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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
John Lennon - not used in vain...I hope
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Poetry slam to move you...
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Is there a shift coming?
My questions to you:
What will fill the vacuum created by this failed right wing, theocratic, war-mongering regime?
Will the Democrats find balls and spines?
Will the world community respect the U.S. again?
Will real security be attained without the loss of human rights?
Will there be a hopeful optimism based on humanity's commonalities rather than divisiveness and fear?
What do you think?
Thursday, May 10, 2007
My Generation - BABY!!
(Information from Lindsay) A group of very elderly singers, mostly all over 90 years including the lead, who have accumulated 3,000 years of life's experience, rocking along to my "My Generation". The purpose was to illustrate the isolation of the elderly in England. All proceeds donated to furthering assistance in that area.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
My friend Aspen - sweet music
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
On The Road - 2007 from New Zealand
In the Invisible Van
In the invisible van
making wrong turns and eating junkfood
The moon illuminates angel's wings in the clouds
and once again I am learning to let go
The coast approaches midday
and we drive, and sleep, and smile, and sing, and dance
with the Cat Empire on the radio and the clouds passing overheard
like mountains of mashed potatoes on God's deep blue plate
Bless us with air in our lungs and in our tires,
Bless us with kisses blown to the wind because real women are queens and real men are kings,
Bless us with your smiles and tears, your wisdoms and fears, your dreams and
your years, here ye! and Cheers!
Bless us with curses when you stub your toe, or drop a bucket of nails, or
spill milk on the cloudy carpets of heaven,
Bless us and let us drive on, float on, soar on, turn on, and burn on the
wings of the sun, always having fun,
Bless us, confess us, profess us, collect us, respect us, undress us, Big
ups, and Best ofs!
Bless us and breathe in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out and
The Invisible Van
arriving and departing simultaneously
Like it's passengers, thoughts, lives, waves in the sea, and sounds all
synchronized in this moment
over and over and over again
The Invisible Van
full of smoke and mirrors that are as clear as illusion
Like a golden sea under a blue sun,
if it's stuck then unglue it
We are nothing but light
and the colours shining through it


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Friend's Email:
Subject: I have found a DVD that I think you would enjoy
Actors: Clive Owen, Nick Reding, Nicholas Ball, Alexander Morton, Barnaby Kay
Director: Mike Hodges
Genres: Indie & Art House, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
UR 2004 1hr 34min
All bets are off in London's gambling world when struggling writer Jack Manfred (Gosford Park's Clive Owen) accepts his father's offer of a job as a croupier, out the cards of fate and fortune each night to casino patrons.... more »
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Intrigue, mystery, action, and great character study
Linda Linguvic | New York City | 10/17/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This hard boiled British film noir about a croupier in a London casino is destined to become a classic. With his slicked-back black hair and striking good looks, Clive Owen brings a cool, cynical, self-confident elegance to his role as Jack Manfred, a croupier (dealer) in a London casino. He's writing a novel and has been recommended to the job by his father, a South African gambler, who has raised Jack to know all the tricks of the trade. Jack has nothing but contempt for the gamblers who come to the casino to lose each night and expresses his hatred for cheaters. He, himself, takes pride in the fact that he never gambles, but as the plot moves forward, the audience watches him rationalize his own actions in regard to his relationships which pull him deeper and deeper into his own kind of gamble.Three women play key roles in his life. There is his live-in girlfriend (Gina McKee) who works as a store detective. There is a fellow dealer (Kate Hardie an ex-prostitute and druggie. And, most importantly, there is Alex Kingston (the actress who plays Dr. Corday on ER) in the role as the femme fatale. There is intrigue, mystery, action, a great plot and -- most of all -- a wonderful character study as Jack starts to see himself as a character in his own novel and shares his own internal monologue through the discrete and effective use of voiceovers. Yes. As in other films of this type there are a few details of the plot that are never fully explained. And some of the British dialogue was a little too fast for my American ears. But the casino scenes sparkled, romantic scenes eluded sexual chemistry, and somehow I found myself identifying with Jack and all the workings of his mind. And, like other films in this genre, nothing is quite what it seems. Highly recommended."
Don't buy this DVD
Wild Rice | Austin, Texas USA | 02/15/2003
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I am a Clive Owen fan and first saw Croupier in the theatre when it was released and I have been eager to own a copy on DVD ever since. I just bought the DVD listed above and to my complete disgust, this version of Croupier has been both edited for content and formatted to fit the television screen. The content editing is so severe that it leaves the story without a plausable ending. I was so disappointed because Croupier is indeed a five star story and I had waited some time to get this film on DVD only to feel utterly .... DO NOT BUY THIS DVD...you will be sorely disappointed."
Clive Owen's debut finally re-released in the US!
lea210 | San Luis Obispo, CA | 01/19/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've been looking for a commerically available Region 1 version of Croupier for quite some time now. I was so excited to see that its being re-released that I had to check other sources to make sure its not a glitch. But, yes indeed, Croupier is scheduled to be re-released March 9, 2004!As for the film itself, this film introduced Americans to Clive Owen. It opened the doors for Clive's recent film roles in the BMW Films "The Hire," "Gosford Park," "Bourne Identity," "Beyond Borders" and upcoming starring role in "King Authur" (not to mention the James Bond rumors. I've also heard good things about the Brit TV miniseries "Second Sight.") Don't expect a Hollywood thriller here. This modern update of the film noir genre is shot to create disconnect and confusion, and the characters are gritty and flawed. The film centers around Jack Manfred, a struggling-writer-turned-card-dealer. Jack moves through his life like a ghost, detached and disinterested in the events of his own life. Alex Kingston's character Jani de Villiers enters his life and adds color to Jack's dark world. Jani is the femme fatale to Jack's postmodern hard-boiled hero, but I love that Jack and Jani's relationship does not develop in the way you would expect. Overall, an enjoyable film for indie film lovers and a must for Clive Owen fans."
Clive Owen at this best!
ANT | Crofton, MD USA | 01/04/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This was one of Clive Owen's first starring roles (to be more precise, his second official top bill). It also stands up as one of his best yet. Although somewhat obscure and fairly unknown, this is one movie that Owen fans should get ahold of an add to their collection!
Clive Owen plays Jack Manfred, an aspiring writer who is hounded by his father to find a decent job. With the writing gig not quite working out for him (writer's block surely doesn't help), he finally takes one of those leads and becomes a croupier (dealer) at a local casino. What he uncovers and encounters fascinates him, though certainly it could have appalled anyone. This might be the start of a new book, finally stimulating his creative talents once again, while at the same time earning a good reputation at the blackjack tables as one heck of a croupier. Toss in a mysterious woman (Alex Kingston of "ER" fame [she played Dr. Corday]), and his concerned girlfriend, and you have a strange mix of intrigue and drama, with much depth and flavor.
It does have an R-rating, mainly for language, nudity, drug use and violence. There is nothing quite gory about the film, the language is not a constant string of 4-letter words, the nudity is brief and the drug use fairly minor. Still, be wary if you are offended by any of these items or if you were debating showing the film to anyone impressionable. Overall, though, this is a fantastic movie that delivers drama, some minor action, and a great deal of intrigue. It isn't preachy enough to be over anyone's head and it never gets too side-tracked by trying to fit into any one genre. Fans of Clive Owen, Alex Kingston, drama, intrigue, gambling, or suspense movies should definitely add this one to their collection."

