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Getting enough rest is a standout amongst the most vital parts of a solid way of life, ideal alongside getting the privilege healthy sustenances! Decent rest and resting your body assists with such a significant number of various parts of your body that you may not in any case know, so look at these:
Digestion: If you're not resting enough you may really put on weight! When we rest, our bodies experience different procedures that procedure and store the starches we've eaten and furthermore discharge hormones that influence our craving.
Inclination: This one might be self-evident, we've all seen ourselves or others get a little irritable when we're/they're worn out.
Sickness: Your insusceptible framework might be truly influenced when you don't permit your body the right measure of rest. It's additionally been proposed that keeping your body rested may enable you to battle malignancy – one of my specialists is a colossal supporter of this thought. That is correct, we require melatonin and we just get this when we rest… oblivious!
Heart Healthy: Increased pressure, hypertension and sporadic pulse are altogether associated with genuine lack of sleep.
Wellbeing: If you're worn out amid the day, particularly to a great degree tired, you're putting yourself in danger for nodding off while finishing different undertakings — including things like driving.
Learning: While you're resting, your cerebrum forms the new data you learned. Without rest, you're at more serious hazard for memory misfortune!
Along these lines, here are a couple of tips for ensuring you get enough stay asleep from sundown to sunset:
– Limit your caffeine (ideally, dispose of everything together)! In case regardless you're taking caffeine some of the time, ensure you don't have any 3 – 5 hours before sleep time!
– Avoid daytime snoozes. In the event that you require a snooze, endeavor to make it short of what one hour and keep it before 3 P.M. In the event that you want to rest, consider perusing a book or flying in your most loved motion picture to keep you alert. Invigorate your brain!
– Try to keep a calendar of when you go to bed every night, and when you wake up.
– Minimize all the light and sound so you can comfort your brain at sleep time – get a charming little eye cover!
– Consider taking the supplement melatonin – check with your wellbeing expert to perceive how this may bolster you in your wellbeing venture.
– If you are eager at night, basically appreciate a light bite before bed — never a dinner!
– Don't put yourself through strenuous exercise preceding rest – endeavor to be finished with your activity routine around 4 hours before sleep time.
Continuously take a stab at 7 to 8 hours for every night, albeit in some cases individuals may require as meager as 5 or as much as 10. Tune in to your body and take after its requests – now and then you should change your timetable around a bit to oblige what it requires!


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Our October Traylor Driven Photo Contest winner is an image of the Precast Yard at the HART Airport Guideway and Stations project, taken by Ali Khater, where he captured foremen Brandon Cabana and Keola Pasco working together to repair the expansion joint segment rebar jig.
Below, the carpenter crew stands in the middle of the expansion joint rebar jig, where all the rebar reinforcements, transverse post tensioning tendons, and longitudinal anchorages will be tied together before being lifted into casting beds. There are two expansion joint segments per span. Typically, the first and last precast segments of each span are where the span rests on a pier. There are 213 spans on this project.
Bottom left: Keola Pasco; center, Brandon Cabana; top right, Charles Rice.
What Drives the HART team?
TBI: Tell us about your role on the HART project. What do you enjoy most?
Keola Pasco (KP), Precast Carpenter Foreman responsible for typical section precast segment casting beds: My role as a precast Foreman is to make sure that we all go home safely to our ohana every single day. The thing I enjoy the most is coming to work knowing that we have an ohana-type atmosphere where everyone gets along, where we can laugh, and get to know each other, because if you think about it, we see our co-workers for eight hours a day and that's longer than we see our ohana at home. But still we get our job done safely and in a timely manner. I believe that's what made us so successful on past precast jobs.
Brandon Cabana (BC), Precast Carpenter Foreman responsible for expansion joint precast segment casting beds: I like this position because the expansion joint segments are the most challenging precast segment types to build.
Charles Rice (CR), Carpenter: My role is to help get the precast yard up and running. I enjoy working with my friends and family, laughing all day.
TBI: Is photography a hobby of yours? What else do you enjoy doing when you're not working?
Ali Khater: I think photography has become an indirectly acquired hobby. We carry a camera with us at all times on our phones and taking good pictures has never been easier—just find the right angle and add filter.
TBI: You're all clearly motivated individuals. What drives you?
KP: My drive comes from my daughter Riley-sam, my son Titan, and my beautiful wife of seven years, Chontelle. I always push myself and others around me every day to be better than we were the day before. I always strive to be the best at what I do. In the construction business, all you have to go on is your reputation of what kind of worker that you are. If you are not good, you will always find yourself on the out-of-work list. If you are hardworking, have a good attitude, and take pride in what you do, you will find yourself with a job.
BC: What motivates me are the challenges that come up and overcoming them. And I get to work with guys (all hammers) I used to work with on the previous HART project.
BC: What drives me is knowing I have to stay sharp so I can keep working and provide for my family.
At Traylor Bros., we respect all people on a personal and professional level. We express this respect by providing a safe work environment, encouraging work/life balance, offering competitive compensation, and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit of every team member.
We have pride in our company and the work we do. We pursue the most exciting work, tackle every challenge as a team, and celebrate both company and individual success.
Traylor is Driven by Respect and Pride.

subset: commoncrawl


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A money transfer credit card allows you to transfer cash from your credit card directly into your current account.
At the time of writing, there are money transfer cards offering up to 36-40 months interest free, although there is a one-off fee of up to 4% of the amount you move to your current account.
Money transfer cards are different from balance transfer cards, which only allow you to transfer funds to other credit cards – rather than to your current account.
Once you've made your money transfer, the cash will be in your current account so you can spend it as normal. Think of it like taking out a loan – you borrow money on the credit card straight to your current account to spend as you wish, and it has to be repaid in monthly instalments (of at least the minimum repayment). You should aim to clear the balance before any promotional periods end though, as you will have to pay interest on the remaining balance if you don't.
What could I use the cash for?
If you've got an expensive overdraft, you might decide to use a money transfer card to pay it off as to stop interest and charges accruing. However, it's important you don't fall back into your overdraft after you've cleared it as you could struggle to repay this and your credit card balance.
Similarly, if you have any costly payday loans, you could use the money transfer to clear those – again making sure you aren't tempted with another payday loan before you've cleared your credit card balance. You could even use a low interest or interest-free money transfer card to clear other types of loan if they carry a higher interest rate. It's worth checking if there is an early repayment charge on your loan and deciding if the interest you will save outweighs it. It's also worth bearing in mind that if you don't clear the credit card balance by the end of the promotional period, the interest rate it reverts to might be higher than the rate you are paying on the loan at the moment (although by then your balance should be much lower).
You can also use a money transfer to make purchases where cards may not be accepted – for example some builders and other tradesmen don't accept cards but will take cheques or Faster Payment transfers.
Regardless of what you use the money for, it's important that you make at least the minimum credit card payment each month. If you miss a payment (or pay less) then the card provider may remove the promotional discount and you will have to pay interest on the balance. Ideally you should aim to clear the balance by the end of the promotional period.
Do I need it?
Although there are some great deals on money transfer cards at the moment, it is important to remember it isn't free money – at the very least you will have to pay the fee and then repay all that you borrow within the promotional period. As with any borrowing, you should think carefully before you go ahead, and ask yourself if it is really necessary. If the answer is yes, then budgeting is key. Try to draw up a plan and stick to it, as not doing so could mean you have difficulty repaying. Remember that you'll have to pay it back at some point, so planning ahead and looking at your income and outgoings to see whether you'd be able to repay is a smart move.
It's also worth bearing in mind that you should have a set amount of time – usually up to 60 days – to make your transfer and pay the initial fee. Not doing so in the time frame offered by your card provider could invalidate your interest-free period and mean you pay a larger fee.
