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Other segments from the episode on December 21, 2012
December 21, 2012
Guests: Mike White & Laura Dern
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross. Next month, the HBO series "Enlightened" will be back in a big way. The DVD box set of Season One is scheduled for release January 8th, and Season Two begins on HBO just a few days later, on January 13th.
"Enlightened" was co-created by today's guests: actress Laura Dern, who stars; and Mike White, who also wrote for the TV shows "Freaks and Geeks" and "Dawson's Creek" and the screenplays for the films "School of Rock" and "Nacho Libre." Terry Gross spoke with Laura Dern and Mike White in 2011, when "Enlightened" premiered on HBO. The conversation began with Mike White, and Laura Dern joined partway through.
In "Enlightened," Dern plays Amy Jellicoe, an executive at a global conglomerate who suffers a meltdown at work and has an attitude-changing epiphany during her stay at a holistic mental health treatment facility. She returns to work but in a much more menial role. Yet she's determined to make a difference and to make her company more caring and responsive to the environment and to its workers. Mike White plays one of those workers.
In the premiere episode, Amy has just returned home, well, not exactly home, she's moved in with her mother, played by Laura Dern's real-life mother Diane Ladd. And now Amy is facing a strained relationship with her mother and a demotion at work. She's trying to maintain the calm that she found meditating in Hawaii, but it isn't easy. In this scene, she is seated cross-legged on her bed, beginning to meditate.
LAURA DERN: (As Amy Jellicoe) Breathe, relaxing my body, totally present, focusing on one spot. I see my hand. I see wrinkles, my skin. I'm 40, 40. I'm severely dehydrated. I need to drink more water. Relax, breathe, picturing yourself somewhere calming.
Mike White, welcome to FRESH AIR. It's great to have you back again. Congratulations on this new series. That scene that we just heard is a great illustration of the way you can just start judging or attacking yourself while you're trying to sit still and breathe and get in a meditative state.
But this is the only series I can think of that's trying to deal with, like, the difficulty of getting into a meditative state, of quieting your noisy brain, of trying to be your better self and then the difficulty, once you've gotten there, of staying there. What made you think of this as the idea of a series?
MIKE WHITE: Well, the truth is I kind of had my own process of getting into some of these, like meditating and yoga. And it came out of a really bad TV experience where I was running a show where, by the end of the show, I was like, sent the crazy email in the middle of the night to everybody and had sort of a nervous breakdown over the whole thing. I was just kind of overworked.
And I had gone through, like, a period of years where I was just burning my candle at both ends and, you know, made like four movies and two TV shows in the span of like five years. And I realized I had to, like, mellow out a little bit and try not to be such a workaholic, and I didn't know how to do that.
And I also wanted to try to assert to everybody else that I wasn't crazy. And so I thought that, you know, it took me a while to have the guts to go back to TV because it had been so brutal, but I - when they did, you know, HBO came to me, and when Laura and I started talking about a show together, I liked the idea of somebody who was - yeah, had kind of come to the edge and then wanted to come back and try to get over themselves, I guess.
GROSS: So what was your pitch to HBO?
WHITE: Laura had her own - you know, she actually had the deal at HBO first. She - thematically she wanted to do something about somebody who wanted to be an agent of change. And the idea changed a lot once I got involved, but that part of it was something that appealed to me, as well, to tackle the idea of somebody whose main goal is not so much like, you know, dating or family or, you know, relationships but was something - kind of had a bigger ambition, and yet she wasn't, like, a forensics, you know, police investigator.
GROSS: You know, she wants to be her better self, and she was that person, the better self, when she was at the holistic rehab center or holistic therapy center in Hawaii, where, like, it was beautiful with the waves on the beach and the glorious sunrises and everybody, like, singing around the campfire.
Then, you know, she gets home, and, you know, it's back to work and to the grind and the traffic. And it's just impossible to hold on to that better self. Did you experience that at all when you had taken some time away from work?
WHITE: Yes. (Laughing)
GROSS: You had studied a little bit of Buddhism and this and that, and then, like, throwing yourself back into - into, like, the stress again. And then what?
WHITE: Yeah, well, it's interesting. It kind of paralleled, actually, the making of the show for me, because, you know, when I'm not working as much, and I'm not stressed, my better side comes out, and I'm - you know, I can have time for other people, and I can be patient, and the stress of running a TV show is, you know, it's really around-the-clock kind of pressure.
And if you want it to be a good show, you can kind of make yourself crazy. And so yeah, I mean, like all of my old, kind of compulsive tweaker habits started to, you know, emerge while I was even making the show. So it's harder to put some of that sort of Buddhist philosophy into practice once you're outside of the cushier berth, the meditation room, you know, or the yoga room.
GROSS: So did you actually go on a retreat like the character in your TV series did, or did you - were you in...?
WHITE: Well, it was more freaky than that. What happened is, like, I had this kind of breakdown at work when I was running this TV show, and I started having panic attacks. And then, basically, I woke up one morning, and I was, like, thinking I was having a heart attack.
I mean, I was having a panic attack. I just didn't - I had never had one before. So I didn't really know what was going on. I thought I was just dying. And so I went to see some psychiatriss, and I was, like, you know, he was like asking me if I was, like, suicidal. And I was like, well, I just want to throw myself in front of a bus, but, you know, it's nothing more than that.
GROSS: Excuse me for laughing.
WHITE: Nothing, you know, whatever, the typical stuff. But, and so the next thing you know, I was, like, actually being checked into, like, a hospital, where I was, like, not going to have my own - you know, I was thinking I was going to go to, like, the Ritz Carlton and, like, have a burger and some tranquilizers or something. And it was much more.
Like, you know, people were shuffling around, like, you know, clearly medicated. I was like I'm not crazy, I'm just really stressed. And, you know, I need to - this is just going to make it worse. I'm not - you know, this isn't right. So I, like, escaped this place, just ran to my car and, like, got in my car.
And this psychiatrist had taken it upon himself - I don't know why I'm telling this story, but I might as well - but he had called my office and said oh, yeah, Mike's not coming back, he's going somewhere where he can get the help that he needs.
And I was like - and so there were all these people who were leaving messages on my machine, all of these producers and studio executives and network executives who were, like, crying and being like don't worry about the show, just get the - and I was heading back to work. And I was like this is not - I did not really know what to do.
WHITE: And so, like, within a few days, the show had been shut down, and I was - and it was over. And so I was, like, yeah. So it kind of just - you know, it was like I was like, you know, a cartoon character, like the Wile E. Coyote that is just slammed against a wall and then is like butterflies flying over my head. Like, I didn't know where to go. I didn't know what - I just didn't know what to do.
I just knew that I had completely bombed out. So yeah, I mean, I went through this period where I was just like what do I do now. So - and that feeling, like, just going back and burying myself in work, which is what I used to do, just didn't seem like the healthiest response.
GROSS: So did you go someplace away?
WHITE: I never went to like - no, I never went - I mean, I never did that. I did start, like, meditating and stuff, but I've always been sort of afraid of, like, meditating in, like, a big group setting because I didn't think I could hack it. But I have done that, some of that, more now. But it was really more just a kind of a walkabout, where I was just traveling and reading and just trying to just calm down.
GROSS: Did you find it hard to do that, and did you find it hard to quiet your mind and just sit alone with yourself?
WHITE: Yeah, well, like Amy in that episode that, you know, you played the clip from I feel is very true to my experience, which is, like, you know, meditating can bring up the most stressful thoughts, you know, especially if you haven't done a lot of it.
And to actually try to stop that constant chatter of, you know, I need to do this, I need to do that, this is what's wrong with me, you know, that's - I think that's the hardest thing for many people to do, especially in our modern, you know, kind of like achievement-oriented, you know, everybody's running around so manic. It's I think one of the most difficult things.
And what's interesting, too, is I think when we turned in the show, the sort of more quiet, meditative aspects of the show made HBO the most nervous, and just in general, it was like...
GROSS: Why?
WHITE: Well, just because I think people, you know, especially in TV, first they want their comedies funny, and they want their dramas juicy and kind of operatic, and this is very internal. And especially these kind of moments that Amy has, where she's really sort of going inside and where it slows down a little bit, I think that that's just something in general that makes a network executive worry that you're going to lose your audience, and people are going to click off or change the channel. That's not what people are looking for when they're zoning out in front of the TV.
GROSS: So one more thing. So you have this kind of breakdown because the stress of this TV show that you were running was just too much. And then so you go to a psychiatric facility, escape from there, and then the show is shut down a few days later. So on top of all the stress you were feeling, did you then feel guilt, too, that the show was shut down because you were gone?
