#Prairie Home Companion Premiere

[productomag]

lindsay lohan at a "prairie home companion" premiere in new york, 2006 

[mermaidinthecity]

A Prairie Home Companion Premiere After Party at the Hudson Hotel in New York City - June 4, 2006

[lapsed-bookworm]

"Canadian Drama on the Lasting Effects of the Sixties Scoop Comes to PBS" (dated to 5 September 2023).

American public broadcaster PBS has announced the premiere of Canadian drama Little Bird, which follows the life of a First Nation woman who was forcefully removed from her family as a child during Canada’s Sixties Scoop.

The six-part, one-hour limited series, created by Canadian First Nations filmmaker Jennifer Podemski and playwright Hannah Moscovitch, stars Darla Contois and Lisa Edelstein and follows the life of Bezhig Little Bird, a victim of the Sixties Scoop in Saskatchewan during which indigenous children were taken from their families and adopted by white families. Removed from her home in Long Pine Reservation, Bezhig Little Bird is adopted into a Montreal Jewish family at age five. Now in her 20s, Bezhig longs for the family she lost and is willing to sacrifice everything to find them. Her search lands her in the Canadian Prairies. As she begins to track down her siblings, she unravels the mystery behind her adoption and discovers that her apprehension is connected to a racist government policy. “It is a powerful narrative that not only engages and pulls on your heartstrings but also educates on a profoundly disturbing time in North American history that is rarely portrayed,” Germaine Sweet, Managing Director, Content Acquisitions at PBS Distribution, said in a press release. “In addition to the creative brilliance of Jennifer Podemski and Hannah Moscovitch, this series was delivered by a wealth of Indigenous talent both in front of and behind the camera.” The character-driven drama features Indigenous actors, including Ellyn Jade, Osawa Muskwaa, and Joshua Odjick. Rounding out the cast is award-winning actress Lisa Edelstein, playing Esther’s adoptive mother, Golda Rosenblum. PBS will also broadcast Coming Home, which is a 90-minute companion documentary directed by Erica Daniels, which explores the connections between the movement for Indigenous narrative sovereignty and the impact of the child welfare system. Little Bird and Coming Home will be available for streaming on October 12, 9:00 E.T., on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS app, and on Apple T.V., Android T.V., Amazon Fire T.V., Samsung Smart T.V., Chromecast, and VIZIO.

[brookston]

Holidays 7.6

Holidays

All-Star Game Anniversary (Baseball)

Aphelion Day 2023 (Earth farthest from the Sun)

Buy Yourself A Toy You Always Wanted As A Child Day

Capital City Day (Kazakhstan)

Constitution Day (Cayman Islands)

Day of the Capital (Kazakhstan)

Eino Leino Day (Finland)

Ettelbruck Remembrance Day (Luxembourg)

Festival of San Fermín begins (Pamplona, Spain) [thru 7.14]

Fill an Aquarium Day

Great American Wicnic

Hairy Vetchling Day (French Republic

International Compassion Day

International Day of the Stolen Kiss

International Kissing Day (a.k.a. World Kissing Day)

Iriya no Asagao-ichi (Morning Glory Flower Festival; Japan)

Jan Hus Day (Czech Republic)

King Mindaugas Day (Lithuania)

Kupala Night (a.k.a. Ivan Kupala Day or Kupalle; Belarus, Russia, Ukraine)

MHIP Day (Mizoram, India)

Name That Tune Day

National Air Traffic Control Day

National Daniel Day

National Wedgie Day

Old Albums Are Frisbees Day

San Fermin (Spain)

Take Your Webmaster To Lunch Day

Teachers’ Day (Peru)

Time of Music begins (Finland)

Treat Your Webmaster or Webmistress Day

Umbrella Cover Day

Urs Shah-I-Hamdan Sahib (Jammu, Kashmir; India)

Valstybės Diena (a.k.a. Statehood Day; Lithuania)

Virtually Hug a Virtual Assistant Day

World Tibet Day

World Zoonoses Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Malted Milk Day

National Fried Chicken Day

National Hand Roll Day

National Pickle Festival

Sliced Bread Day

1st Thursday in July

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Ommegang Pageant ends (Belgium) [1st Thursday]

Thirsty Thursday [1st Thursday]

Independence Days

Comoros (from France, 1975)

Jockromasa (Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Lithuania (Statehood Day)

Malawi (from UK, 1964)

Ünie (a.k.a. Ünieazwati; Declared; 2002) [unrecognized]

Varcetia (Declared; 2009) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Alexander III (Positivist; Saint)

Arthur C. Clarke Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Dog-Lion Beast (Muppetism)

Festival of Buddha's Eyetooth (Sri Lanka)

Frida Kahlo (Artology)

Goar (Christian; Saint)

Godelieve of Ghistelle (Christian; Saint)

Julian (Christian; Saint)

Ludi Apollinares begins (Roman games honoring Apollo)

Macaroni Day (Pastafarian)

Maria Goretti (Christian; Saint)

Moninna of Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Palladius, Apostle of the Scots (Christian; Saint)

Romulus of Fiesole (Christian; Saint)

Sexburgh (Christian; Saint)

Solstitium V (Pagan)

Taxi Drive McGillicuddy (Muppetism)

Tzom Tammuz (Commemorating Braching of the Walls of Jerusalem before Destruction of the 2nd Temple; Judaism) [17 Tammuz]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Ant-Man and the Wasp (Film; 2018)

The B-52s, by The B-52s (Album; 1979)

Butterflies Are Free (Film; 1972)

Die Hard 2 (Film; 1990)

Forrest Gump (Film; 1994)

A Hard Day’s Night (Beatles UK Film; 1964)

Higher and Higher, by Jackie Wilson (Song; 1965)

Inner World, by The Dalai Lama (Album; 2020)

Invincible, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1985)

Keep Yourself Alive, by Queen (Song; 1973)

The Naughty Nineties (Abbott & Costello Film; 1945)

Paradise Hawaiian Style (Elvis Presley Film; 1966)

A Prairie Home Companion (Radio Series; 1974)

Precious Time, by Pat Benatar (Album; 1981)

Queen, by Queen (Album; 1973)

Sorry to Bother You (Film; 2018)

What’s Opera, Doc? (WB MM Cartoon; 1957)

Who’s On First, by Abbott and Costello (Filmed Skit; 1945)

You Oughta Know, by Alan’s Morisette (Song; 1995)

Today’s Name Days

Goar, Isaias, Marietta (Austria)

Agata, Marija, Suzana (Croatia)

Jan Hus (Czech Republic)

Dion (Denmark)

Sulev, Sulo (Estonia)

Esa, Esaias (Finland)

Marietta, Mariette, Nolwen (France)

Goar, Isaias, Marietta (Germany)

Lykios, Satryos (Greece)

Csaba (Hungary)

Antonio, Domenica, Maria, Romola (Italy)

Andzs, Anrijs, Arkādijs, Druvvaldis (Latvia)

Domė, Dominyka, Ginvilė, Nervydas (Lithuania)

