#michael holston

[xtruss]

A Lager Darkly — In Search of Culmbacher, One of America’s Great, Extinct Beers

— Words By Michael Stein | Illustrations By Colette Holston | Published: March 17, 2021

A recipe for Culmbacher lives on in archival perpetuity in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Introduced to American drinkers in the second half of the 19th century, the Lager style was born in Kulmbach, Germany before it found a receptive audience overseas. As its popularity increased in the ensuing decades, scores of breweries started making it, from New York to California.

According to source material, the original, Old World Kulmbacher was a dark beer. It had a pronounced malt flavor and a sweetish taste. For American brewers, it had Bavarian characteristics, in that it was brewed along the lines of a Bavarian Lager, with a strong starting gravity. Perhaps the greatest variation between the German original and the American adaptation is that U.S.-made Culmbacher was sometimes brewed to be a near beer—that is, high in extract and low in alcohol.

Borrowing a page from Germany, American brewers sold copious quantities of kegs to the beer-drinking public in biergartens adjacent to their breweries, or elsewhere across town. In Washington, D.C., where the historic Washington Brewery Company once produced large volumes of the style, numerous biergartens were run by German immigrants. Another was run by a Frenchman who, every July 14, staged a reenactment of the storming of the Bastille. And down by the docks, where there is still a seafood market today, customers would crush foaming seidels as they cracked hard-shelled Chesapeake crabs.

But for all the ways that Culmbacher reflected the push-and-pull of German-American beer culture and identity, the style was not to last. Ultimately, the nativism and xenophobic sentiment that sprung up around World War I meant that German beer traditions began to fall out of favor. Later, the hope that Culmbacher would weather Prohibition was a fanciful one, as most breweries that produced it ultimately closed. Today there is little trace of the style, beyond the recipe for “Kulmbacher” (it was spelled with a “C” in some places, and in others with a “K”) that remains in the National Museum of American History’s archives, on a single, typewritten page.

Still, discovering this trace—knowing that a shadow of this beer existed, even in obscurity—convinced me that Culmbacher could, and deserved to be, revived. When I read the recipe for the extinct near beer, I knew then, there in the archives in 2016, that I had to convince a brewer to help me recreate it.

Two Countries, Two Recipes

As early as 1831, Kulmbach began exporting beer to Saxony and other parts of Germany. Around 1863 and 1864, Kulmbach was exporting as much as 96,000 hectoliters of beer—or over 81,000 barrels. In 1868, the U.S. and Australia were listed as export markets. By 1896, Kulmbach was producing 600,000 hectoliters of Kulmbacher, or over half a million BBLs.

Beer historian Ron Pattinson has, in his collection, an 1879 Kulmbacher Export recipe made with two German malts, Munich and Carafa. The German recipe yielded a beer at 6.2% alcohol by volume, which was typical: In the 1880s, analysis of the Bavarian export showed it ranged from 5.2% to 6.6% ABV. (Once it arrived in the U.S., the style diminished in strength in many cases—Milwaukee’s Blatz Brewing Company, for instance, brewed a Culmbacher at 4.75% ABV.)

There are still many mysteries surrounding Kulmbach’s eponymous style, including its spelling. To begin: Is “Culmbacher” just an anglicized version of its name?

“I would have said ‘Culmbacher’ was an anglicized version, except I’ve seen a Heineken version with that spelling,” Pattinson says. “Which leaves me wondering where the hell it came from.”

“Beers were named after their hometown but they came to be brands and styles brewed elsewhere as well,” says Mark Dredge, author of A Brief History of Lager. “I don’t know why the ‘K’ or the ‘C’ in the spelling. Perhaps it was due to not wanting trademark infringements, as there were plenty at the end of the 1800s.” As an example, he notes the seemingly small but important differences between “Pils” and “Pilsener”: “Heineken was one of the first to add the extra ‘e’ in Pilsner, so maybe that’s why they had a ‘Culmbacher,’” he says. The difference between Dutch “Bok” and German “Bock” is another form of this discrepancy.

Further complicating our understanding of Kulmbacher is the fact that it could be brewed as a very low-alcohol near beer. In the 1920s, Pabst’s Kulmbacher contained less than .5% ABV. As for the recipe I found in the Smithsonian’s archives, which was donated by Walter Voigt—the son of German immigrants who was born in 1906, and who was a member of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas—the piece of paper reads in all capitals: “Malt to be used for various types of near beer.”

Voigt’s Kulmbacher recipe contains four malts: high-dried, pale, caramel, and black. Missing from the recipe are hops, corn, and yeast. As Pattinson puts it, the recipe “looks to have been adapted to U.S. malts. You wouldn’t see high-dried in Germany. The equivalent would be Munich malt.” He goes on to speculate that it “could also be that they had added different malts to give the near beer more body. Body might well be the reason for skipping the adjuncts, too.”

Dark Lager's Bright Rise

In Bavaria in 1863, master glassmaker Simon Hering began brewing on a large scale. His brewery, Export-Bier-Brauerei Simon Hering, started exporting beer to the United States in 1864, during the Civil War.

Hering was the first German brewer I could find who exported Kulmbacher to the U.S. However, there seemed to be earlier awareness of the style: In a German-language newspaper in the Library of Congress, an 1861 article published in Minnesota states that Benzberg’s Dampfbrauerei made Lager in St. Paul, and that it was as good as Culmbacher or Nürnberger.

“Eventually, as the years wore on, the U.S. began to import less Lager in favor of brewing it at home. That change happened gradually, as German-American brewers began to produce their own versions of traditional styles. ”

It was becoming common in the mid 19th century for exported German Lager to be bottled and sold stateside. Such beer wouldn’t have made the trip to America without demand. The largest contingent of immigrants in the Union army were German soldiers. Kulmbacher appealed to those immigrants as a product they could buy from the old country, in the new one.

Eventually, as the years wore on, the U.S. began to import less Lager in favor of brewing it at home. That change happened gradually, as German-American brewers began to produce their own versions of traditional styles.

In 1875, a saloon owner in Wheeling, West Virginia began his Lager beer-bottling business, and would deliver pints and quarts throughout the city. The same dealer advertised Kulmbacher in 1880. In 1889, a Pittsburgh brewer manufactured Culmbacher and Vienna Lagers for city use. And in 1889, the Washington Brewery Company sold more Lager in D.C. than all breweries currently operating in the District today: 36,000 BBLs of beer in 1889, versus a combined 35,857 BBLs from 12 breweries in 2019. By 1900, the Washington Brewery Company boasted that its Culmbacher equaled the finest imported beer. This would become a common claim for American brewers who wished to convince the beer-buying public that their product was just as good as, if not better than, German imports.

As domestic Lager proliferated at the turn of the 20th century, American breweries made dark beers from coast to coast. In its heyday, Culmbacher was brewed everywhere from New York City and Washington, D.C. to Milwaukee and San Jose. By 1909, Kulmbacher and Pilsner were even available at the Criterion Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. The beer was likely the imported article, though Honolulu did have its own brewery in 1909, making Pale Lager in the German style.

Today, former Culmbacher producers like Pabst and Blatz are better known than their historical competition. But in addition to businesses like the Washington Brewery Company, little-known breweries like the Fredericksburg Brewery in San Jose and the Lion Brewery in New York City also manufactured Culmbacher.

For Relaxing Times

In the early days of Culmbacher’s spread, the style was advertised mostly on draft. If you wanted it in Los Angeles in 1884, it would cost you five cents a glass for the Kulmbacher Lager brewed by the Fredericksburg Brewery, which could be quaffed at both Jake Phillipi’s Buena Vista or the Grand Central Hotel saloon.

The later transition from the saloon to the biergarten likely allowed brewers to sell more beer. In many cases, it benefited drinkers, too. At the Washington Brewery Company, for instance, the brewery’s biergarten was right next to the brewery. The Culmbacher manufactured, cellared, and eventually sold on draft there never traveled more than a hundred yards.

The concept of drinking for pleasure, rather than intoxication, is commonly credited to the influence of German beer culture. And if it was American to have drinking in saloons limited to men, it was German to have women drinking in biergartens. In 1885 in D.C., one saloon—Kozel’s Saloon on 14th Street—expanded to the back of a lot and took over a second floor. The second floor became a special room for women patrons.

Even if American societal norms frowned on women drinking Culmbacher in public, a case of beer for home use could be delivered in unmarked wagons, lest your neighbor judge. Washington Brewery Company encouraged consumers to “keep your ice box well supplied” with Culmbacher, which was also sold in 24-pint or 12-quart bottles. By the end of the 19th century, the brewery was marketing directly to women: Its beer was pure. It was as good as the imported article. It had double strength. And it was the best of all tonics. In fact, it was unsurpassed as a tonic. Alongside claims that it was calming to a woman’s nerves and stimulating to her appetite, depictions of women drinkers were featured in its ads.

“Double strength” here implies an alcoholic beer, at a time when we know some Lagers were 3% ABV and that the export beer coming out of Kulmbach was 6% ABV. While the Washington Brewery Company’s Culmbacher might not have had the same recipe as the Kulmbacher in the National Museum of American History’s archives, there is no doubt it was advertised to the public as “heavy in body.”

According to Truth, a London periodical in 1889, “American lager beer breweries possess great advantages over others, as thin light beer is the national drink of the United States, and suitable to the climate.” While thin light beer may have been the national drink, it had competition in the rich, potent Dark Lager sold across the country.

Several breweries that made Culmbacher, in addition to other Lager styles, were successful enough that they made attractive entities for acquisition. In 1889, the owner of the Washington Brewery Company was paid $400,000 for his brewery—over $11 million in today’s money. Similarly, in 1891, Valentin Blatz Brewing Company in Milwaukee sold for $3 million to a London investment group, or for between $80 and $90 million today. And while there’s no proof that these breweries were bought directly because of their Culmbacher production, they were able to build their reputations—and their fortunes—off the back of such Lager styles.

By Prohibition, an irrevocable transition had occurred from Kulmbacher as an import, bottled stateside, to Culmbacher, a domestically brewed beer. In the course of five decades, the recipe had also changed: The beer had gone from a strong Bavarian beer brewed with German malt, to, in some cases, a non-alcoholic near beer brewed with American-grown barley.

