text:
Movie News - Our extensive online Hollywood film and classic DVD news page.
Top News Stories
Il Generale Della Rovere on Blu-ray
1959's Il Generale Della Rovere is an atypical film for Roberto Rossellini. After his neo-realist beginnings and a multi-film collaboration with Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini was already turning away from feature entertainments, with a semi-documentary project filmed in India. Filmed mostly on studio sets, the film combines the wartime setting of Open City with the moral uplift of the Bergman films. The most accessible and conventional of his films, it was cultivated to be a hit, and make a strong showing at the Venice Film Festival. Actor-director Vittorio De Sica was chosen to star because he would appeal in other European countries besides France. As Rovere is so performance oriented, De Sica's creative contribution probably equals that of Rossellini.
The book by Indro Montanelli has its basis in real events. In wartime Genoa, gambler Emanuele Bardone (Vittorio De Sica) has subsisted by becoming a petty swindler, using bribes to a German staff clerk to buy the freedom of Italians suspected as partisans. Posing as a Colonel from the Great War and pretending to have real influence, Bardone overcharges the wealthy Chiara Fassio (Anne Vernon) for the promised release of her husband. He then gambles away the bribe money and tries to cover his losses by selling fake jewelry. When Bardone befriends the high-ranking German Colonel Mueller (Hannes Messemer), all of his problems seem to be over. But Mueller instead arrests the con man and gives him a choice: impersonate a dead Italian resistance organizer, the respected General Della Rovere, or be shot. Bardone finds himself in a German prison surrounded by genuine Italian heroes; to save his own life he's expected to act as a Judas and identify Rovere's contact man, the leader of the resistance.
Oddly celebrated as a return to Rossellini's roots in Italian neorealism, Il Generale Della Rovere is a tightly scripted story filmed with professional actors on studio sets. Rossellini's staging is conventional and he even uses a zoom lens in a couple of scenes. He match-cuts between his artificial settings and authentic film footage of war action and bombed streets. Yet the marvelous performances, particularly that of Vittorio De Sica, have an authenticity no 'realism' could provide.
Emanuele Bardone is a fascinating character, a reckless charlatan accustomed to lies and impersonations, fantasies that also make him feel good about himself. Posing as a WW1 veteran named "Colonel Grimaldi', he foolishly believes that he's helping the people he robs. Even with the privations of wartime Bardone manages to keep two girlfriends, the entertainer Valeria (Giovanna Ralli) and a prostitute, Olga (Sandra Milo). Olga's devotion to Emanuele is so great that she gives him money, rather than let him swindle the other girls in the brothel. Bardone is really swindling himself, thinking that he can gamble his way out of debt and square things with all the people he's harmed. He owns up to his true character only when Colonel Mueller reads his civilian rap sheet from before the war: "...thief, drug pusher...".
Forced to collaborate with the enemy, Bardone sees what conditions are like for political prisoners. Some are tortured and one commits suicide to avoid giving up information. For the first time Bardone is uncomfortable playing a 'theatrical' role. His fake general is treated as a VIP by the SS guards and their Italian stooges. He's mortified by the hurried messages he finds written on his cell walls, from men being called to be executed. The patriotic scribbles profess love for country and beg somebody to convey their feelings to their families. Bardone shouts out a patriotic speech to his fellow prisoners during an air raid -- mostly to calm his own nerves. How can he betray these men? How low can he allow himself to sink even lower?
Il Generale Della Rovere would seem a perfect role for Charles Chaplin, were the internationalist comic interested in a story about patriotism to a particular country. De Sica performs the role as would Chaplin post- Monsieur Verdoux. Both characters commit moral crimes to survive, but only the sentimental Bardone attempts to atone. De Sica had made the leading character of his own Miracle in Milan very Chaplinesque, and the Bardone character evolves from thoughtless selfishness to 'noble contrition' in much the same way a later Chaplin character might. He watches a common barber (Vittorio Caprioli) die rather than betray his country. Having assumed the role of the great General, Bardone is compelled to behave as the General would.
Anne Vernon (of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) makes a strong impression as Bardone's most wronged victim. A real Baronessa Bazzani performs without credit as Della Rovere's wife, who comes to the prison in hopes of seeing him. The SS Colonel played by Hans Messemer (The Great Escape) is unlike the vicious monsters Rossellini portrayed years earlier in Rome Open City. Colonel Mueller expresses regret for having to force men to talk, a script detail possibly encouraged by the commercial need to avoid offending German audiences. Mueller rightfully sees Bardone as an ideal chameleon to impersonate the near-legendary General; but doesn't take into account Bardone's capacity for patriotic feeling.
Roberto Rossellini's direction is always good for character. Many scenes are done in long takes, usually with camera motion. A roundup of prisoners near the end seems slow, as every faction represented (Communists, Jews, random arrestees) have their say. But an earlier scene in which Bardone is forced to face the sad people he has fleeced is better, mainly because De Sica has the floor and does most of the talking. Like Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux, Rossellini purposely eschews emotional effects for his strongest scenes. The grim finish plays out in a wide shot. Rossellini made only a few more films before shifting over to a series of TV docudramas and miniseries, often about historical figures. His next picture Era notte a Roma (Escape by Night) is another story of the German occupation that reunited actors Giovanna Ralli and Hannes Messemer.
Raro Video's Blu-ray Remastered Edition of Il Generale Della Rovere reflects an Italian restoration done several years ago, and a different transfer than Criterion's earlier DVD from 2009. Setting this release apart is the inclusion of the restored cut of the version Rossellini screened at Venice in 1959. It is six minutes longer than the 132-minute theatrical cut, which is included as an extra.
