text:
Hannibal Recap: Season 3, Episode 9, "And the Woman Clothed with the Sun"
There's quite a bit of accomplished, bitchy verbal game-playing in this marvelous high point of an episode.
Hannibal operates as a full-tilt relationship melodrama this week. The actual hunt for Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage), a.k.a. the Tooth Fairy, a.k.a. Red Dragon, takes an emotional backseat to a variety of couples who're sorting through almost comically elaborate assemblies of skeletons in the closet. As with nearly every other episode of this series, "And the Woman Clothed with the Sun" is composed of alternating duets of escalating intensity. In the pre-credits scene, Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Will (Hugh Dancy) discuss—what else?—the thin ideological line separating their respective positions in society, which now parallels the fragile boundary separating Will from Francis (a doubling that the series repeatedly emphasizes by likening Will's investigation to Francis's preparation for the acts that have triggered it). Will's a killer almost like these men, who has pivotally funneled his emotional trauma and estrangement into law enforcement, deriving his predatory thrills from the hunt of other predators. That text has always powered Hannibal and Will's duets, but, now that Hannibal's imprisoned in the world's poshest lunatic asylum, a certain brittleness has crept into the former's parrying and jousting. Mikkelsen plays Hannibal with a layer of spurned torment here that's naked even by the standards of his distinctive interpretation of the character: His eyes sing with dashed erotic bitterness, which quietly primes the well for a betrayal down the road that's inevitable if creator Bryan Fuller intends to follow Thomas Harris's Red Dragon.
The show's narrative structure now resembles a sort of love octagon. There's Hannibal and Will, of course. For reasons that aren't yet apparent, Abigail (Kacey Rohl) has turned up again in flashbacks that unsurprisingly reveal her to have been complicit with Hannibal in the ambush that concluded the second season. There's also Francis, who admires Hannibal and calls him under the pretense of being his attorney in the highly unlikely development that serves as this episode's final stinger. Alana (Caroline Dhavernas) may still be with Margot, raising a "Verger baby" with the latter's family money, but she's slept with Hannibal in the past, and has had a pronounced "will-they-or-won't-they" thing with Will—an electricity that still exists between the two on some subterranean level in their brief duet here. And, remember, she also conspired with Hannibal to murder Mason—information that hovers, un-lanced, above Alana's power negotiations with Hannibal, of which she's now the dominant party due to his incarceration. (Dhavernas now plays Alana as a closeted woman freed, reveling in a newfound element of sexual confidence, dressing as a kind of modernized cross between an American professional and a French aristocrat. Scene to scene, the character still doesn't make much sense, but the actor keeps you watching.) Will's married to Molly (Nina Arianda), a coupling that's roused class insecurities in him that parallel Francis's exclusion from the nuclear family structure he simultaneously envies, seeks the approval of, and actively aims to destroy. Now complicating matters further is Reba McClane (Rutina Wesley), a blind film developer who works with Francis and seeks out his companionship. Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) isn't kidding when he tells Hannibal that "we're all in this stew together, doctor."
There's quite a bit of accomplished, bitchy verbal game-playing in the marvelous "And the Woman Clothed with the Sun," one of several high points of an adventurous and sterling season. Three duets, described below, best illustrate the shifting power dynamics between the characters as well as the surprisingly straightforward pathos. Though that straightforwardness is distorted when one remembers that three of the characters are multiple murderers. The first, between Hannibal and Will, informs the show's increasing emphasis on dejection from the outset. Hannibal wasn't on screen much last week in "The Great Red Dragon," as quite a bit of the episode's running time was devoted to introducing Francis. This week, however, we see him enough to notice details about his incarceration, such as the institutional jump suit that Hannibal must wear, which has a comic effect, emphasizing a declawed, condescendingly infantilized quality that only renders the former doctor scarier; you know he's biding his time, looking for opportunity for escape or retribution.
This duet has a second part, in which Hannibal and Will mentally visit the Jacobi family home, the site of one of Francis's murder sprees. In their minds, they walk the grounds of the estate and we see them do so, Hannibal pointing out to Will that the killer might be targeting families with enclosed yards, so as to savor the moon. This scene is an inspired example of the showrunners using Hannibal's abilities of mental projection as a pretense for freeing him from the confines of his cell. The device emphasizes the touristy distance that Hannibal and Will both feel from regular family arrangements, while, more practically, allowing episode director John Dahl and his collaborators to visually spice up scenes that could've merely existed as exposition traded between characters in two-shots (though the two-shots in the institution are always subtly varied, using the glass panel that exists between the characters as an elegant, image-enriching plane). A vision of Will naked, covered in blood, looking up at the moon envisioning himself as Francis, prepares us for his duet with Molly.
Will and Molly's phone conversation is a case of Hannibal rendering a heartbreaking scene from a moment that scanned as obligatory character work in the book. Certain macho relics from the story's 1980s roots remain. We don't believe Molly, for instance, when she calls Will a "hot shot," even facetiously, because this show's sensibility couldn't be farther away from the tone of derring-do that occasionally characterized the book and its first film adaptation, Manhunter. The series in general, and this scene particularly, is wounded, unexpectedly warm (the key to the show's success), sad, and essentially hopeless. Fuller and his collaborators, riffing on Harris, clearly believe that outsiders can never really join society; the best they can hope for is to limit the extent of their destruction, either to themselves or to others or to all of the above. Will envisions himself sitting on his bed with Molly, the disjunction between reality and fantasy crushingly epitomizing the cliché of being so close yet so far away. A telling line of dialogue suggests that Will may be married to Molly, but that he may never be intertwined with her spiritually as many couples might appear to be (normally only from the vantage point of lonely people like Will). Molly makes a flippant reference to Will's "criminal mind," wounding him—and a woman married to this man for even just a spell should know that it would. Does Molly truly love Will, or are her feelings for him a complicated embodiment of pity? Is he just another of the strays they take collectively in?
As rich as these scenes are, the duets between Francis and Reba take Hannibal to a level of intensity that honors the best, most surprising portions of Red Dragon. We've seen the carnage that Francis has wrought, especially this week in those unmooring close-ups of Mrs. Jacobi in bed, spread out in a quasi-crucifixion pose, engulfed in geysers of blood stains, and now we're to somehow find a way to understand him as the most pitiful, tormented human being this series has offered. Francis speaks for the first time this week, after only uttering guttural moans previously, and we can hear the profound speech impediment caused by his cleft palate. The way Francis utters "Mrs. McClane" from his van, garbling it yet determined to verbally push it out so as to reach out, when he offers her a ride home, is the most moving gesture in the entire series. Considering the context of who Francis actually is, the scene is flabbergasting for its empathy and awareness of vulnerability, bringing to mind some of the vocal effects that Charles Laughton landed in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Armitage plays this role in the tradition of some of the 1930s-era Universal Studios movie monsters: with an acknowledgement of the grace that arrives almost inadvertently from the purity of the effort to overcome physical damage—a grace that Francis hates himself too much to recognize. When Francis eats a piece of pie that Reba offers him as they sit in her home, quickly, like a hungry dog, we share his relief in being able to eat with someone while remaining alone and unwatched in equal measure. It's training-wheels companionship for a man who's long been lost in the figurative cold.
For more Hannibal recaps, click here.
Review: Netflix's Space Force Is a Toothless Satire of Political Ineptitude
The series informs sitcom hijinks with a bit of political tension, but the punchlines are diluted for the sake of likability.2
It's distracting when a TV series or film pivots on conflicts between politicians whose party affiliation somehow goes unspecified. The motivation behind this vagueness is obvious, as showrunners and filmmakers don't wish to mire their stories with specifically right- or left-wing baggage, especially in these hyper-partisan times. Greg Daniels and Steve Carell's Space Force suffers from a similar malady. The Netflix comedy imagines the realization of President Donald Trump's oft-mocked plan for a sixth branch of the U.S. military, to which over $700 billion has already been allotted. Yet Trump is never explicitly mentioned, referenced by the characters only as POTUS, and his whims are so consciously bland that one wonders if another president has been elected within this show's world.
The showrunners' skittishness over the heated subject of Trump is best embodied by a number of gags in which the commander in chief texts Mark R. Naird (Carell), the four-star general newly appointed to lead Space Force's development. The texts are curt and macho, but they sound like regular sports coach-speak, which is to say that they're too coherent to suggest the way Trump actually writes or talks—at least in public. If the show's writers had the daring to imply that Trump's garbled mixture of slogans and defamation was a public stunt designed to inflame his base, they might have fashioned a resonant recurring joke.
Space Force's premise, in which a country that's been in perpetual war for decades develops a blood lust so great it must try to conquer space, boasts a certain Dr. Strangelove-esque potential. Rather than tap into that potential, Space Force proceeds as one of those Daniels/Carell shows, like The Office, where Carell's blowhard is revealed to be a nice guy underneath. It took The Office a while to lose its teeth and become a perpetual meme and cuddle-fest, while Space Force goes soft within just a few episodes before limping to an embarrassingly inspirational family reunion finale. Daniels and Carell have little interest in the Space Force as a concept; for them, it's a backdrop for a special effects-driven workplace sitcom, replete with supporting characters who embody the usual sitcom stereotypes.
In Space Force, even potentially scathing punchlines are diluted for the sake of palatability. For instance, a congresswoman, Bryce Bachelor (Tamiko Brownlee), obviously meant to resemble Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Naird about Space Force's ballooning budget. Like Trump, Naird (initially) shows contempt for research and has done no preparation for this hearing, spiraling off into amusingly ludicrous grandstanding that the congresswoman, astonishingly, just accepts. In such moments, the series wants it both ways: offering lightweight jokes for liberals while essentially validating the Trump playbook of bluffing minute by minute with Naird's unexpected victory, though the character's bluster does lead to one prolonged, uproarious sequence involving a chimpanzee astronaut.
