#landslide film 2024

[antonforsdik]

Jordskred - Official trailer (2024)

[forsdikcult]

new film Landslide 2024, Jordskred 2024 staring: Anton Forsdik, Edvin Ryding and Sass Wolgers : https://afpitch.vhx.tv/products/landslide-jordskred

[1americanconservative]

@charliekirk11

We need to recognize Matt Walsh for his role in the 2024 landslide. For years, many conservatives were terrified to touch the trans issue. It was on pace to be socially and politically accepted — a hate crime to even question it. Matt courageously and effectively set out on a one-man mission to expose the Trans mafia at great personal risk to himself and his family. His film “What is a Woman?” is a masterpiece. Polling suggests that Kamala's support for radical transgender policies was the single most-important issue for swing voters who picked Donald Trump, narrowly beating out even the economy and the border. "Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you" deserves to go down as one of the all-time great closing pitches in American history. Thank you,

@MattWalshBlog

. The country owes you a debt of gratitude.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Trumpland

Listen to Jeffrey Epstein Spill Intel on Donald Trump’s White House

OH LORDY

A new recording captures Epstein dishing on Trump.

Harry Lambert 

Special Correspondent

Updated Nov. 1 2024 3:54AM EDT / Published Oct. 31 2024 6:00PM EDT 

Michael Wolff, the explosive chronicler of Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, has released what he says is a recording of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, discussing Trump’s then-White House team in detail.

Wolff released the tape on his podcast, Fire and Fury. He says it was made in a restaurant in 2017, most probably in the SoHo branch of Ladurée, a patisserie in Manhattan. Epstein can be heard speaking over the din of diners.

“His people fight each other,” Epstein tells Wolff on the recording, “and then he [Trump] poisons the well outside.”

“He will tell ten people ‘Bannon’s a scumbag’ and ‘Priebus is not doing a good job’ and ‘Kellyanne has a big mouth’—what do you think? Jamie Dimon [CEO of JPMorgan Chase] says that you’re a problem and I shouldn’t keep you. And I spoke to [financier] Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new spokesperson.”

He continues: “So Kelly[anne]—even though I hired Kellyanne’s husband—Kellyanne is just too much of a wildcard. And then he tells Bannon, you know I really want to keep you but Kellyanne hates you.”

Epstein Showed Pics of Trump with Topless Young Women: WolffOCTOBER SURPRISE?

Hugh Dougherty

Epstein is referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, whose then-husband, George Conway, was briefly considered for positions in Trump’s Department of Justice.

Wolff—whose journalistic accuracy has previously been challenged by critics—said he had around “100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and about his long standing, deep relationship with Donald Trump.” Wolff has not provided anything more than this snippet of Epstein speaking in 2017.

Epstein had wanted Wolff to write his biography. (He also wanted the New York Times reporter James B. Stewart, the author of DisneyWar, to do so.)

Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 election campaign, responded to Wolff’s claims, and the recording, in a statement to the Daily Beast:

Epstein has not previously been identified by Wolff as a source of his for Fire and Fury, the 2018 book on the Trump presidency, which is estimated to have made him more than $13m.

Wolff followed the book with two more—Siege: Trump under Fire (2019) and Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency (2021)—which proved less successful. The Daily Mail recently signed him up to cover Trump as a columnist, and he launched his podcast in June.

Trump and Epstein were filmed laughing together in a clip captured at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 by NBC. They were also photographed smiling beside each other at Trump’s Palm Beach estate in 1997 and 2000.

“Here are these two guys both driven by a need to do anything they wanted with women: dominance and submission and entertainment,” Wolff says of the duo on his podcast. “And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.”

A Trump campaign source claimed to the Beast that is it “widely known” that Trump severed ties with Epstein after allegations of sex trafficking were levied against his once-close friend.

Harry Lambert

Special Correspondent

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 16 - Silvia Night - "Congratulations"

It is time.

Possibly the most booed act at Eurovision until 2024. Almost certainly the most chutzpah ever seen on a Eurovision stage - only Polina Gagarina comes close. Silvia Night/Silvía Nótt is here to save us all. Where to even begin with this?

Starting with who she is - Silvia is actress, singer and comedian Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir. Silvia was a comedy character she played on the show Sjáumst með Silvíu Nótt (The Silvia Night Show). She was a TV interviewer who outraged people by acting offensively when doing her job, insulting interviewees, using slang and acting in a way some have described as vulgar. Effectively she is the female, Icelandic, waspishly insulting Ali G.

Entering Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2006 was a continuation of her act. It was also part of a broad trend towards countries not only parodying Eurovision itself (much to the annoyance of the fans), but also entering songs that appeal directly to their home country only, just like We Are the Winners. Acts you needed to be in on the joke for. The Icelandic version of the song is called Til hamingju Ísland - Congratulations Iceland and the lyrics are considerably different.

The chorus is

Til hamingju Ísland með að ég fæddist hér Ég er Silvía Nótt og þið haldið með mér Eurovision nation fær sko flog er ég kem Ég er fædd til að vinna þetta… tremma í hel

or

Congratulations Iceland for being born here I am Silvía Nótt and you are with me Eurovision nation will have a seizure when I come I was born to win this… damn it

She wasn't wrong.

Silvia was determined to be as offensive as possible at Eurovision. Not only did she insult other contestants, the event staff and fans, but the English translation originally had the line

The vote is in, I'll fucking win

which caused complaints and the EBU to insist that it was changed. Silvia's response was

I'll fucking say what I fucking like

She still changed it though. In 2024, her behaviour would have easily been enough to have got her disqualified.

The song was written by Þorvaldur Bjarni Þorvaldsson who had previously written both of Selma's Eurovision entries. It's a simple Europop singalong thing that is being deliberate sung in a thick accent and relatively poorly. It's high camp (despite being 'not too gay') and without the offensiveness of the character is a contender for most Eurovision-y Eurovision song ever written.

