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Review: My One and Only
Footage of a nuclear blast opens My One and Only, and though it doesn't prove a defining image, Richard Loncraine's film—loosely based on the adolescence of actor George Harrison—is nonetheless more dull calamity than stirring triumph. In the '50s, George (Logan Lerman) and his theatrical gay half-brother Robbie (Mark Rendall) travel around the country in a powder-blue Cadillac Eldorado with mom Ann (Renée Zellweger), a platinum blond Southern belle prone to aphorisms who, fed up with two-timing bandleader hubby Dan (Kevin Bacon), is in need of a new sugar daddy. As envisioned by Charlie Peters's script, Ann is a loving maternal figure whose sassy street smarts and tender heart make up for her irresponsibility and general know-nothingness, and whose reckless parental and personal conduct are all excused by an optimistic catchphrase, "Everything works out, always," that's intrinsically substantiated by the fact that Hamilton went on to become a star. How these teenage experiences shaped the actor's eventual career, however, is something My One and Only cares little about, for aside from his frustration with Mom and misguided longing for a return to NYC and Dad, George is a cipher who largely cedes the spotlight to his mother. There's a whiff of Crazy in Alabama to Ann's own meandering westward-ho odyssey, a wannabe-screwy lark in which her search for matrimony invariably leads her to unstable kooks. Amid the gaggle of colorful Mr. Wrongs and Robbie's stream of queenly quips, Zellweger makes a concerted effort portraying Ann as charming and sympathetic even as the narrative—a broad, episodic affair marked by cursory encounters with a variety of comedic stick figures—fails to justify either quality. While the actress's performance still hangs too heavily on her trademark squinty-eyed smiles and baby-doll pouts, at least Zellweger's cutie-pie inclinations are fleetingly accompanied by attempts at soulfulness, something the staid My One and Only only truly achieves in its affectionate glimpses of a Los Angeles where desperate dreams are nurtured not in the palm tree-dappled sunshine but in the shade of movie sets and at the edges of empty motel swimming pools.
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Chris Noth, Kevin Bacon, Troy Garity, David Koechner, Eric McCormack, Mark Rendall, Nick Stahl, Steven Weber, Robin Weigert Director: Richard Loncraine Screenwriter: Charlie Peters Distributor: Freestyle Releasing Running Time: 100 min Rating: PG-13 Year: 2009 Buy: Video
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: International Feature Film
Parasite is a pervasive presence in the news cycle, and at just the right time.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a pervasive presence in the news cycle, and at just the right time. As I write this latest prediction for Slant's rolling Oscar coverage, the top article on the front page of Rotten Tomatoes is a ranking, by Tomatometer, of the nine films nominated for best picture this year. Number one? Parasite. Immediately next to that article is a callout to readers to vote for their favorite film of 2019 that uses Song Kang-ho's face from Parasite's poster as the featured image. Regarding that poster, in simply placing black bars over the actors' faces, it succinctly, eerily, perfectly underlines the film's obsession with social strata. And you don't need to look far beyond the aggregate site to land on some article praising the perfectly lit and designed architectural purgatory that is the film's main setting.
Perfect. That's a funny word. There are no objectively measurable criteria for perfection, but given how many times I've heard Bong's film described as being "perfect" since it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or, you'd think that there were. Still, the impulse to use it to describe this particular film, so balanced and attuned to the ties that both bind and separate us, evident in everything from the dimensions of Bong's aesthetic, to his actors' faces, to their words, makes a certain kind of sense. Quick, can you name the other four films nominated in this category? How apt if you can't, as this is a film profoundly obsessed with the subterfuge that can be weaponized during class warfare. Or awards campaigns.
Will Win: Parasite
Could Win: Pain and Glory
Should Win: Parasite
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Original Score
John Williams is in no danger of winning, but a case could be made for any of the other four.
That one of the five films nominated for original score this year is not a best picture nominee nor had any shot at being one almost makes this category an outlier among this year's Oscar races, which seem otherwise fixated on frontrunners. John Williams already had the record-setting strength of 51 previous nominations leading into this week's announcement, so his nod for the third Star Wars installment, or sixth, or ninth, or…does The Mandalorian count? Anyway, suffice it to say that the only thing that could've been more knee-jerk than to select nominations solely from among this year's best picture probables would be to rubber stamp Williams uploading yet more variations on intellectual property.
Williams is in no danger of winning, but a case could be made for any of the other four. Alexandre Desplat already has two wins here, both in the last six years, but Little Women is finally picking up momentum at just the right time. His richly romantic cues, which are practically wall to wall throughout the film, come on like a crushed-velvet dust jacket, binding Greta Gerwig's shifting timeline together in a way that makes just about everyone who isn't Sasha Stone want to clutch the entire thing to their bosoms.
Arguably, another film that's still reaching its crest stage is 1917, and unlike Desplat, composer Thomas Newman is still waiting for his first win, and now holding the category's longest losing streak. It can't be said that Newman doesn't pull out all the stops, piecing together a work that feels inspired by both Hans Zimmer's pulsating Dunkirk score and Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," most memorably used in Oliver Stone's Platoon. And yet, we're kind of with Bilge Ebiri, who after the nominations were announced, tweeted, "You didn't give it to DUNKIRK, you're not allowed to give it to 1917. Sorry, we're very strict on this matter."
Not to say that we expect 1917 to roll snake eyes on its 10 nominations. Only that any nominations for the film related to things that Dunkirk already did better two years ago are a tough sell, despite the draw of Newman's increasingly amplified Oscar backstory. That's presuming that the narrative doesn't wind up over-shadowed by the sidebar-friendly cousin's duel between Thomas and his cousin, Randy Newman, whose jaunty, Terms of Endearment-esque Marriage Story score appears to have as many detractors as it has fans.
Until the nominations were announced, we admit to assuming that Hildur Guðnadóttir's Golden Globe win for Todd Phillips's Joker was going to go down the same way as Justin Hurwitz's did a year ago: with an Oscar snub. We reasoned that Guðnadóttir, who also perked ears up and won an Emmy last year for her work on HBO's Chernobyl, was still too fresh a talent for the more cliquey AMPAS musicians' branch. But now that she's there, Globe in hand and attached to the film that, by the numbers, the academy loved best this year, she offers even conscience-wracked voters the chance to hand a feature-length 4chan fantasy a guilt-free win by also awarding one of the film's few female nominees.
Will Win: Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker
Could Win: Thomas Newman, 1917
Should Win: Alexandre Desplat, Little Women
Tags: Academy Awards, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker, Thomas Newman, 1917, Alexandre Desplat, Little Women, Randy Newman, Marriage Story, John Williams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Review: Dolittle, Like Its Animals, Is Flashy but Dead Behind the Eyes
Dolittle's inability to completely develop any of its characters reduces the film to all pomp and no circumstance.1
Stephen Gaghan's Dolittle begins with a just-shy-of-saccharine animated sequence that spins the tale of the eponymous character's (Robert Downey Jr.) adventures with his wife, who one day dies at sea during a solo voyage. It's something of a more condensed, less moving version of the prologue to Pixar's Up, underscoring our protagonist's upcoming fantastical journey on behalf of Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) with a tinge of melancholy.
As soon as the film shifts to live action, we immediately sense the loss felt by Dolittle in the overgrown vines and shrubbery that surround the famed doctor and veterinarian's estate, as well as in his unkempt appearance. But any hopes that the film might follow through on its promise to explore Dolittle's emotional turmoil are quickly dashed once he begins interacting with the animal friends who keep him company. Their banter is ceaseless and mostly ranges from corny and tiresome to downright baffling, as evidenced by a pun referencing Chris Tucker in Rush Hour that may leave you wondering who the target is for half of the film's jokes.
The tenderness of Dolittle's prologue does resurface sporadically across the film, most memorably in a late scene where the good doctor shares the pain of losing a spouse with a fierce dragon that's also enduring a similar grief. But just as the film seems primed to say something profound about the nature of loss, Dolittle shoves his hand into the dragon's backside—with her permission of course—in order to extract a bagpipe and an array of armor, leading the fiery beast to unleash a long, loud fart right into the doctor's face.
That moment is crass, juvenile, and, above all, cheap in its cynical undercutting of one of Dolittle's rare moments of vulnerability. But it serves as a ripe metaphor for the filmmakers' incessant need to respond to a show of earnestness with a dollop of inanity, as if believing that their young audience can't handle anything remotely sincere without a chaser of flatulence.
But worse than the film's failure to truly probe Dolittle's emotional landscape is how it surrounds him with a series of uncompelling character types. While the film seems to mostly unfold through the eyes of young Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), who becomes Dolittle's apprentice after witnessing the doctor communicate with animals, he serves little purpose aside from drawing the man out of his shell. And Dolittle's arch-enemy, Dr. Blair Müdfly (Michael Sheen, chomping on every bit of scenery within reach), has little motivation to justify his ceaseless quest to stop his rival from attaining an elixir that will save Queen Victoria's life.
Despite repeatedly paying lip service to notions of grief and opening oneself up to the world, Dolittle ultimately plays like little more than an extended showpiece for its special effects. But even the CGI on display here is patchy at best, with the countless animals that parade through the film's frames taking on a creepy quality as their photorealistic appearance often awkwardly clashes with their cartoonish behavior. The film's notoriously troubled production, which went so off the rails that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles director Jonathan Liebesman was brought on board for reshoots, is evident in its clumsy staging and lifeless interplay between humans and animals, but it's the film's inability to completely develop any of its characters that reduces it to all pomp and no circumstance. Like the CGI animals that inhabit much of the film, Dolittle is flashy and colorful on the outside but dead behind the eyes.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley, Harry Collett, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland Director: Stephen Gaghan Screenwriter: Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, Doug Mand Distributor: Universal Pictures Running Time: 106 min Rating: PG Year: 2020 Buy: Soundtrack
Review: Bad Boys for Life Is a Half-Speed Echo of Michael Bay's Toxic Formula
In the end, the film's perpetuation of the franchise's endorsement of police brutality comes back to bite it..5
From its parodically overused low-angle and circling tracking shots to its raw embodiment of Michael Bay's unique brand of jingoism and adolescent vulgarity, Bad Boys II arguably remains the purest expression of the director's auteurism. Bay doesn't direct the film's belated sequel, Bad Boys for Life, leaving one to wonder what purpose this franchise serves if not to give expression to his nationalist, racist, and misogynistic instincts.
Intriguingly, Bad Boys for Life is helmed by the Belgian team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, whose streetwise, racially focused crime films, from 2014's Image to 2018's Gangsta, represent positions that are nearly the polar opposite of those of Bay's work. Except the filmmakers do nothing to shake the franchise from its repellent roots, merely replicating Bay's stylistic tics at a more sluggish pace, losing the antic abandon that is his only redeeming quality as an artist. At best, the half-speed iterations of Bay's signature aesthetic reflect the film's invocation of too-old-for-this-shit buddy-movie clichés, with Miami cops Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) forced to contend with growing old and obsolete.
The film is quick to establish that Marcus, newly a grandfather, longs to settle down, even as Mike continues to insist that he's at the top of his game. It's then that the partners are thrown for a loop when Mike is shot by Armando (Jacob Scipio), whose drug kingpin father Mike killed and whose mother, Isabel (Kate del Castillo), he helped get imprisoned in Mexico. Both men are left traumatized by the event, with a horrified Marcus forswearing a life of violence, while Mike seeks brutal revenge for his wounded sense of masculine security. And for a brief moment, Bad Boys for Life finds fertile ground in the emotional chasm that opens between the two pals, with Mike's single-minded rage leaving Marcus morally disgusted.
Almost immediately, though, the film turns to gleeful violence, showing how grotesque the consequences of Mike's vigilantism actions can be, only to then largely justify his actions. When Mike violates orders during a surveillance assignment to abduct a possible lead, that source is left dead in a gruesomely elaborate shootout that's played for satire-less kicks. Partnered with a new unit of inexperienced, tech-savvy rookies (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, and Charles Melton), Mike can only express his dismay at the new generation resorting to gadgets and nonlethal, perhaps even—dare one say—legal, measures of law enforcement. Each one gets a single defining characteristic (Hudgens's Kelley is a trigger-happy fascist in the making and Ludwig's Dorn possesses a bodybuilder's physique that belies his pacifism), and they all exist for Smith to target with stale jokes about old-school justice.
Likewise, the surprising soulfulness that Lawrence brings to his character is ultimately just fodder for jokes about how the weary, flabby new grandpa isn't getting laid. Unsurprisingly, then, Marcus only reclaims his virility as a man by lunging back into a life of chaotic police action. Even his turn toward faith and a vow of peace is mocked, as when he finds himself in possession of a machine gun during a hectic chase and Mike reassures him that God gave that to him in a time of need. "Shit, I do need it!" Marcus exclaims, but the humor of Lawrence's delivery only momentarily distracts us from the film's flippant take on his spirituality.
By saddling both heroes and villains alike with quests for revenge, Bad Boys for Life broaches deeper thematic possibility than has ever existed in this franchise. Indeed, the film's focus on aging, when paired with a last-act reveal that forces the characters to think about the legacies that are passed on to future generations, places it in unexpected parallel to another recent Will Smith vehicle, Gemini Man. But where Ang Lee's film actually grappled with the implications of violence bred and nurtured in our descendants, this movie merely gets some cheap sentimentality to contrast with its otherwise giddy embrace of carnage.
