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HomeEntertainmentOscars: Only diverse films will be considered for best picture
Oscars: Only diverse films will be considered for best picture
September 9, 2020 wpworker Entertainment 0
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Cynthia Erivo and Eva Longoria are among the 819 new people invited to vote for the Oscars
Films hoping to compete for the best picture Oscar will have to meet certain criteria over diversity, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says.
The Academy set out four "standards" which it hopes will boost representation and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera.
For the 96th Oscars, in 2025, only films that have met at least two of the standards will qualify for the award.
The Oscars have been criticised for their lack of diversity.
The failure to nominate black or minority actors in 2016 led to a furious backlash, with film stars boycotting the ceremony and the growth of the #OscarsSoWhite movement.
It led to a promise from the Academy to double its female and Bame members by 2020.
The Academy recently invited 819 new members to vote for this year's Oscars, of whom 45% are women and 36% are non-white, and says it has now doubled the number of women members and tripled the number of people from under-represented ethnic and racial communities.
'Catalyst for long-lasting, essential change'
In its latest announcement, the Academy said it was introducing eligibility requirements for the best picture award "to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience".
Media captionWhat's happened since the the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2015
It lists in detail the underrepresented groups – which include women, racial and ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities.
It lays out the following areas where such groups need to be involved:
On-screen acting and storylines, "including at least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group"
Creative leadership positions, departmental heads and crew composition
Paid apprenticeships, internships and training
Audience development, from publicity and marketing to distribution
These detailed requirements will only apply to films made in 2024 for the awards ceremony in 2025, and beyond. Until then, films from 2021 will be required to submit an Academy Inclusion Standards form.
"The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them," Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a joint statement.
"The Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality. We believe these inclusion standards will be a catalyst for long-lasting, essential change in our industry."
Bafta, the Academy's British equivalent, welcomed its US counterpart's initiative, having introduced similar measures in 2016.
"We are delighted that the Academy has today announced its new representation and inclusion standards," said Marc Samuelson, chair of Bafta's film committee.
Joaquin Phoenix referred to "systemic racism" as he accepted his best actor Bafta in February
"Bafta introduced very similar standards in conjunction with the BFI [British Film Institute] for the Outstanding British Film and Outstanding British Debut categories in 2016 and we continue to review and expand these standards every year."
'Clear message to people of colour'
In 2016 Bafta announced that, from 2019 onwards, films would only be eligible for those two awards if they met diversity criteria.
Earlier this year, however, Bafta found itself embroiled in its own diversity row after unveiling an all-white line-up for its film acting awards.
Best actor winner Joaquin Phoenix made a pointed reference to this disparity when he accepted his trophy in February, accusing the film industry of "send[ing] a very clear message to people of colour that you're not welcome here".
After this year's nominations were announced, Mr Samuelson admitted there had been an "infuriating lack of diversity" in the four acting categories and promised there would be a "careful and detailed review" of the organisation's acting system.
Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
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Q: Generating function for an Arithmetic mean I want to find out, how many ways I can produce an average 4.6 of 13 numbers, when I have only numbers {1,2,3,4,5}.
I thought, that it could be done by generating functions, but since my knowledge on them isn't very deep yet, I'm a little lost. Also I have a hard time dealing with the average not being integer.

A: 13 numbers with average 4.6 would need to add up to 59.8; so you can't get
that by choosing from the set of integers ${1,2,3,4,5}$. If you had solvable instance of this problem, for instance, 15 numbers with an average of 4.6, you would then be asking for the number of ways of choosing 15 numbers from ${1,2,3,4,5}$ with a sum of 69. A question like that can be answered by looking at the generating function $$F(x,t)\equiv\frac{1}{(1-tx)(1-tx^2)(1-tx^3)(1-tx^4)(1-tx^5)}$$ where the coefficient of the term $t^{15}x^{69}$ would be the answer you are looking for: $$ {\rm{number \; of \; ways}} = \left. \frac{1}{15!69!} \frac{\partial^{84} F}{\partial x^{69} \partial t^{15}}\right|_{x=0,t=0}$$

A: If you are adding 13 numbers and the average is $4.6$, this is equivalent to their sum being $4.6\times 13$. Unfortunately, that gives $59.8$, which is impossible to achieve if your original numbers were all integers. Which suggests (to me, at least) that you are in fact approximating the average, and that the actual average you want is $\frac{60}{13} = 4.615384615\ldots$
So, you want to know how many ways you can obtain $60$ as a sum of exactly $13$ integers, all taken from ${1,2,3,4,5}$. This is equivalent to counting the number of $5$-partitions of $60$ of length exactly $13$.
It can probably be done with generating functions, but here you can do it from first principles.
Note that the maximum sum you can possibly get with $13$ numbers taken from ${1,2,3,4,5}$ is $65$. So the partitions you want are in 1-to-1 correspondence with the partitions of $5$ other than the trivial one ($5=5$).
For instance, the partition $5=1+4$ gives the partition $60 = 11(5) + 4 + 1$ (subtract $1$ from one summand, $4$ from another summand). The partition $5=2+3$ yields the partition $60=11(5) + 3 + 2$. Etc. So you have:
\begin{align*}
5 &= 1+4  &\qquad 60 &= 11(5) + 4 + 1;\\
5 &= 2+3  &\qquad 60 &= 11(5) + 3 + 2;\\
5 &= 1+1+3 &\qquad 60 &= 10(5) + 4 + 4 + 2;\\
5 &= 1+2+2 &\qquad 60 &= 10(5) + 4 + 3 + 3;\\
5 &= 1+1+1+2 &\qquad 60&= 9(5) + 4 + 4 + 4 + 3;\\
5 &= 1+1+1+1+1 &\qquad 60&= 8(5) + 4 + 4 +4 + 4 + 4;
\end{align*}
where $60 = k(5) +\cdots$ means that you take the number $5$ $k$ times, and then the other numbers.
So there are exactly $6$ ways of doing it.

A: The mean, which is what we usually are talking about when we say average, is the sum of the numbers divided by how many there are.  So the mean of 4 and 5 is (4+5)/2=4.5  Getting a fractional mean from integer numbers is no surprise, as in this case.  However, the sum must have been an integer, so you cannot average 13 integers and get a mean of 4.6 because the sum would have to be 4.6*13=59.8  So either you have to be rounding or you have to accept sets smaller than 13.  For example, you could have {4,4,5,5,5} with a total of 23 and a mean of 4.6
To do this with generating functions, you can observe that the only way to get a mean of 4.6 is with a sum of 23 and five numbers or a sum of 46 and 10 numbers.  For 23 from 5 numbers in {1,2,3,4,5} the generating function is (x+x^2+x^3+x^4+x^5)^5 and take the coefficient of the x^23 term.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


We all know that some celebrities (like Kristen Bell and Eva Mendes) are notoriously private about their births and their babies. But turns out that Blake Lively is also a super secret baby news keeper (in addition to being a super secret wedding news keeper).
Tamblyn, one of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars Lively stayed in touch with, didn't know that Lively had given birth -- until after meeting the baby in a surprising way. The "Two-and-a-Half Men" actress recently shared with People, "She tricked me! She was texting me about wallpaper, she was like, 'You gotta come see my new wallpaper,' and I went up there, and there was her baby."
Tamblyn laughed that everyone knew except for her but holds no grudges. She's now an auntie and godmother to the baby, and did her duty by gushing appropriately -- while still keeping details about the baby under wraps.


Great and fascinating interview Sean and Mark.
Thank you Mary! So what is next, hmm, maybe I can interview a ghost hunter….
And there we were under the impression that a vampirologist has just been interviewed by Mark.
"British Occult Society", I was under the impression that your group ceased in 1988, but here you are.
Bishop Seán Manchester has often been captioned on television down the years as "vampirologist and exorcist" and is widely acknowledged (as Mark has already stated) as one of Britain's foremost authorities on demonology and vampirology. He has written books on the topic of vampires and vampirism, and his vampirological guide "The Vampire Hunter's Handbook" is pictured above.
The British Occult Society was an investigation bureau based in Britain from the mid-nineteenth century until August 1988 when it was formally dissolved. A small number of ex-members survive and occasionally work together on specialised projects. Sometimes these projects involve the final President of the British Occult Society who, of course, was Bishop Seán Manchester. This remnant of ex-members continue to operate under the name of the British Occult Society, but do not invite or accept new members. Thus it is not a revival of the old organisation, but rather a dwindling fragment of experts who stay in touch.
The British Occult Society, however, gave birth to the Vampire Research Society (founded 2 February 1970 by Bishop Seán Manchester) which organisation remains extant. Membership is by invitation only.
The International Secretary of the Vampire Research Society has a blog called "The Vampirologist" and blogs under the name "Vampirologist." He also runs a blog under the title of the Vampire Research Society.
An excellent interview. Great questions. Great answers. Fascinating throughout.
Bishop Seán Manchester (President of the BOS from 21 June 1967 to 8 August 1988) places emphasis on investigating the claims of the occult and the study and research of paranormal phenomena. Out of this history sprang the Vampire Research Society (formerly a specialist unit within the BOS), that was founded by Bishop Seán Manchester who made his television debut on 13 March 1970.
His reference to a blog called "The Vampirologist" is actually a rip-off of my own.


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Participants can expect to gain a working knowledge of the contents of Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference on Medicines Complete and the functionality of interface. Also you will learn efficient ways of locating information within this comprehensive resource.


