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Tag Archives: Hollywood
1/1/15 (Part One): Hollywood Meat Grinder
Adam Bricker, Alexandra Essoe, Amanda Fuller, Astraeus, casting couch, cinema, co-directors, co-writers, Dennis Widmyer, Fabianne Therese, fame, Fautian deals, film reviews, films, Hollywood, horror, horror movies, insanity, Kevin Kolsch, Los Angeles, Louis Dezseran, Marc Senter, Maria Olsen, Movies, Natalie Castillo, Nick Simmons, Noah Segan, occult, Pat Healy, Sarah Walker, Satanism, selling your soul, Shane Coffey, starlets, Starry Eyes, The Fly
Just how far would you go to be a star? For some folks, the idea of fame doesn't have much appeal: they're more than happy to conduct their business from the sidelines, keeping cool while someone else burns under the spotlight. For others, however, the pursuit of fame is all-encompassing, a never-ending quest for that fabled brass ring, that opportunity to stand on the world stage, hold their heads up high and shout, "Here I am," to bask in adulation, admiration and envy from the masses. We live in an era where people can become famous, if only briefly, for seemingly capricious reasons: one person uploads a YouTube video and receives a million views…their next-door-neighbor does the same thing and hears crickets. Despite how important fame is for so many people, there is no such thing as a "sure thing," no unbeatable formula to becoming a star.
But what if there was? What if there was some way to ensure your celebrity, some sure-fire way to "jump the line," as it were, and go straight to the "adoring fans" stage? If fame is so important, would you give up everything in your life – your friends, your family, any interests – in order to guarantee your 15 minutes in the spotlight? Just how much would you be willing to give up to be a star? Your morality? Your dignity? Your soul? These are the questions that get asked in Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer's Starry Eyes (2014), a Faustian tale of one young starlet's search for fame and the hideous price that she pays to finally see her name on the big marquee. The answers won't surprise horror fans but they might give budding ingenues pause for thought as they continue their own quests for immortality and fame. Spoiler alert: these things never go as planned.
Our wannabe starlet is Sarah Walker (Alexandra Essoe), a bright-eyed, hopeful and rather naive young actress who spends her days wearing hot-pants at Big Tators (think a sleazier version of Hooters) and her evenings going to one audition after the other, all in pursuit of that fabled "big break." Her manager, Carl (Pat Healey), is a chauvinistic jerk, her "friends" are a bunch of catty, privileged and unbelievably shallow assholes (all of whom are, likewise, hunting for fame and fortune) and the limelight seems impossibly far away. All of this seems to change, however, when Sarah receives a call to audition for mysterious production company Astraeus Pictures' newest film, The Silver Scream. Could this finally be the break that she's so desperately looking for?
After a terrible audition, Sarah heads right to the bathroom and promptly throws the kind of fit usually reserved for young children or mental patients: screaming, sobbing, tearing huge chunks of hair out of her head and throwing herself about, Sarah is interrupted by one of Astraeus' casting agents. Perhaps they've missed something "special" after all: Sarah is invited back, with one caveat – she has to throw the same fit for the casting agents. She does and is rewarded with yet another call-back. As Sarah continues to meet with the representatives from Astraeus Pictures, the auditions get stranger and stranger, culminating in a meeting with The Producer (Louis Dezseran) where all of the cards are laid on the table: the coveted lead role is Sarah's…provided she takes her spot on the casting couch, that is.
Mortified by the "offer," Sarah rushes out and resigns herself to becoming a star "the right way." Her roommate, Tracy (Amanda Fuller), seconds Sarah's outrage: none of them would ever sink that low, so there's no reason Sarah should, either. After realizing that she'll never break into their tight-knit clique, however, Sarah begins to reevaluate the offer from Astraeus: she calls them back and is offered one more chance to "meet" with The Producer. As Sarah will find out, however, everything has a price and she will have to trade in one small thing in her pursuit for fame: her basic humanity.
Expertly crafted, Starry Eyes is the kind of well-made, full-throttle B-movie that used to choke video store shelves in the '80s horror boom: the kicker, of course, is that the film is from 2014, not 1983, making it yet another in the boom of modern genre films that explicitly reference other eras. Despite being part of a larger stylistic trend, however, Starry Eyes holds its own: in many ways, it's much closer to Ti West's excellent The House of the Devil (2009) in that the film always "feels" like a period piece, without seeming like slavish imitation. Chalk it up to a mix of Adam Bricker's cinematography, the film's themes or its structure but Starry Eyes is one of the most authentic "non-authentic" genre films I've seen in some time.
At its heart, however, Kolsch and Widmyer's film isn't much more than another variation on the age-old Faust story, albeit one that manages to throw elements of Cronenberg's gooey The Fly (1986) and the batshit Jeff Lieberman oddity Blue Sunshine (1978) into the mix. Despite a suitably unpredictable (and ridiculously gory) climax, Starry Eyes hits each and every expected beat for this type of story: someone makes a Faustian deal to acquire fame/fortune/power/knowledge, comes to regret their decision after the real "cost" is revealed. As far as the film goes, that's pretty much it: the "Hollywood starlet/casting couch" aspect doesn't mix things up much, although everything is wrapped-up in a suitably cohesive way by the conclusion.
If co-writers/directors Kolsch and Widmyer don't do much new or unique with the formula, however, they also don't make any obvious missteps. The film looks and sounds great, for one thing, and the frequent digressions into more visual stylistic tics are highly effective: there's a really well-done drug-trip scene and the finale is wonderfully creepy and atmospheric, sort of a split between the aforementioned Blue Sunshine and one of Val Lewton's classics. The filmmaking duo has style to spare and there's a sense of economy to the film that quite nice: it feels like its own small, self-contained world, which is a nice change of pace in this day and age of "everything's connected." The acting is decent enough, with veteran character actor Healey bringing a little nuance to his performance as Carl (he could have just been a complete scuzzball but you actually end up feeling for him, a little) and Essoe doing good (if occasionally one-note) work as the aspiring starlet. I found myself actively hating all of Sarah's friends, however, which probably had as much to do with the script establishing them as worthless twits as it did with the actual performances. That being said, it was impossible for me to get invested in any of their fates, which robbed the finale of some of its awful power: suffice to say, my mourning period was non-existent.
From a horror standpoint, Starry Eyes is exceptionally solid: despite the story's inherent familiarity, there's a reason why Faust has always played so well on the big screen and Kolsch and Widmyer manage to wring every last drop of dread and inevitability out of the scenario. The practical effects are actually quite exceptional, with some truly ghastly body horror stuff in the final reel and the single most intense head-smashing scene I've ever seen, including the infamous fire extinguisher scene from Irreversible (2002). I'm not normally one to dwell on gore in films (by this point in my life, you could say that I'm a little jaded) but that head-pounding setpiece really is a showstopper, in every sense of the word, and proof positive that the filmmakers have no problem going to some very extreme places.
All in all, I really liked Starry Eyes, even though there wasn't anything particularly special about it. In certain ways, it reminded me of another retro-minded film, Almost Human (2013): while, likewise, well-made and massively entertaining, it was really nothing more than an enjoyable, direct-to-video B-movie. Perhaps my affinity for and slight (very slight) disregard of Starry Eyes come from the same place: I grew up on movies just like these, good but not amazing horror and genre films that were massively entertaining but largely disposable. If anything, I wish that there were a lot more films like this: I certainly wouldn't object to a glut of well-made, effective genre films, even if none of them are mind-blowing or game-changing. Without a doubt, Starry Eyes is effective and extremely atmospheric: it compares favorably with the best horror films of the year on quality alone, even if it never takes that "big step" that would vault it above the competition. I liked it enough to anticipate Kolsch and Widmyer's next project: if they keep mining this same vein of retro-minded horror, I have a feeling that they'll come up with a real firecracker next time.
3/20/14: When Jackasses Attack
arrogance, based on a book, based on a true story, celebrities, celebrity, celebrity journalist, cinema, comedies, Danny Huston, feature-film debut, film reviews, films, fish-out-of-water, Gillian Anderson, gossip rags, Hollywood, Hollywood satire, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Jeff Bridges, journalism, Kirsten Dunst, magazines, Megan Fox, Mother Teresa biopic, Movies, New York City, obnoxious people, Robert B. Weide, Sidney Young, SImon Pegg, Sophie Maes, Toby Young, unlikable protagonist, workplace comedies
As a modern society, we've become pretty obsessed with celebrities and the private lives of these glitterati. In a classic case of "the grass always looks greener," it's very inviting to look over the elegantly wrought-iron fences, past the armed security and straight into the beating heart of the American dream. This, of course, is a steaming load of horse pucky: the grass is greener because it's Astroturf and the beautiful people look a lot like everyone else do first thing in the morning. This, of course, hasn't stopped an entire cottage industry of gossip shows, tabloids and paparazzi from springing up to document every celebrity faux pas, grocery store visit, nose job and million-dollar deal under the sun. While it often seems that these purveyors of celebrity "news" are jaded outsiders looking to blow holes in the rhinestone-bedazzled Hindenburg that Hollywood often resembles, the Simon Pegg-starring How to Lose Friends and Alienate People posits a slightly different theory: these paparazzi are just as obsessed, envious and in love with these folks as everyone else is supposed to be.
Based on Toby Young book about his real-life experiences, HTLFAAP introduces us to the character of Sidney Young (Simon Pegg). As a boy, Sidney was obsessed with the idea that all celebrities lived together in some sort of Shangri-La…a 24/7 Copacabana where the drinks were always comped, the makeup was always immaculate and the people were all cool as ice. If he could just get there, he reasoned, he would be one truly happy young boy. As the opening voice-over lets us know, however, "celebrity journalist" is as close as he's gotten to this imagined paradise. As he sits with starlet-of-the-moment Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) at an award show, one Best Actress award away from some promised pity sex, Sidney reflects back on the events that led him to this particular moment in time. The flashback takes us into our movie proper: one part workplace comedy, one part Hollywood satire, one part old-fashioned romance.
We see Sidney as a scrappy, ultra-combative tabloid journalist, prone to celebrity attack pieces and raging against the machine of the big corporate fluff rags. He ends up on the radar of Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), a gossip-rag magnate, after he crashes one of his exclusive A-list Hollywood parties. Sidney reminds Clayton of himself, at that age and economic level, so he does the only thing that a respectable gossip-mag baron would do in a situation like this: he puts Sidney on the payroll. This puts Sidney into direct contact with your usual rogues' gallery of assorted oddball characters: Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston), Sidney's slimy boss; Alison (Kirsten Dunst), the prickly co-worker that would never, in a million years, fall for a jerk like Sidney; fame-hungry starlet Sophie Maes, her little dog Cuba and reptilian agent Eleanor (Gillian Anderson); and colossal jackass/director Vincent Lepak (Max Minghella).
As Sidney navigates these treacherous, shark-filled waters, he finds himself falling for Alison (natch), although she has a mysterious absentee boyfriend that makes getting together seem a little impossible. There also seems to be some interest from Sophie, although she seems more than willing to do absolutely anything that would push her career one step closer to the big time. Sidney's old rebel spirit begins to fight back as he's asked to do a puff piece on Lepak, a black-hole of vapidity so dense that nothing can escape his crushing stupidity. When Sidney rebels, it seems like the only thing holding him back is himself: as Harding told him earlier, he's standing in the first room and is fully capable of getting to the last room…if he wants it bad enough. Sidney must reconcile his own core values with his lifelong desire to fit in with the "cool kids," all while trying to figure out just what, exactly, he really wants to do with his life.
