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text: When you come and stay at Snow Goose Lodge you can enjoy the experience of making Maple syrup. Jim and friends, Brandon and Ryan Shrader, have been making sugar for the past several years. They tap Maple trees in Republic county. It is a unique phenomenon of weather that make the tree sap flow so it can be collected into buckets to evaporate down into syrup. Idea tapping conditions are below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. You can see the old New England style sugar shack that Jim has built to evaporate the sap down to Maple syrup. This process normally takes place in January, February and March but it is fun to see the sugar shack anytime you are here. Many people think that only Sugar Maples can be taped for syrup but any maple tree has a sugar content there are many soft Maples tapped in Wisconsin and Minnesota. There are trees that have been tapped for hundreds of years and are still producing sugar. This is a unique experience you will love to see during your stay.

subset: commoncrawl


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SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launching Dragon to supply the International Space Station. The View from Port Canaveral was incredible as the reflection of the Rocket Engine Flames glowing over the bay. There will be 11 more missions to resupply the International Space
Category Archives: Space
The 3rd GPS IIF Satellite is being launched from Cape Canaveral on 4th October
The 3rd GPS IIF Satellite is being launched from Cape Canaveral on 4th October
On the 4th of October the rocket Delta IV will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station near Orlando. It will be carrying a GPS Satellite that will help for the positioning services for the public and the military.
It is scheduled to be launched at 8:10 a.m. on Thursday from the Atlantic Coast of Cape Canaveral. The time from the ignition of the main engine through to the separation of the second stage is scheduled to be over three hours.
The Rocket is the third spacecraft being used as a GPS Satellite and will be replacing the first one and the oldest of them. The GPS Satellites have helped with improving the location capabilities of this kind of technology.
On May 27th 2010 was launched the first GPS IIF Satellite and entered service on August 26th 2010. The second was launched on July 16th 2011 and entered service on August 22th 2011.
There are contracted to be 12 GPS IIF Satellites. Three of these Boeings are ready and stored and the rest six of them are being tested.


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Friday, December 07, 2007
Plethora of Stakes Winners Cheat True Champions
There are too many stakes races run in America, and the situation is getting worse every year.
And how do we know when too much of a good thing is enough? When more equals less, and that�s the case at the highest levels of thoroughbred racing.
Followers of the sport in recent years weren�t surprised last week when the American Graded Stakes Committee increased the number of graded stakes races to be run next year.
While there will be two fewer Grade 2s run in 2008, there will be three more Grade 1s and six newly installed G3s.
I can�t argue with the elevation of the Pilgrim, Miss Grillo, Southwest and Florida Oaks to graded status. The first two are natural preps for the new Breeders� Cup Juvenile Turf, the Southwest begins the road to the Arkansas Derby and the Florida Oaks has gained prestige with the addition of South Florida shippers into Tampa Bay Downs.
The proportion of graded stakes, and their delineation in relation to each other, makes sense, too. Over 22 percent are G1, almost 32 percent G2, and 45 percent are G3.
However, 718 open stakes is too many, as are the number of Grade 1s, set at 110 in 2008. Grade 1 racing represents the sport�s highest level and often defines championships. But to suggest that all G1s are created equal is folly.
The increase in the number of stakes in the modern era began in the mid-1970s after the great Secretariat was syndicated for a then unheard of $6-million. That stunning sum was the beginning of how the breeding industry--and not the sport of racing one man�s horse against another--ultimately would determine success in the thoroughbred business.
With fewer racing dates, no simulcasting, and three Triple Crown winners within six years-- Secretariat, undefeated Seattle Slew, and the Affirmed/Alydar show--going to the races was a very popular alternative to mainstream sports.
Breeding syndicates began to replace family owned nurseries and that portion of the industry was beginning to be fueled by Japanese and European buyers purchasing our best bloodlines for racing and future breeding considerations.
Racing was becoming very big international business, and tracks began competing with each other in an era when star racehorses still attracted media attention and large live crowds.
Fueled by an increase in betting handle, more money was poured into newly created stakes with allowance and weight-for-age conditions becoming more prevalent. Resultantly, racing secretaries would either keep the highweight assignments of top handicap horses on the feathery side or go back to walking hots. New York even imposed a highweight rule, not to exceed 126 pounds.
With field size in stakes shrinking from opportunities to win and earn big purses elsewhere, horsemen, motivated by loyalty to owners and their own pocketbooks, began ducking �the big horse� with their own �big horse,� even if you still had to ship to Belmont Park in the fall to win a title.
Parenthetically, it is no wonder it crossed John Gaines�s mind to come up with a series of championship defining races on one day, a Super Bowl for racing, paid by the proceeds of all those valuable stud horses and their toney progeny.
Given monetary success at the sport�s highest levels and with simulcasting about to enter its infancy, new tracks began to sprout up everywhere. This necessitated that graded events be created to engender a big time atmosphere at these new venues, forcing powerhouse tracks to begin lobbying for an upgrade of their own traditional races.
In politics, size matters.
While this country may still be regarded as bloodstock nursery to the world, it has begun to lose ground. Europeans, Japanese and more recently Middle Eastern interests are not only snapping up the best of America�s remaining blue-blooded stock at yearling and juvenile sales but are taking them right off the racetrack and back to their own farms around the globe.
Aside from the historical factors and the economic reality of expensive horses earning graded blacktype almost as soon as the overnight comes out, the modern game�s added opportunities artificially increases the value of today�s stakes winners as potential stallions, which seems to be the way the game is played by today�s new strain of owner/breeder.
There are myriad reasons then for the existence and continued growth of stakes opportunities, but a stakes win doesn�t equate to class the way it once did, in the same manner that the 9-furlong Haskell doesn�t equate to the 10-furlong Travers even though both are Grade 1 events.
The prevailing trend in thoroughbred racing is the burgeoning growth of international sport. In this country, however, the prevailing wind still seem to blow only in the colonies as the number of stakes races increase year to year. It might be counterintuitive, but the greater the number of stakes races, the more we cheapen the value of our best horses and the less we dominate the sport internationally.
If that weren�t true, if too many stakes opportunities weren�t counterproductive, then how do we explain that in the recent Breeders� Cup, the only international representation on hand were two handfuls of European runners.
If we still cling to the notion that American racing is the world�s best--as represented by the total number of stakes winners--then why did Hong Kong attract runners from five European countries and Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Singapore this weekend for their four Grade 1-program worth over $8-million? Maybe because the racing world also recognizes that not all Grade 1s are equal.
Written by John Pricci


