#also the partridge family school bus

[frogshunnedshadows]

Slime Geyser erupting at Nickelodeon Studios, at Universal Studios Florida, 1994.

[softboymerlin]

So, let’s talk about Chile, right?

Last week, it was informed that the subway ticket would become more expensive, raising from $800 CL ($1.13 USD) to $830 CL ($1.17 USD) for adults. You may think it’s not too much, but if you consider the minimun wage is $301,000 CL ($422 USD), you’d realize that the amount of money that goes only for public transportation is about $33,200 CL ($46.71 USD). It fucks up entire families considering that students have to pay $232 CL ($0.32 USD) five times a week and four times per month.

(Let me say that this happened in Santiago, the capital and one of the two or three cities in Chile with subway/metro.)

So, people got angry. Really angry. They proposed this thing, called Evasión Masiva (Massive Evation), where no one was going to pay for the subway. Highschool students took over the most busy metro stations (the ones in the center of the city like Santa Ana or San Joaquín) and kicked out the metro guards, opening the gates and asking people not to pay with their Bip! cards (the only way we can get in) in the turnstiles and just pass without paying. They did this even when it wasn’t us being affected by the raise.

This lasted a week (October 13 to October 18).

As days went by, things started to become more and more violent. The most savage police union known as Fuerza Especial (Special Force) appeared, which are the same fuckheads sent to protests and shit. They are ridiculously violent. So they were sent to this metro stations that were taken and started to agressively repress students and others so people would pay for the subway. (And let me tell you guys that, in here, public transportation is not public at all. It’s a private service subsidized by the government.) As expected, people started to fight back. So the police started to throw tear gas inside the metro stations and even inside the wagons. That made people even angrier, and so they started to shoot people with pellets/young partridges (TW: BLOOD). And Special Forces were in every metro station

The result? Even angrier responses.

People started to burn down metro stations and have spontaneous protests with barricades and fire. I was in one of them. The police was throwing tear gas at us and they enclosed us in an avenue with different police buses throwing tear gas at us (policemen got new toys! They had tear gas bombs). I admit that I wanted to be there, but so many people were caught up on that without actually wanting to be. Then, helicopters from the police were flying over us in circles. I was in a bus full of kids between 11 and 18 years, and all of them were coughing due to the tear gas in the air.

And what did the president say yesterday? State of exception. Specifically, State of emergency.

For context, state of emergency is declared when the disturbances get out of hand, repressing some rights and sending the military to the streets to keep order. They can control . The military is on our streets with weapons, along with Special Forces throwing tear gas at the protestors and shooting them with pellets.

The media here likes to say this happened because of the raise, but that is not true. The police here is always violent, usually beating and hitting higschool students and, well, they’re also extremely corrupt. This is happening because public education sucks, because there is systemic opression, because getting into university is a fucking challenge, because the minimun wage sucks and everything is way too expensive, because people in hospitals are hospitalized on wheelchairs or on the floor due to a lack of resources, because our indigenous people (Mapuche, which means “people from the earth”) are constantly criminalized for defending their lands, because chilean activists are killed or arrested for crimes they did not commit, because a minister said that hospitals are always so full because people go there to socialize, because another minister said that this ticket raise was made so people would get out of their houses sooner and pay less, because they laugh at our faces. There are schools with so little resources that the ceilings are falling down. The police doesn’t protect us, they protect the rich.

You believe it’s not so bad? Okay.

That is a fucking classroom full of 17/18 year-old boys.

A hospitalized person on the floor.

Policemen hitting an indigenous woman.

That is happening where I live. Yes, that’s the army.

A man was shot in the neck, a girl in the leg, a boy in the head; not with actual bullets, but they can still kill you. I am angry at this system, at our president, at everything. It is not the subway and it has never been just about the subway; it’s about this system at its core.

[pravasichhokro]

Experience of living in different cities

In my life of more than 7 decades, I have lived in some 8 cities starting from Ahmedabad, Pilani, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Yokohama( Japan), Muscat (Oman) and Bangalore, in that order. I will make an attempt to pen down the “trivial”, but not so common, features of my experience.

I was brought up in Ahmedabad from 1954 to 1967, which were mostly my student days. We lived on the outskirt of the city and our society of bungalows was surrounded by open fields where still farming was going on. Other than school and college, I was busy playing different games with my neighbors. I enjoyed Gujarati snacks and would take extra efforts to get them. Our neighbors were very kind and did not complain of our cricket or other games played anytime of the day. City had a very good bus service and it was our main transport. Our bungalow had a few tenants like us but it did have a problem of water and sewage. Water supply was short and erratic, and septic tank sometime spilt over. We loved the festival of Navratri ( Garba/Dandia) and kite flying on Makarsankrant. 

I shifted to BITS, Pilani hostel for five years from 1967. The change from day scholar to hostel life was huge. I could do what I wanted and when I wanted (freedom) except class attendance. Other than academic pursuit, I was able to indulge in sports/games. I learnt how to play basket ball, table tennis and contract bridge. I improved my ability to play carom, cricket and hockey. Being confined to the campus for a couple of months at a stretch, I enjoyed food in the mess and also outside at Nutan market/dhabas. I was introduced to black (udad) dal, lemon rice, mawa mutter, stuffed parathas and stuffed capsicum/tomato in the mess. Outside the campus got to taste Titar (partridge), reportedly a banned bird. I was bombarded by Hindi movies as every Saturday a movie was screened for students. I probably saw more than 125 movies in BITS in five years, compared to less than 20 movies seen earlier. Initially the old movies were screened in 16 mm in a quadrangle of the main building but later new movies in 35 mm in a huge auditorium. Once in a while, we escaped the campus life to see late night movie in a makeshift shed called Jayashree talkies.

