#st davids award

[robotpussy]

Sacheen Littlefeather (Apache/Yaqui/Ariz.), the Native American actress and activist who took to the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to reveal that Marlon Brando would not accept his Oscar for The Godfather, has died. She was 75.

Littlefeather died at noon Sunday at her home in the Northern California city of Novato surrounded by her loved ones, according to a statement sent out by her caretaker. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which reconciled with Littlefeather in June and hosted a celebration in her honor just two weeks ago, revealed the news on social media Sunday night.

Littlefeather disclosed in March 2018 that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, and it had metastasized in recent years. Brando had decided to boycott the March 1973 Oscars in protest of how Native Americans were portrayed onscreen as well as to pay tribute to the ongoing occupation at Wounded Knee, in which 200 members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) faced off against thousands of U.S. marshals and other federal agents in the South Dakota town. Speaking in measured tones but off-the-cuff — Brando, who told her not to touch the trophy, had given her a typed eight-page speech, but telecast producer Howard Koch informed her she had no more than 60 seconds — she continued, “And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry … and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.” Littlefeather’s remarks were met in the building by a smattering of boos as well as applause, but public sentiment in the immediate aftermath of her appearance was largely negative. Some media outlets questioned her Native heritage (her father was Apache and Yaqui and her mother was white) and claimed she rented her costume for the ceremony, while conservative celebrities including John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston — three actors who had starred in many a Western — reportedly criticized Brando and Littlefeather’s actions. As she was becoming an indelible part of Oscar lore, Wayne “was in the wings, ready to have me taken off stage,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. “He had to be restrained by six security guards.” 

Regardless, nearly 50 years later, the Academy issued her an apology.

“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” then-AMPAS president David Rubin wrote to her in a letter dated June 18. “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

Although Brando’s stunt had the intended effect of renewing attention on Wounded Knee, Littlefeather said it put her life at risk and killed her acting career, claiming that she lost guild memberships and was banned from the industry. (In addition, the Academy subsequently prohibited winners from sending proxies to accept — or reject — awards on their behalf.)

“I was blacklisted — or, you could say, ‘redlisted,'” Littlefeather said in her documentary. “Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and others didn’t want me on their shows. … The doors were closed tight, never to reopen.”

Littlefeather managed to appear in a handful of films (The Trial of Billy Jack, Johnny Firecloud and Winterhawkamong them) before she quit acting for good and earned a degree in holistic health from Antioch University with a minor in Native American medicine. Her work in wellness included writing a health column for the Kiowa tribe newspaper in Oklahoma, teaching in the traditional Indian medicine program at St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and working with Mother Teresa on behalf of AIDS patients in the Bay Area. She would go on to serve as a founding board member of the American Indian AIDS Institute of San Francisco.

Via The Hollywood Reporter

#sacheen littlefeather #rip #long post

[moodboardmix]

Mrs Tina Turner The "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" 

(November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023)

In a career spanning more than 60 years, the US-Swiss singer, who was born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, won eight competitive Grammy Awards and has a star on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St Louis Walk of Fame.

Her famous track list over the years includes the Bond theme track for 1995’s GoldenEye, with a tune of the same name co-written by Bono and The Edge of U2 fame, and other tracks include We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome), What’s Love Got to Do With It, Private Dancer, Let’s Stay Together and many more.

In 2008 she duetted at the Grammys with Beyonce for a rendition of Proud Mary which featured both the powerful singers, in sparkly outfits, mirroring each other’s choreography.

Other notable duets through her career included performing with David Bowie and in 1985 she took to the stage with The Rolling Stones’ Sir Mick Jagger during Live Aid.

Her career spanned more than music, with her starring in the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome alongside Mel Gibson and she also appeared in 1993’s Last Action Hero.

In 2021 she sold the rights to her back catalogue after reaching an agreement with BMG for an undisclosed sum, signing over her share of her recordings, her music publishing writer’s share and her name, image and likeness, the company said.

Her solo works include 10 studio albums, two live albums, two soundtracks and five compilations, which together have sold more than 100 million records.

All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. 

Tina, we will miss you dearly.

#art #music #singer #tina #tina turner #rip #rip tina turner #anna mae bullock #thunderdome #proud mary #grammy #icon #legend #golden eyes #private dancer #we don't need another hero #let's stay together #live aid #bmg #ike and tina turner #peter lindbergh #azzedine alaia #bob mackie #queen of rock and roll

[justforbooks]

When Tina Turner, who has died aged 83, walked out on her abusive husband Ike in Dallas, Texas, she feared it would spell the end of her showbusiness career. It was 1976, and she had been performing with Ike for two decades, since she had first jumped onstage and sang with his band at the Manhattan club in East St Louis, Missouri. Yet, although she was desperate and had only 36 cents in her pocket, she was on her way to a renaissance as one of the most successful performers in popular music during the 1980s and 90s.

She had to endure several lean years, but a turning point came in 1983, when David Bowie told Capitol Records that she was his favourite singer. A version of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together followed. Produced by the electro-poppers Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh from Heaven 17, the track went to No 6 in the UK, then cracked the US Top 30 the following year.

Turner cemented the upturn in her fortunes with the album Private Dancer (1984). Driven by the huge hit What’s Love Got to Do With It? (her first American No 1), the album became a phenomenon, lodging itself in the American Top 10 for nine months and going on to sell more than 10m copies. Suddenly Turner was one of the biggest acts in an era of stadium superstars such as Michael Jackson, Dire Straits and Phil Collins.

In 1985 she was recruited to play Aunt Entity in the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, for which she recorded another international chartbuster, We Don’t Need Another Hero. A second Thunderdome single, One of the Living, won her a Grammy award, and she was an automatic choice to join the Live Aid benefit concert in that year, as well as to participate in its American theme song, We Are the World.

Her follow-up album, Break Every Rule (1986), launched Turner on a global touring campaign, during which a crowd of 184,000 watched her in Rio de Janeiro. The tour spun off a double album, Tina Live in Europe (1988).

The album Foreign Affair (1989) sold 6m copies and generated another trademark anthem, The Best, which was subsequently used to add oomph to numerous TV commercials and adopted both by the tennis ace Martina Navratilova and the racing driver Ayrton Senna. The subsequent Foreign Affair tour ended in Rotterdam in 1990, after which she duetted with Rod Stewart on the old Tammi Terrell/Marvin Gaye hit It Takes Two. Designed as the theme for a Pepsi advert, the track was a chart hit across Europe.

Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, to Zelma Currie, a factory worker, and her husband, Floyd Bullock, a Baptist deacon. Abandoned by their father and temporarily by their mother, in 1956 Annie and her elder sister, Alline, moved to St Louis, Missouri, where they encountered Ike Turner and his band the Rhythm Kings. After Annie had talked the initially reluctant Ike into letting her sing with the band, he recruited her as one of his backing singers.

It was in 1960 that Tina – who had by then changed her name because it reminded Ike of the cartoon character Sheena, Queen of the Jungle – first sang a lead vocal with Ike’s band. A session singer failed to turn up, and Tina’s stand-in performance of A Fool in Love was a hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Ike immediately rebuilt his act around Tina, and christened it the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. They married in 1962.

Featuring nine musicians and a trio of skimpily dressed backing singers, the Ikettes, the Revue took the R&B circuit by storm. Tina rapidly developed into a mesmerising performer, radiating raw sexuality and bludgeoning audiences with the unvarnished force of her voice. They began to pepper the charts with hits, including I Idolise You, Poor Fool and Tra La La La La, and even if they only intermittently crossed over from the R&B charts to the pop mainstream, the band’s performing reputation was second to none. Evidence of their stage prowess was preserved on the 1965 album Live! The Ike and Tina Turner Show, recorded on tour in Texas.

However, the seeds of the couple’s destruction were being sown in their successful but intense lifestyle. Ike was a habitual womaniser, and also developed a destructive cocaine habit. This provoked violent outbursts against Tina, who, as she later revealed in her 1986 autobiography, I, Tina, was beaten, burned with cigarettes and scalded with hot coffee. She gained a glimpse of what life beyond Ike’s intimidating orbit might be like when she worked with the “Wall of Sound” producer Phil Spector in 1966. To Ike’s frustration, Spector refused to allow him in the studio while he worked on the single River Deep, Mountain High, which subsequently became regarded as a high point of both Spector’s and Turner’s careers.