The transfer is excellent in quality, with only the restored sections having more film grain; they were apparently taken from a surviving print. More puzzling is the flat aspect ratio, which is maintained at 1.33:1 for both versions, although the layout of the main titles and cameraman Carlo Carlini's compositions clearly point to a wider aspect ratio being correct. Even more curious is the fact that the entire frame has been scanned, resulting in a slightly window-boxed image that reveals the full camera gate, with bits of dirt clinging to the extremes of the image. The presentation would be much more focused had the unnecessary real estate below and above cropped away. Those prison cells have very high ceilings.
Raro's extras are also different from those on the Criterion disc. A long video essay (45 minutes) contains interview material with Roberto Rossellini's son Renzo and critic Adriano Aprá; the critic returns for more analysis of Rovere's mix of realism and artifice. A separate interview with Renzo Rossellini includes material used in the video essay. The original Italian trailer uses no scenes from the movie. It instead shows De Sica and Rossellini at the Venice Film Festival, where the director is seen accepting the Golden Lion award. Actor Hans Messemer also won a special mention for his performance.
By Glenn Erickson
- Comment
Top News Stories
Important Schedule Change for Gene Wilder Tribute on Thursday, September 29
THE SEARCHERS at The Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, IL - September 15
Dick Dinman & William Wellman Jr. Salute Wellman Western Classics
New Books
THE ESSENTIALS: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter
By Jeremy Arnold
Forward by Robert Osborne
Since its inception on Turner Classic Movies in 2001, The Essentials has become the ultimate for movie lovers to expand their knowledge of must-see cinema and discover or revisit landmark films that have had a lasting impact on audiences everywhere.
Based on the hit series, THE ESSENTIALS by Jeremy Arnold showcases 52 must-see movies from the silent era to modern times. Readers can enjoy one film per week, like on the show, for a year of great viewing, or indulge in a movie-watching binge-fest. Each film is profiled with entertaining discourse on why it's an Essential, and running commentary is provided by TCM's Robert Osborne and Essentials guest hosts past and present: Sally Field, Drew Barrymore, Alec Baldwin, Rose McGowan, Carrie Fisher, Molly Haskell, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack, and Rob Reiner.
Featuring full-color and black-and-white photography of the greatest stars in movie history throughout, THE ESSENTIALS is the ultimate curated guide to 52 films that define the meaning of the word "classic."
Jeremy Arnold, a writer and film historian, is the author of Lawrence of Arabia: The 50th Anniversary, a coffee-table book companion to that film's Blu-ray release. In addition to his work for numerous film trade publications, he has written over five hundred programming articles for the Turner Classic Movies website and contributed audio commentaries and historical essays to the DVD and Blu-ray releases of classic films.
- More >
A Girl's Got to Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright
By Donald Spoto
"A girl's got to breathe!" Teresa Wright to Gary Cooper after receiving a lengthy kiss in The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Teresa Wright lived a rich and complex life against the backdrop of Hollywood's Golden Age. She worked with some of the leading actors of that generation in beloved films including Mrs. Miniver, The Pride of the Yankees, Shadow of a Doubt, and The Best Years of Our Lives
"I never wanted to be a star," she told the noted biographer Donald Spoto at dinner in 1978. "I wanted only to be an actress." She began acting on the stage in summer stock and repertory at the age of eighteen. When Thornton Wilder and Jed Harris saw her in an ingénue role, she was chosen to understudy the part of Emily in the original production of Our Town (1938), which she then played in touring productions. Samuel Goldwyn saw her first starring role on Broadway--in the historic production of Life with Father and immediately offered her a long contract.
She was the only actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for her first three pictures -The Little Foxes; Pride of the Yankees; and Mrs. Miniver), and she won for the third film. Movie fans and scholars to this day admire her performance in the classics Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years of Our Lives. The circumstances of her tenure at Goldwyn, and the drama of her breaking that contract, forever changed the treatment of stars. She had two rocky marriages, the first to writer Niven Busch--who wrote Duel in the Sun for her but she had to drop out when she became pregnant--and then to writer Robert Anderson. Both ended in divorce.
Spoto had the cooperation of Wright's family and heirs and also had exclusive access to her papers and letters. He draws on a number of interviews and anecdotes from a variety of directors and actors who worked with the actress including Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, Karl Malden, Jean Simmons, Bette Davis and many more.
Donald Spoto is the author of twenty-nine books published in more than twenty-six languages including The Dark Side of Genius, High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly and Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn.
- More >
The Ice Cream Blonde: The Whirlwind Life and Mysterious Death of Screwball Comedienne Thelma Todd
By Michelle Morgan
Thelma Todd began her career in silent movies but went on to work with Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers, and make a series of hilarious shorts with Patsy Kelly. She was a savvy businesswoman who opened her own successful nightclub and a beloved comedienne who's mysterious death has intrigued film fans for years.
This new biography of the actress dubbed "the Ice Cream Blonde" traces Todd's life beginning with her as a vivacious little girl growing up in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Her brother's death changed the dynamics of the family. Todd wanted to go to college but her mother insisted she enter beauty contests. The reluctant daughter became a beauty queen.
It wasn't long before the movies beckoned and Todd found herself in demand as an actress. She worked steadily throughout the mid-to-late 1920s and made the successful transition to sound.
Increasingly disenchanted with Hollywood, in 1934 Todd opened Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café, a hot spot that attracted fans, tourists, and celebrities. Despite success in film and business, privately the beautiful actress was having a difficult year including receiving disturbing threats from a stranger known as the Ace and having her home ransacked. It all ended tragically when she was found dead in a garage near her café. An inquest concluded that her death, at twenty-nine, was accidental, but in a thorough new investigation that draws on interviews, photographs, documents, and extortion notes-much of these not previously available to the public--the author offers a compelling new theory that the vivacious young actress was murdered.