After graduation in 1972, I lived in South Delhi till the late 70’s, initially as a bachelor and then a family man. Major problem of Delhi was public transport as I did not own a vehicle then. City bus (DTC), autorikshaw or yellow taxi were most unreliable and the operators ( drivers and conductors) most non-cooperative and rude. My wife, who joined me from Bombay, was most shocked as she compared this scene with BEST of Bombay. I did not face much problem as I used a contract bus to go to office. As a bachelor, I used to join others on most Saturday night’s for a party. The liquor law did not permit drinking in public so we sometime managed to cross into Haryana (Faridabad) and consumed beers and chicken. Returning after the fling was not a problem as “drive after drinks “was not an offence. In Delhi, we enjoyed different types of food –Punjabi and Chinese. Our favorite places were Lajpatnagar market, M block market in GKI, Narulas and Hongkong in GKI. Most tasty samosa was made by a small vendor in East of Kailash A block market. At residence, we faced water shortage and had to cook on kerosene stove.

We  shifted to Bombay in early 80’s and lived there for 8 years. Biggest difference was a moderate summer compared to Delhi and very efficient city transport whether bus, taxi or autorikshaw. We also enjoyed the sea and its beeches- Girgaon, Dadar, Juhu and Malad. We, however, had to face some water shortage. We once again were able to enjoy street food like batata vada, Frankie, bhel etc. We also loved Irani café menu of maska pav, kheema pav, baida( egg) roti etc. We started going to Marathi plays often and enjoyed the change from Hindi movies. I got to own a flat in 1982 and a Bajaj scooter in 1984. That made life easy.

We moved to Pune in the mid 80’s for a brief period and are staying there till date (more than 20 years) except our breaks to go to Japan, Oman and Bangalore. In first phase, we got to live in a bigger place, owned our own Premier Padmini car and telephone line at residence, all thanks to Thermax, my employer. The major sigh of relief was water availability and good round the year weather-moderate summer, monsoon and winter. These advantages remain even today. Pune offered the advantages of a village and city. Distances were short and day out picnic spots in the surrounding hills were approachable and affordable. I got introduced to music (performing arts) of all kinds –classical, light, gazal, filmy and non filmy. I was able to attend live performances of stars like Pt. Jasraj, Kaushiki Chakravarty, Shaunak Abhisheki, Hariharan, Raghunandan Panashikar, Jagjiy Singh, Alka Yagnik, Shankar Madhavan,Shaan, Sarod by Amjad Ali, dances by Hema Malini, Minakshi Sheshadri. Also new upcoming stars like Vibhavari Joshi Apte, Hrishikesh Ranade.Pune reintroduced us to Lord Ganesh and we love the ten day special festival of Ganpati. I was and am able to indulge in outdoor activities like walking, swimming and going to hills. We got introduced to YOGA-pranayam, Omkar, suryanamskar etc. We do it regularly even today. Our health received a boost as we got to know more about homeopathy medicines as my wife has seen lot of benefits to this alternative therapy. I was able to afford and enjoy different cuisines. My membership of a club once again enabled me to see a Hindi movie every week. Since it was free, one had the luxury to walk out of un-interesting movie without feeling guilty.

We moved to Yokohama, Japan during the 90’s. The change was huge-from “stone” age of Pune, India to space tech level in Yokohama,Japan. The weather was excellent and all the utilities-water, piped gas, electricity and land line were reliable and affordable. First time we used a Microwave oven and rice cooker with a timer. Only my daughter’s international school fee was a huge dent on my pocket but she had the best quality of education. We got initiated into Japanese food and loved visiting China Town for authentic Chinese cuisine. My daughter enjoyed the American fast food at McDonald’s and Pizzas at Shakey’s. Surprisingly there were more than fifty Indian restaurants in Tokyo area and we loved the Naan served there. The public transport (bus, train, taxi) was reliable, clean and convenient even for foreigners like us despite the language hurdle. We also enjoyed a ride on the famous bullet train (called Shinkansen) from Yokohama to Kyoto (400 kms). Like Japanese people, we also started visiting and appreciating the nature in the hills near Yokohama including hot springs and Mt. Fuji. We were surprised and shocked to find all public places-footpath, roads, stations, bus stops and toilets were spotlessly clean (clean like home). Another surprise was that weather forecast was very reliable and available in the lift lobby of the buildings. Being an island country, it would rain any time and this forecast helped. We also got introduced to huge superstores and malls.  Some malls were part of railway stations e.g. Yokohama. We also got to know the vending machine culture of Japan. Many daily required items (soft drinks, coffee, tea, snacks, milk, beer, cigarette etc) could be purchased from vending machines which were all over- on footpath, near stations, lift lobbies, parks etc.Even train tickets were on a vending machine. We also made our first visit to entertainment parks like Disneyland. We also got used to the deep tub (OFURO) bath that Japanese used to keep warm during winter. I got introduced to Sumo, the Japanese wrestling and professional baseball.