WHITE: Yeah, well also because you're - you know, when you're running a show, there's like at least - you know, hundreds of people, maybe not hundreds but over a hundred people, you know, who are making their living off the show. So when that happened, yeah, you feel like, you know, yeah, you've really bombed out. And especially when it's a show like - I had, you know, like, actors that were really good - you know, you sort of feel like you're hosting a party, and then the party sucks, and it just doesn't end.
WHITE: And so, like, every day you're like - because we - there was so much fighting on that particular show between what I was trying to do and what the network wanted from the show. And by the end - and trying to compromise and make everybody happy. I had just kind of made something that nobody was happy with, not me, not the network.
You just sort of feel like you just, like, every day have to show up and be like I know this is - I know this party sucks, but I don't know what to do, and I don't know how to get out of it. And so it was just like this - yeah, and then when it all fell apart, in a way I was kind of relieved just because I didn't have to see everyone. I was just kind of failing alone now back in my house, which I'm more comfortable with.
But it was - yeah, it was definitely - yeah, it was definitely an - you know, but I do think that those kinds of things, and this is very Buddhist, too, which is something that feels like the worst-case scenario at the time can often be the gift.
You know, that was a huge kind of life experience and a maturation experience for me, and it was very meaningful to me, and it helped direct me in a way that hopefully, you know, I am living my life a little bit more in a kind of saner way, I guess.
BIANCULLI: Mike White, speaking with Terry Gross in 2011. Season On of "Enlightened" is released on DVD January 8, and Season Two begins on HBO January 13. Let's take a short break, and then Laura Dern will join the conversation. This is FRESH AIR.
BIANCULLI: Joining the conversation is Laura Dern, who co-created the series and stars in it. She plays a business executive who has a nervous breakdown, is transformed by therapy and meditation at a holistic health retreat and returns to her old corporate environment, which doesn't exactly welcome her or her new ideas with open arms. Laura Dern became famous after starring in "Blue Velvet."
GROSS: Laura, welcome to the conversation.
DERN: Thank you so much, so happy to be here.
GROSS: Let's hear a scene in which you, Laura Dern, appear with your mother, Diane Ladd, who plays your mother in the series. And this is from the first episode of the series. You've just come back from your holistic treatment center retreat in Hawaii, and you're trying really hard to hold on to the calm that you found there.
So you've brought back with you, an exercise that was recommended at the retreat, and you're going to try it with your mother.
DERN: (As Amy) Mother, they've asked me to write a letter to the person I have the most difficulty communicating with. It was not hard for me to decide who that person is.
DIANE LADD: (As Helen Jellicoe) How long is this going to take?
DERN: Do you have somewhere to be?
LADD: No, I just want to know how long this is going to take.
DERN: Not long. I've just got to read you what's on these papers.
LADD: Well, I can read, honey.
DERN: But I'm supposed to read it to you, Mom. That's the point.
LADD: Okay, Amy.
DERN: You and I have been through a lot: Dad's death, all of Bethany's issues, my divorce, money problems. You name it, we have dealt with it. I know I have disappointed you in many ways, and yes, there have been times that you have disappointed me.
But I want to change that, and I truly believe that we can change. And if we can change, anything is possible. If we can change, the whole world can change for the better.
LADD: I don't know what that means, honey.
DERN: Mom, can you just let me finish? And we'll talk after.
LADD: Is this what they asked you to do up there?
DERN: One of the things, yeah.
LADD: And what medications did they give you?
DERN: Mom, nothing. I'm off my medication.
LADD: Well, why on earth?
DERN: Mom, I don't want to talk about my medications. I'm here reading you...
LADD: I just want to be sure that you are OK.
DERN: OK, I just...
LADD: Look, don't get irritated with me because I just want what's best for you. That is all I have ever wanted. Ginger's been pawing at me. So I really need to take her - I'm going to take her out to the kitchen. Come on. Come with mama.
GROSS: And Ginger is, of course, the mother's dog. Who hasn't experienced something like that, where you're trying to, like, get a fresh start with a relationship of somebody who you were really close to and really care about but don't get along with well, maybe your parent, maybe somebody else. And it's just not possible.
GROSS: Like they're not willing to talk to you on your terms. You're speaking two separate languages. Did you feel like you had been there, Laura Dern, when you were performing this clip?
DERN: Yes.
DERN: Yes. It just is so perfectly captured and so tragically funny to me.
GROSS: Did you go through it with your mother, who you're enacting the scene with?
DERN: You know, in my own way, I've been talking about what it's like working with her, and I've got to say the pleasure of working with her - as a 40-year-old versus a 20-year-old - was extremely different.
She's, you know, obviously an incredible pro, and despite not bringing the relationship into work, there is some inevitability to it. But this is such a different dynamic. You know, she and I kind of say everything to each other, and this is the opposite kind of mother-daughter relationship. But yet still to look in her eyes, you know, there's forever a lot unsaid, you know, in a parent-child relationship.
So you - you know, it's moving and also hilarious. But she gets the joke. So that makes it possible.
GROSS: Did you know when you wanted to do a series for HBO that you would want your mother in it?
DERN: I didn't. You know, when Mike and I first started talking, we were focusing on so many other issues, just about what Mike wanted to say, what I was hopeful to, you know, hear and witness in Amy's character.
WHITE: You know, they've worked together in so many great projects before. You know, usually Diane plays this sort of more kind of domineering or just kind of larger than life, you know, and I just thought it would be interesting because the mother in this is so kind of shut down and kind of trying to keep a lid on all of the emotional issues, and I just - it kind of felt exciting to have that sort of dynamic turned in this between them as actresses.
GROSS: Mike, can you talk about writing the scene that we just heard, in which Amy is trying to really have this communication with her mother, and her mother doesn't speak the same language?
WHITE: I feel like I've been on both sides of those kinds of moments. You have people that - you know, like in AA, you have friends who go to AA, and then they come back, and they want to, like, do their sort of come to Jesus with you and sort of like go, hey, I'm sorry I did this, and have their catharsis. But it's kind of on their timetable.
WHITE: It's like okay, great, you're fixed now, but I'm not really ready to have this conversation, and, you know, like maybe you feel like this is, like, you're saying sorry for all the things you did, but it's kind of like - in a weird way, in the moment it almost feels selfish. It feels like it's really just about getting something off their chest for them.
And I can relate to the mom sort of being like why now, why - you know, like I don't want to talk about this now. At the same time, I think there's just something very moving of, you know, when Amy says, you know, if we can change, the whole world can change.
You know, when certain relationships are so entrenched in a certain kind of narrative, where somebody's this, and, you know, the mother's - you know, whatever the back-story to certain relationships, and you feel like there's no way this can ever change.
And when she's asserting, like, look, if we can change our dynamic, anything is possible. This would be the most hopeful experience that would be transcendent beyond just our relationship. It just means that things, people can actually change, and then - and yet they don't change.
GROSS: Do you think people are capable of change, or that you in particular are capable of change? Do you feel like when...
WHITE: I do.
GROSS: You do?
WHITE: Yeah.
GROSS: Yeah?
WHITE: Oh yeah.
GROSS: Prove it. I mean...
GROSS: So I mean like what have you really changed in your life?
WHITE: I mean I, you know, I, you know, I think that there's certain ways that people, you know, are always themselves. But I do think people change, and I feel like that is the hopefulness that I think the show tries to get at. And I do think that yeah, we're all human and nobody is perfect, and we're all sort of fumbling towards something better. But if, you know, if we don't believe that we can change and kind of like, maturate in some way or kind of get over ourselves, then I don't know, it's a pretty depressing kind of resolution, I guess.
DERN: Mike White and Laura Dern, speaking with Terry Gross in 2011. They'll be back in the second half of the show. Season One of their HBO series "Enlightened" will be released on DVD in January. Also next month, Season Two will begin on HBO. I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR.
BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli in for Terry Gross. Let's hear more of Terry's 2011 interview with Mike White and Laura Dern, co-creators of the HBO series "Enlightened." Season one of the comedy-drama will be released on DVD on January 8th, and season two begins on HBO January 13th.
In "Enlightened," Dern plays a business executive who has an anger problem and has a public meltdown in the office. She goes to a holistic mental health center in Hawaii where she learns to meditate. She finds a new calm within herself and feels transformed. She not only wants to maintain that new self, which she finds really difficult to do after she returns home and the stress builds and anger resurfaces, but she also wants to change her relationship with family and colleagues, even though they resist it.
GROSS: You know, I think one of the reasons why people, like, in their late teens or early 20s have to leave home, whether it's to go to out-of-town college or just like to move to another place or start a new life someplace else, is because sometimes in order to change you have to leave behind the people who insist that you are who you are and you can't be anybody different.
DERN: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: But that's an opportunity that adult life doesn't always offer you. You know, you may have children; you're not going to leave them. You may have a job and you can't, you know, you may have reasons why you can't move or change neighborhoods or go anywhere. And it makes it so much harder to change when people insists that you are who you are, and it really, I think, sometimes people won't allow you to change.