Don't forget to make at least the minimum repayment each month, too. If you don't, you may lose any interest-free period, incur a charge and damage your credit history.
Should pay with a credit card or with a money transfer to my current account?
Ultimately, this depends on what you're going to use the money for. For example, if you're looking to use the money to clear a loan or overdraft, then a credit card isn't suitable. This is because you cannot transfer the funds to your current account.
Know if you're accepted before you apply with Ocean's Credit Card QuickCheck
- Get credit - up to £1,500
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Intelligent Lending Ltd (Credit Broker). Capital One is the exclusive lender
Disclaimer: We make every effort to ensure that content is correct at the time of publication. Please note that information published on this website does not constitute financial advice, and we aren't responsible for the content of any external sites.


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July 24, 2014
BoomWriter announced the launch of its new interactive vocabulary tool called WordWriter yesterday! WordWriter makes vocabulary fun, easy, and engaging and gives it a 21st century technology-twist! It's sure to be a great tool for teachers and students alike.
Utilizing BoomWriter's interactive and collaborative platform, WordWriter will develop greater interest and engagement levels around vocabulary instruction. WordWriter will increase students' overall vocabulary comprehension through application of the teacher-selected vocab into their own written work. Teachers will simply add the specific words they wish the students to incorporate, a word limit, and some guidelines—the WordWriter platform is flexible enough that students can write creative stories around the chosen words or just simple sentences to demonstrate their vocabulary knowledge.
Best of all, WordWriter tracks student's use of selected words and then checks off the vocabulary word once it's been typed. Once all students' pieces are submitted and approved by the teacher, they can participate in the anonymous peer review portion of the process and vote for the piece they feel best utilizes the vocabulary. WordWriter will also feature vocabulary word crowdsourcing, so teachers can see the most popular words for a particular grade added by other teachers from around the world!
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A new 'Use your mart' campaign has been launched urging farmers to 'take back control' and demand transparency in pricing by selling through livestock marts.
The call comes as major buyers, often those supplying UK supermarket chains, increasingly demand direct contracts with primary producers.
In the case of cattle, buyers often make further stipulations on maximum movements over the entire production cycle, according to the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS).
The institute, which has launched the campaign, alleges that these stipulations often amount to nothing more than a deliberate attempt to avoid price scrutiny in the ring.
The campaign comes after a series of complaints from farmers who have found themselves short-changed by direct contracts, particularly at times when short-term market fluctuations have been avoided by the major buyers.
Whilst there has been a gradual rise in direct contracts over the past decade, the movement has become even more acute over the last twelve months, with the growing and noticeable absence of buyers representing supermarket suppliers from prime sheep auction rings across the country.
'Use your mart'
IAAS is now launching its "Use your mart" campaign, urging farmers to 'take back control' and demand transparency in pricing by selling through the ring.
Scott Donaldson, IAAS President said: "Supermarkets are demanding more and more direct contracts at the very time when farmers need to ensure that they are genuinely receiving a fair price for their produce.
"This is a practise which puts the efficiency of the rural economy at risk and might even be deemed by the authorities to be anti-competitive.
"Access to a fair pricing regime, as delivered by the network of livestock markets that we represent, is the very cornerstone of fair farming practice. We want to work with supermarkets as important and valued stakeholders, but now is the time for this evasion on price to end."
Mr Donaldson added: "You would almost think that the UK's major retailers were seeking to deliberately avoid fair and transparent pricing in our food chain.
"The insidious growth in the use of closed-door deals puts at risk the transparency and honesty that can only be guaranteed in the livestock auction ring."
Traditional and efficient
Livestock markets have been the backbone of British livestock production for over 100 years and are the traditional and most efficient means of moving livestock through the different stages of production.
They ensure that at each stage the buyer and seller receive the best price possible in the most transparent of environments, a public auction.
Instead, supermarket buyers are placing increasing demands on their specifications, limiting or excluding cattle that have been deemed to have had too many movements.
This move is despite livestock markets across the country, who have invested in premises and practices to incorporate new technology to provide traceability and confidence.


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text: Ever wonder where most new car dealerships make most of their money? Not selling cars, but repairing them. Yep, the service department is the key place where the money is made by upselling repair and maintenance work; but sometimes, that work isn't needed or required for your vehicle. How do you know which repairs are legitimate and which ones are a fool's errand?


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Ron Howard's epic In The Heart Of The Sea is released in UK cinemas on Boxing Day, starring Chris Hemsworth (Avengers) the story that inspired Moby Dick is a thrilling tale of man vs nature.
We'll be bringing you a review next week, but in the meantime you can get a flavour of the movie with this insightful Q & A with Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker (George Polllard), Tom Holland (Thomas Nickerson), Ron Howard, writer Charles Leavitt and author Nathaniel Philbrick.
QUESTION: Ron, what drew you to want to make In the Heart of the Sea?
RON HOWARD: It was a combination of things. I've long had an interest in doing a movie set in the ocean. There were sequences from Splash and Cocoon on and underwater, and I was comfortable enough. I don't love the ocean. It's not a place I go for recreation, but I think there's something about the power and the mystery of it that has always drawn me to the dramatic potential of it. Many years ago, I tried to get a movie made about a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, which had been confiscated at one point. I wanted to tell that story but could never get the resources together to tell that one. Later, I came very close to making The Sea-Wolf, a Jack London drama set on the ocean. Powerful. Didn't quite come together.
When this one came to me, it embodied, I thought, the cinematic potential that those movies offered as a drama. It also offered this chance to sort of demystify Moby-Dick, because I had no idea the mythology was inspired by real events, and the screenplay was really strong. When I found out it was a true story and went back and sort of reconciled the two, I was impressed by the adaptation. And – last but probably most important – was that Chris Hemsworth brought it to me. We had had such a good experience on Rush, and I just had so much respect for Chris, and thought he was really born to play Owen Chase. I knew I liked working with him; I knew what he could do with it; and I knew it was going to be a tremendous challenge. But with Chris in that all-important leadership role, not only would we be in good shape in front of the camera, but also I knew behind the camera that the challenges could be met.
QUESTION: Since so many people know the story of Moby-Dick, and not many people know the story about the Essex, what was the biggest preconception from Herman Melville's novel that you wanted to dispel with In the Heart of the Sea?
CHARLES LEAVITT: The biggest preconception about Moby-Dick … Well, first of all, the true story of the Essex was all in Nathaniel's incredible book. The whale basically smashes and sinks the boat on page 100, and then the rest of the story about the Essex is really this incredible survival story. So, what I had to do was figure out: if this was the story that inspired Moby-Dick, how do you keep the whale in the movie, in a way. By integrating this fictional account of Melville coming and interviewing the cabin boy, Nickerson, many years later, I imagined that the real story is part of it, and then Melville's imagination takes over, writing Moby-Dick. So that was the puzzle that I had to try and solve with the book, originally.
RON HOWARD: In reading about it, and then going back and reading Moby-Dick, and then meeting with marine mammal specialists, I was kind of blown away by how the extreme behaviors that Melville wrote about in Moby-Dick – in terms of the whale and the attack – were not only in the accounts written by the crew of the Essex but in other accounts of sperm whales turning on their hunters. So I didn't have to invent very much in terms of the behavior. The intensity was there.