The staging is incredible and almost always overlooked amidst the controversy. There are props Silvia has to interact with including a slide, and two 'showers' from one of which she has to catch a falling phone receiver. There's the paper screens her dancers burst through. There's the costume change. There's the choreography. It's the most complex staging in Eurovision history to this point by far and once again it's Iceland pushing the boundaries of what's possible on stage.

And of course it's all in character - not only the stage performance, but the entire Eurovision week was Ágústa acting her socks off and all to achieve thirteenth place in the semi-final having landslided the televote at Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2006. At the time, most Eurovision fans were ecstatic that she hadn't made it and some of that still lingers today. Yet, Silvia Night and Congratulations were a massive dose of self-awareness that Eurovision needed to grow and to address the bad feelings that were lurking underneath the show in many of its constituent countries.

Earlier in 2006 Silvia Night had been voted Iceland's sexiest woman. Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir came fourth in the same poll. The character was semi-retired after Eurovision, but Ágústa continued with much success in TV and in music. Safe to say she's still a big name in Iceland. She's performed many times, and is also (of course) the voice of many Disney films in Iceland.

In fact she's Elsa from Frozen. Here is Ágústa singing Let it Go in Icelandic to a bunch of rat puppets which I think only Icelanders can possibly explain.

[romilly-jay]

The Fall Guy (movie)

*** still not a review, also not a book, this time ***

Whimsical rom-com blended with action adventure comedy. Leads in their forties. Lots of stunts. Behind the scenesy-ness. YES PLEASE.

We have already established that I love this stuff. Hmmm. Perhaps this is really a series about how much I love it when the creator does something meta... Authors! Writing their books! (Beach Read). Anthony Horowitz! Appearing as a character in his own books! (Hawthorne and Horowitz). And now, a movie about making an action movie. With lots of great stunts. A viewpoint character who's a stuntman, from a director who was previously, yes, a stuntman.

Oh yes, and the supposed-movie is science fiction.

There's been lots of chatter now about how this movie has flopped, or, at best, stumbled - example article by Catherine Shoard for The Guardian, link below. [I'm really hopeful that it will hang around on the interwebs for a long time and slowly find its place but there's no doubt that it hasn't been an immediate Barbenheimer-ish smash.]

Am I sad? Yes, sure. I would love it if everyone had loved it.

Am I surprised? Nope. Not very. Not really.

Learned from Brexit what I should have learned over and over again from youth, namely that - just because something makes sense to me, doesn't mean it makes sense to ANYONE else.

[Actually, what I failed to understand from Brexit and have painfully, slowly learned since then, is that I also wasn't a Lone Martyr Type and part of the issue post-Brexit has been that it WASN'T a landslide. The only-just-ness has been constraining without noticeably being helpful, if by helpful, I mean - ANY of us "getting what we wanted".]

Funny that they poked fun at the idea that "nihilism is a viable worldview" (screengrab at the top is from a piece of dialogue about what we should have learned - again - from Marvel [??] movies).

Funny because I had a close-to-nihilistic catchphrase as my big personal favourite line from Buffy/Angel from years and years - "If nothing we do matters, the only thing that matters is what we do".

[That's said by Angel, in an episode - Epiphany - that has Tim Minear credited as the writer, borrowed/adapted from Nietzsche, and, I'm pretty sure, the eponymous epiphany name-checked in the title.]

Funny/sweet because this movie, as I read it, doesn't come down on the side of nihilism and is strong on second chances. Again.

I loved it. Maybe not every single beat, but mostly. Would see again.

References

Minear, T. (Writer) & Wright, T. (Director). (2001, February 27). Epiphany. [Television series episode] In J. Whedon & Mutant Enemy Productions (Producers). Angel. Los Angeles, CA: The WB Network.

Shoard, C. (2024) 'Blunt, stunts and Gosling: how did The Fall Guy flop and what does that mean for cinema?', The Guardian, 10 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/10/blunt-gosling-the-fall-guy-box-office-flop-cinema (Accessed on: 2 June 2024).

The Fall Guy (2024) Directed by David Leitch [feature film]. Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

George Danby

* * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 20, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 21, 2024

There is a curious dynamic at work in politics these days. Trump does not appear to be trying to court voters to his standard. If he were, he would be reaching out to Nikki Haley voters and trying to moderate his stances. Instead, he is rejecting her voters and doubling down on extreme positions. Rather than trying to appeal to swing voters, he seems to be trying to whip up his right-wing base to engage in violence on his behalf. 

In Minnesota on Friday, Trump echoed fascists when he told supporters, "No matter how hateful and corrupt the communists and criminals we are fighting against may be, you must never forget this is not a nation that belongs to them. This is a nation that totally belongs to you. It belongs to you. This is your home, this is your heritage."

Saturday, at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Dallas, Texas, Trump floated the idea that he could throw out the constitutional amendment limiting a president to two terms. “You know, FDR 16 years—almost 16 years—he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” he asked the crowd. Some yelled, “Three!”

In the same speech, Trump told attendees that the Second Amendment “is very much on the ballot” in November, and he urged gun owners to vote and to “be rebellious.” Then he told the crowd that Biden’s actions were such that if he “were a Republican, he would have been given the electric chair, they would have brought back the death penalty.”

This evening, Trump’s Instagram account posted a video of what a newspaper would look like after a 2024 MAGA win. Under the headline “WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMERICA?” were the words “INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH,” a clear reference to fascism and German dictator Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

It is not clear to me how anyone can any longer deny that Trump is promising to destroy our democracy and usher in authoritarianism.

But it is also not clear that he is still a figure that any but the extremes of his base will follow to that end. Hence his emphasis on turning them to violence. 

His lies have become increasingly outrageous. On Friday he told a crowd in Minnesota that he won the state by “a landslide” in 2020 even though he actually lost it by more than 7 points. At the NRA annual meeting, Trump claimed that his former physician told him he is “healthier” and “a better physical specimen” than the famously athletic former president Barack Obama. At that same event he boasted that he won 31 club golf championships; the day before, he boasted that he won 29.

