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Odds and Ends II
I don't know why I feel compelled to apologize when there's a lengthy gap between posts (hey, it's not like you guys are paying for this stuff). But I feel guilty in spite of myself. Anyhow, there will be a lot of new content coming here soon, particularly in the DVD and book review categories. In the meantime, as has become the custom when I'm busy, I'm going to vamp for time by redistributing some links.
Like everybody else in the movie-and-TV blogosphere, I felt like the Grim Reaper was punching me in the face all last week. Actually, it goes back a little further: First we lost Kevin McCarthy and Harold Gould, both on September 11. McCarthy was one of my favorites, underrated in particular as a villain, and yet doomed to be remembered mainly for one role, his atypical starring turn in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Here's a sentence from the penultimate paragraph in the Los Angeles Times obit for McCarthy: "He was a founding member of the Actors Studio." Talk about burying the lede.
Gould was one of those all-purpose character players who always seemed to me to be doing the same thing (which was: not very much) no matter what kind of part he was playing. I don't think Gould ever surprised me. Judging from the tributes, Gould had a lot of fans, and more power to them; but every time he made an entrance, I always felt a twinge of regret that the producer hadn't cast a more exciting actor. We all have a few actors who make us feel that way, I'd wager. I remember, back when I was a college student and had discovered Pauline Kael for the first time, feeling relieved by her irrational, unfair hatred of Hume Cronyn, who she singled out for ridicule every time she reviewed one of his films. Not that I had a problem with Cronyn – I don't – but because I'd been waiting for permission to write about actors in that way, with the gloves off. Sorry, Harold.
Then there were Arthur Penn, one of the last of the important live television directors (more on him in a separate post to come); Tony Curtis, who did some significant television work on The Persuaders and Vega$ as his movie career began to decline; and Art Gilmore, a legendary narrator and voiceover artist who, like a lot of voice artists, enjoyed a secondary career as a character actor. Gilmore was one of Jack Webb's repertory company, and when I was fourteen or so, I (like all teenagers) spent a lot of time trying to distinguish him from Clark Howat and the other blandly authoritative actors who played police lieutenants or captains all the time on Dragnet and Adam-12.
Somewhere in there came (or rather went) Joe Mantell, famous for a pair of best friend roles: he was the sidekick to both Martys, Rod Steiger on television and Ernest Borgnine in the film, and then to Jack Nicholson's Jake Gittes in Chinatown. He delivered iconic lines in both but managed to remain anonymous, as only character actors can. A lot of people seem to remember Mantell for a tour-de-force in a Twilight Zone I always forget, "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room." When I sought him out for an interview around 1998, he was more like a crabby man in an Encino bungalow. Mantell talked to me on the phone, reluctantly, for a few minutes, but clearly did not care to reminisce. There's a modern character actor with a similarly ferrety face named Michael Mantell, who I always took to be Joe Mantell's son, but the obituaries seem to have disproved that hypothesis.
Finally there was Stephen J. Cannell, one of the most prolific TV producers of all time. I'm aware that Cannell has a few credits with some heft to them (The Rockford Files, of course, and one friend of mine swears that Wiseguy, which I've never seen, is a masterpiece), but basically I thought of him as Aaron Spelling with a little more of an edge. The Los Angeles Times reports that Cannell had a "golden touch" (I would've said, "golden tan") and that he produced 1,500 television episodes and wrote 450. I'll buy the 1,500 but can anyone point me toward a list of 450 produced Cannell teleplays? I'm also dismayed to learn that I've been mispronouncing Cannell's name for decades (it rhymes with "flannel"). That's going to take a long time to re-learn. Anyway, Lee Goldberg has a short but warm reminiscence on his blog.
Lost amid all the high-wattage names was a belated report of the death of television writer-director Clyde Ware, who is probably best remembered as a prolific Gunsmoke contributor for a couple of years around the time the long-running western series shifted to color. Ware also wrote a Man From U.N.C.L.E. that became the second episode to be expanded into a feature film (The Spy With My Face), and two exceptional Rawhides from the revisionist Bruce Geller-Bernard Kowalski season. Later in his rather unpredictable career Ware did stints as a story editor on Bonanza and a producer-writer on Airwolf. Not long after he was established in the business, Ware turned auteur, writing and directing the made-for-television movies The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd, with Martin Sheen in the title role, and The Hatfields and the McCoys. Prior to that Ware made a pair of independent feature films, both starring Sheen, that I've always wanted to see: No Drums, No Bugles and When the Line Goes Through. I believe these were both released on VHS decades ago, but apart from that they're among the many American films of the 1970s that have fallen into utter obscurity.
The only obituary for Clyde Ware appeared in Variety, an important source for that kind of information that has fallen off the internet-aggregation site radar since it began partially firewalling its content earlier this year. Variety ran the obit on September 16 and as of now the Internet Movie Database still hasn't recorded Ware's death, or updated his birthdate (to December 22, 1930; Ware had successfully subtracted six years from his age in all the reference books).
I must give a shout-out to Tom B. of the Boot Hill blog, which was the first place to reproduce the text of the Ware's Variety obit – in violation of copyright, I suppose, but in compliance with today's netiquette, like it or not. For over a year now, Tom B. has been archiving death notices of anyone who ever worked on a motion picture western. And since almost everybody who worked steadily in the movies prior to 1980 passed through a western at some point, Tom's blog has become a handy general reference for movie fans and historians. It's a great example of a specialist's narrow interest taking on a value beyond its original domain. For instance, it's only due to the Boot Hill site that I've learned today of the death of Anabel Shaw, a minor ingenue of the forties and fifties. I only vaguely remember Shaw from a small role on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but it seems that she also had a key supporting role in Joseph H. Lewis's astonishing film noir from 1949, Gun Crazy.
CBS's repurposing of the title of its towering sixties legal drama The Defenders to a bland-sounding new legal drama starring Jim Belushi this season made me mildly grumpy. But since it gave Sara Fishko's WNYC radio show an excuse to devote a program to the real The Defenders, all is forgiven. Excerpts from Fishko's interviews with Defenders vets David Rintels, Ernest Kinoy, and Ellen Rose (a secretary in the Defenders office who married its creator, Reginald Rose, during production) are here.
Kliph Nesteroff, who wrote a great piece on Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis that I linked to a while ago, is back with another amazingly well-researched story, this one on the politics of the writing staff of Laugh-In. I know even less about Laugh-In than I did about Al Lewis – I've only seen a few clips here and there – so this was an even more fascinating read. Nesteroff's argument is that, in contrast to the outspoken The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Laugh-In was a totally unthreatening show, an establishment-friendly outpost that appropriated the look of the counterculture as "smoke and mirrors" to conceal its lack of political commitment or, indeed, even a covert right-wing agenda. The evidence that Nesteroff marshals, especially regarding Laugh-In head writer Paul Keyes, is jaw-dropping.
And yet Laugh-In retains a reputation as a politically relevant program. That's probably one of those canards that proves very obviously inaccurate whenever anyone who actually sits down and studies the facts, but remains enshrined in the historical record thanks to lazy journalists and historians. Sort of like that nonsense about how Reagan "won" the Cold War – a lie that comes to mind because it seems particularly central to the beliefs of one idiot who litters my comments section with a litany of retrograde conservative talking points any time I write something even tangentially political. I'm guessing this graph means we'll be treated to another dose of the same.
My own review copy must have gotten lost in the mail, but ever since the entire Thriller series came out on DVD last month, bloggers Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri have been reviewing an episode a day in a conversational, Siskel-and-Ebert-style format. There are sixty-seven episodes of Thriller, the terrific Boris Karloff-hosted anthology of crime and gothic horror stories that ran from 1960 to 1962, and as of this writing the pair are about halfway through. It's a neat idea that has drawn some overdue attention to Thriller in the pop-culture blogosphere.
Initially, reluctantly, I wasn't going to link to their blog because most of Enfantino's and Scoleri's dispatches struck me as jokey and not very insightful. But then they had an even better idea, which was to intersperse their episode critiques with interviews with the many historians and other Thriller enthusiasts who contributed audio commentaries to the DVD set, and those posts are worth reading. They offer some very frank examples of the minutiae of creating supplementary materials for DVDs, and of the almost insurmountable challenges that prevent these extras from being as good as they should be. The interviewees thus far are Steve Mitchell, Gary Gerani, David J. Schow, Larry Blamire, Alan Brennert, and Lucy Chase Williams.
The extras on the Thriller set are copious and worthwhile. But they are still limited in value, largely because only a few of the surviving participants were called upon to participate. (They include Richard Anderson, Patricia Barry, Beverly Washburn, and Arthur Hiller.) The executive producer William Frye and a key writer, Donald Sanford, are both still living but neither is in evidence on the DVDs. Frye, who lives in Palm Springs, told me recently that he was available for interviews, but not over the phone (which is why you haven't heard from him yet in this space).
The interviews conducted by Scoleri and Enfantino shed some light on the reasons behind the obvious omissions in the Thriller extras. Apparently Image Entertainment, which released the DVDs, gave the extras producers, Steve Mitchell and Gary Gerani, only three weeks to get everything together. From what I've heard over the years, that is a typical scenario. If you think about this too hard, you'll start to weep for all the priceless documentation that could've been added to the DVDs of your favorite shows if the corporate types at the top actually gave a damn.
These interviews have a significance beyond Thriller. They're a snapshot of a fin de siecle moment, as the dominent mode for home video is shifting from DVD to internet streaming, and the whole idea of supplemental material (and for that matter, acceptable image quality) are going the way of the dodo. Maybe I'm just projecting, but the interviewers' comments seem suffused with awareness that they're participating in the end of an era.
