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Uncommon Common: Oscar-winning rapper set for San Diego Symphony debut
The Oscar- and Grammy winning rapper has a candid new memoir out, with a new album to follow. On Sunday, he performs with the San Diego Symphony.
By George Varga
Common has won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and three Grammy Awards, but his performance here this weekend will be a decidedly uncommon one.
On Sunday, the veteran hip-hop star-turned acclaimed film and TV actor ("Selma," "The Chi") will become the first rapper to ever perform with the San Diego Symphony. It will also mark the first time the orchestra has played with a band that includes a DJ.
Common's repertoire here will include "The Day That Women Took Over," "Black America Again," "I Used to Love Her" and "Glory," the Oscar-winning song he co-wrote with John Legend for "Selma." He'll also perform "Get 'Em High," which he co-wrote and performed with Kanye West and Talib Kweli on West's landmark 2004 debut album, "The College Dropout."
The orchestral arrangements of Common's songs were written by ace bassist Derrick Hodge, whose past collaborators range from jazz luminary Terence Blanchard to such innovative R&B and hip-hop artists as Maxwell and Bilal.
"I first teamed up with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2017 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and it was really fresh and innovative," recalled the Chicago-born Common, 47, who was born Lonnie Rashid Linn.
"I think hearing an orchestra with the music I've done throughout the years added so many levels and layers that the songs sounded new. They also sounded, obviously, bigger. But to add these musicians, and to combine these musical worlds, just made everything that much more meaningful and powerful. It connected the two worlds. It connects the freedom of hip-hop — the vocal free-styling and rawness of DJ-ing — to what classical music is, with highly trained musicians performing while seated and reading the scores."
Since his orchestral debut two years ago, Common has also teamed up for concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Chicago Symphony and other orchestras.
"I can't wait to come to San Diego," he said. "I've done a lot of shows there, at House of Blues, the Belly Up and other clubs. I know I'll be able to provide a great experience with the San Diego Symphony."
Candid new memoir and album espouse love
Rapper Common (left) and John Legend hold their Oscars at the 2015 Academy Awards after winning Best Song honors for "Glory," which they co-wrote for the film "Selma."
(Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Sunday's concert will also likely include at least one song from his new album, "Let Love Have the Last Word," which will be released Aug. 30. It follows the May release of his unusually candid book, "Let Love Have the Last Word: A Memoir."
In his memoir, Common writes about being confronted by his daughter, Omoye, for putting his work ahead of her, an experience he credits as the impetus for writing the book. He also discloses that he was sexually abused as a child and discusses the importance of faith in his life.
"I owe it to my audience to offer hope and to be truthful," he said, speaking from a recent, non-orchestral tour stop in Seattle.
"I owe it to them to go to places that are untapped and may seem taboo, or to places that some people may not always be courageous enough to go to. And by that, I mean talking about (going through) therapy, about being molested as a child, about seeking out God in the best way. More than anything, I owe it to my audience to be a reflection of God, and — in my humanity — to be a better person."
Common cites therapy and his film and TV acting roles as key factors in his decision to write about sensitive topics in his life.
"Playing different characters helped me find out more about myself," he said.
"As I was writing the book, I was like: 'OK, this is something I want to talk about, because I know how much books have helped me.' There are books I have read and re-read through tough days, days where I need some guidance, support and resources and ways of thinking. And books have been that for me. So I wanted my book to be like that. This is the truest and most free I have been, as a human being and as an artist, in my life."
Asked to give a few examples of books that have been especially helpful to him, Common points to "A Return to Love" by current Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, "The Alchemist" by Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo and the Bible, specifically the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
"I love First Corinthians 13," he said. "That whole chapter talks about love. I actually put that scripture on the back cover of my (third) album, (1997's) 'One Day It'll All Make Sense.' And, to this day, it all still makes sense. The scripture has been a guiding light for me and the core of what I want to live by."
'We felt like we'd made it'
Common was still a high school student when his hip-hop trio, C.D.R., opened a concert in Chicago for N.W.A. and Big Daddy Kane.
"At that moment, we felt like we'd made it," he recalled. "Then, we went off stage and we still didn't have a record out or a record deal. We realized we hadn't made it."
Common was 34 when he wrote and recorded "Start the Show," a song featured on his 2007 album, "Finding Forever." Its lyrics took sharp aim at untested new rappers, with such biting lines as: Many have come, but few have been chosen to be a true MC / You sing along with it, inside you know it's wack / 'Young Who?' / Oh, he's the opening act.
Asked now if he was referring to anyone in particular, Common replied: "I was just classifying and generalizing. There are so many 'Youngs' out there. And, at that time, I was just saying: 'Man, find some originality! You don't have to do everything everybody else is doing.'
"One of the most gratifying and unique things about hip-hop, or any music, is that — when you find your voice — it's great to be able to express it. And I think the world wants to hear your voice, not for you to be (an imitation of) Lil Uzi Vert, or Young Thug or Meek Mill, or Gucci Mane. Those guys got their voice. They're originals. They are who they are.
"The kids need to decide to find their own voice and be their own artist."
For Common, the quest to find his own voice has been aided greatly by his abiding passion for jazz. Last year saw the release of the debut album by August Greene, a band that teams Common with jazz drum dynamo Karriem Riggins and multifaceted keyboardist Robert Glasper.
"Jazz has been one of the greatest influences on my life. It's the music I play the most," Common affirmed.
"John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' isn't my favorite album, but it is definitely one of those I would take to an island. I like everything from Herbie Hancock's 'Maiden Voyage' and Freddie Hubbard's 'Red Clay' to Thelonious Monk and Roy Hargrove, who I recorded with, and the modern-day cats like Kamasi Washington.
"Jazz has helped me to write songs, because it's such a free form of music and comes from such a pure place — especially the jazz we are talking about. It's not built for the mainstream.
"For me, jazz is a reminder of how powerful art can be."
Common and the San Diego Symphony
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: San Diego Symphony's Bayside Summer Nights, Embarcadero Marina Park South, 206 Marina Park Way, San Diego
Tickets: $63-$108
Online: sandiegosymphony.org
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On behalf of Brayton Purcell LLP posted in Medical News on Tuesday, June 12, 2018.
A new study examines the development of malignant mesothelioma and different types of exposure. It cautions that environmental exposure is as deadly as occupational exposure to the development of malignant mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
Eight groups of patients in the study were known to be exposed to erionite asbestos through environmental causes. Erionite is can be found in the rocks that are used to build many homes in Turkey, where the study was conducted, and puts many residents and construction workers at risk of developing asbestos-related illness.
The other 13 groups were exposed to asbestos through their work only.
Researchers found that how those diagnosed with mesothelioma in the study played a role in the development of the disease.
In the groups exposed through environmental factors, mesothelioma was found in a higher percentage of women. Alternatively, those exposed through occupational hazards, a higher percentage were men.
Among the environmentally exposed, the rate of the disease increased as time increased, but incidence appeared to decrease as exposure increased. Those occupationally exposed, the opposite seems true. The rate of malignant mesothelioma went up as exposure increased. This means that environmental exposure has its own risk of malignant mesothelioma different than those exposed occupationally.
Often in the United States, environmental exposure can include living near mines where asbestos was naturally occurring or harvested, living in close quarters with someone who may have brought it home on their clothing, hiking where asbestos is naturally occurring, or living in a home with disintegrating asbestos-containing materials.
Occupational exposure is often seen in construction workers, auto mechanics, miners, factory and refinery workers, boilermakers, pipefitters, veterans, and shipyard workers.


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NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - #909
What's there to say about Night of the Living Dead that hasn't been said a million times? The seminal horror indie has been one of the most influential genre pictures of movie history, dissected by critics for the last 50 years, explored from every angle, praised for its technique, innovation, and deeper political subtext. There have even been full-length documentaries made about the production, including 2015's Birth of the Living Dead [review], which featured Romero himself. And, of course, scores of sequels, remakes, and imitators.
Give Night of the Living Dead a spin and it's easy to see why the hullabaloo persists. Made on a shoestring budget in the late 1960s, it's a clever pressure cooker of a zombie film. Most of its running time takes place in a single house, as would-be survivors of an undead apocalypse hole up in hopes of some kind of rescue. It starts with two, Ben (Duane Jones), an African American man, and Barbra (Judith O'Dea), a white woman gone nearly catatonic after seeing her brother attacked before barely escaping herself. They are soon joined by a young couple and a family of three who were hiding in the basement. While the night draws on, arguments ensue about how best to get out alive, as radio and television reports present an increasingly bleak picture of the spreading doom.
It's not hard to see the political metaphors when you're looking for them. The optics of a black man and a blonde woman facing an onslaught of mostly white men hell-bent on destroying them are sadly as relevant in 2018 as they were in 1968. It's also hard to ignore how when the older white man (Karl Hardman, looking like an early demo of Rob Corddry) arrives on the scene, he immediately tries to take charge, barking orders without considering any alternative point of view. When his wife (Marilyn Eastman) points out how important it is for him "to be right, everyone else to be wrong," you can feel the pent-up frustration, born of years of listening to him blather on. Tellingly, when it's time to decide whether to stick with her husband or listen to Ben, the wife is paralyzed with doubt. It's hard to break a pattern.