Political confrontation is also superficially offered up via Naird's duels with the chief scientist of Space Force, Dr. Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich), who derides America's hard-on for the military and contempt for intellectual reason. Malkovich, who's accorded the show's most confrontationally partisan dialogue, gives an elegant, thorny performance that's gradually compromised by the plotting, as Naird and Mallory will, of course, bond, and Naird will learn the errors of his reactionary ways, embracing reason over violent confrontation. In another example of pandering wishy-washiness, the series eventually goes out of its way to celebrate Space Force, un-ironically, after spending so much time mocking it.
Similarly, Carell is so uncertain in this role that he can't even settle on a voice. Early on, Naird talks in a gruff military-man fashion that suggests George C. Scott's general in Dr. Strangelove. Otherwise, Naird is just sweet old Steve Carell, though sometimes his voice changes within a scene, suggesting that this device might be an intentional joke. The character, like Mallory, also suffers from increasingly random storylines that strive to humanize Naird in clichéd terms. For some reason, he has a wife, Maggie (Lisa Kudrow), who goes to prison so that Space Force may offer callbacks to the opening season of Netflix's own Orange Is the New Black.
Space Force renders the architects of our world's destabilization, like Trump, his enablers, and military hawks, into lovably misguided dads—a common entertainment trope. In 30 Rock, a conservative billionaire gradually became besties with a liberal TV producer, allowing her to feel better about distracting America with pop-cultural detritus. In The Office, the initially moving misery of a group of corporate drones was steadily dialed down for the sake of feel-good sentimentality, as a once-contemptible manager became a poignant goof. Even in an ostensibly edgier film like War Machine, a general's atrocities are downplayed for the sake of easy caricature. These entertainments suggest that the unmooring turmoil of modern life isn't so bad, giving us an excuse to write off our blossoming dystopia with a semi-amused "eh." An act of satirical heartlessness would be more compassionate than fortune-cookie uplift.
Cast: Steve Carell, John Malkovich, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Jessica St. Clair, Fred Willard, Don Lake, Noah Emmerich, Lisa Kudrow, Owen Daniels, Alex Sparrow, Jimmy O. Yang Network: Netflix
Review: Hulu's The Great Revises History with Riotous Irreverence
The series takes on Catherine the Great with off-kilter comedy and startling poignancy.3.5
Tony McNamara's alternately riotous and poignant Hulu miniseries The Great begins with the future Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) leaving Austria for Russia to marry the country's emperor, Peter (Nicholas Hoult). Catherine wants to bring the Enlightenment to her new home—to abolish serfdom, proliferate literacy, and embrace art and science—but Peter is a doltish man-child more interested in philandering than leading. His governing style is self-serving and myopic; for one, he refuses to pull Russia out of its disastrous war with Sweden, as he's desperate for a victory akin to those of his late father, Peter the Great. What little progress the young Catherine makes in reforming Peter is fleeting, and because she's confident that she's destined to save Russia, she plans a coup.
Like Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite, which McNamara co-wrote and features Hoult in a supporting role as a sycophantic politician, the series rejects the commitment to historical fact that burdens many period pieces. Catherine channels the empress's ambition and relatively liberal bent, but the characters around her are composites and fabrications; Peter, for instance, is only loosely based on Peter III, and provides a vehicle for Hoult's unnerving blend of youthful earnestness and wanton cruelty. This historical freewheeling feeds into The Great's broader irreverence, which comes through in every jarringly crass line coated in period-drama affect—like when Peter tells Catherine, over a meal, that he's set on producing an heir. "I'd do it now, but I just blew my bag on Madame Dimov," he says, causing Catherine to nearly choke on her food. "My God," she says, "a phrase I have never heard."
The delectably off-kilter dialogue highlights Catherine's alienation. She first arrives to court a naïve idealist, prim and proper, but as she develops into a skilled politician, she demonstrates growing comfort navigating the crudeness surrounding her. She eventually attempts to win over Grigor (Gwilym Lee), Peter's best friend, who can't stand the emperor's dalliance with his wife, Georgina (Charity Wakefield). "He eats fruits various from your wife's cunt on a daily basis," Catherine says to Grigor, egging him on. Grigor's eyes bulge and his jaw clenches. It's an almost revelatory moment for Catherine in her quest to wield a less bloody sort of power.
Catherine's co-conspirators initially consist of Marial (Phoebe Fox), her maid, who hatches the scheme; Count Orlo (Sacha Dhawan), an influential but meek bureaucrat in Peter's inner circle; and Leo (Sebastian de Souza), the compassionate and winsome lover gifted to Catherine by Peter in accordance with the court's libertine ethos. These characters contextualize Catherine's idealism and innocence. Where she's eager to take the throne and launch her virtuous reign, they recognize that deposing an emperor is slow and messy business.
One of the central elements of Catherine's political education is figuring out how to seize power as a woman in a thoroughly misogynistic environment, one filled with oafs such as the frequently drunk General Velementov (Douglas Hodge), who'd rather try to seduce Catherine than hear about her ambitions. Catherine and Marial commiserate about the sexism they face, but their discussions expose Catherine's ignorance of how class difference shapes their distinct experiences. These interactions subtly and effectively cast doubt on Catherine's claims of readiness by showing that her lofty goals of egalitarianism are far clearer to her than the nuts and bolts of classism, let alone the complexities of ruling an empire.
Catherine's blind spots come to a head when she addresses a room full of powerful men at a time of profound uncertainty. It's a crucial opportunity to win their respect, but she flounders: Her instincts are off, she knows nothing of Russia, and the men spurn her. Fanning deftly embodies Catherine's distress as the character's sense of self shatters, her breaths turning into gasps and her dreams of leading Russia slipping through her anxiously fidgeting hands.
Catherine's true exemplar at court is Elizabeth (Belinda Bromilow), Peter's bohemian aunt, who largely shares her progressive politics. Elizabeth is totally unconcerned with what others think about her, and while her boldness can feel unremarkable given the cushy position she occupies at court, it's marvelous to witness. She airs her perspective most compellingly in scenes with "Archie" the Archbishop (Adam Godley), who represents the church and abhors Catherine's humanism. The pair are two of the The Great's sharpest minds, and their absorbing conversations spill tantalizingly into blasphemy and treason, as when Archie floats the possibility of Elizabeth replacing her nephew on the throne.
As for Peter, he tries to better himself under Catherine's influence—unbanning the printing press, holding art and science fairs—and he shows signs of sweetness, but nothing sticks. The series elucidates his behavior with sympathetic reflections on his inner workings. Peter lives in the shadow of his late parents, suffocated by his father's outsized legacy and scarred by his mother's disdain. In one of The Great's most stirring moments, a shot of Catherine and Leo kissing by firelight cuts to a dark room and pans to reveal Peter curled up on a statue of his father. Such sequences stop short of excusing Peter's vileness, but they do render his arrested development more tragic than laughable. They also make the tension nestled in the series's title increasingly plain: Great is both what Catherine will become and what Peter will never be.
Cast: Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult, Sebastian De Souza, Sacha Dhawan, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Belinda Bromilow, Douglas Hodge, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Bayo Gbadamosi, Louis Hynes Network: Hulu
Review: HBO's I Know This Much Is True Is an Unrelenting Catalog of Tragedy
The limited series is a carnival of horrors weighed down by moralizing, hysteria, and cross-associations.1.5
Based on Wally Lamb's 1998 novel of the same name, Derek Cianfrance's I Know This Much Is True offers an unrelenting carnival of horrors. Throughout the limited series's six episodes, there are instances of rape, child abuse, death, self-mutilation, suicide, several brutal accidents, even allusions to a family curse. At a certain point, those new to Lamb's story may anticipate intimations of incest, as that's about the only shock left for Cianfrance to spring on us—and the subject is eventually toyed with, if ultimately abandoned, in a deeply expendable subplot. If Cianfrance had approached this convoluted narrative as the pulp that it truly is, in the key of, say, Ryan Murphy, the series might've emitted a disreputable spark. Unfortunately, I Know This Much Is True is supposed to be "about" something, and so the outlandishness is weighed down by moralizing and fancy cross-associations.
Set primarily in a small Connecticut town in the early 1990s, with flashbacks that span from the 1800s to the 1980s, I Know This Much Is True vaguely parallels a family's legacy of misery with America's launching of the Gulf War. President George Bush is seen frequently on televisions in various backgrounds, as are vintage MTV music videos, which Cianfrance will occasionally emphasize to enhance the series's pervading anti-nostalgic mood, especially in the numerous depictions of people arguing and couples breaking up and storming out on one another. Our narrator and tour guide is Dominick Birdsey (Mark Ruffalo), an aspiring writer who never left town because of his unstable and dependent twin brother, Thomas (also Ruffalo), who was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic as a young adult. Dominick describes his brother as an "anchor," but it's evident early on that he loves playing the role of savior as a way of evading his responsibility for the general disappointment of his adult life.
In the series's '90s-era thread, Thomas becomes convinced that he must make a blood sacrifice to end the Gulf War, and he does something shocking that lands him in a high-security mental health hospital. This appears to be a rational decision on the part of the facility's board, as Thomas is clearly mentally ill, though Dominick is determined to get his brother returned to a low-security hospital. Cianfrance squanders the wrenching potential in this conflict with macho sentimentality. If we were allowed to understand that Dominick's quest for Thomas is vain and dangerous, rooted in his guilt-ridden hero complex, then we might have been pulled in recognizably contradictory emotional directions, empathizing with both brothers while fearing Dominick's recklessness. However, this emotional response is only inadvertently triggered, as we're supposed to see Dominick as trashing his own life to defend his brother against the Man. And in a shameless twist, Dominick's ire with the new hospital is validated.
Cianfrance is less interested in mining the nuances of mental illness than in wallowing in existential male angst, as he did in films like Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines. In much of his work, Cianfrance appears to be trying to conjure the mood that might arise if one listened to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run while watching a production of Sam Shepard's Buried Child. Like those artists, Cianfrance is fixated on the idea of the ever-tormented working-class male representing the heart of the American psyche, but Springsteen and Shepard offered poetry and, in Springsteen's case, humor and authentic rapture. By contrast, Cianfrance lingers on misery as a signpost of his integrity. The many flashbacks in I Know This Much Is True, involving Dominick and Thomas at various ages (as well as other family members), assert the same point over and over: that this family hurts itself, dashing every moment of hopefulness. (In fairness, the flashbacks are filtered through Dominick's embittered sensibility, though their validity is generally meant to be taken at face value.)