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Bank workers strike against merit pay system
Participation rate lower than expected, banking operation seen as usual
Published : Sept 23, 2016 - 19:23 Updated : Sept 23, 2016 - 19:24
Unionized bank employees staged an industry-wide strike Friday to protest against a plan to introduce a performance-based salary system.
Banking sources said fewer than expected bank workers took part in the protest, leading to no major disruptions of banking operations nationwide.
According to an estimate by the Financial Supervisory Service, as of noon, about 18,000 to 20,000 members of the Korean Financial Industry Union gathered at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Sangam-dong, Seoul, in protest against the government-led expansion of the performance-based salary system.
However, the labor union claimed about 65,000 members were present as of 1 p.m.
Unionized bank workers stage an industry-wide strike at the World Cup Stadium in Sangam, Seoul, Friday. (Yonhap)
The KFIU earlier warned financial authorities that as many as 100,000 members from all commercial banks across the country were going to participate in the strike, the third of its kind, and threatened that as many as 10,000 brick-and-mortar bank branches would be paralyzed.
The banking industry held similar strikes in September 2014 and July 2000.
The FSS estimated that about 15 percent of the total workforce of the banking industry appeared at the stadium, and less than 3 percent of the total employees at four major banks – KEB Hana Bank, Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and Woori Bank – did so.
Those banks have prepared contingency plans against workforce shortages, but none of them have been implemented yet.
"In my personal opinion, it won't be easy to take part in the strike considering the reality as a banker, even though I am a member of the trade union," said a senior manager at a major commercial bank anonymously.
"I was going to participate, but decided to come to work due to my personal beliefs," said a head of private banking team at another bank, who also declined to be named. "There seems no bond of sympathy about the latest strike."
State-run Industrial Bank of Korea and NH Nonghyup Bank showed higher participation ratios than the other banks.
According to IBK, about 3,500 or 37 percent of its employees were estimated to have joined the walkout.
The KFIU urged the government to scrap its plan to establish performance-based pay, calling it a "dismissal salary system."
"We can never accept the forced system by the government," said Kim Moon-ho, leader of the KFIU before the members. "Rushing to introduce the new salary system without objective evaluation standards will lead to easy layoffs by banks. We will continue fighting against it by holding second and third rounds of strike."
Most commercial banks have already adopted the system in response to a government initiative to reform the financial industry, but the adoption was limited to executives and branch managers. The remaining employees are still subject to a seniority-based salary system that does not take differences in performance into account.
The government urged the banks to expand the system stating with state-owned financial institutions earlier this year. In July, the Korean Federation of Banks provided enhanced guidelines for the performance-based salary system for private commercial banks, which will widen the difference between the salaries of the top performers and worst performers to 40 percent.
Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said Wednesday, the latest strike against the performance-based salary system would not win the support of the general public and chastised the trade union for refusing to discuss measures to iron out differences. The authority had expected the participation rate to be low.
By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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NEPDEC
570-207-1540| email@NEPDEC.org
Jobs @ Members
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The Trouble with My Name – A One Man Show
Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 7:30 PM
King's College, Burke Auditorium
Beyond Sexual Harassment, Equity Across the Gender Divide
Simma Lieberman
Webinar: March 21, 2018 from 2:00 PM- 3:30 PM
For access, contact linda@nepdec.org
Background and Purpose:
Accusations and reported incidents of sexual harassment, assault and abuse of power by men over women and, in some cases, over other men, show up in the news every day.
Lawsuits are being filed and reputations are being lost; particularly for those organizations that were warned and took no action, or kept payouts quiet while the offenders were still employed.
Too often the situation is being presented as a "men vs. women" battle. This is unhealthy for organizations and negatively affects people's ability to work together. It doesn't solve the problem.
Requests for anti-sexual harassment training are on the rise as people seek solutions, since many do not know what to do.
While anti-sexual harassment training is important to set boundaries, and prevent certain egregious behaviors, it's not enough. When people have the opportunity to engage in dialogue, hear and understand each other's perspectives, it reduces objectification and promotes gender equity. They are more willing to collaborate and help each other.
This webinar is designed to initiate the conversation that goes beyond sexual harassment laws to engaging in dialogue across gender and find new ways to connect as peers. Harassment is a form of bullying and it takes people across the gender spectrum to prevent it together.
Sexual harassment and the ways in which different types of sexual harassment impact everyone in the workplace (not just targets of harassment)
Why some people don't report harassment or inappropriate behavior
How gender dialogue can break isolation, prevent sexual harassment, promote gender equity and increase collaboration across gender
Ways to support co-workers and push back against inappropriate behavior
How to take actions to go from silent bystander to active ally
During the webinar participants will have opportunities to share their experiences and ask each other questions.
At the end of the webinar people will have time to provide suggested solutions.
Simma Lieberman is internationally known as "The Inclusionist," because she creates inclusive workplaces where employees love to do their best work, and customers love to do business.
Her passion for diversity and its possibilities began in 1963 when she went on the March On Washington. In 1963. She wishes she could say that it was because of hearing Martin Luther King give his "I Have A Dream" speech, but she was too young to remember it. However, she has always remembered what it felt like to be amongst 250,000 people for the first time of all colors, cultures, and ages, rallying and marching together for change.
Later on, she began working with a multi-cultural organization in New York City, where she was trained to facilitate dialogues with diverse racial and ethnic groups, in order to reduce tension, and create effective working relationships.
Her first culture shock was when she moved from the Bronx to Eugene, Oregon, where she was a member of a multicultural global theater group.
Today, Simma works with leaders of organizations who understand that while training in areas of diversity and inclusion is important, sustainable change only occurs when diversity and inclusion are integrated into the business strategy, and are part of the organization's cultural DNA. She strongly believes that implementing good diversity management and developing cultural intelligence are necessary for organizations to stay relevant and competitive in tomorrow's markets.
Her unique ability to view organizations through an inclusion lens also enables Simma to help leaders in organizations uncover employee genius, and leverage their diverse talents and skills at any level.
She has worked with a wide range of organizations that include: Applied Materials, Gulfstream, America Empresarial, Intel, Diageo, Kimpton Hotels, VSP, Boeing, Pillsbury Bakeries and Foodservices, McDonalds, Women's Foodservice Forum, Oracle, Kaiser Permanente, UC Berkeley, and the US Dept. of Transportation.
Simma is a member of two diversity think tanks, a former co-chair of the San Francisco Regional Chapter of Out and Equal, and former board member of the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association. She is the president of the Northern California Chapter of Society for the Advancement of Consulting, and an inductee to the Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame.
Publications that have featured her articles and ideas include The Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Fast Company, The Economist, Forbes, Black MBA, Restaurant Hospitality Magazine, Insight Into Diversity, Working Mother, Cosmopolitan UK, Human Resource Executive, CEO Refresher and CNN.
She is the co-author with George Simons and Kate Berardo, of Putting Diversity to Work, how to successfully lead a diverse workforce, the co-author of The Diversity Calling, Building Diverse Communities One Story at a Time and the author of 110 Ways to Champion Diversity and Build Inclusion and Stress Management for the Motivated, A Workbook For You.
Contact Simma at Simma@Simmalieberman.com or 510-527-0700.
Sixth Annual NEPA Trans Health Conference
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
525 Pine St, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18509
To register or for more information, please go to www.nepatranshealth.com.
The NEPA Trans Health Conference was conceived in 2012 as an educational forum for Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) area health care professionals, their staffs, educators and the general public to learn from the transgender community and from those who treat and support them about the necessary care, respect and understanding of people who are transgender. This is a day-long conference with morning and afternoon sessions to meet the differing needs of those in our community.
Recent Diversity News
2019 NEPDEC Conference
Contact: Brad Kovaleski, Program Director | Administrative Offices: 846 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, PA 18510 | email@NEPDEC.org | (T) 570-207-1540
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The official registration and financial information of The Northeastern Pennsylvania Diversity Education Consortium may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1.800.732.0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.


