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Thu, Feb 21 2013 4:00 am |
This is the very first installment of Throwback Thursday looking back at riders over their video sections and our inaugural candidate for this feature is none other than Chase Hawk. Fresh off of a 2012 filled with two of his best video parts yet and fresh on one of BMX's most premiere teams (etnies) for 2013, Chase is a perfect candidate to open this series up with. Chase is easily in his prime right now but when you look at the older generation of riders Chase takes notes from, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Chase killing it just as hard ten years down the line–but for now, lets look at what the last decade has brought us from the Hawk.
Oh yeah, big thanks to the BMX Movie Database for helping out with these sections…BMXMDB is an awesome resource for any BMXer.http://player.vimeo.com/video/11987384
Manmade Chapter 2
This is a blast from the past. Chase looks almost too small for his bike in most of these clips, but the natural talent shines through with plenty of the day's best ramp and trail moves being performed for the Manmade video.
TAGS: Chase Hawk, Features, throwback thursday, video sections


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Walk, Roll, Shobble*, Stroll
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Join us for the Federation's 2nd Annual Fundraising Walk!
For more information visit Walk, Roll, Shobble*, Stroll
*"When a shuffle meets a hobble"
(Definition by Chelsey Kendig, self-advocate)
Statewide Transition Conference for Parents
A day long Transition Conference specifically designed for parents of children with disabilities age 14-22 preparing for their transition from school to the adult world. Join us on Saturday, September 20, 2014 at Hogan Center at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA.
A Family Guide to Transition Services in Mass
Transition is the passage of a student receiving special education services from high school to adult life as they exit from high school because the student has either graduated from high school with a high school diploma or has turned 22 years of age, the age when a school district is no longer required to provide special education services. Developed by the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and the Federation for Children with Special Needs, this helpful Guide is available in English and Spanish.
Parent Empowerment
Choose the Right Advocate
Download our "A Parent's Guide to Selecting a Special Education Advocate in Massachusetts" brochure in English, Spanish or Portuguese
Transition into Adulthood
Planning A Life: Making the Most Out of High School for Students with Disabilities – View the 2013-2014 Schedule!

subset: commoncrawl


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The Bills started the 2011 NFL season as one of the surprise teams in the league, winning four of their first five games. Meanwhile, the Dolphins didn't lost seven times before getting it right against fellow bottom-feeder Kansas City. But when these teams meet in Week 15, Miami has a chance to officially make the Bills the laughing stock of the AFC East with a win.
The Dolphins (4-9) already beat Buffalo 35-8 the first time these teams met in Week 11. Matt Moore led Miami by tossing three touchdown passes while the Dolphins scored 28 straight points after allowing an opening field goal, and cruised to victory from a 28-6 halftime lead.
Since that loss, the Bills have continued to melt down, losing their next three games to build a six-game losing streak.
For more on the Dolphins, visit The Phinsider. For more on the Bills, visit Buffalo Rumblings. Head to SB Nation's NFL hub any time for plenty more on the league.


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Ernie and Johanne (Herr) Coleson will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
They were married on Aug. 31, 1963, in Pandora, Ohio. They have lived in Anderson for the past 44 years, moving here from Findlay, Ohio.
They have three children, David (Roberta) Coleson of Anderson, Tony (Kirstin) Coleson of Union, Ky., and Becky (Bill) Ritchie of Thousand Oaks, Calif. They have four grandchildren, Tiffanie (Jake) Nabinger of Indianapolis, Dylan Coleson and Rachel Ritchie of California and Nikki Coleson of Kentucky.
Ernie is retired after teaching music and playing in the orchestra at the Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis for 26 years.
Johanne is retired from the United States Postal Service after 22 years as a letter carrier in Anderson.
They have been members of The First United Methodist Church in Anderson since 1970.
They were honored by their children with a celebration with family and friends.


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|Patricia Vidonic vs. Felice Herrig Fight Video XFC 17.
Thats a hot picture, thats what we need some hot mma girls that get naked
Wow, Felice got a thousand times better with her grappling. She still needs to improve, but she seems to be a much more well-rounded fighter now.
I like that female fighters are getting hotter! This genre of the sport was never going to evolve with those inbred mutants with titties fighting each other. Felice is smoking hot! I´m rubbing one right now.
i think i like felice. wonder if she'd go out with a married loser who sits on the couch a lot.
lol holy s*** the comments are funny on this video
shes def cute
felice a contender…never, she will be a journeyman fighter
Clinch game isn't as exciting for me. Wearing down the opponent & tiring them out can be great strategy, but…


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Lady Gaga's 'Hair', Radio 1 Show, And Twitter Triumph (page 2)
May 16, 2011 9:17 AM
[photogallerylink id=81124 align=left]
She then bumped up the energy level triple fold with a full stage of dancers and back up singers to perform Judas.
And that Twitter triumph? Over the weekend Lady Gaga became the FIRST person to reach over 10 million followers. Here's what she had to say about it via the social network:
http://twitpic.com/4xtnac – 10MillionMonsters! I'm speechless, we did it! Its an illness how I love you. Leaving London smiling.—
Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) May 15, 2011
It was a goal that [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Justin Bieber[/lastfm] fans had hoped to accomplish first as well, but Gaga beat them to the punch!
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Il mashup del giorno: Han Fonzarelli.
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- Stylist:
- Giselle
Feb 26, 2011 - My first visit to Curltopia was today and it was great. The salon is so cute! Staff very friendly. Giselle did a wonderful job of educating me on nature hair and how to care for mine appropriately. Much needed education given I am new to nature hair. I look forward to a long relationship with Curltopia.


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'Cats knock out the Pacific Boxers
The Linfield football team ground down the Pacific University Boxers with touchdowns on offense and special teams to cruise to a 49-6 victory Oct. 15 in Forest Grove, Ore.
The 'Cats kept the Boxers out of the end zone for the first time all season while limiting them to 228 yards of offense, including -five yards rushing. Despite this, Pacific was able to stay competitive through the first two quarters due to Linfield penalties and mental mistakes. The 'Cats piled up 10 penalties for 96 yards, both season highs.
Junior quarterback Mickey Inns got the scoring started on a 14-yard touchdown strike to junior receiver Lucas Jepson early in the first quarter. Pacific answered right back with a 37-yard field goal that was set up by a 15-yard personal foul penalty on the Wildcats to make the score 7-3. Special teams took over the game for the rest of the quarter, with sophomore safety Colin Foreman returning a kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown and senior safety Drew Fisher blocking a punt and recovering it for a score, setting a 21-3 margin after one quarter.
"Special teams played a huge role," Fisher said in an email. "They scored twice and provided good field position all day."
Pacific converted again on its drive to open the second period, helped by four more Linfield penalties. A 22-yard field goal pulled the Boxers within 21-6, but Pacific did not score again for the remainder of the game. Inns tossed his second of three touchdown passes for four yards to senior receiver Buddy Saxon, widening the lead to 28-6. An interception by Fisher wiped out a Pacific drive and kept the score the same at the half.
"Even though we won by a sizable margin, we just didn't play the game in an emotionally involved way," sophomore tight end Jacob Priester said in an email.
The Linfield starters remained in for the third quarter to put away the Boxers. Inns fired his deepest touchdown pass of the season, a 65-yard catch-and-run to Jepson, to increase the score to 35-6. On a later drive, four consecutive passes into the end zone fell short, two of them on dropped balls by the receiver. Fisher said these mental mistakes must be eliminated for the team to succeed in the second half of the season.
"We have a lot of work and improvement to do if we want to get to where we want to," Fisher said in an email. "We need to work on tackling, knocking balls down, intercepting passes, causing fumbles, knowing our assignments better and playing with enthusiasm and passion."
Linfield's defense continued to shut down Pacific while backup quarterback sophomore Josh Yoder ran in a score from four yards to cushion the lead further. Third-string quarterback freshman Matt Yarbrough capped the game's scoring with a 24-yard pass to freshman receiver Colin Nelson. On defense, the 'Cats finished with five sacks for 46 yards and 25 tackles for a loss that added up to 72 yards. The victory assured Linfield a winning season, preserving and extending "The Streak" to 56 consecutive seasons. Fisher said, however, that the team still has a long way to go before reaching its potential.
"The outcome was of course a solid margin of victory," Fisher said in an email, "But we don't feel as a team we played to our potential and ability."
The 'Cats will next face Pacific Lutheran University at home at Maxwell Field on Oct. 22. The Lutes are 4-1 on the season and undefeated at 2-0 in NWC play, and will seek to challenge Linfield's bid for a third consecutive conference championship. According to Priester, the game against Pacific may have sent an important message to the team about what it will take to succeed in the post-season.
Chris Forrer/Sports columnist
Chris Forrer can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Philip Seymour Hoffman: an A-ZPosted: February 4, 2014 Filed under: A-Zs, Movies | Tags: Almost Famous, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Boogie Nights, Capote, Flawless, Jack Goes Boating, Mike Nichols, New York, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Plutarch Heavensbee, Synecdoche, The Hunger Games, The Ides of March, The Master 3 Comments
Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has died, aged just 46, and all some people seem concerned about is the future of The Hunger Games franchise. This is both crass and cruelly ironic, given that Hoffman's filmography was notable more for quality art house hits than cinematic blockbusters.
The first Philip Seymour Hoffman film I ever saw was 1992's Scent of a Woman, and the last was The Master. Of course, Hoffman was not the star or even the juvenile lead in Scent of a Woman. Martin Brest's syrupy, overlong drama was a vehicle for Al Pacino, who won an Oscar for his shouty performance as the blind Lt. Col. Frank Slade; the charisma-free Chris O'Donnell played his young "aide" and minder. It's 20 years since I last saw the film, but was Hoffman's presence, personality and rather shambolic appearance as the obnoxious student George Willis, Jr. that I remember.