Other long portions of I Know This Much Is True abound in shaky close-ups of Dominick's face as he rants against largely caring family members and professionals who're simply trying to help him. Disturbed individuals like him are certainly capable of irrationally lashing out at their loved ones, but that's the only quality of such interactions that Cianfrance seems to recognize, and over a several-hour period these sequences come to embody a form of sensory deprivation, which is compounded by the filmmaker's general aversion to humor. Given the extraordinary images that cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes has fashioned in the past, the self-pitying crabbiness of Cianfrance's vision is practically offensive.
Still, Ruffalo's casting was astute, because if Cianfrance had hired an actor with a more conventionally closed-off masculine mystique, the series might've been totally unwatchable. Ruffalo gives sensitive, impassioned performances, and he differentiates his characters without making a show of it. Thomas's slouched, defeated physicality is heartbreaking even in the series's most categorically insane moments, while Dominick's thinner, straighter frame signifies his tightly coiled willingness to pounce upon the slightest provocation. Yet, it's unseemly to watch an actor as thoughtful as Ruffalo submit himself to all this thrashing about, and you may find yourself pulling back from him in a manner akin to how Pauline Kael resisted Robert De Niro's self-torturing exhibitionism in Raging Bull. (There's even a reference to the Martin Scorsese film here: a close-up of Dominick's twisted and gnarled face that's held for a self-consciously ugly and interminable length of time.)
The most maddening thing about the obviously talented Cianfrance is his refusal to get out of his own way (come to think of it, Kael wrote something similar about Scorsese in her review of Raging Bull). For all of the ostentatious negativity of I Know This Much Is True, there are haunting and subtle flourishes. When eight-year-old Thomas (Rocco Masihi) humiliates himself on a school bus, we casually see another child give him a hug as he walks dejected up to the front of the vehicle. And when Dominick and Thomas's semi-abusive, sort-of-loving stepfather, Ray (John Proccacino), suffers a heart attack, he speaks to Dominick in a halting manner that suggests his and Dominick's worst fears of deflated masculinity, and it's of course at this point that the two men start to bond. As predictable as they might be, these moments come as a relief from the hours of redundant emotional violence and disappointment. It was also astute to cast Rosie O'Donnell as an advocate and Michael Greyeyes as a mysterious janitor, as their poignant underacting briefly offsets the show's chest-thumping masochism.
But I Know This Much Is True is still a shambles, a catalog of tragic events that's meant to rhyme the Gulf War, the catalyst for the current endless American war machine, with the modern ennui that's signified by Dominick's irritability and Thomas's madness. And even all that undigested subtext isn't enough for Cianfrance, who keeps throwing things at the screen, from period flashbacks to an Italian grandfather (Simone Cappo) who's meant to suggest the seed of American racism, to a missing girl who anticipates the reveal of Dominick and Thomas's unseen father, who references our nation's legacy of genocide. In this numbing, ludicrous production, Thomas's paranoid fantasies become virtually indistinguishable from the hokum that Cianfrance offers up with solemn sincerity.
Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Kathryn Hahn, Rob Huebel, John Procaccino, Melissa Leo, Rosie O'Donnell, Philip Ettinger, Archie Panjabi, Michael Greyeyes, Tom Stratford, Donnie Masihi, Rocco Masihi, Simone Coppo, Aisling Franciosi, Matt Helm, Zaria Degenhardt, Marcello Fonte, Irene Muscara, Agatha Nowicki, Roberta Rigano Network: HBO
Review: HBO's Bad Education Paints an Ambiguous Portrait of Greed
Though it needlessly withholds certain details for dramatic effect, the film resists embellishment or caricature.3
Everybody seems to love Dr. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman), superintendent of the Roslyn, Long Island school district. He's personable, impeccably groomed, and responsible for getting the district ranked number four in the state. And over the course of HBO's true-crime film Bad Education, he scrambles to cover up a potential scandal that could torpedo the school board's budget: Assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney) has been embezzling from the district for years. To complicate matters further, an intrepid school newspaper reporter, Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan), is sniffing around, which might just unearth the wide scope of the operation.
Accompanied by ironic classical music cues, Bad Education paints an unattractive portrait of its main characters. The film's color palette is muted, and the wrinkles on the actors' faces are featured prominently in close-ups. Their actions are even less flattering: As ludicrously underpaid as teaching may be, the crass extravagance of the town's embezzlers is made abundantly clear via house renovations, pieds-à-terre, first-class flights, facelifts, and more—all on the school's dime, written off as some ambiguous charge from a suspicious company.
Though the film needlessly withholds certain details to artificially pump up the drama through eventual plot twists, Bad Education resists embellishment or caricature. Instead, by probing the truly thankless task of teaching kids while under the thumb of district rankings, school board demands, and an endless parade of antagonistic parents, the film presents educators like Gluckin and Tassone with a surprising degree of sincerity and dedication to their jobs. They remember the names, the parents, the hobbies, and the siblings of all the kids who come through Roslyn. They really did get the place ranked number four.
There is, of course, more to Tassone than his composed, genial exterior suggests, most of which should be left for the audience to discover. And though the embezzlers are explicitly in the wrong, their justifications are not so easily shaken off; they are right, after all, in observing that the director of the school board (Ray Romano) makes seven figures selling real estate with values directly tied to the success of Roslyn, while the teachers and administrators remain underpaid and overworked. Rather than a simplistic, straightforward parable of greed, Bad Education depicts its true events with a surprising amount of depth and ambiguity.
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano, Geraldine Viswanathan, Alex Wolff, Rafael Casal, Stephen Spinella, Annaleigh Ashford
Review: Beastie Boys Story Is Part Memorial, Part TED Talk
Billed as a "live documentary experience," the film has the feel of a PowerPoint presentation.2.5
In Beastie Boys Story, the band's surviving members, Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz, describe their gradual realization that Def Jam executive Russell Simmons embraced them only because he thought any group of white rappers could become superstars in the mid 1980s. The Beastie Boys could have easily become defined forever by their first pop hit, 1986's "Fight for Your Right," and the misogynistic spectacle of their early performances. Instead, they showed a remarkable ability to reinvent themselves: Their sound evolved from the minimal beats and metal riffs of their debut, Licensed to Ill, to the dizzying, sampledelic collage of Paul's Boutique, after which their music became harder to pin down, as they returned to their punk roots on early-'90s hits like "Sabotage."
That song's iconic music video was directed by longtime collaborator Spike Jonze, who's also at the helm here. Billed as a "live documentary experience," the film has the feel of a PowerPoint presentation, with Diamond and Horovitz speaking to a live audience on stage alongside props like a reel-to-reel tape machine playing a loop from Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks," which forms the basis of 1986's "Rhymin & Stealin." The duo runs through the bullet points of their professional history, recounting the regret and disgust they felt over their early stage shows, in which they acted out the characters of the beer-guzzling bros they created for Licensed to Ill, and lamenting how the record executives they considered friends refused to pay them royalties despite the massive success of the album.
As different as is from, say, Tayor Swift's Miss Americana or Beyoncé's Homecoming, Beastie Boys Story fits into the recent trend of music docs in which the subjects exercise almost complete control over the way their stories are told. The 572-page Beastie Boys Book, published in 2018, covers the same ground as the film with a more innovative approach. Instead of writing a conventional memoir, Diamond and Horovitz published a collection of essays from friends and cultural critics, laying out the band's history in both photos and prose. Beastie Boys Story feels stiff in comparison. The book's essays by drummer Kate Schellenbach and others examining the group's attitude toward women make a far more compelling case than clips of Diamond and Horovitz criticizing the lyrics of "Girls" or pointing to the more feminist sentiments of their latter-day music.
The Beastie Boys called it quits in 2012 after the death of founding member Adam Yauch. Throughout the film, Diamond and Horovitz credit Yauch with some of the group's biggest changes in direction. "I want to say a little something that's long overdue/The disrespect to women has got to be through" he raps on 1994's "Sure Shot," effectively signaling the trio's move toward more progressive politics. His conversion to Buddhism, friendship with the Dalai Lama, and turn toward pro-Tibetan activism helped completely overhaul the band's public image in the early '90s. Beastie Boys Story returns to stories of Yauch's creative influence and unpredictability, and its final act turns into an outright tribute to the late rapper and musician. The film, then, often feels like a cross between a TED talk and a memorial service, but one gets the sense that Diamond and Horovitz are finally getting years' worth of grief off their chests. The cumulative effect is, at the very least, touching.
Cast: Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch Network: Apple TV+
Review: Mrs. America Reckons with the Squandered Potential for Women's Rights
The series suggests that winning hearts and minds is a naïve pipe dream, a strategy more fit for TV than for electoral politics.3.5
In the 1950s, two decades before FX's Mrs. America takes place, future congresswoman Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale) braved death threats while appealing the case of Willie McGee, a black man convicted of raping a white woman and sentenced to death in Mississippi after a mere hours-long trial and a jury deliberation that lasted less than three minutes. Late in the series, Abzug recalls her past idealism as she mulls cutting the contentious gay rights resolution from the 1977 National Women's Conference. Visiting Betty Friedan (Tracey Ullman), Abzug asks, "Does it bother you that no one calls you a radical anymore?" To which Friedan answers, "The movement is getting down to middle America. We're mainstream, that's a good thing." The congresswoman nods with heartbreaking subtlety, recognizing that what's become mainstream remains insufficient.
Mrs. America, the creation of writer-producer Dahvi Waller, deftly reckons with decades of squandered political potential, both in its depiction of the '70s and in the parallels it draws with the present. At the core of the series is the Equal Rights Amendment and the vigorous opposition it met from conservative author and activist Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett), first in Illinois and then around the nation. The series charts Schlafly's mobilization of housewives against the amendment out of a purported belief that the women's liberation movement rivaled the Soviets in the danger it posed to American life. Over the course of Mrs. America's nine episodes, she builds the "pro-family," doggedly anti-abortion, predominantly Christian coalition that helps thwart the ERA and land Ronald Reagan in the White House.