The Turners’ work won them the admiration of many of their peers, not least the Rolling Stones, who invited them to open a UK tour for them in 1966, then to join them on their American tour in 1969. Mick Jagger was regularly spotted at the side of the stage during Tina’s performances, fascinated by her stage presence and dance routines. One of the high points of Live Aid in 1985 was Tina and Jagger performing together at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

Working with the Stones prompted the Turners to import a rock-orientated edge into their work, a ploy that worked most successfully when they recorded John Fogerty’s Proud Mary in 1971. It was their first million-selling single and a Top five hit on the American pop charts. In 1973 they notched up another landmark with Tina’s feisty composition Nutbush City Limits, inspired by her Tennessee origins. She took the role of the Acid Queen in Ken Russell’s film of The Who’s rock opera, Tommy (1975): her performance was one of its few critically acclaimed moments, though her spin-off solo album, The Acid Queen, made little impression on the charts.

After her split from Ike, Tina stayed with friends and was forced to survive on food stamps. When their divorce was finalised in 1978, she preferred to take no money or property from the settlement, to establish a complete break from her husband. She earned cash from TV guest appearances on the Donny & Marie and the Sonny & Cher shows, but her late-70s albums Rough and Love Explosion sold poorly.

In 1980 she signed a management deal with Roger Davies, an Australian promoter working in the US, who secured some lucrative engagements in Las Vegas. The following year the Rolling Stones galloped to the rescue once again by booking her as the opening act on their Tattoo You tour of the US, and she also appeared with Stewart in a California concert broadcast internationally by satellite.

By the time she was inducted (with Ike, though he was then in jail) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, Turner had little left to prove. She was able to spend more time at the homes in Switzerland and the Cote d’Azur that she now shared with the German record executive Erwin Bach. A singles collection, Simply the Best (1991), reeled in more platinum discs as Turner entered the senior stateswoman phase of her career.

In 1993, as she launched her first US tour in six years, her film biography, What’s Love Got to Do With It, based on I, Tina, was released, starring Angela Bassett as Turner. The film brought forth a bestselling soundtrack album and another hit single with its opening track, I Don’t Wanna Fight.

A three-disc anthology, The Collected Recordings – Sixties to Nineties, appeared in 1994, and the following year came Turner’s recording of GoldenEye, the theme tune of the eponymous James Bond movie. The tour that accompanied her eighth studio album, Wildest Dreams (1996), became another record-breaker, grossing more than $100m in Europe alone. Twenty Four Seven (1999) teed up what Turner announced would be her last major arena and stadium tour. She had intended to tour with Elton John, but the idea was scrapped after she argued with him about the piano arrangement for Proud Mary during rehearsals for a TV special, Divas Live ’99. Her subsequent solo dates became the top-grossing tour of 2000.

A quiet period ensued, during which Turner confined herself to hand-picked events, such as a 2005 performance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She contributed a version of Edith and the Kingpin to River: The Joni Letters (2007), a tribute album produced by Herbie Hancock. She performed alongside Beyoncé at the Grammy awards in 2008.

That October she went back on the road with the Tina! 50th Anniversary Tour, synchronised with the compilation album Tina: The Platinum Collection. In 2010 she became the first female artist to score top 40 hits in the UK in six consecutive decades (1960s-2010s) when The Best bounced back into the UK Top 10. Her Love Songs compilation appeared in 2014, and her remix of What’s Love Got to Do With It with the Norwegian DJ Kygo in 2020 made for a seventh decade containing UK hits.

Between 2009 and 2014 Turner appeared on four albums by Beyond, an all-woman group formed with her neighbours in Küsnacht, near Zürich. The music reflected the spiritual and religious beliefs of the participants, with Turner considering herself a Baptist-Buddhist (she was raised as a Baptist, but began practising Nichiren Buddhism in 1973).

In 2013 she married Bach and gave up her American citizenship to become a Swiss citizen. Three weeks after the marriage she suffered a stroke, and in 2016 she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer, then suffered kidney failure when “the toxins in my body had started taking over”, as she put it in her second autobiography, Tina Turner: My Love Story (2018). Her husband volunteered to give her one of his kidneys and a transplant operation was carried out successfully in 2017.

The following year, the biographical stage musical Tina opened at Aldwych theatre in London, directed by Phyllida Lloyd and starring Adrienne Warren in the title role. Turner received a Grammy lifetime achievement award, to go with her existing tally of eight Grammy awards and three Grammy Hall of Fame awards. Among her vast collection of honours, Turner also had five American Music awards, two World Music awards and three MTV Video Music awards.

In 2021 she joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an outright solo performer and sold the rights to her music catalogue to the publishing company BMG for an estimated $50m. Ready to retire fully, she bade farewell to her fans with the two-part HBO documentary Tina.

Alline died in 2010. Tina’s eldest son, Craig, from a relationship with the saxophonist Raymond Hill, took his own life in 2018. Ronnie, her son with Ike, died in 2022.

She is survived by Erwin and two sons, Ike Jr and Michael, from Ike’s first marriage.

🔔 Tina Turner (Anna Mae Bullock), singer and songwriter, born 26 November 1939; died 24 May 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Tina Turner #Anna Mae Bullock #in memoriam

[onlydylanobrien]

"Ponyboi" Sundance 2024 Events

Screening Times

January 19, 2024

Variety & Golden Globes Party

At the event, Variety will present its Breakthrough Awards, which highlight the next generation of exceptional talents in front of the camera. This year’s recipients include Dylan O’Brien who stars in “Ponyboi,” Normani who stars in “Freaky Tales,” Maddie Ziegler who stars in “My Old Ass” and Justice Smith who stars in “I Saw the TV Glow” and “The American Society of Magical Negroes” at the festival. Presenters include Megan Park, Maisy Stella, Victoria Pedretti, River Gallo and Brigette Lundy-Paine. River Gallo will be presenting Dylan his Breakthrough Actor Award.

IndieWire Studio Presented by Dropbox

Starting Friday, January 19, the IndieWire Studio will showcase discussions with actors like Lucy Liu (“Presence”), Julia Fox (“Presence”), Jason Schwartzman (“Between the Temples”), Riley Keough (“Sasquatch Sunset”), Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”), Dominic Fike (“Little Death”), Saoirse Ronan (“The Outrun”), Renate Reinsve (“Handling the Undead”), Dylan O’Brien (“Ponyboi”), Victoria Pedretti (“Ponyboi”), and more.

January 19, - 21. 2024

Variety Studio Presented by Audible

Beginning Friday, January 19, running through Sunday, January 21, the Variety Studio, presented by Audible, will feature interviews with industry-leading directors and top talent from the films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Additionally, talent and creators from the following projects will also participate in the interview studio: “Sue Bird: In The Clutch,” “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” “Sasquatch Sunset,” “Presence,” “The Outrun,” “Little Death,” “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” “Krazy House,” “Ponyboi,” “Chrissy & Dave Dine Out,” “A Different Man,” “Exhibiting Forgiveness” and “Your Monster.” 

Collider & Film.io Media Studio

This year we’re thrilled to announce we’ve booked some major talent for our Media Studio, including Kristen Stewart, Ed Harris, Katy O’Brian, Dave Franco, Alicia Silverstone, Riley Keough, Melissa Barrera, David Schwimmer, Jena Malone, Jason Schwartzman, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Carol Kane, Brittany O’Grady, Leslie Grace, Sasha Calle, June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Maddie Ziegler, and loads more. Just a handful of the films and events we’ll be celebrating include Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding, Your Monster, Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza, Ponyboi, Between the Temples, and many more.

January 20, 2024

"Ponyboi" Word Premiere

Cast Party for Ponyboi

Chase Sapphire on Main, 573 Main St., Park City, 6:30-9 p.m. Filmmaker Esteban Arango joins his cast members Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Indya Moore and River Gallo for a celebration. Event only available to Sapphire Reserve cardmembers who purchased VIP packages through Ultimate Rewards.

