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Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in the films Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent films, where he was one of the best-paid stars of UFA, he and his new Jewish wife Ilona Prager were forced to leave Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. The couple settled in Britain, where he took British citizenship in 1939. He appeared in many British films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940), before emigrating to the United States around 1941, which led to his being cast as Major Strasser in Casablanca (1942).

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt was born in his parents' home at Tieckstraße 39 in Berlin to Amalie Marie (née Gohtz) and Philipp Heinrich Veidt, a former military man turned civil servant. Veidt would later recall, “Like many fathers, he was affectionately autocratic in his home life, strict, idealistic. He was almost fanatically conservative.” By contrast, Amalie was sensitive and nurturing. Veidt was nicknamed 'Connie' by his family and friends. His family was Lutheran, and Veidt was confirmed in a ceremony at the Protestant Evangelical Church in Alt-Schöneberg, Berlin on 5 March 1908. Veidt's only sibling, an older brother named Karl, died in 1900 of scarlet fever at the age of 9. The family spent their summers in Potsdam.

Two years after Karl's death, Veidt's father fell ill and required heart surgery. Knowing that the family could not afford to pay the lofty fee that accompanied the surgery, the doctor charged only what the family could comfortably pay. Impressed by the surgeon's skill and kindness, Veidt vowed to "model my life on the man that saved my father's life" and he wished to become a surgeon. His hopes for a medical career were thwarted, though, when in 1912 he graduated without a diploma and ranked 13th out of 13 pupils and became discouraged over the amount of study necessary for him to qualify for medical school.

A new career path for Veidt opened up in 1911 during a school Christmas play in which he delivered a long prologue before the curtain rose. The play was badly received, and the audience was heard to mutter, "Too bad the others didn't do as well as Veidt." Veidt began to study all of the actors he could and wanted to pursue a career in acting, much to the disappointment of his father, who called actors 'gypsys' and 'outcasts'.

With the money he raised from odd jobs and the allowance his mother gave him, Veidt began attending Berlin's many theaters. He loitered outside of the Deutsches Theater after every performance, waiting for the actors and hoping to be mistaken for one. In the late summer of 1912 he met a theater porter who introduced him to actor Albert Blumenreich, who agreed to give Veidt acting lessons for six marks. He took ten lessons from him before auditioning for Max Reinhardt, reciting Goethe's Faust. During Veidt's audition, Reinhardt looked out of the window the entire time. He offered Veidt a contract as an extra for one season's work, from September 1913 to August 1914 with a pay of 50 marks a month. During this time, he played bit parts as spear carriers and soldiers. His mother attended almost every performance. His contract with the Deutsches Theater was renewed for a second season, but by this time World War I had begun, and on 28 December 1914, Veidt enlisted in the army.

In 1915, he was sent to the Eastern Front as a non-commissioned officer and took part in the Battle of Warsaw. He contracted jaundice and pneumonia, and had to be evacuated to a hospital on the Baltic Sea. While recuperating, he received a letter from his girlfriend Lucie Mannheim, telling him that she had found work at the Front Theatre in Libau. Intrigued, Veidt applied for the theatre as well. As his condition had not improved, the army allowed him to join the theatre so that he could entertain the troops. While performing at the theatre, his relationship with Mannheim ended. In late 1916, he was re-examined by the Army and deemed unfit for service; he was given a full discharge on 10 January 1917. Veidt returned to Berlin where he was readmitted to the Deutsches Theater. There, he played a small part as a priest that got him his first rave review, the reviewer hoping that "God would keep Veidt from the films." or "God save him from the cinema!"

From 1917 until his death, Veidt appeared in more than 100 films. One of his earliest performances was as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a classic of German Expressionist cinema, with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. His starring role in The Man Who Laughs (1928), as a disfigured circus performer whose face is cut into a permanent grin, provided the (visual) inspiration for the Batman villain the Joker. Veidt starred in other silent horror films such as The Hands of Orlac (1924), also directed by Robert Wiene, The Student of Prague (1926) and Waxworks (1924), in which he played Ivan the Terrible. Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1919), one of the earliest films to sympathetically portray homosexuality, although the characters in it do not end up happily. He had a leading role in Germany's first talking picture, Das Land ohne Frauen (Land Without Women, 1929).

He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a few films there, but the advent of talking pictures and his difficulty with speaking English led him to return to Germany. During this period, he lent his expertise to tutoring aspiring performers, one of whom was the later American character actress Lisa Golm.

Veidt fervently opposed the Nazi regime and later donated a major portion of his personal fortune to Britain to assist in the war effort. Soon after the Nazi Party took power in Germany, by March 1933, Joseph Goebbels was purging the film industry of anti-Nazi sympathizers and Jews, and so in April 1933, a week after Veidt's marriage to Ilona Prager, a Jewish woman, the couple emigrated to Britain before any action could be taken against either of them.

Goebbels had imposed a "racial questionnaire" in which everyone employed in the German film industry had to declare their "race" to continue to work. When Veidt was filling in the questionnaire, he answered the question about what his Rasse (race) was by writing that he was a Jude (Jew). Veidt was not Jewish, but his wife was Jewish, and Veidt would not renounce the woman he loved. Additionally, Veidt, who was opposed to antisemitism, wanted to show solidarity with the German Jewish community, who were in the process of being stripped of their rights as German citizens in the spring of 1933. As one of Germany's most prominent actors, Veidt had been informed that if he were prepared to divorce his wife and declare his support for the new regime, he could continue to act in Germany. Several other leading actors who had been opposed to the Nazis before 1933 switched allegiances. In answering the questionnaire by stating he was a Jew, Veidt rendered himself unemployable in Germany, but stated this sacrifice was worth it as there was nothing in the world that would compel him to break with his wife. Upon hearing about what Veidt had done, Goebbels remarked that he would never act in Germany again.

After arriving in Britain, Veidt perfected his English and starred in the title roles of the original anti-Nazi versions of The Wandering Jew (1933) and Jew Süss (1934), the latter film was directed by the exiled German-born director Lothar Mendes and produced by Michael Balcon for Gaumont-British. He naturalised as a British subject on 25 February 1939. By this point multi-lingual, Veidt made films both in French with expatriate French directors and in English, including three of his best-known roles for British director Michael Powell in The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

By 1941, he and Ilona had settled in Hollywood to assist in the British effort in making American films that might persuade the then-neutral and still isolationist US to join the war against the Nazis, who at that time controlled all of continental Europe and were bombing the United Kingdom. Before leaving the United Kingdom, Veidt gave his life savings to the British government to help finance the war effort. Realizing that Hollywood would most likely typecast him in Nazi roles, he had his contract mandate that they must always be villains.

He starred in a few films, such as George Cukor's A Woman's Face (1941) where he received billing under Joan Crawford's and Nazi Agent (1942), in which he had a dual role as both an aristocratic German Nazi spy and the man's twin brother, an anti-Nazi American. His best-known Hollywood role was as the sinister Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca (1942), a film which began pre-production before the United States entered World War II. Commenting about this well-received role, Veidt noted that it was an ironical twist of that that he was praised "for portraying the kind of character who had forced him to leave his homeland".

Veidt enjoyed sports, gardening, swimming, golfing, classical music, and reading fiction and nonfiction (including occultism; Veidt once considered himself a powerful medium). He was afraid of heights and flying, and disliked interviews and wearing ties.

In a September 1941 interview with Silver Screen, Veidt said,

I see a man who was once for years studying occult things. The science of occult things. I had the feeling there must be – something else. There are things in our world we cannot trace. I wanted to trace them. The power we have to think, to move, to speak, to feel – is it electricity, I wanted to know? Is it magnetism? Is it the heart? Is it the blood? When the body dies, where is all that? Where is the power that made the body live? No one can tell me it is not somewhere. If you believe in waves, which you must believe after you have the radio, why couldn't human beings contact the wave lengths of someone who is dead? ... this is the kind of thing with which I was, for many years, preoccupied. This is what I tried to find, the answer. I did not find it. But in looking for it there was etched, perhaps, on my face, some hint of the strange cabals I kept with unseen and unknown powers. I did not find it, I say. But I found something else. Something better. I found –faith. I found the ability, very peaceful, to accept that which I could neither see, nor hear nor touch. I am a religious man. My belief is that if we could help to make all people a little more religious, we would do a great lot. If we would pray more ... we forget to pray except when we are in a mess. That is too bad. I believe in prayer. Because when we pray, we always pray for something good.

He went on:

I must tell you something that will disappoint you ... far from being one engaged in strangle rituals of thought or action, what I like best to do is sit in this small garden, on this terrace, and – just sit. Sometimes, I confess, I think a lot; about my past. About my parents who are dead. I like to dream, to go away ... At other times, I sit and read. I read, often, a whole day through. I play golf. I used to be a golf fiend. Now I am not a fiend even on the links. Now I play because it is relaxation. I like the beach very much, the sea. I go to the films often, to the neighborhood theater, my wife and I. Sometimes we go to the Palladium, where there is dancing. It is an amazing sight to me to see young people, how they are like they were thirty years ago, how they hold hands, how they enjoy their lives. To me, the most beautiful thing in California is the Hollywood Bowl, the Concerts Under the Stars. For me, it is a terrific experience. I have never seen an audience in my life like that. 30,000 people, simple people, most of them, listening to music under the stars. I have never seen 30,000 people, simple people, so quiet. I like to think of them as a symbol that one day there may be that oneness for all mankind....

On 18 June 1918, Veidt married Gussy Holl, a cabaret entertainer. They had first met at a party in March 1918, and Conrad described her to friends as "very lovely, tall, dignified and somewhat aloof". They separated in 1919 but attempted to reconcile multiple times. Holl and Veidt divorced in 1922.

Veidt said of Holl, "She was as perfect as any wife could be. But I had not learnt how to be a proper husband." and, "I was elated by my success in my work, but shattered over my mother's death, and miserable about the way my marriage seemed to be foundering. And one day when my wife was away, I walked out of the house, and out of her life, trying to escape from something I could put no name to."

After his separation and eventual divorce from Holl, Veidt allegedly dated his co-star Anita Berber.

Veidt's second wife Felizitas Radke was from an aristocratic Austrian family. They met at a party in December 1922 or at a Charleston dance competition in 1923. Radke divorced her husband for him, and they married in April 1923. Their daughter, Vera Viola Maria, nicknamed "Kiki", was born on 10 August 1925. He was not present at her birth due to being in Italy working on The Fiddler of Florence, but upon hearing of her birth, he took the first train to Berlin and flailed and wept as he first met mother and child at the hospital; he was so hysterical from joy they had to sedate him and keep him in the hospital overnight.

Emil Jannings was Viola's godfather and Elisabeth Bergner was her godmother. She was named after one of Bergner's signature characters, Shakespeare's Viola. The birth of his daughter helped Veidt move on from the death of his dearly loved mother, who had died of a heart condition in January 1922.

From September 1926 to 1929 Veidt lived with his wife and daughter in a Spanish-style house in Beverly Hills.

Veidt enjoyed relaxing and playing with his daughter in their home, and enjoyed the company of the immigrant community, including F. W. Murnau, Carl Laemmle, and Greta Garbo, as well as the American Gary Cooper. The family returned to Germany in 1929, and moved several times afterwards, including a temporary relocation to Vienna, Austria, while Veidt participated in a theatrical tour of the continent.

Radke and Veidt divorced in 1932, with Radke citing that the frequent relocations and the separations necessitated by Veidt's acting schedule frayed their marriage. Radke at first granted custody of their daughter to Veidt, but after further consideration he decided that their daughter needed the full-time parent that his work would not allow him to be. Conrad received generous visitation rights, and Viola called her summer vacations with her father "The Happy Times". She stayed with him three or four months of the year until the outbreak of World War II.

He last married Ilona "Lilli" Barta Prager (or Preger), a Hungarian Jew, in Berlin on 30 March 1933; they remained together until his death. The two had met at a club in Berlin. Veidt said of Lilli in an October 1934 interview with The Sunday Dispatch,

Lilli was the woman I had been seeking all my life. For her I was the man. In Lilli I found the miracle of a woman who had all to give that I sought, the perfect crystallisation in one lovely human being, of all my years of searching. Lilli had the mother complex too. But in the reverse ratio to mine. In her, the mother instinct was so powerful that she poured it out, indiscriminately almost, on everyone she knew. She mothers her own mother. Meeting Lilli was like coming home to an enchanted place one had always dreamed of, but never thought to reach. For her it was the same. Our marriage is not only flawless, it is a complete and logical union, as inevitable as daybreak after night, as harmonious and right as the words that exactly fit the music. My search is finished. The picture in my mind of my mother is of a woman great and holy. But it is a picture clear and. distinct, a deep and humble memory of a woman no one could replace; but now it is not blurred by the complex which before had harassed my mind.

Veidt and Lilli arrived from London at Los Angeles on 13 June 1940 and resided in Beverly Hills, where they lived at 617 North Camden Drive.

Even after leaving England, Veidt was concerned over the plight of children cooped up in London air raid shelters, and he decided to try to cheer up their holiday. Through his attorneys in London, Veidt donated enough money to purchase 2,000 one-pound tins of candy, 2,000 large packets of chocolate, and 1,000 wrapped envelopes containing presents of British currency. The gifts went to children of needy families in various air raid shelters in the London area during Christmas 1940. The air raid shelter marshal wrote back to Veidt thanking him for the gifts. Noting Veidt's unusual kindness, he stated in his letter to him, "It is significant to note that, as far as is known to me, you are the only member of the Theatrical Profession who had the thought to send Christmas presents to the London children."

Veidt smuggled his parents-in-law from Austria to neutral Switzerland, and in 1935 he managed to get the Nazi government to let his ex-wife Radke and their daughter move to Switzerland. He also offered to help Felizita's mother, Frau Radke, of whom he was fond, leave Germany. However, she declined. A proud, strong-willed woman who was attached to her home country, she declared that "no damned little Austrian Nazi corporal" was going to make her leave her home. She reportedly survived the war, but none of the Veidts ever saw her again.