In the end, the film's perpetuation of the franchise's endorsement of police brutality comes back to bite it. The aforementioned scene with Marcus discovering the machine gun is played as a joke, even though the man, half-blind but refusing to wear the glasses that show his age, fires wildly at gunmen on motorcycles weaving around civilian vehicles. Watching this scene, it's hard not to think of the recent, real-life case of Miami cops firing hundreds of rounds at armed robbers despite being surrounded by commuters, not only killing the suspects but their hostage and a random bystander. This coincidental timing is a reminder that the supposed harmlessness of glib entertainments like Bad Boys for Life plays a part in normalizing the increasing police-state tactics and mentality of our nation's over-armed law enforcement.
Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Joe Pantoliano, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Núñez, Kate del Castillo, Jacob Scipio Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah Screenwriter: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig, Joe Carnahan Distributor: Columbia Pictures Running Time: 110 min Rating: R Year: 2020 Buy: Soundtrack
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Actress
Well hi, everybody, it's nice to see you.
Well hi, everybody, it's nice to see you. Loyal readers of Slant's Oscar coverage know that we don't like to beat around the bush, and this year we have even less reason to do so what with the accelerated awards calendar forcing us to kick-start our rolling predictions earlier than usual. So, as we busy ourselves in the next few days catching up with some remaining blindspots, and being thankful that we don't actually ever have to see Cats, we will be bringing you our predictions in some of Oscar's easier-to-call categories.
Which isn't to say that we're going to be drama-free. Case in point: the revelation that Eric Henderson, my fellow awards guru, made on Twitter this week that "Scarlett Johansson is genuinely better in Jojo Rabbit than in Marriage Story." He also asked us to throw the tweet back in this face four or five years from now, but I say right now is as good a time as any.
No, seriously, shocking as that tweet was to this fan of Marriage Story's entire acting ensemble, that some are already predicting the actress as a possible spoiler in supporting actress in the wake of Jojo Rabbit scoring six nominations, it's gotten us thinking about the ostensibly evolving tastes of AMPAS's membership at a time when it's struggling to diversify itself. And based on how things went down at last year's Oscars, the only conclusion we can come up with is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Immediately after Glenn Close lost the Oscar last year to Olivia Coleman, Eric sent me a text wondering why AMPAS hates the former so much, to which I offered that there's nothing more unwavering than Hollywood's support for actors playing real-life individuals. Well, that and its support for actors who actually want to be exalted by the industry. Even in a world where Renée Zellweger isn't also being helped by a comeback narrative, and has yet to follow Joaquin Phoenix's savvy lead by getting arrested at Jane Fonda's weekly climate change protest and erasing our memory of her performance at the Golden Globes, she's nominated for a generally well liked performance in a film that has actually performed well at the box office.
On Monday, more outcry was provoked by the Oscar nominations, again for women being shut out of the best director race, but also for the snubbing of several actors of color, most notably Jennifer Lopez and Lupita N'yongo. Some will speculate that Cynthia Erivo, the only actor of color to be nominated this year, is a potential spoiler here, but whether she stands to benefit from a core of protest votes is something that can never be known. This fine actress's performance checks off almost as many boxes as Zellweger's, if not, at the end of the day, the one that matters most: representing a film about the industry itself, in this case one that will allow a reliably backward-looking Hollywood to atone for sins committed against their own.
Will Win: Renée Zellweger, Judy
Could Win: Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Should Win: Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Review: Intrigo: Death of an Author Is Damned by Its Lack of Self-Awareness
The film evinces neither the visceral pleasures of noir nor the precision to uncover deeper thematic resonances.1.5
"Surprise me!" demands reclusive author Alex Henderson (Ben Kingsley) near the start of Intrigo: Death of an Author of budding novelist Henry (Benno Fürmann), who's come to him in search of advice. As an audience member, it's difficult not to end up making exactly the same exhortation to director Daniel Alfredson's film. With each plot point being not only easy to predict, but also articulated and elaborated on multiple times by an awkwardly on-the-nose narration, the only shock here is that a film apparently concerned with the act of storytelling could be so lacking in self-awareness.
Henry is a translator for the recently deceased Austrian author Germund Rein and is working on a book about a man whose wife disappeared while they were holidaying in the Alps, shortly after her revelation that she would be leaving him for her therapist. Most of the tedious opening half hour of the film is taken up with Henry telling this tale to Kingsley's enigmatic Henderson, after he meets him at his remote island villa. The pace picks up a little when David switches to giving the older writer an account of the mystery surrounding Rein's death and how this could be connected to his story, which (surprise!) may not be entirely fictional.
Death of An Author is the most high-profile release of the Intrigo films, all directed by Alfredson and based on Håkan Nesser's novellas. Alfredson was also at the helm of two film versions of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, but he still doesn't appear to have developed the stylistic tools necessary to elevate his pulpy source material. Here, his aesthetic seems to be aiming for the icy polish of a modern noir, but it leans toward a safe kind of blandness, evincing neither the visceral pleasures of the genre nor the precision to uncover deeper thematic resonances.
While Fürmann's stilted central performance at times threatens to sink Death of An Author, Kingsley always appears just in time to keep the unwieldy thing afloat. Nonetheless, his character's cynical meta commentary, alternately engaged and aloof, is ruinous: As Henderson criticizes Henry's story, he effectively draws too much attention to the film's own flaws.
Death of an Author's mise en abyme framing device has a similarly self-sabotaging effect. It initially promises an interesting push and pull between a writer's literary perspective on reality and their own lived experience, but as so much of Henry's psychology is explained through clunky expository dialogue instead of being expressed visually, no such conflict is possible. The structure ends up just distancing us further from the characters, as well as undermining the tension generated by the more procedural elements of the plot. Ultimately, aside from some picturesque scenery and a satisfyingly dark ending, all we're left to enjoy here is the vicarious thrill of Kingsley's smug, scene-stealing interlocutor occasionally denouncing Henry as a hack, and implicitly dismissing the whole scenario of the film as trite and clichéd.
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Benno Fürmann, Tuva Novotny, Michael Byrne, Veronica Ferres, Daniela Lavender, Sandra Dickinson Director: Daniel Alfredson Screenwriter: Daniel Alfredson, Birgitta Bongenhielm Distributor: Lionsgate Running Time: 106 min Rating: R Year: 2018
Review: Weathering with You Lyrically and Mushily Affirms the Sky's Majesty
Contemporary outrage could've potentially counterpointed the film's increasingly mawkish tendencies.2.5
The lyricism of director Makoto Shinkai's new animated film, Weathering with You, should shame the impersonality of the CGI-addled blockbusters that are usually pitched at children. An early scene finds a teenage girl, Hina (Nano Mori), floating through the sky, at times almost seeming to swim in it. This moment introduces a suggestive motif: In the film, scientists speculate that the sky possesses a habitat that, for all we know, is full of similar properties to the one in the world's oceans. The Tokyo of Shinkai's conception is plagued by rain that sometimes falls so hard as to suggest a tidal wave dropping out of the sky, which is a memorably scary and beautiful effect. Sometimes such rains even leave behind see-through jellyfish-like creatures that evaporate upon touch.
At their best, Shinkai's images affirm the majesty and power of the sky and rain, intrinsic elements of life that we too often take for granted. Raindrops suggest bright white diamonds, and storms resemble cocoons of water. But Hina's new friend, Hodaka (Kotaro Daigo), doesn't take the weather for granted, as he's introduced on a large passenger boat, surveying a storm that almost kills him. Running away to Tokyo from his parents, Hodaka first glances the city as the boat approaches a port, and at which point Shinkai springs another marvel: a city of vast neon light that's been rendered with a soft, watercolor-esque delicacy.
The first 45 minutes or so of Weathering with You promisingly merge such visuals with the story of Hina and Hodaka's blossoming romance, while introducing an amusing rogue, Keisuke Suga (Shun Oguri), who offers Hodaka minimal employment as a junior reporter for a tabloid magazine. Suga gives the film a lurid quality that's surprising for a children's fantasy—as he milks the young Hodaka for a free meal and carouses around Tokyo at night—until Shinkai sentimentally reduces him to a routine father figure. And it's around here that the plot grows more and more cumbersome and gradually takes over the film as Hina and Hodaka become typically misunderstood youngsters on the lam, evading the law and the Tokyo crime world. The free-floating visuals are eventually tethered to a metaphor for the specialness of Hina, who's a mythical "sunshine girl" capable of bringing light to Tokyo's endless storms, and for the fieriness of Hina and Hodaka's love. Shinkai over-explains his lyrical imagery with YA tropes, compromising the dreamlike mystery of the film's first act.
The narrative is also an implicit story of global warming, as Tokyo's storms threaten to destroy the city, with Hina representing a potential balancing of the scales at the expense of her own earthly life. That's a resonant concept that Shinkai never quite steers into overtly political territory—and contemporary outrage could've potentially counterpointed Weathering with You's increasingly mawkish tendencies. A free-floating atmosphere, in which sky and ocean are merged, suggesting collaborative gods, is more than enough for an evocative fable. It's a pity that Shinkai overthinks his project, frontloading it with borrowed plot machinery that goes in circles, separating lovers mostly for the sake of separating them.
Cast: Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Shun Oguri, Kana Ichinose, Ryô Narita, Tsubasa Honda, Mone Kamishiraishi, Kana Ichinose Director: Makoto Shinkai Screenwriter: Makoto Shinkai Distributor: GKIDS Running Time: 112 min Rating: PG-13 Year: 2019
2020 Oscar Nominations: Joker, 1917, The Irishman, and OUATIH Lead Field
Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning by Issa Rae and John Cho.
Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning by Issa Rae and John Cho. Todd Phillips's Joker led the nomination count with 11, followed by Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, Sam Mendes's 1917, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood with 10 each, and Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, and Greta Gerwig's Little Women with six each.
While Joker mostly received attention throughout the awards season for Joaquin Phoenix's lead performance, many pegged Hildur Guðnadóttir's victory at the Golden Globes for her score as a sign that the film would do well at the Oscars. Elsewhere, Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers) had to make way for Kathy Bates (Richard Jewell) in best supporting actress and Lupita N'yongo (Us) for Saoirse Ronan (Little Women) in best actress. And both Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory) and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes) landed nominations for best actor, pushing Golden Globe-winner Taron Egerton (Rocketman), Robert De Niro (The Irishman), and Christian Bale (Ford v. Ferrari out of the way.
See below for a full list of the nominations.
Best Picture
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Little Women
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Director
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Todd Phillips, Joker
Sam Mendes, 1917
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renée Zellweger, Judy
Best Actor
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Costume Design
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Little Women
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Sound Editing
Ford v Ferrari
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best Sound Mixing
Ad Astra
Ford v Ferrari
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Animated Short
Dcera (Daughter)
Hair Love
Best Live-Action Short
Nefta Footfall Club
The Neighbor's Window
A Sister
Best Film Editing
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Best Original Score
Little Women
Marriage Story
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best Documentary Feature
American Factory
The Cave
The Edge of Democracy
For Sama
Best Documentary Short Subject
In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St. Louis Superman
Walk, Run, Chacha
Best International Feature Film
Corpus Christi (Poland)
Honeyland (North Macedonia)
Les Misérables (France)
Pain and Glory (Spain)
Parasite (South Korea)
Best Production Design
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Visual Effects
Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Best Cinematography
The Irishman
The Lighthouse
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Missing Link
Toy Story 4
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Little Women
The Two Popes
Best Original Screenplay
Knives Out
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Best Original Song
"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away," Toy Story 4
"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again," Rocketman
"I'm Standing with You," Breakthrough
"Into the Unknown," Frozen 2
"Stand Up," Harriet
Review: VHYes Spoofs Late-Night TV Without Exacting Critiques
VHYes settles much too comfortably into the well-trodden footsteps of other works.1.5
There's more inspired satire about how television manipulates an audience's emotions in the original RoboCop's opening newscast scene than in the entirety of Jack Henry Robbins's VHYes. Set around Christmas in 1987—coincidentally, the year of the Paul Verhoeven classic's release—the film opens as adolescent Ralphie (Mason McNulty) has received his first camcorder. Robbins filters everything through Ralphie's camera, giving the film an entirely home-video aesthetic, and after Ralphie's father (Jake Head) discovers the device can be used to record live TV, VHYes morphs into a procession of mostly stale sketch-comedy bits that have been taped during Ralphie's late-night channel surfing.
Throughout, VHYes shuttles from one gag to the next in search of purpose. In one bit, Robbins serves up a parody of The Joy of Painting starring a woman, Joan (Kerri Kenney), whose dry wit and thinly veiled arousal for her work culminates in a painting of her dunking on Dennis Rodman, of which she assures viewers, "There's moisture. Some of it isn't sweat." We also get a spoof of Antiques Roadshow featuring an appraiser (Mark Proksch) who increasingly reveals his lacking aptitude for the position. And on a mock QVC channel, the formerly married hosts bicker as they predominately sell drug paraphernalia disguised as household products.
VHYes is clearly indebted to the gonzo sketch comedy of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, but unlike Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, Robbins homes in on the oddities of people and things as a means to an end, rather than using them as a jumping-off point for unhinged social commentary. The only segment that approaches a distinct comedic take on its material is Conversations with Todd Plotz, in which the host (Raymond Lee) discusses "tape narcissism" with a cultural philosopher (Mona Lee Wylde) who makes obviously prescient remarks such as, "One day the real world will exist to be filmed." Though this exchange might outwardly suggest an attempt to critique global technological influence, a la Videodrome, the sketch lacks a punchline, let alone insight, beyond the host donning a goofy expression, further revealing how the film is a parade of empty nostalgia for its own sake.