January 21, 2024

SAGindie Actors Only Brunch

Cafe Terrigo, 424 Main St., Park City, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The 27th annual installment, a private, invitation-only event, will host Melissa Barrera (Your Monster), Jay Ellis (Freaky Tales, Sue Bird: In the Clutch), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Exhibiting Forgiveness), River Gallo (Ponyboi), Theo Germaine (Desire Lines), Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding), Maddie Ziegler (My Old Ass), Dylan O’Brien (Ponyboi), Jena Malone (Little Death, Love Lies Bleeding).

Sources: variety.com, hollywoodreporter.com, variety.com, collider.com & indiewire.com

#dylan o'brien #sundance film festival 2024 #ponyboi #news

[atariforce]

Retro Game Spotlight 098: Dungeon Master (1987)

Publisher: FTL Games Platform: Atari ST Designers: Doug Bell, Dennis Walker, Mike Newton Box Art: David R. Darrow

Trivia: One of the Atari ST's best-selling games of all time, the award-winning Dungeon Master revolutionized the genre of 3D dungeon crawlers by being the first real time role-playing video game with a pseudo-3D first-person perspective and mouse control.

#Atari #Atari ST #FTL Games #Dungeon Master #video games #retro gaming #retro computing #Doug Bell #Dennis Walker #Mike Newton #box art #David R. Darrow #Retro Game Spotlight

[houseofbrat]

Timeline of events, Part 2

[part 1]

01 MARCH 2024: Prince William ignores a “How’s Catherine?” question from someone at Wrexham during his St. David’s Day visit to Wales.

Thomas Kingston’s death revealed to be “catastrophic head injury” due to gunshot, i.e. suicide.

Victoria Murphy writes in Town & Countryabout the UK’s Editor’s Code of Practice prohibiting writing about the lack of information available to the public regarding The Princess of Wales’s condition.

02 MARCH 2024: Roya Nikkhah reports Queen Camilla’s annual March time-off as a sudden vacation instead of a regularly scheduled annual break she always takes at this time of year.

04 MARCH 2024: TMZ & Backgrid establish proof of life of The Princess of Wales and her mother.

UK media is pressured by Kensington Palace to *NOT* publish the photographs in the UK, even though everyone else in the world can see them online.

05 MARCH 2024: Richard Palmer notes that there is no legal reason why the pictures of Carole and Kate cannot be published due to them being on a public road.

The British Army is forced by Kensington Palace to amend their Trooping the Colour once the UK media started circulating stories about Kate’s appearance in June, which is two months after Easter.

Dominic Ponsford in the (UK) Press Gazette wrote about the media blackout regarding Carole & Kate’s driving pictures.

Kate’s uncle Gary Goldsmith briefly comments on the lack of Kate information on Celebrity Big Brother.

06 MARCH 2024: King Charles has a meeting with the Canadian PM and officially greets two ambassadors.

Kensington Palace “spokesman” to (US) People magazine: “His focus is on his work and not on social media,” a spokesman says.

Normal people on reddit notice this bullshit and comment on it.

Emily Andrews comments on the “invisible contract” between UK media and Kensington Palace, e.g. the "huge pressure" to not publish the photo of Kate & Carole.

London’s Air Ambulance Charity, whose gala benefit William attended on 07 February 2024, announced they did not receive enough government support.

08 MARCH 2024: King Charles photographed in a car on Windsor Castle grounds.

Prince William demonstrates proof of life when he visits The Oval in support of for-profit company, Notpla, and seaweed.

10 MARCH 2024: A Mother's Day photo is published and released to news agencies of Kate with George, Charlotte, and Louis.

Later that day, the Associated Press (AP), Agence-France Presse (AFP), Reuters, and Getty all "killed" the photo due to "manipulation."

11 MARCH 2024: Kate "apologized" for the photo manipulation on Twitter saying: "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C"

Kate is photographed next to William in a car leaving Windsor Castle.

Prince William attends The Commonwealth Day service with Queen Camilla and other members of the BRF while King Charles spoke to the service via pre-recorded video message.

International media goes wild with the revelation that Kensington Palace released a photo that was "manipulated" and rejected by major, international news outlets.

12 MARCH 2024: William attends the private funeral service for Thomas Kingston at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.

14 MARCH 2024: William visits WEST Youth Zone in White City, London.

Meghan Markle launches a lifestyle brand, American Orchard Riviera," on Instagram.

AFP Global News Director, Phil Chetwynd, states that Kensington Palace is no longer a "trusted" news source.

William attends The Diana Legacy Awards in London in the evening.

Jessica Reed Kraus, aka HouseInHabit, publishes a "source" saying Kate had "surgery on her bowel," yet the "source" did not know that that kind of surgery could be classified as "abdominal."

17 MARCH 2024: Forbes publishes an article with the rumor that the BBC has been told to be on alert for an announcement from the Royal Family regarding Kate's health.

Roya Nikkhah for The Sunday Times published an article whereupon a "royal source" said, "I can see a world in which the princess might discuss her recovery out on engagements. If she was going to do it, that’s how she would do it.”

Matt Wilkinson of The Sun publishes an exclusive that Kate was seen "out and about" in Windsor.

18 MARCH 2024: Video of Will & Kate shopping at the Windsor Farm Shop circulates on TMZ and The Sun. Kensington Palace doesn't complain about it publicly.

Russell Myers of The Mirror publishes an "exclusive" report regarding Kate's "return to public life."

The royal.uk website has some minor changes regarding The Duke of York and The Duke & Duchess of Sussex.

19 MARCH 2024: William visits Sheffield, England, as part of his Homewards program.

Russell Myers of The Mirror publishes an "exclusive" regarding allegations of Kate's medical records being breached at The London Clinic.

Kate Mansey of The Times publishes an article about how William does not collaborate or work with his father.

20 MARCH 2024: The London Clinic responds to the allegations of Kate's medical records being breached after 29 January 2024.

Daily Mail's Ephraim Hardcastle: Kate was unable to attend the Irish Guards' St Patrick's Day parade... But put £2,000 behind the bar for them instead

Daily Mail's Rebecca English's EXCLUSIVE: What William really thinks about the Kate conspiracy theories. And why it's been so heartbreaking for him to see her reputation trashed in the same way as Diana's

Prince William visits the Welsh Guards at Combermere Barracks, Windsor, where the photos were taken by the Ministry of Defence/Welsh Guards.

21 MARCH 2024: Hannah Furness of The Telegraph publishes an article stating: "The Princess of Wales has been working from home on her early years project to improve the lives of babies, as she eases back into normal life after her abdominal surgery. Kensington Palace confirmed that she had been kept up to date with her campaign and the “overwhelmingly positive” results of a study she inspired."

Tatler magazine publishes a cover story on Prince William by Wesley Kerr. "The burden of leadership is falling upon Prince William - but as former BBC Royal Correspondent, Wesley Kerr OBE, explains in Tatler’s May cover story, the future king is taking charge."

Daily Mail: Kate Middleton has been working from home on her early years project considered her 'life's work' as she recovers from abdominal surgery - amid hopes she will return to public life by Easter

People magazine repeats the Kate paid the bar tab story.

Jackie Annett, The Mirror: "Kate Middleton spotted out in Windsor again - this time with George, Charlotte and Louis" “…[Kate] comes here quite a lot, it’s on her doorstep and Adelaide Cottage is a couple of 100 yrds away. They were at the tennis on Sunday-my friend plays there & Kate was watching the children, they’re there all the time”

22 MARCH 2024: Kate announces she is undergoing "preventative chemotherapy" for cancer.

Lambrook's Lent 2024 term ends. School on break until summer term starts on 17 April 2024.

24 MARCH 2024: People magazine: Kate "wrote every word herself,” a palace source confirms to PEOPLE of the Princess of Wales' video speech, which was released on Friday and filmed two days prior in the gardens of Windsor Castle. A family friend adds, “She wrote the words herself, delivered it personally and wanted to decide when the time was right to hit the world with this news.”

28 MARCH 2024: Valentine Low says it's not clear when William pulled out of Constantine's memorial service--some say day of, others say two weeks prior to the service.

31 MARCH 2024: King Charles & Queen Camilla attended the Easter Mattins service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

01 APRIL 2024: Daily Mail: "Princess of Wales was FORCED to reveal her cancer diagnosis after news threatened to leak: Sources reveal Kensington Palace was contacted about Kate's illness and needed to get ahead of the story… so who revealed her secrets?"

