?
Will win: CaveDigger (has the best title)
This is an odd selection, with Her (William Butler and Owen Pallett) and Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman) surely in the running in any other year. But in Gravity Steven Price created an aural blast that has not been experienced since Strauss was sampled in 2001. A sure-fire winner.
Should win: Steven Price
Will win: Steven Price
Best Original Song
When U2's 'Ordinary Love' from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom won at the Globes, there was outrage. Frozen's 'Let It Go' is not just a superb piece of music with clever lyrics, it is also a fantastic piece of storytelling in and of itself. Surely the Academy will recognise this.
Should win: 'Let It Go'
Will win: 'Let It Go'
Last year I joked that nobody cared about the sound categories. But then Best Sound Editing was split between Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty and the world nearly imploded in confusion. So, let's be serious here. Um… no, let's just give it to Gravity.
Should win: Gravity
Will win: Gravity
I still can never quite work out what this award is for. But the sound in The Hobbit was pretty great, so let's say it'll win, if Gravity doesn't.
Should win: Depends on what exactly is being judged…
Letting the '20s roar: The incredible design of Baz Luhrmann's largely misguided take on The Great Gatsby
Her and 12 Years a Slave would be very worthy winners here, but the options are so grand. Gravity is so heavily digital it should rule itself out, leaving the fight between the ultra-'70s sheen of American Hustle or the outlandish brilliance of The Great Gatsby. It's very tight.
Should win: The Great Gatsby or Her
Will win: The Great Gatsby
Cinema software: The digital cinematography of Gravity astounds, but is it really cinematography?
Much like Avatar a few years back, I have no respect for Gravity's inclusion here. Bruno Delbonnel should be in the running for Inside Llewyn Davis, but that film has gone down with the Academy about as well as discussions of Zionist hoodlums. This could go just about anywhere.
Should win: Roger Deakins (Prisoners) or Bruno Delbonnel
Will win: Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)
Styling AIDS: Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club
Good lord am I still here writing this. Um… Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa winning would be funny for all kinds of reasons. No one wants The Lone Ranger to win any awards, so it's out. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto did, admittedly, look like they had AIDS. That beats William Fichtner with a dodgy hairlip any day.
Should win: Dallas Buyers Club
Will win: Dallas Buyers Club
That '70s glow: Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence all looking très chic in American Hustle
Once again it's Gatsby versus Hustle. The former was outlandish, but the latter had more sideboob.
Should win: The Great Gatsby
Will win: American Hustle
Best Film Editing
The two big deserving films are Dallas Buyers Club and Captain Phillips, but it's never been clear to me that the Academy understands what editing is. Will they just give it to Gravity because it didn't need editing due to long takes? Who knows…?
Should win: Dallas Buyers Club or Captain Phillips
Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble: Satellites and space stations are shredded apart in Gravity
Desolation of Smaug, Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness… hell, even The Lone Ranger! These are all deserving films. But Gravity is the one that made special effects shine this year, so it'd be an absolute shock if it didn't take the gold.
Should win: Gravity (or Smaug)
So those are my calls. We'll see how right I was in about 36 hours. I'll be live-blogging the event as always, this year from a hotel somewhere in the middle of Virginia. Don't ask. I'll see you then.
Filed under Film
Tagged as 12 Years a Slave, 20 Feet From Stardom, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2014, Academy Awards, Alfonso Cuarón, American Hustle, Amy Adams, animation, Anwar Congo, Argo, August: Osage County, Avatar, Barkhad Abdi, Before Midnight, Benjamin Renner, Billy Ray, Blue Jasmine, Bradley Cooper, Bruno Del, Captain Phillips, Cate Blanchett, CaveDigger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christian Bale, Cutie and the Boxer, Dallas Buyers Club, David O. Russell, Despicable Me 2, Didier Brunner, Dirty Wars, Disney, documentary, Ellen DeGeneres, Emmanuel Lubezki, Ernest & Celestine, Ethan Hawke, Feral, Frozen, Get a Horse!, Golden Globes, Gravity, Hayao Miyazaki, Her, Herman Koto, Il Divo, Inside Llewyn Davis, Iron Man 3, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Jared Leto, Jeff Pope, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, John Ridley, Jonah Hill, Julia Roberts, Julie Delpy, June Squibb, Leonardo DiCaprio, Let it Go, Life of Pi, Lupita Nyong'o, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Fassbender, Mr. Hublot, Nebraska, Netflix, Omar, Ordinary Love, Oscar, Oscars, Owen Pallett, Paolo Sorrentino, Philomena, Possessions, Prisoners, Richard Linklater, Roger Deakins, Room on the Broom, Sally Hawkins, Saving Mr. Banks, Seth MacFarlane, Skyfall, Spike Jonze, Star Trek Into Darkness, Steve Coogan, Steve McQueen, Steven Price, Terence Winter, The Act of Killing, The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Croods, The Great Beauty, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hunt, The Lone Ranger, The Missing Picture, The Square, The Wind Rises, The Wolf of Wall Street, Thomas Newman, Thomas Vinterberg, Tony Servillo, U2, William Butler, William Fichtner, Woody Allen, Zero Dark Thirty
January 8, 2014 · 12:10 am
2013 in review – What's up? Docs!
Where did 2013 go? It seems just yesterday we were gearing up for Spielberg to walk away with all the Oscars; and like that, it was gone.
2013 was a mixed bag of tricks. The young masters of world cinema and the heroes of the American indie scene did not disappoint their fans, but Hollywood choked on a phlegm of sequelitis and rebootulosis and dumped the worst serving of misguided blockbusters and bland comedies we've seen for years. You can't have your cake and film it.
But you ignore the lows, because you forget about them; your Star Trek Into Darknesses and your final acts of Man of Steel. You remember that this is the year the Coens brought out Inside Llewyn Davis, that Woody Allen made Blue Jasmine, that Martin Scorsese released his best film since Goodfellas.
Gravity showed us that there is still spectacle in cinema, and things we have never seen or experienced are out there to enthrall us. Elsewhere, Oblivion proved that sometimes it's nice to see all the things you've already seen but rearranged in different orders.
More than any in recent memory, 2013 was the year of the documentary. Largely due to Netlfix Instant and HBO Go, docs have become common viewing for a much wider range of audiences, and in many ways the form is developing away from the cheap manipulative techniques that reality TV has coveted and coopted. From The Act of Killing and Stories We Tell, to simpler but affecting films such as Blackfish, the documentary has proven itself the genre (is it a genre? Is it a medium unto itself?) of 2013.
Television changed also. Netflix reinvented the boxset by releasing whole seasons of brand new shows at a time, starting with House of Cards, before bringing out Hemlock Grove, Orange Is the New Black and the lazarused Arrested Development. Thankfully the big players kept up, with the year's biggest show, Breaking Bad, drawing itself to an all-too-tidy but utterly satisfying conclusion. As rumours flit that Steven Spielberg is to turn the unrealised screenplay of Napoleon begun by Stanley Kubrick into a TV miniseries, the question of how quality television and cinema separate themselves may become the key one of the next few years. Although compare Marvel's Agents of SHIELD to Iron Man 3 and you can see we're still not quite there yet…
Twice this year I found myself aboard an airplane bound for dramatic new adventures in cinephilia. The first came in May, when I attended the Cannes Film Festival on behalf of Film Ireland (full reenactments of that event can be found here). There I forged some new friendships (and solidified formerly Twitter-based ones) and bathed myself in film and espresso. If that was a life-defining trip, my next was a life-changing one. Packing my bags once again for America, I returned to New York City where I enrolled (and according to my grades remain) in the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation programme at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. I have committed myself now to my passion for film and its history, and the maintenance of its cultural and historical relevance. And here I stay. On the side I kept up my work for Film Ireland while expanding my writing by scribbling for NextProjection.com. I also increased my podcasting presence with several more recordings for The Film Show. OK, so maybe the Cannes thing was the highlight…
In terms of my non-contemporary film viewing, 2013 was not my most successful year. Certainly I finally watched some greats, including Kwaidan, Los Olvidados, Sansho the Bailiff and Short Cuts, while finally finishing off the Dekalog and binging on the entirety of the Fast & Furious franchise, which had utterly escaped me until this year. On the big screen I caught The Age of Innocence, Les Amants, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, and The Great White Silence, as well as a joyous screening of Miami Connection. I discovered a heretofore-unknown passion for seeing films in cinema theatres with names related to the film – catching Julie Taymor's Titus in MoMA's Titus 1, and Creature from the Black Lagoon in Film Society's Gilman Theater. On Ozu's 110th birthday (and the 50th anniversary of his death), I ripped some time out of a bloated schedule to see Equinox Flower on the big screen. It's the little things, really.
Making my top 20 was difficult this year. As in previous years, my splitting my time between two sides of the Atlantic complicated matters in terms of release schedules. Cannes also complicated matters given the number of often excellent films I saw there, although I have chosen not to include any of these films that did not see release in either Ireland or New York before December 31st. Big films I missed include Fruitvale Station, Her, The Grandmaster, and Museum Hours.
