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Tag Archives: Netflix
How Hollywood Is Betting on Wonder Woman
Posted on November 21, 2020 by ddeal
Wonder Woman is changing with the times. When she squares off against Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984 (aka WW84) on December 25, she'll do so in movie theaters and on streaming service HBO Max. That's right: streaming services have been promoted to first-run status. Or maybe it's the other way around: movie studios are crawling to the streaming services.
Welcome to the rise of New Hollywood during the pandemic.
Old Hollywood Is in Trouble
Old Hollywood studios are in a terrible bind. Going into 2020, they'd scheduled their usual slate of big-budget blockbusters for global release in theaters around the world. Those titles included tentpole films such as Warner Brothers's WW84 and MGM's No Time to Die, the latest James Bond thriller and the last to star the ever-popular Daniel Craig as Bond. Hopes were high for both: WW84 followed 2017's lucrative Wonder Woman, and James Bond movies are perennial cash cows. These were also costly undertakings, with $500 million budgets between them.
That strategy depended on saturating movie theaters, the dependable cash-cow distribution system for Old Hollywood. True, going into 2020, movie theaters comprised a distribution system that was showing cracks in the seams, but it was still effective and dominant. Then the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything.
During the pandemic, movie theaters have experienced closures and dramatic declines in attendance. They're struggling to stay alive, thus denying Old Hollywood its essential revenue source. To put things in perspective:
Cinemark, one of the world's largest movie chains, reported third-quarter 2020 attendance of 1.9 million patrons — compared to 73.3 million for the third quarter of 2019. Revenue for the same period fell from $821 million to $35 million.
Rival chain AMC Theatres reported that attendance had dropped from 87.1 million in the third quarter of 2019 to 6.5 million in the third quarter of 2020. Revenue fell from $1.3 billion to $119.5 million.
Meanwhile, the New Hollywood entertainment companies, whose businesses depend on streaming, are flourishing.
New Hollywood Rising
New Hollywood business such as Amazon Video, Hulu, and Netflix were already gaining considerable power by creating their own original content, winning Academy Awards, attracting visionary talent, and gaining subscribers. Some Old Hollywood brands such as Disney and WarnerMedia noticed and acted. Disney took an ownership stake in Hulu and launched its own vaunted streaming service, Disney+, in 2019, two moves that might have saved the company. WarnerMedia, through its ownership of HBO, launched HBO Max in 2020, thus creating a streaming outlet for the movie catalog from Warner Brothers (owned by WarnerMedia).
Disney acted just in time. In 2020, as people got used to staying home more during the pandemic, subscriber totals for streaming services skyrocketed, including an astounding 73 million for Disney+ in less than a year. The jury is still out for HBO Max. The service hit the market late, and it's hampered by a confusing brand extension problem (to wit: how exactly does HBO Max differ from other HBO offerings available?).
Hard Choices for Old Hollywood
So what's an Old Hollywood movie studio going to do with its movie inventory?
One option is to take your chances and distribute your films through movie theaters, which means taking the plunge now or postponing your release until audiences feel safe to return to theaters. Warner Brothers adopted the former approach by releasing Christopher Nolan's latest film, Tenet, in theaters on September 3, and the movie is on pace to lose $50 million to $100 million.
But waiting until audiences feel safe to return to theaters presents a huge question mark: when will that date arrive? No one knows.
Another option, which some studios are choosing, is selling distribution rights of movies to streaming services such as Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix. Meanwhile, Disney is in the unusual position of being able to release its own movies on a platform with a growing subscribership, Disney+. That's what Disney did with the release of Mulan in September, which turned out to be a smart strategy, financially speaking. And that's how Disney will distribute its latest Pixar film, Soul, on December 25.
But for studios without their own streaming service, selling distribution rights isn't an easy choice — not if you have already sunk millions into film costs and were relying on movie theaters to make a profit. MGM had originally slated No Time to Die for a May 2020 release. But as the pandemic worsened, MGM delayed the release of the movie to November 2020 — and then to April 2021. Meanwhile, as reported in Variety, MGM shopped No Time to Die to streaming platforms such as Apple TV+ and Netflix. But the film has a staggering $301 million budget, and to recoup that cost, MGM offered a price between $600 million and $850 million, which was unacceptably high to Apple and Netflix.
Now MGM is like a homeowner who sinks a fortune into improving the house only to find no buyers on the market. And James Bond is left cooling his heels unless MGM lowers its sale price or some sort of miracle happens in 2021 to convince people to go to theaters again. It should be noted that the stock for AMC and Cinemark rose after Pfizer announced a vaccine breakthrough — a glimmer of hope.
The WW84 Saga
Warner Brothers faced a similar dilemma with WW84. Warner Brothers originally planned to release WW84 as a summer tentpole movie in 2020. There was talk of a potential $1 billion gross in ticket sales. As the pandemic worsened, Warner Brothers moved the release date to Christmas Day. Deadline reported that Warner Brothers would postpone the movie release again until 2021. But Warner Brothers had already moved the release date five times going back to 2019, raising the question of whether further delays might cause audiences to lose interest completely. As Variety reported:
[T]he studio couldn't delay the release of "Wonder Woman 1984" indefinitely. The movie was filmed and completed in 2018, which seems like an eternity ago given everything that's happened in the last few months. There was a sense that sequel would get stale if they waited until summer or next fall — four years after "Wonder Woman" premiered. Even with several promising vaccines, there's no guarantee that the world will return to some kind of normal in a matter of months.
Instead, Warner Brothers pulled the trigger with a hybrid approach for Christmas Day. The film will debut theatrically in international markets that do not have HBO Max on December 16, 2020. Instead of banking on WW84raking in $1 billion, Warner Brothers is counting on the movie to drive sign-ups for HBO Max, whose 8.6 million current subscribers pales in comparison to rivals such as Netflix (196 million subscribers), Amazon Prime (150 million), and Disney+ (73 million as noted). HBO Max also counts a potential 28.7 million HBO pay TV customers who are eligible to subscribe to HBO Max but have not activated their membership. Perhaps the movie will inspire them in addition to attracting more.
As for movie theater distribution, Warner Brothers will need to bank on international sales with half of all U.S. movie theaters closed — and who knows how many more will by December 25 as the pandemic worsens? As a sign of how desperate theaters are, AMC Theatres CEO and President Adam Aron said he supports WW84's hybrid strategy, which normally would have been a slap in the face to theaters depending on the revenue from a first-run:
For many months, AMC has been in active and deep dialogue with Warner Brothers to figure out how best this cinematic blockbuster could be seen at AMC Theatres in these unprecedented times . . . Given that atypical circumstances call for atypical economic relationships between studios and theatres, and atypical windows and releasing strategies, AMC is fully onboard for Warner Brothers' announcement today.
Indeed, earlier in 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, AMC Theatres refused to play any of Universal's films when Universal opened Trolls World Tour via video on demand and in theaters simultaneously. Universal made the right move, though: amid widespread closures of movie theaters, the video rental revenue saved the movie financially.
Now movie theaters are not only onboard with the studios — they're also forging new relationships with them. Universal has struck deals with both AMC Theatres and Cinemark to shorten the theatrical windows of Universal releases to 17 days, with Universal sharing video-on-demand sales with the theaters. These agreements are highly unusual. But desperate times call for new thinking.
Movie theaters were already in decline before the pandemic hit. In 2019, ticket sales in North America totaled $11.4 billion, down 4 percent from 2018. As Brooks Barnes and Nicole Sperling of The New York Times reported in March,
Looking at the last 20 years of attendance figures, the number of tickets sold in North America peaked in 2002, when cinemas sold about 1.6 billion. In 2019, attendance totaled roughly 1.2 billion, a 25 percent drop — even as the population of the United States increased roughly 15 percent. Cinemas have kept ticket revenue high by raising prices, but studio executives say there is limited room for continued escalation. Offerings in theaters may also grow more constrained. Even before the pandemic, major studios were starting to route smaller dramas and comedies toward streaming services instead of theaters.
Now theaters might be dead. The questions for Warner Brothers and WW84now are: is there enough life left in movie theaters, and will WW84 deliver a breakthrough for the fledgling HBO Max? The answers will shape the future of the film industry.
Posted in Movies	| Tagged David Deal, Disney, Netflix, No Time to Die, Superhype, Warner Brothers, Wonder Woman, WW84	| Leave a reply
Why Old Hollywood Will Win at the 2020 Academy Awards
Posted on February 8, 2020 by ddeal
Last year at this time, the Academy Awards were buzzing with anticipation about Netflix possibly cleaning up at the Oscars. There was a very real possibility that the Netflix-produced Roma would become the first Academy Award Best Picture winner from a streaming company (which didn't happen – although Roma won three Oscars). But even though Netflix landed 24 Oscar nominees in 2020, the 92nd Academy Awards are shaping up to be a victory for Old Hollywood studios, not the New Hollywood streaming companies.
Old Hollywood versus New Hollywood
There is a war waging between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood.
Old Hollywood is composed of well-established studios that earn their money largely by making crowd-pleasing movies distributed through traditional movie theaters. New Hollywood consists of streaming companies that finance storytellers who want to create daring, original work that sometimes challenges audiences. And they've joined forces with streaming companies for many reasons, such as Old Hollywood not financing their work, and New Hollywood making them lucrative offers.
New Hollywood has steadily attracted big-name talent consisting of Old Hollywood executives and storytellers. For example, New Hollywood has attracted the likes of:
Tamara Hunter, formerly with Sony, who became head of casting for Apple.
Storytellers such as Alfonso Cuarón (who made Roma with Netflix), Martin Scorsese (whose The Irishman was financed by Netflix), Viola Davis, and Forest Whitaker (Davis and Whitaker signed production deals with Amazon Studios in recent years).
As The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019, Netflix alone has been so successful at attracting talent that the company is changing how Old Hollywood studios compensate talent.
It's not accurate to say New Hollywood has disrupted Old Hollywood; more like New Hollywood has morphed out of Old Hollywood. And neither Old Hollywood nor New Hollywood has an exclusive lock on talent. All that said, Martin Scorsese's widely reported diatribe against Marvel movies only hints at the resentment that New Hollywood artists feel about the way they've been treated by Old Hollywood studios. Old Hollywood companies, in turn, resent the way streaming businesses have developed movies with a streaming-first mentality, largely bypassing movie theaters and then expecting to have their films treated with the same respect and consideration accorded to films produced the traditional way.
New Hollywood Gains Ground
New Hollywood is gaining ground when it comes to gaining artistic legitimacy. But this will not be a shining year for New Hollywood productions that have been nominated for major Oscars, most notably Netflix, which leads all studios with 24 Oscar nominations.
Netflix's most prominent noms include The Irishman (with 10), Marriage Story (six), and The Two Popes (three). The Irishman and Marriage Story are nominated for Best Picture. But being nominated and winning are not the same. In 2020, Netflix secured several Golden Globes nominations but was largely shut out. And the same thing will likely happen at the Oscars. The film pundits are predicting a poor showing for Netflix, and they're probably right. Here's why:
1 Netflix Faces Stiff Competition
Netflix-produced nominees are up against an extraordinary field of films, such as 1917, Once upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, and Parasite. Old Hollywood studios showered the world with strong, critically acclaimed movies that also happen to be the types of movies that Oscar loves. Sony Pictures's Once upon a Time . . . in Hollywood is not only a career highwater mark for Quentin Tarantino, it's also a movie about Hollywood – and Hollywood loves movies about itself. Universal/Amblin Partners's 1917 is not only a career achievement for director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins, it's also the kind of sweeping, emotional drama that wins Oscars.
By most accounts, 1917 is the front runner, which has gained momentum following major wins at the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes. If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is going to reward a more daring, independent movie, look for Bong Joon-ho's Parasite to get the nod.
Parasite wowed audiences on its release, but its popularity might have peaked too soon. In 2019, Roma showed that a foreign film could get serious consideration for Best Picture. Roma may have paved the way for Parasite.
2 Netflix Did Not Make Movies That Oscar Loves
On the other hand, Netflix's offerings, while impressive, are not easy for the Academy to fall in love with. For example, The Irishman is long (well over three hours) and bleak (gangsters face the ravages of aging). One wonders how many members of the Academy saw The Irishman all the way through. Marriage Story is also downbeat, telling the tale of a crumbling marriage (as one Academy voter said anonymously, " . . . it's getting harder and harder for me to care about entitled people's marital relationships"). The very attributes that made the films personal works for their directors have likely turned off Academy voters. Although you could argue that 1917 is bleak, the movie's grand scale and compelling portrayal of an underdog soldier fighting the odds play well with the Academy.
3 Old Hollywood Wants to Put New Hollywood in Its Place
The identifies of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters is a secret, but they're widely perceived to represent the Old Hollywood establishment. The Academy has made changes over the past few years in an attempt to be more progressive and diverse, with mixed results. But it's fair to assume that the Academy still represents an Old Hollywood perspective, which is decidedly anti-Netflix. As Brooks Barnes and Nicole Sperling of The New York Times wrote, "The academy's old guard has resisted a dogged push by Netflix to join the best picture club, arguing that, since the streaming service does not release its films in a traditional theatrical manner, its offerings should be better considered by Emmy voters. (Helen Mirren, onstage at the most recent National Association of Theater Owners convention, used an expletive to refer to the company.)"
Of course, tastes are subjective. (If I could wave a magic wand, Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood would win all the awards for which it is nominated.) But it's only a matter of time before New Hollywood productions win Best Picture awards regularly. That's because the Academy voters, whose composition is already changing, will eventually be composed of people who have grown up in New Hollywood. Meanwhile, the power holders of Old Hollywood will eventually pass away. As they do, they'll take to the grave their animosity toward New Hollywood. As a result, streaming companies will establish a new normal for filmmaking. The question won't be, "Can Netflix upstage the establishment?" but "Who is going to beat Netflix this year?"
Posted in Movies	| Tagged 1917, Academy Awards, Bong Joon-ho, David Deal, Marriage Story, Martin Scorsese, Netflix, New Hollywood, Old Hollywood, Once upon a time in hollywood, Oscars, Parasite, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Mendes, Superhype, The Irishman	| Leave a reply
Why Netflix and New Hollywood Have Won the Golden Globe Awards Already
Posted on December 10, 2019 by ddeal
The 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards nominations, announced December 9, constitute an emphatic victory for Netflix in its ongoing war with Old Hollywood.
Netflix, the leading New Hollywood entertainment company, secured 17 nominations in film categories, an all-time Golden Globe Awards high for Netflix. The noms include Best Motion Picture – Drama for Netflix originals Marriage Story, The Irishman, and The Two Popes.
No one achieved as many film nominations as Netflix did. The runner up, Sony Pictures, got 10. New Hollywood rival Amazon Studios got two noms.
And to think: Netflix only began creating original content in 2013 and its first original film in 2015.
These nominations are important because the Golden Globes are considered a preview of Academy Award nominations. (The 77th Golden Globes are broadcast on January 5, 2020. The 91st Academy Awards happen February 9.)
Netflix Creates a Home for New Hollywood Artists