02 APRIL 2024: Natasha Anderson & Emily Jane Davies's story about Kate being "FORCED to reveal her cancer diagnosis" is deleted from the Daily Mail website.

#fleet street #media #valentine low #Daily Mail #Ephraim Hardcastle #Russell Myers #Rebecca English #hannah furness #british royal family #King Charles III #queen camilla #kensington palace #palace officials #pr games #strategery #kate middleton #Catherine The Princess of Wales #William The Prince of Wales #prince william #my gif #Roya Nikkhah #Richard Palmer #Hannah Furness #PR fail #MESS! #Kate Mansey

[richincolor]

We've got five different books on our radar this week! Which ones have caught your eye?

Kindling by Traci Chee HarperCollins

Once, the war was fought with kindlings—elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives. Now, the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift—their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs. Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again—or none of them will make it out alive.

Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School by Tiffany Jewell Versify

From preschool to higher education and everything in between, Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School focuses on the experiences Black and Brown students face as a direct result of the racism built into schools across the United States. The overarching nonfiction narrative follows author Tiffany Jewell from early elementary school through her time at college, unpacking the history of systemic racism in the American educational system along the way. Throughout the book, other writers of the global majority share a wide variety of personal narratives and stories based on their own school experiences. Contributors include New York Times bestseller Joanna Ho; award winners Minh Lê, Randy Ribay, and Torrey Maldonado; authors James Bird and Rebekah Borucki; author-educators Amelia A. Sherwood, Roberto Germán, Liz Kleinrock, Gary R. Gray Jr., Lorena Germán, Patrick Harris II, shea wesley martin, David Ryan Barcega Castro-Harris, Ozy Aloziem, Gayatri Sethi, and Dulce-Marie Flecha; and even a couple of teen writers! Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School provides young folks with the context to think critically about and chart their own course through their current schooling—and any future schooling they may pursue.

Snowglobe by Soyoung Park & translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort Delacorte Press

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the bitter cold—but this perfect society is hiding dark and dangerous secrets within its frozen heart. Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city. The residents of Snowglobe have fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls. In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eagerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves. Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe. Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s biggest star—and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life. Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm has been chosen to take her place. Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on television. Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach. Translated for the first time into English from the original Korean.

Hope Ablaze by Sarah Mughal Rana Wednesday Books

All My Rage meets The Poet X in this electric debut that explores a Muslim teen finding her voice in a post-9/11 America. Nida has always been known as Mamou Abdul-Hafeedh’s niece - the poet that will fill her uncle’s shoes after he was wrongfully incarcerated during the war on terror. But for Nida, her poetry letters are her heart and sharing so much of herself with a world that stereotypes her faith and her hijab is not an option. When Nida is illegally frisked at a Democratic Senatorial candidate’s political rally, she writes a scathing poem about the politician, never expecting the letter to go viral weeks before Election Day. Nida discovers her poem has won first place in a national contest, a contest she never entered, and her quiet life is toppled. But worst of all, Nida loses her ability to write poetry. In the aftermath of her win, Nida struggles to balance the expectations of her mother, her uncle, and her vibrant Muslim community with the person she truly wants to be. With a touch of magic and poetry sprinkled throughout, Sarah Mughal Rana's Hope Ablaze is heartbreaking, often funny, and ultimately uplifting, not only celebrating the Islamic faith and Pakistani culture, but simultaneously confronting racism and Islamophobia with unflinching bravery.

Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury Margaret K. McElderry Books

Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer. With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious “Take care of Dom.” The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another. As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build.

#kindling #everything i learned about racism i learned in school #snowglobe #hope ablaze #tender beasts #new releases

[eelerschoice]

Good day to you Eel Enthusiasts, tis the season!

Christmas yes, but also audioverse awards season!

Our little eel show wasn't eligible this year, HOWEVER many of our EXCEEDINGLY TALENTED cast, crew and chorus are indeed among the nominees, so let us encourage you to vote for them and the shows they are in:

Fay Roberts who plays our terribly respectable Principal Adept Weaverllyn has been nominated for zir delightful performance as noted Scots snail enthusiast William Henry Baker Blair in the nautical adventure Trice Forgotten.

The multitalented William who gave voice to gruff eeler Aberford Tackmansworth is up for a battery of awards for @TheHallowoods, writing, recurring voices (oh, so many recurring voices), music direction, sound design, and that ohso spooky art, as well as Elder Hosea in OGOA.

Rissa Montañez, who is perhaps a little too into eels as Senior Adept Lacehill, when she isn't serving the finest goth looks, is nominated for her role as exceedingly efficient Quartermaster Val Narváez in Moonbase Theta, Out.

Another audiodrama powerhouse Tal Minear plays Carrick Boater who's seen something nasty in the seawater. They are nominated for all of the R.E. Dracula things, new show sound design, art, music, direction and also for a recurring voice in Moonbase Theta, Out.

Mark Nixon one of our cat-loving Captains Helmswell, is nominated in the Direction category for Shadows at the Door: Season 3 is ambitious and star-studded with some incredibly thought-provoking stories and well worth a listen.

David "Voice Acting Career Now Old Enough to Legally Own a Business In Several Countries" Ault probably needs no introduction: he's up for new guest voice Dr, (possibly Mr if Surgeon) Clayton in Ethics Town, guest voice the accidentally blasphemous bible printer Robert Barker in the Amelia Project, and recurring roles as Lan in Among the Stacks and Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming [Tearful Edition] in R.E. Dracula.

(Incidentally, we welcome newcomer Abraham "Bram" Stoker to the AVA nominations, presumably the RE Drac crew have become adept at necromancy to pull this off. Stephen, I know you take your dramaturgy seriously, but this seems a little too method…)

Derrick Valen, provider of some powerful bass harmonies in our Anguilliform chorus is up for * checks notes * Gnoming it up with the October's Children crew as a guest voice in Strong Branching out. Delightful.

And last but not remotely least, Rhys Lawton, who appears as the Scrimchantry's dour school nurse and medical lecturer Acaster Selvage is nominated for his new recurring voice role as philosophical wet catboy January Johnson in Ethics Town, and also for a guest voice in * flicks over next page of notes * "The Secret of St Kilda play Something Muppets in the State of Denmark". Kudos to Strong Branching Out for some truly quality episode names…

I (Lou) take full responsibility for any errors, someone correct me in reblogs or comments if I've got any of this wrong or missed anyone.

Now go on, off you go: https://audioverseawards.net/vote/

#audio verse awards

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss to Headline A.C.T.'s 2nd Annual ALL HALLOWS GALA

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) and gala co-chairs Heather Stallings Little & John Little and David Jones & Joe D'Alessandro have announced Zombie Ball, the second annual All Hallows' Gala being held on Friday, October 27 at San Francisco's August Hall (420 Mason St.). Hailed as San Francisco's best costume party fundraiser, the All Hallows' Gala Zombie Ball will present guests with a frightfully elegant and theatrical night full of fun and friendship. The evening is the sole annual fundraising event for A.C.T., providing essential funds for the theater's artistic, actor training, and education and community programs. Guests at this year's Zombie Ball are encouraged to dress in costume or cocktail attire.

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“A.C.T.'s All Hallows' Gala is the theater's sole fundraising event, providing essential funds for our artistic, actor training, and education and community programs,” said Heather Stallings Little, Gala Co-Chair and A.C.T. Trustee. “John and I hope you will come out—either in zombie or zombie-fighting costume, or whatever you're comfortable in—and join us, our co-chairs, and special guest artist Darren Criss for what is going to be a fabulously fun evening.”

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The wonderfully frightening evening begins at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail reception where guests will enjoy live music and conversation on the mezzanine, or escape to the “scream-easy” for a luxe respite. Welcome bites and thirst-quenching brews will be offered. At 7:30 p.m., guests will be ushered to the historic music hall and treated to a lavish autumnal-inspired menu created by Gold Leaf Catering. At 8:30 p.m., A.C.T. Young Conservatory alum and award-winning stage, screen, and music recording artist Darren Criss (American Buffalo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Glee) will regale with some thrilling, Halloween-themed programming! Cap off the festive evening with the After-Life Party, featuring ultimate dance band Vinyl Project and the opportunity to play retro-games in the cool underground haunt, which includes bowling, hoops, skee-ball, and late-night bites, tricks, and treats! Be sure to capture your picture in one of the photoBOOths—humans only, no zombies allowed.