Romero is employing a classic technique here. Plenty of low-budget character studies used a confined space to (a) save on location costs and (b) trap their subjects together so they can't escape one another. See, for instance, Hitchcock's Lifeboat [review] or countless Twilight Zone episodes. The one I most think of is "The Shelter," where one family with a bomb shelter has to fend off their neighbors, who scoffed at the notion of such a thing but are now desperate to get in when there is threat of a nuclear attack. When examining Night of the Living Dead, we can talk race or gender, or we can also just study the personalities as the drive for self-preservation overtakes any desire to help one's fellow man. Is it that different when the living people inside the house start tearing each other apart verbally than when the zombies outside literally feast on the flesh of the fallen?
One has to give Romero credit for pushing the boundaries in that particular scene. The stone-faced actors chewing on a turkey leg or playing with fake entrails paint a pretty grisly picture of a society that has broken down. Though it comes only midway through Night of the Living Dead, it's really the beginning of the end. It's when the hordes taste victory and get the strength to carry on, and the last vestiges of civilization fall.
But Romero really saves the best for last. The most unsettling moments in Night of the Living Dead come at the very end, when we learn the fate of Ben. If there is any remaining resistance to the political reading of the movie, that should all vanish here. Romero chooses to show these last shots as a montage of grainy stills, resembling news footage, focusing as much on the uncaring, self-satisfied faces of Ben's unwitting attackers--who think they are doing the right thing--as much as the sad outcome of their actions. Anyone seeing Night of the Living Dead on initial release would have, unfortunately, found images like these far too familiar, far too similar to what they had been seeing in newspapers throughout the Civil Rights Movement. And the power to provoke has not dulled. (Spike Lee made a similar move, pulling in current events to upend his own entertainment in this summer's BlacKkKlansman.)
This is what good horror can do: create a commentary on the times, delivering uncomfortable truths in the guise of seemingly unthinkable, frightening events. There's a reason that the genre thrives when the real world is going through tumultuous times. A good scary movie can make us reflect on the current situation in ways that are obvious (the analogues for the Reagans in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs) or subtle (the triumphant #metoo parable of David Gordon Green's recent Halloween sequel, the stifled voices of good people in John Krasinski's A Quiet Place). For most of Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero goes for the subtle, saving up that sucker punch for when it really counts.
Labels: david gordon green, george a. romero, hitchcock, horror, John Krasinski, Rod Serling, Spike Lee, wes craven
ANNIE OAKLEY - FILMSTRUCK
This review was originally written as part of an overview of the Barbara Stanwyck Signature Collection in 2007.
Released in 1935, this early starring vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck is like a backwoods A Star is Born, with Barbara playing the titular Annie Oakley, a.k.a. "Little Sure Shot," the riflelady that joined Buffalo Bill's traveling show in the early part of the century and made a name with her dead-on aim. Directed by George Stevens, this Annie Oakley is the hokum version of the story, fixed up for the movies in order to hit as many emotional chords as it can and fill seats.
Young Annie hunts quail to earn money for her family and earns a reputation for her clean shots. A misunderstanding puts her in a shooting match with trick gunman Toby Walker (Preston Foster) and garners the attention of Buffalo Bill's recruiter, Jeff Hogarth (Melvyn Douglas). Annie joins the show, begins to rival the preening Walker, and then eventually falls in love with him. A heroic accident--Toby saves Sitting Bull (Chief Thunderbird) from Indian haters, though someone should have saved all of these Native American actors (and the African American ones, too) from this picture--hurts Toby's eyes and his pride. This gives Hogarth his chance to move in, as well as setting George Stevens up for a three-hankie ending. For as cheesy as the last scene is, you have to give these old films credit, because it still works. For as much as you start out laughing at a silly film like Annie Oakley, it's hard not to be completely invested by the time the ending rolls around.
A lot of credit for that has to be given to Barbara Stanwyck. She is so very charming as the deceptively naïve young Annie, able to stifle her own pride in order to look out for the fragile ego of her peacock boyfriend. Even as her confidence grows, she manages to hold on to that girlish quality, a strength that is partially bolstered by a genuine small-town innocence. Yet, we also see hints of the Stanwyck that can joke around with the guys. Her performance is a complete portrait of the real woman, even if the story itself is more like a cartoon.
Labels: filmstruck, George Stevens, westerns
SHAMPOO - #947
Shampoo is easily the most Warren Beatty of all of Warren Beatty's movies. A political and interpersonal comedy, it says as much about Beatty as it does the world. The writer/actor/producer lets his point of view be known, but he also embraces a certain image of himself as the pretty playboy, simultaneously reinforcing and undercutting it, creating a complex portrait of a man who knows what he wants but is often derailed by either his baser desires or what other people perceive of him. In many ways, it's a prototype for a character and a movie he would revisit/remake more than once. Is George in Shampoo all that different from Jay Bulworth in Bulworth? What about Joe in Heaven Can Wait? Are their journeys that different?
Though Beatty didn't direct this one, he had a hand throughout the production. He also had the confidence to place the great Hal Ashby (Being There [review]) behind the camera. Shampoo was released in 1975, but its story takes place in 1968, the day Richard Nixon is elected President. The election hangs over everything in the picture, a foregone conclusion not just to contemporary viewers, but also to the men of wealth whose wives go to George to get their hair done. The rest of the participants don't seem to realize the change that is coming, but they are already starting to feel it. By the morning of the next day, an era will have passed. Ashby uses the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" to bookend the picture, and it goes from a sweet, hopeful anthem of youth to an ironic remembrance of false promises.
Election Day is also the day that George has decided to meet with the bank to talk about opening his own hair salon. George is popular in his profession, and he believes his customer base would follow him if he had his own shingle; unfortunately for him, the bank sees through his lack of business acumen. George is too scared to tell his girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) about this failure, but he does end up spilling the beans to his mistress, Felicia (Lee Grant), who is also a top client. Knowing George's skills, Felicia sends him to her husband, Lester (Jack Warden). Even though Lester doesn't sign on immediately, he sees the adulation George receives first-hand, since Lester's own mistress, Jackie (Julie Christie, Beatty's dance partner in McCabe and Mrs. Miller [review]), can also vouch for George's magic hands. Little does Lester know, George and Jackie also used to date, a tidbit that might have dissuaded him from hatching an ill-fated plan: he asks George to accompany Jackie to an election night party, acting as cover for them while Lester attends the same shindig with Felicia. Oh, and Jill will be there, too, because she's schmoozing a film director to get a part. (The director is played by Tony Bill, who did go on to be an actual film director, helming My Bodyguard, Five Corners, and one of my all-time favorites, Untamed Heart).
Sounds complicated, doesn't it? Well, Beatty and co-writer Robert Towne (The Last Detail, Chinatown) never lose track of all the players, nor do they ever leave the audience hanging. In may ways, Shampoo seems like it would have been a perfect match for Robert Altman, who could have juggled the massive ensemble and the crisscrossing scenes without breaking a sweat; that said, Ashby shows no perspiration himself. Shampoo is complicated, but never messy, and watching all these things converge ends up being a delight.
For all the trampled feelings and missed connections that happen as the various participants travel from the election event to a large Los Angeles soiree, and then off into the night, most everyone here has similar needs and ambitions. Everyone in Shampoo is after something that they likely can't have, and for most of them, they can't have it due to some fault of their own. The clash between George and Lester could have easily been a celebration of a free spirit and the excoriation of a corporate fat cat, but when the two men finally compare notes, they both appear to be just as stranded in a world of their own making. Maybe today is the day they can make their change. Maybe not. Maybe Nixon will change it for them. Knowing what we know, things will probably change more for George than Lester. Then again, I bet if we had a sequel to Shampoo set in the Reagan era, we'd see them both thriving in the excess of the Me Decade.
Don't confuse Shampoo for a polemic or a message picture, however; the film is quite funny, both in its quirky rhythms (which is where Ashby probably trumps Altman) and in some of its broad contrivances. Julie Christie getting drunk and wicked provides many a good laugh, as does Lester's utter confusion over George. Warren Beatty loves to play his characters as befuddled, a little off vibration from the rest of the world, somehow always one step behind but still looking at his next move. He's great here, especially in the later scenes when George finally opens up. "You're the only one I trust," he tells Jackie, and we are with her when her heart breaks for him, knowing that soon he will be all alone. And, of course, watch a very young Carrie Fisher steal the show as Felicia's randy, vindictive daughter.
Shampoo is also quite sexy. Again, the film leans into Beatty's ladies man image. Every woman in the movie approaches him projecting an aura of sex. Amusingly, through most of the movie, he is either just missing the moment or we, as the audience, are shut out. So, when we finally do see George in action, it's a scene that is first met with applause and then uncomfortable laughter, both from within the narrative and from without.
It's interesting that Shampoo is a mid-'70s Hollywood production looking back at the tail end of the 1960s. The nostalgia is both wistful and disappointed. One gets the sense that Beatty knows how ridiculous some of George's outfits look, or that choosing to have him ride a Triumph motorcycle is meant to mock him as a false rebel. All these flamboyant, fashionable choices--from having George be a hairdresser to his own artfully messy mane--seem to be intended to provoke a certain segment of the film-going public that probably had a lot of disdain for Beatty (mainly guys like Lester). Nothing on the surface of Shampoo will change their minds. Thus, shoving the cliché in everyone's faces--fans and foes alike--only to bust it apart, transforms the screen idol into an enduring symbol of the idealistic decade that Shampoo is eulogizing, dashed hopes and all.
