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The Final Day (June 4, 2009)
Zelda woke up early. Of course she did. But she didn't want to get up.
She was in the big, big bed with the pink and green hippie quilt and the downie blanket and the good sheets and the fluffy pillows.
She wanted to be awake -- and she wanted to enjoy it! To stretch out, to crawl up close, to melt into me with that soft spaniel fur as much chinchilla as baby spaniel. She put her head on my collar bone, exhaled into my face and looked.
Looked right through those cataracts and took a long gaze at my soul. She knew I was sad. She wanted me to feel better. She wagged her skinny little tail a little, but mostly she kept looking to let me know that I was seen in that way that she sees. In a way I may never seen again...
And then she just curled up to be held. Just rolled over and balled up and let me pet her, rub her, run my hands over what was left of her body, still impossibly supple to the end.
Her legs, all sinew -- though the joints now so clearly exposed. Her little paws more fur even than pad. Her shoulder blades where the pistons anchor, propel her across fields, down roads and once into cars. They respond to the touch, release and relax as you knead them.
Zelda needs this. She relaxes even deeper into my body. And we lay there, lost in our own thoughts: me, my sorrow, her some pasture a little further off than she can see.
So thin, I pull her up on a little higher. Our noses are Eskimo kissing. We breathe together. Sometimes I inhale as she lets her breath go, just to have a little bit more of Zelda inside me. To bring her breath inside me, to heal it and send it out stronger, somehow. To give her some of my life force. Even though I know... I KNOW... and I don't know what else to do.
Zelda has people to see, places to go, things to do.
It's going to be a full day, she tells me. She's also very clear that she's sick of the preppy clothes I've been wearing. "I want my hippie gypsy rock star Mom back," she announces as I'm running my hands over the top of her head and kissing where her cheek would be.
"Seriously. Do better. I KNOW what you look like on your best days. Try something a little... more... uh... Penny Lane."
Zelda. Only Zelda would be casting clothes. My four-pawed stylist who always kind of knows. And she knows just WHICH Mommy she wants.
"And I want to see Wendy... and I want to see... Dorian..."
I need to take a shower, to sort out my clothes.
Zelda goes downstairs to visit with Ali, to talk about the Players and love her friend who bakes her duck hearts and brings her magical treats.
"You ready?" I ask, about to scoop her up. I am wearing a white cotton dress with cap sleeves and a green Indian paisley print screened over it. She smiles. Lets me pick her up, puts a paw on my face. She has a big day ahead and she's excited.
We drive down to see Wendy, my friend from college and an amazing woman who's won a Pulitzer Prize and never talks about it. She is sitting outside the Country Music Association, where she is the VP of Communications -- and she looks as fragile as we all feel.
"Poodle," she says, drawing out the "ooooo." And Zelda smiles at her the way that Zelda smiles. Wendy's eyes fill up as she reaches for the baby.
She cradles her like she did her own daughter, Emily, and makes a cooing sound. Zelda looks up her, clearly loving the attention. Zelda loves Wendy -- even when Wendy stopped credentialing her for the CMA Awards (and Zelda just kept going to rehearsals anyway) -- and this is just what she wanted this morning.
"I have a message for you," Wendy says to me, then realizes this isn't correct.
"I have a message... for... you," she says definitvely to the spaniel, who is now studying the woman intently.
"Uhm, your father... came to me," Wendy said to me, falteringly. "In the car. But I think the message is for her."
Wendy's eyes cut down to Zelda. The poodle melted like butter into Wendy's folded, trusted arms.
"Go ahead," I said. Marveled, really. John Gleason, long gone, still haunting my friend from college.
"He said," my dear friend instructed the Z, "to look for the man in the yellow cardigan. The YELLOW cardigan -- and he'll be with Coors."
The spaniel took it all in. Considered. Almost nodded.
"She's going to hate that," I commented. Zelda hated her brother Scott; Coors wasn't going to fare any better.
"I think he knows that," Wendy acknowledged. "He's a little intimidated."
"He should be," I laughed. I knew my Zelda -- and my original, Baby Coors, who I'd given my father in his divorce, because that sweet, domineering spaniel had gotten my Dad through it, had romped golf course after golf course, waited through countless church services with and for him.