My biggest beef with HTLFAAP is that the film ends up being so schizophrenic. On the one hand, it wants to be a snarky, razor-sharp satire on the inherent ridiculousness of Hollywood, complete with an epic Mother Teresa biopic starring Megan Fox. On the other hand, the film wants to be one of those ubiquitous workplace dramadies where co-workers conspire against each other, ideas are stolen, comeuppances are had by all and a quirky parade of characters engage in utterly quirky behavior. On the third hand, the movie wants to be an old-fashioned romance, one of those Cary Grant-starrers where the guy and gal don't see eye to eye, you see, until they do, at which point they fall madly in love with each other and live happily ever after. As you can see, there's about one hand too many here. This is a big reason why the film ends up being a bit of a tonal mess: one moment, it's a frantic, ultra-high-strung slapstick comedy, the next moment, it's a stereotypical "indie comedy," with Juno-esque dialogue and sardonic voice-over. The film also gets serious, from time to time, mostly to remind us that Sidney is constantly in danger of losing his core values.
For my money, the most tired aspect of the film (and the one that I would have cut first) would have to be the hackneyed romantic angle. The romance steals the focus of the film almost entirely, especially by the final third, where Sidney is madly rushing about trying to win the hand of Alison. In fact, the final denouement has virtually nothing to do with any of the celebrity-chasing that came before, breaking everything down to that time-honored (and ultra-trite) notion that all you really do need is love. How nice. Were there some actual chemistry between Pegg and Dunst, the romance might carry a little bit more weight. As it stands, however, it felt very much like "Character A must like Character B"-level plotting and never felt authentic.
What worked? The film seemed to wring the most success from the celeb-mocking stuff (the Mother Teresa gag is, quite simply, one of the funniest jokes I've seen in quite some time) and the performances were pretty sturdy. It's always nice to see The Dude in something but I kinda wish Bridges had been given more to do than bluster and offer the occasional bit of sage advise. Pegg did a decent job playing a shithead character but this kind of smug, self-absorbed nitwit is starting to seem like old hat for ol' Simon: it would be nice to see him branch out a little. Ditto for Dunst, who's been on this kind of autopilot for his last few roles. She's a great actress but, too often, she's just required to be withering. Huston and Anderson are great in some meaty supporting roles: Anderson, in particular, is a blast to watch and neatly wrestles the film away whenever she's on-screen.
At the end of the day, is How to Lose Friends and Alienate People worth a watch? It really depends on your expectations. If you're a Simon Pegg fan, you could probably do worse (like Mission Impossible III) but you could certainly do better (see a Fantastic Fear of Everything, instead). I'm not familiar with the original book, or the person it was based on, so I can't really vouch as to the authenticity of either, at least as represented here. My personal take is that Sidney comes across as a self-absorbed douchebag but, then again, what do I know? I do know that the romantic aspect drags the film down, however, and that it would have been a lot better had it been a lot shorter and tighter. I also know that, despite my intense dislike of Megan Fox, I would pay very good money to see her play Mother Teresa in that promised biopic: I kinda wish the filmmakers had given us an hour of that instead of two hours of this.
1/15/14: Hollywood Deja Vu
Apocalypse, celebrities, cinema, comedies, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, dark comedies, end of the world, Film, Hollywood, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, meta-films, Michael Cera, Movies, Seth Rogen, This is the End
Any film that delves into the metaphysics of storytelling/genre automatically sets itself up with a big handicap. When done properly, a film like that can blow up a genre from the inside-out, revealing nuances and tropes that only a hardcore fan would ever appreciate. Wes Craven did this, with some success, in his Scream franchise (full disclosure: I've never been a big fan) and Joss Whedon did it to spectacular effect in Cabin in the Woods. The Airplane films were great examples of self-referential comedies that also succeeded in commenting on their source materials. Less successfully, we have things like the Scary Movie franchise and any of the endless low-brow offerings that slavishly parody current films (Meet the Spartans, Epic Movie, et al). These are films that understand only the basest level of what they seek to mock: if the little girl in The Exorcist barfed up a gallon in the original, make her barf up an airplane hangar in the parody. You know…the easy way out.
If making a meta-film about a particular genre or subject is difficult, how much more difficult must it be to make a meta-film about actual, real people? For my money, I can think of very few films that have even attempted this, much less pulled it off. Spike Jonze gave us the head-scratcher that was Being John Malkovich and (somehow) wormed his way into the cultural zeitgeist. More recently, we had A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III which, although not explicitly about lead Charlie Sheen, was pretty obviously about Charlie Sheen.
The big problem, in some ways, is that the average audience member has absolutely no connection with people like John Malkovich and Charlie Sheen: we only have their films, live appearances and tabloid gossip to give us any sort of indication as to their actual personalities. Since there's an inherent element of classism to most of our preconceived notions on celebrities, it's always nice when these fine men and women reinforce our opinions. We'd like to think that Sheen is as much of a loose cannon in real life as he was in his many cinematic appearances: all sources seem to point to "yes." We'd like to believe that Tom Hanks is as nice in real life as his endless film portrayals of such seem to indicate: not much to indicate the contrary, at least thus far.
How best, then, to head off any criticism of your personality/values/actions? Why, beat the naysayers to the punch, that's how! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what writer/actor and now director Seth Rogen has done with This is the End. By presenting himself and his cadre of famous comedian friends (James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Michael Cera) as being, essentially, as obnoxious as many people probably assume they are, he's taken the words right out of our mouths and, in the process, crafted one of the funniest, smartest meta-films in quite some time.
The plot, such as it is, is pretty simple: Jay Baruchel has come to Los Angeles to visit his (presumed) best friend, Seth Rogen. Jay's not much for the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, whereas Seth appears to have made himself pretty happy with mover-and-shaker party monsters like James Franco and Michael Cera. As Jay and Seth bicker over the changing nature of their friendship, something sort of significant happens: the Rapture. Once all of the "good" people are gone, Jay, Seth and their egotistical friends are left with, literally, Hell on earth. They must do all they can to avoid flaming bottomless pits, hell-hounds and the Devil himself, all while trying to put back together the pieces of their shattered lives. And keep McBride from eating all the goddamn food, of course.
Let's just get the bad stuff out of the way first, shall we? For my money, there was a bit more bathroom humor in this than I normally care for: chalk this up to personal preference but there it is. There was also a tendency for the effects to vacillate between really effective and kinda dodgy, with the climax of the film sporting the majority of the dodgy moments. I also wish they had left the possession subplot on the cutting-room floor. I realize why they did it (set up a parallel between the affected character's pre-/post-possession behaviour) but it dragged a bit and ended up yielding more gross and/or unnecessary moments than it did treasures.
And that, friends and neighbors, is just about as negative as I can really go with This is the End. Everything else in the film works, either spectacularly well or at least well enough to get you to the next audacious moment. What to single out…what to single out…well, let's start with the razor-sharp dialogue. Forget all of the Hollyweird parody (which is, admittedly, very funny): This is the End is one great line after another. From the subtle ("Your references are out of control": a reverent Jonah Hill to Jay; Seth's classic explanation of gluten as a generic term for anything bad or unhealthy) to the ridiculously underplayed ("So, last night, something not chill happened…": one of the characters after being raped by a demon) to the absolutely outrageous ("I call him Channing Tate-YUM!"), This is the End is one laugh-out-loud line after another. Truth be told, I was often laughing so hard from one scene to the next that I would miss what was (I'm sure) even more funny lines: this is definitely something that could benefit from repeat viewings.
If This is the End were just great dialogue, however, we'd still only have an interesting experiment. Rogen, however, has made damn sure that he and his famous friends have enough stuff going on to last through ten apocalypses. We get Michael Cera as the most amazing, sleazy, creepy character ever created (please, please, please let this be his true self! Please!); Craig Robinson singing "Take Off Your Panties" to Rihanna in the middle of a crowded party, complete with merciless come-back; Craig and Jay fighting a giant monster dog (shades of Ghostbusters); a kitchen-sink reenactment of Pineapple Express 2 (almost worth the price of admission on its own); Danny McBride making one of the top-five entrances in the history of cinema (no hyperbole: it really was that good of an entrance); Jonah sleeping "Scarface-style" with Jay and Seth; James Franco and McBride having an imaginary "cum fight" (really must be seen to be believed); an armed and dangerous Emma Watson and one of the best uses of "I Will Always Love You" ever committed to film. Ever.
Is This is the End a perfect film? Far from it. Unlike something like Tucker & Dale vs Evil, for example, This is the End spends a pretty fair amount of its time spinning wheels (they're funny wheels, don't get me wrong, but they do tend to go round and round and round and…). It's a longish film (almost two hours) which is always a dangerous tack for a comedy, especially one with such a high energy level. Ultimately, though, these are pretty minor quibbles.
I went in to this expecting some mindless, good-natured celebrity-bashing (albeit bashing administered by those being bashed, similar to Ricky Gervais' Golden Globes victims handing him lists of bullet-points before the ceremony) and some goofy end-of-the-world humor but was pleasantly surprised to find much more. At its heart, This is the End is really about Jay and Seth's (on-air, at least) friendship and the ways in which we all much continue to grow as people. That a message this sweet and positive can be crammed in between multiple dick and Exorcist jokes is, if you think about it, something of a modern miracle. Here's to hoping it doesn't take long for Seth and the guys to pull their cinematic alter-egos out of mothballs and give this whole thing another shot.
I, for one, would love to see these goons pull off a good ol' fashioned bank heist: somebody get Rogen working on that, stat!
The VHS Graveyard is Alive!!
Arts, Film, Hollywood, horror, horror films, movie, VHS, Westerns
Welcome, one and all, to my first attempt at this thing they call blogging. As with most things, I like to be as behind the curve as possible: hence, I figured I would flog this dead horse for awhile. Since this is my first attempt at an official blog, I would imagine that (visually) this will probably look like a small child's attempts at same. As long as the small child has something to say, this shouldn't be a problem.
What wonders and/or annoyances will await brave readers within these cyber-walls? For the most part, you'll probably see lots of film reviews, as well as ruminations on film topics. I don't really have any hobbies aside from watching movies, so I wouldn't expect to see many posts about my scuba trip to Aruba (Spoiler: I didn't go).
There might be the occasional aside on music here and there, since that tends to be my only other field of interest but, for the most part, you'll be receiving one thing and one thing only: a spot next to me on the couch as I attempt to watch every film ever made. As a rule, I tend to watch 2- 3 films a day, although weekends are virtual film festivals. Therefore, there will be alot of film discussion flying around here.
What do I watch? Anything and everything, although I tend to specialize in horror films and value foreign over domestic in almost every other category. I will watch, although don't prefer, big Hollywood "tentpole" pictures and tend to despise remakes and their sneaky cousins "re-imaginings" with every fiber of my being. I have a particular affinity for Westerns (especially spaghetti westerns), old Hollywood musicals, documentaries, "grindhouse" films and, of course, horror films of all shape and size. I tend to seek out the obscure and strange, although just about anything will draw my attention.
As a rule, I don't turn a film off, no matter how bad the thing gets. I have broken this rule, of course (some films are so wretched as to serve as forms of mental torture and should be treated as such) but I try to follow this as much as possible. I've often seen a mediocre (or bad) film take an abrupt shift into glory and these are often my favorite finds.
And there you have it: The VHS Graveyard (named for my lifelong long of video) will feature opinionated film reviews from a lifelong cinema junkie. Discussions are, of course, welcome and encouraged. I enjoy arguing as much as the next person (that's a complete lie: I enjoy arguing more than any person who ever walked this green earth) and think that film is as good a thing to debate as anything else.
So, welcome to my humble abode. Feel free to stop in anytime. VHS may be all but dead, but in 2014…the Graveyard is alive!