Labels: altman, hal ashby, Robert Towne, warren beatty
SCANNERS - #712
Back in high school and on through college, I worked a story called Lords of Order, first writing it as a graphic novel and then a screenplay. Intended as the opening of a trilogy (and predicting the three brothers structure of my eventual prose novels), the story was a gritty fantasy about teenagers with psychic powers being preyed upon by an evil corporation that may have had a hand in their creation. It was a John Hughes version of the X-Men, in its way, but now I see it was also quite a bit like an adolescent version of Scanners.
Released in 1981, Scanners was David Cronenberg's fourth movie, and essential in his emergence as a prominent auteur. Scanners set the groundwork for both Videodrome [review] and The Dead Zone in terms of approach and theme. It's effective for what it is, a B movie with a firm grasp of its own schlock, highlighted by impressive practical effects. One of the film's earliest bits of gore, when a man's head explodes, has found new life on the internet as an animated gif. Its bloody climax, however, may be the most effective, if not easily the grossest. If you want to talk about the psychic travails of puberty, I am pretty sure anyone who had any kind of acne problem can relate to the squirting pustules growing on Michael Ironside and Steven Lack's faces.
The two men lead the film, both playing the titular "scanners," the name Cronenberg gives to people with extraordinary mental powers. Their main ability is telepathy via direct linkage of their nervous system with another's. Once connected, they can read minds and also influence the other person's actions--but at great physical expense for themselves and their victim. They also seem to be able to inspire spontaneous combustion in a manner that is never explained, and hack into computers in a manner that shouldn't have been.
Lack plays Cameron Vale, a scanner who is taken into custody by a nefarious corporation and its lead scientist, Dr. Ruth (The Prisoner's Patrick McGoohan). The company is trying to cultivate scanners for espionage and other unsavory purposes, but they find themselves at odds with a rogue scanner, Darryl Revok (Ironside). Revok is looking to unite all known scanners, and killing the ones who refuse. Ruth and his cronies dispatch Vale to find the bad man, though the more he looks, the more Vale realizes not everything is on the up and up.
Cronenberg's script is scrappy, but also threadbare. There is actually very little to the plot, and many scenes slam together without much connective tissue. Vale's investigative skills seem to rely more on psychic predictions than real detection, and the gunmen who follow him around are never adequately accounted for. Scanners feels as if Cronenberg either didn't have the budget to shoot more story, or simply didn't care about why or how he'd get to the scenes of exploding heads and cars. The truth may be somewhere in the middle, as reportedly the filmmaker was rushed into production before there was a complete script with instructions to finish in time to qualify for a tax break.
Fans of blood-and-guts horror probably don't care, however, and one could probably make some pretty good critical hay out of the political implications of weaponized genetics, particularly as science continues to learn more and more about how we are put together. For me, Scanners could have used with a bit more character work. The choice to make Vale a blank slate means we never quite grasp his motivation. Likewise, Revok is never permitted to preen in his villainy. Surely there was some Thanos-like justification for his mission Cronenberg could have injected here, but much like my bad adolescent writing, the only real driver seems to be possessing the power itself. Which isn't really all that relatable and exciting for us normal folk out here in the audience. Though, maybe now I can resurrect that old script and fix it based on the lessons I gleaned from Scanners.
But probably not.
Labels: comic books, cronenberg, horror, john hughes, my writing
YENTL - FILMSTRUCK
For some reason, a lot of the women in my life, both ones who were simply friends and those who were something more complicated, have had a thing for Yentl. I've never quite understood it, largely because I had never seen the movie. I was eleven in 1983 when the film was released, and you'd have been hard-pressed to come up with a movie I would have wanted to see less than Yentl back then.
Though my tastes have grown more adventurous in the intervening years, and I've even made my way toward enjoying a musical now and again, the opportunity to delve deeper into this Yentl mystery never presented itself. Part of this is that the movie has never been on DVD...until now.
Yentl was the directorial debut of Barbra Streisand, who also co-wrote the script, produced, and starred as the title character. What's that make her? A quadruple threat? Quintuple if you count singing? Because Yentl is a musical, with songs by the great composer Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg [review) and lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the trio behind "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair. The songs for Yentl aren't so much showstoppers as they are emotional flashpoints throughout the movie. Sung only by Streisand's character in her private moments, they track her growth and learning--intentionally so, in fact. The lyricists have stated that the songs are meant to reflect the structure of the Talmud, the sacred Jewish text that Yentl is studying, in that each song builds on the last, one lesson blending into another.
Based on an Isaac Bashevis Singer story, Yentl takes place in Poland in the early 20th century. Raised in a Jewish community by her scholarly father (Nehemiah Persoff), she has secretly been learning the Talmud under his direction despite Jewish law at the time forbidding women from study (just as, to hear the Hollywood legends surrounding the making of Yentl, it was illegal for a woman to direct a movie). When her father dies, rather than be reduced to a life of marriage and servitude, abandoning the world of knowledge she so loves, Yentl disguises herself as a boy named Anshel and travels to another town, where she joins a Yeshiva, a school for Talmud study. There she befriends the handsome and fiercely intellectual Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), who has recently lost his little brother and sees his fragile spirit reflected in this new and strange fair-faced boy.
Anshel and Avigdor become study partners and fast friends, and Avigdor even introduces his new pal to his fiancée, Hadass (Amy Irving). This meeting pains Yentl, who has fallen in love with Avigdor, a situation that is further complicated when the engagement is broken by Hadass' father (Steven Hill). Unable to bear another man with his beloved Hadass, Avigdor hatches a plan whereby she will marry Anshel instead. This puts Yentl in a moral quandary: does she reveal her true identity and risk losing everything, or does she stick it out and hopefully keep her secret long enough to put the intended couple back together? Or better yet, how can she hurt no one, keep studying, and still have Avigdor for herself?
Let's get something out of the way before we go on: "feminism" is not a dirty word, and if the idea that looking at a movie like Yentl as a piece of feminist artistry chafes your sensibilities, then you probably are going to have little use for the rest of this review, and even if you do end up watching Yentl anyway, you will miss quite a bit of the larger tapestry that Streisand is creating. As far as I am concerned, saying you aren't a feminist is akin to not being a humanist. To want to have full rights for women is no different than wanting to have rights for all humans. It's just too bad that we've let insidious forces twist that whole point of view into something it's not, finding it easier to maliciously discredit a way of thinking rather than engage it directly.
Ahem. Anyway...
If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that most of my female friends who expressed a love for Yentl did so because of Barbra Streisand's feminist message in the picture. Now, despite my rant above, before you get the wrong idea, you should realize that just because there is a feminist message, that doesn't mean it is a political one. In my own recent review of The Sidney Poitier Collection, I touched on the fact that what made Poitier such a pioneer was that he changed the perception of African Americans simply by taking on roles that showcased real characters involved in honest human dramas. Likewise, the strongest statement that Streisand makes in Yentl is to present a story about a woman with as much vigor as any story helmed by a man and about a man; she need not call attention to what is already there, she lets the story speak for itself. Girls, you can have it all, and what that "all" is need not be what you've always been told it is.
Naturally, Yentl's subversion of the system is a round-about way of female empowerment, and the character's arc through the script is in discovering how to shed the deceit and learn to have the courage to be herself. A large part of this is in learning to have what her male counterparts do not: empathy and understanding. She must somehow entertain all points of view in order to challenge them, and the showdown between her and Avigdor when the secret comes out is a wonderful feat of writing and acting. Streisand and Patinkin trade a variety of emotional blows, as Avigdor rides his own tempestuous reaction to having been lied to. As an acting partner and as the character, Streisand must contain him, keep his emotions from veering out of control, and bring him back down to earth so that he might see the truth. He doesn't get it exactly, but that also makes Yentl more honest than one might expect from a romantic musical.
More tender and in its way more poignant is the marital relationship between Anshel and Hadass. In lieu of her inability to perform more traditional marital duties, Yentl introduces Hadass to the world of exploration that has so fascinated her. In doing so, she opens up a more broad line of communication, creating the ideal marriage of equals. Hadass, who has otherwise only been trained to be servile, now can air her feelings and thoughts and engage with her husband the way he engages with Avigdor. It's the seed of change, a theory put to the test.
What makes Yentl even better, however, is that all of the above is in the story without it overtaking the story. The message doesn't get in the way of the narrative, and in fact quite the opposite. At its core, Yentl is a story about finding one's own identity, something comparable to a collegiate drama, and it is also a love story. Really, it's a love story more than anything else, whether it be the love of books or the love of the opposite sex. All those other things are just accessories to the clothes the script wears. Yentl is a movie of heavy emotions, but never cloying or overly sentimental. The emotion is grounded in behavior.
As a director, Barbra Streisand is as assured of herself as she is as an actress. Her use of framing bears a similarity to how a singer understands her song. The way she might choose to move through a note or a line when singing dictates to the listener the emotion he or she is meant to feel. Likewise, by filming a wagon traveling at an askew angle, or capturing the golden light of a lakeside romp, she conveys a sense of feeling that goes beyond verbal exposition. Photographed by David Watkin, who also shot Help!, Chariots of Fire, and Out of Africa, Yentl is a beautiful film, full of rich detail and gorgeous fits of natural color.