Netflix has accelerated its growth by becoming a home for New Hollywood artists. New Hollywood storytellers create daring, original work that challenges audiences instead of comforting them with predictable tropes. New Hollywood artists are willing to work outside the traditional studio system and finance their films with New Hollywood entertainment companies such as Amazon Studios and Netflix. In turn, New Hollywood companies stream their movies (complemented by limited runs in theaters), thus disrupting the traditional way of distributing movies through theaters exclusively.
Martin Scorsese: New Hollywood Master
The first wave of New Hollywood storytellers, such as Martin Scorsese, have emerged from Old Hollywood. Scorsese's latest film, The Irishman, is a risky, expensive epic clocking in at more than 3 hours. It's a demanding and emotionally draining tale of gangsters facing the consequences of their violent lives. Old Hollywood studios wouldn't finance The Irishman. So he partnered with Netflix.
Scorsese learned that working with New Hollywood creates complications. Netflix distributed the movie for a short period of time in theaters, causing a rift with theaters. Scorsese would have preferred that The Irishman be experienced on the big screen, and he fretted over people streaming the movie on small devices. In addition, he had to accept the reality that even though The Irishman scored strong viewing ratings when it dropped Thanksgiving weekend, many viewers didn't watch the movie all the way through.
But what choice did Martin Scorsese have? Despite his career achievements, and despite his obvious mastery of the gangster genre, this legendary director couldn't get a studio to finance The Irishman. It's the same situation Alfonso Cuarón faced when he made his critically acclaimed Roma, distributed by Netflix in 2018. As Cuarón said of Roma,
My question to you is, how many theaters did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars — how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release? I just hope the discussion between Netflix and platforms in general should be over. I think those guys, platforms and theatrical, should go together . . . They both together can elevate cinema, and more important, they can create a diversity in cinema.
As Scorsese said recently at the BFI London Film Festival, "There's no doubt that seeing a film with an audience is really important. There is a problem though: we have to make the film. We've run out of room, in a sense; there was no room for us to make this picture, for many reasons."
Netflix gave him room.
Fernando Meirelles and The Two Popes
Another Netflix movie that scored multiple Golden Globe Awards nominations, The Two Popes, may not have received as much attention as The Irishman. But securing two acting noms, a writing nom, and director nom should help. The movie's director, Fernando Meirelles, is another storyteller noted for making original art, including his acclaimed City of God. When The Hollywood Reporter asked him about creating The Two Popes with Netflix, he said,
With Netflix and the platforms, it is a great moment for cinema because five years ago the studios would have to make films that were for a broader audience. So for whatever story you made, you wanted big names to make the story more appealing for a bigger audience. With Netflix they have a much broader potential audience. So if you do a niche film, say on LGBT or a film on the church, or a film like Roma, no studio would have produced a black and white film in Spanish without known actors. But with a platform it is possible. I know Netflix in India is producing 18 films plus 22 series. This wouldn't happen with the other system. Now we can have very specific films for specific audiences. I am very excited about this new moment in cinema.
The Two Popes is certainly a specific film for a specific audience, focusing on Pope Benedict and future Pope Francis finding a common ground as they chart a future for the Catholic Church – not exactly an Old Hollywood crowd pleaser like a Marvel movie is.
(And speaking of Marvel: like Martin Scorsese, Fernando Meirelles has a low opinion of Marvel. As he told The Hollywood Reporter: "I know that they are big but I don't watch them. I mean, I like the technique, sometimes I watch fragments and trailers and all the VFX and the production is really spectacular, really first class people are involved. But I can't engage with the story, I get sleepy. Sometimes I watch those at the cinema and after half an hour I am sleepy. It's very overwhelming. It doesn't interest me at all.)
Noah Baumbach: "People Have a Choice"
Marriage Story, with six nominations, achieved more Golden Globe nominations than any other movie, period. Here is another demanding and difficult film from an original voice, Noah Baumbach. He is known for making intensely personal stories such as The Squid and the Whale – a quintessential New Hollywood voice. With Marriage Story, Baumbach takes on the topic of divorce, drawing from his own life.
Like Scorsese, he would prefer people watch the movie in theaters. The price of working with Netflix is accepting a limited movie release. But the upside of working with Netflix is finding an audience. As he told Esquire,
My movies have always started small and then rolled out. So this release will be very similar to what I'm used to. I love that people are going to get to see this movie in theatres. After that, it's going to get an audience on Netflix that my movies in the past would not get, no question. People have a choice: they can wait to see it on Netflix or go and see it first on the big screen.
All of Netflix's nominations face formidable competition, including Joker, 1917, Once upon a Time in Hollywood, and Parasite, all of which scored nominations in major film categories. But regardless of what happens when the Golden Globe Awards winners are announced on January 5, New Hollywood has won. Netflix has scored a major victory: 17 nominations are not a fluke. And when Netflix wins, New Hollywood artists win. Each Netflix nomination is an affirmation for storytellers who want to make personal, risky films that might not appeal to everyone — works that might take time to build a fan base beyond the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Filmmakers are competing not only with blockbuster movies. They're also competing with games, music streaming, podcasts, user-generated content (e.g., TikTok), and many other distractions across online and offline media.
These artists need a home like Netflix.
Posted in Movies	| Tagged David Deal, Fernando Meirelles, Golden Globe Awards, Marriage Story, Martin Scorsese, Netflix, Noah Baumbach, The Irishman, The Two Popes	| Leave a reply
Apple TV+ Needs Cultural Relevance — and "Dickinson" Delivers It
Disney+ has The Mandalorian. Netflix has Stranger Things. What does Apple TV+ have to capture our imaginations and light the internet on fire?
Well, nothing approaching Stranger Things or The Mandalorian-level of widespread excitement. But the Apple TV+ show Dickinson is quickly building momentum and delivering what Apple TV+ needs: cultural relevance.
Why Cultural Relevance Matters
Cultural relevance is essential for any entertainment company to succeed in the long run. Brands become culturally relevant when they connect with an audience through their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Sometimes cultural relevance means shaping attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, too. When brands achieve cultural relevance, they become so inextricably linked with our lives that we become lifelong members of their tribes.
Disney Masters Cultural Relevance
Disney is the master of cultural relevance. Mickey Mouse is more than a popular animated character. Mickey Mouse is an international symbol of childhood. Frozen is a pop culture phenomenon. The Lion King introduced the words "Hakuna Matata" to millions of people. The Little Mermaid inspired cosplayers for generations to come. And now, Disney+ is having a culturally relevant moment with The Mandalorian.
Almost immediately, The Mandalorian sparked passionate conversations on social media about Baby Yoda, Boba Fett, and Star Wars lore. I've not seen social media explode with such ferocity over a pop culture phenomenon since Pokémon GO hit. The Mandalorian did something else: it became the most in-demand original streaming TV show in the United States, unseating Netflix's Stranger Things. Is it any surprise that Disney+ achieved more than 10 million subscribers on launch day? And all this excitement hit in time to unleash related merchandise for the holiday shopping season.
Netflix Defines Cultural Relevance
Netflix, meanwhile, released Season 3 of The Crown on November 4. Here is a wildly popular show that connects with American audiences by tapping into Americans' longstanding fascination with the Royal Family. The Crown inspired a wide range of commentary, some connecting the show to contemporary American politics, others offering insight into the importance of Welsh language. And the Royal Family itself commented on the opening episode.
This is what culturally relevant shows do. They inspire conversation that transcends the show itself. Among the streaming companies, Netflix has created the gold standard for cultural relevance (although Disney may catch up and then some). Stranger Things has become a pop culture sensation by tapping into 1980s nostalgia (and arguably engineering that nostalgia). Tidying up with Marie Kondo connects with an American materialism (and its consequences) so profoundly that the show actually created a spike in donations to thrift stores. This is the entertainment company that changed how we watched TV and is responsible for vernacular such as "Netflix and chill."
Along Comes Apple TV+
Now, what about Apple TV+, which launched on November 4? Well, the results are mixed, and Apple TV+ has been outflanked by The Mandalorian. The much hyped The Morning Show has failed to catch fire. Apple has delayed the release of theatrical film The Banker amid allegations of misconduct against one of the movie's producers. But on the other hand, a lesser known series, Dickinson, has been steadily building a fan base.
On the surface, Dickinson focuses on the life of poet Emily Dickinson. But what makes Dickinson culturally relevant is that it's more than the story of a poet. It's a perfectly timed statement about female and LGBTQ+ empowerment. In addition, the casting is smart. For instance, Hailee Steinfeld, who portrays Emily Dickinson, connects effectively with Gen Z and the LGBTQ+ community. Wiz Khalifa, who portrays a personification of death, is highly relevant to music, fashion, and weed culture. And the show's soundtrack, featuring artists ranging from A$AP Rocky to Billie Eilish, is a Millennial's dream. As such, Dickinson is rapidly creating a fan base who call themselves "Dickheads," and the show has inspired the term "Sexy Dickinson." Now this is what cultural relevance looks like:
Dickinson has already been renewed for another season.
Keep an Eye on Apple TV+
Creating cultural relevance requires an insight into consumer behavior, the agility to rapidly create content that taps into this behavior, and a platform to share that content at scale. Apple has the platform for Apple TV+ through Apple TV (and a new Apple TV app). As a media brand, Apple is getting better at tapping into consumer behavior and creating the right content. We all remember how Apple stumbled badly with its ill-fated forced download of U2's Songs of Innocence album in 2014 – a miscalculation of consumer behavior (streaming was overtaking downloading, and people resented being forced to download music they did not ask for) and taste (U2 was out of fashion). But since then, Apple has adapted by launching a streaming service that now dominates the industry along with Spotify.
Apple played catch-up and then became a leader in music streaming by becoming more culturally relevant with content that connects to millennial tastes, such as the Up Next program for developing artists and first-look album drops by artists such as Chance the Rapper and Drake. Original content alone was not the answer to the rise of Apple Music – culturally relevant content that connects emotionally was.
Apple TV+ has a long way to go before it attains cultural relevance. But Dickinson is a clear win. In addition, Apple has plenty of cash – and a lot of patience. You can be sure Apple is figuring out how to create its next Dickinson.
Posted in Apple, Entertainment	| Tagged Apple, Apple TV, David Deal, Dickinson, Disney, Netflix, Stranger Things, Superhype, The Crown, The Mandalorian, Wiz Khalifa	| Leave a reply
Old Hollywood Loses Its Grip while Netflix Soars
Posted on March 9, 2019 by ddeal
Steven Spielberg has seen the future, and he doesn't like it one bit.
At the 91stAcademy Awards, Netflix took home four Oscars including three for Roma, which had been nominated for Best Picture. In addition, Amazon Studios and Hulu both achieved Oscar nominations. Spielberg dislikes the notion of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominating movies from companies that stream movies in homes. So he reportedly wants to change the rules to block Netflix and its streaming competitors from nominating movies for the Oscars.
And Steven Spielberg is dead wrong.
Spielberg believes in the purity of the big screen and the joy of experiencing a movie in a theater. He wants to keep a sharp distinction between movies shown in theaters and movies made by streaming services. As he told British TV network ITV News in 2018, "Once you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie. I don't believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination."
With Amazon Studios, Hulu, and Netflix landing multiple nominations at the 91stAcademy Awards, apparently he's feeling threated. A spokesperson for Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment told IndieWire's Anne Thompson, "Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation. He'll be happy if the others will join [his campaign] when that comes up [at the Academy Board of Governors meeting]. He will see what happens."
Defenders of Old Hollywood believe the Academy's nomination rules are too lax. A movie need not be distributed exclusively in a movie theater to qualify; a movie simply needs to appear in theaters. In addition, Hollywood studios follow an unwritten rule that movies should appear in theaters for at least 90 days before becoming available on video or streaming. Netflix doesn't play be those rules. For instance, Netflix's Roma appeared exclusively in theaters for only three weeks. A rule change could, say, require Oscar nominees to make movies available for a minimum period of time.
Reports of Spielberg wanting to change the Oscar nomination rules have been disputed, but the controversy has drawn attention to his opposition of streaming services – an opposition is on the wrong side of history for a number of reasons, including:
Viewing Habits Are Changing
There's a reason Netflix has become one of the biggest brands in the world. Audiences want the flexibility of seeing movies on their own terms: at home, on the go, and in theaters. Streaming services are accommodating them. When recently I moderated a discussion about Old Hollywood versus Netflix on my Facebook page, Facebooker Brian Schultz summed one of the reasons why viewers want choice:
The theatrical experience isn't what it used to be. Projection quality differs from theatre to theatre, too many previews, rude ass moviegoers, and high ticket prices make staying at home a better option.
You can see some movies from streaming companies in theaters, too. You could have seen Amazon Studios' Cold War (nominated for Best Foreign Language Film) and Roma in theaters, on a TV screen, or on a device. (I prefer seeing movies on big screens. But I don't always have the time and money to go to the movies. I saw Roma at home and Cold War in a theater. Both experiences were equally satisfying.)
And streaming is becoming even bigger. Disney will soon launch its own service, Disney+. AT&T will launch its own streaming service, capitalizing on its ownership of Time Warner to feature content from WarnerMedia, a newly formed entity that includes HBO and Turner Broadcasting.
Old Hollywood's war against streaming is going to be harder to fight, especially with Disney putting its muscle behind streaming. You don't mess with the Mouse.
Streaming Services Offer Alternatives for Artists
Roma is an intensely personal movie from Alfonso Cuarón, who previously won multiple Oscars for directing Gravity. When Roma won multiple Golden Globe Awards in January, Cuarón was asked to comment on a perception that Netflix is threatening independent cinema. He replied:
My question to you is, how many theaters did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars — how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release? I just hope the discussion between Netflix and platforms in general should be over. I think those guys, platforms and theatrical, should go together . . . They both together can elevate cinema, and more important, they can create a diversity in cinema.
Anne Thompson of IndieWire recently provided some inside baseball on how Netflix ended up with Roma:
The studios could have acquired "Roma." Participant showed ten minutes of footage to seven companies with global distribution. There were no passes and three offers. Four companies explained that because a black-and-white film in Spanish would not qualify for their Pay-TV output deals, they needed to see the film (which was still in post and not available to screen). Once they could see the film they'd be able to seek a waiver from their Pay-TV output partners, as The Weinstein Co. did on "The Artist."
Participant explored the three offers and after a month-long negotiation landed on Netflix, which gave the most persuasive (and financially viable) marketing, distribution, and awards commitment. The studios weren't willing to step up to Netflix's bid for worldwide rights (a bit more than $20 million), which included a commitment for a substantial global theatrical release (excluding China — which Participant kept and will open in theaters, having just passed the censors).
Alfonso Cuarón is not the only big-name director working with Netflix. Even an Old Hollywood stalwart like Martin Scorsese is leaping into the arms of Netflix. Scorsese's forthcoming movie, The Irishman, will be distributed by Netflix in theaters and via streaming. The movie is reportedly a long-time passion project of Scorsese's. Commenting on Netflix's involvement in the film, he said, "People such as Netflix are taking risks. 'The Irishman' is a risky film. No one else wanted to fund the pic for five to seven years. And of course we're all getting older. Netflix took the risk."