Torgrim, Torgunn (Norway)

Agrypina, Chociebor, Dominik, Dominika, Goar, Gotard, Lucja, Łucja, Niegosław (Poland)

Sisoe (România)

Patrícia, Patrik (Slovakia)

Goretti, Isaías, María (Spain)

Esaias, Jessika (Sweden)

Felix (Ukraine)

Godiva, Isaiah, Isaias, Isiah, Jamaal, Jamal, Jamel, Jamil, Pallas, Shea, Shyanne (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 187 of 2024; 178 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 27 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 25 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Wu-Wu), Day 19 (Yi-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 17 Tammuz 5783

Islamic: 17 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444

J Cal: 7 Lux; Sevenday [7 of 30]

Julian: 23 June 2023

Moon: 85%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 19 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Alexander III]

Runic Half Month: Feoh (Wealth) [Day 8 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 16 of 94)

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 16 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 7.6

Holidays

All-Star Game Anniversary (Baseball)

Aphelion Day 2023 (Earth farthest from the Sun)

Buy Yourself A Toy You Always Wanted As A Child Day

Capital City Day (Kazakhstan)

Constitution Day (Cayman Islands)

Day of the Capital (Kazakhstan)

Eino Leino Day (Finland)

Ettelbruck Remembrance Day (Luxembourg)

Festival of San Fermín begins (Pamplona, Spain) [thru 7.14]

Fill an Aquarium Day

Great American Wicnic

Hairy Vetchling Day (French Republic

International Compassion Day

International Day of the Stolen Kiss

International Kissing Day (a.k.a. World Kissing Day)

Iriya no Asagao-ichi (Morning Glory Flower Festival; Japan)

Jan Hus Day (Czech Republic)

King Mindaugas Day (Lithuania)

Kupala Night (a.k.a. Ivan Kupala Day or Kupalle; Belarus, Russia, Ukraine)

MHIP Day (Mizoram, India)

Name That Tune Day

National Air Traffic Control Day

National Daniel Day

National Wedgie Day

Old Albums Are Frisbees Day

San Fermin (Spain)

Take Your Webmaster To Lunch Day

Teachers’ Day (Peru)

Time of Music begins (Finland)

Treat Your Webmaster or Webmistress Day

Umbrella Cover Day

Urs Shah-I-Hamdan Sahib (Jammu, Kashmir; India)

Valstybės Diena (a.k.a. Statehood Day; Lithuania)

Virtually Hug a Virtual Assistant Day

World Tibet Day

World Zoonoses Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Malted Milk Day

National Fried Chicken Day

National Hand Roll Day

National Pickle Festival

Sliced Bread Day

1st Thursday in July

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Ommegang Pageant ends (Belgium) [1st Thursday]

Thirsty Thursday [1st Thursday]

Independence Days

Comoros (from France, 1975)

Jockromasa (Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Lithuania (Statehood Day)

Malawi (from UK, 1964)

Ünie (a.k.a. Ünieazwati; Declared; 2002) [unrecognized]

Varcetia (Declared; 2009) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Alexander III (Positivist; Saint)

Arthur C. Clarke Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Dog-Lion Beast (Muppetism)

Festival of Buddha's Eyetooth (Sri Lanka)

Frida Kahlo (Artology)

Goar (Christian; Saint)

Godelieve of Ghistelle (Christian; Saint)

Julian (Christian; Saint)

Ludi Apollinares begins (Roman games honoring Apollo)

Macaroni Day (Pastafarian)

Maria Goretti (Christian; Saint)

Moninna of Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Palladius, Apostle of the Scots (Christian; Saint)

Romulus of Fiesole (Christian; Saint)

Sexburgh (Christian; Saint)

Solstitium V (Pagan)

Taxi Drive McGillicuddy (Muppetism)

Tzom Tammuz (Commemorating Braching of the Walls of Jerusalem before Destruction of the 2nd Temple; Judaism) [17 Tammuz]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

Ant-Man and the Wasp (Film; 2018)

The B-52s, by The B-52s (Album; 1979)

Butterflies Are Free (Film; 1972)

Die Hard 2 (Film; 1990)

Forrest Gump (Film; 1994)

A Hard Day’s Night (Beatles UK Film; 1964)

Higher and Higher, by Jackie Wilson (Song; 1965)

Inner World, by The Dalai Lama (Album; 2020)

Invincible, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1985)

Keep Yourself Alive, by Queen (Song; 1973)

The Naughty Nineties (Abbott & Costello Film; 1945)

Paradise Hawaiian Style (Elvis Presley Film; 1966)

A Prairie Home Companion (Radio Series; 1974)

Precious Time, by Pat Benatar (Album; 1981)

Queen, by Queen (Album; 1973)

Sorry to Bother You (Film; 2018)

What’s Opera, Doc? (WB MM Cartoon; 1957)

Who’s On First, by Abbott and Costello (Filmed Skit; 1945)

You Oughta Know, by Alan’s Morisette (Song; 1995)

Today’s Name Days

Goar, Isaias, Marietta (Austria)

Agata, Marija, Suzana (Croatia)

Jan Hus (Czech Republic)

Dion (Denmark)

Sulev, Sulo (Estonia)

Esa, Esaias (Finland)

Marietta, Mariette, Nolwen (France)

Goar, Isaias, Marietta (Germany)

Lykios, Satryos (Greece)

Csaba (Hungary)

Antonio, Domenica, Maria, Romola (Italy)

Andzs, Anrijs, Arkādijs, Druvvaldis (Latvia)

Domė, Dominyka, Ginvilė, Nervydas (Lithuania)

Torgrim, Torgunn (Norway)

Agrypina, Chociebor, Dominik, Dominika, Goar, Gotard, Lucja, Łucja, Niegosław (Poland)

Sisoe (România)

Patrícia, Patrik (Slovakia)

Goretti, Isaías, María (Spain)

Esaias, Jessika (Sweden)

Felix (Ukraine)

Godiva, Isaiah, Isaias, Isiah, Jamaal, Jamal, Jamel, Jamil, Pallas, Shea, Shyanne (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 187 of 2024; 178 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 27 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 25 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Wu-Wu), Day 19 (Yi-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 17 Tammuz 5783

Islamic: 17 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444

J Cal: 7 Lux; Sevenday [7 of 30]

Julian: 23 June 2023

Moon: 85%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 19 Charlemagne (7th Month) [Alexander III]

Runic Half Month: Feoh (Wealth) [Day 8 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 16 of 94)

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 16 of 31)

[imstuck-s-t-u-c-k]

[bacalletal]

So happy to see Lily Tomlin on the red carpet, even though she wore the same outfit.  

At the Prairie Home Companion premiere in 2006.

[thebowerypresents]

Live from Here with Chris Thile Officially Makes a Home at Town Hall

Live from Here with Chris Thile – Town Hall – September 7, 2019

Live from Here with Chris Thile officially moved to New York City this year from its longtime home base of the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minn., but if you’ve been fortunate to hear—and even more fortunate to see—any of the Live from Here episodes that have occurred here since Chris Thile took over as host in 2016, you know the show is already home. Thile’s Live from Here retains much of A Prairie Home Companion’s homespun, kinda-goofy charm, but it’s very much an NYC thing now.