Now, though I am painting glowing praise all over the film, it's also not without its faults. It was a little slow to draw me in, and at times, the plotting is a little obvious, treading well-worn paths taken by many other gender-switch stories, but these come off as minor in comparison to the overall effect. Yentl is a warm-hearted film, crafted with love by an artist who was intent on creating a movie she believed in exactly as she believed it should be. Thus, like a friend who sometimes makes you shake your head because she can't seem to avoid some obvious pitfalls, Yentl earns a pass. You can almost hear her as Anshel quote from whatever original source one would draw the axiom "To err is human, to forgive divine."
Not to mention that for a movie that works pretty vigorously at the old "knowledge is power" saw, it does give me a little further insight into what those ladies in my life had been talking about. I can't say for sure if they'd all still be around if I had taken a gander at Yentl earlier, but I suppose it wouldn't have hurt.
Labels: barba streisand, filmstruck, michel legrand, musicals
WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? - FILMSTRUCK
Twenty-two years before George Cukor would remake A Star is Born (and even five years before William Wellman's original), the director would set the standard for the quintessential Tinsel Town tale with his entertaining pre-Code melodrama What Price Hollywood?.
A charming Constance Bennett stars as Mary Evans, who, up until her lucky run-in with perpetually soused film director Max Carey, is just another blonde actress making ends meet as a waitress at the Brown Derby. Carey, played with affable aplomb by Lowell Sherman (who soon went on to be a director himself), is working on slightly sobering up before heading off to the Chinese Theatre for his latest premiere. When the girl gets him home safe, she also gets herself a screen test, kicking off an illustrious career and a difficult relationship between two strong personalities--the nature of which seems to be a little more father/daughter until Mary gets married to Lonny Borden (Neil Hamilton), a millionaire playboy who doesn't get this Hollywood life. (Though, given his twisted courtship technique, I'm not sure Lonny's one to judge.) As the scales tip and Max needs Mary's help more than she needs his, it drives a wedge between the newlyweds and eventually propels everyone
into scandal.
Cukor mines some pretty dark material here, seemingly fascinated with the mechanics and mythology that had already sprung up around what was really a very young industry. The studio machine that churns out Mary's publicity--including the hands-on studio head (Gregory Ratoff) who goes so far as to plan her wedding--and the contentious relationship between the stars and the press appears no different then than it is now. There are even scary run-ins with fans, who literally try to tear the clothes from Mary's body. At the same time, the backstage efforts have their own magical efficiency. Cukor inserts shots of the technicians at work, a peek into the complicated choreography of a movie set. Gearheads should enjoy seeing the old cameras, microphones, and the like.
Constance Bennett is a dream as Mary, hitting on several notes that would become archetypical for this type of story--wide-eyed ingénue, a marquee-powered diva, frustrated wife and mother. She and Lowell Sherman make a fine pair. His performance here establishes him as one of the great on-screen drunkards. There is both comedy and tragedy in Max's descent, with neither side played so heavy as to ring false. He's the kind of guy you want to tip a few with, he's so much fun, but whom you also aren't surprised loses control. Naturally, the way What Price Hollywood? brings the starmaker and his protégé together casts them as the only two authentic people in an inauthentic business.
What really makes What Price Hollywood? sustainable, however, is that it manages to have its cake and eat it, too. Like the best behind-the-scenes exposés, Cukor's film loves and hates its subject. He subverts the emerging tropes even while reveling in them. Mary at one point complains that she has a baby in every movie the studio puts her in, to which the boss replies at least this time her character is married. It's the kind of knowing crack that would be censored once the Hayes Code was put in place, though in What Price Hollywood?, the joke holds true: Mary has a baby after her marriage has dissolved. And she gets her happy ending, too.
Posted by Jamie S. Rich at 11:36 PM 2 comments:
Labels: filmstruck, george cukor, movies about movies, William Wellman
ENCHANTED APRIL - FILMSTRUCK
This review was originally written for DVDTalk.com in May 2009. It's being reprinted unedited with its original jokes intact...just because.
Of course, the obvious snarky question is why Enchanted April didn't come out on DVD until May, and I'd say the snarky answer would involve something to the effect that it felt like the 93-minute movie took a month to watch, so being a month late would just be par for the course.
Truth is, Enchanted April fans have waited much longer than that for the movie to come to disc in North America. Despite having won two Golden Globes in 1993 and getting nominated for multiple Oscars, this Mike Newell-helmed picture has not been on DVD before now. When I worked at a video store a couple of years ago, it was one of the most regularly requested titles amongst the customers. Perhaps this delay has built up too much expectation in me, given me too long to inflate my perceived appreciation of Enchanted April in my mind. I know I saw it during its theatrical run, and then at least once more on home video a couple of years later, but I'd wager it's been more than a decade since I last sat through it. The movie has gotten older, I've gotten older, and we've grown apart.
Enchanted April is a period piece set in the 1920s. It is the story of four British women and the Italian castle that provides them with a bucolic getaway for what is to be a month of no socializing, no husbands, nothing but the sea, the air, and the trees. The trip is initially organized by two bored housewives, Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence), the wife of a gastronomically self-satisfied London-based solicitor (Alfred Molina), and Rose Arbuthnot (Miranda Richardson), who is married to a man (Jim Broadbent) who writes scandalous novels under an assumed name. To offset the costs of their holiday, the two advertise for vacation mates, eventually scoring a stuffy older woman (Joan Plowright) and a much-desired flapper (Polly Walker). As a little wrinkle of irony, the flapper, Lady Caroline, is trying to get out of town to escape the lecherous men who pursue her, and one of them is Mr. Arbuthnot. Uh-oh! Trouble's a-comin'!
Except, no, there will be no trouble. None at all. Rather, there will just be a month of relaxation and rehabilitation in the country, a month of quietly rediscovering oneself, and eventually of rekindling love. It's also a month of sheer boredom, a slow burn that never catches flame.
Enchanted April, even back when it seemed good, always came off as a bit of a sub-par take on Merchant Ivory territory. Written by Peter Barnes (the one-time much sharper writer of the satirically daring The Ruling Class) from a 1922 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, the movie details the kind of humdrum, repressed lives that many a James Ivory character has so expertly burst in his many great movies, and given that Enchanted April originally hit the Cineplex somewhere in between Howard's End [review] and Remains of the Day, it tied many of us over in terms of satisfying our yen for costume drama. Peter Barnes is no Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, however, and I doubt Ms. von Arnim is in the same league as Henry James. Likewise, Mike Newell is certainly no James Ivory; rather, he is the director of such middle-ground material as Mona Lisa Smile and Love in the Time of Cholera. His best-known movie (not counting his time at Hogwarts) is Four Weddings and a Funeral, another film that may not have aged well. After Enchanted April, I'm a little scared to find out.
It's not that Enchanted April is simply god-awful. It has some truly lovely locations, and I rather appreciated its use of multiple points-of-view, giving each lady her own voiceover in order to chronicle her inner thoughts. Polly Walker is as alluring as her part demands, affecting ennui and managing to be irresistibly attractive while doing so, and Miranda Richardson gives a subtle and nuanced performance that brings far more to the material than the filmmakers could have possibly hoped for. Looking out at the sea, pondering her life, she says more with her face than any of Barnes' dry narration ever could. The actress was really the only thing that kept me watching to the closing credits.
The problem is that Enchanted April takes its dispassionate stance far too seriously. The women are all supposed to change, transformed by their new surroundings, their blood once again boiled by the shining Italian sun--and yet, even as they change, the movie remains bloodless. Lots of light, but no heat and so no boiling. I didn't find the changes to be believable, instead they just came off as predictable, relying on audience expectation that the metamorphoses must happen rather than making the effort to inspire similar feelings within everyone watching. This is Merchant Ivory by the numbers, a costume drama going through the motions. The end result is that Enchanted April turns into a dreary pit stop rather than a life-changing experience. Rather than being the good thing we were waiting for to transport us to a better place and time, it's just more impetus to keep looking.
Labels: filmstruck, henry james, james ivory, merchant ivory, mike newell, peter barnes, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
SELECTED SHORTS V - CRITERION CHANNEL
The Criterion Channel, in addition to hosting a plethora of feature films, also has a varied collection of short films--live action, animated, fiction, documentary; comedy and drama; silent and talkies.
Short cinema--just like short stories--is a unique art form unto itself, employing different conventions, and bringing with it different expectations, but these pieces are no less worthy of consideration than full-length films. From time to time, I will take a look at a selection of what's on offer. You can read the previous columns here: 1, 2, 3, 4.
A Gentle Night (2017; China; 15 minutes): When a thirteen-old-girl doesn't return home, everyone but her mother is content to "wait and see." As her husband sleeps, the woman (Shuxian Li) spends the late hours going to places the child might go, hoping against hope that she'll be out there and not a victim of the dark.
Yang Qiu's Cannes-honored short is a drama with a quiet restlessness. The feelings of dread, anxiety, and guilt that overwhelm the mother come through the screen to those of us watching. Details are scarce, but those that do emerge are important. Through dialogue, we learn that the father is overbearing, but the mother is also a disciplinarian. Yet, we also know from her public encounters, perhaps the mother is the only one in the whole world who has a real relationship with the missing girl. The daughter herself is the only one we never learn about. Which just adds to the guilt.
A Gentle Night lacks a definitive resolution, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. Yang Qiu is peddling a feeling here, and our acceptance of it determines how we view the movie. Think about it when you're done. You'll have an opinion about what happened to the girl, even if you didn't realize it. Somehow, in just a short time, A Gentle Night moves you toward your own resolution.