QUESTION: Chris, can you talk about your physical transformation for the harrowing later scenes in the film.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: From the very beginning, we all had somewhat of a goal of where we wanted to get to, which was to look as skinny and beat to hell as we possibly could make ourselves look. So we started on one diet of a few thousand calories, and then each week or two we'd reduce that intake, until the last couple of weeks, when it was down to 500 or 600 calories, or something, which is a pretty ugly sort of an experience, you know? And it led to some interesting mood swings and inconsistent patterns of emotion – many of which my wife can vouch for – which were negative. But, what was kind of great about it was that we were all doing it together, so I reckon it helped form this great bond and camaraderie between us, one that we might not have got, or found in such depth in, if we hadn't had that experience together.
QUESTION: What was your toughest day filming on the ocean?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: The toughest day. Actually, the stuff on the ocean I kind of loved. It was difficult on the whale boats, because logistically getting on and off them was so tricky. And that was when we were at our hungriest. You were just sitting in the hot, beating sun; you're either soaking wet or dry; you've got the beards glued on and falling off, and it was kind of uncomfortable. But I've got to say, being out in the ocean, and at that period of the shoot, I did kind of love it as well, as challenging as it was.
The hardest stuff, I thought, was in the tank in London. We thought the stuff on the ocean was going to be trickier, but I think the stuff in the studio ended up being more challenging, because you're dealing with all the machines and so on. It basically felt like a theme park from hell – being shot with water cannons and flipped out of boats; Ron was on the loudspeaker and we couldn't even hear. Whereas, with the ocean, we just had to adapt to whatever the environment was, and sort of get on with it, which was nice.
RON HOWARD: I feel like out on the ocean was actually working for the actors. And at the end of the day, I would apologize to everybody to say, I know this is tough. They would just say, 'Well, first of all, it's just a fraction of what the real guys that we were playing went through, and we get that, and secondly, it's good for the performances. This is what we're trying to play.' But I did see the life kind of draining out of these guys. I remember saying to Ben, 'We're going to have to shoot a thing over here,' and I looked over and Ben, who's an unbelievably hard worker, was just staring down, just lost, you know?
And even by the end, when we were doing the stuff on the desert island, the little pathetic snacks that everybody would relish so much when they came out were just kind of a cucumber with some olive oil and an almond on it. But it was interesting, because everybody would just take it, go over and hunch down, eat it quietly, and kind of savor it. I felt both terrible and fabulous about it [laughs].
QUESTION: Ben and Tom, how was the diet for you? Were there any cheaters?
TOM HOLLAND: Oh yeah, of course [laughs].
BENJAMIN WALKER: It did get kind of competitive by the end. We tried to make it as fun as possible by keeping an eye on who was cheating and who wasn't. In much the same way as Ron was saying, it did kind of make our jobs easier. We were miserable, cranky, emotional, and then, eventually, really kind of jaundiced, translucent and faint. And if you could remember your lines, it was usually pretty good.
TOM HOLLAND: The diet wasn't really that bad for me because obviously these guys have got to eat way more than I do. We were on the same diet throughout the whole thing, so I didn't really have it that bad. I was kind of lucky [laughs].
RON HOWARD: Exactly, for a while we were saying, 'Don't lose any more.'
TOM HOLLAND: But, no, even though it was difficult, we were doing it for all the right reasons because these guys we were playing really went through this. So whenever something was difficult on set, it felt right. I guess the diet kind of makes the movie really what it is at some point.
QUESTION: Were you really eating those hardtack ship biscuits?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Can I say something about that? The hardtack was amazing; it tastes like gingerbread or something.
TOM HOLLAND: Yeah, it was so good.
BENJAMIN WALKER: It was heavenly, buddy.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: They were props, so you're not meant to eat the props or the set food. And it comes out, and they've got this little box of it, and in the scene we have to break off a piece, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, this is delicious.' So, in between the scenes, I was thinking, 'This is awesome.' Then the props guys would say, 'We don't have much, stop eating it.' We'd say, 'It's fine,' and then just keep sneaking more and more of it [laughs]. And then later, once I'd eaten, I'd had a taste of it and thought, 'This tastes horrible.' So in that state of being starving, it was delicious, but it probably wasn't to anyone else.
TOM HOLLAND: I was lucky during that scene because I was the first person to take a piece, so I would just take the biggest piece from the pot.
RON HOWARD: And there were a lot of takes [laughs]. 'Could we do another one, Ron? I think I can do a little better.'
TOM HOLLAND: 'Just one more take.'
QUESTION: Ron, you talked earlier about leadership. Can each of you talk about how your own leadership abilities informed your directing, and how Chris's informed his performance?
RON HOWARD: Well, that aspect of my job varies from movie to movie and cast to cast because my job is to channel everybody's efforts and fulfill possibilities of the story. And in doing so, I've learned over the years to identify fairly early what various actors need. It's not always cohesive and consistent, but I try to create an environment where the talented people in front of and behind the camera can inform it, and I shape it. So it's a little bit more like being an editor-in-chief of the talents that they have to offer here.
Early on, I had to let people know that this was important. In the early auditions, when the exercise regiments and the dieting began, I had to be aware and let people know that living up to this was a job requirement. But, very shortly, particularly these Chris and Ben, and also Cillian Murphy, were so committed and dedicated to it that I didn't have to keep watching it or pushing it as we went through the movie. I could concentrate on helping them create, despite the difficult circumstances, and to give great performances and fulfill the possibilities of these scenes, and it wasn't just the leads. There's an element of it that's ensemble, and everybody kind of had their moment or two or three. I felt like the whole group was really inspired in the way that they would acknowledge that this was a scene built around another character, and they were there with the emotions and the support to make it happen. So, to be honest, I will never forget the commitment that these guys, and the entire cast, made on behalf of the characters they were playing in this movie. It was really inspiring.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: It's interesting, I remember Ron saying, early, before we started shooting, 'You're going to need to be the example. Everyone's going to be hungry and tired and so on, but I need you to help lead the charge and keep everyone positive.' And I actually turned up late in the piece. These guys had already been together for probably three or four weeks, and I'd been shooting something else. So I definitely felt a little anxious about being the new guy at school yet having to play the kind of leader of that group. But I've got to say, I didn't need to do any of that because there was already such a commitment from everybody. Everyone had the same passion and excitement, and wanted to the story justice. I felt like a part of a great, tight unit.
RON HOWARD: Of course, little did I know, he was sneaking frickin' hardtack on me [laughs].
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: It's because I was fed, yeah [laughs].
QUESTION: For the actors, what were your fisherman skills before you did this film? Have you learned or changed with this film in terms of your relationship with fishing?
BENJAMIN WALKER: My relationship with fishing was mostly cold beers on ice sitting on the dock in Georgia, swatting mosquitoes, so this is very different. I think I've always been a catch-and- release kind of guy, but we did go to sailor school. As far as Pollard's concerned, it was great for me because all I had to do was boss everybody else around. That's also part of the fun of doing movies – you get to learn a skill. You get to learn about a time period. You get to immerse yourself in an aspect of history that maybe you didn't know anything about, and understanding this time and industry, understanding this time in America, was exciting. And maybe we can learn from the mistakes we made in the past and apply them to the future.
TOM HOLLAND: Ron was so adamant about making a film that was authentic, so the fact that we went to this sailing school and really did learn how to sail the ship was really important to the movie. This whole film is set on a boat; even if you're not in the scene, you're in the background because these sailors are working a hundred percent of the time. So it was really important to Ron, and to the rest of us, that when we were in the background, we were doing what it is these guys would be doing. And the people who taught us were real sailors, and we had them on the ship – you see them in the film – and they were always there to give a helping hand, to make sure we were doing everything right, and we didn't look like idiots, really.