Veidt was bisexual and a feminist. In a 1941 interview he said,

There are two different kinds of men. There are the men men, what do you call them, the man's man, who likes men around, who prefers to talk with men, who says the female can never be impersonal, who takes the female lightly, as playthings. I do not see a man like that in my mirror. Perhaps, it is because I think the female and the male attract better than two men, that I prefer to talk with females. I do. I find it quite as stimulating and distinctly more comfortable. I have a theory about this – it all goes back to the mother complex. In every woman, the man who looks may find – his mother. The primary source of all his comfort. I think also that females have become too important just to play with. When men say the female cannot discuss impersonally, that is no longer so. When it is said that females cannot be geniuses, that is no longer so, either. The female is different from the male. Because she was born to be a mother. There is no doubt about that. But that does not mean that, in some cases, she is not also born a genius. Not all males are geniuses either. And among females today there are some very fine actresses, very fine; fine doctors, lawyers, even scientists and industrialists. I see no fault in any female when she wears slacks, smokes (unless it is on the street, one thing, the only thing, which I don't like), when she drives a car ... when men say things like "I bet it is a woman driving" if something is wrong with the car ahead – no, no. These are old, worn out prejudices, they do not belong in today.

In the 1930s, Veidt discovered that he had the same heart condition that his mother had died from. The condition was further aggravated by chain smoking, and Veidt took nitroglycerin tablets.

Veidt died of a massive heart attack on 3 April 1943 while playing golf at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles with singer Arthur Fields and his personal physician, Dr. Bergman, who pronounced him dead at the scene. He had suddenly gasped and fallen over after getting to the eighth hole. He was 50 years old. His ex-wife Felizitas and his daughter Viola found out about his death via a radio broadcast in Switzerland.

In 1998, his ashes, along with his wife Lilli's, were placed in a niche of the columbarium at the Golders Green Crematorium in north London.

#conrad veidt #silent era #silent hollywood #silent movie stars #classic hollywood #classic movie stars #golden age of hollywood #1910s movies #1920s hollywood #1930s hollywood #1940s hollywood

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Best War Movies to Watch: A Complete Streaming Guide

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Sadly, the human race has pretty much never not been at war. We remain an ever violent, combative crew. Hopefully one day that’ll change and we’ll enter an era of unprecedented peace. Until then though, we have the movies!

War might be hell, but war flicks can be pretty great at times! Armed combat and all the other various theaters and forms of battle makes for high-octane drama and gripping backdrops. And that’s pretty much exactly what we are looking for out of our drama films.

What follows is a (mostly) comprehensive list of all the war movies available with a streaming subscription on the major streaming services. If you’re interested in paying per movie, options like Amazon, Google Play and YouTube should help broaden the field. Otherwise, scroll below because the films here are all free with a log-in subscription to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or HBO Max.

‘71

Available on: Hulu (US), Amazon Prime Video (UK)

An underrated British thriller from the last decade, ’71 turns “the Troubles” in Ireland into a pseudo-horror movie. At a mere 99 minutes, this is lean, economical filmmaking with a barebones premise about a British solider (Jack O’Connell) who gets separated from his unit during a Belfast riot in 1971—the height of British-Irish tension. His plight to survive the night is riveting filmmaking and a grim look back to still fresh nightmares.

The African Queen

Available on: Amazon Prime Video (purchase only in UK)

An unlikely war movie at first glance, The African Queen is very much the story of two middle-aged people caught up in the chaos of the First World War. It’s also a crackling adventure yarn about autumn romance between a drunken river boat captain (Humphrey Bogart) and a Christian missionary (Katharine Hepburn) who’s brother was just killed by Germans in colonial Africa. Both set out to get down the river, and away from the Germans’ reach, in this charming John Huston classic with still stunning location photography.

The Alamo

Available on: Hulu

As an ironically little remembered version of the Alamo siege from director John Lee Hancock, The Alamo (2004) is still the best film version of these events. With a refreshing eye for historical authenticity instead of Texan mythmaking, the movie unpacks the lives of David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), James Bowie (Jason Patric), and William Travis (Patrick Wilson) with a warts and all approach. It also relays the events of the battle in its actual context at night, and in grim chaos, and gives needed attention to the overlooked contributions of the Tejanos to Texan independence.

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But most significantly, it has a bittersweet soul as expressed in Carter Burwell’s score, which is at its most beautiful when Crockett climbs a parapet to serenade both sides of the battlefield with his fiddle.

A Bridge Too Far

Available on: Netflix (US Only)

The last of its kind, A Bridge Too Far is one of those old-fashioned all-star war epics about World War II that came into vogue between the 1950s and ‘70s. But this nearly all-British production is not about one of the Allies’ greatest triumphs, but rather one of their most disappointing defeats: the failure of Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.

Director Richard Attenborough and screenwriter William Goldman try to squeeze it all in, which will honestly be exhausting to some viewers. For others, seeing a historically accurate (if too lighthearted) rendering of this battle with the likes of Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, and more will be enough.

Casablanca

Available on: HBO Max

Another Bogie movie where the war is adjacent to the central conflict, Casablanca is the best wartime melodrama ever produced. Some even consider it the greatest American movie for that matter. Actually made during the Second World War, there is a great rush of patriotic idealism and anxious uncertainty about its vision of a seedy Moroccan city that is ostensibly under free French rule, but is not-so-secretly being occupied by the Nazis. There everyone goes to Rick’s, a café run by a disillusioned American (Bogart) who sticks his neck out for nobody.

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But Rick must soon pick up the fight again after an old flame named Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) walks into his gin joint, bringing with her a French husband, a freedom fighter who has the Nazis breathing down his neck. All three are going to make some tough choices, as will complicit French police officer Louis (a marvelous Claud Rains) as the forces of World War II finally start pulling.

Cold Mountain

Available on: HBO Max

An attempt at an old fashioned sweeping wartime epic, Cold Mountain still brings modern historical insight to the oft-mythologized Civil War. The film is about several people from North Carolina’s Appalachian region. Like many Confederate soldiers, particularly from NC, Inman (Jude Law) has no slaves and no real reason to fight for the Southern cause. So after hellish battle, he deserts and attempts to make a sprawling trek back home.

Elsewhere, however, his sweetheart Ada (Nicole Kidman) must make hard decisions of her own with the leering eye of the Home Guard peeking over her shoulder, especially as word of Inman’s desertion reaches the mountains. An odyssey of the Civil War from the vantage of the impoverished it rolled over, Cold Mountain is a refreshing melodrama.

Da 5 Bloods

Available on: Netflix

Spike Lee’s latest joint is also one that opened up wounds from the Vietnam War that never really healed. Set more in the 2010s than 1960s, Da 5 Bloods follows four Black veterans who’ve ostensibly returned to Vietnam to find the remains of their fallen brother (Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles). But they’re also here to reclaim gold that was stolen back in ’69.

Something of a heist movie, Lee mixes genres yet never loses sight about the anguish of those who fought in a war, and the legacy it leaves even decades and generations later.

The Dirty Dozen

Available on: HBO Max

Even if you haven’t seen Robert Aldrich’s epic 1967 adventure, the term “dirty dozen” and the basic premise of the movie have found their way into popular culture over the decades and influenced recent movies like Suicide Squad.

A grizzled (as if there’s any other kind) Lee Marvin leads a team of prisoners–including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and more–on a suicide mission during World War II, with full pardons as their reward if they survive. The results are explosive and, at the time of release, controversially violent. They also make for one of the great war movies of the era.

Enemy at the Gates

Available on: Netflix, Amazon (US Only)

Sniper versus sniper; eagle versus eagle. That is the basic appeal of Enemy at the Gates, the rare Hollywood World War II drama where America is not even present. Rather this is a film about the war of attrition between the German and Russian forces at the Battle of Stalingrad, the nightmarish conflict which began turning the tide against the Third Reich. The movie features an all-star cast, including Jude Law, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, and Bob Hoskins, but it’s the chilly environs of hell on earth which make this worthwhile.

Five Came Back

Available on: Netflix

A film told in three parts, Five Came Back tracks the singular, and now fairly astonishing, choices made by five A-list Hollywood directors: John Ford, Frank Capra, George Stevens, John Huston, and William Wyler. They all chose to leave Hollywood either at the peak of their careers, or at the beginning of it, to make films about the Second World War. Each ultimately served as an officer, and several were in the actual thick of combat to capture war footage (and propaganda) for the first time in history. It was a patriotic and revealing choice then and now, and it’s examined with insight by the likes of Mark Harris and Steven Spielberg here.

Flags of Our Fathers

Available on: HBO Max

Not as good as director Clint Eastwood’s companion film told from the Japanese perspective, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers is nonetheless a worthwhile film. A rather skeptical look at the lives of American marines who were turned into an inaccurate legend by the U.S. military when they were photographed raising the American flag above the sands of Iwo Jima, the picture tracks the home lives of soldiers who did their job only too well and were then asked to return home as glorified heroes… and then live an ordinary American life.

The Four Feathers

Available on: HBO Max

One of the great British adventure films of the pre-war era, The Four Feathers is director Zoltan Korda’s sweeping reimagining of the A.E.W. Mason novel. Set during Britain’s colonial wars in Egypt and Sudan during 1882, the film tracks an English officer who only took a commission in the military to honor his family’s ancient war record. However, when the call of war comes, he fears he would not do his duty in battle and resigns his service… so his three friends and even a fiancée give him four white feathers: white for cowardice.

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To redeem himself, he travels to Sudan and helps the British cause while posing as a local. Filmed on actual African locations and in glorious Technicolor at a time when American movies were afraid to leave California, The Four Feathers is a classic (and politically incorrect) throwback.

Gallipoli

Available on: Amazon

Australian filmmaker Peter Weir has directed just 13 films, but probably 10 of them are classics, and this 1981 drama is one of them. A 25-year-old Mel Gibson stars as one of several young men who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They eventually find themselves on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, site of a costly and lengthy battle that ended in defeat, but marked a turning point for Australia’s perception of itself and its place in the world and a seemingly disinterested British Empire. It’s a harrowing tale about the loss of innocence, national character, and the price of war for both.

Glory

Available on: Netflix (US Only)

Arguably the greatest film ever made about the American Civil War, Edward Zwick’s Glory continues to shine like one gallant rush. Based on the lives of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment, the film tracks the hard fight for respect—and freedom—endured by the first African American regiment in U.S. history.

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With a still crackling ensemble that includes Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Andre Braugher, and Denzel Washington in his first Oscar winning role, the movie both mythologizes and humanizes the 54th’s struggle as the American struggle. It also soars with James Horner’s most transcendent and ethereal musical score.

The Great Dictator

Available on: HBO Max

The rare comedy on this list, The Great Dictator was a film of political courage by writer-director-producer-and-star Charlie Chaplin. Filmed in 1940 when much of the world was already at war, but the United States was not, this Hollywood film made a farce out of the hatred and fascism of the Third Reich, with Adolf Hitler being especially skewered.

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In the film, Chaplin plays both a fictional barber and Hitler-like dictator who switch places in a Prince and the Pauper styled mix-up. Chaplin thus makes a still hilarious deconstruction of Hitler’s madness and insecurities at a time when most Hollywood studios chose to pretend there wasn’t a war going on. The film also concludes in one of the greatest anti-war speeches in cinema history.

Hacksaw Ridge

Available on: HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video UK

The rare film that is told in merely two acts, director Mel Gibson’s World War II drama is fairly underrated. The film follows the remarkable true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), an unlikely U.S. Army corporal since he was also a conscientious objector who refused to hold a gun. Nearly court-martialed for his defiance of orders, as a medic Doss insisted he could serve his country well by saving lives on the battlefield. He got his chance at the Battle of Okinawa when he pulled 75 lives out of the carnage, which is captured in grisly detail by Gibson. Likely the bloodiest WWII movie since Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge is also one of the best.

Hamburger Hill

Available on: Amazon Prime Video (US Only)

This 1987 film set during the Vietnam War recounts one specific mission: a 1969 assault by the U.S. Army’s 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles,” on a well-fortified North Vietnamese position near the Laotian border. Dylan McDermott, Don Cheadle, Courtney B. Vance, and Steven Weber all make early career appearances in the film as young soldiers thrust into a situation where victory almost seems more like defeat—as good a metaphor for the Vietnam conflict as any.

Hostiles

Available on: Netflix

Director Scott Cooper did the rare thing with Hostiles: He looked back at American history with nuance and sincere contemplation. This film is ostensibly about a U.S. Cavalry officer on his final mission, which is to escort a family of Native Americans across the last remnants of American frontier. But when that officer (Christian Bale) knows he’s escorting the dying Cheyenne war chief (Wes Studi) who led the doomed side of American Indians in previous conflicts—and alongside a woman (Rosamund Pike) who just lost her family to Indian attacks—the ghosts of America’s sins and recriminations walk with them.

The Hurt Locker

Available on: Hulu, Netflix UK

The film which won Kathryn Bigelow the Oscar for Best Director, The Hurt Locker is the first great movie about the War on Terror in the 21st century. Boiling down the madness of war to being like “a drug” for some soldiers, the film essays the high-stake tension—and adrenaline—of being an officer in the Army’s bomb squad who is responsible for disarming IEDs, bomb vests, and other hidden weapons of death.

It’s terrifying… and exhilarating as personified by Jeremy Renner’s addicted Staff Sgt. William James. Also with a career-making performance by Anthony Mackie and a pseudo-journalistic script by Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker gets under your skin.

Platoon

Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video (US Only)

There were plenty of Vietnam War movies before Oliver Stone’s Platoon, but what shook audiences in 1986 is that this was the first time one was made by a Vietnam veteran. Not that Stone didn’t take liberties: He makes his soldier’s eye view of the generation-defining conflict a fever dream of America’s darkest moments in the shit.

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But his lament for the soldier also brought a renewed sense of sorrow and regret to how veterans were treated in the aftermath. With a heartbreaking supporting performance by Willem Dafoe, whose demise in the film has become iconic, there’s a reason for many this remains the only Vietnam War movie of consequence.

Red Tails

Available on: HBO Max

Here is executive producer George Lucas and director Anthony Hemingway’s well-meaning but so-so aerial war epic about the Tuskegee Airmen. The real-life Black pilots, mechanics, bombardiers, and more made up a segregated flank of African American airmen (as well as flyers from Haiti, Trinidad, and other Caribbean nations) in World War II. This film attempts to honor them with a cast that includes Terrence Howard, David Oyelowo, Nate Parker, and Cuba Gooding Jr.

War Machine

Available on: Netflix

David Michod (Animal Kingdom) wrote and directed this Netflix satire set during the ongoing war in Afghanistan, eight years after the 9/11 attacks. Brad Pitt stars as four-star general Glen McMahon (loosely based on real-life general Stanley McChrystal), whose bleak assessment of the situation on the ground puts him at odds with President Obama and others. Like other less-than-reverent films before it, War Machine is interested in the sheer insanity of war: doing the same thing over and over again while hoping for a different outcome.

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Keegan-Michael Key

Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer.