Of course, that same coalition has played an instrumental role in Donald Trump's ascendance to the presidency. Here, Schlafly resembles Trump in her truth-flexing fearmongering, but unlike him, she's not a man and must deal with the consequences. Though Schlafly mentions at one point that she's never been discriminated against, her interactions with chauvinist politicians like Republican congressman Phil Crane (James Marsden), and even with her well-meaning but insensitive husband, Fred (John Slattery), serve as nauseating evidence to the contrary. Schlafly's face regularly strains under the forced smile she wears around these men, and the consistency with which she masks her responses makes the moments in which her façade briefly cracks all the more evocative. At times, her smile gives way to a blankness that suggests frustration, quiet anger, or despair—or, perhaps, resignation.
Mrs. America reflects on the injustices that Schlafly experiences but refuses to romanticize her or her work. Plot beats expose Schlafly's intellectual dishonesty and tacit acceptance of the Ku Klux Klan's endorsement. Schlafly's conversations with Lottie Beth Hobbs (Cindy Drummond), a collaborator based in Texas, particularly shatter the duo's claims of moral high ground. Hobbs gives strikingly lucid insight into reactionary strains of Christianity, a faith she argues relies not only on love, but also on hate.
The sober approach of Mrs. America's historical accounting extends across the political expanse. The series highlights the failings of the women's liberation movement in the '70s, namely its solipsistic centering of whiteness. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba) serves as a primary vector for the series's exploration of race as she mounts a presidential campaign, competing against frontrunner George McGovern in the Democratic primary—and becoming the first-ever black candidate for the Democratic or Republican nomination. In the third episode, with her run collapsing around her, Chisholm vents in her hotel room and rails against the allies abandoning her. Aduba wondrously channels Chisholm's frustration, inhaling sharply between lines and raising her voice as she builds momentum, each incremental increase in volume giving fuller form to her ire.
Mrs. America chronicles endless missed opportunities in U.S. politics but also includes a more hopeful and inspiring personal journey: that of Alice Macray (Sarah Paulson), Schlafly's best friend and supporter. Initially a Schlafly stalwart up in arms against the ERA, Macray gradually exhibits an openness to new perspectives and compromise. Her growth is admirable but proves to be a false comfort; it turns out that she's a fictional character created for the series. In one of its most intriguing political statements, Mrs. America suggests that winning hearts and minds is a naïve pipe dream, a strategy more fit for TV than for electoral politics.
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Sarah Paulson, Margo Martindale, Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks, Tracey Ullman, John Slattery, Ari Graynor, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Melanie Lynskey, Kayli Carter, Niecy Nash, Cindy Drummond, James Marsden, Adam Brody, Jay Ellis, Bria Samoné Henderson Network: FX
Review: Will & Grace Effortlessly Channels the Spirit of I Love Lucy
The episode is a reminder of just how influential I Love Lucy still is, and a testament to Will & Grace's own legacy.3.5
By the end of its original eight-season run, Will & Grace had long since jumped the shark, plagued by stunt casting, back-from-the-dead husbands, and, of course, that finale, which the 2017 revival of the show wisely sought fit to pretend never happened. Prompted in part by the 2016 election, Will & Grace found new purpose in the Trump era, thoughtfully navigating topics like conversion therapy, the Me Too movement, and religious freedom—the latter of which was depicted in a shrewd inversion of recent wedding cake discrimination cases, with a lesbian baker refusing to fill an order honoring the president.
With only three episodes left, however, Will & Grace has decided to pull one last stunt, and it's one that, surprisingly, the series has never tried before: a tribute to I Love Lucy. Since the show's inception, critics have been wont to liken Debra Messing to Lucille Ball, not just because of her fiery red hair, but her deft mix of self-deprecation and broad slapstick. The latter quality, best exemplified in a season-two episode in which Grace's water bra springs a leak to uproarious effect, would eventually become the province of dysfunctional sidekicks Jack and Karen, played by Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally, respectively.
It would have been easy enough to simply recast Will & Grace's central foursome as Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel. But the reverently titled "We Love Lucy" gives Messing, Mullally, and Hayes each their own crack at Lucy, as their characters spar over which one of them is most similar to the famous '50s TV wife. (Ever the straight man, no pun intended, Eric McCormack plays Ricky—with a dubious Cuban accent—for the entirety of the episode.)
"We Love Lucy" faithfully reconstructs iconic scenes from I Love Lucy, with Mullally stomping grapes with perennial archrival Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan) and Hayes, in Lucy drag, stuffing chocolate bon bons in his mouth like a squirrel hoarding nuts. But it's Messing, who's always been Will & Grace's unsung secret weapon, who pitch-perfectly fills Lucy's shoes in a recreation of the famous Vitameatavegamin bit from I Love Lucy, in which Lucy drunkenly stumbles her way through a TV commercial for the elixir.
For this episode, Will & Grace's production team painstakingly created replicas of I Love Lucy's sets, costumes, and props (including 1,200 pounds of black grapes), and the scenes themselves are nearly shot-for-shot recreations of the originals. Messing's mimicry is similarly uncanny: Her performance pays tribute to both Ball and her own gift for physical comedy, right down to her quivering grimace and inebriated slur.
Recent episodes of Will & Grace have fallen back on old tricks: Guest stars abound, from Gus Kentworthy to Demi Lovato, who plays a surrogate-slash-cam-girl throughout the season, but aside from a clever cameo by Lucie Arnaz, "We Love Lucy" lets its four leads shine as they alternate roles. In contrast to Messing's spot-on embodiment of Lucy, Mullally hilariously imbues every character she plays with a little bit of Karen Walker, deadpanning a signature quip about Lucy's quilted frock and playing Fred in full makeup and martini in hand.
Will & Grace hit its stride during the early years of the George W. Bush presidency, serving as a weekly declaration that—despite the administration's campaign to erase LGBTQ people—we're here, some of us are queerer than others, and we might just help your daughter get her shit together. While Karen's casual pill-popping feels out of touch in the age of rampant opioid addiction, the show's revival has confronted hot topics more unapologetically than ever, most memorably in last season's "Grace's Secret," in which Grace tearfully confides in her father about a sexual assault. So it's both ironic and fitting that "We Love Lucy" is one of the show's final episodes—a reminder of just how influential I Love Lucy still is, and a testament to Will & Grace's own, albeit very different, legacy.
Cast: Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes, Megan Mullally Network: NBC
Review: Tales from the Loop Explores the Complexities of Human Connection
The series is a character study in which wounded introverts wrestle with their inability to connect with others.3
Amazon's Tales from the Loop is set in a pastoral farm community that seems to simultaneously embody the past and future. There are no cellphones here, and bars and diners have a rustic '50s-era feel. However, large robots also populate the area, often seen in the backgrounds of compositions, suggesting solitary guards. The robots also feel rustic, nearly forgotten, like broken-down tractors. Rather than serve as conventionally awe-inspiring special effects, the robots appear to be taken for granted by the human characters, and the casualness of their presence is one of the show's enchantments. The robots have a metaphorical weight, echoing the uncertainty and melancholia of the humans.
High-concept sci-fi is often heavy with exposition. By contrast, Tales from the Loop's creator, Nathaniel Halpern, and his various collaborators allow the mysteries of the central premise to hang, barely explained, throughout the three episodes made available to press. The town exists above a secret lab, created by Russ (Jonathan Pryce), which is said to explore the properties of the universe. And at the center of the lab is the sort of mystical huge orb that's been featured in countless genre stories, and which can apparently alter the space-time continuum.
The town's citizens have come to accept the extraordinariness of certain things as ordinary, which also spares the series from having to spell things out. And the sci-fi window dressing is gradually revealed to be misdirection anyway, as Tales from the Loop, which is based on Simon Stålenhag's 2014 narrative art book, is mostly a character study, in which wounded introverts and workaholic intellectuals wrestle with their inability to connect with others.
A major theme of the series is the relationship between children and their parents, the latter of which spend long hours obsessing over projects at the lab. In the premiere episode, a young girl, Loretta (Abby Ryder Fortson), loses her mother, Alma (Elektra Kilbey), who's disappeared after stealing a crystal from the orb. In a haunting image, potentially a vision, or maybe a projection or a memory, Loretta sees her house floating upward toward the sky in pieces. Distraught and homeless, Loretta is helped by a boy, Cole (Duncan Joiner), and his mother (Rebecca Hall). Eschewing the cuteness of other kids' quest series like Stranger Things, director Mark Romanek fashions an earnest, somber portrait of neglect and regret, in which a woman is afforded the ability to see herself through the lens of the past. Forston and Hall hit striking notes of despair, each dramatizing a war between intellectuality and emotion.
Each episode of Tales from the Loop is standalone yet interconnected. A minor character in one episode, seemingly a background actor, becomes the star of another—a device that casually illustrates how we are all alternatingly the protagonists of our own lives and bit players in the lives of others, and how many of us are dogged by similar existential issues. The series suggests that we're together in our aloneness, an idea that's reminiscent of the stories of Raymond Carver. At one point, Cole's mother is revealed to be Loretta as a grownup—a twist, in the key of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, that's telegraphed by Fortson and Hall's remarkable resemblance to one another, and various other characters are brought, via the lab's technology, into confrontations with alternate versions of themselves.
In another episode, Cole shouts into a hollowed out thing that resembles a wrecked miniature Death Star. The echoes he hears are his voice across the various stages of his life, which director Andrew Stanton fashions into a moving symbol of a boy's grappling for the first time with aging, loss, and impermanency. Given center stage, Joiner, like Fortson before him, offers an unsentimentally stoic portrait of yearning.
