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INDIANA JONES: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES - Blu-ray review
"Meet me at Omar's. Be ready for me. I'm going after that truck."
"I don't know, I'm making this up as I go!"
And, lo, the skies did open and there burst forth on Blu-ray "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the "Alien" quadrilogy, the "Star Wars" sextril..., sixtrol..., six of 'em. And life was good. Now, "The Indiana Jones" series reaches BD, and the world is complete.
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Paramount Home Media collaborated on the full restoration of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" under the supervision of director Steven Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt, and they digitally remastered the picture and sound of "The Temple of Doom" and "The Last Crusade" alongside "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." In addition, they included in the set a bonus disc of documentaries, featurettes, and interviews. Lions and tiger and bears. Oh, my....
In the American Film Institute's 2003 poll of top movie heroes, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) placed second behind Atticus Finch, the courageous lawyer from "To Kill a Mockingbird." Given that Finch is a decidedly nontraditional hero, we can safely assume the folks at the AFI think Indy is the best conventional, swashbuckling action hero of all time.
Not that we needed the AFI's word on the matter. Indy is a lot of people's favorite hero, with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" regularly winning viewer-opinion polls as the best adventure film ever made. So, here he is in full, high-definition picture and sound in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," packaged in big BD box set.
Probably everyone by now knows the genesis of the movies. Back in the late Seventies, buddies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had just come off the successes of "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" respectively, and they wanted to do something different, something old-fashioned, something that didn't rely on flashy, outer-space technology. Spielberg had been wanting to do a James Bond-type epic, and Lucas had just the right story idea. They settled on a homage to the movie serials of their youth--the brief, one-reel cliff-hangers they remembered from Saturday afternoon chapters of children's adventures that featured heroes like Jack Armstrong, Flash Gordon, Commando Cody, Dick Tracy, Zorro, Ace Drummond, Captain America, Buck Rogers, Terry and the Pirates, Spy Smasher, and the Masked Marvel. They made their hero an archaeologist and named him after Lucas's dog. They borrowed Indy's hat from Humphrey Bogart in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," the leather jacket from Commando Cody, and the bullwhip from the likes of Lash La Rue and Whip Wilson. My guess is that Lucas and Spielberg also patterned their hero in part after the fictional character Allan Quatermain, H. Rider Haggard's adventurer in "King Solomon's Mines" (1885); and in an ironic twist, Sean Connery, who plays Indiana's father in "The Last Crusade," starred as Quartermain in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003).
All the while, Lucas and Spielberg had Tom Selleck in mind for the hero, but Selleck was doing the "Magnum, P.I." television show at the time, so then they considered other people like Nick Nolte. Instead, the role of Indiana Jones went fortuitously to Harrison Ford, the haughty rogue of the initial "Star Wars" saga, and the rest is history. Of course, we'll never know how good Selleck or Nolte might have been, but there's no doubt about Ford. His modesty, charm, and self-effacing style combined with a virile strength and masculinity that appealed as much to men as to women, and as much to adults as to children. With Lucas co-writing and co-producing and Spielberg co-writing and directing, the series became an instant success.
Incidentally, a cliff-hanger (or cliffhanger) for those of you too young or too uninformed to know is a precarious ending to a chapter, often used in old-time movie serials, leaving audiences in suspense and wanting to come back for the next installment; things like the hero hanging off a cliff (naturally), falling from an airplane, or apparently being blasted to smithereens by a bomb exploding under his seat. Today, the word "cliff-hanger" refers to any suspenseful predicament of which the outcome is uncertain until the very last moment. The "Indiana Jones" movies are a succession of cliff-hangers, and what fun Lucas and Spielberg must have had (and must still be having) concocting them. In a series of episodic adventures, the stories subject poor Indy to everything from tarantula spiders to deadly snakes, giant rolling balls to medieval snares, near-fatal pitfalls to atomic bombs and the fires of hell. And Nazis. Two of the adventures feature Nazis. "I hate these guys," says Indy in a moment of supreme understatement.
The "Indy" films are among that rare breed that have their tongue planted firmly in their cheek but never ridicule the action-adventure style; they're entertaining with their high spirits and good humor, while being serious participants in the genre. "The Crimson Pirate" (1952) was able to poke good-natured fun at pirate movies while being a great swashbuckler in its own right; and many of the Bonds pay friendly homage to spy capers while being suspenseful and exciting spy capers themselves. Likewise, the "Indiana Jones" films take great joy in having fun with action-adventure flicks at the same time they establish themselves as the foremost champions of such thrillers. It's not an easy accomplishment.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark":
Anyway, it all started in 1981 with "Raiders of the Lost Ark," a title that had more than a few folks puzzled. As the Wife-O-Meter and I were leaving a theater in the San Francisco Bay Area after seeing "Raiders" for the first time, we overheard a teenage girl saying to her companion, "I liked the movie, but why did they call it 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'? I didn't see any football players in it." Honest. True story.
In "Raiders" the time is 1936, and Jones, a professor of archaeology, is hunting for the Ark of the Covenant, the chest containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the most sacred object of the ancient Israelites and thought lost after the sacking of the Temple in Jerusalem, where the Israelites kept it in the Holy of Holies. In the movie, Indy tells us the Ark possesses tremendous supernatural powers, carrying with it "the wrath of God," thus making it a subject of interest to Adolph Hitler, who in real life believed to some extent in the occult and actually did try to collect various reputedly metaphysical items.
The U.S. Government wants the Ark before the Nazis can get it, and they send Jones, an expert on such matters, out to look for it. Along the way, Indy meets his old sweetheart, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), still the best of the "Indiana Jones" female leads for her intelligence and spunk. Then there are the good guys who help Indy: Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliot) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies); and the baddies, Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman), a rival archaeologist out for himself alone, and Toht (Ronald Lacey), a Gestapo agent who gets one the best laughs in the film from a coat hanger. Everyone knows the rest, the giant rolling ball, the spiders, the snakes ("Why'd it have to be snakes?"), the shoot-outs, the adventures continuing from what appears to be the West Coast to Nepal to Egypt to heaven knows where else. And all along the way, there's one hairbreadth escape after another. Classic stuff. Trust me.
Film rating: 10/10
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom":
A few years after "Raiders," in 1984, Lucas and Spielberg tried to top themselves with the second Indiana Jones installment, "The Temple of Doom." Attempting to make the new film as different as possible from the first one yet retain the adventurous atmosphere, they set it in China and India, gave Indy a kid for a sidekick, and provided him with a stereotypical ditzy blonde girlfriend rather than the plucky and resourceful Marion of the earlier film. They also took out the Nazis, set it a year earlier in 1935, confined three-quarters of it to a single locale, the cavernous underground depths of a mountain temple, and designed the plot around a group of children in jeopardy. The result was a film that felt more claustrophobic than its predecessor and an adventure that was darker and more somber. In fact, the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board considered several scenes in the film so grisly, it later inspired them to come up with the now-familiar PG-13 classification to supplement their regular PG. The filmmakers even toned down the original title, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death."
"Temple of Doom" pays homage to any number of classic films along the course of its plot, beginning with "Casablanca," Ford in the Bogey role, continuing with "Gunga Din," and adding bits and pieces of things like "Chandu the Magician" and "The Pied Piper," among others. Indy's job in this one is to retrieve a sacred stone stolen from an Indian village, a stone the villagers believe brings them good fortune. Without it, their land has gone to waste and their children are disappearing. Turns out, the children are being kidnapped by a nearby Thuggee cult to work in the mines beneath an abandoned Hindu temple, Pankot Palace.
The filmmakers strove mightily to outdo "Raiders," but rather than the adventure springing naturally from the story line, they generated most of the excitement this time from a sequence of gross-out gags and several exhilarating stunts. There's a banquet scene, for instance, that features monkey brains, eels, eyeball soup, and various huge bugs to eat; there's a segment with a Thuggee priest reaching into a man's chest and pulling out his heart; and there's a passageway filled with creepy-crawly insects that is an obvious endeavor to one-up the snakes in "Raiders." The three best action sequences are a fight on a narrow rope bridge and two amusement park-type attractions, a bobsled ride down a Himalayan peak and a wild, heart-pounding roller-coaster ride inside the temple's subterranean tunnels. The latter is the highlight of the film.
Assisting Indy this time out are Kate Capshaw as Willie Scott, an American nightclub singer who gets shanghaied into the adventure, and eleven-year-old Jonathan Ke Quan as Short Round, a young friend who comes along willingly. Ms. Capshaw was one of a multitude of women who auditioned for the part, by the way, and the film is where she first meet Spielberg; they married several years later. Indian actor Amrish Puri and TV and film actor Roshan Seth play the villains, Mola Ram, leader of the Thuggee cult, and Chattar Lal, the shifty prime minister, respectively. Also look for a bit part by Dan Aykroyd.