An Interesting Turn
The debate could take an interesting turn if a major streaming service such as Netflix cracks into the movie business. The idea is not far-fetched. In 2018, Netflix was rumored to be a potential buyer for Landmark Theaters but reportedly backed out due to the cost. Nevertheless, speculation remains that Netflix may crack into theaters in 2019. Rationale:
Theaters give Netflix a way to distribute more movies eligible for the Oscars (Netflix aired Roma in theaters so that it would qualify for an Oscar, but its relationship with theater chains is uneasy.)
Theaters also give Netflix another revenue stream for branded merchandise and concessions. Netflix already licenses Stranger Things merchandise through retailers. Theaters would give Netflix a channel to sell merch by itself.
Given the enormous cost of developing content, Netflix may stay firmly rooted in streaming for the near term, making Amazon a more likely candidate to buy a movie theater chain (also not a far-fetched notion with Amazon expanding into the brick-and-mortar grocery and retail industries).
Something Is Happening Here
Meanwhile, Netflix addressed the Old Hollywood-versus-Netflix story with a thoughtful Tweet:
Which evoked replies such as these:
Instead of trying to move the goal line for streaming companies, the defenders of Old Hollywood need to ask why exciting directors such as Alfonso Cuarón are turning to streaming companies and why businesses such as Disney are changing with the times, too. Old Hollywood can change just as record labels eventually adapted their business models for music streaming. Meanwhile, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Spielberg?
Posted in Movies	| Tagged Academy Awards, Alfonso Cuaron, Amazon Studios, David Deal, Disney, Hulu, Netflix, Oscars, Roma, Steven Spielberg, Superhype	| 1 Reply
How Netflix Creates Cultural Relevance
Posted on January 27, 2019 by ddeal
Tidying up with Marie Kondo is more than a Netflix reality television series about an organizing consultant who helps people de-clutter their homes. It's a cultural phenomenon. Since Netflix aired eight episodes January 1, Tidying up with Marie Kondo has sparked a discussion about Japanese culture, the role of books in our lives, our societal pursuit of happiness, and materialism, among other topics. The show also demonstrates a major advantage Netflix wields against Amazon Video and Hulu: cultural relevance.
Tidying up with Marie Kondo is one of many examples of how Netflix seeps into our everyday culture by creating relevant content and even shaping our behavior. Netflix is not the only streaming service to create content that taps into the cultural zeitgeist – Hulu does so in spades with The Handmaid's Tale. But Netflix creates cultural relevance more consistently and in more ways.
Prophet Brand Relevance Index
According to the Prophet Brand Relevance Index, Netflix is the fourth-most relevant brand in the United States, behind Pinterest, Amazon, and Apple and ahead of companies such as Google and Nike. Amazon ranks ahead of Netflix not because of its streaming service but because of its ecommerce leadership – an important distinction. Amazon Video creates original content as a means to an end – to gain more Prime members for Amazon. Netflix lives and dies by the strength of its content. And the difference shows.
According to Prophet, "[Netflix's] relevance comes from knowing what we want to watch, which means old favorites and $12 billion worth of exciting new projects, including contracts with executive producer Shonda Rhimes, director Spike Lee and former President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama."
Creating Cultural Relevance
Prophet focused on consumer relevance. Netflix's cultural relevance goes beyond knowing what we want to watch although content is one important element. Cultural relevance means influencing how we talk, how we behave, how we work, and, yes, what we watch. Here are some examples:
Netflix is part of our everyday vernacular. You don't hear anyone refer to "Hulu and Chill" or "Amazon Video and Chill" as a euphemism for having sex. And let's not even consider a world in which "Disney+ and Chill" catches on once Disney launches its own streaming service, Disney+. "Netflix and Chill" has become so common we don't necessarily equate the phrase with its original meaning. The article "Netflix and Chill . . . and Share it on Instagram Stories" by Geoff Desreumaux certainly does not refer to hooking up. And I'm pretty sure investor Dan Victor wasn't thinking about getting some afternoon delight when he wrote the Seeking Alpha financial analysis of Netflix, "Buy Netflix and Chill – It's Going Back to $400."
"Netflix and chill" is not the only example of Netflix-related phrases that have worked their way into our vocabulary. For instance, "Netflix cheating" is the act of watching episodes of a Netflix series ahead of your partner. Netflexting occurs when two people watch a Netflix show in different locations and text each other at the same time. Netflix block happens when you scroll through your Netflix queue and cannot settle on something to watch. Here are more phrases that demonstrate Netflix achieving cultural relevance through our vocabulary.
Netflix is capable of creating a cultural phenomenon, as seen with Tidying up with Marie Kondo and Dear White People, the latter of which has attained relevance through the ongoing societal conversation about race and white privilege. Perhaps the best example of the Netflix effect is the popularity of Strangers Things, which has become a catalyst for 1980s nostalgia, an inspiration for cosplayers, and a musical tastemaker (to the regret of "Africa" haters everywhere). In fact, it's a global phenomenon.
The cultural relevance with content occurs two ways:
Creating content from another medium that has already attracted an audience (Tidying up with Marie Kondo was already a well-known book, and Dear White People was a notable movie first).
Releasing content that becomes so popular that its success transcends its original medium, which is what happened with Stranger Things.
In fact, most of Netflix's original content does not enter the cultural mainstream the way Stranger Things has done. But Netflix hits the mark more than anyone else.
Netflix is actually changing our behavior. When Netflix began dropping all episodes of its new TV shows simultaneously, we responded by changing how we watch TV. Thanks to Netflix, we consume show after show for hours at a time. We now watch what we want when we want it, instead of a network making us wait for a weekly broadcast. The phrase "binge-watch" became the Collins English Dictionary word of the year in 2015. Four years later, we're still talking about binge watching. Mashable devotes a section of its news content to binge watching. And you can get paid to binge watch. Binge watching is bigger than ever.
Highly Aligned, and Loosely Coupled
Netflix is also culturally relevant to the workplace. Netflix is well known among management consultants and the HR community for the way the company operates. Netflix is known for its "highly aligned, loosely coupled" approach of setting a clear strategy but empowering work teams to act autonomously. We now have PhD-level management consultants extolling the "7 Aspects of Netflix's Company Culture That You'll Want to Copy." Its 2009 Culture Deck is called "the BIG DADDY of culture decks." Its technology blog is also popular among product developers and engineers throughout the workplace. Amazon is also closely followed for its management practices – but here again, I'm focusing on the streaming business, where Amazon Video doesn't create the kind of conversation for its business practices that Netflix does.
But cultural relevance is fleeting. You can't manufacture cultural relevance on demand although you can improve your odds by adapting already-popular content that has been tested in another medium, as with Tidying up with Marie Kondo and Dear White People. So far, Netflix sets the pace. But it will be interesting to see what happens when Disney launches Disney+. Disney wrote the book on cultural relevance and is well positioned to challenge Netflix with its Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars brands (Star Wars created the template for phenomenon such as Stranger Things). The key will be how well Disney draws upon these popular names to create new content, which it plans to do with shows such as original episodes coming from Marvel. Disney+ will be an extremely costly venture. But Disney has very deep pockets, while Netflix is under constant pressure from investors for its spending. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has his work cut out for him. But I think he's up for the challenge. And he's operating with a big head start and an ability to do things that no one else sees coming, such as introducing binge watching.
The next frontier for Netflix will be to create cultural relevance in international markets such as India, which is proving to be an enormously difficult task. In India, Netflix also has its hands full with local competitors such as Hotstar. Because of its cash burn rate, Netflix is under more pressure to ramp up faster in markets such as India. The race is on – and the next several months will prove to be exciting.
Posted in Entertainment	| Tagged Amazon Video, David Deal, Dear White People, Hulu, Netflix, Reed Hastings, Superhype, Tidying up with Marie Kondo	| 2 Replies
Netflix Keeps the Film Industry on Its Heels with "Roma" Nomination
When I started renting movies from Netflix years ago, I never dreamed the company that sent me DVDs in the mail and then started streaming films would someday create movies. I certainly never considered Netflix capable of an Academy Award Best Picture nominee. And yet here Netflix is, snagging a Best Picture Academy Award nomination for Roma– among 10 nominations the film has achieved. This is what visionaries do. They create a future that you did not see coming. Consider these other examples:
When you were buying books from Amazon back in the day, did you foresee the company running a multi-billion dollar cloud computing business, getting into pharmaceuticals, and owning a grocery chain?
When you were watching ads for Apple desktop computers and cute clamshell laptops, did you see Apple becoming a personal wellness company?
When Google made it easier to search for things online, did you think the company might someday sell virtual reality gear?
There is a price to pay for being a visionary. Netflix has:
Spent billions to create original content — $13 billion in 2018.
Alienated the establishment, such as the Cannes Film Festival, which literally changed the rules of its own competition to block Netflix.
Created a cottage industry of doubters, mostly investors who cannot abide its cash burn.
At the same time, we all know what a visionary such as Netflix is capable of. Netflix does not disrupt industries. It creates them. Netflix has created a new model for hosting content and creating it. For being a movie distributor and TV network. For manufacturing popular culture. And now Netflix is making history. Not only is Roma a Best Picture nominee, it also boasts the the first-ever Best Actress nomination for an Indigenous Mexican woman, Yalitza Aparicio.
And yet you may not be able to see Roma in theaters. That's because often, visionaries play by their own rules, and those rules do not always go over well with the established order, as we've seen with the Cannes Film Festival. AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas will refrain from showing Roma in theaters because Netflix did not adhere to the traditional 90-day theatrical release window. Instead, Netflix released Roma on its own platform less than a month after Roma appeared (briefly) in theaters.
At the Golden Globe Awards in January, Roma won three awards, including Foreign Language Film, Director of a Motion Picture, and Screenplay of a Motion Picture. At the awards, Roma Director Alfonso Cuarón was asked to comment on a perception that Netflix is threatening independent cinema.
He replied, "My question to you is, how many theaters did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars — how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release? I just hope the discussion between Netflix and platforms in general should be over. I think those guys, platforms and theatrical, should go together . . . They both together can elevate cinema, and more important, they can create a diversity in cinema."
No foreign language film has ever won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Netflix now has a chance to make history at the 91stAcademy Awards February 24. Netflix's 139 million paying subscribers have already won.
Posted in Movies	| Tagged Academy Awards, David Deal, Netflix, Superhype	| Leave a reply
How HBO and Netflix Differ
Posted on September 18, 2018 by ddeal
HBO no longer stands alone. After consistently racking up more Emmy awards than any other network year after year, HBO found itself tied with Netflix for most wins for the 2018 Emmy Awards. And going into the ceremony, Netflix gained more nominations than HBO, with 112 for Netflix, 108 for HBO. Of course, Netflix is not the only rival to HBO's dominance of television – Amazon and Hulu belong in the same class albeit as challengers, and traditional network television, while fading, is still alive, if not completely well. But the conversation about the future of television begins with HBO and Netflix. As HBO and Netflix shape the entertainment landscape, they reveal four crucial differences that help explain how they ascended to their elite levels:
HBO is a media company. Netflix is a technology powerhouse.
HBO changed how TV is made. Netflix changed how we view TV.
HBO creates game changers. Netflix makes crowd pleasers.
HBO is run by a captain of industry. Netflix is run by a digital celebrity.
For all the money that Netflix invests into content creation, it has never delivered anything like The Sopranos, Deadwood, or Game of Thrones – entertainment landmarks whose influence, like that of the Beatles, will be discussed many years from now. But perhaps Netflix doesn't need to. The Emmy Awards continue to reward HBO for its blockbusters. But Netflix is now demonstrating that you can be a crowd pleaser and gain critical acclaim – not bad for a company that started producing content only six years ago. So far, there is one clear winner of the HBO/Netflix rivalry: the audience.
Posted in Entertainment	| Tagged David Deal, Emmy Awards, Emmys, HBO, Netflix, Superhype	| Leave a reply
How Netflix Is Changing Your Behavior
Posted on July 20, 2018 by ddeal
Being a Netflix investor (which I am) is not for the faint of heart. Within the space of a few days recently, Netflix stock reached an all-time high, then fell off a cliff after Netflix reported disappointing quarterly earnings, only to rebound in stunning fashion the following day, before dipping the day after. The wildly gyrating stock price certainly makes for dramatic headlines. But the real legacy of the company is not its market capitalization but its ability to change human behavior.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is a market maker. Market makers do more than make money. They shape behaviors of people and companies. Netflix is undeniably shaping how people live going back to its founding in 1997. Along with Amazon, Netflix ushered in the era of on-demand living. If Amazon made it possible for people to buy things on their own terms, Netflix did the same for entertainment. Arguably Netflix and Amazon laid the groundwork for Uber's disruption of the transportation industry through on-demand ride sharing. Together these companies ushered in an economy based on on-demand living.
A Cultural Phenomenon
The idea of giving viewers a digital catalog of movies to stream not only knocked Blockbuster out of business but made Netflix a cultural phenomenon as viewers embraced a new way of experiencing entertainment on demand. In 2009, Twitter users began using the phrase "Netflix and Chill" to describe the increasingly popular practice of simply hanging out with Netflix like a friend. Soon, "Netflix and Chill" became a euphemism for people hooking up to have sex, which is how we commonly think of the phrase today. The phrase "Netflix and Chill" became an internet meme and topic of much analysis and controversy. Netflix was shaping how we communicate as Google has done ("I'll Google the movie time"). Continue reading →
Posted in Media	| Tagged Amazon, Blockbuster, David Deal, Netflix, Reed Hastings, Spotify, Superhype	| 1 Reply
Amazon: One Industry to Rule Them All?
Posted on February 21, 2018 by ddeal
For once, Amazon is playing catch-up.
The great disruptor is just another player in the entertainment space. Amazon Studios, its TV and movie arm, is still looking for a blockbuster like Game of Thrones to compete in an elite league defined by HBO, Hulu, and Netflix. Amazon Music is a follower behind Spotify and Apple Music.
But recently Amazon has made some moves in a bid to transform itself from a follower into a leader. Let's take a closer look. Continue reading →
Posted in Amazon	| Tagged Alexa, Amazon, Amazon Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Studios, Apple Music, David Deal, Echo, HBO, Hulu, Jeff Bezos, Jennifer Salke, MIDiA, Netflix, Spotify, Superhype, The Lord of the Rings	| Leave a reply
David Deal | Facebook Profile/ Feed RSS
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Quarteira is another once upon a time small fishing village that has grown since the 1960s into a major tourist location. Tall blocks of holiday apartments now dwarf the older area of the town. As it lies next door to the well-known and popular Vilamoura holiday resort it acts as a dormitory location for the many employees and companies involved in the tourist trade. However, it also enjoys its own loyal tourists who return annually to make use of its long open sandy beach and promenade. A little to the east of the town is Fonte Santa where a natural spring is said to have healing qualities.
Reasonably close to Quarteira is the inland town of Almancil that is also a centre for service companies. The administrative town of the area is Loulé.