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Comedy, tragedy and undercurrents of love … just like every family
"You have to soar to fill your soul, but your family is what keeps you grounded," writes first-time director Dave Carter in the playbill for The Cripple of Inishmaan. That's the point of Colonial Players' season opener, a well-crafted comic piece that dips into the reality of sadness and cruelty without turning maudlin.
Martin McDonagh's play debuted in 1996 in London and off Broadway in 1998. The wisp of a plot focuses on an American coming to Inishmore, near the island of Inishmaan, to make a film about the locals, who are abuzz.
Bright performances abound in this dark comedy.
Teenaged orphan Billy Claven (Jack Leitess), known as Cripple Billy, decides that his fate — and his escape from the cruelties of the island — lies in Hollywood, so he shoves off to join the movies. His two aunts (Mary MacLeod and Carol Cohen) worry about their charge, who spends much too much time reading books and staring at cows. Friend Bartley McCormick (Drew Sharpe) tries his best to understand, and Bartley's egg-flinging, rough-edged sister Helen (Natasha Joyce) tries to be as cruel as possible.
Babbybobby Bennett (Scott Nichols), the rough-hewn widower facing his own demons, manages the transit off the island. Tying things all together is the theatrical town gossip Johnnypateenmike (Edd Miller), whose thirst for attention is fed by his ability to barter news for goods. Lisa KB Rath as Johnny's elderly sot of a mother and Danny Brooks as Doctor McSharry also shine in smaller supporting roles.
The star of this production is not one particular character over another, but rather the vast undercurrents of love that ebb and flow through each and among them all together. Thence rises the heartfelt laughter, saving what could have been too dark a comedy. Cripple Billy's friends and neighbors are his family, and Cripple Billy takes as good as he gets when it comes to understanding and coping with his disability. The directness with which his condition is treated gives us some very lovely, often laugh-out-loud, comic moments. From the aunts' hand-wringing angst over Billy's lack of prospects and Helen's addiction to cursing and kissing, to Bartley's denseness and Johnnypateenmike's hilariously childlike need to be first to tell, this cast makes McDonagh's characters come to life brightly, hilariously and sincerely.
It's not a perfect show, to be sure. In several scenes the pacing needs to be picked up (opening night was two hours and 40 minutes, a bit long for a two-act non-musical). Several scenes are awkwardly staged so that too much of the audience in the round is blocked from the action. In a few spots, the actors' volume must be turned up.
On a more positive note, director Carter and his actors take care to ensure the Irish accents are of the less-is-more variety, consistent enough that we know we're in the Aran Islands, but not so overdone that we lose what's being said.
What's being said is beautiful, funny and often heart-wrenching. The Cripple of Inishmaan rides an undercurrent of love that draws us in, gives us good, hearty laughs and soars into our hearts.
Playing thru Oct. 1: Th-Sa8pm, Su 2pm, plus Sept. 18 7:30pm, Colonial Players Theatre, East St., Annapolis; $20 w/discounts; rsvp: 410-268-7373.
Stage manager: Ernie Morton. Costume designer: Christina McAlpine. Set designer: Terry Averill. Lighting designer: Shirley Panek. Sound designer: Michelle Bruno. Dialect coach: Nancy Krebs.
Phenomenal performances sell a story stretched thin
Homecoming after the Great War is wrenching for Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender: X-Men: Apocalypse). Seeking solitude, he signs on as keeper of the lighthouse on uninhabited Janus Island.
On a tri-monthly visit to the mainland, he catches the eye of Isabel (Alicia Vikander: Jason Bourne). Their epistolary romance soon blossoms into marriage. On Janus, they are incandescently happy until Isabel becomes pregnant. Two miscarriages and two little wooden crosses leave her on the brink of a breakdown and Tom struggling to save the marriage.
Salvation appears in a rowboat: a baby in the arms of a dead man. Tom wants to call the authorities, but Isabel convinces him to bury the dead man and pretend the baby is their child.
Tom relents, and happiness returns to the island.
But on the mainland, Tom learns that their daughter is the child of a woman who believes the baby and her husband were lost at sea.
What is an honest man to do?
Boasting great performances and gorgeous cinematography, The Light Between Oceans is a throwback to the Magnificent Obsession melodramas of Douglas Sirk in the 1950s. Scenery is lush, performances are heartfelt and the plot improbable. Director Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines) adapted the film from a bestselling novel, and cinematic time constraints may explain leaps in logic.
Characters make life-altering decisions then recant minutes later; Coincidence strains credulity. This can be frustrating if you hope to understand the plot as it's unfolding.
Only Fassbender and Vikander save it from becoming dreck. Both give heart-wrenching performances within the limits of a form high on dramatic events but short on the emotional impact of these events on the characters.
While the leads try their best, it's hard to build characters in a film unspooling an increasingly ridiculous plot.
Fair Drama • PG-13 • 133 mins.
Two brothers fight the law and the banks in this gorgeous Western
Toby (Chris Pine: Star Trek Beyond) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster: Warcraft) are days away from losing their family home. They're the latest in a long line of landowners in Texas who've taken unfair mortgages from banks that leave them on the brink of homelessness. Signs for debt relief and bank buyouts populate their small town, which is slowly decaying because of the economic collapse.
Toby has spent his life trying to preserve the family land. It's his legacy and one he'd like to pass down to his children. Tanner is a jailbird who likes bar fights and women. The land has never meant anything to Tanner, but he's loyal to his brother and wants to help Toby create a legacy.
To keep their land, Toby comes up with an idea: rob branches of the bank that's foreclosing on the Howard homestead, taking only enough money to pay the mortgage and back taxes. Toby figures it will take five banks, and if they do it right, no one will die. Tanner figures it's his chance to play outlaw again and immediately leaps into the role of desperado, unnecessarily beating bank employees and waving guns. They're the modern-day James brothers, raising hell on the plains of Texas.
The heists attract the attention of Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges: The Little Prince), who's on the brink of retirement. He decides that the Texas Midlands bank robbers will be his last big case, a chance to go out in a blaze of glory.
Will Hamilton track down the men before they finish their crime wave?
Filled with great acting, a tight script and gorgeous cinematography, Hell or High Water is a fantastic twist on the classic Western genre. Director David Mackenzie (Starred Up) makes West Texas one of the stars of the film, utilizing the flat expanses of land to isolate Tanner and Toby, making them seem both adrift and trapped by their surroundings. Dilapidated towns and deserted streets set the scenes and make it clear that economic downturns have sucked the life from these communities, sparing Mackenzie from long boring rants about the evils of banks.
Mackenzie also works hard to make every speaking part in the movie memorable. Notable southern character actors like Dale Dickey and Margaret Bowman show up for scene-stealing cameos that help populate the film with intriguing characters. The culture of Texas, the pride and hubris that comes with Lone Star citizenship, is key to understanding the choices characters make. Being from Texas is not just a geographical fact but a state of mind. The people in these towns are armed and annoyed, which means that local citizens have no compunctions about starting a shootout during a bank robbery.
Pine, Foster and Bridges all carry their roles. Bridges' southern drawl and bravado masks deep feelings of dread and inadequacy; he faces retirement the way a man faces a firing squad. As the bank robber brothers, Pine and Foster manage to forge a believable bond with a real tenderness. These are men who love each other deeply but are more comfortable expressing that devotion through a shared beer or a bout of roughhousing. Foster especially steals his scenes as the Howard Family screw-up. Brash, violent and terrifyingly charming, Tanner is a liability from the start, and one that seems to know his story won't have a happy ending.
A love letter to Texas and a lamentation of the dying culture of the sprawling western lowlands, Hell or High Water is one of the best films of the year. Topical and timeless, this tale of two outlaw brothers sounds like a story that could be told over a campfire. But a legend featuring a villainous bank plays well even if you're not at home on the range. If you're a fan of western lore or just great storytelling, Hell or High Water is the movie to see this summer.
Great Western • R • 102 mins.
A boy learns the power of a good story in this exceptional animated film
If you must blink, do it now.
So begins the story of young Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson: Game of Thrones), a troubadour in ancient Japan. Each day in the square he tells fantastical tales of the Moon King and the brave warrior Hanzo who fights him. As he weaves his tale, Kubo plays his shamisen as origami to come to life to act out his story. Villagers gather to watch and shower Kubo with coins.
The most fantastical thing about Kubo's stories is that they are true.
Kubo is the son of Hanzo the samurai. Kubo's mother, a daughter of the Moon King, betrayed her father for Hanzo's sake. The Moon King vanquished Hanzo, ripped out one of Kubo's eyes and exiled his daughter.
Kubo's distraught mother arms him with three pieces of advice: Never take off his father's robe, never go anywhere without his monkey charm and never stay out after sunset, when the Moon King can see.
When Kubo breaks the rules, the Moon King and his loyal daughters descend on the village to find him and take his other eye. Only his father's legendary armor can save him.
In Kubo and the Two Strings, LAIKA studios has made a beautiful film about the power of stories and the strength we draw from family. The combination of CGI and stop-motion animation creates a unique and highly stylized look. Paired with visual effect is an innovative story that examines the role storytelling has in our lives, from the stories we tell about our families to the stories that record our history.
LAIKA has quietly become one of the best animation studios around, posing a credible challenge to Pixar and Disney in both technology and storytelling. Director Travis Knight, LAIKA's lead animator for years, makes his debut behind the camera with this finely detailed and beautifully rendered story of a boy's quest for his origin story.
A talented voice cast enhances the powerful visuals and intricate story. Charlize Theron (The Huntsman: Winter's War) vocalizes a scene-stealing monkey, growling and threatening to keep Kubo safe. Matthew McConaughey (Free State of Jones) offers comic relief as the cursed samurai Beetle, who is filled with warmth and kindness though a little rattled.
Wonderful as it is, Kubo and the Two Strings may not enthrall little ones. The story is complicated and has scary bits. Ages nine and up should be enchanted.
LAIKA Studios has yet to have a feature-film misfire, with Kubo and the Two Strings a masterwork proving that animation is a medium powerful for more than amusing children.
Great Animation • PG • 101 mins.
This stunning Disney remake features a charming dragon and a good moral
Forest Ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard: Jurassic World) has found many strange things in the wood. The oddest of all might be Pete (Oakes Fegley: Person of Interest), a bedraggled 10-year-old who's lived for five years in the forest after his parents' death.
Pete had help surviving the wolves and cold. He credits his friend Elliot, who he describes as a giant green dragon.
Perhaps Pete's story is the product of a traumatized imagination. But Grace has heard dragon tales from her father (Robert Redford: Truth). As she investigates, lumberjack Gavin (Karl Urban: Star Trek Beyond) discovers Elliot in all his emerald glory.
Can Grace and Pete save Elliot before hunters find him?
Pete's Dragon is a charming family film, with lots of heart about conservation, family and the power of magic. A remake of the 1977 Disney flick of the same name, this version takes some of the silliness out by setting it as a story about land encroachment: Elliot is running out of forest, imperiled by humanity.
Director David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) makes the human world dangerous. Back in civilization, Pete is overwhelmed by noise and smog. Little wonder he wants to return to the forest with Elliot, where landscapes are lush and life is simple. It's an effective ploy, one that even smaller viewers will understand, and a clever way for Lowery to emphasize the beauty of nature and the danger of the unchecked development of natural resources.
To promote his parable, Lowery has employed an exceptionally charming dragon. Elliot has the rectangular head of a Chinese dragon, the massive body of a dinosaur and a covering of thick green fur. He likes to romp, fly and make mischief in the woods. In essence, he's a humongous dog, filled with guileless enthusiasm and curiosity that make him the clear star of the film.
As Pete, Fegley acquits himself well. He looks more at home in the woods than in Grace's home. He and fellow child actor Oona Laurence (Bad Moms) walk the line between innocence and wisdom, never pushing too far in either direction. It's rare to find one qualified child actor in a film; to find two almost seems as magical as finding a dragon in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Though visually stunning, Pete's Dragon may not hold the attention of small viewers. The plot and many of the themes are meant for children a bit older, so don't be surprised if your five-year-old seems bored whenever Elliot is not on screen. There's also a very dramatic attempt to capture Elliot that may be upsetting to young viewers. Consider the sensitivity level of your child before buying tickets.
An excellent option for ages seven and up as well as a wonderful reminder to adults that magic lives in the beauty of nature.
Good kid's fantasy • PG • 103 mins.
The bad guys get a bad script
What do you do when a superman breaks bad?
That's the worry of intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis: Custody). Her solution is a squad of the worst villains America has ever known.
Her villainous team includes:
• Enchantress (Cara Delevingne: Pan), a millennia-old deity possessing the body of an archeologist;
• Deadshot (Will Smith: Concussion), a mercenary named for his aim;
• Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie: The Legend of Tarzan), a violent psychotic and girlfriend of …
• The Joker (Jared Leto: Dallas Buyers Club);
• Boomerang (Jai Courtney: Man Down), a violent thief;
• Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: Concussion) an amphibious mutant;
• Diablo (Jay Hernandez: Bad Moms) a flame-shooting gangster.
Waller believes she can keep them under her control with the help of military man Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman: House of Cards) — who is a bit compromised as he's secretly in love with the woman inhabited by Enchantress.
The plan does not go well. Waller loses control of Enchantress, who creates a super weapon to destroy the earth.
An incoherent blend of weak performances, an awful story and poor editing, Suicide Squad is almost impressive in its total failure. The script is challenged by logical fallacies. Production was plagued by studio meddling, meaning that director David Ayer (Fury) might bear the whole blame. Tone is off balance between dark drama and goofy comedy. Repetitive flashbacks have nothing to do with the story and offer no new information.
Smith and Robbie work hard to charm their way out of the mire, creating characters that might hope to return in interesting solo films. On the other hand, Leto's Joker is a bizarre mishmash of villainy, and Delevingne's Enchantress is distinguished only by jerky belly dancing and intense staring.
It could have been great. Instead, it's a disaster.
Terrible Action • PG-13 • 123 mins.
Mel Brooks' mocking masterpiece