Zelda looked back at me. She was a little tired. She still had places to go.
Settled back into Zelda's backstage lounge, she lay there quietly.
Dorian wasn't calling back. What to do? Where to go?
And then it occurred to me. The one place she hadn't asked for, but the place she'd graced with her beauty and poetry. Carnival Music, the home of Scooter Carusoe and her dear friend Frank Liddell.
An upstairs set of offices that hold songs and writers, where she lay on a couch and watched "Better As A Memory" be born. A place where she inspired and considered and offered the encouragement that only she could: that spirit that shone no matter what.
Travis -- akak Scooter Carusoe -- was gone, and his office was locked. Frank Liddell, a man who with his lovely wife Lee Ann Womack shared many holidays with the wonderspaniel, was also gone. But Brittany was there, to stroke that soft blond hair, Goodloe and Matthew. They'd watched the shaggy blond feathers shake as Zelda tromped around the hard wood floors, making her way to Travis' office or back down to the car after another session.
They all looked at her and smiled, silently sad knowing this was the last time they'd see her.
Zelda wasn't sad, though. She was buoyant about being in a place where so much creativity was present, where dreams took form and people believed in what songs could be.
Zelda adjusted herself in my arms, wanted to get down, to make her way through those halls one last time -- and with wavering back legs seeking the balance, she did.
Tentative at first, but then stronger. Sniffing the air, to remember where she was going.
Zelda would tell them of Lady Goodman, of her only friends being pirates, of "Darkness Turns To Light" and moonlight bullseyes and so many things...
She wanted to know, and burn the place into her being.
And then she was done. I was crying. She couldn't understand why. So many places, so many people, so many moments she'd enjoyed. It was nice to go back once again.
Zelda. Little pretty Zelda. So thrilled about everything. Take me. Take me! Anywhere, Everywhere. Whatever you're doing... and if nothing, then take me nowhere just the same.
I had promised to give her a long drive, listening to music that she wanted. But she was so tired, I took her home. A little more beef burgundy, a little bit of laying down. Just to get ready for the last bye-bye in the big-big car.
The baby deserved no less.
And in the waiting Dorian turned up, along with Diane, who has been dealing with my accounting -- and my family -- for almost longer than there was a Zelda. They brought a begonia, which Zelda loved, because Zelda loves the flowers.
She visited with them, remembered her birthday party with the boney shaped cake, the way Dorian was afraid of her imperiousness once upon a time.
We were quiet. We were sad. We were brinking on exhaustion. Mostly, we were Zelda.
And that was quite a place to be.
We also knew we needed to be gone...
Gone. Through the part of Tennessee that's still green and rolling, cluttered with broad sweeping trees and acres of farms, sun-burned barns. black top cracked and veined with tar to close those gaps. Out where the roads turn and curve, two simple lanes -- one each way -- marked by blue on the maps that show them.
Out to Lieper's Fork, past Radney Foster's former Waddell Hollow Lane... and the house Wynonna sold to Luke Lewis and his bride Lauren who sold to Bill Bennett and his wife Luke Burland... and around and around... like the life of a certain spaniel.
Cheery little Lieper's Fork running past, and Green's Grocery and more farms. Lots of hawsk circling over head; hawks: messengers between this world and heaven.
Driving and driving as the Allman Brothers got LIVE AT THE FILMORE EAST, her Patty Loveless wailed through the recently departed Stephen Bruton's "Too Many Memories" that was tempered by the line, "The way we grow old we must never forget is when we let hope be replaced by regret" and Rosanne Cash moaning through Benmont Tench's aching loss-upon-loss "Why Don't You Quit Leaving Me Alone."
We took roads we had no idea where they would leading us, general direction coming from the compass somewhere inside. Old soul Otis Redding, doing songs other people'd made famous -- and his own "Respect," something Zelda had never had to suffer for.
"I am spaniel," her regal being commanded. "See my beauty and marvel at the grace of what I am."