Corrections Department, Part 5.1: Matt Zoller Seitz has a pair of articles on Salon in which he nominates the twenty best television pilots, ten dramas and ten comedies. They're structured as slide shows, which is irritating, but it's worth clicking through twenty times to see Seitz's choices. Most of them are predictable, but Seitz's arguments are persuasive. Although this criterion remains implicit in the text, Seitz only showcases pilots for series that were artistically and/or commercially successful. I'm tempted to respond, at some point, with a list of great pilots for lousy shows: things like The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters or Crime Story or Flash Forward, which set up a promising premise that the producers and writers couldn't figure out how to sustain.
I've praised Seitz's work here before and so I hate to have to point out a major error in his piece. Contrary to the headline, Seitz has come up with a list of nineteen pilots and one premiere episode. Out of Seitz's twenty selections, the most inspired may be Sam Peckinpah's mournful, short-lived The Westerner, which ran for thirteen weeks in 1959. The pilot for the series was called "Trouble at Tres Cruces," and as was common in the days of the dramatic anthology, it was broadcast as an episode of The Zane Grey Theater in the spring prior to The Westerner's fall debut. But the "pilot" that Seitz describes at length is not "Trouble at Tres Cruces" but the first regular episode of The Westerner, "Jeff."
Referring to a television show's debut as its pilot is a kind of lazy shorthand that drives me up the wall, sort of like when a journalist attends the "taping" of a show that's being shot on film (instead of, you know, tape). But, as we see here, the pilot and the first episode of a series are not always one and the same. Remarkably, Seitz's review of the non-pilot of The Westerner has gone uncorrected on Salon's website (and unnoticed among the more than one hundred reader comments) for more than two weeks. Early television history has become the province of obsessives, I guess, and copy editing is even deader than DVD extras.
Filed in Housekeeping
Tags: Anabel Shaw, Art Gilmore, audio commentaries, Boris Karloff, Clyde Ware, DVD extras, DVDs, Harold Gould, Joe Mantell, Kevin McCarthy, Laugh-In, Obituaries, Stephen J. Cannell, television pilots, The Defenders, The Westerner, Thriller
An Interview With Jason Wingreen: Part One
Jason Wingreen wants me to know two things before we begin. First: He was born on October 9, 1920, and not in 1919, as the references books would have it. This makes him only 89, one year younger than I and anyone else who ever looked it up has always believed. These matters are important to an actor. Second: I must promise never to divulge his phone number, which is unlisted and, indeed, immune to all my usual tricks for digging up unlisted phone numbers on the internet. If it gets out, the "Star Wars people" will drive him crazy. More on them in a minute.
Why do I, and why should you, care about Jason Wingreen? Perhaps because, as the saying goes, there are no small parts, only small actors. Wingreen is not a small actor. He is, to trot out another much-abused cliché, one of those actors whose name you may not know but whose face you will recognize. Even if you do happen to know his name, perhaps you sometimes mangle it. One movie buff I know persists in calling him Jason Wintergreen.
In the face of your indifference and imprecision, Wingreen has played at least 350 documented roles on television and in the movies since the early fifties. The actual total may be well over 500. A handful of those roles have been meaty, like the guest shot as the would-be rapist who gets his ass kicked by Steve McQueen on Wanted: Dead or Alive. A few have been semi-prominent, like the recurring part he played (that of Harry the bartender) on All in the Family and its successor Archie Bunker's Place for seven seasons. Many have been minor, but in shows that have been repeated a million times, like The Twilight Zone or Star Trek. One of them was literally invisible: in The Empire Strikes Back, the second film in the Star Wars saga, Wingreen provided the voice of Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who captures Han Solo. The weird cult that now surrounds the character of Boba Fett was not foreseen, and Wingreen received no screen credit. His place in the history of Star Wars did not emerge until 2000, and when it finally happened, it changed his life.
Most of Wingreen's roles have been what are rather harshly called "bits": characters who walk on and off, say a line or two, function as deliverers of exposition or as background color. With rare exceptions, small-part actors like Wingreen have been neglected by historians. It's easy enough to ask actors like Collin Wilcox or Tim O'Connor, the first two subjects of my occasional series of interviews with important early television performers, about their best roles. They spent weeks or months creating those characters, and received a lot of attention for the results. But how to interview an actor who toiled in anonymity, spending a day or less on most jobs? Years ago, I looked up a handful of iconic bit players – Tyler McVey, Norman Leavitt, David Fresco – and quizzed them over the phone, with disappointing results. Neither they, nor I, could remember enough detail about any one project to generate a substantive conversation.
But when I spoke with Jason Wingreen, he unspooled anecdote after anecdote in his polished, slightly metallic voice. It was as if this actor who never played a leading role had saved up all the dialogue that his hundreds of characters didn't get to say on screen and, now, was loosing it for the first time. Wingreen's recollections were often funny, occasionally startling, and always precise and detailed. They were so detailed, in fact, that for the first time on this blog I am presenting an interview in two parts. In the first, Wingreen discusses his formative years as an actor, his involvement with one of the 20th century's most important theaters, and some of his first television roles.
Tell me a bit about your background and your childhood.
I was born in Brooklyn. My parents moved from Brooklyn to a town called Howard Beach, in the borough of Queens, and that's where I grew up. I went to John Adams High School in Ozone Park, Queens, and graduated from there and then went to Brooklyn College. In order for me to get from Howard Beach to Brooklyn College, I would have to take a bus, the Fulton Street El, and the Brighton Line, and then walk about half a mile to the college. Which took about an hour and a half, approximately. Each way, going and coming. Three hours of travel for four years, for my college education. We didn't have an automobile.
I majored in English and Speech. What I wanted to be when I grew up was a sportswriter, a sports reporter. I was very much interested in sports, from an academic standpoint, although I did play baseball. I was a skinny little kid. In those days, kids could get skipped in the lower classes, and I was skipped twice, which was a big mistake. For me. I was advanced, twice, into a class with boys who were not only older than me but bigger and stronger than me. The fact that I could play baseball saved me from a lot of bullying from the older boys.
At Brooklyn College, there was a mandatory speech class in your freshman year. The course that I took was taught by an actor, a Broadway actor who was out of work and got a job teaching in the Speech Department at Brooklyn. His name was Arnold Moss.
Oh, yes, a fine character actor with a deep, Shakespearean voice.
He was a dynamic teacher. So when the term ended, I thought, I'm going to look for something else that this guy teaches. I searched around and found out that he was teaching an acting class. I signed up for it for the following semester, and I got hooked. That was the end of my dream of my becoming a sportswriter.
Was your family affected by the Great Depression?
My father was a tailor. He had a store that was just opposite a Long Island Railroad station in Howard Beach. There were people living in Howard Beach who went into the city to work, [and] Howard Beach had a lot of firemen and policemen living in the town, and they were all customers of my father. They'd bring their uniforms in, the cops and firemen would, and the accountants and the lawyers and so on who would take the Long Island Railroad into town would bring their clothes in to my father to be dry cleaned or pressed. And that way my father was able to get through the Depression. It was tight, it was very close, but he was able to do so.
My father was not an intellectual man, but he loved music. When he'd open the store every morning, he would turn the radio on to WQXR. Classical music, all day long in the store. My sister grew up with that too. My sister, Harriet Wingreen, has been the orchestra pianist of the New York Philharmonic for about thirty-five years. She is five years younger than I am. She really got the music life, and music itself drilled into her. She went to Juilliard, and on from there. I would say she's the real talent of the family. I'm just an actor.
From where does your family name originate?
It originated from, I think, Hungary, but we're not Hungarian. My parents both came from Lithuania. We're Jewish. The name was Vengeren when my father got to Ellis Island, and at Ellis Island they Americanized it and gave him Wingreen. They did that with all immigrants in those days. My father met my mother when they were both in this country. It was an arranged date, by the families. My father came to this country – he was born in 1890 – when he was sixteen years old. Alone. He took a boat here with nothing except the name of a family, who were not relatives but friends, going back to the old country, and an address in Brooklyn. He went to these people and they took him in and helped him to grow up there and to get a job.
So after you started studying acting with Arnold Moss, then what happened?
I joined the undergraduate theater group, called the Masquers. Ultimately, in my senior year, I was president of the Masquers, and played the lead in the school play that the undergraduates put on every year. I graduated in June 1941.
At that time, The New York Times was running an ad campaign, and it was "I Got My Job Through The New York Times." That was their slogan. Well, I got my job through The New York Times. I answered an ad in the Times one morning, which said, "Wanted: Young man to assist with marionette production. No experience necessary. Must have driver's license."
Well, I had a driver's license. I certainly had no experience being a puppeteer or a marionette, but I was a would-be actor. So I answered the ad, and got a postcard back from the people inviting me to meet with them at their loft studio in Manhattan. So I went, and auditioned for them with my voice. They said they would teach me puppeteering, but they needed someone who could act the roles. It was a company called the Berkeley Marionettes. It was run by a man and his wife, Stepan and Flo, and their daughter. They had two puppet companies which toured the city school system in New York, and in outlying areas too – Connecticut, New Jersey. Stepan was the booker. He would got to the various schools and book the shows, and Flo would preside over the actual puppeteering and write the scripts. They were pretty much all shows based on classic children's books. The Mark Twain books, The Prince and the Pauper, Tom Sawyer, that kind of material.
There were two companies. I would be in the number two company, which consisted of two men and one woman. The woman in this case was the daughter of the owners, and the other man was the young fellow who had just married her. Now, what's interesting is that the young fellow who was my cohort was named Paul Bogart. Paul became one of my closest friends, and became a very successful director. He married the daughter of the marionettes, whose name was Alma Jane.
The war then came. I, at that time, stood five feet and ten and a half inches, and I weighed 119 pounds. Can you picture that? And they put me in 1A! 1A. I couldn't lift a barracks bag! However, I did my time in the army, in the war. I went down to Oklahoma, to Eastern Oklahoma A&M, and studied to be a clerk. Dirty job, but somebody had to do it. I ultimately wound up with a fighter squadron: the 81st Fighter Squadron, 50th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. I was in a town called Leamington, right on the coast behind the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is where all the boats lined up for the invasion [of France on D-Day]. You could just look out over the water and there they were, ready to go.