To end its 50th season, Annapolis Summer Garden Theater has challenged itself with one of the biggest and most popular musicals ever to hit Broadway: Mel Brooks' The Producers. Winner of a record 12 Tony Awards in 2001 and running for more than 2,500 performances, the show sought to hilariously offend everyone — Jews, producers, actors, homosexuals, Nazis … the list goes on. Brooks' blockbuster set the stage for the kind of hard-to-get ticket that is being matched only by the current hit, Hamilton.
It's a big musical, with choreography, music and acting that have to be over the top to work; have you ever seen subtlety in any Mel Brooks movie? Annapolis Summer Garden Theater smartly turned the reins over to local directing veteran Jerry Vess, who strikes a nice balance between the bigness of Broadway and the limits of community theater. A tight, seven-piece band led by Ken Kimble sounds bigger, the original choreography is nicely adapted by Emily Frank, and Anita O'Connor's music direction helps a talented cast confidently deliver on such songs as It's Bad Luck to Say Good Luck on Opening Night.
Costumer Jocelyn Odell brings Brooks' wacky German vision — think pretzel heads and beer-stein jewelry — brilliantly to the stage. The costumes emulate those that helped make the original so memorable.
The plot is simple: Down and out Broadway producer Max Bialystock (B. Thomas Rinaldi) ropes in straitlaced and timid accountant Leo Bloom (Nathan Bowen) to stage a purposely horrible musical, Springtime for Hitler, and abscond to Rio with the money they raised when it closes after one night. The wrinkle, of course, is that it becomes a smash hit.
Rinaldi hits all the right notes as Max, and his body type, voice and attitude are perfect for the role — though opening weekend tentativeness zapped some of the zing from Brooks' zingers. Late in the second act, when he reviews all that's happened while sitting in a jail cell, he makes Betrayed masterful: funny, even a touch emotional.
Rinaldi and Bowen work well together, evoking a Laurel and Hardy dynamic. Bowen's baritone lends itself well to I Want to Be a Producer. As actor, he allows Leo's uptightness to be comical but not unbounded — for that would mean competing with so many unbound characters that Brooks has in store for us. Characters including —
• Franz Leibkind, the Springtime for Hitler playwright who, on his rooftop with his Nazi pigeons, reminisces about his past (In Old Bavaria), forces Max and Leo to sing along to Adolf's favorite song (Der Gutten Tag Hop-Clop) and has them swear to never dishonor Adolf Elizabeth Hitler. Josh Mooney, complete with liederhosen and Nazi helmet, is hilarious as Franz, his bright smile and energy surpassed only by his sidesplitting seriousness when tending to the fuhrer's honor.
• Roger DeBris, the flamboyant "worst director in New York," whom Max attempts to sign to ensure the show flops, and his "common-law assistant" Carmen Ghia. Pete Thompson as Roger and Kevin James Logan as Carmen are brilliant together and apart, and bring one of the most popular numbers of the show, Keep it Gay, to hilarious life. Logan's flaccid fluidity is so beautifully comical that the audience has no choice but to laugh. Playing Hitler during the show-within-a-show, Thompson's Roger romps mischievously and riotously as he sings Heil myself!
• Ulla Inga Hansen etc. etc. (a long long name, pure Brooks), the tall, beautiful Swedish blonde who auditions for Max's next show and becomes his "Secretary-slash-receptionist."
Max lusts, Leo longs and Ulla titillates in a complete 180 from Max's older women benefactors. As the always smiling statuesque Ulla, Erica Miller gives us a syllable-chewing faux Swedish accent that works to perfection in When You've Got It, Flaunt It, which gives her body, Max's libido and Leo's heart quite the workout.
• The Usherettes, Ashley Gladden and Amanda Cimaglia, musically narrate, and a fine ensemble provides wonderful voices, dancing and characters, none more uproariously than almost the entire cast in Along Came Bialy, better known in theater circles as the little old lady walker song.
While there was that tentativeness on the second night, accompanied by some screechy microphone levels, little details like that always work out as a run progresses. Here's the important thing:
Annapolis Summer Garden Theater has gone all out for its 50th birthday. With Jerry Vess' perfectly paced adaptation and a cast that's having a blast, the company fits Mel Brooks' comic genius and this big Broadway show onto a local stage. It's the audience that gets to celebrate.
Act quickly … several dates are already sold out.
About two hours 50 minutes with one intermission.
Thru Sept. 4: Th-Su 8pm, $22, rsvp: www.summergarden.com.
Old-school effects and good storytelling make a cool chiller
Something is scratching at Martin's (Gabriel Bateman: American Gothic) bedroom door. While he shivers in terror, his mother chats with an invisible friend, Diana.
There is something lurking in the dark, ready to attack when the bedside lamp goes out. Martin watches in vigil night after night as the thing in the dark tries to come closer.
When it gets Martin's father, he turns to his estranged stepsister, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer: Triple 9), who has had her own troubles with a creature that lived in bedroom nooks.
Can Rebecca save her brother from a menace no one can see? What is the hold Diana has over their mother? Why hasn't everyone in this movie run to Eddie Bauer to buy camping lanterns?
This movie about primal fears both thrills and entertains. For his feature directorial debut, David F. Sandberg expanded a short by the same name (available on YouTube) into a thoughtful, interesting, old-fashioned horror movie that focuses on creating a sense of dread. He plays smartly on the idea that Diana can come from any dark space, be it an empty room or an archway in an old house. He then fills the frame with shadows, making us unsure of where the threat will come from. This sense of uncertainty builds tension and keeps visual interest.
Sandberg also chose to use mostly practical effects. This means that when someone is thrown across a room or a shadow disappears behind a door, it's not a trick of a computer but an actual event captured on film. This gives the events weight and realism often lost in a world of CGI.
The other strength of Lights Out is its cast. Bateman is the rare child actor who isn't cloying and who can carry a scene. Palmer is also a rarity for a horror lead as she neither gets unnecessarily naked nor acts like an idiot when problems arise. The bond between the two is believable and sweet.
Lights Out gives us storytelling rather than quick jump scares. If you want bloody monsters popping out from every corner, you may be disappointed. Check out the short version on YouTube to get a sense of the movie's tone before you plunk down your cash. But if you're looking for a thrilling reason to run up your light bill, Lights Out is worth the ticket.
Good Horror • PG-13 • 81 mins.
Find out as six young playwrights speak out in Twin Beach Players' 11th Annual Playwright Festival
Twin Beach Players has unusual success in getting kids to say what's on their minds. Over 11 years, youngsters from elementary to high school have taken to the Kids Playwright Festival stage, writing plays that describe the world as they know it.
The Player and the Festival are "safe spaces for kids of all backgrounds to express themselves," says company president Sid Curl. "Kids feel they can be themselves and have fun doing it."
At the same time, the annual competition and festival introduce young people to the camaraderie and teamwork needed to get live theater productions to work.
From Kids Playwright Festival, alums have even made it big, with internationally published plays, small roles on popular shows like House of Cards and original plays on the Charm City scene.
Six-dozen aspiring thespians are creating this year's festival, as authors, actors and stage hands. Two dozen submitted plays. Half a dozen — all girls — earned the honor of seeing their words come to life in the words and gestures of actors in front of families and friends. That talented cadre also earns cash prizes of $100.
After three years of acting, recent homeschooled high school grad Taylor Baker tried her hand at playwriting this year. Objection! won, she says, because it not only "breaks the fourth wall — drawing the audience in — but also is funny."
Sisterly competition brought younger sister Sidney Baker to this year's stage with her Shoes, Pizzas and Spirits. "It's a twist on A Christmas Carol," she says, created to please theatergoers who, like herself, tire of the same old play every December.
Rising Northern High School ninth grader Leah Hartley is a two-time winner. Last year she wrote about art and friendship. This year's Science Mistakes was a challenging new subject for her. And, she thought, for the competition because, she says, "nobody writes about science."
Cousin Elizabeth Kieckhefer, a home-schooled sixth grader, tracked her with Amber's Science Lesson.
Science would have been a natural subject for aspiring meteorologist Lucie Boyd, a seventh grader at Northern Middle School, and second-time Festival winner. A couple of years back, her play about meteorologist Doug Hill won a countywide school competition. Instead, for this year's festival she wrote a sequel to her last year's winner. "I love reading mysteries and learning about history in school," she says. The Mystery of the Hum of Nachitti combines both interests.
Sadie Storm, a seventh grader at Plum Point Middle School, is the most experienced Twin Beach Player, with the company since second grade. As an actress, Sadie poured her heart into her roles. One of her proudest moments was her director's praise for her work in a very small part. "Passionate about social change," her debut as a playwright is Changes, a play about bullying that, she hopes, is "better than the boring ones she sees at school."
Playing thru August 14. FSa 7pm, Su 3pm, North Beach Boys and Girls Club, 9021 Dayton Ave., $7, rsvp: www.twinbeachplayers.com.
Boldly focusing on character development makes this the best of the new Trek films
For Captain Kirk (Chris Pine: The Finest Hours), boldly going where no man has gone before is surprisingly boring. As his five-year mission to explore the universe as a diplomat for Star Fleet continues, he's looking for a way to break the routine of space travel.
Kirk seeks a position on a space station. Meanwhile, his second in command, Spock (Zachary Quinto: Tallulah), plans to leave the Enterprise to ensure Vulcan survival. Before they abandon their crew and seek out new futures, they are sent on one final rescue mission to an uncharted planet.
Things go wrong, as they often do when on one final mission. The Enterprise is ambushed and destroyed by Krall (Idris Elba: Finding Dory). Most of the crew is captured.
That leaves big jobs for the few who escaped. Spock and Bones (Karl Urban: The Loft) seek to uncover Krall's origins. Kirk and Chekov (Anton Yelchin: Green Room) search for their captured comrades. Scotty (Simon Pegg: Ice Age: Collision Course) searches for signs of life.
With interesting characters and an exciting plot, Star Trek Beyond is the best of the newest set of Star Trek movies. While past sequels have rehashed classic plots, director Justin Lin (True Detective) moves beyond the Kirk/Spock dynamic to give the characters room to grow.
It's a refreshing take on familiar characters, based on a clever script from Simon Pegg and Doug Jung.
The Bones/Spock pairing is especially successful, with Urban doing some fine comedy as the curmudgeonly doctor. We also meet an interesting new character. Jaylah (Sofia Boutella: Kingsmen) is neither a love interest nor a damsel in distress. Kirk remains a smug jerk, perhaps as a send up of William Shatner.
It's not perfect. Despite the fearsome Krall, nothing much is at stake. You know from the beginning that no one important will die. Hints are so obvious that you know how it will end. Some action sequences are too dark to see.
Star Trek Beyond has no deep message, but it does have an excellent rescue sequence that features transporters, phasers and motorcycles. All together, it's the perfect film to help you beat the heat.
Good Sci-Fi • PG-13 • 122 mins.
© Copyright 2019, New Bay Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Wednesday, March 5, 2014
SugarPea Designs Sweet Sneaks - Day 3
This adorable image is called "Take A Load Off". Isn't she a cutie? There are lots of great sentiments with this set too. I colored her with copics and colored pencils, and added a bow and a button.
Would you like to win the Take A Load Off stamp set? Hop along and leave some blog love for each of our designers. Our March guest designer is Lisa Lara - thanks for joining us this month Lisa! One lucky person will be randomly selected to win the Take A Load Off stamp set. We will announce not only the winner of today's stamp set, but also the winner of the entire March release to one very lucky person who attends our online release party on SugarPea Designs Facebook this Thursday night between 8:00 and 9:00 PM EST. The March release will be launched in the SugarPea Designs online shoppe at 9:00 PM EST!
Thank you so much for stopping by! Enjoy the hop!
Hugs, Anita
I would like to enter my card in these challenges:
Eureka Stamps Challenge 79 - Anything Goes
Glitter n Sparkle Challenge 74 - Add A Sentiment
Stamp: SugarPea Designs - Take A Load Off
Paper: Simple Stories - Homespun; Bazzill
Other: Copics, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, seam binding, button, hemp
34 comments:
Very sweet card Anita! Love your coloring and the beautiful papers.ReplyDelete
terrific card Anita, fun new set...fab coloring as always!!ReplyDelete
So cute! Great card and coloring!ReplyDelete
Beautiful!! Love your paper choice ❤ReplyDelete
You are so right, Anita. The possibilities with this set are endless and I feel that way about my own laundry sometimes ... endless! LOL I love the floral background. YOu did a great job on this card. :-)ReplyDelete
Fantastic card! Love the DP and your beautiful coloring.ReplyDelete
Super cute card!ReplyDelete
This is adorable, Anita! Fantastic coloring of the cute scene! Love the papers you used, too!ReplyDelete
She is so adorable!!! Beautiful card!!!ReplyDelete
Another adorable release!!! What a cutie she is! I am a sucker for clothes lines!! (no idea why???) Love this!ReplyDelete
Your card is so darn cute! Love the addition of the bow and button embellishments.ReplyDelete
Oh my goodness this is just adorable and perfect in every way xxReplyDelete
Great card, who would have thought hanging out washing could be made to look so lovelyReplyDelete
Darling card and great coloring and design!ReplyDelete
Adorable! The grass is perfectly stamped and shaded! Is that a single grassy image that you have duplicated? Love this.ReplyDelete
Adorable card Anita!ReplyDelete
Anita: Lovely card. It certainly calls for spring in this snowy day! I would love to use this set to send some happiness for the upcoming "International Women's Day". Cheers!ReplyDelete
Great card, loveReplyDelete
the flower background
and the colors used
are wonderful. Like
the bow and button
Carla from Utah
So cute!! Gorgeous bow with that bright cheery button.ReplyDelete
Great card, I love the button and bow. They're perfect with your paper choice.ReplyDelete
Such a bright and happy card...love the coloring and your paper choice!ReplyDelete
Okay, I think this set was designed for me! I love the smell of laundry after hanging outside. Well, call me old-fashioned! Love this sweet scene, Anita.ReplyDelete
oh I just love your grass Anita. Wow. Love that paper and the colors you used in your scene.ReplyDelete
Love how you have kept it so simple to show off the stamp, this is very sweet!ReplyDelete
Wow- can you colour?!! Gorgeous card!ReplyDelete
wow so stunning anita.i love the image and your paper is gorgeous :DReplyDelete
xx coops xx
I've fallen in love with this set! Love your bright and cheery card showing it off, Anita! :)ReplyDelete
love this card and image beautifully done love it thank you for sharing with glitterReplyDelete
What a sweet image! Awesome project. Love the colors thanks for playing a glitter n sparkle. Hope to see you next time. Good luck.ReplyDelete
Stunning card hun.ReplyDelete
Totally love that image.
Thanks for joining us at G n S. Good luck
Tracey DTxx
This is such a beautiful scene card. Thank you for joining Glitter 'n Sparkle challenge.ReplyDelete
Hugs from Africa.
Olga DT G'nS
- AnonymousMarch 8, 2014 at 10:00 PM
Awww this image is adorable! I wish I'd have seen the hop before it was over so I could win...off to go check out the website now! Thanks so much for sharing at Eureka.ReplyDelete
Great coloring!!! Thanks for joining us at Eureka Stamps this week for our "Anything Goes" challenge.ReplyDelete
Great coloring!!! Thanks for joining us at Eureka Stamps this week for our "Anything Goes" challenge.ReplyDelete