Key co-created and co-starred alongside Jordan Peele in Comedy Central's sketch series Key & Peele (2012–2015) and co-starred in USA Network's Playing House (2014–2017). He spent six seasons as a cast member on Mad TV (2004–2009) and has made guest appearances on the U.S. version of Whose Line is it Anyway? on The CW. He also appeared alongside Peele in the first season of the FX series Fargo in 2014, and had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation from 2013 to 2015. He hosted the U.S. version of The Planet's Funniest Animals on Animal Planet from 2005 until 2008.

Key has had supporting roles in several films, including Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), Don't Think Twice (2016), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Also in 2015, he appeared at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as the Key & Peele character Luther, President Barack Obama's anger translator. Key and Peele produced and starred in the 2016 action-comedy film Keanu. In 2017, Key made his Broadway debut in Steve Martin's Meteor Shower.

Early life

Key was born in Southfield, Michigan on March 22, 1971, the son of black father Leroy McDuffie and white mother Carrie Herr. He was adopted at a young age by a couple from Detroit, Michael Key and Patricia Walsh, who were both social workers. Like his birth parents, his adoptive parents were also a black man and white woman. Through his biological father, Key had two half-brothers, one of whom was comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie (1962–2011). Key only discovered the existence of his siblings after they had both died.

Key attended the University of Detroit Mercy as an undergraduate, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater in 1993, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in theater at Pennsylvania State University in 1996. While at the University of Detroit Mercy, he was a brother of Phi Kappa Theta.

Career

Mad TV

In 2004, Key joined the cast of Mad TV midway into the ninth season. He and Jordan Peele were cast against each other, but both ended up being picked after demonstrating great comedic chemistry. Key played many characters on the show. One of his most famous characters is "Coach Hines", a high school sports coach who frequently disrupts and threatens students and faculty members. On the penultimate episode of Mad TV, Hines revealed that he is the long-lost heir to the Heinz Ketchup company and only became a Catholic school coach to help delinquent teenagers like Yamanashi (Bobby Lee). During seasons 9 and 10, Key appeared as "Dr. Funkenstein" in blaxploitation parodies, with Peele playing the monster. Key also portrayed various guests on Real **********ing Talk like the strong African Rollo Johnson and blind victim Stevie Wonder Washington. He often goes "backstage" as Eugene Struthers, an ecstatic water-or-flower delivery man who accosts celebrities. There is also "Jovan Muskatelle", a shirtless man with a jheri curl and a shower cap. He interrupts live news broadcasts by a reporter (always played by Ike Barinholtz), annoying him with rapid fire accounts of events that have happened frequently exclaiming "It was crazy as hell!" Celebrities that Key impersonated on the show include Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Roscoe Orman (as his character Gordon from Sesame Street), Matthew Lillard, Bill Cosby, Al Roker, Terrell Owens, Tyler Perry, Keith Richards, Eddie Murphy (as his character James "Thunder" Early from the movie Dreamgirls), Sherman Hemsley (as his character George Jefferson on The Jeffersons), Charles Barkley, Sendhil Ramamurthy (as Mohinder Suresh), Tyson Beckford, Seal (originally played by Peele until Peele left the show at the end of season 13), Sidney Poitier, Lionel Richie, Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant and Jack Haley (as the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz). He also played female celebrities, including Phylicia Rashād, Robin Antin, and Eva Longoria (as Gabrielle Solis on a Desperate Housewives parody).

Key & Peele

Key and his former Mad TV castmate Jordan Peele starred in their own Comedy Central sketch series Key & Peele, which began airing on January 31, 2012 and ran for five seasons until September 9, 2015. Key and his comedy partner Jordan Peele starred in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History, with Key playing Mahatma Gandhi and Peele playing Martin Luther King Jr. The pair returned to Epic Rap Battles of History with the "Muhammad Ali versus Michael Jordan" battle, with Key portraying Jordan.

Key was introduced by President Barack Obama at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner as Luther, Obama's Anger Translator, one of Key's characters from Key & Peele.

Friends from College

Key plays the most prominent male character, Ethan Turner, on the Netflix ensemble comedy Friends from College, about a group of Harvard University graduates and friends now in their late 30s living in New York City. He plays an award-winning fiction writer who is being encouraged to start writing for young adult fiction audiences.

Other work

Key was one of the founders of Hamtramck, Michigan's Planet Ant Theatre, and was a member of the Second City Detroit's mainstage cast before joining the Second City e.t.c. theater in Chicago. Key co-founded the Detroit Creativity Project along with Beth Hagenlocker, Marc Evan Jackson, Margaret Edwartowski, and Larry Joe Campbell. The Detroit Creativity Project teaches students in Detroit improvisation as a way to improve their communication skills. Key performed with The 313, an improv group formed with other members of Second City Hollywood that appears around the country. The 313 is made up primarily of former Detroit residents and named for Detroit's area code. Key also hosted Animal Planet's The Planet's Funniest Animals.

He made a cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "White & Nerdy" with fellow Mad TV co-star Jordan Peele. In 2009, Key hosted GSN's "Big Saturday Night", and has co-starred in Gary Unmarried on CBS. Key was a panelist on the NPR comedy quiz show Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me... on March 27 and July 24, 2010. Key has been in several episodes of Reno 911! as the "Theoretical Criminal".

Key and Peele were featured on the cover and in a series of full-page comic photos illustrating The New York Times Magazine article "Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?" on March 31, 2013. A live-action video version was also featured on the Times' website. Key co-stars in the horror-comedy Hell Baby. Key is one of the rotating "fourth chair" performers in the 2013 revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

In addition to Key & Peele, he also co-starred in the USA Network comedy series Playing House, which began airing in April 2014.

Together with his comedy partner Jordan Peele, Key played an FBI agent in a recurring role in the 2014 FX crime drama Fargo.

Key was involved in audio episodes for the marketing campaign, "Hunt the Truth" on the website for the video game Halo 5: Guardians, voicing a fictional journalist and war photographer named Benjamin Giraud, who investigates the Master Chief's background.

Key has had small supporting roles in numerous films, including 2014's Horrible Bosses 2, Let's Be Cops and the animated The Lego Movie, as well as Pitch Perfect 2 and Tomorrowland in 2015. Key and Peele are currently working with Judd Apatow on a feature-length film for Universal Pictures.

Key is one of several hosts of the podcast Historically Black by American Public Media and The Washington Post.

In the summer of 2017 Key returned to the theatre after what he characterized as a "19-year detour into sketch comedy" for a production of Hamlet at New York's Public Theater, playing Horatio opposite Oscar Isaac in the title role. Key, who is a Shakespearean-trained actor, fulfilled his lifelong dream to play Horatio and received rave reviews for his performance. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney noted that Key's comedic skills were on full display, "...but his ease with the verse and stirring sensitivity [was] a revelation."

Key voice acted in The Star, the animated film based on the Nativity of Jesus. He later went on to voice Ducky in Toy Story 4 and Kamari in The Lion King.

In 2017, Key made his Broadway debut in Steve Martin's comedy Meteor Shower.

Brain Games

Key currently hosts Brain Games on National Geographic

Personal life

Key was married to actress and dialect coach Cynthia Blaise from 1998 until 2017. They were legally separated in November 2015, with Key filing for divorce the following month. He married producer and director Elisa Key (formerly Elisa Pugliese) in New York City on June 8, 2018.

Key is a Christian and has practiced Buddhism, Catholicism, and Evangelicalism in the past. Being biracial has been a source of comedic material for Key, who told Terry Gross in an interview for NPR, "I think the reason Jordan and I became actors is because we did a fair amount of code-switching growing up and still do."

Philanthropy

Key has worked with the Young Storytellers Foundation as an actor for their annual fundraiser alongside Max Greenfield, Jack Black and Judy Greer.

#03/22

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the-fandom-newsletter · 6 years ago

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Fandom Newsletter #4

Today is Friday, the 26th of October, and Welcome back to another Fandom Newsletter!

Writers: Atlas, Blackpurrl, Fyne, YoursTruly Editors: Fyne and YoursTruly

“Oh my God, Karen! You can’t just ask people why they’re white.” ~Mean Girls

Let’s get started!

First to YoursTruly with the Horror, Hannibal, Tim Burton, Animation, and Gaming fandoms--

Horror: Horror fans love the new Halloween movie! The movie has been a massive success among fans young and old! The movie gives off a nostalgic vibe, even referencing the older movies several times throughout the film. However, if you’re going to see this movie, stay until after the credits, there’s a little surprise at the end.

Hannibal: The Fannibals have began trying to bargain with show runner and producer Bryan Fuller for another season. The show left off on a not so satisfying conclusion, and many fans want more. Bryan Fuller has even teased the idea himself quite a few times. Will we get another season one day? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Tim Burton: Disney is offering, throughout the month of October, Halloween themed cruises. They even offer an onboard show featuring Jack Skellington and Sally. And you can even meet these characters for pictures! Now that’s a cruise! Also- The Nightmare Before Christmas celebrates its 25th anniversary this year!

YouTube: YouTube recently crashed worldwide for two hours. YouTube hasn’t said much about the incident, but problems like this are becoming more and more common on YouTube. Many people are wondering what the causes of these issues are.

Animation: Goretober is in full swing! Many animators have been uploading their daily Goretober art.

Gaming: The season of scary game releases is upon us! October is the month where many creators on platforms like Steam and Gamejolt are releasing their horror games in anticipation for Halloween.

Now to Blackpurrl with the Harry Potter and Bands fandoms, along with World News--

Harry Potter: Countdown to Fantastic Beasts: 27 days!

Bands: Did you know, about twelve hours of songs are uploaded to SoundCloud every minute? Insane!

World News: Denmark Shooting for the Digital Stars

Next to Fyne with the Sherlock, Supernatural, and Spooptober fandoms, as well as the weekly positive news--

Sherlock - Ever wonder how our beloved show even came to be? Apparently, for years, writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss took a train to and from Cardiff while working on Doctor Who, and discussed various projects they were interested in doing. One that kept coming up repeatedly was a modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. This reportedly went on for some time (with neither man making any particular effort to get it up and going) until Moffat’s wife, Sue, invited both men out for lunch. Her place of choice just so happened to be the Criterion, a watering hole and eatery in London’s Piccadilly Circus. It just so happens to be the same place where the fictional John Watson (Sherlock’s best friend) first hears of the famed detective. The two men got the hint and began working on the series, bringing us our show that we have today. I think we all owe Sue a little bit of a thank you, don’t you?

Supernatural - Did you notice that (according to Archangel Michael in the episode The Song Remains the Same) Dean and Sam come from the bloodline of Cain and Abel? So is this important? Or is this just another coincidence?

Spooptober - This year is the year that Halloween movie Hocus Pocus reaches its 25th anniversary. The premise of the movie is this: After moving to Salem, Massachusetts, teenager Max Dennison explores an abandoned house with his sister Dani and their new friend, Allison. After dismissing a story Allison says is superstitious, Max accidentally frees a coven of evil witches who used to live in the house. Now, with the help of a magical cat, the kids must steal the witches' book of spells to stop them from becoming immortal.A family favorite movie that almost everyone has seen and that is playing on at least one channel nearly every night of October. If you haven’t seen this iconic movie, you definitely should go channel surfing at some point this month.

Positive News - The words we use to talk about mental health can perpetuate stigmas. A new portrait project featuring people who have mental health issues aims to make us think again about the language we choose.

Lastly to Atlas with the Voltron, Musicals, and Movie fandoms--

Voltron: This fandom is a ticking time bomb set for December 14th. We are all going to die.

Musicals: George Salazar ships Boyf-riends!

Movies: Who else wants a live action Corpse Bride?

Now back to Blackpurrl with the weekly movie review--

Movie Review: Hannibal Rising

This movie relays the story of Hannibal Lecter’s childhood. Although most of the especially gory parts are not on camera, the viewer eventually knows exactly what became of the victim. It provides an interesting plot, and explains why the famous cannibal does what he does. I would not recommend this movie to anyone under thirteen or anyone who cannot handle tragic stories. Overall, I’d give it a 10/10.

And back to Fyne with the weekly trivia fact and quiz--

Trivia Fact - Did you know that the inventor of liquid soap became paralyzed after he slipped in the shower?

Are you an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist?

1. You fail a test. What is your reaction?

A. I'm stupid. I’m going to fail my exams.

B. This was just a blip. I’ll do better next time.

C. The questions were too hard. This is where my abilities stand.

2. You have quit smoking, but you accidentally have a cigarette. Which of the following is your reaction?

A. You have been set back, so you just go right back into the addiction.

B. You have been set back, but you believe you can quit again.

C. You have been set back, so you come up with ways to avoid similar circumstances that led you to the set back.

3. You are shown a picture of a man who isn’t smiling. What do you think this man is feeling/doing?

A. The man is plotting, rude, or experiencing something unpleasant.

B. The man is relaxing, thinking, or did not have enough time to smile.

C. The man is posing for the picture.

4. A close friend of yours sets you up on a blind date. How do you feel about this?

A. You have no clue what your date is like and you are afraid they’re going to set you up with a complete loser.

B. You have faith in their opinion and want to see for yourself what your date is going to be like.

C. You decide to see what your date is like and decide for yourself how well your friend did.

5. You’re a business owner who goes bankrupt. How do you proceed?

A. You see this failure as a sign that you are not meant to be in this business and pursue other options.

B. You see this failure as a lesson and use it to help you further your business in future reference.

C. You see this failure as a sign and choose to make plans to pull yourself out of bankruptcy.

6. You get a raise. How do you feel about it?

A. You don’t understand why you got the raise and you wonder if there is an ulterior motive.

B. You accept the raise happily, glad that your hard work has finally been recognized.

C. Yay! More money!

7. You’re an accountant and today you made a mistake with a number. What is your reaction?

A. You figure out where you went wrong, and then feel horrible about it for a long time afterward, questioning your abilities and worthiness as an accountant.

B. You figure out where you went wrong, fix it, and move forward.

C. You recognize the mistake and move on.

8. You have a bad day. Which of these is you after the day is over?

A. You believe that your life has been full of hardship and negative experiences.

B. You see the bad days as part of your life that help you grow or benefit you in some way.

C. Recognize that you had a bad day, and resolve to try again tomorrow.

9. You are struggling with groceries and someone comes to help you. How do you respond?

A. You become suspicious, tell them that you have nothing to give them, and maybe even yell at them to leave you alone.

B. You thank them and talk about their day or ask them about themselves.

C. You politely say thank you and either accept or decline their help.

10. You go on a vacation. Which of these is you?

A. Complain about everything you do and could potentially do, and eventually wind up not wanting to do anything at all but watch TV in the hotel room.