DERN: And this is something that we continue to see in Mike's writing, and it's such a delicate art, but that Mike so beautifully writes about incremental growth. And I think so many film writers, you know, want to tackle this enormous growth where the villain becomes the hero in the hour and a half we have with them. And in the sort of long form of this season, Mike has this opportunity and so beautifully walks this line of Amy having this longing for growth and longing for some form of self-acceptance. But this drive, you know, it's like I will change everyone in my life if it kills me and them too. If we all go down, I will make sure the world is a better place.
And so there's this very complicated and elusive journey toward growth that she takes that has, you know, as you said, have grown in our own life? You know, yes she grows, and hopefully I have in my own way. But there's always, you know, the 10 steps backward that we can take at any given moment back into old pattern, you know?
GROSS: Mike, anything you want to add to that?
WHITE: Well, I think that what your question is very - it is interesting to me, because I think that, you know, I think why certain relationships fall apart is because people get tired of the person that they have become in the relationship or the way the narrative is framed about the relationship. And it's like I'm not this person and I'm tired of being, kind of, reflected in this way.
And, you know, there's an episode where she takes her ex-husband up to the Kern River where they used to go when they were still in love and young. And she thinks she's going to, kind of, I don't know, somehow escape the hard, darker parts of their relationship, somehow she's going to reclaim this kind of innocence. And instead, she realizes he's brought drugs up there and all of her sort of idealism is kind of squashed.
But by the end, you know, as she goes back into her internal monologue, we do see that there's - yeah, that some kind of incremental change has happened inside of how she feels about him and how she feels about herself and it is a positive change. And so, you know, we can't, you know, sometimes we fall short of our idealistic goals for other people, ourselves, our relationships, but that there is this hope that there isn't just a complete failure of imagination and that you can, kind of, you know, find some positive way of transforming those relationships.
GROSS: I think in that episode Mike - that you've written very sympathetically about the ex-husband who does drugs, in the sense that like he really makes a jerk of himself using them and you want him, you know, as a viewer you want him to like give them up. But at the same time, I hope I'm not giving too much away here, but he says at one point, you know, he talks about how hard life is and how it's harder when he's sober. And you realize that, like, he's doing through drugs - he's trying to do through drugs what she's trying to do through meditation. They're both looking for the same thing.
WHITE: Yeah. They're both trying to escape some of the pain of their life, their relationship. And so, you know, to me, I did want to be able to have him articulate in a way that she could understand, why it's not just about a pleasure fix for him, it's not just about him being weak or him, you know, that there is some kind of something that she can understand about why he needs that escape route.
GROSS: Laura Dern, you co-created the series and you had the deal with HBO and brought Mike White on to write the series. Do any parts of the series come directly out of your life?
DERN: When Mike and I first talked about it, I had expressed how much I'd love to explore rage. And growing up I was always in love with two different films, "Network" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." And I think in the last so many years of American politics, I was like, you know, maybe the only person who could be Mr. Smith Goes to Washington today, like true naivete, is someone who is naive or hopeful enough to take their rage to the street, who just says everything they feel and doesn't consider how you're supposed to do it and express it.
So yes, so I always had this great longing to explore that idea that perhaps, you know, rage isn't just this negative thing but something that could be used in a positive way because there had been this cultural apathy so many of us - and I know Mike and I - had been feeling. So my own fury at about every single news story that exists is pretty much what is taken from my life.
You know, I've never been someone who is outwardly angry, so I just kind of hold stuff in and don't know what to do with it. And I think, you know, Amy's this miraculous excuse to get to explore the feelings that I certainly hold in and I think a lot of us do...
GROSS: Right.
DERN: ...and figure out a way to do something with them.
GROSS: So you found something to do with it, put it in a TV series.
DERN: Yeah. There we go.
GROSS: Yeah. Well, Laura Dern, it's great to talk with you. We're going to have to - we have a line in New York and a line to L.A. right now and we have to end our line to New York, so we're going to lose your end of the conversation, I regret. But thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on the new series.
DERN: Thank you. Thank you so much for your support.
GROSS: And Laura Dern stars in and co-created the new HBO series "Enlightened." Mike White, I hope you can stick around with us?
WHITE: Sure.
GROSS: Great. So thank you, Laura Dern. We'll be right back to you, Mike White. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Mike White and he co-created the new HBO series "Enlightened," about a woman played by Laura Dern who has this kind of, like, breakdown at work, goes to a holistic treatment center in Hawaii, learns how to meditate, comes back feeling like she's become her better self and is really transformed. But then a lot of that just kind of fades away when she enters the real world again and has to go back to work and deal with all the problems of life. So the series is about her trying to maintain some of what she learned on this meditation retreat and bring that into the real world and the difficulty of doing it. And it's, you know, it's part comedy and it's part, just, a real sincere expression of the difficulty of being your better self, but the possibility of actually changing.
And Mike White wrote the first few episodes. He directed several of them. He also wrote the movies "Year of the Dog," "School of Rock" and "Nacho Libre." So...
WHITE: I wrote all the episodes, Terry.
GROSS: Did you really?
WHITE: Yeah.
GROSS: Wow. I've only seen the first five, so I...
WHITE: I wrote them all.
GROSS: It's going to be hard for you to calm down with that much work.
GROSS: Wow, that's a lot. OK. So when you first started writing the series for HBO, how far ahead did you have to think of what was going to happen to each of the characters, where the storylines were going to go? Do you have to have a whole season mapped out before you can really begin, so you know what your destination is?
WHITE: Well, when you usually when you pitch a show you kind of give them a sense of where the show would be going. I think it's helpful as far as sort of them getting their head around what it is. I was in a really fortunate position because they picked up the show pretty quickly. And Laura was still committed to a movie that was shooting, so we had kind of a long prep period before the pilot started shooting. And because I'd had this experience before in TV where, you know, people are like oh, we want to be in business with you and you sell them something but they really don't want what it is that you're trying to do, you know. And that's happened to me more than once - where it feels like they kind of don't want the thing that you're doing, but they don't want to lose you. So I was like I really want to just write this season before we get too far down the road with this, so that HBO, if they do pick up the show they really know exactly what it is that I want to do here.
And it'll be fine if they don't want to pick it up, but I don't want them picking it up and then being like oh, we want, you know, X. And I was just kind of like a junkyard dog. And even though my agents were like well, this isn't practical because, you know, you're kind of doing free work in a sense. It would just made me sleep easier because I just didn't want to be in some situation where I was kind of trying to transform the thing I wanted to do into something else that I didn't know how to do or didn't want to do.
GROSS: There's another scene I want to play from "Enlightened." And this is a scene from the fourth episode. And it doesn't give away any plot. But Amy, the Laura Dern character, and her ex-husband are going on this rafting trip. And there they meet the guide for this group of people who are rafting. I just want to play him introducing himself to the group that signed up for him to guide them on the rafting trip.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Rick) I've introduced myself to some of you. For the rest of you, I'm Rick. I used to write for television.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Rick) "Rockford Files," Mr. James Garner.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Oh, you wrote "Rockford Files."
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Rick) "Kojak."
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Great.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Rick) Yeah. They took all my ideas, who loves you, baby? That was my line. I did the whole Hollywood thing. But it's a special layer of hell down there. I mean really sick (beep). So I'm a poet of the river now.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Rick) What we're going to do today, we're going to be kayaking down...
GROSS: So that's a scene from "Enlightened." And Mike White, I think that scene is so funny. And honestly watching it, I thought like this guy has got to be the real thing, like this is definitely a former Hollywood writer who now does...
GROSS: ...like who is now a river guide. Who is he?
WHITE: That character is a version of me, honestly. He's like this like gruff man of the river, which is not me, but there's those moments where screenwriters, TV writers feel real put upon, you know, like feel like they've, you know, I think that's the kind of quintessential condition of the TV writer - feeling like they are being pushed around by the powers that be. And so, you know, in those moments you fantasize about, you know, oh, I could move up the state and, you know, I'll just - I'll become a river guide. Or I'll...
WHITE: ...do some alternate form of, you know, I'll escape from this and I just, I sometimes I have that fantasy myself, which is like I'm just going to open a donkey sanctuary somewhere by the beach somewhere.
WHITE: And so I thought that would be a funny character to send them down the river.
GROSS: OK. I want to go back to kind of where we started from, which is that, you know, after you kind of had this stressed-out meltdown because of pressures from a TV show that you were writing, you took a break, learned how to meditate for a while and then went back to work. Now you've been on the show several times and we've talked about this before, but you grew up in, you know, a religious family of, you know, fundamentalist evangelicals. And your father, Mel White, ghostwrote the memoirs for Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and other people on the Christian right, and then later came out as gay and really tried so hard to get Jerry Falwell to change his beliefs about homosexuality. I think he failed on that.