Film rating: 8/10
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade":
"The Temple of Doom" had been another smash success with the public, but so many critics assailed it for its dark tone that Lucas and Spielberg went back to their roots, so to speak, with the third installment, "The Last Crusade" (1989). Indeed, almost everything about "The Last Crusade" harks back to "Raiders," from plot to characters. The result is more satisfying than "Temple of Doom," although throughout the film it seems as though we've been there before.
In this third episode, set in 1938, two years after "Raiders," Indy is trying to find the legendary Holy Grail, the cup from which legend says Christ drank at the Last Supper and into which his blood poured on the cross. The Grail was the object of quests in the Arthur tradition, and in the film it possesses the power of healing and rejuvenation. Naturally, Hitler and the Nazis are after it, too.
The film's structure is much the same as "Raiders," starting with a mini adventure about Indy as a Boy Scout (River Phoenix); it has little to do with the rest of the story except to set the pace and provide some historical data on how Indy became afraid of snakes, learned to use a bullwhip, received the scar on his chin, and got his famous hat. As usual, though, this prologue is one of the best parts of the picture.
The filmmakers opened up the movie to more exotic locales, this time Italy, Austria, Germany, and the Middle East (Petra, in Jordan). They also brought back a couple of old faces in expanded parts, John Rhys-Davies and the late Denholm Elliot, and introduced several new characters, Julian Glover as Walter Donovan, a wealthy industrialist, and Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider, a love interest in the form of a femme fatale.
Most important, however, they brought in Sean Connery as Indy's dad, Professor Henry Jones, Sr., a high-minded father whose expectations his son was never able to meet. But as a twist, they made the usually intrepid Connery an ultraconservative academician, shocked by his son's constant adventures and wild heroics. Only once, when Connery clamps his hand on a Nazi thug, do we see the old, indomitable Bond showing through the professor's befuddled, mild-mannered exterior. Connery and Ford establish a remarkably likable on-screen relationship that helps sell the film. According to the comments of Spielberg and Lucas, there was some disagreement about using Connery, the filmmakers worrying that audiences might associate him too much with 007. But, then, they remembered that Bond was one of the fictional characters upon which they based their hero, so using Connery would bring the series full circle. In any case, the father-son relationship is at the heart of the movie and differentiates the film from the others, making it, instead of a pure action picture, a character piece with action in it. (As an aside, there is really only a twelve-year age difference between Connery and Ford, but who cares.)
As with the "Indy" films before it, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" relies on a succession of rousing escapades and hairbreadth escapes. Many younger people of my acquaintance who came to the Indiana Jones series late, with "The Last Crusade" as their first encounter, have commented that they like it better than "Raiders," which to them seems too derivative of the series' later work. Sorry, folks, other way around. Nevertheless, although I personally find "The Last Crusade" a little less energetic and inspired than "Raiders," there is much to enjoy, and both pictures stand out as the best of the series.
Film rating: 9/10
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull":
It's no "Raiders of the Lost Ark." But what movie is? Nor is it another "Temple of Doom" or "Last Crusade." None of us is as young as we used to be, and it's hard to recapture the pleasures of the past, especially when those pleasures were as bright and bracing as they were in 1981's "Raiders" and its two immediate sequels. What a lot of people forget is that while director Steven Spielberg and co-writer and executive producer George Lucas attempted in "Raiders" to make a movie based on all the old-time serials and cliff-hangers they remembered from their youth, they did so in an entirely new and refreshing way. They practically reinvented the adventure-movie genre, and "Raiders" went on to spawn not only the three sequels we have now but a host of other adventure films that continue to this day.
In 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Spielberg and Lucas, after an absence from the series of nineteen years, tried to recover some of the old spark. If they didn't entirely succeed, it wasn't for lack of trying. In their enthusiasm, they just overdid it.
The fact is, though, that by now we've all become so used to the action-adventure epic that Spielberg and Lucas helped create, it's hard even for them to top themselves. As a result, much of "The Crystal Skull" seems tired or recycled. Yet that is, I'm sure, exactly what the filmmakers wanted. It's supposed to remind viewers of the old days, and it does so at almost every turn.
Needless to say, the most important ingredient in the movie series is back: Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., archaeologist and adventurer supreme. I don't believe either of the filmmakers ever considered getting someone to replace Ford; he's the picture's greatest asset, regardless of his age. Indeed, they made Ford's mid-sixties age an integral part of the movie, poking good-natured fun at it and heading off critics before they could make it an issue. The very first time we see Indy, for instance, the filmmakers purposely give him a grizzled, disheveled, unshaven appearance in an effort to show him right off at his worst. Get used to it, they're saying; we're all older (but better).
Happily, Ford is as spry as ever, and his derring-do seems as plausible (or implausible) as ever. Sure, he's older, but who cares. He remains the best part of the show, which, unfortunately, still seems weary despite Ford's tireless energy. I think it may have something to do with the times having changed, and maybe Spielberg and Lucas finding it hard to keep up. The fact is, films like "Romancing the Stone," "National Treasure," and the "Die Hard" saga have set the mark pretty high for humorous adventure thrillers, and even the talents of Spielberg and Lucas aren't limitless. Now, with the advent of CGI, computer graphics, replacing a lot of the old special effects and physical stunt work, the filmmakers must have found themselves hard pressed to surpass their old glories. And they don't. Instead, they seem content merely to imitate past brilliance. I rather suspect it's what Indy fans wanted all along, in any case.
OK, it's been nineteen years since the last installment, which had taken place around 1938, just before the onset of World War II, and the filmmakers were smart enough to realize that Ford and company could not pretend that time hadn't marched on; there would be no more fighting Nazis. They wisely set their story two decades later, in 1957. A lot of things had happened in the meantime, which the plot reveals in casual, incidental ways, things like our learning that Indy was a hero in WWII, while he continued teaching and doing his archaeological work.
What had changed in the passing decades? Just as the filmmakers had made the earlier movies relevant to the late 1930s, they had to make "Crystal Skull" relevant to the 1950's. Accordingly, they included some important cultural icons of the period. There was by then the Cold War and the Russian Communists. There was the atomic bomb. There were the reports of UFOs that Hollywood had capitalized on since the days of the Roswell incident and pilot Kenneth Arnold's "flying saucers." There were the KGB and the Nazca lines and mind control and alien beings. Naturally, Spielberg and Lucas seized on these ideas for their plot elements.
Yet, they needed a central object, a rare and sacred artifact, for Indy to pursue. They had already used the Ark of the Covenant, the fabled Shankara Stones, and the Holy Grail. What did they have left? They could have gone with the Spear of Longinus (or Spear of Destiny), I suppose, but that might have been too much like the Grail. They chose, instead, the mysterious crystal skulls, which some people claim are pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts of great spiritual significance. The fact that a number of such skulls, some undoubtedly real and some probably fakes, already exist in the hands of collectors must have seemed beside the point. Therefore, we have Indy going off seeking the crystal skull of all crystal skulls, the one that holds the secret of an ancient city of gold and arcane inter-dimensional beings or some such nonsense.
"Chariots of the Gods, man!" --"The Thing"
The movie sets a tongue-in-cheek tone from the beginning by having the Paramount mountain logo turn into a prairie-dog mound. That's pretty cute. Then the filmmakers establish the time period by having a group of young people driving a hot rod while listening to Elvis's "Hound Dog."
With some old friends of the series no longer available for the newer film (Sean Connery, Indy's father in "The Last Crusade," chose not come out of retirement; Denholm Elliott, Marcus Brody, had passed away; and John Rhys-Davies, Sallah, is nowhere in sight), the filmmakers recruited a few new faces, as well as an old one. The new faces include Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams, Indy's rebellious, long-lost son, showing up as a Marlon Brando "Wild One" look-alike; Jim Broadbent as Charles Stanforth, Indy's new college dean; Ray Winstone as "Mac" McHale, one of Indy's old adventuring companions; John Hurt as Professor Harold "Ox" Oxley, an intrepid archaeologist and close friend of the Jones family; and Cate Blanchett as Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, a nefarious, psychic harpy who seems patterned after James Bond villainesses like Rosa Kleb ("From Russia with Love") and Irma Bunt ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service), though less convincing. The returning face is Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Indy's old flame from "Raiders." Ms. Allen's Marion is as plucky and feisty as ever and makes a welcome return to the series.
And the script gives its characters a few good one-liners: "Put your hands down, will you? You're embarrassing us," says Indy to Mac when armed baddies surround them. "What are you, like, eighty?" Mutt asks Indy. And when Indy shows his prowess in a fistfight, Mutt exclaims, "You're a teacher?" Indy answers, "Part time."
The fact is, though, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" not only has an unwieldy title, it has far too much going on it. Where the older films concentrated on a simple plot line--Indy chasing an artifact--this one gets tangled up with too many bad guys, too many peripheral characters, and too many narrative contrivances. By the time it's over, the filmmakers have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink, a problem that plagued Lucas's last few "Star Wars" sequels as well.