RON HOWARD: The authenticity, to me, was as important in this movie as it had been on others, like, for example Apollo 13, where part of transporting the audience was to get the details right. Whether people know right from wrong, they can kind of sense it. It also was one of those situations where, as Tom was saying, everybody was in pretty much every shot, so there was a lot of improvisation not only of action, but even language and terminology, so the sailor school was just as important as the astronaut school and flight director school had been for Apollo 13, or the boxing training for Cinderella Man or other movies that I've made which were inspired by real events.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Just in regards to fishing, I remember turning up and asking, 'Okay, who's going to teach me to harpoon a whale? Who's the professional who's going to show us that?' And there was, thankfully, no one who put up their hand, but a lot of it was just trying to work out what would be functional and so on because there wasn't someone on hand who could teach us that, anyway.
RON HOWARD: There were a couple of silent movies that depicted it at a time when there was still whaling, and harpoons were still used, so we had that as research, and there was a tremendous amount of research to build around the truth.
Back to the whale behaviors again, it wasn't just what Melville wrote, or just what these guys put in their journals about the whale attack; there were also all of these etchings and drawings made by people who had actually been eyewitnesses to those kinds of terrifying moments.
QUESTION: Nathaniel, what does it feel like to hear your book being talked about and adapted into a screenplay, then seeing it told on the big screen?
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK: Well, it's kind of surreal. For me, it began when my wife and I flew out of Nantucket in the 21st century and a day later were in Nantucket in 1819 outside London. It was like an out-of-body experience – it's just amazing. And to have Ron involved in this, I was confident from the start that there would be some real integrity applied to it. The fact that the actors went to sailing school? That's just the kind of thing that really eased my concerns. I knew there would be a real attempt to try to connect with the material as it happened, and then apply their own artistic vision to it. It's been an immensely satisfying experience.
RON HOWARD: There's another book that I want to recommend, by the way, anybody who's interested. Which is, 'Why Read Moby-Dick?,' which Nat wrote. It's a great little book, and I found it incredibly helpful because it deals, of course, a lot with Melville, but it also draws some other connections between the book and writing the book, and some of the themes – what was going on in Melville's own life and the story of the Essex.
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK: What was cool was that Ron would call me up every now and then and have very specific questions about Moby-Dick – versus the Essex – and you can see it visually in the movie. That was really neat.
RON HOWARD: Nat suffered through a day of shooting. If you know exactly what you're looking for, and when to look, you can see him.
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK: Yeah, but I have hair [laughs].
QUESTION: Ron, could you contrast Herman Melville and your inspiration for making this movie in terms of the issues of his time and the issues that inspire you today, such as the environment? Melville as well was interested in the brutality of the Industrial Revolution, and the class conflicts we see on the ship.
RON HOWARD: Much of that is present in Nat's book, Why Read Moby-Dick? When you read about Melville, what was interesting and enlightening to me was that, even in the journals kept by the survivors of the Essex, there was a kind of a question in their minds: was this some sort of divine retribution? This whale turning on them – this was nature turning on them, in the shape of this whale. No one had ever seen anything that fierce occur. So, between what's written in Moby-Dick, what we know Melville's concerns to have been as a writer, it was interesting to me that, even while this was an industry that was accepted, it was one of the central, driving components of the economy and human culture. It was doing a lot of good. Crime rates were going down because the streetlights worked better in major cities. But there was this underlying sense of: 'Is this brutality moral? Is this really the right thing?'
Of course, at that point, our sensibilities were much different, but there's an easy, contemporary parallel to draw. I thought it was interesting, of course, to say, 'Well, that was the energy industry then; it was big business; it was about money and power and everything that goes with it. And lo and behold, the energy industry today is vital and central and controversial, in terms of what price are you paying for the positives that go with this kind of energy. So it wasn't lost on me. It was there in the script to begin with, and very important to the producer, Paula Weinstein. And it was there in the writings of Melville as well. I thought it gave the movie an added measure of complexity and intelligence that was interesting.
QUESTION: Charles, how long did it take you to write the screenplay … because you're dealing with a lot of material.
CHARLES LEAVITT: It took me a while. First of all, even after reading the book, research alone after that took months. I mean, writing the script took almost the shortest time because you have to do so much research first. It's pretty much 99 percent thinking and research, and then it took me about four to six months to actually write the script.
QUESTION: I imagine this movie is going to get some people to finally get around to reading Moby-Dick. Nathaniel, when did you first read it?
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK: I first read it as a senior in high school, at Taylor Allderdice, in Pittsburgh. That's when it started for me. And I've now read it twelve times, so – yes, it's my personal Bible.
TOM HOLLAND: We were given a huge stack of books when we first started prep, which we had to work our way through, and Moby-Dick obviously was one of them. Admittedly, I didn't finish it – I was ordered to the film – which I'm not necessarily that proud of. But it was a tough one.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Didn't have enough pictures in it.
TOM HOLLAND: Yeah, it wasn't it comic book.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Ron said, 'Here are the interesting bits,' which I read. But there's a reason for that: In the Heart of the Sea was the Bible for me, and Moby-Dick was a fictionalized version of it.
QUESTION: You still haven't read it.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: No. I mean, yes [laughs].
RON HOWARD: For me, it was my junior year of high school, John Burroughs High School in Burbank. When I went back and read it again, as I began research for In the Heart of the Sea, I realized that he'd gone easy on us, and I'd read the abridged version. The unabridged was even more useful for me because the stuff that they kind of leave out for anxious high schoolers is a lot of the whaling material and the detail.
The interesting thing that you also find out – and I wanted to reflect this to a degree in the scenes between Ben Whishaw and Brendan Gleeson – that Melville struggled with the book. He knew about the attack. He wanted to recount some of his own whaling experiences and so forth, and he wrote this book. And people – Nathaniel Hawthorne among them, apparently – said, 'Boy, it's pretty thin, pretty weak,' and practically sent him to bed. He was a psychologically intense, somewhat troubled guy, and he went back, reviewed what he knew about the Essex, read a lot of Shakespeare, and invented Ahab. And I think the idea of the man versus nature – that compulsion, that drive, that modern, psychological component – seemed to come in later. So I thought it was sort of interesting to try to parallel, in a way, the journey of Melville and senior Nickerson, in terms of having the courage to come to terms with the truth about oneself and make acknowledgments that are painful. I tried to make that evening its own kind of psychological gauntlet that was certainly not as intense as what the crew of the Essex went through, but there were some interesting dramatic parallels and some insight into the creative process, maybe.
QUESTION: Ben, did you read it?
BENJAMIN WALKER: I read the Cliff's Notes in high school. Aced the test. But I got the same stack of books, and I was looking at Moby-Dick, or Why Read Moby-Dick? And I read Why Read Moby-Dick?
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK: It's a lot shorter.
BENJAMIN WALKER: It motivated me to read Moby-Dick, and I wish I'd read it in high school, I have to say. I would have learned a lot, and it probably would have kept me out of some trouble, because it takes forever.
CHARLES LEAVITT: Hampton Township High School, junior year – also outside of Pittsburgh. I had an English teacher named Mr. King, who regarded Moby-Dick as the Bible, and we spent almost the entire year parsing it.
QUESTION: That's how long it takes.
CHARLES LEAVITT: At first – it's true – it was like torture for me. But then, eventually, I sort of understood what my English teacher was trying to get at, and the importance of the book. So it kind of entered my DNA at age 16, and I really did not read it again until many decades later, when I was given the chance to adapt this book.
QUESTION: Tom, Chris's character has a mentor/mentee relationship with your character, Thomas Nickerson. Did you have any kind of mentor/mentee relationships with the other actors on set?