While the Washington Brewery Company went out of business in 1917, it is noteworthy that Blatz brewed the style even after Prohibition’s repeal. Blatz’s Kulmbacher won silver at the first-ever judged Great American Beer Festival in 1987, in the American Lagers category. At the time, the brewery was owned by G. Heileman Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Evil, Traitors, Spirs

Lagers remain America’s most popular beers today. But there was a point in time when temperance advocates and anti-immigration backers viewed them as too German.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Germans still made up the largest ethnic group among immigrants to the United States, as they had done throughout the 19th century. Between 1820 and World War I, nearly 6 million Germans arrived in the United States.

“‘They [Germans] changed America, notably its own beer-drinking culture, and America changed them right back. Naturally that led to some friction ranging from friendly to violent. And for all their ‘palatability’ to white, Anglo-American sensibilities, they could never seem to fully shake nativist animus either. Anti-German xenophobia during World War I showed that.’” — Brian Alberts, Historian

“They [Germans] changed America, notably its own beer-drinking culture, and America changed them right back,” says historian Brian Alberts. “Naturally that led to some friction ranging from friendly to violent. And for all their ‘palatability’ to white, Anglo-American sensibilities, they could never seem to fully shake nativist animus either. Anti-German xenophobia during World War I showed that.”

Anti-German sentiments flared leading up to World War I. From 1850 to 1870, Germans largely gained acceptance from white Americans. But, Alberts says, Germans “were the ‘other’ in a predominately Anglo-American society because [they thought] their neighborhoods stunk of sausage and Limburger cheese, and they let the Lager beer pour every Sunday.”

According to Alberts, Sunday festivities, parades, and biergarten picnics “seemed sacrilegious to some.” These modern aspects of German-American beer culture were regularly celebrated, but the xenophobia associated with bringing your family to the biergarten was often glossed over.

During World War I, that xenophobia extended to food and drink. Sauerkraut was rebranded as “liberty cabbage,” and hamburgers became Salisbury steak. Symphonies were banned from performing Beethoven. Teaching German was struck from many curriculums and angry mobs attacked German-American citizens. Violence resulted in beatings, or even murder.

In 1917, the Trading With the Enemy Act legalized seizing citizens’ businesses and livelihoods. New York brewer George Ehret’s mansion and brewery were both seized. At the time, his Hell Gate Brewery was the biggest in New York City. His estate, property, and possessions, worth $40 million, were all taken.

I asked Maureen Ogle, historian and author of Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer, which had had a bigger impact on German-Americans’ lives—the state-sanctioned xenophobia or the daily harassments they experienced. “Probably the state-sanctioned attacks, because those, in effect, gave regular folks ‘permission’ to act violently towards German-Americans,” she says. “Certainly the news, national, that the AG [attorney general] had gone after brewers’ property affirmed a belief that German-Americans were evil, traitors, spies, etc. Never mind that they were American citizens.”

Even citizenship could not save German-Americans from having their property seized, being beaten, or in the case of at least one man, being hung. Robert Prager was a German immigrant who was lynched in Collinsville, Illinois in 1918. Prager had been a mine worker, but was denied membership in the United Mine Workers of America. The dispute ultimately led to his death at the hands of an angry mob of hundreds. The marauders made Prager kiss the American flag and sing patriotic songs before ultimately taking his life. There were no convictions in Prager’s murder, and the 12 men indicted walked away from the trial.

Of course, angry mobs have used terrorism, and lynching, for centuries in America, with Black people making up the vast majority of the victims. Multiple anti-lynching bills have passed the House and the Senate, but never at the same time. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, first introduced in 1918, passed the House of Representatives in 1922. And while the first anti-lynching bill was introduced in Congress in 1900, still to this day no bill has been passed by both houses and signed.

The Comeback of Culmbacher

It’s tricky to pinpoint why Culmbacher was lost to history. In the U.S., multiple factors led to its decline, while according to Pattinson, Kulmbacher isn’t even brewed in Kulmbach today. Other traditional German styles can be found in breweries in Kulmbach, he says, but “no one really brews a beer in what I would call the ‘Kulmbacher style’—something that’s 16 degrees Plato, virtually black, and loads and loads of hops in it.”

Perhaps that’s why, when I saw that typewritten recipe in the museum archive, I knew I had to at least attempt to bring it back. So I reached out to the master brewer who helped me take my first homebrew recipe commercial in 2012: Favio Garcia, the director of brewing operations at Dynasty Brewing Company in Ashburn, Virginia.

“‘Certainly the news, national, that the AG [attorney general] had gone after brewers’ property affirmed a belief that German-Americans were evil, traitors, spies, etc. Never mind that they were American citizens.’” — Maureen Ogle, Historian

Garcia first brewed a Kulmbacher in 2016, sticking entirely to the historical malt bill outlined in the Smithsonian’s archives. Its requirements were 11 lbs of high-dried malt, 33 lbs of pale malt, 3 lbs of caramel malt, and 1 lb of black malt. In 2016, this was translated to 11 lbs of Vienna malt, 33 lbs of pale malt, 3 lbs of Caramunich malt, and 1 lb of Carafa Special 3. We hopped it with the American Empire hop, which originated in Sweden but whose new stock was propagated on a farm on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The resulting beer was historically accurate with its malt proportions, but it wasn’t dark, and it wasn’t the immaculate beer Garcia is renowned for. The 2-BBL batch had a bitterness that clashed with the black and caramel malts; the resulting beer came across as a dry Lager. It was not the full-bodied, sweetish, rich Bavarian beer described in the source material.

In 2020, Garcia returned to the recipe. In addition to a mild tweaking of the recipe from the archives, Garcia also came armed with more primary research conducted by Ron Pattinson. He employed a decoction mash with two steps, and used German and Czech hops instead of American.

Garcia also selected Virginia malt from Murphy & Rude Malting Company. In the mash tun, Pilsner and crystal malts mingled with Vienna malt, made from a 2-row variety of barley called Calypso. It was grown on the Brann & King Farms in Christiansburg, Virginia. Later, he added black malt to color the wort. In the end, Garcia used 660 lbs of Pilsner malt, 300 lbs of Vienna malt, 50 pounds of crystal 40, and 50 pounds of Carafa Special 3.

Where the first batch of Garcia’s Kulmbacher was pale brown, the new iteration looked like a Stout. There was an unmistakable German and Czech hop character to the beer, and it had a perceived sweetness on the first sip, followed by a subtle bitterness and a pleasing dryness on the finish. It was a wonderful expression of fresh malt, and featured a deep bready character that was somehow sweet, full, dry, and very digestible all at once. At 6.2% ABV, it was stronger than most of the Lagers Garcia brews.

The beer, Love Vigilantes, is named after the New Order song. It was a three-part collaboration beer with Dynasty; Dulles, Virginia’s Ocelot Brewing Company; and my beverage research firm, Lost Lagers. My greater goal with the beer is to bring back something stuck in beer history that deserves a place in the beer world today.

My bias is shaped by my father, who came to New York City as a refugee from war-torn Prague. When he came, he only had his mother. His father, a Jewish concentration-camp survivor, couldn’t get a visa. So Petr Stein became Peter Stein, and a boy who lived in a room the size of a closet with his mother wound up becoming a doctor of sociology, a published author, and the director of a graduate sociology program featuring Holocaust and genocide studies. My grandfather experienced the loss of his family in death camps while he survived his interment in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. But he had his life, and his wife and son had visas, and eventually they were reunited in New York.

In spaces where we have the ability to ask hard questions, be it about beer or what we believe to be right or wrong in terms of immigration, we, humans, have endless opportunities to improve ourselves.

“Kulmbacher” on paper in the archives, as it sat for the better part of a century, was made better with its second modern brewing. And its story cannot be told without acknowledging its origins, and the people who made and shaped the style as it evolved. I hope we can all find our own time-lost Kulmbacher—that we can discover and revive vestiges from the past that still speak to, and make sense of, the world today.

— Michael Stein is President of Lost Lagers, Washington, DC’s premier beverage research firm. His historic beers have been served at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Polish Ambassador’s residence. Senior Staff Writer at DCBeer, his work appears in Washington City Paper, Brewery History Journal, and CIDERCRAFT Magazine.

— Source Material: Delving into the archives, digging up artifacts, and finding voices in the dark, this series illuminates old traditions that we're still part of today (whether we know it or not). Beer's past shapes its present and future. Follow along as these historians and writers take us back to the source.

— GoodBeerHunting.Com | September 10, 2023

[theuniverseawakens347]

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and then I put on my blog at 2021 August 17 I’m telepathic so all you medical researchers for stem cell who look like me you’re going to give them plastic surgery of my stem cells so that the men in my family could be attracted to have sex with them and they could get my royalties from my past family members ….. that is legitimately the most retarded monkey you’ve ever fucking done. Michael Holston, India, love, and Michelle Obama, the most pathetic pieces of shit I’ve ever fucking seen …

then you got retarded, half bread, monkey and human Krishawn rock with fucktard cleft and Natalie. None sticking my little sisters fucking stem cells in their body so they can fuck on my fathers y’all fucking weird and my uncles are fucking weird.

BITCH IF YOU HATE ME FUCKING SAY IT.

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TVLINE'S YEAR IN REVIEW!

2023 in Review: The 20 Best Shows

BY TEAM TVLINE

DECEMBER 4, 2023 7:30 AM

TVLine’s annual year-end retrospective is officially here! And we could save the best for last, but really, where’s the fun in that?

Rather, our Year in Review kicks off with a ranking of 2023’s 20 best series, a list created by our editors’ spirited debates and reminiscences about the past 12 months of television.

Our ranking below covers the spectrum of broadcast, cable and streaming, from the sophomore slump-less Abbott Elementary to Fargo‘s triumphant return to a standout second season for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. We’ve got returning veterans (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Succession) and breakout newbies (Silo, Shrinking), plus a few hidden gems from this TV year (if you’re not watching Dave… well, why not?).

But as much as we love a good spoiler here at TVLine, we won’t ruin the entire list for you. Keep scrolling to see our picks for 2023’s best shows — including our No. 1 pick for the best show — then drop a comment with your own favorites!

Still to come in TVLine’s Year in Review: Worst Shows of 2023, Biggest Plot Twists, Sexiest Scenes, Character Deaths That Nearly Killed Us, Shocking Cast Exits and much, much more!