Nuking the fridge becomes a defining moment in "The Crystal Skull," reminding us that this one is going more for silliness than for thrills. Nevertheless, the thrills are there, and some of them are spectacular. There's the usual globe-trotting to exotic locales; the usual assortment of high-octane chases and melodramatic encounters; the usual variety of unpleasant wildlife (snakes, ants, scorpions); the usual plethora of creepy-crawly dark places; the usual quota of ravishing scenery, most of it showing up in the last third of the picture; and the usual razzle-dazzle climax, this one reminiscent of the supernatural ending in "Raiders" but done up even more theatrically. Meanwhile, you'll still hear the strains of the familiar John Williams musical score playing almost continuously in the background.
Everything you see in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is very much the same as you remember it from previous episodes, so it won't disappoint old fans. The movie just never does anything particularly unusual or precedent-setting to position itself above its competition these days. It's still fun, mind you, but not as much fun as we might have hoped.
To a lot of viewers "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" may seem a little shopworn or old hat (or old fedora, if you please), but, as I've said, I'm sure filmmakers Spielberg and Lucas meant it that way. They tried to capture a new spirit in an old form, and while the ultimate result may have escaped them, you can't question their objectives. What we have is nevertheless playful and entertaining, even if it looks, deliberately, as though we've seen it all before.
Film rating: 7/10
I quote from Paramount's press release, where they say "'Raiders of the Lost Ark' has been meticulously restored under the supervision of director Steven Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt. Additionally, 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' and 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' have both been remastered alongside 2008's 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' making this landmark release the first time all four films in the epic and award-winning franchise have been available together in sparkling high definition."
Paramount used dual-layer BD50's, MPEG-4/AVC encodes, and THX standards for all four films, presenting them in their native aspect ratios, 2.35:1. Despite the restoration, however, "Raiders" still looks the softest and most veiled of the four films, with faces decidedly too dark for absolute realism. Colors, though, are mostly good, and in brighter-lit scenes they show up nicely. One notices varying degrees of inherent print grain throughout the series, and it adds to the natural texture of the images. "Temple of Doom" is slightly sharper and cleaner than "Raiders," although it's still a touch soft. Colors are brighter, but faces remain dark. "The Last Crusade" offers the brightest, sharpest, clearest PQ of the bunch, and it's a joy to watch. For "Crystal Skull" the image appears a tad glassy at times and a tad too pastel at other times, but I suspect this was the director's intent because that was pretty much as I remember it from a motion-picture theater. Maybe Spielberg figured these were the predominant shades of the Fifties and went accordingly. I dunno. Otherwise, you'll find brilliant hues in "Crystal Skull," again a light film grain, good definition, and only a few moments of softness. Shadow detail and black levels are also strong, which go a long way toward mitigating some of my concerns about the fantasy colors.
The Paramount audio engineers use lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 for the sound on all four movies. While the surround effects on the first three films may not always be pinpoint discrete in the side and rear channels, they do produce a satisfyingly comfortable, enveloping dimensionality, evident from the start of "Raiders" with jungle sounds, birds, and music. As we might expect with the fourth film, made well into the multichannel age, the surrounds yield a more immersive sensation. There's generally a roaring bass present in all four films, taut and deep. Also, there is a terrific dynamic impact in all the films, with strong, quick transient response. Front-channel stereo spread is wide, and John Williams's lush scores get a lush treatment throughout.
In this five-disc box set, disc one contains "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and teaser, theatrical, and reissue trailers (HD); disc two contains "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and teaser and theatrical trailers (HD); disc three contains "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and teaser and theatrical trailers (HD); and disc four contains "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and three theatrical trailers (HD). The trailers for the first three films are in a 1.78:1 ratio; for the final film at 2.35:1.
The extras on the movie discs also include from sixteen to thirty-five scene selections each; bookmarks; English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese spoken languages and subtitles; English audio descriptions; and English captions for the hearing impaired.
Disc five is the main bonus disc, containing over seven hours of material on all four films. Things begin with "On the Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark," which includes two parts: "From Jungle to Desert" and "From Adventure to Legend," each clocking in at about twenty-nine minutes and each in high def.
Next, we find five making-of documentaries; these include "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark" (from 1981 and previously unavailable on DVD) fifty-seven minutes; "The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark," more recently made, fifty minutes; "The Making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," also recently made, forty-one minutes; "The Making of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," recently made, thirty-five minutes; and "The Making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (HD), obviously recently made, twenty-nine minutes.
After those we have a lengthy series of brief, behind-the-scenes featurettes, each of them from eight to twenty-two minutes long; however, there is no "Play All" button, so you need to slog through them one at a time. These include "The Stunts of Indiana Jones," "The Sound of Indiana Jones," "The Music of Indiana Jones," "The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones," "Raiders: The Melting Face!," "Indiana Jones and the Creepy Crawlies" (with optional pop-ups), "Travel with Indiana Jones: Locations (with optional pop-ups), "Indy's Women: The American Film Institute's Tribute," "Indy's Friends and Enemies," "Iconic Props" ("Crystal Skull," HD), "The Effects of Indy" ("Crystal Skull," HD), and "Adventures in Post Production" ("Crystal Skull, HD).
The five discs come packaged in a hardcover album with their own sleeves, the album further enclosed in a colorful, handsomely embossed, stiff-cardboard box. It makes for a classy affair, although I wish the studio hadn't used the separate sleeves for each disc because it makes it hard to get the discs out without putting your fingerprints on them. Be careful.
Parting Thoughts:
Whoopi Goldberg once remarked that "Movies are supposed to be big, because if they're not, they're television." Well, the Indiana Jones movies are big, and it's a shame most of us can't enjoy them in our homes in the sheer size that motion-picture theaters display them. But these new Paramount Blu-ray transfers are probably as close as we're going to get. They're bold and beautiful, and, depending on your television screen, they're big enough.
The ratings below are my averaged scores for all four films, with "Raiders" the best movie, "The Last Crusade" having the best picture quality, and "Crystal Skull" the best sound.
"You call this archeology?!"
--Sean Connery, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"


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Robber named Valentine not a sweetie
by Lori Caldwell firstname.lastname@example.com|648-3258 December 10, 2012 4:02PM
Candis Valentine. | Provided Photo~Sun-Times Media ptmet
Updated: January 12, 2013 6:14AM
Candis Valentine may have a sweet-sounding name, but the victims of her latest crimes probably have another opinion.
Valentine, 30, with home addresses in Hebron and the Black Oak section of Gary, is wanted on warrants for charges filed this month by Gary and Lake County detectives.
She is accused of breaking into her family's home and stealing several items knowing she did not have permission to be there alone, court records state.
Days later, she asked to use a friend's washing machine, but left suddenly. The friend discovered prescription medication and a handgun were taken during Valentine's visit.
Valentine will be held without bail when she is apprehended.
On Oct. 25, Valentine's relatives reported she apparently used a ladder to break into their home and ransack several areas of the house.
A witness told Lake County Detective Michelle Dvorscak that he saw her leave with a large bag that appeared heavy, the probable cause affidavit states.
Glass decorations, a watch and gold clock were taken.
Then on Nov. 3, a man reported he let Valentine into his house to wash her clothes, then stepped outside to speak to someone.
He told Gary Detective JerVean Gates he saw some of his son's medicine dumped out on a bed, and pain pills and morphine had been taken, as well as a handgun with two loaded magazines.
Valentine was also charged for a Sept. 1 theft in Lake County and March 3 conversion in Hammond.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Leonard Cohen-Quentin Tarantino "Dance Me To The End Of Love" Video
I first downloaded today's featured video years ago when it was not only difficult to find but, except in elitist circles, not known to exist.
To bag this item, I had to know somebody who knew somebody
Those were the days.
A Lamentation Only Tangentially Related To This Video
With the popularization of newfangled1 internet technologies, maintaining ones media-geek cred becomes daily more difficult.
First it was Napster, Kazaa, and the other file-sharing sites that made ownership of almost any track, regardless of how obscure it had been, a trivial two-minute search and download for any competent eight year-old. "The Ben Folds & Rufus Wainwright cover of Careless Whisper? Got it right here."
Now, it's YouTube, Dabble, Google Video, and their congeners, which have devalued my tenaciously garnered and carefully stored video treasures by providing easy access to such files.
Given that one version of this video has been viewed on YouTube 43,500 times and there are frequently-viewed versions on several other sites, it can hardly be considered obscure. Nonetheless, I've found that introducing folks to this flick can still occasionally elicit that startle reflex and concomitant "When, how, … " confused mumble that – I'm told – media snobs treasure.