As themes go, "life goes on" would surely rank as one of the least profound, but Tales from the Loop continues to offer details that resonate. We're allowed to understand that Cole's father and Russ's son, George (Paul Schneider), resents the connection between Cole and Russ, as well as between Russ and Loretta, a prized employee at the lab. This resentment is barely articulated, but Schneider informs George with a heartbreaking dwarfed quality, which is affirmed by the show's most poignant special effect: the mechanical arm that George, an amputee, wears. The arm physicalizes his sense of being eclipsed by everyone around him.
Such body language is also evident in Gaddis (Ato Essandoh), a guard at the lab. Gay and terminally single, Gaddis tells Loretta that it must be nice to come home to an already lit house, signifying familial presence. She says what many married people have said to lonely-hearts over the years, in TV and real life: It's not as easy as it looks.
Tales from the Loop recalls the spirit of the films of executive producer Matt Reeves, especially Let Me In, which could serve as the title of this series as well. Both productions imbue familiar genre tropes with restlessness, with a wandering sense of irresolution. The landscapes of Tales from the Loop are beautiful but somehow unwelcoming in their sense of lonely sparseness—echoing the imagery of the source material, Simon Stålenhag's illustrated book of the same name—while Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan's score practically subsumes the series in longing. For Tales from the Loop, the mysteries of the universe play second fiddle to the perils of giving up, of resigning oneself to solitary nights in a town that suggests a perpetual past.
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Paul Schneider, Jonathan Pryce, Abby Ryder Fortson, Duncan Joiner, Ato Essandoh, Jane Alexander, Elektra Kilbey, Shane Carruth, Jodi Lynn Thomas, Victor J. Ho, Brian Mallard, Leann Lei Network: Amazon
Review: HBO's Run Doesn't Sustain Itself Beyond Its Initially Thrilling Premise
The long-form storytelling obligations of a TV series soon overwhelm this simple but compelling premise.2
Ruby (Merritt Wever) once made a pact with her ex-boyfriend, Billy (Domhnall Gleeson): If both text the word "RUN" to each other within a certain period of time, they will drop everything and travel together across America for one week, after which they must decide if they want to part ways for good. Commencing right after they exchange that fateful texts 17 years after college, HBO's Run plays like a consciously frazzled version of Before Sunset. Like that film, Run depicts romance as messy and complicated, especially on such short notice: Not only is Ruby in a parking lot when she receives Billy's text, prompting her to open the door of her minivan and hit an adjacent vehicle, but she's also married.
Once reunited, Ruby and Billy fall easily into flirty old habits, but the series keeps an intriguing focus on the tension and awkwardness of their situation. "Who does this?" Ruby says aloud at one point, in disbelief of their impulsive behavior. They're desperate to get away from their humdrum lives, and they're doing their best to make a good impression on each other while gingerly broaching the potential for sex, which leads to one of Run's most amusing scenes: the pair flailing around in a private train compartment, accidentally turning on sinks and bumping against the top bunk in the heat of the moment. Full of fraught, longing looks and palpable chemistry, the start of the series sweeps us up right alongside the characters, who rediscover one another while dancing around the developments of the intervening years.
But the long-form storytelling obligations of a TV series soon overwhelm this simple but compelling premise: Billy has larger problems than he initially lets on, and those reveals trickle out in piecemeal fashion alongside his former assistant Fiona's (Archie Panjabi) determined attempts to halt his escapade. There's a sense that the series doesn't quite trust itself to subsist merely on the lower-stakes drama of Ruby and Billy running away together. Run's tone abruptly shifts after the first two episodes, with the introduction of more urgent, suspenseful elements like Billy inexplicably fighting to keep the sizable contents of his bank account away from Fiona. Much of the interpersonal humor gives way to wackier situations meant to heighten both the stakes and the characters' reactions, but the results are too broadly comedic while nudging the characters to new heights of self-absorption.
Many of the sillier comic situations simply involve being shitty to wage workers, but Run also tosses off issues about the morality of Billy's self-help business with little mind for their seriousness. Though the series certainly isn't blind to Ruby and Billy's rather pronounced sense of entitlement, the chaos piling up in their wake becomes far less endearing than it's seemingly meant to be. Ruby and Billy's actions make them harder and harder to root for, and Run becomes unable to sustain itself beyond the initial thrill of their reunion.
Cast: Merritt Wever, Domhnall Gleeson, Archie Panjabi, Rich Sommer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge Network: HBO
Review: In The Virtues, Transience Is a Path to Personal Redemption
The series is a reminder that facing up to one's problems doesn't guarantee release, but does allow for the possibility of moving forward.3.5
Transience is a recurring motif in Shane Meadows's The Virtues. The four-episode series is filled with scenes in which recovering alcoholic Joseph (Stephen Graham) trudges through city streets and countryside roads toward an uncertain future. Unmoored after his ex-wife, Debbie (Juliet Ellis), announces that she's moving with their son, Shea (Shea Michael Shaw), to Australia, Joe relapses in a big way. Seeking to regain some hold of his life, he decides to return to his native Ireland to track down his sister, Anna (Helen Behan), whom he hasn't seen since he was sent to an orphanage after their parents' deaths. Joe's return home triggers confrontations with traumatic memories warped and repressed by time, suggesting that the only way to overcome one's past is to confront it head on.
Meadows's work as a filmmaker has charted how misery and hopelessness manifests in post-imperial Britain. He's always had an intuitiveness that transcends the ostensible realism of his desaturated palettes and handheld camerawork, and here he shows a new level of aesthetic subjectivity. When Joe is sober, his tremors rhyme with the shaking of the camera; when Joe drinks, however, the camera turns sedate, swaying more slowly as the relief of intoxication washes over him, followed by sudden, erratic cuts when he inevitably blacks out.
Meadows visualizes Joe's repressed memories with snatches of home-video-grade images of the man's childhood. The blotchy, low-resolution of the video, redolent of Harmony Korine's early work, manifests Joe's hazy grasp on his past, and the escalating intercutting of such clips with the present-day material as the series progresses mimics the overwhelming rush of his recalling the full extent of his trauma. Meadows parcels out this footage with precision, teasing us with the indecipherable images until what's being depicted becomes all too clear.
As nervous as Joe is in conversations with others, he's also quick to befriend strangers. And he has a special affinity for children, at once playfully immature and genuinely tender and caring toward them. In his farewell with Shea, Joe humbly reassures him that it's okay if he calls his stepfather, David (Vauxhall Jermaine), "dad." Like many an addict, Joe can be overwhelming and caustic, but Graham foregrounds the man's unending attempts to tamp down his worst impulses, focusing less on Joe's capacity for overbearing behavior and more on his shame and ability to charm people in spite of his withdrawn, nervous energy.
As the series progresses, Joe's struggles are contrasted with other characters dealing with their own suppressed issues. His sister-in-law, Dinah (Niamh Algar), is introduced as a brash, sarcastic self-starter who can punch out any man who hassles her, but she nurses a brooding shame over having to give up a baby she had as an unwed teen. Meanwhile, Joe gets a job at his brother-in-law's (Frank Laverty) construction business, where he meets Craigy (Mark O'Halloran), a tetchy worker with a checkered past who remembers living with Joe in the orphanage as kids. Craigy is even more of a nervous wreck than Joe, often barely able to get to the end of a sentence without circumnavigating the globe to get to the point. Joe and Craigy are kindred spirits, as they understand each other's pain, but they're also triggers for one another, leading to as many moments of strife as camaraderie.
With This Is England and its various TV spinoffs, Meadows tracked the political and social upheavals of modern England through an intimate network narrative of closely entwined stories. The Virtues isn't particularly concerned with the political history of Ireland, but rather the lingering pressures of the religious shame and abuse that shape addled individuals. The finale brings the tacit influence of such personal and institutional manipulations into clarity along with the full extent of the characters' trauma in a tautly edited climax that bridges Joe, Dinah, and Craigy's struggles into a series of tense confrontations in which grace is either bestowed or brutally withheld. Like much of Meadows's work, the series has a clear ending, but the characters remain irresolute. It's a reminder that even facing up to one's problems doesn't guarantee release, but it does at least allow for the possibility of moving forward.
Cast: Stephen Graham, Niamh Algar, Helen Behan, Mark O'Halloran, Frank Laverty, Juliet Ellis, Shea Michael Shaw Network: Topic
Review: Shirley Is an Astonishingly Frenzied Portrait of Creation and Madness
Review: Resist the Call of the Pretty but Empty Shantae and the Seven Sirens
Review: Joseph L. Anderson's Spring Night, Summer Night on Flicker Alley Blu-ray
Review: Sludge Life Will Vividly, Weirdly Stoke Your Sense of Rebellion
Review: Tommaso Both Rues and Relishes the Power of the Artist
Review: Gunna's Wunna Sees the Rapper Inching Toward Big-Canvas Hip-Hop
Blu-ray Review: Five Scorsese Shorts Released on the Criterion Collection
Review: William Castle's Let's Kill Uncle on Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Review: Carly Rae Jepsen's Dedicated Side B Boldly Embraces the Pangs of Lust
Review: Buster Keaton Silent Classic The Cameraman on Criterion Blu-ray
- Film6 days ago
Review: Shirley Is an Astonishingly Frenzied Portrait of Creation and Madness
- Games7 days ago
Review: Resist the Call of the Pretty but Empty Shantae and the Seven Sirens
- Video7 days ago
Review: Joseph L. Anderson's Spring Night, Summer Night on Flicker Alley Blu-ray
- Games7 days ago
Review: Sludge Life Will Vividly, Weirdly Stoke Your Sense of Rebellion


text:
Ray J Responds To Raz B Leaking His Phone Call Conversation He Had With Him + Comments On Nicki Minaj Vs Lil Kim Rap Beef On The New Breakfast Club Show!
"Dj Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne Tha God collectively known as "The Breakfast Club" Interview with Ray J" From Power 105.1
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Receive Amazing Commercial Cleaning Service & Maid Service in Glenview
Spotless Cleaning is one of the leading cleaning companies near Glenview, IL. Our maids offer residential cleaning services and office cleaning services.