Almost everything about the show feels polyglot in taste, and one of the most fascinating things about it is how Thile and company, show after show, can draw musicians, comedians and influencers from all walks, genres, flavors and dispositions, and make their offering feel like patches on the same tastemaker quilt. Put another way, what other variety show, festival or happening could announce this kind of guest lineup for its fall run and have it make just bang-on perfect sense?

Like almost all Live from Here installments, Saturday’s fall premiere at Town Hall drew familiar pals (Sarah Jarosz, comedian Holly Laurent), big-name guests (Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, actor Jake Gyllenhaal) and fascinating up-and-comers (the amazing Mexican pop-rock singer Natalia Lafourcade) and have it all work smoothly, welcomed as always—although never overpowering—the relentlessly affable Thile and his wicked mandolin. There were some new-season adjustments to the format, but as always, the show somehow moved Mach-speed fast but felt like time had stopped, visiting little moments like the hootenanny-style delivery of Vampire Weekend’s “Hannah Hunt,” or Lafourcade’s “Mi Tierra Veracruzana,” or, in what might have been the showstopper, Jarosz’s reading of Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine.”

Go to a Live from Here show this fall. The Lumineers, Raphael Saadiq, Trey Anastasio, Jamila Woods and others you’ve definitely heard of will be there. So will a lot of musicians and comedians you probably haven’t spent much, if any, time with or never much thought you needed to. The thing about this thing? It’s all good. —Chad Berndtson | @Cberndtson

Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @Qbertplaya

(Get tickets to a Live from Here with Chris Thile taping.)

[blackkudos]

Maya Rudolph

Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress and comedian. She rose to prominence on the NBC television show Saturday Night Live, where she was a cast member from 2000 to 2007. She has also starred in films such asIdiocracy (2006), Away We Go (2009), Grown Ups (2010), Bridesmaids (2011),Friends with Kids (2011), Grown Ups 2 (2013), and Sisters (2015). She starred as Ava Alexander in the NBC sitcom Up All Night from 2011 to 2013.

Early life

Rudolph was born in Gainesville, Florida. She is the daughter of soul singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton and composer, songwriter, and producer Richard Rudolph. Her father is an Ashkenazi Jew, and her mother was African-American. Her paternal grandfather was Sidney Rudolph, a philanthropist who once owned all of the Wendy's and Rudy's restaurants in Dade County, Florida. Her great-grandfather, who was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, changed his surname from "Rudashevsky" to "Rudolph," and was one of the founding members of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rudolph's parents moved to Los Angeles, California when she and her brother Marc were very young, and they grew up primarily in the Westwood neighborhood.

Near the end of the "Lovin' You" track, Riperton can be heard singing "Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya". Riperton incorporated this into her performance of the song on The Midnight Special. Riperton died on July 12, 1979, at age 31, from breast cancer. Rudolph's godmother was R&B singer Teena Marie.

In 1990, Rudolph graduated from Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, where she became friendly with fellow students Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black, and continued her education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in photography from Porter College.

Career

Saturday Night Live

In May 2000, Rudolph joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a featured player for the final three episodes of the 1999–2000 season, after a stint as a member of The Groundlings improv troupe, where she met future Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte. Rudolph's musical talents were frequently employed on Saturday Night Live. She sang as Beyoncé Knowles in the Prince Showsketches, as the "Space Creature" in the Gays in Space sketches, except for the one on the season 31 episode hosted by Peter Sarsgaard, because it aired around the time Rudolph was on maternity leave. Friend Will Forte substituted for her during that episode. Her ability to change her looks and her command of many accents also led to her playing an unusually wide range of ethnicities on the show, often with only a change of wigs. As "Nooni Schoener," Rudolph, along with Fred Armisen, created a couple from an unspecified Scandinavian country, who have unplaceable accents and bewilderingly foreign manners. Rudolph was also able to play male characters such as Scott Joplin, Justin Guarini, and Mario Vazquez.

Her final episode as a cast member was on November 3, 2007, with host Brian Williams and musical guest Feist, the last episode before the writers' strike. She returned on October 25, 2008, in a featured guest appearance as Michelle Obama and sang a duet with Kenan Thompson about Amy Poehler's newborn. She then also appeared in the 2008 Christmas episode, where she reprised her role in the sketch Bronx Beat, with Amy Poehler. She also appeared in two sketches in the 2008–09 season finale with Will Ferrell. She appeared in a Weekend Update Thursday sketch during the fall 2009–10 season as Oprah Winfrey speaking on behalf of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. She also appeared on the show in May 2010 to perform in skits including "The Manuel Ortiz Show" with Betty White. She returned to Saturday Night Live for the season 36 premiere, hosted by Amy Poehler, performing the "Bronx Beat" sketch and that same season for episode 700, hosted by Tina Fey. On February 18, 2012 she returned to Saturday Night Live as a host for the first time and reprised her roles in sketches such as "Bronx Beat". She once again returned to SNL on December 19, 2015 for the Christmas episode hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to reprise her role in the "Bronx Beat" sketch. She appeared once more on the 41st season finale (hosted by Fred Armisen) as Dilma Roussef on Weekend Update.

Characters

Rudolph's characters on the show have included "Attorney Glenda Goodwin" and "Megan" from the "Wake Up, Wakefield!" sketches. Rudolph has done a number of celebrity impressions on Saturday Night Live during her tenure, including Amanda Byram, Ananda Lewis, Barbra Streisand, Bern Nadette Stanis (as Thelma Evans on Good Times), Beyoncé, Charo, Christina Aguilera, Condoleezza Rice, Darcel Wynne, Diana Ross, Dilma Roussef, Donatella Versace, Donna Fargo, Emily Robison, Fredricka Whitfield, Free, Gayle King, Griselda Blanco, Halle Berry, Ivanka Trump, Ja'net Du Bois (as Willona Woods on Good Times), Jennifer Lopez, Joyce "Fenderella" Irby, Justin Guarini, Kara Saun, La Toya Jackson, Lisa Kudrow, Lisa Ling, Liza Minnelli, Lucy Liu, Lynda Lopez, Macy Gray, Mario Vasquez, Mary Roach, Maya Angelou, Melinda Doolittle, Melissa Stark, Michelle Obama, Mýa, Nelly Furtado, Omarosa Manigault, Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Patti LaBelle, Phylicia Rashad (as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show), Rocsi, Scott Joplin, Teresa Heinz, Terra Patrick, Tina Turner, Tyra Banks, Valerie Simpson, Vanessa Hudgens (as Gabriella Montez from High School Musical 3), Wanda Sykes and Whitney Houston.