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Mali is the crown jewel of West Africa – a vast, magnificent country with ancient musical traditions and many of the continent's best loved musicians. From Wasulu songstress Oumou Sangare and the rocking desert blues of Tinariwen, to the acoustic blues of BBC Award winner Bassekou Koyate and the international stars Amadou & Mariam The Rough Guide To The Music Of Mali explores this thriving and evolving musical dynasty
Bassekou Kouyate is one of the best-known ngoni players in the country and has collaborated with myriad musicians worldwide. His album Segu Blue won the best album award in this year's BBC World Music Awards. The release also features a collaboration of two of Mali's greatest musicians, the late Ali Farka Touré (guitar) and Toumani Diabate (kora), recorded using a mobile studio in the Hotel Mandé, on the banks of the River Niger. Son of Ali Farka Touré, Vieux Farka Touré was deeply influenced by the music of his father. At first, his father forbade him to play music — he wanted him to become a soldier instead. But he enrolled at the National Arts Institute in Bamako against his father's wishes, where his talent flourished. Ali Farka's long-awaited approval of his son's chosen path is reflected in the fact that his final recordings are on Vieux's album, this being one of them. Also featuring, Afel Bocoum, a nephew of Ali Farka Touré formed his own group, Alkibar but the collaboration between him and his uncle lasted some thirty years. 'Ali Farka', taken from the 2006 album Niger, is a tribute to the man Afel affectionately called 'the boss'.
Amadou & Mariam met in at the Institute for the Blind in Bamako. Amadou had been a guitarist in Les Ambassadeurs and Mariam was a singer at weddings and traditional festivals. The records they made reached the ears of producer extraordinaire, Manu Chao, in Paris, and impressed Chao offered to produce their next album - Dimanche À Bamako was the result. It has now sold close to 500,000 copies around the world and is still gaining momentum. Les Ambassadeurs Internationales formed in 1971 and rivalled the other major dance band of the time, Super Rail Band du Buffet Hôtel de la Gare. In 1973, in response to Mory Kante joining and taking over as lead singer, Salif Keita left the Super Rail Band and joined Les Ambassadeurs with guitarist Kante Manfila. This created an even greater rivalry between the bands and uproar among his fans. A founder member of Les Ambassadeurs Keletigui Diabate, represented here with his take on 'Summertime', is a master of the Mande balafon (xylophone), one of West Africa's oldest instruments, and he has been a huge contributor to Malian music over more than forty years.
Legendary Oumou Sangare's roots are in the Wasulu region. The Wassoulou style of music draws heavily from ancient traditions and female singers have always been considered its great stars. Oumou's voice is soaring, her stage presence unforgettable, and she is a fearless spokesperson for women's rights. Rokia Trarore, another legendary female artist, belongs to the Bamana ethnic group, which adheres to an endogamous caste system whereby, traditionally, musicians (jeliya) are born into the profession.
Much acclaimed Tinariwen's leader, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, is credited with creating the modern, rock style of Tamashek music. The band formed in 1979 and developed their music in military camps set up in Libya by Colonel Gaddafi to train Tamashek men how to fight. Their track is taken from their 2004 album Amassakoul, which led them to worldwide acclaim.
Also featuring in this compilation are Babani Kone, Habib Koité, Boubacar Trarore, Issa Bagayogo and Kandia Kouyate
BASSEKOU KOUYATE & NGONI BA FEAT ZOUMANA TERETA: Bala
ALI FARKA TOURÉ & TOUMANI DIABATE: Simbo
HABIB KOITÉ & BAMADA: Mali Ba
AMADOU & MARIAM: La Realité
ISSA BAGAYOGO: Kalan Nege
OUMOU SANGARE: Baba
AFEL BOCOUM: Ali Farka
ROKIA TRAORE: Kanan Neni
VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ FEAT ALI FARKA TOURÉ: Tabara
ROKIA TRAORE: San Barana
BABANI KONE: Djeli Baba
LES AMBASSADEURS INTERNATIONALES: Mousso Gnaleden
BOUBACAR DIAGNE: Mouso Teke Soma Ye
TINARAWEN: Arawan
KELETIGUI DIABATE: Summertime In Bamako
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
Ali farka Toure & Toumani Diabate
Habib Koite & Bamada
Omou Sangare
Issa Bagayogo
Rokia Traore
Vieux farka Toure
kandia Kouyate
Babani Kone
les Ambassadeurs Internationales
Broubacar Traore
Keletigui Diabate


Scholastic book club is now online. The January SALE is now on. Save money on books and raise money for Henry's Kindergarten to purchase books too!
We invite you to read as many books from home and from our library here at Henry's with your child. Fill up their reading passport and give each book a star rating out of five to let us know how much your child enjoyed the book.
From Monday 1st to Friday 5th February dress up as your favourite book characters. Please bring in your Reading Log too so we can see what you have enjoyed reading!


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Projecting a single, strong voice for local culture on and off the Sunshine Coast.
Vision - The Coast Cultural Alliance is a network of arts, cultural and heritage groups and individuals working to enhance the economic vitality of the Sunshine Coast through cultural sector development and cultural tourism.
Mission - To encourage and participate in the development of employment and business opportunities for the arts, cultural and heritage sectors on the Sunshine Coast.
Values - In order to maintain the apolitical, nonpartisan and respectful intent of alliance, the Coast Cultural Alliance will be governed by a set of guidelines defined as the Basis for Unity.
Cultural services are an essential component in our community's standard of living and economic well-being. The Coast Cultural Alliance will facilitate and encourage community Arts and Culture involvement and economic development by providing and coordinating cultural opportunities. We seek to encourage and support individuals and organizations to develop their full potential in their chosen endeavors. The Coast Cultural Alliance will represent all segments of our community equally, and without bias.
We seek to support existing services on the Sunshine Coast, and to assist new endeavors.
We provide nonjudgmental support for all the arts and culture on the Sunshine Coast.
We do not get politically involved or take sides in any issues. As an organization we are apolitical and non-partisan.
We do not necessarily represent the values or politics of either our sponsors, members or clients.
We do reserve the right to warn that a work may be offensive to some and the right not to support work that is in contravention of the Canadian Criminal Code.
--can make a unique contribution to the CCA and will be given the opportunity to do so.
-- will endeavour to work cooperatively with each other in furtherance of the CCA's goal of a successful arts economy and strong and healthy arts and culture community.
We will practice cooperative problem-solving, respect for individual differences and mutual support in the day-to-day activities of the CCA.
We understand that as the CCA grows, this Basis For Unity may also grow and change but its importance to the alliance will always remain vital.
The Coast Cultural Alliance was established in 1998 as a non-profit society to enhance the arts and cultural tourism economies of the Sunshine Coast and to project a single, strong voice for local culture. The Alliance includes groups and individuals from the visual, performing, literary, and media arts on the Sunshine Coast.
In order to maintain the apolitical, nonpartisan and respectful intent of alliance, the Coast Cultural Alliance will be governed by a set of guidelines defined as the Basis for Unity.
Whenever possible, all marketing, training, or technical contracts will be linked with Sunshine Coast businesses and members of the Alliance.
In finding commonality of purpose, the Coast Cultural Alliance hopes to provide services more effectively than many individuals and organizations working separately - such savings of energy and monies to be directed back to the artist, performer, or organization.
The Coast Cultural Alliance is a non-profit society working to enhance the economy of the Sunshine Coast through cultural tourism and the arts.
To enhance the arts and cultural tourist economies of the Sunshine Coast.
To project a single, strong voice for local culture.
To encourage communication and cooperation within the Sunshine Coast's visual and performing arts organizations and individuals, various levels of government, funding bodies, businesses and foundations.
To assist artists, performers, and cultural workers to maximize their potential by offering ongoing education in marketing, communications technology, and entrepreneurial skills.
To assist amateur to professional groups and individuals with collective marketing, promotion, and to provide resources for that assistance.
To, whenever possible, utilize Sunshine Coast businesses and members of the Alliance for marketing, training or technical purposes.
To acquire, hold and dispose of any real or personal property in furtherance of the purposes of the society.
To apply for, raise and receive grants, fees, gifts, legacies, devises and bequests and to hold, administer, invest, expend or deal with same in furtherance of the purposes of the Society.
To do all such other acts and things as are conducive to the attainment of the purposes of the Society.
besides creative & social benefits?"
Quality education & lifelong learning opportunities ... to name a few.