The Major Players
The music is Leonard Cohen performing "Dance Me To The End Of Love." The Director is Aaron Goffman, who is the production designer and art director for a batch of TV shows such as CSI: New York and, it seems, for every commercial every made. The male lead is Quentin Tarantino.
The Plot
Well, two kids run along the beach and then do a Twilight Zone sort of picture frame twirl that dissolves to a wedding night set in motel room (The Las Vegas Inn – Hourly Rate $15).
There are lots of mirrors reflecting mirror images reflecting … (which I wouldn't have expected as accessories in a cheap room, but it is Las Vegas).
The screen flickers often. Bride and groom stare into space quite a bit.
Quentin is briefly naked. The bride nearly kisses self in mirror. Then Quentin is encased in chains – but no longer naked, which seems odd. It rains. Quentin watches TV while wearing handcuffs – but is still clothed.
Bride and groom dance the Junior High shuffle. A couple of statues show up sporadically and are, no doubt, very important.
Some preliminary lovey-dovey stuff occurs in bed. Bride's climax is indicated, I think, by her gripping the bedspread, although she may just be looking for the TV remote.
Those kids on the beach reappear.
- This 1995 video is stylistically dated
- The imagery is more than a tad amateurish
- The symbolism is heavy-handed
- The production values fall short of brilliant
- Overall, it strikes even a Ozarks kid like me as something a film student trying too hard might produce
It's Leonard Cohen and Quentin Tarantino, for goodness sake. Weren't you paying attention?
The Review
I've seen this video perhaps 50 times in the past few years. I've found it gratifying each time. I cannot explain why.
Maybe, as the Chris Cagle song has it, it's "because the chicks dig it."
The Video
Leonard Cohen and Quentin Tarantino – Dance Me To The End Of Love
- In anticipation of the would-be etymologically provocateurs, I will point out that the original ancestral format of "newfangled" is not "new" + "fangled" but "newfangled" itself, which dates back to the 13th century, albeit in a different spelling. And, to answer your now de-fanged queries, the dictionaries do indeed include the term, "oldfangled," but it is a derivative of "newfangled." And there is a term, "fangled," capable of standing on its own, but it too originates from rather than serving as the parent of "newfangled." An excellent, succinct discussion of this can be had at Maven's Word Of The Day: newfangled [↩]


text:
Home Congregations About Us Bookstore Press Room Giving
Page Navigation
Eric M. Cherry
Also appropriate as Prayers
The history is complex, the politics are intense, the fear and anger are overwhelming, and the future is unclear.
But glimpses of a hopeful vision will not be bombed into oblivion by anyone.
In prayer, we call to mind the peacemakers.
Neighbors of differing faiths
With different histories With different politics With different emotions
Who find room for each other
in their hearts in their dreams and in their lives
Those who hold firmly to a vision of peace and justice anywhere in the world.
But, especially, today, in Palestine and Israel.
Spirit of Life and Love, be present with all who are suffering terribly from the violence in Gaza. Lift up the hearts of those who fear. And inspire courage among the peacemakers. Be present with political leaders, ensuring a retreat from violence and a procession towards the peace table. Guide the hands of all those who are caring for the injured, the hungry and the grieving. And, open our own hearts to compassion. Remind us of our complicity and responsibility. And lead us towards generous engagement—always towards a vision of peace.
Copyright: The author has given Unitarian Universalist Association member congregations permission to reprint this piece for use in public worship. Any reprints must acknowledge the name of the author.
For more information contact email@example.com.
This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors and congregations. Please consider making a donation today.
Last updated on Monday, March 25, 2013.
Sidebar Content, Page Navigation
More Ways to Search
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Donate to Support This Program and the Ongoing Work of the UUA
Read or subscribe to UUA.org Updates for the latest additions to our site.
Learn more about the Beliefs & Principles of Unitarian Universalism, or read our online magazine, UU World, for features on today's Unitarian Universalists. Visit an online UU church, or find a congregation near you.


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Kavanagh and the Assembly Move on Housing Laws: With a change of leadership in the State Senate, the Assembly has moved quickly this year on significant housing legislation. On January 16th, Assemblymember Kavanagh and his colleagues on the Assembly's Housing Committee held a public hearing to examine what actions can be taken to preserve the existing supply of rent regulated housing in New York and to encourage the development of new units. This hearing was followed by a vote on the Assembly's ten-bill rent regulation package that passed the Assembly on February 2nd. The package includes bills to eliminate vacancy decontrol, increase penalties for tenant harassment, and limits the length of time over which a landlord can recoup the costs of major capital improvements (MCIs). Kavanagh is a prime sponsor of each of these bills and is fighting to ensure that they pass both houses of the legislature this year. The legislative package will now be referred to the Senate. In addition, as reported last month, one of Kavanagh's bills (A514), which would prohibit landlords from employing key-card systems that track personal information without tenants' consent, passed the Assembly's Cities Committee and is expected to be voted on soon by the full Assembly.
The 10-bill package includes measures to:
- Give New York City and other municipalities the power to provide tenant protections greater than those offered by State law, by repealing the "Urstadt law" (A1688).
- Repeal "vacancy decontrol" provisions that allow landlords to take vacant units out of the rent-regulated system (A2005).
- Increase the thresholds above which landlords can take apartments out of the system under "high income decontrol," raising the household income threshold from $175,000 to $240,000 and the monthly rent threshold from $2,000 to $2,700 (A860).
- Limit the length of time over which landlords may charge tenants for major capital improvement (MCI) expenses, requiring the rent surcharges for MCIs cease when the cost of the improvement has been recovered (A1928).
- Increase civil penalties the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) can impose on landlords who harass tenants or who violate DHCR orders related to rent-regulated housing (A2002).
- Reduce the allowable rent increase after a vacancy from 20 percent to 10 percent and limit the number of increases per year (A1686).
- Limit a landlord's ability to evict tenants to accommodate the landlord's personal use of the apartment (A1685).
- Ensure that tenants in housing stabilized by a federal Section 8 project-based assistance contract receive the benefits of rent stabilization when the federal subsidy runs out (A1687).
- Require landlords who charge a rent lower than the maximum amount to offer that same base rent as long as the same tenant resides in the apartment (A465).
- Protect tenants in Mitchell-Lama developments by prohibiting an owner from applying for a rent increase based on unique and peculiar circumstance when a project withdraws from the program (A857).
Kavanagh Reviews Mayoral Control of Schools: On February 6th, Assemblymember Kavanagh participated in a public hearing on school governance hosted by the Assembly's Standing Committee on Education. At the Manhattan hearing, Chancellor Joel Klein appeared on behalf of the Department of Education and made the case for renewing mayoral control in New York City. Others who testified included Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, Steven Sanders, the former chair of the Assembly Committee on Education which wrote mayoral control into state law (and, of course, our own former Assemblymember), as well as education advocacy groups such as Class Size Matters. Assemblymember Kavanagh questioned various witnesses and looks forward to participating in the ongoing discussion about school governance, ensuring any law that passes is in the best interest of our public school families. Similar hearings were also held in Queens and Staten Island, while hearings in the Bronx and Brooklyn will be held in March. These hearings aim to review the impact of the governance changes that granted mayoral control of the New York City school system. If you would like more information about upcoming hearings, please contact Caitlin Hannon at the district office.
Kavanagh Participates In The 38th Annual Black And Puerto Rican Legislative Conference: The weekend of February 13-15, 2009, Assemblymember Kavanagh joined the NYS Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators for their annual conference in Albany. The association works to protect the interests of minorities in New York State and was attended by a wide range of City and State elected officials.
Save The M8! On Saturday, February 21st, a representative of Assemblymember Kavanagh's office participated in a rally at Astor Place, organized by the coalition to save the M8 bus route. Assemblymember Kavanagh is working in Albany to identify funding to help MTA avoid a dramatic series of service changes and fare increases – including the elimination of the M8 bus line.
Organizing Bracetti Plaza Residents: As previously reported, Assemblymember Kavanagh is working with GOLES, NYCHA Manhattan Community Operations, and Councilmember Rosie Mendez to encourage a reorganized Bracetti Plaza Tenant Association. Tenant Associations can be a powerful way for residents to be involved in their community and to organize to improve their living conditions. The next step in the process is the nomination meeting which will occur tomorrow, Wednesday February 25th. Assemblymember Kavanagh urges all Bracetti residents to participate and to take an active role in the process.
Lower East Side & Chinatown Emergency Preparedness Forum: The Free Lower East Side and Chinatown Emergency Prepareness Forum will be held here at P.S. 20 on Thursday, March 12, 2009, 6:30-9:00 p.m. Speakers include representatives from the Office of Emergency Management and the Department for the Aging, and major hospitals and health centers in our area. Topics include strategies for self-care and stress management and the role of community health centers and other community agencies in the Management of Emergency Events. There will be light refreshments, giveaways, and childcare available on site. Spanish and Chinese translation will be provided as well. This event has been coordinated by CB3 member Vaylateena Jones, the Indochina-Sino American Community Center, and 74th Assembly District Leader Anthony Feliciano, assisted by the planning committee with members from community organizations, health centers, and other elected officials. This will be a helpful event targeted to address the safety and health concerns of our community and Assemblymember Kavanagh encourages all Lower East Side and Chinatown residents to attend.