We moved to Muscat, Oman for two and a half years in the late 90’s. Other than the high temperatures (summer could be + 50 Deg C), the life was very enjoyable. Oman was an exception in the Middle East and it honored Indians and Hindus. The biggest hurdle to mobility was a driving license and I got it fast luckily. I was glad to drive around in a Camry, poor person’s Mercedes. We were regular visitors to 200 year old Shiva temple and newly built Krishna temple, both built and managed by kutchi community. We were able to buy Indian vegetables and fruits easily and reasonably priced. There was easy access to Indian restaurants and street food. We got introduced to Kerala paratha (laccha paratha) and some tandoori roti from Pakistani outlets. We got introduced to Lebanese cuisine and we loved it. We could go out for dinner, which also offered Indian music or Egyptian belly dance. We were privileged to see Hindi movies on Thursday night, a day before they were released in Mumbai. We were able to drive down to Dubai in 4 hours (400 Kms) and enjoy the shopping. Driving was a pleasure as all had to follow the traffic rules and they were followed. Muscat had lovely road side greenery and flowers, and they were maintained with great efforts. Muscat airport restaurant was open for non-muslims during Ramadan and that was a big relief.

After retiring from a Pune company in 2012, I took a short assignment in Bangalore. We were lucky to stay in huge residential complex in Whitefield. First time in our life, we stayed in high rise building on the 11th floor. We enjoyed the famous Bangalore weather but had to face mosquito menace. The complex had a zero water requirement as it treated and re-circulated most of the sewage. It, however, gave a bad smell in parking area (basement). We had to bear bad water quality. We used aqua guard treated water for cooking and bought Bisleri for drinking. The water quality also reflected in poor quality of green vegetables. Another problem we faced was traffic jams- it took almost 90 minutes from our residence to reach the airport. Most facilities in our area were catering to IT crowd and hence it was re-adjustment for us.

In conclusion, I can say that present day life style is a mixture of what we picked up from different cities. Ironically my wife always wanted and wants things from the cities we left behind. For example, she wants palak, green peas and fulgobi (vegetables) from Delhi, Fish from Mumbai, Farsan from Ahmedabad, Miso soup and Yakisoba from Japan, Mysore pak from Bangalore. These small things keep us connected to the cities we had lived in.

[blue-opossum]

Not the Partridge Family

        Morning of March 25, 2020. Tuesday.

        Dream #: 19,455-03. Reading time: 1 min 20 sec.

        This dream has an atypical foundation, beginning with my dream self, as well as my unknown female companion, being somewhat undefined and walking south while about twenty feet north of the Cubitis house on the east wayside of Highway Seventeen. This perception of specific orientation has not been valid in any way in waking life for nearly 50 years, though even when I lived there, my dreams rarely had this orientation and directive. (In waking life, I think there was only one year when the school bus took this return route.) Still, the female is probably a subliminal or instinctual recall of Zsuzsanna. An unknown man is present and tries to get the girl's attention. It has something to do with wanting help with catching a small animal in the long grass. It seems to be a skunk. His presence annoys me, as he also seems to want to give both of us a ride to the Cubitis house even though it is within a short walking distance. I mention this several times. The girl walks a few feet behind me, looking back.

        My dream shifts. We are in the Cubitis house in the center of the living room. I now seem to be David Cassidy and the girl Susan Dey. Even so, we seem to be a couple (despite them playing siblings on "The Partridge Family"), though there is no clear backstory. We are only twenty years old or so and unmarried. The girl is emotional, talking as if she is breaking up with me. She makes sarcastic comments about my popularity in being one of the "big five." In a bizarre change in logical continuity, after making several complaints, creating a strong impression we will not continue to be a couple, she suddenly yells (while crying), "I love you!" I pick her up, and we sway together. We both seem unrealistically thin and light.

        I should point out that dream characters (and my dream self) hardly ever express or experience emotion of this nature.

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY AND THE MOUNTAIN CLIMBER

S4;E2 ~ September 20, 1971

Directed by Coby Ruskin ~ Written by Lou Derman and Larry Rhine

Synopsis

Harry takes on a new partner named Rudy (Tony Randall) who is a youthful sports enthusiast.  In order to prove she fits with the new company image, Lucy challenges Rudy to a mountain climbing contest.  

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Otis Carter), Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter)  

Guest Cast

Tony Randall (Rudolph Springer III) is probably best remembered for his television character of Felix Unger on “The Odd Couple,” a show that aired concurrently with “Here's Lucy.”  The second episode of the second season aired just four days after this episode of “Here's Lucy.”  He was a trained theatre actor, who also had successful careers on TV and in film. This is Randall's only time acting opposite Lucille Ball.  Randall also championed the “Stop Smoking” campaign. In 1992, after the death of his first wife, he re-married a woman a third of his age with whom he had two children. He died in 2009.

Janos Prohaska (The Bear) was an actor, stunt man, and animal imitator who is probably best remembered as the talking cookie-mad bear on “The Andy Williams Show” (1969) although due to his thick Hungarian accent, his voice was dubbed. He first played a simian on “Lucy and the Monkey” (TLS S5;E12). This is second appearance on “Here’s Lucy” having played the wild Gorboona in “Lucy's Safari” (S1;E22).  His next and final appearance on the series will also be as a Black Bear in “Harry Catches Gold Fever” (S6;E12).  Prohaska died in a plane crash in 1974. 

Morgan Jones (Contest Judge) previously appeared as Government Agent Bill in “Lucy and the Great Airport Chase” (S1;E18).  This is his final appearance with Lucille Ball.