But Zelda had especially -- almost inexplicably -- wanted Michael Stanley. Non-negotiable. Absolutely. "No Rules When You Dream," an impossibly sad ballad that closed his SOFT ADDIXTIONS, and a song about the way things can be perfect when you dream.
"There's no rules when you're dreaming, you can follow where they go...
You can soar like an eagle or watch as the world spins below
You can be anything that you want to, you can have anyone by your side..."
And so it is. The one place Zelda and I can still fromp and romp and frolic. No matter what, no matter when, no matter where.
She wants to remember this is the realm of the in-between. Where angel spaniels and earthbound dreamers can have some kind of celestial communion. She is so peaceful listening, we play it again and again.
We put the window down -- and let the wind tangle in her hair.
It is as good as any moment could hope to be.
Still the broken white lines surrender to the tires and the miles.
We drive on. Zelda smiles on. Michael Stanley's graphite and old sweater voice keeps swirling through the car, a lullabye for a little girl on her way to a place where she will be restored.
It is probably all anyone could ask for. Zelda is smart enough to know this.
We drive by Kenny Chesney's old house. Look at his pond that he built, the wrap around porch on a plantation house where she spent many hours, while the interviews and photo shoots went down. Looking at him with those big brown eyes, hoping a little turkey would be coming her way.
She remembers the smells. She wags her tail. This was her life... and it was good.
As it turns out, there is time. For that last finger-fed ginormo-bowl of beef cooked in cote du rhone. Some lemon sorbet. A lot of kissing and being loved on.
The management of miles and visits gives us one last pass at Radnor. One last walk. One last stroll through the trees, the leaves, the vines and her fellow travelers.
One girl can't believe Zelda is 17. She's never seen "a dog that old."
The Prada Dada cocks her head a bit. She is walking every step of this walk, more than a mile, past the spillway... almost to the little platform 2/3 of the way out.
There is a doe who stops eating to watch us pass. We're still. She still watches us, looks at Zelda, flicks her tail. Even as we continue on and past, she gazes at the little yellow dog on the long fuschia leash and exhales. "Godspeed," the dear sends out to the Deaner.
And Zelda knows.
Back in the car, it's all I can do to the turn the ignition over.
"Don't be afraid," says the spaniel. "Don't be sad. This is good. I'll be stars soon..."
A tear runs down my face. So cruel to lose such perfect love, and yet...
"I'll find the man in the yellow sweater," she says. "I will..."
Ali hears me repeat it and turns, "No, Zelda, yellow cardigan... cardigan..."
"I'll find him," she seems to reassure. She wants some more Patty Loveless. She wants to drive fast... as fast as Granny White Pike will take us.
I want to go, to hold every last second. Zelda wants to fly and feel gravity and the atmosphere part before us.
Zelda wins. I hit the gas. We fly, as much as Audi A-4s can.
And so that final day is almost over. There is the vet and the dreaming...
...and that is not for here, but for soon... for anyone who's bothered reading, who's remember the ones they love and the way this all falls into a ravine called life.
Know how much the comments, emails, calls and prayers have meant.
Candles in Carolina and St Patrick. Flowers from Woodstock and Franklin.
Kindness in D.C. and Chicago.
These are the ways we realize how lucky we are. For we know -- We know. Empirically.
Imperial. Empirically. Amen


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Oh, no big deal. It's only an itty bitty leopard cub getting a casual scratch and kicking his little leg. It definitely will not make you want to run to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington and steal this endangered clouded leopard baby so that you can cuddle with him for the rest of your life.
[Via Say OMG]

subset: commoncrawl


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South Cotton Fabric has always been a choice of Fashionaholics. A 'handloom' is a loom that is used to weave cloth without the use of any electricity. Hand weaving is done on pit looms or frame looms generally located in weavers' homes. Weaving is primarily the interlacing of two sets of yarn – the warp (length) and the weft (width). The equipment that facilitates this interlacing is the loom.
Buy Handloom Fabric with Kalamkari border (Stitched separately) at Fabriclore and look classy and stylish in this piece and revel in the comfort of the soft cotton fabric.
|100% Cotton
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|Slight difference in color from visible product image is possible.