Crowley said she is surprised her career in television has lasted so long when aging women are typically less valued than older men.
"I think there is still a preponderance or a feeling that older males are experienced, and older females are old," Crowley said.
Jokingly, Crowley said equality would come when women show their age in unique ways on the air.
"I've always said the day that my hair can turn as gray as Wolf Blitzer's, and I'm still on the air — that's equality," Crowley said.
Attendee Rinnie Lind said she admires Crowley's work and her ability to keep balanced reporting at the forefront.
In analyzing how people reflect on stories and facts from the Internet, Crowley said the journalism field faces a problem when confronted with the spread of inaccurate information.
Crowley said she thinks there should be a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" to assess the accuracy of online news sites.
Despite her concerns, Crowley said the journalism industry is changing for the better, with more people from different backgrounds joining the workforce that can contribute to better understanding.
"There is still work to be done, and it's to be done for the good of journalism, not for the good of women," Crowley said.


text:
Wreckage Found on Beach in Curacao Could Be Missing Missoni Plane
Investigators are looking into wreckage from a plane found on the beach of Curacao, an island off the coast of Venezuela, to see if it could be the missing plane carrying Vittorio Missoni, Reuters is reporting.
Tyler McCall
Missoni's plane went missing in early January; so far, the only evidence from the mysterious case is a bag found on the shores of Curacao that had been stowed on the missing plane. The 72-year-old pilot of the plane reportedly flew with an expired license.
While nothing has been officially confirmed, an article published in the Curaco Chronicle states that "there are indications that these parts belong to the recent aircraft which carried the well known Vittorio Missoni."
Venezuelan officials have dismissed talk of a potential kidnapping.
We will be following this story and updating as new information becomes available.
NewsVittorio Missoni
Missing Missoni Plane Found
The plane carrying Missoni heir Vittorio Missoni which went missing off the coast of Venezuela earlier this year, has been found.
Bag From Missing Missoni Plane Reportedly Found, Could Narrow Search
A new clue has emerged in the disappearance of Vittorio Missoni's plane, last seen off the coast of Venezuela on January 4.
Pilot of Missing Missoni Plane Had Expired License
While the search for the plane carrying Vittorio Missoni, his wife, and two friends, continues, new information about the aircraft's pilot has come to light that could provide important clues in the plane's mysterious disappearance off the coast of Venezuela January 4. According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica (via The Cut), ANSV, Italy's agency for flight security, learned that neither the pilot, 72-year-old Germán Marchan, nor the airline involved in the incident were fully licensed to operate.
Bodies Reportedly Discovered from the Missoni Plane Crash
Nine months after the mysterious disappearance of a plane carrying Vittorio Missoni, alongside four others, bodies have been uncovered in the plane that went missing, according to The Guardian.