Baruch College Students Available to Help File Tax Returns: Tax time is once again looming on the horizons and Baruch College students are marshalling to help New York residents. More than 320 Baruch students have been tested and certified by the IRS as tax preparers, ready and able to help you file your federal and New York State tax returns. The service is free and open to the public. Through Wednesday, April 15, 2009, students will be available Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10am to 8pm and Fridays 12pm to 7pm on the first floor of 151 East 25th Street, home of Baruch's Library and Technology Building. No appointment is necessary. Tax preparers work on a first come, first served basis. All volunteers are qualified to complete federal forms 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ and New York City and State forms IT 150 and IT 201 as well as all accompanying schedules. Reach the VITA Tax Help Line at (646) 312-4600. Please check the VITA web site at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/vita for answers about documents to bring with you and other pertinent information.


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Latest Jake's updates |
Written by Jon Sundquist |
Friday, 20 December 2013 15:12 |
Update - info from Frank MaGuire...IMBA midatlanticregional director and beer drinker.
Scoping will likely occur this Spring..-ANF announce proposed action and contact stakeholders for input..... we will be asking for positive letter campaign from friends near and far for support. Probably a public meeting happening in Warren, in March, NAMBA-ANF will likely formalize a maintenance agreement for the future trail system, along with possible work on existing trails to establish a good, trusting working relationship. It may seem like we have been talking about this for years.. well we have... but the news of having a significant amount of funding waiting to go to the contractor,, is a huge bit of news that ought to make everyone consider that project is moving in the right direction. some of you may consider locking yourself in a dark room, putting a towel over the crack below the door and letting out a short, timid squeal of anticipatory joy there may be more news (hopefully positive) in January... will post up info then... |


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Researcher Profile: Scott Alper, PhD
Searching for Genetic Clues to COPD
A lifelong passion for science has led Scott Alper, PhD, through some of the country's most prestigious research institutions, to his lab in Denver where today he is leading cutting-edge immunology projects that one day could yield dramatically different treatments for COPD as well as asthma.
In his first American Lung Association-sponsored study, Dr. Alper is conducting basic research to identify genes that specifically regulate inflammation in the lungs. "It is becoming increasingly clear what an important role inflammation has in COPD," says Dr. Alper, Assistant Professor, Integrated Department of Immunology and Center for Genes, Environment, and Health at National Jewish Health. "We are rapidly screening genes that affect inflammation and bringing them into mouse models of lung disease to identify the genes that control lung inflammation," he explains.
"It is becoming increasingly clear what an important role inflammation has in COPD."
COPD and asthma share the characteristic that inflammation can help cause or worsen the disease. Dr. Alper and his team are investigating the possibility of modifying inflammation during the progression of the disease. Eventually, the results of the research may impact physicians' ability to slow the progression of COPD and create new treatments for COPD and asthma. "Inflammation plays a major role in COPD, but if we could catch the inflammation early enough, we could try to prevent the scarring of the lung tissues that makes breathing difficult," he says. "If we could then keep the inflammation from progressing, perhaps we could keep the disease from getting worse."
While the work of Dr. Alper and other geneticists and immunologists is at the beginning of a long pipeline of research to be developed, he understands its potential power in creating new treatments and helping physicians prevent disease in the future.
"If we find gene variants that affect lung inflammation, maybe clinicians would be able to monitor at-risk patients more closely," he explains. "For example, if you know that your patient who smokes has a high genetic risk of getting COPD, you might work even harder to get them to quit smoking. Or for any at-risk patient, we could seek prevention strategies." An additional potential impact of Dr. Alper's research is the development of drugs targeted toward specific genes, although that requires a very long, expensive process for any disease.
For people with COPD or asthma, Dr. Alper's research holds the promise of specific strategies that envelop personalized medicine and treat each patient's disease according to that person's unique genetic makeup. It is a medical revolution that biomedical research continues to build toward day by day.
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text:
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On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
ROK/LATAM/EAST ASIA/CHINA/MESA - US interests in South China Sea behind arms sales to Taiwan - Hong Kong article - US/CHINA/JAPAN/AUSTRALIA/TAIWAN/INDONESIA/INDIA/SINGAPORE/HONG KONG/PHILIPPINES/VIETNAM/ROK
Released on 2012-10-16 17:00 GMT
Email-ID | 725988 |
Date | 2011-09-29 08:44:08 |
From | email@example.com |
To | email@example.com |
List-Name | firstname.lastname@example.com |
Text of commentary by Feng Chuang-chih headlined "US arms sale to Taiwan
related to the 'South China Sea chess game'" published by Hong Kong
newspaper Ta Kung Pao on 26 September; subheads as published
The announcement of the Barack Obama administration of the United States
on the decision to sell arms to Taiwan has triggered strong protest from
China. On 21 and 22 September, three Chinese Government departments,
namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense
and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, protested the
decision simultaneously. On 22 September, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang
Jiechi urged the United States to correct the wrong act of selling arms
to Taiwan and to immediately withdraw the wrong decision. The vice
foreign minister of China also summoned the US ambassador to China. All
these actions indicated China's strong attitude. In analyzing the
matter, many media outlets question why is the United States still bent
on having its own way by selling a whopping 6 bn dollars worth of arms
to Taiwan, even though Sino-US relations have become increasingly
normalized and the frequency of Sino-US military contact has g! radually
increased in recent years.
A source from the United States revealed that the decision made by the
Obama administration of the United States was prompted by political
pressure within the country. More than 100 US Congressmen have signed [a
letter] to exert pressure on the administration, while American arms
dealers have been chanting the grand slogan about using arms trade to
revive the US economy. In my view, however, the US decision was just a
move in the "South China Sea chess game."
Intention to stop China from defending its sovereignty
Since the United States came up with the strategy of returning to Asia,
it has been fixing its eyes [on Asia]. The focus of its Asia strategy is
on the setting of the South China Sea. Now Vietnam has made a reckless
move by luring India to join it. It has invited Indian companies to
explore oil and natural gas in the South China Sea of China. The
American factor is behind all this. According to reports released by
American and Indian think tanks, India and the United States "share many
strategic goals in relation to China affairs." It is also said that
China's tough actions since 2007 have worried the United States, India,
and other regions and countries. On 19 September, the media in Singapore
admitted that Australia and Japan, and the ROK and the United States,
have begun to coordinate their position on the South China Sea issue.
They also plan to collectively raise their "concerns over China" at the
East Asia Summit to be held in Indonesia in November. This! indicates
the US intention to be the supervisor behind the scenes over the South
China Sea issue.
Taiwan is in the forefront of the South China Sea and is the closest to
the Xisha [Paracel Islands]. In case Taiwan and the mainland join hands
to defend the South China Sea, it will obviously amount to a very big
trump card for tackling the South China Sea issue, regardless of how one
looks at the matter. A while ago the Taiwan military made plans to stage
a military exercise in the South China Sea in late June in response to
the South China Sea sovereignty dispute involving Vietnam and the
Philippines. The noise jointly made by Taiwan and the mainland somewhat
scared these countries. In 1974, the Chinese navy won the Xisha battle
partly because Chiang Kai-shek, then leader of Taiwan, believed the
Chinese nation's interest took precedence over the cross-Strait dispute
and therefore gave the green light to the mainland's navy. If both sides
of the Strait join forces, share the same hatred and fight against a
common enemy, and form a force against the outside w! orld, they will
amount to an invincible force. Now with the support of the United
States, Vietnam and the Philippines are creating contradictions over the
South China Sea. This has naturally induced Chinese people on both sides
of the Strait to boycott them. Thus, sowing discord between both sides
of the Strait and creating tension form a very useful strategy.
Not wanting peace across Taiwan strait
As it is known, general elections are going on in Taiwan. The Kuomintang
and the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] are in a contest that
revolves around cross-Strait policy. In her election program, DPP
candidate Tsai Ing-wen states that she refuses to recognize the 92
Consensus and advocates the so-called "Taiwan Consensus." For some
people in the United States, "no reunification and no independence" is
the ideal cross-Strait situation. However, this does not mean the United
States wants peace across the Strait. If it is all calm across the
Taiwan Strait, the mainland economy will grow more rapidly. In that
case, China, the second biggest economy in the world with a gross
economic output surpassing Japan, may be able to catch up with the
United States. The United States believes the "economic threat of China"
is an obstacle to its effort to advance its Asia strategy. Therefore, it
has to erect an obstacle in Taiwan and use Taiwan to drag the mainland
On the contrary, for the past years since Ma Ying-jeou took power,
relations between the mainland and Taiwan have been growing peacefully.