But by whom? The suspects include Thelma's movie-director lover, her would-be-gangster ex-husband, and the thugs who were pressuring her to install gaming tables in her popular café. This fresh examination on the eightieth anniversary of the star's death raises interesting questions and is sure to interest any fan of Thelma Todd or of Hollywood's Golden Age.
Michelle Morgan is the author of The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals, The Mammoth Book of Madonna, and several books about Marilyn Monroe: Marilyn Monroe: Private and Confidential, Before Marilyn: The Blue Book Modeling Years, and Marilyn's Addresses: A Fan's Guide to the Places She Knew.
- More >
Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story
By Mollie Gregory
Stunt players are often the unsung heroes of filmmaking. They rarely receive recognition for the harrowing work they do to make the leading actors and villains look convincing. This is often even more true for women in the stunt industry.
In the early days of filmmaking, women were highly involved in all aspects of film production, from writing to editing to directing to stunt work. But as the movies matured and sound was introduced, women found their roles curtailed. Capable stuntwomen found themselves on the sidelines as stuntmen donned wigs and women's clothes to double as actresses. As a result very few stuntwomen found work between the 1930s and the 1960s.
Not until the political movements of the late 1960s and the 1970s raised the issue of flagrant sexism and discrimination did the number of working stuntwomen begin to increase. But even as late as the 1990s, stuntmen were still doubling for actresses and some were "painted down" for more convincing performances.
For decades, stuntwomen have faced institutional discrimination, unequal pay and sexual harassment even as they jumped from speeding trains and raced horse-drawn carriages away from burning buildings. They've traded punches in knockdown brawls, crashed biplanes through barns and raced to the rescue in fast cars.
Featuring sixty-five interviews, Stuntwomen showcases the absorbing stories and uncommon courage of women who make their living planning and performing action-packed sequences that keep viewers' hearts racing.
Mollie Gregory is the author of Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood, 1973-2000 .
- More >
DVD Reviews
Point Blank on Blu-ray
When documentary filmmaker John Boorman made the leap to feature filmmaking with Catch Us If You Can (aka Having a Wild Weekend, 1965), a low-budget rock-n-roll vehicle for the Dave Clark Five, he transformed the quickie into a surprisingly biting satire of popular culture set to a bouncy soundtrack, displaying a remarkable sophistication and creativity unexpected from such a project. It was enough to land him his first American film, Point Blank, where he revealed an even greater ambition and talent.
Based on the novel The Hunter by Richard Stark (a pen name for Donald Westlake), Point Blank shuffles the lean, straight-forward story of a gunman named Walker (Lee Marvin), who is double crossed by his partner in crime and returns (seemingly from the dead) for revenge, into a surreal, abstracted crime drama. The plot is faithful to original novel, a hard-boiled piece of crime fiction reimagined for the underworld culture of the sixties, but Boorman and Marvin, who requested the young director and supported his unconventional vision for the film, refract it through a modern lens. Walker's odyssey from Alcatraz in San Francisco to the underworld of Los Angeles is splintered with short, sharp shards of memory that cut through his story, as if reflecting Walker's attempts to put the pieces of cause and effect together in his mind.
Boorman views L.A. through an alienated lens and edits it more like a European art film than an American crime thriller, but fills it with offbeat, ultra-stylized scenes of violence. It opens on a gunshot that should have killed him and he struggles to put it all together when he wakes up: "Cell. Prison cell. How did I get here?" Marvin is enigmatic, to say the least, as he tracks down his unfaithful, guilt-ridden wife (Sharon Acker), his wife's sister (Angie Dickinson), his old friend turned double-crossing heist partner Mal Reese (John Veron), and finally the syndicate bigwigs, all just to get his due: "I want my 93 grand."
This vision of urban Los Angeles is alternately crowded and noisy and urban, and austere and empty and dislocated. His footsteps echoing through an empty, anonymous hallway becomes the disembodied beat of his march of revenge. A scatting, screaming R&B singer at a chic night spot called The Film Club is the feral soundtrack of a brutal backstage fight, at once visceral and abstracted in the clutter of 35mm film cans and nightclub supplies. The aftermath of a suicide becomes a psychedelic vision of destruction, which disappears in a cut to the apartment suddenly empty, a ghost house with no evidence of life or death, just transition.
The dialogue is loaded with references to "a dream" and characters constant remind Walker that he's supposed to be dead. Keenan Wynn adds another level of remove as the devil whispering in Walker's ear, another unreal figure with a carefully concealed agenda who is preternaturally attuned to Walker's movements. More than an informant, he appears from nowhere to provide a name, an address, a piece of information on the trail to the top man in the Organization as Walker's debt keeps getting passed up the chain of command.
Walker is both an unstoppable sentinel who seems more than flesh and blood and a vulnerable man wounded by betrayal who has armored over his emotions with a mission. Marvin delivers both sides of the character without compromising either. There's a cold fury under his deliberate movements and his eyes betray a moment of regret and sadness when he finds his wife dead by her own hand, but it is all pushed down and kept in check by his single-minded focus. "I just want my money" is his mantra, not a matter of greed but a debt to be settled to balance the scales. Marvin is at once deliberate and relaxed, a veteran criminal soldier alert to everything, which makes his character even more fascinating. He doesn't demand attention on screen, he commands it through confidence and ability and cool focus.