text: On the ball, Part 1 Published on January 23, 1996. National Football League star Jerry Rice is adding his name to the marquee at SportsLine USA, a sports information Web site. SportsLine will host the San Francisco 49ers wide receiver's fan club--featuring a Jerry Rice newsletter, Q&A, merchandise, biography and stats. The club kicks off Jan. 25, just days before Super Bowl XXX. SportsLine's "endorsers"--including Joe Namath and Bob Costas--figure heavily into the Web site's promotional plans. Most Popular In this article: News


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Today, September 1st, is my parents 39th wedding anniversary!!!
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Today, September 1st, is my parents 39th wedding anniversary!!!
16 comments :
Oh such a great and sweet post!ReplyDelete
Happy Anniversary to your parents and wish them more years together to reap all the fruit of their labour and unconditional love.
Thanks for the quotes too.
Have a wonderful weekend dear.
Happy Anniversary to your parents.ReplyDelete
Great quotes, I love the "you can't save people" one.
Enjoy your weekend.
How precious! I love that they still hold hands too!ReplyDelete
awww, happy happy anniversary to your parents! i hope to have a marriage like theirs one day. :)ReplyDelete
p.s. thanks for the inspirational quotes!
<3, Mimi
Mile End Bakery Giveaway: Win a dozen cookies of your choice!
Open internationally: Win a set of temporary tattoos!
Such a beautiful post...your parents are adorable xReplyDelete
You parents are a lovely couple and I wish them a Happy Anniversary! I love the quotes too! Hope you're enjoying your weekend!ReplyDelete
Hey, oh my god, love your blog :) would you like to follow eachother??ReplyDelete
Congrats to your parents!ReplyDelete
Thank you for your sweet comment <3 you have such a fun and lovely blog!
Following you via GFC! I would love if you could do the same <3
Happy anniversary to them! Your parents sound so lovely!ReplyDelete
Happy anniversary to them! Your parents sounds so lovely!ReplyDelete
happy anniversary to your parents!! they are the cutest!!ReplyDelete
Awww, I love those sweet photos together especially the ones with romantic wedding anniversary messages with them. Very romantic and I like them.ReplyDelete
this is so cute post. My best anniversary wishes to the couple. Happy anniversary!ReplyDelete
have a nice posting of anniversary wishes quotes messagesReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 17, 2013 at 12:51 PM
Happy anniversary quotesReplyDelete
Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to look at my little spot in blogland!
I welcome all comments and thoughts and look forward to hearing from you! :)


text:
Hello all
I have been a lurker on this forum for quite a while, but I have now decided that it is time to become a real member and be accountable for my weight loss actions. I never had a weight problem till my late thirties and now that I am in my forties, it is getting even more difficult to lose weight.
It feels to me as if I have been losing, or trying to lose the same 8 kilos for the past 8 years without much success. Anyway, it is now or never. I have decided to try and eat the WW way and stick to my daily point allowance. I was a member a few months ago and lost quite a bit, but became disillusioned when I started to run and gym again and my weight just got more and more. I know it will level out again and that I will hopefully start losing again if I continue with the exercise, but I just sort of gave up and stopped going to WW.
So here I a, hoping that with the support of the forum and me being accountable, I will at last get and stay on weight loss path and see some lasting results.
Take care