Recurring characters

Television and film

In addition to her work on Saturday Night Live, Rudolph has appeared on other television shows, including the CBS medical drama series City of Angels and Chicago Hope. She had small parts in Chuck & Buck, Gattaca, As Good as It Gets, Duplex and Duets; she was also a music supervisor for Duets. Her first prominent film role came in 2006 with A Prairie Home Companion. Earlier, she had costarred with Luke Wilson in the 2005 Mike Judge sci-fi comedy Idiocracy, although that film was shelved until September 2006 and then only given a limited release. She also guest-starred as Rapunzel in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek the Third. She guest-starred as Julia in The Simpsons episode "The Homer of Seville". Rudolph guest-starred as character Athena Scooberman in NBC'sKath & Kim, and starred in the film Away We Go with The Office star John Krasinski. In 2010, she appeared in Grown Ups starring Adam Sandler, where she played the wife of Chris Rock's character. In 2011, she appeared in Bridesmaids with Saturday Night Livecolleague Kristen Wiig, and in 2013 she played a supporting role in The Way, Way Back as the girlfriend of Sam Rockwell's character. She co-starred in the NBC sitcom Up All Night, with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett. Rudolph's self-titled variety show television pilot aired on May 19, 2014, but the show did not go beyond that. It was later announced that she would star in an NBC variety seriesMaya & Marty with Martin Short, which debuted on May 31, 2016.

Music

Prior to joining Saturday Night Live, Rudolph was backing singer (1995–99) and briefly a keyboardist in the band The Rentals, with whom she toured for a short time. She also appears in the music videos of the songs "Waiting" and "Please Let That Be You". She sang backing vocals for "Barcelona" and "My Head Is in the Sun," both from the album Seven More Minutes. In 2004, she recorded a track with The Rentals frontman Matt Sharp, including a cover of Tegan and Sara's "Not Tonight." Rudolph also performed "Together In Pooping" and "Little Roundworm" with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (Robert Smigel) on his album Come Poop With Me. She is in a Prince cover band called Princess with her friend Gretchen Lieberum.

Personal life

Rudolph has been in a relationship with director Paul Thomas Anderson since 2001. They live together with their children: Pearl (born 2005), Lucille (born 2009), Jack (born July 3, 2011) and Minnie (born 2013).

http://wikipedia.thetimetube.com/?q=Maya+Rudolph&lang=en

[biofunmy]

How Big Bird and friends shaped children’s TV

CLOSE

On the heels of “Sesame Street”’s 50 Anniversary, the show’s loveable characters talk about their favorite celebrity guests. (Nov. 4) AP

NEW YORK – TV’s most famous block is turning the big 5-0. 

This Sunday marks half a century since “Sesame Street” aired its first episode on public television on November 10, 1969. The landmark educational children’s series introduced the world to beloved Muppet characters, including Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, and helped pave the way for inclusion, diversity and learning onscreen. 

“‘Sesame Street’ is proof that the show with top ratings or sensation-of-the-moment status is not necessarily the one that has the most lasting impact,” says TV historian Tim Brooks. “Because of its brilliant design and clearly defined audience of children in their formative years, it has probably had a greater positive impact on generations of young viewers than any show on television over the last 50 years.” 

“Sesame” celebrates the milestone Saturday with “Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary Celebration” on HBO (7 EST/PST), its home since 2015. Hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the celebrity- and music-filled event features appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, Sterling K. Brown and Patti LaBelle, as well as legendary puppeteers Caroll Spinney (the original Big Bird) and Fran Brill (the since-retired voice and performer behind Zoe and Prairie Dawn). 

More: ‘Sesame Street’ tackles parental addiction crisis in a way kids can understand

For the special, which airs on PBS stations Nov. 17, it “was important to nod to our history with just the right amount of nostalgia, but recognize that we’re a current show with something modern and dynamic,” says executive producer Ben Lehmann. “The ’50th’ special is the perfect encapsulation of that.”

Honoring the past is also central to a “Sesame” episode airing later this season, which starts November 16 on HBO (9 a.m. EST/PST). Shot last winter on the series’ homey soundstage in Queens, “The Treasure of Yucky Mama” follows cuddly red monster Elmo and his fairy companion Abby Cadabby as they team up with the garbage can-dwelling Oscar, who searches fordecades-old relics belonging to his great grandma, the similarly grouchy Yucky Mama. 

“Fifty? That is so old,” Elmo exclaims, letting out his signature laugh before huddling over a weathered map of Sesame Street, dated 1969. Following clues as they hunt for treasure, the furry trio visits sites of former neighborhood haunts such as the Fix-It Shop, which was replaced by the Laundromat in 2008. 

“Boy, I remember how Yucky Mama used to love to come here to stare at all the busted junk in the window,” Oscar bemoans. “Now look at it: People come here to make dirty clothes clean!”

Abby Cadabby, left, Charlie (Violet Tinnirello), Nina (Suki Lopez), Oscar the Grouch and Elmo in “The Treasure of Yucky Mama.” (Photo: Courtesy of Sesame Workshop)

As the characters scurry from location to location, puppeteers glide below them on small rolling platforms just out of camera’s view: hoisting the puppets high above their heads, and trying not to bump into each other as they excitedly speak in the Muppets’ high-pitched voices.

Even when they’re not filming, the puppeteers stay in character. Abby, performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, “walks” over to two young visitors between takes and greets them with hugs, cheerfully asking their names and ages. Elmo, played by Ryan Dillon since 2013, mimes lifting weights as he waits for cameras to roll, quipping, “We’re working on our core today.” 

“It looks deceptively easy to do what we do, but we’re really doing half a dozen things at once,” says longtime puppeteer Matt Vogel, who plays both Big Bird and Count von Count. “We have to make that puppet look and feel real to the audience, whether they are adults or children. And that means that we are actors from the elbow up. We embody these little pieces of foam and felt with real human characteristics.”

Muppets from the cast of “Sesame Street,” from left: Cookie Monster, Prairie Dawn, Big Bird, Ernie, Elmo, Bert, Oscar the Grouch and Grover, in a photo taken in 1999. (Photo: RICHARD TERMINE, CTW)

The characters’ zany personalities and lovability are part of why Vogel believes the series has endured.  

“It’s this unique blend of characters, sensibility, music, humor and humanity,” Vogel says. “All of those things rolled up together in this little package – this little street, this community – is what is so important about ‘Sesame Street’ and keeps viewers connected with the show.” 

The series, which moves to WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming service next year (episodes will continue to air later on PBS) has also broken new ground for kids’ TV. In recent years, it’s introduced human and puppet characters dealing with homelessness, foster care and autism. It furthers a mission of inclusiveness started by producers Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, who created the program with the help of Muppets visionary Jim Henson. 

” ‘Sesame Street’ (premiered) in ’69, the year of both Woodstock and the moon landing, and carried on the optimism of the ’60s,” says Ron Simon, curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media. “It was certainly an offshoot of the civil rights movement, and brought together a multicultural cast and creative team.” 

More: ‘Sesame Street’ introduces Karli, a Muppet in foster care

Sonia Manzano, who retired in 2015 after playing Fix-It Shop owner Maria for 44 years, says she rarely saw people of color on TV before the show premiered in 1969. 