Sid Gould (Photographer) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” and nearly as many on “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. Walter Smith (Man on Mountaintop, uncredited) made 13 mostly uncredited appearances on the series.  He also did one episode of “The Lucy Show.”  

Roy Rowan (Climbing Contest Announcer, uncredited) was the off-camera announcer for all of Lucille Ball's television shows. He would also do voice-over announcers of radio and TV voices heard on screen, as he does here. In rare instances, Rowan would sometimes appear on camera as well.  

Chuck, the voice on speaker phone with Rudy, is not identified or credited. Neither are the other two men at he mountaintop.  

In the very first scene, Harry steps into Lucy's foot bath proving that season 4 will be like previous seasons – where there's water, Harry will get wet!

Harry, dressed in an outrageously uncharacteristic outfit, tells Rudy that his shorts are shocking pink with bluebirds and swallows on them.  He says he got them from Liberace's tailor.  Harry met the famously flamboyant entertainer in “Lucy and Liberace” (S2;E16). When Harry splits the back of his trousers trying to crouch down, he says “I think the swallows just flew back to Capistrano.” This is a reference to San Juan Mission in Capistrano, southern California.  It is there that the American cliff swallow migrates to every year from its winters in Argentina, making the 6,000-mile trek in springtime. The Mission’s location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest. The expression “when the swallows return to Capistrano” has entered common usage and has been the punchline to many jokes on “The Lucy Show” and “Here's Lucy.”

Lucy Carter reiterates to Rudy that she was born in Jamestown, New York, just as Lucille Ball was.

When Lucy laces the fruit punch with vodka, Harry and Rudy dance around the living room singing “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay” and dancing the Can-Can.  The song first appeared at the end of the 19th century and was performed by the Folies Bergere in Paris.

When Lucy hears Rudy climbing up the side of the mountain singing his usual refrain “I love life and I wanna live!” she remarks “Here comes Tiny Tim.”  This is just one of many “Here's Lucy” references to pop singer Tiny Tim (1932-96), who often appeared on “Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.” He was responsible for the re-popularization of the song “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” which he sang while accompanying himself on ukulele.

Lucy tells Harry her epitaph should read: “She was too old to work, but too young to die.” When Harry asks what that means, Lucy says “I dunno, but Walter Cronkite'll do twenty minutes on it.”  This is a reference to the moderator of the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite (1916-2009), who was known for his eloquent editorial comments on the affairs of the day.

For their brief partnership, the Unique Employment Agency has been re-named Springer-Carter Corporation and the office has been redecorated in a colorful, mod style reminiscent of artist Piet Mondian, who also inspired TV's “The Partridge Family” school bus (1970-74).

The Ricardos and Mertzes went mountain climbing for recreation in “Lucy in the Swiss Alps” (ILL S5;E21).  In that case, an avalanche stopped their progress, not a black bear.

Lucy Carmichael also had an encounter with a black bear in “Lucy Becomes a Father” (TLS S3;E9) In fact, the episode featured two bears, only one of which was an actor in a bear suit, the other was the real thing (above)!  

Getting drunk on spiked punch was also a comic highlight of “Lucy's Sister Pays a Visit” (TLS S1;E15).  

Mind the Gap!  When Rudy, Harry and Lucy all are on top of the mountain, Lucy momentarily loses her footing and Tony Randall reaches to help her.  Lucy regains her balance without help from Randall and the scene continues.

“Lucy and the Mountain Climber” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

This is pretty thin material.  The episode could have had just as many laughs in the office as on the top of the mountain, but the writing is just not clever enough.  Any episode written by Derman and Rhine and featuring an actor in an animal suit is usually a stinker. Randall, however, is in top form from playing Felix Unger and easily makes eccentricity believable.  

[bylillian]

NEW YORK (AP) — David Cassidy, the teen and pre-teen idol who starred in the 1970s sitcom "The Partridge Family" and sold millions of records as the musical group's lead singer, died Tuesday at age 67.

Cassidy, who announced earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with dementia, died surrounded by his family, a family statement released by publicist JoAnn Geffen said. No further details were immediately available, but Geffen said on Saturday that Cassidy was in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hospital suffering from organ failure.

"David died surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart and free from the pain that had gripped him for so long," the statement said. Thank you for the abundance and support you have shown him these many years."

"The Partridge Family" aired from 1970-74 and was a fictional variation of the '60s performers the Cowsills, intended at first as a vehicle for Shirley Jones, the Oscar winning actress and Cassidy's stepmother. Jones played Shirley Partridge, a widow with five children with whom she forms a popular act that travels on a psychedelic bus. The cast also featured Cassidy as eldest son and family heartthrob Keith Partridge; Susan Dey, later of "L.A. Law" fame, as sibling Laurie Partridge and Danny Bonaduce as sibling Danny Partridge.

It was an era for singing families — the Osmonds, the Jacksons. "The Partridge Family" never cracked the top 10 in TV ratings, but the recordings under their name, mostly featuring Cassidy, Jones and session players, produced real-life musical hits and made Cassidy a real-life musical superstar. The Partridges' best known song, "I Think I Love You," spent three weeks on top of the Billboard chart at a time when other hit singles included James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "The Tears of a Clown." The group also reached the top 10 with "I'll Meet You Halfway" and "Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted" and Cassidy had a solo hit with "Cherish."