By the time he played cult leader Lancaster Dodd in The Master, Hoffman himself merited that description as an actor with versatility, courage and great sensitivity. To be honest, it was a film that bored and infuriated me in equal measure, though that was largely down to the mumbling Joaquin Phoenix. But Hoffman was menacing and magnificent, and I'm glad that the title of Paul Thomas Anderson's movie has provided headline writers with a neat way to memorialise one of the greatest screen actors of the last 20 years.
The Guardian has got in ahead of me with its Philip Seymour Hoffman greatest hits package, so here's my own tribute.
Paul Thomas Anderson directed Philip Seymour Hoffman in five films – Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master (2012). Speaking of their final collaboration, Anderson said that as an actor Hoffman had "gotten older and more confident". He also acknowledged the fragile nature of that craft, "Because you can have it one day, and it's not there the next . . . "
Boogie Nights saw Hoffman cast as the lovesick Scotty J, one of the large and dysfunctional "family" irresistibly drawn to studly 70s porn star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg).
Cooper's Town was the actor's film and TV production company, which he founded with Emily Ziff. The company's productions included Capote, The Savages and Jack Goes Boating.
Death of a Salesman – the 2012 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's play earned Hoffman a Tony award nomination for his performance as Willy Loman.
Film critic Roger Ebert memorably described the actor as having "a gift for playing quickly embarrassed men who fear rejection".
Flawless gave Hoffman one of his most flamboyant roles as Rusty, a New York drag queen, pre-op transsexual and mistress of the one-liner.
God's Pocket, a black comedy drama directed by Mad Men star John Slattery, screened at Sundance last month and was one of Hoffman's final movies.
Philip Seymour Hoffman was born on 23 July 1967 and died on 2 February 2014. The cause of death was reported as a heroin overdose.
"I liked it all. Yeah." In a 2006 60 Minutes interview the actor gave a candid assessment of his past relationship with drugs and alcohol.
Jack Goes Boating was Hoffman's 2010 directorial debut. He also reprised his role from Bob Glaudini's play as the socially awkward limo driver Jack, who dates Connie (Amy Ryan).
"A truly kind, wonderful man and one of our greatest actors – ever." A heartfelt Twitter tribute from Mia Farrow.
Lester Bangs, the rock journalist in Almost Famous, was one of several real-life roles played to great acclaim by Hoffman. "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool."
Mimi O'Donnell was Hoffman's long-term partner and mother of his children, Cooper, Tallulah and Willa. O'Donnell was the costume designer on Jack Goes Boating.
Mike Nichols directed the actor on screen in Charlie Wilson's War and in the stage productions of Death of a Salesman and The Seagull.
His Oscar win was for his role as author Truman Capote in Bennett Miller's 2005 biopic, Capote. He was also nominated three times in the best supporting actor category (Charlie Wilson's War, Doubt and The Master).
As Plutarch Heavensbee, Head Gamemaker in the Hunger Games series, Hoffman had one of his highest profile roles. Parts 1 and 2 of Mockingjay are still scheduled for release in 2014 and 2015. In a 2013 interview he declared himself a fan of author Suzanne Collins and her books.
Quality directors – Mike Nichols, Paul Thomas, Bennett Miller, Spike Lee and David Mamet – are conspicuous on Hoffman's lengthy filmography.
Rumpled was the word most often used to describe the actor's off-screen appearance.
Synecdoche, New York saw Hoffman cast as theatre director Caden Cotard, who's beset by personal problems and obsessed with a painstaking production that recreates his own life inside a huge New York warehouse. Rolling Stone called it a "mind-bender".
Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole – Hoffman's intriguingly titled but little-seen 1991 film debut.
Unfinished projects at the time of Hoffman's death included the TV comedy, Happyish, in which he was due to star as the creative director of a New York-based advertising agency. Only the pilot episode of the Showtime series had been shot.
Vancouver Film Critics Circle was particularly generous to Hoffman, handing out best actor awards for Capote and 2003's Owning Mahowny and a best supporting actor prize for The Master.
Worst film? The Robin Williams vehicle Patch Adams earned some terrible reviews, but my least favourite Hoffman movie is Along Came Polly, the scatological "comedy" starring Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston and a ferret.
X-rated – the graphic bedroom scene with Hoffman and his on-screen wife Marisa Tomei that opens Sidney Lumet's 2007 thriller, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
The Yearling, a 1994 TV movie, was a rare family-friendly entry on Hoffman's CV.
Paul Zara (Hoffman) was the old-school campaign manager outmanoeuvred by his protégé Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) in the 2011 political thriller, The Ides of March.
American HustlePosted: January 29, 2014 Filed under: Movies | Tags: 2014 Oscars, Abscam, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, David O Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, The Fighter 1 Comment
Either David O Russell is the hottest Hollywood director on the planet, or those myopic voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences really need to get out a bit more.
If I was an actor I would be desperate to get cast in David O Russell's next film. How desperate? Well, I wouldn't think twice about turning myself into a walking skeleton or running around in a plastic bin liner in the name of art. That's because Russell is becoming almost as prolific at piling up Academy Award nominations as the great Meryl Streep.
Russell's latest movie, the crime drama American Hustle, is loosely based ("Some of this actually happened") on the FBI's Abscam sting operation of the late 70s and early 80s. But the real story is that it has 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director and a clean sweep in the acting categories. That's on top of last year's eight Oscar nominations for Russell's "bipolar romantic comedy" Silver Linings Playbook and seven for his 2010 boxing biopic The Fighter.
All of this might lead you think that either David O Russell is the hottest Hollywood director on the planet, or those myopic voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences really need to get out a bit more.
In American Hustle it's the ever-adaptable Christian Bale who looks twice the man he was in The Fighter. He's piled on 43 pounds and sports an embarrassing comb-over to play New Jersey dry cleaner-turned-con man Irving Rosenfeld. Look out for the can of Elnett hairspray enjoying a brief cameo in the opening scenes, as Bale shows off his newly acquired paunch, while assiduously covering his balding pate.
Irving and his mistress Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) have been doing quite nicely with a loan scam in which she poses as an English aristocrat to reel in gullible investors. But then Bradley Cooper's cocky FBI agent Richie DiMaso catches up with the pair and forces them into an elaborate con, involving a fake Arab sheikh and a scheme to build casinos in Atlantic City. Irving and Sydney are just the bait to catch some much bigger fish, including a New Jersey Mayor played by Jeremy Renner.
I'd never heard anything about Abscam before I saw this movie, but at times it seems like a mere backdrop for other distracting subplots involving sexual jealousy and overweening ambition. Cooper's coke-snorting DiMaso is a vain, corkscrew-permed ball of energy who alternates between sparring with his mild-mannered boss (played by Louis CK) and putting the moves on Sydney. Equally unstable is Irving's young wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), who almost betrays him to her Mafia lover and has a nice sideline in blowing up kitchen appliances.
As a cinemagoer, I've rarely been impressed by movies that come garlanded with multiple Oscar nominations. James Cameron's Titanic boasted 14 nominations (it won in 11 categories), but I still regard it as a titanic, iceberg-shaped cinematic turd. If American Hustle was a less high-profile production I'd be more inclined to downplay its flaws and simply enjoy the fact that it is a lip-glossed, star-studded slice of largely undemanding entertainment, showcasing some great 70s tunes. Plot-wise it's not in the same league as The Sting, but it is less narcissistic than the tiresome Ocean's Trilogy.
But with Lawrence and Cooper getting Oscar nominations for their wildly over-the-top roles here, you have to wonder what Russell was thinking when he cast them. I did enjoy their sparky, old-fashioned romantic partnership Silver Linings Playbook, though it was no masterpiece. In American Hustle it's as though they've been ordered to "turn it up to eleven" in every scene. The result is a mood of sustained hysteria that unbalances the film and detracts from an affecting performance by Amy Adams. I think the voters at AMPAS have been conned.
The Wolf of Wall StreetPosted: January 22, 2014 Filed under: Movies | Tags: 2014 Oscars, Joanna Lumley, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Martin Scorsese, Matthew McConaughey, The Wolf of Wall Street Leave a comment
"There nothing noble about poverty," declares Jordan Belfort during one of his rabble-rousing speeches in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated biopic, The Wolf of Wall Street. Of course there's not a hint of penury or nobility here – just three hours of excessive profanity and boundless greed, interspersed with gratuitous nudity and drug-taking. It's quite a ride.
The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the 2007 autobiography by superstar stockbroker Jordan Belfort, who is played here by the perennially youthful Leonardo DiCaprio. An ambitious 22-year-old, Jordan makes his Wall Street debut as a lowly "connector" at Rothschild. The catastrophe of Black Monday (19 October 1987) later puts him out of a job, but soon he shows his mettle flogging penny stocks to gullible punters in a crummy "boiler room" on Long Island.
Jordan teams his dazzling sales patter with the equally dazzling dental work of portly sidekick Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). Together with some pals they found the Long Island brokerage house Stratton Oakmont, earning zillions of dollars trading worthless stock. Behind the august name is a company built on fraud, but no one cares when there are yachts, mansions, drugs and parties galore, topped off with dwarf-throwing and fish-swallowing shenanigans in the office.
The ultra-macho, high-energy world of brokerage depicted here is a perfect match for a film-maker with Scorsese's pedigree. If anyone can convey the sheer adrenaline rush of men behaving very badly, it is the man who directed Goodfellas. The intensity of DiCaprio's performance as the supercharged hustler is quite literally eye-popping. Schmoozing, scheming and shrieking, he moves from triumphs on the sales floor to a bedroom bust-up with his second wife Naomi (Margot Robbie), often looking as though he's about to burst a blood vessel.
Scorsese also uses DiCaprio's voiceover to provide a glib and wholly unapologetic commentary on Jordan's antics. There's no hint of regret when Wife No. 1 catches him snorting coke off the breasts of (soon-to-be) Wife No. 2 in the back of a limo. Even when the SEC and dogged FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) are closing in on him for fraud and money laundering, this Master of the Universe coolly holds court on his yacht.