I kept records of the flights, and did other things. One of my jobs was to get up very early and go into the office and get the fire started, so when the pilots came in they'd be warm. When there was a flight planned, I would be the guy who would drive the pilots to the planes. Pilots did not drive themselves to their planes in the jeep. It had to be done by an enlisted man. I think the thinking was the pilot could drive himself to the plane, but if he doesn't come back, who's going to bring the jeep back? That was my theory. I didn't express it to anybody, but I think that's the reason.
What did you do after the war?
I was in Germany when the war ended. Came back on the Queen Mary with about 13,000 other soldiers, back to Howard Beach. I went to the New School on the G.I. Bill, and I studied playwriting with a man named John Glassner, who was a professor, a teacher, a critic. I still wanted to do some writing.
I went back with the puppet company. They had a home in Woodstock, New York, where during the summer off-season when there was no school, no work, they would go up there and prepare for the following season. Paul Bogart would write the scripts, and I would go on up there and stay with them and rehearse, and hang out with the Woodstock crowd.
There I met a few people who were interested in starting a theater group, and I attached myself to them. We became very, very close friends, and then we got together in the city, in New York, and I did as much as I could with them. Rented a loft and started working on a play, Alice in Wonderland. In the summer we were able to rent the Maverick Playhouse in Woodstock, which had been built in 1912. A wooden shack, practically, but a place that in the last row, you could hear somebody whispering on stage. The acoustics were so fantastic. It had been built by an actor named Dudley Digges, an old character actor, and Helen Hayes had played there once, way, way back when. We put on a summer of plays, a Saroyan and an O'Neill play, and several others that I don't recall. But Alice in Wonderland was our first big production, and I played the Duchess, with a great big head!
When the summer ended, we decided we were going to look for a place to continue our theater group in New York City. We found an abandoned nightclub, the Greenwich Village Inn, which had been closed by the police department for cabaret violations, and we rented it. There was a central group of, at that time, six of us. What I'm trying to get at is that I'm one of the founders of the Circle in the Square. I was a producer, and one of the leading actors in the productions. The others were Jose Quintero; Ted Mann; Eddie Mann, who was also a newspaper cartoonist; Aileen Cramer, who became our publicity lady and also did some acting; and a girl named Emilie Stevens, who was an actress and did costume designs, set designs. That was our nucleus. Eddie Mann and Aileen left after a year or two.
Ted Mann is still running the Circle in the Square, the one uptown, on 50th Street. He still has it, after all these years. He is the lone survivor of all that group. Ted and I never really hit it off, even all the years that I was there. I wasn't there for that many years, but I was there for, certainly, five of them. We saw a lot of things in different ways. And as a result, when Ted wrote a book on the history of the Circle in the Square, in some cases I was the invisible man. He did not give me credits that I should have had, and I called him on it when the book came out. He said, "Well, I didn't remember." I said, "You know, you have my phone number. You could have checked with me." The truth was that he didn't want to. He wanted to take all the credit for everything that transpired at the theater for himself.
What do you remember about Jose Quintero? What was he like?
Absolutely brilliant director. Funny kind of a guy. I can't really describe him too well, except that I admired him. We got along very, very well.
Did he direct you in any productions?
Yes, he directed Summer and Smoke, the big hit with Geraldine Page in 1952. In that production, I played old Doctor John, the father of the hero of the play. Tennessee Williams watched some of the rehearsal with Jose, and it was decided by both of them that it needed an extra scene. A scene between Miss Alma, played by Geraldine Page, and old Doctor John, played by me. So Tennessee wrote that scene, and we included it in the production. It's not in the printed version of the play. At any rate, it was a short scene, five to six minutes, just the two of us. I tell you, I could have played that scene with her for ten years, she was so fabulous.
Tennessee became very active in that production, because it had been done on Broadway and failed. What we did, particularly in the early years – this was my idea, and it seemed to work fairly well – we could take plays that we thought were good but didn't make it on Broadway, and we would do them. We turned failures into successes. It happened on two or three different occasions.
One of those was called Burning Bright, by John Steinbeck. On Broadway, it had Barbara Bel Geddes in it, and Kent Smith, Howard Da Silva, and Martin Brooks. It was a four part play. The lead, the man that Kent Smith and [later, at the Circle in the Square] I played, played three different characters in it: a circus clown, a ship captain, and a farmer. The play was divided into those three elements.
At that time, Life magazine was running a piece called "Life Goes to . . ." Well, we got a call saying Life wants to come down and do a piece called "Life Goes to an Off-Broadway Theater." So we said, fine, we'll have a special performance on Monday night, our dark night, with an invited audience. John Steinbeck came, himself, with his agent, and sat next to my mother. My mother said to me, after the play, "You know, I sat next to John Steinbeck. I said to him, 'You see that man? That's my son!'"
Steinbeck said to her, "Oh, really? He's very good."
We lived there, in the building, above the Circle in the Square. Totally and completely against the law. Like David Belasco had his own room above his theater, I had my room above my theater. We really did have a firetrap, and it was finally closed by the fire marshal, and that was the end of my association with the Circle in the Square, for a year and a half.
Were you also doing live television while you were with the Circle in the Square?
Yes, I was on some of David Susskind's shows. He had a few series on: Appointment With Adventure, and Justice. I did a Goodyear [Television Playhouse], either a Goodyear or a Kraft [Television Theatre], when I had the opening line of the show. I was in the first shot and had the first line, and the cameraman was mounted on something. The cameras were up a little higher than the ground, and as the scene started, the cameraman started waving bye-bye to me! They were pulling the camera back. Apparently something had fouled up, and they weren't getting the shot. But the show was going on anyway, so I went on with the lines and apparently the director in the control room picked it up with a different camera. So I wasn't necessarily seen, but my voice was heard delivering the opening lines of the show.
Oh, I got a job on a TV version of "Arsenic and Old Lace" [for The Best of Broadway, in 1955] with Boris Karloff. Helen Hayes and Billie Burke played the old ladies. Boris Karloff, of course, was the heavy character, and mine was a very, very small role. I played a medical attendant. I was a late hire, so I was only in for about two or three days, and they'd already worked on it for about two or three weeks. Years later, I'm on a Playhouse 90 with Boris Karloff. The first day of rehearsal, I went up to Mr. Karloff to say hello and tell him my name. And I say, "You won't remember me, but I worked with you in New York."
He said, "Did you really?" in that wonderful Karloff voice. And he said, "Ohhhh, yes. With that bitch Hayes."
I was a little shocked to hear that come out of Boris Karloff's mouth, so I said, "Oh, really?" He said, "Oh, yes. She did everything she could to get Billie Burke off the show." Billie Burke used to be married to Flo Ziegfeld, way, way back. She really was an elderly lady, and she had some trouble with lines and things like that. Hayes, according to Karloff, tried everything to get rid of her because she wanted to get one of her friends to play the role. But she didn't succeed.
What else can I say about live TV? I wasn't crazy about it. It's not like theater, where you have time to really rehearse. The rehearsals were very quick. I liked television very much when it was not live. If you flubbed something, you did take two, or take three if you had to. I was in a movie called A Guide For the Married Man. I played the husband of the lady that Walter Matthau was after, played by Sue Ane Langdon. We come in from the party we'd been at, we come back to our apartment, and I immediately go to the refrigerator and start building myself a Dagwood sandwich. Sue Ane goes behind me and puts her hand over my eyes and says, "Who was the prettiest lady at the party?" I'm fixing my sandwich and I say, "You were." And she says, "What was I wearing?" And I start describing the outfit of another one of the women of the party.
A wonderful scene, right? Anyway, Gene Kelly, had us do that scene, I think, eleven or twelve takes. Around the sixth or seventh, he came up to me and whispered in my ear, "It's not you. I'm trying to get her to do something, and she doesn't do it. Or doesn't want to do it." And I'm there grappling with all this building a sandwich [business], about eleven times. That's what I like about TV that's not live. You could have some fun with it. Live TV was too much pressure. For me, anyway.
Did you ever go back to the Circle in the Square?
After the fire marshals closed us down, we had a little office somewhere for a year and a half, with nothing doing, nothing happening. No place to take ourselves, nothing available for us to start another Circle in the Square. We couldn't live there any more, so I got an apartment on 28th Street with the lady who became my wife a couple of years later, and who had been an actress in the company. Her name was Gloria Scott Backe; she was called Scotty.
During the period of nothing happening, my wife and I went to a party uptown, where Jose and Ted Mann were also in evidence there. We drove back down to the village in a cab, at which time Ted Mann said to me, "We found out that if we do some structural changes, we can reopen the theater at the original place. You want to come back?" And to tell you the truth, I had had enough of Ted Mann, and I'd also tasted a bit of TV and Broadway, and I decided. Without even questioning my wife about it, I said, "No, I don't think so." And as a result of that decision, I would no longer become co-producer of Long Day's Journey Into Night, or The Iceman Cometh, all the big O'Neill successes that they had. But I don't care. Because I went to Hollywood, and I did okay here, too.
How did that come about?
I got a Broadway show, called Fragile Fox. It was a play about the war, written by Norman Brooks and directed by a man named Herbert Bayard Swope, Jr. The stars were Dane Clark and Don Taylor, and others in the cast were James Gregory and Andrew Duggan. We toured Cincinnati, Philadelphia, came into New York after six weeks, and it folded. But Herbert Bayard Swope, Jr., got a contract at Fox out here in Hollywood, to come out and produce movies. He sent for me. Literally said, "Come on out here. I can get a part for you on a couple of these movies."
That was the beginning of the big move for me. I was here for about five months, and it also led to Playhouse 90. I was in the very first Playhouse 90 when that series came on, because Ethel Winant, who was the casting director at CBS, [had been] an agent in New York, and I knew her from New York. So she cast me in a small role as a pilot in the first episode. It was a script written by Rod Serling.