"In two years, David Cassidy has swept hurricane-like into the pre-pubescent lives of millions of American girls," Rolling Stone magazine noted in 1972. "Leaving: six and a half million long-playing albums and singles; 44 television programs; David Cassidy lunch boxes; David Cassidy bubble gum; David Cassidy coloring books and David Cassidy pens; not to mention several millions of teen magazines, wall stickers, love beads, posters and photo albums."

Cassidy's appeal faded after the show went off the air, although he continued to tour, record and act over the next 40 years, his albums including "Romance" and the awkwardly titled "Didn't You Used To Be?" He had a hit with "I Write the Songs" before Barry Manilow's chart-topping version and success overseas with "The Last Kiss," featuring backing vocals from Cassidy admirer George Michael. He made occasional stage and television appearances, including an Emmy-nominated performance on "Police Story."

Meanwhile, "The Partridge Family" remained popular in re-runs and Cassidy, who kept his dark bangs and boyish appearance well into middle age, frequently turned up for reunions and spoke often about his early success.

"So many people come up to me and talk to me about the impact it (the show) had," he told Arsenio Hall in 1990.

Even while "The Partridge Family" was still in primetime, Cassidy worried that he was mistaken for the wholesome character he played. He posed naked for Rolling Stone in 1972, when he confided that he had dropped acid as a teenager and smoked pot in front of the magazine's reporter as he watched an episode of "The Partridge Family" and mocked his own acting. Cassidy maintained an exhausting schedule during the show's run, filming during the week and performing live shows over the weekend, but had plenty of time to indulge himself. In the memoir "Could It Be Forever," he wrote of his prolific sex life and of rejecting Dey's advances because she lacked the "slutty aspect of a female that I always found so attractive."

Cassidy would endure personal and financial troubles. He was married and divorced three times, battled alcoholism, was arrested for drunk driving and in 2015 filed for bankruptcy. Cassidy had two children, musician Beau Cassidy and actress Katie Cassidy, with whom he acknowledged having a distant relationship.

"I wasn't her father. I was her biological father but I didn't raise her," he told People magazine in 2017. "She has a completely different life."

Cassidy himself was estranged from his father. Born in New York City in 1950, he was the son of actors Jack Cassidy and Evelyn Ward and half-brother of entertainer Shaun Cassidy. David Cassidy's parents split up when he was 5 and he would long express regret about Jack Cassidy, who soon married Shirley Jones, being mostly absent from his life. David Cassidy stayed with his mother and by the early 1960s had moved to Los Angeles.

Kicked out of high school for truancy, David Cassidy dreamed of becoming an actor and had made appearances on "Bonanza," ''Ironside" and other programs before producers at ABC television asked him to audition for "The Partridge Family," unaware that he could sing and intending at first to have him mime songs to someone else's voice. Cassidy, who only learned during tryouts that Jones would play his mother, worried that Keith Partridge would be a "real comedown" from his previous roles.

"I mean, how much could an actor do with a line like, 'Hi, Mom, I'm home from school,' or 'Please pass the milk?'" he wrote in his memoir. "I didn't see how it could do much for me. After all, I wasn't the star of it. Shirley had top billing; I was just one of the kids."

Another childhood icon gone. (Personally, I liked Danny. David and my brother looked a lot alike, so crushing on him was Right Out.)

[fyeahjeaninnocent]

So it occurred to me that some people in the Rebecca Front fandot might be hesistant about reblogging yesterday’s really great interview with her, since it was posted on The D@ily M@il. So, I’ve taken the liberty of  copying the transcript here (below the cut) so that people can still read it without that controversial site in their browser history.

'Sex symbol? I’ve still got it!': Actress Rebecca Front on body confidence and what she's got in common with Theresa May

By KERRY POTTER FOR YOU MAGAZINE

From The Thick of It to War & Peace, REBECCA FRONT’s talent for portraying powerful women has won her legions of male fans. She tells Kerry Potter about body confidence, her (teenage) fashion mentor and what she’s got in common with Theresa May.

Rebecca Front is fixing me with The Look. Even the most cursory of TV viewers will be familiar with it: stern and authoritative, as seen on Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent in ITV crime drama Inspector Lewis (three years on from Rebecca’s departure, her co-star Laurence Fox still calls her ‘ma’am’).

She also deployed it in her role as cabinet minister Nicola Murray in the BBC political satire The Thick of It, as well as in her matriarch roles in period dramas War & Peace and Doctor Thorne. And now The Look is back for Rebecca’s turn in Kay Mellor’s new register-office-set BBC One drama Love, Lies and Records. She plays Judy, an awkward, jobsworth registrar who is furious when she gets overlooked for promotion in favour of her nemesis: gregarious, chaotic working mother Kate, played by Ashley Jensen.

Right now, I am nervously witnessing an impromptu demonstration of The Look up close. We won’t call it ‘resting b**ch face’ because Rebecca doesn’t like the word b**ch: ‘We wouldn’t call a man that.’ We settle for ‘resting angry face’.

‘It’s useful to be able to look quite scary,’ she says. ‘I’m really bad at complaining about things in shops or restaurants because I don’t like confrontation, but sometimes I don’t need to complain because you can just see it in my face.’ And with that, The Look is gone as she breaks into a grin. ‘I am quite a smiley person; I’m actually not stern enough. I’m quite soft and woolly by nature.’