As an aside, whereas the last three years I have awarded 5 out of 5 to a strict average of four films, this year six made that list, making my top six very easy to iron out. The rest was complicated. Near misses include Reality, Wreck-It Ralph, Prisoners, McCullin, Nebraska, Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Beyond the Hills. Special note should be given to a number of formally impressive or experimental films that impressed hugely but let themselves down too greatly in terms of acting, dialogue or coherence, particularly Spring Breakers, Stoker, Escape from Tomorrow and Upstream Color.
Now, on with the show.
20. Caesar Must Die
The grand old brothers of Italian cinema, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, have produced one of the most troubling docudramas in recent years with Caesar Must Die. Blending fly-on-the-wall documentary techniques with reenactments of rehearsals and performance of Shaespeare's Julius Caesar, but within a maximum security prison and by the inmates, Caesar Must Die looked at life imitating art and the healing powers of performance and creativity. Lines blurred between reality and fiction, and natural angers and sadnesses leaked from these terrible men in a manner you could hardly expect to witness elsewhere.
19. I Wish
Not the last film on this list by Hirokazu Koreeda, perhaps the most talented filmmaker working today, I Wish looked at the world through the eyes of two young boys, played by real-life junior comedian brothers Koki and Oshiro Maeda, who each choose a different parent to live with when their mother and father separate. Simple, but utterly to the point, it revelled in the joys of childish dreaming.
18. Drug War
A truly unexpected gem of a movie, in the style of classic Michael Mann, Johnnie To's Drug War teamed a do-anything-to-survive meth manufacturer with an impossibly resourceful top cop to take down a drug empire. The resulting stings and double-crosses, combined with shoot-outs that were so oddly choreographed they felt chaotically believable, made for a tight, twisty and utterly entertaining thriller.
17. Iron Man 3
The only summer blockbuster on this list, Iron Man 3 finally got the right balance for the character of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr.). This time we found him in the aftermath of the superb The Avengers, suffering PTSD from his near-death experience in its finale while also falling victim to an enormous ego-crushing at realising all his science smarts were nothing in a universe of gods and aliens. The villain was relatively typical, although in Ben Kingsley's the Mandarin writer/director Shane Black found a hugely inventive number 2, the girl got to wear the super suit for a change, and Stark had to deal with being just an ordinary (brilliant) man in the second act with some superbly judged comedy and drama. The final action sequence was messy, but the ideas were all in the right place.
16. Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen, working of late in critical peaks and troughs, hit the highs again with this crafty reworking of A Streetcar Named Desire for the post-psychiatry age. Cate Blanchett dominates the screen as the tragic Jasmine, whose bipolar personality echoes the two poles of her life, as she falls from Manhattan socialite Bay Area unemployable when her unfaithful husband (Alec Baldwin) is revealed to be just as big a financial cheat. Allen's script was loaded with delicious ironies delivered by Blanchett, while also creating a host of juicy supporting roles for solid character actors such as Sally Hawkins, Louis CK, Bobby Cannavale and Michael Stuhlbarg.
15. Gravity
A pulse-pounding disaster movie like none other, Gravity took inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey and recent first-person video games to create an out-of-world experience that was truly thrilling and suitably dizzying. With a remarkable sound design and (mostly) unobtrusive score, Alfonso Cuarón's film used the most astonishing special effects (and 3D effects) ever seen on screen before to invoke the terror of a storm of metal ripping through orbiting space stations. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney gave fine performances as the unfortunate space travellers, but it was the script – its clumsy dialogue and infantile religious metaphors – that denied this incredible production the title of modern classic. A near masterpiece, but a remarkable film nevertheless.
14. Le Passé (The Past)
Following on from his sublime A Separation, Asghar Farhadi's Le Passé looks at the drama that arises in the years following a similar divorce and emigration case. Here an Iranian man returns to France to finalise proceedings with his soon-to-be ex-wife, where he becomes embroiled in her relationship with a new man while reconnecting with her children, his one-time step kids. It's an untraditional tale of familial secrets and lies, told with remarkable restraint and with a knock-out ending. In the lead roles, Ali Mosaffa, Bérénice Bejo and Tahar Rahim all elevate the material to greater heights.
13. To the Wonder
Lesser Malick is still better than most. The Texan philosopher brought his lens from the overcast steps of Mont St. Michel to the sunlit fields of Oklahoma, taking in suitably stunning imagery in airy, sweeping movements. Drawing an excellent performance from Olga Kurylenko as a woman torn apart by love, the film failed to reach the heights of Malick's earlier works. While it neither bore the dramatic punch, nor laid out the same emotional depth of say The Tree of Life, it remains a startling and beautiful work to behold. It made spinning look as wondrous as Gravity made it look terrifying.
12. Cutie and the Boxer
Some times documentary filmmakers get lucky with their subjects as events shift the focus of the story, but this can hardly count against the filmmaker. Zachary Heinzerling got very lucky with this film about New York-based Japanese artist Ushio Shinohara and his underappreciated wife and unknowing muse Noriko. Being able to tell the story of their tragicomic relationship through Noriko's art, which is newly reemerging just as Ushio enters his autumn years. A retrospective of his work allows for introspection of their selves and their relationship, as Noriko is given a coinciding exhibit of her own. Astonishingly personal and poignant filmmaking, featuring perhaps the greatest scene played over by the closing credits ever.
11. Before Midnight
Richard Linklater's romantic odyssey continued the tale of Jesse and Céline another nine years after we last saw them probably turning their lives upside down to be with one another. Now together, with two children, and with his success overshadowing hers (recommended double-bill with Cutie and the Boxer), the couple has a make-it or break-it day during a holiday in Greece. The writing is as natural as it was in Before Sunset, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy once more giving superb, believable performances. It doesn't hit with quite the same punch as Sunset, largely due to an inconsistent visual aesthetic, but it's a wonderful and powerful follow-up that shows that romance doesn't die as couples get older, but it becomes much, much harder to fight for.
10. Inside Llewyn Davis
One of my worst experiences of 2013 was waiting in a press queue at Cannes to see the Coens' latest, only for us to be denied access to the over-subscribed show. The heat and sweat and crushing were unbearable, but worse was the thought of not getting to see the film. OK, in fairness I saw it two days later and the U.S. didn't get it for another five months, but anyhow. A melancholy mixture of many Coen themes shot in haunting, dispiriting winter greys, Inside Llewyn Davis is somewhat of another masterstroke by the brothers. Oscar Isaac gives a remarkable lead performance, backed by a fine assemblage of Coen oddballs, and the character's introspection is carried beautifully, accompanied by music perfect for capturing that spirit of early '60s Greenwich Village. Only the semi-successful literary flourishes stand against it, and even then only barely. A bleak but powerful drama.
9. The Wind Rises
"The wind is rising, we must try to live." Hayao Miyazaki's supposedly (and undeniably suitable) final film is an ode to the reasons the artist creates, in the mold of Andrei Rublev. The film animates the real life story of Jiro Horikoshi, a flight-obsessed young man whose weak eyes would never let him fly, so he turned to plane design, ultimately creating the Zero fighter, the pride of the Japanese airforce during World War II. A film as much about love and loss as it is about art and war, The Wind Rises is a gentle, gorgeously drawn film that never patronises its audience or its characters. It overstays its welcome in the closing 20 minutes, but it remains a tremendous feat by the greatest living master of animation. In addition to the visuals, the sound design is astonishing – when an earthquake tears through Tokyo the soundtrack is of a guttural chant, as if the earth itself was groaning an assault on the people of the city. A remarkable work.
8. Frozen
Teaming Tangled's director Chris Buck with Wreck-It Ralph's writer Jennifer Lee proved a glorious victory for Disney, who have suddenly snatched back the animation crown from their underlings at Pixar. Retelling Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen with remarkable flair, superbly composed (and lyricised) songs, rich humour and a female-dominant storyline, Frozen was one of 2013's biggest (and most successful) surprises. The animation was not always flawless, but when it looked its best (during the unsurpassable showstopper 'Let it Go', for example) it was beautiful to behold, and the film's energy was electrifying. It also managed to make an animate snowman not only work dramatically and comically, but actually warm the heart too. Some movies are worth melting for.
7. The Wolf of Wall Street
Hitting harder than Ushio Shinohara at a canvas, Terence Winter's screenplay, based on the autobiography of Jordan Belfort, is an hysterical and terrifying ride through the corridors of financial scheming and market manipulation. At times fuelled as if by the drugs its antiheroes consume, this Martin Scorsese picture may lack the visual flourish we expect of the director, but he has rarely handled a cast this efficiently, and never been so assured in his use of Leonardo DiCaprio, who gives the performance of his career thus far. At times unbearably nasty and perhaps a little enamoured of its subject's gusto (if not his actions), it has a hell of a lot to say about American greed and the cruelty of the capitalist system at its very worst.