text:
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text:
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Predestination: A Series on Election, Part 5 – Irresistible Grace
3 comments:
- Steven J. said...
Jerry Coyne (you referenced his blog a few weeks ago) once posted a querulous note to the effect of why philosophers who acknowledged (correctly, in his view) that all our decisions follow necessarily from a chain of cause and effect tracing back to the Big Bang bother to twist themselves into knots arguing that this is compatible with free will. He apparently did not consider that this decision (for a "compatibilist" concept of free will) was, on his own principles, the inevitable outcome of a chain of cause and effect tracing back to the Big Bang.
This is a central paradox of free will (or rather, the denial of it): if I don't have free will, why do you think I chose to believe I do? If the criminal is not responsible for his actions, why should you blame me for my (presumably equally unfree) desire to punish him?
This seems to me to be Spurgeon's problem. If he'arguing with non-Calvinist Christians, and acknowledging that they are Christians, then obviously, you can be saved without accepting Calvinism. If he holds that all True Christians will realize that Calvinism is the truth, then he's arguing with people who, on his own principles, cannot be brought to agree with him unless God reaches down and changes their minds. And God, even if He chooses to work through preaching, is presumably not constrained by whether that preaching is Calvinist in content (after all, it's not as though, on Calvinist grounds, mere preaching can change our comprehensively depraved minds).
So if Spurgeon was right, there's no point to his utterance; of course, if he's wrong, then he ought not have said such things and misled people.
In any case, another perennial problem in discussions of free will is that you can't really tell whether people could have chosen differently. All you know is that they didn't choose differently, which no more means that they never could have then the fact that a truck has been driving east all day proves it is incapable of driving west. Spurgeon's argument thus doesn't support his conclusion.
- February 13, 2015 at 11:46 PM
- RKBentley said...
As I said in my replies to your previous comments, the idea of free will seems incompatible with the sovereignty of God. I can only repeat the same examples I've used already: Judas betrayed Jesus of his own free will. However, it had already been foretold that Jesus would give His life as a ransom for many so Judas' betrayal still accomplished God's will.
You ask how we can be held accountable for our sins if all of our actions are subject to God's will? I only know that I KNOW I've done wrong when I sin and it is right for God to demand justice. If I could understand everything about God, He would be a very simple God. Instead, I acknowledge there are things I can't understand and I trust that He who is perfect is simultaneously all loving and completely just. I know that He will do what is right.
Thanks for your comments. God bless!!
- February 17, 2015 at 5:26 PM
- Steven J. said...
Actually, I wasn't asking how we can be accountable for our sins if all our choices are subject to God's will; I was simply asking why a mere fallible fellow human would [a] say that we don't have free will or moral accountability, yet [b] act as though treating other people (whether we treat ourselves that way is a separate question) as morally accountable is something we can be blamed for.
On the other hand, the underlying problem, as I see it, is that God is said to want certain outcomes (that we all love and obey Him), and yet governs the world (e.g. causing/allowing all humans to be born with a sin nature that compels them to reject Him) that work against that presumed goal. God seems to be His own worst enemy (of course, when you're the only omnipotent, omniscient Being in the universe, good enemies are hard to find). And your subjective impression that you are morally responsible for your sins, on the assumption of absolute divine sovreignity, cannot be more reliable than your subjective sense that you actually have free will to choose some things and reject others.
- February 17, 2015 at 10:05 PM


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On 2006/04/13, at 5:06 PM, Ian Hickson wrote: >> The right way to do this is with OPTIONS, but there's very poor Web >> server support for it. > > OPTIONS is one of those features that was very nice in theory but > is dead > in practice. We can't realistically rely on it. I know :( >> This proposal has some nice attributes, but it's very complex. > > I think it is simpler (a lot simpler) than a system based on a known > location, with its own file format, etc. This is especially the > case given > that we need <?access-control?> anyway -- my proposal is just an > additional set of rules for how to restrict XMLHttpRequest in a way > that > relies on that separate spec, and is describable in a few paragraphs. Well, this proposal makes some trade-offs, relative to a known location / site-wide policy. It enforces a one-to-one resource-to- policy relationship, which allows the scenarios you mention (e.g., many authors on one server, administrative access issues) but it incurs considerable overhead for sites that *do* have homogenous policies and/or a single administrator; each distinct unsafe request will require a separate policy request, and the policy will need to be co-ordinated across a potentially large number of resources. That will in turn encourage such sites to offer very coarse-grained resources, overload content negotation, misuse GET or play other tricks to avoid the extra round trips, which is a step in the wrong direction IMO. What about allowing in-content / in-header policy for safe methods, and going to a well-known location for unsafe methods? >> If it were me, I'd be inclined to put a known location in the WD >> (say, >> /w3c/access-control) in order to get the TAG -- or anybody else -- >> motivated to come up with a better solution. > > That's a very dangerous way of designing specs. You are most likely > to end > up having implementations of your straw man. Perhaps. I'm concerned about proliferating models and means of attachment of Web metadata; this, the content labels work, Web description, etc. It would be good if every WG didn't invent a different way of doing this. The well-known location cat is already out of the bag; this is a new and unknown beast. >> By that time the side effects have already happened on the server >> side. >> Many CGI tools (unfortunately) treat GET query args and POST >> bodies as >> equivalent, so there will be situations where it's possible to >> craft an >> attack against a server whereby a GET has side effects. > > This is out of scope for this proposal since it is already possible > to do > both GET and POST submissions to arbitrary URIs without any protection > whatsoever. OK (assuming you're referring to script tags and the like). As stated before, I'm not sure the existence of one hole justifies the intentional opening of other holes. > The XMLHttpRequest cross-site protection only needs to protect > against two things: > > 1. Actually reading the data that is returned, and > > 2. Sending of request entity body payloads that are MIME types > other than > text/plain, multipart/form-data, application/x-www-form- > urlencoded, > and application/x-www-form+xml. > > The second is only to protect against hypothetical servers that are > actually checking the Content-Type of submissions. In practice I doubt > it'll make the slightest difference. Not following you; why should other media types be prohibited? E.g., why can't I POST or PUT some JSON or RDF to another site, if it wants to let me? > My proposal actually protects more than that, it protects against > reading > the returned data and _any_ entity payloads. This is overkill, but > makes > the model simpler. (The extra roundtrip is only required for the > second of > these, which is probably overkill. We could probably drop it.) Again, not following you; I thought the point of the second round trip was to avoid any undesired state changes / side effects on the server. If you're saying that it's OK for XHR to do an exploratory POST, PUT or DELETE against a server to see if the results have access-control information in them, I can't agree. >>>> 3) "Domain:" doesn't seem like the greatest name for something that >>>> includes more than a DNS domain name, but I guess we can pretend it >>>> means "security domain" or something. >>> >>> I am not in any way attached to any of the names, I don't mind >>> better >>> names, e.g. if we want Security-Domain: or whatever. >> >> I personally like Referer-Domain, as it is similar to the existing >> Referer header (in fact, duplicitous, but whatever). > > Referer has path information, which is a privacy problem; Referer- > Domain > would only include the domain, to get around this. (And the scheme, to > allow for checks against DNS spoofing, but that's a minor detail.) Could you go into that a bit more deeply? The site with control over the cross-site request is the same party that controls how the Referer is constructed (by controlling how their URIs are laid out), so what's the exact concern here? How is this different from a normal link between sites? There's also a bit of asymmetry here with the goals you stated earlier; you wanted to allow people who didn't control a whole site to set access control, but Domain doesn't allow the target of that XHR request to identify the resource accessing it beyond the site it's on. Cheers, -- Mark Nottingham firstname.lastname@example.com on Friday, 14 April 2006 01:45:03 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 21:16:21 UTC


text:
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text:
Capturing a Web Page Without Stylesheets
Capturing a Web Page Without Stylesheets
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.Join For Free
Jumpstart your Angular applications with Indigo.Design, a unified platform for visual design, UX prototyping, code generation, and app development.
It is amazing to live in an environment where the Internet connection is ubiquitous and fast. But in case the tube is having a problem and the bits from the web server are broken into random pieces, how does the web site look like? If the content degrades gracefully, the lack of style sheets may reduce the attractiveness of the page but it should not significantly hamper the experience. Fortunately, there is a way to automatically check the appearance of a web page under that circumstance.
Some time ago, I have demonstrated the use of PhantomJS, headless WebKit, to capture web pages programmatically. The example was also extended to capture just a particular portion of the page via clipping. For CSS-less capture, we just need to extend it with the new feature in PhantomJS 1.9 (as implemented by Vitaliy Slobodin): the ability to abort network requests.
There is a example loadurlwithoutcss.js which demonstrates this feature. In fact, combining this idea with the previous BBC News site capture, we can come up with the following screenshots. The left side shows the normal page (see my previous blog post on web clipping) while the right side demonstrates what happens when all the CSS files are not loaded at all.
The script which produces the above image is as follows:
var page = require('webpage').create(); page.settings.userAgent = 'WebKit/534.46 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3'; page.settings.viewportSize = { width: 400, height: 600 }; page.onResourceRequested = function(requestData, request) { if ((/http:\/\/.+?\.css$/gi).test(requestData['url'])) { console.log('Skipping', requestData['url']); request.abort(); } }; page.open('http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health', function (status) { if (status !== 'success') { console.log('Unable to load BBC!'); phantom.exit(); } else { window.setTimeout(function () { page.clipRect = { left: 0, top: 0, width: 400, height: 600 }; page.render('bbc_unstyled.png'); phantom.exit(); }, 1000); } });
It is pretty similar to its previous version. The new addition is a handler for
onResourceRequested where we detect the URL for a style sheet and abort its loading. If the script is executed, it will display the message:
Skipping http://static.bbci.co.uk/frameworks/barlesque/2.45.9/mobile/3.5/style/main.css Skipping http://static.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/0.3.184/style/mobile/bbccom.css Skipping http://static.bbci.co.uk/news/1.7.1-259/stylesheets/core.css Skipping http://static.bbci.co.uk/news/1.7.1-259/stylesheets/compact.css
which indicates that these 4 (four) style sheets won't be part of the rendered output.
The entire process is rather straightforward. Because PhantomJS is cloud-ready, you can even have it running on an instance of Amazon EC2. It should not be too difficult to include this type of spartan rendering of your web site as another layer in the defensive development workflow.
What do you plan to de-CSS-ify today?
Take a look at an Indigo.Design sample application to learn more about how apps are created with design to code software.
Published at DZone with permission of Ariya Hidayat , DZone MVB. See the original article here.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.