20

The Other Two(Max)

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Max’s showbiz satire was funnier than ever in its third (and ultimately, ugh, final) season, skewering everything from Jeff Bezos’ billionaire status to Disney’s famously tepid approach to LGBTQ+ inclusivity. Stars Heléne Yorke and Drew Tarver respectively took Brooke and Cary to new, cringe-worthy lows, as Brooke made a half-hearted attempt at do-gooding and Cary’s desire for fame became even more insatiable. But The Other Two also proved it could still surprise us, wading into occasionally dramatic waters — Brooke and Lance’s breakup fight, or the surprisingly moving series finale — that were just as effective as the show’s nonstop punchlines. — Rebecca Iannucci

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One Piece (Netflix)

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Netflix has bonafide TV gold on its hands with this live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s long-running manga series about a ragtag group of pirates on a global quest for the ultimate treasure, the titular “One Piece.” A winning combination of breathtaking visuals, a delightful tone, incredible fight scenes and inspired casting resulted in a final product that managed to both impress critics and appease fans — an incredibly rare dual feat, especially in the inconsistent realm of live-action reimaginings. — Andy Swift

18

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)

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An occasionally uneven final season does not mask the simple truth: The Amazon comedy went out with a bang. Not only did Season 5 produce some of the finest episodes in Maisel’s entire run — we’re looking at you, Episode 6’s hilarious and heartbreaking Susie-centric “The Testi-Roastial” — but Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino delivered the period-appropriate goods when it mattered the most, i.e. via the immensely satisfying series finale. — Michael Ausiello

17

Silo (Apple TV+)

Juliette and Sheriff Holston (David Oyelowo)

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The Fall of the House of Usher(Netflix)

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Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy ended their time at Netflix the way they started it: by scaring us silly while making us ache (in a good way!). Usher, based on various works by Edgar Allan Poe, followed the immensely satisfying formula the executive producers put forth in The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. First, have a terrific ensemble play out an emotionally resonant saga. Then, sprinkle in just enough jump scares to distract from the deftly woven existential dread! Even better: This time around, Flanagan added heavy hitters Bruce Greenwood and Mary McDonnell to his troupe, giving Usher a solemnity befitting the final jewel in the horror auteur’s Netflix crown. — Kimberly Roots

15

Dave (FXX)

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With its third season this spring, Davemaintained its status as one of the best shows that not enough people are talking about. The FXX comedy took a deep dive into its protagonist’s psyche as he searched for new love and interrogated his own thirst for fame. The result — as is often the case with Dave — was a bizarre, sincere, reliably funny and surprisingly cameo-filled (Brad Pitt?!) batch of episodes, building to an unpredictable finale that was as horrifying as it was hilarious. — R.I.

14

Fargo (FX)

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FX’s pitch-black crime anthology has made a triumphant return with Season 5, easily its best and most exciting outing in years. (Yes, only three episodes have aired so far, but trust us: It keeps getting better.) Juno Temple is a real spitfire as Minnesota housewife Dot, and Jon Hamm turns that old Don Draper mystique on its head as macho sheriff Roy Tillman. Season 5 strips away the indulgences that derailed previous Fargo seasons and ups the ante with a barrage of high-octane action sequences. Are we hooked again? Oh yah, you betcha. — Dave Nemetz

13

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds(Paramount+)

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The Paramount+ show’s sophomore run was a crowd-pleasing affair that gave us a little bit of everything. From Una Chin-Riley’s thought-provoking ethics trial to that charming musical episode that had us singing its praises (and proved this cast has serious vocal chops) — and let’s not forget that bonkers crossover with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks — Season 2 took big creative swings that elevated the show to bold new heights and yet, never forgot its roots. — Keisha Hatchett

12

The Great (Hulu)

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The Hulu series delivered another — ahem — great season of absurdist comedy and political intrigue as Peter and Catherine finally called a truce and recommitted themselves to their marriage. The couple’s twisted romance felt especially engrossing this season, due in large part to Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult’s beautifully layered performances that were as devastating as they were funny. And the show’s needle-drop ending moment, during which Catherine danced through her grief to the tune of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” highlighted an invigorating season of growth and loss tinged with raucous humor. — K.H.

11

Snowfall (FX)

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Set during the height of the 1980s crack epidemic, FX’s captivating drama ended its run on a series high as Franklin Saint wound up destitute and wandering the neighborhood he destroyed with drugs. Portrayer Damson Idris was brilliant in his final outing as the ruthless dealer, delivering a standout performance that deftly illustrated how greed, ego and addiction fueled the character’s gut-wrenching demise. It’s an unspeakable crime that Snowfall never received the Emmy recognition it deserved, especially after an exceptional final season that solidified its status as one of the all-time greats. — K.H.

10

A Small Light (Nat Geo)

Photo : Courtesy of National Geographic

National Geographic’s gripping retelling of Anne Frank’s tragic story didn’t get a lot of love when it was released. And that’s a shame, because the limited series — told from the perspective of Frank family friend/protector Miep Gies (excellently played by Bel Powley) — did its subjects a great service by leaning into the moments of joy that sparked even in the darkest days of the Franks’ and Gies’ lives. With a modern sensibility and an examination of hatred that sadly still reverberates throughout the world, A Small Light was a profoundly moving project anchored by the warm gravitas of Liev Schreiber as Anne’s father, Otto Frank. — K.R.

09

Abbott Elementary(ABC)

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There was no sophomore slump for the hit ABC comedy, which continued to bring the laughs in its second season while also deepening its characters in ways that were both hilarious and illuminating. (Barbara’s school-fire meltdown is an unforgettable example.) With thoughtful but funny storylines, like the introduction of Janine and Melissa’s messy family dynamics, Abbott Elementary successfully expanded its scope beyond the school walls. Meanwhile, the delicious romantic tension between Janine and Gregory is still alive and well, even after the pair took some steps forward and backward in their “will they/won’t they” dynamic. — Vlada Gelman

08

Shrinking (Apple TV+)

Photo : Courtesy of Apple TV+

A series about grief turned out to be one of the year’s funniest and most heartwarming. Jason Segel lit up the screen as a widower struggling to parent his teenage daughter and move on from his loss. His big life change sparked an avant-garde approach to his work as a therapist, leading him to fly off the rails personally and professionally, as the impeccable supporting cast — including Harrison Ford, Christa Miller and Jessica Williams — landed well-executed quips and touching moments. Poignant and wildly entertaining, Shrinking proved that silver linings do exist, even if dark clouds may be blocking our view. — Nick Caruso

07

BEEF (Netflix)

Photo : Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix’s story of two unhappy souls whose paths collide after a vicious road rage incident spawned both humor and tragedy, and allowed stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun to showcase their deep arsenals of talent. From comedy that bordered on absurdism to the emotional meltdowns that had our jaws scraping the floor, the series took some thrilling turns before culminating with a literal bang that nearly destroyed us. By its end, BEEF‘s flame-broiled insanity left us hoping creator Lee Sung Jin has something else to throw on the grill soon. — N.C.

06

Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)

Photo : Courtesy of Amazon Freevee

Now this one was a surprise! Amazon Freevee’s wildly chaotic prank comedy flew under the radar at first, placing an unsuspecting real guy named Ronald on the jury of a completely fictional court case, but it delivered more laughs than just about anything on TV this year. The twists were almost too crazy to believe — James Marsden cracked us up playing an arrogantly entitled version of himself — but it was the underlying sweetness here, with Ronald bonding with his fellow jurors as the trial dragged on, that made all those long days in the jury box worth it. — D.N.

05

The Last of Us(HBO)

Photo : Courtesy of HBO

Executive producers Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin blended a cracking-good cast (expertly led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey), beautifully spare scripts and loving devotion to/willingness to deviate from the source material — a post-apocalyptic zombie video game! — all to create one of the finest dramas we’ve seen in years. Let’s take a moment, as well, to acknowledge standout guest stars like Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman and Ashley Johnson, whose performances propelled the deeply moving story toward its gorgeous, albeit devastating, Season 1 conclusion. — K.R.

04

Poker Face(Peacock)

Photo : Courtesy of Peacock

Star Natasha Lyonne and director Rian Johnson teamed up to pen a love letter to classic TV detective dramas with this charming Peacock mystery. It’s a real throwback, with Lyonne’s amateur private eye Charlie Cale solving one self-contained mystery per week and meeting a roster of fun guest stars, but Lyonne’s sassy, quippy performance brings it all right up to the present day. This isn’t bulls—t: We could watch her solve crimes all day. — D.N.

03

The Bear (Hulu)

Photo : Courtesy of FX

The first season of Hulu’s culinary dramedy, it turns out, was just an appetizer. Season 2 was even more delicious, taking its sweet time to let the drama marinate as chef Carmy and his pals worked their butts off to build a fine-dining restaurant from scratch. The energy was infectious, the emotions were raw, and the performances were astoundingly good, cutting right to the bone. Throw in an all-timer of a holiday episode with a feast of big-name guest stars, and The Bear’s sophomore outing somehow left us both supremely satisfied and hungry for more. — D.N.

02

Succession (HBO)

https://tvline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/succession.jpg?w=1240

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[egotistic26]

[yasbxxgie]

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Thousands of dead marine life washing up in Miami 🤬

⚠️URGENT ACTION NEEDED ⚠️we have had record high water temps all across the world this year.

Storm drain systems carrying fertilizer and pesticides from land empty into the bay. The city has known about it for years now.

•

I need all my followers to send a message to @mayorofmiami asking for the city of Miami to implement storm water filters and to ban glyphosate from residential use. Look at what we are doing to our planet and ecosystems THIS MUST STOP NOW 🙏🏾

[h/t]

[tuseriesdetv]

Noticias de series de la semana

Renovaciones

Netflix ha renovado You por una cuarta temporada

Amazon ha renovado Jack Ryan por una cuarta temporada

Starz ha renovado Blindspotting por una segunda temporada

HBO Max ha renovado Doom Patrol por una cuarta temporada

HBO Max ha renovado Titans por una cuarta temporada

Pennyworth se muda de EPIX a HBO Max, que la renueva por una tercera temporada

Noticias cortas

CBS encarga temporada completa de NCIS: Hawaii y FBI: International.

Bosé será desarrollada por Paramount+.

Jennifer Coolidge (Tanya) volverá en la segunda temporada de The White Lotus.

Octavio Pisano (Joe Velasco) será regular en la vigesimotercera temporada de Law & Order: SVU.

Fichajes

Emma Corrin (The Crown) protagonizará Retreat. Será una joven detective.

Common (Never Have I Ever, Hell on Wheels) será Sims, el jefe de la seguridad judicial del silo, en Wool. Tim Robbins (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking), Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation, The Office) y David Oyelowo (Selma, Nightingale) serán Bernard, jefe del departamento de informática; Allison, trabajadora del departamento de informática y esposa de Holston; y Holston, el sheriff del silo.