This is not work in favor of the US' Asia strategy. Therefore, it is a
matter of course for the United States to make a move toward Tsai. When
Tsai visited the United States, the United States announced the decision
to sell nearly 6 bn dollars worth of arms to Taiwan. The value is much
higher when compared to the value of the arms sales conducted in recent
years. It is not difficult to figure out the underlying motive of the
United States behind this extraordinary move: to incite "Taiwan
independence" and put a burden on China. Once tension arises in the
South China Sea, Taiwan might just be an onlooker or even "put up
defense" against the mainland at the instigation of the United States.
This would greatly bring up the political cost and military cost for
China to handle the South China Sea issue. Therefore, it is not hard! to
understand that the US arms sale to Taiwan is less of an Asia strategy
than a move in the chess game in which it interferes in the South China
Sea issue.
In July, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said openly that
"as time goes by you will find the United States turning toward the
Asia-Pacific [region]." The newly appointed US secretary of defense has
also said the creation of tension between both sides of the Strait forms
part of the US military strategy toward China. Therefore, when analyzing
the US' rigid move to sell arms to Taiwan despite China's vehement
boycott and the fact that China is the biggest debtor of the United
States, one should recognize the big issue and big picture concerning
its Asia strategy.
Of course, the situation is stronger than man's power. The US
interference in the South China Sea issue and its attempt to use arms
sale to reignite confrontation between both sides of the Strait are just
a matter of wishful thinking. The Taiwanese public has experienced the
bitter taste of cross-Strait confrontation and the sweetness of
cross-Strait harmony. Trying too hard to come up with new ideas through
Taiwanese politicians and adding to the burden of Taiwanese people would
be trying to be clever and result in a blunder.
Source: Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong, in Chinese 26 Sep 11
BBC Mon AS1 ASDel 290911 dia
(c) Copyright British Broadcasting Corporation 2011


text:
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Council adopts resolution for national child abuse prevention month
Delaware County Council adopted a resolution Wednesday designating April national child abuse prevention month.
Delaware County Councilman David White said many organizations work together to promote awareness of the need to prevent child abuse. Some of those organizations include the Delaware County Office of the District Attorney, the Delaware County Children and Youth Services Agency, the Delaware County Department of Intercommunity Health Coordination, the Delaware County Library System, Court Appointed Special Advocates For Children, Family Support Line and PathWays PA.
White said local groups and businesses are contributing funds toward the purchase of the book, "My Body Belongs to Me," written by Jill Starishevsky, a prosecutor of sex offenders. He said the goal is to purchase 100 books for distribution to all Delaware County libraries, school and child care facilities.
Contributions can be sent to Stand for Children c/o Delaware County Library System, 340 N. Middletown Road, Fair Acres Building No. 19, Media, PA 19063.
Local officials will read a copy of the book to children at an event scheduled for 2 p.m. April 18 at the J. Lewis Crozer Library, located at 620 Engle St., in Chester.


text:
Italian- Style Vegetable Soup
This recipe has been featured in a post on The Recipe Girl blog: Healthy Challenge- How Do You Stay Motivated?
This low fat soup is rich in flavor, hearty and filling. It's a good healthy soup to start off the New Year or keep you warm on a winter's day.
2 tsp olive oil
1 medium sweet yellow onion, chopped
2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups peeled, seeded & chopped butternut or acorn squash
3 cups chopped zucchini (about 4 medium)
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
Two 14.5-ounce cans petite diced tomatoes, drained
Three 14-ounce cans fat-free, low sodium chicken broth
One 15.5-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
1 bunch cleaned and chopped Swiss chard- leaves only- leave thick ribs out (about 5 ounces total)
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion to pot & sauté for a couple of minutes, until softened a bit. Add oregano & garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in squash, zucchini, & corn and continue to sauté a few more minutes until veggies begin to get tender. Remove from heat.
2. Place 1 can of (drained) tomatoes and 1 can of broth in a blender and process until smooth. Pour into the pot with the vegetables and return to heat. Stir in second can of (drained) tomatoes and 2 cans of broth. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
3. Add beans and Swiss chard to the pot and stir until chard begins to wilt (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in salt and pepper.
4. Ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle Parmesan on top of each individual serving.
Servings: 8
Nutrition Facts
Amount Per Serving
Calories 211
Calories From Fat (16%) 34
Total Fat 3.82g
Saturated Fat 1.42g
Cholesterol 5.50mg
Sodium 870.69mg
Potassium 1095.04mg
Carbohydrates 36.32g
Dietary Fiber 7.42g
Sugar 8.67g
Net Carbohydrates 28.90g
Protein 11.70g
WW Points: Points Plus: 5 Old WW Program: 5.5
Cooking Tips
*Substitution ideas… In the summer time, sub fresh yellow squash for the butternut and spinach for the Swiss chard. Add carrots and celery too if you'd like.


text:
Makes me happyA decent cuddle.
Makes me sadMany things.
Bad habitsI like to drink beer, have a smoke and pig out.
CigarettesI smoke occasionally
AlcoholI like to get drunk
RaceWhite / Caucasian
HairPurple and loooong.
Body TypeFuller Figure
FoodCheese burger no meat.
MusicSmiths ,KOL, Fratellis, Florence, Nirvana.
TV ShowTopgear, Family Guy, South Park, Shameless.
MovieDumb&Dumber, anchorman ,step brothers
Night Club / BarDigital
AnimalsPanda, dog
PersonKarl Pilkington
Last logged on Cool Tools™ only
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2Pac. Dr.Dre. Snoop. Rage. Tha Pound. She's shot them all. Being the chief of photography at Death Row Records, Simone Green has had the opportunity to spend numerous amounts of time with Hip Hop greats and capture some of their biggest moments. Time Served; My Days and Nights on Death Row Records is Green's memoir about working behind the scenes for one of Hip Hop's most recognized record labels. In cohesion with her story, the book has never seen before pictures of Dr. Dre, Snoop, the late 2Pac, and more.
A very gracious and candid Green sat down with me at the A Loft Hotel in Harlem, whose lobby has some of her best work displayed beautifully, to discuss her new book.
Your time at Death Row Records was from 1992 to 1995. What made you decide to write and release this book now?
From day one when I left I wanted to do a book but, I really didn't know how to go about putting it together. It took me a minute to learn that part of it and it took me another 5 years to realize that I was going to keep getting the door closed in my face. People were either scared to do something or they didn't want to hear the story because they didn't think it would sell.
Do you have any regrets and are you afraid of any possible repercussions of publishing this book?
No. I'm not worried about that at all. I had made a pact with Suge that if I did a book I would tell the truth. So as long as I told the truth he was cool with it.
Suge Knight has no qualms at all?
He gave me his blessing for the book. He said, " Just do you and you'll be alright. Just tell the truth."
Without giving too much away what is some of the content of the book?
It tells my story getting out of college, going to California and everything that happened after that. Working at Motown. My cousin is Melvin Franklin from the Temptations. So it's just a whole lot of stuff that went on. It's a little book but, a good book.
As a female, what was it like traveling and being surrounded by so many men?
I think what the guys liked about me is that I don't get around. I was always a lady all of the time. They were protective in the beginning. I had been knowing Snoop a long time already . My ex-husband was with Death Row also.
Some people think that males can't be groupies. Do you have any groupie stories?
Well men are groupies anyway. They already knew I was 25 years older than all of them. My book isn't a gossip book. So I'm not talking about just one person in particular. I'm telling a story.
So the book is just about your journey?
Being that 2Pac is no longer with us and you had a chance to be around him. Can you tell me about your most memorable experience with him?
I put one in the book. That boy loved chicken wings.
What advice would you give to any upcoming photographer?
Don't go for the wooden nickel. In the entertainment industry they don't want to pay and you have to demand your money.
If you could do it all again, would you?
Yes! I would do it a little bit differently but, I would definitely do it again.
Where can people purchase your book?
It's online at www.DeathRowTimeServed.com .


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Glassing: the key word is Originality
Matteo Maragnano: "we'd get bored without innovation"
Glassing is a young brand that was created almost as a game but then boomed very quickly. It was only in 2007, when Matteo Maragnano, Alessandro Forte and Stefano Ottone went to Ibiza to open a small vintage sunglasses store. It was a mind-blowing success, as they still describe it. And just a year later came Glassing, which has now become an international company.
How would you describe your company? "I'll borrow an adjective that is usually used for people: brilliant" answered Matteo Maragnano, communication and marketing head.
Glassing is at home at Mido. What do you expect from this edition and, above all, what do you expect from 2013?