Significantly, he continues to insist that the area around the courtroom is like “Fort Knox.” “There are more police than I’ve ever seen anywhere because they don’t want to have anybody come down,” he said today, “There’s not a civilian within three blocks of the courthouse.” But this is, quite simply, a lie. Virtually no one has turned out to support him. As conservative lawyer George Conway noted today, “There is virtually complete freedom of movement around that courthouse.” 

Social media contributor Eddie Smith, who filmed the handful of Trump protesters in New York today, put it more colorfully. After noting that “MAGA’s not repping in New York,” he added: “Wait a minute! You guys hear that? There is a mouse pissing on a ball of cotton in China. That’s how quiet it is out here.” 

Republican lawmakers are stepping in where Trump’s base followers are not. Republicans attacked as unfit for office 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server. They tried to impeach current president Biden on unfounded accusations that he took bribes from foreign countries. Now they find themselves forced to defend a man who is currently the defendant in a criminal trial that is showing that his associates acted like a criminal gang. As Tom Nichols put it today in The Atlantic, that defense is partly because they are afraid of their own voters. 

Nichols also called out those “now circling Trump like the cold fragments of a destroyed planet” who “resent the people who stuck to their principles.” Those MAGA Republicans lawmakers are, like Trump, trying to gin up anger with lies. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who went to Trump’s Manhattan trial to support him on Thursday, told Jesse Watters of the Fox News Channel and later posted on social media that “[t]hey’re trying to keep cameras out of the courtroom so that the American people don’t see what’s happening.” Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski noted in response that “New York has banned cameras in courtrooms since June 30, 1997.” 

The most important of their lies, though, is that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that to protect the 2024 election, it is imperative to police the election. This is the same tactic Trump used in 2020, claiming exactly four years ago that “they send in thousands and thousands of fake ballots.”

Those lies have resulted in a huge increase in threats against those whom MAGA perceives as an enemy. Danny Hakim, Ken Bensinger, and Eileen Sullivan reported in the New York Times yesterday that last year, threats against federal judges increased 150% over 2019: 450 federal judges were targeted. Since 2018, threats to members of Congress have increased by 50%, with more than 8,000 such threats last year. More than 80% of local officials also say they have been threatened or harassed.

MAGA lawmakers refuse to say they will accept the results of the 2024 election. On Saturday, Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson refused to commit to that fundamental tenet of our democracy. On Meet the Press on Sunday, Florida senator Marco Rubio also declined to say he would accept the election results. Those vying for the Republican vice presidential nomination, including North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and South Carolina senator Tim Scott, have refused to say they would accept the results. 

Their tactics are working among the Republican base. A CBS News/YouGov poll released this weekend showed that only 47% of Arizona Republicans say they will accept the results of the 2024 election no matter who wins. An equal number—47%—say they will challenge the results if the other side wins. That result is not symmetrical with the Democrats: 82% of them say they will accept the results, while only 14% say they will challenge the results if their opponents win.  

But people are pushing back against the MAGA narrative. On May 15 the Texas Tribune and ProPublica published a story by Jeremy Schwartz about Courtney Gore, a woman who ran for a Texas school board to combat pornography and critical race theory in the schools, only to find there wasn’t any. When she told the public, her former colleagues turned on her. “I’m over the political agenda, hypocrisy bs,” Gore wrote. “I took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It’s not serving our party. We have to do better.”

Steve MacLaughlin, a meteorologist for NBC 6 News in Miami, reported on a new law Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law last week that will remove references to climate change from state law. “On Thursday, we reported on NBC 6 News that the government of Florida was beginning to roll back really important climate change legislation and really important climate change language in spite of the fact that the state of Florida, over the last couple of years, has seen record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state,” MacLaughlin said. “The entire world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was. Please keep in mind, the most powerful climate change solution is the one you already have in the palm of your hands: the right to vote. And we will never tell you who to vote for, but we will tell you this: We implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions, and there are candidates that don’t.”

On May 17, former lieutenant governor of Georgia Geoffrey Duncan noted on Amanpour & Company that Trump had done less for rural voters than any other president in modern history. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we just cannot get into the business in America of electing dishonest human beings to represent us…. The world’s watching us. I’m hoping we get this right.” 

Tonight, Sarah Matthews, who was deputy press secretary for the Trump administration, wrote: “Trump’s continued use of Nazi rhetoric is un-American and despicable. Yet too many Americans are brushing off the glaring red flags about what could happen if he returns to the White House. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[drhoz]

The Great ACT-NSW-NZ Trip, 2023-2024 - North Island Volcanic Plateau

Strictly speaking the Taupō caldera complex is just one part of the volcanic plateau covering much of central North Island, which also includes ash deserts, crater lakes, lava plateaus, the Ōkataina caldera complex, and the Tongariro Volcanic Centre. It's very active - Mount Ngauruhoe for example, is a beautifully cone-shaped stratovolcano 2,291 m tall, and less than 2500 years old. In fact the plateau is currently the most frequently active and productive area of silicic volcanism on Earth.

You might also recognise it as Mt Doom from the LOTR films.

In 1974 a champion skier (and presumed lunatic) by the name of Jean-Claude Killy skied down the side of Ngauruhoe you can see here, as part of a promotional campaign for Moët & Chandon. He hit well over 100kph. And he was doing this while the volcano was erupting.

Mount Ruapehu, south of Ngauruhoe, is also active, but is also the site of the North Island's only glaciers and major ski resorts. The eruptions have certainly been deadly, but most of the fatalities occured on Christmas Eve 1953 when the tephra dam constraining the crater lake collapsed and sent a landslide of mud, rock and water down the Whangaehu River minutes before an express train came through.

In 2007 two climbers nearly drowned on top of the mountain, when they took shelter in an alpine hut 600m from the crater, and an underwater eruption in the crater lake drove a surge 2km from the crater. Luckily for them the floor gave way and the water drained into the seismometer vault beneath the hut. One of the mountaineers still had a leg crushed by boulders in the debris.

East of the volcanoes is Te Onetapu, also known as the Rangipo Desert. It gets a decent amount of rain and occasionally heavy snow, but doesn't hold onto any of it because the entire area is thickly buried in unconsolidated ash and other volcanic debris and it immeadiately drains away.