The Wolf of Wall Street features some memorable cameos, notably from a shockingly gaunt Matthew McConaughey as Jordan's first mentor, Mark Hanna. His yodelling, chest-beating, coke-snorting pep talk over a liquid lunch makes quite an impression on the wide-eyed young Jordan. As the surprisingly broad-minded Aunt Emma, the always decorous Joanna Lumley brings an unexpected frisson to a park bench scene with Jordan.
The most jaw-dropping scenes here follow an unwise decision to experiment with some out-of-date Quaaludes, which (according to Jordan) appear to mimic the effects of cerebral palsy. Our drooling and incoherent hero ends up exiting a country club on his stomach and almost totalling his car. Yet he's still able to revive a similarly stricken Donnie, who's about to choke to death on the kitchen floor.
Over the course of three hours The Wolf of Wall Street delivers slick entertainment and the vicarious thrill of watching people cocking a snook at authority. What it lacks, though, is much in the way of character development or tension. Unlike other Scorsese films, there's no bloodshed or imminent threat of violence. There's not much drama either in the way Jordan is finally forced to do a deal with the Feds and accept a short jail sentence. The lawyers and law enforcers remain largely peripheral.
It goes without saying that the women characters get very short shrift in this male-dominated world. Some will revel in the amount of naked female flesh on display here, but I would have liked to see some emotional depth in a film that lasts as long as this one. The one exception is Margot Robbie's powerful scene with DiCaprio, as their marriage finally breaks down and he faces the prospect of losing his kids. This is raw, ugly and, unlike much of this film, it is not played just for cheap laughs.
The Wolf of Wall Street is stylishly directed and well-acted, but when you strip away the glamour and the thrill of getting away with it for so long, the story of Jordan Belfort didn't seem that interesting or important to me. This is a minor work in the Scorsese canon, and I wish that he and Belfort had put their undoubted talents to better use.
Kirk Douglas: an A-ZPosted: December 10, 2013 Filed under: A-Zs, Movies | Tags: Ace in the Hole, Billy Wilder, Brian De Palma, Eric Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Lust for Life, Michael Douglas, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Stanley Kubrick, Young Man with a Horn Leave a comment
Thanks to @wayneley on Twitter for reminding me that 9 December was the 97th birthday of a true Hollywood great, Kirk Douglas. I must admit that I had put off writing about the star of Spartacus, thinking that an obituary might provide the ideal opportunity. But with Kirk marching inexorably towards his centenary, I realise that he's likely to outlive many of us in the blogging community . . .
After Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas remains my favourite star of Hollywood's golden era. I'd happily be marooned on a desert island with a boxed set containing Spartacus, Paths of Glory, Out of the Past, The Bad and the Beautiful and Seven Days in May. No other actor has led with his chin with such intensity and for so many years.
There's nothing wrong with celebrating a Hollywood legend while he's still with us.
Ace in the Hole was described by its director Billy Wilder as "one of my most sombre pictures". Douglas's swaggering portrayal of cynical newshound Chuck Tatum is journalistic hubris run riot in a dusty corner of New Mexico.
Bryna Productions, set up in 1955, took its name from the actor's mother. The company's films include Spartacus, Paths of Glory and the 2009 documentary, Kirk Douglas: Before I Forget.
Champion (1949) provided an early pugilistic role for Kirk Douglas, as boxer Midge Kelly.
Issur Danielovitch was his birth name. Kirk's dad, Herschel, was an immigrant of Russian-Jewish descent, who came to New York not long before Kirk's birth in 1916.
Eric Douglas, the younger son of Kirk and his second wife Anne Buydens, was an actor and comedian who died in 2004.
Frequent co-star Burt Lancaster appeared in seven films with Kirk, beginning with the 1948 crime drama, I Walk Alone.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is the most famous of the Douglas-Lancaster collaborations. Kirk played Doc Holliday to Burt's Wyatt Earp.
Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were unlikely roles for Lancaster and Douglas in the 1981 stage play, The Boys in Autumn. The veteran actors played Mark Twain's much-loved characters as a couple of old-timers, reuniting after 50 years.
"I'm Spartacus!" probably the most famous line from any of his movies and the title of his 2012 book.
Kirk is Jewish, though in a 2012 interview he confessed: "I was not a very good Jew. I never practised what Judaism tells you to do, to teach your kids all about Judaism." He's had three bar mitzvahs to date.
Stanley Kubrick directed Paths of Glory and was later hired to replace Anthony Mann on Spartacus.
Loser at the Oscars. Though nominated three times for Best Actor (Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life), his only success to date was an honorary award in 1996.
Michael Kirk Douglas (born in 1944) is the most famous of Kirk's four sons. The pair co-starred in the 2003 drama, It Runs in the Family, which also featured Michael's son, Cameron Douglas, and Diana Douglas, Kirk's first wife.
US Navy – Kirk served during WWII and was honorably discharged in 1944.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – Kirk bought the rights to Ken Kesey's then-unpublished novel in the early 60s. He played the lead role of Randle P McMurphy in a Broadway production, but it was Michael Douglas who went on to co-produce the Oscar-winning 1975 movie, which starred Jack Nicholson.
Paths of Glory (1957) – Kubrick's lacerating anti-war drama saw Kirk deliver one of his most heartfelt rants as the idealistic French officer Colonel Dax. After failing to defend his men against trumped-up charges of cowardice, Dax attacks Gen. Broulard: "You're a degenerate, sadistic old man and you can go to Hell before I apologise to you!"
Richard Quine directed one of Kirk's lesser-known movies, the 1960 romantic drama Strangers When We Meet, which co-starred Kim Novak.
The Ragman's Son was his first volume of autobiography, published in 1988. As the title suggests, the book covered his rise from an impoverished childhood as the son of a Russian ragpicker to fame and fortune.
St Lawrence University is the actor's alma mater, where he gained a degree in English. In July 2012, the Douglas Foundation donated a further US$5 million to a scholarship set up in 1999 for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) was Kirk's third collaboration with director Vincente Minnelli. Like The Bad and the Beautiful it was an overwrought Hollywood melodrama, with Kirk as a broken-down actor.
UnAmerican activities was the stick used to beat Hollywood writers like Dalton Trumbo (Spartacus), who refused to co-operate with investigations into alleged Communist influences in Hollywood from the late 1930s. Kirk helped break the blacklist in 1960, by publicly acknowledging Trumbo's role on the film.
Vincent Van Gogh was the subject of the 1957 biopic, Lust for Life, with Kirk in the title role.
Wrestling was his sport during his college years.
X-rated – Brian De Palma's thriller The Fury was released in the UK in September 1978 and, like Carrie, featured a teenager with telekinetic abilities. Sam Irvin, an intern on The Fury, remembers star Kirk Douglas as "an incredible professional" who was in "fantastic physical shape" for his all-action role.
Young Man with a Horn starred Kirk as jazz cornetist Rick Martin, a character based on Bix Beiderbecke. Lauren Bacall, who had dated Kirk while at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, played his wife.
Ground Zero – in 2010 the actor weighed in to the controversy over whether to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, saying it would be "painful" for the families of those who died.
RenoirPosted: June 26, 2013 Filed under: Movies | Tags: Catherine Hessling, Christa Theret, Gilles Bourdos, Jean Renoir, Michel Bouquet, Pierre-August Renoir, Renoir, Thomas Doret, Vincent Rottiers Leave a comment
Renoir is a ravishing new biopic from director Gilles Bourdos that gives us two geniuses for the price of one. For most people the name is synonymous with the paintings of Impressionist master, Pierre-August Renoir. Cinephiles will also know that his film-maker son, Jean Renoir, is equally celebrated as the writer/director of La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu. But you're unlikely to have heard of the central figure in this drama, actress Catherine Hessling (born Andrée Heuschling), who briefly achieved fame in the 1920s and was the first wife of Jean Renoir.
In 1915 the calm atmosphere of the Renoir villa at Cagnes-sur-Mer on the Côte d'Azur is disrupted by the arrival of Andrée "Dédé" Heuschling (played by Christa Theret). This auburn-haired beauty was engaged by the recently deceased Madame Renoir to model for her ailing husband. Thanks to his beguiling new muse, Renoir (played by veteran Michel Bouquet) is soon rediscovering his appetite for painting nudes. When his son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) comes home to recuperate from a war wound, he too is captivated by this self-confident young woman who dreams of a career as an actress. That romance is overshadowed by intergenerational tensions and by the prospect of Jean's return to the carnage and chaos of the front.
It's no surprise that Renoir is a film minutely preoccupied with flesh and the female form. As in La Belle Noiseuse (1991), we witness the interaction between artist and model, and the painstaking process by which life is infused into canvas. There are excursions to the beach and the countryside, with Mark Ping Bing Lee's photography bathing the unclothed Dédé in golden hues that are perfect for Renoir senior's brushwork.
. . . when a woman strips off for her art audiences tend not to remember the acting.
Renoir is more than just chocolate-box beauty and tableaux vivants. The men appear cloaked in an aura of death and decay, as the film contrasts Renoir's art with the inescapable effects of war and ageing. The wheelchair-bound painter consults with his doctor; his swollen and arthritic hands are bathed and bandaged by his retinue of devoted female servants so that work may continue. Jean dresses the ugly wound in his leg, as younger brother Coco (Thomas Doret from The Kid with a Bike) looks on. We also glimpse horribly disfigured war veterans in one of the film's few scenes outside the Renoir estate.
With all this material to work with, it's disappointing that Bourdos fails to get under the skin of his characters. Renoir senior's pronouncements rarely get beyond the level of clichés that do little to illuminate his strained relationship with his sons. Thomas Doret impresses as the sullen adolescent, whose budding interest in the opposite sex is fuelled by the presence of "Dédé". Though Vincent Rottiers looks nothing like the man who became a giant of European cinema, he effectively conveys the conflict of a man torn between his love for Dédé and his duty to fight on.