TOM HOLLAND: I think the lucky thing for me is that, my character, Thomas Nickerson, is completely in awe of Owen Chase. When you first meet Chase, He's this big guy. He's fearless, brave, and Thomas Nickerson's this little kid who's completely wide-eyed and new to this world. And when I walked onto Ron's set, I was the new kid. I'd never been on a film this big and I was completely in awe of Chris for the first, like, two weeks, so there was no acting required. I then realized that he's just a big kid, and he's really good. Working with Chris was great, and working with everyone was great, really. It was a really great experience, and you always learn a lot from a job like this because you're so invested and involved with the film. So there's a lot that I took away from this experience.
QUESTION: Is there a particular lesson that you would say you learned from one of the other actors?
TOM HOLLAND: I think the most important lesson I learned from this film was actually from Ron, which is that that you could never be too prepared. In everything that you do, the more preparation that you do, the better is the process of making the film. And reading the books, and learning to sail, and getting into shape, and losing the weight, I really think is what makes this film what it is. For me, yeah, the most valuable lesson from this film is, you can never be too prepared.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: That's why he didn't read Moby-Dick.
TOM HOLLAND: See I learned my lesson. I was learning it on this film.
RON HOWARD: This answers your question about how tough of a taskmaster I am.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah, it's not like we were going to have a test. I've got three kids, so…
QUESTION: Chris, with the popularity of your Thor films, are you always looking for something that might be different? And can you talk about why you brought this project to Ron?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Sure. Whether it's Thor or whatever, I'm always looking to do something different, that contrasts the last thing I had done – more for my own interests, and what I'm passionate about. I think the only way you can truly do something justice is if you are in love with the material and have a strong, passionate opinion about it. When things start to feel familiar is, I think, when it gets sort of dangerous, you know? You get lazy.
In terms of this project, I loved a lot of the stuff that Ron was talking about, about why he was attracted to it. This was set on an epic visual, adventure scale, but at the heart of it there's this beautiful drama about these relationships between the men and the horrific circumstances that they've endured and the effect it had on them; who they were prior to these events, who they were after. There were a lot of complexities, and interesting character traits and ideas, and questions it raised. But, very simply, I just loved the script. I try and hold on to that first impulse, before I sort of dissect it and ask why. I just remembered being swept away in the story, and then still thinking about it afterwards.
QUESTION: So you got the script originally?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Yeah. Paula Weinstein was talking to my manager, Will Ward, who is a producer on the film, and they brought it to me, I think, around the time I'd done Snow White. Then we shot Rush, and Ron said to me, 'Look, if anything else comes up, if you have anything you're interested in, let me know.' And I said, 'Oh, actually I do. I have this, and if you're not sick of me, let's go again.' And, thankfully, he shared the same.
RON HOWARD: I was so surprised by the script. First of all, I had no idea that – to use a comic book term – there was an origin story for Moby-Dick. I like American history, and thought I knew something about history. And, as I said earlier, it was not only perfect casting but a chance to surprise audiences – to offer something that had that scale it's got adventure, it's got action, but it also had some of the ideas and raised questions within the drama. It was just such a great combination of things that I felt, 'That's a movie that I'd like to see.'
In The Heart of the Sea is released on Boxing Day.


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Drink Hunter sees Spanish noise-pop trio Aliment adopting a breakneck approach to their blend of ferocious punk and melodic pop
panish noise-pop trio Aliment scream out of the speakers on their new single Drink Hunter, and like Brighton act Tyrannosaurus Dead, they do their best to cover their melodic tones with a thrashing speed.
Breaking from a pop-infused intro, Aliment bleed into a near garage-rock dirge which places raw and heartfelt vocals on top of drums that race as though they've been given the 30-second call from the sound guy. Drink Hunter then closes with a well worked solo that careens into a spluttering of noise.
Like their gloriously chaotic peers Playlounge, Aliment's take on the punk/pop hybrid is weighted more heavily in favour of the former genre, despite melody's protestations to the contrary. This means that while Drink Hunter is impressively catchy – demanding repeat listens – it's a spikey number at its core which is more incessant than sweet.
Drink Hunter is taken from Aliment's forthcoming second album Silverback. Album number two is set for a 2 October release and if this track is anything to go by, then Aliment will be catching the ear of fans of noise-pop long into the autumn.
Verdict: Spikey but addictive pop-punk
Damien Girling


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The offense has executed in both the running and passing game. The defense has been ferocious and special teams have been solid, if unspectacular.
The question I keep asking myself is, who are these guys and where have they been?
This is what I expected all along. Maybe not the margins of victory, but the quality of football I thought I would see from this year's Raiders.
Just two short weeks ago, I thought I was once again suffering from the same delusions as in previous years. I still had friends coming up to me saying 'hey man, I thought this year was supposed to be different!' My, oh my, how things have changed!
It turns out I wasn't delusional. The Raiders are capable of playing good, no make that great, football. It turns out that these aren't the "same old Raiders". These guys are good!
I wanted to write this after the Raiders crushed the Broncos, but I waited. I thought, maybe, that game was smoke and mirrors. That maybe it was a dream scenario of things going perfect for one team and the result was somewhat counterfeit. I now know it wasn't.
Warren Sapp picked the Seahawks to beat the Raiders last Sunday on the pre-game show on the NFL network. He said "no team handles success more poorly than the Oakland Raiders". I know Warren always bashes the Raiders, but a tiny part of me thought what if he's right?
Guess what? Warren Sapp wasn't right. The Raiders came out and thoroughly dismantled a team that was leading it's division. Not saying the Seahawks are an elite team, but they're not doormats either. After all, they had already blown out two teams the Raiders had lost to!
I'll say this right now, the Raiders have turned the corner. They are capable of beating any team on their schedule and I think they know it. They hav...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders


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The Case for Dividend Growth
Investing in a Post-Crisis World
Are you looking for an investment strategy that offers growth, income, and best of all, growth-of-income? The Case for Dividend Growth proposes the most effective method for exploring, realizing, and reaching your financial goals.
– Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and CEO, Skybridge Capital
"David's understanding of capital markets comes through in this book loud and clear. From alternatives to fixed income, to the asset class that is the subject of this book, dividend stocks, he writes in a way that allows investors of all shapes and sizes to understand. You'll be a better investor for reading."
– Nick Murray, author of Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth
"In three-decade baby boom retirements, the only rational investment objective isn't income; it's growth of income. Your income has to keep rising on at least the same trajectory as your living costs, or you'll run out of money. No problem: the dividends of mainstream equities have, in the aggregate, been increasing at almost twice CPI inflation for as long as any of us have been alive. And wait, there's more: to the extent you can live on those rising dividends, your patrimony can continue to grow for your heirs. Yet it isn't too much to say that the immense power of dividend growth has always been the least understood, most underappreciated phenomenon in investing. Well, not anymore: investors of all ages will find David Bahnsen's pellucid and highly readable tutorial a life-forwarding experience."
– Lowell Miller, Chief Investment Officer and co-Founder, Miller-Howard Investments
"In a financial world of pundits and experts energized by prediction compulsion, David Bahnsen stands out as an advisor who understands and embraces the eternal truth that long term accumulation and reinvestment of dividend income is the major key to sustainable investment success."
– Joseph M. Terranova, Senior Managing Director, Virtus Investment Partners; CNBC Ensemble Member since 2008
"Throughout his successful career, David has implemented a consistent dividend growth equity investment philosophy. In this book, David provides the reader valuable new insight toward that process in a coherent, unique and thoughtful manner. Readers will become more complete investors after understanding David's dividend growth philosophy"


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The Bernard Madoff scandal may have played a role in the coming departure of a key Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official. According to Bloomberg.com, Lori Richards, director of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, was widely criticized for missing warning signals about Madoff. Richards will be leaving her post – which she has held since 1995 – on August 7.