Choosing a maid service can be a very frustrating process. Many maids are untrained, unprofessional, and have a hard time delivering promised cleaning services. You need a cleaning service with professional, trained, and motivated maids. Spotless is one of the premier cleaning companies near Glenview, IL. All of our maids are professionally trained. They know that they have the support of their company behind them, and they know that we use the best cleaning products that are environmentally safe.
Maid service near Glenview, IL
A professional maid service actually only implements cleaning services as the final step in the process. We take a consultative approach to the maid service we provide near Glenview, IL. Our maids are trained in obtaining and then understanding your expectations. Then exceeding your expectations becomes our company goal. When you choose Spotless Cleaning near Glenview, IL, you are choosing one of the best cleaning companies near Glenview, IL. We are a team of professionals, not just one person. The cleaning services we can provide are listed here at www.spotlesscleaningchicago.com/services.html .
We provide professional cleaning services near Glenview, IL
Cleaning services start with clearly understanding what the customer expects. Customers do not always know exactly what they want, and over the years we have become experts at helping them determine exactly what they want in cleaning services. We know that there are many cleanings services in the Glenview, IL area. Because we are more than just a single maid offering to clean your home or office, we able to offer a variety of cleaning services that fit your needs, not ours.
Office cleaning in the Glenview, IL area.
We are experts in meeting the office cleaning needs in the Glenview, IL area. Whether the office cleaning job calls recurring needs, or for one-time deep office cleaning jobs, we are well equipped to handle any cleaning service need, large or small. We take pride in over delivering to our office cleaning clients near Glenview, IL.
Our Spotless Cleaning Maids near Glenview, IL
Spotless Cleaning in Glenview, IL is a family owned business. We worked as the first maids at the company, and we take special care that all our maids are specially trained and professional at all times. Our maids represent the company when they are at your home or office, and we exceed our customer's expectations with the high quality of our maids and the efficient and thorough cleaning services they are able to provide.
Spotless is one of the premier cleaning companies in the Glenview, IL area.
We want to leave every home and office spotless. To be one of the top premier cleaning companies in Glenview, IL, we knew that we had provide quality service and affordable rates. We take great pride in offering premier cleaning services for your home of office needs.
We Service Homes And Businesses Across Glenview, IL


text:
In this series, I am providing pictures of tombstones from Latvian cemeteries, all with death dates prior to 1945. I do not have any further information on the people mentioned.
Photo taken by me, September 2012. Click to enlarge.
Names: Imants Musts, born May 9, 1935, died February 12, 1936; Edgars Ludvigs Musts, born March 1, 1937, died March 14, 1937.
Inscription: "Ja mīlestība spētu brīnumus darīt, Un asaras mirušos modināt, Tad jūs nesegtu kapu smiltis." ("If love was able to work miracles, and tears awakened the dead, then you would not be covered by the sands of the grave."
Location: Torņakalns cemetery, Rīga
The inscription on this gravestone is almost identical to one I posted several months ago – this one was also a child's grave, so it appears that this must have been a popular phrase for remembering lost children.


text:
Picture This: Atwood Out of Control at Daytona
Casey Atwood Has a Rude Welcome to His First Daytona Race
In the wake of the 1999 Daytona Speed Weeks, a considerable amount of equipment laid in ruins within the confines of the garage area. Among the cars that did not fare too well was the No. 27 Castrol Chevrolet driven by 18-year-old first-time Daytona NASCAR Busch Grand National participant Casey Atwood.
The car qualified Fourth for the race, and a problem during the first caution put the car in the back of the field. As the race progressed, Atwood demonstrated his considerable driving skills--he once again was among the leaders as the race came to a close.
Coming up on the white-flag lap, Atwood, running in Second Place behind Randy Lajoie, was in position for a strong finish when the wheels figuratively and literally came off. The result is what you see in the accompanying photos.
Although the pictures speak for themselves, here is what Atwood had to say about his out-of-control ride:
"I was running in a tight pack coming up on the white-flag lap. Jeff Green's car was to my inside and Mike McLaughlin was following him. Andy Hillenburg was behind me, and his car got up under my bumper, which put me sideways. From that point, everything was out of my control.
"The first thing that happened was the right front tire being ripped off the car when it struck the gate rail along the wall going into the tri-oval. When it hit, the wheel and all the front-end suspension came flying off.
"The car went backward, air got underneath, and the car went flying. Oddly enough, as the car was in the air, I remember hearing the wind pass through, and it was eerily quiet. As the car was in midair, it went upside down, and it landed on the roof. The landing, strangely, was not hard. It slid down the front straightaway, down toward the finish line.
"At this point, things were really noisy, because the car slid for what seemed a long time on its roof, and the scraping sounded very loud. I remember thinking that I might get hit again. I could not see much at this point.
"As wild as the ride had been up to this point, what happened next was really turbulent. As the car slid toward the grass, it dug into the ground as I reached the grass, and the physics changed completely. Instead of coming to a stop on its top, the car began to barrel-roll wildly.
"I can't say that I was aware of much at this point, except that I was gripping the wheel with all my might to keep my hands and arms securely inside the rollcage.
"Finally, the car landed on its wheels, and I remember very clearly looking straight ahead and seeing my crew standing on the wall, looking straight at me. The crew wanted to come out to help, but that was not possible because there were cars still speeding by, and it was unsafe.
"When the entire incident came to an end, the emergency workers got me unbuckled, and I was taken to the infield care center. If you can believe it, after all that tumbling the only result from injury was a bruised heel on my right foot.
"I am not happy about the result of the race, but I am proud to say that we were running strong, and it looked like we were going to have a great finish at my first Daytona experience. I am grateful to be unhurt, and I look forward to my next race in Daytona."


text:
Press Release:
Masked daredevil The Human Fly has just pulled off the ultimate stunt – he's come back from the dead.
Popularized by a 1970s Marvel Comic, the stuntman superhero will return to comic books in July 2013, with a worldwide debut at San Diego Comic-Con.
The comic book is part of a multi-media revival of the real-life costumed daredevil which will include animated cartoons, apparel, and a motion picture to be directed by by Steven Goldmann (Trailer Park of Terror) and produced by Alan Brewer (Playing For Keeps) and Blaine McManus (Sailboat) with co-Executive Producer Joel Eisenberg (April Showers) from a screenplay by Tony Babinski. The film is currently in pre-production.
Inspired by a true story, The Human Fly tells the tale of Joe, a young sausage maker who bets it all on an alleged Hollywood stuntman who claims that 60% of his body has been remade of steel after a near fatal car crash. With their first stunt – riding the back of DC-8 jet while in flight – the Human Fly quickly becomes one of the fastest-rising celebrities of the late 70's, taking Joe, his buddies, and all his money along for the ride of their lives!
The new graphic novel-format comic book will feature the talents of a who's who of L.A.'s comic book scene as well as a gallery of pin-ups by veteran artists who worked on the original 1977-78 Marvel series.
Cartoonist Michael Aushenker ("El Gato, Crime Mangler," "Bart Simpson") will edit the trade paperback anthology, which will include collaborations by Aushenker and his "Gumby's Gang Starring Pokey" artist, Rafael Navarro ("Sonambulo"); "The Human Fly" screenwriter Babinski and Javier Hernandez ("El Muerto, Aztec Zombie"); and writer/producer Steve Kriozere (creator of Cinemax's TV series "Femme Fatale") with artist Jason Baroody ("Combat Jacks"); and "Trailer Park of Terror" creators Christopher March and James Dracoules.
Original "Human Fly" cover artists and inkers contributing pinups will include Bob Layton, Al Milgrom, Don Perlin and Steve Leialoha, as will longtime "Unknown Soldier" and "Incredible Hulk" artist Gerry Talaoc, Steve Butler ("Web of Spider-Man"), John Heebink ("Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."), current Marvel alum Nelson Faro DeCastro ("Iron Man," "X-Men," "The Thing"), and alternative comics star Jim Rugg ("Afrodisiac"). Layton will provide the cover art.
While the original Marvel series only ran for 19 issues, the Human Fly has grown a cult following over the decades.Babinski, Goldmann, and Brewer plan to sequel-ize the new graphic novel, as well as post original web comics on their official website, http://www.thehumanflymovie.com.


text:
Bismillah AlRahman AlRahim
Salam Wa Rahmatollah
Some days ago I had a logo design request from shia-media.ir and i started design a logo for them because that website is an Islamic Shia one and i consider it as a useful Shia website who do work Fi Sabilellah and i accepted to design but they rejected this design u see its preview below so i put it with watermark just for getting idea by Islamic designers.
From now on, i decided to NOT design any logo for any website or Islamic foundation in Iran, but for out of Iran this service is still available if subject be that valuable and worldwide.
preview (click to refer to download page )


text:
Dan Patrick was born in Webster Texas with a full head of hair and mouthful of teeth. He would commonly escape his crib, jumping over the side at 6 months. He was walking at 9 months and running at 10. His parents met while going to SFA University in Nacogdoches. His mother a teacher, sang in the choir at church. His dad sometimes filled in for Music Directors at churches across East Texas, and weekdays was a Butcher. Dan ran sound for the churches while his dad led the music. From these modest beginnings, at the age of 18 he moved out of his parents' home and went to Nashville. Playing bass guitar in great bands, never really paid the bills . After months of eating sunflower seeds and peanut butter, he came back to Lufkin with hopes to change all that, but do something that kept to his passion for music. While going to school he applied at K-Fox 955, and got on as a part-timer. He would push buttons, and do live shows late at night on weekends like the K-Fox Alternative. Spending his days at various women's dorms at SFA, then back at night to do shows. Dan eventually moved his way up, and started at afternoons on K-Fox 955, and has been there ever since, enjoying the music and loves all of the people of East Texas, and especially his listeners.
Dan Patrick
What Are These Weird Grey/White Skittles?
For one week, it will be a little harder to tell which flavor or color of the rainbow you are putting in your face.


text:
RT server configuration
|Line 145:
|Line 145:
Run the command by hand (backgrounded) to start the milter process before the next reboot.