Christa Theret has the most difficult role here – not just because when a woman strips off for her art audiences tend not to remember the acting. As the mercurial Dédé, it's her scenes of conflict with the disapproving female servants and the Renoirs that bring this rather slow-moving narrative to life. The young model's frustration at her constricting role within the household is finally laid bare when sulking gives way to a bout of plate-smashing. But this would have been more believable if we had ever glimpsed her life outside the house or saw her confiding in a friend. The Renoirs are so insular and so immersed in their own affairs that they have no idea where she lives.
Despite the weaknesses of the script, Renoir does offer glimpses of the challenges faced by a great artist battling on despite waning physical strength. Viewed as a series of picturesque vignettes of summer on the French Riviera 100 years ago, it is a lovely film to watch. But given that Dédé and Jean later married and made films together, you might feel that Renoir demands a sequel. I ended up wishing that Bourdos's film had been less reverential and made more of a drama out of the Impressionist maestro's late-life crisis.
Renoir is released in selected UK cinemas on Friday 28 June 2013.
The Best of Bogarde: Accident and The ServantPosted: April 3, 2013 Filed under: DVD releases, Movies | Tags: Accident, Cleo Laine, Dirk Bogarde, Douglas Slocombe, Harold Pinter, Jacqueline Sassard, James Fox, John Dankworth, Joseph Losey, Sarah Miles, Stanley Baker, The Servant, Vivien Merchant, Wendy Craig Leave a comment
When I watch The Servant, it's always the voice of Cleo Laine singing "All Gone" that echoes around my head for hours. John Dankworth's smoky torch song is as integral to Joseph Losey's haunting psychological drama as Barrett, the unctuous manservant played by Dirk Bogarde, or Harold Pinter's trenchant script.
Nearly 50 years after The Servant was first released, that combination of mellow voice, strings and lyrics filled with regret – "Leave it alone. It's all gone" – remains irresistible. For Tony, the hapless bachelor so brilliantly played by James Fox, it's the melodious accompaniment to his fireside lovemaking with Susan (Wendy Craig). By the end of the film it has turned into something horribly discordant – those stabbing strings mocking his decline into a life of booze and degradation, orchestrated by the manipulative Barrett. Tony can smash the record player, but he can't shut off the sound of his own destruction.
Though there's a lot more to The Servant than one song, it's a good indication of how everything we see (and hear) is perfectly calibrated by Losey, Pinter and their collaborators. From the moment Barrett first arrives at the terraced house just off the King's Road, Chelsea, those ticking and chiming clocks are hard to ignore. Like Douglas Slocombe's immaculate black and white photography, the timepieces contribute to the increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere. When you add the exaggerated sound of a dripping tap and Barrett's enormous shadow looming from the upper floors, The Servant would have made a great horror movie.
These days you'll find more polyglot nannies in Chelsea than bowler-hatted Barretts, but this dissection of the shifting balance of power between callow master and wily servant remains fascinating. Dirk Bogarde dominates proceedings, of course, even when he's offscreen. But it's a measure of his greatness that he doesn't completely overshadow the contributions of James Fox, Sarah Miles or Wendy Craig. The homoerotic subtext of the Tony/Barrett relationship has been much discussed, but there are only glimpses of camp when they squabble over domestic arrangements. The enduring power of this film lies in the fact that Barrett and his seductive "sister" Vera (played by Sarah Miles) remain unreadable and unknowable.
Far from being a sterile exercise in art house film-making, The Servant delights in sly humour – from the lingering shot of Thomas Crapper's sanitary ware emporium, to an absurd conversation about ponchos and capes. Made four years later, Accident also has its lighter moments, as Losey and Pinter examine hypocrisy and infidelity amongst a group of middle-class academics.
Accident was adapted by Pinter from the novel by Nicholas Mosley, and visually it is the antithesis of the earlier film. We've moved from austere, wintry west London to the glories of an Oxford summer – punting, cricket, tennis and Sunday lunches that last all day. Bogarde and Stanley Baker play a pair of middle-aged dons who share a mutual interest in a beautiful but vacuous Austrian student (played by the very French Jacqueline Sassard). Her other suitor William (Michael York), supplies the doomed upper-class element in a story that begins with a fatal car crash and then shows the betrayals that led up to it.
Accident is a dazzling and seductive piece of film-making that gives Bogarde another excellent role as the conflicted Philosophy tutor, Stephen. Married with two kids and another on the way, he appears simultaneously entrenched in and detached from his world of privilege and beauty. He's also frustratingly passive in the face of boorish behaviour by Baker's character, Charley. There's something theatrical about a film that locates many of its key moments – a birth, a violent death, illicit sex – offscreen. Like Stephen, the viewer is never quite in the right place at the right time, leaving many questions unanswered.
Unlike conventional romantic dramas, Accident doesn't move towards an emotionally satisfying resolution to the web of tangled relationships. Sequences like Stephen's meeting with old flame Francesca (Delphine Seyrig) don't unfold in the way you might expect. So instead of a conventional montage, scored with appropriate mood music, we get pictures and dialogue that are jarringly out of sync. Even more startling is a conversation between Stephen and his wife Rosalind (played by Pinter's wife Vivien Merchant) that takes place at the end of a long garden. When the reverse shot suddenly reveals that they're also sitting right next to a river, it's as though we've just cut to a completely different day and location.
Dirk Bogarde is far too cerebral to rank with mainstream 60s cultural icons like The Beatles, James Bond and Michael Caine. But the two emotionally complex films he made with Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter prove that style and substance weren't mutually exclusive in that "swinging" decade.
A digitally restored print of The Servant was shown as part of the 27th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
End of WatchPosted: March 18, 2013 Filed under: DVD releases, Movies | Tags: Anna Kendrick, David Ayer, David Harbour, Jake Gyllenhaal, LA cop movies, Michael Peña, Southland, The Shield, Training Day 2 Comments
"Once upon a time in South Central . . ." Opening with police sirens, screeching tyres and the first of innumerable F-words, the aural landscape of David Ayer's End of Watch seems very familiar. This LA-set police drama is not a radical reworking of the genre, but it does provide some new angles on a career in law enforcement. That's partly because the "found footage" style of camera work allows the audience to walk (and run) in the footsteps of two very likeable LAPD officers.
Officer Brian Taylor (a shaven-headed, bulked-up Jake Gyllenhaal) and his Mexican-American partner Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) work out of Newton Division. Brian is studying film-making (as part of a Pre-Law course), so he's constantly recording and commentating both during and after their shifts. Inside the patrol car it's all banter and male bonding, as these buddies riff about their women – "Dude are you gonna hook up with a Mexican girl?" – and their aspirations. Outside, they save two kids from their crack-addicted parents, tackle a huge blaze and get into an impromptu fight with the angry "Mr Tre".
For about half an hour, End of Watch reminded me of TV's Southland, with its hand-held filming, dry humour and emphasis on routine crimes. But there is more going on here than ride-alongs and Brian's budding romance with the perky Janet (played by Anna Kendrick). The opening scene shows our gung-ho heroes in a high-speed pursuit that ends with two men dead. That same fearless approach informs their later discovery of a house of horrors that is linked to drugs, people trafficking and a Mexican cartel. Warned that there is a hit out on them, a smiling Brian points out that everyone wants to kill them. Soon complacency gives way to panic in the bravura, all-guns-blazing, blood-soaked climax.
Writer-director Ayer's previous films include Training Day, Dark Blue and Street Kings, so he's certainly on familiar ground with the LAPD. The actors had several months of preparation for their roles and it has paid off – the Taylor-Zavala partnership is the linchpin of the movie. The softly spoken Gyllenhaal brings more self-confidence and physical presence than you might expect to his part as an ambitious young officer. Equally watchable is Peña, who wrings every ounce of humour out of Ayer's droll script. David Harbour relishes his lines as veteran cop Van Hauser, the duo's main antagonist: "Bad guys attack from the front. Department comes in from the rear."
After Brian's opening voice-over – "I am fate with a badge and gun" – I was worried that there would be excessive mythologizing of the LAPD here. Ayer's film is certainly a long way from the LA of The Shield, where corruption and brutality are the only effective way to tackle crime. But I found it refreshing to have two heroes who aren't weighed down by cynicism and tormented by inner demons.
With strong performances, a sharp script and some full-on action sequences, End of Watch is an entertaining ride. Its weak point is a narrow focus that never gives us much background on the cartel or its impact on the community. This is about the survival of two cops, rather than an examination of organised crime or the shifting demographics of 21st-century LA. So the local Mexican "enforcers" who eventually come after Taylor and Zavala prove to be annoying, incompetent and foul-mouthed, to the point where I wanted to mute them. The incessant use of the same expletive may be realistic, but it doesn't make for compelling viewing.
We Have a PopePosted: March 13, 2013 Filed under: Movies | Tags: Federica Pontremoli, Francesco Piccolo, Habemus Papam, Jerzy Stuhr, Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Silvio Berlusconi, the Vatican Leave a comment
The middle section of We Have a Pope appears to have been flattened by a massive dose of Mogadon.
We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) gets off to colourful start, with the masses in Saint Peter's Square feasting their eyes on a sea of red capes, white lace and ecclesiastical bling. In real life I'd probably be even less interested in the outcome of a papal conclave than a talent show presided over by creepy Simon Cowell. On paper, though, Nanni Moretti's film promises swingeing satire and perhaps some searching questions about how the Roman Catholic Church chooses its leader. Unfortunately he's bottled it – serving up a comedy so mild it should come with a Papal Seal of Approval.
Michel Piccoli stars as Cardinal Melville, chosen by his peers to be the new Pope after lengthy deliberations and much collective boredom. It turns out that no one really wanted the job ("Not me, Lord"), so Melville is just the poor schmuck who's drawn the short straw. In a wonderfully anti-climactic moment he fails to appear on the balcony to greet the faithful, instead collapsing behind the scenes with a howl of anguish.