Hunger (1974; Canada; 12 minutes): Once a gluttonous man starts eating, he can't stop, in this animated short from Peter Foldes. Set entirely to music, no dialogue, we watch as the skinny office worker grows into an obese shut-in, blowing through relationships and all trappings of regular life, until there's no way to avoid his ironic end. Foldes works with an open line style, allowing for the characters to morph naturally, particularly his lead, who goes from stick figure to complete oval in the end. Nothing too surprising or enticing, but well paced and visually intriguing enough to sustain its running time.
Also notable as Hunger was apparently an early trailblazer in computer animation.
The Voice Thief (2013; Chile/France/USA; 22 minutes): A silly narrative poorly performed, this surreal drama by Adan Jodorowsky, working from a story written by his father Alejandro Jodorowsky, stars controversial actress Asia Argento (Marie Antoinette [review]) as an opera singer who loses her voice when her husband (Cristobal Jodorowsky) chokes her. Distraught by his actions, he searches for a replacement, using mystical means to extract the singing voices from three different people he victimizes. With each new voice, the singer takes on the persona of the victim.
Though lush in design and beautifully shot, The Voice Thief is a pretentious dud. Undercut by retro 1970s horror music and overloaded with indulgent symbolism, this is essentially a student film elevated via nepotism.
When We Lived in Miami (2013; USA; 13 minutes): Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color) pulls double-duty as director and performer, portraying a woman facing potentially becoming a single mother while also worrying about the danger of an incoming hurricane. The narrative is strung together with small moments. The camera moves around the participants and the landscape, never quite settling, always searching, and along with the short scene cuts, it makes for an aesthetic that's pleasantly reminiscent of Terence Malick, trying to draw the family back together even as the editing continues to separate them. Seimetz is incredibly focused here, the grief and the uncertainty permeating every frame.
Premature (2013; Norway; 16 minutes): Director Gunhild Enger creates a shifting, uncomfortable 15-minute car ride full of nervous pleasantries and bizarre social bumbles. A young Norwegian man is bringing home his pregnant Spanish girlfriend to meet the parents for the first time. She doesn't speak Norwegian, the parents don't speak Spanish, but they all speak English to some degree. Communication is halting, with different participants slipping into their native tongues for private asides, but since there are no subtitles, ingeniously, the audience is only privy to what they themselves can understand.
Many might recognize their own family here: the mother who means well but can't stop from putting her foot in her mouth, the frustrated child, the peacekeeping father. Ultimately, though, you feel the most sorry for the girl, who clearly doesn't know what she has gotten herself into. Premature takes a simple premise and a limiting technique and yet squeezes a whole hell of a lot out of both.
Labels: adan jodorowsky, alejandro jodorowsky, Amy Seimetz, animation, criterion channel, filmstruck, Gunhild Enger, Peter Folds, short films, terrence malick, Yang Qiu
MRS. MINIVER - FILMSTRUCK
William Wyler's 1942 drama Mrs. Miniver is a rousing piece of wartime propaganda. The earnest and heartfelt family story has a very specific and extremely obvious purpose, and yet it still has the ability to engage and move audiences willing to check their cynicism at the door. Scratch that. That may be underestimating Mrs. Miniver's considerable personal charms. We need not change before entering the theater. The film, like its titular character, may rather have the power to obliterate one's cynicism and turn us all into true believers, much the way the lady herself causes the old woman to drop her selfish pretentions at the flower show midway through the picture.
Greer Garson gives an Oscar-winning performance as Kay Miniver, upper-middle-class mother of three. Hers is a sensitive portrayal, meant to illustrate the hidden strengths of British women and the determination and fortitude required in a time of war. Based on a book of essays by Jan Struther, Mrs. Miniver sets up a none-too-subtle contrast between pre-War living and the serious responsibilities of every citizen when their country is in conflict. It opens in 1939, with Kay buying a new hat and fearing telling her husband, an architect, of its cost. Little does she know that hubby Clem (Walter Pidgeon) bought a fancy car well outside his price range. "What's money for," he asks, if not to blow on extravagant things.
This tune soon changes. War is declared not long after, and the Minivers' idealistic first born, Vin (Richard Ney), joins the Royal Air Force. He also becomes engaged to Carol Belden (Theresa Wright, a year before Shadow of a Doubt), granddaughter to the town matriarch, the upper-class snob Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty). The romance blossoms (pardon the pun) out of a conflict between the two families. The beloved Ms. Miniver inspired the local station master, Ballard (Henry Travers), to enter the village's annual flower competition, and he has named his prize rose for her. Lady Beldon has won the championship cup for the last three decades unopposed, and she's none too happy about the competition. The squabble over a silver trophy seems frivolous in the face of world destruction.
Except it's not really, and that's part of the point of Mrs. Miniver. Life must carry on. Young people should marry, and though the men and women who stay behind should protect the home front, they must also continue with everything their enlisted men are fighting to protect. This is what Garson's Kay Miniver is really a symbol of: the brave face of life under the shadow of death. It's a mother's duty to care for her young, to smile through the heartache, and push forward with every reserve she has.
Mrs. Miniver has an episodic narrative, one that took audiences seeing it in its original run from their very recent past right up to their actual present. Amidst air raids, there are side excursions. Clem Miniver takes part in a home guard rescue at Dunkirk, while his wife stays home and captures a downed German soldier (Helmut Dantine), showing herself as the better person as she cares for his wounds moments after he held a gun on her. (The film takes the high road, too, avoiding caricaturing the enemy, or even resorting to extreme racial epithets to describe the opposing forces.) And, of course, there is the joy of the village festival, the much contested flower show. Tragedy follows almost immediately after, but it serves to remind everyone that there is a reason the world is taking up arms against the Nazis.
Wyler is adept at all aspects of his sprawling story. The opening scenes humorously satirize the complacency of modern living, and they are a far cry from the terrifying air raid sequence, when bombs hit a little too close to the Miniver home. While we don't really see combat up close, its presence in the distance, either as sound effects or the sight of fires burning on the horizon, serves as sufficient backdrop. The common terror most British citizens must have been feeling is shared without the filmmaker overselling it, and Mrs. Miniver managed to not only stir the sympathies of moviegoers across the ocean, but it continues to do so across time. A job well done is well done forever; Mrs. Miniver is still inspiring and effective. Garson gives the performance of a lifetime, creating a character that will remain meaningful over many more.
Labels: filmstruck, william wyler

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policy›
economy›
People of color and rural households are getting hit the hardest by the hot inflation of 2021
Jason Lalljee
Prices for energy, food, cars, and household supplies are going up due to record-high inflation in the US.Marta Lavandier/AP
People of color, rural households, and families without a college graduate are affected the most by inflation.
These groups have less income, and are therefore more "exposed" to higher inflation, Bank of America said.
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Inflation is hurting Americans' wallets as it hits a 30-year-high in the United States — but people of color and rural households are feeling it the most.
Inflation has hurt lower-income families, families of color, and rural households more than other demographics, a Bank of America research report found last week. Breaking down demographics by race, geography, and income, the bank found that the "inflation shock" of 2021 has disproportionately affected the marginalized: Households without college graduates, African American, Hispanic and Latino communities, and those not living in cities have been spending more of their post-tax income on goods and services.
Those with less income and wealth are less likely to have savings to buffer the current inflation shock. Therefore, the hit to their spending power is greater.
But lower-income families are also more "exposed" to the goods with the most inflation, researchers wrote. The goods seeing the most price inflation include energy, food, cars, and household furnishings and supplies.
African American, Hispanic, and Latino households spent 7.1% of their post-tax income on energy, for instance, compared to 5.4% spent by other demographics. These same households spent 12.5% of their income on food, compared to 11.1% for everyone else. In total, BofA researchers said the spending power shock from these higher inflation categories was 4% for African American, Hispanic, and Latino groups, compared to 2.9% for everyone else.
The divide was similar for rural versus urban populations. The former experienced a shock of 5.2%, while the latter saw one of 3.5%.
"All of the high-inflation categories, particularly energy and new & used cars, make up a larger share of the consumption basket for rural households," researchers said. "They also earn and save less than urban households, and so inflation is a bigger drag on their income, and they have less buffer against the shock."
The researchers found that each of the four high-inflation categories makes up a larger share of the "consumption basket" for households in which no one is a college graduate.
"In total, they account for 35% of 2019 spending, compared to 28% for households in which someone has a college degree," they wrote. "The gap between the groups gets even larger (34% vs. 23%) when we look at spending in our high-inflation categories as a share of total income."
It's another sign of the K-shaped economic recovery in America
The report clarifies that the difference in impact of inflation between races is relatively small, but still notable when compared along income lines. "Inflation hurts lower-income households," it says. "Namely, less-educated and rural households, those with non-managerial workers and minorities – the most."
This conclusion lines up with general racial wealth gap data, which shows that Black Americans face the worst barriers to building wealth. The median white family had more than 10 times the wealth of the median Black family in 2016, for instance, according to the Fed's 2017 "Survey of Consumer Finances."
The findings about lower-income Americans being hit worse — as well as the divide between urban and rural populations — also reinforces what we know about disparities in financial recovery at this point of the pandemic.
Economists have described the current state of economic recovery as "K-shaped." That means that in the current recession, technology, retail, and software industries have recovered from the pandemic downturn, while travel, entertainment, hospitality, and food-services industries have continued to decline.