Run the command by hand (backgrounded) to start the milter process before the next reboot.
Run "postfix reload" to pick up the changed configuration.
Run "newaliases" and "postfix reload" to pick up the changed configuration.
==Apache httpd configuration==
==Apache httpd configuration==
Revision as of 13:41, 20 November 2017
This page contains notes on the setup of the MIT krb5 RT server. The current server is krbdev.mit.edu; krbdev-prod-app-1.mit.edu is the staging server for migration from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 16.04.
RT has the following perl dependencies, along with the corresponding Ubuntu packages they reside in:
Digest::MD5 perl Storable perl DBI 1.18 libdbi-perl DBIx::DataSource 0.02 libdbix-datasource-perl DBIx::SearchBuilder 0.48 libdbix-searchbuilder-perl HTML::Entities libhtml-parser-perl MLDBM libmldbm-perl Net::Domain perl-modules Net::SMTP perl-modules Params::Validate 0.02 libparams-validate-perl HTML::Mason 1.02 libhtml-mason-perl CGI::Cookie 1.20 perl-modules Apache::Cookie libapache2-request-perl Apache::Session 1.53 libapache-session-perl Date::Parse libtimedate-perl Date::Format libtimedate-perl MIME::Entity 5.108 libmime-tools-perl Mail::Mailer 1.20 libmailtools-perl Getopt::Long 2.24 perl-base Tie::IxHash libtie-ixhash-perl Text::Wrapper libtext-wrapper-perl Text::Template libtext-template-perl File::Spec 0.8 perl-base Errno perl-base FreezeThaw libfreezethaw-perl File::Temp perl-modules Log::Dispatch 1.6 liblog-dispatch-perl
The data in RT is stored in a PostgreSQL database. The postgresql Ubuntu package will install the recommended version of PostgreSQL for the current Ubuntu version.
The mail interface to RT is handled by Postfix, so the postfix package is required. The libsendmail-pmilter-perl package is required for the custom milter script.
The web front end to RT is an Apache2 web server, so the apache2 package is required. RT uses a FastCGI server which must run as the rt user, so the libapache2-mod-fastcgi and apache2-suexec-pristine packages are required.
In sum, the following packages must be installed on the RT server:
apache2 apache2-suexec-pristine libapache-session-perl libapache2-mod-fastcgi libapache2-request-perl libdbi-perl libdbix-datasource-perl libdbix-searchbuilder-perl libfreezethaw-perl libhtml-mason-perl libhtml-parser-perl liblog-dispatch-perl libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl libmldbm-perl libparams-validate-perl libsendmail-pmilter-perl libtext-template-perl libtext-wrapper-perl libtie-ixhash-perl libtimedate-perl perl perl-base perl-modules postfix postgresql
User accounts
The postgresql package will create a postgres user account.
The following user accounts and group entries must be created manually:
- group rt
- user rt: primary group rt, homedir /var/rt2, shell /bin/false
- user rtcvs: primary group rt, homedir /var/rt2, shell /bin/sh
These accounts could be created with:
groupadd -r rt useradd -r -m -g rt -d /var/rt2 -s /bin/false rt useradd -r -g rt -d /var/rt2 rtcvs
Some of the above accounts may be created by ops during provisioning.
/var/rt2 should contain an empty .k5login file, managed by ops. It should contain a .ssh/authorized_keys file, managed by ops, containing the krbsnap key from /git/krb5.git/hooks/krbsnap_rsa_key.pub on drugstore.mit.edu.
RT setup
Our installation of Request Tracker is a modified version 2.0.13. Most of the modifications were tracked in CVS; the repository is on drugstore at /cvs/krbdev in the tracking subdirectory. drugstore no longer serves CVS, so the repository must be copied out and checked out locally. A few changes have been made on the running server without version control. Absent a proper version control setup for the running version of RT, it is necessary to transfer the contents of /var/rt2 from the old server to the new.
Several scripts do come from the krbdev-services repository, in the rt-cvs and rt-scripts directories. All are installed in /var/rt2/bin.
In root's crontab file ("crontab -e" as root), add the following to perform daily maintenance:
0 3 * * * /var/rt2/bin/krb5-daily.sh
PostgreSQL configuration
Many PostgreSQL files live in directories specific to the PostgreSQL major and minor version, such as /etc/postgresql/8.3 for PostgreSQL 8.3.
The Ubuntu postgresql package will create a "main" cluster with a configuration directory in /etc/postgresql/<version>/main.
In /etc/postgresql/<version>/main/pg_ident.conf, add:
local root root local root postgres local root rt_user local rt rt_user local rtcvs rt_user local postfix rt_user local nobody rt_user
In /etc/postgresql/<version>/main/pg_hba.conf, find the line that reads "local all all peer" and add "map=local" to the end, so it reads "local all all peer map=local". Comment out the line that reads "local all postgres peer", despite the warning not to disable it. Run "service postgresql restart" to reread the affected files. Run "psql -Upostgres --list" to verify that the identity map works.
Run "createuser -Upostgres rt_user" to create the rt_user role.
Run "createdb -ESQL_ASCII -Upostgres -Ttemplate0 rt2" to create the database. This database can be removed with "dropdb -Upostgres rt2" if it becomes necessary to recreate it.
Run "pg_dump -Upostgres -Fc rt2 > /path/to/dumpfile" on the old server, transfer the file to the new server, and run "pg_restore -Upostgres -d rt2 /path/to/dumpfile" on the new server to restore the database. As a simple verification, run "psql -Upostgres -c 'SELECT * FROM keywords;' rt2" on both servers and verify that the tables have the same number of rows.
Postfix configuration
In /etc/postfix/main.cf:
- Set myhostname = krbdev.mit.edu
- Set mydestination = krbdev.mit.edu, krbdev-prod-app-1.mit.edu, localhost.mit.edu, localhost
- Add the following to the end:
# Suppress some headers to avoid leaking internal addresses to spammers. prepend_delivered_header = enable_original_recipient = no # RT header milter smtpd_milters = unix:private/milter
Copy /etc/aliases from the old server. To avoid aiding spammers, its contents are not reproduced here. In particular, /etc/aliases contains an internal address corresponding to the membership of the krb5-bugs-incoming mailman list; revealing this address could allow spammers to bypass moderation of incoming bug reports.
In root's crontab file ("crontab -e" as root):
@reboot /var/rt2/bin/rtmilter.pl /var/spool/postfix/private/milter
Run the command by hand (backgrounded) to start the milter process before the next reboot.
Run "newaliases" and "postfix reload" to pick up the changed configuration.
Apache httpd configuration
Create /etc/apache2/ssl.crt and /etc/apache2/ssl.key.
Copy /etc/apache2/ssl.key/server.key and /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/server.crt from the old server, or follow the instructions at http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Obtaining+an+SSL+certificate+for+a+web+server to obtain a new one. server.key and server.crt may be symlinks using whatever scheme seems convenient for renewing certificates every few years.
Install /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/chain.crt from /mit/apache-ssl/certificates/InCommon-chain.crt.txt (requires tokens). Cutting and pasting is effective for transferring certificates as they are represented as short text files.
Install /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/clientCA.crt from /mit/apache-ssl/certificates/mitCAclient.pem (requires tokens).
Install the RT site file as /etc/apache2/sites-available/rt.conf . (Copy from the old server; this could probably be put into the krbdev-services repository.)
Edit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/fastcgi.conf and uncomment the FastCgiWrapper line.
Edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy.conf and set:
ProxyVia On ProxyPass /buildbot/ http://krbdev-buildbot.mit.edu:8010/ <Proxy http://krbdev-buildbot.mit.edu:8010/*> Allow from all </Proxy>
Clean out /var/www and install index.html and robots.txt from the krbdev-www directory of the krbdev-services repository. (TBD: index.html needs to be updated not to expect buildbot on the same server.)
a2enmod ssl a2enmod userdir a2enmod rewrite a2enmod proxy_http a2dissite 000-default a2ensite rt service apache2 restart


text:
Tim Clyde necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 122 diseños de 12 diseñadores freelance.
I am a Realtor, who has launched a webpage to automate my Relocation / Referral business. I have developed a DVD and Training manual that walks other Realtor's through the process of launching their own site and automating their business. This is key since the majority of new home buyers start their search on-line. This program has three trasks, the first is a "no cost" solution, that establishes their web presence. The second that "Accelerates" their business with a small investment. And the Third track automates the entire process so it is 100% hands off, for a small monthly cost. In short the process goes - Liberate, Accelerate,Automate. We guarantee that the Realtors can establish themselves on-line at no cost (other than the purchase of the program).
This program is targeted to Realtors / Real Estate agents who are tryinmg to capture potential Buyers who are moving out of their current area. I am targeting 30-50 year old agents, who are comfortable enough with the internet to try and do this on their own, the do-it-yourselfer. I need a design that portrays confidence and excellence, but is also hip at the same time. I am not afraid of color and am looking for high impact and name recognition. I want "GoReloPro.com" to stick in their minds forever.
Name Recognition is most important - GoReloPro.com
High Impact
Portray Confidence and Excellence
Creativity is a must
I have no intention of putting this on a business card- it is 100% web based so detail is not an issue.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
When you sign up we ask you some questions to learn more about your game and give you a provisional PlayYourCourt rating number. This rating will change regularly based on your match results and help us continue to pair you with evenly-skilled players even as your game improves.
Every Tuesday we will send you custom video instruction based on your PlayYourCourt rating. We know you're busy and we want to make sure you see progress, so these will be quick videos with actionable instruction that you can apply to your game immediately.
If you watch your weekly coaching videos, you will have a blueprint for exactly what you need to practice. Now that you know what you need to work on, use our Practice-Finder tool to schedule a practice session with an evenly matched local player.
If you're the competitive type you can see how you size up against other PlayYourCourt members by challenging them to a match. The Challenge League is flexible — play as much or as little as you want and climb the PlayYourCourt rankings at your own pace.
Watch weekly video instruction tailored to your specific skill level so you know what to work on when you hit the practice courts.