What were you up to: hiking and relaxing in a piece of heaven amidst the big city.
This weekend's adventure took us to Minnehaha Park located in Minneapolis along the Mississippi River. What a wonderful time it was! It was the perfect day out, warm but not humid like it had been for the entire week. Even though the park was bustling with people it was still relaxing and peaceful. We took plenty of pictures, went on a leisurely hike, laughed and ended the hike with a refreshing IPA from Rush River Brewing Co., wh0 had a keg trailer set up outside the park restaurant Sea Salt Eatery.
We did not eat at the Sea Salt Eatery in the park but instead chose to find the Birchwood Cafe for a late lunch/ early dinner. What a treat it was! Birchwood, located in a quaint neighborhood, utilizes local farmers and fresh products to make their tasty menu items. I opted for the delectable Tour de France turkey burger which was topped with prosciutto (really the prosciutto sold me on this~ i literally can't pass it up!), grape-rosemary salsa, blue cheese walnut spread, garlic scape mayo and micro greens atop a buttermilk bun. I'm not sure I can even find the words to describe how yummy this was. Not being a food critic, I know I can't, so I will just stick with "yummy, yummy, yummy"! Trust me Birchwood Cafe is a must-try.
View from our patio dining table- bikes!
Right in front of the Birchwood Cafe is one of Minneapolis's Nice Ride bike share stations. Located around the city -in neighborhoods, the college campus area and in the heart of downtown- are stations where one can rent a bicycle to use as a mode of transportation or just to hit the trails. All you need to do is pay a small fee to unlock the bike from its solar powered station and enjoy the ride!
If you had told me a year ago that I would be listening to country music on a daily basis let alone going to country music concerts I may have said "You're crazy." Up until nine months ago, my knowledge of country music came from occasionally listening to some random country station on my way to mom's in Iowa, and trust me, starting about 20 miles south of here to her place there's nothing but country stations. But this weekend I found myself with one of the hottest tickets in town to my first ever knee-slapping-redneck-party. Yee Haw!!
Going to this concert had been on my mind since the tickets went on sale last December. Unfortunately I did not buy tickets of my own at that time, bummer, I know and yes my wallet paid dearly because of this, but it was so worth it! Oh, so any way, I decided on Thursday (yes the day before the concert) to beg and plead with one of my friends to go with me. Really, it didn't take that much begging at all, about two text messages worth and she was in. It took me about 2 seconds to purchase our tix on my phone, ser-i-ous-ly, you can do anything on those things! Tickets in hand, well almost, my excitement could not be contained, I was literally jumping around my place with glee!!
Normally going to a concert of this size means heading to the city early to enjoy the bar scene at Cowboy Jacks or Kieran's Irish Pub and some pre-concert tailgating but this being a spur-of-the-moment-once-in-a -lifetime-blast (the exact words I used when pleading with my friend via text to join me) my friend and I needed to put in half days at work. Bleh! Oh well, eventually we were on our way and not being a part of the pre-redneck-party wasn't going to ruin the fabulously glorious entertaining night ahead of us. Soon enough we would have fruity, summery drinks in hand!
Did I mention I love live music, (I don't think I did) but I do! Always have. There's just something about being part of a crowd listening to a favorite band or musician, singing and grooving along with thousands of other fans, yet at the same time feel as though this is your private show because all the songs "sound like a memory" ( Eric Church Springsteen reference there~ kind of scaring myself now with my new-found knowledge of country music). This concert had all that and more!
Zac (yeah, were on a first name basis too "Hey Zac!") and the Band sounded as crisp and clean as they do streaming on my iphone. Of course they played their emotionally charged songs~ Free and Goodbye In Her Eyes (my faves~to name a few); and slipped in some of their fun and upbeat tunes~ Chicken Fried and Toes plus a mean cover of Metallica's Enter Sandman.
And Kenny…uh, really I can barely describe his electricity on that stage, with his smile shining so bright on the big screen one could just feel it in the air! Every note he sang was my favorite, I don't believe I sat down or stopped swaying or dancing the entire time he played. My faves~ Somewhere With You, You and Tequila, and Summertime.
As Kenny said there's something about Minnesota in the summertime. I believe it stems from the fact we are cooped up and Eskimo-like for 9 months of the year (okay, okay it's not that long). It just affords us the appreciation of a beautiful night spent with 43,939 other fans listening to individual memories float through the summer air to land on our ears and in our hearts.
For a gal who loves to shop, it's a wonder why I have never made the jaunt to the shops of 50th & France in Edina, MN. I mean this is a really big question here? Really, why? Um… I just do not know. Mystery aside, let us move on, and get to the good stuff.
Since it was Sunday and I got off to a later start I didn't hit the entire area but I stumbled upon some fabulous finds!
My first stop was prAna, where George, the gentlest yellow lab greeted me at the door. What a nice surprise! Any way, I love the feeling of comfort while wearing prAna clothing. My purchase, their Bliss skort in black, which will be perfect for weekend hiking and bike rides.
At Paper Source, I ventured upon a gift givers mecca. There were so many fun gift ideas, creative cards and pretty wrapping to dress them up. My purchases included – a fun notebook, QWERTY type magnets, a "positive directions" necklace, and my fave "One Good Deed a Day" journal book (sad that we have to be reminded to do this, isn't it?).
I took a break for a bite to eat and something to sip on down the street at Salut. It was a bit swelter-y with no breeze outside but I chose to sit on the patio of this quaint French- American bistro any way. On my plate- Ahi Tuna Nicoise salad, so yummy and it was beautifully plated. In my glass- Simi chardonnay, refreshing and crisp.
After my leisurely lunch I made my way to Anthropologie. This store has long been a fave of mine, the clothes, gifts and housewares are quite unique and I was full of excitement to see one located at 50th & France! My finds- the perfect bowls to complete my dinnerware set and yet another inspirational writing book "642 Things to Write About".
Of course I strolled through other stores, such as Lush, and Cooks of Crocus Hill (no finds this time but I'm definitely going to try one of their cooking classes).
All in all, a great first 'Weekend Wandering'!
Enjoy. Smile. Cry. Laugh. Share. Most of all~ BT2U.


text:
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 >
--- All Schools --- Essential Tafsirs Sunni Tafsirs Sunni Sufi Tafsirs Sunni Salafi Tafsirs Abridged Tafsirs Ja'fari Shi'i Tafsirs Zaydi Tafsirs Ibadi Tafsirs Modern Tafsirs Partial Tafsirs --- Choose Tafsir --- Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn 'Abbâs Kashani Tafsir Kashf Al-Asrar Tafsir View
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ ٱلْبَحْرِ وَطَعَامُهُ مَتَاعاً لَّكُمْ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ وَحُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ صَيْدُ ٱلْبَرِّ مَا دُمْتُمْ حُرُماً وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِيۤ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
-Al-Mâ'idah ( المائدة )
Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn 'Abbâs
(To hunt and to eat the fish of the sea is made lawful for you) this was revealed about a people from the Banu Mudlij who lived off the sea. They asked the Prophet (pbuh) about the fish of the sea and about that which is washed out of the sea, so Allah revealed that it is lawful to fish just as it is lawful to eat that which is washed out by the sea (a provision for you) a benefit for you (and for seafarers; but to hunt on land is forbidden you so long as ye are on the pilgrimage) or in the Sacred Precinct. (Be mindful of your duty to Allah) fear Allah, (unto Whom ye will be gathered) and questioned about the game made forbidden for you during ritual consecration and at the Sacred Precinct.
Tafsir Ibn 'Abbas, trans. Mokrane Guezzou


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text:
The Spectacle of Illiteracy and the Crisis of Democracy
Bombarded by shameless liars and fake outrage on a daily basis, Americans have lost their ability to connect problems in their lives with the politics and public policies which affect them.
Our condition is excellently laid out in this article by Henry Giroux linked in truthout.org
My angle on this is that regular Americans have been told by Fox and Fakes that they should be mad at liberals and democracy and equality -- and that your misery is their fault, not yours.
Simple is so easy to sell -- there is no heavy lifting or thinking involved. And, to salve the populace that nothing is their fault -- all your problems are caused by "them" -- is both a relief and a cop-out, a gift that serves up a rationalization for choosing ignorance. In other words, "You're off the hook. Feel better?"
Posted by Citizens Media Resource at 12:02 AM No comments:
Record 346 Inmates Die, Dozens of Guards Fired in Florida Prison
Murderous cruelty punctuates U.S. prison over-population. Check out this story republished by Daily Kos.
'Suburban Itch' Reporter Follows Reality Down the Tubes
While 'The Suburban Itch,' comedy short produced by Moore Media & Entertainment, lights up the issue of racial profiling with a role reversal, the sad state of journalism does not escape the political swath of its narrative.
DeMarcus Malone, the white guy who is hassled by police for looking "suspicious," is a prize-winning print reporter. Ultimately a victim of the times, DeMarcus loses his job when the fictional newspaper, the Memphis News-Times, closes shop.
Reality blows. The Commercial Appeal cut 17 employees in September. Owner E.W. Scripps concurrently announced it was selling off its print assets and The Commercial Appeal would be owned by the Milwaukee-based Journal Media Group. Click to read story in the Memphis Flyer.
The Tennessean in August fired all of its reporters, editors and photographers and told them they could re-apply for jobs with a spin-off print company reorganized by media giant Gannett. Click to read story in the Nashville Scene.
Go to www.MemphisNewsTimes.com to see the stories that James Miles reads on his cell phone while his daughter Marybeth is handcuffed to DeMarcus. Yeah, we created a website for DeMarcus' failed paper. DeMarcus is the subject of, not the reporter of, one story, headlined: "Our Reporter Beaten, Arrested at Occupy Wall Street!"
So, the mass media conglomerates are throwing out their print holdings with both hands while hanging onto TV and digital assets. Gannett, publisher of USA Today and the nation's largest newspaper chain, is doing companywide what they did to The Tennessean, cutting editorial staff across the board by 15 percent.
Who is going to take up the slack left by the demise of journalism? The ability of the people to be informed is protected in the First Amendment, which sets aside the press as the only commercial endeavor which gets such elevated status.
Network TV news no longer exists as a separate division, as did CBS News during the years of Walter Cronkite. The operation may or may not have been profitable any given year, but that was not the point. There was prestige for the network and honor in doing an important job. Now, all network news outfits are wholly within the corporate structure, which means the measure of their success is the bottom line, not good journalism.
Instead of digging for the stories -- and the stories under the surface -- the contemporary media fill us up with cats chasing balloons and Kardashian sightings.
Instead of editors with strong backgrounds in journalism, today's daily newspapers are headed by "content executives," which means simply this:
Give the people in our target demographic what they want -- not what they need -- and what will drive circulation and ad volume, page views and click-throughs. These new-era managers talk about "user experience" and, as The Tennessean's executive editor Stefanie Murray spun, the "newsroom of the future" as we are "continually reinventing ourselves."
Is former Tennessean editor and publisher John Seigenthaler, who died in 2014, already rolling over in his grave? The top three execs now in The Tennessean's newsroom combined have less than five years experience.
Film website: www.TheSuburbanItch.com
The Spectacle of Illiteracy and the Crisis of Demo...
Record 346 Inmates Die, Dozens of Guards Fired in ...
'Suburban Itch' Reporter Follows Reality Down the ...