Harvey Keitel (Bugsy, Reservation Dogs), Laura Harrier (Hollywood, One Life to Live), Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks, Big Love), Olunike Adeliyi (Workin' Moms, Flashpoint) y T.J. Atoms (Wu-Tang: An American Saga) se unen a Iron Mike como recurrentes. Serán Cus D'Amato, el primer entrenador de Tyson (Trevante Rhodes); Robin Givens, la actriz y primera esposa de Tyson; Camile D'Amato, la esposa de Cus; Lorna Mae, la madre de Tyson; y Barkim, ladrón y amigo de Tyson.

Michael Peña (Narcos: Mexico, The Shield) se une a la cuarta temporada de Jack Ryan. Se desconocen detalles.

Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock, Two and a Half Men) será Betty Gore, la amiga de Candy Montgomery (Jessica Biel) en Candy.

Patton Oswalt (The Goldbergs, King of Queens), Nat Faxon (Ben & Kate, The Conners), Carlos Valdes (The Flash, Arrow), Erinn Hayes (Childrens Hospital, Kevin Can Wait), Patrick Walker, Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time, Murder in the First), Chris Conner (Altered Carbon, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), Anne Dudek (Mad Men, House M.D.), Brian Geraghty (Big Sky, Chicago PD), Nelson Franklin (Black-ish, Veep), Reed Diamond (13 Reasons Why, Homicide: Life on the Street), Johnny Berchtold, Adam Ray (American Vandal) y Billy Smith (Homeland) serán Chuck Colson, consejero de Nixon (Danny Winn); Bob Haldeman, jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca; Paul Magallanes, agente del FBI; Peggy Ebbitt, amiga de los Mitchell; Frank Willis, guardia de seguridad; Charles N. Shaffer, abogado de John Dean (Dan Stevens); John Ehrlichman, la mano derecha de Nixon; Diana Oweiss, la secretaria de John Mitchell (Sean Penn); Peter, el guardia de seguridad de los Mitchell; Dick Moore, mano derecha de John Dean; Mark Felt, director asociado del FBI; Jay Jennings, hijo de Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts); Ron Ziegler, secretario de prensa de la Casa Blanca; y Ken Ebbitt, amigo de John Mitchell; en Gaslit.

Celia Weston (Modern Family, American Horror Story), Michael O'Neill (Rectify, Scandal) y Gable Swanlund (The Shrink Next Door) se unen como regulares a Echoes. Tyner Rushing (The Terminal List), Hazel y Ginger Mason (The Blacklist, The Post), Alise Willis (Ruthless) y Madie Nichols (The Outsider) serán recurrentes.

Kathleen Robertson (Bates Motel; Beverly Hills, 90210) será Rosenfeld Guoliang, miembro importante del círculo de confianza de Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander),W en la sexta y última temporada de The Expanse.

Natasha O'Keeffe (Peaky Blinders, Misfits), Meera Syal (The Kumars, The Split) y Ceara Coveney se unen a la segunda temporada de The Wheel of Time.

Adam Korson (SurrealEstate, Imposters) será recurrente en Maggie como Daniel, un hombre dulce y autocrítico que ha abandonado el crossfit.

Bryana Salaz (Team Kaylie, Best Friends Whenever), Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Ciara Riley Wilson (L.A.'s Finest) y Shiv Pai (Iron Fist) protagonizarán Freeridge.

Melissa De Sousa (Valley of the Dolls, The Best Man) y McKinley Freeman (Hit the Floor, Queen Sugar) serán recurrentes en Our Kind of People como Alex Rivera, reportera financiera y exmujer de Raymond (Morris Chestnut); y el padre de Nikki (Alana Bright).

Lily Cardone (Bernie the Dolphin) y Lowrey Brown (The Gifted) serán las versiones jóvenes de Irene (Sissy Spacek) y Franklin (J.K. Simmons) en Lightyears.

Djouliet Amara (Guilty Party) será recurrente en la segunda temporada de Superman & Lois. Interpretará a una estudiante de Smallville High con un pasado lleno de secretos.

Kausar Mohammed (What Men Want), Wilder Yari y Theo Germaine (The Politician, Work in Progress) serán recurrentes en 4400 como Soraya, amiga de Jharrel (Joseph David-Jones) que trabaja en el departamento de informática; Jessica, agente de Seguridad Nacional y exnovia de Keisha (Ireon Roach); y Noah, uno de los aparecidos.

Kalyne Coleman será recurrente en Interview With the Vampire como Grace, hermana de Louis (Jacob Anderson).

Pósters

              Nuevas series

AMC encarga Tales of The Walking Dead, antología episódica en la que veremos a personajes nuevos y antiguos.

Apple TV+ ha encargado diez episodios de Shrinking, que sigue a un terapeuta en duelo (Jason Segel; How I Met Your Mother, Freaks and Geeks) que comienza a incumplir las normas y decir a sus clientes exactamente lo que piensa, ignorando su formación y la ética, originando así enormes cambios en las vidas de los demás y también en la suya. Escrita y producida por Segel junto a Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Spin City) y Brett Goldstein, guionistas de Ted Lasso.

FX encarga The Bear, comedia sobre un joven chef (Jeremy Allen White; Shameless, Homecoming) que vuelve a Chicago para llevar el restaurante familiar. Con Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Girls, NOS4A2), Ayo Edebiri (Dickinson, Big Mouth), Lionel Boyce (Hap & Leonard), Abby Elliott (Odd Mom Out, How I Met Your Mother), Liza Colón-Zayas (In Treatment, David Makes Man), Edwin Lee Gibson (Fargo) y Matty Matheson (Workin' Moms). Creada y producida por Christopher Storer (Ramy, Dickinson), que dirigió el piloto.

Ryan Murphy y Jamie Lee Curtis quieren producir Outfielder, sobre el hombre que inventó el high five, para Netflix. Se trata de Glenn Burke, de Los Angeles Dodgers, que chocó esos cinco el 2 de octubre de 1977. Burke fue el primer jugador de las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol en salir del armario durante su carrera profesional. Escrita por Robert O'Hara (Slave Play, Insurrection), que también la dirigiría.

Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects, Six Feet Under) y Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Four Weddings and a Funeral) protagonizarán Gray, thriller de espionaje basado en una idea original del novelista David Baldacci, escrita por John McLaughlin (Black Swan, Carnivàle) y dirigida por Ruba Nadda (Frankie Drake Mysteries). Producen Baldacci y Clarkson, que interpretará a Cornelia Gray, una espía que lleva 20 años huyendo de los agentes del gobierno que sospechan que es una traidora y regresa a su antigua vida justo cuando se descubre que hay un nuevo topo dentro de su vieja red de espionaje poniéndola a ella y a su red en peligro.

Bess Wohl (Grand Horizons) escribirá para televisión la limited series The Children's Hour, adaptación de la obra de Lillian Hellman (1934) que tuvo versión cinematográfica en 1961 y que trata sobre dos mujeres que dirigen un internado de chicas y son acusadas falsamente de mantener una relación sentimental. La serie expandirá la historia para incluir detalles del caso legal en el que está basada la obra y profundizar en la comunidad que rodea a la escuela y en la mente de la joven acusadora. Produce Jon Robin Baitz (Brothers & Sisters, The Slap).

Fechas

La segunda temporada de Temple llega a Sky Max el 28 de octubre

La decimotercera temporada de Doctor Who se estrena en BBC One el 31 de octubre

Head of the Class llega a HBO Max el 4 de noviembre

La segunda temporada de Saved by the Bell se estrena en Peacock el 24 de noviembre

La tercera temporada de Hanna se estrena en Prime Video el 24 de noviembre

La segunda temporada de Alex Rider se estrena en IMDb TV el 3 de diciembre

La sexta y última temporada de The Expanse se estrena en Prime Video el 10 de diciembre

La segunda temporada de Crossing Swords se estrena en Hulu el 10 de diciembre

Stay Close llega a Netflix el 31 de diciembre

Peacemaker se estrena en HBO Max el 13 de enero

La segunda parte de la undécima y última temporada de The Walking Dead se estrena en AMC el 20 de febrero

Tráilers y promos

The Shrink Next Door

Temple - Temporada 2

Dickinson - Temporada 3 y última

La casa de papel - Últimos episodios

Doctor Who - Temporada 13

Colin in Black & White

Gentefied - Temporada 2

Narcos: Mexico - Temporada 3 y última

You - Temporada 4

The Sex Lives of College Girls

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Temporada 11

Saved by the Bell - Temporada 2

The Expanse - Temporada 6 y última

Hanna - Temporada 3

Alex Rider - Temporada 2

Mayor of Kingstown

Hawkeye

Swagger

Big Mouth - Temporada 5

Peacemaker

[theeducationmag]

Before becoming an online celebrity, Holston has worked with numerous non-profit organizations from education to fighting against animal abuse. These organizations have great ideas, but lack of funding slows the change they want. With these ideas, they can fight animal abuse that is going on in different parts of the world. In the beginning, Michael Holston used to visit non-profits in person. He has established himself with grassroots campaigns and invested in helping them little by little to a new level.