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Story highlights
- The fire started aboard the USS Miami while the sub was in dry-dock
- It took firefighters 12 hours to extinguish, and caused some $400 million in damage
- Shipyard worker Casey James Fury admitted to two counts of arson
- He could have faced life in prison
A shipyard worker who pleaded guilty to arson in a fire that did at least $400 million in damage to a U.S. nuclear attack submarine has been sentenced to over 17 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $400 million in restitution, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Casey James Fury admitted to two counts of arson in November in connection with the blaze aboard the USS Miami last May 23 and a smaller fire beneath the dry-docked submarine in June, according to court papers. The 25-year-old civilian painter and sandblaster at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine told investigators that he started the fires because he was having extreme anxiety and was trying to get out of work, the documents state.
Fury could have faced life in prison on the charge. But the judge weighed the severe damage caused by the fire and the risk to life that it brought against the fact Fury had never been in criminal trouble before and suffered from anxiety and depression, according to CNN affiliate WGME.
Fury was accused of setting fire to a plastic bag full of cotton rags in a cabin in the forward end of the Miami, starting a conflagration that took the ship's crew and firefighters from the shipyard and nearby towns 12 hours to put out. Five firefighters and two sailors were injured during the effort.
The fire damaged crew quarters and command-and-control spaces aboard the submarine, the Navy said at the time. The damage was forward of the nuclear reactor that powers the vessel, which had been shut down and was closed off after the fire began, the service reported.
"Today's sentencing hearing of Mr. Fury closes one chapter on last year's historical and tragic experience that impacted our submarine force, disrupted the lives of countless officers, sailors who serve our Navy as well as the maintenance and operational schedule of the entire submarine force," said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Richard Breckenridge at a press conference Friday.
The 362-foot Miami was commissioned in 1990 and had been undergoing an extensive overhaul at the Portsmouth shipyard. The Navy says it plans to repair the submarine and return it to service.


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Steven S. Brooks
First Energy's announcement on Wednesday that it was coming as the title sponsor for the All-American Soap Box Derby is fantastic news for our entire community. With such a prominent title sponsor, the Derby has the ability to attract other sponsors and give it a real shot to returning to the national spotlight.
In its heyday, the All-American had participants from around the world and had extensive national media coverage. It was a weeklong community celebration with parades and festivals leading up to the actual championship races. Racers, their families and supporters went back to their home towns dazzled by the welcoming nature and vibrancy of our community.
Derby President and CEO Joe Mazur has been working diligently with the board over the past year to re-invent the All-American and make it relevant to modern day life. With its new focus on an educational tie-in, the Derby has already seen a significant growth in participation and support in new communities. Although there is still much to do, this is a great start and First Energy is to be thanked and congratulated for stepping up in such a big way.


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El Macero Real Estate
This upscale neighborhood lies on the eastern edge of Davis, south of Interstate 80. It is anchored by the El Macero Country Club - its 168 acres of greenery winding through the community.
The homes are palatial and elegant, representing an array of aesthetic architectural styles and sitting back on large lots, nestled amidst lush landscaping. The streets are wide and family friendly with sidewalks, offering ample room for walks and family bike rides. The country club is a 72-par championship course and offers swimming (with lessons), tennis, and fitness programs. Non-golfers can head over to the nearly six-acre Pioneer Park, boasting a soccer field, tennis courts, playground, basketball court, backstop, picnic area and off-leash dog area.
Pioneer Elementary sits within El Macero, a convenience for the many families there. The El Macero Shopping Center is very close by and is home to a Nugget Market and Mocha Joe's coffee shop. Though outside the city limits, its proximity to Interstate 80 makes it easy to access other Davis neighborhoods, as well as the nearby Ikeda's Market, Yolo Fruit Stand, and Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.
Davis is just 15 miles from Sacramento and is known to be one of the nation's best cities for bicycling – boasting (at one time) more bikes than cars. It's been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists and is home to the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.
Known as a college town above all else, Davis is an ideal community for families, professionals, and retirees. Popular features include the UC Davis Arboretum and the Mondavi Center, which hosts many word-class performers. The year-round farmers market is also wildly popular. Held Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, the market was named among America's Favorite Farmers Markets by the American Farmland Trust. It also ranked among USA Today's 10 Best Places to Visit a Farmers Market. A seasonal market is held at Sutter Davis Hospital.