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text:
Visiting The Gorillas
A Time To Settle In And Visit
October 12-13th At The Lodge Near Ruhengeri (Page Three)
Beautiful downtown Ruhengeri
Did You Know? - Ruhengeri is a city and capital of Musanze District in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Some sources now refer to the city itself as Musanze, after the district in which it lies. This has to do with the adopted policy of renaming Rwanda cities, which was done to eliminate terrible memories of the past and to install new administrational infrastructure in the country.
Ruhengeri (Musanze) lies near the twin lakes of Lake Burera and Lake Ruhondo and is the gateway city to Volcanoes National Park and the famous mountain gorillas in the north-western part of the country.
Ruhengeri's proximity to the Volcanoes National Park has made it a popular tourist destination with several restaurants and hotels mainly aimed at visitors to the national park.
We have arrived
It's 5:30 PM and it has already been a long day!
Cute receptionist!
They wanted us to feel like we were outdoors! It worked
Nice digs for being in the middle of a jungle! You can see the fireplace
where they built a fire for us every night since there was no heat...
The fire did NOT last all night!
Time to check in and meet the locals and get entertained
The area is quite scenic... Even at 6:00 AM the
view from out cabin was quite interedting
Mountain peaks encircle the area and we will be on Mt. Sabyinio
which is partially in Uganda!
We stayed at the foot of the mountain where the gorillas live
"The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Gorillas"
Good name for a song?
Our first encounter with the ape... OK, it is not real!
Walk out and visit the "Big Guy"
We are entertained by local Intore dancers!
Not a single cha cha insight!
Did You Know? - The 'Dance of Heroes' is performed by men wearing grass wigs and carrying spears. The background is a dance performed by returning warriors, celebrating victory in battle. The dancers move from side to side combining grace and complex choreography with a raw aggression. At certain stages the dancers stop, with arms outstretched and make blood-curdling battle crys.
These calls are individual to each dancer and represent warriors declaiming the details of how many he had slain in battle. Battles traditionally involved Hutu, Tutsi and Twa fighting alongside each-other against a common enemy. The performance of Intore therefore has always consisted of warriors of all groups dancing together
Getting our lecture... IMPORTANT! lecture about "do's and don't's" after the Intore dancers before we left in the jeep. This is my group stopping to rest half way up the mountain. You can see the jungle forest in the background. Where we are sitting is all cultivated land
Today's visit is to the Isabukuru Group
Did You Know? - Isabukuru was the name of the dominate male and therefore the group of Gorillas was named Isabukuru Group.
From the Diane Fossy notebook January 24th, 2012:
"Isabukuru actively seeks out interactions with kids in a way that I've never seen another silverback do" says Rosenbaum. The gigantic silverback has been observed carefully carrying the tiny infants clutched to his chest, engaging in play behavior and patiently tolerating the youngsters' antics like no other adult male would. Rosenbaum says that it is not uncommon for the young ones of his group to climb on top of his broad chest during the group's resting periods, where they will attempt to push each other off in a lively game of "king of the hill." The field staff all emphatically agree that there is no other male gorilla monitored by Karisoke in the last decade that has taken such a great interest in his offspring
We are off on the trek
Did You Know? - Each gorilla trek starts off roughly the same, with a briefing on the do's and don't's of being around gorillas. You are assigned a porter, if you would like one, to carry your bag for you.
Goodbye civilization... Hello forest!
The guide can read the signs and locate the group fairly easily
Pointing out the signs! The guide takes us into the forest where we meet the trackers who have been tracking our family all morning
Took this picture to show how tall the trees are in the jungle
The juveniles are always playing
Hide and seek? This is the big adult male silverback resting
Did You Know? - Gorillas are the world's largest primates. They are closely related to humans, with 98% of their DNA identical to that of Homo sapiens.
Kida cute... Well, his mommy thinks so!
Time for a nap in the warm afternoon
Did You Know? - As roaming herbivores, gorillas play a vital role in seed dispersal. Many large fruit trees depend upon these animals to survive.
Plenty close!
In fact, maybe a little too close! We visited hia family - The big male silverback just slept for us, although he did sit and roll over and I was the closest to him. I wanted to just back up
He is right there in the bushes jus a few feer away!
To the trackkers, it is like a street map!
Just sitting around watching all the activities
"Ah ha... I see a delicious twig right there"
Did You Know? - About 67% of their diet is fruit, 17% is leaves, seeds and stems and 3% is termites and caterpillars. Although they eat a variety of plants, favorites include wild celery, bamboo, thistles, stinging nettles, bedstraw and certain fruit. These plants seem to provide sufficient moisture so that gorillas do not need water. Mountain gorillas have a slow rate of reproduction.
Chomp!
They blend in amazing well!
We hope that is not an angry look!
Did You Know? - Gorillas are highly intelligent. They use tools and have various methods of communication, including some 25 different sounds. One famous captive-born individual, Koko, has been taught sign language since she was a year old. By the age of 40, she had a library of about 1,000 signs and could understand some 2,000 words of English.
The guide and trackers talked to the gorillas. They explained to us if they say this sound, all is OK, but if the trackers say this we should be still as they calm the gorillas - we never heard that, thank goodness
A beautiful creature
Pretty friendly with members of their group
Getting the "evil eye"
Did You Know? - Gorillas have unique noseprints, much like human fingerprints, which can be used to identify individuals.
Don't tell me that is right behind me?"
Just laying around
Snack time!
Did You Know? - Gorillas build nests in which to sleep, both on the ground and in trees, made of leaves and branches. Counting abandoned nests is an effective way for scientists to estimate population size.
Always on the move
Did You Know? - The gorilla is shy and retiring rather than ferocious and treacherous. It usually seeks no trouble unless harassed but will valiantly defend its family group if threatened. Family groups are close-knit and may have up to 30 members, but even if smaller, the group usually consists of at least one older male, one or more females and a few juveniles.
Gorillas have strong attachments to members of their own group and even when groups meet and mingle and then subsequently part, each animal tends to remain with its respective unit. An adult male called a silverback named for the silvery gray hairs on its back normally leads each group, serving as its chief protector and defender.
Gorillas continually wander through their home ranges of 10 to 15 square miles, feeding and resting throughout the day. Because gorillas are nomadic, they build new nests each day at dusk, constructing them of bent branches in a tree or of grasses on the ground.
The gorilla families usually move to higher ground as the day progresses which is why the trek tries to start out early in the morning
The guides assure eveyone follows the rules!
"Hello there!"
"I know he is watching me"
We have some babies... Must be careful! In our family we had the large male silverback, 2 younger male silverbacks, a number of females, juveniles and 2 sets of twin babies
The guides allow us pretty close contact. They were not afraid - right behind me - turning my back on these gorillas was a bit frightening - especially the big males
"I am not afraid.... Nope, not a bit!"
"Well.... Maybe a little bit"
"OK... Where do we go from here?"
New friends I met on the trip!
...and another new friend!
Play time is anytime!
Does she look worried? She was also saying "Is he coming closer?"
Kids will be kids!
Tickle tickle tickle
Did You Know? - Mountain gorillas have a slow rate of reproduction. Females give birth for the first time at about age 10 and will have more offspring every three or four years. A male begins to breed between 12 and 15 years, when he is in charge of his own group. Able to conceive for only about three days each month, the female produces a single young most of the time, although we had twins in our family group.
Newborn gorillas are weak and tiny, weighing in at about 4 pounds. Their movements are as awkward as those of human infants, but their development is roughly twice as fast. At 3 or 4 months, the gorilla infant can sit upright and can stand with support soon after. It suckles regularly for about a year and is gradually weaned at about 3 1/2 years, when it becomes more independent.
The gorillas are not afraid of us
Play fighting...
Up close and personnal!
Do you see them up in the tree? They are not there!
They are all on the ground
Great job guys! These are the trackers that stay with the
gorillas and radio their location to the guides
We needed a good rest after this trek into the mountains!
Who's in the bathtub now?
Farming is always going on!
Love the walking stick! I definitely did. This is my porter. He carried my backpack and jacket. I couldn't have made it without him. He lent me a hand to help pull me up and over rocks and steep climbs. By the end I felt like he was my boyfriend. He'd put his hand back and I'd just grab hold.
Afternoon clouds are forming!
The lodge awaits us after the trek!
We can make it!
Come right on in and sit a spell
Plenty of space to tell tall tales of the days adventure
The property is well taken care of. These views are from our
cottage patio to next cottage and finally our patio
Everything was green!
You could sit on the patio
Each bungalo had its own name, our was "Canary"
Creative room names!
The grounds were beautiful... No gorillas in sight!
Not another hill!
Cute... What would it be like in the rainy season?
Each lodge has a unique name
Adventuring around the lodge!
Very spacious inside
Large lobby
The family watches over us!
Nice dining area
Did You Know? - The Gorilla Mountain View Lodge has 20 individual cottages constructed out of brick and tile. The current bungalows are pretty big inside, with plain plastered walls, that are simply but comfortably furnished. Each has an en-suite bathroom with a shower. Being at altitude, it can get cold here however each of the cottages has a fire in the room (wood and charcoal provided on request). The lodge grounds are very well maintained and from here there are beautiful views of the volcanoes.
Electricity and hot water are supplied by a generator which does not run all day. Generally it is turned on at about 6pm, however this can vary so it is always best to ask someone on your arrival to clarify exact timings for your stay. There are plans afoot for the lodge to be linked to local power grid soon.
The central area has a basic bar and a restaurant where the food is generally, good home cooked fare - don't expect haute cuisine though. Again it can get quite chilly in here as the door is not designed to shut, however the staff can provide you with a 'bucket' of heated charcoal that you can put next to your table to help keep you warm. We would definitely also advise to you to dress warmly for dinners during the winter months.
It is located very close (about 15 minutes) from the main headquarters of Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park (Parc National de Volcans), so it is a very handy base from which to explore the area and organise treks to see the Golden monkeys and, of course, the enigmatic Mountain gorillas, both of whom make the Virunga Mountains their home.
Business on the terrace - She is an avid bird watcher and she had gone bird watching with the 2 guides in the morning and is here talking to them reviewing the names of the birds they saw and took pictures of today
The buildings are quite close together
The rooms were huge! Packing up to head for the airport... Darn!
With an amazing view
We are on our way... It's all down hill from here!
Goodbye lodge... Hello Airport
This is our group who traveled together - We called ourselves "Kufaru" and with our driver Emmanuel
Friendly people - Had to get a picture of a woman carrying a child on her back which was so common
Driving the roads can be a challenge
Herding them home
Homes spot the landscape after leaving the national park
Kigali in the distance
This is the church where people went for sanctuary and they were all murdered. Inside was left behind the clothes of those killed, so you had a visual of how many and men, women and children. The bodies were buried around the side
Traffic! Must be "civilization"
Farming on the hill must be a challenge
John Kerry was here!
Two hours and we are going to be in South Africa!
Next page - Victoria Falls Via Johannesberg S.A.