We have hosted many different types of parties, from birthday gathering to rehearsal dinners. We have done corporate happy hours to sales meetings. If you are interested in using us feel free to message us, as we will get back to in less than 24 hours.


Twenty four hours. That's how long my friend's mom was trapped on her couch, virtually paralyzed without help after being discharged from the hospital after suffering a bad fall. For millions of Americans, holidays are about the lavish meal, with some sports and maybe freakishly upbeat Hallmark holiday movies. For my friend and so many others caring for elderly relatives, it's about the caregiving.
Her physical and psychological pain could have been avoided if her built environment were more age-friendly and our health system was more attune to the importance of housing in supporting healthy aging. Of course, part of the problem is so much of our housing stock is an adequate. About 90 percent of people wish to age in community and not in a health care institution.
However, less than 4 percent of housing stock is suitable for individuals with moderate mobility difficulties. Simple universal design features that help prevent falls, like slip-resistant tiles, showers instead of bathtubs and properly placed grab bars, are too often absent in the built environment of older adults. They lack housing options most appropriate for them.
I got to appreciate the opportunity to better integrate housing and health firsthand as part of the Advisory Council for the Bipartisan Policy Center's Senior Health and Housing Task Force led by Henry Cisneros and Mel Martinez, former secretaries of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This effort produced the Healthy Aging Begins at Home report, the most widely distributed report in the history of the center. Downloading reports is one thing, taking action to improve the health of our older citizens is quite another.
Falls are all too common. About a third of older adults fall each year, resulting in about 2.5 million emergency-department visits, 700,000 hospitalizations and approximately $34 billion in health care costs. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths in older adults and most falls occur in the home setting.
But, it's more than this. Even during this extended economic expansion, housing affordability is becoming of increasing concern to millions of Americans. In Housing Older America's Older Adults 2018, written by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released earlier this month, nearly a third of people 65 and older — nearly 10 million people — are cost burdened, spending at least 30 percent of their incomes on housing.
The economic challenge is expected to be greater in the future, even for those who that are middle income. Today, about 24 million middle-income — defined as a net worth between $69K and $345K – people 65 and older and this group is expected to grow 55 percent over the next 15 years.
To help curb increasing costs of our health-care system, we must find mechanisms to help keep people healthy. Housing is one of the social determinants of health and influences others. As Sen. Ben Sasse Benjamin (Ben) Eric SasseSenate needs to stand up to Trump's Nixonian view of the Fed GOP senators divided on Trump trade pushback The Hill's 12:30 Report: Assange faces US charges after dramatic arrest MORE (R-Neb.) and other national leaders point out, we are facing a social isolation and loneliness epidemic. Housing that helps build community, particularly intergenerational community and social capital can be a remedy. Housing models for older adults that cost-effective, bring people together and inspire greater purpose, minimize falls, efficiently deliver health services and leverage technology, including tele-health, should be our future.
Unfortunately, we are not currently moving toward a better future, despite expert recommendations. Federal funding for supportive housing for older adults under HUD"s Section 202 elderly housing program is scarce. No new construction has been funded since 2012, with current money covering only renewals on existing grants. Moreover, allocations for these costs were cut 5 percent, by $33 million, in 2016-17.
As a real estate developer and consultant in the aging field, I have seen firsthand the positive impact of age-appropriate housing on promoting the health and well-being of older adults. As a friend, I have seen the downside when housing and health systems fails us. Collectively we can do more and with 78 million baby boomers aging into our health-care system, our fiscal responsibilities demands we must.
Ryan Frederick is the founder of SmartLiving 360 and developer of age-friendly housing. He is a 2018 Encore Public Voices Fellow.