B. You want to experience as much as the location has to offer, even though you had no plans about what to do.

C. You enjoy the vacation and plan extensively about what you want to do and when.

Mostly A’s: You appear to be a pessimist. Always seeing the bad and negative in everything probably isn’t helping you be any happier or lead a happier life. Try and maybe appreciate things more often.

Mostly B’s: You appear to be an optimist. Always seeing the good and positive is probably helping you be fairly happy, and even leading to a happier life style. Though try not to be too optimistic all the time because it may end up hurting you in the long run.

Mostly C’s: You appear to be a realist. I guess you’re sort of a neutral character. Good for you.

(This isn’t physiologically proven, its literally just a test I made up in my free time so don’t take the results to heart and please do not be offended)

And finally, back to YoursTruly with the weekly book review--

Book Review- The Life Of P.T. Barnum is a fantastic book for anyone who loves a good biography. The book is a wildly entertaining autobiography by P.T. Barnum about his own life, starting from his childhood and following him through all his adventures. All in all, a fantastic book. 10/10

Wish our illustrator and writer Blackpurrl a happy birthday today! Comic is brought to you by our very talented artist, Blackpurrl. That’s all for this week, we’ll see you next week with another Fandom Newsletter!

Signing off,

Atlas, Blackpurrl, Fyne, and YoursTruly

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bbcbreakingnews · 4 years ago

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Stacey Giggs had £10k designer gear stolen while at concert

Stacey Giggs had £10,000 of designer gear stolen from her hotel room while she was at her boyfriend Max George’s concert, a court has heard.

The ex-wife of Ryan Giggs, 41, was at a The Wanted gig at the Abode Hotel in Manchester when she was targeted by the burglar who was a ‘big fan’ of the singer on February 28.

Michael O’Brien, 41, an Irish farmer, swiped Stacey’s Givenchy bag which contained a Rolex watch, an iPad in a Mulberry case, Chanel card holder and Balenciaga purse.

Victims: Stacey Giggs had £10,000 of designer gear stolen from her hotel room while she was at her boyfriend Max George’s concert

Also in the bag were Air Pods, two pairs of Rayban sunglasses and car keys, according to The Sun.

O’Brien, who works with the National Trust, was caught after singer Max posted a CCTV picture of him online, calling him a ‘stalker’.

The thief was a fan of the star and followed the couple back to their hotel room in a bid to get an autograph or a selfie, he claims.

The hotel: The burglar made off with luxury items including a Rolex watch from the couple’s room in The Abode in Manchester

But he ‘lost his bottle’ and instead went to the bar where he waited until the couple left again so he could enter their room.

He claims he was a fan of the singer and only intended to steal Max’s t-shirts and pants, which he then put into the Givenchy bag, not knowing its valuable contents.

After seeing Max’s tweet, he left the bag in the doorway of the hotel but it was never returned to the couple.

Stacey told police: ‘The incident has left me shaken and worried for my safety and that of my children. Some of the property had very personal information on it.’

Horrific: Michael O’Brien, 41, an Irish farmer, swiped Stacey’s Givenchy bag which contained a Rolex watch, an iPad, a Mulberry case, Chanel card holder and Balenciaga purse

None of the items have not been recovered.

O’Brien, from Kilcullen in Kildare, has been sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for a year, at Manchester Crown Court.

He pleaded guilty and must also pay Stacey £10,000 in compensation and £510 in costs.

CCTV showed him entering the room during the break-in which lasted four minutes.

Afterwards, Max put a photo of him on social media and O’Brien then handed himself into a police station the following day.

Shocking: O’Brien, who works with the National Trust, was caught after singer Max (pictured) posted a CCTV picture of him online, calling him a ‘stalker’

Craig MacGregor, prosecuting, said it was a targeted offence.

He said: ‘It seems the defendant was a fan of Max George, broke into his hotel room, stole the singer’s pants and t-shirts and then effectively discarded a Rolex watch and other goods of high monetary and personal worth belonging to Mrs Giggs.’

Defending, lawyer Sarah Magill said he had not intended to steal the valuable items.

Sentencing, Judge Alan Conrad QC told O’Brien: ‘It was disgraceful offence. Stacey Giggs and Max George were entitled when they left their room to feel the room was safe from being violated.’

O’Brien has no previous offences.

The post Stacey Giggs had £10k designer gear stolen while at concert appeared first on BBC BREAKING NEWS.

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automaticpostinfluencer · 5 years ago

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The Mandalorian: Everything we know about Disney Plus Star Wars show

The Mandalorian is the first live action Star Wars show, and it’s getting a second season in fall in 2020.

Lucasfilm / Illustration by CNET

“Mandalorian, look outside, they’re waiting for you.” The wait is over — you can watch the all eight episodes of the first season of Jon Favreau‘s live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian on Disney Plus right now. The show introduced us to the gift that is Baby Yoda (subject of many a fan theory and an onslaught of merch) and may bring a beloved Clone Wars character into live action for the first time in Season 2.

Disney Plus won’t be launching in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Germany until March 24. The first two episodes will be available that day, with the third coming on Friday, March 27. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly, and hit the service at 8 a.m. each Friday.

Now playing: Watch this: First look at the best Baby Yoda toys coming this year

3:49

What we know about season 2?

It’ll start in October 2020, Disney boss Bob Iger (who’s since stepped down) said in a Feb. 4 earnings call. He also mentioned the possibility that some of the show’s characters could go “in their own directions in terms of series” — hinting that we might see some Mandalorian spinoffs down the line.

Rosario Dawson will reportedly play Ahsoka Tano in the second season.

Rich Polk/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Entertainment

On March 20, Slashfilm reported that season 2 will see Ahsoka Tano, former Padawan of the late Anakin Skywalker, make her live action debut. She’ll apparently be played by Rosario Dawson, whom you might remember playing Claire Temple in Netflix’s Marvel shows.

Michael Biehn, who played Kyle Reese in The Terminator and and Corporal Hicks in Aliens, will join the cast as a bounty hunter, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Bill Burr will apparently also reprise his role as gunslinger Mayfield, and principal photography on the season was apparently completed before the coronavirusoutbreak, according to i09.

The day the season 1 finale aired, Favreau mentioned season 2 in a tweet featuring a Gamorrean — the porcine species that served as Jabba the Hutt’s guards in Return of the Jedi. So presumably that race will show up in the next batch of episodes.

CNET CULTURE NEWSLETTER

Movies to music, toys to technology, entertain your brain.

What happened in season 1?

You’re in luck! I wrote detailed recaps of each episode that you can use to catch up:

Chapter 1: The Mandalorian

Chapter 2: The Child

Chapter 3: The Sin

Chapter 4: Sanctuary

Chapter 5: The Gunslinger

Chapter 6: The Prisoner

Chapter 7: The Reckoning

Chapter 8: Redemption

Now playing: Watch this: Your guide to Star Wars lightsaber colors

2:16

Who’s in it?

Pedro Pascal (best known for playing Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones) is the bounty hunter behind the helmet: He’s a lone Mandalorian gunfighter operating in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

Pedro Pascal is the man behind the Mandalorian’s helmet.

Gabriel Maseda/NurPhoto via Getty Images

He’s joined by a star-studded cast, but a couple of these characters didn’t survive season 1:

I dunno about you, but the sight of happy Baby Yoda immediately calms me.

Disney

What’s the deal with Baby Yoda?

This little guy captured everyone’s hearts the moment he appeared in the season premiere, and we’ve got a whole separate guide for him. He’s officially known as The Child — we don’t know his real name, race or home planet, but he can use the Force pretty effectively and the Imperial Remnant wants him.

Oh, and the most detailed version of the puppet apparently cost around $5 million.

Mando walks away from his ship, the Razor Crest, in the show’s poster.

Disney/Lucasfilm

Why isn’t this about the usual Jedi and Sith conflict?

The Star Wars underworld is a very rich storytelling environment, according to executive producer Jon Favreau. He wanted to get back to the tone of the old Western and samurai films that inspired George Lucas, and said the show is Star Wars meets Mad Max.

The Mandalorian is one of four shows set in a galaxy far, far away coming to the Disney Plus streaming service.

The seventh season of The Clone Wars started in February, and the company announced a Rogue One prequel series focusing on rebel spy Cassian Andor in 2018. And Ewan McGregor will return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a brand new show, set to start shooting in 2021.

Now playing: Watch this: We rode Disney’s new Star Wars ride

8:02

Who else is involved?

Directors for the first season:

Favreau, Filoni, Colin Wilson and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy are the executive producers, with Karen Gilchrist as co-executive producer.

The Mandalorian is among the first projects for ILM TV, a division of Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic visual effects company. The show’s soundtrack is composed by Ludwig Göransson, who scored Black Panther, Venom and Creed II. Göransson’s Black Panther score won him a Grammy and an Oscar in 2019.

Is there a bounty of Mandalorian merch for us to hunt?

Merchandise hunting is a complicated hobby, but you know you want it. Three characters from the show are represented in the six-inch Black Series — The Mandalorian himself (along with a shiny carbonized variant), Cara Dune, IG-11, the Heavy Infantry Mandalorian (named Paz Vizla) and the Offworld Jawa. Baby Yoda will join them in spring 2020.

What’s a Mandalorian?

Mandalorians are humans from the Outer Rim world of Mandalore, its moon Concordia and the planet Kalevala, whose story was largely told in The Clone Wars and Rebels.

Sabine Wren (seen wielding the Darksaber) could appear in the show.

Lucasfilm

Their world went through major political upheaval during the Clone Wars and early days of the Galactic Empire’s rule, but many of the clans united under the rule of Bo-Katan Kryze after she took control of the Darksaber. The black-bladed weapon was created more than 1,000 years earlier by Tarre Vizsla (the first Mandalorian to join the Jedi Order) and became a symbol of leadership — it also showed up in The Mandalorian’s season 1 finale.

You probably associate bounty hunters Boba Fett and Jango Fett with the term because they wear the cool armor, but they aren’t true Mandalorians. Jango once claimed to be from Concord Dawn, a Mandalorian world, but the government considered him (and by extension, his cloned son Boba) to be pretenders.

Bounty hunter Boba Fett wears Mandalorian armor, but his status is disputed.

Lucasfilm

Could Boba Fett show up?

Fans have been clamoring for Boba’s return to the Star Wars galaxy despite his fall into the maw of a hungry sarlacc in Return of the Jedi, but there’s been no indication that will happen and he didn’t show up in season 1.

Fans of the Legends material (developed in novels, comics and games prior to 2014) will recall that Boba escaped the sarlacc in that continuity and went on to become the leader of Mandalore in a very different (and non-canon) post-Return of the Jedi galaxy.

In canon, Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy of novels saw Mandalorian armor that’s heavily implied to be Boba’s being recovered from the pit and worn by former slave Cobb Vanth. Using the armor as a symbol of power, he becomes sheriff of Freetown (a settlement on Tatooine) and offers sanctuary to anyone willing to battle the world’s crime syndicates.

We also saw a mysterious person approach assassin Fennec Shand’s body on Tatooine in the final moments of season 1’s fifth episode, but the show hasn’t followed up on that tease yet.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian AT-ST Raider stands tall in Hasbro’s Vintage Collection

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What other stories could they draw from?

Star Wars 1313 was a video game that got shelved when Disney shut down all projects at LucasArts — Lucasfilm’s game development group — in 2013. We saw an impressive demo for Uncharted-style adventure before that, featuring actor Wilson Bethel (who recently hit the target in Daredevil season 3).

It would’ve seen players exploring the bowels of the city planet Coruscant — the title was a reference to its grimy underworld Level 1313 (which later appeared in The Clone Wars).

After it was canceled, we found out that Boba Fett was going to be the star and that Kennedy later agreed the concept art was “unbelievable.”

“So our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold,” she told Slashfilm in 2015. “And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at, pouring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to.”

In that same interview, Kennedy noted that Lucasfilm read through the material Lucas developed for the canceled TV show Star Wars: Underworld, which was announced in 2005 and canned in 2010 due to budget constraints. It was to be set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and would have tied into 1313.

The Mandalorian invades Hasbro’s Star Wars: Black Series action figure line

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irinache · 7 years ago

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Dora Maar

Henriette Theodora Markovitch, pseudonym Dora Maar (November 22, 1907 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris – July 16, 1997 in Paris), was a French photographer, painter, and poet. She was a lover and muse of Pablo Picasso.

Biography Henriette Theodora Markovitch was the only daughter of Joseph Markovitch (1875–1969), a Croatian architect who studied in Zagreb, Vienna, and then Paris where he settled in 1896, and of his spouse, Catholic-raised Louise-Julie Voisin (1877–1942), originally from Cognac, France. In 1910, the family left for Buenos Aires where the father obtained several commissions including for the embassy of Austria-Hungary; His achievements earned him the honor of being decorated by Emperor Francis Joseph I, even though he was "the only architect who did not make a fortune in Buenos Aires. " In 1926, the family returned to Paris. Dora Maar, a pseudonym she chose, took courses at the Central Union of Decorative Arts and the School of Photography. She also enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian[2] which had the advantage of offering the same instruction to women as to men. Dora Maar frequented André Lhote's workshop where she met Henri Cartier-Bresson. While studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, Maar met fellow female surrealist Jacqueline Lamba. About her, Maar said, 'I was closely linked with Jacqueline. She asked me, “where are those famous surrealists?" and I told her about cafe de la Place Blanche.' Jacqueline then began to frequent the cafe where she would eventually meet Andre Breton, whom she would later marry.[3] When the workshop ceased its activities, Dora Maar left Paris, alone, for Barcelona and then London, where she photographed the effects of the economic depression following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in the United States. On her return, and with the help of her father, she opened another workshop at 29 rue d'Astorg, (8th arrondissement of Paris).[4] In 1935 she was introduced to Pablo Picasso and she became his companion and his muse.[5] She took pictures in his studio at the Grands Augustins and tracked the latter stages of his work, Guernica.[5] She later even acted as a model for his piece titled Monument à Apollinaire.