It also doesn't have any trees to speak of, because the supervolcano eruptions at Lake Taupo 26,000 years ago carbonised every living thing in the area, including the seeds, and the ecosystem is still recovering. Forests on the western side of Ruapehu were partly shielded by the height of the volcano, and survived.

While @purrdence spent a few hours at the military museum south of the desert, I drove back up the road and went looking for insects. Some were abundant, like the Tiger Beetles, but they amazingly frustrating to photograph, taking off and being whisked away by the wind the moment I came near. Or being chased off, sometimes in flight, by the aforementioned ravenous beetles. At least the plants stayed in one spot, and the bumblebee was enthralled by the blue paintjob of the car.

[steelbluehome]

The Associated Press News

They made a movie about Trump. Then no one would release it

By  JAKE COYLE

September 4, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Hard as it may be to believe, there aren’t a lot of Hollywood agents clamoring for their star clients to take the role of one of the polarizing political figures of the 21st century.

Sebastian Stan, though, was committed to “The Apprentice.” More than anything, he believed in its director, the Iranian Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi. And, even though it made him nervous — or maybe because it made it him nervous — he wanted to do it. He wanted to play Donald Trump.

“There wasn’t a lot of competition,” Stan says, chuckling.

“It was one of those things I thought: If this isn’t going to happen, it’s not going to happen because of me,” Stan says. “It’s not going to not happen because I’m scared.”

By a landslide, “The Apprentice” is the most controversial movie of the fall. It stars Stan as a young Trump playing apprentice to the attorney Roy Cohn ( Jeremy Strong ) while trying to make a name for himself in 1980s New York real estate. Already, “The Apprentice” has had one of the most tortured paths to movie theaters of any 2024 release.

After its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, all the major studios and top specialty labels passed on making an offer. One potential issue was a cease and desist letter from Trump’s legal team. Another was that one of the movie’s investors — Dan Snyder, the former owner of the Washington Commanders and a Trump supporter — wanted to exit the movie.

Only last week, Briarcliff Entertainment announced that it will open “The Apprentice” on Oct. 11, just weeks before Election Day. And it’s still fighting for more screens. On Tuesday, the filmmakers took the unusual step of launching a Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaign to raise money for its release.

“This project has been pretty crazy, from beginning to the end,” Abbasi says. “It’s still not completely there. It’s going to get more crazy, maybe.”

Trump’s reelection campaign has vigorously opposed the movie. After its Cannes debut, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the film “pure fiction.” On Friday, after its release date was confirmed, Cheung declared it “election interference by Hollywood elites.”

What role, if any, “The Apprentice” might play in the lead-up to Nov. 5 will be one of the most notable storylines at the movies this fall. While many Hollywood stars are vocal supporters of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, it’s far rarer that plainly political films squeak through today’s sequel- and superhero-dominated movie industry. That makes for a unique election-year test case: Will liberals want to see a film about Trump? Will conservatives turn out for a film Trump opposes?

Abbasi, whose previous film “Holy Spider” turned a questioning eye on Iranian society through the story of a serial killer targeting women, says he’s not trying to tell anyone how to vote.

“Do I want to show you some stuff about character? Yes, I would very much love that and I think we have some great stuff to show,” says Abbasi. “What you do with that knowledge is up to you. But that knowledge might come in handy if you want to go and vote.”

To Abbasi, grappling with contemporary politics is his responsibility as a filmmaker. As ubiquitous as Trump is, Abbasi argues there have been paltry attempts to really understand the former president.

“With Donald and Ivana, they’ve never really been treated as human beings,” Abbasi says. “They’re either treated badly or extremely good — it’s like this mythological thing. The only way if you want to break that myth is to deconstruct it. I think a humanistic view is the best way you can deconstruct that myth.”

“For me, the best comp for him is Barry Lyndon,” Abbasi adds, referencing the Stanley Kubrick film of the same name. “When you think about Barry Lyndon, you don’t think about that guy as being a bad guy or a good guy. He has this ambivalence and this uncanny ability to navigate. He wants to be somebody. He doesn’t really know what or why. He just sort of wants to ascend.”

“The Apprentice” found a mixed reception from critics at Cannes, though Stan and Strong were widely praised. The movie notably includes a scene in which Trump, as played by Stan, rapes Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova). In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she stated that Trump raped her. Trump denied the allegation and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.

But, Abbasi maintains, “The Apprentice” is not a hit job. He has insisted that Trump, himself, might like the movie. At the same time, some critics have questioned whether “The Apprentice” shows too much empathy to Trump and Cohn, who was Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel during the 1954 communist hearings.

“I don’t think any of us are above it. I don’t think any of us are born perfect people or we’re not morally compromised,” says Stan. “It’s really, really much muddier and trickier than that, life is. I think the only way we can learn is through empathy. I think we have to protect empathy and continue to nourish it. And I think one way of nourishing empathy is showing what its exact opposite can be.”

Stan, who plays Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier) in Marvel movies, was drawn to the film partly because the Copenhagen-based Abbasi brought a European perspective. It’s something that Stan, who was born in Romania and emigrated to the New York area with his mother at age 12, partly shares. He views the film as an origin story for a “win at all costs” ideology.

Strong is much more renowned for staying in character. (Abbasi recalls sometimes being confused by Strong’s demeanor on set before he realized he was still Roy Cohn.) But Stan also, unwittingly, dabbled in such immersion. He points to his diet, including one scene in which he repeatedly ate cheeseballs.

“I must have had, like, 25 to 30 cheeseballs that night,” Stan says. “The next morning I woke up and, I’m sorry to say, but I was on the toilet at 6:30 in the morning before I was getting picked up. And I was in such pain. I couldn’t leave that toilet. It was like: Yeah, I guess this is method acting.”

When the fate of “The Apprentice” seemed uncertain, Abbasi was in disbelief. He felt he had made an edgy film, but an entertaining one.