“At that time, when you saw a Latin person on television, you always waited for the taco joke,” Manzano says. “But not on ‘Sesame Street’: We were worried about child care and education, just like any other American family.”

“We still teach numbers and letters, but our primary focus is on the emotional and social development of the child,” Vogel adds. “The audience sees themselves in these characters, and ‘Sesame Street’ can address these really important issues.” 

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‘Conquer The Walking Dead’?

Season 8 of AMC’s megahit The Walking Dead began last week – and its “All-Out War” storyline from the comic-based source material is expected to unfold over the course of the next five months.  Then, sometime next spring or summer, its companion/prequel series, Fear the Walking Dead, should return for its fourth season.

On top of that:  showrunner Scott Gimple and comic creator Robert Kirkman have announced that there will be a crossover between The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead sometime in 2018.  Fans have wrecked our brains trying to figure out which characters will be involved, and on which series the crossover will take place (since the two series are set in slightly different periods along the same fictional timeline).

My first guess was that it would be an origin story of sorts for Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz) – who was killed off in the Season 7 premiere at the baseball bat-wielding hands of megalomaniac Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).  Longtime Walking Dead director Greg Nicotero, however, has appeared to debunk this theory (unless he’s just lying to us).  But since the characters from Fear the Walking Dead are in some westbound geographic proximity to Texas (as hinted by Ray McKinnon’s Proctor John in this past summer’s finale episode), is it possible that the crossover will show us an origin story for Rosita (Christian Serrators) or Eugene (Josh McDermitt)? 

Or, might Jeffrey Dean Morgan even take a temporary leave from The Walking Dead to join Fear the Walking Dead in a recurring or temporary series regular status – so that we might get to see Negan’s origin story unfold on the small screen?

Other fans have speculated that Fear the Walking Dead’s Madison (Kim Dickens) or Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) could end up poised to become the TV incarnations of Alpha and Lydia from the comics?  This would probably only be realistic if Fear the Walking Dead consciously wraps up its run within the next two seasons...at which point, Dickens and Debnam-Carey would conceivably join the cast of The Walking Dead for Season 9 or 10.

I personally don’t like this idea.  Whoever portrays Alpha on the TV series (I’m hoping for Tricia Helfer, Julie Caitlin Brown, or Sarah Clarke) should bring the actress’s own unique portrayal and talents to the role as a challenging new foe to Rick (Andrew Lincoln).  In addition, such a convoluted long-term metamorphosis would diminish Madison’s character and be rather dismissive of the strength Dickens has brought to the role.  

So, no, I believe that Madison and Alycia should remain their own unique characters within the Kirkmanverse.

While we eagerly wait to see which storytelling connections the crossover will bring to these two series, I want to broach a different topic.  We have the original flagship series (The Walking Dead) set in the present, along with its prequel (Fear the Walking Dead) set in the past.  So, the next logical step would be a sequel-style “flashforward” TV series:  an installment of the franchise set 5-10 years later in the timeline beyond the events of The Walking Dead.

I would title this TV spinoff “Conquer the Walking Dead.”  It would follow yet another new group in a different part of the country, as these survivors struggle to build a thriving society – but are faced with the threat of power-hungry vigilantes who hope to take advantage of the still-destabilized lack of government (and the straggling walkers).

The following is one version I’ve conceived, in my head, of how Conquer the Walking Dead (or a similar spinoff series set in the future of the Kirkmanverse’s timeline) could look...and unfold.  It may contain mild spoilers for some of the storylines from the comics that haven’t yet made it onto the small screen in either The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead, as well as major revelations from episodes that have already aired.

You have been warned…

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Location?

The Walking Dead is initially set in Georgia, until Season 5 when its main characters migrate northward to Virginia.  Fear the Walking Dead, on the other hand, starts off in Los Angeles, California whereupon its main characters sail southward and then sojourn inland into Mexico.  So it only stands to reason that a third “flashforward”-style series should be set in a region of the United States not yet explored by the franchise:  the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Midwest, New England, or even Canada.

My choice would be for its central action (at least, to begin with) to take place in what used to be Custer County, South Dakota, along the border of Montana and South Dakota.

This would have the added benefit of being able to use a real-life Canadian filming city, such as Vancouver or Toronto, to save production costs on the franchise’s third installment.  British Columbia, in particular, could offer lots of shooting locations to emulate South Dakota’s badlands or the Rocky Mountain terrain of surrounding states.

Of course, with their in-universe power grid having gone down and the federal government non-functional, state borders have very little meaning in the Kirkmanverse.  It would mainly be a convenient reference to where certain towns, cities, and state borders USED TO exist.

The Main Conflict

Formerly known as Custer, the small town that was originally home to 2,000 residents has been gradually rebuilt and refurbished by survivors over the past decade since the zombie apocalypse began.  The community was renamed “Prairie Crocus” by its new residents, to honor the Sioux healers who have aided the townspeople with healing properties of the pasque flower.  Prairie Crocus has absorbed many refugees from nearby Rapid City, as well as people who’ve fled into South Dakota out of surrounding states.

As a contrast to the Broke Jaw Ranch conflict seen in this past season of Fear the Walking Dead, local Sioux leaders have partnered with residents of non-indigenous descent to pool resources and fortify their adjacent communities in the face of this viral outbreak – a common foe.  Prairie Crocus, now a rebuilt community housing more than 500 people (after 99% of the town of Custer’s original population was wiped out), has managed to repurpose and create new infrastructure approximately twenty times larger than that of Hilltop Colony.

But this advanced stage of rebuilding society – set anywhere from 10-15 years following the events of The Walking Dead – is not without its obstacles or outside threats.  Unbeknownst to the denizens of Prairie Crocus, a civil war is brewing in the Rocky Mountain region.

As society broke down (during Fear the Walking Dead’s early timeline), dwindling government resources spared several large cities – such as Las Vegas, Denver, and Kansas City – from being napalmed.  As humans in this part of the country gradually discovered the most effective ways to kill (and protect themselves from) walkers, they took refuge in new enclaves and isolated communities – some of which formed tenuous trading partnerships.

Additionally, many refugees managed to successfully flee from major California cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose.  Those “escape caravans” made their way through the deserts and found sanctuary in larger cities that had been spared from wide-scale destruction (Las Vegas, Boise, Denver, etc.).

Unbeknownst to many of these smaller Rocky Mountain communities, though, is a brewing civil war.  Much of the still-habitable Western United States has been united amid a shadow government centered in Las Vegas.  But 1,400 miles to the east, a similar renegade “mini-empire” has been growing out of Kansas City.  The latter group of insurgents are composed of a diversity of refugees from the Great Plains, the Deep South, and the Great Plains regions.  Over the course of the past five years or so, the Las Vegas insurgents and the Kansas City insurgents have been made aware of each other’s presence...and even gotten into a handful of armed skirmishes across parts of Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas. 

Nestled amid South Dakota’s Black Hills, most of the Prairie Crocus townfolk are unaware of this daunting reality...until emissaries who represent these warring factions pass through the badlands as advance scouts.