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text:
» BOOKSTORE » THE CONGRESS LECTURES
Theta Clear Congress
An experiment that riveted the world: Eighteen-foot tomato plants and cucumbers the size of watermelons made global headlines. But what those newspapers knew wasn't even half of the epic saga surrounding L. Ron Hubbard's greenhouse plant experiments, and a breakthrough concerning life itself: how the fundamental postulates of survive and succumb interplay in life and result in the game called "victim." In the wake of that breakthrough came further discoveries revealing the basic reasons for a being's postulates of self-destruction, and their solution—Communication Processes sweeping the track clean of core aberrations. Moreover, here's where application took on a fully massive dimension with the announcement of a new type of auditing enabling one auditor to handle hundreds, or even thousands of preclears at a time. It's the means to broad scale clearing and planetary salvation. And yet, no matter the magnitude of these developments, standing behind them was something far greater. For here is the historic Congress where Mr. Hubbard first announced the acquisition of the most famous address in Scientology: Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex, England.
Dansk Deutsch English Español (Castellano) Español (Latino) Français Hebrew Italiano Magyar Nederlands Norsk Portuguès Svenska Ελληνικά (Greek) Русский (Russian) 日本語 (Japanese) 繁體中文 (Chinese)
MORE ABOUT THETA CLEAR CONGRESS
To go on living requires that one penetrate the mysteries which are making him back up. And the greatest of those mysteries is the mystery of 'Should I survive? Or should I succumb?' —L. Ron Hubbard
The goal? Clearing. And not just one individual, but hundreds, even thousands—at the same time.
It was 1959. And while the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology had entered their tenth year, L. Ron Hubbard was launching an entirely new era—one that would literally reshape the very image of Scientology, forever.
The development of technology had fully advanced to an achievement Mr. Hubbard had sought since 1950. Clearing, by auditors other than himself, had become a reality. Consequently, he was now able to concentrate on the means to carry it out on a widespread basis. Yet as he described in an article from the spring of 1959, "The Subject of Clearing," it was not a new goal:
"When I found in 1950 that other auditors could not achieve this, I made it my thorough business to:
"1. Study all phenomena related to clearing,
"2. Study ways to train auditors to do the job and
"3. Achieve the original state on a broad scale by auditors in general on all types of cases."
First, and in evidence of the fact that technology had evolved to a very precise workability—indeed, a new plateau—he delivered the Special Hubbard Professional Auditor Course Lectures, in April of 1959, to serve as the primary curriculum for a new Professional Auditor Course. So embracive were these lectures, Mr. Hubbard described them as "the fundamentals of fundamentals." While in further emphasis that auditor technology had stabilized, those very lectures still stand today as the basic course of auditor training.
More to the point, and quite in addition to putting that permanent record in place, he needed that new Professional Auditor Course, right now, to rapidly train auditors for something else he was now planning. Namely, the above target 3—clearing on a broad scale by auditors in general on all types of cases.
In fact, the practicalities of widespread clearing demanded it. In terms of sheer numbers, no matter how many auditors he could train, it would never be fast enough if every person had to be cleared one-on-one. What Mr. Hubbard sought was some method of clearing that was "easy, fast, inexpensive," so that every being could avail themselves of it.
The solution lay in co-auditing, wherein two auditors form a team to audit one another. Yet while co-auditing had existed for some years, what he was about to unleash was something else entirely. It followed from the fact that all co-auditing to date was comprised of teams of trained auditors. Yet if he had to train every person to a Professional Auditor level before they could audit another, then nothing would be achieved.
The solution? Mr. Hubbard developed an entirely different type of co-auditing, for the new auditor. He called it Muzzled Auditing, since the actions the auditor was permitted to perform were very minimal, therefore requiring little training. But that was only half of the equation.
Next, calling together auditors for training on a 6th London Advanced Clinical Course (ACC), he brought on something they'd never heard of—the means for one auditor to process hundreds, even thousands at a single time. And not Group Processing, with commands delivered to an entire room full of people. Rather, unlimited numbers of barely trained co-auditors being audited, in reality, by the one trained auditor. It was, in fact, among the earliest forms of processing ever developed, as he told those auditors of the 6th London ACC:
"So what is this? What is this? You think this is new. Yes, yes, very new in its technology and startlingly new in its effectiveness. But it's not new as an idea. Because this is the way I got lots of auditing hours in, in 1946, 7, 8 and 9.
"Now, therefore, the idea of one auditor handling a great many teams is very old. But the methodology by which it is done today is very new."
Yes, there was a very "new methodology" and it had everything to do with the legendary final element in this period of research. For quite in addition to the hands-on training of auditors in London, Mr. Hubbard had been conducting research somewhere else entirely. And even if Scientologists in general knew nothing about it, he was riveting the world of horticulture with his greenhouse experiments, then producing some amazing results—eighteen-foot tomato plants and cucumbers the size of watermelons. While the press were soon headlining, "Dr. Hubbard's Atomic Age Laboratory," and otherwise describing, "a discovery of immense significance to all gardeners," the fact remains those newsmen didn't know half the story.
For, indeed, here was research into far deeper ground, with pandemic ramifications. And what it unearthed were the basic postulates of survive and succumb, and how one becomes a victim. Hence came not only the mechanics of why life succumbs, but the processes to begin broad scale clearing.
Moreover, it was just the beginning. For he had planted something else that would soon sprout a planetwide growth. And if it hasn't been mentioned so far, it's only because that's the way he wanted it.
Washington's Shoreham Hotel, July 4, 1959, a thunderous ovation in anticipation of what they did not know. Whereupon the lights dimmed, a photograph projected on screen accompanied by L. Ron Hubbard's now immortal words: "And there is Saint Hill."
6th London ACC Compact Disc $175
Success Congress
Melbourne Congress