“I always thought of the United States, yes, it’s not a perfect place. But one thing was always repeated to me: This is the land of the free. This is the land of freedom of speech. You can say what you want here,” says Abbasi. “That’s not what I’ve been met with. I’ve been met with sheer business calculations.”

Strong echoes those sentiments.

“It was almost effectively banned, and I find that, alone, very frightening and a harbinger of dark things,” says Strong. “But first and foremost it’s a movie. It’s not a political act or a political event. It’s a movie.”

All three of them, ultimately, just want people to see “The Apprentice” — if possible, with an open mind.

“We’re in a very black-and-white mentality right now, and I went into this movie knowing that,” Stan says. “But let’s take the road less traveled, and maybe other people will, too. I think we have to look at public figures that are consequential in our times, in our lives and we have to reflect and evaluate them.”

[noloveforned]

welcome to 2024! no love for ned is still here and still on wlur every friday night from 8pm until midnight! i was hoping to have a new theme set to go this week but we're going to stick with our fall 'food songs' for another week.

our last show of the year was the annual look back twenty years ago for our best of 2003 show (now streaming on mixcloud). if you enjoyed the show, you can also check out the previous nine retrospective shows spotlighting 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995 and 1993 (1994 will be produced later this year as a special a 30th anniversary show).

no love for ned on wlur – december 29th, 2023 from 8pm-midnight

artist // track // album // label the aislers set // languor in the balcony // how i learned to write backwards // slumberland shout out louds // the comeback // howl howl gaff gaff // bud fox matt suggs // calm down // amigo row // merge belle and sebastian // i'm a cuckoo // dear catastrophe waitress // rough trade the rosebuds // kicks in the schoolyard // make out // merge the lucksmiths // midweek midmorning // naturaliste // drive-in sprites // do it yourself // starling, spiders, tiger and sprites // march camera obscura // suspended from class // underachievers please try harder // elefant st. thomas // a long long time // hey harmony // racing junior bishop allen // little black ache // charm school // champagne school herman düne // why would that hurt? (if you never loved me) // mash concrete metal mushroom // shrimper bearsuit // itsuko got married // itsuko got married 7" // bearslut dressy bessy // baby six string // dressy bessy // kindercore the new pornographers // testament to youth in verse // electric version // matador all girl summer fun band // dear mr. and mrs. troublemaker // 2 // k david and the citizens // graycoated morning // until the sadness is gone // adrian saturday looks good to me // alcohol // all your summer songs // polyvinyl the essex green // the late great cassiopia // the long goodbye // merge beulah // landslide baby // yoko // velocette reclinerland // give up your film career (lenny's theme) // the ideal home music library // hush blanket music // hyper-ballad // read: interpreting bjork tribute // hush tobin sprout // doctor #8 // lost planets and phantom voices // mr. whiggs plastic mastery // i fell in love on the way to a funeral // sverige ep // 555 the thermals // no culture icons // more parts per million // sub pop rainer maria // mystery and misery // long knives drawn // polyvinyl joel plaskett emergency // extraordinary // truthfully truthfully // maple music sloan // false alarm // action pact // vik guided by voices // useless inventions // earthquake glue // matador deerhoof // dummy discards a heart // apple o' // kill rock stars lil' hospital // there could be girlfriend // i wanna be well // best friends the national splits // she's my baby and she's alright // fontana // mr. whiggs murder beach // eight great ways // first string teenage high- songs of tullycraft played by people who aren't tribute // bumblebear casiotone for the painfully alone // jeane, if you're ever in portland // twinkle echo // tomlab bobby birdman // i will come again // heart caves ep // states rights

erykah badu // back in the day // worldwide underground // motown the books // take time // the lemon of pink // tomlab nanang tatang // bunny hop hop // muki // tiger style so // a // so // thrill jockey piana // hide and seek // snow bird // happy broken social scene // anthems for a seventeen-year-old girl // you forgot it in people // arts and crafts califone // michigan girls // quicksand/cradlesnakes // thrill jockey the strugglers // the new room // the new room // tract magnolia electric co. // just be simple // the magnolia electric co. // secretly canadian crooked fingers // big darkness // red devil dawn // merge the trouble with sweeney // the break up // i know you destroy // burnt toast vinyl barzin // past all concerns // barzin // where are my azure ray // hold on love // hold on love // saddle creek seekonk // move // for barbara lee // kimchee sun kill moon // carry me ohio // ghosts of the great highway // jetset the american analog set // come home baby julie, come home // promise of love // tiger style the twilight singers // teenage wristband // blackberry belle // birdman spiritualized // she kissed me (it felt like a hit) // amazing grace // sanctuary the postal service // the district sleeps alone tonight // give up // sub pop her space holiday // my girlfriend's boyfriend // the young machines // mush styrofoam // a heart without a mind // i'm what's there to show that something's missing // morr music howard hello // my friend / the parasite // don't drink his blood // temporary residence pernice brothers // one foot in the grave // yours, mine and ours // ashmont the salteens // damn you // let go of your bad days // drive-in the unicorns // i was born (a unicorn) // who will cut our hair when we're gone? // alien8 the hidden cameras // ban marriage // the smell of our own // rough trade yo la tengo // today is the day // today is the day ep // matador

[antonforsdik]

[forsdikcult]

[pipelinelaserraygun]

👺 deep state's GRIP on 🇺🇸: During a LAME 🦆 DUCK session over the next two months, demo-🐀 RAT money managers have backed themselves into a corner. They shifted protests from DC to NYC because, right after the walloping 🗳️ landslide, they risk sending ALL of their paid "protesters" to rot in jail like the current j6 Patriots sitting behind bars.

"✌🏽 'Peaceful' transition of power? The reason that there might be a resemblance of 'peace' is because biden is negotiating multiple pardons for his ENTIRE crime Family, in exchange.

They shall go UN-named: satanic Kool-Aid has been part of MANY a person's diet.

As recently as November 9th 2024, 🦇 I was accused of "working for the antichrist", because I helped 45/47 take a 🏁✝️ Victory-in-Christ lap.

The accusation came FROM someone VERY important to me, who I love, but has been dieting for years and years on 🤮 disinformation FROM 🗑️ msnbc AND the like.