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Former Piston turned Bull Ben Wallace attempts to shoot over DetroitÕs Jason Maxiell during the Bulls' 83-81 win over the Pistons Thursday.
-The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) - Kirk Hinrich hit two of three free throws with 2.8 seconds left, and the Chicago Bulls pulled out an 83-81 victory over the Detroit Pistons after blowing a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter on Thursday night.
After Tayshaun Prince tied it with a put-back with 9.8 seconds left, Hinrich caught a pass at the top of the key and got fouled by Carlos Delfino on a 3-point attempt.
Hinrich missed the first free throw but hit the next two.
After a timeout, Prince caught the inbounds pass and launched a short pull-up jumper over Luol Deng as time expired.
It was the fourth straight win for the Bulls and their 11th in 14 games. Chicago trails Eastern Conference leader Detroit by three games and second-place Cleveland by a half game, with the Cavaliers visiting the United Center on Saturday.
Ben Gordon led the Bulls with 25 points, and Ben Wallace grabbed 19 rebounds against his former team.
Prince scored 26 points for Detroit.
With a 77-65 lead and about fi ve minutes remaining, the Bulls appeared to be in control. But the Pistons were within 81-79 with 48 seconds left after Chauncey Billups drove by Hinrich.
Rasheed Wallace then stole the ball from rookie Tyrus Thomas with 35 seconds left, and Prince put back Delfi no's missed jumper to tie it at 81.
Thomas had arguably his best game, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Hinrich scored 15. Luol Deng finished with 16 points after scoring a career-high 38 in Monday's win over Portland.
The Pistons were without stars Richard Hamilton and Chris Webber, who were back home with the flu. Hamilton didn't make the trip. Webber returned earlier in the day.
Rasheed Wallace scored 19 points, but picked up his 19th technical after Ronald Murray was called for a foul with 6:45 left in the third quarter. The next one will result in another mandatory one-game suspension for Wallace, who served one Sunday when Detroit visited Milwaukee.
With the top two teams in the conference in town this week, the Bulls had a chance to see where they stack up and - more importantly - boost their playoff seeding. Although the odds of catching the Pistons remain slim, the Cavaliers certainly are within reach.
The Bulls appeared to be in good shape early in the fourth.
They started it with a 10-2 run, turning a 61-60 deficit into a 70-63 lead, and Gordon and Ben Wallace played big roles.
After Hinrich scored to put the Bulls ahead and Thomas muscled in a basket over Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace got a lucky bounce. He drove the lane and, with Rasheed Wallace guarding him, threw up a shot that bounced off the top of the backboard, went straight up and fell through the net. The crowd erupted. Gordon hit back-to-back jumpers that made it 70-63 with 7:15 remaining.


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A new picture of London has appeared: it's a
compiled from 48,640 individual images shot over a period of 3 days and processed over a period of 3 months. If printed at normal resolution, the photo would be 98 metres long and 23 metres high — almost as big as Buckingham Palace. It beats Street View, that's for sure.
SURGERY GAMES: During keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery doctors insert tiny video cameras and instruments into your body so they can operate without having to make a large incision. That requires quite some deftness, and the ability to work while watching a screen. Surgeons have to be able to translate a 2D image on a screen into 3D movements. One study in Italy had surgeons play Wii games for 5 hours per week. In later tests on a laparoscopy simulator the surgeons who played the games outperformed a control group who didn't. The researchers say these results suggest that motion-sensing gaming consoles could supplement surgical training at a very low cost. Next time you're in for an op check whether the surgeon is a video gamer.
A LEG UP: In Japan elderly or disabled people may be better able to move around thanks to the Hybrid Assistive Limb now certified for use there. The power-assisted pair of legs is a nursing-care robot that detects muscle impulses to anticipate and support the wearer's body movements. The exoskeleton is made from metal and plastic and is already being used in some 150 hospitals and other facilities. Those are two good legs to stand on.