Madoff was recently sentenced to 150 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that is estimated to have cost investors as much as $65 billion. The SEC has come under fire for apparently missing warnings that something was amiss with Madoff's investment advisory business. Richards' department was responsible for overseeing money managers like Madoff.
Richards' office only inspected Madoff's business – Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC – in 2004 and 2005 when it was registered as a brokerage, Bloomberg.com said. It never conducted an inspection of the money-management side of Madoff's business after he registered it with the SEC in September 2006
According to Bloomberg.com, Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Ron Kanjorski had been especially critical of Richards' unit and its performance in regards to Madoff. Kanjorski, who leads the House Financial Services capital markets subcommittee, has accused the SEC of ignoring Madoff red flags, such as the inability of investors to duplicate Madoff's returns and his unusual choice of an outside auditor.
As we've reported previously, money manager Harry Markopolos had also claimed he tried to warn the SEC numerous times over several years about Madoff. According to Bloomberg, Markopolos has said that SEC inspectors lack knowledge about products such as derivatives and have inadequate understanding of the businesses they are supposed to review.
Richards is not the only SEC official who has announced a resignation in the wake of the Madoff scandal. Former Enforcement Director Linda Thomsen resigned in February, following a pretty severe drubbing at the hands of a Congressional committee investigating the Madoff debacle. Former SEC Commissioner Edward Fleischman told Bloomberg.com that Richards' coming departure "allows the newly cleansed and baptized SEC to say, 'If there was anything wrong done on our part, those people are gone.'â€


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NARC - N Scale - NSC Potash Service 4275 Cu. Ft. 3 Bay Covered Hopper - Version 1 - Agrium (NAHX) (Gray w/Black Lettering, Green Logo, Yellow Visibility Stripes) 12 Road Numbers Available in 2 different 6 car sets (A-B) (SKU 11-12001003)
Available On: January 1, 2019
Version 1 Car
Introduced in 1999 by National Steel Car, this car is seen in large numbers across Canada and the United States. It was developed specifically to address the need for additional rail transport capacity caused be the growing Potash market.
Previously, the majority of Canadian Potash rail transport was accomplished with the larger Hawker Siddeley 4550 cu ft Cylindrical Hoppers and similar cars from National Steel Car and Marine Industries.
Though the car is a newer design, it has less capacity than the Hawker Siddeley style cars. However it makes up for this in a shorter car length of only 47 feet versus the Hawker Siddeley style cars at 59 feet. This allows a train of these cars to carry more Potash then a train of comparable length made up of the Hawker Siddeley style hoppers.
These car operates at a gross rail load of 286,000 pounds, the current maximum limit. However, they are actually designed for a gross rail load of 315,000 pounds. They are currently produced with 100 ton nominal capacity trucks to suit present 286,000 lb. gross rail loading. If the maximum weight limit is increased, these cars can be upgraded with 125 ton trucks allowing for maximum cargo capacity going forward.
These cars are currently operated in large numbers by both Canpotex and the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, and in smaller numbers by other operators. To date, over 7,000 have been produced in six versions. These cars are seen on a daily basis traveling across the Canadian Pacific, Canadian National, BNSF, CSX, NS and Union Pacific rail networks.
The first version of this car was developed and built by National Steel Car beginning in 1999. These cars were operated by Canpotex and were originally owned by GE Rail Services and had PTEX reporting marks. Three groups of cars were produced.
These were distinctive with their alternating white and red reflective tape along the entire length of the cars sill. This paint scheme of the car was seen from 1999 to 2004 when the last of these cars were updated with yellow visibility marks instead of the red and white reflective tape.
Since that time, some of these cars have been sold to Agrium. These cars have been repainted in the current Agrium scheme and have NAHX reporting marks.
Agrium was formed to facilitate the reorganization of the fertilizer division of Cominco Ltd (Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company) and the acquisition of the fertilizer assets of Alberta Energy Company in 1993.
Agium is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta Canada and operates worldwide with a value of over $14 Billion. Agrium is a partner in "Canpotex".
Modeling use for prototype accuracy:
Version 1 Car Prototype Features:
Model Features:
Road Numbers:
More Information
For more information about the National Steel Car Potash Service 3 Bay Covered Hopper and their use by Canpotex & PotashCorp, including prototype videos & modeling notes, click on the links below:
NSC Potash Service Hopper Guide
Canpotex Hopper Reference Page
PotashCorp Hopper Reference Page


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I cut stencils in mulberry paper and extract dyes from plant materials to produce dyed cloth. A wax resist is applied before brushing plant dyes onto silk fabric in a rich and subtle palette. Motifs and patterns are built up with many layers of dye and wax. My process is open-ended, offering limitless opportunities for exploration of colour and pattern. Each piece reflects a particular state of mind. The techniques I use take time and patience and require focus as unanticipated variations can occur when material, colour, and process coalesce into something new.
BILL MORTON is a Calgary-based artist and teacher. His work is collected and shown in the United States, Japan, China and Canada. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art (1967), he studied in Japan from 1969 to 1983 including ten years apprenticing with a Master Dyer.
"We may be looking at the ocean when we are aware of beauty but it is not the ocean."i
Agnes Martin
Bill Morton has dedicated his career to investigating aspects of the natural world, perception, and the emotive power of colour and pattern on cloth. Morton's exhibition TINCTORIUM ii at Stride Gallery provides a rare opportunity to contemplate the artist's recent dyed works alongside a selection of his meticulously hand-cut stencils. These artifacts of process span four decades of Morton's career, and are compelling not only for their beauty, but also because they provide a key access point to the artist's studio practice. In these stencils it is possible to apprehend Morton's hand in motion as he draws and then cuts sinuous curves and delicate motifs that are later embedded in silk. Although he works within the traditions of silk dyeing, Morton's approach retains a technical and aesthetic pragmatism that allows him to incorporate new influences and approaches. In the studio Bill Morton engages in an intuitive process in which technique, material, and colour are points of departure toward works that possess the quiescent stillness and beauty of the landscapes that have inspired them.
Bill Morton has worked with generations of emerging artists at the Alberta College of Art & Design since 1983 and is known to many in Calgary as a generous teacher. His own education began in Alberta in the late sixties with influential mentors Illingworth Kerr and Marion Nicoll. An interest in Japanese culture eventually led Morton to Japan, where he traveled on behalf of Alberta Culture to help arrange exhibitions in Alberta for artists from Japan. At this time, he met master dyer Kunio Isa who later invited him to work at his Kyoto studio designing kimono. Morton began working at Isa's studio doing small cleanup tasks and mixing colours for other artists. Eventually he was taught how to dye backgrounds and apply wax with brush and stencil to create katazome iii patterns. After five years Morton was creating his own dyed works and showing regularly in Japan. His apprenticeship with Isa lasted for ten years. It was a remarkable working relationship that has profoundly affected the artist's studio practice to this day.
Learning through repetition in Isa's studio, Morton developed the intense concentration and steady hand necessary to apply hot liquid wax and dye to silk. The temperature of the wax, the pressure and speed of each stroke, and the thickness of material all affect the final mark that is made. As in calligraphy where the subtlest gesture may bear shades of meaning, Morton's brushwork speaks the tacit language of rozome iv in which transparent layers of dye and wax alternate creating pattern and surprising depth on silk which is often no thicker than a couple millimeters. Sometimes more than thirty layers of dye are required to achieve a particular shade. Work proceeds intuitively as Morton assesses the subtle changes produced by each new layer of colour in his search for a particular feeling or quality of light. Patterns emerge and fade, echoing natural cycles of growth and decay.