That alone makes him more admirable than Mal, who is played by John Vernon as an oily, arrogant, amoral rat, selling out anyone and everyone to buy his way back into the Organization. The rest of the members of the cast don't play characters as much as cogs, functionaries in a criminal enterprise as a cutthroat corporation, simply doing their jobs as if Walker was a rival in a hostile takeover. Only Angie Dickinson's Chris has the passion and fury and emotional life of a human being, siding with Walker out of both loyalty and for payback against Mal ("He makes my flesh crawl") and the Organization that has taken over her business and her life. Sharon Acker, who plays Walker's wife, comes off less haunted than simply weak. She barely leaves an impression, which is fitting for her character but fails to offer any sense of tragedy to her story, and she's almost instantly forgotten after she exits the film. It's really the only weak element of the film, which otherwise is strong, confident, and sure from beginning to end.
Point Blank has been called a modern film noir but it has more in common with Performance, another crime thriller that fractures time, offers enigmatic and ambiguous characters, and equates organized crime with big business. Boorman delivers meticulously executed set pieces that are designed for the wide CinemaScope frame with a sure sense of space and a dispassionate perspective. He emphasizes intelligence over action and presents Walker as total professional, never flustered and always emotionally removed from the situation. And if Walker is an extreme incarnation of the revenge driven noir anti-hero, the modern syndicate has transformed the old school mob into a world of paper jungles and corporate businessmen, an alienating concept to a two-fisted, gun-wielding independent like Walker. "Profit is the only principle," is their motto. Almost 50 years later, it's more modernist than modern, a fascinating time capsule of an era when young directors brought nouvelle vague style to classic genres, and a cryptic crime thriller that turns Marvin into the most enigmatic criminal professional in the movies.
Boorman creates a hard, austere look for the film and the new Blu-ray delivers a sharp clarity to his vision of Los Angeles as an impersonal modern city. Apart from a few scenes, he strips the frame down to isolated figures in an empty urban landscape under the hard light of the California sun. It's an urban desert and the disc preserves that atmosphere of a ghost city by day and a shadowy underworld at night when the crowds gather on the streets and in the clubs. The impersonal palette of concrete surfaces and blank office interiors in the day gives way to the color of human habitation after dark, which oddly enough has a warmer atmosphere than the harsh light of day.
Carried over from the earlier DVD release is an audio commentary track with director John Boorman and fellow director Steven Soderbergh, a fan of the film who essentially hosts the commentary. He engages Boorman in conversations about the film's style, the use of color and camera lenses, working with Lee Marvin (who became close friends with Boorman), and making his Hollywood debut with a film that refused to play by the studio rules. Soderbergh's The Limey was clearly indebted to Point Blank in both its theme of revenge and in its fractured storytelling and unconventional use of flashbacks. Taking part in this commentary is like paying tribute to his inspiration.
Also features the vintage promotional featurette The Rock (in two parts), which looks at shooting the film on location in Alcatraz, and the original trailer.
by Sean Axmaker
- More >
Ravenous on Blu-ray
Ravenous (1999) channels the story reminiscent of the Donner Party disaster and the legend of Alferd Packer (the only American ever convicted of cannibalism) into a gruesome survival thriller with a crimson-hued streak of black humor and an elemental hint of the supernatural. The resulting film takes top honors as the definitive frontier cannibal movie. Not that there's a long list to choose from, mind you, but this earns its position with honors, thanks to a gleefully weird and savagely bloodthirsty sensibility.
Guy Pearce is Captain John Boyd, whose battle cowardice during the Mexican-American war inadvertently results in making him an accidental hero. The ordeal of playing dead under the bleeding corpses of his fellow officers also puts him off meat, as the opening scenes so vividly illustrate. Director Antonia Bird cuts straight to the heart of the situation as she intercuts soldiers devouring bleeding-rare steaks at a military luncheon with the bloody casualties of battle stacked like cordwood: meat is meat, at least as far as this film is concerned. Boyd's commanding officer (John Spencer of The West Wing), who knows that his valor is a fraud, ships him out to the fringes of military reach: a fort in a California mountain pass, which runs with a minimal compliment during the impassable winter months. "This place thrives on tedium," smiles fort commander Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones), who takes everything with a bemused indulgence. How else to survive a company made up of a useless drunk second-in-command(Stephen Spinella), a giggling weed-head idiot (David Arquette), a twitchy, mumbling chaplain (Jeremy Davies), and a macho soldier boy (Neal McDonough) who holds the rest of the company in utter contempt?
The tedium is quickly dispersed when a bedraggled disaster survivor (Robert Carlyle) stumbles into camp. He spins a horrific story of a lost wagon train and an incompetent scout who strands them in the mountains, where as the winter snows traps them and desperation leads to feeding on human flesh. It's a tale right out of the Donner Party until it turns feral, but it's not even close to the real story of Carlyle's wild-eyed survivor. For a starving man, he looks remarkably fit when he doffs his shirt, and other clues suggest that this is no production gaffe. One night, while camping on the trail to his old camp to search for survivors, he's caught licking the bleeding wounds of an injured soldier. You know, tasting his next potential meal.
That's when the film takes its twist into weird and wild horror, a bizarre plot that doesn't really make much logical sense but sure makes for a wicked mix of psychodrama and visceral body horror. The Native American Wendigo myth is referenced to explain madness, but you could say it's a vampire tale without the supernatural dimension--it turns out human flesh is addictive, and it helps to have a nest of fellow flesh-eaters to keep the diet coming--or call it a particularly gruesome metaphor for manifest destiny. However you label it, it is off-the-charts crazy, an eat-or-be-eaten thriller served very, very rare.