6. A Field in England
One of the most exciting and consistently surprising filmmakers around today, Ben Wheatley brought out his most challenging work to date in 2013, an English Civil War drama that went right through the looking glass. A demonic Irishman forces a motley crew of Englanders to dig for unspecified and uncertain treasure, only for reality and minds to split to asunder. Startling monochrome cinematography, viciously black comedy, and utterly game performances made for a psychedelic whirlwind of a picture. Screenwriter Amy Jump created a ferocious villain in O'Neill, and in the character of Friend, one of the greatest idiot savants in modern fiction.
5. The Gatekeepers
"In the War on Terror, forget about morality." This is the defeatist mantra by which the former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel's counter-terrorism unit, barely excuse themselves. This incredible documentary probed the founding of the Shin Bet and its execution of some incredible assaults on terrorist cells (including some monumental failures). Interviews with six former heads of the agency, each clearly affected by their time with the finger on the button, gave unprecedented insight into the difficulties faced by these men, and assertively questions the decisions they have made. Accompanying footage of atrocities, riots and counter-terrorism methods in action are more troubling than anything Hollywood has yet produced on the subject.
4. 12 Years a Slave
The story of Solomon Northup, an educated black man in the 1840s kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, was brought to life with the extraordinary visual assuredness of Steve McQueen and his cinematographer Sean Bobbitt. The period detail falls secondary to the extraordinary camerawork, gently filming the lakes and cotton fields that surround the plantation, or making a steamboat's paddlewheel appear more threatening than any imaginable horror. An unending hanging is shot from a restrained distance, and life is seen to carry on as normal behind it; an astonishing comment on the system that existed in the South. Eschewing explosive Hollywood drama in favour of natural terror and human cruelty, 12 Years feels as painfully real as it looks beautiful. In the lead role, Chiwetel Ejiofor proves himself a remarkable talent, but it is McQueen's judgement of each scene that truly propels this film towards greatness.
3. Like Father, Like Son
Hirokazu Koreeda's most recent inspection of a family in crisis is perhaps his most melodramatic, with a plotline that could be taken from a made-for-TV movie. Two families, one upper-middle class, the other working class, discover their six-year-old sons were switched at birth; spurned on by traditional Japanese values they agree to swap boys on a trial basis. The film views the whole gentle tragedy from the point of the middle-class dad (Masaharu Fukuyama), torn between biological assumptions and shame at the breakup of his family. Koreeda judges every scene to perfection, revelling in the spontaneous performances of his child actors (Keita Ninomiya and Shôgen Hwang), gently tracking his camera alongside the painful human drama. As touching as any film could hope to be.
2. The Act of Killing
Perhaps the most formally inventive documentary ever shot, director Joshua Oppenheimer dared to challenge the perpetrators of war crimes during conflicts in Indonesia in '65-'66 to make short films based on their experiences. These hero gangsters, icons to many contemporary Indonesians, are exposed to be deeply haunted by their acts 50 years ago, no matter how steely their dispositions. Blending camp fantasy with gory reenactments, the film is never better than when it films Anwar Congo, sitting with his grandson in the comfort of his own home, watching a film of himself playing one of his own torture victims, and revealing the collapse of an ideal in the lines of his face and the tremors of his voice. What it says about the conflict, the victims and killers, is unfathomable. But what it says about cinema and its ability to heal and bruise and cleanse is somehow even deeper still.
1. Blue Is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2)
Nothing hit harder this year than the life of young Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos), whose doe-eyed and trepidatious questioning of her sexuality in her teens leads her into a long-term relationship with confident lesbian artist Emma (Léa Seydoux). Through Abdellatif Kechiche's astonishingly sensitive direction, we see the blossoming and embittering of this young woman, her pains and simple dreams lightly drawn on her barely-an-adult face. Exarchopoulos excels beyond any lead performance one could hope for, while the camerawork and pacing create an epic of simple humanity, first love and sexual awakening. Kechiche understands that the moments when life seems to slow down are when the camera should hang in the air, only watching, incapable of intervening. No coming-of-age tale in a generation has been this exceptionally well-measured, this powerful or this gorgeous to behold.
Vive l'Adèle-volution!
OK, and now what you've really been waiting for, my five worst films of 2013. I missed many supposedly awful films this year, such as Movie 43, Getaway or A Haunted House. But I certainly saw my share of poor movies. There were many I disliked or even hated, such as Django Unchained, Star Trek Into Darkness and Only God Forgives, that despite the ire they raised in me were far too competently made to be numbered amongst these bottom of the barrel films. Which are…
5. The World's End
No film in 2013 was as appallingly misjudged as this struggling comedy from Edgar Wright. Closing a trilogy comprised also of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, The World's End failed to do anything new with the sophisticated humour and cutting of those films, rehashing visuals and delivering predictable gags that felt like they were coming off a conveyer belt. Irredeemably nihilistic (it revels in the exploits of humanity's most disgraceful member) and haplessly genre-meshing, it failed to be any of the many things it wanted to be. It can only be applauded for its ambition.
4. 21 & Over
The writers of The Hangover team up to direct a campus comedy full of racism, disregard for mental health issues and accidental circumcision. Enjoy!
3. A Good Day to Die Hard
The fifth installment in the once-unmatchable saga of John McClane became a muddied mess of James Bond cliches and anti-Russian propaganda. A dire villain, nonsense dialogue and absent chemistry between unstoppable dad and superspy son made this humourless entry in the series an agony to watch.
2. After Earth
Will Smith pimps his charisma-struggling son in a shockingly bland action movie that features killer monkeys, instantaneous plummets in temperature and giant eagles that comprehend human sacrifice. It may often look good, but the dialogue and drama are so haphazard and clumsy that not even a spear that can be reassembled into different shapes with the push of a button can save it. Perhaps M. Night Shyamalan's worst film.
1. Hyde Park on Hudson
After being masturbated by his cousin, President Roosevelt proceeds to solve a political storm in a teacup with the use of a hotdog. Features perhaps cinema's most insipid narration. This film is exploitative dirt.
Until next year…
Tagged as 12 Years a Slave, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2013, 21 and Over, 3D, A Field in England, A Good Day to Die Hard, A Haunted House, A Separation, A Streetcar Named Desire, Abdellatif Kechiche, Adèle Exarchopoulos, After Earth, Agents of SHIELD, Alec Baldwin, Alfonso Cuarón, Ali Mosaffa, Amy Jump, Andrei Rublev, animation, Anwar Congo, Arrested Development, Asghar Farhadi, Bérénice Bejo, Before Midnight, Before Sunset, Ben Kingsley, Ben Wheatley, Beyond the Hills, Blackfish, Blue Is the Warmest Color, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Blue Jasmine, Bobby Cannavale, Breaking Bad, Caesar Must Die, Cannes, Cannes 2013, Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Buck, Coen Brothers, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Cutie and the Boxer, Dekalog, Die Hard, Disney, Django Unchained, documentary, Drug War, Edgar Wright, Equinox Flower, Escape from Tomorrow, Ethan Hawke, Fast & Furious, Film Ireland, Film Society, Franklin Roosevelt, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, George Clooney, Getaway, Goodfellas, Gravity, Hans Christian Anderson, Hayao Miyazaki, HBO Go, Hemlock Grove, Her, Hirokazu Koreeda, Hot Fuzz, House of Cards, Hyde Park on Hudson, I Wish, Inside Llewyn Davis, Iron Man 3, Jaden Smith, Jennifer Lee, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Jiro Horikoshi, Johnnie To, Jordan Belfort, Joshua Oppenheimer, Julie Delpy, Julie Taymor, Julius Caesar, Keita Ninomiya, Koki Maeda, Kwaidan, La Vie d'Adèle, Léa Seydoux, Le Passé, Leonardo DiCaprio, Les Amants, Let it Go, Like Father Like Son, Los Olvidados, Louis CK, M. Night Shyamalan, Man of Steel, Martin Scorsese, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Masaharu Fukuyama, McCullin, Miami Connection, MIAP, Michael Mann, Michael Stuhlbarg, MoMA, Movie 43, Museum Hours, Napoleon, Nebraska, Netflix, Next Projection, Noriko Shinohara, NYU, Oblivion, Olga Kurylenko, Only God Forgives, Orange Is the New Black, Oscar Isaac, Oscars, Oshiro Maeda, Paolo Taviani, Pixar, Prisoners, Reality, Richard Linklater, Robert Downey Jr, Sally Hawkins, Sandra Bullock, Sansho the Bailiff, Sean Bobbitt, Shane Black, Shaun of the Dead, Shôgen Hwan, Short Cuts, Solomon Northup, Spring Breakers, Stanley Kubrick, Star Trek Into Darkness, Steve McQueen, Steven Spielberg, Stoker, Stories We Tell, Tahar Rahim, Tangled, Television, Terence Winter, Terrence Malick, The Act of Killing, The Age of Innocence, The Avengers, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The Film Show, The Gatekeepers, The Grandmaster, The Great White Silence, The Hangover, The Past, The Snow Queen, The Tree of Life, The Wind Rises, The Wolf of Wall Street, The World's End, Titus, To the Wonder, Upstream Color, Ushio Shinohara, Vittorio Taviani, Will Smith, William Shakespeare, Woody Allen, Wreck-It Ralph, Yasujiro Ozu, Zachary Heinzerling
Iron Man 3 – Suit yourself
Casual wear: Iron Man at home
The crushing weight of expectation rests on Iron Man 3, but like the target of a rampaging Hulkbuster suit, that weight is lifted, thrillingly and amusingly, for its 130 minute running time.