This is the story of how I added 60lbs to my hex bar deadlift and did a triple bodyweight lift in 26 weeks.
In early Oct 2017 I officially took on the goal of doing a triple bodyweight trap-bar deadlift.
Now, I started working on improving my trap-bar deadlift sometime in August, but I hadn't fixated on the 3x bodyweight goal. Including that time, the project took me around 24 weeks of focused training, which was divided up into 5 training phases.
Based on my body weight, depending on daily fluctuations, that would require a 495-505lb deadlift.
In that time I went from an estimated 1RM of 445lbs (I didn't test it, but based on my how my rep maxes tend to work, that seems fairly close) to lifting 505lbs.
Here's my 3x bodyweight attempt!
In this article I want to explain the key details about how and why I set up my program the way I did.
Take back-off/rest weeks after a hard training phase to rejuvenate yourself. It' makes no sense, but sometimes I still get apprehensive about doing this. When you're in the groove and feel like you're making progress you naturally want to keep the pressure on, hit it hard and continue to build. You ask yourself "if I stop now, will I lose momentum?" Unfortunately, pushing non-stop isn't sustainable forever. Your body will get tired and your program will get stale. Stay disciplined and schedule in light recovery weeks at appropriate times to improve overall long-term performance.
I started each phase of training a little conservatively so I could "grow into" the training phase. In other words, let's say my training block called for tempo deadlifts in the 4-6 reps range. I'd leave a little bit in the tank in week 1, stopping my set when I felt I could still do another 2-3 reps. Then I'd start to push harder (i.e. 0-1 reps left in the tank) in the following weeks and work on lifting a bit more or doing an extra rep or two each workout.
Even though I'd push right up to my limit on harder training weeks, I'd stay within my technical max. That means no breakdown in form or position. This helped me stay injury free and ensured that I was using the right muscles and practicing the right technique to help as the weight increased.
repetition ranges (lower reps = higher weight and less total volume of work).
This keeps your training progressions from going stale. Each time my training phase came to the end of its useful lifespan (i.e. rate of progress was leveling off, this was usually 3-4 weeks for me), I'd back-off a bit, and then make enough of a change that the workouts provided a fresh stimulus again.
Typically I went from a building phase (sometimes called an accumulation phase or a volume phase) that has more variation or tempo work and higher reps, to an intensity phase, where I practiced the movement with less variation (i.e. closer to a straight deadlift which is what I'd be using to re-test) and do fewer reps at a heavier weight (again, getting more specific to re-testing my 1-rep max).
I hope by going through this article you can get a sense of my rate of progress from workout to workout. On the deadlift, I'd describe myself as an advanced-intermediate lifter, and you can see what gains I was able to make workout to workout within one training phase, and then over time. If you're newer, progress will probably be faster. If you're more experienced and closer to your innate potential, progress will be slower.
Approx 15 weeks, Aug2016-Nov 3 2017.
The Patient Lifter's Method is a relatively straightforward linear progression (i.e. you're expected to make progress each week), so it's more suitable for beginners. Because advanced trainees can't make progress as quickly as beginners, you usually won't be able to run it for very long.
Although I've been lifting weights for over 10 years and competed in Olympic weightlifting for 3 of those, I had never trained using a hex bar deadlift. Prior to Sept, I hadn't been doing much heavy training. Because of these two factors, I decided to start with a basic progression, and to see how far I could get.
With any of these types of progressions, it's best to start a bit on the easier side, so you can grow into the progression and avoid changing programs too quickly.
In week 1, I did 4x2 @415. These felt pretty tough. The next week I did 3x4 at the same weight. I'd add one rep each week.
At this time I only did one hex-bar deadlift workout per week and was using a belt for my top sets.
Week 10: 3x7@435 *I forgot my training journal and accidentally did an extra rep.
This progressed nicely, but at 455 the weight was feeling really heavy and I could tell that there wasn't much more progress to make with this method. I decided to back-off a little and test where I was.
I switched to two workouts a week. On Monday I did a light workout to practice the movement. 3x3@80% without putting my stress on it.
And on Friday I built to a heavy double in week 1, and tried for a heavy single in week 2.
Week 1: 3x465, 2x475 with a belt.
Week 2: 0x465 with a belt.
I made a mistake here. Obviously I wasn't recovered enough on Week 2 and just didn't have the extra juice. My performance actually got worse in week 2.
In my next peaking phase, I'd make sure to keep the number of difficult sets to a minimum (1 per workout), and focus on recovery to ensure that I felt great going into my max-out workouts.
Coming out of that, I realized that I was close (estimated my 1RM at 480, maybe 485 on a perfect day. If this seems conservative to you, understand that I'm a lower neuromuscular efficient lifter. ( To learn what kind of lifter you are, read this and this). I felt that my strength with no belt was too weak. This was based on how tough my heavier warm-up sets felt (which I did beltless) vs. my working sets (which I did with a belt) in the previous two phases. I decided to do all my training in the next couple of phases with no belt, and to add more core work. This helped tremendously.
I stuck with the Mon-Fri split of two deadlift sessions per week. Aside from the deadlift training on Monday and Friday, I worked out another 1-2x per week, but this training wasn't very intensive because I didn't want it to interfere with the deadlift goal. In other words, I didn't have to worry about recovering from heavy bench or squat sessions since I wasn't doing any. I could put everything into the deadlifts and generally felt that I had enough time to recover before my next session. After my deadlift workouts, I'd do a few sets of squats or heavy loaded carries (sandbag or yolk walk), plus lots of core work.
In this phase, I mainly did 3 working sets per workout with a repetition bracket of 4-6. This is generally a good rep range for strength work.
I use repetition brackets like this: If I can hit the top number of reps, in this case 6, then I'll automatically increase the load on the next set. If I can't hit the low number, in this case 4, I'll decrease the load on the next set. And if I'm in the middle, in other words if I get 4 or 5 reps, then I'll keep the weight the same. This is an easy way to let the reps dictate the weight used.
In Monday's workouts, I didn't hold back. I tried to push to my technical max (the maximum you can do with perfect form) on each work set.
On Friday's workout, I wasn't sure how much weight I could do on this exercise, so I started out easy. The second week was moderately hard, and then weeks 3 and 4 was all out.
By the time this phase ended, I felt that I was close to lifting the weights I was handling at the end of phase 2, but this time with no belt. That was exactly where I wanted to be.
The purpose of this phase was to maintain a decent amount of volume, but to also build up to heavier weights and get my body accustomed to higher percentages of my maximum. On Mondays I did podium deadlifts. I stood on a 1.5" block of wood to increase the range of motion (and difficulty) of the lift. I did this for two reasons.
One, my weakest point is off the floor. If I can pull the bar 1-2" inches up, I will be able to finish the lift. The podium deadlift emphasized my strength at the bottom of the lift i.e. my weak spot. Two, it would also keep the total load down, so it would be a bit less stressful on my body, and I'd be able to save more for Friday's workout. This gave me more variation in training stimulus during the week, which studies and practical experience show is usually a good thing.
For Friday's workout, I chose to do wave training. This would provide some volume (9 total reps and 6 sets) at relatively high loads. For some people, this would be too many sets at too heavy a weight, but I didn't think this would be an issue for me based on previous experience.
Week one was a down week, or a rest week. I left plenty in the tank and didn't to do many sets. For weeks 2-4, I tried to improve performance each week. You can see that I wasn't able to do so in the final week. I could no longer progress.
For me, I tend to be able to make progress for longer at lower rep ranges. Where as in the previous cycle I could go hard for 4 weeks, in this cycle, I was only really able to make progress for 2 weeks.
This is something you want to be aware of if you're designing your own program. How long can you make progress on different kinds of training cycles before you need a change? How much recovery do you need between workouts (obviously I didn't have enough between week 3 and 4). How much of a deficit can you put yourself in and still recover after a week off? By that I mean, how many weeks of negative performance improvements can you see, but actually come out better at the end. It's all a question of how you individually adapt.
This is show time! I set my Monday workouts up to be fairly light and not to have very much volume (i.e. not very many working sets). I only did 2 working sets and I made sure to leave a few reps in the tank on these sets. I also picked an exercise variation that worked on my weakness (off the floor) and give my muscles a good workout, but would also force me to use less total weight (i.e. pulling from a podium is harder, so I can't use as much weight).
For Friday, I would work up to one set and try to hit a rep PR. This was to see where I stood relative to my 3x bodyweight goal (especially now lifting with a belt) and also for the strong training effect. I needed to push the weights up and get my body used to handling those weights after all the strength I'd build in the previous 8 weeks.
I also added in some halting deadlifts on Friday to add a bit more work (only 2 sets), to continue to work on my weak area and strengthen my back position pulling off the floor.
A. AMRAP @ 475 (98%) = 5 reps with belt! This was a huge confidence boost.
B. Halting DL with 4sec lowering phase. 4,3@ 435. No belt.
Week 3: 1RM - I hit 505lbs (501 was triple bodyweight), and failed at 515.