What I did on Playhouse 90, which was awfully good at the time, was to assist with the blocking of the show. The casts were all high-octane stars, name actors. Well, we rehearsed for fourteen days for each episode, and you don't have these people available for fourteen days. You only bring them in after a show has been blocked for them, and then they take over. So I would assist the director in blocking. I'd have the scripts of the various characters. Whatever had to be done, I would run the lines and the movements while the camera crew is watching, making their notes, and while the director is watching and making corrections and so on. In each case, in addition to that, I would be given a small role to act in that show. So I got double salary. I got paid by the hour for the blocking work, and I got paid by the role in the acting part. It worked out wonderfully for me, because as I can recall, that I did about twelve of them during that period.
Wingreen, at right, in "Forbidden Area," the premiere episode of Playhouse 90.
Then I got homesick. I wanted to go back and see my wife again. She was doing a play, The Iceman Cometh, at the Circle. My wife was very unhappy that I did not go back as a producer at the theater. She never made a big deal out of it, but she was disappointed that I said no. We never made a big thing out of it, but that was the way she felt.
So I went back to New York, and then the next year, which was 1957, I got a call again from Hollywood. Ralph Nelson, who was one of the producers of Playhouse 90, wanted me back to play a small role in a production of "The Andersonville Trial" that he was doing, with Charlton Heston and Everett Sloane. I was to play Everett Sloane's associate prosecutor on "The Andersonville Trial." [This was actually "The Trial of Captain Wirtz," an episode of Climax, a dramatic anthology that was, like Playhouse 90, broadcast from CBS Television City. It was produced by Ralph Nelson and likely directed by Don Medford. – Ed.]
I did the show, and what did I have? One word! Six thousand miles back and forth just to say one word. Charlton Heston makes a great, long-winded speech in this trial, and Everett Sloane turns to me and says – I'm sitting next to him at the table – he says, "What do you think of that, fella?" And I reply with one word. I have to tell you, unfortunately, I don't remember what the word was. It was not a short word, it was a long word, but I don't remember what it was. And that is what I was summoned three thousand miles to do.
I guess Ralph Nelson valued your work!
My presence was very important to Ralph Nelson, I suppose. I don't know why. Maybe the part was longer, and when they finally got to shooting it, they cut a few speeches that I had originally made. I didn't see the original script. All I got was the one that they were shooting that day. Maybe for time purposes they cut it back, or maybe because Charlton Heston took too long making his speech.
The final move that I made was in 1958, when, again, Herb Swope, the man who got me out there the first time, said there was a part in a movie in Mexico with Gregory Peck, called The Bravados. He said, "Do you ride?"
I said, "You mean a horse?"
So I discussed this whole thing with my wife and she said, "Yes, of course you can ride. We'll go on up to one of the riding academies here in Manhattan, and you'll take a lesson or two."
We went up to an academy that was up on 62nd Street, and I checked in and there was a man that was sort of in charge. He said, "The first thing we have to do is go downstairs and get ready with a saddle to fit you," and all of that stuff. Anyway, down we go. He gets a bottle and two glasses, pours a big shot of scotch, and he says, "You start with this."
So without knowing anything more, I took a shot of scotch. Then I went up onto a horse. He's got a big whip in his hand. He gives the horse a whack, and off we go. I'm hanging on for dear life, going around and around and around. And I think I might have done some screaming, too, while I was at it. My wife is looking at all of this, absolutely appalled. We went around a few times and I got off. He says, "That's fine, that's fine. Tomorrow we're going to go out to Central Park."
We got home that night and my wife says, "You're not going back there tomorrow. He's going to kill you sooner or later!" I said, "No, I don't want to go back there. We'll get somebody else."
So she looked it up in the telephone book and we [found] a place down around 23rd Street, run by an English lady. She had a horse called Pinky. When I went there, she introduced me to the horse. She said, "Pinky, this is Mr. Wingreen. Mr. Wingreen, this is Pinky." Then she gave me a carrot to give to Pinky. Then I got on that horse and we went slowly, slowly around. We went around a few times and she says, "Mr. Wingreen, smile, you're on camera now!" And that's how I learned to ride. Then I could call Herb Swope and say, "Yeah, I'm ready to come. Tell me the date when you want me and I'm off."
And so I went out to Hollywood, and then off to Morelia, Mexico, for six weeks of this film. Henry King, the famous old director from the silent days, was directing, and we had a cast of Gregory Peck, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Henry Silva, Joe DeRita, George Voskovec, and Andy Duggan, an old friend of mine, playing the priest.
I was going to play the hotel clerk who got involved in the chase after the bad guys, and that's why I had to learn to ride, to be in the posse. There was quite a bit of riding, and a Mexican horse was not a Hollywood horse. Hollywood horses know "action" and "cut." They go and they stop. Mexican horses don't know those words. They have to be hit to go, and you have to stop 'em! You have to pull on the reigns to stop them, and I wasn't successful every time we tried it. Going up a cobblestone street, a sharp turn, holding on to a rifle. It's a wonder I'm still alive.
I had a very nice scene with Peck, though, when he rides into town [and learns that] his wife has been killed by some men while he was not home, and one with Joan Collins. That was a nice experience. So that sort of settled it for me as far as staying in Hollywood.
I called Scotty and I said, "Get somebody to replace you and come on out here. Take a look and see whether you think this might not be it. I have a feeling this is where we should finally settle in." So my career out here started. It was slow at the beginning, but I made some good contacts. I was helped by people I knew who had been here already, and they gave me tips on various things. A lot of individual shots, just one day or three days. Then the occasional series started.
Did your wife continue to act after you moved to Los Angeles?
She got one job, on a John Wayne movie directed by Henry Hathaway, who was very tough. There was a scene with a big fair where they had food, and he placed her at a spit where they were roasting a pig or something like that. They were shooting it up at Big Bear Lake, and it was the first scene of that day, the very first shot. They've got fifty people out in canoes on the lake, and fifty or seventy-five people at this great big fair, and lights are going to come on very quickly as soon as they start shooting. The first shot is right on my wife as she's turning the spit. And Hathaway, she said, had such a voice that he didn't even need anything to holler through. He was just using his own voice to yell "Action," and they could hear him out there on the lake.
So he screams, "Action," and the lights come on, and my wife, who was having trouble with her eyesight anyway, flinched and turned her head. So then Hathaway yells "Cut!" and he goes up to her, and he sticks his face right into hers and says, "What's the matter, honey? Lights get in your eye?"
She says yes, and he screams right at her, "Well, you ruined the fuckin' take!"
So she said to him, "I guess I'll never be a movie star." For the rest of the week he called her Miss Squinty. Then she said, "I'm through. No more movies for me. I want to be a housewife and a mother."
One of your first roles in Los Angeles was on The Twilight Zone. What do you remember about your three Twilight Zone episodes?
Yes. I played a conductor on a train which had James Daly going home to his house in Connecticut and falling asleep and thinking that he's stopping at a town called Willoughby. I played the conductor on the real train. Jim Maloney played the short, round conductor on the dream train. I had a couple of nice scenes in that, and at the very end I had the scene where I tell the trainmen that Jim Daly had jumped out. He had hollered "Willoughby" and just jumped off the train and was killed. And then when the hearse arrives, I help the guys pick up the body and put it into the hearse of course, and the door closes and it's "Willoughby and Sons Funeral Home." I thought that was a terrific episode.
Serling wrote the script, and I had a feeling that he was getting something off his chest. He was being bedevilled by the CBS brass, the big shots. They wanted something from him that he wasn't able to or willing to do, so he was kind of getting at them. He made Howard Smith, who played the boss, a really miserable human being. He said, "Push, push, push, Mr. Williams. Push!" Rod Serling was getting even [by caricaturing network executives in this character], I think.
Of the other two, one was an hour show, "The Bard." I played the director of a TV show. An old Hollywood director, David Butler, directed it. When I went to meet him he said, "Now, when I direct, I sit down. So when you're directing here, I want you to sit down too." So I played the role sitting down. The wonderful English character actor John Williams played Shakespeare, and Jack Weston was in it, an old friend of mine. He played the writer who had writer's block, and he came upon a magic shop that was run by a great character actress named Doro Merande. Burt Reynolds did a Marlon Brando impression on that one, and Joseph Schildkraut's wife [Leonora Rogers] played the young woman on the show I was "directing."
The third one was "The Midnight Sun," with Lois Nettleton. This was the one where they're losing water on earth, and I played a neighbor and I came by to say goodbye to her because I was taking the family up to my brother in the mountains, where there was still some water. A nice little scene. I've only been to one convention, a Twilight Zone convention, and I met an awful lot of fans who told me that two of their favorites were "Willoughby" and "The Midnight Sun."
Another of your early television roles, in 1960, was in a Wanted Dead or Alive episode called "Journey for Josh."
Ah, that's my big story. I was saving that one for you. It goes back to 1952, to the production of Summer and Smoke at the Circle in the Square. The theater was an arena theater, like a horseshoe, and it led right out onto the sidewalk. It was hard to keep the sound of the street out. McQueen was a young, would-be actor at that time, and he had come for an audition to meet Jose Quintero for a part in one of the plays. He had been rejected. But he was a hanger-out in the Village, and he rode a motorcycle.
When Summer and Smoke became the tremendous hit that it was, every couple of nights Steve McQueen would park his motorcycle right outside the theater, at the curb, and wait for a quiet moment. Then he'd rev the motorcycle. He did that two or three times, with maybe a day in between. During the third time, I was not on stage at the time. I went out to the curb to him, and I said, "I know what you're doing and I know why you're doing it. If you don't cut this out, I'm going to get a cop to come over here and arrest you for disturbing the peace." So he gave me a last "Fuck you," revved it one more time, and took off. But never came back, for the rest of the run of the show. That was my first encounter with Steve McQueen.