[makemeholeybodypiercing]

Repost from @blairimani using @RepostRegramApp - BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER 🖤 as there is an increasing swell of support for Black folks and anti-racism work please remember that if your support for us comes with transphobia or homophobia, we don’t want it. As someone who has been platformed in the past week, I’m recognizing my privilege as a cisgender woman and platforming my trans siblings across the gender spectrum. Please use these folks pronouns & identities correctly when sharing. @nalasimonet (she/her) - Nala Toussaint works with women across the spectrum of identities, social and economic realities to support their health goals and well-being. @raquel_willis (she/her) - Raquel Willis is a Black queer transgender activist, writer and speaker. She has a book coming out soon, too! @hood_biologist (he/they) - Shay-Akil McLean is a Black Trans evolutionary biologist, anthropologist, & sociologist who studies human health & race/ism. He is also the founder of http://decolonizeallthethings.com. @the_brianmichael (he/him) - Brian Michael Smith is a Black trans actor known for his roles on Queen Sugar, HBO’s Girls and recently 9-1-1 Lonestar. @goddessqueensister (she/her) - LaLa Holston-Zannell leads the ACLU’s advocacy and organizing work to support and empower trans and nonbinary people. @sharsayso (she/her) - Shar Jossell is a Los Angeles based critically acclaimed Black trans entertainment reporter & pop culture guru. @itsdanawhite (they/them) - Dana is a speaker, facilitator, and strategist, based in Washington, D.C. They currently work as a Program Officer with True Colors United, focused on eliminating youth homelessness. @rayzhon (they/them) - Tre’vell Anderson is an award-winning journalist, social curator, and world changer who always comes to slay! @indyamoore (they/them) - Indya Moore is a non-binary trans actor and model of Dominican, Puerto Rican, & Haitian descent known for playing the role of Angel Evangelista in the FX television series Pose and for their voice on issues of justice. Please go to their pages to learn more about them! #BlackTransLivesMatter https://www.instagram.com/p/CBKPA55jAb6/?igshid=5ygffhu9uevg

[equalv]

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018)

Gianni Versace (gay) - Èdgar Ramírez | 6 episodes

Andrew Cunanan (gay) - Darren Criss | 9 episodes

Antonio D’Amico (gay) - Ricky Martin | 5 episodes

Lee Miglin (bisexual) - Mike Farrell | 2 episodes

Jeffrey Trail (gay) -  Finn Wittrock | 4 episodes

David Madson (gay) - Cody Fern | 4 episodes

Ronnie Holston (gay) - Max Greenfield | 3 episodes

Norman Blachford (gay) - Michael Nouri | 2 episodes

Lincoln Aston (---) - Todd Waring | 1 episode

- list will get completed soon -

genre: biography, crime, drama | us

[paralleljulieverse]

It is common knowledge that Star! –– the spectacular 1968 Julie Andrews musical currently celebrating its 50th anniversary –– underwent substantial editing in the wake of its ill-fated US release. Dismayed by the film’s poor box-office and panicked by the rapid downturn in the domestic movie market, Fox executives ordered a series of increasingly drastic cuts to Star!, culminating in the film’s ignominious withdrawal from distribution in June 1969 and subsequent re-release four months later in a radically shortened, re-titled version as Those Were The Happy Times (formerly known as Star!) (Edwards 1993; Holston: 220-21). This sorry tale of post-release hatcheting is part of the historical legend of Star! and also part of its unjust reputation as “the H-bomb of musicals” (Kanfer: 78). 

What is possibly less well-known is that Star! underwent select trimming before its release, as well. At the end of the film’s post-production in April 1968, director Robert Wise had assembled a working rough cut that was shown to studio personnel and test-screened with two preview audiences in Cleveland and Denver in early-May. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Of the 814 preview cards received, 633 rated the film “excellent”, 146 “good” and only 3 marked it “bad” (Edwards). Nevertheless, Wise and editor, William Reynolds, went back to make a number of further adjustments to the film ahead of its global premiere in London in July 1968. Much of this late-stage editing work was relatively minor –– pruning a shot here and there in order to tighten pacing –– but several short narrative scenes were also cut in their entirety. 

None of this material was particularly significant and, given that the final roadshow release of Star! ended up with a marathon running time of 176 minutes –– enough to “test the patience of even those of us enamored with Andrews, musicals, and showbiz dramas” (Betancourt, 2014) –– the cuts were possibly all-to-the-good. Still, it is not difficult to see what these excised scenes were designed to achieve and, in some respects, their loss exacerbated problematic aspects of the film’s narrative complexion. 

What follows is a brief catalogue of the major scenes dropped from Star! They are presented in order of where they originally occurred in narrative sequence. For the most part, details are taken from the final shooting version of the screenplay by William Fairchild, dated 25 January 1967, and augmented where possible with archival material. 

A further sense of where and how these “lost scenes” functioned narratively is provided by the paperback novelization of Star! by Bob Thomas (1968). As discussed in a previous post, novelizations were a popular feature of film culture in the 1960s and 70s. Because they had to be written well in advance of a film’s release, novelizations were typically adapted from shooting scripts and rough cuts and, as with Bob Thomas’s adaptation of Star!, they frequently include narrative material that didn’t always make the final cut.

                               ______________________________

Lost Scene 1: Gertie and the Singing Doughboys

Screenplay Scenes 35-36, 38 (filmed 19 September 1967, Stage 22, 20th Century-Fox Studios) This short sequence occurred immediately after Gertie makes her stagedoor flight from the disastrous Daffodil Girls music-hall performance in Swansea (“In My Garden of Joy”). In it, Gertie is shown hitching a ride with a military supplies lorry back to London in search of better opportunities. An establishing external shot (35) shows the lorry rumbling down a country road past a “London 34 miles” signpost, followed by an internal shot (36) of the driver’s cabin with Gertie sandwiched between two young soldiers in uniform, all singing a lively chorus of “Oh, It’s a Lovely War” (Fairchild: 25; Thomas: 26).  In earlier versions of the screenplay, this short sequence was preceded by a number of additional scenes (33-34) showing Gertie working odd jobs and sleeping in a train station but these were dropped prior to production and never filmed. A further shot (38) that was filmed but subsequently cut during postproduction occurred in the ensuing scene where Gertie arrives in London and sneaks her way into the Lumley Court Theatre in the hope of auditioning for André Charlot. As she stops in the theatre alleyway, Gertie looks up at the poster advertising the new Charlot revue and whispers to herself “quietly but with complete confidence, ’…With Gertrude Lawrence!’” (Fairchild: 28). 

While minor, this cut material clearly worked to underscore Gertie’s driving ambition and her determination to do whatever it takes to realise her dreams of stardom.

                              ______________________________

Lost Scene 2: Gertie and Billie Carleton

Screenplay Scene 53 (filmed 29 April 1967, Stage 14, 20th Century-Fox Studios) This scene followed Gertie’s triumphant ‘understudy’ performance of “Burlington Bertie”. After the narrational newsreel footage detailing Armistice Day celebrations and the return of star Billie Carleton to the theatre, Billie is seen backstage surrounded by well-wishers from the troupe. Gertie appears from one of the dressing rooms and comes up to greet Billie with ‘star’ and ‘understudy’ indulging in affectionately bitchy repartee. Played with camp theatricality and lashings of “dahhhlings” and air kisses, the scene highlighted Gertie’s growing sense of hauteur and theatrical confidence, while emphasising her thwarted ambitions. It thus helped preface the later confrontation scene (55) between Gertie and first husband, Jack Roper where he complains, “ever since you’ve been put back in the chorus, it’s been nothing but belly-aching!” (Fairchild: 52). 

Interestingly, this sequence between Gertie and Billie was the only sustained dialogue scene to feature Lynley Laurence, the actress who plays Billie Carleton in Star!. With its excision, Laurence’s role was reduced to a handful of mostly non-speaking scenes, though she would still receive a special featured screen credit in the final film. 

As another interesting aside, the dialogue for the cut scene has Billie Carleton joke that Gertie likely wishes “I’d broken my neck”. The real-life Carleton did in fact die not long after the events depicted here. Following a gala ball at the Albert Hall to celebrate Armistice on 27 November 1918, Carleton returned to her suite at the Savoy Hotel where she was found dead the next day from a cocaine overdose. It was a huge scandal at the time that subsequently formed the basis for Noël Coward’s first hit play, The Vortex (1924) about drug abuse and sexual impropriety in English high society (Hoare: 37-39).

                              ______________________________

Lost Scene 3: Gertie and Sir Anthony Go Boating

Screenplay Scene 61 (filmed 29 June, Regent’s Park, London; and 23-24 August 1967, Stage 21, and 8 September, Stage 22, 20th Century-Fox Studios) This was the first of several cut scenes detailing Gertie’s blossoming romance with Sir Anthony ‘Tony’ Spencer (Michael Craig) and, with it, her rise in social status. Immediately following their first dinner date where Gertie alternately titillates and shocks the assembled society guests with ribald theatre stories, Gertie and Tony go on a ‘date’ to the boating lake at Regent’s Park (Fairchild: 60-61). As the pair sit in the rowboat, Tony explains the history of the Park in florid detail as Gertie looks glum and distracted. “Words!”, she says dejectedly, “I look at things and all I can say is –– they’re nice!…You’ve got to teach me more words”, thus highlighting her recognition of the need for increased social sophistication. After a further exchange, Gertie moves in to give Tony a kiss when the rocking of the boat throws her into his arms.

The allusion in this scene to linguistic training sets up a marked Pygamalion / My Fair Lady dynamic with Tony cast as a Professor Higgins-type figure –– albeit, more “patient and kind and wonderful” –– who helps mentor Gertie in the ways of aristocratic high society. There is even a pointed reference in the dialogue to Gertie’s background as a Cockney. Traces of this dynamic remain in the final film, notably in the scene where Gertie arrives at Cesare’s in her new gown and, responding to a compliment about the dress, starts to say “It is rather nice…” when she catches Tony’s eye and quickly corrects herself, “…er…divine, isn’t it?” (Fairchild: 64). 

This scene on the lake involved considerable strategic planning during filming. At the end of a one week period of location shooting in the south of France in June 1967, the production crew proceeded to London for the next stage of filming. Julie, however, flew back to Hollywood, ostensibly to start rehearsals for the big musical numbers, though there is some suggestion she needed to avoid entering the UK for tax purposes (Craig: 151; Land: 296). As a result, location shots on the lake at Regent’s Park had to be filmed using a double to stand in for Julie who sat in the boat with actor Michael Craig. London’s notoriously capricious weather added to the woes with the crew having to wait hours on the day of shooting till 5:00pm when “the sun burst forth long enough to permit the photographing of a brilliant scene”. All the while, “property master, Dennis Parrish, had to toss bread to ducks…to keep them within camera range ready when the time came” (Land: 334-35; also Heffernan: 30). This location footage was then intercut with later process shots of Julie and Michael Craig filmed in front of a blue-screen at Fox studios. Production accounts detail that studio filming for the scene occupied two full days on August 23 and 24 on Stage 21 (Edwards). Despite the work and effort, the dialogue component of the sequence was cut in its entirety and all that remained in the final release print is a few brief insert shots of Gertie and Tony in the rowboat.

                              ______________________________

Lost Scene 4: Gertie Gets a Make-Over

Screenplay Scene 63 (filmed 11-13 and 18 September 1967, Stage 16, 20th Century-Fox Studios) Continuing the Pygmalion theme from the previous cut scene, this sequence detailed Gertie’s ongoing social metamorphosis as Tony takes her to the salon of couturier, Julian Brooke-Taylor (Fairchild: 63-64). Of all the cut scenes, this one was possibly the longest with an estimated running time of several minutes.