British director Antonia Bird seems like an odd match for this material. She honed her craft on TV drama and made her reputation with the tough, wrenching dramas Priest and Face, two films with complex characters and socially conscious themes. What they have in common with Ravenous is star Robert Carlyle, who recommended Bird after the film's original director Milcho Manchevski was let go after three weeks and the producer's chosen replacement, Raja Gosnell, was rejected by the cast. Bird (who passed away last year at the relatively young age of 62 after a battle with thyroid cancer) was frustrated by the conditions of the production and the oversight of the producers and she complained that her cut was compromised in post-production. That may explain the awkward pace, jarring turns, and a climax that feels tossed together--an uninspired way to end such a devious film--but she is clearly the architect of the odd, offbeat key of the film's blackly comic tone and surreal atmosphere and Carlyle is her partner in outsized madness. He leads the cast in playing their eccentricities big, though next to Carlyle's juicy performance, Arquette and Davies come off more like actor's studio sketches in twitchy weirdness or fidgety indecision than actual characters. Guy Pearce provides the contrast, creating a character fighting to maintain control and keep his emotions and his reflexive revulsion in check as everyone else lets their freak flag fly. It oddly enough makes him the most intense character on screen. As all that fear and disgust and anxiety just bottles up behind his desperate eyes and increasingly battered body, Pearce shows us the toll this ordeal exacts on him. In this survival drama, he's the one in true survival mode.
Scream Factory's Blu-ray features a solid new HD transfer that preserves the dynamic contrast between the white-out daylight scenes of snow and the ominous shadows of the deep forest and the dark rough-hewn quarters of the frontier fort. Night doesn't have to fall for the darkness to seep into the image. Given the elemental quality of the imagery--much of the film takes place in the snowbound wilderness, with the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia standing in for California--the transfer has a satisfying level of grain that not only preserves the texture of the film but gives the entire atmosphere an added level of authenticity. These images feel like they were carved into the film.
The film was previously released on DVD over a decade ago with three separate commentary tracks. Director Antonia Bird and composer Damon Albarn team up for the most informative track, with Bird talking in detail about the physical challenges of the production. Screenwriter Ted Griffin and co-star Jeffrey Jones tend to lapse into silences in their track and actor Robert Carlyle is even more intermittent in his the solo track. Also carried over from the earlier disc is a collection of deleted scenes (many of them in rough-cut form) with optional commentary by Bird and a gallery of stills. New to this edition is a 20-minute interview with Jeffrey Jones, who looks back on the themes of the film.
by Sean Axmaker
- More >
Southern Comfort on Blu-ray
A motley crew of Louisiana National Guardsman wade out into the swamps for weekend maneuvers. It's 1973, as the war in Vietnam is grinding away the soul of America and the heart of the military, and this platoon of weekend warriors--a volatile collection of rednecks, hotheads, jokers, and guys who probably signed up to steer clear of the draft--are like fresh recruits going into battle for the first time. They've got the fatigues and the cocky attitude but dubious discipline and training and their machine guns are loaded with blanks as they head into the bayou. To the Cajun swamp folk, the trappers and hunters living on the fringes of society, these men are invaders who trample their camps and steal their boats. And when one of the soldiers lets loose a burst from his weapon, laughing like the class bully after humiliating the new kid, these shadowy swamp dwellers defend themselves, becoming a guerilla strike force waging a war of terror on the utterly unprepared toy soldiers. They don't know that it's just blanks in those guns but it likely wouldn't matter if they did. They've been attacked and they will respond. These city dwellers are out their element and after their commanding officer (Peter Coyote) is gone, the first casualty in the war of attrition, they are out of their depth, flailing around with a panic that dumps their radio, compass, map, and pretty much everything else that was supposed to keep them alive.
Southern Comfort will never be mistaken for a Nation Guard recruitment tool. Call it an anti-platoon movie. Hill gives the squad the outward accoutrements of a real fighting force, down to the uniforms and weapons, but this is a military unit in name only. Beyond the swaggering banter of the soldiers and self-deprecating comments of Spencer (Keith Carradine), the self-appointed company joker, they have no real training, no experience under fire, and no commitment to one another. These guys are more like barroom buddies playing soldier than a disciplined force.
There are two voices of restraint in the wilderness, Spencer and new guy Hardin (Powers Booth), a transfer from Texas who doesn't know anyone in the company but sizes up their weaknesses quickly and realizes that they haven't much a chance as long as wild cards like Reece (Fred Ward) and Stuckey (Lewis Smith) go charging through the swamps looking for payback. Casper (Les Lannom) takes command by virtue of an essentially meaningless detail of rank and bumbles around quoting regulations and making speeches, doggedly following the book because he hasn't a clue what to do next. The filmmakers don't make him a figure of ridicule, mind you, just a guy falling back on the only thing he knows. In fact, none of them are necessarily "bad guys," though like any Hill ensemble, it has its share of jerks, bullies, racists, and anger management candidates and the pressure brings out their worst instincts.
So yes, it's a story of American soldiers in an alien land, lost in an unfamiliar landscape and outmaneuvered by a guerrilla army at home in the jungle. Director / screenwriter Walter Hill and producer / co-screenwriter David Giler insist to this day that Southern Comfort was never intended to be an allegory for Vietnam, simply a survival tale in an overwhelming and unfamiliar environment. It's hard to take them at face value but it is easy to forget the allegory in the heat of the drama. It also shares DNA with Deliverance, another film about city boys with guns who take their sense of ownership and entitlement into the wilderness, threaten the locals, and end up hunted by them. But where John Boorman's primal thriller turns his Appalachian backwoods men into brutal outlaws who take pleasure in stalking the city invaders, Hill and Giler keep their Cajun soldiers hidden, seen as figures in the distance or blurs running behind the trees, ghosts on the fringes of sight. They treat the would-be soldier like wild game, silently shadowing their progress and whipping them into a state of panic to steer them into their traps. And whatever the short-fused guys in the platoon think, this is no cultural conspiracy to wipe out the invaders. Their enemy consists of a handful of isolated hunters who didn't start the war but by God are determined to finish it. The rest of the Cajun folks they meet don't seem to be a part of it, though after a couple of days in the swamps, the paranoia is powerful enough to make every sidelong glance look ominous. Ry Cooder's eerie and haunting score only intensifies the paranoia.