Now, it's eight years later, 1960. I'm in Hollywood, and I get a job on Wanted: Dead or Alive. It's a nice little part. There are just three of us in this episode: McQueen, a young lady who's living alone somewhere out on the prairie, and me. My character is a kind of a drifter, who comes by and finds this young lady and tries to make a pass at her, and is interrupted by the arrival of Steve McQueen. We have a battle, and he gets me, and that's the end of my work on the show. A three-day job, directed by a director named Harry Harris.
They hired a stunt man to do the fight scene for me. Any time I had a job where I had to fight, I'd have a stunt guy. In fact, there was one guy that used to do all of my work that way. He didn't really look that much like me, but he did all the fighting for me. Harry Harris comes up to me and says, "Listen, I know we've got this guy to do the fight scene with you and Steve, but I want to use a hand-held camera on this one. That means I have to get up close for some of the fight stuff. We'll choreograph it. We've done that Steve before. We'll rehearse it a couple of times, and then when we do it it will work out fine."
So I said, "Okay, fine."
Now, meanwhile, before that, when I arrived for the first day of shooting, I'm introduced to everybody. You know, "This is Steve McQueen," and I shake hands with him. I certainly did not say, "I know you from the Village," and he didn't indicate to me that he remembered me in any way. He said hello, and a handshake, and then we go to work.
So now we're in the third day of the shoot, and we come to the fight scene, where we struggle for a gun. We're on the ground, and he straddles me and picks me up by the collar, pulls me forward and hauls off and whacks me. And of course I duck in the right place as we rehearse it, but I fall back. That's my last shot; I'm out of the picture.
Once we're on camera, we go through all the same motions. He pulls his hand back, I duck, and he whacks me right across the jaw. Tremendous smash against my jaw. I wasn't knocked out, but I was stunned. Of course, turmoil occurs on the set after this. They rush to see how I am. Before you know it, I'm in somebody's care, being taken to the first aid station. I'm sitting in the nurse's office. The nurse says, "Oh, that's Steve, he does that to everybody. There's a long line of them that come in here."
So anyway, I get my consciousness back, pretty much. The door opens, and Steve McQueen comes in. He comes towards me, and he says, "I'm sorry about that. But, you know, you didn't go back like we rehearsed it." Which was bullshit. It wasn't true at all.
I said, "Okay, Steve, forget it. Just forget it."
And he walked to the door, turned around to me, and said, "Say hello to Jose when you see him for me, will you, please?" And out he goes. He waited eight years for his revenge!
Click here for Part Two, in which Jason Wingreen talks about All in the Family, Steven Spielberg, Andy Griffith, Boba Fett and George Lucas, and more.
Filed in Interviews & Tributes
Tags: 1920 births, Actors, Aileen Cramer, Arnold Moss, Berkeley Marionettes, Billie Burke, bit players, Boris Karloff, Brooklyn College, character actors, Circle in the Square, Classic Television, Edward Mann, Emilie Stevens, Fragile Fox, Geraldine Page, Gloria Scott Backe, Harried Wingreen, Harry Harris, Helen Hayes, Henry Hathaway, Herbert B. Swope Jr., Howard Beach, Interviews, Jason Wingreen, John Steinbeck, Jose Quintero, Paul Bogart, Playhouse 90, Ralph Nelson, Rod Serling, Scotty Wingreen, Steve McQueen, Summer and Smoke, supporting actors, Ted Mann, Television History, Tennessee Williams, The Bravados, The Twilight Zone, Wanted: Dead or Alive


OUR TRIP TO NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES & MORE !!!
A brief trip to Los Angeles was the perfect time to film some interesting (and very friendly) non-human creatures.
My snapchat videos from my trip to Los Angeles, CA on August 9, 2018 – August 16, 2018. Please 'like', comment, favorite, subscribe and enjoy! Follow me on Twitter: @Ana5HBiebvato!


text:
from setuptools import setup, find_packages

setup(
    name='django-append-url-to-sql',
    description="Appends the request URL to SQL statements in Django.",
    version="0.1",
    url='http://code.playfire.com/django-append-url-to-sql',

    author='Playfire.com',
    author_email='tech@playfire.com',
    license='BSD',

    packages=find_packages(),
)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
25 Best Tasting Protein Powders in 2023
By Amber SmithJan 1, 2023 5:00 AM
If you're looking for the best-tasting protein powders on the market, you've come to the right place! In this blog post, we will rank 25 of the tastiest protein powders available in 2022. We'll take into account flavor, mixability, and nutrient composition to determine which powders are worth your time and money.
So whether you're a seasoned fitness enthusiast or just starting out on your fitness journey, be sure to check out our list.
1. Elm & Rye Protein Supplement
2. Ritual Essential Protein
3. Instant Knockout Complete
4. Cellucor Whey Sport
5. MomentousEssential
6. Garden of Life Organic Vegan Sport Protein Powder
7. Vital Proteins
8. Orgain Organic
9. Legion Plant+ Vegan
10. TRU Plant
11. Vega Sport
12. Isagenix IsaPro
13. Muscle Milk
14. Naked Whey
15. Amazing Grass Protein
16. Rule One
17. Dymatize ISO 100
18. Ascent Native Fuel
19. Natural Force Grass Fed
20. MRM Nutrition
21. Garden of Life Meal Vanilla Powder
22. RSP Nutrition AvoCollagen
23. Quest Multi-Purpose
24. Ancient Nutrition
25. Isopure Whey Protein Isolate Powder
What is protein powder?
Protein powder is a dietary supplement that is used to increase the protein content of the diet. It is made from a variety of ingredients, including whey, casein, soy, rice, and hemp. Protein powder is often used by athletes and bodybuilders to help with muscle growth and repair.
What makes protein powder taste good?
There are a variety of factors that can make protein powder taste good. The most important factor is the type of protein powder that is used. Some powders are made with whey, which is a dairy-based protein and has a creamy, smooth taste.
Other powders are made with plant-based proteins such as soy or rice, which can have a more chalky or grainy texture.
The flavor of the protein powder is also important. Protein powders come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and cookies &cream. Some protein powders are also flavored with fruit juices or spices to make them taste even better.
How do you choose the best tasting protein powder?
There are a few things to consider when choosing the best tasting protein powder. First, you need to decide what type of protein powder you want to use. If you are looking for a dairy-based protein powder, then whey is a good option.
If you are looking for a plant-based protein powder, then soy or rice protein powders are a good option. Second, you need to decide what flavor of protein powder you want.
If you are looking for a chocolate flavor, then there are many options available. If you are looking for a vanilla flavor, then there are also many options available. The important thing is to find a protein powder that you enjoy the taste of and that meets your dietary needs.
Here are 25 of the best tasting protein powders in 2022:
1.Elm & Rye Protein Supplement
Elm & Rye's protein powder subscription service lets you pick the kind, flavor, and quantity of your powdered protein. This also means that you'll always have the greatest-tasting protein powder on hand, ensuring that you don't run out!
Elm & Rye's protein powder and protein shakes range from chocolate, vanilla, and cookies & cream, so we're confident you'll find one that appeals to your taste buds.
Essential Protein by Ritual is soy-free, gluten-free, vegan-friendly, and it's formulated without GMOs, stevia, sugar or sugar alcohols, and artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners. They test every lot of Essential Protein for heavy metals, microbes, and over 250 banned substances in partnership with Informed Sport. It tastes great with layers of sweet vanilla, subtle nuances of caramel and hints of spice make Essential Protein fit to shake up your every day. It's the first protein of its kind sweetened with a combination of fermented sugarcane (Reb-M) and monk fruit. Their high-quality, plant-based pea protein is derived from organic, non-GMO peas grown in the USA using regenerative farming practices.
This a fantastic choice that tastes great and is super clean. We love Ritual! They even have different formulas for folks over 50, and pregnant/postpartum woman. No matter who you are and what you need, they have you covered.
With its oaty texture and deliciously light vanilla taste, Instant Knockout Complete is the ideal protein powder for people who care about the quality of their shakes. Not only does it contain 35 grams of top quality plant based protein, but it is also packed full of healthy fats, low GI carbohydrates, and dietary fibre. Making Instant Knockout Complete the perfect meal replacement.
Instant Knockout Complete contains 400 calories per serving, and uses a variety of protein sources; oats, pea, soy, brown rice, flaxseed, and chia seeds combine to create a protein blend that has a complete amino acid profile. It also contains healthy fats from MCT oil, and a large amount of omega-3 fatty acids.
This is a delicious protein powder that nourishes the whole body, no matter what your goals are, this is the shake for you.
Image courtesy Cellucor
For individuals searching for a skinnier and more muscular body, Labrada's ProGize is another great option. It contains all of the macronutrients your body needs, making it a full protein. It's also easy to digest and absorbed by the body quickly.
For people looking to build muscle or lose weight, Cellucor's Whey Sport Protein Powder is an excellent choice.
5. Momentous Essential
Image courtesy Momentous
Essential Grass-Fed Whey is the most pure, highest quality whey protein on the market. Our grass-fed whey isolate is cold-processed to preserve native protein structures and enhance bioavailability.
We also include PrHydrolase, a clinically demonstrated protein digestion and absorption enzyme combination. Mixes effortlessly and tastes great in water, almond milk, smoothies, or other recipes.
Image courtesy Garden of Life
Organic Plant-Based Protein is the most pure protein on the market, according to four third-party certifications. Organic Plant-Based Protein goes above and beyond USDA organic standards by being NSF Certified for Sport and Informed-Choice for Sports Certified. This ensures that there are no prohibited performance enhancing drugs—only whole clean substances.
Organic Plant-Based Protein is a mixture of certified organic proteins derived from a variety of farms, including peas grown in the United States. After that, the company added additional high-quality protein sources such as garbanzo beans, navy beans, lentils, and cranberry seed protein.
A single serving provides 30 g of complete protein, which includes all the essential amino acids, 5.5 g BCAAs and 5 g glutamine, both of which aid in reducing recovery time following exercise. There are no artificial branched-chain aminos—they're all derived from natural components.