Here Gertie is introduced to the grand world of haute couture and the even grander character of Julian Brooke-Taylor. Described in the screenplay as “[t]hin, fortyish…not a homosexual, but rather asexual, always appearing elegantly weary but in fact full of creative energy” (Fairchild: 63), Brooke-Taylor was played by Scottish-born character actor, Monty (Monte) Landis. Today, Landis is best remembered for his cavalcade of cameo villains in the cult TV series The Monkees (1968) but he had a long career as a comic actor in theatre and film in both the UK and the US. Prior to Star!, Landis had a string of minor but memorable character cameos in films such as The Mouse That Roared (1959), Charade (1963) and Double Trouble (1967), as well as several popular TV series of the era including The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966), Get Smart (1967) and Batman (1967). The latter series was filmed at 20th Century Fox studios at more or less the same time as Star! which is possibly how Landis secured his brief role in the film. 

As detailed in the Fairchild screenplay (63-64) and Thomas novelization (50-51), the lengthy sequence starts with a mid-shot of Brooke-Taylor sitting on a Louis Quinze settee, “an expression of well-bred resignation on his face” (Fairchild: 63). As he spouts a humorously imperious monologue about being “the best couturier in London..many would say the whole of Europe”, the film cuts to a long shot of Gertie and Tony combing through hundreds of glamorous gowns in the gilt and marble salon, “dresses are everywhere –– in a large open wardrobe, draped on chairs and settees” (Fairchild: 63). Gertie picks up dress after dress, “considering it and then, as Tony shakes his head, rejecting it and adding it to the growing discard pile beside Julian” (ibid). All the while, Brooke-Taylor continues his waspish spiel:

“So who am I to complain, my dear Tony, when you invade my salon two hours after it is officially closed in order not to buy but merely to borrow. Please, please, do not for a moment imagine that you are imposing –– just feel completely free to treat me as you would any small, overworked dressmaker around the corner who runs up clever little numbers in her spare time after high tea…” (Fairchild: 63-64).

Finally, Tony finds the perfect dress –– the brilliant black and ruby beaded décolleté gown that Gertie wears to Cesare’s in the next scene. As he holds it up to Gertie, Brooke-Taylor stops mid-breath, “[h]is face lightens, [t]he artist in him beams whole-hearted approval and admiration,” “Ah!,” he purrs, “Yes!” (Fairchild: 64; Thomas: 51).

Other than highlighting Gertie’s continued social transformation, this scene also served to establish the context for Gertie’s subsequent employment as a salon model for Brooke-Taylor in the later fashion show sequence. Its omission from the final print of the film doesn’t cause a major logical inconsistency but it does weaken some of the backstory. From the way it is written, and given Landis’s theatrical comic style, one imagines that the scene would likely have had a ‘comic relief’ tenor not unlike that of the later fashion show where Cathleen Cordell provides such wonderfully humorous flourish as the affected salon vendeuse.  

It’s unclear why the Brooke-Taylor sequence was dropped in its entirety. Production accounts show that more than two full days were spent shooting material for it from 11-13 September 1967 on Stage 16 at Fox Studios, with the fashion show filmed immediately after on the same set from 13-14 September (Edwards). Further retakes were ordered for 18 September which possibly suggests that Wise was unhappy with aspects of the scene as originally filmed/played. Maybe he remained unhappy, maybe the sequence felt out of keeping with surrounding material, or maybe Wise just wanted to reduce an already overlong first half? Either way, the visit to Julian Brooke-Taylor was consigned to the cutting room floor.

Monte Landis, the actor playing Brooke-Taylor, had a bit of an unfortunate run in 1967. At about the same time he filmed his dropped cameo for Star!, Landis also appeared as part of the original line-up for the TV pilot of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, but when the series was subsequently picked up by NBC for what would prove to be a six season run, Landis was let go and replaced by another British comedian (Erickson:108). There was some compensation for the actor when he secured his semi-recurring role as the resident villain in the second season of The Monkees (1968), which as suggested earlier remains his most famous work to this day. As detailed in his iMDB profile, Landis continued to secure intermittent TV work throughout the 70s with cameos in shows such as Hawaii Five-O (1971), Columbo (1971) and Police Woman (1973), as well as the odd big screen film like Myra Breckinridge (1970) and Young Frankenstein (1974). As late as the 80s and early 90s, Landis could still be seen popping up in the occasional episode of The Golden Girls (1987) or comedy film like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and Heart Condition (1990).

In between these screen assignments, Landis seems to have done a good deal of live theatre. In an interesting “six degrees” moment, just a few months prior to his work on Star!, Landis appeared in a revival of Lady in the Dark at the Pasadena Playhouse –––– opposite Marni Nixon in the Gertrude Lawrence role, what’s more –– where he reportedly stopped the show with the comic “Tchaikovsky” number  (“Monty Landis Draws”: 35). Landis also found something of a second career as a spiritualist in the 1970s hosting a weekly programme on a Southern California radio station devoted to the occult (Martin: S8). This interest in all things spiritual must have continued as the last press mention we’ve been able to find about Landis reports that, in 2007, he had retired to Palm Springs where he was teaching Kabbalah (Salkin: E1). 

                              ______________________________

Lost Scene 5: Gertie at St James Palace

Screenplay Scene 69 (filmed 29 May 1967, Lotos Club, New York City; and 1 July 1967, Westminster School, London ) This brief scene was the third of the excised episodes depicting Gertie’s social metamorphosis courtesy of Sir Anthony Spencer. Immediately following the newsreel insert profiling Gertie’s embrace of “the fads and the fashions of crazy postwar England of the early 20′s” –– doing the Charleston, hot air ballooning, awarding the prize at an auto car race –– and her ascent to royal social circles, this scene showed Gertie and Tony arriving at St James Palace. Resplendent in a fur-trimmed gold brocade cape, Gertie enters the Palace on the arm of Sir Tony looking every inch the princess when, falling back into mock Cockney, she whispers: “D’you think his Royal Highness would mind if I loosened me stays? They’re killing me” (Fairchild: 71).

The scene was clearly designed to highlight Gertie’s triumph in her new “role” as “the glittering darling of society” while remaining true to her irreverent working-class spirit. This theme –– along with the whole Pygmalion-esque subtext –– is explicit in Bob Thomas’s novelization:

“Under Tony’s tutelage, the girl from Clapham was becoming a lady. The metamorphosis was not always easy. Sometimes in the middle of a formal dinner Gertie uttered a cockneyism that sent the table into a roar of laughter. But she always laughed with the other guests –– Gertie never pretended to be anything she wasn’t. And she always listened carefully to Tony’s coaching afterward. He would point out where she said the wrong thing or used the wrong fork. As in the theatre, she learned her cues quickly and never repeated an error” (Thomas: 56).

Like the earlier rowboat scene, this one required a strategic blend of location and studio shooting. The bulk of the interior was filmed with Julie and Michael Craig on 29 May 1967 at the Lotos Club in New York City. Craig was still appearing on Broadway at the time in Pinter’s The Homecoming and this shoot was his very first piece of work for Star!. Additional footage of Gertie and Tony arriving at St James was filmed a few weeks later on 1 July at the Westminster School in London with Craig and a double to stand in for Julie (Edwards).

                              ______________________________

Lost Scene 6: Cavalry to the Rescue

Screenplay Scene 86-88 (filmed 3 July 1967, Guards’ Parade, Whitehall, London) This bridging sequence occurred when Sir Anthony Spencer arrives to visit Gertie with his surprise proposal of marriage. Following a series of establishing shots of Tony riding with the Guards on ceremonial parade  –– shots which remain in the final release print of the film –– the original sequence continued to show Tony arriving at Gertie’s London mews house. He dismounts from his horse and passes the bridle to his personal equerry, Corporal of Horse Cooper (Max Faulkner). As he walks towards the rear of the house, still in full regalia “his accoutrements clanking”, Tony passes Gertie’s maid Mary (Barbara Ogilvie) who is carrying a tray of tea and sugar to the guardsmen. The camera stays on Mary as she goes to the guardsmen and chats amicably with Cooper, telling him to feed sugar to the horses “[t]hen you can have your tea” (Fairchild: 82).

Other than the opportunity to further showcase the colourful pomp of the Royal Life Guards –– which, as detailed in an earlier post, had been strategically selected by Wise for the visual impact of their uniforms –– this scene also helped underscore the established intimacy of Gertie and Tony’s relationship. That Gertie’s maid should greet Sir Tony and his Corporal by name and come out prepared with a tray of tea for the brigade indicates that this not-so clandestine morning visit to Gertie via her back door was a routine arrangement for the two lovers.

The actor who appears as Corporal Cooper, Max Faulkner had a long career as a character player and stuntman in British film and TV, possibly best remembered for his work on the cult TV show, Doctor Who. The cutting of the sequence meant that Faulkner lost what little dialogue he had in the film, though he can still be seen riding alongside Michael Craig in the opening shot and reacting to Tony’s sneeze. He can also be seen later in the film in reprise footage of the Life Guards on parade, immediately prior to Gertie and Tony’s visit to the Lord Chamberlain. In this scene, which was filmed on location at the same time as the earlier sequence, Faulkner’s character is front and centre on screen bellowing a series of commands to the mounted Guardsmen. In the original screenplay this establishing shot is followed by an additional brief dialogue scene where Gertie passes the Guards on her way into the Lord Chamberlain’s office and greets Cooper by name (Scene 118). “Good morning Miss Lawrence. Nice to see you back,” the corporal says (Fairchild: 123). When Noel shoots Gertie a questioning look, she explains, “Well, I have been to St James Palace before.”  “For heaven’s sake,” gasps Noel, “don’t mention that!” (Fairchild: 123). 

While Max Faulkner at least made it into the final release print of Star!, Barbara Ogilvie in the part of Mary was less fortunate. With the excision of the dialogue portion of Sir Tony’s arrival at Gertie’s house, her role disappeared completely. A native Londoner, Ogilvie carved out a solid career playing character parts on UK TV, including a regular stint in the mid-70s on the long-running soap opera, Emmerdale. Possibly due to production logistics or possibly to help denote the passage of time, Gertie is given a different maid later in the film, Dorothy who is played by Matilda Canan.

                              ______________________________

As stated at the outset, it is not difficult to understand why these various scenes were cut from Star! Their excision reduced an already over-long running time and arguably helped tighten pacing. Nevertheless, one can equally appreciate the intent behind these scenes and their role in furthering character and plot. 