The first Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure since the face-explodingly successful The Avengers, Iron Man 3 reunites Robert Downey Jr., as Tony Stark/Iron Man, with the man most responsible for his getting the role in the first place; Shane Black. Black, who rose to fame as the writer of the first (ostensibly only) two Lethal Weapon movies, had very much come to Downey Jr.'s rescue in the mid-noughties when the actor was finally recovering from a harsh decade-plus of substance abuse and finding guest roles on Ally McBeal insufficient in revitalising his career.
The film they made together, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), a satisfying meta-noir, showed what the actor could do with his own persona when put on the right kind of leash. Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man 1 and 2, held the leash loosely on his first go around, before letting the barking dog loose for the sequel, with disastrous, rambling consequences. It wasn't until The Avengers that we saw what good Downey Jr. could truly do with Tony Stark when a writer like Joss Whedon fed him material that was more fun than the shtick he could make up in his head. Shane Black, who Marvel have pitched this gamble on, is a similarly talented, smart and cool writer, and the result is the most satisfying Iron Man film to date.
Sometime after the Battle of New York in The Avengers, Tony Stark is struggling. He can't sleep. He can't stop building suit upgrades. He suffers panic attacks. He fears for the end of his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), the only thing he really cares about now. Suffering from PTSD and having taken a serious ego-bruising at realising that there are beings outside his world far smarter and more powerful than he, Stark shuts himself off to his tinkering, leaving the superhero duties to James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), formerly War Machine, now jingo'd up in red, white and blue as the 'Iron Patriot'.
But when warmongering machiavelli the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley on a healthy dose of fun pills), the (un)acceptable face of terrorism, comes to challenge Stark, revenge becomes the name of the game. A crippling first strike by the Bin Laden lookalike leaves Stark stranded, friendless and temporarily suit-less, at a time when he is needed most, to take on twisted biological weapons expert Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce, finally back on form) and his band of suped-up military vets.
All you need is glove: Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark
Bookmarked by a witty narration by Downey Jr. that plants us firmly in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang territory, Iron Man 3 kicks along at a solid pace, focusing far more on character development and interaction than exploding robots. Enough references are made to the events of Avengers to make it clear we remain in that universe, but the personal vendetta aspect (set up from the opening flashback scenes) makes it clear that this is a Stark only venture, and for good reason.
There's a moment in Iron Man 2 where Iron Man takes out almost every villain with one laser attack, making the character all too powerful and much of the action redundant. What Iron Man 3 focuses on is how the more sophisticated Stark's designs become, the more risks he takes, and thus the more vulnerable a character he is – Stark's kryptonite is hubris. One of the film's finest action sequences sees Stark suit-less, and forced to MacGyver himself a small arsenal. An aerial escape battle culminates in a finer gag than any the series (including The Avengers) has delivered thus far. The final showdown, which starts off sloppy with far too much happening on screen at once, boils down to a face-off between hero and villain that features the finest weapon-switching duel since the catfight in Crouching Tiger.
The character-building is truly commendable, although the script is not without fault. The Christmas setting, a Black staple, forces the morals home a little too heavily. The story's link to White House intrigue feels utterly redundant and unfortunately echoes the recent G.I. Joe 2. The second act, with Stark stranded in wintry Tennessee, is too much of a diversion with too little of a payoff, although child actor Ty Simpkins deserves applause for holding his own against Downey Jr., and for not being irritating.
Back on the leash, Downey Jr. is as much fun as he's ever been, with Paltrow and Cheadle remaining strong support. Favreau, relegated to cameo appearance, seems almost delighted to have the pressure of directing taken off his now much larger shoulders. James Badge Dale is impressively intense as a fire-powered henchman – the first such role in the MCU thus far. Rebecca Hall, as a morally concerned scientist and former Stark fling, gets the short end of the stick in a frankly underwritten and largely unnecessary role.
Aftershock: Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Brian Tyler's decent but repetitive score begins to grate after a while, but the film looks sharp throughout, and Black's script, co-written with rising talent Drew Pearce, makes this one of the most original blockbusters in recent memory. The Mandarin's speech about American bastardisation of Eastern culture, using as his example the fortune cookie, is one of the finest villainous rants ever. He similarly targets Hollywood's famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre as an Americanised evil, taking a nice little pot-shot at the studio system while also blowing up one of the few landmarks Roland Emmerich had not gotten around to yet.
The film's ending is far more concerned with concluding an Iron Man Trilogy than with perpetuating the MCU, but there is still a lot of places these characters can go, and if audiences can adjust to this film's more sardonic tone, a future beyond Avengers sequel appearances should be assured.
As an MCU film, sticking around until the end of the credits is a must for fans, although those excited for previews of coming attractions may be disappointed to hear the witty scene is more "shawarma" than "Thanos", if you take my meaning.
(originally published at http://www.nextprojection.com)
Tagged as Ally McBeal, Ben Kingsley, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Don Cheadle, Drew Pearce, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Guy Pearce, Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, James Badge Dale, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon, MacGyver, Marvel, Rebecca Hall, Robert Downey Jr, Roland Emmerich, Shane Black, The Avengers, Ty Simpkins
Deus Ex Cinema
"Burn, baby burn, it's goin' burnin'." twitter.com/emilynussbaum/… 55 minutes ago
Facebook this morning recalled this 1920s industrial film I worked on five years back, and its message is hilarious… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 hour ago
RT @daveweigel: Something everyone decided to forget for some reason is that Trump spent the final weeks of the midterms pivoting to an imm… 1 hour ago
Is this fun? Because I found this to be nothing but stress. twitter.com/ytsunnys/statu… 1 hour ago
The Diary of a Film Cricket · The musings of an Irish film enthusiast


Doug Hammer is an explorer. He is drawn to uncommon, yet exciting natural landscapes and formations. As a professional introvert, he is renewed by out-of-the-way, secluded and solitary locations, where he can experience God's creation, pray and photograph.
Doug's website is a collection of photographic reminders of places he has explored. In other words, although viewers like you may enjoy the website, Doug uses this site more like a journal or diary to help him re-experience the unique and awesome places he has visited.
Doug's photography is not for income or notoriety, although both are welcome. For him, photography is a reason to explore. What a beautiful and interesting world we live in!
The photograhs on his website represent unique split-second moments in time when exploration, art and science converge.
Doug is not primarily a photographer. He is a management consultant; that's how this explorer is funded.
As far as photographic experience is concerned, Doug has designed and built view cameras, spent numerous hours in a darkroom, and twice served as a technical assistant at the Ansel Adams workshops in Yosemite Valley and Pebble Beach.


We are pleased to offer domain hosting services for your RegisterYour.CA domains. You require these services if you wish to receive either email addressed to your domain or host a web page on that URL.
Personalize your email address, and add professionalism to your business. Gain full control over how you receive your email. Our Mailbox Manager also allows you flexibility, and the ability to add, remove and reconfigure email addresses at any time.
If URL forwarding is not enough, or you want web space with reliable uptime and no annoying pop-up ads, consider our domain web hosting services.


text:
Tess  – personaggio del romanzo Tess dei D'Urbervilles di Thomas Hardy
Tess  – film di Roman Polański del 1979, ispirato al romanzo di Hardy
 Tess, opera in 4 atti di Frédéric Alfred d'Erlanger con testi di Luigi Illica, tratto dal Tess of the d'Urbervilles di Thomas Hardy
Tess  – variante del nome proprio di persona femminile Tessa
Tess  – assassino citato nel romanzo fantasy di Licia Troisi Le guerre del Mondo Emerso
TESS  – acronimo di Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, telescopio spaziale il cui lancio è avvenuto in aprile 2018

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Posts Tagged 'Robert Kennedy'
Random Friday Thoughts — October 5, 2018
Posted by Anthony Peoples in Uncategorized.	Tagged: 9-1-1, A Legendary Christmas, ABBA, Ambassador Hotel, Amy Schumer, Andrew Lincoln, baseball, body image, Charlie Hunnam, Cher, Chicago Cubs, Christmas, Cleveland Indians, Dana Scully, Dancing Queen, Esperanza Spalding, Fox, Gabriel Chavarria, George Brett, Gillian Anderson, Golden Globe Awards, Grady Sizemore, harvest season, I Feel Pretty, Jake Shears, Jimmy Carter, John le Carre, John Legend, Johnny Lewis, Josh Dallas, Juan Romero, Kansas City Royals, Katey Sagal, Katy Perry, Kris Bryant, Kurt Sutter, Lifetime, Manifest, NBC, Once Upon a Time, Queer As Folk, rape, Rick Grimes, Robert Kennedy, Rosalynn Carter, Ryan Guzman, Scissor Sisters, Sons of Anarchy, Stevie Wonder, The Walking Dead, The X-Files, United States, You.	2 comments
Happy first week of October!