Image courtesy Vital Proteins
Is your scoop in need of some improvement? This is a superior option: The Original Collagen Peptides powder, which includes hyaluronic acid and vitamin C, two important components that promote healthy hair, nails, skin, bones and joints, in addition to collagen.
Image courtesy Orgain
Whey protein supplements have been shown to help with muscle growth and repair, strength gains, joint pain alleviation, mood improvement, fat loss, and body fat reduction. There are drawbacks to whey supplements as well, however. The most prevalent is that they can cause bloating in some individuals.
Image courtesy Legion
It's a high-protein, naturally sweetened, and flavored pea and rice protein powder that contains no artificial food dyes or other synthetic chemicals.
So, if you're looking for a flavorful plant-based protein powder that will help you achieve your fitness goals quicker, then Plant+ is the one for you.
You won't be disappointed. In fact, if you don't absolutely love Plant+, the manufacturer will give you a full refund right now. There is no need for a form or a return.
Image courtesy TRU
TRU's Plant-Based Protein Powder is a fully complete protein that meets all of the essential amino acids required for human health. It's also easily digested, so it gets to work in your body right away. Depending on your objectives, plant-based proteins like this one can help you gain or lose weight.
Image courtesy Vega Sport
The Vega Sport Premium Protein Powder is a complete protein with all of the requisite amino acids. It's also simple to digest and readily absorbed by the body. For those wanting to gain muscle or lose weight, Vega Sport's Premium Protein Powder is an excellent solution.
Image courtesy Isagenix
This product includes active enzymes to aid digestion. The healthy living shake from Isagenix, IsaLean Protein Shake, is a delectable meal replacement that's ideal for people with a busy schedule. It's also great for weight reduction since it doesn't contain any trans fat.
Image courtesy Muscle Milk
Muscle Milk's Real Protein Powder is a full protein that contains all of the essential amino acids your body require. It's also easy to digest and quickly absorbed by the body. Genuine Protein Powder from Muscle Milk is a wonderful alternative for individuals aiming to gain muscle or lose weight.
Image courtesy Naked
The milk used to make Vanilla Naked Whey comes from tiny California dairies. Cows there are grass-fed all year and are not given hormones like rBGH or rBST, ensuring a healthy diet. Each serving includes 25 grams of protein and 5.9 grams of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Vanilla Naked Whey is completely free of chemicals and sugar.
Image courtesy Amazing Grass
Yes, it is possible to get protein from plants without eating meat, fish or other animal products such as milk. Vegan Protein Powder by Amazing Grass is a complete protein that includes all of the required amino acids.
It's also simple to digest and swiftly absorbed, ensuring that this protein powder will enable you to get the most out of your workouts.
Image courtesy Rule 1
Whey protein is a fast-acting, high-quality protein that contains all of the essential amino acids. It's also easy to digest and quickly absorbed by the body. The Whey Blend from Rule One Proteins is an excellent option for those looking to gain muscle or reduce weight.
Image courtesy Dymatize
ISO100 is a revolutionary protein powder that goes further and helps to promote muscle recuperation after a strenuous exercise. ISO100's ultra-fast absorbing and digesting capacity help you work harder and support muscular recovery following a tough training session. It's filtered to eliminate excess lactose, carbohydrates, fat, and sugar for maximum purity, mixability
Image courtesy Ascent
Acent's protein finishes its protein from milk, making it the most-processed micellar casein available - delivered in its purest form. Micellar casein and whey are two complementary proteins that have similar benefits for your regular fitness routine.
Whey promotes the healing of muscles after exercise because it is rapidly absorbed into your body. Casein micelles offer a slow and sustained release of essential amino acids. This helps to prevent muscular deterioration and supports the body's natural recovery process, which is sleep, by being taken at night.
19. Natural Force Grass Fed Organic
Image courtesy Natural Force
The cleanest and hands-down best tasting organic grass fed whey protein is provided by The Natural Force Organic Whey.
This organic whey comes from grass fed, free range cows that have not been treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. The result is a wonderfully smooth natural whey protein.
The amino acid profile of this Organic Whey is kept pure and undamaged during gentle processing. This organic grass fed whey protein is a whole, bioavailable protein that's easily digested and absorbed, allowing you to recover as quickly as possible.
Image courtesy MRM Nutrition
The advantages of consuming egg white protein powder are numerous: it's tasty and delicious, promotes healthy muscle maintenance in a vanilla protein powder, is hormone-free, antibacterial-free, cholesterol-free, and has less than a gram of fat.
Egg protein has the highest biological value because of its combination of essential amino acids and sulfur-containing proteins. Egg whites are also high in protein—this powder has 23 grams per serving!
Sip on this nutritious drink. A 1-cup serving of Hemp Protein has 22 grams of clean, organic plant protein with 44 superfoods, such as grass juices, fruits and vegetables, and fiber to keep you full for hours.
This muscle-building, energy-boosting meal replacement has everything you'll need to help you gain muscle and have more energy. It is free of the 8 most common allergens.
Image courtesy RSP
Avocado Oil and Collagen is a unique, Keto-friendly collagen supplement made with premium hydrolyzed collagen peptides and nutrient-dense avocado oil. These substances help to promote healthy skin, hair, and nails while also supporting strong bones and joints.
Image courtesy Quest
The scoop contains 23 g protein, less than 1 g net carbs, and 0 g sugar.
This Quest Multipurpose Mix Protein Powder is made up of 60% fast absorbing Whey Protein Isolate and 40% slow absorbing Micellar Casein, which is ideal for your workout.
Image courtesy Ancient Nutrition
The Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth Protein has a high protein percentage of 97 percent, as well as 20 grams of protein per serving. The mix also includes hydrolyzed collagen, which will benefit your gut and skin. The powder is made with natural ingredients.
This powder has over 6,000 positive comments on Amazon and you don't have to settle for the usual vanilla taste. It's also available in chocolate and turmeric. If you want it unsweetened then you can have that option as well.
Image courtesy Isopure
It's jam-packed with 100% pure whey protein isolate, which is nothing but high-quality protein. Because extra fat, cholesterol, sugars, carbohydrates, lactose and other fillers are removed to provide all you need and none of what you don't want (whey protein isolate), it's ideal for anybody wanting to lose weight.
Each serving has 5.5 grams of BCAAs, 4 grams of glutamine, 75 mcg biotin, and immune support from Vitamin A, C, E, and Zinc to help you fulfill your micronutrient requirements.
Is it OK to drink protein shakes without working out?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Some people may be able to get away with drinking protein shakes without working out and still see results, while others may need to make sure they're getting regular exercise in order to maximize the benefits of their protein shakes.
Ultimately, it's up to each individual to decide whether or not they want to work out in order to drink protein shakes. Some people may find that they enjoy the taste of protein shakes and don't mind drinking them even if they're not working out, while others may only want to drink them as a post-workout recovery drink.
Protein shakes can be a convenient and delicious way to help reach your fitness goals, but they are not necessary for everyone. It's important to listen to your body and do what works best for you.
Do you need to drink protein shakes?
Protein shakes are not a necessity, but they can be a helpful tool for some people. If you're struggling to meet your protein needs through diet alone, protein shakes can be a convenient way to boost your intake. They can also be helpful for people who are trying to build muscle or lose weight.
Protein shakes are not magic bullets, however. If you're not eating a balanced diet and getting enough exercise, protein shakes will not make up for these deficiencies. It's important to remember that diet and exercise are still the most important factors when it comes to achieving your fitness goals.
If you're considering adding protein shakes to your routine, be sure to speak with a registered dietitian or certified personal trainer first. They can help you create a plan that fits your individual needs and goals.
How do I start taking protein?
To start taking protein, you should first consult with a doctor to make sure that it is the right supplement for you. After getting the all clear from your physician, you can then start looking for a protein powder that fits your taste and dietary needs.
There are many different types of protein powders on the market, so be sure to do your research before making a purchase. Once you've found the perfect protein powder for you, be sure to follow the instructions on the label and take it as directed.
There are many factors to consider when choosing a protein powder, such as taste, price, and quality. Here are more factors to consider before buying the best tasting protein powders in 2022:
High in Protein
Use a product that has at least 20 grams of protein per dose.
Low in Carbohydrates
Protein supplements are often high in carbohydrates and fructose, which is a type of sugar. If you want to gain muscle, choose a protein powder with 5 grams or less of sugar per serving.
High in Quality
Look for a face powder that is made of high-quality components and has been third-party tested for purity.
Now that we've shared information about protein powders, and featured the 25 best tasting protein powders in 2022 it's time for you to evaluate the options and determine which one you'll buy.
Consider the type of protein powder you want, the flavor, and whether or not you want additional ingredients. This will ensure you're able to choose the option above based on your current needs.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Hollyn: bye sad girl	Featured
Our girl announced a new 6-song EP and we are so excited! Leading up to the release in September, a new song will be available each month. You can watch the first video below:
Hollyn says: "bye, sad girl." is a deep part of my story. The project is told over the course of six songs, woven together, to portray the emotions of what it looks like to have a broken heart. As the story unfolds, it doesn't end with grief, but shows the beginning of joy. The lyrics paint the picture of embracing the death of something, and in the letting go, finding yourself again."
hi, welcome to story #1. "i feel bad for you" tomorrow ? 5.3.19
A post shared by hollyn (@iamhollyn) on May 2, 2019 at 9:25am PDT
More in this category: « It's New Zealand Music Month! Strahan's New Album Is Here! »


Offering traditional Australian outback hospitality with your choice of 3 ½ star Hotel or 2 star Lodge accommodation. From comfortable, affordable hotel rooms and budget cabins to dormitories. This hotel is perfect for the demands of travellers looking for quality service in relaxed surrounds.