text:
One question that many locals living and working in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area have been curiously asking is, "Why is Flakka disappearing?"
As it turns out, this issue might have a simpler answer than many might have assumed, and it all starts with a 10-hour flight over to the capital of Flakka and bath salts, the largest producer of the chemicals that compose it: China.
The "zombie" drug has made international news in the previous years, as cases from its use began to rise rapidly from 2011 to 2015. While this drug has been reported about throughout the country and the world, few places have taken such a heavy toll as South Florida has, more specifically Fort Lauderdale in Broward County, Florida.
Known as the home for the "Flakka craze," Fort Lauderdale law enforcement and mental health officials have long been talking about the dangers and issues that Flakka use has posed for the growing city by the water. One can hardly look up information about the drug itself without being flooded by news of some crazed and high individual getting shot on the sunny streets of South Florida.
However, the Broward County Sheriff's Office has reported a recent massive decrease in the numbers of Flakka-related cases, to the point that one deputy said in a Washington Post article, "This is incredible. I can't find even one person," when asked to comment about the radical disappearance of Flakka as he searched the alleys and dens where he used to find dealers and users alike.
Fort Lauderdale and China, an Unlikely Partnership
While it might seem abstract and out of place, South Florida's severe Flakka problem—otherwise known as bath salts—actually has its origins in China.
According to a Washington Post article, buying Flakka online from Chinese vendors tended to be an "open secret," which certainly contributed to the vast majority of reported Flakka incidents. With the click of a button, one could place an order of different bath salts and have it delivered to their front porch, all of which is legal. It was discovered afterward that sellers who bought the drug online later resold it on the streets with a markup value of nearly 300 percent.
Eventually, a special task force was created in partnership with the DEA and local law enforcement authorities to fight the growing Flakka epidemic across South Florida. Because it was on the streets, combating it was found to be ineffective, so another task force was created to push back against Chinese authorities in an effort to halt production on their end.
Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University quickly noticed the rising usage of the destructive drug and made sure to bring up the Chinese connection in several news interviews in an attempt to bring more national attention to it.
"We were in an emergency scenario"— Jim Hall, epidemiologist
With the support of the US Department of Treasury, several sanctions were imposed on one specific drug producer in China: Bo Peng. Throughout the investigation conducted by several agencies—led by the Drug Enforcement Agency—151 people were eventually arrested on counts of distributing lab-produced synthetic chemicals.
By November 2015, several Florida law enforcement officers—including local, state, and federal authorities—along with Jim Hall, visited China on a delegate mission to plead their case for the crackdown on several different drugs, from fentanyl (synthetic heroin) to Flakka.
After the visit to China, the Chinese government listened proactively and instilled many different bans and stricter laws regarding their regulations with synthetic chemicals. This resulted in an almost immediate effect on South Florida, mainly in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County.
Lt. Ozzy Tianga, a deputy for the Broward County Sheriff's Office and Flakka expert, said that when he's back on the streets, patrolling the Flakka dens he used to commonly search, he's noticed they've all basically been abandoned. "They look like artifacts from a different time," he said in the Washington Post article.
While Flakka is certainly still on the streets of South Florida, what remains is most likely the last batches of a dying trend. However, what exactly is Flakka?
What Is Flakka?
Flakka gains its name from a Spanish slang meaning "skinny female or girl," not the rapper, Waka Flocka Flame, who many tend to believe its name originated from.
Also known as "bath salts," it is a synthetic stimulant drug that comes mostly in crystallized form. The main component that causes the psychoactive properties in Flakka is alpha-PVP.
Due to its rock and crystallized form, Flakka can be snorted, smoked, eaten, injected, and more recently vaporized. Unfortunately, vaporizing the drug has been linked to the more commonly reported cases of psychotic episodes due to its immediate introduction into the bloodstream. These episodes are also known as "excited delirium."
During the delirium suffered by Flakka, one of the first signs is unbearable heat, which causes users to remove all of their clothing. During these psychotic episodes, those who are high exhibit signs of aggression, deafness, paranoia, hallucinations, and even attempts at suicide.
While not everyone goes through an excited delirium from taking Flakka, chronic users of the drug often exhibit severe—sometimes terminal—damage to their kidneys. Heart attacks also remain common for first-time users.
Seeking Treatment
Drugs like Flakka and other bath salts are extremely severe in their immediate effects on a user. All it takes is using the drug one time for it to dramatically change the life of its user and those around them. When users exhibit the psychotic episodes tied to Flakka, the problem lies within their inability to act rationally. It is a time that users leave the plain of reality and "lose their minds." During those episodes, murder, suicide, and cannibalism have been reported.
No two drugs are alike; some are critically worse than others. Flakka and bath salts are both higher on the list of "drugs that should be avoided at all costs" because of its drastic and life-altering effects.
If you or a loved is suffering from Flakka or any drug abuse and addiction, seek help immediately to avoid any long-term effects from becoming permanent. Don't let yourself or a loved one become another statistic when it comes to drug and alcohol abuse. Our addiction specialists are available 24-7 ready to assist you immediately. Click or call us today at (844) 557-8575.


text:
Hello on Sunday everyone.
Fall is getting closer are you ready for it ?
I got a lot of my wardrobe almost done.
but didn't have a lot of time to work on my scrapbooking projects lol
But I still manage to make this fast and easy invitation envelope
using this lovely floral fabric tape I got from Freckled Fawn
Here is my project.
An easy decorated glassine envelope that you can use for any kind of fun party.
I just love how this fabric texture look on a shiny envelope.
Thank you for stopping by everyone ^_^
Now enjoy your Sunday !


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Thread: BitcoHitz - bitcohitz.com
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I ran an engine match between Stockfish and Critter on my old 32-bit laptop. Stockfish won the match, but Critter won the first game in a model demonstration of a central pawn majority in the QG exchange variation. This was the best game of the match, although marred by Black's aimless shuffling with the king and knights. Critter's play however appears very "human" and strategically clear.
Style-wise I find that Critter plays like Topalov and seemed to sac an exchange in virtually every other game. Critter finds much more dynamic compensation than Stockfish, making Critter extremely useful for analysis. I am also impressed with both engines for their efficient use of system resources. Stockfish uses in general half as much RAM as Houdini, and Critter uses half as much RAM as Stockfish. Additionally, on both of my computers (old/XP and new/Windows7), Houdini continues to throttle the CPU at 100% if the GUI is closed while the engine is running. Because of this I have actually removed Houdini from my computers.
On d4-c4 Openings for White
The purpose of this article will not be to spell out variations, but to describe an organizational approach to studying and managing a serious queen-pawn repertoire. Black's defenses in terms of quality and frequency can be grouped into three tiers.
First Tier, 60-70% of your games and study time:
1. KID / Benoni, Hungarian, Seirawan (Bd3), or Four Pawns
2. Nimzo, Reshevsky
3. QGD, Exchange (pt.1, pt.2, pt.3, pt.4, pt.5)
4. Slav, Exchange
Defenses in the First Tier are common enough to justify playing a relative mainline. Proponents of these venerable defenses are usually very experienced to have seen everything before and not to fear big theory. To promote efficiency I only considered anti-KID variations that apply equally to the Benoni so as to kill two Angry Birds with one stone. I also settled on the Exchange Slav to avoid the labyrinthine Slav and SemiSlav.
Second Tier, 20-30% of your games and study time:
5. Dutch, 2.Nc3
6. Grunfeld, Romanishin
7. Benko, Dlugy attack 5.f3
8. QGA, 3.e3
The Second Tier defenses tend to inspire fanatical devotees at the club level, who thanks to excellent repertoire materials for Black tend to be fairly knowledgable and booked up. So I purposely went for sidelines that strike me as being atypical for the opening and/or easier for White to play intuitively.
Third Tier, 10% of your games and study time:
9. Budapest / Fajarowicz gambit (pt.1, pt.2)
10. Tarrasch / Schara gambit
11. Chigorin / Albin gambit
12. Baltic
The Third Tier defenses generally rely on early tricks and/or early confrontation in the center. As a result, the play is generally very forcing from the get go, meaning that Black has few ways to deviate from established lines without just being clearly worse. In turn, it is relatively practical to prepare a reliable line fairly deeply since Black's responses are predictable and limited.
Kramnik Facts
Ten facts you may not know about Volodya Kramnik:
I was cleaning out an old box and came across this memorable blitz game score against (what was then) a new opponent, Steve, during his first visit to the club last summer. He had just finished terrorizing my buddy, who basically sicced me on him with a knowing nod and a crowd gathered around to watch. We ended up splitting our 4 games and walked away after a firm handshake as chess friends. Our first game had plenty of ultra-violence and crowd reaction, so I had bothered to scribble down the raw game score and stick it in a box for posterity. :-p
Topalov's Romanishin Grunfeld
Topalov ventured against Kamsky the obscure Romanishin line with 7.Bf4 against the Grunfeld in their Candidates game today. I have mentioned this very same (rare) variation at this blog! Topalov deviated from Schiller's recommendation (feels surreal to type that, yes) by going 8.Qa3 instead of 8.Qc2. (See Schiller's e-book at the top of page 3.) Of course, Topalov's further experiment of 0-0-0 and h2-h4 amounted to either wishful thinking or disrespect against a lionhearted defender like Kamsky.
Also see GM Henrik Danielsen's video analysis of the game at chessdom.com
Rubinstein Nimzo videos
Check out these short videos on the Rubinstein Nimzo by GM Henrik Danielsen. These videos cover the "COBE" recommendation by Dzindzi & company. Danielsen suggests the "Reshevsky Nimzo" approach, 4...b6 5.Nge2 Ba6 6.Ng3.
Houdini engine
It's a bit pretentious for an amateur chess blog to promote an extremely popular chess engine, but the free engine HOUDINI is an ideal complement to the equally free resources SCID and MILLBASE. With SCID, MILLBASE, and HOUDINI, any chess hobbyist can have immediate access to professional-quality computer chess resources.
What's that-- you want to learn how to use SCID? Glad you asked, because yours truly produced detailed videos explaining exactly this.
The Reshevsky Nimzo Revisited
I've updated my White repertoire against the Nimzo-Indian, based on the method of the positional Nimzo assassin, Sammy Reshevsky. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4, I want to play simply 4.e3 intending Nge2 and a3.
I am happy to publish the following e-book of annotated games, date-stamped in case I decided to supplement or revise it in the future.
Below is an opening outline to sort out Black's fourth-move options, and the links go to illustrative game examples.
Nimzo, Rubinstein 4.e3, Reshevsky plan
A. 4...b6 5.Ne2
1. COBE 5...Ba6 6.Ng3 Bxc3+ (6...0-0?!) 7.bxc3 d5 8.Ba3 Bxc4 (8...dxc4?) 9.Bxc4 dxc4
a. Endgame line 10.Qa4+
b. Gambit line 10.e4 or 10.0-0
2. Romanishin-Psakhis 5...c5 6.a3 Ba5 7.Bd2 0-0! 8.Rb1 Na6 9.Nf4
3. Pseudo-QID 5...Bb7 6.a3 Be7 7.Nf4
4. Pseudo-Dutch 5...Ne4 6.Qc2 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Nxc3 Nxc3 9.Qxc3
B. Reshevsky variation, 4...0-0 5.Ne2 d5 (5...Re8) 6.a3 Be7 7.cxd5
1. Soviet line 7...exd5 8.b4
2. Fianchetto line 7...Nxd5 8.Bd2 Nbd7 9.g3
C. The IQP line, 4...c5 5.Ne2 d5 6.a3
1. Double IQP line 6...cxd4 7.exd4 Be7 8.Nf4
2. Karpov's IQP line 6...Bxc3 7.Nxc3 dxc4 8.Bxc4
D. Botvinnik variation, 4...d5 (4...Nc6?!) 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 0-0 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Bd3
Khalifman - Bologan, 2002
Petrosian - Ljubojevic, 1983
Art of Sacrifice, game 19
Baby Faced Killer
I posted another video (25 mins) in my series on The Art of Sacrifice in Chess by Rudolf Spielmann.
You can find a complete listing of my videos including the Art of Sacrifice series at my Wiki page.
How to Drop 2 Pieces By Move 15
I played one of the most active players in the USCF, who has played 2,356 rated games, scoring exactly 50% with 1073 wins, 1073 losses, and only 210 draws. My opponent intermittently streaks to his peak rating in the 1900s but spends most of his time near his floor in the low 1700s.
I was 0-3 against this player in games from 3-4 years ago in which I attained a clear if not winning advantage, but fell for some trick or swindle while being annoyed by various off-the-board tactics. This player engages in "total war" during his games-- i.e., by "adjusting" the pieces during an opponent's long think or, while the opponent is away, extending his legs under the opponent's chair and not moving them when the opponent returns. Anyway, this game was my long overdue revenge.
"During a chess competition a chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk."
My notorious swindler of an opponent simply missed 12...Na5 and 15...d4, each of which wins a whole piece.
November 2015