Thank you for taking the time to check out my Random Friday Thoughts!
MORE REFLECTIONS ON PRESIDENT CARTER
President Jimmy Carter turned 94 earlier this week.
Here's a note I left at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of years ago on my visit.
AMERICA'S MOOD
It's summed up perfectly by Dana Scully and the always incredible, beautiful, and intelligent Gillian Anderson!
COMFORTING ROBERT KENNEDY
Just moments after giving his victory speech in the California Democratic primary at the Ambassador Hotel in June 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was making his exit through the kitchen.
That's when an assassin's bullets mortally wounded the Democratic presidential hopeful.
18-year-old hotel busboy, Juan Romero rushed to Kennedy's side and cradled him and kept his head off the restaurant floor.
Romero died earlier this week of an apparent heart attack in Modesto, California. He was 68.
Earlier this year, Romero said, "I kneeled down to him and I could see his lips moving, so I put my ear next to his lips and I heard him say, 'Is everybody OK?' I said, 'Yes, everybody's OK.' I put my hand between the cold concrete and his head just to make him comfortable."
Like 45 and his old tweets that come back to bite him in the ass, I'm retracting something I said in my April 20, 2018, blog.
Under the ominous headline, GOOD RIDDANCE "THE WALKING DEAD", I wrote, "After eight seasons, I'm giving up on AMC's "The Walking Dead". The seventh and eighth season were painful and I didn't find them enjoyable… Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), I'll miss you, but I can't take the show anymore!"
Well, hell's bells! Now that I know Lincoln is leaving the show early in the ninth season, I now have to watch it to say goodbye to my future ex-boyfriend.
By the way, I saw the first five minutes of the October 7th premiere episode and it looks great.
Okay, show runners, while the details of how he departs is unknown to the public, I hope his death (?) is heartbreaking! And, as an added bonus, can Judith go along with him?
I'm normally not a shipper, but may I request Jesusaron?
Last week, I talked about the Lifetime stalker drama, "You".
I'm still loving it and I was laughing out loud with these two lines from the last episode.
Beck's thoughts after the quick intimacy with Joe: "What was that? Eight seconds? Hell yeah, he's got that Trump just took Pennsylvania look!"
Also, from Beck, "You're a coward. Britney got through 2007 though, right?"
I'm a fair weather baseball fan.
By the way, that Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs. 🙂
I don't really follow a particular team although when I lived in Chicago, I rooted for the Cubs. And, then when the White Sox made the World Series, they were my team.
There are just too many games for me, but I start to pay attention when the 30 teams are whittled down and the Division Series, the League Championship Series, and the World Series take place.
The Division Series (quarterfinal round) got underway this week!
In the August 6-13, 2018 issue, "Time" reported that the average age of those watching Major League Baseball (MLB) rose from 52 in 2000 to 57 in 2016. (42 is the average age of National Basketball Association viewers!)
Not only are MLB viewers getting old, there are fewer young people watching the games. A recent survey showed that nearly two-thirds of people ages 18 to 36 didn't watch baseball!
By the way, I was huge Cleveland Indians fan when I lived in Ohio and Grady Sizemore played for the team (2004-2011).
And, as a kid, I had the biggest crush on Kansas City Royals third baseman, George Brett!
The new hit, "Manifest" on NBC is creepy, sad, and awesome!
In 2013, a flight takes off from Jamaica and arrives in New York five years later. However, to the people on board, it was a typical three-hour flight with some turbulence.
But, the world has moved on without them.
I was blown away by the premiere and the second episode was equally compelling! I love the premise, the acting, and I'm touched with the sentimentality!
While I can't wait to see how the story develops, I'm majorly crushing on Josh Dallas!
I may have to binge watch "Once Upon a Time" when I'm snowed in this winter to catch more of him!
Totally random here, but one advantage to a "Manifest"-like situation is not having to deal with 45 in the White House!
FALL TELEVISION MVP
I'm happy to see more of my network television shows back from summer break.
"9-1-1" on Fox is still sexy, thrilling , and fun. The earthquake episodes were fantastic.
And, here's to the new hotties:
Ryan Guzman (Eddie Diaz, a new firefighter on "9-1-1")
and from the USA Network show, "The Purge", Gabriel Chavarria (Miguel Guerrero, a US Marine who returns home on Purge Night to save his sister, Penelope).
HARVEST SEASON IS HERE
Before you know it, a hard freeze and snow will be on the way. Harvest those crops!
CANDY CORN PIZZA
Would you try it? 🙂
"A LEGENDARY CHRISTMAS"
Finally, more information about the upcoming John Legend Christmas project.
The new album (and 25-date Christmas tour) is called "A Legendary Christmas" and it comes out October 26th!
Fourteen songs will appear on the album and it includes several original songs and many classics like "Please Come Home for Christmas", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and "The Christmas Song" (featuring Esperanza Spalding).
Stevie Wonder brings his harmonica skills to the album's first song, "What Christmas Means to Me".
I just started binge-watching the seven season, 92-episode FX series, "Sons of Anarchy", which ran from 2008-2014.
After the first two seasons, I'm very impressed. I even Googled to see if "motorcycle club" life was as violent as the series portrays it and from what I read, it's pretty rough to be part of that gang!
Charlie Hunnam has grown up from when I first saw him in the 1999-2000 original UK series "Queer As Folk". He's still gorgeous and nicely buffed as rough Jax Teller.
And, I'm blown away by Katey Sagal, who play's Jax's mother, Gemma, and is the real life wife of "Sons of Anarchy" creator Kurt Sutter. Many will remember her as Peg Bundy on Fox's long-running series "Married… with Children".
Sagal won the Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress" in a Television Series Drama for the third season.
In the second season, there's a brutal rape and beating of a major character and it's painful to watch. It's even more heartbreaking watching her try to recover without her family knowing about it!
Here's an interesting tidbit that you may remember if you've watch the series.
Other than Hunnam, I'm crushing on Johnny Lewis, who plays "Half-Sack" (no, I won't explain his nickname!) in seasons one and two.
When I went online to find out more about the actor, I learned that he dated Katy Perry many years ago.
However, I was shocked to learn that he's dead.
Lewis and his 81-year-old landlady Catherine Davis were found dead at Davis' home in September 2012.
Police were called after neighbors heard the woman screaming. Authorities say Lewis broke into the house, beat Davis to death and killed her cat, Jesse.
They found his body in the driveway and believe he fell to his death from the building.
Lewis had just been released from jail just five days before the murder, but the autopsy found no alcohol or drugs in his body.
His family says he had occasional spurts of violence, which stemmed from untreated head injuries suffered from a high-speed motorcycle accident one year earlier!
It's hard to believe that the last Scissor Sisters album came out in 2012.
I was so grateful to see them in Chicago in 2010.
This was the pre-concert and post-concert after dancing and getting caught in the rain!
This is sexy Jake Shears, one of the two lead singers for the band (with Ana Matronic).
In August, Jake released his self-titled debut album and it's phenomenal. Sadly, it hasn't made a splash in America like it did in Europe!
There are many incredible songs on the album and my favorites are "Good Friends", "S.O.B." (which stands for sex on the brain), "Everything I'll Ever Need", "Creep City", and "Sad Song Backwards"!
If you love Cher and you love ABBA, then this album is a combination of unicorns, rainbows, and bell bottoms if you're a dancing queen!
It's expected to debut in the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart!
And, the album's first single, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" moves into the Top Ten on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, her 14th top 10 hit on that chart!
Random Friday Thoughts — May 18, 2018
Posted by Anthony Peoples in Uncategorized.	Tagged: Aaron Milo, allergy, allergy bullying, ALS, assassination, Bobby Kennedy, Britney Spears, bullying, cake, cancer, Daniel Skelton, Deadpool 2, decency, Domhnall Gleeson, Donald Trump, Eating Out, funeral, James Corden, Joe Biden, John McCain, Josh Brolin, Kelly Sadler, Madonna, media, Memorial Day, Meryl Streep, Mitch Albom, Morrie Schwatrz, Netflix, Orrin Hatch, Peter Rabbit, POW, Prince William, Prison of War, Richard Nixon, Robert Kennedy, Rose Byrne, royal wedding, Ryan Reynolds, Songbird John, Steven Spielberg, The Post, Tom Hanks, Tom McInerney, Tuesdays with Morrie, Washington Post, Watergate.	2 comments
It's past the middle of May now and the unofficial start to the summer season is getting closer — Memorial Day!
Have a great weekend and thank you for taking the time to check out my random thoughts.
REPUBLICAN HATE & JOHN McCAIN
I voted against Senator John McCain when he ran for president in 2008 and there are many things that he says and does that I disagree with.
However, I appreciate all that he did for the United States as a veteran and a former Prisoner of War.
It saddens me that he's battling brain cancer. What makes me equally sad (and mad) is the total lack of respect he's getting from the Republican Party.