Bundles of FAKE 🗞️ NEWS spreads 🚬 cancerous lies.

🎵🎶 "Where'd you get your information FROM?"

🎵🎶 "Where'd you get your information FROM?"

🕎✝️🛐 Father God, 🃏🤡 RATIO diabolical clowns‼️

--"The collapse of brainwash."

[naivrse]

tw : pageant industry , death of a parent , grooming and an inappropriate underaged relationship ( nongraphic )

park  sohee  ,  known  mononymously  as  sohee  ,  is  a  south  korean  supermodel  ,  actress  ,  and  singer. she is signed with prism talent agency and img models and is the daughter of former prominent beauty queen jung misook.

she was born on june 30 , 1994 , in goyang , gyeonggi , south korea. starting when she was a toddler , she was entered in beauty pageants by her mother that wanted her to go down the same path that she did , and won most of them by a landslide. at just twelve , she won miss korea seoul , just like her mother had at eighteen.

wanting to venture into the world of fashion modeling , sohee signed with prism talent agency in 2010 and became the youngest person to walk seoul fashion week that same year. she made her acting debut in 2011 in the highly successful drama dream high , a performance that she is beloved for , considered to be a classic now.

she continued to model and act for years , starring in several films and dramas and traveling the world to model for all types of high–end brands and magazines , and even singing some popular osts for her dramas , before entering the big miss korea pageant in 2016 and winning , a feat not even her mother ever achieved. netizens nicknamed her "miss korea" permanently after that.

in 2021 , sohee took her first ever hiatus from work , disappearing for seven months after he mother's untimely passing. she took the loss hard , since the two were reportedly extremely close. all of her events were cancelled and she missed the promotions for her drama squid game , though she gained international recognition for her performance. she was welcomed with open arms when she made her return to the spotlight at the 2022 met gala , linking arms with anna wintour.

aside from some dating and minor controversies here and there , sohee went without scandal for most of her career until in 2023 , when concerning rumors of inappropriate conduct began to circulate about her online. in a now deleted video , a popular tiktoker read off a blind item nicknaming an unnamed south korean model "mrs. robinson"— referring to the character from the 1967 film the gratuate— and accused the woman of grooming and dating a fellow unnamed celebrity when he was underaged. while sohee wasn't directly mentioned , several hints in the blind item obviously pointed to her , and as discussion ramped up online , prism came out denying the claims and threatened strong legal action against anyone spreading them. sohee herself wrote an emotionally charged statement , also denying the claims and winning back the support of the public. for now.

as of 2024 , sohee remains a top celebrity in korea , and her scandal for the most part has been forgotten , as the person who posted the video was hit with a cease and desist and forced to take it down. though there are still whispers of it online , the confirmation of her relationship with start–up and twenty–five twenty–one co–star hong hojun and the several modeling and acting gigs she's still managed to land drown all of it out.

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬

NAME. park sohee

DATE OF BIRTH. june 30 , 1994

PLACE OF BIRTH. goyang , gyeonggi , south korea

NATIONALITY. south korean

ETHNICITY. korean

FACE. bae suji ( suzy )

𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲

DREAM HIGH ( 2011 ) ... go hyemi

THE MASTER'S SUN ( 2013 ) ... ha yoojin

REPLY 1988 ( 2015 ) ... sung bora

TRAIN TO BUSAN ( 2016 ) ... jinhee

DESCENDANTS OF THE SUN ( 2016 ) ... yoon myeongjoo

UNCONTROLLABLY FOND ( 2016 ) ... noh eul

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING ( 2017 ) ... nam hongjoo

BURNING ( 2018 ) ... shin haemi

TUNE IN FOR LOVE ( 2019 ) ... kim misoo

HOTEL DEL LUNA ( 2019 ) ... jang manwol

START–UP ( 2020 ) ... seo dalmi

YOUNG ADULT MATTERS ( 2021 ) ... sejin

SQUID GAME ( 2021 ) ... jiyeong or player 240

TWENTY–FIVE TWENTY–ONE ( 2022 ) ... na huido

LITTLE WOMEN ( 2022 ) ... oh inhye

JOY RIDE ( 2023 ) ... herself

MASK GIRL ( 2023 ) ... kim yechun

MY DEMON ( 2023 ) ... do dohee

REVOLVER ( 2024 ) ... jeong yoonsun

[ginger-fitzgeralld]

An Australian “trans inclusive” Premier League women’s football team with five male players has secured victory in the grand final match after dominating games throughout the summer. During the 2024 season of the North West Sydney Football Women’s Premier Competition, The Flying Bats won all 17 games and scored 76 goals while only a total of 8 points were scored against them.

The Flying Bats, a football club for “self-identified women and non-binary people,” has attracted significant criticism that has escalated over the past year. The mounting outcry presumably motivated the decision by regulators to ramp up security measures during the Women’s Premier League grand final game on Sunday, which they won, 5-4, over West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Football Club.

Earlier this year the team was awarded a $1,000 prize after winning the North West Sydney League pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup, following a season of winning every game they played in the Women’s Premier League matches, 10-0. The news generated significant outcry and resulted in The Flying Bats making international headlines.

Australian talk radio presenter Ben Fordham spoke with one of the attendees at yesterday’s match. According to the caller, identified only as David, security guards conducted bag checks and required all who attended to ditch their recording devices.

“There was quite a high security presence up there, and… they were actually doing bag checks to make sure no one had brought in any sort of device to film the game any bigger than a mobile phone. I was told by security that they’d had to ask one person who refused to let them into their bag to leave the premises. So they were clamping down on people there trying to take footage… because The Flying Bats are a hot topic in football circles these days,” David said.

“West Pennant had a really vocal crowd up there… At the end of the game, when the full-time whistle went, you should have heard the boos coming from the West Pennant Hills crowd section. It was deafening,” he added.

West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Football Club shared an encouraging message to their female athletes on Facebook yesterday after the loss.