WHITE: I think so.
GROSS: Yeah. But anyways, you know, a lot of people, when they went through the kind of meltdown that you had would have turned to a more Western religion. You turned to Buddhism, but not in a religious sense, just in, like, learning the practices of meditation...
WHITE: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: And, you know, and studying, you know, just studying - I don't know exactly what you studied but, you know, studying Buddhism. But anyways, how did you know that what you wanted to turn to was that, was something that had more to do with meditation than with something more literal about God?
WHITE: Well, truthfully, I - somehow I got into reading certain Buddhist sort of self-help books. There's this writer Pema Chodron, and then from her I would start reading other books. So I was just kind of autodidact or a dilettante, just going through the different - the section in my bookstore. But the truth was that those books became - I mean I still read them all the time. In fact, that's mostly what I read these days. I just - I find it very, I don't know. It can kind of, you know, if I'm not actually sitting and meditating I can get into that frame of mind.
And I did grow up in a Christian household, but I always felt like there's this element to the organized aspect of religion that I was all - I just never got it. And then I, you know, in the secular world and this, you know, schooling that I had, you know, I went to college during the early '90s when, you know, all of this French deconstructionist philosophy, this critical theory stuff that I was reading and it was all about how nothing is true and all our institutions are false. And how, you know, all of the constructs that we create that are these fallacies that we live our life under. And at the time I was like this is really - this is the truth. This is the truth.
And it was, you know, really stimulating and exciting for me. And at the same time at some point you come to the end of it and you're like OK, well, what now? If everything is false and it's all a lie and, you know, we are all, you know, even our personalities are fraudulent or whatever, you know, how do you live a constructive and creative, and positive, hopefully, life beyond just poking holes in all of the falseness?
And I think that's what attracted me to Buddhism in a sense, because I think it comes from the place where it starts at, you know, everything isn't - there is no Truth, with a capital T and there is no, you know, there's no self, even.
But that there's something about, you know, engaging in the world of compassion and other people's suffering that is what our purpose here is. And that that's something, as a writer and as a person, I could - it just didn't bump me.
You know, when I would read other sort of religious writings there was always something that I just was never comfortable with. And something about some of this, particularly Tibetan Buddhist writing, it was just like oh, I could read this. And I'd be like, you know, all of this I agree with and it actually feels nourishing in some kind of internal way for me. And so I enjoy reading that stuff.
GROSS: Well, that's a nice thought to end on, and very much connects to "Enlightened," your new series. So thank you so much for talking with us. And good luck with the series. So, be well and thank you.
WHITE: Awesome, Terry.
BIANCULLI: Mike White, speaking to Terry Gross in 2011. He and Laura Dern, who also visited with Terry during that conversation, are co-creators of the HBO series "Enlightened," which returns for season two on January 13th. And on January 8th, season one will be released on DVD.
BIANCULLI: Coming up, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead salutes some of his favorite saxophonists who died this year. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: Jazz lost some great saxophonists in 2012, including David S. Ware, John Tchicai, Byard Lancaster, Faruq Z. Bey, Hal McKusick and Red Holloway. FRESH AIR's jazz critic Kevin Whitehead remembers three of his favorite saxophonists who passed away this year: Von Freeman, Lol Coxhill, and Sean Bergin.
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Tenor saxophonist Von Freeman who passed away in August at age 88. Chicago's most esteemed jazz musician liked to stay close to home. He once raced back from a concert in Berlin to play a bar gig the following night. Freeman rarely missed one of his legendary Tuesday-night jam sessions, where he'd school young musicians by inviting them to find their own solutions to the problems he posed.
He once explained his teaching method: They ask me questions and I say I don't know. Freeman wanted young players to put their influences and original ideas together for themselves, the way he had.
WHITEHEAD: Von Freeman from his 1975 reissue "Have No Fear," one good introduction to his music. Freeman came out of jazz's swing-and-be-bop mainstream, but could also relate to free jazz expressionism. Like many others, he amalgamated Lester Young's behind-the-beat honks with Coleman Hawkins' sophisticated harmony. But Von capped it with an eccentric tone quality all his own. He'd push the limits of good intonation, but could still land square on pitch.
That could also describe the English saxophonist Lol Coxhill, who died in July at 79. On soprano sax, Coxhill stretched notes like taffy. It gave him an instantly recognizable sound.
WHITEHEAD: Lol Coxhill honed his rubbery style playing on London streets in the 1960s, developing the art of solo soprano before celebrated colleagues Steve Lacy and Evan Parker. Coxhill's style was peculiar but internally consistent: pitch, tone-color and the beat were all subject to continuous fine-tuning. But there was also something very British about it - like he was a piper romping around the maypole.
WHITEHEAD: Like Von Freeman, Lol Coxhill worked a lot with younger musicians. He'd been playing jazz for over a decade when, starting in the late '60s, he found congenial company with next-generation free improvisers and rock musicians. Coxhill recorded with singer Kevin Ayers, the Canterbury band Caravan and the punk's The Damned, among others. Producers used his slippery sound as a tuneful special effect.
TOM NEWMAN: (singing) He thinks he's Superman. Wish he was in a jam.
WHITEHEAD: Soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill on Tom Newman's "Superman." The South Africa-born alto and tenor saxophonist Sean Bergin, who died in September played on London streets himself before spending decades in Amsterdam, composing, organizing bands, running jam sessions and teaching younger musicians.
Bergin's tenor sound was big and blustery, like the man himself. It was as if the music was bursting from his horns, but he wasn't one to forsake melody as he surfed over a band's rhythm.
WHITEHEAD: Sean Bergin on his 1987 masterpiece "Kids Mysteries," the debut from his little big band the M.O.B. Where Von Freeman played blues and standards, and Lol Coxhill loved to free-associate, Bergin wrote tunes to unleash his massed forces, tunes that might recall South African street music.
Bergin had big appetites, not least among them a hunger to play. But he also recognized that the music wasn't just about him, that sometimes you have to subsume yourself into the ensemble and give the solos away. The music Sean Bergin made was bigger than him or his saxophones.
BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR's jazz critic, Kevin Whitehead, is the author of "Why Jazz?" You can download podcasts of our show at freshair.npr.org and follow us on Twitter @nprfreshair and on tumblr at nprfreshair.tumblr.com.
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


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"Same as it ever was, same as it ever was" – Talking Heads
Financial analysts could be forgiven for thinking that it was the same old story at Chelsea, as the club once again reported a thumping great annual loss of £71 million, but attempted to put the usual positive spin on the results. In an attempt to prove that he was the right man to replace former chief executive Peter Kenyon, who frequently spoke of the club's determination to break-even, the new man at the top, Ron Gourlay, claimed, "The reduction in operating losses and increased sales in 2009/10 shows that we are moving in the right direction."
Up to a point that may be true, but the clever wordplay does not alter the fact that the loss was actually £27 million worse than the previous year. In fairness, Chelsea's losses had been decreasing in each of the last four years, though everything's relative and the starting point was English football's record deficit of £140 million in 2005. As chartists are fond of saying, "The trend is your friend – until the end, when it bends."
Cynicism reached new highs when it was noted that Chelsea employed the politician's preferred tactic of choosing a good day to bury bad news, not once, but twice. First, the press release announcing the results, which was amusingly entitled "Chelsea Becomes Cash Positive", was published on the final day of the January transfer window. Then, the detailed statutory accounts were published at the same time that new signing Fernando Torres was being presented to the press.
"JT - still the main man at Chelsea?"
Moreover, it was faintly ironic that on the same day that the club revealed its £71 million loss, they also announced that they had splashed out a similar sum on acquiring the talents of Fernando Torres from Liverpool (£50 million) and David Luiz from Benfica (£21 million), thus provoking Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, who has for a long time been a critic of Chelsea's "financial doping", to renew his attack on the club's strategy, "Where's the logic in that?"
The "Back to the Future" return to the days of big spending appeared to signal a major change of heart from the club's billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, whose approach to the club's finances over the last couple of years has been positively miserly by his previous munificent standards. Chelsea have hugely benefited from the Russian's largesse in the past, but up until last month he had clamped down on expenditure, reducing the squad size by offloading experienced (expensive) players and cutting back on support staff.
This new era of restraint was rationalised by the impending arrival of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, which should force clubs to spend only what they earn, especially as Abramovich has often been cited by UEFA President Michel Platini as one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the drive for clubs to be self-sufficient.
On the face of it, Chelsea's January splurge would seem to fly in the face of Abramovich's backing for the new rules, particularly as reports indicate that Chelsea also had a £35 million bid for Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez rejected, though it is not clear whether this would have been on top of the other purchases or was an insurance policy in case the Torres deal fell through.