Moretti and his co-writers Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli give us a promising set-up with all the trimmings. Scenes of pageantry and media hype are effectively juxtaposed with the fragile and doubt-ridden mortals who comprise the College of Cardinals. One of them has a face so cadaverous it looks like the work of El Greco. In this unprecedented crisis, top psychoanalyst Brezzi (played by Moretti) is drafted in to counsel the anxiety-stricken Pope-elect. But he just ends up being sequestered along with all the Cardinals, while Melville sneaks off on an extended walkabout in the Eternal City.
During his distinguished career the 85-year-old Piccoli has gazed upon many of the heavenly bodies of French cinema – including Bardot, Deneuve and Béart. It's a bit hard to reconcile that virile screen presence with the white-haired and rather frail figure we see playfully waving to the Swiss Guards. While Melville's problems may be put down to parental deficit disorder, Piccoli is hampered by a far more straightforward case of a meandering script.
If you were hoping for skeletons in the papal closet, forget it. Apart from a few angry outbursts, punctuated by chats with his stressed-out spokesman (Jerzy Stuhr), what we get is a weary old man who once harboured dreams of being an actor. A consultation with Brezzi's wife (also a shrink) yields a couple of gags but doesn't go anywhere. Our runaway Pontiff needed something more solid on which to anchor his anxieties than a local production of The Seagull.
A comedy so mild it should come with a Papal Seal of Approval.
Back at the Vatican, there's a plump Swiss Guard gorging himself in the Pope's suite, while Brezzi tries to keep the cardinals happy with a volleyball tournament and advice about their pharmaceutical intake. But it's the middle section of this movie that appears to have been flattened by a massive dose of Mogadon. Moretti's peculiarly Italian brand of neurosis can be fun – in moderation – but what we need is more of Stuhr's enterprising spin-doctor and a genuine sense of tension.
We Have a Pope ticks all the right boxes in terms of lighting, set design and cinematography. The best scenes in the film show the lone figure of Melville crushed by the sheer opulence of his surroundings, the burden of history and the weight of expectation. The climactic scene in which the cardinals finally track down the escapee in a theatre is also well choreographed.
If the Catholic Church had hired Moretti to make a commercial he could hardly have done a better PR job – all those lovely costumes, genial characters and not a whiff of scandal. But you do wonder how the film-maker who lambasted Silvio Berlusconi in The Caiman (Il Caimano) could have gone so soft. Perhaps he had one eye on the hereafter.
(Review first published as part of Sound on Sight's coverage of the BFI London Film Festival 2011.)
Shailene Woodley: the Ugly Truth?Posted: February 28, 2013 Filed under: Movies | Tags: Andrew Garfield, Casino Royale, Cinema Blend, Daniel Craig, Marc Webb, Shailene Woodley, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Leave a comment
I have a confession to make. I'm not very excited about the forthcoming release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, directed by the not-so-amazing Marc Webb. It's the follow-up to 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, which I also gave a wide berth. I know that leaves a big question mark hanging over my movie geek credentials, but I don't care. At least I don't spend my time hanging round message boards posting mean comments about young actresses like Shailene Woodley, who have the temerity to look like real women instead of fantasy figures.
I have Twitter to thank for alerting me to the furore surrounding the publication yesterday of some on-set pictures of Shailene Woodley, who's been cast as Mary Jane Watson in the new Spidey flick. No sooner had the website Cinema Blend unveiled some shots of Woodley and her co-star Andrew Garfield, than the trolls took a dump over them – figuratively speaking. Woodley has had her hair dyed auburn to play M-J, but that wasn't enough to satisfy the fanboys. "Looks horrible as a redhead," was one of the kinder comments in a no-holds-barred discussion that reached its nadir with this exchange:
"Omg she looks horrible I hope they can do something with that face of hers" (Posted by anonymous troll "Dee")
"Burn it with fire" (Posted by anonymous troll "balls")
No doubt "Dee" and "balls" would justify their ignorant, vituperative nonsense as nothing more than friendly banter. But since Taliban victim Aesha Mohammadzai has also been in the news this week, jokes about facial disfigurement don't really cut it with me any more.
We're all so inured to anonymous strangers using message boards to denigrate women that no one thinks censorship or intervention is necessary.
Today Cinema Blend has posted a follow-up piece, declaring that those who criticised Woodley's looks "don't deserve the movie". Apparently this wasn't the only site where fans of the Spider-Man franchise vented their spleen about Woodley's inadequacies or as Cinema Blend puts it, her "natural looks". Underneath a semi-glamorous shot of the actress, Editor-in-Chief Katey Rich takes the trolls, misogynists and fanboys to task for failing to distinguish between comic-book fantasy and reality. She tries to redress the balance, by arguing that Woodley's success in the role should be judged on the basis of her acting – not her looks. Sadly, the notion that an actress in a big-budget comic-book franchise wouldn't be rated solely in terms of her appearance is pure fantasy.
Cinema Blend's distaste for some of its readers would be more convincing if they'd taken down the offensive exchange, or moderated the comments, or offered some kind of riposte at the bottom of the original piece. But we're all so inured to anonymous strangers using message boards to denigrate women that no one thinks censorship or intervention is necessary.
There are certain cinema franchises where the casting decisions attract more than the usual level of scrutiny, but is that any excuse for just being abusive? When Daniel Craig was first chosen to play James Bond in Casino Royale he wasn't everyone's idea of 007 heaven. I remember people complaining that he was too blonde, too rugged or just too ugly to play Ian Fleming's super-smooth spy. Some of those doubters changed their minds after they clapped eyes on a dripping-wet Daniel emerging from the ocean in his tiny blue swimming trunks. Yes, male actors are also relentlessly objectified.
It's lucky that Cinema Blend didn't use the same (free) picture of Woodley that I've got at the top of this post. The star of The Descendants and The Secret Life of the American Teenager is a mature and intelligent performer, but she does not have perfect skin. I shudder to think what the die-hard comic-book lovers would have said about a Mary-Jane with spots instead of a D-cup.
Hidden Depths: Jacques Audiard's Rust and BonePosted: February 21, 2013 Filed under: DVD releases, Movies | Tags: Armand Verdure, Corinne Masiero, Jacques Audiard, Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rust and Bone Leave a comment
Director Jacques Audiard describes Rust and Bone, his widely acclaimed follow-up to A Prophet, as a "gritty melodrama". I wonder whether something got lost in translation. On paper, there is plenty here that would excite the likes of Pedro Almodóvar and Alejandro González Iñárritu – bloody street fights, graphic sex scenes and a beautiful woman maimed by a killer whale. Yet Audiard's low-key direction and refusal to choose gloss over substance ensure this unflinching drama never strays into soap-opera territory.
Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) travels from Belgium to Antibes with his five-year-old son Sam (the appealing Armand Verdure) to stay with his sister. Anna (Corinne Masiero) takes an interest in her vulnerable nephew, though that hardly makes up for Ali's erratic parenting skills. A former boxer and kickboxer, the burly single dad veers between neglect (regularly forgetting to pick Sam up from school) and physical cruelty (shaking the terrified child when he's disobedient). He's well qualified for his new job as a nightclub bouncer, where he comes to the aid of Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard). She's just been hit in the face during a brawl, and Ali stuns her with another clumsy (verbal) blow: "You're dressed like a whore." It's hardly an auspicious start.
Tellingly, our first glimpse of Steph is her bare legs sprawled on the nightclub floor. She loses the bottom half of those limbs following an accident at Marineland, where she revels in her job as a whale trainer. Like the orca pool, disability can be dangerous cinematic territory, but Audiard spares us the full horror of the incident and its aftermath. So Rust and Bone finds beauty – even serenity – as the camera delves beneath the surface to show wreckage, a drifting body and a cloud of blood.
That same narrative restraint extends into Steph's painful rehabilitation and growing dependence on Ali as a friend, supporter and part-time lover. The scenes in which Steph takes her first post-amputation swim and later removes her artificial legs to have sex with Ali, could have been sentimental, prurient or just plain weird. Audiard pulls them off with minimal dialogue and a reliance on Schoenaerts and Cotillard to find the emotional truth without embarrassment.
Though it doesn't start out as a cerebral or deeply romantic relationship, Ali and Steph seem to understand that each needs their physical outlet in order to survive. Her self-image has been constructed around her need to be watched – both by her lovers and in the performance of her job. As she embraces one of her beloved orcas from the "safe" side of the tank, you can almost see the internal healing process. Similarly, Ali rejoices in the pain as well as the payouts that go with his masochistic sideline in street fighting.
Shorn of its usual cinematic glamour, the Côte d'Azur is shown here as just another recession-hit backwater – albeit with better beaches. Audiard and cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine have a fondness for point of view shots, huge close-ups and camera angles that are sometimes perverse. So Ali's first glimpse of the coastline at Antibes isn't a breath-taking vision of blue ocean but a quick skim across the horizon from just over his right shoulder. A little later, he wakes from nap on the beach and the foreground of the frame is entirely filled by Steph's giant nipples. Subtle it isn't. But there are beautiful images here too, including the symphony of glossy black skin and foam as the whales go through the diving routine that precedes the accident.
Ali's involvement in illegal surveillance seems like an unnecessary subplot here, put in purely to engineer a massive bust-up with his sister. They could have just fallen out over his treatment of Sam. But this is a minor fault in a film that knows exactly where it's going from the moment Ali and Steph first meet, yet still keeps you wondering whether it will deliver the big emotional pay-off.
Marion Cotillard already has an Oscar for the baffling and convoluted La Vie en Rose, but I found her performance here far more impressive and affecting. When Steph loses her legs she is literally cast adrift – professionally and personally – and it's fascinating to watch Cotillard rebuild this woman from the ground up. As her unlikely saviour, Matthias Schoenaerts gives us a man of many contradictions whose heart finally proves to be as reliable as his fists.