She’s also a million times sexier than many of her characters. ‘I’ve got much more body confident as I’ve got older. I’m fitter and more muscly. I go to the gym three times a week. My teenage daughter [Tilly, 16] has given me more self-assurance. We shop together a lot and I pick up clothes and say, “I don’t think I can get away with that.” And she says, “What does that mean? You’re setting yourself a rule and that’s ridiculous. You tell me not to do that, so why should you?” So I’ve upped my game: I dress more confidently, I carry myself more confidently. You only live once.’

She’s about to get her ears pierced for the second time in recent years, egged on by Tilly, having previously been too scared. That’s the only needle she’ll tolerate though – cosmetic surgery is a big no. ‘Women are under so much pressure: the thought that you have to change your body to be accommodated in society seems wrong to me. I’m hesitant to say I hate it because I don’t want to judge people for doing it – I understand the impulse – but it worries me.’

At 53, Rebecca is happy to look her age. ‘It bothers me that people aren’t allowed to grow old naturally because there’s a beauty in that. I know it’s a cliché but confidence is the sexiest thing and if more women felt confident about the way they looked, they wouldn’t need to have those procedures. It takes guts to say, “I’ve got wrinkles and crow’s feet and I’m not bothered about it. I quite like them, actually.”’

Her tendency to play powerful, brusque characters has won her a legion of male fans. ‘Some men are really drawn to authoritative women, aren’t they? I occasionally get messages from men asking for photos of my shoes because they probably imagine I’m wearing really scary stilettos. I mean, I am today, but usually I think, “Erm, do you want a picture of my trainers?”’

Her turn as Chief Superintendent Innocent especially caught people’s imagination, reportedly inspiring erotic fanfiction about the relationship between Innocent and Laurence Fox’s character DS James Hathaway. ‘I try not to engage with that stuff,’ Rebecca hoots.

Kay Mellor, creator of big-hearted, women-centric dramas such as Band of Gold and Fat Fighters, had the idea for Loves, Lies and Records when she attended a register office to record the death of her mother, noting how the location was a microcosm for life’s highs and lows. Accordingly, the first episode is a rollercoaster of emotion, as sad as it is funny, taking in births, deaths and marriages.

Despite appearances, Rebecca says she’s not made of stern enough stuff to work in that environment. ‘I wear my heart on my sleeve too much for a job like that. With all the deaths and babies, I wouldn’t last more than five minutes. I cry very easily since having my children.’ (As well as Tilly, Rebecca and her TV producer/writer husband Phil Clymer have 18-year-old Oliver.) Being a cry baby does have benefits though: ‘I’ve become a much better actor since I had children. It’s made me less self-conscious and opened up a fast-track to accessing my emotions.’

Creating Judy was a welcome challenge: ‘I thought, how on earth am I going to play this woman as I have nothing in common with her? She has no sense of humour, she’s antisocial, she’s judgmental. We would not get on at all. But I didn’t want to play her like a cartoon villain. She’s just complicated. She’s a human being and it’s my job to understand why she does what she does and find a way into her head.’

The careers of Rebecca and her co-star Ashley Jensen have bloomed in a similar way, with both making the successful transition from comedy to drama. On graduating from Oxford, Rebecca began her career in radio comedy in the early 1990s, working with Armando Iannucci (who went on to create The Thick of It) and Steve Coogan.

Moving into TV, Rebecca starred in the Alan Partridge canon, with shows such as The Day Today, and later in Nighty Night, Queers and The Catherine Tate Show. Ashley, meanwhile, made her name in Extras and Ugly Betty as well as, more recently, in Catastrophe.

‘I’m in awe of Ashley – those shifts she makes between comedy moments and moving moments are effortless,’ says Rebecca. The two bonded so well off-camera that at one point they had a giggling fit so epic, crew members filmed it on their phones.

The current state of politics, however, is less of a laughing matter for Rebecca. Does she wish they were still making The Thick of It? ‘Things have gone so mad it would be hard to find fictional ideas that were crazier than what we’re going through,’ she says. ‘Even Armando couldn’t top this.’

Having played Nicola Murray, she says she has more sympathy for politicians, especially female ones. Indeed, she’s more charitable about Theresa May than you might expect a left-leaning actor to be: ‘We judge women in public life in a different way. She gets criticised for her hair, for what she wears, for being unemotional – I don’t think that would get levelled at a man. I suspect she’s probably a very nice woman. I don’t know her but I don’t look at her and think, “She’s evil.” It’s not a job I’d want in a million years in this toxic political environment. She’s doing an incredibly difficult job.’

And the two women share one characteristic: being a bit square. When asked to share a secret, Rebecca pauses: ‘I’m hesitant about saying anything that will sound like May admitting that running through a wheat field was the naughtiest thing she’d ever done. After she said that, my children said, “Mum that’s you! That’s the answer you would have given!” I’m such a square. I was head girl at school and I’m so law-abiding. If I saw a wheat field I would only enter it if there was a sign saying, “Please run here.”’

Having suffered from anxiety since she was a child, growing up in Northeast London, Rebecca now campaigns on mental health issues as an ambassador for the charity Anxiety UK. Her claustrophobia was written into her role in The Thick of It in a scene where Nicola refuses to get into a lift and is memorably blasted by her spin-doctor colleague, the legendarily vitriolic Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), as an ‘omnishambles’ (a word, she notes with glee, that’s now in the Oxford English Dictionary).