From early on in his career, Morton's work has been inspired by his fascination with plants and water. A dedicated gardener, Bill has grown his own dye plants and is intrigued by the healing properties of plants and their symbolism in different cultures. The ginkgo leaf in particular is an important motif for Morton, as it holds a connection to Japan and bears significant cultural importance in that country. Resistant to fire, pollution and drought, ginkgo biloba is associated with resilience in the face of adversity. An ancient plant with a fossil record dating back millennia, the ginkgo is also associated with longevity, particularly in China where it survived only through dedicated cultivation by monks.v Morton's Ginkgo Crane stencil presents one of the artist's earliest uses of the ginkgo leaf. Here crane and ginkgo are brought together, one flowing into the other suggesting a kind of transformation.
Morton has also applied his hand to the patterns created by reflections on the surface of the water. The poetic image of water, its surfaces and its depth, have recurred in Morton's dyed works since his years in Japan. These pieces often possess a mysterious, emotionally immersive quality. Ginkgo leaf and water come together in a key piece from the 1990's titled Takaragaike. The work was inspired by ginkgo leaves floating on the surface of a pond of the same name in Kyoto. The irregular accumulation of leaves and water plants across the surface of the cloth echo Morton's inspiration without representing it directly. Like Agnes Martin's observation that our awareness of beauty may not reside in that which we perceive,vi Morton's work often has the uncanny effect of drawing one's attention to the perceptual process itself. In Takaragaike and much of his more recent work, floating motifs often run off the edges of the cloth in all directions creating a complexity and illusory depth that suggests an infinite inner landscape. Careful contemplation will reward the viewer of Bill Morton's work with an opportunity to experience the kind of reverie Gaston Bachelard was referring to when he wrote, "In the presence of deep water, you choose your vision: you can see the unmoving bottom or the current, the bank or infinity…"vii The boldness, complexity, and freshness of Tinctorium is evidence of an artist, working at the height of his skill, who has managed to retain an enviable curiosity and daring at the edge of deep water
ii tinctorium, literally meaning "used for dyeing or staining" in Latin is a word appended to the names of some dye plants including Rubia tinctorium (madder) and Polygonum tinctorium (Japanese indigo), both used regularly by Morton. As the title of this exhibition, Tinctorium evokes not only the materials or tools of dyeing employed by the artist, but also the confluence of material and gesture comprising the act of dyeing.
MACKENZIE FRÈRE is an artist and teacher who lives Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His hand woven cloth has been exhibited in Canada, China, Japan, Korea and the United States. Mackenzie was educated at the Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary, Alberta (BFA 1998) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (MFA 2005). He has written for several Canadian publications including Artichoke Magazine and Craft, Perception and Practice Vol III.


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British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir (Blackout, Bond of Fear, Home To Danger, Meet Mr. Callaghan, No Trace, Recoil)
I'm going to kick my review off with a pet peeve: I absolutely hate the misuse of the term "noir" as a marketing tool. VCI's new six-movie set British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir is a prime example of this. Just because a movie is in black-and-white and has people in raincoats shooting at other people in raincoats, it doesn't make it noir. I know this sounds ridiculous to a lot of folks reading this, but film noir fans are getting pretty fed up with being sold sets that are billed as this most favored of genres but that are really just loosely related movies dug out of the basement and given an attractive dressing-up by the ad copy department. Film noir is dark, pessimistic, and even nihilistic, not to mention stylish. Shadows, rainy streets, sharp dialogue--all aesthetic components of true noir. Granted, there are plenty of arguments about what all of that means, and quite often, fans can't agree on what noir is, but we can get together on what it is not.
What it is not is polite, ordered stories of the upper crust--which is largely what we get in British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir. These six movies, released between 1950 and 1956, are crime pictures, but they are largely tame and overly nice, and when they do stray from their portrayals of very British exasperated criminals and accidental, stiff-upper-lip heroes, it's to try to outfit those same characters in American clothes. Derrick De Marney's portrayal of the private investigator Slim Callaghan in Meet Mr. Callaghan, for instance, tries to remodel the English actor as a Humphrey Bogart or maybe Dick Powell type. They'd have done better going for Steve Martin in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
I had assumed that Renown Pictures was a studio from the period, but it turns out that they are a modern distribution company that, among other endeavors, has resurrected a large library of older British films, including various sets that have been released in the states through VCI. My hat is off to them for that. The more cinema lovers getting into preserving old films, the better. Even so, my hat goes back on, and I must assess this set honestly. Spread over two DVDs, with three films crammed on each, both the package and the content here leaves a little to be desired. For one, the back cover and the discs are mislabeled as to what films are on each. Meet Mr. Callaghan is on DVD 1, while Bond of Fear is on DVD 2. There are also multiple misspellings of names. It's a half-hearted attention to detail on behalf of half-hearted films. Most of these are tepid, bottom-of-the bill C-listers rather than sorely neglected B-listers. Even with short running times (Home to Danger is 66 minutes, while Callaghan is longest at 88), the stiff, predictable delivery can make these flicks a bit of a chore to get through.
left to right: Blackout; Home to Danger
Blackout (1950; 73 minutes): The lead film in the set is blessed with a great concept, but alas, mostly squanders it. Maxwell Reed (Sea Devils) stars as Christopher, a man who has recently been blinded and is about to have surgery to correct the problem. On his way to the operating table, he stumbles into a murder in progress, and though he can't see who did it, he never forgets a voice. Once his sight is back, he sets out to find out what happened. The police have no record of the crime, but some basic detective work leads Christopher back to the house where the killing would have happened, and he becomes involved with the dead man's sister (Dinah Sheridan). Directed by Robert S. Baker, who went on to produce "The Saint" on television, Blackout has all the right story points but seemingly no idea what to do in between those points or how to even make those good spots actually exciting. Reed is a wooden performer, and the role only requires him to keep moving forward. Momentum carries him through the story rather than any real shades of character. The villains display some menace in the first scene, but are quickly neutralized as believable threats. This is very basic, no-budget stuff, efficient but lacking in all things that might distinguish it.
Home to Danger (1951; 66 minutes): Directed by Hammer mainstay Terence Fisher, Home to Danger is another film with an interesting set-up, playing on the class dichotomy between the lush countryside estates of the well-to-do and the dismal city streets plagued with poverty. Rona Anderson (Scrooge) is Barbara, the estranged daughter of a businessman who has returned to England from America upon the old man's death. Turns out daddy forgave her and left her his fortune and the family business, a development that doesn't make everyone happy. Unbeknownst to the dearly departed, his company was being used for drug trafficking, and Barbara and her new beau (Guy Rolfe, Ivanhoe) must figure out who is behind it before Barbara ends up dead.
What is most memorable about Home to Danger are the dark depictions of the criminal underworld. Barbara and her man visit the shadowy streets of the slums, deal with junkies, and basically see everything that wealth and privilege protects them from. The script stops short of making much out of these elements, however, and though there are a couple of heavy scenes involving drugs, they are undercut by censorship and euphemism. The love story seems more important to Fisher and his cadre of writers, and it's not very original. Home to Danger never comes to boil.
Meet Mr. Callaghan (1954; 88 minutes): Though Peter Cheyney's Slim Callaghan would apparently go on to have further adventures on television and film in France, the series was a non-starter in England. Based on this film, helmed by Charles Saunders and written by Brock Williams (also responsible for some of the story in Michael Powell's Contraband), that's really no surprise. Meet Mr. Callaghan is your basic private eye tale: a dame (Harriette Johns, A Night to Remember) goes to the detective's office and feeds him a likely story, but upon further investigation, he discovers she's caught up in a larger criminal racket. Her visit coincides with the murder of one of her gangster fiancé's relatives, and Callaghan has to prove who really did the deed before an adversarial police inspector (Trevor Reid, who also appears in Bond of Fear elsewhere in the set) stitches him up for the whole thing.