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High Wave Action on the Great Lakes
Dangerous currents aren't the only hazards swimmers face when swimming in the Great Lakes
Image 1. Great Lakes Waves can quickly become overwhelming to swimmers. Slide modified from a beach hazards presentation by Bob Dukesherer (NWS Grand Rapids, MI)
The Dangers of Swimming in Great Lakes Waves
A quick review of Great Lakes fatality and rescue incidents reveals a common factor: moderate to high waves with a short period. Waves on the Great Lakes are different from the ocean because they are driven by local winds (whereas the ocean contains both locally wind driven waves and waves travelling from far distances-or swell). As a result, they typically have a much shorter Period, or length of time in between each successive wave. This means swimmers have less time to recover from a wave before the next wave hits. This also leads to the waves appearing more chaotic than traditional ocean waves. Some compare the Great Lakes to swimming in a washing machine because the waves can become so disorganized and choppy (image 3). The data collected on Great Lakes current related incidents shows that most drowning fatalities and rescues occurred when wave heights ranged from 3 to 6 feet (figure 1), and wave periods between 3 and 5 seconds (figure 2).
Figure 1: A majority of current-related incidents occurred during moderate to high wave heights. Most people are not usually confident swimming in waves greater than 6 feet, so the number of incidents diminishes once heights reach greater than 6 feet. Waves greater than 6 feet are extremely hazardous and life threatening to anyone entering the water, regardless of swimming ability. (Data from the GLCID, 2013).
Figure 2: Wave Periods observed during current-related incidents. Most of the rescues and drownings occurred at times when the wave period was between 3 and 5 seconds (GLCID, 2013).
Swimming during times of moderate to high waves presents several risks:
1. Waves are coming toward shore in rapid succession-generally with less than 5 seconds in between waves. This can easily tire a swimmer, and leaves little recovery time for those that get knocked down.
2. Dangerous currents are typically present during moderate to high waves. These currents can quickly take a swimmer into deeper water, where waves are over the swimmers head. They can also prevent swimmers from keeping their feet on the bottom, which can make fighting the quickly approaching waves even more difficult and tiresome. A combination of strong currents and moderate to high waves is life threatening to anyone entering the water.


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The quarantine in effect for several weeks at the Saginaw Correctional Facility near Freeland has been lifted.
An outbreak of shiga toxin-producing E. coli sickened 96 people over the last month.
MLive.com reports Wednesday (http://bit.ly/RiAwKe) the quarantine was lifted this week.
Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman John Cordell says normal operations have resumed at the Saginaw-area facility.
The quarantine began on Aug. 31. Questionnaires were given to inmates to determine what they had eaten, and a review was done of all items on the menu at the time the illnesses began.
The most probable source was chicken salad that was prepared by the inmates and served at the prison's cafeteria, but officials can't say for sure it was the cause of the outbreak.
According to the Michigan Department of Corrections website, the 43-acre facility in Tittabawassee Township, Saginaw County, was built on a 142-acre site and is comprised of 11 main buildings totaling about 303,850 square feet. The facility includes three Level II buildings, three Level IV buildings, and one Level I building along with buildings for education, programs, administration, food service, healthcare and maintenance.
Copyright 2012 by WNEM (Meredith Corporation) and the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Parmesan Risotto (with pesto)
3/4 cup Arborio rice
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 of a large white onion, chopped
3 1/2 cups hot vegetable stock (or chicken stock if not vegetarian)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano/ regular parmesan
fresh cracked black pepper
salt (optional and according to taste)
a pat of butter (additional to finish the dish)
prepared homemade or store bought pesto
shavings of pamigiano-reggiano/ regular parmesan
- In a large sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter and saute onions until translucent and soft.
- Add the Arborio rice and saute for about 2 minutes.
- Add the the dry white wine. Then slowly add the vegetable stock (or chicken broth) half a cup at a time while slowly stirring the rice. When the rice absorbs a decent amount of liquid add another half cup of stock, repeat this process until rice is cooked (al dente) and is a bit soupy.
- Add the grated parmigiano-reggiano and gently stir until creamy.
- Season with freshly cracked black pepper (and salt, optional and according to taste) And finish the risotto dish with a pat of butter and remove from heat.
- Serve dribbled with a bit of pesto and shaving of parmigiano-reggiano.
Makes 3-4 servings
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Parmesan Risotto (with pesto)
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Fan Bingbing had a busy night, as she also attended the L'Oreal Paris 15th Anniversary dinner, held at Plage Orange during the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
On this occasion she wore a Valentino Spring 2012 Couture gown.
Her floral chiffon dress is so heavenly with the pretty floral print and bow accent.
Some of you say she does pretty too often and free from imperfection, but I say what is wrong with that?
This look is one of my favourites from Fan. But I have a feeling I may say that again before the festival is out.
A top knot, coral lip colour and Ferragamo clutch completed her look.
Which gown did you prefer?
The Elie Saab or the Valentino Couture?
Credit: Style.com & Getty
Posted by Catherine Kallon on May 18th, 2012 In: Fan Bingbing, Runway To Red Carpet, Valentino


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Your glass bottles and jars can now be recycled in some parts of our region.
West Virginia Recycling Services is now accepting glass at its Slack Street location.
You can bring glass food containers and liquid glass bottles. There are bins for clear, blue, brown and green glass. The glass is then broken down and set aside for people to pick up. "we have it broken down into different colors right now," said George Hunyadi. "You can get it mixed," Hunyadi continued. "We are probably going to use it for some pot holes, roadbase and maybe some stepping stones."
The recycling center is open Monday - Friday from 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. - Noon.
For more information, call the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority at 304-342-4477.


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Though Sri Lankan food has parallels to South Indian food, it remains distinctly its own form of cuisine. Throughout years of colonization and influence from other countries, Sri Lanka has adapted its food culture into a blend of different curry concoctions and dishes.
A few things about Sri Lankan food can be said with certainty: Sri Lankans love spices, they love food that explodes with flavor, and they enjoy deep fried snacks!
Being an island with a tropical climate, coconuts and fish are two of the most influential components of Sri Lankan cuisine. Fish is made into curries and coconut in some form or another is included in nearly all dishes.
Rice and curry is the Sri Lankan staple, though various kinds of flat bread are equally common.
So go ahead and grab a "paratha" and sit back to check out these 40 foods you can't miss in Sri Lanka!
1. Fish Curry and Mixed Rice
There's nothing more common to eat as Sri Lankan food than a nutritious plate of rice and curry. You normally get a plate of rice piled with a few of the daily vegetable curries and a choice of fish curry as well.
A plate like the one above cost me 120 LKR ($1.09), but without fish it would have even been less.
2. Deviled Sweet and Sour Fish Curry
There are a lot of different deviled dishes in Sri Lanka. This fish was deep fried and smothered in a lovely sweet and sour sauce and lightly fried again with red onions and banana peppers. It was excellent with fried rice and a flatbread paratha on the side.
3. Chili Fish Curry
This particular fish curry in Sri Lanka reminded me of the Burmese food curry that I also highly enjoyed. It was fragrant, oily, and the sauce was marvelous with a giant plate of rice.
4. Sri Lankan Daal Curry
Daal curry is one of the most commonly consumed staple dishes in Sri Lankan cuisine. The daal lentils are often cooked with coconut milk in Sri Lanka and made into a rich stew that acts almost like a gravy for rice.
5. Jackfruit Curry
Sri Lankan food is famous for its curries – and jackfruit curry is one of my favorites. The chunks of the fruit are curried in a number of different ways.
This particular version (brown dish above) tasted like it was chutney-ed and the pieces of jackfruit could have almost passed for chunks of tender beef.
6. Mallum or Mallung – Gotukola Sambol
Green leafy vegetables aren't the most common thing to eat in Sri Lanka, so I welcomed every opportunity to eat a bowl of Mallum.
The leafy green salad is made with finely chopped gotukola, shredded coconut meat, red onions, and a few spices for flavoring. I would call it the Middle Eastern tabbouleh of Sri Lanka.
7. Beetroot Curry
A plate of Sri Lankan curry and rice is complete only when a nice helping of beetroot curry is included.
Beats are diced up and cooked to death with a number of spices including cinnamon and curry leaves. Throughout the duration of my stay in the country, I just couldn't get enough of this blood red vegetable.
8. Vegetarian Kottu
An extremely popular Sri Lankan street food dish is known as "kottu."
Essentially it is composed of shredded pieces of Sri Lankan godamba roti that is stir fried with an assortment of spices and a choice of other meaty (or vegetarian) ingredients.
Kottu is quite simply the "hamburger" of Sri Lanka, something so tasty it's just impossible to resist!
To take things to the next level, kottu is served with a separate bowl of curry sauce to moisten and add extra flavor to the stir fried flatbread.
9. Egg Kottu
Another variation of kottu is with vegetables and egg. The vegetables include a few meager sprigs of leek, onions and cabbage and the sizzling godamba roti is lathered with egg to make it even richer…and more delicious!
10. Cheese Kottu
If vegetarian kottu is the hamburger of Sri Lanka, cheese kottu is the quadruple bacon heart stopping cheeseburger.
Yellow curry powder flavor is bumped up a few notches with cheese kottu and it's a Sri Lankan food that you just can't miss. The cheese is not traditional yellow cheese, but rather more like cottage milk cheese.
Check out this VIDEO of Kottu being cooked!
Pretty cool song…yah?
11. Fried Salted Fish
Little fried and salted fish are a lovely addition to Sri Lankan food. Unlike saucy curry, little fish are heavily salted and deep fried so they are crunchy. Their texture and flavor goes well with a plate of vegetarian curry and rice.
Maldive fish are a popular ingredient for Sri Lankan dishes. The little salted guys are included in a range of different sambol sauces.
12. Deep Fried Chicken Fried Rice
If only more countries in the world knew about fried chicken fried rice, it would be integrated into cuisines around the world…guaranteed.
I don't think there's much need for explanation; Take fried chicken and make fried rice with it.
13. Egg Fried Rice
Though it's made in a wok and looks like an item off a Chinese or Thai street food menu, Sri Lankan fried rice still tastes like Sri Lankan food.