How did Rebecca feel about her private, real-life issues becoming the butt of a joke? ‘I’ve found humour is the best tool to deal with anxiety. You can’t afford to take it too seriously because it just gets worse,’ she smiles. She still struggles a little with lifts and can’t see herself ever travelling by tube. ‘These days I check in every so often with CBT [cognitive behavioural therapy], maybe once or twice a year if I feel I need a reboot.’

With the tube off limits, she often travels to and from her North London family home by bus. ‘I find them very relaxing and you get great material on buses: people do and say funny things. Nobody expects to see actors on the bus so fans often tweet me to say, “I saw your lookalike on the bus today.” No, it was me!’

She is heartened by Princes William and Harry speaking out about mental health issues. ‘I thought it was great, bless them for doing that. I don’t think the stigma has entirely gone, but it’s really improved.’

But back to business. When it comes to work, Rebecca has never been busier. She’s just finished Down a Dark Hall, a supernatural movie starring Uma Thurman; she’s filming a TV comedy pilot next week, and she recently delivered the draft of her second book of personal essays, following 2014’s Curious. What’s left? ‘Oh, I’m still hugely ambitious,’ she says. ‘There’s loads of stuff I want to do: some Shakespeare, a lot more theatre and drama that will really stretch me as it’s only been in the past few years that I’ve really started to use my drama chops.’

What about playing a femme fatale? ‘I’d love to do that,’ she sighs. ‘But I don’t know if that’s going to come up because there’s still this ageist culture. People don’t think of you like that when you’re over 40. We had a lunch party at our house the other day and I was the youngest woman there. I looked around the table and thought, “Just look at all these fabulous, well-dressed, attractive, funny women in their 50s and 60s.” Why don’t we see that on TV very often?’ I can imagine she’d only have to give a room of casting directors The Look and that would change.

And regardless, she’s blazing a trail as the thinking-man’s sex symbol. ‘I’d be flattered to think that. I’ve still got it going on!’ she grins, slinking out of the door to her waiting car. The Prime of Ms Rebecca Front? You had better believe it.

Rebecca rates

Fashion picks-- I’m too cheap to spend thousands on a frock. When I won a Bafta [for playing Nicola Murray in The Thick of It], I wore a £100 dress from Coast. I like AllSaints, Zara and Asos, and I live in jeans and shirts.

Reading-- The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. It’s told from the perspective of a young man trying to make sense of a life-changing event.

Best beauty product --My daughter introduced me to Mac’s Prep + Prime Fix + finishing spray. It sets your make-up and gives you a bit of a glow.

Listening to Political podcasts – Pod Save America and West Wing Weekly are my favourites. My son, who is travelling, listens too, and we message each other about them.

Breakfast --Avocado and poached eggs on toast – and it’s got to have chilli flakes, otherwise forget it.

Watching --The Shop Around the Corner, a little-known screwball comedy with James Stewart. It’s my favourite go-to feel-good film.

Guilty pleasure-- Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry. I don’t believe it for a minute but I don’t care, it’s so much fun. I snuggle up with my daughter and watch it.

Most treasured possession-- A book in which I wrote down sweet things my kids used to say at bed time and bath time when they were little.

Tipple of choice-- A dry martini with an olive.

Describe yourself in three words-- Thoughtful, kind and funny – at least, I aspire to be.

Dream dinner-party guests-- We have quite a lot of them over already. Frances Barber is great company and a friend of mine. Ditto Barry Cryer – he’s hilarious. And Jane Austen would have been a hoot, I reckon.

How would you like to be remembered?-- As someone who brightened people’s day.

[kansascityhappenings]

Dayton shooter had an obsession with violence and mass shootings, police say

The gunman who opened fire in Dayton, Ohio, this weekend had an obsession with violence and mass shootings and had expressed a desire to commit a mass shooting, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said Tuesday.

“(He was) very specifically seeking out information that promotes violence,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Todd Wickerham added.

Unlike the El Paso shooting, which the alleged gunman appears to have described as part of an anti-immigrant crusade, authorities still do not know what motivated Connor Betts to open fire early Sunday morning in a popular nightlife district in Dayton.

But comments from authorities, memories from former classmates and posts on his apparent Twitter account show that the gunman took a deep interest in violence — and, as in many American shootings, had easy access to powerful firearms.

Armed with a .223-caliber high-capacity rifle with 100-round drum magazines, Betts fired 41 shots in less than 30 seconds, killing his sister as well as eight seemingly random bystanders in the area, police said Monday. He was killed by police officers on patrol 30 seconds after he opened fire.

In a statement, the Betts family said they were “shocked and devastated” by what happened. They are cooperating with law enforcement and asked for privacy while they mourn the loss of their daughter and son.

Classmates say he kept a hit list

Former high school classmates said that he had a “hit list” of people he wanted to kill or rape. He was in a “pornogrind” band with extremely graphic, violent lyrics. And authorities searching his family home found writings that expressed an interest in killing people, two law enforcement sources told CNN.

But the writings did not indicate any racial or political motive, sources said.

In addition, a Twitter account that appears to belong to Betts retweeted extreme left-wing and anti-police posts, as well as tweets supporting Antifa, or anti-fascist, protesters.

The most recent tweet on the @iamthespookster account was on August 3, the day of the shooting, when he retweeted a post saying, “Millenials have a message for the Joe Biden generation: hurry up and die.”

The user’s Twitter bio reads: “he/him / anime fan / metalhead / leftist / I’m going to hell and I’m not coming back.” One tweet used the hashtag #HailSatan.

A friend of Betts and his sister said Betts was comfortable around guns and would teach people how to shoot safely.