What ultimately differentiates them from the soldiers of a classical platoon drama is that they haven't bonded under fire and have never had to put their trust in one another. This group unravels and tears itself apart from fear and panic and unfocused rage. And in classic Hill manner, there are no philosophical musings or existential conversations. The closest the film comes to putting its theme into words is from the mantra of a terrified Simms (Franklyn Seales), who finds himself cut off from the group and suddenly aware of just how vulnerable he is. "I'm not supposed to be here," he repeats, as if begging the universe to correct some cosmic planning error. And then he's no longer there.
While this band of infighting brothers wades blindly through the swamp without a clue as to their bearings or direction, Hill's direction never falters. He has always had a sure hand as a storyteller, keeping his plots uncluttered and letting the details of character, conflict, and the world around them define the story. Southern Comfort limits the world to the middle of the swamp, where we (like the soldiers) are unable to find any point of reference, and observes how the discomfort of the environment and the constant disorientation takes its toll on what little good sense the characters bring with them to the mission. It exacerbates the already dysfunctional dynamics of this platoon of battle virgins and is as deadly on its own as the native hunters who use the environment as a weapon in their arsenal. It's not necessarily skill or even luck that saves the guardsmen who survive the ordeal. In classic Hill fashion, it is a matter of intelligence, awareness, teamwork, and the commitment to do what is necessary to survive. There's no sense of victory in survival, merely relief.
Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack. Both discs feature the new HD master but the Blu-ray of course features superior clarity and richness of color. Both are clean, strong images while the Blu-ray shows off excellent detail. The Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack puts the mix right up front. A couple of scenes of chaos and confusion overwhelm the dialogue with background sound, which is surely intentional but still seems a little out of balance to my ears.
New to this release in an original 27-minute featurette with new interviews with actors Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Lewis Smith, and Peter Coyote and, on low-resolution video via Skype, director Walter Hill and producer David Giler, who collaborated on the script with Hill. The actors share stories of shooting in the Louisiana swamps in February with wet suits under their uniforms, six weeks of working in the cold and damp, and they remind us that they were all in it together. The crew endured the same conditions so no one had the right to complain. More interesting is the discussion around the themes of the film. Hill and Giler maintain that while they did not intentionally set out to make a Vietnam allegory they were aware that audiences would make that connection, while the actors admit that they knew it was an allegory from the moment they read the script. Keith Carradine's reading is particularly detailed and interesting. Curiously, none of the six participants mention Deliverance.
Carried over from the old DVD release is a brief collection of outtakes and the original trailer. All of the supplements are featured in both the Blu-ray and DVD discs of the Combo Pack.
By Sean Axmaker
- More >
Tess on Blu-ray
Tess (1979), Roman Polanski's film adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1890 novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, has in 2014 received a sublime Blu-Ray and DVD release from Criterion. Restored by Pathe under the direct supervision of Polanski himself, the movie looks and sounds magnificent. At first glance, the lushly beautiful Tess is a seemingly unusual work for Polanski, whose films we tend to associate with horror and sex, but this was actually a highly personal project for the master filmmaker. It was his first picture after fleeing the United States in 1977, and also a project that his wife, Sharon Tate, had suggested he make as a vehicle for herself -- just before she was murdered by the Manson gang in 1969. Polanski read the novel after her death and realized it was indeed right up his alley, and he dedicated the eventual film to her with an on-screen inscription.
Hardy's tale, to which the film is very faithful, is about a poor English girl, Tess, whose father learns he is a distant descendant of a once prominent, rich family, the D'Urbervilles. He sends Tess to the home of a remaining D'Urberville to find employment (or at least a handout), but Tess winds up being seduced by the ne'er-do-well Alec D'Urberville (Leigh Lawson), who becomes obsessed with her. Fleeing Alec, she eventually finds work at a dairy farm and starts a passionate relationship with a young farmer named Angel Clare (Peter Firth). But in this society, the revelation of the sins of her past, even if they were not her fault, could doom Tess to shame, ostracism and worse. Ultimately, Tess is about a woman struggling to make her way in the world, looking for happiness, or at least survival, but finding that a judgmental society, timing and even luck are all working against her.
Polanski explores this theme vividly, sympathetically and cinematically. Costumes, speech and physical mannerisms of the actors all convince the audience of the time period and of the distinctions among the social classes, and the film's pictorial beauty does much to stress the contrasting cruelty of some of the characters. The movie is not "pretty" for prettiness' sake. Most important, one really feels the isolation of Tess throughout the film, which is at once sprawling and intimate. The plot itself, while important, feels less vital here than the depiction of Tess' emotional experience of the world she is forced to inhabit, and as a result, the long running time feels entirely appropriate and never tedious.
Tess was shot entirely in France, mostly on locations in Normandy and Brittany, because Polanski worried that if he traveled to England he would be extradited to the United States. Polanski later wrote, "To tell the story at all, it was essential to find the proper setting, a twentieth-century equivalent of Hardy's nineteenth-century Dorset. The only way to convey the rhythm of his epic was to use that setting as an integral part of the film, signaling the passage of time and the change in Tess herself by means of a visible, almost palpable change in seasons. Once our rural locations were chosen, we would have to film throughout the year from early spring, through high summer, to the depths of winter." With such a shooting strategy, filming wound up lasting nine months over 80 separate locations, and Tess became, at $12 million, the most expensive film ever made in France to that point. Freak weather and labor strikes only added to the overall time and expense.