Effectively managing and maintaining a global virtual instructor-led training (vILT) program comes with unique challenges. In our experience the best run programs are managed with a strong emphasis on attention to detail, clear and consistent communication, and a high level of commitment to process improvement. A vILT global program typically involves a large pool of facilitators, a globally diverse set of participants, and a dependency on technology. While managing a global program certainly is not easy; technology has made the communication and management of logistical details required for successful execution much easier. Below are our top five tips to consider when managing global vILT programs. "Gather" your facilitators For a global vILT program, you will likely have a global team of facilitators. We recommend utilizing technology to not only train your facilitators, but to also store your content. File sharing sites allow facilitator guides, timing outlines, and presentation decks to be housed in one location. Facilitators around the globe can access those files for their own preparation and in real time. From a version management perspective this will also ensure your team of facilitators are working from the most current version of the course content. Champion the Program Just like any vILT program, a global program will require commitment and 'buy in' from leaders in all parts of the globe. Establishing clear guidelines and effectively communicating the goals for the program will help you earn leadership support. This support is necessary to drive participation in the program and foster application of newly learned skills back on the job. For more information on getting the leadership team to champion your program, check out our previous post: Making the Pitch: Selling Your Executives on Virtual Learning. Establish Consistency Consistency is crucial for a successful global program. It's important to establish a program management strategy and to stick to it. We suggest dedicating specific resources to be responsible for the communication surrounding the program. The marketing of the program, invitations, pre-work, and learning materials need to be delivered and communicated consistently. We also recommend specific resources be responsible for all aspects of scheduling, both on the learner side and the facilitation delivery side. In addition to maintaining these processes, it is also important to adapt those processes as things change or gaps are discovered. Know your Time Zones Running a global program means managing sessions in multiple time zones. Additionally, you may have a session running in East Asia by a facilitator in the United States. Technology can be helpful when converting class times to different time zones, but we recommend posting the session in a standard time zone in which the participants are used to working with and always stating times with time zone included. This will make it easier for your facilitation team to determine the class time for their location and will help alleviate conversion mistakes. It's also important to know the national holidays in countries where your company does business. If facilities are closed, chances are your participants will not be participating. It's important to avoid scheduling classes on national holidays or communicate expectations for your participants in order to avoid last minute cancellations or low class numbers. Speak the Language It's a proven fact that people learn more effectively and retain more information when content is delivered in their native language. While working with a global audience, it's important to avoid colloquial speak and slang terms or analogies familiar only to a particular region. Pop culture references can also be tricky. While many parts of the globe can understand and speak/write English, if you find a need for multiple sessions a year in a particular country or region you should consider translating your session to that region's native language. This means translating not only the material, but also utilizing a native speaking facilitator and producer for those sessions as well. Following these five tips can help you manage and maintain a successful global vILT program. What about you? What strategies do you have for managing a global vILT program effectively?
Thanks to several factors, five generations make up today's workforce; each with their own unique aspirations, motivations, and life experiences. It's quite possible today's workforce is the most diverse any business leader has experienced. From a training standpoint, the changing workforce and the emergence of new technology has changed the definition of what today's learner looks like regardless of generation. The modern learner knows no age. It's imperative that companies and learning development professionals continually grow and adapt their learning culture to meet the expectations of today's learner. Reaching today's learner begins with understanding who they are and what they want. We've developed a short list to define today's modern learner. Knowing and understanding who today's modern learner is, can help you decide if your company is doing everything it can to reach them effectively. Today's modern learner is… Requires Convenience Today's learner is on the go. They want to be able to 'learn' everywhere they are. This can mean accessing learning opportunities from their desk computer and phone, but it can also mean accessing it from home, accessing it from a tablet, or from their mobile device, whenever and wherever they want to. Seeks Instant Gratification Time is valuable for today's learner. They are often overwhelmed and overworked and almost always distracted by some internal or external force. Statistic Brain Research Institute reports that the average attention span of today's adult is just 8 seconds. That means in 8 seconds or less, your learner will decide if your session is worth his or her time. Clearly stating the objectives up front, the course agenda, and intended benefits of the session will hold the learners attention for the duration of the session. Mixed media including video, activities, and small group work will also help retain learners' attention. In addition, today's learner wants answers now. On demand learning is crucial for today's learner. That's why technology like Google, Alexa, and Suri are so popular. It's important to make sure your company can provide opportunities and resources for in the moment and on demand learning. Demands Value & Relevance This too plays into gratification. Today's modern learner wants it all. Not only do they demand instant gratification and convenience. They want big returns on their investment of time and energy. Time is valuable and today's learner does not want to spend time away from day-to-day work for something that has little or no relevance to their current responsibilities or doesn't enhance their potential for that next promotion or career move. In Control The modern learner wants to be in control of his or her learning and development. They want options and choices and they want to be in control of their career and development path. Learning choices should vary in content, in length, in availability, and in medium. The modern learner does not need mandatory learning and development requirements to learn. They choose learning, but it must be flexible, convenient, and on their own terms. Collaborative Social elements drive today's society, both on the personal and professional front. Today's learners rely on Google for answers and they look to peers and colleagues to provide them with the ability to support their learning on the job. In fact, Bersin reports that nearly 80 percent of workforce learning happens via on the job interactions with peers, teammates, and managers. As stated above, the modern learner wants to learn. They want to grow and adapt to be more successful on their job and they want to share their ideas and collaborate with other like-minded professionals. I want to be clear, the modern learner can be found in all generations. Too often, these discussions take place with a focus on serving a younger, more technology focused generation. A Baby Boomer, for example, can appreciate the convenience and technology virtual learning provides just as much (or even more) than a millennial. Now that you know more about what the modern learner looks like, is your company doing everything it can to reach them? Let us know in the comments below!
With the New Year upon us, we look ahead towards the opportunities in our field to meet the needs of our clients. Based on our conversations with our clients, the following are the hot topics on their project radars for 2018. Mobile Learning Mobile devices are everywhere. This is not a new trend. Learning professionals continue to adapt in order to accommodate learners' mobile lifestyles. Companies have already started moving their content to mobile platforms and applications. Employees rely on mobile devices to access information and training content while on the job. This trend goes beyond the formal training session to meeting the learners where they are, when they need the information. Mobile learning also supports another trend we see gaining in popularity: Microlearning. Microlearning Time is valuable. So is training. Companies are starting to realize that not every training opportunity needs (or can) be a two day training session. Our clients have started to take advantage of microlearning opportunities, short bursts of learning that employees can consume in a short period of time. The trend suggests that as more people continue to do more with less, microlearning techniques are better received and retained by employees. We expect this trend to continue. Content Curation Part of content curation again speaks to the individuals desire to have knowledge at their finger tips. The increase in accessibility of the internet, particularly on mobile devices, puts answers in front of people almost immediately. In a learning atmosphere, we can use that thirst for knowledge by curating relevant and accurate information in one place for employees. We see this happening with unique internal content such as company manuals, policies, procedures etc., but also by leveraging relevant and useful existing content from external sources. This might be content on federal regulations, from law libraries, or targeted general topics such as proper email etiquette, or health and wellness information. Big Data As today's business world continues to move in a digital direction, data in the business world becomes easier to collect and use. Industries across the board are realizing the value of collecting that information and the learning industry is no different. Again, not a new trend, but we see our clients continuing to capture analytics on learning tool utilization, content access, and knowledge application on the job. Using the data helps learning and development professionals quantify activity and show value they can directly link to business results. Distributed Workforce This is also a trend we have continued to see grow over the past several years. As more employees desire flexible work schedules and technology continues to improve working from home, larger groups of employees are able to do their jobs remotely. A remote workforce can present new challenges. Managers leading remote teams need different skills to support their teams successfully. Our clients and other learning professionals continue to enhance learning curriculum in support of the skills necessary for both individual contributors and managers to be successful in a remote work environment. Gamification of Learning This is a trend we will explore in more detail later this year, but we do see this trend continuing to gain traction in 2018. New studies indicate that some forms of game based learning have higher retention rates than more traditional methods. We see some clients exploring gamification methods to take the mundane out of mandatory training requirements and encourage employees to engage in the learning process. Some organizations are exploring new ways to 'gamify' their existing learning programs for their in house training, compliance courses, information security, and other procedural trainings. As we kick off 2018, we will be on the lookout for these and other trends in the industry, and will continue to share our resources and experiences. Wishing you great success in the year ahead.
Need Better Results From Your Subject Matter Experts?
At Mondo Learning Solutions we're committed to helping our clients grow, which is why we try to pass along the best and latest resources to help in your business. Our friends and colleagues at Chicago-based Turpin Communication recently released a new book, "Effective SMEs: A Trainer's Guide for Helping Subject Matter Experts Facilitate Learning". This book is one you will want to have in your library. We regularly work with subject matter experts (SMEs) in the virtual classroom, which has both its advantages and disadvantages. As Turpin suggests, SMEs do bring credibility and relevance to the classroom, but that is often not enough to deliver an effective session. For many SMEs the training environment is unfamiliar terrain. They are often authorities on a particular topic, not on adult learning and aren't necessarily familiar with effective facilitation techniques. I like this book specifically because it comes from a place of experience. Authors Dale Ludwig and Greg Owen-Boger leverage decades of work helping presenters, instructional designers, and subject matter experts become better communicators. They use detailed and relatable workplace scenarios plucked directly from their own experiences to assist readers in learning about a variety of learning situations. The book serves as a blueprint for managing SME-led training with the underlying premise that successful training stems from a place of communication and an understanding of everyone's role.It also digs into best practices for coaching your SMEs. It's available for purchase on Amazon.com and most bookstores, and the first chapter is available for free on the Association for Talent Development website. Give it a look.
Is Your Virtual Training Program On Target or Missing the Mark?
Is your virtual instructor-led training (vILT) program meeting the needs of your business, or is it falling short of expectations? If your program is not quite hitting the mark, perhaps there is work to be done in one of the following five key areas. PlanningPlanning is an important step early in the process to ensuring the success of your program. Proper planning is centered on the goals you have for each of your vILT classes. What are you trying to accomplish? Identify key learning objectives and design your class to meet those objectives. Identifying your needs will help you decide which platform, delivery method, and learning design will put you in the best position for success. For more information on planning your vILT course, check out a recent post on evaluating learning objectives for the virtual classroom. PreparationEveryone knows that preparation is important but it is often the part of the process that gets short changed. Many companies will spend thousands of dollars in resources designing their vILT programs, and not nearly as much time or energy making sure their facilitation team is fully prepared to deliver the sessions. We see this most when industry experts or professionals are looped into the process after the design phase of the program. While the content and subject matter might seem like an easy leap for many industry professionals, the environment, the technology, and the delivery method may be more of a stretch and requires skill development and preparation. We recommend the use of dress rehearsals as part of the preparation process. A dress rehearsal gives every key player involved in the session, a chance to work through the kinks, test equipment, and practice "hand-offs" planned during the session. For more tips on preparation check out our post on dress rehearsals.Delivery Effective delivery is where the rubber meets the road. Your virtual facilitators can make or break your virtual training simply on how they deliver the session. Do they have well developed facilitation skills? Are they enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the topic? Do they present with energy or do they sound as if they are reading from a script? We recommend the use of a content outline, and a detailed facilitator guide for the session. This will allow facilitators to deliver the course material in a manner that achieves the core objectives while also letting learners drive discussion. We've done several posts on facilitator delivery techniques and preparation. Check those out here and here.EngagementPart of delivery is engagement. If your learners aren't engaged throughout the session, the learning objectives cannot be met. A good facilitator will engage with learners on a personal level. They will incorporate existing technology to ask questions, encourage dialogue, and drive discussions. As mentioned in the delivery section, facilitators should be able to meet the course objectives while letting learners drive the discussion in directions most applicable to them. Check out our post on facilitating versus teaching for more information on engaging your learners. Follow-up Feedback and follow-up is the most easily forgotten part of a successful vILT program. This is important for two reasons.First, for the continuity of your program. Gathering feedback from your learners will provide you with valuable information on what is working and what isn't, what needs to be changed, adapted, or cut. Secondly, following up with your learners is the ultimate litmus on whether or not your vILT program is actually accomplishing your learning objectives. Are learners accomplishing what is intended, back on the job? Is it truly applicable to their careers? Whether or not your learning objectives are met determine the ultimate success of your vILT program from both a learner perspective and the business results perspective. Watch for our two part post on learner follow up coming next month.Avoiding any one of these key steps could be a mistake for your vILT training program. Take a look at your program; are you accomplishing each one of these? Are there others you would add to the list?