The film offers a reprieve from its grab bag of sketch comedy with a series of musical interludes hosted by Lou (Charlyne Yi), who uses the occasion to introduce bands to her interested but clueless parents. The best of these features Weyes Blood performing a haunting rendition of her 2016 track "Generation Why." But lest the music linger for a moment in earnest, Robbins concludes the segment with the ironized, faux-Lynchian imagery of a door, isolated in darkness, opening onto Lou and Weyes Blood doing a slow dance.
The film's climax returns to reality to find Ralphie and his friend, Josh (Rahm Braslaw), obsessed with the documentary Blood Files: Witch of West Covina. The show claims there's a haunted sorority house on the outskirts of the town where the two live and, predictably, Robbins uses this material to spring the boys out of the house and toward danger, Ralphie's camcorder footage all the while guiding us through their ghostly discoveries. As in its comedy, the film proves wholly derivative in its horror, borrowing liberally from The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and V/H/S and, in this stretch, without even the good sense to heavily ironize it. For all the outrageousness that could be concocted from its overarching premise, VHYes settles much too comfortably into the well-trodden footsteps of other works.
Cast: Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon, Mark Proksch, Charlyne Yi, Mason McNulty, Rahm Braslaw, Jake Head, Christian Drerup, Mona Lee Wylde, Raymond Lee, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins Director: Jack Henry Robbins Screenwriter: Jack Henry Robbins, Nunzio Randazzo Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories Running Time: 72 min Rating: NR Year: 2019
2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions
We were so sure that last year's Oscars would be the last Oscars. Okay, not really.
We were so sure that last year's Oscars would be the last Oscars. Okay, not really, but the endless parade of stupid decisions to improve a show that no one who watches thinks ought to be anything other than the silly, dated, gaudy thing it's always been gave us no confidence in its future. Nor, for that matter, did the Academy's utter acquiescence to the Golden Globes's selection process, rubber-stamping the latter ceremony's much-derided choices of Bohemian Rhapsody for best drama (!) and Green Book for best comedy (!!) by allowing those films to become the two biggest winners of Oscar night. As it turns out, only one of the many lame suggestions proffered by the AMPAS's board of directors actually came to pass, if only temporarily. It's the accelerated calendar that shortened this year's Oscar season and forced everyone (including us) to scramble to get ahead of the much-tightened deadline. So, like Tom Hanks's Fred Rogers, we'll get right to the heart of the matter.
Best Picture
If there was ever a year where we'd feel comfortable going with fewer than eight nominees here, something the Oscars haven't done since the expansion beyond five a decade ago, this would be that year. From festivals to critics' awards to the ongoing guild nominations, such has been the uninterrupted love streak for four specific films—Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, and Bong Joon-ho's Parasite—that it's easy to imagine the quartet hoovering away enough of those necessary first-place votes to leave almost no room for the remaining candidates.
Did we say four? Maybe make that six, since the last few days have proven to us that both 1917, which upset for the best drama and best director Golden Globes, and, arguably, Joker, which earned the most BAFTA nominations, are firing on all necessary cylinders. We're still not entirely sure that the love for Joker's incel overtures isn't more of a European thing (beyond the BAFTAs, its strongest endorsement came from its surprising Golden Lion triumph at the Venice Film Festival) and that the majority of American's cultural gatekeepers aren't repulsed.
But a hit is a hit is a hit, which is why we're also predicting a surprise nod for this year's foremost Dad Movie™, James Mangold's Ford v. Ferrari, and would be likely to predict the same for an even bigger hit, Rian Johnson's Knives Out, if only its devilish depiction of the underlying racism residing within even the most well-meaning moneyed white people didn't hit so close to home. And, of course, were it not for the alternative chance for voters to instead shoot broadly satirical, and safely historical, Nazis in a barrel.
Will Be Nominated: Ford v. Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and Parasite
Closest Runners-Up: Bombshell, Little Women, and Knives Out
Best Director
No nomination gave us more reason to believe that AMPAS's cleaning up of its voting roster may have actually changed things than Paweł Pawlikowski's for best director last year, over the likes of Bradley Cooper and Peter Farrelly. Sure, the directors branch has always been among the most likely to nominate foreign-language candidates, once the seal was broken in the '60s during Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman's heyday. But last year everyone knew their due diligence would be taken care of by Roma's Alfonso Cuarón, and yet they still nominated a second foreign prospect, marking only the second time that's ever happened, after Lina Wertmuller and Bergman earned nods for 1976's Seven Beauties and Face to Face, respectively.
That, after Wertmuller, only four other female directors have been nominated isn't of itself the kiss of death for Greta Gerwig, Lulu Wang, Marielle Heller, Céline Sciamma, Lorene Scafaria, Mati Diop, Chinonye Chukwu, Olivia Wilde, Alma Har'el, Claire Denis, Kasi Lemmons, Melina Matsoukas, or Joanna Hogg. But the fact that BAFTA and the DGA could both assess a year with not just one top-drawer distaff candidate but legitimately more than a dozen, and still come up with nothing but penis sure feels like it.
The AMPAS branch of directors, though, still feels one or two steps hipper than the room. Maybe not hip enough to give the Safdie brothers their due, but we at least expect them to hold their noses about giving their slot to the director of The Hangover movies, and to stand another foreign director alongside the given Bong Joon-ho. Of the many options, we feel pretty bullish about longtime Academy favorite Pedro Almodóvar, whose Pain and Glory is as much a valedictory lap for elder artists as Tarantino and Scorsese's offerings.
Will Be Nominated: Martin Scorsese, The Irishman; Sam Mendes, 1917; Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood; Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory; and Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
Closest Runners-Up: Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit; Todd Phillips, Joker; and Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Best Actress
It's hard to dispute what Mark Harris months ago saw happening in this category, namely that four slots were thought to be all but locked in for white actresses, despite wide acknowledgement that this was a weak year for the category except when it comes to actresses of color. Well, we're going to dispute it anyway. In particular, we're nowhere near as convinced as Gold Derby that Charlize Theron is a slam dunk. (Their collective has assigned her even more "predict nomination" points, whatever those are, than winner-elect Renée Zellweger.) Theron's turn may be more physically transformative than co-star Nicole Kidman's, but she's still playing Megyn Kelly, no matter how much Bombshell opts to highlight her lawyerly "objectivity" behind the scenes and only pays momentary lip service to the sort of "Jesus was white, and so is Santa Claus" rhetoric that made her a star at Fox News in the first place.
The film's underperformance in theaters and with precursors also doesn't bode well, but it's hard to imagine even the same voters who handed Green Book the top award siding with Kelly over Saoirse Ronan's Jo pointedly throwing a passive-aggressive wedding at the end of her book to please an editor in Little Women. Lupita Nyong'o's precursor run for starring in elevated horror gave us flashbacks, but she has one thing Toni Collette didn't: that SAG nod. So, we think she emerges from the underworld to stand alongside Harriet's Cynthia Erivo.
Will Be Nominated: Cynthia Erivo, Harriet; Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story; Lupita Nyong'o, Us; Saoirse Ronan, Little Women; and Renée Zellweger, Judy
Closest Runners-Up: Awkwafina, The Farewell; Charlize Theron, Bombshell; and Alfre Woodard, Clemency
Best Actor
On the flip side, we're unable to shake the specter of Ethan Hawke failing to land an Oscar nod despite winning approximately four times as many critics' awards as any other single performer last year. There will likely be plenty of time to unpack what AMPAS has to say about masculinity in the midst of the #MeToo backlash, but suffice it for now to say that the alchemy straight actor Antonio Banderas brings to Almodóvar's queer universe, not just now but for literally a generation, feels particularly out of line with the zeitgeist held up against not just the likes of Joaquin Phoenix's sociopathic Joker, but arguably almost everyone else we see breezing by Banderas for the nod in the year's most competitive acting category.
Leonardo DiCaprio's existential crisis as fading B-list actor Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is also, often explicitly, a crisis of professional virility. The initial post-feminist-friendly reluctance of Adam Driver's character to do battle with his soon-to-be ex-wife in Marriage Story eventually shatters into what Film Twitter (yes, shallowly) categorized as the wrath of someone who's never had to deal with being called on their privilege. And, of course, Ford v. Ferrari's last word on Oscar darling Christian Bale's Ken Miles comes in the form of one of his tools, predicating his entire existence on "the work."
And speaking of work, if Rocketman's Taron Egerton looks increasingly likely to take the most up-for-grabs slot, it's as much due to his willingness to put in the hours on the glad-handing highway as it is Oscar's increasingly grudging fondness for male ingénues (Rami Malek, Eddie Redmayne). In the context of all this, we won't be terribly surprised to see Robert De Niro's central performance in The Irishman, as a man's man who way too late in the game realizes the cost of his brand of masculinity, reduced to an also-ran.
Will Be Nominated: Christian Bale, Ford v. Ferrari; Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood; Adam Driver, Marriage Story; Taron Egerton, Rocketman; and Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Closest Runners-Up: Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory; Robert De Niro, The Irishman; and Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
Best Supporting Actress
Academy rules prevent Margo Robbie from getting nominated twice here. But the fact that the BAFTAs reserved not one but two slots for her on their ballot, despite all headwinds indicating that the consultants and publicists pulling the strings on the campaign trail had fully installed Bombshell as "the one" for Robbie's Oscar chances this year, feels an awful lot like Kate Winslet in 2008 to us. As you recall, everyone fell into line with the narrative that she was to be nominated for lead actress for Revolutionary Road and supporting actress for The Reader. And as you recall, the Academy didn't like the former film and found the latter downright irresistible, and so they went their own way. That's the benefit of being the Oscars. (Everything else is called a "precursor" because they're not the Oscars.)
We don't need to tell you of the sizable overlap between BAFTA's membership and AMPAS's for you to take a wild guess as to which of Robbie's two contending films is better liked. Also, the backlash against those who would dare point out Robbie's Sharon Tate, aside from her feet, has a lot less to do in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood than in Bombshell is very much in the air. I mean, we're that close to including Anna Paquin among our list of closest runners-up, specifically because of the volume among those decrying her lack of dialogue in The Irishman.
Will Be Nominated: Laura Dern, Marriage Story; Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit; Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers; Florence Pugh, Little Women; and Margot Robbie, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Closest Runners-Up: Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell; Margot Robbie, Bombshell; and Zhao Shuzhen, The Farewell
Best Supporting Actor
About this category, we have roughly as much to say as Anna Paquin, or maybe Joe Pesci, whose uncharacteristically verbose acceptance speech took everyone by surprise at the New York Film Critics Circle gala this week. Five slots, and Parasite's Song Kang-ho aside, Oscar's elder statesmen look to fill them all. The dual nominations for Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira last year would seem to portend good things for Song—to say nothing of SAG's perception-altering (and still mind-blowing) nomination of Bong Joon-ho's film for best ensemble cast over the likes of Marriage Story, Little Women, and Knives Out, but neither of Roma's actresses faced as much competition in their fields for others' valedictory victory laps.
Even more so than in best actress, this category simply has four slots all but reserved already. For the fifth, BAFTA and the Golden Globes went for Anthony Hopkins as Bad Pope, and SAG opted for Jamie Foxx as Good Incarnate. We're expecting Oscar voters to go somewhere in the middle: Alan Alda, a welcome breath of fresh air playing the one lawyer in Marriage Story who recognizes how the whole system is rigged, unfair, and predatory, and who yet still possesses enough humanity to regale his client with a long-winded joke (on the clock, naturally).
Will Be Nominated: Alan Alda, Marriage Story; Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; Al Pacino, The Irishman; Joe Pesci, The Irishman; and Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Closest Runners-Up: Jamie Foxx, Just Mercy; Song Kang-ho, Parasite; and Sam Rockwell, Jojo Rabbit
Best Adapted Screenplay
You may have noticed that we're not yet convinced that Little Women is going to pull a Phantom Thread as the late-breaker that gets ignored by most precursors only to finally arrive at the station when it comes time for Oscar nominations. But Greta Gerwig's updating of Louisa Mae Alcott's universe for modern sensibilities feels like the frontrunner here, alongside Steven Zaillian's adaptation of Charles Brandt's I Heard You Paint Houses, which at approximately 4,680 pages of script earns the spot on ream-girth alone.
While it's all iffy territory beyond those two, we actually feel pretty good about the WGA's nominees enough to quell our reservations about leaving off the crowd-pleasing, feminist antics of Hustlers and the, we guess, Catholic-pleasing antics of The Two Popes. Jojo Rabbit and Joker were both written or co-written by the films' directors, which never hurts, and this is one of the few categories where we could see the subtleties of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood's treatise on masculinity trumping the revving of Ford v. Ferrari's.
Will Be Nominated: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, and Little Women
Closest Runners-Up: Ford v. Ferrari, Hustlers, and The Two Popes
Best Original Screenplay
We can't go five-for-five with WGA on this side of the script categories, as Quentin Tarantino remains ineligible for guild consideration. Also, you know, Booksmart, as we'd be more shocked to see that one included on the Oscar roster than we would be to see Tarantino left off. Because, beyond Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and Parasite, there are already way too many candidates that fit the classic template for original screenplays that earn their movies its only Oscar nod out there, among them Rian Johnson's riotous Knives Out, the Safdie brothers and Ronald Bronstein's unrelenting Uncut Gems, and Lulu Wang's nuanced The Farewell. Johnson's political whodunit hybrid is in with a
bullet syringe filled with morphine, but the other two look vulnerable to Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, filled as it is with copious speechifying, and (again) Pedro Almodóvar's don't-call-it-a-swan song Pain and Glory.
Will Be Nominated: Knives Out, Marriage Story, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Pain and Glory, and Parasite
Closest Runners-Up: The Farewell, Uncut Gems, Us