COOLING FIELDS: Heat is a major limiting factor with computer chips, but researchers at the Carnegie Institution found a new efficient way to pump heat using crystals even on the nanoscale. They started with ferroelectric crystals that are electrically polarised in the absence of an electric field. When they applied an electric field they caused a giant temperature change in the material, pumping heat away. Mind you, in a computer that heats still needs to go to somewhere — laps may stay warm for a long time yet.
GOGGLE SPOT: The Brilliantservice headset from Japan gives you augmented reality through a set of goggles. The goggles cover both eyes with 720p see-through displays and use the Viking OS to provide face recognition, painting and the ability to open apps. A camera over the nose makes it possible to recognise gestures. The prototype is still only in its early stages and is not intended to come to market. Instead the company's looking for headset manufacturers who want to use their OS. Next up: augmented reality OS wars?
Miraz Jordan, knowit.co.nz


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Scan Computer For -PCH LSI RAID Driver Updates
Scan For -PCH LSI RAID Drivers Related Errors
Manufacturer: LSI Logic
Devices this driver supports:
Intel Embedded Server RAID Technology II
LSI Embedded MegaRAID
LSI MegaRAID SAS 1064E
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Operating Systems: Win XP, Win Vista
Note: The download link may go directly to the file, or may link to a page where the file can be found. This is unavoidable, as some manufacturers do not allow direct links to their files.
Driver File Information
Downloaded: 499 times
File Size: 2.63 MiB
File Name: LSI Embedded MegaRAID


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Use a Linux LiveCD to Avoid Windows Malware For Netbankinglast updated in Categories Apache, Debian Linux, Howto, Linux, Linux desktop, RedHat/Fedora Linux, Security, Sys admin, Tips, Ubuntu Linux, UNIX, Windows, windows vista
Internet has revolutionized the way online users can shop and avail banking services like internet Banking from anywhere, anytime without visiting bank. But, how safe is your money with online net-banking which allows to carry out money transfer? Companies and in some case individuals lost anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000 dollars because of a single malware infection. The cyber crooks are targeting innocent MS-Windows user. If you are concerned about how best to protect yourself from this type of fraud, use Linux LiveCD for online banking and avoid Microsoft Windows at all cost.


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Shockingly doctrinaire
Klein's analysis is hopelessly flawed at virtually every level. Friedman's own words reveal him to be an advocate of peace, democracy, and individual rights. He argued that gradual economic reforms were often preferable to swift ones and that the public should be fully informed about them, the better to prepare themselves in advance. Further, Friedman condemned the Pinochet regime and opposed the war in Iraq.Norberg meticulously deconstructs Klein's arguments and provides sources for all his claims. Additionally he wisely goes out of his way not to impugn Klein's character or intentions, even when it strains credulity to think that the blatant inaccuracies of the book could have been unintentional. Here is a video interview in which he summarises his defence of Milton Friedman:
Klein's historical examples also fall apart under scrutiny. For example, Klein alleges that the Tiananmen Square crackdown was intended to crush opposition to pro-market reforms, when in fact it caused liberalization to stall for years. She also argues that Thatcher used the Falklands War as cover for her unpopular economic policies, when actually those economic policies and their results enjoyed strong public support.
However, in his review Norberg not only shows that Klein is misrepresenting Milton Friedman's positions, but develops a convincing case that the mechanism which she falsely accuses Friedman of supporting, doesn't actually work in the real world:
Even though Klein is wrong about Friedman, she could be right about her broader thesis that it is easier to liberalize in times of crisis, and that there is a close connection between economic liberalization and violence and dictatorships. She gives examples of dictatorships that have liberalized the economy, like Chile and China, but she also makes a metaphorical case about the relationship between "shock therapy" in economics and electrical shocks as a means of torture. The connection is that they are both used to erase the past and create something new—torture is "a metaphor of the shock doctrine's underlying logic."This thread is developed further in the review, to devastating effect. It really does make one wonder how this book has been accorded so much respect and praise. Or as Norberg concludes "It is probably not a coincidence that there are blurbs from four fiction writers on the back of the book."