So, why did the loss increase, especially in a season when Chelsea secured their first League and Cup double? It's all about the costs, as revenue is virtually unchanged, with wages being the main culprit, increasing by £20 million, though this was partially off-set by last season's costs including £13 million severance payments to Luiz Felipe Scolari and his assistants. Last year Chelsea made £29 million profit on player sales, ironically mainly due to the transfer of Wayne Bridge and Tal Ben Haim to Manchester City (the "new Chelsea") and Steve Sidwell to Aston Villa, while this year the sales of Andriy Shevchenko to Dynamo Kiev and Claudio Pizzaro to Werder Bremen generated a loss of £1 million. On the other hand, taking these players off the books helped reduce amortisation by £11 million.
The wage bill has now reached a stratospheric £173 million, the highest ever reported by an English club, which is £40 million more than Manchester City and Manchester United (though it is certain that City's wages will further increase this year) and £60 million more than Arsenal. The only two clubs with a higher payroll than Chelsea are the Spanish giants, Barcelona and Real Madrid, but their revenue is also considerably higher.
The 13% increase in wages, including a mysterious £8 million rise in pension costs, does not exactly seem to support Gourlay's previous assertion that "we are reducing our costs by controlling expenses, including salaries and wages."
Nor does the important wages to turnover ratio, which has worsened from 70% to 82% in the last two years. This is considerably higher than all but one of their rivals for a Champions League place, the exception being Manchester City with a staggering 107%. Indeed, it's nearly double the ratio at Manchester United and Arsenal. To get back to UEFA's recommended maximum limit of 70%, Chelsea would have to cut the wage bill by £26 million – or grow revenue by £37 million.
That might seem a steep task, given that there have been few signs of revenue growth in the last couple of seasons. Indeed, turnover has actually fallen by £4 million since 2008, though, as we shall see later there are avenues for Chelsea to grow their revenue in the future, which will help address some of the weaknesses in their current business model.
To be fair, it's not as if Chelsea's revenue is too shabby at the moment. In the latest Deloittes Money League, based on 2009/10 results, Chelsea are very handily placed in sixth, which is the same as the previous season's position. However, to place that into context, Chelsea's annual turnover of £210 million is still a long way behind Real Madrid (£359 million), Barcelona (£326 million), Manchester United (£286 million) and Bayern Munich (£265 million), though it is within striking distance of Arsenal (£224 million).
Nevertheless, it still came as a major surprise when Abramovich found his cheque book once again. In his first three years at the club, the oligarch's spending spree amounted to an amazing £300 million (£150 million in the first year alone, when he essentially purchased an entire new team), but the net expenditure was negligible in the following four years. The last big investment occurred back in 2006, including the likes of Ashley Cole, Salomon Kalou and the ultimate vanity purchase, Andriy Shevchenko.
This was very much in line with Kenyon's assertion that, "We have consistently reduced our net transfer spend over the last five years and will continue this trend", which was epitomised last summer when the only "big" names to arrive at Stamford Bridge were Yuri Zhirkov, Daniel Sturridge and Ross Turnbull (on a free transfer). Ron Gourlay repeated the need for a hair shirt policy in a team meeting at the start of the season, when he warned the players not to expect any major signings, as the club could no longer rely on handouts from Abramovich.
However, that was then, this is now and Chelsea are clearly back in the market, which can be seen by the turnaround in manager Carlo Ancelotti's stance in the last 12 months. A year ago, he was very much still on message, "I don't think it's necessary for us to spend a lot of money", but his views this year are in marked contrast, "If you do not have the players, you do not have the possibility to reach the top. Now we have that chance."
Some commentators have speculated that the reason for Chelsea's burst of activity is to somehow beat the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules, as the next set of accounts (2010/11) is the last year where the numbers are excluded from UEFA's break-even calculations, but this merely betrays a lack of accounting knowledge. The reality is that when a player is purchased, his cost is capitalised on the balance sheet and is written-down (amortised) over the length of his contract. Importantly, this means that the cost of Chelsea's recent purchases will be included under Financial Fair Play via the amortisation charge.
In this way, amortisation can have a big influence on a club's results. For example, Manchester City's player amortisation has grown significantly from £6 million in 2007 to £71 million in 2010. On the other hand, the slow-down in Chelsea's transfer spend has seen their amortisation fall from £83 million to £38 million in the last five years.
Although a few journalists have suggested some accounting trickery, whereby clubs would choose to book all the huge transfer spend now as a cost, so that it would not impact future accounts, this seems extremely unlikely to me. While it is true that UEFA's regulations do allow football clubs to choose "an accounting policy to expense the costs of acquiring a player's registration rather than capitalise them", the key point is that this must be "permitted under their national accounting practice."
"Josh McEachran - a sign of things to come"
This is highly technical, but in my view this is where their argument falls down. Ever since the introduction of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), in particular FRS10 on Goodwill and Intangible Assets, major clubs have used the capitalisation and amortisation method to account for player transfers, so it would be difficult for Chelsea (or anybody else) to argue that the "income and expense" method had suddenly become appropriate.
UEFA have all but confirmed this in a recent statement, when they clarified the issue: "There is no doubt that transfers now will impact on the break-even results of the financial years ending 2012 and 2013 – the first financial years to be assessed under the break-even rule." This was further underlined by Andrea Traverso, the Head of Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play at UEFA, who explained, "All clubs must amortise all transfer fees."
I suppose that there is always the possibility of a club booking a massive impairment provision in 2010/11, which would dramatically reduce the value of their players in the accounts, but have the advantage of reducing future expenses. However, this has the whiff of earnings manipulation and is unlikely to be accepted by UEFA.
In fairness, UEFA have given clubs every opportunity to meet the new guidelines with a phased implementation. The first season that they will start monitoring clubs is 2013/14, but this will take into account losses made in the two preceding years, namely 2011/12 and 2012/13, so Chelsea's accounts need to be in better shape pretty quickly.
However, they don't need to be absolutely perfect by then, as wealthy owners will be allowed to absorb aggregate losses (so-called "acceptable deviations") of €45 million (£39 million), initially over two years and then over a three-year monitoring period, as long as they are willing to cover the deficit by making equity contributions. The maximum permitted loss then falls to €30 million (£26 million) from 2015/16 and will be further reduced from 2018/19 (to an unspecified amount). Note that these sums represent aggregate losses, not a yearly loss, as I have seen some people erroneously report.
Even with all these allowances, the majority view seems to be that Chelsea's recent transfer activity means that they have no chance of reaching break-even in the near future, even though UEFA themselves were at pains to point out, "The financial fair play rules do not prevent clubs from spending money on transfers, but require them to balance their books at the end of the season."
Indeed, Chelsea remained full of confidence, "The club is in a strong position to meet the challenges of UEFA financial fair play initiatives, which will be relevant to the financial statements to be released in early 2013", i.e. their 2011/12 accounts. Obviously, many will take that assertion with a large pinch of salt, but, for once, I think that the club's hierarchy might be right. My analysis indicates that Chelsea might well reach break-even sooner than many would believe.
This is how I think they will do it, starting from their current pre-tax loss of £70 million.
1. Financial Fair Play Adjustments
It is not widely appreciated that UEFA's break-even calculation is not exactly the same as a club's statutory accounts, as it excludes certain expenses, including depreciation on tangible fixed assets and expenditure on youth development and community development activities. In Chelsea's case, this means that £9 million of depreciation can be removed right off the bat.
It is more difficult to assess the youth development expenditure, as this is not separately disclosed in the public accounts, but we can make a reasonable estimate. In an interview with Frank Arnesen, Chelsea's sporting director, who is due to leave the club at the end of the season, the Independent mentioned "Roman Abramovich's £60 million plan to build Chelsea through youth development." On the assumption that this cost refers to the amount spent by Arnesen during his five-year tenure, that would imply an annual budget of £12 million. To be conservative, I'm going to round that down to £10 million.
Fortunately for Chelsea, UEFA still allow clubs to exclude such costs, regardless of whether the programme is successful, as to date the return on investment has not exactly been dazzling. However, there are some signs that it is beginning to deliver, most obviously in the form of skilful midfielder Josh McEachran, but also, to a certain extent, with Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma and Gaël Kakuta. The growing pool of talent resulted in Chelsea winning the FA Youth Cup last season.
Either way, the Fair Play rules allow Chelsea to reduce their expenses by £19 million: £9 million depreciation and £10 million youth development expenditure.
"David Luiz - Sideshow Bob"
2. New Signings
The 2009/10 accounts ran up to 30 June 2010, so do not include the cost of any new signings after that date, which means that we need to add the wages and amortisation for Torres, Luiz, Ramires and Yossi Benayoun. Taking Torres as an example, his wages have been estimated at £150,000 a week, which works out to £8 million a year, while the annual amortisation is £9 million (£50 million transfer fee divided by the 5.5 years of his contract), giving a total of £17 million. Although players' salaries are not divulged, we can make reasonably accurate estimates for the others, which give us a total of £36 million of additional costs for these four players.