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- Options
Item # ZIP0077Item # ZIP0077
A new set of Zipp wheels wouldn't be complete without a matching pair of Zipp Aero Stainless Steel Skewers. While Zipp Skewers have historically been some of our best sellers, even for other brand wheels, Zipp just redesigned theirs. They're sleeker, more aero, and generally better looking than they've ever been.
Like their old Stainless Skewers, the Aero Skewers have a stainless steel rod that connects aluminum elements on either side of the dropout. Zipp gives serious attention to both ends. As evidence, take the lowly skewer nut. Here, Zipp machines it so that it strikes a perfect balance between minimalism and user friendliness. It's certainly light, yet it's easy to turn with a bare thumb and forefinger. And a closer look reveals a machined groove at the end of the threads where a tiny O-ring functions to damp vibrations and to keep the nut from loosening as you ride (a good thing unless you want to have a memorial bump in the road named after you).
On the lever end, Zipp started with a clean slate and designed their Aero Stainless Steel Skewers with a supremely aero torpedo shape. The alloy parts utilize the familiar cam ended lever to apply pressure on the frame to keep the wheels in place. The cam end is hemispherical and nestles into its brass lined counterpart on the knurled clamp disc. The brass assures smooth action and the conical interface allows you to close the lever in any position without grinding the knurled disc into the carbon dropout on your new wonderbike. As sleek as these are, you'll want to position them straight back so they look like bullets anyway. Zipp went so far as to laser etch their logo on the outside and four important letters on the inside of the lever -- OPEN. If you can read that, you've still got work to do.
- Stainless steel shafts
- Aluminum ends
- 360-degree brass cams
- Weigh around 84 grams per pair
Reviews & Community
Great Skewers
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
Most wheels these days come with skewers. But, if you find yourself short a set, and are looking for a nice lightweight pair, this is a great option. They do their job and do it well. Often with the lighter you go with skewers, the worse they function. That is not the case here. These clamp well without any worry about safety.
Would these work on regular non zipp...
Would these work on regular non zipp training wheels?
These would certainly work on non-Zipp training wheels. They are compatible with just about any road cycling quick release wheel, and are a great upgrade from the bulky, heavy stock skewers that come on many OE wheels. If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to contact me directly at email@example.com
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
Confirmed close to what Carter below had. Mine weighed in at 77grams for the pair. Definitely good for a pair of stainless!
Are these sold as a pair?
Are these sold as a pair?
Werd - pair it is :)
Good bang for the buck
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
These stainless version came with my 404 Carbons - weight was excellent for a stainless pair at 78gms. Good leverage, well made, great laser etched ZIPP logo. No brainer at this price point :)