One of the most common criticisms made of Star! is that its episodic revue format works against optimal narrative development and, with it, audience identification. Squeezed into brief segments between the film’s mammoth musical performances, Gertie’s life is rendered via a series of epigrammatic highlights with a surfeit of information and dazzle, but not a lot of emotional depth. As Richard Schickel (1968) writes in a characteristic example of this critical complaint:

“William Fairchild’s Star! script, ranging over a [long] period of Gertrude Lawrence’s career, deals in types rather than people, romances rather than loves. It is always at a documentary distance from its subject and her world. Maybe she was unknowable, in the full biographical sense, but we must have the illusion of knowledge, a sense of motives more subtle and complex than we receive” (10).

Moreover, the fact that Star! is a theatrical revue style musical where the numbers are staged as semi-realist replications of Gertie’s theatrical performances, and not as organic expressions of character and narrative as is the case in an integrated ‘book’ musical, means that whatever sense we get of Gertie and her story can only really come from the bridging moments in-between. As director Robert Wise reflected in later years:

“People often ask me why [Star!] didn’t work…It’s hard to find answers. Maybe [audiences] just weren’t prepared to like Julie in the kind of character Gertie Lawrence was. Maybe we spent too much time on musical numbers and didn’t spend enough time digging into her character, getting the kind of contact of the audience with what made her tick. With The Sound of Music, we certainly made contact with the audience in terms of the relationship between Maria and the children and the Captain. The audience knew where everybody was coming from basically” (Leeman, 195).

It’s doubtful that the excised material profiled here would have made much of an appreciable difference in this regard. Like applying a band-aid to a gaping wound, the film’s narrative deficiencies required more substantial revisions than the inclusion of a couple of minor book scenes. Still, these scenes do at least gesture towards expanded character development and suggest several lines that might have been profitably mined in a more carefully structured narrative treatment. 

Finally, it is not known if any of this edited material from Star! still exists. If it does, the chance of it seeing light of day is sadly remote. Cut footage from the Fox-Wise-Andrews megahit, The Sound of Music has never surfaced, suggesting a studio history of either outright junking or public embargo. Moreover, if the material were available, it would surely have been included as part of the comprehensively packaged laserdisc release that accompanied the film’s 25th anniversary in 1993. Still, hope springs eternal and maybe the ‘lost scenes of Star!’ will finally appear as part of that deluxe 50th Anniversary Blu-Ray release that we know just has to be round the corner!

Sources:

Betancourt, Manuel. “Robert Wise Centenary: Star! (1968).” The Film Experience. <http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2014/9/9/robert-wise-centenary-star-1968.html>. 2014.

Craig, Michael. The Smallest Giant: An Actor’s Life. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2005.

Edwards, T.J. “The Saga of ‘Star!’”. Star! Special Edition LaserDisc. Beverley Hills, CA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1993.

Erickson, Hal. ‘From Beautiful Downtown Burbank’: A Critical History of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co, 2000.

Fairchild, William. Star! Screenplay. Final version. 25 January, 1967.

Heffernan, Harold. “Squeaky Sound Stage Troubles ‘Star’.” Philadelphia Daily News. 18 August 1967: 30.

Hoare, Philip. Oscar Wilde’s Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the Most Outrageous Trial of the Century. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1997.

Holston, Kim R. Movie Roadshows: A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showing, 1911-1973. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co, 2013.

Kanfer, Stefan. “Cinema: Quarter Chance.” Time. 96: 4. 27 July 1970: 78.

Land, Kevin. “Recreating Four Decades of Modern History for Star!”. American Cinematographer. 50: 3, March 1969: 294-266, 332-336.

Leeman, Sergio. Robert Wise on His Films: From Editing Room to Director’s Chair. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1995.

Martin, Bob. “TeleVues: They Have the Spirit, It Says.” Independent Press-Telegram. 5 August 1973: S8.

“Monty Landis Draws Many Laughs in ‘Lady’”. Independent Star News. 15 January 1967: 35.

Salkin, Judith. “Building One’s Character.” The Desert Sun. 18 November 2007: E1.

Schickel, Richard. “Two Stars: One Glowing One Dim.” Life. 65: 19. 8 November 1968: 19.

Thomas, Bob. Star! New York: Bantam, 1968.

Images: 

“70 mm cinema film strip” by Zigmej, CC BY-SA 3.0 [Adapted].

STAR!, 1968 [Laserdisc], R. Wise, Fox Video, 1993.

St Hilaire, Al. Photographic Contact Sheets for STAR! [Unpublished], 1967.

Twentieth Century Fox, STAR! Press Kit and Publicity Materials, 1968.

Special thanks to Hanne.

Copyright © Brett Farmer 2018

[esoutherngolf]

Holston Hills

Tennessee's Holston Hills Continues to Shine KNOXVILLE, TENN. --Since its debut in 1927, Holston Hills Country Club on the northeast side of Knoxville, Tenn., has played an integral role in the game of golf. Set near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains on 180 open acres of rolling old farmland tucked into a bend in the Holston River, Holston Hills boasts a magnificent, Donald Ross-designed golf course. Holston Hills has always been highly regarded among the country’s most prestigious golf course rankings. Such recognition continues in 2022. Holston Hills - Golfweek Prestigious Best Classic Course In Golfweek's prestigious “Best Classic Courses 2022” — the top 200 golf courses built before 1960 — Holston Hills ranked No. 101 in America. In Golfweek's “Best Private Courses 2022” — a state-by-state ranking of private courses — Holston Hills ranked No. 2 in Tennessee behind the Pete Dye-designed Honors Course in Ooltewah. In the 2021-22 Golf Digest state-by-state rankings of all courses, public and private, Holston Hills was ranked No. 6 in the state. In addition, as it approaches its 100th anniversary, the Ross design is consistently ranked among the country’s top 100 by Golf Magazine. “Holston Hills takes great pride in its consistent recognition as one of the most well-preserved Donald Ross courses in the country,” said Chris Dibble, General Manager and Director of Golf at Holston Hills. “We believe this philosophy is the reason the golf course continues to be recognized as one of the country’s top classical designs.” The co-founder of the Donald Ross Society, Michael J. Fay, has said that he would rather play Holston Hills on a regular basis than any other golf course in the South. Acclaimed golf course architect Tom Doak says Holston Hills is the closest golf course around to what Ross originally designed. The club has played host to many national events in its history, including the PGA Tour’s Knoxville Invitational, which was captured by Byron Nelson in 1945 during a historic season that included a record-setting 18 victories. Holston Hills welcomed the 2004 USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and has also played host to numerous Tennessee PGA Championships. Holston Hills purchased by McConnell Golf McConnell Golf purchased Holston Hills in late 2015 and has invested millions in capital improvements. In 2019, the PGA Tour and TOUR Vision Promotions signed a five-year agreement with Holston Hills to host the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open. McConnell Golf Founder and CEO John McConnell said he knew Holston Hills was a special place from the moment he set foot on the property. “It immediately reminded me of Shinnecock Hills,” McConnell recalls, referencing the storied eastern Long Island golf club that was a founding member of the USGA and has hosted five U.S. Open Championships. McConnell Golf is the only individual golf course proprietor in the world that owns four Ross-designed courses. “I knew when I saw Holston Hills that it would be a great addition to our golf portfolio,” McConnell said. “It’s a ‘must-play’ for our members. Holston Hills enjoys a proud past and we think that it has a great future as well.” Read the full article

[criminalmindsitalia]

La squadra della BAU trova sorprendenti indizi nel suo passato, per rispondere alla domanda sul perché Reid e Garcia siano stati presi di mira da un omicida di massa, nella premiere della quattordicesima stagione di “CRIMINAL MINDS,” mercoledì 3 ottobre.

La premiere di questa stagione segna l’episodio pietra miliare numero trecento della serie, scritto dal produttore esecutivo Erica Messer.

Criminal Minds celebra la premiere della sua quattordicesima stagione e il trecentesimo episodio, che riprende dove si era interrotto il cliffhanger della scorsa stagione, con Garcia e Reid rapiti dall’omicida di massa Benjamin Merva!

Fonte: SpoilerTV

“300” – Quando Reid e Garcia vengono rapiti da Benjamin Merva (Michael Hogan), tocca al resto della squadra trovarli. La BAU scopre sorprendenti indizi nel passato della squadra, per rispondere alla domanda sul perché i due eroi siano stati presi di mira da un omicida di massa. È una corsa per salvarli prima che una profezia dei “Credenti” si realizzi, nella premiere della quattordicesima stagione di CRIMINAL MINDS, mercoledì 3 ottobre (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) sulla CBS Television Network.

La premiere della stagione segna l’episodio pietra miliare numero trecento della serie, che è stato scritto dal produttore esecutivo Erica Messer.

REGULAR CAST: Joe Mantegna (David Rossi) Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) Matthew Gray Gubler (Dr. Spencer Reid) A.J. Cook (Jennifer Jareau) Aisha Tyler (Dr. Tara Lewis) Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia) Adam Rodriguez (Luke Alvez) Daniel Henney (Matt Simmons)

GUEST CAST: James Urbaniak (Special Agent Owen Quinn) Karen David (Special Agent Mary Meadows) Michael Hogan (Benjamin David Merva) Stafford Douglas (Theo Holston) Daniella Alonso (Lisa Douglas) Brian Appel (Agent Anderson) Randy Evans (Armed Guard)

SCRITTO DA: Il produttore esecutivo Erica Messer DIRETTO DA: Glenn Kershaw

[puzzomacgowan1938]

SMi Group Announces Day 2 of Global MilSatCom 2021 will be Predominantly Focused on the USA

SMi Group Announces Day 2 of Global MilSatCom 2021 will be Predominantly Focused on the USA SMi Group has announced expert speakers for day two of the 23rd Annual Global MilSatCom Confex in November 2021. The Day 2 of Global MilSatCom 2021 will be predominantly focused on the USA.

As the world enters a new era of near-peer competition, it is widely accepted dogma that no nation will go to war alone. However, significant problems with C2 interoperability between allies remain; despite sustained efforts to align international communications architectures and improve systems integration, a large amount of work must still be done to guarantee that a multinational coalition can communicate as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Building on its success over the years, SMi Group are delighted to welcome the 23rd Global MilSatCom Conference and Exhibition in London, UK (virtually option available) convening on 2nd to 4th November 2021, with a Disruptive Technology Focus Day on 1st November 2021.

Click here to register for this event. Take advantage of the early bird offer, register by 30 September 2021 to save £100. Taking place in London, UK or attendees have the option to attend virtually with online portal access to the live event.