Dora Maar the photographer Maar’s earliest surviving photographs were taken in the early 1920s with a Rolleiflex camera while on a cargo ship going to the Cape Verde Islands.[3] At the beginning of 1930, she set up a photography studio on rue Campagne-Première (14th arrondissement of Paris) with Pierre Kéfer, photographer, and decorator for Jean Epstein's film, The Fall of the House of Usher (1928 French film). In the studio, Maar and Kefer worked together mostly on commercial photography for advertisements and fashion magazines.[3] She met the photographer Brassaï with whom she shared the darkroom in the studio. Brassai once said that she had, “bright eyes and an attentive gaze, a disturbing stare at times.”[3] Dora Maar also met Louis-Victor Emmanuel Sougez, a photographer working for advertising, archeology and artistic director of the newspaper L'Illustration, whom she considered a mentor. In 1932, she had an affair with the filmmaker Louis Chavance. Dora Maar frequented the October group, formed around Jacques Prévert and Max Morise after their break from surrealism. She has her first publication in the magazine Art et Métiers Graphiques in 1932.[6] Her first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie Vanderberg in Paris.[7] After the fascist demonstrations of February 6, 1934, in Paris along with René Lefeuvre, Jacques Soustelle, supported by Simone Weil and Georges Bataille, she signed the tract "Appeal to the struggle" written at the initiative of André Breton. Much of her work is highly influenced by leftist politics of the time, often depicting those who had been thrown into poverty by the depression. She was part of an ultra-leftist association called “masses,” where she first met Georges Bataille,[3] an anti-fascist organization called "The Union of Intellectuals Against Fascism"[8] and a radical collective of left-wing actors and writers called October.[3] She also was involved in many Surrealist groups and often participated in demonstrations, convocations, and cafe conversations. She signed many manifestos including one titled 'when surrealists were right' in august of 1935 which concerned the congress of Paris which had been held in march of that year.[3] In 1935 she took a photo of fashion illustrator and designer Christian Berard that was described by writer and critic Michael Kimmelman as, “wry and mischievous with only his head perceived above the fountain as if he were john the baptist on a silver platter.”[3] At the end of 1935, Dora Maar was hired as a set photographer on Jean Renoir film , The Crime of Monsieur Lange. On this occasion Paul Eluard introduced her to Pablo Picasso.[9] Their liaison would last nearly nine years, without Picasso nevertheless breaking his relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter, mother of his daughter Maya. Dora Maar photographed the successive stages of the creation of Guernica,[10] painted by Picasso in his studio in the rue des Grands-Augustins from May to June 1937; Picasso used these photographs in his creative process. At the same time, she is the principal model of Picasso, who often represents her in tears, she, herself produced several self-portraits entitled: La Femme qui pleure – The Weeping Woman.[11] It is, however, the gelatin silver works of the surrealist period that remain the most sought after by amateurs: Portrait of Ubu (1936), 29 rue d'Astorg, black and white, collages, photomontages or superimpositions.[12][13][14][15] The photo represents the central character in a popular series of plays by Alfred Jarry called Ubu Roi. The work was first shown at the Exposition Surréaliste d’objets at the Galerie Charles Ratton in Paris and at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936. She also participated in Participates in Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, at the MoMA in New York the same year.[16] Maar met Picasso in 1936 at the Cafe des Deux Magots. The story of their first encounter was told by the writer Jean-Paul Crespelle, "the young women serious face, lit up by pale blue eyes which looked all the paler because of her thick eyebrows; a sensitive uneasy face, with light and shade passing alternately over it. She kept driving a small pointed pen-knife between her fingers into the wood of the table. Sometimes she missed and a drop of blood appeared between the roses embroidered on her black gloves... Picasso would ask Dora to give him the gloves and would lock them up in the showcase he kept for his mementos."[3] Her liaison with Picasso who physically abused her and made her fight Marie-Therese Walter for his love[17] ended in 1943, although they met again episodically until 1946. Thus, on March 19, 1944, she played the role of Fat Anguish in the reading at Michel Leiris' place of Picasso' first play, Desire Caught by the Tail, led by Albert Camus. In 1944, through the intermediary of Paul Éluard, Dora Maar met Jacques Lacan, who took care of her nervous breakdown by administering her electroshocks,[18] which were forbidden at the time. Picasso bought her a house in Ménerbes, Vaucluse, where she retired and lived alone. She turned to the Catholic religion, met the painter Nicolas de Stael who lived in the same village and turned to abstract paintings.

Dora Maar the painter The painted works of Dora Maar remained unrecognized until their posthumous sale, organized in 1999, which made the public and professionals discover a very personal production that had never left her studio. Dora Maar abandoned photography for painting alongside leaving Picasso and his influence, or rather the crushing presence of the master, who had imposed on her a cubistic style. Pushed by Picasso to express herself in this style, one can wonder about Picasso's desire to remove his lover from the domain where she excelled, and to constrain her in a painting style which he had long mastered. It is from the painful separation of Picasso that Dora Maar truly became a painter. Tragic figurative works, such as the Portrait of Eluard, or Self-Portrait to The Child of 1946, translate, in dark tones, the pain of post-war years. After years of struggling with depression,[19] Dora Maar confined herself within her own memories. It is between the 1960s and 70s that there was the beginning of a respite when she experimented with abstract formats in shimmering colors. It was in the 1980s, though that the painter expressed herself fully in her many paintings of the Luberon region. Paintings of the landscapes around her house in Ménerbes,[20] showed locations dominated by wind and clouds, strongly revealing the struggle of an artist with the ghosts of her past.[21] Dora Maar was buried in the Bois-Tardieu cemetery in Clamart.[22] Legacy[edit] Although Maar is mostly remembered only as one of Picasso's lovers, there have been many recent exhibits devoted to presenting Maar as an artist in her own right, including exhibitions at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, October 13, 2001 – January 6, 2002; the Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, January 20 – May 4, 2002; and the Centre Cultural Tecla Sala, Barcelona, May 15 – July 15, 2002.[23]

Bibliography Louise Baring: Dora Maar: Paris in the Time of Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, and Picasso, Rizzoli, 2017 Mary Ann Caws: Dora Maar With And Without Picasso: A Biography, Thames & Hudson[24] Mary Ann Caws, Les vies de Dora Maar : Bataille, Picasso et les surréalistes, Paris, Thames & Hudson, 2000, 224 p. (ISBN 2878111850) Georgiana Colvile, Scandaleusement d'elles : trente-quatre femmes surréalistes, Paris, J.-M. Place, 1999 (ISBN 2858934967), p. 179 à 185 James Lord, Picasso and Dora : a personal memoir, 1993 Judi Freeman: Picasso and the weeping women : the years of Marie-Thérèse Walter & Dora Maar Anne Baldassari: Picasso : love and war, 1935–1945 Zoé Valdés : The weeping woman : a novel, 2013 Alicia Dujovne Ortiz: Dora Maar prisonnière du regard, Le Livre de Poche, 2005. ISBN 978-2253114727 Olivia Lahs-Gonzales: Defining eye : women photographers of the 20th century : selections from the Helen Kornblum collection

#Dora Maar #Photographer #painter #poet #literature #Fine Art #French #the 20th century

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latesthollywoodnews · 6 years ago

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Demi Lovato APOLOGIZES After Joking About Prank That Led to Sexual Assault

Jeremy Brown - Latest News - My Hollywood News

Demi Lovato APOLOGIZES After Joking About Prank That Led to Sexual Assault, List Of 2015 Hollywood Films.

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Upcoming Celebrity News 2017, Hollywood Celebrity News 2019, Demi Lovato APOLOGIZES After Joking About Prank That Led to Sexual Assault.

New Hollywood Celebrities Coming Out Celebrity News Ebert all Celebrities of Walt Hollywood Studios Motion Pictures is an American film distributor owned by The Walt Hollywood Company. Established in 1953 as Buena Vista Film Distribution Company, the company handles theatrical distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by the Walt Hollywood Studios, including Walt Hollywood Pictures, Walt Hollywood Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, HollywoodToon Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Hollywoodnature, and Touchstone Pictures. The division took on its current name in late 2007, which before that had been Buena Vista Pictures Distribution since 1987.

What Hollywood Celebrity has both parents alive?

Mulan, Sleeping beauty, Lady and the Tramp, The Incredibles,One Hundred and One Dalmatians,Peter Pan, Brave, The Lion King 2 and Frozen, but their parents die.

How many official Hollywood princesses are there?

As of 2017, the eleven characters considered part of the franchise are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida. The franchise has released dolls, sing-along videos, apparel, home decor, toys, and a variety of other products featuring the Hollywood Princesses.

Who is the president of Hollywoodland?

With Meg’s transition complete, George A. Kalogridis is named president of the Walt Hollywood World Resort, and Michael Colglazier is named president of the Hollywoodland Resort.

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It definitely started as a completely innocent situation. Demi hopped on Twitter after her show on Saturday night and decided to do a Q&A on Twitter with her fans. Everything was harmless with the questions ranging from things like, “are you in love” to her most overused word. It wasn’t until Demi divulged the funniest prank she’s ever pulled that things got a little awkward in the responses section. Demi detailed the prank tweeting QUOTE – “I hired a lady of the night in Vegas and sent her to Max’s hotel room to surprise him. She walked into his room without permission and grabbed him in his ‘area’ and he freaked the f-ck out hahahahaha.” When replies started rolling in of people taking offense to the story, calling it sexual assault, Demi tried to make light of the situation by tweeting – “I swear I could tweet something about craving jelly beans and it would offend someone.” Naturally this only made people more upset. Demi then deleted the tweets and issued an apology saying QUOTE – “For all of those coming at me rn, listen to the lyrics of Warrior and maybe you’ll have more compassion for someone who made a simple mistake. Of all people I know about sexual abuse. You don’t have to educate me. So sorry if anyone was offended.” A fan then replied to Demi’s apology saying – “Baby…we know you and your story.” To which Demi replied – “That’ just the thing… people DON’T know my full story….” Demi’s friend, Max, who the prank story was about came to Demi’s offense saying QUOTE – “You guys all need to ‘Grow Up’! It was a joke and a fun prank from someone whose incredible to work for and with. And does everything she can for her fans, family and friends. Love you @ddlovato.” There was then a mixture of back and forth DemiLovatoIsOverParty hashtags mixed with WeLoveYouDemi hashtags. It’s safe to say that Demi was not trying to glorify sexual assault, but that’s why you have to be so careful with what and how you say things on the internet. Anyway, what do you guys think about this situation? Sound off in the comment section below and then click right over here to find out why Taylor fired her backup dancer. Thanks for watching Clevver Newsfeed also don’t forget to subscribe. I’m your host Drew Dorsey and I’ll see you next time.

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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New Horror and Sci-Fi Movies Break Out at Fantasia Fest

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The Fantasia International Film Festival has been serving up fresh and often visionary new voices in sci-fi, horror and other genres for nearly a quarter of a century, and this year’s 24th edition was no different — except, of course, it was all different.

Fantasia, which under normal circumstances physically takes place in Montreal in mid-summer, went online in 2020 for an all-digital edition that kicked off on August 20 and concluded on September 2. The event was a mix of films that were either available on demand at any time throughout the fest (up until a maximum ticket capacity was reached) or were designated to stream “live,” as it were, on one or two certain dates at specific times (also with a maximum ticket capacity).

Although press from around the world was invited to cover the festival, the entire program was geoblocked to Canadian ticket buyers only — which means that as a fan you would have to live in Canada to watch the festival offerings online (this was due to exhibition and distribution restrictions for other parts of the world). In addition, a handful of films — including The Descent director Neil Marshall’s new one, The Reckoning — were available only to a limited list of select guests.

Whether these kinds of restrictions helped or hindered the festival’s transition to an online format remains to be seen. On the other hand, our experience watching films was flawless, with no buffering or other technical problems during a single screening. That aspect of holding a digital festival was handled perfectly.

Less perfect, to be frank, was our personal experience. Being at a film festival or any large event or conference is like being in a bubble where all you do is focus on what you’re there to do; trying to do the same on your couch or at your kitchen table, with all the distractions of home, family, work and other elements of everyday life was way more challenging.

We didn’t watch as many films as we wanted to, but the highlights only proved that Fantasia’s longstanding reputation as a breeding ground for provocative, groundbreaking new talent will stay intact for this year and beyond.

HBO Max

Class Action Park (USA)

Our favorite film of the fest — which you can see right now if you’re lucky enough to have HBO Max — is this wild look back at a New Jersey water/amusement park where there were no rules, anything could happen and the lunatics (i.e. severely underqualified teenagers) were literally running the asylum. It was all fun and games… until it wasn’t, as the injuries, lawsuits and tragic deaths began to pile up.

The documentary delves into the history of the park, which was hatched by the insane/genial Eugene Mulvihill, the unsafe rides that he developed, the crazy atmosphere of the place and the tragedies that brought it down. But like all great docs, Class Action Park is also about an era — a snapshot of a time (the late ‘80s and early ‘90s) when kids were allowed way more freedom than they are now, with results that one could view as both good and bad. It’s a sobering, thoughtful and, yes, hilarious film. (****½)

The Department of Special Projects

Fried Barry (South Africa)

Think of this as the hard-R version of E.T. A heroin addict named Barry (stuntman Gary Green in an astonishing first-time performance) is airlifted from a Cape Town street into an alien spacecraft, painfully probed and dropped back down — only his body is inhabited by an extra-terrestrial explorer. The next few days are a wild, often gruesome yet oddly poignant journey in which the alien/Barry trips on drugs, dances the night away at a club, is brutally tortured, has sex with multiple women, becomes an instant father, rescues children from a predator and even reconciles with Barry’s own family.

Writer/director Ryan Kruger adapted this from his own short film and, as with several other movies we saw, occasionally has trouble stretching it to feature length. But what could have been a nihilistic mess becomes something alternately funny, shocking and moving, in a story about loss, addiction and love anchored by Green’s fearless performance and Kruger’s gorgeous, stylized direction. (****)

Magnolia

12 Hour Shift (USA)

12 Hour Shift was like a refreshing cool drink after watching some of the darker entries at Fantasia. We haven’t seen Angela Bettis (May) in a few years so she is a welcome and sensational presence as a night nurse in a Texas hospital running a side business in organ harvesting with her supervisor. Chloe Farnworth is equally great as her beyond-dumb cousin who delivers the organs to the gangsters running the black market, while David Arquette shows up as a dim bulb cop-killer who’s stuck in the ER.