The Major Characters

Whereas Rick was a sheriff and Madison was a high school guidance counselor, the lead character of Conquer the Walking Dead would come straight out of the medical field.  

Dr. Azar Moridi (played by actress Nazanin Boniadi) was the Chief-of-Staff at a major hospital in Denver.  She somehow managed her medical facility with more discipline and order than Dawn Lerner (Christine Woods) could have ever have hoped to (at Grady Memorial Hospital).  But once supplies began running extremely low, Azar and her loved ones high-tailed it out of Denver when they saw the writing on the wall:  their city was about to become a war zone (from which they escaped right before the Las Vegas delegation swooped in and took over).

Azar has been hardened by a rough and repressive childhood growing up in Rafsanjani-era Iran.  She faced racial discrimination when her family immigrated to the United States during her teen years; and, after coming out to them as a lesbian, a majority of her biological family disowned her.  Along with being acutely-skilled in her medical prowess, Azar possesses a sharp tongue and quick wit.  Although she has a difficult time trusting people and opening up to strangers, her rough exterior tends to soften once a newcomer has earned the goodwill of her loved ones.

Terri Mason (played by actress Portia de Rossi) is Azar’s wife...formerly a serious-but-persuasive lawyer who (unlike Azar) came out much later in life.  Her maternal side was shaken when her only daughter, Ariel, got mauled by a herd of walkers in the earliest days of the zombie apocalypse.  She also was forced to put down her “turned” ex-husband before the first year of the outbreak had concluded...which has driven a wedge between Terri and her surviving children.

During her first chunk of years surviving in Denver alongside of Azar, Terri discovered an aberrant trait that her body possesses:  she is actually immune to walker-bites, unlike Paul Calderon’s Alejandro from Fear the Walking Dead (who only pretended to be immune).  Terri was first bitten while helping Azar do hospital triage in the aftermath of a supply-run-gone-awry...and she has additionally been bitten on two other occasions since then.  Since they soon realized that Terri’s body heals with no feverish symptoms, Azar suspects her spouse’s blood contains a rare strain of antibodies...and, for that reason, she’s been protecting Terri from the hypothetical curiosity of the mob by withholding that information from anyone outside of their family.

Hal “Hotcake” Bakken (played by actor Colin Salmon) is a Montana-born rancher.  Much like King Ezekiel (Khary Payton) in The Walking Dead, “Hotcake” relishes his theatrically-orchestrated role – in this case, as a fearless cowboy who is integral to maintaining and managing Prairie Crocus’s security.  His expertise in raising cattle, horses, and sheep is invaluable – especially when you consider how those sorts of animals would be less resilient against walkers.

While he does have an underlying savior complex, Hotcake is also gregarious and charming.  The people of Prairie Crocus trust him, which earns him status as a steadfast ally to Azar amid their collective goal to make this sustainable community work for everyone.  Along with being an expert marksman, his abilities in upper body strength and acquiring followers rivals those of Negan.

Eddie Rose (played by actor Elliot Fletcher) is a former city boy who struggles to adapt to this rustic new world, having lost a majority of his affluent family in the Salt Lake City riots.  Cynical yet hopeful, his arrival in Prairie Crocus was accompanied by much buzz as so many of its residents had never met a transgender person before.  Despite this culture clash, Eddie has followed Maggie Greene’s (Lauren Cohan) trajectory of political organizing to provide his community with much-needed leadership.

The Walking Dead franchise has never featured a transgender character before...and in addition to being a surgically-transitioned female-to-male trans man, Eddie is also bisexual.  When the series opens, the town is gearing up for its first mayoral race in this new world – and many local residents are urging Eddie to run.  But he is also running out of post-op hormones to take, and seeks Azar’s help in ensuring that he doesn’t lose his identity during this ongoing crisis.

Sigmund Yadav (played by Kal Penn) is a chemist who Azar knew from their shared professional circles in Denver (pre-outbreak).  The son of second-generation Indian immigrants, he worked for a major pharmaceutical company...managing to hoard quite a supply of prescriptions and cocktails before everything went to hell.  Separated from his immediate family on the East Coast, Sigmund accompanied Azar and her family on their northeastern trek through Colorado, Nebraska, and into the Black Hills.

As Prairie Crocus’s only resident scientist, Sigmund has joined Azar in her clandestine efforts to test Terri’s blood samples and explore whether it might hold some clue to humanity’s greater salvation.  He is the expert for treating illnesses and rationing the town’s supply of medications so they don’t run out between supply runs.  He harbors a lesser degree of Eugene’s social awkwardness while interweaving Travis Manawa’s (Cliff Curtis) protectiveness over others.  But he isn’t a “moral center,” by any means; Sigmund’s code of ethics can sometimes be questionable.

NOTE:   Kal Penn being cast on the series would obviously be contingent on the future cancellation of ABC’s Designated Survivor.

Christine Weeks (played by actress Madylin Sweeten) is a survivalist whose commune in Minnesota was overrun even after they’d successfully isolated themselves from the rest of civilization for a few years.  Practically the only person to survive a stealth attack on her once-formidable sanctuary, she wandered across the prairies living a nomadic, scavenger-like existence until she finally managed to trust someone.  Christine was led to the safe harbor of Prairie Crocus by Hotcake, after the two of them encountered each other in an abandoned supermarket....and he broke down some of her emotional barriers.

A wildly independent soul, Christine is still adjusting to dealing with an assortment of stubborn and self-centered personalities...which is an unspeakably radical new environment from her former society of like-minded survivalists.  She has been indispensable in teaching the Prairie Crocans how to use natural resources for edibles and palliatives.  Her lack of patience, however, sometimes gets the better of her when interacting with other people.

Jordan and Riley Mason (played by actors Charlie & Max Carver) are Terri’s identical twin sons...and Azar’s stepsons.  Despite having the same genetics, the two of them are like night and day:  Jordan provides a more soft-spoken, gentler presence to those around him, whereas Riley is much more of an acerbic risk-taker.  Jordan teaches literature and art to children and teens at Prairie Crocus’s school; Riley belongs to Hotcake’s security team, managing sentries and the town’s militia.

Terri’s relationship with both sons has been strained, as they view her as being at least partially culpable in the deaths of their late father and late younger sister.  Nevertheless, despite their opposite personalities, the twins are loyal and devoted to each other as brothers.  Jordan and Riley can both frequently be relied upon to mediate and broker deals when conflicts arise amongst the Prairie Crocans.

Felix Meriwether (played by actor Joe Keery) is an ex-Marine who was in-between tours in Afghanistan when the zombie apocalypse began.  He lost his entire family while trying to rid Rapid City of its walker scourge...and ultimately left the crumbling city to find solace in the new hope of Prairie Crocus.  As a chief construction foreman (Conquer’s equivalent of Tobin from Alexandria Safe-Zone), Felix has been instrumental in leading the once-crumbling town by innovating years’ worth of infrastructural repairs and expansions.