Fruit-flies check in and never check out.
Do they die with smiles on their faces?
It should be enough for a curtain, appliance covers and whatever else comes to mind. I've all ready got watermelon fabric for a tablecloth. And there's those tea towels to embroider. I have so many ideas. The kitchen is going to look like Martha Stewart on drugs. Poor Sweetums.
Now. When do I start? Beats the sh*t out of me! It's a bit hard to get excited about it when the kitchen is still in two rooms. We have to wait for Frank to have time. It may not be until Winter when he can't work outside.
I've got this to keep me busy in the meantime.
Tags:fabirc, kitchen, Martha Stewart on drugs, tea towels, What's Cookin'?
I visited no less than three fabric shops and bought fabric for six tops and five pants. Well. If I'm going to have new blouses, I need new pants to go with them. This was getting to be far too expensive. Now, I believe that I mentioned getting rid of blouses and making new ones. I may also get rid of the old pants that I haven't gotten around to taking in. I'm not sure about that yet. They are nice. I'd better not die anytime soon. I've got too much stuff.
So, I went on-line. Well, duh. After about four hours of driving myself crazy, I finally settled on three coordinating fabrics. I might as well make new curtains. And pot holders. And, maybe, placemats. It's all going to look so CUTE!!!. I hope Sweetums doesn't puke.
He called last week and asked me to bring my sewing machine. Did he have some mending? No. He wanted to make his girlfriend a dress.
Friday evening, we went shopping. He found a pattern, a simple wrap dress. The fabric he fell in love with was a shiny polyester. Not a good idea for a first project, but I couldn't sway him. We also got interfacing and thread and headed home.
Saturday, we cut and started sewing. My son is 6′ 5″. It was easier for him to sit and cut.
Even Biscuit was amazed at his progress!
And, here we have the finished dress. He was rather pleased with himself. And I cannot say that I was not proud of him. OK. I will admit that I did some of the harder parts, but it's mostly his work. We only had two days. And, you know what? He wants to do it again!
I haven't been all summer so it's time. I hope it's not raining like this tomorrow. Ordinarily I would have all ready left, but I have an appointment with the GP in the morning.
My son wants sewing lessons. We'll be looking at patterns and buying fabric, cutting and sewing. He has my old Brother, but I'm bringing my Sapphire anyway. I am not certain what all is at the house so I'll bring some basic notions. This should be fun. I'll let you know.
I'm trying to picture him making his own placemats.
Last week, Rue finally got up the nerve to climb the ladder and get on the roof. The roof is Cora's favorite Hang Out. She was NOT happy! Last week, Rue climbed back down the ladder. This week, he forgot. Nothing could entice him to climb back down, not even his favorite food. So we ignored him. It didn't work. He went into a complete panic. After two hours, Sweetums climbed the ladder and carried him down. He didn't go anywhere near the ladder for a few days. This afternoon,while I was sewing, I heard a cat crying. And there he was–sitting at the top of the ladder crying. I called Sweetums to get him. He climbed the ladder, picked him up and brought him down. Rue considers this the way to get down now. He's the baby. You gotta love him.
Posted in my pets | Comments Off on When Will He Ever Learn?


You should configure VirtualDub to save your files sequentially by using "Set Capture File" to save as C:/Users/RECON/Data/20160620/20160620_01. You should record the filenames and information about each file using the RECON Observation Logsheet.
See RECON Event Detail Page for 08JO41 for finder chart provided by Marc Buie. Note that north is up in this automatically generated chart. The green rectangle represents the field of view of a standard RECON system, although the orientation of the rectangle does not match the orientation of the field at the time of the event. Marc will work on upgrading this feature in the future.
Star field for 08JO41 provided by Marc Buie at 128x. Field is close to orientation at time of event.


Cabo Sailing is a sailing charter company in Mexico that offer an exceptional sailing experience in Cabo San Lucas. With more than 5 years of experience, we have created a sailing trip that can fit every group, in all ages and can accommodate your special time in our area. Together we invite you to a life time experience in the beautiful, life-full natural scenery of the Pacific Ocean and the sea of Cortez.
Our crew is highly skilled sailors with passion for nature and love for the ocean. We all speak English, trained in all sailing aspects and first aid.
Our sailboats are professionally maintained and stand for US and Mexican certification criteria. All of our boats are clean, comfortable and welcoming.
We will love taking you on board and to share with you the meaning of sailing.
Address: We are located at dock L in the Marina, down town Cabo San Lucas, next to Baja Cantina restaurant.


text:
.class Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;
.super Ljava/lang/Object;
.source "CircleMissedEventWidget.java"

# interfaces
.implements Landroid/view/View$OnTouchListener;

# annotations
.annotation system Ldalvik/annotation/EnclosingMethod;
    value = Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;-><init>(Landroid/content/Context;Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/KeyguardScreenCallback;)V
.end annotation

.annotation system Ldalvik/annotation/InnerClass;
    accessFlags = 0x0
    name = null
.end annotation

# instance fields
.field final synthetic this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

# direct methods
.method constructor <init>(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)V
    .locals 0
    .parameter

    .prologue
    .line 170
    iput-object p1, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    invoke-direct/range {p0 .. p0}, Ljava/lang/Object;-><init>()V

    return-void
.end method

# virtual methods
.method public onTouch(Landroid/view/View;Landroid/view/MotionEvent;)Z
    .locals 2
    .parameter "v"
    .parameter "event"

    .prologue
    .line 173
    const-string v0, "CircleMissedEventWidget"

    const-string v1, "onTouchEvent() in MissedEvent"

    invoke-static {v0, v1}, Landroid/util/Log;->d(Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/String;)I

    .line 175
    invoke-virtual {p2}, Landroid/view/MotionEvent;->getAction()I

    move-result v0

    packed-switch v0, :pswitch_data_0

    .line 194
    :goto_0
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mCircleUnlockView:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$500(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;

    move-result-object v0

    iget-object v1, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mCircleUnlockListener:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget$OnCircleUnlockListener;
    invoke-static {v1}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$400(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget$OnCircleUnlockListener;

    move-result-object v1

    invoke-interface {v0, v1}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;->setOnCircleUnlockListener(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget$OnCircleUnlockListener;)V

    .line 195
    const-string v0, "MissedEvent"

    invoke-virtual {p1, v0}, Landroid/view/View;->setTag(Ljava/lang/Object;)V

    .line 196
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mCircleUnlockView:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$500(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;

    move-result-object v0

    invoke-interface {v0, p1, p2}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleUnlockWidget;->handleTouchEvent(Landroid/view/View;Landroid/view/MotionEvent;)Z

    move-result v0

    return v0

    .line 180
    :pswitch_0
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mMissedCallMsgBackground:Landroid/widget/LinearLayout;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$100(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Landroid/widget/LinearLayout;

    move-result-object v0

    const v1, #android:drawable@keyguard_lockscreen_circle_press#t

    invoke-virtual {v0, v1}, Landroid/widget/LinearLayout;->setBackgroundResource(I)V