Recently, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch stated that he wants McCain to reconsider not wanting Donald Trump at his funeral.
With all of the mockery and the snide comments #45 made about McCain, I wouldn't want him at my funeral either! When that time comes, I hope that his family forbids Trump from attending.
And, then late last week, White House aide Kelly Sadler said in meeting, "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway."
Seriously, if there's a time and place to use a derogatory term for a woman (Sadler), it'd be now!
And, recently on Fox News, retired Air Force General Tom McInerney called McCain "songbird John" for allegedly providing information to the North Vietnamese while he was a POW!
DECENCY HITS "ROCK BOTTOM"
Here's what former Vice President Joe Biden had to say the day after Sadler's comment.
BANNING THE MEDIA
I've made it a point to mention #45 as little as possible over the past eighteen months.
I know it's denial. If I don't talk about it, maybe I'll wake up and realize it was all a bad dream. Wait, that was on "Dallas"! 🙂
Last week, he tweeted (shock!) about taking away press credentials.
He's sounding more and more like #37, Richard Nixon. We all know how that one ended!
In case you don't — resignation from office in disgrace!
ENOUGH ABOUT THEM
SOMETHING ABOUT THE ROYAL FAMILY!
There's a big Royal wedding this weekend and I'm sure there'll be cake.
This is what I wrote in December 2012, "Sir Paul McCartney orders a fruitcake from cake designer Fiona Cairns each Christmas and, in early 2011, Cairns was tapped to make the royal wedding cake for Prince William and his future bride, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge."
THIS SHOULD MAKE YOUR SMILE
This video still rocks my world and makes me smile! 🙂
Why? Because (1) "It's Britney, Bitch" and (2) I still find actor Aaron Milo drop dead gorgeous!
I've featured "Eating Out: Drama Camp" and "Eating Out: The Open Weekend" actors Aaron Milo (from Rockford, Illinois) and Daniel Skelton's fun video to Britney's "Big Fat Bass" three times over the years of my blog.
So, why not a fourth time?
If you've never watched it, treat yourself now! 🙂
CREEPY CRUSHING
Okay, it's a little creepy because, sadly, (1) he's dead and (2) if he were still alive, he'd be turning 93-years-old this November.
So, it's not a real crush. But, look at how sexy Bobby Kennedy was in his 30s and, even at 42, when he was gunned down in June 1968.
Kennedy was the father of eleven and his widow, Miss Ethel, just turned 90-years-old in April.
When I saw that Netflix debuted this documentary, I thought it'd be an hour or two. But, it's four one-hour episodes and it's incredible!
It covers Bobby's life campaigning for his brother, John F. Kennedy, the nation's 35th president, and becoming his attorney general.
After JFK's death, Bobby had to decide whether to become President Johnson's vice president in Johnson's 1964 presidential run or venture out on his own.
He chose the latter.
When the documentary gets to Bobby's assassination inside the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in June 1968 after winning the California Democratic Primary, it gave me chills and goosebumps.
We've all seen the Dallas footage of JFK's assassination, but it's in black and white and from a distance.
But, when Bobby raises his hand and his head is cradled, the blood and the blood red color of television is chilling!
Watching this documentary, I was thinking of what a great president Bobby Kennedy would have been if not for his senseless murder.
And, could you imagine Richard Nixon going over the deep end if he had lost to two Kennedys in his bid to be president?
I guess it would have kept him from resigning in shame in 1974 after the Watergate scandal!
ANOTHER CRUSH AND IT'S NOT JUST ME
Actor Josh Brolin who plays the villain Cable in the upcoming "Deadpool 2" movie out May 18th tells "Entertainment Weekly" of a crush he developed after seeing 2009's "The Proposal" many times.
Brolin says, "I told Ryan [Reynolds]. I was like, 'I don't know why this is, and I don't know what this means psychologically, behaviorally, emotionally, but I have kind of a crush on you.'"
Brolin, get in line!
I just finished reading my 17th book of 2018, Mitch Albom's 1997 debut bestselling novel, "Tuesdays with Morrie".
It's a beautiful, life-affirming, platonic love story between two men — an aging, dying college professor and one of his former students.
Sixteen years passed from college graduation to when sports writer Albom found out his sociology professor, 78-year-old Morrie Schwatrz, was dying from ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's disease).
It's a beautiful book that needs to be read. It'll give you a more positive look at life.
Here are a couple of my favorite words of wisdom from Morrie:
"Dying is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappy is something else."
"If you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too — even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling."
Mitch learned the most valuable lesson of all from Morrie, "there is no such thing as 'too late' in life"!
Years ago, I read Albom's second novel, 2003's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". I highly recommend both books!
This Steven Spielberg-directed film starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks is based on the true story of the Washington Post's fight with President Nixon in early-1970s over publishing the "Pentagon Papers".
It got two Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress (Streep) and six Golden Globe Award nominations.
Streep plays Katharine Graham, the heiress of the Washington Post and the company's television stations after the death of her father and her husband. Hanks plays Post editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee.
It's a great historical movie with superb acting! However, I hated seeing Sarah Paulson in a throwaway role as Bradlee's wife!
The last moments of the movie before the credits (two phone calls is all I'll say so there are no spoilers) gave me goosebumps. I was screaming, "Yes"!
If "The Post" was your typical "summer popcorn movie", that final scene screamed "SEQUEL". But, if you know history, you know what happened next! 🙂 You could also say that the "sequel" came out in 1976! 🙂
This live action-computer-animated comedy starring James Corden ("Into The Woods") and Rose Byrne ("Neighbors") was very successful.
The $50 million movie brought in an incredible $320 million worldwide.
However, it did come with controversy. The movie was accused of "allergy bullying".
In one scene, a bad person (Domhnall Gleeson) is trying to kill Peter Rabbit and his family. The rabbits learn that the person has an allergy and they use this allergen as a weapon in war.
I know allergies are serious, but if someone is trying to kill me, all is fair in love and war!
But, I know the movie is directed at kids and it may give them bad ideas! Wait, does that mean no more movies, television, music, books, video games, or internet for them, too? 🙂
I loved the movie and highly recommend it.
HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY!
This month, 20 years ago, Madonna entered the Billboard Hot 100 with her 37th Top 40 hit with the second single and title track from the "Ray of Light" album.
It also became her 21st chart topper on the Billboard Dance Club songs chart. (She now leads all artists on that chart — a record-extending 46 #1 songs!)
"Ray of Light" won two Grammy Awards and five MTV Video Music Awards.
It was also voted one of the best songs of the 1990s!
BREAKING NEWS: It seems that a new Madonna single is coming soon and her 14th studio album is finished!!!!!!!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Image Title: Range Hoods Microwave Above The Stove Over Kitchen Throughout Hood Combination Designs 13. Filename: range-hoods-microwave-above-the-stove-over-kitchen-throughout-hood-combination-designs-13.jpg. Image Dimension: 427 x 640 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Lenny Welch. Uploaded Date: Friday - May 04th. 2018 20:14:52 PM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: interior.com.
Tap The Thumbnail Bellow to See Related Gallery of "Range Hoods Microwave Above The Stove Over Kitchen Throughout Hood Combination Designs 13"


text:
110 South Maple Street
Galena, Missouri 65656
Press Release on Johnny Kelly
On November 27th, 2013, Detectives from Stone County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at 39 Holts Wood Road, Reeds Spring, in Stone County. At time of the warrant execution, William Timothy Kelly, a Registered Sexual Offender, was arrested and charged with two counts of sodomy. During the execution of the warrant, Detectives recovered a laptop computer from William Kelly's brother, Johnny Kelly. The computer was taken to the Stone County Sheriff's Office where it was searched forensically for images of child pornography based on the initial information received.
During the search of the computer, Detectives recovered multiple images of Child Sexual Abuse photos along with sexually explicit stories involving underage females. On December 19th, 2013, Detectives arrested and interviewed Johnny Kelly and he admitted to clicking on the Child Sexual Abuse photos while online and saving them to his computer.
Johnny Allen Kelly, a 54 year old white male who resided at 39 Holts Wood Road, Reeds Spring, was charged with Possession of Child Pornography and is currently incarcerated at the Stone County Jail with a bond of 100,000.00 cash/surety.
Doug Rader
Sheriff, Stone County
Notice of Federal Funding and Federal Disclaimer
Stone County Sheriff's Office | © 2020
Stone County, Missouri


text:
'Good start': Palm Springs leaders open to $30M settlement with former Wessman company
The topic could come back for public discussion at the second council meeting in July.
'Good start': Palm Springs leaders open to $30M settlement with former Wessman company The topic could come back for public discussion at the second council meeting in July. Check out this story on desertsun.com: https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/local/palm-springs/2019/06/20/palm-springs-leaders-open-30-m-settlement-former-wessman-company/1495279001/
Shane Newell, Palm Springs Desert Sun Published 4:29 a.m. PT June 20, 2019 | Updated 4:06 p.m. PT June 20, 2019
The Palm Springs City Council publicly discussed on Wednesday a proposed settlement with the company formerly led by developer John Wessman that could lead to the transfer of more than 70 acres of land to the city and the construction of a new library.