This is a place where friendships are made and good times are had by all. Taste Australia's pioneering past, as you enjoy a beer and some outback delights at the do-it-yourself Outback BBQ, swap stories of your day's adventures, or sing along with the nightly entertainment. Alternatively, opt for the peace and quiet of the Bough House Restaurant with a gourmet buffet dinner.
24Hr Reception, Baby sitting service, Disabled facilities, Laundry Facilities, Non-smoking Rooms, Outdoor swimming pool, Tennis court, Room service, Onsite Restaraunt.


For those of us who have become a mum, we'll remember those simple days BC (before child) when we might have felt completely clear about our personal style – organised? Relaxed? Go with the flow? Neat freak? Messy? Social? Private?
And for those of us mums out there, it seems there is so much pressure to live up to some unattainable 'perfect mother' image that makes us feel completely overwhelmed and our personal style seems more of a hindrance than helpful. For instance, being a neat freak can mean you feel completely frustrated if (when) you get behind with laundry and tidying. This creates more stress as you find yourself focussing on things that need doing instead of enjoying your baby. Or, if you are naturally really social, being at home alone with a high needs baby is very isolating and you can feel quite depressed – childless friends don't understand that you can't just dump your baby and spontaneously go for a drink, or that you are too tired to sit up late talking to them if they visit.
Instead of falling prey to your images of 'perfect mummy' and focussing on the negatives, try looking at how your personal style can be integrated into your mothering style – and why this is a good thing, whatever your personality. For instance, being organised will help you to have a sense of order and reduces frustration about whether you will eat tonight; being relaxed and 'go with the flow' makes it easier to respond to your baby without feeling stressed about the unpredictability of his needs; being social means you feel confident about meeting a whole new group of people through baby classes and activities; and being private means you can cope well with being at home alone with your baby.
Whatever your personality or personal style, it's helpful to be clear about what's important to you, because if you deny parts of yourself or try to force yourself to be somebody that you naturally aren't, you will feel resentment and your child will sense this. However, when you work out your mothering style on your terms, you will be able to eliminate stress and guilt and enjoy being a mother. You will also be able to nurture with awareness, knowing where you can make 'shifts' and compromises that feel comfortable to you.
For instance, if you feel out of control when you don't have a routine, you will probably find the unpredictability of life with a baby has you feeling overwhelmed. And yet, a strict routine can also have you feeling like a failure when you can't meet your self -imposed deadlines because your baby won't fit into the schedule. One way to manage this is to break your day into early morning, late morning, early afternoon , late afternoon and work your tasks around your baby's needs. It can help to create a daily rhythm, a weekly rhythm and a monthly rhythm.
If you are less organised and find yourself overwhelmed by chaos because it just isn't in you to plan ahead, this kind of gentle planning can help you too. If things are absolutely crazy, try to list the things you do need done to help you feel a sense of order and delegate – either pay for help or ask for it.
It can also help to try and think what you enjoyed before you had a baby – when were you happiest? Was it when you completed a really challenging task and you 'nailed it'? Or was it when you were enjoying great social or leisure moments? How you can integrate some of this fun into your new mummy life – reading, studying, exercise, sport, music, meeting new friends, a class with your baby, volunteer work, returning to paid work, but on your terms?
Consider what can you do with a baby in tow. What do you really need right now? How can you manage some of these things around your baby? And, where can you find support to make these things happen?
As you work out your own authentic mothering style, be kind to yourself and remember the old saying, 'if mama ain't happy, nobody ain't happy'. Take care not to add pressure by putting too many things on your 'to do' list, ditch your images of 'perfect mummy' (whatever these are - she is a myth anyway), relax and be the mother you want to be, your way.
Pinky McKay is an Internationally Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and best-selling baby-care author of Sleeping Like a Baby, Parenting by Heart and Toddler Tactics. Check out her website.


Please note the Summer Camp is now full. Anyone wishing to be placed on the waiting list in case of cancellations please contact tkdsummercamp@gmail.com asap. Any instructor that wishes to attend the camp on a non-residential basis to train for one of the days please contact us to let us know which day you wish to attend as we need to supply a full list of attendees to the venue asap.
This years Summer Camp takes place in Newtown School, Waterford City from July 11th to 14th. The camp is open to students aged 10+, yellow belt and above. This years special guest is one of the all time greats of competitive ITF Taekwon-Do, Sabum Tomaz Barada from Slovenia. Participants on the camp will be divided into 2 groups based on age and experience. Participants will have several classes per day with both Sabum Barada and several of Irelands top instructors and will train in all disciplines of ITF Taekwon-Do. All accommodation is on-site with separate dorms for male and female, all meals will also be served on-site. The venue also includes a swimming pool which will be available each day and which is fully supervised by qualified lifeguards. The numbers on the camp are limited so please send advance registration to tkdsummercamp@gmail.com to secure your place.


Edward Solomon Antar (Registration# 4947404) is an attorney registered with New York State, Office of Court Administration. The admitted year is 2011. The next registration is in Apr 2021.
Edward Solomon Antar is an attorney admitted to practice in New York State in 2011. The registration number with NYS Office of Court Administration (OCA) is #4947404. The company or organization that Edward Solomon Antar serves is Antar Law Firm, Pllc. The office address is 26 Court St Ste 1200, Brooklyn, NY 11242-1112. The phone number is (212) 388-0900. The law school graduated is Thomas M. Cooley.
Please comment or provide details below to improve the information on Edward Solomon Antar.


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Poll: What Should Happen With the Former Confederate Statue Space in Old Town?
Vernon Miles June 3, 2020 at 4:30pm
After years of controversy and discussion, the Appomattox statue in the Prince and S. Washington Street was removed earlier this week by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, but the base of the statue remains at the intersection.
New state legislation authorizing its removal by the city, and years of petitioning by the city to do just that, mean the statue is unlikely to return. What will happen next to the space where the statue was is unclear.
Some on social media suggested the statue should be replaced with a local civil rights leader, a method that has been done in other localities to celebrate black leadership in America and as a rebuke to the Confederacy's inextricable ties to slavery. Suggested replacements included Samuel Tucker, a local civil rights leader who helped orchestrate one of the first sit-in strikes of the movement.
Beyond just the concerns about racial injustice, though, the statue was also widely considered a traffic hazard. The statue was hit a few times, including one incident in December.
Staff photo by James Cullum
BREAKING: Old Town Confederate Statue Removed
Vernon Miles June 2, 2020 at 8:50am
(Updated 10:40 a.m.) This morning (Tuesday) a construction crane at the intersection of Prince and Washington Streets took down the Appomattox statue honoring Confederate soldiers that has been the object of criticism and controversy for decades.
The statue had been the object of criticism from those who said it represented a celebration of the city's legacy of racism and slavery. For years, a state law prohibited the moving or removal of monuments to veterans, which grouped in specifically monuments honoring the Confederacy, but in April Gov. Ralph Northam signed new legislation authorizing localities to remove statues honoring the Confederacy.
"Some said this day would never come," City Councilman John Chapman, who also runs the Manumission Tour Company covering the city's black history, said on Facebook. "The confederate statue Appomattox is starting to be taken down. We, our community made this happen. I got the receipts to show it."
Mayor Justin Wilson said he had no idea what happens to the statue now, saying the United Daughters of Confederacy (UDC) — which owns the statue — were the ones who took it down rather than have the city remove it.
The move comes amid nationwide protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of Minneapolis man George Floyd's death. The UDC building in Richmond was recently targeted in protests on Sunday (May 31) which also vandalized Confederate Statues across the former capital of the Confederacy.
"This has been a policy for several years, and there were folks in the community pursuing this for decades," Wilson said. "For us, the effort is more than just a statue, it's making sure that we tell the broader scope of our history. For so long, the reaction to this statue has been… that we've only told a narrow portion of our history."
Wilson said the removal of the monument is part of a larger effort to tell the more inclusive history of the city, which includes the acquisition of the Freedom House and the city's participation in the Equal Justice Initiative, which memorializes victims of lynchings.
William "Bill" Euille, who was the first African-American mayor in Alexandria, protested against the statue when he was a student at T.C. Williams high school in the 1960s and helped lead discussions in 2015 that led to the city officially calling for the statue's removal.
"More than 50 years ago, four high schools came together with religious and community leaders and marched on the statue in protest demanding its removal, and then we went to City Hall to lobby City Council," Euille said. "Unfortunately, we were not successful, however, the call has continued through all these many years. It's about persistence and preservation, and in the midst of racial protests and riots across America, we can now rejoice in victory and inclusiveness. Many thanks to city leaders."
Photo via Justin Wilson/Twitter
Governor's Order Authorizes Alexandria to Remove Confederate Statue
Vernon Miles April 13, 2020 at 5:15pm
Once again, the Confederacy has been handed a defeat in Richmond that sends ripples up to Alexandria.
Alexandria has debated and put plans in place for the Appomattox statue at the intersection of Prince and S. Washington Streets for years, but state law stood in the way of actually making any progress toward removing it.
On Saturday, Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill that authorizing localities to remove or alter Confederate monuments, overturning the earlier state prohibition.
The Appomattox statue is owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and commemorates the Alexandrians who left the Union-occupied city from that spot to join the Confederacy. This May 24 marks the 131st anniversary of the statue in Alexandria.
In 2016, the City Council unanimously approved not only recommending that the statue be moved the nearby grassy lot outside the Lyceum, but began advocating the state authorization to do so. Those petitions fell on deaf ears until last November when Democrats took control of the Virginia legislature and breathed new life into the city's ambitions to eliminate Confederate memorials and iconography.
A driver nearly accomplished the city's goals in December: crashing into the statue and fracturing its base, but the statue was subsequently repaired.
"It has been the policy of the city for several years now to pursue movement of the statue out of the middle of Washington Street," Mayor Justin Wilson said. "We have had dialogue with the Daughters of the Confederacy over the past few months and with the enactment of this legislation, we would now work to realize city policy."