Hidden in Klein's word games is a real argument—the fact that several dictatorships have liberalized their economies in recent years and that some of these have also tortured their opponents. But how strong is this connection? If we look at the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World statistics (EFW), we find only four economies about which we have data that haven't liberalized at all since 1980. All the others have. Obviously this also means that we will see economic liberalization even in brutal dictatorships, just as in peaceful democracies.
Klein relies on her personal interpretation of anecdotes and examples and never tries to supply broad, statistical evidence for her case. It's an understandable omission, because the data don't support her argument. There is a very strong correlation between economic freedom on the one hand and political rights and civil liberties on the other. The quarter of countries with the most economic freedom score 1.8 on average in Freedom House's measure of political rights (1 = most free, 7 = least); the second freest quarter gets 2.0; the third; 3.4, and the least economically free quarter of countries gets 4.4. On average, the economically freest quarter is more democratic than Taiwan, and the least economically free quarter is less democratic than Nigeria.


text: NEWS Green Day and the Creative Process: Story of Two Films, 'Broadway Idiot' and '¡Cuatro!' 3/17/2013 by Phil Gallo FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME The two films featuring Green Day that premiered at SXSW are rooted in the same concept: Chronicle the creative process."¡Cuatro!," a 70-minute film that the band and their manager Pat Magnarella had a hand in producing, is electrifying in the way it is shot and edited, illuminating in the details of how Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool approached the 60-odd songs they had in contention for albums that would become "¡Uno!," "¡Dos!" and "¡Tré!"It is a very good "making of" documentary, a fine companion to the three albums. Director Tim Wheeler focuses on the viscerally intense songs from the three records and, more than anything, showcases Armstrong, Dirnt and Cool as exceptionally imaginative musicians willing to experiment openly with their music. "¡Cuatro!," in a curious way, makes the idea of releasing three albums within five months of each other more logical than ballsy.Green Day's SXSW Debut a 'Punk Rock Extravaganza'"Broadway Idiot" began in Berkeley, Calif., as a document of the creation of a musical, yet it takes the viewer on an entirely different ride than "¡Cuatro!" or any other "making of" film about a Broadway show. It, too, involves the creative process, though here Green Day - and especially Armstrong - play the role of outsiders. As much as "American Idiot" is theirs -- and the superb concert footage of the band is a great reminder of how powerful that record is and how well it connected with audiences -- "Broadway Idiot" shows how a theater team adapts it to become an entirely different vehicle.Watching the band members succumb emotionally to a new arrangement of a song exposes their vulnerability, a quality nowhere to be seen in "¡Cuatro!" Seeing Green Day open up in a way that would have been out of character around the time of "Dookie," warms the heart for the rest of the film's journey.As "Broadway Idiot" progresses, the "Armstrong as fish out of water" dissipates as he becomes more and more actively involved in the musical, taking a fatherly role with a cast that ultimately he will join. Catharsis is in abundance, none more so than in Armstrong realizing he had found a camaraderie in the theater that he only had a taste of early in Green Day's career.Director Doug Hamilton brings together Armstrong and musical's director and music supervisor, Michael Mayer and Tom Kitt respectively, for an intimate discussion that explores Armstrong's connection to musical theater and how, subliminally, it may have affected the way he writes. Kitt hears a bit of "Chorus Line" in an Armstrong tune, a comparison that humbles Armstrong.That particular segment was shot right before Armstrong went into rehab and derailed Green Day's promotional activities and tour. Neither film gives any indication that Armstrong was in any way out-of sorts. He appears clear-headed and ambitious, a hard worker looking for anything that can challenge him, whether it's the club gigs prior to the release of "¡Uno!" or the risk of attempting to play the role of St. Jimmy on Broadway.Green Day stopped by the world premiere of the two films to introduce the double bill. "Welcome to our nightmare," Dirnt told the full house at the Paramount Theater, half of which was ardent Green Day fans.It's not clear what part of being filmed was nightmarish for the band -- camera shy is not a quality any of them seem to possess. They wind up with two exceptional films, one that will impress and educate their fans, "¡Cuatro!," and the other, "Broadway Idiot," deserving of mainstream distribution that touches on more universal themes such as risk, creativity and bonding. FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME


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