subset: commoncrawl


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Press Releases
Carl's Jr. Crosses the Border with New Jalapeno Burgers
Jan 11, 2006
American Palate Warms Up to Hotter Fare
CARPINTERIA, Calif. - January 11 - Taking advantage of Americans' increasing taste for hot, spicy foods, Carl's Jr.® is introducing the new Jalapeño Burger™, registering high on both heat and flavor. The burger is also the chain's first to be introduced in three sizes: as a classic Six Dollar Burger™ featuring almost a half-pound of 100 percent Angus beef, or as smaller single or double versions.
"Not that long ago the idea of making a burger with jalapeños on it would have been rejected because of its limited appeal," said Brad Haley, Carl's Jr. executive vice president of marketing. "But things have changed dramatically in a fairly short time. Salsa is America's favorite condiment, surpassing ketchup several years ago now, and Carl's Jr. has found success in recent years with a variety of spicy burgers, chicken sandwiches and breakfast burritos, so the time seemed right."
The chain also realized there was specific interest in a jalapeño burger in part because restaurant employees observed customers topping their burgers with jalapeños from the restaurants' salsa bars, creating their own makeshift versions of a burger with bite.
"But it isn't just about the heat," added Haley. "Any burger also has to taste great to make it on our menu and this one is awesome. In addition to a generous helping of pickled jalapeños, the burgers are made with pepperjack cheese and our famous, creamy-yet-zesty Santa Fe sauce."
Exotic flavors are an increasingly popular aspect of the multicultural United States. With a large part of the country bordered by Mexico and an estimated 40 million people of Latino descent living in the United States, a natural permeation of "spicier" flavors and preferences has peppered its way into American culture. One aspect of this cultural exposure is the phenomenon of familiar American foods spiced up with innovative new flavors, which has resulted in one of the fastest growing culinary trends across the country, Nuevo Latino or "New Latin" cuisine. With its new Jalapeño Burgers, Carl's Jr. is leading the charge in the quick-service industry to tap into consumer demand for American foods with spicier flavors.
The Jalapeño Burgers are charbroiled, like all Carl's Jr. burgers, and topped with sliced jalapeños, pepperjack cheese, tangy Santa Fe sauce, sliced onion, tomato and lettuce on a seeded bun. Participating Carl's Jr. restaurants will offer the Jalapeño Burger at a suggested retail price of $2.79 for the single, $3.79 for the double and $4.59 for The Jalapeño Six Dollar Burger™.
Carl's Jr. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) of Carpinteria, Calif. As of the third fiscal quarter ended Nov. 7, 2005, CKE Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,163 franchised or company-owned restaurants in 43 states and in 13 countries, including 1,042 Carl's Jr. restaurants, 2,004 Hardee's® restaurants and 101 La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill® restaurants. For more information, or to find a Carl's Jr. near you, go to www.ckr.com or www.carlsjr.com.
Photo of the Jalapeño Burger available upon request.


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Product Description
This art print has been hand screen printed and digitally printed on a high quality linen finish white card stock.
The art print has been screen printed, using water based ink, onto an A4 paper (21 x 29.7 cm) and it fits well in an A4 frame or an 8 x 10 inch matted frame.
The print will be packaged in a protective cellophane sleeve, with a sturdy backing, to protect it from bending.
This listing is for the art print only – frame NOT included!
Each art print has been individually printed by Linnea, in her Melbourne studio.


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Some of Melbourne's most chronically clogged intersections have been left to gradually get worse for several years, in breach of state guidelines that traffic lights must be reviewed every five years to keep pace with congestion.
VicRoads periodically tweaks Melbourne's traffic lights to maximise traffic flow as the number of vehicles on the road changes over time, but at the authority's current rate of progress, some intersections currently face a 20-year wait before the signal phasing is changed.
A report by Auditor-General John Doyle, published on Wednesday, found the state's transport authorities are failing to make the most of information technology such as intelligent traffic light phasing and tram and bus tracking systems to minimise congestion.
Authorities including the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure, VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria ''have no strategy or co-ordinated plan to use ICT traffic management systems'' to complement broader plans to keep Melbourne's traffic moving.
The result is an increasingly saturated road network, with deteriorating traffic flow that results in motorists and tram and bus passengers alike spending more time stuck in traffic.
Tram and bus priority signals at intersections are also ineffective, the report found, because there is no public transport tracking technology that also talks to traffic light signals.
''At present, priority for trams is not effective and can cause inefficient and protracted red light time for tram passengers,'' Mr Doyle wrote.
Melbourne's tram tracking technology is obsolete, but a budgeted plan to overhaul the technology was recently deferred by Public Transport Victoria.
Melbourne's trams spend 17 per cent of journey time sitting at traffic lights on average, data shows, compared to an average of 1 to 3 per cent in countries including France and Britain.
''Until a new automatic vehicle monitoring system is procured and commissioned, the issues described above will continue,'' the report found.
The report also identified Melbourne's 10 worst intersections for congestion in the morning and evening peak. Many of these intersections have had no traffic signal review in recent years.
The intersection of City Road and Power Street in Southbank had the unwanted distinction last year and in 2012 of being Melbourne's worst bottleneck in the morning peak. Traffic light phasing has not been reviewed there in recent years.
In the afternoon, the worst intersection last year was the corner of Princes Highway and Warrigal Road in Oakleigh, which has been reviewed.
Other horror intersections that have had no recent review include the corner of Sydney Road and Albion Street in Brunswick, Warrigal Road and North Road in Oakleigh, and Heidelberg Road, Grange Road and Chandler Highway in Alphington.
Mr Doyle made eight recommendations, including that VicRoads ''as a priority, makes improvements to the traffic signal review program'', increase the frequency of its reviews and work with public transport operators in considering which routes to review.
Intelligent transport measures that reduce congestion, including ramp metering, variable message signs and reversible traffic lanes should be considered, he said.
The authority should also work with Public Transport Victoria to give trams and buses better priority on the roads.
Congestion cost Melbourne's economy between $1.3 billion and $2.6 billion a year, the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission estimated in a 2006 review, which forecast that congestion costs would double by 2020.
Transport authorities have accepted all of Mr Doyle's eight recommendations.


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Korg Enamel Pin
This item ships to select countries only.
United States, its territories and possessions Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
1.25" high hard enamel pin designed by Matt Taylor. Single post on matte silver with a rubber clutch backing.
Expected to ship in January of 2020.


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Filters for black and white photography perform a variety of filtration effects including contrast control, enhanced skin tones, tonal corrections and more dramatic landscapes.
Although originally intended for use with black and white film, these filters can also be used as a creative tool in color imaging.
Blue 47
- Dark blue filter that accentuates haze and fog
- Used for dye transfer and contrast effects.
Blue 47B
Dark blue filter that lightens blue objects for detail


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On A Positive Note: McNicholas Foundation is launched at History Colorado Center
The party to launch the T. Kevin McNicholas Education Foundation could have been held just about anywhere.
Having it at Denver's handsome new History Colorado Center made perfect sense — for both business and sentimental reasons.
History Colorado Center is but one of the dozens of venues where McNicholas' Service Systems Associates does the food; it was also the site where Kevin's son, Sean, and Sean's bride, Audra, held their wedding reception.
The T. Kevin McNicholas Education Foundation was established as part of Kevin's 75th birthday celebration to carry out his longstanding commitment to helping young people obtain the education that will prepare them to enter the workforce "with character, ethics and leadership skills."