Former Alexandria Mayor William "Bill" Euille got his start protesting against the statue while he was a student at T.C. Williams High School and applauded Northam's decision.
"I applaud the governor's action to allow local governments to make the proper decisions on the relocation and removal or placement of Confederate monuments, which is long overdue, but provides an opportunity to correct racial injustice while allowing for inclusiveness in telling a more complete story," Euille said. "Alexandria has already studied this matter and a citizens panel has made recommendations to the City Council on how to move forward in fairness while protecting our history."
Staff photo by Jay Westcott
Defeat Nears for the Last Confederate in Alexandria
Vernon Miles February 12, 2020 at 10:30am
With both the Virginia House and Senate approving legislation to allow localities to remove Confederate statues, it would seem the Appomattox statue's days are numbered.
The statue sits in the center of the intersection of S. Washington Street and Prince Street, where it's been occasionally struck by cars.
The city has been working to remove the statue for years — former Mayor Bill Euille got his start in Alexandria politics in the 1960s protesting the statue — but a Virginia law says memorials to war veterans could not be removed.
Legislation approved yesterday (Tuesday) in the Virginia Senate, with Democrats now firmly in control in Richmond, authorized localities to "remove, relocate, contextualize, cover or alter" monuments in public spaces.
If the legislation becomes law, Mayor Justin Wilson says the statue will be removed.
"In 2016, Council voted unanimously to remove the monument out of the middle of Washington Street," said Wilson. "That's the existing city policy. If the legislation passes and it's signed by the governor, then we would work to execute that council policy."
Wilson also said that the council will have to work with the Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns the monument, on a new location, like a city museum.
Some Alexandrians had alternative destinations in mind.
I suggest we offer Alexandria's statue to the Museum of the Bottom of the Potomac https://t.co/hAZLQUyPpE
— Andrew Beaujon (@abeaujon) February 11, 2020
The statue has a complicated history. It was built in 1889 to honor "the Seventeenth Virginia regiment who yielded their lives during the four years' of civil war" according to the Alexandria Gazette's reporting at the dedication. The location in the center of Prince Street marks the spot where several Alexandrians met to leave the Union-occupied city and join the Confederate army.
Rev. G. H. Norton, a chaplain who served in the Confederate camp, said at the time of the dedication that he hoped the statue would mark the end of the strife wrought by the war.
James Cullum contributed to this story. Staff photo by Jay Westcott.
ALXnow.com December 19, 2019 at 8:00am
Water Skiing Santa to Return — "A little cold weather doesn't stop one of Alexandria's Christmas traditions: a waterskiing show on the waterfront. Santa and his helpers will return for the 34th year at 1 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 24." [Patch]
Alexandria Sets Holiday Closures — "All City government offices, libraries and recreation centers will be closed Dec 24 and 25. Regular trash/recycling collection on Dec 24, but not on Dec 25. Collection normally scheduled for Dec 25-26 will be delayed by one day." [City of Alexandria, Twitter]
Residents Weigh in on Appomattox Statue — "People in Alexandria have long discussed what to do with a Confederate statue standing smack in the middle of an Old Town intersection. Over the weekend, a driver crashed into the statue, knocking it off its axis. Some residents are worried it's a safety hazard." [NBC 4]
Environmentally-Friendly Local Gift Guide — "This week, we are featuring environmentally responsible gifts available around Alexandria… With so many green gift options at your fingertips, there is no reason not to take advantage of them. After all, it is the only way to ensure future generations have an abundance of Christmas trees and don't see Frosty melt away for good." [Alexandria Times]
Future of Controversial Confederate Statue Unclear After Latest Crash
Vernon Miles December 16, 2019 at 4:25pm
"Appomattox," the Confederate statue at Washington St. and Prince St. in Old Town, after being hit by a car over the weekend (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A driver in Alexandria may have inadvertently contributed to a long-running fight to get the Appomattox statue commemorating Confederate soldiers removed from its pedestal.
Someone crashed into the statue at the intersection of S. Washington Street and Prince Street this weekend, Alexandria police confirmed to ALXnow.
"The statue was damaged by a vehicle at approximately 2 a.m. Saturday morning," said APD spokesman Lt. Courtney Ballantine via email. "The Daughters of the Confederacy (owners) were notified and will make any necessary repairs."
The base of the statue is cracked, with the statue itself now unevenly aligned, photos show. It is not the first time the statue has been damaged by a car — in 1988, a crash completely toppled the statue.
The statue was installed in 1889, during a time when streets throughout the South were renamed after Confederate leaders and statues were installed as a campaign of oppression against black residents. The statue was meant to symbolize a burial of hatred and conflicts from the Civil War, according to Alexandria Gazette articles from the time, but things didn't really turn out that way.
Across several mayors and city councils, Alexandria has repeatedly expressed its desire to have the statue taken down, but a law passed by the state legislature in 1998 prohibits local governments from altering monuments to wars and veterans. Any movement of the statue would require the support of the statue's owners, the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Mayor Justin Wilson said the weekend's crash does not impact the state law governing the city's inability to remove it.
"That being said, our staff is assessing the safety of the statue and conferring with the Daughters of the Confederacy as to next steps," Wilson said.
Hat tip to Drew Hansen
Alexandria Among Most Festive Xmas Cities — Thanks in part of the Scottish Christmas Walk Parade and the annual boat parade, Alexandria has made Wall Street 24/7's list of the Most Festive Christmas Cities in the U.S. [24/7 Wall Street]
City Warns of PCP Overdoses — "The City of Alexandria has responded to eight overdoses related to suspected phencyclidine (PCP) use in the past two months, one of which was fatal. City officials are concerned about the potency and deadly nature of the PCP being distributed and used in the region." [City of Alexandria]
Confederate Statue Struck — "The Appomattox statue in Old Town commemorating Alexandria's Confederate troops was struck by a vehicle last night. Its base looks like it was moved quite a bit by the impact." [Twitter/@Drubaru]
Local Doctor Honored — "For Dr. Jennifer Lightfoot of Alexandria, hearing loss hasn't held her back. In fact, it shaped her life's work and recently won her a 2019 Oticon Focus on People Award… Winning the award in the practitioner category solidified the belief in her work with hearing impaired children." [Patch]


Buffalo Cookware just opened a new retail store at Glen Waverley, Melbourne. We're excited to be working with them to craft a digital presence to increase walk-ins to their store. Stay tune for more information about the upcoming campaigns.


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Fashion from The Movies
Creating a look that lasts is difficult, but creating an on-screen look that is timeless is even harder. From sci-fi to crime, every genre has had its influence on the way we dress. Menswear trends have lived and died as a result of movie magic. To explore how fashion in the films we love has influenced everyday trends, Noose & Monkey – retailer of cutting-edge prom suits – take us through the greatest and best looks.
Gangster grooming
The Godfather is a modern epic and a timeless classic. Al Pacino's leading role as Michael Corleone sees a young man transformed into one of the coolest gangsters to ever grace the screen – and his dress sense reflects this.
To distance himself from the mob he was born into, the protagonist's clothes symbolise his personal distance from the family. As he progresses in his position within the criminal underworld, Michael begins to clothe himself in dark, expensive three piece suits that signify power. Michael (and his father Vito) also wear long double-breasted wool overcoats and dark Homburg hats in the films, with clear mobster connotations. Even when he dresses down, Michael is generally wearing a button-down shirt, smart waistcoat and tailored trousers.
How to get the look: The clothes are one thing, but the attitude is the one thing that you really need. While you won't get away with the outlandish thick pinstripes on show in some scenes, opting for a black three-piece suit and using a small amount of product to slick your hair down will give you access to a powerful look – like Michael Corleone, you'll need to own it. Noose & Monkey have a range of prom suits that will make sure you look the part for any role that you're playing.
Dressing for power – American Psycho
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman terrified audiences in this slash thriller! As a portrayal of a man obsessed with male grooming, this was a terrifying example of the 'metrosexual' movement that included ice packs, facial masks and exhaustive workout routines to enhance a man's vanity.
Consisting of 80s exuberance – Bateman reeks of success and business-sense, with a sinister edge to match. His main style consists of pinstriped suits, collared shirts, suspenders and trousers with geometric patterned ties. He also dons a double-breasted jacket on a few occasions, showing true style.
How to define what is cool – The Great Escape
Now, we tell you why Steve McQueen is the king of cool. His fashion sense has long encapsulated American style. The leather bomber jacket worn by McQueen in The Great Escape has set a trend in worn-in workwear that persists to this day. A pair of khakis, jumper, service boots and his jacket were all it took to make Captain Virgil Hilts a modern day sensation. Even in later films like Bullitt, McQueen was still setting trends in turtlenecks and casual style.
Bringing the future and the past together – Blade Runner
As one of the most iconic films ever to be made, Blade Runner is a classic. Unlike other efforts in that genre, the costume designers avoided tropes like latex body suits and jumpsuits, instead opting for a mixture of punk, Japanese and 1940s styling to create a unique noir look.
The women in the film often take centre stage; with outlandish dresses, puffed out shoulders and modern fittings, they encapsulate the future of fashion. However, it's Harrison Ford's Deckard that shows men a thing or two about what and what not to wear. He sports a long trench coat over a modernist-patterned shirt and tie with tan trousers – kindling a detective look.
Business is business – There Will Be Blood
In There Will Be Blood, Daniel Day Lewis' character defines the cut-throat nature of business, but he is also a man conscious of love, family, ambition and death. Daniel Plainview, portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis, is a man for whom success is everything – and he's willing to do whatever it takes.
Without compromise, the oil-tycoon wears suits more often than any other character on screen. Styling a wool three piece over a simple white shirt and red tie, Plainview's power is completed by a stiff-brimmed hat. He begins the film, however, in work garb as a prospector and then his subsequent outfits become more 'professional' until culminating in the iconic dark wool three piece with pocket watch and tan hat. Signifying power in style, Plainview wears tailored clothing in a time where few others could afford it.
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