#darren criss #broadway world #halloween gala 2023 #press #upcoming events #sept 2023

[aimeedaisies]

The Princess Royal’s Official Engagements in March 2023

01/03 As Patron of the Royal Northern Agricultural Society, HRH visited The Royal Northern Spring Show in Inverurie, Scotland 🚜

02/03 As President of the National Equine Forum, HRH attended the 31st National Equine Forum in London 🐴

03/03 Held an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in the morning. As Royal Patron of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, later visited The Grange, Saunderton, on the occasion of their 40th Anniversary. In the evening as Patron of Tenovus Cancer Care, HRH attended their 80th Anniversary Concert at St David’s Hall, Cardiff 🎖️🐶🎤

07/03 Princess Anne accompanied by Sir Tim Laurence, attended the races at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher, where she presented the trophy to the winners of a race named in memory of her grandmother, The Queen Mother. Later she held a reception for the races at Windsor Castle 🏇🏼

08/03 Held two investiture ceremonies, one in the morning and one in the afternoon at Windsor Castle🎖️

09/03 As Patron of Maritime UK, HRH attended the Annual Awards in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire ⚓️

10/03 In Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Princess Anne visited Special Quality Alloys Limited and ITM Power. Later, as Patron of the Vine trust she held a dinner at Holyrood House, Edinburgh ⚡️

12/03 As Patron of the Scottish Rugby Union, accompanied by Sir Tim, HRH attended the International Rugby Match between Scotland and Ireland at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🏉

13/03 King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Anne, Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence attended the annual Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey. Later the King and The Queen, with the aforementioned members (minus Catherine) of the royal family hosted members of the diplomatic and Commonwealth communities at Buckingham Palace for the annual Commonwealth Day Reception ⛪️🥂

14/03 unofficial Princess Anne attended Champion Day (day one) of Cheltenham Festival. Peter Phillips, Zara and Mike Tindall also attended the races, Zara is the Director of Cheltenham Racecourse.🐴

15/03 As Colonel-in-Chief of the Intelligence Corps, Princess Anne visited the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham and laid a wreath at the memorial for Intelligence Corps staff. Later on HRH opened Five Valleys Medical Centre in Stroud, in the evening HRH, accompanied by Sir Tim, attended the Gloucestershire and District Agricultural Valuers Association’s Centenary Dinner at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester 🩺🥂

16/03 unofficial Princess Anne, accompanied by Sir Tim, attended St Patrick’s Thursday (day three) of Cheltenham Festival. Zara and Mike Tindall also attended the races 🐴

17/03 Princess Anne, accompanied by Sir Tim, attended Gold Cup day (day 4) of Cheltenham Festival and crowned Paul Townend, jockey of Galopin Des Champs the champion racer of the year and presented him with the gold cup 🏆

18/03 As patron Scottish Rugby Union, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, HRH attended the Guinness Six Nations International Rugby Match between Scotland and Italy at Murrayfield Stadium and presented Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie with the Cuttitta Cup after beating Italy 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇹🏉

20/03 As Patron of the Acid Attack Survivors Trust International, Princess Anne visited the set of Coronation Street at ITV studios in Salford. They are currently filming an acid attack storyline and HRH met with producers, script writers, the makeup department and actors and discussed how they have worked together to create and portray such a delicate storyline 📺

21/03 The Service of the Royal Victorian Order was held in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. King Charles, Sovereign of the Order, Princess Anne, Princess Royal, Grand Master of the Order, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester were all present. Later King Charles held a reception at Windsor Castle for those who attended the service. 🏅🍾

22/03 As President of the Scotch Chef’s Club, Princess Anne visited Cowbag Farm in Kelso, where HRH was given a tour of the farm, met cows and sheep, unveiled a plaque and planted a gum tree. 🐮🐑

27/03 As Patron of the Butler Trust, HRH held the Annual Awards Ceremony at St James’s Palace. In the evening, as Patron of Save the Children UK, HRH accompanied by Sir Tim attended the International Financial Review Annual Awards Dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane. 🥇🍾

28/03 Princess Anne carried out the following engagements in Suffolk;

As Royal Patron, National Coastwatch Institution, visited Felixstowe Station and afterwards attended a Reception at Orwell Hotel, Felixstowe. ⛵️

Opened Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service’s new Combined Fire and Police Station, Ipswich. 🚒

As Patron of the Excelsior Trust, visited the restored Great Yarmouth Shrimper Horace and Hannah at Ipswich Waterfront. ⛴️

28/03 Princess Anne carried out the following engagements in Suffolk and Norfolk;

Visited Adnams Brewery, to mark its 150th Anniversary. 🍻

Opened the Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science’s new Headquarters, Lowestoft. 🐟

As Patron of Friends of Happisburgh Lighthouse, visited Happisburgh Lighthouse. 💡

Visited Elm House Temporary Accommodation in Thetford. 🏠

30/03 As Patron of the Injured Jockeys Fund, Princess Anne opened their South West Hub at Taunton Rugby Club, Taunton. 🐎

31/03 As Vice Patron of the British Horse Society, HRH this visited Summerfield Stables in Birmingham. 🐴

Total official engagements for Anne in March: 51

2023 total so far: 142

Total official engagements accompanied by Tim in March: 10

2023 total so far: 38

#most of the royals work hard but anne works harder 😎 #hardest working royal 🫡 #no choice but to stanne #this is based off the court circular #i haven’t included departing or arriving in a country in the count #monthly engagement post #march 2023 #and yes i’m doing a seperate count for tim too #because i’m rooting for… #operation working royal tim #charles i hope you’re listenanne #not all engagements are listed on this post #if you want a full list plz do me 💕 #princess anne #princess royal #tim laurence #timothy laurence #brf

[albumaday2024]

Day 12: American Idiot

Green Day

September 21, 2004

Album Art by Chris Bilheimer

A Punk Rock Opera. American Idiot is a concept album inspired by the political climate in America and events such as the Presidency of George W. Bush, 9/11, and the Iraq War. The basic plot tells the story of the Jesus of Suburbia, a lower-middle class American teen who hates his home town and leaves for the city, St. Jimmy (who is an alter ego of the Jesus of Suburbia) and Whatsername.

Green Day wanted to expand their punk rock sound by adding elements of New Wave, Latin, and Polka Music. They took inspiration from the albums The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie, Tommy by the Who, and Quadrophenia by the Who. They listened to Broadway cast recordings and even contemporary music like Eminem, Kanye West, and Lincoln Park for inspiration. According to Billie Joe Armstrong they wanted to take "Classic rock and roll elements, kick out the rules, put more ambition in, and make it current."

They were originally working on an album called Cigarettes and Valentines, but the master tapes were stolen. They decided to start their next record from scratch and the masterpiece that is American Idiot was born. It won a bunch awards including a Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2005.

______________________________________________________________

Punk Rock, Alternative Rock

Producer: Rob Cavallo

Label: Reprise Records

Recorded from April 2003 - March 2004 at Studio 880 in Oakland and Ocean Way in Hollywood

Musicians:

Billie Joe Armstrong: Leading and Backing Vocals, Guitar

Mike Dirnt: Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals ("Nobody Likes You") ("Governator")

Tré Cool: Drums, Percussion, Lead Vocals ("Rock and Roll Girlfriend")

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Cavallo: Piano

Jason Freese: Saxophone

Kathleen Hanna: Vocals on "Letterbomb"

Engineers: Doug McKean, Chris Dugan, Reto Peter

Assistant Engineers: Dr. Vibb (Brian Vibberts), Stimie (Greg Burns), Jimmy Hoyson, Joe Brown, Dim-e (Dmitar Krnjaic)

Mixing: Chris Lord-Alge

Mastering: Ted Jensen

#Green Day #American Idiot #Punk Rock #Alternative Rock #Alt Rock #an album a day #music #Billie Joe Armstrong #Tre Cool #Mike Dirnt #Rob Cavallo #Jason Freese #Kathleen Hanna #Reprise Records #Studio 880 #Ocean Way Studio

[scotianostra]

On March 1st 1910, David Niven, actor and author, was born.