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Rauge Logo Template is a great abstract logo design for fashion, insurance security, finance and many more, it is an easy, fully editable logo .PSD shape layers.
Whats in the file?
- .PSD Document (Layered) 100% editable
- CMYK (Fully adjustable)
- Free fonts
- Available for help/li>
- 300dpi
- Photoshop shapes
Font(s) used
- Please reefer to the help files


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Ainulindalë (song)
|By Ardamir. (Help; more articles)
[edit] Background
Ilúvatar made divine music with his creations, the Ainur. Melkor, one of the greatest of the Ainur, in his pride broke the harmony. Ilúvatar then began the music once more, in which Manwë, Melkor's brother, sang the leading part. Yet again, the harmony was broken.
Finally, Ilúvatar began a third theme which the Ainur could not comprehend since they were not the source of it. He then ceased the music and showed to the Ainur the essence of what their song symbolized, the history of a whole world. This is known as the "Vision of Ilúvatar". The Ainur became fascinated by it, and asked Ilúvatar to put it into being.
Ilúvatar spoke "Eä", that is, "Be!". This command created the universe, and therefore the universe became known as "Eä". Four of the Ainur who possessed the greatest power formed a region within Eä which they called Arda, the world we all live.
[edit] Etymology
Ainulindalë means "The Music of the Ainur" in Quenya, from Ainur ("Holy Ones") + lind ("song, music") + -alë (abstract noun suffix).


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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Dust blown from faraway deserts may accumulate in the air to levels great enough to contribute to children's asthma attacks, a new study suggests.
It's well established that poor air quality can worsen symptoms in people with asthma or other lung disease, and children are thought to be particularly susceptible due to factors like their smaller airways and less developed immune systems.
One recent study in the Atlanta area found that on days where levels of ozone and certain traffic pollutants were highest, the rate of children's ER visits for asthma attacks also rose.
Little has been known, however, about the potential effects of a nature-made air contaminant — desert dust.
The dust, which contains quartz and other substances and microorganisms that may cause airway inflammation, is transported globally; dust from the Sahara in Africa, for example, can be carried across the Atlantic to the Americas.
For the new study, researchers looked at the relationship between "heavy dust events" and hospital admissions for asthma among children in Toyama, Japan — a region with a population of about 1 million people that in the spring is susceptible to receiving dust from storms in the deserts of China and Mongolia.
They found that between 2005 and 2009, the region had a total of six heavy-dust days from February through April — when mineral-dust levels in the air were above 1 milligram per cubic meter.
During that same time frame, 620 children between the ages of 1 and 15 were hospitalized for an asthma exacerbation. In general, children's risk of being hospitalized was 88 percent higher on a heavy-dust day compared with other days, and similarly elevated during the week following a major dust event.
The findings, reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, do not prove that the desert dust itself caused excess asthma attacks.
But the researchers did account for levels of pollen and air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and small particles other than mineral dust, and the link between desert dust and asthma hospitalizations remained.
Because there were only a handful of heavy-dust days during the study period, only a small number of asthma hospitalizations would be attributable to the air-quality condition, noted lead researcher Dr. Kumiko T. Kanatani, of the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan.
However, in parts of the world more affected by desert dust, such days may be a more important contributor to children's asthma exacerbations, Kanatani told Reuters Health by email.
For parents of children with asthma, the findings underscore the importance of keeping an eye on local air quality, according to Kanatani.
While there may be no advisories on desert dust specifically, levels of so-called particulate matter — especially "coarse" dust particles known as PM10 — also rise on heavy-dust days, Kanatani noted.
And levels of particulate matter are monitored and included in local air-quality indices — which, in the U.S., are those color-coded systems used to alert the public as to whether the day's air quality is "good," "moderate," unhealthy for people with lung disease or other chronic conditions, or potentially unhealthy for all.
According to Kanatani, a hazy sky is a good initial clue that levels of particulate matter are high that day, and it may be a good idea to limit asthmatic children's time outdoors. But parents can also go online to check local PM levels, the researcher noted.
In the U.S., local news outlets generally provide daily air-quality indices; they are also available on the government Web site AIRNow, at http://www.airnow.gov.
SOURCE: link.reuters.com/weg73n American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, online July 23, 2010.


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Hello Leaguers,
School is on the horizon once again, and once again, we're back with an art event. Or one might even say, a screenshot manipulation event.
Basically, we want you to create comic-book panels or frames using screenshots taken from S4 League. You can even create a story based on these frames. Anything will do. Just make sure that it has the comic-book vibe to it. For example, you can take a fight scene and add classic comic effects like POW! KAPOW! ZBUSHHH, etc. You can make it like pop-art, draw some imaginary characters on digital platform and turn it into something else. Just make sure that it's S4 related. You can even use manga effects just like the simple one i did.
After you created your comic frame, just upload it to an image hosting website and share it under this thread.
We will reward our 3 favorite submissions with 30x G's Capsules of choice!
All valid participants will receive 1x Sagittarius Pet Capsule
The event will go from the 01.09.2018 until 20.09.2018 23:59 (UTC+2).
- You must post your entry in this thread
- We reserve the right to disqualify any frame that may breach the rules of the contest or our ToS!
- No exceptions for participation outside of the set time frame will be given. Sorry!
- Nothing inappropriate!
- Every submission to this contest can and will be used by Aeria Games for promotional purposes.
- You can watermark your frames. But notice that a flashy watermark might have a negative impact on your whole frame.
See you in the Comicsphere!


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I want to visit Dubai. And this is why...
Atlantis - The Palm, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai
World's Tallest Tower - Burj Dubai
Dubai is shocking the World - One of the Most Beautiful Hotel in the World
5 Wonders of the Modern World
Labels: Amazing Photos, Done, Interesting, My Photos, My Travels, To Do
Labels: Amazing Photos, Done, Interesting, My Travels, To Do
Windows Phone OS 7.5 project name Mango is out. Samsung recently launched it on one of it's smart mobile phones. Isn't funny, the project names the software companies are using nowadays. Its all owing to the Androids. I mean what can be more creative than ginger bread, honey comb, & ice cream as mobile OS names.
Labels: Done, Interesting, My Photos, My Travels, To Do
pesto is 6 months old lab
mere ko bath tub main nahana hai
watching movie on laptop
pesto guarding a car while veeni went for shopping at city center 2
day dreaming
more photos of pesto in my facebook profile
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Calendar: Oneohtrix Point Never featuring Nate Boyce
Event Description
PAMM presents an intimate concert by acclaimed electronic musician and composer Daniel Lopatin - Oneohtrix Point Never. The performance marks the musician's Miami debut, and will feature a live, improvised mix of visuals created by video artist Nate Boyce. Seats are limited and tickets are required.
Acclaimed electronic musician and composer Daniel Lopatin - Oneohtrix Point Never - performs for the first time in Miami. For his highly-praised, most recent release, R Plus Seven, Lopatin assembles the sounds of corporate design - the sort found in commercial transitions, background music, and instructional videos- into songs that are as moving as they are conceptual. Awe, doom, and wonder arise from a range of referents - pipe organs and horns to the abstract, synthesized cues for soundtracked emotions.
At times recalling the circular repetitions of 20th century minimal composers, a point of suspense becomes series of stay-tuned notes, no longer vying for attention in their new formation, but drawing listeners into a new space, perhaps somewhere between the mind and an artificial consciousness. Not merely artifacts of once cutting-edge consumption, shifting sweeps of light and dark tones break or suddenly deteriorate like an image stretched and shedding pixels. To listen is to spiral, halt, swerve, and soar with forms that dissolve and resolve.
Some of these sounds are texts sourced from manuals, scripts, menus, and maps related to internet fiction. Chance procedures create scrambled phrases that are voiced by common text-to-speech software. The phrases then become randomly triggered sampler instruments. These methods point to the inspiration Lopatin finds in the techniques of Oulipo, an experimental literary group born in the 60s. He named R Plus Seven with a nod to N+7, a word replacement constraint that creates randomness through formula. The results for Lopatin are songs that are both structured and startling.
This performance will feature a live improvised mix of visuals created by video artist Nate Boyce. His CGI forms, some appearing as modernist sculpture or consumer products, mutate and morph in disorienting virtual space. As with Oneohtrix Point Never, Boyce uses found text, the names of towns made enigmatic and website banners cut up and layered throughout like visual poetry. The duo have toured together extensively performing together at venues, including MoMA/PS1, Walker Art Center, and Wexner Center for the Arts.


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The Whipsaws performance on NPR's Mountain Stage radio program is now available online! We had the pleasure to share the stage with our friends and great performers Tim Easton, Melissa Mitchell, Spiff, and Kliff Hopson.
Special thanks to Larry Groce and everyone at Mountain Stage for this great opportunity!
To listen, click here!