Grisly mayhem and gooey twists ensue, and while it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, Bettis’ implacable calm keeps it all grounded and grimly hilarious. Writer/director Brea Grant allows herself a few self-indulgent moments, but overall this is a lot of fun. A faux-bombastic score heightens the humor. Watch for this on October 2 from Magnolia Pictures. (****)

Ben Hozie

PVT CHAT (USA)

From writer/director Ben Hozie (frontman of the band Bodega), this is a smart, erotic psychodrama about who we think people are and who they really are, against the backdrop of live sex chats and relationships via screen (the latter all too relevant in these shelter-in-place times). Peter Vack is great as Jack, who gambles online by day and spends his winnings at night on those aforementioned chats. His object of desire is cam girl Scarlet (Julia Fox, alluring in what was technically her first role before Uncut Gems), who seems to enjoy her work while tentatively exploring a deeper connection with Jack.

Hozie captures a pre-pandemic lower Manhattan vividly, and while the movie evokes an undercurrent of dread it never resorts to the predictable idea of making Jack a straight-up incel. The plot’s turns are clever and true to the characters, who gradually reveal their vulnerabilities and yearnings. It’s a small film, but it says a lot about love, loneliness and sex in the age of virtual life. (****)

Unstable Ground

Clapboard Jungle: Surviving the Independent Film Business (Canada)

Justin McConnell is a Canadian filmmaker who has directed two low-budget features but finds it as hard as ever to get a single one of his next potential projects (his “slate,” as he hopefully calls it) financed and produced. This documentary, which McConnell assembled over five years, charts the ups and downs of his quest while offering insight from dozens of artists — including Guillermo Del Toro, the late George A. Romero, Mick Garris (director, 1994’s The Stand), Larry Fessenden (director, Wendigo), John McNaughton (director, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) and others — about the difficulties of independent filmmaking.

McConnell’s saga is a fascinating one and his resiliency in the face of defeat after defeat is at times inspiring. Some of the film plays like a checklist as he tackles various aspects of the business (to his credit, he even offers a clearly late-breaking section on the even more challenging environment facing women and filmmakers of color), but it’s still a worthy guide for anyone who dares to travel this path. (***½)

RLJE Films/Shudder

The Dark and the Wicked (USA)

Writer/director Bryan Bertino scared the living hell out of audiences back in 2008 with The Strangers, and while his pictures since then are few and far between and somewhat hard to see, his latest will benefit from a release through Shudder later this year.

In the meantime, we can tell you that Bertino has not lost a step when it comes to crafting utterly skin-freezing imagery and sequences. Siblings Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbot Jr.) return to their family’s rural farmhouse to help their mother as their comatose father enters his last days, despite their mother’s entreaties to stay away. Brother and sister learn all too soon that something has come for their family and will not stop.

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Bertino works economically with both his direction and script, sketching in just enough about this family to create the necessary empathy and aided greatly by sterling work from Ireland and Abbot. The atmosphere is thick with dread from start to finish, and the images shocking and nightmarish. If The Dark and the Wicked leaves you with a few more questions than you’d like, that’s okay…this is still a genuinely unsettling watch. (***½)

Film Movement

Lapsis (USA)

Filmmaker Noah Hutton — who wrote, directed, edited and composed the score — sets his full-length feature debut in a sort of alternate universe that’s very similar to ours but sitting perhaps a few more minutes in the future. The excellent Dean Imperial (who has a James Gandolfini vibe about him) stars as delivery man Ray Tincelli, whose ailing brother’s mystery ailment forces Ray to join the gig economy. He becomes a “cabler,” one of a growing legion of freelancers who are literally laying cable across miles of rugged terrain for a quantum computing network that will revolutionize the financial markets.

Everything about the company and tech is enigmatic, as are many of the people that Ray meets along the way, and he discovers that the cabling “medallion” or permit he’s purchased may have previously belonged to an unsavory figure. Lapsis uses its subtle sci-fi trappings to tell a tale about real life, with workers fighting for whatever scraps they can get and wealthy oligarchs literally stringing them along. Lapsis is a slow burn, with a final scene that’s a bit of a head-scratcher, but Hutton has crafted a very distinct, pertinent vision. (***½)

Epic Pictures/Shudder

Lucky (USA)

Brea Grant also wrote and stars in Lucky, an allegory about a self-help author named May who is stalked — every night — by a masked killer who she keeps mortally injuring yet who keeps reappearing. Reality itself begins to fracture around her as she confronts events from her past and begins to realize what is happening to her and the other women in her life.

Lucky stretches a bit too much to sustain itself effectively over its relatively brief 80 minutes, but this is still a movie with vision and guts from director Natasha Kermani. Its central metaphor for the unending assaults faced by women every day is an unquestionably powerful one, driven home by an extended third act sequence in a parking garage that’s hard to shake. Shudder will stream it at a date TBA. (***)

Relic Pictures

Minor Premise (USA)

This intimate sci-fi thriller is steeped in neurophilosophy — and be warned, there’s a lot to keep up with here. Sathya Sridharan stars as Ethan, a brilliant young scientist who’s obsessed with living up to his father’s legacy while forging his own path. He creates a device that maps out memories and emotions in the brain, but his attempt to try it on himself shatters his psyche into 10 different emotional states, each surfacing for six minutes per hour.

Ethan and his ex-girlfriend (Paton Ashbrook), an ambitious researcher herself, try to piece his mind back together while avoiding the states of rage and psychosis that emerge once every cycle. The repetitive nature of the film and some stylistic choices by director and co-writer Eric Schultz drag its pacing down, but the two main performances are strong and the concept is fascinating and at times frightening. Minor Premise is ambitious and cerebral, if a little too dense, and still an intriguing trip. (***)

Global Screen

Sleep (Germany)

A woman (Sandra Huller) plagued with mysterious nightmares begins to piece together the visions she’s having, a puzzle that leads her to a secluded hotel in a small, desolate town in the German countryside. Once there, she has a nervous breakdown, landing her in the hospital and leaving her daughter (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) to discover the dark secrets hidden in the hotel and the town.

A feature debut from director Michael Venus, Sleep is assured in its vision and imagery even if it’s derivative of David Lynch and other practitioners of the macabre. The movie moves at a leisurely pace and Venus transitions seamlessly from reality to dream, but there is a sense of ambiguity at the end that leaves one both unsettled and vaguely unsatisfied. (***)

Hood River Entertainment

The Block Island Sound (USA)

The Block Island Sound, the new film from Kevin and Matthew McManus (Cobra Kai), would actually make a good pairing with The Dark and the Wicked in that they are both about families besieged by forces beyond their understanding. In this case, the Lynch family, who live on Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island, seem to be the target of an assault from above — an attack that is also doing macabre things to the local wildlife.

As with Bryan Bertino’s film, the family patriarch is the first to succumb, while his marine biologist daughter (Michaela McManus) and troubled son (Chris Sheffield) must contend with the fallout. The Block Island Sound has great cinematography, sound design and music, but is hampered by uneven acting and a somewhat undercooked script that shows its cards early and doesn’t really go anywhere from there. (**½)

Rivertop

Monster Seafood Wars (Japan)

A light, trifling satire of kaiju flicks, Monster Seafood Wars plays off the idea that the Japanese people are accustomed to having their cities leveled by giant monsters on a regular basis. Thus the latest siege by a giant octopus, squid and crab is business as usual, with restaurants even obtaining chunks of “monster meat” and serving it up in gourmet dishes as the latest culinary craze.

The film also pokes fun at youth culture, with the film’s three main scientists not just somewhere in their early 20s but sharing a romantic conflict as well. The movie’s kaiju costumes and green screen effects are deliberately cheesy and you’re meant to relax and have fun, but the movie labors hard to be truly funny and not just an oddity. (**½)

Trapdoor Pictures

The Mortuary Collection (USA)

“The world is not made of atoms, it is made of stories.” Too bad the stories in this anthology film don’t live up to those opening lines. Writer/director Ryan Spindell clearly loves the old Amicus portmanteau films, Creepshow, Tales from the Crypt and others, but his beautifully shot and handsomely designed tribute rarely comes off as more than a surface homage.

The framing device stars Clancy Brown (The Flash) in heavy prosthetics as a mortician who welcomes a cynical young woman (Caitlin Custer) into his funeral parlor and shares stories about some recent clients. There is some attempt at atmospherics and lots of gore, but the scares are non-existent and the stories just sort of sputter out without the punchy endings often associated with this subgenre. (**½)

Copperheart Entertainment

Come True (USA)

For Come True, writer/director/editor/cinematographer Anthony Scott Burns has come up with some truly eerie dream imagery, but the story he built around it is tedious and incoherent. Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) desperately craves sleep and participates in a dream study that unleashes…what?

The movie never really fleshes out what is happening, while both its script and characters remain maddeningly vague. Throw in a sketchy love story between the very young Sarah and the lead scientist and it gets even creepier in the wrong ways. A misfire all around that sent us quickly into dreamland. (**)

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fadingfartconnoisseur · 7 years ago

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The Best Halloween Dogs in Hamilton Heights, Harlem

I wasn’t a dog person until I moved to New York. I didn’t grow up with dogs (or any pets larger than a rodent, for that matter), and I never really knew how to interact with them. Spending time on Bali in 2011 and being cornered by barking street dogs on a nightly basis didn’t do anything to warm my heart to them, either.

But something changed. Once I moved to New York, I started fawning over every dog I met. Especially neighborhood dogs. I’m now that person who goes up to a dog and starts talking to it without acknowledging its human. And not just the tiny, fluffy ones. All the dogs. (Also, at one point I dated a guy with a pit bull, and I soon learned that pit bulls can be the sweetest, most loving creatures you can imagine.)

So when my neighborhood running group, the Hamilton Heights Running Group, asked me to photograph their Halloween dog parade and 5K Fun Run, I was happy to help out! Since everyone loves dogs in Halloween costumes, I thought I’d share my favorite photos here. Spoiler alert: they were all good boys and girls.

Wonder Woman was a popular dog costume this year! This is Sally and she was rambunctious!

Oliver the hot dog was cute enough to eat and his human Latoyia went as a chef.

Look at these glamorous ladies — Eddie and Alex.

Hudson the Superdog made the most human-like expressions!

Look at that tongue on Charlie the lobster! That’s his sister Amy the ladybug behind him.

LOOK AT THAT LITTLE FACE! That’s Frog the pug and his human Christopher.

Waddles the dachshund! Look at how cute he is as a tiny pirate!

New friends — Scarlett as Mike from Monsters Inc. and Docco as a cow.

Lily the fluff-ball as King George the Third and her human Michael as our neighborhood’s namesake, Alexander Hamilton! (Yes, Hamilton Heights is named after him. The song “It’s Quiet Uptown” from Hamilton is literally about this neighborhood, back when it was countryside.)

MANGO! (Every time I say Mango, I think of Chris Kattan on SNL.) I have him marked down as “velvety lobster” to differentiate from Charlie the “shiny lobster.”

How scrumptious is Zoe the little sushi dog? And look at those bright orange toenails! (Also, I’m pretty sure my friends GQ Trippin dressed up their baby in the same costume. LOL.)

The minions have taken over! Anyone have a banana for Brooklyn the chihuahua and her human Pam?

LOOK AT THIS GUY’S INSTAGRAM GAME. He knows how to pose like a superstar!

Hi, little Santa baby! This is Max the Yorkie.

There’s something about a grown man being tender with a tiny dog that melts my heart. This is Cody the pumpkin and his human Lex.

I love how pugs look vaguely terrified when they get excited!

Oscar made a very scary mummy!

Star Wars duo! Ella went as an Ewok and her human Sara was Rey.

Little Amy the ladybug knew how to rock a tulle skirt!

It wasn’t hard to win our judges over.

Look at these elegant Egyptian ladies! Boney Maroney and her human Kristin as Cleopatras.

Duck the Wonder Dog enjoyed the view atop her human Amy.

Tater the Taco Dog had his humans Danni and Carinna join him as the best taco stand on St. Nick!

My sister Sarah went as a Zombee (zombie…bee…get it?) so she had to pose with the bee dog and a little bumblebee girl!

And now here are a few of my personal favorite dogs:

Ross! Such an adorable teeny Yorkie. He went as the Gorton’s fisherman. While my neighborhood has a ton of Yorkies, something about Ross just captured my heart.

He even came with props!

MARGE! Isn’t that an awesome bulldog name? AND LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE IS. Even as she’s being eaten by a dinosaur.

Not only that — Marge dressed in matching costumes with her little brother Anson!

I hope they’re always two peas in a pod.

But my favorite costume of all was Rex! “Oh, is she Little Red Riding Hood?” I asked her human. “No, she’s a handmaid,” she told me, showing me the white bonnet. “THAT IS AMAZING!” I exclaimed.

“Blessed be the fruit.”

And you won’t believe who showed up — our congressman! Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s election was one of the joys in an otherwise bleak day last year. Not only is he the first Dominican-American member of Congress, he’s also the first member of Congress who was once an undocumented immigrant. Since his term began, he’s introduced legislation to ban federal funding for Confederate monuments.

He’s from our neighborhood and loves our neighborhood — so of course he came out!

Here are the Halloween dog costume contest winners:

In third place, this lion dog and her fearless tamers!

In second place was the most picture-perfect real-life Snoopy I’ve ever seen!

And in first place — Zoe the dog went as Georgie from It and her human Leny went as Pennywise! Super creepy and just perfect.

This was such a fun event. I was glad to help out my community (the proceeds from the event benefited community organizations) and I loved getting to know more of my neighbors.

I love my neighborhood so much. And while I wrote about it shortly after moving here, I haven’t written much about it since. Why? I like to keep some things in my life private. And just like my love life and my finances, my day-to-day life in my cozy little neighborhood falls into that category as well.

Just know that I am so happy here. I feel like I massively lucked out ending up in a neighborhood that I love so much.

So, after all that gushing, am I going to get a dog of my own? Maybe. In the future. I’m not in that place right now. Even though I’ve massively reduced my travel schedule, I’m still traveling far too often for it to be fair to a dog. Once I get to a place where I’m home nearly all the time, that would be when to start thinking about a pet. The fluffier, the better.

One more shot of Ross before we go. HI ROSS!

READ NEXT: Why I Moved to Harlem Instead of Brooklyn

Which Halloween dog is your favorite? Share away!

The post The Best Halloween Dogs in Hamilton Heights, Harlem appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

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aimeewickland-blog · 7 years ago

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Home Sellers Use Bonus Items to Sweeten the Deal

Bob Stefko for The Wall Street Journal

George and Sandra Valassiswere delighted with the offer they got on their $14.495 million waterfront estate in Florida-until they realized that the buyers were asking for more than the house.

They wanted everything-including the two Bentleys in the garage, said Mr. Valassis, founder of Valassis Communications, a media and marketing company.