Despite his lifelong claim to have been born a Scot, in Kirriemuir, he was actually born in Belgravia, but let’s not take that away from, who wouldn’t rather be Scottish than English? 😉 The actors Donald Crisp and James Robertson Justice were two others who although pinned there colours to Scotland, were actually born in England. Niven though served in the Highland Light Infantry, (despite asking for any regiment but the HLI) in the early 1930s.

Many of you out there will be of Scottish descent either researched, known or simply because you have a Scottish name, one of my friends has a broad English accent but was born and brought up near Inverness and a lot of people up the north of Scotland claim to be “more” Scottish than those in the south, what a load of nonsense that is.

Niven wanted to be Scottish and that’s good enough for me and the same goes for any of you out there. Being Scottish, as well as being born here can be a state of mind in my humble opinion. Niven’s Scottish heritage came from his paternal grandfather, David Graham Niven, he was from St Martin’s, a village in Perthshire, and was killed in WW1 during the Gallipoli campaign.

He resigned his commission in the army in 1933 and made his way to the USA, where, still chasing the Scottish connection, spendingt time as a whisky salesman, then joining a rodeo, before arriving in Hollywood in the mid 1930’s. Early appearances in films include Barbary Coast and Mutiny on the Bounty, but blink and you’ll miss him. His first starring role was in Thank You, Jeeves! as Bertie Wooster

Other films include A Matter of Life and Death, Around the World in 80 Days, The Guns of Navarone and The Pink Panther. My favourite was The Bishops Wife and he played Bonnie Prince Charlie in the film of the same name.

At the outbreak of World War II Niven returned home and rejoined the army, the Government at the time advised actors to stay in Holywood at the time, and he was alone in refusing this advice, he was assigned to a motor training battalion. He wanted something more exciting, however, and transferred into the Commandos, his training was at Inverailort House in the Highlands. On his return to Hollywood afterwards the Americans awarded him with Legion of Merit, the highest military award that can be given to a non US citizen. Niven never talked much about his time during the war, but did see action a few days after D Day and at Battle of the Bulge.

He is also well known as the author of the bestselling autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon. His career fluctuated in the 50’s but he endured that and came back bigger than ever, he played Bond in the original Casino Royale, but his greatest achievement was winning an Oscar in the film Separate Tables, becoming the only person to win an academy award while hosting the ceremony!

So David Niven maybe not “Scottish” in the true sense of the word, but certainly Proud to be seen as a Scot.

#scotland #scottish #Anglo-scot #actor

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: I appreciate that you are a very thoughtful and clever commentator on culture even when you have strong conservative views. So let me ask you where do you stand on the censorship of Roald Dahl’s books by his publishers?

Although he was never knighted nor awarded any significant distinctions by the government, turning down an OBE in 1986 as insufficiently impressive, Roald Dahl was by far the most popular children’s writer of his generation, and continues to be totemic for both readers and authors. Indeed I read all the Dahl books as a child and had fun doing so. It is debatable how much of a career David Walliams would have if his books didn’t overtly pay homage to Dahl’s, even down to hiring his regular illustrator Quentin Blake for some of them. And yet Dahl’s recent public reputation has been chequered enough throughout his own lifetime for the Royal Mint not to issue a coin commemorating his centenary, as they described him as not being “an author of the highest reputation” – an excellent piece of bureaucratic double-speak.

So I was surprised to see how viral the controversy regarding the rewriting of Roald Dahl’s books, to make them more commercial sensitive, had crescendoed in the media in the UK and abroad. In all honesty I find the whole thing rather tedious.  It’s been discussed to death and my feelings are predictable - you can already guess that I’m against the changes, the people who read me already agree, and the people who disagree would never listen to me anyway. I’m against any censorship of Dahl’s books on the grounds of morality and also quality.

Sometimes they’re editing Dahl-as-such and sometimes his characters. The gluttonous Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer described as “fat” but rather as “enormous,” thus leaving readers free to imagine that he’s a powerlifter in a high weight classification. Dahl himself is the insensitive one there. When a character says of another character “I’d knock her flat,” Puffin’s so-called ‘super sensitivity readers’ (hired within the publisher’s staff to weed out things each would find ‘problematic’) replace that fierce language with “I’d give her a right talking to.” But what if the character speaking is the type to use strong language? Or do bad things? Shall we have a version of Crime and Punishment in which Raskolnikov skulks around St. Petersburg fantasising about giving his landlady a right talking to?

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what offence the super-sensitives imagine: It’s not clear that calling someone a “trickster” rather than a “saucy beast” makes an improvement in manners; what is clear is that the meaning is completely different. But: while Dahl referred to Mrs. Twit as “ugly and beastly,” she is now just called “beastly,” though I cannot imagine why calling someone a “beast” is unacceptable but calling them “beastly” is hunky-dory.

One could go on about this silliness all day, and many are doing so, but I actually think there’s an important point to be made in response to these changes: the people doing it have no right to do so. They have the legal right, but what they’re doing is morally wrong.

It’s morally wrong first of all because it’s dishonest. The books will still be sold as Roald Dahl’s - it is his name that will draw readers to these volumes - but they are in fact Dahl’s involuntary collaboration with people who find some of his words and phrases intolerable. That this is so should be announced on the book’s covers – but you may be sure that it will not be. If you own the rights to Dahl’s books but passionately believe that what Dahl wrote is too offensive for today’s readers to face, then your only honourable option is to stop selling the damn books.

This may sound like an odd digression, but bear with me: I’ve been reading a bit of John Ruskin and in his The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin confronts the widespread practice, in the England of his time, of either dramatically renovating or tearing down old buildings.

First, Ruskin says, when a building is stripped down to its shell and given an entirely new interior, those who do it should call it what it is: destruction. “But, it is said, there may come a necessity for restoration! Granted. Look the necessity full in the face, and understand it on its own terms. It is a necessity for destruction. Accept it as such, pull the building down, throw its stones into neglected corners, make ballast of them, or mortar, if you will; but do it honestly, and do not set up a Lie in their place.”

So also I say: Do not set up a Lie in place of Roald Dahl’s actual books. If they are intolerable, do not tolerate them. Let them go out of print, take the digital editions off the market, and force those of us who are bad enough to desire the books to scour second-hand bookstores for them.

But let’s pursue Ruskin’s argument a bit further. Sometimes a building is torn down altogether, razed to the very ground. What does Ruskin say about that?

“Of more wanton or ignorant ravage it is vain to speak; my words will not reach those who commit them, and yet, be it heard or not, I must not leave the truth unstated, that it is again no question of expediency or feeling whether we shall preserve the buildings of past times or not. We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us. The dead have still their right in them: that which they laboured for, the praise of achievement or the expression of religious feeling, or whatsoever else it might be which in those buildings they intended to be permanent, we have no right to obliterate. What we have ourselves built, we are at liberty to throw down; but what other men gave their strength and wealth and life to accomplish, their right over does not pass away with their death; still less is the right to the use of what they have left vested in us only. It belongs to all their successors. It may hereafter be a subject of sorrow, or a cause of injury, to millions, that we have consulted our present convenience by casting down such buildings as we choose to dispense with. That sorrow, that loss, we have no right to inflict.”

As astonishingly eloquent and impassioned declaration, which, in regard to architecture, one might plausibly disagree with. Buildings take up a good deal of space, and the maintenance of them can be expensive; there certainly are circumstances in which demolition is indeed necessary. Ruskin, remember, grants this point, though not without a bit of hedging and tweaking.

But Ruskin’s argument is irrefutable when it comes to the other arts of the past – poetry, story, music, painting, sculpture. There can be no justification for mutilating or destroying them to suit “our present convenience.” We do not know whether later generations will think as we do, will share our preferences and our sensitivities; to preserve the art of the past is to show respect not only for that past but also for our possible futures. And it is to establish a standard for how we wish to be treated by our descendants.

Even the Victorians (and some of their successors) who thought sculptures of naked men too offensive for ladies to see merely covered the pudenda with plaster leaves - the penises themselves remained untouched, for later generations, and less delicate viewers, to see if they wish.