Little do the other townspeople of Prairie Crocus know that Felix’s father – prior to perishing in the first year of the zombie apocalypse – had been an intelligence officer for the U.S. government.  Often commuting to cities such as Sioux Falls, Billings, Cheyenne, and Omaha, General Sterling Meriweather was privy to early indicators of this mysterious viral epidemic...and, when the chaos first began to ensue, he confided in the rest of his family (including his son, Felix) as to what was probably about to happen globally.  Therefore, Felix has at least an inking of the forthcoming armed conflict between the current power bases from both Las Vegas and Kansas City.

New Arrivals

Joining the main cast would be a variety of supporting players from the town of Prairie Crocus.  Most of the actors used to portray townsfolk would be either recurring characters, background extras, or red-shirts.  Prairie Crocus may also see its share of outsiders attempting to join the community...either peacefully or forcibly.  Some of these outside forces will definitely be adversaries; other could become allies, and, eventually, new series regulars.

This would give Conquer the Walking Dead the incredible opportunity to bring in select surviving characters from both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.  Some of them could have more limited story arcs, whereas others might join the cast on a more permanent or recurring basis.

Alex (Michelle Ang) from Fear the Walking Dead would be one candidate for a character who’d usher in new storytelling opportunities.  First seen in the webepisodic series Flight 462, it was strongly hinted that she knew a lot more about the cause of the zombie outbreak than she was willing to reveal.  She only appeared in two episodes of Fear the Walking Dead – where the rope connecting her raft to the Abigail is infamously chopped by Victor Strand (Colman Domingo), and she later joins up with Connor’s (Mark Kelly) band of Baja-dwelling pirates.  Given how much story she undoubtedly has left to tell, could Alex help Azar to get to the bottom of how they might rid the world of walkers once and for all?

There’s also fan favorite Tobias (Lincoln A. Castellanos), who appeared in Fear’s first two episodes as one of Madison’s high school students.  The bullied conspiracy theorist teen was last seen entering his house to be with his family after fleeing with Madison from their overrun high school (whereupon Madison and Tobias had to jointly put down their zombified principal).  It’s very possible that Tobias managed to get out of Los Angeles before it was napalmed...possibly as part of a caravan that ended up in Las Vegas.  Could Tobias escape eastward, and shed some light on the new desert-based political developments that have been shaping up?

Another no-brainer for a character return would be Hopi chief Qaletaqa Walker (Michael Greyeyes).  In this past season of Fear, Taqa served as both a foe and an ally to Team Madison as they haggled over how to share resources and survive the zombie infestation of Broke Jaw Ranch.  He was last seen expressing his intent to head north alongside of tribemate Crazy Dog (Justin Rain).  Could that northward trek eventually bring them to the Black Hills?

Of course, from the original mothership series, there are even more fan favorites who could potentially survive the long-term travails of Team Rick.  The obvious no-brainer here would be Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) – who, if he survives all of the events of The Walking Dead, might strike out on his own and head west on a new adventure.  As a perpetual loner who seems to lose new friends just as quickly as he gains them, Daryl might be able to provide Team Azar with valuable Intel on what’s going on in Kansas City.

Ditto when it comes to the other major fan favorite, Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride).  Assuming that the Crazy Cookie Lady makes it through the main Walking Dead series in one piece, something tells me that our Carol would still be firing bullets and taking names well into her late-fifties.  Imagine someone as tough-but-perceptive as Taqa having to deal with the force of nature that is Carol!  

There may even be creative wiggle room for a future adolescent version of Judith Grimes (aka “Little Ass-Kicker”) to fulfill that prophetic nickname given to her by her Uncle Daryl.  It could be fitting for an aged-up Judith to become a new heroine in Conquer the Walking Dead, as its own original main characters inevitably and gradually perish.

Many Unfolding Plotlines

This far into the timeline, Conquer would explore how the scarcity of resources begin to take their toll on our newest survivors as they collectively strive to finally gain the upper hand over the walkers.  While there are sustainable ways to continue growing fruits, vegetables, and grains, it’s likely that milk has become an extreme rarity in this future version of the Kirkmanverse (although, unlike John Carroll Lynch’s Eastman, perhaps Hotcake actually knows how to successfully churn out homemade cheese and milk, with the right resources?).  Cattle is probably more rare (since cows would have a harder time than other animals escaping from zombie predators), whereas fish and birds are logically more plentiful.  Natural substances like honey and syrup could be used as a sugar substitute.

But prepackaged soap and shampoo are probably running out, by now.  Can the survivors find enough lye and oils as raw ingredients to produce their own hygiene products?  What about bullets? – they can’t necessarily count on Eugene surviving long enough in the Kirkmanverse to come trotting along to save them!  Can surviving indigenous people help the persevering towns manufacture effective forms of medicine?

The struggle over limited resources will be an ongoing battle.  Prairie Crocus may have the upper hand, though.  Christine could teach others how to refine petroleum into propane.  Sigmund would bestow knowledge onto science-savvy students so they learn the chemical processes for rejuvenating empty oxygen tanks.  Are there ways to capture water (e.g. cisterns) or generate hydroelectricity that Team Azar may have to battle for access to?

And, the big question:  what sort of antidote for the zombie virus, if any, exists out there?  Does Terri’s blood (or that of other rare immune survivors) hold the key?  Is it impossible to reverse the effects of one’s body succumbing to zombie decay...but there could be a way to inoculate people’s immune systems from walker-bites, which would prevent any zombie reanimation from occurring upon one’s death?  And what would that mean for the future of humanity?

At any rate, let’s suppose that, 10-15 years into the future, humans have managed to slay a majority of (or, at least, a critical mass of) the walker population:  that would require a lot fewer extras to go through zombie makeup, which should also save costs on the production side. 

Every fan has their qualms with The Walking Dead and/or Fear the Walking Dead – whether it’s miscasting, questionable acting, unsatisfying storylines, or dubious storytelling structure.  Aside from the nothing-burger that was Season 6, I have been fairly satisfied with the storytelling, overall.

But other fans have different tastes and opinions from mine.  Many have stopped watching the series when the violence became too gory...or when their favorite characters were killed off.  Others became disgruntled when their favorites seemed to just disappear from the other characters’ memories.

Conquer the Walking Dead, or something similar to it, could be a highly-related, synergistic project to give longtime fans several seasons’ worth of satisfaction and closure.

[mermaidinthecity]

A Prairie Home Companion Premiere at the DGA Theater in New York City - June 4, 2006

[chorusfm]

Julien Baker on ��A Prairie Home Companion’ Tomorrow

Julien Baker will be on the season premiere of A Prairie Home Companion. You can watch a live stream on Saturday, October 7th at 3PM PST via their website. --- Please consider supporting us so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/linked/julien-baker-on-a-prairie-home-companion-tomorrow/

[bobmccullochny]

February History

February 17   1621 - Myles Standish was appointed as first commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.

1859 - Dmitri Mendeleev began creating what we now call The Periodic Table.

1904 - Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly premiered at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy. It was one of the firts world-wide pop culture event 'hits'.