3. Summer 2010 Departures
On the other hand, many high-earning players left last summer, which has taken at least £20 million off the wage bill, though this policy has also caused the club numerous problems on the pitch, as the young, emerging players are not yet ready to fill the boots of Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack, Deco, Joe Cole and Juliano Belletti. A couple of lesser players (Franco Di Santo and Miroslav Stoch) also exited stage left, so my calculations suggest a reduction in wages of £23 million.
Normally, players leaving would also lower amortisation, but these players were either out of contract or only had a small amount of time left, so I have not assumed any reduction for that.
"Carvalho - first of the old guard to leave"
4. Profit on Player Sales
Although many of the players left Stamford Bridge on free transfers, Chelsea did receive money for some players: Carvalho £7 million, Stoch £4.6 million and Di Santo £1 million, giving a total of £13 million. As this year's accounts included a loss of £1 million on player sales, that means an improvement of £14 million.
5. Reduction in Bonuses
Unless Chelsea repeat their feat from last year of winning the Premier League and FA Cup (or finally triumph in the Champions League), bonus payments should fall. These can significantly influence a football club's expenses, as we have seen with Barcelona, who were in a financial sense victims of their own success, as they had to shell out around £33 million in bonuses. Furthermore, Chelsea have explicitly stated that they have cut performance bonuses, so there really should be a decrease here. Frankly, I have no idea how much this is worth, but for it to be meaningful enough for the club to mention it, it must be reasonably large. My estimate is £15 million (about 8% of the total remuneration), which does not seem too aggressive a target.
"Wilkins and Ancelotti - say hello, wave goodbye"
Against that, there will be a severance payment for Ray Wilkins, the former assistant manager, who left Chelsea in rather acrimonious circumstances in November. His deal was apparently worth £400,000 a year, but let's be generous and assume a £1 million pay-off. If Abramovich tires of Ancelotti, there could be an additional "exceptional" payment here, but for the purpose of this exercise we'll assume that "Carletto" will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
That gives a net payroll improvement of £14 million (£15 million cut in bonuses less £1 million Wilkins payment).
The latest accounts also reveal that Chelsea would be liable for an additional £3.8 million in National Insurance contributions if HM Revenue and Customs are successful in their legal case, where they argue that image rights payments should be taxed as income. As the outcome of that dispute is unclear, we shall ignore it in our workings.
6. Improved Commercial Deals
The signing of Torres will undoubtedly help the club's commercial image, but Chelsea have already made great strides in what Gourlay described as "leveraging the brand." In October, they signed an eight-year extension of their kit supplier deal with Adidas, which increased the annual payment by £8 million from £12 million to £20 million. In fact, some reports suggest that the new agreement could be worth as much as £25-30 million, but this is almost certainly linked to on-field success, so I have taken the lower amount.
Similarly, at the end of last season, the club agreed a new deal with shirt sponsor Samsung, which reportedly increased the annual fee by £4 million from £10 million to £14 million. That's pretty impressive, meaning that Chelsea now have the sixth most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal globally, though it's still a fair way behind the £20 million earned by domestic rivals Manchester United (Aon) and Liverpool (Standard Chartered). Of course, Barcelona's £25 million deal with the Qatar Foundation has raised the bar again - even higher than Bayern Munich's £24 million deal with Deutsche Telekom.
So, in total, there should be a hefty increase of at least £12 million from commercial deals (Adidas £8 million, Samsung £4 million). This is the figure I have used in my plan, even though other new contracts, like the one signed with Singha beer will also have grown commercial income.
Chelsea's current total of £56 million is £25 million behind Manchester United, but this rash of new deals is closing the gap. They are keen to further exploit their commercial potential, hence they will embark on a tour of Asia next summer in order to tap into emerging markets, but they would need to hugely up their game if they want to get close to Bayern Munich's astonishing £142 million.
This is, of course, the area where those fans that have not bothered to plough through UEFA's regulations (and who can blame them?) see an easy way to reach the break-even target. Why doesn't Abramovich sign a £200 million sponsorship deal? Or pay £50 million a season for a super-VIP executive box? Or buy 10 million shirts emblazoned with "Torres 9"?
"Super Frank"
Unfortunately, that simply is not possible, as UEFA have introduced the concept of "fair value" so beloved of tax authorities when reviewing inter-company transactions. In short, if an owner over-pays for services, this will be adjusted down to market value, i.e. what the club would have received if the transactions were conducted on an "arm's length" basis. Obviously, there is still some scope for manipulation, especially as market value is notoriously difficult to assess, but the most blatant excesses should be prevented.
7. Stadium Naming Rights
Staying with the commercial arm, there has long been talk of Chelsea selling naming rights for their Stamford Bridge stadium. This is easier said than done, especially as the best marketing opportunity really lies with a move to a brand new stadium, but analysts have spoken of £10 million per annum, which is not beyond the realms of possibility. Indeed, Ben Wells, the club's head of marketing, has waxed lyrical about looking to Asia for a sponsor, building on the club's existing relationships in the region.
8. Ticket Prices
Chelsea raised their ticket prices at the beginning of this season. Although this is never going to be a popular move with fans, in fairness, this followed four consecutive seasons of freezing prices and was the first increase since July 2005. After inflation is taken into account, the club claimed that this represented a reduction in real terms of 15% over the period. Some accounts list the increase this year as an average 4%, while others refer to a 10% increase in season ticket prices, so I have again used a conservative assumption of 5%, which would be worth £3 million a year.
The club is limited in its ability to generate more match day revenue, because of the low 42,000 capacity of Stamford Bridge, which is considerably smaller than Old Trafford (76,000) and the Emirates (60,000). To be fair, they do get a lot of bang for their buck (yield per seat), as can be seen by the fact that their match day revenue of £67 million is much higher than Liverpool's £43 million, even though Anfield's capacity is actually larger at 45,000. However, they still earn over a £1 million less per match than Manchester United and Arsenal.
Their only realistic hope of matching the £100 million earned by those two clubs would be to move to a larger stadium. Although such a project did appear to have been taken off the agenda, a couple of months ago the idea of moving to a new 60,000 capacity stadium in the nearby Earls Court Exhibition Centre was again floated. Chelsea looked at the same site four years ago, so this is very far from a fait accompli, but the area is not exactly flush with alternatives. As chairman Bruce Buck said, "Certainly we wouldn't leave West London or thereabouts, and there are very few sites available." However, there would be many hurdles to overcome, including planning permission, and a new stadium would not be ready until 2015, so this is very much future music.
9. TV – Premier League
In line with other Premier League clubs, the main driver of revenue growth at Chelsea has been television, which is particularly evident in 2007/08, when £17 million of the £23 million increase in turnover was attributable to the new three-year deal with Sky. In the same way, the 2010/11 figures will be given an uplift by the latest three-year agreement, which kicked-off this season. Thanks to the overseas rights more than doubling, this is anticipated to deliver between £7 million and £10 million additional revenue to each club. Given that the actual amount received is partly dependent on the final league position and the number of times the team is broadcast live, I have used the lower figure in my plan.
10. TV – Champions League
In the same way, the distribution of Champions League prize money and TV payouts will also be higher this season. Again, this is dependent on a number of factors, such as how far a team progresses in the competition, how many times they win in the group stage and the share of the market (TV) pool, but an assumption of an additional £5 million is probably not too wide of the mark.
Chelsea's revenue from UEFA for participating in the Champions League has been worth an average of £27 million in the last three seasons, and that does not include the extra gate receipts (£2.4 million a match) or higher payments from success clauses in commercial deals. All in all, failure to qualify would mean losing £40 million of revenue. No wonder the club's accounts warn that its income is "dependent on the success of the first team."
This is probably the main reason why Chelsea bought Torres and Luiz, as for the first time in ages there is a very real risk that they might miss out on Champions League qualification and the money that accompanies that. Simply put, the £71 million will be a price worth paying if it guarantees qualification. Of course, there's no such guarantee in the unreliable world of football, but this statement of intent should surely help, not least in the boost it will give to the rest of the dressing room.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"
So, adding up all those ups and downs brings us (spookily) to break-even. The key point here is that all of these actions have already happened with the sole exception of the naming rights, so it is little wonder that Chelsea's officials demonstrated such confidence when announcing their latest loss. Of course, there may be other factors affecting the club's financials, but remember that the acceptable deviations will give them plenty of room to manoeuvre.
Those of a more Machiavellian nature would no doubt maintain that all of this is unnecessary, as Chelsea could just employ an army of lawyers and accountant to locate the loopholes in UEFA's regulations, but the figures above suggest that they do not actually need to resort to such subterfuge. In any case, UEFA are not complete fools, as they have addressed some of the more obvious ways of getting around the new regulations.