text:
Q: Wrap a text within two lines in div I wish to wrap a text with in only two lines inside div of especial width. If text goes beyond the length of two lines then i wish to show elipses.  is there any solution to do that using CSS?
I used css property text-overflow:ellipsis. its works only for one line. and also i used -webkit-line-clamp:2.which works well in chrome and safari browsers.
text wrap need to sopport in all the browsers(firefox and IE9).
Please suggest me the solution using css or javacsript?
Thanks in Advance.
One thing i observed..
if text fits in complete two lines its display like this.
testtesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttestte
testtesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttestte ...

suppose if text fits half of the two lines like
 testtesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttestte
    testtesttesttesttest                                                               ...

I am expecting like below:
 testtesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttestte
 testtesttest...

I have tried with some modifications didn't succeeded.

A: You could play around with something like this
p.ellipsis {
position:relative;
line-height:1em;
max-height:2em;      /* 2 times the line-height to show 2 lines */
overflow: hidden;
}
p.ellipsis::after {
content:"...";
font-weight:bold;
position:absolute;
top:1em;
right:0;
padding:0 20px 1px 10px;
background: white;
}

See fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/T7B9c/
Or you could use clamp.js
Edit:  To calculate if there is no overflow, you could do:

lots of text

var $element = $('#ellipsis');
if( $element[0].offsetHeight < $element[0].scrollHeight || $element[0].offsetWidth < $element[0].scrollWidth){
   // your element have overflow
   $element.addClass('ellipsis');
}
else{
  $element.removeClass('ellipsis');
}

Then it will only show the dots if the element has stuff not shown.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


McFLY's Tom Fletcher has released the stunning music video to accompany the release of The Musical Edition of his hit novel 'The Christmasaurus'.
The tear-jerking picture released yesterday is based on the true story of teenager Lily Rice, who is the first European female to perform a backflip in a wheelchair.
Lily, who stars in the video alongside pop singer Tom, has a condition called hereditary spastic paraplegia which causes muscle rigidity.
Yet she was able to achieve the feat in Cariff after six hours' practice.
The video is set to his track Afraid Of Heights, one of 14 new songs culled from his CD The Christmasaurus, the musical edition of his debut novel of the same name.
All written and performed by Tom, they are accompanied by a full orchestra and include surprise solos from Giovanna Fletcher - Tom's wife - and Carrie Hope-Fletcher, his sister.
The Christmasaurus is also set for a stage show at London's Eventim Apollo for a limited run from December 21 - 28.
Harry Judd, Matt Willis, Giovanna, and Carriewill are all set to appear alongside Tom on-stage in the festive spectacular.
Tom remains a guitarist on McFly.


text:
Q: Textbox that MUST contain at least set of char with numbers or not i am making a registration form on windows phone 8 one of its fields is username that should contain at least set of char with numbers or not but can not contains numbers only and can not contain special char i can use username.Text.Any(char.IsDigit);andusername.Text.Any(char.IsLetter);`but how i will validate the number of char and no special char

A: If I understand you question correctly. A user name must follow these rules:
1) Cannot contain any special characters.
2) Must contain both character and numbers (e.g. not number only 123, or chars only boy).
I think the following would work for you:
    private bool ValidateUserName(string Name)
    {
        bool temp = false;

        if (Name.All(char.IsLetterOrDigit) && Name.Any(char.IsDigit) && !Name.All(char.IsDigit)) temp = true;

        return temp;
    }

The first part of the condition makes sure that there are no special characters, the second part that there is at least on digit, and the last that it isn't all digits. This worked on the following cases for me:
        bool isValid = false;

        string userName = "Kevin123";
        isValid = ValidateUserName(userName);  //true
        userName = "kevinrules";
        isValid = ValidateUserName(userName);  //false
        userName = "kevin!123";
        isValid = ValidateUserName(userName);  //false
        userName = "12345";
        isValid = ValidateUserName(userName);  //false

If I misunderstood the rules please let me know.