The second domain argument I have against censoring Dahl’s book is the patent drop in linguistic quality. In other words, they patently degrade the quality of the text. Witness how Dahl’s mild comic surrealism gives way to a joyless lecture:

No one would deny that Dahl was a rather scabrous and even sadistic writer. But part of the fun of reading him, as a child, is grappling with the darkness - beginning to comprehend the shadows one has glimpsed around the world. These small-souled artistic vandals are flattening out those interesting quirks in the grip of a paralysing fear that someone, somewhere might read it and then take or give offence.

If Roald Dahl cannot even say that Mrs Trunchbull has a horsey face - because nobody has unsightly features or because we are forbidden from noticing them - what else could be changed? If books like Matilda and films like Gone With the Wind are being sliced and diced, what could happen to less famous and more genuinely provocative books, films, opera, even songs? Indeed, look at how Dahl’s publishers have decided that authors as illustrious as Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling - referenced in Matilda but now replaced with Jane Austen and John Steinbeck - are too dangerous to even mention in front of kids. Do these literary scolds actually think there is no literary value in reading Heart of Darkness or Kim? Jesus wept.

The final clinching argument I’ve heard from critics who want to censor Dahl and his books is because he was an alleged anti-semite. And if he was, so what? If that’s the standard then we should be binning every author, artist, composer, musician for any kind of transgression or character flaw against some absolute moral standard.

As the great pianist and conductor, Daniel Barenboim, once said of Wagner, that it was reductive to say that Wagner was a terrible man with reactionary ideas in general, and therefore his music, no matter how wonderful, is intolerable because it is infected with the same poison as his prose. How would that be demonstrated? How many writers, musicians, poets, painters would be left if their art was judged by their moral behaviour? And who is to decide what level of ugliness and turpitude can be borne in the artistic production of any given artist?

Once one starts to censor, there is no theoretical limit. Rather, I would think that it is incumbent on the mind to be able to analyse a complex phenomenon such as the question of  such creative artists whether they be a Wagner, a Celine, or a Dahl; or indeed, to give another example, Joseph Conrad as analysed in a famous essay written by the brilliant Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, reading Conrad's Heart of Darkness for an African today. With all these artists the challenge is the same: to show where the evil is and where the art is.

The truth is for a mature mind it should be possible to hold together in one's mind two contradictory facts, that Dahl was a great writer, and second, that Dahl was mean spirited shitty human being. Unfortunately, one cannot have one fact without the other.

Does that mean, therefore, that Dahl should not be read as he wrote his books? Most assuredly not, although it is obvious that if an individual is still troubled then there is no need at all to inflict Dahl on oneself - but you can’t make that choice for others.

An open attitude towards art is always necessary. This is not to say that artists shouldn't be morally judged for their immorality or evil practices; it is to say that an artist's work cannot be judged solely on those grounds and banned or censored accordingly.

Now I’ve heard from Dahl’s supporters that there are excuses that can be made. Dahl’s publisher Tom Maschler, who died in 2020, was a notoriously difficult and egocentric man, as well as being Jewish, and it could be argued, somewhat tendentiously, that many of Dahl’s attacks on Jews could be interpreted as necessarily veiled expressions of his venting his frustration with Maschler. Hmmm, yes, well.

More persuasive is Dahl’s friend Isaiah Berlin’s comment that, “I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line. He was a man who followed whims, which meant he would blow up in one direction, so to speak”.

Dahl was a peculiar man whose richness of imagination went along with deep personal eccentricity. This was both tolerated and facilitated by those around him. Although JK Rowling raised eyebrows with her first post-Harry Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy, containing swearing and sex scenes, it seems extremely unlikely that she would have interrupted her career as one of Britain’s most successful ever writers to produce an erotic novel aimed at adults, as Dahl did with his (excellent and deeply un-PC) 1979 book My Uncle Oswald.

Likewise, the macabre violence visited upon children in books such as The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory suggests an ambivalence towards his readership that may have been borne out by one of the more eyebrow-raising anecdotes in Kingsley Amis’s Memoirs. Upon meeting Dahl at a party and being asked if he has any ideas for children’s books (“that’s where the money is today, believe me”), Amis regretfully replied that he did not, saying “I don’t think I enjoyed children’s books much when I was a child myself. I’ve got no feeling for that kind of thing.” To his surprise, Dahl replied “Never mind, the little bastards’d swallow it.”

Yet, just as Berlin suggested that the writer would switch from one persona to another on a whim, Dahl later collared Amis again at the party, and, apparently sincerely, informed him:

“If you do decide to have a crack, let me give you one warning. Unless you put everything you’ve got into it, unless you write it from the heart, the kids’ll have no use for it. They’ll see you’re having them on. And just let me tell you from experience that there’s nothing kids hate more than that. They won’t give you a second chance either. You’ll have had it for good as far as they’re concerned. Just you bear that in mind as a word of friendly advice.”

Amis records Dahl walking off “with a stiff nod and an air of having asserted his integrity by rejecting some particularly outrageous and repulsive suggestion”. What he hints at, but does not explicitly state, is that Dahl was perfectly sincere in both statements, switching with no apparent contradiction in his own mind between the personae of cynical exploiter of the young and heartfelt creator of magical stories.

This ability to snap between attitudes and personae might be described as sociopathic, and indeed much of Dahl’s life and career does hint at an unbalanced and inconsistent mind, both when it comes to attitudes that most people would find repellent and in the richness and immersive nature of the characters and worlds he created.

Like his great hero Lewis Carroll, another visionary eccentric, the wonder of Dahl’s writing is that he believed wholeheartedly in a fantastical universe, and the books represent that universe committed to paper. They are less a creative feat, and more a marvel of reportage, from the most vivid of imaginations.

None of which excuses his anti-Semitism. It is nonetheless the case that we should regard Dahl’s often provocative and thoughtless public statements in context with his imaginative genius. Rather than castigate him as yet another privately educated racist, we should instead treat him, like so many of his characters and peers, as a naïve and unworldly man who never entirely left the realm of make-believe.

We should neither censor Roald Dahl, nor celebrate him unreservedly, but instead treat his life and work with the careful consideration that it deserves, never forgetting the joy that it has given many millions over the decades.

The immediate and most important point: buy your kid a different book. Just buy your kid a different book! There are tens of thousands of children’s books out there that are inoffensive by anyone’s definition. Just buy those books. Exercise your choice. Not everything is made for you. I get that people feel that they are nothing but their consumption, that they have no identity but that which they buy. But not everything is for you. Buy something else. Buy something else!

But the cynic in me thinks this is all playing quite nicely into Puffin’s hands. It’s one great way for Dahl’s publishers (and Netflix) to make a killing because they have in effect sanctioned two versions of Dahl’s books now: the censored line of books and the original unedited books under the ‘classic collection’ label. It’s like New Coke and Coke Classic, clearly differentiated by label.

In this new woke world it wouldn’t surprise me if they did advertise the one and not heavily advertise the other; they could make their preferences clear; they could say “If you are a Good Person you will purchase our sanitised versions rather than the nastiness written by Roald Dahl himself.” And then people could buy the version they want.

I know which version children and adult readers would want. The so-called in’-house ‘Super Sensitivity Readers’ would choose the sanitised version because they believe in the one canonical rule of their world view: the reader is always wrong. Because any genuine reader is, by definition, not a super sensitive.

Thanks for your question.

#ask #question #roald dahl #book #reading #censorship #books #publishers #arts #culture #john ruskin #kingsley amis #isiah berlin #anti woke #woke #literature

[justforbooks]

The career of the actor Andre Braugher, who has died of lung cancer aged 61, was benchmarked by two performances in police dramas a generation apart. In the groundbreaking drama Homicide: Life on the Street, from 1993 until 1999, he played Detective Frank Pembleton, whose drive immediately made him the anchor of an impressive ensemble cast led by Yaphet Kotto and Ned Beatty. He drew a younger audience with the comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-21) as Captain Ray Holt, who takes over a chaotic homicide squad and whose intensity again makes him the heart of the show.

Braugher’s deep, resonant voice and seemingly effortless control drew the respect of all he worked with. David Simon, creator of Homicide and The Wire, said: “I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful actors. I’ll never work with one better.” His classical training, at the Juilliard School in New York, made him a regular at the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park, and indeed his portrayal of Henry V in 1996 won him an Obie (the off-Broadway equivalent of the Tony awards).