If Tess is atypical of Polanski, it's in the way that The Age of Innocence (1993) is atypical of director Martin Scorsese. But in fact, both films are completely emblematic of their directors' concerns and are indeed suffused with violence. It's just that the violence is emotional, an undercurrent beneath a pristine surface -- exactly like the societies the films depict.
That being said, it's hard to shake some of Tess's most exquisitely beautiful imagery, such as the lovely natural light of an outdoor dance, or the riders and dogs on a fox hunt who appear out of a sublime mist, or the face of Nastassia Kinski, who is heart-stoppingly gorgeous (a quality, incidentally, that is vital to the story). Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who had shot such films as Becket (1964) and Cabaret (1972), died a few weeks into production and was replaced by Ghislain Cloquet, who sadly would himself pass away two years later. They shared the Oscar for Best Cinematography. The film also won for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Score.
Criterion's dual-format release contains one Blu-ray disc and two DVDs, with both formats containing the film and identical extras. And there are plenty, starting with three short documentaries about the film's making (originally included in Columbia's 2004 DVD release), directed by Laurent Bouzereau and totaling 73 minutes in length. Bouzereau expertly interviews key players like Polanski, producers Claude Berri and Timothy Burrill, co-writer John Brownjohn, actors Nastassia Kinski and Leigh Lawson, set decorator Pierre Guffroy, costume designer Anthony Powell, hair and makeup artists, the crew electrician, the assistant editor and others. The artists discuss fascinating details of production, like the challenge of getting the "strawberry seduction" scene between Kinski and Lawson just right (which astonishingly was shot on a rainy day despite looking on-screen like the height of warm summer), the creation of the Stonehenge set outside of Paris, and the design of the costumes to be authentic and truly expressive of character -- beautiful without being decorative. Powell is fascinating as he discusses his approach, and also about the little splotch of blood he put on the hem of Tess' dress at a key point in the story, which Polanski shot for maximum impact.
Burrill recalls that on location the filmmakers were only able to see the rushes days after shooting, rather than the next day, and not always under the best conditions. But gradually, he says, "we started to see what was happening, the magic that was coming off the screen, and the extraordinary professionalism of Nastassia.... I don't think there was ever one day when she fluffed a line. She was word-perfect, always."
Second is a 52-minute documentary from 2006 by Daniel Ablin and Serge July entitled Once Upon a Time... Tess. This is also interesting, but it covers much of the same material as the Bouzereau pieces, with many of the same interviewees telling the same stories. It's also not as smoothly edited. But unlike the Bouzereau film, it includes composer Philippe Sarde, and delves more into Polanski's pre-Tess life and career. It also recounts the difficulties in Tess's post-production, particularly concerning the running time. Francis Coppola was brought in by producer Claude Berri to trim the film, which was deemed overlong, but Polanski hated the result, leading to a falling-out between Berri and Polanski and between Polanski and Sarde. Polanski himself eventually trimmed the film by about 20 minutes, resulting in the current running time of 171 minutes.
Third, there's a 1979 episode of the French TV program Cine Regards, running 48 minutes, that looks at the making of Tess and interviews Polanski during the film's production. The interviews with Polanski are revealing, but the real strengths of the piece are the long, uninterrupted slices of life on the set as Polanski directs and thinks through scenes, conducting his orchestra of crewmembers. These sequences go on long enough to make us feel as if we are there.
Fourth is a 1979 episode of the British TV program The South Bank Show, 50 minutes in length, in which host Melvyn Bragg interviews Polanski. And Criterion rounds things out with the film's trailer as well as a handsome printed booklet containing a fine essay by Colin MacCabe and crisp, colorful photos from the film, almost all of which feature the entrancing Nastassia Kinski. It's a beautiful package and motion picture, all very highly recommended.
By Jeremy Arnold
- More >
Used Cars on Blu-ray
The opening of Used Cars (1980) has the ominous, wind-scoured character of a modern crime film in a desperate southwest town where a Sergio Leone western wouldn't be out of place. The camera cranes down from a high shot over a struggling used car dealership, where a few pathetic beaters line the lot, and slowly glides over to one car with someone is crammed under the dashboard. The only sound is the lonely wind--the kind of strangled, desolate howl you get in dustbowl dramas and desert survival thrillers--and the grunts of the man struggling with the mechanics under the dash. And then we see the odometer turn back, shaving some 40,000 or so miles from the record. The title hits the screen, a brass band jumps in with "Stars and Stripes Forever," and the unidentified mechanic wriggles out to reveal Kurt Russell in a cheap, loud suit making his rounds to mask the sorry condition of the cars on the lot. It turns out that this is a crime movie after all, or at least a film of multiple misdemeanors and bald-faced misrepresentation, and the perpetrators are the good guys.
The second feature from director Robert Zemeckis and co-writer and producer Bob Gale, Used Cars comes right out of the screen comedy culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the underdogs snubbed their collective noses at authority, propriety, property and privacy laws and anything else that crossed their paths in slobs vs. snobs comedies like Animal House (1978), Caddyshack (1980) and Ghostbusters (1984). Used Cars is raucous and reckless and far more gleefully corrupt than any of its brothers in rebellion, embracing the confidence games and illegal stunts pulled by the skeleton crew that works for Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden), who is the closest thing that the film has to an honest man. The devotion of salesmen Rudy (Russell) and Jeff (Gerrit Graham) and mechanic Jim (Frank McRae) to Luke is really all that separates them from Luke's rapacious brother and across-the-street rival Roy L. Fuchs (Warden again) and his slick sales force. That and the fun they have ripping off the rubes who wander on to their lot.
