#or in posters around salt lake promoting it

[variationsonacloud]

price & mckinley were definitely in one of those mormon promotional videos AT LEAST once

[world-cinema-research]

Week 9G: Comparing Punch-Drunk Love (2002) & Russian Ark (2002)

Essay #1 - Punch-Drunk Love

The above article's most cohesive point is that the material in Punch-Drunk Love captures contingencies at the heart of post-romance (post-romance is defined as the age in which we seek out people who are more like ourselves, instead of abiding by the whole "opposites attract" idea) All of these themes and ideas are present in the film, which portrays the violence of contingency and the wonder of love in a post-romance world. The harmonium in the opening scene is a 'synthesizing' entity, while the SUV crash is a disorganizing eruption of excess force. The film captures the virtuality of love's potential and the actuality of romance.

Whether or not this was Anderson's true intention is up in the air, but it does have the same "cloaked idea" as Russian Ark. On the surface, Russian Ark is marvelous gallery stroll of Russian art, its appeal marked by the one-shot it took to capture the footage. Its purpose however may be a deep meditation on Russian culture, history, legacy, and character commentary, all of which contribute to a focus on Russia's identity.

Here is the scene with the car crash and harmonium above. I found that the opening scenes for this film and Russian Ark both provide the audience with a cold, dark atmosphere to begin with. In Russian Ark, the entry into the main museum is surprising as the color palette suddenly pops with shades of orange, yellow, and white. Color is a big thing in Punch-Drunk Love as well, where dark blue and black appear in many ways such as his moments of isolation and even his suit.

The poster for the film accurately reflects the artistic decisions made in the film, and is a beautiful image to begin with. Beyond the silhouettes of Barry and Lena lies the beach of Hawaii, their vacation spot which offered our characters a moment of solace and a way for Barry to escape his perpetrators. Just under the title layer, the background has these lines that could be mistaken as surfboards, but they are actually a callback to the sequence of colors at the beginning of the film. To me, these colors are the visual expression of Barry's emotional state. And perhaps the dark surroundings signify suffering and the unknown, fears which mean nothing to Barry who is preoccupied in the arms of his lover.

As beloved and dependable as Adam Sandler was as an actor leading up to this, I think it may have been hard to market the film because of its darker undertones. This is a love story that meanders from idea to idea, playing around with different effects and moods. It may not be as unconventional as Russian Ark, but the film has a daring nature to it. This is perhaps why it just barely fell short of breaking even.

"Andrew Fastow former chief financial officer for Enron Corp is indicted on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice."

Enron was an energy company that was involved in a massive scandal which led to the company's bankruptcy. Many of its executives were charged with crimes. The frequent flyer miles idea in Punch-Drunk Love relates to Enron in that it highlights the greed and corruption that can occur in the business world. Barry sees an opportunity to exploit a loophole in a promotion offered by a company, just as Enron executives found ways to manipulate their financial statements to deceive investors. Both situations involve individuals prioritizing their own gain over the well-being of others.

Essay #2 - Russian Ark

Textual Resource

The Stranger - "Let's proceed with caution. These madmen could eat us."

The Time Traveller - "They liked your hair."

The Stranger - "Of course, I'm a writer. Writer's always have good hair."

My experience with Russian Ark was a quiet, and mostly dull experience. Alexander Sokurov, the director, casted more than 2000 people, involving two whole orchestras. The camera lens primarily focused on people for the entire duration. What's more is that the whole thing was captured in one shot, with only two prior takes before the third was was the success.

The thing is, a film that expects you to know the detailings of Russian history, without a central conflict, just comes off as movie snob bait. The picture is incredible, but the hour and a half it took to watch this felt like a much longer time.

"...the film does not have any plot in the conventional sense. But neither does history, so in that sense, the film is more about what history actually is than any other movie I’ve ever seen."

Punch-Drunk love only has one reference to a real-life event, so in terms of connecting with Russian Ark on this level, it fails to do so.

"Moscow theatre hostage crisis of 2002, also called Nord-Ost siege, hostage taking by Chechen militants at the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow, Russia, that lasted from October 23 to October 26, 2002. It ended when Russian forces filled the theatre with a gas. More than 150 people died, the vast majority of them as a result of the effects of the gas."

The Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis of 2002 and the film Russian Ark are related in that they both deal with the idea of Russian identity and history. The hostage crisis, which took place in the Dubrovka Theatre, was a traumatic event that shook Russia and had a lasting impact on its society. The film Russian Ark, on the other hand, is a sweeping historical drama that takes place in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and reflects on Russia's rich cultural heritage.

The film's single continuous shot that travels through the Hermitage Museum can be seen as a metaphor for the continuity of Russian history and culture, despite the tumultuous events of the past. The Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis, on the other hand, disrupted this continuity and left a scar on Russian society. It is similar to Punch-Drunk Love's theme of finding love through uncertainty and doubt.

In this cast interview, it is noted that the whole team only had 36 hours to get all of the props and equipment in place as the Heritage museum only allowed them that timeframe. It took 4 years for the movie to actualize, showing just how much of a feat the film was outside of its charm as a one-shot wonder. Punch-Drunk Love didn't face as much trouble in production as Russian Ark, but it did only make 24 million from its 25 million-dollar budget.

[dearly]

Department of Justice officials are looking into serious accusations about Live Nation’s behavior in the marketplace.

They have been reviewing complaints that Live Nation, which manages 500 artists, including U2 and Miley Cyrus, has used its control over concert tours to pressure venues into contracting with its subsidiary, Ticketmaster. The company’s chief competitor, AEG, has told the officials that venues it manages that serve Atlanta; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; Salt Lake City; Louisville, Ky.; and Oakland, Calif., were told they would lose valuable shows if Ticketmaster was not used as a vendor, a possible violation of antitrust law.

In the Atlanta case, the complaint stems from a 2013 tour by the band Matchbox Twenty. Live Nation bypassed the Gwinnett Center, a popular arena outside the city, for another venue in town.

Gwinnett’s booking director, Dan Markham, worried his venue was being punished, according to emails he wrote at the time. The center had just replaced Ticketmaster with a service controlled by AEG.

“Don’t abandon Gwinnett,” he wrote to a Live Nation talent coordinator. “If there’s an issue or issues let’s address.”

“Issue?” the Live Nation coordinator wrote back. “Three letters. Can you guess what they are?”

Live Nation says that, no matter what its employee wrote, the decision to bypass the center was not punitive. The other venue was managed by Live Nation and simply fit more people. But the following year, Live Nation cut the number of tours it brought to Gwinnett in half, from four to two.

Live Nation described the drop as a routine fluctuation. But Mr. Markham later said in an email that he had expected the drop-off because Live Nation “warned us that they would put us in a literal boycott.”

AEG provided The New York Times with copies of those emails, and others, to support its account of threats.

“What happened in Atlanta is just one example of what has been occurring much more broadly,” said Ted Fikre, the chief legal officer for AEG.

Live Nation officials say they never threaten or retaliate. They dismissed the complaints as tactical, deliberate mischaracterizations by AEG.

“You have a disgruntled competitor that is trying to explain their loss around the boogeyman that there were threats made that nobody can document,” said Daniel M. Wall, Live Nation’s antitrust lawyer.

The bloodletting between Live Nation and AEG has grown fierce in recent years and rippled through the industry. Last month, another of Mr. Wall’s clients, the heavy-metal icon Ozzy Osbourne, sued AEG on antitrust grounds, saying that it tried to bar him from playing its O2 arena in London, unless he played its Staples Center in Los Angeles.

AEG said its policy was a response to Live Nation’s steering concerts to its Los Angeles rival, the Forum.

The Justice Department’s inquiries into possible antitrust violations have gone beyond the bitter rivalry, with regulators in the past year looking into reports of Live Nation threats at venues that AEG does not manage: at the H-E-B Center outside Austin, Tex.; and at Boston’s TD Garden, according to executives familiar with the federal review.

Justice officials declined to comment on the status of their inquiries. Several of the venue owners have denied the accounts of threats reported by others.

The inquiries come as Justice officials review two more proposed mergers of huge companies — AT&T with Time Warner, and the Walt Disney Company with 21st Century Fox. In discussing those proposals, the department’s new antitrust chief has pointed to the Live Nation deal and several other mergers as problematic because, he said, they relied too much on the federal government’s ability to police corporate behavior.