“Our Premier Leauge Womens team have left everything on Christie Park this afternoon losing 5-4 in heartbreaking fashion to the Flying Bats,” the post read. “You embodied everything it means to play for our club over an amazing 90 mins of football. We could not be prouder of you girls!”

Comments on the Facebook post were entirely supportive of the women. “Well done ladies! That team should never been allowed to compete,” read one response. “Your girls are the winners here. [You] didn’t lose, [you] were robbed. Shame on the soccer federation for letting this happen,” read another.

According to regulations put forward by the North West Sydney Football Association (NWSFA), “players may register and participate on the basis of their gender identification.” There are a total of at least nine trans-identified males playing football within the women’s leagues, though their identities have been protected and withheld by Australian media.

Guidelines issued by the Australian Human Rights Commission state that under the federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984, sporting organizations are forbidden from enforcing “discrimination” on the basis of a self-declared gender identity. “An example of direct discrimination would be a sporting organization refusing a trans woman’s application for membership because she is transgender,” the guidelines state.

In response to landslide victories secured by The Flying Bats FC, six other football clubs whose women’s teams had competed against them organized an informal meeting on March 17 at the Ranch Hotel in North Ryde. The Northwest Sydney Football Association became aware of the conversation and scheduled a formal meeting. An email was sent out to the club presidents from the CEO of North West Sydney Football, Matthew Geracitano, instructing them to attend a meeting on the evening of March 20 at Christie Park.

Included in the email sent to football club presidents was a packet titled “Online Hate Speech” produced by the eSafety Commission. Above the attachment, the following sentence was highlighted in yellow: “If individuals responsible for posting seriously harmful material do not comply with a removal notice, we can seek civil penalties or fines against perpetrators (up to $111,000).”

During the meeting, which was attended by CEO of Football NSW John Tsatsimas, attendees were told that a decision to boycott participation by forfeiting matches against The Flying Bats would result in “disciplinary action” being issued.

As previously revealed by Reduxx, one of the five men on the women’s football team is trans activist Riley Dennis, who was previously accused of severely injuring women while participating on another women’s team. Dennis could be seen towering over the female players during Sunday’s game, while wearing the Flying Bats uniform decorated with colors from the Pride progress flag.

Dennis, born Justin, 32, currently plays for The Flying Bats, but last year was a member of the Inter Lions team in New South Wales. On May 21, 2023, during a game between the Inter Lions and the St. George football clubs at the Majors Bay Reserve, Dennis launched his smaller female opponent towards a metal fence using an aggressive tackle as the two chased down the ball.

Reduxx was provided footage of the match, which showed the female player laying on her side, unmoving, as the transgender player casually walked away.

The month prior, Dennis was said to have injured another female player, who reportedly had to seek hospital attention as a result of her injury. A letter-writing campaign was launched by Kirralie Smith, a spokeswoman with Binary Australia, encouraging concerned individuals to contact Football New South Wales, which reportedly then received over 12,000 submissions.

For her role in bringing awareness to the injuries sustained by female athletes, Smith was visited by New South Wales Police and handed an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) on March 30 that year requiring that she neither discuss nor approach Dennis. The AVO was withdrawn by authorities in September.

Earlier this year, Reduxx spoke with president of St. Patrick’s Football Club Frank Parisi, who revealed that at least 20 female players had excluded themselves from the sport, presumably due to safety concerns over serious injuries that had already occurred as a result of male participants in women’s matches.

Parisi described a range of problems that had arisen as a result of men playing in women’s football matches, as well as an incident in which a female player’s leg was broken in two places by a trans-identified male during a game. Female players have been self-excluding from the sport by the dozens, said Parisi, in order to avoid competing against the male players.

“A couple of year ago, one of The Flying Bats players broke one of our players’ legs in a game. It was a clumsy tackle from behind. Our player had her leg broken in two places and she’s no longer playing football. It was a direct result of a real bad, tall player… he didn’t get a red card,” Parisi said.

However, while the trans-identified male who caused the injury was not penalized, one female player who rushed to help the injured woman was suspended for a comment she made during the incident.

“One of our players rushed over to try to help her, she was screaming in so much pain. At that time, she made a derogatory remark to the Bats player, which we apologized for. [She was] suspended. The Bats player, nothing happened to [him].” Parisi clarified that following this incident, the player was suspended from matches for a total of eight weeks.

In 2022, the year in which a female player for St. Patrick’s FC had her leg broken by a trans-identified male associated with The Flying Bats, club president for the latter group, Jen Peden, was honored with a Fair Play award presented by the NWSFA – a fact announced to the club’s Facebook page with the comment, “We play nice.”

In March, massive public outcry ensued after news broke of the five trans-identified players on The Flying Bats team. In response, LGBTI Rights Australia, a Facebook community with over 250,000 followers, made a public statement mocking ��TERF Nazis” and suggesting that “transphobes” should “train a bit harder.”

[kalyan-gullapalli]

Post # 124

The economics, humanities and politics of "Sarai"...

In February, 2014, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Bill was passed and Telangana broke away. The resultant state of Andhra now looks like this. :-)

In 2019, state general elections were held in A.P and YSR Congress won hands down. YS Jaganmohan Reddy became Chief Minister and set out to fulfill a unique electoral promise to his vote bank - Prohibition of Liquor in the state of A.P.

The new liquor policy, which includes a 40% reduction in bar licences, exorbitant hike of new license fees, closure of some 40000 illegal outlets, time restrictions and take over of bars by A.P State Beverages Corporation, aims to make Andhra Pradesh alcohol-free by 2024. A.P will then join Gujarat, Bihar, Mizoram, Nagaland and Lakshadweep as states/territories which have successfully implemented liquor prohibition.

But will Jagan be able to make this initiative a success in A.P? Because, this is not the first time such a thing has been tried in Andhra. In 1995, in a strange reversal of roles, Telugu Desam Party won the state elections, crushing Congress, and TDP Chief N T Rama Rao banned the sale of liquor in A.P. In 1995, his son-in-law, N. Chandrababu Naidu, staged a coup-of-sorts, toppled NTR, became Chief Minister and in 1997, reversed the decision.