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Sebelius can't defend selective Obamacare delay for Big Business
President Obama hasn't taken questions in public from conservative media since the government shut down last week. No "real" Mainstream Media (see liberal Democrat) so-called "journalist" privileged to question the president privately or in public, has asked him about why it was legal (via unilateral executive fiat), much less fair, for him to a grant one-year delay from compliance with Obamacare's employer mandate to Big Business while refusing a Republican demand that individuals also be granted a one-year delay from compliance with the individual mandate tax.
Then his Secretary of Health and Human Resources showed up for what she surely thought would be a kid-glove's appearance on Comedy Central's"The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart…
Of course, there is no adequate answer for the obviously unfair treatment of the poor and middle class as opposed to that of rich corporations at the Obama Administration's hands.
Kudos to Jon Stewart for exhibiting the qualities of a real reporter seeking the truth. [Full interview links here.]
Mike DeVine's Right.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." – Andrew Jackson


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BIG and Tall Men's Clothing & Suit Style Tips For Shorter, Chubby Guys
Most of the time, modern fashion is oriented around youthful, slim models. However, many men have a fuller appearance, and with advanced age most men add a few pounds. The good news is that regardless of your build, you can certainly look dapper and elegant even if you have a little bit of meat on your bones. Many brands carry suits for big & tall guys but rarely do you see clothes for men who are portly and shorter. In today's guide, we want to help heavier men of all heights.
The video and written guide have some overlap but both contain unique tips and information you won't find in the other. You get the most out of this guide if you watch the video first and then read the text.
Suit Tips For Big, Chubby Men – Both Tall and Short
Maybe even more so than for other men, fit is of the utmost importance to men with a heavier build.
Why Are Off The Rack Suits So Bad For Bigger Men? The Pattern Is Scaled
The huge problem is that off the rack suits rarely provide a good fit for stockier men, leading to figure exaggeration rather than flattery. To understand why that's the case you must look at the pattern that is used to make a suit.
- A suit pattern is scaled across sizes.
- When you increase the chest size, everything else gets bigger too: The armhole, the sleeve, the length, the shoulders etc.
- So when you have a bigger belly, your shoulder width doesn't change, and your arms don't get longer either. If the sleeve was the only issue, it could be shortened, but the length of the jacket determines the positioning of the pockets and the buttonholes – which can't be repositioned – that's why the fit of an off the rack suit for bigger men is usually so bad.
On top of that, these RTW suits often have a lot of shoulder padding, which makes the wearer look like an American football player rather than a well-dressed individual.
Pay Attention To The Shoulders
The correct shoulder width is of utmost importance — that means the jacket's shoulder extends just slightly above your natural shoulder bone and not by an inch / 2 cm or more. Of course, on the opposite end of the spectrum, one should also avoid wearing garments with a shoulder that is so tight that you see wrinkles because it makes you look like a pressed sausage.
What Suits Should Bigger Men Buy? Customs Suits!
If you do not have extreme proportions an off the rack suit from places like Ralph Lauren may work for you.
If you are short and big, an off the rack suit will likely never fit you well, whereas there is a slim chance that big and tall guys can find a suit that fits pretty well with some alterations, but it really depends on the brand. Generally, a better option is to go with custom garments such as Made to Measure or if you can afford it, bespoke. To learn more about the differences and similarities of these two types, please take a look here. Also, bear in mind that not all custom suits are created equal and men with unusual proportions benefit from a tailor with an experienced eye.
The Cut of a Portly Suit
The jacket should preferably be single breasted with notched lapels. This silhouette will suit you much better because a double breasted jacket will make you look wider and it will inevitably gap in the front. Two or three buttons are probably ideal. Both skinny (7cm) and wide (14cm) lapels are too exxagerated. Try to find something classic, between 8-10cm / 3.5″, so they are proportional to your figure and your face.
Choose either side vents or no vents; a middle vent is for sporting jackets, and it will likely gap unfavorably, leaving your rear exposed.
Ideally, the trousers of a suit for heavier gentleman should be cut so they sits on the natural waist. The same is true for the buttoning point of the jacket, because the proper buttoning height sets the visual basis for your entire outfit. If it too high, your belly will peek out from underneath. If it is too low, you look a little bit like a Dachshund.
Belts are pretty much useless because they will not be able to keep the pants up. The same is true for side-adjusters, because your pants will inevitable slide down, which will cause the fabric to bunch up on top of your shoes. Instead, use suspenders. They allow for a little more room, so you can comfortably sit down and your trousers will always stay in place, avoiding the awkward need to hike them up after sitting. Moreover, I suggest you wear pleats because they provide more room for your legs, especially when you sit. They also allow your trousers to fall more naturally, which will look better.
One way to really create a slimmer look is to wear a vest. Not only is it more formal than a 2 piece suit, but it will also hide and smooth your middle section. Like the jacket, you should go with single breasted waistcoats only.
Colors & Patterns
Dark solids in navy and charcoal will certainly work well, just like with most other men. Overall, it is certainly a smart idea to dress more classically with white or light blue shirts and a simple tie, however you are not limited to these few colors. More so than for slimmer gents, it is important for you not to draw attention to areas you'd like to reduce with ostentatious colors and horizontal stripes.
You can wear patterns but do so in a subtle manner. Skip the wide chalk stripes and choose a subtle pin stripe instead. Also, a glencheck suit is OK, but choose a fabric with no or a subtle overplaid with a bigger pattern. This will make you look interesting and the larger scale harmonizes with your body type.
In a Nutshell: 10 Suit Tips For Big Men
- I. Pay attention to fit; avoid buying off the rack and go custom instead.
- II. Choose single breasted over double breasted suits because they make you look slimmer.
- III. Wear suspenders for trousers and skip the belt because it will be more comfortable for you, look better and the pants won't slide down on you.
- IV. Go with pleated pants and side vents. Pleats give you extra room in the legs, especially when you sit, and middle vents gap a lot, which is why side vents are best.
- V. Wear solid colors or subtle patterns. Focus on fit, and don't be too flashy. Wide stripes make you look even bigger, and bold windowpanes can do the same.
- VI. Try a wearing a vest. It makes you look more dapper instantly, and the dark color slims you down visually.
- VII. Wear medium sized tie knots and skip cutaway shirts. Your outfit must be balanced and a big tie knot on a big guy is just over the top. The same is true with shirt collars. A super wide shirt collar makes your face look extra wide, but you want to appear slimmer, hence a classic collar is best.
- VIII. The buttoning point and your trousers should be close to your natural waist. That is usually around the belly button or above. Most suits for big men have a buttoning point that is too low and hence it makes them look like they have very short legs, which is unflattering.
- IX. Look for a jacket with a small armhole. It sounds counter intuitive but a smaller armhole makes you more comfortable because you can move in them with less restriction, whereas big armholes cause your shirt and jacket to move with you, making you uncomfortable.
- X. Go for breathable fabrics that are heavier. You want heavier fabrics because they drape better over your body and make you look better, and you want an open weave so you can feel the airflow — because a sweaty big man is not an attractive man.
Shirts & Ties
A nice dress shirt and tie complete the look of every elegant men's outfit and of course that's also the case if you are a big fellow, yet you have to deal with a few specific issues.
The Shirt Collar Must Fit Snuggly Against Your Neck
Ideally, a man's dress shirt collar should fit tightly around his neck. The problem with off-the-rack shirts is once again the evenly scaled proportions. If you have a particularly strong neck, the rest of the shirt feels like a tent, whereas someone with a spare tire and a slimmer neck will have a collar that is way too big. Hence, pay attention to the fit of your shirt collar. Fortunately, made-t0-measure shirts can be found quite inexpensively today, and you can get a much-improved fit compared to RTW. Of course, bespoke is the best, but also the most expensive option.
Go With Classic Collars, Avoid Extremes
Just like with all clothing, a dress shirt is meant to flatter you. Therefore bigger guys want to look a bit slimmer, and not bigger. Therefore, shy away from wide cutaway collars because they only accentuate the width of your face. Also, stay clear of tiny modern collars because they make your head look bigger in proportion.
Instead, chose a classic turn-down collar that is average in size or just a bit above average. That will look the part without being flashy.
Opt For 3.5″ / 9 cm ties and medium tie knots
A tie is merely decorative, but it order for it to make portly guys look good, you have to pay attention to a few details.
- Choose a medium sized tie knot; if it is as little as Prince Charles', it will disappear next to your head and make your face look bigger. On the other hand, if you go with a double Windsor, you will accentuate likewise fullness of your face. A medium size knot is proportional to your appearance and hence the best choice for you. Click here to learn how to tie knots that flatter you.
- Your tie should be about the same width as your lapels. For 90% of big men a 3.5″ / 9 cm wide tie is the perfect tie length and it will help you to look dapper. Avoid slim ties because they make you look bigger.
- One aspect most heavy men don't think about is tie length, but it is crucial. If you have a belly, your tie has to cover more distance and has to be longer than ties for slim men of the same height. For that reason, I designed ties in 3 different sizes, and for portly men regular length or long (both in 3.5 cm will likely be ideal.) If you are very short and portly, you may have to chose a slightly slimmer tie, but then you may also have to narrow your lapel.
Stockier Men in Elegant Suits
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is very tall and heavy, but his Berlin bespoke tailor Volkmar Arnulf understood the need to tailor suits for him that made him look respectable, authoritative and statesmanlike.
Just like with the larger patterns, it may be a good idea to opt for slightly larger flaps and buttons in order to keep your look proportional and flattering. The same is true for the distance between the buttons. If they are too close together, your lapel is too long, and most people will think something is off even though they can't point their finger on it. For a big guy, you want slightly larger distances between your buttons, especially if you are tall. However, this is something you will get if you visit a bespoke tailor.
Photo Tips For Big Men
We all get our picture taken at times, but nobody looks good with a double chin. So, if you pose for a photograph make sure to stand slightly sideways and it will slim you down in the picture. Also try to put your chin forward and down because it will elongate your neck and make you look dapper.
In case you have found something that we did not list here, please let us know and we will be happy to add it to the guide.