There was a recent Saturday Night Live sketch about a Norwegian theatre troupe trying to stage their own version of an American police show. It's pretty funny, with the humor of course coming out of the schism between the two cultures and what is lost in translation. The foreign performers only understand the surface of the story, their broken English seizes on the strange jargon, and it's funny to see the square peg trying to fit in the round donut hole. I felt much of the same was happening when watching Meet Mr. Callaghan. The filmmakers try to make Slim Callaghan into a British Sam Spade, but Derrick De Marney's stilted portrayal never quite works. He is not a very forceful performer. To be fair, though, his world doesn't really require him to be. This is the type of crime movie where everyone sits around and talks rather than throwing a punch or drawing a gun. You can tell they really want to break out the tea set and sit down like civilized Englishmen, but they are afraid it would destroy the fragile illusion. The end result is that Callaghan looks like a crazy person who has seen too many Bogart movies, and everyone is going along with him rather than exacerbate his condition.
Bond of Fear; Recoil
Bond of Fear (1956; 72 minutes): A soldier and family man, John Sewell (Dermot Walsh, The Flesh and the Fiends), and his vacationing clan unwittingly provide a fleeing killer with his escape when the bad man (John Colicos) hides in their camper. He ends up taking their young son (Anthony Pavey) hostage while John and his wife (Jane Barrett) and daughter (Marilyn Baker) ride up front. The situation generates some natural tension, though much of that is spent on an overlong sequence involving trying to get out of a ruse where John tells a police officer that his son is sick. Daddy is trying to keep his cool and approach the situation intellectually, so the best scenes come when the other family members try their own ploys--the boy making a run for it or a play for the killer's gun, or the mother trying to bargain, her life for her child's.
Henry Cass, who directed the Alec Guinness film Last Holiday, was behind the camera for Bond of Fear, and he has a straight-ahead, no-nonsense style that works both for and against material of this kind. When efficiency is required, Cass is your man; other times, he needs to indulge and draw things out a bit more. Specifically, the climax is a letdown. It's barely a fight, just three punches and that's that.
No Trace (1950; 75 minutes): John Gilling is all over this DVD. He wrote both of the other films on this disc, as well as directing Recoil; oddly, No Trace, though directed by him, is not written by him. The script is by Robert S. Baker, who directed Blackout and produced many of these movies.
No Trace is not just the name of the movie, but the name of a book written by crime writer Robert Southley (Hugh Sinclair, who played the Saint in the 1940s movies featuring the character). Robert's success isn't due to an active imagination, though, he's taken the "write what you know" axiom far too literally. The book is based on his real experience, and when one of his old accomplices (Michael Brennan) shows up to blackmail him, murder ends up being a more effective currency than British pounds. The real twist comes, however, when Robert helps the police investigate the case, effectively searching for himself. Existential much? Adding to the man's anxiety, his secretary (Dinah Sheridan again) invents a story line for him much like what is really happening.
Gilling clearly watched some American film noir, or at least Hitchcock. He isn't afraid of low, tight angles, giving the murder scene a manicured chill. Hugh Sinclair is actually quite good as the unblinking, calculated criminal. His indifference to human life makes him a distant cousin to a true noir villain. It's not enough to really save the film, though. Sheridan's amateur sleuthing gets a little cute, more light Agatha Christie territory than dark Shadow of a Doubt territory. Not a bad film as much as it is merely diverting.
Recoil (1953; 79 minutes): Amateur sleuthing by a girl also comes up in this Gilling-helmed picture. Elizabeth Sellars (The Barefoot Contessa) plays Jean Talbot, the daughter of a jeweler who is robbed and killed by a trio of hoodlums. The crooks flee the scene and crash their car, killing all but one. The survivor, Michael (Edward Underdown, Beat the Devil), goes to his doctor brother, Nicholas (Kieron Moore, Arabesque), to fix up his wounds. This implicates the good brother despite his innocence. Jean gets in between the two men when the cops can't get to them, playing a dangerous game of seduction. Think Notorious without the romance or the nerves. The movie starts out well enough with a rather good crime set up, but like No Trace, it loses its way when the full focus falls on the lady snooper. Sellars is alluring and has her moments of coy charm, but Underdown is a bit of a lunkhead, all square jaw and deep voice, like a precursor to James Caan but lacking in the fiery anger. The third act of the picture shows Jean playing Bonnie to Michael's Clyde, and it's pretty ludicrous even by backlot crime picture standards. And it's not the fun kind of ludicrous either.
No Trace; Meet Mr. Callaghan
As noted above, British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir has crammed three movies onto two discs. All of the films are in black-and-white, presented in full frame (1.33:1). The images are fairly average for old prints. They haven't been restored much, if at all, and so tend to have scratches, spots, and the lot. The basic image is clear under the grime, however, and none of them are so beat up as to be offensive or unwatchable. The digital resolution is decent, though there are no great values between the dark and the lights; just as the metaphorical shadows in this film aren't very dark, neither are the literal ones. There films also display the telltale jagged edges of interlacing.
Both discs have a "play all" function, and you can also pick which movie you want and each movie has a submenu with scene selection. Regardless of where you start, however, "play all" is always in effect and one movie will start immediately after the previous one ends.
The English-language soundtracks are given a mono mix in Dolby Digital. Like the image, these can be a little beat up, with some hiss and the occasional snap, crack, or pop. The dialogue is generally clear. Though these are produced somewhat on the cheap, they are at least equal to some of the lower-shelf releases of older films from major studios and better than, say, public domain discs.
The exception in both cases is No Trace, which looks and sounds a little like you are viewing the movie from inside an aquarium. Both the audio and video are distant and hazy, with soft tones and soft lines. The second worst is Home to Danger, but it is somewhat better than Trace.
The British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir collection comes in a standard-sized plastic case with a hinged interior tray to make room for the second disc.
The only bonus materials are trailers--though not for the movies in the set (and not counting the annoying VCI promo that plays when the discs are inserted and that I can never make it all the way through). They don't even relate to the set's theme. On DVD 1, the trailer is for the teensploitation Dragstrip Girl and Girls in Prison and the melodrama No Orchids for Miss Blandish; on DVD 2, a pretty cool looking crime film with the awesome title Paper Gallows (stars Dermot Walsh and Rona Anderson, who feature in movies in this set), The Third Man surprisingly enough, and another exploitation picture, Motorcycle Men.
British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir is a lower-tier package of lower-tier British films from the 1950s. Clichéd crime plots falter without the cynical writing or pleasing aesthetic of true film noir, and the almost comical politeness of most of the bad boys and dangerous dames defangs any sex and violence that might come along. If this were a rental situation, the second disc of the set might be worth a look, but just barely, and disc one can be foregone entirely. So, the smart bet is to Skip It all the way.
Meet Mr. Callaghan; Home to Danger
Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Joelle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent projects include the futuristic romance A Boy and a Girl with Natalie Nourigat; Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, a loopy crime tale drawn by Dan Christensen; and the horror miniseries Madame Frankenstein, a collaboration with Megan Levens. Follow Rich's blog at Confessions123.com.
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The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia
Ancient Faith Radio
Read by Chrissi Hart for her Readings from Under the Grapevine podcast. The Chronicles of Narnia are published by Harper Trophy, A Division of Harper Collins, New York, New York. They are available for purchase here. We want to thank CS Lewis Pte. Ltd. for granting us permission to bring these wonderful stories to you. (Legal info). Per our agreement with Lewis estate, these episodes are NOT available for download.… continue reading