But what was all that drama back then in 1990s? Therein lies a tale.

First of all, let's understand the economics of Liquor production and sale. Why is the state government so interested in it? It's very simple. Liquor fills the state government's revenue coffers in form of excise duty on its production. The state government also makes money from the issuance of licenses for its sale. Liquor boosts tourism and entertainment industries too.

The A.P state government discovered this golden hen sometime in the 1970s and since then, liquor has become a state policy. In 1970, the excise duty collected from liquor was INR 40 crores, which jumped to INR 800 crores in early 1990s and quantum leaped to INR 12000 crores in 2015. That's big money coming into the state revenue coffers.

In 1983, when NT Rama Rao came to power for the first time, he introduced a particularly aggressive liquor policy called Varuna Vahini (literally meaning Flood of Liquor), which delivered government-manufactured country liquor - Sarai, in Telugu, Arrack in English - to doorsteps, in easily affordable plastic sachets and bottles. He used some of this revenue to subsidise other populist schemes, like Rs 2 per kilo rice scheme.

Andhra Pradesh typically constitutes about 3-5% of sales of major liquor manufacturers like United Breweries and United Spirits. So, they usually have a word or two to say in this regard.

Oh! By the way, liquor contractors make a truck load of money too, which they invest in real estate, films, finance and construction projects, and make donations to cultural and religious institutions, thus strengthening their socio-political clout.

So, net-net, liquor manufacturing and sale is a well-oiled economic engine for any state, especially for Andhra Pradesh.

Now, let's understand the human aspects of state-promoted liquor sales.

I read a report that said, in 1991-92, the average annual income of a family in Andhra was, hold your breath, INR 1840. This was the total family income, for the entire year!

Out of this, the working male spent INR 830 on liquor. So, the man of the house spent 45% of his measly income on Sarai - Arrack. It was the norm. Every man, in every house, did it. And the government promoted it, supported it and benefited from it.

The logic was - the poor man had spent a miserable day, doing a miserable job, for a miserable pay. So it's ok, if he drowns his misery in a drink after sunset. Hmm. The problem was - the miserable man had a family - a wife, who slogged all day to make ends meet and feed her children. And god forbid, if there was an illness in the family, begging was the only way out.

On top of it, any body who has had a drink in their life knows, liquor is ok as a socializing drink. But it doesn't alleviate a man's misery. Infact, it compounds it.

This foul smelling man, in his foul mood, came home at midnight, in stupor, and sparks flew. Domestic violence, physical and mental abuse, were rampant. Suicides, rapes and murders were common.

Net-net, life in a village in Andhra Pradesh, which had a government-promoted arrack shop, was living hell, especially for the women folk. And because Arrack sale filled government coffers, there was an Arrack shop in every village. So life, in pretty much every village in Andhra Pradesh, was living hell for its women folk.

All of this was indicating an impending change. And change happened - in form of a massive, state level, Anti-Arrack movement, led by the women folk of Andhra Pradesh, which resulted in the prohibition of alcohol in the state!

In 1988, the Government of India launched the National Literacy Mission (NLM). In January 1990, the NLM was launched in Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh. The state-organised mass-literacy campaigns led to women getting together and discussing their problems. The awareness brought on by these group discussions resulted in the women discovering that the consumption of locally made, cheap Arrack was the main source of their unsettled domestic life. This awareness resulted in a spontaneous movement in the small village of Dubagunta in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

The rural women of the village, who had no autonomy in any sphere of life, took it in their hands to fight against the production and sale of Arrack. They raided the Arrack shops with broomsticks and chili powder and cowered the owner into shutting the shop.

What started as an agitation in a single village, soon turned into a state-wide movement. In each village, women simply destroyed the ingredients used for the production of liquor. They also started policing the men in their individual households against consuming Arrack.

They then started speaking against the liquor contractors, local bureaucracy, police officials and even the Chief Minister. They started questioning the government on the availability of basic amenities like water, schools etc, which were in a dearth, as opposed to Arrack, which was always easily available. When the government insisted that the excise collected from the production of Arrack was used for welfare programmes, like the subsidy of rice, the women even agreed to contribute a day’s wages to help in the welfare schemes.

For them, it was clear. The cost-benefit equation of government-promoted liquor policies on human indices simply didn't match up to the economics. They put their foot down. Finally, when the movement had gained momentum in three districts, the government had to buckle under the pressure and ban Arrack in the state.

Now, let's go to the politics of the matter. Where there is a people's movement, there will be politics. And political parties.

It was 1994 - the election year in A.P. NT Rama Rao of TDP, the main opposition party, promised his electorate that, if they elected him to power, he would ban all forms of alcohol from the state (Toddy and IMFL - Indian made foreign liquor - were still available.) Ironically, it was his Varuna Vahini programme that was responsible for this situation. But, it was a powerful promise. So, he won a landslide election, came to power, and fulfilled his promise.

In 1995, Andhra Pradesh became alcohol free!

But this situation was shortlived. Within 9 months, NTR's son-in-law, N Chandrababu Naidu, staged a coup against his father-in-law, stating excessive interference of his second wife Parvathy Laxmi, in the party politics. Both NTR and Parvathy Laxmi were ousted from the party.

In 1997, Chandrababu Naidu, repealed the prohibition, stating that the exchequer has lost INR 1200 crores that year in excise revenue, illegal bootlegging had become unstoppable and that he was under pressure from all quarters to repeal the "dry rule." A few hushed and a few not-so-hushed voices say that there was no intent in the first place.

That's why there is some scepticism about Jaganmohan Reddy's latest initiative. Is there political will?

Post Script::

In 2016, 93 year old Dubagunta Rosamma, one of the early Anti-Arrack crusaders passed away, in Nellore.

Inspired by the story Seethamma kadha (the story of Seethamma) taught as part of the adult literacy programme in the night school in her village, the women of Dubagunta, led by Rosamma, destroyed the pots storing Arrack, after giving assurance to the families depending on the trade, thus sparking the first light of what would soon become a state-level agitation.

May this post be a small tribute to her!