Made public last week in a city staff report, the proposed settlement is with Grit Development, formerly Wessman Holdings, which has several ongoing projects in downtown Palm Springs.
The firm's former leader, John Wessman, awaits trial in an alleged public corruption scheme involving former Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet. Both men have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging Pougnet accepted as much as $375,000 from Wessman, who authorities say paid the bribes through developer Richard Meaney, who has also pleaded not guilty.
The proposal was discussed publicly for the first time on Wednesday.
According to the proposed $30 million settlement with the city of Palm Springs, Grit would turn over several parcels of land near Chino Canyon and construct a library downtown in exchange for the city setting aside its potential Government Code Section 1090 claims.
The 1090 claims could be invoked by the city if it sought to recoup up to $12.6 million in funds related to downtown Palm Springs developments that could be impacted by a conviction in the public corruption case.
If Grit's property appraises at the value touted in the proposed settlement, the city would receive more value by settling the 1090 claims than it would if it exercised its 1090 rights later, officials said. The settlement also would allow Grit to move forward with securing financing for the other parts of the downtown project and keep intact the existing transient occupancy tax rebate agreement for the Kimpton Rowan Hotel.
Though no vote was taken Wednesday on the settlement, the council, as a whole, expressed support for potentially settling with Grit and preserving much of the new land in the deal near Chino Canyon as open space.
Pougnet, Wessman and Meaney: Men about town
John Wessman, left, shakes the hand of Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet during the symbolic demolition of the mall in downtown Palm Springs on February 7, 2013. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun
Developer John Wessman, right, with Mayor Steve Pougnet, left, and City Council members Ginny Foat, front, and Chris Mills, rear, in 2014, at a downtown redevelopment project groundbreaking. Marilyn Chung/The Desert Sun
Developer John Wessman answers questions at a rare on-site Palm Springs Planning Commission meeting in 2014. J. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun
Developer John Wessman, from left, Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, Councilman Chris Mills, Councilman Rick Hutcheson, Councilwoman Ginny Foat, Senior Vice President for Wessman Development Michael Braun, City Manager David Ready and Councilman Paul Lewin perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the Desert Fashion Plaza redevelopment project on Thursday, January 16, 2014. Desert Sun file photo
Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group, and Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet wave from the first Virgin America flight into Palm Springs from San Francisco on Dec. 15, 2011, at Palm Springs International Airport. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet sports a colorful jacket during the Palm Springs Woman's Club fashion show in 2015. Xochitl Peña/The Desert Sun
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet gets a hug from "Santa" at Frances Stevens Park during the annual Palm Springs Tree Lighting Ceremony on December 5, 2013. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, far right, and developer Richard Meaney, second from left, break ground along with other developers and city leaders on September 23, 2010, at the site of the Morrison, a new home development in Palm Springs, at Alejo and Avenida Cabelleros. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
Boxer Tim Bradley Jr. unveils his star, the 377th on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, with Robert Alexander, the president of Palm Springs Walk of Stars, and Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, on Saturday, December 6, 2014 in Palm Springs. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun
From left, Fred Noble of Wintec Energy, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Palm Springs mayor Steve Pougnet speak to the media about green energy on a Wintec windmill farm Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
Palm Springs City Manager David Ready, left, and Mayor Steve Pougnet, right, arrive at the Palm Springs Convention Center for the Public Remembrance Ceremony of Richard M. Milanovich, the longtime chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet speaks during the dedication of the new airport control tower at Palm Springs International Airport in 2013. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
From left, Palm Springs City Council members Chris Mills, Ginny Foat, Rick Hutcheson, Former mayor Steve Pougnet, Mayor Robert Moon, newly elected City Councilman J.R. Roberts, real estate developer Lawrence Rael and newly-elected City Councilman Geoff Kors break ground on the Hyatt Andaz hotel in Palm Springs in 2015. Skip Descant/The Desert Sun
Developer John Wessman walks the runway during the Palm Springs Woman's club annual scholarship philanthropy luncheon and fashion show at the Palm Springs Rivera Hotel, Friday, March 28, 2014. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
John Wessman, Patrick Mundt, Adam Beach, and Jeff Grubbe at the Palm Springs International Film Festival closing night party held at the Spa Resort and Casino on Sunday night, January 14, 2007, in Palm Springs. Marilyn Chung, The Desert Sun
John Wessman, left, and Michael Braun, senior vice president of Wessman Development, study a design for the Desert Fashion Plaza at the Community Workshop #3 on February 9, 2011, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Desert Sun file photo
John Wessman arrives the Palm Springs City Council Chamber on July 20, 2011, before a vote on the Measure J sales tax for the downtown redevelopment. Desert Sun file photo
John Wessman poses for a photo above downtown Palm Springs in October 2011. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
John Wessman (left) greets Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet at Spencer's Restaurant in Palm Springs on election night, November 8, 2011. Measure J passed and Pougnet was re-elected mayor. Desert Sun file photo
Developer John Wessman, left, surveys the Town & Country Center in downtown Palm Springs on Friday, January 29, 2016. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun
Developer John Wessman, left, on the roof of the Town & Country Center in Downtown Palm Springs on Friday, January 29, 2016. Richard Lui/The Desert Sun
From left, John Wessman, Rich Meaney and Paul Tollett appear together at an event in 2014. Lani Garfield/Special to The Desert Sun
From left, Peter Karpinski, co-founder of Arrive Hotels and Resorts, joined Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, Councilwoman Ginny Foat and other city and elected officials to break ground in September 2013 at the site of the new hotel. Skip Descant/The Desert Sun
Developers and city leaders break ground on September 23, 2010, at the site of the Morrison, a new home development in Palm Springs, at Alejo and Avenida Cabelleros. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
More: Palm Springs could get 73 acres, new library in potential $30M settlement with developer
More: Virgin Hotel project moves forward, but without Palm Springs' ability to 'claw back' tax rebate
More: Palm Springs public corruption case back in court; new preliminary hearing date set
The council also favored a suggestion to obtain independent appraisals to determine the value of the land contained in the settlement, which estimates the 70-plus acres are worth more than $20 million.
During Wednesday's meeting, Mayor Rob Moon pointed out the potential drawbacks should the TOT agreement be voided, which could lead to the Kimpton Rowan Hotel's closure and negatively affect surrounding businesses.
"We're in this renaissance and we don't want to return to the Middle Ages," he said.
The discussion started when several residents spoke during public comments about the proposed settlement.
Planning Commissioner Michael Hirschbein, City Council candidate Adrian Alcantar and former Councilwoman Ginny Foat were among several to speak on the issue.
Alcantar said the council should look at all options when it comes to building a new library, including potentially working with College of the Desert. He said downtown Palm Springs is not the best location for a library.
He also advocated for a third party to value the land involved in the potential settlement. He also wanted more public discussion and town halls on the topic.
Foat supports settling with Grit and said the land near Chino Canyon should be kept as open space.
Following public comment, City Attorney Jeff Ballinger and Special Counsel Gary Schons discussed the settlement process.
If the city decides not to settle its potential 1090 claims and there is a conviction in the case, it could take years to "claw back" funds.
New Kimpton Rowan Hotel close to opening
A suite in the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs offers amazing elevated views of the city. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
The rooftop pool at the top of the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
The new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
A view from a room in the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
The lobby of the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
The exercise room in the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
A room in the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
The 4 Saints restaurant at the top of the new Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun
In his comments, Councilman J.R. Roberts praised the impact downtown development has had on the city.
"Whether you like it or not, no one can deny that it isn't a huge success and has been a boon to our brand," Roberts said. "And so this is icing on the cake. This is an opportunity now to get something we wouldn't have normally been able to ever get.
"I see this as a moment in time where we're very fortunate and it will make a lot of our dreams come true for our community, in terms of creating more open space (and) the potential for having funding or having land options for our library," he said.
He added that he believes appraisals will prove the land included in the deal is worth less than the estimates, which could mean the city will have to ask Grit for more in order to keep the settlement value at roughly $30 million.
Councilwoman Lisa Middleton also supported preserving the 70-plus acres as open space and potentially adding more land from Grit to the settlement. She add that there are several options for where the new city library could be built.
She said the settlement offer was a "good start."
No one from Grit Development spoke at Wednesday's council meeting.
In addition to settling the 1090 rights, Grit has proposed the city agree to a project labor agreement with the Southern California District Council of Laborers in an effort to resolve a dispute over prevailing wages.
Several union employees spoke at the meeting in favor of a project labor agreement if it is applied to workers from all trades.
The discussion on the proposal lasted nearly an hour. City Manager David Ready said he was hoping to bring a draft of the settlement to the council by its second meeting in July.
Shane Newell covers breaking news and the western Coachella Valley cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs. He can be reached at Shane.Newell@DesertSun.com, (760) 778-4649 or on Twitter at @journoshane.