"We've arrived at a new edition of Mido with alarming speed. The period is certainly not one of the most promising for the economy in general, and such problem inevitably affects the optical sector as well. However, we are confident that there will be a clear recovery in 2013. The important thing for everyone is not to bite off more than you can chew, as they say".
What new products are you presenting this time?
"Originality was and remains the key word for understanding the Glassing universe. We challenge the market by proposing collections that are conceptually innovative but also move with the times. Seeing is believing".
Is there a common denominator for eyewear in 2013?
"I don't think so. I couldn't make a statement like that. The subject ought to be examined much more thoroughly: final consumers are so varied that you would have to enter more deeply into individual markets and geographical areas".
Research and innovation. Do they really represent the sector's reference point?
"For the sector? I don't believe so. I travel a lot and I see that a lot of brands are "inspired by" others. If we're talking about our brand, then yes, absolutely, we'd get bored without innovation".
Which foreign markets are the most important for your company?
"Spain, the UK and Greece as far as Europe is concerned. But nowadays we are achieving the best results in Asia".


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Cold Weather Problems
dmaljunk Posts: 160thanks div2. No, I do not see any air leaks in the hoses. I went to a knowledgeable mechanic. He noticed that when the car is warming up, the voltage being sent from throttle position sensor to the computer keeps changing, it starts at 0.60 and then drops to 0.46 by itself. He suggested that the computer needs to be reprogrammed. He says that when they put in a new computer they never reprogrammed it and therefore I have this problem. When you press the gas the voltage on the throttle position sensor climbs up, so the sensor itself seems to be working properly. That sounded reasonable and I went to the dealer to reprogram the computer but this morning the car was shaking a bit again. It wasn't that cold so i have to wait for a colder morning but it didn't seem to help. What's your opinion on this TPS thing? Thanks
dmaljunk Posts: 160well, I just got the computer reprogrammed. As with all previous repairs, it seemed to improve cold start up but not 100%. Reprogramming the computer seems to be a common thing for Maxima. I think they upload the latest software onto the computer, it's like upgrading BIOS on your PC motherboard. There are technical service bulletins released by Nissan where reprogramming is listed as the solution for certain problems, one of those bulletins talks about car stalling or idling bad in the morning when temp is below 40F and when you put it in drive and reprogramming is required. Well, it kind of sounds like my problem except for the fact that the car also idles bad in park as well... I have to wait for the really cold morning, so far it hasn't stalled on me and idled better but it was 38F outside, I usually get problems when it's 33F or below...
As far as TPS the mechanic showed me that when he presses the gas the voltage climbs up on the TPS and therefore he concluded that the sensor itself is fine... -
dmaljunk Posts: 160div2, I got an advise on another forum that I need to replace my thermostat. It kind of seems to be in the right area - cooling but I don't experience any problems related to thermostat, like bad heating or temp guage climbing up too slow, all of that is fine. I do get a suspicious noise only when the car warms up on cold mornings - when the rpms drop I hear a rattling noise or water-going-down-the-drain noise on the passenger side of the engine and then the noise goes away when the car is warm. Can that be the thermostat struggling to open or close? Will a lazy thermostat cause my cold whether bad idling problems? Thanks
div2 Posts: 2,580If the thermostat is stuck open or is opening too soon then the car would take a long time to reach operating temperature-if it reached it at all. However, have you checked to make sure that all the air has been bled out of the cooling system? That could be the source of the noises.
dmaljunk Posts: 160no, I didn't check, in fact they were using a machine, some sort of a pump to flush and refill the antifreeze. So, if I open the air release valve and start adding antifreeze into the radiator until it starts spilling from the air release valve, should that let any air in the coolant system out? Or should I replace all antifreeze again?
You mentioned air leaks previously, how exactly do you find them. I don't see any with naked eye but may be I should listen to them or spray something on the hoses to see? Thanks -
div2 Posts: 2,580So, if I open the air release valve and start adding antifreeze into the radiator until it starts spilling from the air release valve, should that let any air in the coolant system out? Or should I replace all antifreeze again?
I'd use the procedure given in the Nissan shop manual.
You mentioned air leaks previously, how exactly do you find them.
Here's a good desciption of the procedure. -
dmaljunk Posts: 160div2, mechanic inspected the car more thoroughly - no air leaks, he sprayed some stuff on all vacume hoses and they are all good. He found a more serious problem though - there is oil on one fo the spark plugs, I don't know how much but there is. When he was warming it up in the morning and got bad idle, he said that it sounded like one cilynder was misfiring and when he found oil on the spark plug he said that this is it - oil leaking into one of the cylinders. He said that he would need to do exploratary surgery on the engine, open it up and if it's just seals or rings leaking oil that it will be a $200 job but if it's more then that like pistons then I am better off replacing the car. I knew about this oil leak a year ago but never thought it could cause problems I am having simply because it never happended in warm weather but he explained that when oil is cold then it takes time for it to burn off the plug and when it's warm then it doesn't have time to collect in the cylinder. For $200 I think I should try and fix it and I do hope that it's just the seals/rings. What do you think about all this, does this sound like a cause for the cold engine idle/stalling problems I've been having? Can you explain what an oil leaking into the cylinder would be causing and why did it start leaking in the first place. I appreciate your help. Thanks
Mr_Shiftright CaliforniaPosts: 46,213
dmaljunk Posts: 160can you advise how the cylinder leakdown test is performed? Does it require disassembly of engine parts? Also, if I have oil on one spark plug and I have symptoms only on cold mornings until the car warms up then does that sound serious or as div2 suggested, can it be only the oil valve seals?
Mr_Shiftright CaliforniaPosts: 46,213No no disassembly required. You just remove the spark plugs one at a time and insert a special plug that allows you to fill the cylinder with compressed air. You then measure the % of leakage over a period of time. The nice part is that if you make sure the tested cylinder is on TDC (both valves closed) then if there is a leak you can actually hear it out the tailpipe (exhaust valve) or air cleaner (intake valve, guides, etc.) or in the crankcase (piston rings).
I'm not sure but I don't think cylinder leakdown is a good test for bad valve stem seals---you can test that easily on a road test....MODERATOR --Need help with anything? Click on my name!
frostycpu Posts: 1Hey, I own a dodge colt 200GT '92. I've been having problems in cold (well, doesn't need to be that cold) weather. What happens is, I turn on my car and everything is running great. But, let's say I turn on my fan/lights/wippers, my car starts to make a somewhat loud screeching noise.
I've tested this while being on the highway. At some point, it started screeching while I was driving. What I did is I turned off my plug-in heater (through the lighter), and turned down my fans a notch and the screeching stopped right away.
Im wondering if my alternator could be starting to break down and if I should replace it. It seems that it only does this noise when I use a lot of electricity.
Thanks for the help!
P.S Feel free to email your answer ;D -
dmaljunk Posts: 160OK, my cold weather bad idling and stalling issue was fixed. It was an EGR valve tube, which goes out of the manifold and into the EGR. It was clogged and that was causing too much pressure and eventually caused oil leak. The saw the oil leak and when the manifold was removed they saw the clogged valve and determined it to be the cause of my problems. I had that tube cleaned, oil seals and gaskets replaced and manifold gasket replaced as well. Not an expansive repair and the problem is fixed, car idles perfectly on a cold mornig. Thanks to all for your help. One question - what caused this tube to get clogged? Bad gas?
Mr_Shiftright CaliforniaPosts: 46,213Nah, EGRs just clog up with age. But I don't think that had anything to do with your oil leaks. That's a PCV valve issue. EGR is exhaust gas recirculation. A clogged PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) valve can cause excessive crankcase pressure and oil leaks. So you're mixing two things up there---but no matter, the car's running great so that's good news.
MODERATOR --Need help with anything? Click on my name!
dmaljunk Posts: 160Question, and this is pretty specific. They replaced the Valve Cover gaskets, both the main gasket and the spark plug tube seals. The mechanic noticed that the three original front seals are thicker then the rear three. The front valve cover seemed to have deeper wholes for seals then in the rear. However the set that they got from parts store had all six same spark plug tube seals. The seals from the set had "made in Japan" on them but it wasn't from Nissan, some aftermarket. Nissan dealer doesn't sell this set, they only sell it with volve covers. Now, is this possible that three spark plug tube seals should be thicker then the other three? Why would that be? The mechanic installed them because originals were leaking, they went in fine but he had his doubts. I am not experiencing any noticeable issues with the car right now but I don't know if a tiny leak at that seal would be noticeable any way...
I will go to AutoZone to look at their gasket sets but let me know if this sounds strange to you...