A: Take a look at regular expressions.
For matching w/ C# http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/twcw2f1c%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
For help building an expression http://regexlib.com/ is a good starting point.


text:
Mets reliever Seth Lugo will help batten down the hatches of the bullpen
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 01: Seth Lugo #67 of the New York Mets delivers a pitch against the Cincinnati Reds at Citi Field on May 01, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.The Cincinnati Reds defeated the New York Mets 1-0. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
The New York Mets bullpen has been a weakness for a large portion of the season. Fortunately, Seth Lugo's return from the IL will help give them a trusted arm they can turn to.
The New York Mets wasted no time in getting Seth Lugo back into a game upon his return this weekend. On Friday night, Lugo was summoned to pitch the eighth inning after the Mets had taken a 5-4 lead versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. His inning wasn't clean, but he got the job done to set up Robert Gsellman for the save.
The band is back together. The bullpen looks smoother. The green rookies and sophomores can wait to pitch again in games where the Mets have a greater lead or are ready to wave a white flag.
We saw just how bad this bullpen is without Lugo in it. Mickey Callaway turned to guys like Tyler Bashlor and Daniel Zamora for big outs. Unfortunately, it was those less-pressurized ones where they were getting the majority of their outs. These big ones were often too hard to handle.
Though Lugo had a poor start to the season, he managed to right the shape for a full month before landing on the injured list. After a bad outing on April 19 where he did actually earn the victory, Lugo spent few weeks keeping runs off the board. It wasn't until his final appearance on May 19 where he did allow another run.
With an ERA at 3.00 on the year through 27 innings, Lugo is the squad's leader at preventing runs. This was a strength of his last year when he completed 101.1 innings and dazzled us with an impressive 2.66 ERA. Compared to the 4.71 ERA he had a year prior in exactly the same number of frames, it was clear he was heading in the right direction.
To make room for Lugo, the Mets demoted Zamora to Triple-A Syracuse. His limitations as a perceived left-handed specialist made his time with the big league club a monetary one.
The narrative of "who can Callaway call upon?" is now gone with Lugo's return. It has been a tough few weeks finding reasons to trust these relievers.
Whether it's Gsellman's inconsistency, Jeurys Familia's continued struggles, or the unexpected failures of Edwin Diaz, the Mets bullpen has done plenty to make us worry.
Reflecting on the Mets' historically bad June 2018. Next
Lugo won't pitch every night so these guys need to do better, too. However, in those big spots where the team desperately needs an out, I think it's Lugo we all want to see get his chance. Over the past two seasons, no relief pitcher has done it better.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


One of the things I love about Christmas is the build-up, all the little things you do to get yourself into the festive spirit. For us Christmas actually starts in October (a bit too early I know!) when we help the boys write their lists for Father Christmas. We used to do it a lot nearer to Christmas, but we quickly realised that if you don't pin little ones down to a finalised list, it'll keep changing right up until the last minute. Using October half-term to browse round the toy shops and write our lists ensures that Father Christmas has plenty of time to organise and wrap the presents.
When the time comes to wrap up our presents, we try to make it as festive as possible (because it's not the most exciting job otherwise!). We watch one of our favourite Christmas films (Love Actually or The Holiday), or something equally as seasonal like SPOTY or the X-Factor final, with some Christmassy popcorn and a little festive tipple. I've usually opted for a warm glass of mulled wine or cider, but this year my festive drink of choice is something a little different…the Snowball. It's been on my to-try list for ages but I'd never quite gotten around to it, so when Warninks invited me to give one a try it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
A snowball cocktail is made with Advocaat, lime juice and lemonade or soda (although there are little variations about such as adding cinnamon or toasted marshmallows). For anyone unfamiliar, Advocaat is a creamy drink that tastes (to me at least) like a fruity custard with a little extra kick. I actually think it tastes lovely on it's own in a glass with ice, but it also works really well as a snowball (although little tip, use freshly squeezed lime juice rather than bottled as it's much nicer that way – I have learnt from experience!).
Getting my advent calendar in the post. Even though I'm grown up with my own children now, my Mum still sends me a chocolate calendar to open. Each year it makes me smile when it arrives.
Listening to Christmas songs… Maria Carey, Wham!, Wizzard, the cheesier the better! There's a lot of people that seem to moan when the Christmas songs appear in the shops but I'm one of those people that wanders up and down the aisles of the supermarket singing along – sorry.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I thought I'd share a quick picture of my three kings Christmas cake.
Watching my boys in the school nativity – is there anything cuter?
We decided to make an extra special mince pie for Father Christmas this year to go with his orange juice and a carrot for the reindeer. What do you leave out for Santa?
…and sprinkling some reindeer food (oats and glitter) outside near the chimney so the reindeers know where to go.
Crackers on the dinner table. The boys get so excited about them it's impossible not to smile.
Singing songs around the piano with my in-laws. My brother-in-law is a really talented pianist and plays songs which everyone sings along with on Christmas afternoon. It's something I always enjoy when we're there on Christmas day, especially Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!
One tradition I loved when I was a young child was sleeping in my sister's room on Christmas Eve, waking up in the morning and seeing what Santa had bought together (we never opened anything without Mum & Dad but liked to try and guess what was inside). We also sometimes sneaked downstairs had a good look through all the presents under the tree and then put them all back into place to pretend we hadn't :-). Then we climbed into Mum & Dad's bed to open our Christmas stockings. The boys are a bit young for this at the moment (they would end up getting no sleep!) but I'd love to think they'd want to do it when they're a bit older.
As I said all of these are little things, but ones I always smile when I think about them. What are your favourite traditions that Christmas just wouldn't be the same without?
Shake together the Advocaat (50ml) and lime juice (25ml).
Strain into a glass and top up with lemonade or soda.
Warninks Advocaat is available in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and any good convenience stores at a RRP of £11.00 for a 70l bottle.
I'm sharing this with the following blog challenges… #CookBlogShare with Sneaky Veg and #TheFoodCalendar for Christmas.
Hi Charlotte, lovely pics. Having been a (very young) barmaid in the late 1970s, I've made a few snowballs in my time. Proportions were more 50:50 Advocaat & lemonade then. Love the idea of the lime, as drinks tend not to be so sweet nowadays. As snowballs leave glasses cloudy, we used to run a slice of lemon round the inside before washing, makes it much easier to clean. Merry Christmas!
Oooh, these cocktails look amazing! Love how organised you are when it comes to the presents. It's also interesting to read what people do during this festive time and what traditions they have! 🙂 By the way, love the photos, the light and styling is fab!
Right, I'm stealing that writing the letter to Santa in half term trick – utter genius! Why have I never thought of that? This year it was absolutely torture as I made the silly mistake of giving them the Tesco Toy Catalogue and suggesting they ticked the things they like (yes, I realise how daft that was in hindsight) Of course, it came back covered in ticks and I was none the wiser!!
Definitely something you should rectify! The Santa thing is great, although Josh keeps dropping hints that he wants headphones after trying his 12-year-old cousin's ones (he did look cute with the giant headphones on his little 4-year-old head though).


The browser offers better support for legacy Web applications.
Microsoft has added several new features to its Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) browser to improve its backward compatibility. That's important for many enterprises which have legacy Web applications built for earlier versions of the browser. Specifically, IE11 now has higher fidelity emulation in the IE8 and IE7 Enterprise Modes, and it also now has support for HTTP ports in Enterprise Mode.
The company also released its Web Application Compatibility Lab Kit, a set of tools that helps enterprise administrators configure IE11 so that it will be able to access older Web apps. Microsoft explained, "This Lab Kit provides a walk-through of how to configure and set up Enterprise Mode in addition to Enterprise Site Discovery, the F12 developer tools, and the Enterprise Mode Site List Manager."