A K-shaped recovery reveals and worsens pre-existing wealth disparities. Essentially, higher income households are recovering, while lower income ones are continuing to struggle.
Inflation disproportionately affecting low-income households highlights pandemic financial trends: because these households are still suffering, their dollars are being stretched thinner by bloated food and energy prices.
Next Story35 million families will lose Biden's monthly child tax credit payments in 3 weeks if Congress doesn't step in
35 million families will lose Biden's monthly child tax credit payments in 3 weeks if Congress doesn't step in
Inflation rises sharply in October, prompting more fears of a price-growth crisis
US jobless claims mark a full recovery to pre-COVID lows, sliding to 199,000


Why does the artworld hate the art market today? For most, the fear and loathing begins and ends with the major auctions, which means the modern and contemporary art auctions that are held by the two (sometimes three, if you count Phillips) 'big houses'.
Yes, the accelerated art fair circuit makes many wince, but for sheer numbers, try this on: since the beginning of the year, the New York and London sales of these categories at Sotheby's and Christie's have seen more than $2.1 billion change hands – that is, assuming everyone pays up.
It's not the best-kept secret that an exceedingly small fraction of the big houses' clientele accounts for about 90 percent of that business. So when The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times or Barron's or Forbes runs articles with (hopeful?) headlines such as 'Stocks Tanked, Will the Art Market Follow?', what they're reporting on are the activities of, in relative terms, a handful of players.
And when critics such as Blake Gopnik call out the 'contemporary art bubble' and bloggers such as Felix Salmon say that 'prices' fetched at the big sales are 'quantitatively completely bonkers', they are also, by extension, talking about the activities and tastes of a small but very monied minority.
Ironically, in the wake of Occupy Wall Street and 'We are the 99%', that minority has found it has an 'image' problem. The entirety of the last US presidential election was contended on it. We know this, but we pay attention to the numbers anyway, mostly because we can't help taking them as an indication of the health of the market more broadly.
Just as we don't really want the stock market to 'tank', we don't really like entertaining the question of what happens when the rich stop buying art, because if the rich stop buying art, that means the rest of us have probably stopped buying other things, such as vacations or houses, and everything that goes with them.
Deep down we know that the art market is a trickle-down economy. When it's good at the top it can be either good or bad down the line; but when it's bad at the top, it's only bad all the way down. We're nostalgic for the days (though few of us were alive to see them) when collecting was an acceptable and accessible middle-class pastime, when well-read shrinks and doctors and lawyers were buying what they liked from the small coterie of artists and dealers that simply were the artworld. It was middle-class art at middle-class prices for middle-class people with middle-class taste.
But who out there is really banging the drum for middle-class art, which sounds as wince-worthy as the middle-class art fairs at which arriviste dealers wouldn't want to be caught dead selling it? What artist today would echo Matisse in wanting his work thought of like an armchair for the tired businessman?
Middle-class pricing in today's parlance means 'young' or 'emerging' or 'experimental' or 'alternative'. The pitch is that this work won't stay middle-class or doesn't even want to be. It has aspirations to importance and recognition, though preferably not merely posterity's. Only being 'elite' or 'other' will do.
Call it kitsch if you like, but given the recent recuperations of that term, not-even-kitsch would be closer to the mark. Either way, its dominant value remains consumerist, which both art and the middle-class have always been.
Hatred of the market, then, is really just a symptom of this unbearability of not really being middle class, which is to say of being middle class and not believing it, but also of not really being 'elite' or 'other' either. About the market, members of those two groups either don't worry or don't care.


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Xyleutes strix is een vlinder uit de familie van de houtboorders (Cossidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort werd voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1758 door Linnaeus als Phalaena (Noctua) strix

Houtboorders

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text:
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Whether you are planning for yourself or a loved one, we help you create a meaningful celebration that reflects the personality and passions of a unique life. We find inspiration almost anywhere—in a favorite song, hobby, even an iconic style—and turn that into a funeral or memorial filled with thoughtful and meaningful details. From a motorcycle processional to an art show to dancing horses, you'll find there's almost no limit to the special tribute we can create.
Our Visalia funeral home
Miller Memorial Chapel is a peaceful place to remember a life with friends and family. The chapel has a midcentury-modern feel and exposed wood beams. It is the largest in the county and seats up to 350 people.
The funeral home is close to Visalia Public Cemetery (located at 1300 W. Goshen Ave.) and has an on-site crematory.
Our professional funeral directors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to guide you through funeral and cremation arrangements. Please call us whenever you need us.
Established in 1903 by Julius Caesar "A.E." Brooks as Brooks Funeral Parlor, Miller Memorial Chapel has served Visalia, California, and the surrounding area for more than 100 years.
In 1963, Sam Miller and his wife, Myrtle, purchased the funeral home from Roy Brooks, A.E.'s son, and operated the family funeral business as Miller Memorial Chapel until 1996, when Sam's sons, Paul and David, sold the funeral home. David remained an integral part of Miller Memorial Chapel until he retired in December 2015.
One of the guiding tenets of Miller Memorial Chapel is a commitment to a high standard of service. We are proud to uphold a century-old heritage and are committed to helping families for years to come.
"1. We had to ask for cd/dvd to play 20 minutes before funeral. We were told that normally they play it during funeral not before, but could turn it on most attendees did not get to see it. It was 3)..."
"The staff made us feel well cared for. Everything ran very smoothly."
Rhonda S Wright
Miller Memorial Chapel, FD 65
Merchandise and Services


IT'S OFFICIAL. THE Irish summer is almost over, in fact, some might say it never really started.
Forget your fresh fruit and fancy cereal, it's back to porridge and mountains of tea to keep warm.
Back to school traffic is the bane of every motorist's life. Now you've gotta give yourself an extra 15 minutes each morning and it's just not fair.
The Late Late is back on Friday and all the talent shows are back… T'will be Christmas before we know it.
Dark, by 9pm? What kind of wizardry is this?
Stuff is happening! Look at Dobbo there. Delighted with life.
Bye bikini sections and short PJs, it's all about the fluffy socks.
They swarm the roads in their little uniforms and massive bags and make you feel ancient.
Every student is vying for a place to stay and it's pretty much the hunger games out there.
Please God now, when the kids go back to school.
Wishful thinking, it's not happening.
- Written by Nicola Byrne and originally published on DailyEdge.ie.
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Know Ellenville Class of 1979 graduates that are NOT on this List? Help us Update the 1979 Class List by adding missing names.
More 1979 alumni from Ellenville HS have posted profiles on Classmates.com®. Click here to register for free at Classmates.com® and view other 1979 alumni.
Missing some friends from Ellenville that graduated with you in 1979? Check the list below that shows the Ellenville class of '79.
You can share memories of those activities that you were involved with at Ellenville HS and you can view other alumni and read what other former students have posted about the time they spent at Ellenville.


Spirit's Mission is a group of dedicated and experienced animal professionals that partners with isolated and under-served First Nations and surrounding communities for the health and wellness of companion animals and to enhance the human/pet bond.
Our ultimate goal is to help communities create a self-sustaining animal management plan with the resources and tools to keep companion animal populations healthy and to prevent pet overpopulation.
We work to create and continuously improve a successful template of our operations that can be used by partner agencies.
Hello. As a vet licensed in BC with experience volunteering with the Chinook Project in Labrador……how may I become more involved with your organisation?


Yep, I've discovered the exact same thing. I hope that there's some answer out there…For me, I was camping at temperatures right around freezing and my battery life was about 2 days. Hopefully they can correct this (though it may not be possible).


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READING/LEEDS GETS KNOTTED!
NME Mar 23, 2000 4:58 pm GMT
The Wannadies and Shack also join the bill of the double header Carling Weekend Festival this August Bank Holiday weekend...
Slipknot, Asian Dub Foundation, Idlewild, THE WANNADIES and SHACK have all been added to the line up for the Reading/Leeds Carling Weekender double header, to be held on August 25-27, nme.com can announce.
Slipknot will take to the main stage at Leeds on August 26 alongside Stereophonics, Placebo and Eminem before heading down to Reading on the following night. It will be their last British dates of this year. The band recently cancelled the rest of their European tour because of "personal reasons" for percussionist Shawn.
Asian Dub Foundation, whose second album 'Community Music' was awarded an unprecedented ten out of ten in last week's NMEissue dated March 18, will join Oasis, Primal Scream, Foo Fighters and The Bluetones on the main stage in Reading on August 25 before moving to Leeds on August 28. Idlewild have an opportunity to road-test material from their forthcoming album '100 Broken Windows' when they too hit the main stage in Reading, alongside Pulp, Beck, Gomez, Super Furry Animals and Elastica on August 26, while their turn at Leeds comes on the following night.
Both The Wannadies and Shack play the Radio One Evening Session stage. The Wannadies are in Reading on August 26 and Leeds on the 27, while Shack play it in the other direction kicking off with Ian Brown in Leeds on the 26.
More artists will be confirmed for the three day festival in the coming weeks.
For tickets, go to the nme.com Ticketshop – click here
Or call the NME 24-Hour Ticketline on 0870 1 663 663. Calls are charged at national standard rate.


Iniobong Umoh: Eko For Show! Is Lagos Really the Promise Land for Nigerians?