It could be the assortment of ingredients or the hint of cumin that accompanies the rice. Nevertheless, a number of Chinese influenced dishes remain popular as Sri Lakan food staples.
14. Brinjal Eggplant
Though I ate many Sri Lankan dishes, the candied brinjal eggplant (black stuff towards the right) was one that I couldn't get enough of.
The eggplant is cooked to death with salt, oil, soy sauce, and sugar until it becomes fall apart tender and the sugar begins to caramelize. Though I'm not the biggest fan of sweet things, this eggplant was to die for.
15. Sri Lankan Chicken Curry
I have read that Sri Lankan food is difficult to master, simply because everyone has their own variation of each dish. No chicken curry will taste the same throughout the country.
This clay pot of Grandmother's home-made chicken curry goes down as one of the top 10 flavors that has ever entered my mouth (article to come later).
16. Cobra Chilies
It's not exactly a Sri Lankan food, but those innocent looking chili peppers on the plate above are far from kind.
Known as the "Cobra Chili," these little guys were so delicious, but they nearly burnt a hole in my tongue.
17. Northern Sri Lankan Tamil Food
Some of my favorite Sri Lankan meals were from the northern Tamil tip of Jaffna. This outrageously tasty meal included yellow rice, an assortment of vegetable and seafood curries, a few parathas, and a number of heaping spoons full of tomato onion garnish.
18. Ela Batu – Thai Eggplant Curry
Believe it or not, Sri Lankan food includes a dish that is quite similar to Thai green curry. Thai eggplants are used in the dish and a similar but Sri Lankan tasting green curry sauce is what holds it together.
19. Squid Curry
This Jaffna squid was chopped into small pieces before being fried with peppers, onions, and a spiced tomato based sauce. It was wonderful along with rice and curry and a few parathas.
20. Candied Shrimp Curry
When I spotted these little blacked shrimps in the glass cabinet in Jaffna, I couldn't pass them up. Luckily they were just as tasty as they looked, a marvelous blend of curry spices coating each and every part of the shrimp bodies.
21. Egg Hoppers (Appa)
Hoppers which are also known as Appa, are an iconic food of Sri Lanka.
It begins with a simple pancake batter that's spruced up with coconut milk and a splash of toddy (Sri Lankan palm wine). The unique part is that hoppers are cooked in small "wok" like rounded pans so the dough cooks thick and soft on the bottom, and thin and crunchy around the edges.
The texture and even taste is quite similar to Ethiopian injera bread. Hoppers can be ordered plain, or even better with a fried egg in the middle.
Also check out this video that I took at a local hoppers stand:
If you can't see it, watch the Sri Lankan hoppers video on YouTube.
22. Pol Sambola – Spicy Coconut Garnish
This Sri Lankan food may be one of the simplest things to make, yet one of the most amazing stokes of deliciousness that Sri Lanka has contributed to the world.
I could graze on pol sambola for hours at a time.
It's merely a mixture of shredded coconut, chili powder, lime juice, red onions and salt – but believe me, every bite is like a miracle come true.
Pol sambola is perfect to eat with bread, roti, or on top of rice.
I was craving pol sambol so badly that I had to make it myself… Enjoy!
(if you can't see the video, watch it on YouTube here)
23. Lunu Miris – Onion Sambola
Along with coconut garnish, Sri Lanka's pounded onion and chili sauce known as Lunu Miris is almost as delicious.
The mixture included red onions, salt, chili powder, lime juice, and a small handful of Maldive salted fish to make it taste superb!
24. Roti Protein (aka Sri Lankan Chorizo)
This is not a common Sri Lankan food, but after devouring this burrito looking roti in Kandy I couldn't help from including it on this list.
It was phenomenal…and though it was all soy protein, it tasted nearly identical to Mexican pork chorizo and eggs (more details on this to come).
25. Pittu – Flour and Coconut Funnel Cakes
Sri Lankan pittu funnel cakes are a combination of flour (either rice of karukan), fresh shredded coconut, and a handful of desiccated coconut. The precious little cakes are traditionally steamed in bamboo, but now are sometimes steamed in circular metal tubes.
After being cooked, the crumbly textured pittu cakes are served with fresh sweetened coconut milk.
26. Pol Roti and Potato Curry
Roti in Sri Lanka is less greasy and more of a thick tortilla like flatbread (paratha are the greasy flat-breads).
In Sri Lanka, roti are made with freshly grated coconut, flour, water and salt. They are made into balls of dough, flattened, and then cooked on a hot griddle. Any form of spicy curry sauce handles the task of being the dip for a delicious pol roti!
27. Paratha Flatbread
What's known as paratha in Sri Lanka is similar to a roti in Malaysian food, or an African chapati.
The greasy flaky flat-bread is melt in your mouth delicious, especially when dipped in coconut milk curry sauce. YUM!
28. Sri Lankan Omelet
Sri Lankan omelets are loaded up with local spices like cumin and curry powder and then simmered in a layer of oil coconut oil so it turns golden brown. Over a plate of rice and alongside some shredded coconut garnish, a Sri Lankan omelet is heavenly.
29. Ulundhu Vadai
These marvelously tasty little fritters are made from daal, combined with incredible spices, and deep fried to crunchy perfection.
30. Cassava Chips
I was excited to see a giant street food cart filled with my favorite kind of junk food: cassava chips. I had enjoyed countless handfuls of cassava chips while growing up in Kenya.
50 LKR ($0.45) will get you a small paper bag of salty chips at Galle Face beach in Colombo.
31. Deep Fried Jackfruit Seeds
Another popular snack in Sri Lanka are deep fried jackfruit seeds. They are salted and served in small paper bags made from scrap paper.
Some of the Sri Lankan street food carts and snacks even reminded me of Egyptian street food.
32. Deep Fried Morsels
As you may have noticed by now, though there are many vegetarian dishes, Sri Lankan food is not all that healthy.
On top of that, Sri Lanka is a country that loves their deep fried snacks. These snacky morsels of batter were heavily salty and seasoned with fried curry leaves.
33. Coconut Roti and Chili Salt
This little gem of a snack was purchased on the train from Colombo to Kandy. It's basically a little piece of coconut infused solid flat-bread topped with a marvelous flaky salty chili sauce.
It almost tasted like a Sri Lankan mini pizza.
34. Sri Lankan Samosas
From Indian food to Kenyan dishes, samosas have become a popular snack from coast to coast. Some are filled with meat, while others are vegetarian.
35. Fish and Vegetable Roti
The triangular looking pockets are a form of roti filled with a range of different ingredients. Fish was my preferred filling, but there were also some nice vegetarian versions available. Instead of being deep fried like samosas, triangle roti's are just skillet fried.
36. Sri Lanka Fish Cutlet Balls and Chinese Egg Rolls
The Chinese egg rolls in Sri Lanka were so-so, but the fish cutlet balls (pictured above) were absolutely wonderful. It's like a little grenade of fish packed into a breaded ball and deep fried.
When it comes to short eats in Sri Lanka, there's no need to go any further than the fish cutlets – they are delicious!
37. Full Cream Curd and Sweet Syrup
In India, curd is often eaten with rice or mixed with something; In Sri Lanka curd is devoured drizzled with kithul treacle - syrup made from liquid jaggery.
At first this "curd" sounded a little bizarre to me, but when I tried it, I was amazed and wanted to eat more for every consecutive breakfast.
Sri Lankan curd tastes very similar to what I know as plain yoghurt. It's creamy, slightly sour, and the sweet syrup on top makes it absolutely fantastic.
38. Woodapple Juice
Yup, the outer shell smells a bit like rotting blue cheese mixed with dirty socks. The inside of the fruit looks a bit like diarrhea, but tastes similar to a tamarind. But hey, as a religious fan of durian, I'm not one to judge a fruit by its shell.
Despite the looks of this wonder fruit, woodapple juice in Sri Lanka is wildly popular – and I'll be first to admit that it tastes pretty good when it's blended up with some sugar!
There's nothing better to wash down Sri Lankan food with, than a big cup of woodapple juice!
39. King Coconut
No component of Sri Lankan food is more vital than that holy coconut. In Sri Lanka there are many varieties of this special fruit, including the orange colored king coconut.
These coconuts line the streets around the country and are sold just for their sweet water. Each coconut costs from 30 – 40 LKR ($0.27 – $0.36).
40. Ceylon Milk Tea
Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) is one of the world's leading producers of tea – no trip to the country would be the same without multiple cups a day.
Milk tea as well as ginger tea and plain tea are all popular and widely available choices.
Sri Lankan Food
Sri Lankan food is full of spices and exciting to the taste buds. At just an average of $1 – $2 for a giant meal, Sri Lanka is a culinary playground for sampling amazing dishes!
Have you had Sri Lankan food?
JUST UPLOADED: Colombo Travel Video
If you have a few minutes check out this video!


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Our commitment to excellent service is no fluke; it comes directly from Pasquale
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As a Master Technician for Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini and others,
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With Pasquale's sterling example in mind, our technical staff is devoted to being
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Often called upon by factories to consult and work with engineers in Italy to create
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access to factory technical bulletins, updates, special tools and campaigns to which
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Only available through official factory channels, our comprehensive library of technical
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Service Fees and Labor Rates at Aquaculture Facilities
Created: September 10th, 2012
Last Revised: January 13th, 2014
The Aquaculture Research Institute, University of Maine is committed to providing outstanding service to project directors for the successful implementation and completion of research, teaching, and outreach projects and activities.