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In mere months, these predictions will probably be irrelevant, since Disney is announcing things left and right and surprising us with what they are putting on Blu-ray. I figured I'd do this for fun, since only two animated titles are slated for release on the format. I decided to go by their recent release schedule, announcements and release patterns of the past. So, here we go...
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Missing In Action
Those who have gotten their hands on the Cinderella Diamond Edition Blu-ray have confirmed that Aladdin is in fact, not being released as a Diamond Edition Blu-ray in the first quarter of next year.
Posted by Kyle O at 1:50 PM
3 comments:
Labels: Aladdin, Blu-ray, Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios
Monday, September 24, 2012
Two Diamonds?
|This should be the cover
artwork for the Blu-ray release.
Last month, I discussed the future of Disney's home media output, and how they have dropped two titles (Pinocchio and One Hundred and One Dalmatians) from the Platinum/Diamond line. Not too long ago, Blu-ray.com and an insert that's probably going to be with the Cinderella Blu-ray confirms that Peter Pan will be the next Diamond Edition. It'll be released on February 5, 2013, just in time for the film's 60th anniversary, which the insert oddly doesn't even mention.
Posted by Kyle O at 4:13 PM
No comments:
Labels: Aladdin, Blu-ray, Diamond Edition, Disney, Home Media, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Marvel Cinematic Universe: Best To Worst
With The Avengers coming out on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, I thought I'd share my ranking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Phase One is over, and it was one hell of a ride. Phase Two begins next spring with the release of Iron Man 3 on May 3, and with Joss Whedon shaping this new slate of films and the choice of directors, Phase Two looks like it may just surpass Phase One. Phase One still delivered a very good assortment of films, comic book films that didn't insult the audience's intelligence and actually delivered lots of fun while also telling good stories with characters that you want to see more of.
Posted by Kyle O at 5:15 PM
2 comments:
Labels: Captain America, Disney, Iron Man, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios, MCU, Paramount, The Incredible Hulk, Thor
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Nemo in the Third Dimension
Yes, that's right. Finding Nemo is worth re-experiencing on the big screen in 3D. The wizards at Pixar have delivered a good post-conversion 3D job, proving that animation is born for 3D more so than any CGI-sprinkled live action film. It also continues Disney's plans to re-release their classics and Pixar's films to theaters, just like Walt Disney himself, even though I could do without the 3D conversions.
Posted by Kyle O at 9:16 PM
No comments:
Labels: 3D, Disney, Finding Nemo, Partysaurus Rex, Pixar, Toy Story, Toy Story Toons
Friday, September 21, 2012
Disney and Don Bluth: An Alternate History
Don Bluth's departure from Disney in September of 1979 was certainly a devastating blow to the troubled animation studio. Upon arrival, he was instrumental in shaping The Rescuers, which went from potential disaster to Disney's biggest hit and the highest grossing animated film on initial release at the time. Don Bluth wanted to bring back the classic storytelling to Disney animation, something that was not on display in The Aristocats and Robin Hood, which were cheap, often lazy films that kept the animation studio alive.
Bluth stormed out of the studio during production of The Fox and the Hound, which wouldn't garner the praise that The Rescuers got but was a box office success. More animators were brought on board after Bluth left with fourteen other animators, and they were put to work on safer projects such as Mickey's Christmas Carol before moving onto the ambitious debacle that would be The Black Cauldron.
Now what if Don Bluth never left? What if he was able to fight the management and bring Disney animation back to the glory days? Perhaps the Second Golden Age would've started with The Rescuers and flourished from there...
Sunday, September 16, 2012
"ParaNorman", A New Height for Stop Motion Animation
Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell
Written by Chris Butler
Produced by Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
Distributor: Focus Features
Studio: Laika
Posted by Kyle O at 5:57 PM
1 comment:
Labels: Laika, ParaNorman, Quick Flick Reviews, Reviews, Stop motion
Friday, September 14, 2012
Only Human...
With all the reports about a Finding Nemo sequel (from where I currently stand, it's still "half confirmed", I still want to see that "interview" that the LA Times mentioned) swimming around, more and more news outlets and writers are essentially getting more fodder for their "Pixar is dead" arguments, a disgusting trend that picked up steam when Cars 2 premiered last year. Just take a look at a passage from this recent article on Indie Wire:
Let's face it, the lamp was going through some tough times in the last two years. During production of Cars 2, a lot of talented folks have left the studio. That same year, Brave had a director change which garnered a lot of controversy within the animation community and the press. Though Brenda Chapman was fired from the project over creative differences, the press had a field day and soon you had people left and right calling Pixar a "sexist" studio, a boys' club that wasn't going to allow a woman to direct a film. A change of directors on a film isn't uncommon, especially in the animation industry. Still, it was a blemish on their reputation, because supposedly they were gods amongst men.
Posted by Kyle O at 12:50 PM
1 comment:
Labels: Andrew Stanton, Brave, Cars 2, Disney, Finding Nemo 2, John Lasseter, Monsters University, Pixar, Sequels
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Next Classic
It's finally here! The new trailer for Walt Disney Animation Studios' Wreck-It Ralph.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
DreamWorks' Full Upcoming Slate
Today, The Hollywood Reporter revealed DreamWorks' full upcoming slate from now until the summer of 2016. This answers quite a few questions I've had over the years. Of course we know that The Croods and Turbo already had their release dates set for a good while, while Mr. Peabody & Sherman was moved up to November 1st. This way, it has a little room to breathe before competition.
Posted by Kyle O at 6:15 PM
No comments:
Back to the Sea
It seems as if the sequel to Andrew Stanton's Pixar classic has been confirmed, just in time for the film's 3D theatrical re-release. Though I'm not really putting much credence in that article (where is that "interview" where Stanton confirmed a Finding Nemo sequel?), I'll still offer my thoughts on the subject.
Posted by Kyle O at 11:49 AM
1 comment:
Labels: Andrew Stanton, Disney, Finding Nemo, Finding Nemo 2, Pixar, Sequels
Saturday, September 1, 2012
The Original "Black Cauldron": Can It Happen?
This has always been an unfortunate happening in Disney animation history, one that Kevin T. Rodriguez of Examiner brilliantly summed up as a "sore spot" for animation fans in his fantastic article, Top 10 Reasons Criterion Should Get Animated. Animation fans know the story: Jeffrey Katzenberg, new to the Disney company, viewed The Black Cauldron and told the crew to cut ten minutes of the film. He eventually edited out more footage when the crew didn't meet his demands ("I said ten minutes!"), resulting in the removal of 12 minutes in total.
Posted by Kyle O at 5:38 PM
3 comments:
Labels: Blu-ray, Disney, DVD, The Black Cauldron, Uncut, Walt Disney Animation Studios
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The goal of the camp is to find talented West Virginia students in grades 9-12, bringing them together to create a powerful arts educational experience. Participants are exposed to intense training in this power-packed week of creative excitement featuring instruction in the disciplines of vocal music (techniques and presentation), drama (basic theater skills), visual arts (painting and drawing techniques), dance (modern, jazz, hip-hop, classical, ballet and Afro-Haitian dance), and music/percussion (jazz, blues and popular music). Stan Spottswood, a Kanawha County music education teacher, is the camp's director. The faculty features nationally known guest speakers/instructors.
The fee to attend the camp is $75 per student, including lodging, meals and all instructional materials. Scholarships are available based upon financial need.
Please assist us in locating talented students of any race who have an interest in studying the arts and African-American culture. The deadline for teacher nominations is April 15, 2001. Students who are nominated will receive information and an application by May 1. Please nominate no more than 10 students as space at the camp is limited.
You may visit the Division's website at http://www.wvculture.org/sites/artscampapp.html more information and a nomination form. For more information or to request a form by mail, please contact Stan Bumgardner at 304-558-0220, ext. 121, or by e-mail at email@example.com.