Read or Share this story: https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/local/palm-springs/2019/06/20/palm-springs-leaders-open-30-m-settlement-former-wessman-company/1495279001/


To better serve our visitors, we use technology to track new and returning visitors actions while on the website. These small files are commonly referred to as "cookies." Our cookies don't not contain any personally-identifiable information. Our customized Weather.gov tool gives visitors the option of customizing and storing a location to be remembered on subsequent visits to Weather.gov.
If you are concerned about the potential use of the information gathered from your computer by cookies, you can set your browser to prompt you before it accepts a cookie. You can remove or block the use of web measurement and customization technologies by changing the setting of your browser to block cookies as described at https://www.usa.gov/optout_instructions.shtml.


text:
Will Germany's Nuke Phase-Out Mean Greener Energy?
House Fast-Tracks Bill to Limit EPA Power Over Mountaintop Coal Removal
A vote is expected next week on bipartisan legislation that would restrict the power of EPA rules covering mountaintop mining, waterways and wetlands
WASHINGTON—Conservationists knew that new GOP anti-regulatory muscle in the 112th Congress would be intent on debilitating landmark legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
But they're still taken aback by an attempt to incapacitate the latter in one fell swoop.
Next week, the full House is expected to vote on a fast-moving bipartisan bill that would elbow the federal government aside and elevate the power of state-level rules covering mountaintop-removal mining, waterways and wetlands. Even if it passes, however, the bill isn't expected to gain traction in the Senate.
Reps. Nick Rahall, a Democrat from the coal state of West Virginia where mining is king, and John Mica, a Republican from Florida where water pollution standards are less than well-defined, are swiftly shepherding the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011 () through their chamber.
Mica, Rahall and 34 other co-sponsors tout their bill as one that will restore a balanced partnership to a law that they say now subjugates state authority.
But none other than the challenges that conclusion. The agency claims the measure would "significantly undermine EPA's ability to ensure that state water quality standards are adequately protective and meet Clean Water Act requirements."
Environmentalists Alarmed; Industry Heartened
Advocacy organizations such as the interpret the bill as an attempt to prevent the EPA from reversing or overruling decisions that have to do with water quality limits and permits, as well as permits pertaining to the dredging and filling of waterways and wetlands.
"This is similar to what we see going on with the Clean Air Act," Steve Fleischli, an NRDC senior attorney and water specialist, told SolveClimate News in an interview. "It undermines the EPA's effort to do its job by attacking the underlying basis for the Clean Water Act. By taking the federal out of the federal Clean Water Act, it sets us back 40 years.
"Experience tells us that didn't work out that well," he continued, "and that we do need the Clean Water Act to level the playing field."
NRDC was one of 10 environmental groups signing a urging representatives to reject the bill.
Not surprisingly, the praised Mica and Rahall for taking the initiative to provide certainty for jobs and the Appalachian economy. The trade group blamed EPA for forcing the region to bear the brunt of regulatory overreach that stymies permits for coal mining.
"By restoring the long-standing balance between state and federal regulators in the permitting process," association president Hal Quinn said via , "mining operations, their vendors and suppliers and small businesses throughout the region can put more people to work, stimulate local economies and get back to producing energy for the nation."
Moving Mountaintops
Rahall has long criticized the EPA's handling of guidance on surface mining under the Obama administration. He claims that his home state is at a competitive disadvantage because the agency has put the mine permitting process in turmoil.
"The EPA has a legitimate role to play in the Clean Water Act permitting process, and, early on in this administration, many had high hopes that the EPA would provide the clarity and certainty that coal mining constituencies throughout Appalachia have been seeking for many years," the West Virginian at a May 5 oversight hearing of a . "Unfortunately, we have been disappointed as a result of guidance that the EPA issued in April of last year.
"As a result," he continued, "coal miners in my district are constantly concerned about losing their jobs, and communities fear that they will not generate sufficient revenue to support schools and to build basic infrastructure and provide basic services."
It's clear to observers how Rahall translated his frustrations with EPA into the legislation he penned with Mica.
For instance, the bill would hamstring the agency's ability to update water quality standards and EPA wouldn't have the teeth to force states to execute upgrades.
"The safety net that the Clean Water Act provides would be removed," Fleischli explained. "We'd go back to pre-1972 where states would set their own standards and interpret their own standards. It would undermine EPA's ability to protect waterways from mountaintop mining."
In that vein, the bill takes away EPA's authority to deny dredge and fill permits that the agency finds would degrade, bury or pollute a stream.
EPA States Its Case
EPA officials laid out their concerns with the Mica-Rahall bill in a four-page June 16 analysis presented to Rep. Tim Bishop. The New York Democrat is the ranking member of the Water, Resources and Environment Subcommittee.
Broadly, EPA stated that the measure would fundamentally change the federal-state relationship outlined in the 1972 Clean Water Act because it would hinder the agency's ability to ensure an equitable level of protection provided to waterways nationwide.
For instance, authors of the analysis pointed out that the whole idea behind federal review of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits is to create a "more-or-less level playing field."
"Restricting EPA's authority to ensure that states implement their programs as approved could lead to a race to the bottom as each state seeks to ensure that [its] program is no more stringent than the least-stringent state program," they wrote.
They also emphasized that the bill would thwart EPA's capacity to aid states put at risk by pollution flowing downstream from neighboring states because a state would be the final arbiter of whether a permit, license or standard protects water quality.
In addition, EPA officials stressed that the Mica-Rahall measure would keep EPA from intervening to protect local communities when the Army Corps of Engineers issues permits for inappropriate and poorly thought out projects such as mountaintop removal.
"This would fundamentally disrupt the structure established by the original Clean Water Act in 1972—a law that carefully constructed complementary roles for EPA, the Corps and the states," they wrote.
They added that the agency exercises its veto power over Army Corps permits only as a last resort when no other approach works to prevent unacceptable impacts. That has happened 13 times in the last 38-plus years.
Bill proponents dismissed EPA's arguments as being condescending to states because governors and legislators are dedicated to protecting waterways in their own back yards.
On the Fast Track
Though Mica and Rahall introduced their bill May 26, it wasn't subject to any hearing or scrutiny in the likely venue, the panel's Water, Resources and Environment Subcommittee, where Bishop is the ranking Democrat.
Instead, after a hasty announcement, it underwent a relatively quick markup in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee — which Mica chairs — before representatives approved it on a 35 to 19 vote June 22. Democratic Reps. Jason Altmire and Tim Holden, both of Pennsylvania, joined Rahall in voting yes.
Committee members failed to approve an amendment Bishop introduced at last Wednesday's hearing that was designed to preserve the federal safeguards of the Clean Water Act.
"It would be unacceptable for states to loosen their standards for water quality, allowing polluters to simply send their pollution downstream," . "Under the Clean Water Act, we've made progress from the days of rivers catching on fire, but that is absolutely not a reason to take a giant step backwards."
In at the June 22 hearing, Bishop complained that committee leadership hadn't given its members proper time to review the bill's potential consequences. Giving states permission to go it alone, he added, flies in the face of science, common sense and decades of EPA experience coordinating the Clean Water Act.
"This bill is a recipe for increased pollution, dirtier waters and more mountaintop removal mining," Jon Devine, one of Fleischli's fellow water program attorneys at NRDC. "Its supporters seem intent on taking us back to the good old days when rivers like the Cuyahoga caught fire and Lake Erie was declared dead."
Rep. John Sullivan's TRAIN Act Takes Aim at EPA
EPA's Greenhouse Gas Ruling Safe Despite Lawsuit, Legal Experts Say
In Its Crusade Against EPA Climate Rules, Has the GOP Gone Too Far?
State Clean Air Agencies Lose $112 Million in EPA Budget-Cutting
EPA Okays First Mountaintop Removal Mining Project Under New Guidelines
Show paged
Clean Air Act
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining


text:
Sony Pictures Network appoints Himanshu Bhagat as Associate VP - Marketing, Digital Business
Prior to this, he was working with ICICI Lombard as Associate VP, Digital Business.
Sony Pictures Networks India has recently appointed Himanshu Bhagat as associate vice president - marketing, digital business to manage the digital marketing function for revamped Sony LIV. Himanshu has an experience of 10 years across publisher, agency & marketing side in digital space. He has also worked across auto, insurance, finance, parenting, consumer & real estate verticals.
Prior to joining Sony Pictures, Himanshu was working with ICICI Lombard as associate vice president, digital business for 3 years . In the past Himanshu has also worked with BabyChakra, a parenting website and app as marketing head for a year. He was also the founder and CEO of Muggle Media, a digital consulting media firm. In the past, Himanshu has also worked with Gaadi.com, Maxus Global and Google.
Sony Pictures Network IndiaHimanshu Bhagat


Ultra 4K UHD Zoom Camera is a Photography app developed by arixmob. We only share original APK files. You can download and install the latest version of Ultra 4K UHD Zoom Camera APK from our direct download link. On this page we provide Ultra 4K UHD Zoom Camera 5.4 apk file for 4.0.3 and up .This is a free app listed in Photography category of apps. Use the download button on the top to download this apk. App Installs: 5000 +.