Fees and labor rates for services at the aquaculture facilities in Orono, are established consistent with the "Policies and Procedures on Direct Cost Recovery and Sharing for Facilities under the Direction of the Aquaculture Research Institute". Fees and labor rates are set to provide reimbursement for direct costs incurred at its facilities for services provided in support of individual projects and activities. Fees and labor rates apply to all research, teaching, outreach and other projects and activities requiring or requesting services. Please note information on effective dates below. Click the following links for pdf versions of the documents:
Service Fees and Labor Rates_Version1.3_13jan2014
Facility use request form_Version1_10Sept2012
Special Services Request Form Version1 8Oct2013
Policies & Procedures on Direct Cost Recovery for Aquaculture_Version1_10sept2012
Aquaculture Research Center
|Other services(labor rate/hr)
|Equipment charges (per day)
|Environmental chamber
|Basic service (Fee/room/month) 1
|Small project room 2 (Room 103a)
|Wet lab (Room 103b)
|Dry lab (Room 105)
|Wet lab (Room 111)
|Wet lab (Room 120b)
|Wet lab (Room 108)
|Wet lab 2 (Room 6)
|Other rooms/areas available upon negotiation3
1Unit scale = square foot (and chargeable square footage is determined according to the wet lab room deemed most suitable for the project); Unit cost=$1.54/square foot
2Sub-division of this room is possible upon negotiation; Minimum unit is 100 square feet; Service fee will be calculated using unit cost of $1.54/square foot
3Service fee will be calculated using unit cost of $1.54/square foot
Effective Dates
Effective October 1, 2012, all project or activity directors requesting services at the Aquaculture Research Center (and the BSLIII FISHlab once available) must provide funds for facility fees for basic services and/or labor costs for other services except when the activity is part of a pre-existing contract (see below).
Effective October 1, 2012, principle investigators may include facility fees and labor costs for services in proposal budgets processed through the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) or Department of Industrial Cooperation (DIC).
Pre-Existing Contracts
Projects and activities initiated prior to October 1,2012, are exempt from basic service fees and labor costs for other services if all of the following conditions are met:
Project renewals submitted after October 1, 2012, are not exempt from facility fees and labor costs. Our intention is to honor contractual commitments made prior to October 1, 2012. For unusual situations, please contact the ARI Associate Director.
Basic and Other Services
Basic service includes services at a facility in support of the use and care of space or animals used by the project. Basic services are defined in Section VI of the "Policies and Procedures on Direct Cost Recovery and Sharing for Facilities under the Direction of the Aquaculture Research Institute".
Other service includes all services not on the defined list of basic services and provided to meet unique needs of individual projects or activities. A list of examples of other services is provided in Section VII of the "Policies and Procedures on Direct Cost Recovery and Sharing for Facilities under the Direction of the Aquaculture Research Institute". Labor costs for other services will be charged at the labor rate listed above. Costs for other supplies or inputs provided by the facility must be reimbursed directly.
Instructions for Proposal Budgets
On ORSP proposal budget spreadsheets, enter costs for basic services and costs of labor for other services on the following line: Farm Services.
Use the following text for budget justifications as appropriate:
Costs for Projects Requesting Reduced Services
There are reduced service fees when project directors provide some of the inputs and labor for their projects or activities. Please note that it is not possible for project directors to provide all of the inputs. The facilities have specialized water supplies that are managed by the facility staff. Where project directors provide some of the inputs and labor for their projects or activities and not all of the basic service is required, fees are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Project directors should contact Neil Greenberg in the first instance. Reduced service fees are agreed by the ARI Senior Management.
Service Requests and Billing
Requests for tank space, wet or dry lab use, and animals and associated basic service must be submitted to the facility manager, Neil Greenberg, using the "Facility Use Request Form". This forms can be found on the ARI website under links for "Resources for Staff and Students."
It is generally recommended that project directors discuss service needs with Neil Greenberg early in project planning. Project directors should obtain pre-approval from Neil Greenberg for commitments on other services in the project planning stage. All services are provided at the discretion of the ARI Senior Management.
The above forms request estimates for facility use requiring basic service and estimated labor needs (hours) for other services. This information is used by the facility manager for planning purposes. Billing for services will be based on actual units used as reported by the facility manager. Questions on billing should be directed to the Associate Director, Aquaculture Research Institute.
Cost Sharing
Faculty and staff are expected to include basic service fees and costs for other services in proposal budgets submitted to external and internal sponsors or have other means to cover these costs. The Aquaculture Research Institute will consider requests to cost-share fees and labor costs for research projects only in exceptional circumstances. Examples of circumstances that may receive consideration include high-priority projects that may not otherwise occur or be significantly delayed because of funding timeline issues, or to allow for trade-offs for significant non-monetary benefits to the Institute. Cost sharing discussions related to research and outreach should begin with the ARI Associate Director. Cost sharing discussions related to teaching should be brought to the Dean by academic chairs/directors.


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There's a darling new arrival at the Fort Worth zoo, but the staffers need some help giving the new baby a name.
The female greater one-horned rhino was born at the zoo on August 18. It's the fifth time the baby rhino's mother, Shanti, has given birth. That's pretty amazing, because the zoo says a typical rhino pregnancy lasts 15 to 16 months, and the females wait years to mate again.
The Fort Worth Zoo wants you to choose the baby rhino's new name. Just visit the zoo's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FortWorthZoo and cast your vote for one of the five names staffers picked that reflects this animal's heritage.
The greater one-horned rhino, native to Nepal and India, is listed as endangered by the International Rhino Foundation.
Adult rhinos weigh as much as two tons, and the babies are usually about 130 lbs. when they are born.
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Aural Architecture: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual in Byzantium
Onassis Seminar "Icons of Sound: Architecture, Acoustics and Ritual in Byzantium" nnnThis year-long seminar explores the creation and operations of sacred space in Byzantium by focusing on the intersection of architecture, acoustics, music, and ritual. Through the generous support of the Onassis Foundation (USA), we will invite nine leading scholars in the field to share their research and conduct the discussion of their pre-circulated papers. The goal is to develop a new interpretive framework for the study of religious experience and assemble the research tools needed for work in this interdisciplinary field.
Subject Code:CLASSART
Course Number:108/208
Day/Time:M / 5:15-8:05
Room:Cummings Art Bldg, Rm 103


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In the past few years, Spirit Rescue International has grown to become one of the largest and far-reaching paranormal research groups in the world. In that time we have branched off to create new organizations under the SRI banner that are uniquely different, yet still follow the values of our parent company.
Below is a list of the other divisions of Spirit Rescue International LTD:
The Supernatural Analysis and Research Institute (SARI) is a center for higher learning that you will not find on any college campus or state-sanctioned institution. Instead, SARI is a growing collection of free-thinkers who are not satisfied with the standard explanations of our highly strange and fascinating multi-verse provided by mainstream science or religions.
SARI Webpages: http://www.sarinstitute.com/page3.htm
Glannant Ty is a unique publishing company that handles all types of alternative ideas and material. Our mission is to bring to the public the latest fiction and non-fiction topics with a focus on alternative views and thinking "outside the box". Our topics include the paranormal, New Age, metaphysical, Fortean topics, Cryptozoology, Alternative Archeology, Ancient Aliens, and much more.
Website: http://www.glannantty.com
The Psychic Spy is one of the fastest growing news sites on the Internet that caters directly to the Intelligence community. Inspired by the novel written by site founder Irene Allen-Block, The Psychic Spy has quickly taken on a life of its own as we strive to bring the latest, up-to-date declassified news and information to both the Intelligence community as well as the general public.
Website: http://www.thepsychicspy.com
Unknown Origins Radio is a weekly Internet radio show where we discuss everything having to do with the strange and paranormal - from ghosts and spirits, UFO's, Bigfoot and other strange creatures, as well as the latest in unusual scientific discoveries. We interview some of the top authors, researchers and experiencers in the paranormal field, and break down the information for both skeptics and believers alike.
Website: http://www.unknownoriginsradio.com
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Cynthia Long was elected as Williamson County Commissioner for Precinct Two in November 2006. Prior to being elected as County Commissioner, she worked in various technical positions before moving into IT management for the State of Texas, where she worked for ten years. In 1997, she started her own IT consulting company, which focused on information technology and project management.
Commissioner Long has been active in the community since moving to Williamson County in 1988. She was elected twice to the Cedar Park City Council, during which time she served as Mayor Pro-Tem, and also served on the Cedar Park Planning and Zoning Commission as well as the Round Rock Medical Center Board of Directors. Commissioner Long served on the Williamson County Metro YMCA Board and was the founding Chairman of the Twin Lakes Family YMCA. Commissioner Long was also the Vice Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party for three years. Additionally, Commissioner Long was appointed to and currently serves on the Board of the Directors for the Cedar Park Regional Medical Center.
Commissioners Cynthia Long, Pct. 2, with Bobby Mabry, principal of Liberty Hill High School, and others celebrated the groundbreaking of improvements to CR 277 today. The contractor is Smith Contracting, and construction is anticipated to be completed in August. The work consists of reconstructing and widening the existing 2-lane roadway to add shoulders and a turn lane from SH 29 to 800 feet north.
Williamson County and the City of Cedar Park held a joint ribbon cutting Thursday for two main arterial roadways in the 1890 Ranch-Cedar Park Regional Medical Center area. The results are major improvements to: Cottonwood Creek Trail from RM 1431 to New Hope Drive (3,087 Feet), and New Hope Drive from 183A to Cottonwood Creek Trail (2,393 Feet). Each road was widened from a two-lane to four-lane, divided roadway with raised median, wide outside lanes for bicycles, sidewalks, and street lighting.
In August 2009, the Williamson County Commissioners Court unanimously voted to eliminate the Freeport tax in Williamson County. Existing manufacturing businesses located in the county agreed to a structured four-year phase out of the Freeport tax. The agreements with the existing companies included incentives for a quicker phase out if the taxable value of the businesses, either individually or as a group, increased by certain percentages. Due to the success of the program, today Commissioner Cynthia Long, Precinct 2, announced that, per the contract, Williamson County manufacturing businesses will be released from their phase out agreement one year early. Instead of paying 20% of their Freeport tax for 2013, they will owe nothing.
Cedar Park Annex
Commissioner Precinct Two
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Suite 201
Cedar Park, TX 78613
Phone: (512) 260-4280
Fax: (512) 260-4284
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