“He enjoyed shooting,” the friend told CNN. “He seemed to have an interest in guns, how do they work, that sort of thing.”

Another person, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, said some of the names on the hit list were female students who, like her, turned him down for dates.

She said Betts often simulated shooting other students and threatened to kill himself and others on several occasions.

“He loved to look at you and pretend to shoot with guns, guns with his hands,” she said.

Bellbrook Police said Betts had been arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol in 2016.

Twitter account ‘liked’ El Paso-related tweets

In the hours before the Dayton shooting, the Twitter account “liked” several tweets about a shooting in El Paso that left 22 dead, including one supporting gun control and others that called the El Paso shooting suspect a “terrorist,” and a “white supremacist.”

The account retweeted messages supporting Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as posts against ICE agents, including one that said, “these people are monsters,” and multiple posts condemning police, and supporting Antifa protesters, who often use violent tactics.

There were also many tweets of selfies, photos with a friend and ordinary memes and nonpolitical content.

The account was suspended by Twitter on Sunday evening. A Twitter spokesperson would not comment on the account, only saying in a statement, “We’re proactively removing content that violates our policies and will be engaged with law enforcement, as appropriate.”

Former classmates say gunman had a ‘hit list’ in high school

As a high school student, the gunman had a “hit list” of classmates he wanted to “kill” or “rape,” said former students who said they were told by school officials they were on the list.

Spencer Brickler said a counselor at Bellbrook High School in Ohio told him he and his sister were on Connor Betts’ hit list. Brickler recalled sitting on a school bus about nine years ago when he saw Betts getting escorted away by officers investigating the threats.

“He was kind of dark and depressive in high school,” said Brickler, who was a freshman when the school counselor told him about the hit list. He said he had no idea what prompted Betts, then a sophomore, to put him or his sister on the list.

Several of Betts’ former classmates told CNN that they recalled Betts being removed from the school for at least a year, but that he later returned to Bellbrook High.

The shooter later attended Sinclair Community College in Dayton but was not enrolled in the summer term, the school’s president Steve Johnson said.

A former high school classmate said he and another classmate called police years ago to warn them that Betts had a “kill list.”

David Partridge said a friend had showed him text messages she received from Betts referencing his “kill list,” and that one of Partridge’s relatives was on it. Partridge told his friend he was going to call police and said he convinced her to do the same.

“I said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to drag you into this, but we have to go to the police. This guy could go to the school, he could kill people, he could hurt my family, he could hurt you,’” Partridge recalled telling his friend.

Partridge said he believed the incident occurred about 10 years ago, when he was a sophomore at Bellbrook High School. He said police took his friend’s cell phone as part of their investigation.

After calling police, Partridge said he confronted Betts over the phone.

“(I) said, ‘Hey … I hear there is this hit list, and you’ve got my family on there. What is this about? Why have you written these things?’ He was really avoidant about me confronting him about this, denying it, and not angry, but just shocked that someone had gone up to him and said, ‘What is this, Connor?’” Partridge recalled.

Partridge said he witnessed Betts being detained by police at school the following day.

CNN has repeatedly requested records pertaining to Betts from the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school district.

Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools Superintendent Douglas A. Cozad confirmed that Betts was a student who graduated in 2013. In a statement, the superintendent said they need to get approval from their legal counsel or a court before releasing records. Although Betts is deceased, Ohio law offers broader protections for students’ records and “we have no official documentation of the student’s death at this time,” the statement said.

CNN requested records from the Sugarcreek Police Department, and they responded with a file on Betts that showed “sealed records” had been expunged.

A ‘kill list’ for boys and a ‘rape list’ for girls

Another former high school classmate, who asked not to be identified out of concerns for his privacy, also recalled being summoned to a school administrator’s office and being told he was “number one” on the list of students Betts wanted to kill.

He said the list was separated into two columns: a “kill list” for boys and a “rape list” for girls.

Another source, who also asked not to be named for privacy reasons, told CNN that Betts sent messages about the list to one of his classmates, who told her mother. Her mother then notified the police, who came to the school and interviewed people on the list individually in the school’s office.

“Personally, it freaked me out,” said the classmate who was told she was on the list. “I started having panic attacks in the school building.”

Another former classmate, who was not on the list, said whenever they hung out, Betts would talk about violence and use harsh language about women, like calling them “sluts.”

Not everyone remembered Betts as a troubled teen. Betts’ friend Brad Howard described the gunman as “a really nice kid” who was quiet and kept to himself.

Howard said he grew up with Betts and knew him for over 20 years. He said news of Betts’ final act was “a kick in the teeth” to the community.

Betts belonged to a ‘pornogrind band’

Betts was in a band called the Menstrual Munchies, recalled Zach Walton, a musician who booked the band for two shows in 2018.

Walton described those shows as all-day events that featured bands, including those who perform in a genre Walton called “pornogrind,” in Missouri.

Pornogrind is an offshoot of goregrind and grindcore music; the lyrics discuss — oftentimes in extremely graphic and violent ways — pornographic and sexual themes, Walton said.

CNN reached out to some people who describe themselves as fans of the genre. For some of those listeners, the music is described as an “outlet,” or a “coping mechanism” that they say helps them channel anger and stress.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/08/06/dayton-shooter-had-an-obsession-with-violence-and-mass-shootings-police-say/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/dayton-shooter-had-an-obsession-with-violence-and-mass-shootings-police-say/