“Even if we wanted to do that, we often don’t have the skills or the tools to do so effectively,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a speech last November.

Beau Buffier, the chief of the New York Attorney General’s Antitrust Bureau, was blunter in assessing whether the government had done enough to ensure a vital ticketing marketplace.

“The Consent Decree was supposed to prevent Live Nation from using its strength in live entertainment to foreclose competition in ticketing,” said Mr. Buffier. “But it is now widely seen as the poster child for the problems that arise when enforcers adopt these temporary fixes to limit the anticompetitive effects of deeply problematic vertical mergers.”

[..]

Few buildings in Louisville are as important to the local economy as the KFC Yum! Center, a 22,000-seat arena on the banks of the Ohio River that features a mix of events, from Louisville Cardinals basketball games to concerts by Garth Brooks.

In 2012, Live Nation submitted a joint bid with another company for a contract to manage the arena. Three people who listened to Live Nation’s pitch said in interviews that the company said some of its tours might skip the arena if it lost the deal.

“One of their main selling points was the relationship with the talent that they had and their ability to determine where that talent chose to play,” said Larry Hayes, who was then chairman of the Louisville Arena Authority, which oversees the venue.

The arena picked AEG anyway.

Mr. Fikre and other AEG officials say that two years later, when their company considered replacing Ticketmaster with their own ticketing service, AXS, Live Nation gave a warning.

Over dinner on the night of a Miley Cyrus concert in August 2014, they said, a Live Nation executive told AEG’s local venue manager that some Live Nation tours would likely bypass Louisville if AEG made good on its plan to replace Ticketmaster.

This is one of the incidents that AEG complained about to the Justice Department, pointing out that the consent decree specifically forbids Live Nation from threatening to withhold shows from venues that do not hire Ticketmaster.

The AEG account is supported by an internal email in which its employee reports being warned that the Yum! Center might lose “toss of the coin shows” — the kind that could go to a nearby arena — if Ticketmaster was dumped.

[...]

Critics say enforcement of the consent decree has been complicated by what they call its ambiguous language. Though it forbids Live Nation from forcing a client to buy both its talent and ticketing, the agreement lets the company “bundle” its services “in any combination.” So Live Nation is barred from punishing an arena by, say, steering a star like Drake to appear at a rival stop down the road. But it’s also allowed, under the agreement, to redirect a concert if it can defend the decision as sound business.

Mr. Buffier, of the New York Attorney General’s office, said the ambiguity creates “high burdens to prove violations in court.”

Competitors assert that the bundling lets Live Nation pressure venues without ever uttering a threat.

“They don’t need to,” said Marc Leibowitz, co-owner of One Percent Productions, an independent concert promoter in Omaha. “It’s just implied.”

David Willis, a former ticketing executive who left Ticketmaster in 2014, said the company was always careful to instruct the sales staff to respect the rules as to how talent could be mentioned when pitching an arena for business.

“We were not saying, certainly, ‘If you don’t go with us you are losing that,’” he said. But he acknowledged, “I would imagine that that is what they assumed to be the case.”

[topsolarpanels]

The Real Climate-Change Villain Isnt China. Its Congress.

At the Hotel California in Paris, an alternative cosmo of climate-change deniers was addressed on video by U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe.

PARIS With world leaders continuing to meet in Paris for the COP2 1 World Climate Summit, attending the so-called Day of Investigating the Data was like entering an alternate reality in which conventional notions surrounding climate change are completely upended.

In this odd, parallel cosmo, CO2 is beneficial for the environment, global warming is a myth, mainstream climate science is bogus, a comprehensive climate change policy will destroy the economy, and the United Nations is a super scoundrel bent on world domination.

These commitments that the president has attained in Paris arent going to happen .

On Monday, a group of about 30 people( mostly Caucasian humen) gathered in a conference room at the Hotel California in Paris for a day of speeches and presentations designed to cast a skeptical eye on current climate change research. In that brightly lights space with rose-hued carpeting, an information table was put up displaying pamphlets with titles such as Top 10 Global Warming Lies, and Climate Change Reconsidered. Near the podium, a poster read: We stand for More Freedom and Less Government.