For example, many clubs these days have an intricate inter-company structure and there were fears that a club might argue that the football club itself was profitable, while large expenses such as interest payments were paid out of a different company. Clearly, that does not make sense to any reasonable man and UEFA have caught that one, "If the licence applicant is controlled by a parent or has control of any subsidiary, then consolidated financial statements must be prepared and submitted to the licensor as if the entities were a single company."
"Bridge of Sighs"
Another possibility that some have proposed is for a club to sell a player to a "friendly" club at an inflated price, thus producing a large profit on sale. This is more difficult to police, as transfer prices on occasions appear to defy logic, e.g. a few weeks ago not many supporters would have believed that Andy Carroll would have fetched £35 million, but if this were to become a recurring theme at any club, it would be easily identifiable.
Interestingly, it does look as if UEFA are operating a "carrot and stick" approach to implementing the new regulations, as the small print in the last appendix provides a further safety net or, as Traverso described it, "a little bit of a cushion". Even if a club misses the target, it can escape sanctions if it meets two criteria: the trend of losses is improving; and the over-spend is caused by the wages of players that were contracted before June 2010 (when the fair play rules were approved). However, that flexibility is only available for the reporting period ending in 2012, so effectively only delays the day of judgment by a year.
This begs the question of whether UEFA really would exclude clubs from European competitions. This might work fine on paper, but it might never happen in reality, especially when you consider that some of Europe's least profitable teams are among those that attract the largest television audiences.
"Michel Platini - it's Hammer time"
Would UEFA really bite the hand that feeds? Yes, if you believe UEFA president Michel Platini, who said earlier this month, "It will have to be time for them to face the music if there is a club that doesn't fall in line. It is not something I want, but it is something the disciplinary bodies will look at. It will be a last resort. Football will continue without them." Asked to expand on this, UEFA's general secretary, Gianni Infantino, said, "There may be intermediate measures. We would have to ask why, maybe there would be a warning, but we would bar clubs in breach of the rules from playing in the Champions League or the Europa League. Otherwise, we lose all credibility."
At this stage, we should probably clear up yet another misconception about the Fair Play regulations. Many seem to believe that if a club has no debt, it should be OK, but that is not the most important issue for UEFA, who are less concerned about clubs taking on debt, but more their ability to service that debt, i.e. pay the annual interest charges. Some thought that this was the reason that Abramovich converted his £726 million of loans into equity (at least in the football club, though not in the holding company, Fordstam Limited), but in reality this makes no difference to UEFA.
That said, there's no doubt that Chelsea have gained from their owner injecting funds into the club, not just for the obvious reason that it has provided a lot of money, but also because the loans were interest-free. That's given the Blues a considerable competitive advantage over their main rivals, who have all incurred immense annual interest charges: Manchester United £70 million, Liverpool £40 million and Arsenal £20 million.
"Abramovich - good to be back"
Chelsea's fortunes have been inextricably linked to those of Abramovich since he started bankrolling the club in 2003. Although he was affected by the global recession, his wealth is still estimated at £7.4 billion by the Sunday Times Rich List, so lack of money is unlikely to be an issue for him. The more pertinent question for Chelsea fans is whether he still retains the same enthusiasm for the club, particularly as he has been involved in Russia's successful campaign to host the 2018 World Cup. Last month's venture into the transfer market might well allay supporters' fears, though the suspicion remains that this could instead be a last throw of the dice in order to win the Champions League in the next two seasons. We shall see, though Abramovich has been true to his word so far.
As mentioned earlier, the club was keen to highlight the fact that it "had become cash positive for the first time since its acquisition by Roman Abramovich". Chelsea's chairman, Bruce Buck, re-iterated this point, "That the club was cash generative in the year when we recorded a historic FAPL and FA Cup double is a great encouragement and demonstrates significant progress as regards our financial results."
Well, yes, but the only reason that the club had a (small) positive cash inflow of £3.8 million in 2009/10, compared to a net outflow of £16.9 million in the previous year, was that there was an £18 million cash inflow from transfers. In every other year of the Abramovich era, the club has had significant cash outflows and has needed to be financed by their owner, either though new loans or subscribing for additional shares.
The situation is unlikely to be any different next season after Chelsea's large outlay on new players, so it is fair to say that the club has yet to fully wean itself off its owner's generosity, which is reinforced by the accounts, "The company is reliant on its parent undertaking, Fordstam Limited (effectively Abramovich), for its continued financial support."
It will be very interesting to see what happens next summer. There is now a distinct possibility that Abramovich will finance further rejuvenation of an ageing squad with exciting names like Anderlecht's powerful young striker Romelu Lukaku, Lille's creative midfielder Eden Hazard and Udinese winger Alexis Sanchez being mentioned in dispatches.
"Didier Drogba - on his way?"
Conversely, this may well be compensated by the club moving on a few players, not just those on the fringe of the first team like Paulo Ferreira, John Obi Mikel and Yuri Zhirkov, but also some of the big stars like Florent Malouda and even Didier Drogba. The resale value may be low, given their age, but such actions would have the benefit of slashing the wage bill and reducing amortisation.
If Chelsea do go on a summer spending spree without recouping some of their expenditure, then all bets could be off in terms of Financial Fair Play. However, up until now, it looks to me as if they have been boxing rather more cleverly than many people have assumed. As we have seen, they are indeed well on course to break-even, despite the astonishing expenditure in January, and there is evidently some method in their apparent madness.


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Greatest Online Sports Betting Websites
Sports betting has been one of the fastest growing gambling industry today. The appreciation so as the popularity of sports betting is enduring and was intensified with the introduction of the world wide web, which introduced several new opportunities for gamblers. Well, in the modern highly technological world, numerous sports books or bookmakers are operating online, accepting wagers from bettors around the world. Many seem to be claiming to be the biggest online sports betting sites, but only few have succeeded in drawing the interest of bettors from different areas in the world.
Now if you havent experienced yet how it feels to be betting on sports on the internet and if you are looking for the largest online sports betting firms that may offer you the opportunity to bet on your favorite team safely and easily, then do not worry because Im here to assist you to find them www.bad-bookmakers.com. I have actually stressed below three of the largest online sports betting sites that you might be interested in. Here they are:
Sports.com is certainly considered as one of the largest online sports betting sites since the year 1996. One of the reasons that Sports.com continues to be deemed that way is that they offer bettors the possibility of betting on a great choice of sports alongside some fantastic promotions and great deals. Aside from this, Sports.com offers one of the largest online sports betting services including a wide array of global sports and fantastic betting odds. They utilize the very latest technology and software to ensure that each of their customers obtain the highest levels of security and absolute privacy whenever they bet on sports with them. In addition, this particular one of the largest online sports betting sites offers the finest in customer service. So when you have questions in your mind relating to the site or even the betting services they feature, dont hesitate to ask assistance from their customer help staff for they might be pleased to reply to your online betting queries.
The Greek Sports Book at TheGreek.com is considered as among the largest online sports betting sites by players worldwide simply because they offer the largest number of sports betting options for the sports betting junkies. Also, as one of the largest online sports betting sites available, The Greek Sports Book offers you the fastest withdrawals in the industry. The payouts are usually processed within A day and you are guaranteed to receive your winnings as quickly as possible. And, just like the Sports.com, this largest online sports betting site gives you the high degree of customer service from their more than 200 professional staff.
Finally, LadBrokes.com has arrived to offer you one of the largest online sports betting services available for the bettors. This website is actually a bookmaker, and as such they bring you the very best in sports betting from all over the world check my source. They even cover the top leagues and events, making LadBrokes.com truly one of the largest online sports betting sites which are actively operating on the internet. And, whether you are a sports bettor or simply just like to have a bet on a major sporting event, you can check the latest odds and lines for the best bets available just at LadBrokes.com.