1933 - The magazine Newsweek was published for the first time. In October 2012, it was announced that Newsweek would cease print publication with the December 31, 2012.

1958 - Pope Pius XII designated St. Clare of Assisi the patron saint of television.

1959 - Vanguard 2 - The first weather satellite waslaunched to measure cloud-cover distribution.

1968 - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield, MA

1972 - With the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle coming off the assembly line, the VW Beetle broke the world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company's Model T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927.

1979 - A Prairie Home Companion premiered on Minnesota Public Radio.

1995 - Colin Fergson was convicted of the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and recieved a 200+ year sentence to jail

1996 - In the final game of a six-game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated Deep Blue, IBM's chess-playing computer, and won the match, 4-2. But in 1997, Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in a rematch.

2009 - 368 US Television stations permanently shut off their analog transmission signals, becoming digital.

[brookston]

Holidays 9.10

Holidays

Amerindian Heritage Day (Guyana)

Blame It On the Large Hadron Collider Day

Dia del Nino (Children’s Day; Honduras)

Festival of the Poets (Japan)

Full Moon [9th of the Year] (a.k.a. ... 

Autumn Moon (Traditional)

Barley Moon (Alternate, England, Wicca)

Binara Full Moon Poya Day (Sri Lanka)

Chrysanthemum Moon (China)

Chusok (Harvest Festival; South Korea)

Corn Moon (Amer. Indian, Traditional)

Falling Leaves Moon (Traditional)

Fruit Moon (North America)

Han’gawi (Harvest Festival; North Korea)

Harvest Moon (Amer. Indian, Colonial, Neo-Pagan, Traditional)

Moon of Brown Leaves (Traditional)

Mulberry Moon (Choctaw)

Navajo Sing Festival (Navajo)

Nut Moon (Cherokee)

Singing Moon (Celtic)

Southern Hemisphere: Crow, Lenten, Sap, Sugar, Worm

Storm Moon (South Africa)

Taw Thalin Full Moon (Myanmar)

Wise-Crone Moon (Native American)

Zhongqiu (a.k.a. Chong Chao; China)

Godsall Day (Day of Rest in Southern Outer Tibet)

Harvest Home Nibbling Contest (Gremlins)

Heritage Open Days begin (UK)

International Creepy Boston Dynamics Robotic Horse Day

International Make-Up Day

National Anti-Junk Light Day

National Stick a Fork Up Your Nose Day

Old-Timers Day

Puyallup Fair begins (Washington)

St. George’s Caye Day (Belize)

Scapegoat Day

Sew Be It Day (a.k.a. Sewing Machine Day)

Swap Ideas Day

Take Goofy Pictures Day

Teacher's Day (China)

World Suicide Prevention Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Buy a Regular Drink Day

National Hot Dog Day [also 3.30 & mid-July]

National Port Wine Day

TV Dinner Day

2nd Saturday in September

Aunt’s Day [Saturday after Labor Day]

Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Day [Saturday after 1st Monday]

Day of the Workers in the Oil, Gas, Power and Geological Industry [2nd Saturday]

Expectant Mother's Day [2nd Saturday]

Farmers’ Consumer Awareness Day [2nd Saturday]

German Language Day [2nd Saturday]

International Drive Your Studebaker Day [2nd Saturday]

Naked Gardening Day [2nd Saturday]

National Clean Out Your Garage Day [Saturday after Labor Day]

National Iguana Awareness Day [2nd Saturday]

National Lacemaking Day [2nd Saturday]

Prairie Day [2nd Saturday]

Public Lands Day [1st Saturday after 1st Monday]

Sheriff’s Ride Ceremony (Lichfield, UK) [Saturday nearest 8th]

Sour Beer Day [2nd Saturday]

World First Aid Day [2nd Saturday]

Independence Days

Gibraltar National Day (Referendum of 1967)

Feast Days

Albatross Appreciation Day (Pastafarian)

Alexander Crummell (Episcopal Church)

Aubert (Christian; Saint)

Beaverinne (Muppetism)

Chico Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Edmund James Peck (Anglican Church of Canada)

Finian (a.k.a. Winin; Christian; Saint)

Ganesh Chaturthi (Hinduism)

Lope de Vega (Positivist; Saint)

Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius, another Felix, Litteus, Polianus, Victor, Jader, and Dativus, Bishops and their companions (Christian; Martyrs)

Nicholas of Tolentino (Christian; Saint)

Pulcheria (Christian; Saint)

Salvius, Bishop of Albi (Christian; Saint)

Theodard of Maastricht (Christian; Saint)

Thomas Tsugi, Charles Spinola, and Great Martyrs of Nagasaki (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Fatal Day (Pagan) [18 of 24]

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [23 of 30]

Premieres

Brand New Day (Film; 2010)

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (TV Series; 1990)

Gunsmoke (TV Show; 1955)

Hellraiser (Film; 1987)

It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (TV Series’ 1986)

My Little Pony (Animated TV Series; 2010)

The Orville (TV Series; 2017)

Smells Like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana (Song; 1991)

The Tick (Animated TV Series; 1994)

True Romance (Film; 1993)

The X-Files (TV Series; 1993)

Today’s Name Days

Diethard, Nikolaus (Austria)

Izabela, Nikola, Sebastijan(Croatia)

Irma (Czech Republic)

Buchardt (Denmark)

Lembe, Lembi, Lemme, Lemmi (Estonia)

Kaleva, Kalevi (Finland)

Inès (France)

Carlo, Diethard, Isabella, Niels (Germany)

Ersatz, Erastos, Kilmentini, Klimis, Minodora, Mitrodora, Nymfodora, Poulcgeria (Greece)

Hunor, Nikolett (Hungary)

Nicola (Italy)

Albertīne, Jausma (Latvia)

Girmintė, Konstancija, Kostė, Mikalojus, Tautgirdas (Lithuania)

Tor, Tord (Norway)

Aldona, Łukasz, Mikołaj, Mścibor, Pulcheria (Poland)

Oleg (Slovakia)

Nicolás (Spain)

Tord, Turid (Sweden)

Anabel, Annabel, Annabella, Annabelle, Arnie, Arnold, Arnolda, Arnoldo, Porter, Pulcheria (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 253 of 2022; 112 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 6 of week 36 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Muin (Vine) [Day 8 of 28]

Chinese: Month 8 (Guìyuè), Day 15 (Bing-Yin)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 14 ʼĔlūl 5782

Islamic: 13 Ṣafar 1444

J Cal: 13 Aki; Fiveday [13 of 30]

Julian: 28 August 2022

Moon: 100%: Full Moon

Positivist: 1 Shakespeare (10th Month) [Lope de Vega]

Runic Half Month: Ken (Illumination) [Day 1 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 81 of 90)

Zodiac: Virgo (Day 18 of 31)

Calendar Changes

Ken (Illumination) [Half-Month 18 of 24; Runic Half-Months] (thru 9.24)

Shakespeare (The Modern Drama) [Month 10 of 13; Positivist]