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- MS-14-32, MS-14, Box 130, Folder 8
- File
- 1971
This file is a paper called "Reflections" by A. E. Roland, presented at the annual extension conference in 1971.
15 results with digital objects Show results with digital objects
This file is a paper called "Reflections" by A. E. Roland, presented at the annual extension conference in 1971.
1981 Learned Societies Conference fonds
Fonds consists of conference reports, press clippings, information on individual and society participants, and administration and planning documents.
Learned Societies Conference.
A Search for Collective Bargaining : The Nova Scotia Government Employees Association Experience
File contains a student essay titled, "A Search for Collective Bargaining : The Nova Scotia Government Employees Association Experience," written in 1979 by Kevin Reilly for a course on Canadian working class history taught by Dr. Gregor...
Reilly, Kevin
A tribute of sympathy and affection written to Mrs. James Harris on the death of her husband
Item is a tribute of sympathy and affection written by officials at Halifax's Charles Street Church to Mrs. James Harris on the death of her husband in 1902.
Harris, Eliza, 1850-1921
Fonds contains minute books; cash books; ledgers; correspondence; income tax returns; financial statements; and other records from A. M. Bell & Co.
A. M. Bell and Company
The fonds consists of administrative papers, blueprints, business and personal correspondence, cable code books and other reference works, export orders and papers, financial documents, insurance papers, legal documents, packaging samples, photogr...
A.M. Smith and Company.
This fonds consists of diaries; correspondence; manuscripts of articles, books and sermons; published works; research files and class notes; scrapbooks; an assortment of personal materials; and photographs.
Myers, A.J. Williams, 1877-1975
Duggan, A.M.
Fonds contains William McKenzie's notebook and several loose sheets detailing timber purchases; three memos to William McKenzie, including one from Jessie Hoyt, who managed the company; the second [1896] and third [1898] published annual repo...
McKenzie, William
Acadia Gas Engine Company fonds
Fonds contains three product catalogues produced by the Acadia Gas Engine Company. The earliest dated catalogue was published in January, 1969 and another was published in 1973. One catalogue is undated.
Acadia Gas Engine Company.
Acadian Supplies Company fonds
The Acadian Supply Company fonds consist of correspondence, financial, legal, sales and shipping records and vessel papers. Also included is correspondence from Lunenburg Mayor Douglas Adams, church papers from LaHave United Church and the Parish ...
Acadian Supplies Company.
Account books and correspondence regarding barques captained by Martin Leslie Forbes
File contains pages from an account book for the barque Aspototgan and some loose accounts and correspondence regarding the barque Nellie Moody.
Forbes, Martin Leslie, 1843-1919
Account journal and letter of Charles Tupper Logan
File consists of one journal of daily accounts (1926-1928) and a letter of appointment to the School Board of Cumberland County (1943).
Logan, Charles Tupper, 1867-1961
The fonds consists of records which document the business activities and interests of Adams & Knickle Ltd. from 1897 until 1968. Information contained in this fonds provides insight into the company's role as a major fishing and shipping partn...
Adams and Knickle Limited.
Address on Thomas McCulloch given by Harvey Veniot on the opening of Pictou Academy's new auditorium and gymnasium
Item is an address on Thomas McCulloch's work as an educator given by Harvey Veniot on the opening of Pictou Academy's new auditorium and gymnasium on September 15, 1961.
Veniot, Harvey Alfred, Hon., 1915-2009
Addresses to Robert Murray in celebration of his jubilee as editor of The Presbyterian Witness
File consists of addresses to Robert Murray in celebration of his jubilee as editor of The Presbyterian Witness.
Murray, Robert, Rev.
Administrative records of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers' International Union, Local 9-825
Accession includes the minute book from the founding year of 1942 until 1955, collective agreements between the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers' International Union and S. Cunard & Co. Ltd, E.S.F. Ltd, and Archibald Fuels Ltd. Also includ...
Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union. Local 9-825.
Administrative records of the Technical University of Nova Scotia
Accession contains the minute books of the Board of Governors from September 1907-May 1937 and May 1938-May 1947, as well as published Annual Reports from 1959-1990.
Technical University of Nova Scotia.
Agricola Archives, Special Collections, and Museum fonds
This fonds contains reports and news-clipping pertaining to the history of Agricola Archives, Special Collections, and Museum. The Agricola collections are housed in the MacRae Library on the Faculty of Agriculture campus of Dalhousie University, ...
Agricultural archives reference collection
This series contains 53 books, 8 booklets, and 164 cm of other textual and graphic material related to agriculture, which includes related organizations, industries, machinery, research, products, livestock, harvesting, management, crops, etc. The...
Agricultural letters and correspondence collection
Collection contains correspondence and letters, some from Nova Scotia Agricultural College principals, on early education. and on trotting.
Agriculture (general) collection
Collection contains reports on the banning of pesticides and the development of Canadian agriculture.
Fonds includes Alan Creighton's diaries, which cover many of the years from 1920 to 2000. Writings from the period 1920 to 1954 (many undated) are mainly short stories and poems. These writings include handwritten and typed, complete and inco...
Creighton, Alan
Fonds consists of sheet music, scripts, and programs from different musical plays that Blanche and Alan Lund performed, directed or choreographed. Also includes audio reel-to-reel and video tapes of some of the performances.
Lund, Alan
Fonds consists of one pharmacy notebook.
MacKintosh, Albert Scott
Fonds contains personal documents of Alexander E. Kerr, including sermons, notes, personal writings and essays, certificates and degrees, pamphlets, publications, newspaper clippings, two photographs, and some correspondence.
Kerr, Alexander Enoch
Fonds contains five early reports from the Sterling County Study. One report contains a covering letter from J.S. Robertson (Deputy Minister of the Department of Public Health) to C.B. Stewart.
Leighton, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1908-2007
Alexander John Murchison fonds
Fonds consists of papers and reports on Child Welfare.
Murchison, Alexander John, Dr.
Fonds consists of correspondence with J.G. MacGregor and copies of published articles. Additional information, including biographical and professional sketches, are in the Case File.
Reid, Alexander Peter, Dr.
Fonds comprises family correspondence (including that of his father, Hugh Ross), matriculation records, testimonial letters, personal account books, a diary, school inspectors' reports and other papers and bonds.
Ross, Alexander
Alexander Russell's notes from George Lawson's chemistry lectures at Dalhousie College
File contains chemistry lecture notes taken by Alexander Russell during classes with Professor George Lawson.
Russell, Alexander, G., 1845-1911
Fonds consists of a notebook containing lecture notes on obstetrics and other subjects.
Atherton, Alfred B., Dr.
This fonds consists of records which document the personal and business activities and interests of Alfred Dickie and, to a lesser extent, those of his immediate family and employees. Although the records span Dickie's lifetime, few relate to his ...
Dickie, Alfred
Fonds contains textual records relating to the history of the activities of the Dalhousie University English Department and to Bevan's academic activities. The fonds consist of research notes generated during Bevan's study of Dryden'...
Bevan, Allan, Dr., 1913-1981
Story, Allan
Fonds comprises personal and professional correspondence and papers relating to the schooners Rowena (1903-1907); Lizzie Rich (1905), Stella Maud (1907-1910) and the Carrie C. Ward, including registers, bills, and ship inventories.
Ward, Amos P.
An autobiography : the story of my life
This file contains "An autobiography : the story of my life" by William (Bill) Angus Jenkins. Truro, Nova Scotia. October, 1996.
Fonds consists of materials created and collected by Andrew Merkel. The fonds contains correspondence to and from friends and associates, including Charles Bruce, Kenneth Leslie, and Robert Norwood; manuscripts of articles, poems, and plays; Atlan...
Merkel, Andrew Doane, 1884-1954
Andrew Walter Herdman Lindsay fonds
Fonds consists of biographical information as well as correspondence associated with the Provincial Medical Board and other papers.
Lindsay, Andrew Walter Herdman, Dr.
Fonds consists of patient records, autopsy reports, correspondence, various medical reports from several institutions, and business records including a ledger and daily journals.
Murray, Angus Edward, Dr., 1901-1986
Fonds consists of correspondence belonging to Mrs. Angus Morton and a copy of a poem written by Dr. Morton.
Morton, Angus McDonald, Dr., 1871-1944
Fond consists of letters written by Captain Graham Roome to Annie Belle Hollett, and other miscellaneous correspondence recieved by Annie Belle Hollett. Many of the letters are accompanied by their original envelope. There is also a file containin...
Roome (née Hollett), Annie Belle, 1895
Annie Logan Barnwell's scrapbook of Pictou Academy's history
The item is a hard-backed, ribbon-bound scrapbook compiled by the donor comprising newspapers clipping, photographs, correspondence and notes about the history of Pictou Academy.
Annie Logan Barnwell
Annotated copy of Memoir of the Rev. James MacGregor, D.D.
Item is a memoir of the Rev. James MacGregor published in 1859 by George Patterson. Item includes corrections, annotations and loose notes made by Patterson.
Patterson, George, The Reverend, 1824-1897
Item is a handwritten sermon in German dated August 15, 1797 with additional delivery dates of 1800, 1808, and 1811.
Fonds consists of research notes, program notes, annotated copies of sheet music, and programs of performances, used and created by Anthony Pugh in his work as a program note writer. Most of his research and program notes date from his time at the...
Pugh, Anthony
Collection consists of 24 published brochures or pamphlets relating to apple farming, and 2 archival documents on apple farming.
Fonds contains diaries, correspondence, manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, research notes, materials related to MacMechan's research and teaching and other university-related activities, artwork, memorabilia, scrapbooks, photo...
MacMechan, Archibald McKellar
Archibald Woodbury McLelan fonds
Fonds comprises business correspondence, bills of lading, receipts, and miscellaneous papers connected to McLelan's shipping business.
McLelan, Archibald Woodbury, 1824-1890
The Archival Formats Collection is a collection of deaccessioned archival materials that have been retained for teaching and training purposes. It contains samples of various formats found in archives, including glass plate negatives, slides, text...
Dalhousie University. University Libraries. Killam Memorial Library. University Archives.


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Mineral processing equipment
Three major factories and districts, more than 100 sets of mining machinery processing equipment, international quality certification.
Xinhai has provided mineral processing plant services for more than 500 mines in the world. The projects spread more than 90 countries around the world with good benefits and stable operation!