text: If you live with one parent, you know that a lot of other kids do, too. More than 20 million kids in the United States live with one parent. Separation and divorce are the most common reasons for this. In other cases, the mom and dad may never have lived together, or one of them may have died. Living with one parent instead of two can bring out a lot of emotions. These feelings can be pretty strong, and they can be confusing, too. You might feel terribly sad and angry because your parents divorced. You also might feel happy that your parents split up and aren't fighting anymore, but you may also feel upset when your mom introduces you to a man that she is dating. You might love the uncle or grandma who takes care of you, but sometimes you might wish you could have one family with both a mom and a dad. Emotions all by themselves aren't either good or bad. They're just feelings. Because living with one parent can sometimes be stressful, it can help to talk about it. You can talk with your parent, a relative, school counselor, or another trusted adult. Talking with other kids who live with single parents can be a great idea, too. Single Parents and Work Single parents are often working parents because someone needs to earn money to pay for food, clothing, and a place to live. Having a job means your mom or dad is able to provide these things and more for you. People work for other reasons, too. A job can let a person use his or her special talents and skills. A job can be important because it helps people in the community. Or a job can simply be exciting or interesting. But even though you might understand why your mom or dad has to work, sometimes it can be hard to accept. "Not now, I have to work" isn't what you want to hear when you'd like to do something fun. This can be especially true during the summer or school vacations. You're home, they're gone, and the days can seem really long. Many kids simply take care of themselves for all or part of the time that a parent is at work. This can be all right, but only if you're prepared to handle the responsibility. You need to know what to do in case of an emergency, as well as how to use your time wisely. And if you're by yourself, you should know how to handle loneliness, too. Other choices include going to an after-school program or staying with a neighbor or relative. During the summer, many schools and towns offer summer programs and camps. Time Troubles It can be tough when you don't have enough time with your dad or mom. When you live with one parent, that person really has to do the work of two people. Besides a job, your mom or dad is responsible for caring for the kids, the house, the yard, the car, the pets — everything that grown-ups do! And besides all that, your dad or mom would like to be able to spend more time just hanging out with you, too. So what can you do? One of the best ways is to hold a family meeting. Talk about everyone's schedule for work, school, and activities. You can also talk about what jobs around the house need to be done every day, which ones can be done less often, and who could do each job. When you take a look at chores and other time demands, you can try to work some family time into the schedule. Maybe you can eat more meals together. You might want to help your parent cook dinner sometimes. That can be both fun and helpful to your parent. Maybe you also can schedule a weekly game or movie night. Time may be tight, but kids in single-parent families can make a difference by helping out around the house. They also can make another important contribution: reminding their moms or dads to have a little fun! Back to Articles Related Articles Talking to Your Parents Sometimes you really need to talk with mom or dad. But it's not always easy. Here are tips on how to have a good talk. Read More Living With Grandparents Did you know that millions of kids live with their grandparents? Find out more in this article for kids. Read More Living With Stepparents Do you have a stepmom or stepdad? Lots of kids do. Find out more in this article for kids. Read More What Kids Who Are Moving Should Do Moving isn't easy for anyone. Get some advice in this article for kids. Read More What Is a Divorce? Divorce is tough for everyone involved, including kids. Find out more in this article. Read More Getting Along With Parents How can you get along better with your parents and have more fun together? Follow these five steps. Read More Going to a Therapist What's it like to go to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or therapist? Find out in this article for kids. Read More Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor. © 1995-2021 KidsHealth®. All rights reserved. Images provided by The Nemours Foundation, iStock, Getty Images, Veer, Shutterstock, and Clipart.com.


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Holiday parties in New York, Boston and D.C.
Celebrate the holidays with Connecticut College in New York, Boston and D.C. this season. The annual New York holiday party will be on December 5, and join us for a viewing of George Balanchine's "The Nutcracker" on December 15. For those in the Boston area, we'll be hosting "An Evening at the Pops" on December 6 and a holiday party on December 13. Can't get enough? You can also celebrate the season with the College in Washington D.C. on December 12.
CCAC to Meet October 27.
Connecticut College Alumni of Color (CCAC) and the Trustees of Color will host a program on October 27 in the Crozier-Williams Student Center. A presentation by Carolyn Denard, dean of the college and senior diversity officer, will be given followed by a reception. All alumni are welcome.
Check out upcoming alumni events near you
Events include Sundays with Alumni panels at the College and off-campus gatherings in Albany, Greenwich and more.
View the full calendar.
Science Center Dedication to be held October 27
Mark your calendars! On October 27 at 11:30 a.m., the College will hold the official dedication of the Science Center at New London Hall. The ceremony will be in Centennial Plaza, located between New London and Fanning halls. Speakers will include President Higdon and Mary Lake Polan '65 P'02 '10, a chemistry major who went on to become a physician. Building tours and faculty/student presentations will be offered from 2 to 3 p.m.
Call for nominations for Alumni Association Board of Directors
The Alumni Association Board of Directors is seeking alumni who would like to serve on their board. If you are interested in sharing your expertise with the College, please contact Bridget McShane, director of alumni relations, at firstname.lastname@example.com. The mission of the Alumni Association is to promote lifelong relationships among current and future alumni and to lead alumni in furthering the mission of the College.
Paul Althouse's last concert and reception will be held on November 4
After 42 years dedicated to conducting the College Chamber Choir and teaching music history, Professor Paul Althouse will be retiring in December 2012. The music department will celebrate the extraordinary impact he has had on music at the College during the College Chamber Choir, which will feature much of Professor Althouse's favorite music, on November 4 at 4 p.m. in Harkness Chapel. A reception will immediately follow. All former Chamber Choir members and students of Professor Althouse are cordially invited to attend both events.


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Product Question and Answer
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Matt Smith in a recent interview has said the following hint about the final end of Ponds: "There's something coming up in the final days of the Ponds that was in The Eleventh Hour," he said. "There's a shot in that. [Moffat's] been thinking about it that long. He always knew how she was going to… I'm saying too much already."
Some of my suggestions of what this could be are:
- The Shot of the doctor running past the clock (talked about on the commentary).
- The Duck Pond that hasn't got any ducks.
- The re-use of Mrs Angelo's broach in The Eleventh Hour and The Big Bang.
- One of little Amy's artwork which clearly shows her house on fire.
- The Fact that Rory in the Hospital looks behind him, clearly sees something and gets interrupted and quickly forgets.


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Expo East
September 20 - 23 | Philadelphia, PA |
CHFA Now East
September 23 - 24 | Toronto |
October 10 - 12 | Minneapolis, MN |
Disclaimer: The statements and information upon this website have not necessarily been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The products featured are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consumers should always consult their own medical practitioner(s) with any medical or health concerns before starting any new diet, product, or supplement.


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Looking for an easy way to have long-lasting, continuous fragrance in your home? ScentPlug® Diffusers & Refills help you enjoy your favorite fragrance all day. They fill a room with a pleasant bouquet, and work in any location that has an outlet. Create a gentle glow when the lights are out with a ScentPlug® Diffuser with Light or bring inviting fragrance to every corner of even large living rooms with a ScentPlug® Fan. Create a fresh and clean ambiance, or spice up a room with citrus, fruits, or florals – from Tangerine & Vanilla or Clean Cotton® to Lilac Blossoms, it's your choice. The perfect scent with the perfect dispersal, ScentPlug® Diffusers & Refills create room-filling fragrance for up to 30 days without missing a beat, so you always come home to an inviting combination of personal style and dependable, continuous fragrance.
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Prosecutors are charging 12 former Florida A&M University band members with manslaughter in the 2011 hazing death of a drum major.
Ten of the band members had been charged last May with felony hazing for the death of 26-year-old Robert Champion, but prosecutors said Monday they are raising the charges to manslaughter. They also have charged two additional defendants with manslaughter.
Champion died in Orlando in November 2011 after he collapsed following what prosecutors say was a savage beating during a hazing ritual. It happened on a bus parked in a hotel parking lot after Florida A&M played Bethune-Cookman in their annual rivalry football game.
Authorities say Champion had bruises on his chest, arms, shoulder and back and died of internal bleeding. Witnesses told emergency dispatchers that the drum major was vomiting before he was found unresponsive aboard the bus.


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'Rage' In Pakistan, Deep Concern In U.S. After NATO Attack
The foreign minister says there is "rage" in Pakistan about the NATO airstrike over the weekend that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the border with Afghanistan.
Indeed, the already frayed relations between Pakistan and the U.S., as Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep said today, have grown more strained. There's even talk among some senior Pakistani officials, Omar Waraich of Time Magazine told Steve, of a "rupture" in relations between the two nations.
Already, as The Associated Press says, "Pakistan has closed its western border to trucks delivering supplies to coalition troops in Afghanistan, demanded that the U.S. abandon an air base inside Pakistan and said it will review its cooperation with the U.S. and NATO."
And while it will be some time before we see how it all plays out, there's no question that "people are very, very tense about this latest situation," NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman said on Morning Edition.
Exactly what happened and why on Saturday isn't clear. Afghan officials have said the air strikes were called in because Afghan and NATO forces were under fire from areas near or on Pakistani army bases. Pakistan has denied its troops had anything to do with any such fire. But, as The Washington Post reports:
"Afghan and U.S. military officials ... say they believe Taliban fighters — many of whom are based in Pakistan's remote tribal areas — sometimes operate alongside Pakistani troops. The United States has long alleged that insurgents are sheltered and at times aided by Pakistan, which views them as assets for influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies that."
Now, according to The Guardian, "NATO forces in Afghanistan are bracing for possible reprisals from Pakistani-backed insurgents following the coalition air strike along the border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers." And, it adds, there is concern "that the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, could go much further and use its suspected influence over insurgent groups in the tribal areas along the Afghan border to launch reprisal attacks on NATO."


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