Schedule practice sessions with evenly-matched players at days, times and locations that are convenient for you.
Play Challenge League matches to guage your improvement and see how you size up against other fellow members.


text:
How to help victims of Jason Manor apartment building fire in Detroit
There are a number of ways you can help the families who lost their homes in a massive fire at an apartment building in Detroit.
St Vincent de Paul has set up a FIRE FUND to help cover costs as they help victims with permanent housing, furniture, household goods, clothing, food and long term care.
People can donate to the St. Vincent de Paul Fire Fund https://donate.svdpdet.org/
Checks can also be mailed to:
St Vincent de Paul Fire Fund
3000 Gratiot
Detroit, MI 48207
Donations of furniture or household goods can be dropped off at any St. Vincent de Paul Thrift stores throughout Southeast Michigan or call 877 ST Vince (788-4623) for a pick-up.
A complete store directory is at svdpdetroit.org
There is a benefit account set up at Fifth Third Bank, account number 7915441716 for any monetary donations.
Donations can also be made to the non-profit Redford Brightmoor Initiative.
Checks can be sent to:
10000 Beech Daly Road, Redford, MI, 48239.
Make sure you write a note designating them to the Jason Street apartments fund.
Drop off locations for clothing:
Outer Drive United Methodist Church
313 937-3170
12065 West Outer Drive, Detroit, 48223
Time out Sports Bar and Grill
313 653-4517
16801 Plymouth Road, Detroit, 48227
Copyright 2014 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
With the new school year upon us, college students are returning to campuses for the upcoming semester. Hulett Environmental a pest management company servicing South Florida warns that college dorms and off campus housing provide the perfect storm for a bed bug infestation to develop, as the pest thrives in heavily populated places. A recent study conducted by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) and the University of Kentucky found that bed bug infestations are on the rise in many types of dwellings, including college settings. In fact, 54 percent of pest professionals surveyed had treated bed bug infestations in college dorms in 2011. Bed bugs are known for their uncanny hitchhiking abilities, so students returning to school should inspect their belonging and living area thoroughly before they unpack is found, we recommend immediately contacting a university facility manager. Experts at the NPMA offer these additional tips to help prevent bed bugs from becoming an unwanted college roommate:
- Fully inspect your suitcases prior to re-packing for a return to school, especially if you have traveled during the summer. Be sure that any clothes that may have been previously packed in the suitcase have been washed and dried in hot temperatures .
- Before putting your sheets on your dormitory bed, inspect the mattress seams, particularly at the corners, for telltale stains or spots. Thoroughly inspect the entire room before unpacking, including behind the headboard and in sofas/chairs.
- If you are considering bringing "secondhand" furniture to campus, properly inspect it to insure that a pest problem, such as bed bugs, is not the reason for its "secondhand" status. If you see anything suspect, do not bring it to campus.
A licensed pest professional can assist in proper identification and treatment of bed bugs. "Many consumers think they can handle bed bugs on their own, but the reality is this pest is not a do-it-yourself project. Attempts to control bed bugs on your own may only exacerbate the problem and lead to a larger infestation." For more information or to speak with a pest a professional about bed bugs, visit www.bugs.com


text:
BaliHQ necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 269 diseños de 89 diseñadores freelance.
Mighty Stallion
A savvy entrepreneur who makes a living mainly from online property sales, luxury villa rentals and building luxury villa properties for affluent clients.
We have a new and exciting project starting in a few months in a remote, yet beautiful tropical location. We have set up a foriegn investment company for the client using the name Mighty Stallion. We have also secured the .com for this name.
We have the client already so are not looking to sell anything at this stage. The project here is mainly to create a bold logo for brand identity
Future clients would indeed be highly successful people who are extremely affluent and looking for safe offshore investments
No ClipArt - I do not want to see any representation of a horse or stallion either real or abstract in any shape or form in the logo
No mirror effects or reverse text
No rainbows
No wild west or cowboy style designs
The design should give the impression of strength, virility, boldness and create presence. Ideally it would instill a sense of authority and professionalism. Perhaps something like an official seal or stamp would work?
Colours. Nothing too bright or glaring. The design should be professional and most of all ORIGINAL!!!
99.9% Need Not Apply!
The winning design must be delivered in Adobe Illustrator (.ai) and (.eps) vector formats at 300 dpi resolution. JPEGs and PNGs formats at 72dpi resolution.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
snikrep necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 129 diseños de 63 diseñadores freelance.
Snikrep Development
I'm a super badass developer but I totally lack artistic ability. I mean seriously if it's possible to be negatively artistic, that would be me.
I love Macs and I run several hundred Unix servers for my various projects. My job is coding. In my spare time I like to code. I even married a chic who codes. (Plus she's gorgeous, who could resist!?)
Right now the company is just the 2 of us. A gorgeous brunette and a decent looking guy, and we love writing software.
Mainly targeting tech and business people.
The Logo itself should feature the word "Snikrep" as the prominent feature. The full name of the company is "Snikrep Development" and the development part should be on there somewhere as well.
I'm looking for a nice Icon to go with it. Maybe the icon is part of the logo, maybe not, you tell me.
I really like dark green (emerald). I'm probably too much of a Unix geek. I live during the day though, so white background is a must; no black backgrounds please.
I'd like to have a site that looks really clean and with green and black highlights, so the Logo and Icon should set the tone for that.
Final delivery must be in PSD format.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
Herr Nightingale and the satin woman
Knopf : distributed by Random House, 1978 - Fiction - 119 pages
Billedbog for voksne.
From inside the book
2 pages matching Beggar King in this book
Where's the rest of this book?
Results 1-2 of 2
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Common terms and phrases
Abdul the Incorruptible answers antennae Art Dealer Chang attar attar of roses Bagg's basket Beersheba Beggar King beside Cairo camels captain chair clerk collar Consul courtyard crawls cricket cage cuff cuff links dance dark deck desk Dragon Harbor dream drink drop dunes eyes face fall feels finds floats Forbidden City ginger bath glass glow golden caterpillar Golden Horn Gospodinoff hashish heart Herr Nightingale hops Inspector Bagg Istanbul jewels junk lamp legs light looks Major Medjid Mamluk moon moth Moon Pagoda Street moves night Pagg pillars of Wu police launch Rantzau sampan Satin Woman says Bagg says Nightingale says the boatman says the cricket says the shoe Scotland Yard shepherd's pie shine shoe cleaner sing sits smiles softly song speaks stares steps takes thinks Bagg tiny Tseu walks wall watches whirl WILLIAM KOTZWINKLE wind window wine Yard


text:
Night Shoot
Exif: F Number: 5.6, Exposure Bias Value: 0.00, ExposureTime: 1/30 seconds, Flash: did not fire, compulsory flash mode, ISO: 1000, White balance: Manual white balance, FocalLength: 45.00 mm, Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Uploaded on March 28, 2011
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Joyce Bohm. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Log in to follow or message this photographer or report this photo.


text:
80 years on from the start of the Spanish Civil War, a play by one of the greatest writers of the 20th century appears in London for the first time.
Ernest Hemingway was in Madrid in 1937, during Franco's siege, and wrote The Fifth Column there, under that bombardment.
Philip Rawlings, a spy-catcher and covert member of the International Brigade, is engaged in a life-and-death struggle to unmask Fifth Columnists inside the besieged city. He is also passionately in love with a female war correspondent living in the hotel.
Around them, the people of Madrid are trying, often comically, to survive; and the idealism of the young men under him, who came to fight with the International Brigades, is contrasted with the ruthlessness of civil war.
Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls is the great classic of the Spanish Civil War, and we hear his own inimitable voice in The Fifth Column. Many of Hemingway's novels are drawn from his own adventures and love affairs, and the play is based on real events and real people - the leading characters owe much not only to Hemingway and his lover Martha Gellhorn, one of the first female war correspondents, but also to Tom Wintringham ,"The English Captain" and Commander of the British Battalion and his lover Kitty Bowler.
The Fifth Column is not available to book, please sign up to our newsletter for updates and offers on forthcoming and available shows.
Find out more about the venue for your show: Directions, Transport options and facilities.
Borough: Exit & turn right towards Newington Causeway. Located just before the railway bridge. Elephant & Castle: Exit via South Bank University Exit & turn left, head up Newington Causeway.


text:
Monastery of Santa María Real de las Huelgas
Contact details
C/ Compases s/n
09001 Burgos (Castilla y Leon)
Tel.:+34 947201630 / +34 914548700
- Autonomous region: Castilla y Leon
- Province/Island: Burgos
National Heritage certification
The Royal Pantheon: silence and spiritual contemplation.
The convent was founded by Alfonso VIII and his wife Leonor, as a Royal Pantheon and a spiritual retreat for society ladies and royalty.
The complex consists of the church, monastery, and the enclosed premises of the Cistercian nuns with a crenellated wall that served as protection for them. The church has five apses, a transept and three naves. The choir stalls for the enclosed nuns is located in the centre nave, alongside the Kings and consorts' Pantheon. The gospel nave (on the left) housed the Infantes' Pantheon and the epistle nave (on the right) was for the nuns. The sacristy door has a particularly outstanding decorative Arab design. The standard from the Battle of Las Navas is on display in the austere –in keeping with the Cistercian tradition– chapter room.
- Construction: Monastery
- Artistic period: Cistercian
- Historic period: 12th century
- Setting: Church of the Merced, Church of the Carmelite Sisters, Barrantes Hospital, El Rey Hospital.
Practical information
From Tuesday to SaturdayFrom 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM From 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Public holidays and SundayFrom 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM
- Closing days: Monday
Ticket office open up to one hour before closing time for monument. Closed: 24, 25 and 31 December and days of official events announced on the National Heritage website.
- General: €6
Admission free: under-5s, large families (when the tour is being taken by, at least, one adult and three of his or her children, or two if one of them is disabled), ICOM members, disabled people, teachers, unemployed people and on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon for European Union and Ibero-American citizens.
Guided tours