    .line 181
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mMissedCallIcon:Landroid/widget/ImageView;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$200(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Landroid/widget/ImageView;

    move-result-object v0

    const v1, #android:drawable@keyguard_lockscreen_missed_event_ic_missedcall_press#t

    invoke-virtual {v0, v1}, Landroid/widget/ImageView;->setImageResource(I)V

    .line 182
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mMissedMsgIcon:Landroid/widget/ImageView;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$300(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Landroid/widget/ImageView;

    move-result-object v0

    const v1, #android:drawable@keyguard_lockscreen_missed_event_ic_mms_press#t

    invoke-virtual {v0, v1}, Landroid/widget/ImageView;->setImageResource(I)V

    goto :goto_0

    .line 187
    :pswitch_1
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mMissedCallMsgBackground:Landroid/widget/LinearLayout;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$100(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Landroid/widget/LinearLayout;

    move-result-object v0

    const v1, #android:drawable@keyguard_lockscreen_circle#t

    invoke-virtual {v0, v1}, Landroid/widget/LinearLayout;->setBackgroundResource(I)V

    .line 188
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mMissedCallIcon:Landroid/widget/ImageView;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$200(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Landroid/widget/ImageView;

    move-result-object v0

    const v1, #android:drawable@keyguard_lockscreen_missed_event_ic_missedcall#t

    invoke-virtual {v0, v1}, Landroid/widget/ImageView;->setImageResource(I)V

    .line 189
    iget-object v0, p0, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget$2;->this$0:Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;

    #getter for: Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->mMissedMsgIcon:Landroid/widget/ImageView;
    invoke-static {v0}, Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;->access$300(Lcom/android/internal/policy/impl/sec/CircleMissedEventWidget;)Landroid/widget/ImageView;

    move-result-object v0

    const v1, #android:drawable@keyguard_lockscreen_missed_event_ic_mms#t

    invoke-virtual {v0, v1}, Landroid/widget/ImageView;->setImageResource(I)V

    goto :goto_0

    .line 175
    nop

    :pswitch_data_0
    .packed-switch 0x0
        :pswitch_0
        :pswitch_1
    .end packed-switch
.end method

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Charlotte's story takes an ominous turn; she writes of others, the spirits of those who have gone before, and how she will join them in an attempt to save them. Quentin describes this as a "suicide note" and, sensing something supernatural going on with the book, tries to stop Maggie at that point.
On these audio dramas, I always listen for interesting use of sound beyond the actors' line and the music. What's good here is the ghost voices that develop as the book is read: Charlotte's voice sounds normal, but there are other voices too, whispered, altered to echo or sound harsh and raspy. They grow stronger and louder as Maggie continues.
These spirits are visible too to the people at Collinwood. Seeing them, Barnabas insists that Maggie go on over Quentin's objections. The spirits fall silent and presumably vanish when Maggie reads the name "Collins" aloud in a sentence, but no one believes that's the end of it.
"We've unleashed something powerful that we can't contain," says Quentin. Well, it wouldn't be the first time.
After consulting with Angelique, they decide to perform an exorcism. It wouldn't be the first one of those at Collinwood either.
April 26, 1927, it turns out, was the date on which Charlotte found and read the book. She's been trapped since then, along with all the previous readers. Anyone who reads the last entry becomes the newest "edition," so to speak.
The journal itself is much older than the 1920s, at least 200 years old according to Barnabas's eye for antiques. There were plenty of other readers before Charlotte, and it's their voices we hear.
Maggie will be next if she goes on reading. The pages she's already read are now blank, waiting to be filled with her own story once she finishes.
When her friends realize that Maggie's got hold of something truly dangerous, they respond in typical Collins-fashion: They lock her up in one of those basement cells the family likes to keep for whatever reason, instead of hiding the book where she can't get at it.
They can't destroy the book. It's a long-standing Dark Shadows trope that evil objects always comes back once they've been thrown over the cliff or tossed into the drawing-room fire. Once Maggie is locked up, Quentin does in fact tear out and burn the last page, which rouses the ghosts of the trapped readers to fury. Realizing that he can't keep Maggie shut up forever, he and Barnabas eventually do end up hiding the book after all… in the same room where Maggie found it. They nail the door shut. Yeah, she'll never think to look for it there.
Meanwhile, Angelique has let Maggie out–as Quentin asked her to do–and gives her a cup of tea–which is the witchy woman's own idea.
"I'm more of a coffee woman," says Maggie, but she winds up under Angelique's spell just the same, mesmerized by the steam rising from the cup.
Angelique tells Maggie that she cannot rest until she finds out what happened to Charlotte Howell and solves the mystery of the book, no matter who gets in her way.
I liked this second CD's story more than the introductory House of Despair, but as I listened, I wondered when this is supposed to be taking place.
At the beginning of House of Despair, it seemed like a good many years had passed between the end of the Dark Shadows series and Quentin's return to Collinsport, ten years or more. But throughout Book of Temptation, everyone at Collinwood refers to Maggie as a girl. I never got her exact age during the show, but I assumed she was about the same age as Victoria Winters–that is, about 20 when we first met her in 1966 and therefore 24-ish when she left in 1970. Of course, Angelique, Barnabas, Quentin, and all the ghostly readers trapped by the book are much, much older than Maggie by decades if not centuries, but would they consistently be calling her "girl" if she were over 30? Until I hear some definite date, I'm guessing that this is set about 5 years after the show's end, in the mid '70s.
On the other hand, Maggie has grown up quite a lot since she was last seen on Dark Shadows. She spent so much of the later series whimpering, sobbing, or gaping in horror at the inexplicable happenings at Collinwood that I began to feel embarrassed for my 2-out-of-3 namesake having to play such a wuss. I'd seen that Maggie Evans had a stubbornness that became a real strength when she was faced with dire situations; I liked her best when she clung to her own identity while Barnabas was trying to make her into his Josette, and when she sat glowering at Willie for three days and turning him into a nervous wreck even though he was the one who had locked her up. Toward the end of this drama, she not shows some of her old spirit, but goes further. She tells Quentin off when he's off-handedly mysterious and condescending instead of answering her questions about what the hell is going on. When faced with the ghosts of people who have already been sucked into the book and want her to join them to save them, she stands up to them too; she says she's not putting up with this and refuses to submit to something she doesn't understand just because she's frightened. You go, Girl.
Maggie wins this round, but is "scarred" (as Angelique puts it) by the experience. Who knows if she'll be drawn back to finish the book one day?
None of this, however, explains what happened to the Collins family. They aren't trapped in the book and we've been told they aren't dead, so where are they?


text:
10 things in tech you need to know today
Sam Shead
Feb. 23, 2016, 2:17 AM
Getty Images / Emmanuel Dunand
Good morning! Here's the technology news you need to know this Tuesday.
1. Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a memo to all employees explaining why the company is resisting an FBI request to break into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. In it, Cook says the FBI should withdraw its demand to have Apple develop a tool to help it bypass the iPhone's passcode requirement.
2. Bill Gates has published his annual letter, and for the first time, he directs it specifically at high school students. This year's note takes on the topic of energy.
3. Uber is standing by its safety background checks in the wake of the shootings in Michigan. Many have called for Uber to introduce a panic button, similar to the one it offers in India.
4. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the lesson he learned from India's recent ruling banning his project to bring free internet services to its citizens is that "every country is different." The Indian government ruled that Facebook's "Free Basics" plan was illegal.
5. Over half of Americans think Apple should unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. That's according to figures from a Pew Research study published Monday. Only 38% thought Apple shouldn't unlock the phone.
6. Fitbit shares dropped by as much as 15% in after-hours trading on Monday after the company reported quarterly results. Fitbit said it sold 8.2 million devices in the fourth quarter, adding that 79% of its revenues were derived from new products, including the Fitbit Charge and Surge.
7. Google DeepMind's AlphaGo system is going to take on the world's best Go player in a luxury 5-star hotel in South Korea. AlphaGo will play Go champion Lee Sedol five times over five days at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul in March.
8. In an interview with Fortune published on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook did not deny that his company was working on a car project. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called the project an "open secret," based mostly on the number of employees going from one company to the other.
9. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is "significantly" expanding its UK operation as it looks to capitalize on the growth of the UK tech sector. It plans to hire up to 50 more staff at a new London office during 2016.
10. Israeli cloud startup Ravello Systems confirmed on Monday that it has been acquired by Oracle. The deal is worth $500 million, according to Venture Beat.
More: 10 Things You Need To Know SAI UK 10 things in tech SAI


Dr. Edward D. Sammons earned his Doctor of Optometry degree from Nova Southeastern University, College of Optometry in Ft. Lauderdale-Davie, Florida. He specializes in optometry, primary eye care with emphasis on dry eye, diabetic eye care, glaucoma, and contacts. Dr. Sammons is an active member of several medical societies such as the American Optometric Association, Georgia Optometric Association, and the President-First District GOA.