My friend lives and works in a blue chip firm in Victoria Island, Lagos. His office is on the fifth floor of the skyscraper corporate headquarters of the firm. The office is beautifully decorated and my friend regularly snaps and uploads pictures of him working at his desk to his Facebook page. He lives in a nice house and drives a nice car. His monthly salary is in six digits and there are other perks and allowances. I can say that my friend is balling. He is on a search for a wife and will settle down before this year is over.
Four years ago, my friend was a broke and jobless graduate walking aimlessly on the streets of the capital city of a south-south state searching for a non-existent job. Tired of the fruitless search, he decided to pool his little savings together and relocate to Lagos in search of greener pastures. Four years after, he is living the good life.
My friend is just one amongst the millions of people whose decision to relocate to Lagos has paid off.
Lagos is the former capital city of Nigeria. It is the business hub and commercial nerve center of the country. It is the entertainment capital of West Africa. There is a general perception in Nigeria that Lagos is the ideal place for one to "hammer", "blow", succeed, make it etc.
Every day, hundreds of buses filled with economic migrants from South eastern and south southern parts of Nigeria pull up at motor parks in Lagos, emptying out the hopefuls who are all eager to make it in the land of opportunities.
Despite the many success stories, there are thousands of woeful tales of people who have failed to succeed in Lagos despite all the efforts they have put into hustling, both legitimate and illegal hustling. A visit to the slumy and run down areas of the city will show you that, 'Eko for show' is really that… a mirage!
The question arises; must one be in Lagos before one can make it in Nigeria?
I have been asked countless times to relocate to Lagos. Many online friends of mine assume that I live in Lagos. They are often taken aback when I tell them that I don't live in Lagos. I always get invitations to attend important seminars, meetings, conferences, events etc at short notice and when i decline with the excuse of location that they realize that I am not staying in the same city with them.
Theoretically, one does not need to live in Lagos before one can make it in Nigeria. However, it seems to be cut in stone that one cannot succeed in certain sectors of our national life without living in or operating from Lagos.
Take a look at the entertainment and showbiz sector for example. No Nigerian musician is taken seriously if he/she isn't in Lagos. Same thing goes for actors and actresses.
All the mainstream musicians from other parts of the country had to set up base in Lagos before they got to national prominence. The Timayas, the Flavours, the Tuface Idibias, the Psquares, the Inyanyas, the Burna boys, the Kcees etc of this world had to journey to Lagos to succeed.
You have to be in Lagos to meet the music producers, fellow music artistes, the "Alaba boys" marketers, the show promoters etc because Lagos is the music capital of Nigeria. If you chose to refrain from relocating to Lagos, you would remain at best a local champion. There are thousands of broke but talented upcoming music artists in different parts of Nigeria looking for money to relocate to Eldoradoesque Lagos.
Lagos is the hub of the creative arts. Writers flourish in Lagos.
It is also the hub of trade and commerce, importation, manufacturing, religion, sports etc.
I believe one can succeed in any part of the country one lives in as long as what you are engaged in is profitable and you put in hard work and also not forgetting the God factor.
There is a certain appeal and allure about Lagos that makes the city irresistible to non-residents. "Why is it that all the good things seem to be happening in Lagos?", one of my friends had questioned on Facebook as he watched the Experience gospel music concert live from Tafewa Balewa square, Onikan, Lagos on his cable tv last December.
It is said that Lagos is the only pan-Nigerian city with people from all parts of the country as residents. Lagos is the land of promise with opportunities littered everywhere.
This is why everyday people find their way to the "no man's land" – to live in the state with a land mass that is roughly half of Bayelsa State in size and with a population of 20 million residents – adding to the chaotic traffic situation and piling pressure on the existing social infrastructure in the city state.
Apart from the chokehold traffic and noise pollution levels, what puts off some people from Lagos is the "hurry hurry-Rush rush" frenzied lifestyle of the residents; the "Shine your eyes' attitude where you have to be constantly on alert and can't trust the next person beside you, the 'one chance' 419 taxis/buses, the touts/agberos and the more than half a dozen uniformed law enforcement organizations whose sole purpose seem to be that of making life unbearable for citizens.
Taking these social ills away, Lagos is a nice place to live in both the mainland and the Island.
I admire the 'can do spirit', 'creative instinct' and 'never say die attitude' of Lagosians. I have had opportunities to work with and execute some "out of the box thinking" projects with some Lagos friends of mine. These same projects wouldn't have seen the light of day if I had decided to work with some people living in the same city with me.
Would I relocate to Lagos sometime in the future?
Yes, but when I do so, I will be relocating as a Made man with a national identity and brand, and not as a hustler searching for the golden fleece in the land of promise.
Do you live in Lagos? Do you live in the mainland or island? What do you like most about the city?
Exactly Nancy! Mentality and orientation matters a lot. The prevailing mentality of the inhabitants of a city/town can either propel one to success or failure.
Awesome article. Yes, you expressed Lagos in such vivid language and colour. Lagos is indeed a melting pot of our nations ingenuity, creativity and resilience. I have been resident in Lagos for about 6 months and it has not taken me long to realize that this is the "big stage" as far as naija is concerned. It all happens here. This is it. The opportunity, the fame, the passion, success and failure. Everything. But the story will depends on each individual so no guarantees. I think that other cities can build their own identities but their leaders are more interested in stealing money than creating legacy which will post their cities on the map. Lagos is lucky because of it geopolitical significance. What is so scary is that it has not yet fulfilled its true potential. Hope our leaders will allow that to happen.
Everything that makes Lagos tick now will eventually make this city go bust. Everything that is wrong with a mega-city is really wrong with Lagos. At current rates, Lagos is unsustainable, both economically and ecologically. London is like Lagos in expensive rents but it is less populated and better reticulated for cheap transport .
We desperately need more hubs for development. As an artist, you shouldn't have to come to Lagos to "hammer." Yes there will always be epicentres for certain industries, but I picture a future where Davido will perform to packed audiences in Aba, Port-Harcourt, Kaduna and Ibadan yet he will live in Abuja. What about film? Asaba can be made into a world-class set and a hub for film in the manner of Hollywood. If you want to buy equipment and film stuff, go there.
As a last point, I read that the only reason the South-south received a spectre of development from oil companies was when the FG forced some of them to relocate their HQs to their source of operations. Otherwise, MOBIL and co were willing to live and die in Lagos while pillaging and polluting a land far away.
London and cheap transport should not be used in the same sentence abeg.
Maybe you go around by black cab.
Cheap transport? London? You mean the capital of England? How??
Maybe you only visit London…. those who LIVE here acknowledge transport is expensive. It's not even a debate.
I agree with your points. Being the first capital city of Nigeria, Lagos had a very big head-start over other towns and cities. But development needs to be spread around the country. Like you rightly mentioned, all major oil companies are headquartered in Lagos. Exxon mobil for instance, despite persistent calls has refused to relocate to Akwa Ibom where it sources all its revenues from.
I agree with you Na wa. Mr. Egghead, have you ever tried buying a monthly Oyster card that will allow you travel between zone 2 and zone 6? I wouldn't call it cheap. A more appropriate example might have been New York City's public transportation system; now that is the "definition" of cheap.
I'm a Lagosian from Oniru but believe me, those rush rush thing turns me on. I live and work in Abuja and I've been here for 9years now, I came here (Abuja) from port Harcourt after graduation and I don't think I would want to leave Abuja for Lagos.
Abuja is the right place to raise a family (my opinion) I'm not into that rushing and traffic thing at all.
My ultimate dream is to relocate to lagos. i have had that dream for some time now and i will achieve it. I am a HR professional and i know that my practice is better in Lagos. It is so heartbreaking when you apply for jobs and they say your location is a problem, even when you say you are open to relocation, they still turn you down. I will not give up on it at all. Will keep improving myself and pushing until it works.
I grew up in Lagos, and can't think of living anywhere else to be honest if I move back to Nigeria. I love the buzz in Lagos. Did my NYSC in Ogun state and it was like time stood still, everything was just soooo slow. Been to Abuja but it just doesn't do it for me.
Lol.. I did nysc in the east and I loved it there. No traffic and hurry hurry. I started telling myself I will move to ogun state. I still have my eyes open for Ogun state. Lagos too stressful for my skinny self mbok.
We are hip, we are fun and all the agberos/419ners/traffic/the every every, add to the adventure/experience of living in Lagos. It's also part of why we love it. We no dey carry last. Eko oni gbaje o!
Leave the nice apartment and fancy car part, they are not effective indicators of a good standard of living; however fancy your car is you will be stuck in traffic 3 to 4 hours every day and living in a high brow apartment is only good for your ego as it may not be sustainable as you grow older and family responsibilities take center stage.
But it's not been all roses as I have lost some accounts because I was out of town at critical moments but majorly when I send mails and stuff people think am in my Lagos office. Technology has helped me escape that hectic lifestyle and now I enjoy clean air and my vegetables (ugu, tomatoes, peppers, onions, you name it) are self-grown free of pesticides in my backyard.
I also think as power generation and transmission gets better the pull of Lagos will become less. Because seriously Lagos traffic and hectic lifestyle will drain you.