His agent saw the bright side. I had to talk them off the ledge and say, 'This is a good thing!' said Michael Costello, a sales associate with Douglas Elliman in Palm Beach, explaining: You're moving into a new place. You are probably not going to need a lot of this furniture anyway. Go through the whole house with Post-it Notes and put them on the things you absolutely want.

In the end, Mr. Valassis sold the seven-bedroom manse for $11.5 million, public records show-and took his Bentleys with him. The Texas buyers, who remain anonymous, acquired most of the home's contents-everything from antique furniture and artwork to the pots and pans-for an additional seven-figure sum.

Two days later I got a call-they were looking for the keys to the jet ski, said Mr. Costello.

Jenna and Pradeep Raju paid $1 million for their Woodstock, Ill., house and another $260,000 for almost all the furnishings, including a vibrant silk Turkish rug in the living room. 'That rug was hard to part with, but we did-it just fit the room so well,' said seller Ken Meyer.

Bob Stefko for The Wall Street Journal

In the world of luxury real estate, multimillion-dollar deals can hinge on throw-ins:broker-speak for covetable itemslike furniture, art or sports cars that prospective buyers want thrown in with the sale. Throw-ins can help lubricate a deal when buyer and seller get stuck on price, real-estate agents say-or provoke an acrimonious tug of war. Deals have fallen apart over drapes, pinball machines and chandeliers.

Many brokers advise their clients to negotiate major add-ons after they have settled on the price for the house, and to do so in a separate transaction to avoid higher property taxes and capital-gains taxes. But in some cases, a well-timed freebie can clinch a deal-or serve as a consolation prize.

I always tell my buyers, 'If you see something you like, let's keep it on a side burner, because if you get stuck on the price this can give you a win,' said Judy Gibbons, a broker associate with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty in Chicago. Like, 'I'll do this price, but to wrap this up today I also want the bar stools.' Or say you have home-inspection issues. You can say, 'You know that tractor you have in the barn? I'll take that and a $500 credit.'

The Rajus' master bedroom. The gold birds were made by street artists in Nepal, and individually mounted on the wall by Cindy Meyer, the previous owner.

Bob Stefko for The Wall Street Journal

Once the contract is signed, buyers may be in a better bargaining position when it comes to acquiring hard-to-move items-saving the seller a call to Dr. Sofa to chop up custom couches and other intractable furnishings. Haggling over window treatments and light fixtures is considered bad form; sellers who want to keep their chandeliers should replace them with new ones before they show the house, said Gary Gold, executive vice president at Hilton & Hyland.

They'll go, 'That's a $30,000 chandelier!' And I'll say, 'Yeah, but this is a $30 million house-what do you expect, something fromHome Depot?' Mr. Gold said.

Buyers sometimes try to sneak their must-haves into the contract. When Sally Slater, a real-estate agent based in Bedford, N.Y., sold a horse farm that she owned with her husband there for $4.9 million five years ago, she was startled to read a last-minute addendum.

The cat was in the contract, she said.

The buyer's children, who stabled their horses there, had fallen in love with Ms. Slater's barn cat, Belly. She was really fat and really sweet and the kids were obsessed with her, said Ms. Slater. But at night she kinda turned into a vampire-in the morning there'd be dead bats and dead birds and chipmunks. She let the buyer have the cat.

Exceptional throw-ins can add value to a listing. When Max Ember, a screenwriter and art collector, decided to sell his classic 1936 home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollywood Hills, he included a slew of unusual artifacts that he had incorporated into the design and landscaping-including a fountain that he says was owned by Eva Peron and metal clouds from Hollywood's famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub.

This 6-foot sculpture, which Mr. Ember says was a prop in 'The Ten Commandments,' was moved from his Hollywood Hills home to his Manhattan penthouse apartment. 'The reason we were able to take her is because she's light,' Mr. Ember said.

Dorothy Hong for The Wall Street Journal

I don't believe in hoarding-you put these things in your home, and sooner or later the home sucks it in, said Mr. Ember, 66, who has homes in Manhattan and New York's Hudson Valley.

Advertised as a quintessential Streamline Moderne, the three-bedroom home with a guesthouse sold for $2.4 million in September-believed to be a record sale for its location, according to listing agent Ben Belack, residential estates director at the Agency. We could go for that aspirational price, because when agents and buyers came in we could say, 'You're not buying a property, you're buying a piece of history,' Mr. Belack said.

Real-estate agents caution overeager sellers against throwing in extraneous luxury items-aRolls-Royceor a Porsche are popular suggestions-to lure buyers to high-price listings. I say, 'The house is $3.3 million-you want to narrow down [potential buyers] to people who also want to buy a $50,000 Porsche?' Why don't you include a nose job, too?' Mr. Gold said.

Alicia and Remberto Del Real bought an 1891 landmark redbrick house in Chicago's historic Wicker Park district for $965,000 in 2015.

Sally Ryan for The Wall Street Journal

When Alicia and Remberto Del Real bought an 1891 landmark redbrick house in Chicago's historic Wicker Park district for $965,000 in 2015, it was filled with antique furniture. The home's previous owner had lived there well into her 90s. After her death, her heirs listed the house and planned to auction all the furniture. But the Del Reals, who have three small children, were smitten with the heavy Victorian dining table, picturing family dinners and holiday celebrations there.

It was a family heirloom-it goes with the house, said Ms. Del Real, 37, a partner in a leadership-development company. It has six chairs, and only one of them has arms-my husband calls it the 'pre-women's suffrage table.'

The heirs sold the Del Reals the entire dining-room suite, including a matching buffet, for just $400. They said she would be so happy that a young family is moving in, said Ms. Del Real.

During a $250,000 home renovation, Ms. Del Real reupholstered the dining-room chairs and hung the original needlepoint seat covers in the entranceway. The baronial dining room table gets plenty of use. Our kids are playing Legos on it right now. It would probably make antiques collectors crazy, said Mr. Del Real, 42, a marketing executive with BMO Harris Bank.

Remberto and Alicia Del Real with 9-month-old Andres, Rafael, 3, and Remberto, 6.S

Sally Ryan for The Wall Street Journal

Sometimes an obscure object of desire can sink a sale. Cindy Meyer, 61, an executive with Denver-based health-care company HealthOne, was willing to sell her Woodstock, Ill., home fully furnished. But she balked when the buyer also demanded her white baby grand-a customYamahapiano with a matching bench.

I can't even put a price on it-for me it's irreplaceable, said Ms. Meyer, who now lives in Arvada, Colo. We went back and forth and back and forth and eventually they did not buy the house.

In February, she and her husband, Ken, sold their house to Pradeep and Jenna Raju for $1 million. The Rajus paid another $260,000 for almost all the furnishings, including a vibrant silk Turkish rug, folk art and decorative ceramics.

It was the easiest move in the world, said Ms. Raju, 29, a physician assistant who is expecting her third child with her husband, a sports-medicine doctor. They have kept almost every room in the house exactly as the Meyers left it-with a few exceptions. A kiddie slide and a play table now claim the spot once held by the baby grand.

I told them from day one-the piano's going with me, Ms. Meyer said.

The post Home Sellers Use Bonus Items to Sweeten the Deal appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.

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trilotechcorp · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on PBA-Live

New Post has been published on http://pba-live.com/why-the-kyrie-irving-trade-makes-sense-for-boston/

Why the Kyrie Irving trade makes sense for Boston

The Cleveland-Boston standoff over Isaiah Thomas’s health also signaled the rest of the league: The bidding for Kyrie Irving is still open.

It looks unlikely the Cleveland Cavaliers will pry a better haul than the Boston Celtics’ standing offer of Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected pick in the 2018 draft — even with Thomas’ status so uncertain due to a lingering hip injury. That may embolden Boston to draw the line at one or two more second-round picks after Cleveland finally asked them Tuesday night for extra compensation.

Boston was forthright about the injury in talks with Cleveland before the teams agreed to a trade on Aug. 22, sources say, but Cleveland’s doctors may come to a different conclusion about Thomas’ prognosis for the coming season — the last before LeBron James enters free agency as a flight risk again.

If recovery from various hip ailments, including a bone bruise, does not proceed smoothly, there is at least a slight chance Thomas would miss most of the 2017-18 season, sources say. (Thomas disagrees.)

That is the risk for Boston if this deal is voided, the source of whatever leverage the Cavs have in spite of their broken relationship with Irving: If Thomas can’t go, who is playing point guard for a Boston team that wants to win 55 games next season? Boston is confident it can get by with more playmaking from Gordon Hayward and Al Horford, and better point guard defense from Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart. But the offense would take a hit on some nights.

Whether LeBron and his people like it or not, this deal for the Cavs was always about that Brooklyn pick. From the moment Irving made his trade request, Cleveland’s No. 1 goal was a package centered around a blue-chip prospect or the rare pick that represented a guaranteed chance at one. They wanted a veteran ready to help LeBron now, but a blue-chipper was the priority. Landing that and a veteran who could replicate Irving’s secondary scoring would be a teensy needle to thread.

It’s easy to say LeBron is Cleveland’s point guard, and dismiss the need for anyone else who can dribble and pass. But LeBron needs a second star to soak up some of the creative burden. Any superstar who wants to play in June needs that. Derrick Rose is not the answer.

The Milwaukee Bucks lurk on the fringes of the Irving bidding with an offer centered around Malcolm Brogdon, the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, and Khris Middleton, sources say. The Bucks have not yet put a first-round pick on the table, sources say, but the bet here is that they would to get the deal done — or if Irving showed any interest in staying in Milwaukee long-term.

Brogdon and Middleton are good. They can shoot 3-pointers, and switch across multiple positions on defense. They are tailor-made to help the Cavs mimic the Golden State Warriors, the only team LeBron really cares about right now.

They each provide some secondary ball-handling around Giannis Antetokounmpo. They do fine with that stuff in the regular season against most teams; Brogdon is a point guard by trade, and Middleton can post up mismatches and run nifty pick-and-rolls on the left wing. But compared to Irving, they are almost 3-and-D guys. It is a lot to ask of them to create consistent, efficient offense against elite postseason defenses.

A pick from the Bucks, an almost certain playoff team in the junior varsity conference, carries no blue-chip equity.

An unprotected pick from Phoenix would, but bad teams a half-decade away from relevance don’t deal picks for stars who make them slightly less bad before bolting in free agency. Other likely lottery teams — Sacramento, Atlanta, Indiana, Chicago — don’t appear to have made offers.

Denver was the one team in the sweet spot to go all-in with an offer of Wilson Chandler, Jamal Murray (the blue-chipper), and at least one first-round pick. They are at little risk of coughing up a top-10 pick, with a need at point guard and a roster that generally fits Irving’s aging curve.

Denver never ventured nearly that far. There are obvious reasons for their reluctance: Irving’s free agency in 2019, the Warriors, the challenge of building a defense book-ended by Irving and Nikola Jokic, the expense of an Irving-Jokic-Gary Harris core. (Jokic’s defensive deficiencies have been overstated.) Cleveland may have concluded that package didn’t bring LeBron enough present-day help. But unless Irving’s representatives made it clear he would not stay in Denver long-term, the Nuggets might be the one team who should have thought harder about challenging Boston.

Phoenix was never moving Josh Jackson, and there is minimal Irving buzz around them now. Minnesota stands as a wild card until Andrew Wiggins signs the five-year max offer reportedly in front of him.

The Nets pick has been the single best asset available to Cleveland, even with a few other teams poised to jostle with them at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. So far, it has not been close. That is why the critical consensus pricked Danny Ainge, Boston’s GM, in the wake of the trade. The same team that pussy-footed around Paul George and Jimmy Butler blew away the market for Irving. One GM told me Irving would have to become a top-10 player to equal the value of what Boston sent out.

But how are the Celtics getting Irving without including the Nets pick or the Lakers/Kings pick it snagged from the Sixers? Their own picks are too low to matter in deals of this magnitude. They weren’t trading Jayson Tatum. They own nice protected 2019 first-rounders from the Clippers and Grizzlies, but there is too much uncertainty about where they might land — and when they might change hands — for Cleveland to value them as blue-chip material.

There is no Irving in Boston without the Nets pick. Any criticism of Ainge for overpaying amounts to this: Did he fight hard enough to slap top-two or just top-one protection on the Nets pick? If he didn’t, it’s likely because both teams understood the severity of Thomas’ injury.

Haggling can also be risky in time-sensitive auction-style deals. Trade talks aren’t as clean or predictable as we imagine. Personality clashes cloud things. Rivals miscommunicate, or misunderstand each other in the heat of the moment. Pull back one part of your offer, and another team might bump theirs up and steal the player you covet. Teams sometimes accept a little less from one suitor to avoid trading a valuable player to a top rival bidding more.

The “why not Butler and George?” questions are dicier. Timing played a part. Boston wanted two All-Star-level building blocks. They feared flipping their golden trade chip for the first one, whiffing on the second, and ending up having squandered their best asset to build a team that wasn’t appreciably better than their previous iteration of LeBron roadkill.

They preferred signing the first one — Hayward — in free agency, and then jumping headlong into the trade market. They may well have Paul George now had the Pacers waited another 10 days, but Boston was concerned George would leave for the Lakers in a year. Irving’s deal runs one season longer, and he has already relayed an enthusiasm for playing in Boston.

The Celtics had some concerns over how Hayward and Butler would mesh, both on the court and as personalities, sources say.

And then there is perhaps the most important variable: Irving is just 25, two years younger than George, and two-and-a-half years younger than Butler. When you’re building around Tatum and Jaylen Brown, those two-plus years are crucial. Irving is just entering his prime. Boston wants to push LeBron now, and maybe make the NBA Finals if he goes west, but they really want to be the team of 2020 and beyond. Irving fits that timetable better, provided he can stay healthy.

We all know the warts: Irving plays no defense, he’s a chucker, and Cleveland has been a disaster whenever Irving has had to play without James. As our Adrian Wojnarowski reported, teams have long had concerns about his night life. He does not profile as the best player on a championship team.

That was the bigger-picture concern among Boston pessimists in the wake of the Irving deal: If all the hoarding and dealing in the end nets Horford, Hayward, Irving, Tatum, Brown, and one more interesting prospect, did Boston accomplish enough with those picks? Where is the no-brainer franchise superstar — the best player on a title team?

Here are the Best Players On Title Teams since 1991: Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Pick-A-Piston, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, LeBron James, maybe Kawhi Leonard (2014 Spurs), Stephen Curry, and maybe Kevin Durant.