subset: commoncrawl


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Sports wouldn't be sports without rooting interest, yet it's a curious and fickle phenomenon, one that does a disservice to athletes as much as it bolsters their heroics. Fans' identification with players is usually more symbolic than personal, which leaves them open to lionization or infamy, depending on the unpredictable vicissitudes of history and fate. The two matches between heavyweights Joe Louis and Max Schmeling—one an African-American representing a racially divided country, the other an Aryan mascot fighting for Hitler—attracted perhaps the strongest rooting interest in sports history, and these titans could only get tossed around in the swell. It takes David Margolick's absorbing chronicle Beyond Glory a few felled trees worth of pages to put these fights into context, but in the end, he untangles Louis and Schmeling from the much larger groups that had a piece of them.
After Schmeling shocked the heavily favored Louis in a humbling 12th-round knockout in 1936, the stage was set for the rematch two years later, but world events brought it the significance of a war without armies. Though boxing was frowned upon in Germany before Hitler came to power, the Führer and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels embraced it heartily, promoting Schmeling as a prime example of Aryan superiority at a time when the Nazis were terrifying the world with their nationalist fervor. Of course, there was the uncomfortable fact that Schmeling's American tours were handled by Jews like his longtime manager Joe Jacobs, who stayed by his side no matter how egregiously compromised his position. (One notorious shot has Jacobs half-saluting Hitler after a Schmeling fight in Hamburg.) It was said that no black heavyweights would ever be champion after Jack Johnson's controversial run, but the soft-spoken Louis presented a clean-living image and mostly let his fists do the talking; though he managed to ingratiate himself to much of white America, support for Schmeling was surprisingly strong under the circumstances. When Louis and Schmeling met in Yankee Stadium for a rematch, the entire world paused to watch (or hear, in the case of 100 million people) Louis delivering an explosive 124-second pummeling that laid the psychological groundwork for the world war to come.
Sorting through many contradictory records, including three Schmeling autobiographies that play especially fast and loose with the truth, Margolick focuses heavily on newspaper commentary from both sides of the Atlantic, though its racial and national agendas transcended the tape's honest tale. In a way, boxing has a blunt finality that clears up the politics of perception—though both matches drew conspiracy theories from people who couldn't accept being on the losing end—but Schmeling and Louis were swept up in it in spite of their apolitical natures. Only in the sad coda, when they were long done with fighting for titanic forces, could the two finally see each other as men and lay their turbulent past to rest.


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A building superintendent was struck by an elevator while he was in the shaft trying to retrieve keys for a tenant, authorities say.
The superintendent at 602 W. 190 St. was attempting to help a tenant retrieve their dropped keys, and was struck between the fifth and sixth floors at about 8:40 a.m., according to the New York Post.
Emergency responders arrived and took the man to Harlem Hospital with head trauma, said police. He is in stable condition.
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Welcome to the website of the Election Boards Association of North Carolina.
Our primary functions are:
To endeavor to bring about the general improvement and betterment of elections in North Carolina.
To promote greater activity and high efficiency on the part of Election Boards and its staff
To secure united cooperation in handling Election Board problems
To provide the legislature and other citizens with information necessary for the passage of sound election legislation.
To inform the public of the election process and encourage strong participation by all eligible persons
Please take a look at this site and its useful information. We would welcome any comments or questions.