Ahead of the flagship event in November, SMi Group announce key expert speakers that will be featured on Day Two (3rd November 2021), predominantly focused on the USA:

Opening Keynote Address on Enterprise Vision Requirements and Acquisition by Colonel Ryan Colburn, Chief, Spectrum Warfare Division, SMC, US Space Force

Allied by Design: How Everyone Benefits with an International Mindset from Day One presented by Ms Deanna Ryals, Chief Partnership Officer, SMC, US Space Force

COMSATCOM for the Warfighter: Transforming SATCOM Capability with Commercial Capacity presented by Ms Clare Grason, Chief, Commercial Satellite Communications Office, US Space Force

More Day Two expert speaker that will be presenting include:

Chair: Mr Mike Dean, DOD SATCOM Chief, US DOD CIO Colonel Matthew Holston, Commander, Space Delta 8, US Space Force Mr Gus Anderson, Director of Business Development, Leonardo DRS Mr Michael Baxter, SATCOM Technical Lead, Spectrum Warfare Division, SMC, US Space Force Dr Mark Dale, Director of Business Development, Kratos Space Federal Colonel Shane Taylor, PM Tactical Network, PEO C3T, US Army Mr Rick Lober, General Manager/Vice President Defense & Intelligence Systems, Hughes Mr James Shaw, Director, Government Solutions, Telesat U.S. Services Colonel Ed Skelly, Chief Operations Division, USCENTCOM J6 Mr Brad Grady, Principal Analyst, Northern Sky Research Mr Mike Laney, Lead International Engagement for MILSATCOM, Department of the Air Force With the ever-growing emphasis on reliable communications for deployed units, the US DoD is investing heavily in MILSATCOM capabilities to achieve and maintain overmatch against its adversaries. Initiatives like the Integrated SATCOM Enterprise Vision, JADC2, OneNetwork and Project Convergence demonstrate this commitment. SMi group are proud to present a packed day of discussion with leaders from the US DOD’s SATCOM community and their counterparts from the defence industry.

Featuring focus sessions on the SATCOM Enterprise Vision, COMSATCOM, the ground segment, DOD innovation and more, Day 2 presents an unrivalled opportunity for genuine thought-leadership and conversation that will shape the future of DoD SATCOM.

[egotistic26]

[toughgirlchallenges]

Dr. Betty Holston Smith - 79 years young, running 60 to 100 miles per week, sharing her knowledge about running, health and fitness.

At 79 years young, Dr. Betty Holston Smith has the fitness level of your average 30-year old and looks at least 20 years younger than she is! 

  Dr. Betty was previously a 200-pound couch potato who loved junk food and smoking. Dr. Betty shares more about how she transformed her life 50 years ago. This really is a master class told by a phenomenal story teller, who goes into the details.

  During this podcast episode Dr. Betty shares more about her early life, how she got into running, how she changed her diet, how she trains, and how she copes on 4hrs of sleep a night. At 79 years young Dr. Betty is still running 60 to 100 miles per week! 

  If you want to learn the secrets of running, health and fitness, this is an episode not to be missed.

  New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time - Make sure you hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out. 

  The tough girl podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons. To find out more about supporting your favourite podcast and becoming a patron please check out www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast.

  Show notes

Speaking to Dr. Betty Holston Smith

Being a smoker and eating junk food

Being 200lbs overweight

Why she decided to lose weight

Trying all of the crazy diets

Being inspired by Dr. Mirkin 

Why nutrition and movement is so important

Advice for movement - Get outside 3x a week for 30 mins

Why you need to strengthen your heart

Why you need to eat, fruit, vegetables, whole foods, seeds and nuts

What Dr. Betty eats on a daily basis

Falling in love with running and how it became the core of her life

Starting to feel the difference in her life

Running ultra marathons and having no need for recovery

The good things that have come from her lifestyle

Being monitored by John Hopkins Hospital 

Thriving on 4hrs of sleep a night

Doing relationship based coaching

The importance of respecting the body

Stretching and doing Tai Chi for 40 years

Growing up in virgin woods and falling in love with mother nature

Growing up as 1 of 6 children

Her favourite shoes - Vivo Barefoot  

Running marathons on 6 continents

Running a half marathon (22 miles) on the Great Wall of China

Running and teaching deep water running

Setting up your body for running 

The benefits of chia seeds

The power of having good posture

Lessons from Michael Jackson with his pelvis

Needing a strong core to be any kind of runner

Why you need to have relaxed shoulders

Why running should be moving meditation

Writing her book - Lifestyle by Nature: One Woman's Break from the Unhealthy Herd to Roam Forever Healthy in Nature's Lifestyle Change Herd

Focusing on what you love and what you are passionate about

Wanting to run for the rest of her life

Passion and perseverance 

Not caring about the finish line

The process of changing a lifestyle

Going to school during segregation

The lifestyle change line

On going challenges

Running a 901 mile virtual race

Looking for more virtual races

Not being on social media

What her week looks like

  Social Media

  Book - Lifestyle by Nature: One Woman's Break from the Unhealthy Herd to Roam Forever Healthy in Nature's Lifestyle Change Herd 

  More about the book:

  How are you? If your truest first thoughts in pondering this question are something like "I could be better," this nature-based lifestyle-change book might help. To be healthy, you must take care of all of you because the total you is made up of your entire self, including your body, mind, spirit, soul-your everything. 

  If one part of you is not up to par in some way or another, it's impossible for your everything else to be totally healthy. You have tried everything your friends, your doctors, and even the advertisement industry recommended for improving your health. But nothing has worked, except to make you a frustrated person. 

  Close your eyes right now and allow your conscious mind to contemplate your health situation. Be honest. You are not the healthiest that you can or should be. In fact, you are in dire straits according to how you feel and what your medical team says about your health. I know all of this about you because I was you so many years ago. 

  Like you, for years I followed the same type of diet herd that you have been following. And like you, after trying everything, I had no clue about what to try next. However, I found a clue. Over forty years, I lived the importance of and learned to replicate nature's wisdom on nutrition and movement in my unhealthy lifestyle. Her focus was on naturally changing lifestyles, not on temporary quick fixes. And in the process, she provided me with all types of support to do so. I carefully recorded her step-by-step wisdom and provided the details inside. 

  Ditch your next quick-fix cosmetic diet, and put your trust in nature's simple but trustworthy lifestyle-change wisdom.

  Check out this episode!

[un-enfant-immature]

Building paths to funding for Black female founders

Amid a racial justice reckoning following countless events of police brutality (justice for Breonna Taylor), it’s high time companies and investors in the tech industry do more than just say “Black Lives Matter,” but show that Black lives matter. As Human Utility CEO Tiffani Ashley Bell aptly put it, “Make the hire, send the wire!”

Black women are underfunded and under-appreciated in tech. Since 2009, Black women have received just .06% of all venture funding, according to digital undivided’s 2018 report. That’s despite a 50% increase in new Black women-owned businesses from 2014 to 2019, according to American Express.

When Founder Met Funder, an All Raise event for Black female founders (BFFs), aims to foster community and fuel more investment in BFFs. In its second year, When Founder Met Funder featured Incredible Health Co-founder and CEO Iman Abuzeid, Slutty Vegan founder and CEO Pinky Cole, Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel, Cake Ventures Founding Partner Monique Woodard and others.

“It was very important for us to be able to give different ranges of talks,” Domonique Fines, co-creator of the event, told TechCrunch. “I wanted people to see there are Black women founders out there. They might not all have the same path, but just because you don’t have the same path, it doesn’t mean you won’t have that same success.”

Domonique Fines, All raise Director of Engagement and co-creator of When Founder Met Funder. Image credit: All Raise

Before joining All Raise, Fines spent a few years at Y Combinator as the Silicon Valley accelerator’s director of events.

“As the batches got larger and larger, I started seeing less and less Black women,” Fines told TechCrunch.

In Y Combinator’s most recent batch of startups, 9% of the founders were women and 16% of companies had a female founder, while 4% of the founders were Black and 6% of the companies had a Black founder. Y Combinator, however, did not break out stats for Black female founders.

“And for me, it was super important to give them the experience to be in a space where they felt comfortable talking to people in a space where they can simply ask questions and not feel any type of way about it. And I just noticed I actually hadn’t seen that.”

When Fines would come home to Oakland after a YC event, there would be a lot of Black women around, she said. But for the Black female founders elsewhere, there just wasn’t a space for them to go where they could “feel comfortable asking the question they needed the answer to without feeling like they’re less than,” Fines said.

That was her passion, Fines said. Meanwhile, Megan Holston-Alexander of Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund and Planet FWD Founder Julia Collins were already volunteering at All Raise as Fines joined All Raise from YC.

“So it was one of those things where we just kind of put all of our heads together,” Fines said. “We wanted to make sure that we could do something that’d be super tactical and useful, but also make it not just an event. It’s an experience and we want to make sure that Black women are just getting the help they need all year-round.”

In addition to the event, a Slack group formed this year to help determine the next steps for the community. Some of the ideas floating around right now are founder bootcamps, adding more speakers to the event, facilitating better networking and workshops. But it’s ultimately up to the group’s collective conscience.

“I’m planning on polling them to find out exactly what the need is right now,” Fines said. “And then it just changes every day, like depending on what’s going on in the world. It’s one of those things where we just want to make sure that what we’re doing for them is super useful.”

Additionally, Fines envisions hosting smaller classes on fundraising and deck building.

“It’s one of those things that people need a lot of assistance with,” she said. “But they also need someone that’s going to be truthful and honest with them about it.”

Seibel touched on that element of honesty in his chat with Collins during the event. He told a story about what it was like when he was fundraising for his startup.

“When I started doing startups, it was 2006 and there weren’t many people who looked like any of us that were doing startups,” he told the audience. “I think what you would’ve expected was overt discrimination but actually I got something else, which was no feedback.”

He went on to say that people were afraid to be critical of him, for fear of being perceived a certain way.

“People were afraid of being critical with me,” he said.

That’s partly why Seibel says he’s become the type of person who will tell founders what everyone is thinking.

“Agree with it or disagree with it, I want you to have a good mental model of what people are thinking and not saying,” Seibel said.

Throughout the day, there were 120 founders and 40 VCs at the event. The next step for Fine is to get their consent to give their contact info to venture capitalists.

“I noticed a lot of VCs definitely want to continue the conversations but I want to make sure that all of the founders feel comfortable with that as well,” Fine said.

Next week, Fine plans to send out the poll to founders to better understand their needs and where to take the initiative from here.

“I want to make sure that we still keep our community tight knit,” Fine said. “I want them to continue to push and keep talking about it because this is not something that’s going to be an easy breezy thing. It’s going to be ongoing and forever.”