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The all new Easyfit Star! The ultimate 1-piece nappy for absorbency, fit, comfort and an out of this world performance.
Ø Absorbent bamboo core
Ø Stay dry buffer zones to keep liquid locked into core
Ø Clever stitch free seams – no leaks
Ø Waterproof tummy area
Ø Oekotex certified
Ø Hook and loop fastening
Ø One size fits most – 3.5 to 16kgs
Ø Made in Scotland


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As the rule goes I have boldfaced the things I've experienced.
If it's bold, I have...
1. Touched an iceberg (saw an iceburg off the coast of Newfoundland and still swam)
212. Owned a dog or a cat
Love this Val. You sure have accomplished a lot in your time here!ReplyDelete
It is a really good list and I want to do it soon! Really enjoyed your extra 25!ReplyDelete
Noooo, I cannot think of anything else!!!!! Wow Valli... that's a lot of information :D. I don't think I've done half of your list!
Thanks for sharing it all with us♥
Maybe you should add soon: travelling to Spain and having a Paella with Núria... how about that?
Val, how interesting, you've done so many things. I have a few things to add to your list.ReplyDelete
This is a cool list and so fun even better than the omnivore's 100!ReplyDelete
you have done exciting things! these lists are so much fun.ReplyDelete
This looks like fun. You've done quite a few things on here! Way more than me.ReplyDelete
Nuria: I would love to add travelling to Spain and having a paella with Nuria to my list!!!!
Thanks everyone for all your comments. I enjoyed doing this.
And Emeline I have lived a quarter century longer than you so there is still time to soar!!!!!!!
add 'heard a split enz song', which you obviously have, being a very knowledgeable woman!ReplyDelete
What a terrific list of things ...
I will take some time today to think about my list ... probably something everyone should do every few years .... to evaluate where we are and where we are going in life ...Thanks
Wow! What an interesting gal you are!
I won a turkey once.
Ye gads Val...what a happening life you've had. Love it...I've evacuated half a dozen flights with bomb scares & run across the tarmac in high heels...LOL. O ya...I also drowned while learning how to swim,& was ungallantly rescued by the lifeguard (no he wasnt good looking. I drove against traffic on a very bad hair day, which I wished I'd never done. I sheered a sheep in Sydney, & I've held live boa constrictors around my neck in BKK. I kept white mice as pets when I was young, & gave my sis a horrid hair cut when Mom was away! YOURS IS A GREAT LIST...you 'awoke' my senses lady & jostled my memory!!ReplyDelete
I will have to wrack my brain but these seems pretty complete! These are so fun!ReplyDelete
Maryanne-Winning a turkey saves money on the occasion.
Deeba-What a list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow...what a fun and fulfilling life and what a great bucket list.ReplyDelete
Thanks for playing along. I love your extras!ReplyDelete
Your proving to be one amazing woman that I am proud to call a friend!ReplyDelete
Oh I am sooooo doing this! I love it!ReplyDelete
I love this Val and really some of these things I made or I would like to make too!!!
Dear Add to your list come to Sudamerica, to Chile and know your friend Gloria that will be happy to be with you. xxxxxxGloria
(We have nice places too!!)
hey valli! hope you don't mind I copied your list: http://yummysmells.blogspot.com/2008/09/life-in-225-nutshells.htmlReplyDelete
What about taking off and not letting anyone (besides blog readers) know where you're going?
I ran to Hong Kong last month!
There is so much in this world to experience. In my half century I have experience many highs and lows but this MEME makes you see all that has enriched your life so far.ReplyDelete
Welcome to my home. Thank you for choosing to stay a while and for sharing our lives through food. I appreciate all your support, comments, suggestions,and daily encouragement.
This blog uses comment moderation therefore SPAMMERS, SELF-PROMOTERS and ADVERTISERS will be deleted.


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New Information on Drugs Used to Prevent Breast Cancer
Postmenopausal women at a high risk of developing breast cancer may want to talk to their doctors about the drugs raloxifene (Evista) and tamoxifen (Nolvadex), according to new data from the STAR (Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene) trial.
One of the largest breast cancer prevention trials to date, STAR involved more than 500 cancer centers across the US, Canada, and Mexico. It began in 1999 and was extended in 2006 because initial results were unclear. These new results don't settle the score on which drug is more effective, but suggest women discuss the pros and cons of each drug with their doctor in the context of their medical history and risk factors.
The STAR trial was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and led by researchers from the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), a group that has conducted several large-scale clinical trials on breast cancer. The lead principal investigator was Victor G. Vogel, MD, MHS, formerly American Cancer Society National Vice President for Research.
In the study, almost 20,000 postmenopausal women were given either tamoxifen or raloxifene and were carefully followed to see whether they developed invasive or non-invasive breast cancer. Researchers also looked at whether side effects differed significantly between the 2 drugs. The follow-up period was extended for a median of 81 months, compared to 47 months in the initial trial.
Side effects of tamoxifen include fatigue, hot flashes, vaginal dryness or discharge, and mood swings. More serious side effects include an increased risk of developing cancers of the uterus and blood clots.
Raloxifene was initially used to help prevent osteoporosis (bone loss). It is also associated with an increased risk of blood clots.
Researchers found that the drugs were equally effective in reducing the risk of developing invasive breast cancer (50%), but women who took raloxifene had a slightly greater risk of developing invasive breast cancer than those who took tamoxifen (24% higher risk). Women on raloxifene also had a slightly higher risk of being diagnosed with this non-invasive disease
However, when it came to side effects, the women on raloxifene had 36% fewer uterine cancers and 29% fewer blood clots than the women who were assigned to take tamoxifen.
Death rates over the time of the study were the same for both groups of women, regardless of whether they took tamoxifen or raloxifene.
Based on these findings, the study authors conclude women at high risk for breast cancer discuss the pros and cons of each drug in context of their own medical history and risk factors. Women at high risk include those with a strong family history of the disease, certain genetic mutations (such as BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations), or with a personal history of pre-cancerous breast changes. To learn more about each of these drugs, see Medicines to Reduce Breast Cancer Risk.
There are other ways to help lower your risk of developing breast cancer – keeping your weight in check, exercising regularly, and limiting your consumption of alcohol.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Breast Cancer Prevention Drugs
Posted by Richard Lawry at 1:09 PM 0 comments
Monday, August 16, 2010
Cancer is Costly
Cancer is the world's top "economic killer" as well as its likely leading cause of death, the American Cancer Society contends in a new report it will present at a global cancer conference in China this week.
Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person, the report concludes.
Chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes account for more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide but less than 3 percent of public and private funding for global health, said Rachel Nugent of the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based policy research group.
Money shouldn't be taken away from fighting diseases that spread person-to-person, but the amount devoted to cancer is way out of whack with the impact it has, said Otis Brawley, the cancer society's chief medical officer.
Cancer's economic toll was $895 billion in 2008 — equivalent to 1.5 percent of the world's gross domestic product, the report says. That's in terms of disability and years of life lost — not the cost of treating the disease, which wasn't addressed in the report.
The World Health Organization has long predicted that cancer would overtake heart disease this year as the leading cause of death. About 7.6 million people died of cancer in 2008, and about 12.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year.
Tobacco use and obesity are fueling a rise in chronic diseases, while vaccines and better treatments have led to drops in some infectious diseases.
Many groups have been pushing for more attention to non-infectious causes of death, and the United Nations General Assembly has set a meeting on this a year from now. Some policy experts are comparing it to the global initiative that led to big increases in spending on AIDS nearly a decade ago.
"This needs to be discussed at the UN — how we are going to deal with this" rising burden of chronic disease, said Dr. Andreas Ullrich, medical officer for cancer control at WHO.
The answer is "not a fight against each other," but more cooperation on areas that overlap, such as cancers with infectious causes, such as cervical cancer and HPV, human papillomavirus, Ullrich said.
Any review of priorities is sure to be contentious, though.
The cancer society's report is the first major effort to look at the economic cost in terms of global productivity. It was done with Livestrong, cancer survivor and cyclist Lance Armstrong's foundation. Authors plan to publish it in a scientific journal and to present it Thursday at the biannual meeting of the World Cancer Congress in Shenzen, China.
Researchers used the World Health Organization's death and disability reports, and economic data from the World Bank. They calculated disability-adjusted life years, which reflect the impact a disease has on how long and how productively people live.
"That has become a more and more common way of looking at the global burden of disease," said Wendy Max, a health economist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is familiar with the work and the methods the researchers used.
Lung and related cancers account for $180 billion of the $895 billion total. Smokers die an average of 15 years earlier than nonsmokers, the report says. Heart disease follows cancer, with an economic impact of $753 billion.
"Heart conditions usually hit people towards the end of their life. The cancers struck people much earlier in their life cycle," said the lead author, cancer society health economist Hana Ross.
In a separate article published online Monday by the British medical journal Lancet, cancer scientists and advocates urged more money to fight cancer in poor countries.
Only 5 percent of cancer treatment and prevention money goes to the countries that bear 80 percent of the burden of the disease, said one of the authors, Dr. Julio Frenk, dean of Harvard's School of Public Health.
"We are literally being victims of our own success" — more people are surviving infectious diseases and living long enough to develop cancer, but treatment gaps remain, he said.
Dr. Lawrence Shulman, chief medical officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said cure rates for breast cancer are 80 percent or more in the U.S. and half that in many other countries.
Many treatments are quite affordable "and could be successfully delivered in even the poorest settings," he said.
Posted by Richard Lawry at 1:27 PM 0 comments
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Celebrity Waiter Dinner
Last night my wife and I along with our friend and fellow Relay For Life volunteer, Crystal, attended the American Cancer Society Celebrity Waiter Dinner held at the Texarkana, Arkansas Country Club. The dinner was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Many thousands of dollars were raised at this fun event.
Organizer Stina Brown did an awesome job of putting a great evening together. Stina is our Polk County Relay For Life Community representative. She is passionate about the American Cancer Society, and is great to work with. The Celebrity Waiter Dinner consisted of Celebrities of the Texarkana area each having their own table which they decorated and then during the dinner served as the waiter. Our waitress was Junior Miss Arkansas.
Besides paying to attend, each person was to tip their waiter as a donation to the ACS. There was a competition to see which waiter could raise the most money in tips. Over 7,000 dollars in tips was raised.
During the evening, My wife Gina was recognized for receiving the ACS Voluntarism Leadership Award for her work with the Polk County Relay For Life. I was proud to see her hard work appreciated.
The entertainment for the evening was an Elvis impersonator from Memphis. He did a great job and was very energetic. He sang to Crystal and gave her a lei during the Blue Hawaii set.
Elvis performed for almost two hours with several costume changes. Besides being a great entertainer, he was very personable, visiting with everyone after the show and taking photos.
The Celebrity Dinner was a very enjoyable evening. On our drive home we discussed how we could make something like it work in Mena. Maybe someday there will be an American Cancer Society Celebrity Waiter Dinner in Mena. Stay tuned!
Posted by Richard Lawry at 8:24 AM 0 comments