text:
Category: Philip Marlowe
CBS, OTR Detective, Philip Marlowe, Philip Marlowe OTR, Podcast
EP3544: Philip Marlowe: The Blue Burgonet
Marlowe is hired to guard a valuable shipment of silk, but everyone thinks he knows something about an item called the blue burgonet. 4swu4wby
NBC, OTR Detective, Philip Marlowe, Philip Marlowe OTR, Podcast
EP3538: Philip Marlowe: Robin and the Hood
Marlowe's hired to protect the lead in a Technicolor production of Robin Hood from his identical twin brother: a skilled archer with mental problems.
Original Air Date: August 19, 1947
EP3532: Philip Marlowe: Daring Young Dame on the Flying Trapeze
A trapeze performer hires Marlowe to protect a circus from dangerous gamblers his partners owe money to.
Original Air Date: July 1, 1947
Philip Marlowe, Video Theater
Video Theater 156: Philip Marlowe: The Ugly Duckling
http://media.blubrry.com/greatdetectives/p/traffic.libsyn.com/detectivetheater/PhilipMarlowe_S01E01_TheUglyDuckling_DL.mp4
Philip Marlowe is hired to pay off a woman's husband's mistress and finds himself the prime suspect when the mistress is murdered.
DVD Review, Golden Age Article, Philip Marlowe, Podcast
DVD Review: The Reformer and the Redhead
In the Reformer and the Red Head (1950), June Allyson stars as Kathleen Maguire, a zoo tour guide and the daughter of the local zookeeper. When her dad is fired at the behest of a local political boss, she turns to reformer Andrew Hale (played by Allyson's husband Dick Powell) to expose the corrupt boss and get her father's job back. Hale sees an opportunity to bolster his fledgling candidacy. However, he finds himself drawn into the lives of the Maguires and their menagerie of wild animals that they keep as pets around the house.
Allyson is great in this. Kathleen Maguire is eager, earnest, sincere, and with a good bit of temper. She's really the heart of the film and Allyson makes her likable and a delight in every moment she's on the screen.
Powell's character is interesting. While he's running as a reformer, it's mostly a cynical marketing ploy. It's his best line of attack. If he can find a way to settle with the bosses and win the election easily, he's happy to do that. As the film goes on, he changes. Kathleen is a true believer in the things he says to win votes. As they fall in love, they come to a big inevitable conflict where he has to choose between Kathleen and an easy path to political power. Powell manages to portray this conflict while also doing great with the comedy.
I also to have comment on the animals, particularly the domesticated lion. The animals are fun throughout the film, delivering some cute moments as well as some big laughs. There are some great gags, including a really fun scene in a car towards the end.
The film is predictable. If you've seen similar movies from this era, you could sketch out the plot of the entire film. While its predictable, it's never boring. The leads have great chemistry, the animals are fun, and the moral is good. It's not a classic epic, but it's a good time. If you like these films, or are a fan of Dick Powell or June Allyson, this is a pleasant 90 minutes.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
If you enjoyed this post, you can have new posts about Detective stories and the golden age of radio and television delivered automatically to your Kindle.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchase
Golden Age Article, Philip Marlowe
The Top 10 Philip Marlowe Radio Episodes
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 1 Comment
The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Gerald Mohr aired from 1948-50 and then returned in the Summer of 1951 and is one of the best radio detective shows of all time. Here are my ten favorites. Right click on each link to download if you're curious about an episode.
10) Where There's a Will (Original Air Date: October 17, 1948)
Marlowe is hired by three heirs to help them locate their inheritance. It's a great character story and very noirish.
9) The Anniversary Gift (Original Air Date: April 11, 1950)
William Conrad does a great job filling in with Mohr in a great story with a perfect pitch ending, and a superb performance by Conrad that makes me wish he had been a radio detective more often.
8) The Old Acquaintance (Original Air Date: December 26, 1948)
Marlowe engages in a race against time on New Year's Eve to find a missing fiancée before a dangerous escaped convict does.
7) The House that Jacqueline Built (Original Air Date: December 31, 1949)
Another New Years Eve story. This one a quirky but well done tale of Marlowe searching for a missing house.
6) The Grim Hunters (Original Air Date: March 12, 1949)
Marlowe gets called to a house, only to find he was being used as an item on a scavenger hunt. This equates a light-hearted start that turns very serious when a body turns up.
5) The Big Book (Original Air Date: September 29, 1950)
Marlowe investigates an apparent suicide of a has-been actress. It's an engaging story with a solid ending.
4) The Red Wind (Original Air Date: September 26, 1948)
Marlowe lands right in the middle of a plot involving murder and blackmail. This is the only time the CBS series adapted an actual Marlowe story by Chandler, and it's sad they didn't do more.
3) The Iron Coffin: (Original Air Date: July 12, 1950)
Marlowe investigates a strange case where for a woman who fears for the life of her daughter's fiancé. It's a very clever and imaginative tale that find Marlowe in a medieval castle (that's been moved to California) and has a superb conclusion.
2) The Lonesome Reunion (Original Air Date: February 12, 1949)
Marlowe goes to Phoenix carrying papers and finds himself robbed, and thrown into a battle with robbers and murders in the small town of Lonesome, Arizona.
1) The Little Wishbone (Original Air Date: December 10, 1949)
Throughout the series, Marlowe flirted with many women (and vice versa), but is the only episode where Marlowe truly falls in love, but he finds out the lady has a secret. Mohr is at his absolute best, particularly in the last few minutes, and the powerful final scene ends with a twist that hits you like a punch in the gut.
EP1871: Hollywood Star Time: Murder, My Sweet
Philip Marlowe investigates a missing woman and then gets caught in a murder surrounding stolen jewels.
Original Air Date: June 8, 1946
Nominate us in the Entertainment Category at http://www.podcastawards.com


text:
Advance Wars
by cosmicPostman
‹ Part #7 Part #9 › Return to LP Index
Part 8: Much-Needed Relaxation
PART 9 - Much-Needed Relaxation
Alright! Last time, we had a very difficult map where we lost Colin and had to deal with bombers being assholes. This time, the mission name hints that we're gonna be getting some planes for ourselves. Let's see!
So, do we have Good News Nell or Bad News Nell today?
This is promising..!
Wait, three? That's six new units, if I'm counting correctly... jeez.
Nell just can't help but provide bad news, can she? Ah well. It'll at least be nice to test them out.
I see! Well, if I have the firepower you've promised, I don't think that'll be too hard.
Let's make 'em wish they'd never been conscripted.
Come on, my dude. Almost through the tutorial. The obscenely long tutorial.
We are? Uh, I mean, of course we are!
Oh, I see. Right, let's do that thing then! ...Or is this one of those instances where you keep talking even after you've told me what to do?
If I forget, lots of people die and we have to restart the mission.
I... yeah, I should've done that. Ah well.
yes nell I know where the dicking R button is, we're on part 9
Thanks. Right, let's see what we're working with today...
This map isn't so bad. Air units absolutely rule it, so handily, we have mostly those. So does Olaf, though, so we're gonna have to be careful how we handle this. I spent a long time figuring out the best way to go about this - basically, I wanna take out all the aggressive enemies first, since the transport copters and the boat, and the infantry, will all either not attack or do squat damage.
Whilst I was fiddling around with my battle plan, I also discovered that you can do this if you press B on an empty tile. So, that's handy if you want to see the terrain.
Mulligan begins proceedings in the usual way.
That is to say, casually one-shotting the scariest units on the map.
Speaking of casually one-shotting...
"Hey guys!" shouts a guy in the front fighter jet. "The name's Stanley, and this is the good old Stanley Syndicate! We're the best pilots on this side of Orange Star, so let us handle things! Also, send me pictures of your dogs. I love dogs."
With thoughts of cute dogs in his head, Stanley shoots down another bomber.
"What a showoff..." murmurs one of the other fighter jet pilots into the intercom. "Don't you think, Barnaby?"
A voice crackles through the intercom. "No way, Hosé! He's got style and bravery! You just don't like him because you're a cat person."
"My name is Howard. And I don't have any particular preference for any animals." Howard sighs.
There's a moment of silence.
"No way, Howard! He's got style and bravery! You just don't like him because you don't like animals."
"Well, you corrected the inaccuracies..." Howard says. "Look, Barnaby, let's just impress our new commander in our first mission. I'm really not sure if I'm gonna be able to do it."
The Fred Fusiliers open fire. Note that I went for the medium tank first, since it's the only unit in range capable of actually attacking.
Not that we're gonna give it a chance to, but hey.
The enemy rockets (or missiles, I can't really tell them apart) are making me nervous, so I send one of the bombers after it.
"A direct hit! Yaaay!" cheers the pilot. "Hey guys, nice to meetcha! I'm Lucy, of the Lucy Lineup! We're looking forward to being friends with you all!"
"Oh, she's just adorable." Fred grins. "Her killing potential isn't great though. She's gonna have to really draw blood if she wants to impress us!"
"Don't listen to him," says Bernard. "He's just weird and likes murder. The rest of us are already impressed; you sound really young for a pilot."
"Sixteen!" Lucy says. "My da taught me to fly when I was pretty young. He's here today, actually!"
"Yep, yep, alright," grumbles another bomber as it flies towards the target: an enemy tank.
"You almost missed!" yells Mulligan. "I mean, we don't always get things right first try, but what was that all about?"
"Are you drunk?" asks Lucy. The guy heaves a sigh.
"Maybe a little."
"Dad!"
"Ugh." the guy replies. "Sorry about my daughter. M'name's Red. This is the, uh... Red Rig. Yeah, sounds about right. We fly and drop bombs, though we're partial to a good drop."
"Not on the battlefield, daddy!" Lucy demands. After some unintelligible grumbling from Red, she sighs. "Ah well. Nice to meet you all!"
"Uh, yeah..." Dave says. He turns to Steve and shrugs. "Why is everyone in this army a weirdo?"
"You ask this every mission." Steve says. "And I still don't have a damn clue."
Alfred flies off to bully the medium tanks.
It's pretty weakened now, so it'll probably do no damage to most of the air units. I'd rather have it out of the way entirely, though.
Grumpily, the Howard Heap go over to this transport copter. I know my strategy was to take out all aggressive units first, but this one needs to get out of the way - I need to finish off those rockets, so I'm defeating the copter to allow another unit to get to the rockets.
Man, I love one-shotting things. It's so satisfying, in any game.
The last of our bombers heads out.
"I am Raynald of Châtillon!" announces the pilot as he flies towards the rockets. "With noble blade in hand, I shall retake the holy land for the glory of God! I am the finest mercenary the Kingdom of Jerusalem's royal army has ever known!"
"He..." murmurs Steve. "...Does he think he's a historical figure called Raynald of Châtillon? And what the hell is a Jerusalem?"
"Not a clue. He certainly sounds like a historical figure. Maybe he's just really into his history?"
"And also his murder, by the looks of it." Fred grins. "Such beautiful bombing... such magnificence!"
Laughing madly, the Barnaby Bracket finally join the fray. If I get rid of the fighter jets here, there's nothing that can harm him and Stanley; the bombers can't attack air units.
...Well, that's not ideal.
Yeesh, really not ideal!
Steve hops into the Bernard Batch's copter and flees north.
Alright, time to end this turn, once I've got everything sorted. I think we're good! I'm just worried about the enemy bro copters back there.
I send the Larry Lot to finish off the medium tank, though, just because it's annoying me.
I feel better. Look at the nice beach now that there's no stupid tanks all over it.
Also, you can't see it in the screenshots, but the water isn't animated, and it kind of irks me.
Olaf, who lost half his forces without even getting a chance to attack (serves him right for doing the same thing a couple of missions back), begins his turn.
"I swear I had, like, seven more planes five minutes ago."
Olaf continues to be surprised at stuff that he really shouldn't be surprised by. Like, we knew he was invading nine missions ago, why would him having landing forces be a surprise?
...Wait, "make due"? Olaf, buddy, it's "make do".
I'm a grammar nazi first, a tactician second.
The plane that I wasn't able to get rid of heads for Lucy.
She isn't afraid.
And with nothing in range to attack, the bombers just kinda... head towards my fighter jets.
I have a very strong feeling of regret right now.
Whew! Thank goodness, it would've taken two bro copters to kill Alf-
Mother fucker.
There's an explosion, and Alfred watches as his helicopter falls apart around him.
"Shit..." he murmurs. He hits the intercom. "Guys, I'm going down!"
"Alfred, my man, you alright?" Bernard asks.
"Nope..." Alfred replies. "Come on, guys, don't be so formal. Call me... ARGH! Alf! Call me Alf!"
The helicopter begins to spiral towards the ocean, and Alf wonders what to do with his last few moments.
"Tell Eric to patch things up with Bill! Larry, it was an honour being your partner in combat and roommate! And... someone tell Tina that I guess she doesn't owe me that twenty dollars any more..."
"ALFRED!" yells Larry. He turns his helicopter around in desperation, but it's too late. The army watches as the last helicopter of the Alfred Armada plunges into the depths of the river and sinks, leaving just a few bubbles to gather on the surface and disappear moments later.
The convenient thing about the bombers heading for my fighter jets is that these ones are now also in Mulligan range.
And Mulligan capitalises on that.
With nothing dangerous left in the range of Fred, he just attacks that new boat-looking unit.
It does moderate damage. The boat doesn't seem particularly fazed. Or manned, by the looks of it - where are all the sailors?
Howard exacts a terrifying revenge on the bro copters.
By which I mean he one-shots. This is what you deserve for screwing with my strategy!
Larry, infuriated beyond all reasonable means by the death of his good friend, opens fire on the bro copters.
Unfortunately, grieving rage doesn't actually increase a unit's attack power, so he's just shy of finishing the fucker off.
Barnaby helps.
Hey, guess what happens to this guy? Hint: rhymes with 'tomb'.
I would've also accepted DOOM.
Raynald of Châtillon crusades over to this offending boat.
For some reason, beating the boats just has them float away. I wanted them to sink properly, dammit!
The Lucy Lineup help...
...by not one-shotting this random shitty infantry group. Infantry have really inconsistent tanking abilities.
Red recovers from his hangover for just long enough to drop more bombs on this tank. I see you trying to heal on that city!
It went well! I think that's almost every aggressive enemy gone now, right? Just clean-up left, once Olaf's turn ends.
Whoops, missed one. And he goes for the Fred Fusiliers.
He did absolutely no damage.
I genuinely laughed aloud when I saw it just go 'plink'.
And things get worse for the poor fool, since he's parked himself RIGHT in Mulligan's range.
He wasn't so much 'shot down' as he was 'completely ground into dust'.
Red manages to one-shot this infantry! I was more surprised about this when I was actually playing, and it's only now that I realise that Lucy was injured when she was attacking that infantry. So that's why the tanking was inconsistent.
I swing Larry down to attack this guy, but then I realise...
If I attack this guy with Larry, there's nobody that can actually fire on the infantry down below. However, any air unit can attack this jet, so I can finish the fight on this turn if I send Larry down to defeat the infantry unit instead.
Which is precisely what I do.
This is the strategy of a winner.
Unfortunately, we can't quite do enough damage like this.
Barnaby comes over to do it instead.
Now that's what I like to see. Triple digits, baby!
And that's the map! Whoever said in the comments that this one was cathartic, you were absolutely right. This is a real breather of map, which I'm fine with. Let's just forget that I accidentally got Alfred killed, because I did the rest of the map really well. Right, Nell?
Uh, yeah? It was mostly just one-shotting and air units, so it wasn't like it was massively difficult.
Thanks! Nell likes me again, guys. I impressed her, finally!
Oh, wow, I really impressed her. Goodness.
Certainly shall. I hope. I'd rather have not lost anyone, but it's more interesting when people die from time to time. I will try harder next map though!
...Oh, right, I don't get to keep the bombers or fighters, do I?
By being incompetent. And suicidally charging into Mulligan's range, in one memorable instance.
Cue Olaf saying The Thing He Always SaysTM.
Thanks! Next time, we abandon our new friends in order to make new ocean friends. Look forward to Boat Emblem: The Sailing Stones!
The Barracks: Eric and Bill 1
"Eric, is this yours?"
Eric looks up from his book, seeing Bill stood next to his bed holding a sock.
"Uh, probably?"
"Please don't leave your socks around the room. We both have to live here, you know." Bill mutters, tossing it into a nearby drawer and going to sit on his own bed. Eric remembers Alfred's words, and sits up, putting his book aside.
"Uh, hey… Bill, I wanted to talk to you."
"Mm?" comes the response.
"I'm gonna try and be tactful. Basically, you're a bit… overly clean. And you're very demanding. Both in our room and in the field, so… I was wondering if you'd consider toning it down a little?"
"I…" Bill murmurs. "I… suppose so. Sorry, Eric. Personally, I think that cleanliness in the room is akin to preciseness in the field. That can be the difference between life and death."
"That's a bit of a stretch!" laughs Eric. "Lighten up, Bill. I mean, would it really be so different if we were just a little more relaxed?"
"Well, how about we try it?" Bill says. "For the next week, I'll resist my OCD and let you keep our room and the tanks as tidy or as untidy as you like. And we'll see if there's any difference."
"If not, you have to tone it down and let me drive the tank next mission." Eric says.
Bill nods. "Acceptable. If you give in, you have to clean the tanks for the next month."
"Deal." Eric grins, shaking hands with Bill. He turns back to his book, whilst Bill looks around the room for a moment, then exits.