Interracial marriage is a form of marriage where a person tends to marry a person that comes from a different racial group. In simple terms it is a mix of racial groups in a form of marriage. Having interracial marriage is being banned in some western countries but today there are several countries now that approves this type of marriage. Including to this is most of the states in the US which was made legal in year 1967.
This law was being applied to improve the law about anti-miscegenation which involves in having babies with different races. The laws on anti-miscegenation really enforced racial hierarchy and racial identity that's why the interracial marriage was legalize earlier than expected. The US contains several racial and ethnic groups which made interracial marriage very common. According to the interracial marriage statistics in 1970 there was an increase on interracial marriage of 2 percent. Then in year 2005 there was 7 percent and in 2010 there was an 8.4 percent increase.
In 2010, the interracial marriage in the US reached 4.8 million that made the Hispanic and Asian immigrants flow steady that on the other hand expanded the prospective spouses. The blacks now prefer whites to marry that made it to 15 percent of new interracial marriages. In the same year, there were 25 percent Asians, 25 percent Hispanics, 17.1 percent blacks and almost 9.4 percent white's wants to get married interracially. Out of 275,500 interracial marriages that are new in 2010 there were 43 percent couples that is white-Hispanic, 14.4 percent white-Asian, 11.9 percent white-black and with a remainder combinations of other types.
Even though the law on anti-miscegenation has been removed the issue with some blacks regarding interracial marriages still remains in their society. Based on research in 1990 of Mitchell-Kerman and Tucker still show that blacks being interracial married are less likely compared to other types of non-white group. In year 2010, there are 17.1 percent of blacks only that tends to marry interracially which means that the rate is lower than what Asians and Hispanic gets. This might be due to the blacks engender problems that is associated with their racist attitude that in result perceives a relational inappropriateness. In 2008, there was also a gender imbalance on black males of 22 percent which tend to marry interracially while there is 9 percent black female that marries on other type of races. This only proves that they are least likely to marry any gender or race outside of their racial group.
Having an interracial marriage is now a very common thing in most countries all over the world. Although there are still issues about races they also try to solve this difference to make a country a more peaceful place to live in where there are no discriminations. Some countries also respect the laws of their states with regards to interracial marriages bit as much as possible they want to implement this to have unity within the country. With the interracial marriages statistics available you can now be at ease that your children can live freely and proudly in a given country.


If you haven't heard of Sweet Pea Pantry, it's a company with the aim of getting kids in the kitchen making things like pizza, biscuits and pancakes - they include all of the dry ingredients, pre-measured out. You just add eggs, butter, water or whatever else is needed.
Probably the main thing about the mixes is that the recipes have a healthy twist - the oat cookies come with quinoa, the pizza dough contains sesame and oregano and gingerbread biscuits have flaxseeds, wholegrain rye and barley in them. I was asked if I'd like to try out a couple of their products and I agreed.
In the week they dropped through the letterbox, my eight-year old was at a friend's for tea, so I took the opportunity to keep the five-year old busy by making dinner. We set to work on the Playful Pizza Dough. We tipped the flour mix into a bowl and added the combined water, oil and yeast mixture, mixing and kneading until ready. At first, she wasn't happy about getting her hands sticky but after a while she was kneading and mixing and loving it. We covered the dough with cling film and left it to rise for an hour.
While that was rising we got on with the Super Oat Cookies. Again, everything was pre-measured - all we had to do tip it into a bowl and stir in melted butter to form a flap-jack type mixture, pressing it into little cookies and placing them on a lined baking sheet. There was a generous amount of raisins and I could make out the quinoa in the mix too. Once they were baked we tried a couple each. It was good to see her tucking into cookies that were actually good for her. Quinoa is rich in protein and oats are thought to be good for many things, such as regulating cholesterol and aiding digestion.
I know you can buy 'ready to bake' mixtures from the supermarket, but part of the Sweetpea Pantry ethos is that they use ingredients that aren't refined or overly-processed. Read the labels of these mixes and you see demerara sugar, wholemeal flour and plain, rolled oats. No flavour-enhancers, colourings or hydrogenated this and that.
Proud to have made dinner, we tucked into the pizza together - we'd added some olives and Parma ham we happened to have in the fridge, too. It was difficult for all of us to resist the cookies, and she took one in her packed lunch the next day, telling everyone she'd made them.
I know that you don't need packet mixes to get kids in the kitchen - in fact all that weighing and measuring out does help them with maths and volume too - but I can't deny they were much easier to use and quicker than cooking from scratch. Quite often I'll plan to bake something with my children and turn around to find they've become fed up half-way through weighing ingredients and flicked the telly on. If you're after something quick, and are concerned about the nutrition levels in pre-packed baking mixes, these would be a good alternative.
For more information check out the Sweetpea Pantry website.