This might have been amusing, except that it reflects a view that now predominates U.S. legislation and calls into question the Obama administrations ability to keep any promises attained here, as well as the possibility the next president of the U.S. will put any climate accord into the circular file.

At the opulently decorated Paris city hall a few days earlier, when mayors and officials from hundreds of cities around the world got together, the thrust of their discussion was simple: cities have to act because national governments often dont( and cities produce the majority of members of the pollution anyway ). As George Ferguson, the mayor of Bristol, UK, put it, Cities act where nations talk.

The battle will be fought and won city by city, municipality by municipality, told Tony Lloyd, the mayor of Manchester, UK.

And the biggest threat to the climate in the medium term may not be China, the worlds biggest producer of greenhouses at the moment, where a autocratic regime is pushing policies that will construct dramatic differences; the problem is in the second-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, the United States, where Congress simply denies reality.

Congress is unwilling to do anything at this phase, told Ralph Becker, the mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Back at the Hotel California, you could see the reasoning, or unreasoning, behind this problem.

The highlight of the afternoon was a prerecorded speech by Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, who dismissed the possibility of the enactment of a climate change policy and highlighted the futility of such a policy even if it were mandated.

The president and his administration are trying to implement a policy on climate change that the American public neither wants or is able to afford, told Inhofe, who serves as the current chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. These commitments that the president has attained in Paris arent going to happen.

Citing “independent analysis, ” Inhofe said that Obamas power plan would expense $292 billion and would only reduce CO2 emissions by less than 0.2 percentage, would reduce the rise of global temperatures by less than one one-hundredth of a degree Fahrenheit, and would reduce sea level rise by the thickness of two sheets of paper.

The COP2 1 Summit is full of hot air, especially when you consider that the presidents commitment absences the support of his own government, Inhofe added.

According to other attendees , not only are Obamas proposed policies useless, they are also detrimental.

Obamas climate change policies have been tried in Europe to devastating effect, Craig Richardson, the executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Energy and Environmental Legal Institute, an organization designed to promote what the group calls free market environmentalism, told The Daily Beast.

Electricity expenses are driven up and people are succumbing by the tens of thousands. The American people dont want those kinds of policies in the U.S ., told Richardson.

Alternative energy sources like solar and wind power are inordinately expensive, Richardson insisted, and wouldnt survive in a free market because they require government subsidies.

Dying by the tens of thousands because electricity expenses are high? He claimed they freeze to demise, but dedicated no clue how he came up with those numbers. He claimed, dramatically, that in some parts of Europe people buy volumes to burn and heat their homes.

In point of fact, thousands did succumb in 2003 because of unbelievably high temperatures in France and Western Europe, but thats not what Richardson was talking about. Nor did he take into account the fact that high oil prices were precisely what made alternative energy supplies( and fracking) economically sustainable. Now theyre low again, the market may well undermine those alternatives, subsidies or no subsidies.

But such reasonable deliberations were not part of the scene at the Hotel California.

The current climate change model is a hypothetical model based on bad science, told Richardson, repeating the line of the day.

And speaking of hot air, others present dismissed the idea that rising temperatures were a threat to begin with.

The biggest threat to the climate is the next ice age, onetime journalist and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Lord Christopher Monckton, told The Daily Beast. Now we dont know when that will be exactly, but cold weather is a far greater threat than warm weather.

Monckton used to say even if the world took no steps to mitigate climate change, global temperatures would rise by maybe one-half degree Celsius by 2100. Over at COP2 1, the hundreds of governments represented are worried about a rise of 2 degrees or more, basing their concern on the near-unanimous opinion of the scientific community.

It is based on a lie based on exaggeration, told Monkton, referring to current UN warming data.

The motivation? According to Monkton, a power-hungry UN set on global domination.

The UN has long watched itself as a world government in waiting that has not yet get the excuse, told Monckton, who believes that a climate change ruse is something that the organization needs to facilitate such a power grab.

It is 10 times costlier to mitigate climate change than to adapt to it, Monckton added.

Obviously when the Hotel California in the middle of Paris finds itself beach front property, we should just enjoy.

With additional reporting by Christopher Dickey

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