Patty did an AWESOME job doing our 2 sets of family photographs for Christmas this past year. It was such a joy to work with her and to see the results. This was one of my mothers' wishes--to get professional pictures done of our family and she was thrilled when she saw them! They're especially precious to me as mom passed away yesterday. Now I have these wonderful pictures to remember her by and to relive the joy that was shared those days. (we had two sets done--one for mom and one for my husband) I am so thankful that we did this and that we chose Patty to preserve us on film. She is very easy to work with and if she can put up with our crazy family and make us look 'normal' on film...well, she can do anything!
Patty did a phenomenal job with my fiancé and I for our engagement photos. She arrived to the location where we wanted our photos taken early and when we got there, she directed us to where we would begin. She made us feel so comfortable. I am so excited for our wedding and feel confident in Patty and her team!
Patty took our engagement pictures and my what an incredible experience. Patty is fun and easy to work with. She does her best to understand the feel that our pictures needed and she is very professional. I definitely recommend her to everyone I know!
Patty recently photographed our family of six and it was the best photo experience we have ever had! As you know, taking pictures with children can be difficult! However, in this case, it was not! She was prepared, very professional, created a nice calm atmosphere, and had an organized game plan. Our kids even enjoyed the time and had lots of fun! She captured some great moments that we will now have forever. She is a first class photographer and if you choose her, you will NOT be disappointed. We will definitely use her again in the future.
"I saw Patty's work online and knew I wanted to have her as my wedding photographer. She did such a wonderful job with our engagement and wedding pictures. I wouldn't have chosen anyone else. I'm so pleased we got to be her first wedding shoot. She created lasting memories we'll cherish forever."