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Ann Vogel
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Ann Vogel – Class of 1960
Classmates of Ann Vogel were not surprised that this exceptional student and class leader went into medicine like her father. But, for Ann, serving the needs of her home community has expanded into so much more. Her dedication, optimism, creativity, and professional skills have contributed to her proactive leadership in the New Ulm community and beyond.
After graduating in 1060, Ann attended the University of Minnesota where she received undergraduate and masters degrees. Ann went on to medical school at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and she completed her internship and residency at Hennepin County Hospital and the Mayo Clinic, respectively.
Returning to her hometown in 1970, Ann utilized her experience to provide Family Practice and OB/GYN care to patients at New Ulm Hospitals. In addition, Ann served as Medical Director of Highland Manor Nursing Home as well as local, regional, and state professional committees. Between 1998 and 2004, Ann practiced in Faribault developing their OB/GYN clinic.
Seeing the need for accessible health care for all, she has volunteered at a Navajo reservation in Arizona and she joined the Open Door Health Center in Mankato, providing for the medically underserved population of Southern Minnesota in 2000 until 2010.
Committed to the community of New Ulm, its heritage, and improving the quality of life of its citizens, Ann has been the driving force in the redevelopment of German Park and is involved in a new vision of Herman Heights Park and a Monument Master Plan. She has championed the importance of green space, parks, recreation, trails and art among the many key elements of a healthy community.
Ann cherishes the town's German heritage and gave to the city the familiar Gnome family, nine costumed characters who welcome all to festivals and special events. Much of her giving, however, has been through quiet philanthropy and aid to individuals in need. Most do not know all she has been involved with, and she prefers it that way.
Ann's enthusiasm and vision have inspired others to join her and contribute their skills to her work. Always with an eye on the next project to benefit her community, Dr. Ann Vogel tirelessly pursues a better future for New Ulm.
sales@foreseestudios.com2018-06-22T18:45:37+00:00June 20th, 2018|2015, Featured|Comments Off on Ann Vogel
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Biography/History, Comedy, Drama
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Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz; Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies; Lily Collins as Rita Alexander; Tom Pelphrey as Joseph Mankiewicz; Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer; Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz; Monika Gossmann as Fräulein Frieda; Joseph Cross as Charles Lederer; Sam Troughton as John Houseman; Toby Leonard Moore as David O. Selznick; Tom Burke as Orson Welles; Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst; Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg
Paul Asay
Herman Mankiewicz was broke.
Oh, he wasn't destitute or anything. In 1940, Mank could still find a little work in Hollywood: He was too talented not to.
No, at the moment, he was literally broke: He shattered his leg in a car crash, leaving him in traction. He was as helpless as a baby—which, truth be told, wasn't that different from when his leg had been working. He drank voluminously. He gambled voraciously. Sara, his wife, was as much nursemaid as spouse—removing his clothes when he was too drunk to work the buttons and tucking him in when he couldn't work the covers. To most of Mank's friends—and, truth be told, to Mank himself—she wasn't just Sara. She was "poor Sara."
Mank's drinking and gambling and habit of insulting those who signed his checks made him damaged, dangerous goods. Sure, he was still working. But working as often as he could? As often as he should? Not by a longshot. The last work he did for MGM, Hollywood's most prestigious studio, was some uncredited work for a weird little movie called The Wizard of Oz. And frankly, that flick looked like a surefire bomb.
But then, as Mank recuperated in the hospital, he swept in: Orson Welles, cape flapping, voice booming. He was Hollywood's Golden Boy outsider—just 24 years old and without a single movie to his credit. And RKO had already given him carte blanche to make any movie he wanted. Any subject, they said. No interference. And he could collaborate with any writer he wanted to.
Orson wanted Mank. Brilliant, broken Mank.
When Mank was well enough to move, Orson shipped him to the North Verde Ranch in the middle of the Mojave Desert. He'd be looked after by a nurse, Fräulein Frieda. He'd work with a skilled, British stenographer, Rita Alexander. Editor John Houseman would look in on him occasionally, just to plow through his pages and make sure Mank was sober. After all, the writer had just 90 days—no, make that 60 days—to hammer out a first draft of a screenplay.
And once it's ready, he'll turn it over to Orson, who'll make it his own, both in spirit and in credit.
Orson rings Mank up as he's getting settled in. "I'm toiling with you in spirit, Mank," he says. "And I don't hear any typing!"
Time to get to work. After all, Citizen Kane isn't going to write itself.
Herman Mankiewicz is, as my grandma might say, a bit of a pill. He's Hollywood's court jester, making fun of its ruling class and making plenty enemies because of it. But as the real John Houseman once said, "he was also one of the most intelligent, informed, witty, humane and charming men I have ever known."
In this section, we're mostly concerned with that humane side of Mank, and it comes across in the film. He clearly cares for lots of people in his circle—more deeply, in fact, than he'd care to suggest. He truly loves his longsuffering wife, grooms and encourages many a new writer in Hollywood and serves as a friend and confidante of Marion Davies—the beautiful, surprisingly savvy mistress of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. And when he comes across a friend in need, he does his best to help—though not always successfully. We also learn that he helped bring an entire German village—more than 100 people—to America before World War II, thus likely saving all of their lives.
But if the film has a moral anchor, it's really held by the women we meet here. Poor Sara loves and cares for Mank through all the difficulties he brings to their marriage. When Mank asks why she sticks around, Sara tells him, "I suppose being married to you, Herman, I'm never bored." Davies supports her beau, too, confessing to Mank that she loves Hearst. "I beg you, don't kick pops when he's down," she tells him, regarding the movie script that's widely suspected of being about Hearst himself. Finally, Rita Alexander tries to push Mank along while (at first) keeping him sober at the same time: no easy task.
Mank doesn't seem to be particularly religious, but he does often jokingly refer to God and religion. An example: When Sara's trying to tuck a very drunk Mank in for the night, he shouts for divine revelation. "Give me a sign, O Lord!" he says, falling back on his bed. And then, before Sara leaves him, Mank asks her to keep an eye on the bush in the front yard. "If it catches fire tonight, you'll let me know." Another example: Mank tells his brother that the Mojave Desert is "God's answer for drunks and reprobates. Perfect place to dry out." But then he adds that "it didn't take." He makes other quips about God's punishment or blessings throughout.
During a script meeting with the head of Paramount Studios, Mank and his group of handpicked writers pitches a monster movie about a mechanical construct that some think is a devil. ("The religious always think it's the devil," one writer says, speaking more broadly of real or imagined bogeymen.) The conclusion of the picture will feature a weeping priest, and the film itself will be about "the ominous futility of man playing God" and "the Faustian bargain of life everlasting."
Mankiewicz and many other folks in Hollywood are Jewish. We hear references to their faith and see a funeral take place in a Jewish synagogue. We hear how one Jewish studio exec traveled to Nazi Germany and heard many anti-Semitic chants and slogans.
Hearst's beautiful mansion/compound is called the sort of place "That God might've built had He had the money," a quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw. There's a reference or two to prayer. We hear a socialist candidate talk about how "the religion of Jesus" has been used to justify economic inequity and prop up ruling powers for far too long.
A woman apparently taking notes in a studio writers' room is topless apart from a pair of tassels covering her nipples. Women selling cigarettes are dressed in intentionally provocative outfits. The film repeats a rumor that "rosebud"—the word that Citizen Kane's protagonist Charles Forster Kane says as he dies—is actually a reference to Hearst's nickname for Marion Davies' genitals.
Sara tells Mank that she's put up with his numerous "platonic affairs." Mank and another woman make suggestive noises off-camera. When the camera pans to the couple, it reveals that Mank's nurse was simply using a back scratcher to scratch an itch underneath Mank's cast. Someone says that he likes movies that grab viewers "here, here and here," grabbing his head, heart and crotch in swift succession. Mank jokes that movies can make people believe in eight-story gorillas and that "Mary Pickford [is] a virgin at 40."
A writer brings a script to MGM head Louis B. Mayer that features prostitutes. The writer tells Mayer that his own mother was a "whore." Mayer responds by …
… punching the writer in the face. "You talk about your own mother that way?!" Mayer says. "The woman who gave you life?!"
Mank confesses that he doesn't like Mayer much: "If I ever go to the electric chair, I'd like for him to be sitting in my lap." He quips about how ill-equipped the British are to fight the Germans in World War II (a war the U.S. had not yet entered), describing what might happen in battle. He feels very bad about this conversation when he learns that Rita's own husband is missing; his ship had been sunk off the coast of Norway.
Someone commits suicide off camera. Marion Davies stands on what is intended to be a fiery pyre on a movie set. (She quips that she's "dying for a cigarette.") Someone angrily throws a wooden container filled with alcohol against a fireplace.
Five f-words and four s-words. We also hear a smattering of other profanities, including "a–," "b–ch," "b–tard," "d–n," "h—," "p-ss" and "b–locks." God's name is misused about a half-dozen times, many with the word "d–n," and Jesus' name is abused twice.
Mank drinks a lot, and he manages to do so even at the North Verde Ranch.
Houseman actually brings a wooden case filled with what appears to be alcohol as an incentive to help Mank recuperate. (He theoretically can't get it himself because of his broken leg, but Houseman quips he'll soon be track star, such is his motivational thirst.) The bottles are something of a ruse, though—spiked with a drug that knocks the drinker unconscious. Mank finds a way to drink them anyway. Later, though, he brings in his own shipment of booze—much to the initial disgust and horror of Rita. When she learns that Mank's nurse is giving him the alcohol, she nearly resigns, until the nurse tells Rita of how much she owes Mank. Afterwards, Rita and Mank share a drink together.
Mank's drinking is treated, by him and everyone else, as a joke. When someone serves him and Sara glasses of alcohol, he takes—and keeps—both. At a party, where a massive bottle of champagne sits in the middle, Mank takes the bottle and cradles it in his arms, asking what everyone else is drinking. Even his drunken escapades are treated lightly, outside one embarrassing dinner he crashes at the Hearst mansion.
Other people drink as well, and Mank tries to talk one seriously drunk friend into letting him drive him back home. (The man refuses, staying in the office where he's drinking.) Several people smoke, too.
A drunken Mank vomits all over a dining room floor, much to the shock and disgust of the dinner guests. He's also a gambling addict: We learn that he's racked up debts of $12,000. His supervisor expunges the debt after Mank does him a favor (of sorts), but Mank waves the kindness off. Instead, he offers someone else a "double or nothing" bet. We see someone sitting on a toilet, albeit outside the toilet stall, with his pants around his ankles.
Mank, the movie, is overtly political. Some political shenanigans land squarely in this space regardless of a viewer's personal leanings, while others will depend upon which side of the aisle you sit.
It all hinges around the 1934 California governor's race, pitting Republican Frank Merriam against Democrat author Upton Sinclair. Mank and many of his friends are sympathetic to Sinclair's socialist ideology, while Merriam's proponents call him a "communist" and "Bolshevik." (Mank insists several times that communism and socialism are different things, and the movie itself is clearly in sympathy with Mank's political leanings.)
GOP members within MGM work on fabricated newsreels designed to play on voters' fears, including racial fears. The one Black "interviewed" says he's voting democratic, as does a shabbily dressed man who says he supports "comrade" Sinclair. The newsreel suggests that Sinclair has the hobo vote, too, as his policies will attract many to the state. Meanwhile, Republican voters say they're voting for Merriam to "preserve our way of life," which many pundits (then and now) suggest is a racial dog whistle.
Citizen Kane was a disappointment when it was released in 1941. William Randolph Hearst—widely considered the template for the film's antihero, Charles Foster Kane—forbade any of his newspapers from covering the film and even rejected advertising for it. RKO didn't recoup what Welles spent on the movie. And while Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Oscars, it won just one—for his and Mank's original screenplay.
It's now widely considered to be the best American movie ever made.
Mank, not unexpectedly, falls short of that lofty standard.
This is not to say that Mank is a bad movie, and it's certainly primed to make its own Oscar run. Filmed in black and white, this Netflix feature may charm many a cinephile with its spot-on retro feel. And Gary Oldman's turn as the title character is pretty great.
And, for an R-rated movie, Mank isn't even overly loaded with content. It seems to make its own nod at the period's own Hays Code (which restricted what could be said and shown in American movies), peppering the dialogue with just enough profanity and showing just enough skin to snag its post-Hays "restricted" rating. With just a little more restraint, Mank could've easily been PG-13.
But be glad for that warning R-rating, anyway. Mank illustrates that it's not just superficial content that can make a film problematic. Often, issues are hardboiled into the story, too.
For some viewers, the biggest hurdle might be its political leanings. Even though it's depicting an age 80 years past, director David Fincher clearly wants to talk about the here-and-now, and he makes his politics fairly explicit.
But for me, the bigger issue is how it treated Mank's problems as Mank himself did: "What problems?"
The real Herman Mankiewicz died at age 55 from the complications of alcoholism—that is, he essentially drank himself to death. The movie pays lip service to that sad fact and doesn't turn a completely blind eye to his excesses. Mank himself admits to his self-destructive ways. But Gary Oldman makes the dude just so charming and likable, and thus his alcoholism turns into more funny foible and less fatal flaw. The movie even suggests that his drinking was, after a fashion, critical to his success.
Mank's own nurse aids his drinking habit: He's a "grown man, a good man, and should be treated as such," she insists. Let adults be adults, the movie suggests, with again an eye toward today and the legalization of many a drug. It ignores the tragic truth that without legal or social or religious curbs in place, many of us can make pretty juvenile decisions—destroying not only our own lives, but the lives of those around us. Just ask "poor Sara."
It's a bit ironic, given Mank's own subject matter. Citizen Kane, after all, is a story of sin and hubris—lofty ambition gone grandly wrong. But if Mank the writer skewered his protagonist, Fincher sets his own on a teetering pedestal, and asks us to turn away before it falls.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He's written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He's married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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What Salary To Expect Becoming A Freelance Technical Writer?
Technical writer is the person who is involved in producing instruction manual and any other supporting document for the purpose of communicating complicated technical information in an easier way. These people would involve in developing, gathering and disseminating technical information for their customers and designers. A technical writer is also called as 'technical communicator'.
Are you wondering why people choose to become a freelance technical writer? The reason is quite obvious.
Sound skills in the software technical aspects like Acrobat, MS office, HTML and so on.
Sound skills in the tools like MS office, FrameMaker and so on.
The salary for a technical editor could range from $47 per hour to $72+ per hour with the average rate of $60 per hour. The salary can be further increased by having the aforementioned technical skills as per the area of interest.
Thus, anyone who is entering into the field of freelance technical writing could make good money if he/she is passionate about the work provided having the required skill set.