Lagos! Lagos! Lagos! the writer have said it all….lagos is a land of great opportunity, i mean the sky is wide enough for all d birds to fly. if you know your onion, hustle hard and stay focus it will pay off at the end. i grew up in lagos, lived all my life in lagos, had my primary, secondary, uni and served in lagos, currently working in lagos,i stay on d Island but my problem with d city is d traffic jam we experience year in year out, i get sick at times cos it increases d stress one has already gone through at work, as if that's not enough, paying toll gate to use d major road, enough problem to make me run away but i have decided to remain here and chase my dream to the later becos i believe the opportunity i seek is here in Lagos.
I love Lagos and its fast-paced environment. True, one can succeed anywhere, however Lagos has a conglomerate of tight networking that can be door openers for anybody. I stay at a central location on the Mainland that allows me to link up with the Island. Life in Lagos is lit!
I moved to Lagos in 2012 to take up a job in Ikoyi. For the first year and a half i lived in Ojota, then i moved to Alpha beach, Lekki-Ajah axis in my second year. In June last year i moved to Ikoyi, and now live only 3 minutes walk from the office and i cannot be happier! I didn't know how much stress the everyday traffic, noise and other forms of pollution that comes with commuting in this city was impacting my system until i didn't have to do it anymore. People who knew me less than six months ago now tell me i look different – happier and fresher, and no i have not added any weight and i do not have a new 'lofer,' lol.
I agree with Prince on this. I moved to Lagos in 2008 and I hate the unnecessary stress here. I looked forward to when i relocate to a more quiet town which i am seriously hoping will be this year.
Great post, Leroi. Indeed, Lagos is a land brimming with opportunities but not everyone will capture them.
Lagos!!! I frankly do not know if i have any kind of love for that city and if I do can that love even make the 50% mark. The exhaust fumes from hell, the crowd, the perpetual march towards something that always seems a step ahead, the lying, the cheating and everything in between that makes me start sweating just thinking about. Of course Lagos is where everything happens but I'd rather just visit or move there after I have "hammered". Great article Leroi.
Lagos na wa!!! About the 'rush rush' thing, lol…I tend to adapt the second I get in there. I'm always in a hurry and I do it unconsciously. Nice write-up…couldn't have described it any better.
Indeed GIDI Is a land of opportunity and adventure. Yu need to hav a certain boldness and confidence to survive and make it there. For me, the stress and fast life of Lagos is part of its uniqueness. .wudnt change my 2year xperience there for anything… GREAT PIECE.
Would you love to raise your kids in Lagos?
… Lagos is great as much as it is a pain. I would not personally want to live in Lagos or dare to raise my kids there. I guess I would rather just do my bit to create another Lagos from nothing (maybe somewhere south), and use the experiences from "eko" to keep away the negatives as much as possible.


As MLS reaches the business end of the season, we look at the English players who have made the biggest impact Stateside.
Gary Spain looks ahead to the Republic of Ireland's friendly against the USA, which marks the last appearance in green for John O'Shea.
Amateur soccer in America – is it just the game of our youth?
Eugene O'Driscoll discusses his experiences in New York City, where there is a significant drop off in football participation as people get older.
Kaustubh Pandey speaks to Prep4Pro about the development work they are doing with prospective professionals in the United States.
Is our desire for more competition and excitement driving footballers to risk their health through doping, asks Alan Moore.
Taking in the action from two very different ends of the soccer spectrum in Philadelphia, Sean Maslin finds much work to do to bridge the divides.
The latest Radio MLS podcast sees attention turn to the Copa America and the fortunes of Jurgen Klinsmann's USMNT.
The USMNT has mountain to climb both on and off the park following its opening game loss to Colombia in the Copa America Centenario.
With Holland slipping up again, Danny T Owen looks at how far they have fallen, and why the absence of Nigel De Jong could be key.


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Survey: Potential Gen Z Buyers Prefer Diverse Neighborhoods
Generation Z, the youngest potential home buyers, who are beginning to enter the housing market, show a preference for buying homes in culturally diverse neighborhoods, according to a new survey from Homes.com. It's the first generation in American history to show such a strong diversity preference, Homes.com says. The real estate website surveyed more than 1,000 young adults ages 18 to 24 years old to examine their homebuying preferences.
Fifty-eight percent of potential Gen Z home buyers say they prefer a diverse community compared to 12% who prefer a homogeneous neighborhood, the survey shows. "Generation Z is more multicultural than ever before, with demographics that include the largest percentage of Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks, at 22% and 15%, respectively," says David Mele, president of Homes.com. "Our survey suggests that their preferences will have a substantial impact on homebuying patterns. That, in turn, may create a new dynamic where diverse communities thrive more than ever before."
Gen Z is already demonstrating that homeownership is important to them. Eighty-six percent say they plan to become homeowners someday. Their timeline: 14% expect to purchase a home between the ages of 18 to 24; 48% say they intend to buy when they are 25 to 29 years old; and 25% plan to buy between ages 30 to 34. The timeline follows a similar pattern to Generation X and baby boomers, the survey notes.
The top motivators for them to buy is a "place to call home" and for investment value. "The fact that half want to buy because they believe owning a home is a good investment reflects how far the wealth-building aspects of homeownership have rebounded since the housing crash of 2008—when less than 1% of first-time buyers said financial security was their primary purchase motivation," researchers note in the survey. Having a good home for pets was number three on the list among buying motivators, topping safety and a sense of community.
In choosing a place to live, proximity to work is a top priority (71%), followed by living near friends and family (52%), urban location (25%), proximity to shopping (24%), and access to nightlife (12%).
© Homes.com
"A New Generation of Homebuyer Is Here: Meet Generation Z," Homes.com (June 2019)


Patsy Sings Pop ... Stoneman That Is !
Well, what a pleasant and unusual suprise this is. But first a bit of background.
Ernest V 'Pop' Stoneman (born Carroll County, Virginia, in 1893), a carpenter by trade but a banjo and autoharp player by choice, wrote to Okeh Records' Ralph Peer in 1924 requesting an audition, and recorded several discs for him the following year. Of these his recording of The Sinking of the Titanic was to prove to be one of the biggest selling Country records of the 78 era. Over the next five years he recorded well over 200 sides for a variety of labels (occassionally more than one on the same day) either solo or with his wife, Hattie, or in small groups made up of family, relatives and neighbours. These recordings preserved mountain songs, old British ballads, religious pieces and some of the most surreal of those rural comedy sketches popular with record buyers of the time, and established him and his family as influential Country Music pioneers to rank alongside the Carters and Jimmie Rodgers. As with many recording artists of the Twenties, his career did not survive the Great Depression and he was forced back to carpentry in a naval factory in Washington DC, while his wife Hattie brought up the family of thirteen kids.
Several of the children took to music and Pop lead a family band around Washington in the late '40s and early '50s and, thanks to Mike Seeger, had an LP released on Folkways in 1957. Folk festival and college concerts followed and, in 1962, the Family made their debut on The Grand Ole Opry and won a recording contract with Starday Records. A move to Nashville resulted in a TV appearance on the Jimmy Dean ABC-TV show and then to their own TV series, Those Stonemans, in 1966. Pop died in 1968 but the family band continued for many years (so numerous were they that at any given time there were as manya s six Stoneman Family bands performing across the country !) - and may yet, for all I know.
Well, Patsy Stoneman Murphy was one of those thirteen children (though by no means the most celebrated ... that honour probably goes to the controversial fiddler Scotty), and here she has gathered together a collection of 22 family songs, recorded in February 2001, which are mainly accompanied only by her own autoharp and (and here isthe unusual part), each is preceded by a short spoken introduction. The tracklisting reads like a veritable checklist of American Old Time Music - Don't Let your Deal go Down, Don't Bury me Beneath the Willow, May I Sleep in your Barn Tonight Mister, Little Old Log Cabin - witness to the impact that the family's recordings had on the music. But what might have been a mere recycling of old glories is somehow raised a notch or two by Patsy's enthusiastic and insightful comments about each. Although often heavy on recording dates, locations, record companies etc. she also has some nice little comments on her grandparents: Pop's home made autoharp; her mother, (with a hint at some,probably everyday, friction between Hattie and Pop); Uncle Eck Dunford; MikeSeeger; and the landmark 1927 Bristol sessions (or 'The Big Bang' as Patsy calls it). Don't get me wrong, this is not an in-depth interview, the spoken comments seldom stretch beyond 60 seconds each, but they are effective and interesting.
On to the music: well, Patsy is no Dellie Norton or Ola Belle Reed, but her vocals are strong and clear and her autoharp playing brisk and accomplished. We are in the company of a veteran performer here - although, sadly, the notes give us no personal information about Patsy at all.
And some of the performances are indeed memorable. The Raging Sea (sound clip) is an excellent reading of the old ballad, as are When the Snowflakes Fall Again, Sweet Birds, Tell My Mother I Will Meet Her (the 1927 recording is my all time favourite Stoneman performance) and Whippoorwill, which has particularly nice autoharp playing, bettered only by the excellent instrumental Stoney's Waltz (sound clip). A bit of variety is added by Patsy's jews harp playing on New River Train where she is accompanied (sadly on this track only) by some very fine banjo from Neal Walters, and by her own guitar on a good version of A Poor Tramp has to Live and Old Maid and the Burglar Man, which she delivers with some relish (sound clip). A couple of snippets from recordings of Pop -Titanic and a very fine Canaan's Land - also fit very comfortably within this collection.
If the words 'honest' and 'homely' smack of faint praise, they should not, for, all in all, this is a most enjoyable release which should find interest amongst all lovers of Old Time American Country Music.