Thanks -
Mr_Shiftright CaliforniaPosts: 46,213
Mr_Shiftright CaliforniaPosts: 46,213
dmaljunk Posts: 160Just contacted Beck and Arnley, they make the most expensive gasket set($97) and it's available in AutoZone, they say that all six spark plug tube seals are identical and that Nissan upgraded the dsign at some point and their part matches Nissan specifications. I guess I am good but yes I will go to a different dealer and inquire there. Thanks for your help.
nycq Posts: 3Hello,
Recently in January my Maxima stalled and was towed to the nearest dealership they ran the diagnostic and then replaced the MAF then the IACV...the car after that stalled once but I was able to drive it. Yesterday the check engine light came on again .I got a preliminary diagnositc code from Autozone Idle control system..and then the car stalled again.. Some mechanic were in the parking lot of Autozone and they raised the idle higher . The car is running didn't stall after that but the check engine sign is still on...Please help ....I been back and forth with the dealer who is not very helpful...and costing me $$$ what do u think is wrong -
uwestef Posts: 2I have a cold start problem on my '98 maxima. The engine gets started but shut off right after starting. This happens only when the car sit outside overnight, but could happen any time of the day, morning, afternoon or evening.
What's interesting is this:
Yesterday when I could not get the engine started, I pulled the fuel pump fuse and then I was able to start the engine without the fuse on. Then I turned the engine off and put back the fuse, I tried to start the engine and it actualy started! I tried the same thing today and it worked too.
I could not figure out why it does this but I am sure this would mean something to a good mechanic or DIY expert. Could you please help to explain this and provide advise how to fix the issue? -
nycq Posts: 3The first time the car stalled the codes were for MAF sensor and IACV which were replaced...then now last week the car stalled again the idle speed was set higher I took it to the dealership and they codes P0505 were for IACV and knock sensor but the dealership said it was the ECU , they got the ECU replaced it and there was no communication between the ECU and the car so they said it was some wiring of the IACV and finally now saying that it was the diaphragm of the IACV and that they ordered another IACV when they just replaced it about two months ago from the Nissan warehouse. This is presently not costing me $$$ but it doesn't make sense and the dealership is not answering any question directly. What do you think
dmaljunk Posts: 160Well, I had P0505 code and they replaced IACV and ECU in one visit. The explanation for replacing both was quite vague. First it was that ECU always goes with IACV and later it was that I had multiple error codes in ECU. I don't know but that problem is gone. I think that IACV was fine and it was a defective computer only. In your case if you already did the original repair and now they accept that there is a problem again with the parts that they put in then let them deal with it until you are clear of all the codes, they have to, you have all the receipts and their work is warrantied. One important piece of information for you and I bet you will thank me for this - the ECU is covered under Federal Emissions Control Warranty for 8 years or 80K miles and so you should not have paid anything for it if you have under 80K on your car.
nycq Posts: 3Hello,
After the IACV and ECU was replaced the car stalled again less than 50 miles brought it back to the dealer and the same code P0505 read..again the IACV was ordered and replaced and the dealership states everything is okay again...After I drive another about 50-70 miles the check engine sign lights up and the car stalls again this time I had the car towed and the dealership after checking wire etc.. said they have to replace both the IACV and ECU at the same time....so now this is the third IACV and 2nd ECU.
I specifically asked them to please make sure thats what is I don't want to put my self in danger and the car stall in the middle of the highway. So again they reassure me and tell me they are very confident that everything is fine. Now another 3 days pass again my car stalls this time the check engine sign did not go on and again I had the car towed to the dealership. I paid for the tow they did not even offer a tow....GOt to the dealer and the service manager gets in the car after its taken off the tow truck and runs into the same problem wher the car turns on but it will not drive...he then presses on the gas with real force 2 -3 x and you can see smoke from the muffler smelling like gas..and he was able to drive the car..the tech looked at it and the code that come now is knock sensor and NAF ( it the keys) , but they said they erased those codes and the problem was the TPS which needed to be readjusted....again the car was tested with a road test and again the dealership states everything is okay. The car drove may be for about three days and stalled out again on me...now this time I used the technique that the service manager used by applying the gas and the car was driveable again for another three days...since the last visit to the dealer ship the car stalled about 5-7 times and each time I used the same technique....I found another mechanic that was referred to me..and he encountered the stalling problem so after he evaluated the car he said it was the Temperature sensor which was changed for $30. this was about a week ago...Now the car has not stalled ...the car drove smooth for the first couple of day but when it picks up speed the idle goes very high to about 2 - 3RPM before the car picks up speed. and the first few minutes into driving when the car is driven there is knocking noise that is heard...that was present before but its getting louder....
PLEASE HELP I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO>>>>THE car was brought brand new and is only 65000 miles. Ive taken it to 3 dealerships and 2 mechanics outside.
This discussion has been closed.


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Bass TabsBass Tabs v2ChordsTabsTabs v2Ukulele
(it's an easy song to learn, same chords on everything, just listen to it and play along. best regards: Rob Stalker - The Horrorcocks) verse 1 G B E C Two cups of tea G B C D one for you and one for me E C drown out the pain from polluted acid rain G F# G G and flaming gasoline, G F# G G until we're clean two dead police one for hope and one for peace watching government lies leak into your empty eyes and winners history three dead police one for thanks and two for please in every single town, every officer is down all dead police, all dead police Bridge: (Piano?) Background chords: G B E C - G B C D - E E C C - G F# G G - G F# G G Chorus G B E C fair-weather friend, G B C D it's on you I do depend E E-F#-E all the mountains we climb, C C-D-C crumble into sands of time G F# G G no mail to send, G F# G G to fair-weather friend Verse 2 (same as first) anxiety, another gift from you to me and so everything fails, my bleeding bitten fingernails sore as can be, anxiety if it was up to me, I would restart history ignite the flame and burn the centuries of blame the bloodstained centuries, these bloody centuries Bridge: (Piano?) Background chords: G B E C - G B C D - E E C C - G F# G G - G F# G G chorus (same as before but x 2) fair-weather friend, it's on you I do depend all the mountains we climb, crumble into sands of time no mail to send, to fair-weather friend anxiety, another gift from you to me and so everything fails, my bleeding bitten fingernails sore as can be, anxiety verse 3 and in the dawn, I'll see that you have gone and on that blood soaked bed I'll lay down my weary head and hum along, to this fucking song one cup of tea, not enough for company maybe tomorrow you will let me borrow another cup of tea, another cup of tea and your company, and your company Comments
Popular Star Fucking Hipsters tabs & chords Song lyrics
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Medical Esthetics Treatments
Today's Skin-tightening Devices
By: Terri A. Wojak
Posted: May 30, 2014, from the June 2014 issue of Skin Inc. magazine.
Skin-tightening is one of the most sought-after treatments today. Many methods for skin-tightening have been developed throughout the years. Past treatments include ablative resurfacing with dermabrasion and fractioned carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers used to remove skin down to the reticular layer of the dermis to elicit a wound response. On the other end of the spectrum, products claiming to be "face lifts in a bottle," or even facial massage techniques claiming to give the same results as surgery have been heavily marketed. As technology evolves, devices used for skin-tightening are constantly being developed, each trying to out-do the others. The following article will discuss why skin-tightening is desired, what devices are most popular and how to implement them.
The push for skin-tightening treatments
According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery's website, www.surgery.org, a total of 2,105,926 people requested skin-rejuvenation procedures in 2012, and 283,741 of those were for noninvasive skin-tightening. As gravity accumulates and subcutaneous fat is lost, the skin begins to sag—especially in the jowls, as well as the neck and eye areas. This sagging can be exacerbated by external aging factors, including excess sun exposure and unhealthy lifestyles. In the past, surgery—including rhytidectomy and blepharoplasty—was the best known option when it came to tightening skin, but that is not the case anymore.
Various options for skin-tightening
Today, several modalities exist that can help clients fight loose, sagging skin without undergoing surgery.
Fractional devices. One of the most exciting breakthroughs in facial rejuvenation treatments during the past two decades is the advent of fractional devices. These devices range from the use of light energy to the use of needles for mechanical breakdown. The idea behind treating portions of the skin is to leave support skin for the growth of new, healthy tissue and allow for a quicker healing time, along with improved results.
Fractional lasers. The first fractional laser was introduced in 2004 and many others soon followed. Fractional lasers use energy to either heat nonablative or remove ablative portions of skin with a beam of light through a difractionated microlens. Traditional lasers used for resurfacing produced great results, but left clients with 6–8 weeks of downtime and a heightened chance of side effects. The ability to leave small portions of intact skin behind results in rapid re-epithelialization, fewer complications and more consistent results.
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This book answers your questions about the legalities of aesthetics, challenging skin concerns, skin care treatments, laser and light therapy, working with medical staff, innovative skin rejuvenation techniques and landing your dream job. If you are serious about advancing yourself and are self-motivated, this book is your first step in the right direction. You have to start somewhere.Procedures! Complimenting Medical Procedures with Skin Care such as Neurotoxins, Soft Tissue Fillers, Facial Cosmetic Surgery
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