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film festival / GFF 2019 / interviews / news
FrightFest Glasgow 2019 Interview – Lawrie Brewster (Automata)
January 28, 2019 January 29, 2019 - by Paul Devine - Leave a Comment
The FrightFest team are renowned for supporting up and coming talent, be it the UK or worldwide. One of those talents is Scottish filmmaker Lawrie Brewster. Lawrie is no stranger to the festival with his films The Unkindness of Ravens and The Black Gloves already played previously. Now his latest creation Automata will make its World Premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019.
Ahead of that premiere of the darkly erotic Automata , director sat down with us to tells us about his record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, the growth of Hex Studios and his fascination with creepy dolls.
Related: Black Metal To Haunted Hoarders Arrow Video FrightFest Announce 2019 Line Up
AUTOMATA has earned its place in Kickstarter history as the UK's most funded narrative film ever. Why do you think that happened?
The reason this happened is because there is a disconnect between a swathe of the audience, in our case a genre audience, and commercial distributors. Because commercial distributors and broadcasters for that matter, are so adept and so accustomed to selling a type of predictable product, that a form of repetition occurs whereby films that might not fit the mould, are simply not sold, and hence not usually produced. With Automata, and with all of our films at Hex Studios, we utilise that underserved niche, to produce unique genre films, which would be considered both unpredictable and even risky. Despite the financial merit of our achievements, when met with these facts, most industry types bury their head in the sand and plug their ears.
You have described the film as a glorious celebration of gothic horror. Can you elaborate?
Myself and Sarah Daly, we both grew up on classic Hammer Horror, Amicus and the American International Pictures (particularly those produced by Roger Corman and Vincent Price.) That, coupled with a great love of Gothic literature, and the art-movement which shares its name. It places the raw intensity of human emotion and the supernatural at its core, aspects which are of great importance to the human experience. In this respect, it provides a perfect field of creative exploration, with a rewarding sense of rich storytelling, romance, and spine-tingling chills. Our film celebrates all those influences mentioned in the above and adds to them an adult sense of perversion. The idea, that something can look pretty, beautiful even on the outside, and be pitch black on the inside. Gothic narratives, are a great way to explore such theatrical depictions while retaining a deep sense of psychological narrative.
As with your previous features, there is a supernatural fusion of historical narrative with contemporary themes, but would it be fair to say that AUTOMATA is your most darkly erotic?
That is a really interesting question because, with my head down working on the film it is easy to lose a sense of the outside perspective, especially of anyone's new perspective. If you're to describe the film as a dark erotic Gothic Fantasy / Horror then that is fairly compatible with its influences. Additional influences stem from the Marquis de Sade, and of the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, among others. We examine adulthood, some aspects of perversion and the manner in which we may become complicit in thoughts and deeds we'd admonish in others. So, to answer your question I would say, yes.
Some of the main cast have appeared in your previous films. Does this reflect a close collaborative process? Take us through the key casting process.
Yes, we do take a collaborative approach to our filmmaking. I was always inspired by the John Waters 'dream team' approach and I do enjoy our team feeling like a family. Of course, each film brings new talent a well, but we do offer a strong sense of appreciation and loyalty towards those we've worked with both in front and behind the screen. With casting, there is a sense of repertory theatre, but the benefit of this model is that it allows us to grow our talents together. From each film, myself and our actors can discuss where we can take our talent forward.
Literature seems to be a huge inspiration in all the films you and co-creator Sarah Daly have made through Hex Studios. Are there literary roots to AUTOMATA?
There are definite literary influences, though they may be difficult for me to singularly identify. Broadly speaking, me and Sarah take influence from Gothic authors such as M. R. James, Edgar Allen Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Henry James and modern authors such as James Herbert. This particular film takes additional inspiration from the works of the Marquis De Sade, and of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. In general, we produce so much pre-production material and research for the histories that abound in the sliver of story told by our films, that they almost feel like adapted novels, rather than specifically produced screenplays.
Where do you think our fascination with automata, particularly with automaton dolls, comes from?
I've always had a fascination with creepy dolls and have found Automaton to be of particular interest. I hadn't thought of producing a horror film specific to that subject, until I saw one depicted in the horror film 'Gothic' directed by Ken Russell. I wondered then, with so many 'creepy doll' films why the story of a such a doll hadn't been told before. Also, in the context of a Gothic Romance, which the period of those creations would be ideally suited.
Without giving too much away, there is a magnetic, perverse beauty in Alexandra Nicole Hulme's interpretation of 'The Infernal Princess'. What challenges did bringing the doll to life present?
Primarily our challenge was to produce the correct balance of what might present the 'uncanny valley,' that so-called determinator of the line between 'life like' and 'artificial' that we find so disturbing. Alexandra Nicole Hulme produced a brilliant performance, which I believe presents the uncanny valley experience for the audience, while also creating a sense of humanity and sensuality in her portrayals of the doll and it's living muse, in the flashback scenes. Alexandra also choreographed careful movements and a magnificent clockwork dance, which is truly quite breath-taking to behold.
AUTOMATA is to receive its world premiere at Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019. How important is your relationship with FrightFest?
We're honoured and delighted that FrightFest have chosen Automata to be a part of FrightFest Glasgow. I'm a huge admirer of everything that FrightFest has built and achieved for the genre community of filmmakers and fans. If it weren't for FrightFest, and it's commitment to present a diverse range of genre films to its audiences, then studios like Hex would struggle to find the appropriate platforms to share our films. Through our relationship with FrightFest, we are able to support that event, and receive their support in such a way, that we can build an alternative path for films to reach audiences outside the traditional market model. FrightFest is a pillar from which new independent films can be supported.
Hex Studios has created a YouTube Channel, which currently has over 270K subscribers. Having shrewdly released Kate Shenton's EGOMANIAC, what future plans do you have for the growing indie supporting platform?
We've two channels now, our main channel for which we hope to produce more Horror themed prank videos, web series and indie film presentations of the type you mention. Our overall aim with the channel is to create a platform and a voice for independent horror genre film-makers that will allow us to grow together, while expanding the audience for us both. We also have a new channel: 'Hex Creepypasta', which will be focussing on narrated horror stories as well.
What does 2019 hold in store for Lawrie Brewster?
2019 will be our biggest year yet, in which Hex Studios will be distributing a number of feature films, including two of our own productions Automata and our portmanteau For We Are Many. We're also looking to produce several web-series, while developing new feature films, as well as distributing two hard-back books, filled with terrifying short stories. While our plans are somewhat broad and ambitious, our target remains niche, which is to say, we aim to produce great horror entertainment for an audience that feels underserved. While so many are being 'too cool for school' or begin meta-ironic and retro, we're instead quite earnest and traditional. Horror is a timeless and beautiful thing and we do our best to keep the candle alive… even in its darkest vaults!
AUTOMATA is showing at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Saturday 2 March, 1.00pm, as part of Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow 2019. Lawrie Brewster will be attending.[Book Tickets or Buy Full Pass]
Tagged20192019 Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow2019 Glasgow Film FestivalAutómataLawrie Brewster
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APC Numerical Strength Halts Dogara's Planned Defection
Investigations showed that a major concern in Dogara's camp was what could be the likely result of the 2019 polls and which political party would assume majority control in the House.
by John Ameh, Punch Newspaper Aug 12, 2018
Yakubu Dogara SaharaReporters Media
A cloud of uncertainty currently surrounds the political plans of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, ahead of the 2019 general elections, investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH have revealed.
Dogara was rumoured to have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party in the last two weeks when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress for the PDP.
But, SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the Speaker withdrew his plans after some advisers told him to tarry a while before taking the gamble.
One of his associates confided in SUNDAY PUNCH that Dogara loved to return next year to continue as the Speaker.
The source stated that to achieve his goal, the party with the majority would matter a lot to him.
The APC still controls the majority today with about 186 members as against PDP's 162.
The source said, "In 2019, no one is sure how things will pan out. Dogara has less problems to contend with as a speaker today because he is still with the APC.
"No one is seriously demanding his resignation, neither is he facing any impeachment threat like the Senate President.
"The fear now is that if he hurriedly defects to the PDP to contest the election, his chances of returning as a speaker if the APC retains the majority become a tough call.
"On the other hand, if he remains in the APC to contest the election and the PDP captures the majority, it will be another problem for Dogara because the PDP, now hungry for power, will pick one of their own.
"A third option, which appears more appealing, is for him to stick with the APC, hoping it will retain the majority. He can then work across parties to get enough votes to remain the speaker."
Investigations indicated that these permutations had been reviewed over and over lately in Dogara's camp, a reason he had reportedly been unable to make up his mind.
But, another parliamentary aide pointed out that there was also uncertainty over the speaker's return ticket in the APC, which the Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, had since allotted to his own candidate.
The Speaker is said to be very popular in his Tafawa-Balewa/Dass/Bogoro Federal Constituency and may easily win election on any platform.
Dogara had shunned the ward, local government and state congresses of the party in Bauchi State and only made a brief appearance at the national convention in Abuja, where his speech dwelt more on the alleged injustice in the APC.
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the APC, soon after Adams Oshiomhole emerged as the National Chairman, reportedly moved in to resolve the local dispute between Dogara and the governor.
This intervention was said to have been done to prevent Dogara's defection and other defections from the APC like the 37 members, who moved to other parties last month.
Commenting on the Speaker's fate, the Chief Whip of the House and leader of the majority North-West caucus, Mr Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, had noted that it would be in the interest of the APC to have Dogara in its folds.
Ado-Doguwa, who is from Kano State, added, "I am also authoritatively aware that up till today, Dogara is a faithful member of the APC, and still ready for further negotiations on the perceived bitter relationship with his state governor.
"I, therefore, urge the national leadership of our great party to dispassionately intervene on the Speaker's issue in Bauchi State and bring it to a logical conclusion.
"It is my candid opinion that we cannot afford to miss the Speaker from the APC family."
SUNDAY PUNCH made unsuccessful attempts to get the reactions of the Speaker's media office.
His Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Turaki Hassan, had yet to respond to any enquiries by SUNDAY PUNCH as of the time of filing this report.
John Ameh, Punch Newspaper
PUNCH NEWSPAPER
Legal Federal Judge Inyang Ekwo Refuses AAC Copy Of Judgement


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Nice info! Are the two blue options existing colors, or are they new? I have not seen a single wheel design that I like. They are all terrible.
Awesome! They both look good, but that tri-coat is sweet.
Agreed! I want to see it under some sunlight.
Do you know if these will have a brake "hold" feature. I briefly had a Hyundai Santa Fe that would hold the car in position at a stoplight without your foot on the brake. I know these have a stop and go feature when using adaptive cruise, but that hold feature is awfully nice when not using cruise.
Let me ask a few of my sources if they've heard anything about that. I had that feature on my Mercedes and really liked it.
Awesome thanks! Is there going to be a reputation or thanks system here?
I will be implementing one for sure.


An online free article checker. Check for plagiarism with our free, instant plagiarism detector. Results instantly and everything is free. It checks your submitted source for direct plagiarism by splitting up the piece into small, distinct fragments. Then, using the search engine's API (official method), we scour Google, Google Scholar abstracts, Bing, and Yahoo for appearance of these fragments then report the results to you across all these different sources. We scan your entire document. There is no trial or paid membership or registration required. Everything is 100% fully functional and 100% fully free. Plagiarism, like cheating, is handled as academic misconduct by most schools and universities. The severity of the plagiarism should be considered. For example, if there was a simple misrepresentation regarding a source, this might be dealt with differently than if there was, say, a fabrication of sources or multiple submissions from the same source.
Promovare online gratuita pentru siteuri. Primesti vizite gratuite pentru site-ul tau si poti sa castigi rapid credite care se transforma in vizite. aTrafic.com este un generator de trafic bazat pe schimbul reciproc de link-uri si accesari. Mai pe scurt fiecare isi inscrie propriile site-uri in generator si acceseaza apoi celelalte site-uri inscrise pentru a primi puncte, la randul tau vei primi vizite de la ceilalti bazate pe creditele care le acumulezi. Pentru a beneficia de acest serviciu gratuit trebuie sa te inregistrezi, sa inscrii site-urile tale in generator si apoi sa faci credite accesand site-urile din click exchange sau din surf.
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