He brought the projection of the stage to the small screen. Pembleton was the master of “the Box”, or the interrogation room. He explained to his rookie partner in Homicide (played by Kyle Secor), it was “salesmanship … as silver tongued and thieving as ever moved used cars, Florida swamp land or Bibles. But what I am selling is a long prison sentence.” He dominated those small scenes, but the episode Subway, with Vincent D’Onofrio as a character pushed between subway trains, who will die once the trains are separated, was a two-hander whose intensity might have come from the stage of Beckett, Pinter or Mamet.

In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as Holt, he played it straight in two senses. The adage of comedy being funniest when played straight gained resonance from Braugher’s ability to show the audience with a gesture or line-reading that he, like you, got the joke. But Holt is also gay. His gayness is never an issue, except as motivation for his progress within the police. It was as if Pembleton were stepping into Kotto’s “Gee” Giardello, a black man with an Italian father who was determined to rise in a white-dominated department.

This drive reflected Braugher’s own background. In the tough neighbourhood of Austin, on Chicago’s West Side, both his parents worked for the government; his father, Floyd, was a heavy equipment operator for the state of Illinois, and his mother, Sally, worked for the US Postal Service. He recalled he might have “pretended I was hard and tough and not square”, but he won scholarships to the Jesuit St Ignatius College prep and then to study mathematics at Stanford University, California. After walking into a student production of Hamlet, and playing Claudius, he decided he wanted to act.

Another scholarship took him to Juilliard. He graduated in 1988 and almost immediately was cast in a TV revival of Kojak, as his assistant. His first film role came in Glory (1989); he was so impressive as the educated Thomas Searles, forced to serve as a private soldier in the all-black regiment commanded by his white friend, that Hollywood came calling, but the parts were standard stereotyical roles. His father had questioned how a black actor would make a living, and Braugher later explained: “I’d rather not work than do a part I’m ashamed of.”

He played the lead in a TV movie, The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990), playing Robinson, the first African-American player in major league baseball, who earlier in the 1940s, as a US army lieutenant, had refused to ride in the back of a segregated bus; and appeared in another TV film, The Tuskegee Airmen (1995). He was an egotistical actor in Spike Lee’s Get On the Bus (1996), about the Million Man March on Washington DC the year before. In 1998 he won his first Emmy award for playing Pembleton; he was nominated 11 times, and won his second in 2006 for his role in the miniseries Thief.

After Homicide, he starred as a doctor in Gideon’s Crossing (2000-01), as a cop in Hack (2002-04), as a car dealer in the comedy-drama Men of a Certain Age (2009-11) and as the captain of a submarine which goes on the run after he refuses to obey orders to fire nuclear missiles in Last Resort (2012-13). He had another series of remarkable two-handers in a recurring role as Hugh Laurie’s psychiatrist in House, was a defense attorney in episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and voiced Governor Woodchuck Coodchuck-Berkowitz in the animated comedy BoJack Horseman.

He made the most of supporting roles in films such as Primal Fear (as Richard Gere’s investigator), Poseidon (captain of the sinking liner), Salt (as the US secretary of defense) and most notably as a New York Times editor in She Said (2022), covering the Harvey Weinstein scandal. He also starred in 10,000 Black Men Named George (2002), the story of the unionisation of Pullman railway porters, who were always called “George” by passengers.

Braugher admitted that his career “could have been larger, but it would have been at the expense of my own life”. He lived in suburban New Jersey with his wife, the actor Ami Brabson (who played Pembleton’s wife in Homicide). He said he wanted his three sons, Michael, Isaiah and John Wesley, raised in a “true context”, away from being a movie star’s offspring in Hollywood.

He is survived by his wife and sons, his brother, Charles, and his mother.

🔔 Andre Keith Braugher, actor, born 1 July 1962; died 11 December 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #Andre Braugher #in memoriam

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#as usual lmk if you need a reminder as to which ep any of these are from #I got you #community #nbc community #community nbc #community tv #community quotes #abed nadir #ben chang #troy barnes #ian duncan #jeff winger #annie edison #britta perry #the study group

[cozyaliensuperstar7]

Richard Roundtree (July 9, 1942 – October 24, 2023) was an American actor, noted as being "the first black action hero" for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft, and its four sequels, released between 1972 and 2019. For his performance in the original film, Roundtree was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor in 1972.

Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, New York, to John Roundtree and Kathryn Watkins, Roundtree attended New Rochelle High School; graduating in 1961. During high school, Roundtree played for the school's undefeated and nationally ranked football team. Following high school, Roundtree attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Roundtree dropped out of college in 1963 to begin his acting career.

Roundtree began his professional career around 1963. Roundtree began modeling in the Ebony Fashion Fair after being scouted by Eunice W. Johnson. After his modeling success with the Fashion Fair, Roundtree began modeling for such products as Johnson Products' Duke hair grease  and Salem cigarettes. In 1967, Roundtree joined the Negro Ensemble Company. His first role while a part of the company was portraying boxing legend Jack Johnson in the company's production of The Great White Hope.  According to J. E. Franklin, he acted in the Off-Off-Broadway production of her play Mau Mau Room, by the Negro Ensemble Company Workshop Festival, at St. Mark's Playhouse in 1969, directed by Shauneille Perry.

Roundtree was a leading man in early 1970s blaxploitation films, his best-known role being detective John Shaft in the action movie, Shaft (1971) and its sequels, Shaft's Big Score! (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973). Roundtree also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier and Ben Gazzara in Inchon (1981). On television, he played the slave Sam Bennett in the 1977 television series Roots and Dr. Daniel Reubens on Generations from 1989 to 1991. He played another private detective in 1984's City Heat opposite Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Although Roundtree worked throughout the 1990s, many of his films were not well-received, but he found success elsewhere in stage plays.

During that period, however, he reemerged on the small screen as a cultural icon. On September 19, 1991, Roundtree appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 with Vivica A. Fox. The episode was "Ashes to Ashes", Roundtree playing Robinson Ashe Jr. Roundtree appeared in David Fincher's critically acclaimed 1995 movie Seven, and in the 2000 Shaft, again as John Shaft, with Samuel L. Jackson playing the title character, who is described as the original Shaft's nephew. Roundtree guest-starred in several episodes of the first season of Desperate Housewives as an amoral private detective. He also appeared in 1997's George of the Jungle and played a high-school vice-principal in the 2005 movie, Brick. His voice was utilized as the title character in the hit PlayStation game Akuji the Heartless, where Akuji must battle his way out of the depths of Hell at the bidding of the Baron.

In 1997–1998, Roundtree had a leading role as Phil Thomas in the short-lived Fox ensemble drama, 413 Hope St. He portrayed Booker T. Washington in the 1999 television movie Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.

Beginning in 2005, Roundtree appeared in the television series The Closer as Colonel D. B. Walter, U.S.M.C. (retired), the father of a sniper, and in Heroes as Simone's terminally ill father, Charles Deveaux. Next, Roundtree appeared as Eddie's father-in-law in episodes of Lincoln Heights. Roundtree then had a supporting role in the 2008 Speed Racer film as a racer-turned-commentator who is an icon and hero to Speed. He also appeared in the two-parter in Knight Rider (2008) as the father of FBI Agent Carrie Ravai, and co-starred as the father of the lead character on Being Mary Jane, which has aired on BET since 2013.

In 2019, Roundtree co-starred in the comedy film film What Men Want, and returned to the role of John Shaft in Shaft, a sequel to the 2000 film, opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Jessie Usher, who portray John Shaft II and John Shaft III, respectively. This time, Roundtree's character was described as Jackson's character's father, while acknowledging that Roundtree had pretended to be Jackson's Shaft's uncle in the 2000 movie. He also starred in the movie, Family Reunion in 2019.

Roundtree was married and divorced twice and had five children. His first marriage was to Mary Jane Grant, whom he married on November 27, 1963. Roundtree and Grant had two children before divorcing in December 1973. He dated actress and TV personality Cathy Lee Crosby shortly thereafter. Roundtree later married Karen M. Ciernia in September 1980; together they had three children. Roundtree and Ciernia divorced in 1998. Roundtree was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Roundtree died of pancreatic cancer at his Los Angeles home on October 24, 2023, at the age of 81.

My deepest condolences to his family and friends. 🙏🏾❤️🕊

#rest in peace richard roundtree #richard roundtree