Exactly one of those non-Pistons was traded in the prime of his career, and played the role of best guy on a championship team after the trade: Garnett. Even with Ainge’s borderline unprecedented trove, meeting that standard in a trade was a long shot.

If this deal goes through, Boston still may have the most trade equity in the league: two recent top-three picks, a potential top-five pick from the Lakers or Kings, and the 2019 picks from the Clippers and Grizzlies. (That Memphis pick, just top-eight protected in 2019 and top-six protected the next year, is really spicy.) Who can compete with that? The Sixers could, but they should chase a playoff spot this season, potentially devaluing their own picks. The Suns could, but they’re so far away that packaging a ton of future assets for one superstar doesn’t make as much sense as it does for Philly or Boston.

If Anthony Davis becomes available — and the Celtics’ eyes are very much trained on him — Boston could throw together a package more compelling than just about anyone else’s. Irving would be an indirect part of that package. The NBA’s superstar class respects his ballsy showman’s game. (Ainge has long liked Irving more than most of his peers for some of the same reasons, sources say.) Beyond Davis, it’s hard to pinpoint the next star players who might become available at Irving’s age and merit a motherlode offer — another reason to target Irving now.

More to the point, Irving has a chance to become a foundational offensive superstar. He can hit pull-up 3s off the pick-and-roll, and Brad Stevens would encourage him to shoot more of them; he launched “just” 3.5 of those suckers per game last season, a hair below Mike Conley and Chris Paul. That number should be higher, even though Irving’s accuracy on those shots — the toughest shots in basketball — has fluctuated wildly year-to-year.

Author: Zach Lowe Full Article: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20501557/zach-lowe-celtics-cavaliers-kyrie-irving-isaiah-thomas-trade-nba

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othersportsnews-blog · 7 years ago

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Schoenfield: Your total tutorial to MLB's All-Star 7 days - SweetSpot

New Post has been published on https://othersportsnews.com/schoenfield-your-total-tutorial-to-mlbs-all-star-7-days-sweetspot/

Schoenfield: Your total tutorial to MLB's All-Star 7 days - SweetSpot

Welcome to All-Star festivities in Miami, where it’s ninety levels with 854 percent humidity. Here’s a rundown of the three times of baseball at Marlins Park.

Sunday: Futures Recreation Time: 4 p.m. ET (MLB Network) 2016 MVP: Yoan Moncada (Pink Sox)

Gamers to enjoy: 2B Moncada (White Sox) RHP Michael Kopech (White Sox) SS Amed Rosario, Mets OF Eloy Jimenez (Cubs) 3B Rafael Devers (Pink Sox) 3B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays) SS Bo Bichette (Blue Jays) C Francisco Mejia (Indians) OF Kyle Tucker (Astros).

Past year’s Futures Recreation was ripe with significant-league-completely ready talent as fellas like Gary Sanchez, Andrew Benintendi, Alex Bregman, Dansby Swanson and Alex Reyes were soon in the majors and producing contributions down the extend.

Yoan Moncada, the Futures Recreation MVP in 2016 as a member of the Pink Sox group, returns as a member of the White Sox group. Jamie Squire/Getty Pictures

Moncada took MVP honors with a go-forward residence run in the eighth inning, and he’s back … but with a new group. He and Kopech went to the White Sox in the Chris Sale deal. Moncada remains a single of the top prospective clients in the minors and really should be up soon immediately after the All-Star break, even nevertheless he hasn’t dominated Triple-A. He’s hitting .278 with a .378 OBP and 11 residence runs but has struck out 93 periods in seventy two games.

When: July nine-11 Wherever: Marlins Park, Miami

Sunday: Futures Recreation rosters Monday: Residence Run Derby bracket Tuesday: All-Star Recreation rosters

Examine more: MLB All-Star protection

Two of the youngest players in the game are a pair of Blue Jays, both of those sons of former significant leaguers. Younger Vlad Guerrero Jr. has a swing that resembles his dad’s and at age 18 has developed into a single of the game’s top hitting prospective clients. He has just been promoted from minimal-A to higher-A, immediately after hitting .316 with seven residence runs, 21 doubles and more walks than strikeouts for Lansing. That is correct: He has his dad’s swing, but substantially far better plate self-control.

Bichette, son of Dante, was a 2nd-round pick in 2016 and has exploded this time as a 19-calendar year-aged teammate of Guerrero’s at Lansing. He’s hitting .384 — he was at .400 until eventually a the latest slump — with 10 residence runs and 32 doubles. Everybody calls his swing unorthodox, but it operates. Although he’s unlikely to adhere at shortstop long-time period, he is more athletic than his father.

The player to enjoy who could make an effects down the extend in the majors is Devers. The Pink Sox have the worst creation at 3rd foundation in MLB, and Devers is hitting .300/.369/.575 with 18 residence runs at Double-A Portland. He’s only 20, so you can realize the want not to hurry, but you surprise if the Pink Sox abide by the Benintendi monitor below, skipping Triple-A and promoting Devers to the majors someday in August.

Monday: Residence Run Derby Time: 8 p.m. ET (ESPN) 2016 winner: Giancarlo Stanton (Miami Marlins)

Participants: Stanton Justin Bour (Marlins) Aaron Decide (Yankees) Gary Sanchez (Yankees) Cody Bellinger (Dodgers) Miguel Sano (Twins) Mike Moustakas (Royals) Charlie Blackmon (Rockies).

Logan Morrison isn’t below, but this is a single of the most intriguing Residence Run Derby fields in a long time, highlighted by rookies Decide and Bellinger, additionally Stanton. The hometown fans will also get to cheer on Bour, who faces Decide in the very first round.

Can Stanton repeat his dominant functionality from Petco Park? He not only experienced the 10 longest residence runs of the contest as he belted sixty one about three rounds, but he experienced the 20 hardest-strike residence runs. There’s a new significant person on the block, on the other hand, and Decide will definitely give him a run for distance and exit velocity.

Hold an eye on the left-handers, on the other hand: Marlins Park is a small more generous to lefty hitters (at the very least dependent on frequent-time residence run components), so it’s possible Bellinger, Bour, Moustakas or Blackmon will be the shock winner.

Oh, appear on, who are we kidding: It is heading to be Stanton compared to Decide in the finals and Stanton is heading to get a Todd Frazier-like strengthen from the residence fans and get residence his 2nd title in a row.

Tuesday: 88th All-Star Recreation Time: seven:30 p.m. ET (Fox) 2016 MVP: Eric Hosmer (Kansas Town Royals)

As Aaron Decide and Jose Altuve clearly show, All-Stars appear in all styles and sizes. Bob Levey/Getty Pictures

Gamers to enjoy: OF Decide OF Bellinger SS Carlos Correa, 2B Jose Altuve, OF George Springer (Astros) OF Bryce Harper and RHP Max Scherzer (Nationals) LHP Chris Sale (Pink Sox).

The significant alter for 2017: The game no lengthier counts. For the very first time in 15 a long time, the All-Star Recreation winner won’t figure out residence-area benefit in the Planet Collection … although the Indians even now missing Recreation seven at residence previous time in spite of Hosmer’s heroics. Residence-area benefit will now go to the pennant winner with the far better document.

The largest trouble with the notion was not so substantially the notion alone — it was not genuinely any worse than the aged rule of alternating from league to league just about every time — but that the professionals even now did not manage to get. Their principal precedence remained finding absolutely everyone into the game, so previous year’s essential minute came in the eighth inning with the bases loaded, when Will Harris changed Andrew Miller and struck out Aledmys Diaz, who was pinch-hitting for Corey Seager.

Now that “This time it counts” no lengthier exists … effectively, I type of pass up it! In concept, the game mattered, even if it was an exhibition. Now, it’s just an exhibition game the significant stars will get two at-bats and be changed by a bunch of fellas from poor groups. Then once more, it’s possible it’s a very good factor we won’t get Pat Neshek pitching to Avisail Garcia with residence-area benefit on the line.

In any case, Decide is no question the male of the minute, and let us hope he faces Scherzer at some level in the top electricity-compared to-electricity showdown. Sad to say, Mike Trout is wounded, Clayton Kershaw won’t pitch mainly because he’ll begin Sunday, and Miguel Cabrera did not make the American League roster. The AL will also not have Corey Kluber, Yu Darvish and Michael Fulmer, three of its top starters, as they are all because of to pitch Sunday as effectively.

All eyes will be on Decide and Harper, the two top vote-getters. It will be entertaining to see the three Astros in the starting off lineup, with Correa and Springer producing their All-Star debuts. Marlins fans will get to cheer for Stanton and Marcell Ozuna. We’ll pass up Indians supervisor Terry Francona, who will never be in the American League dugout for the game as he recovers from a coronary heart technique (he’ll rejoin his club immediately after the break). I’m certain Brad Mills, filling in for Francona, and Countrywide League supervisor Joe Maddon would love to get the ball to Craig Kimbrel of the Pink Sox and Kenley Jansen of the Dodgers, respectively, with a guide in the ninth inning. (That could also be a preview of Planet Collection closers.)

So take pleasure in the festivities — three times when we’re reminded of all the awesome talent in this game.

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jazzworldquest-blog · 7 years ago

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USA: To Commemorate Keystone Korner's 45th Anniversary, Producer Todd Barkan Hosts 3 All-Star Bay Area Shows July 7-8

Keystone Korner's 45th Anniversary To Be Marked July 7-8 By 3 Bay Area Shows Hosted by Former Keystone Proprietor Todd Barkan

Charles McPherson, Gary Bartz, Azar Lawrence Among Those in the All-Star Lineup Set for Performances in Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, & San Francisco

May 26, 2017

The great pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams referred to Keystone Korner as "the Birdland of the Seventies." Art Blakey, Miles Davis, and Stan Getz all agreed that Keystone Korner was "the best jazz club in the world." Producer and former Keystone proprietor Todd Barkan feels strongly that "the club most definitely had a transformational effect on the jazz scene of its day. The consistent inspiration and intensity of the classic live recordings made there continue to provide a living legacy we can all be proud of."

On Friday and Saturday, July 7 and 8, Barkan will host an all-star Bay Area Celebration of the 45th Anniversary of the iconic North Beach jazz club Keystone Korner in Santa Cruz (Kuumbwa Jazz Center), Half Moon Bay (Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society), and San Francisco (Pier 23 Café).

Charles McPherson, Gary Bartz (pictured left), Azar Lawrence, Benito Gonzalez, Mel Martin, Denny Zeitlin, Ray Drummond, Kenneth Nash, Juini Booth, Calvin Keys, singer Kenny Washington, Akira Tana, and Atsuko Hashimoto are among the artists who will be featured during the three performances.

Photographers Brian McMillen, Tom Copi, and Kathy Sloane are preparing a special Keystone Korner slide show to be enjoyed at all three venues.

"Keystone Korner was a place that I really liked to play, especially because it was a real jazz club operated by a clubowner who actually loved the music," remembers the legendary saxophonist Charles McPherson (right). "It makes all the difference in the world in terms of setting the proper tone, vibe, and intimate and relaxed relationship between the musicians and the audience." McPherson worked regularly at the Keystone during its storied eleven-year run (1972-1983) and headlined its final week from July 6-11, 1983, along with the George Cables Trio.

"It's all about remarkable crossings," reflects bassist Ray Drummond, who played an integral role in opening the new North Beach jazz club on July 7-8, 1972, as an anchor of the Michael White Quartet with Ed Kelly and Kenneth Nash. "I met Susan, my wife of over 44 years, there. Keystone Korner was -- much like Bradley's back in New York City -- an absolutely indispensable part of the true jazz community. All kinds of musicians from all over the world looked forward to playing there. A very magical time and place, a big part of my life in this music."

As a 25-year-old piano player, Todd Barkan (left) tried in late June 1972 to get a gig at the original Keystone Korner for the Latin jazz band he was working with at the time, Kwane & The Kwan-ditos. Then-clubowner Freddy Herrera told him that "I really don't think your group will work for this room, but I am trying to sell this little joint and buy a much bigger rock venue in Berkeley. Why don't you buy this place so you can hire your own band?"

Barkan recalls that "I only had a little over $8,000 to my name at that time, but, to make a long story much shorter, I wound up buying the club for $5,000 down plus $400 a month until the total of $12,500 plus interest was paid off. It cost another $750 to transfer the beer license to my name. Two major benefit concerts at the Oakland Paramount Theater later -- first with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones, then with the bands of George Benson and Grover Washington, Jr. -- and we managed to buy a hard liquor license and a little full-service kitchen with which we could well serve all ages of jazz lovers."

From its humble origins as a rock 'n' blues bar serving keg beer next to a police station, Keystone Korner became a home away from home for a full spectrum of creative jazz players ranging from Bobby Hutcherson, Woody Shaw, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, Randy Weston, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, George Benson, Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt, Jack DeJohnette, McCoy Tyner, Azar Lawrence, Illinois Jacquet, Betty Carter, Stan Getz, Horace Silver, Pat Martino, Jimmy Smith, Eddie Harris, Joe Henderson, Mongo Santamaria, Les McCann, Grover Washington Jr., Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Phil Woods, George Coleman, Billy Higgins, Esther Phillips, Tete Montoliu, Flora Purim & Airto, and Toots Thielemans, to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gary Bartz & NTU Troop, Tony Williams Lifetime, John Abercrombie, Lonnie Liston Smith, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Henry Threadgill, Arthur Blythe, Sun Ra, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.

"The fact that I was able to share so many bright moments with the Bay Area's jazz community is one of the most wonderful blessings of my life in this music," Barkan continues. "I could not any more deeply appreciate the generous opportunity that Tim Jackson, Barbara Douglas Richling, and Flicka McGurrin and all the participating artists are providing for me to try and share a bit more with one of the best audiences that ever graced our music."

Friday, July 7, 7:00 pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center

320 Cedar Street, Santa Cruz

831-427-2227

Tickets: $30/35

Saturday, July 8, 2:00 pm, Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society

311 Mirada Drive, Half Moon Bay

650-726-4143

Advance: Adults $45/35, Students $25 (25 & under with ID) Door: Adults $50, Students $30

Saturday, July 8, 7:00-11:00 pm, Pier 23 Cafe

On the Embarcadero at the foot of Greenwich, San Francisco

415-362-5125

No advance tickets / $10 cover charge

Keystone Korner Slide Show with "Rhythm-a-ning" performed at Keystone (1976) by Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, Bobby Hutcherson, & George Cables.

Interview with Todd Barkan by Sylvia Levine Leitch for JazzTimes.

Media Contact:

Terri Hinte [email protected] 510-234-8781

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2rqxjl2

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