The premise of film - two used car outfits at war with one another - was hatched by John Milius, who was one of the executive producers (along with Steven Spielberg), but the script is pure Zemeckis and Gale. The rivals are twin brothers, the Cain and Abel of used car dealers. When impending freeway construction threatens to destroy bad brother Roy's dealership and make the good brother Luke rich, Roy finds a way to speed the demise of Luke's bad heart and Rudy makes good on his promise to keep Roy from taking over the lot. Rudy has his own, more immediate motivation, of course--he's trying to buy his way into the local political machine and he's still a little short on the down payment--but it's also personal. Luke is something of a father figure to the crew, which makes them the mischievous sons who break the rules whenever dad's back is turned. After Luke dies, their antics more outrageous, from secretly burying Luke on the lot (his beloved convertible fittingly serves as his casket) to jamming satellite signals with wild pirate commercials replete with gratuitous nudity and senseless destruction of private property. The plot seems to careen from one comic collision to another but there's a nicely-constructed plan under it all, simple but ingenious enough that you don't actually see how the pieces are laid in place until it all comes together in the ragged spectacle of final act.
It's not really a satire of American business so much as a wicked lampoon: lie, cheat and steal as the American way, as long as you do it with a sense of fun. Kurt Russell was just breaking out of his clean-cut post-Disney persona when he took on the role and he sinks his teeth into Rudy, turning the brash characters into the epitome of the smiling mercenary selling lemons to suckers with dirty tricks and phony promises. Gerrit Graham is his partner in commercial piracy, unfazed by anything but harbingers of bad luck, notably red. Deborah Harmon is both romantic interest and plot complication as Luke's long lost daughter, who shows up just after dad's death. Jack Warden has a field day playing twin brothers and Frank McRae is hilarious as the giant adrenaline-pumped mechanic. The crotch-grabbing Mexican junk car wholesaler is ubiquitous character actor and future director Alfonso Arau in his first great comic role in an American film (Romancing the Stone and Three Amigos soon followed). But the entire cast is in danger of being upstaged by the adorable dog Toby, who has his own role to play in the sale stunts. This pooch's hilarious performance makes him one of the greatest movie dogs.
Zemeckis matured into a polished filmmaker and an ambitious storyteller and went on to make more sophisticated, more provocative, and certainly more subtle films, but he never made anything as savagely funny as Used Cars. Its banged-up ingenuity and rough-and-tumble energy and warped mirror reflection of the American Dream as a snatch and grab free-for-all is wickedly funny. Everyone is a crook here and the epilogue even enshrines mendacity as a virtue, at least when it comes to stepping into the used car game.
Used Cars has a remarkably tidy visual aesthetic for a film about a seedy, shabby culture, with a screen that is uncluttered and flooded with desert sunlight in day scenes and blasted with floodlights as bold as a football stadium night game for the after-dark stunts. The new HD transfer shows a well-preserved print and is sharp and clear. Simply put, it looks superb.
The commentary track with Zemeckis, Gale, and Russell, carried over from the 2002 DVD reelease, is almost as fun as the movie. "We wanted Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life, except he's totally corrupt," is how Zemeckis explains the genesis of Rudy. Kurt Russell laughs back: "So you cast me!" These guys are having a blast laughing their way through their remembrances, but they manage to stay on track and keep the production stories coming. Few commentaries manage to balance the information and entertainment so well.
There's a four-minute reel of outtakes (apparently taken from surviving video dub; it's all quite hazy), a radio interview with Russell, a car commercial featuring Russell, galleries of art and stills, and not one but two isolated score tracks: along with Patrick Williams' musical score heard in the film is an alternate, unused score by Ernest Gold. We don't quite get it in the context of the film (at least not with dialogue and sound effects) but it's a more conventional, less satirical approach. The accompanying 8-page booklet features another fine essay by Julie Kirgo.
By Sean Axmaker
- More >
Press Release
Library of America's The Moviegoer on LAURA
Library of America's new regular web feature called The Moviegoer is devoted to great films inspired by classic American writing. This biweekly column features columns by Megan Abbott, David Denby, Wendy Lesser, Charles McGrath, Farran Smith Nehme, Carrie Rickey,Terrence Rafferty, Harold Schechter, Michael Sragow, & others and launched on January 27, 2016.
American literature has proven an endlessly renewable resource for filmmakers, its originality and vitality inspiring whole catalogues of memorable movies. Now Library of America, the acclaimed nonprofit publisher of the nation's greatest writing, presents The Moviegoer, a biweekly column in which curator Michael Sragow (Film Comment) and other leading writers and critics offer fresh, penetrating examinations of the best of these films, gems that readers will want to revisit or watch for the first time. Standing at the intersection of classic American writing and classic filmmaking, The Moviegoer, offers not reviews but full scale reevaluations that explore the creative alchemy involved in translating a masterwork from page (or stage) to screen. It takes its inspiration, and its catholic compass, from the hero of Walker Percy's famous novel, and, in the words of curator Sragow, "aims to generate new enthusiasm for cinema as well as for literature."
To read the entry in the series on Laura by Megan Abbott and to sign up for an alert when a new Moviegoer is published, click here.
- More >
Dick Dinman Visits the Deadly GARDEN OF EVIL
DICK DINMAN VISITS THE DEADLY "GARDEN OF EVIL" : Twilight Time's co-founder the award winning writer, producer and documentarian Nick Redman and acclaimed writer and film aficionado Julie Kirgo join producer/host Dick Dinman as they salute the singularly riveting Gary Cooper/Susan Hayward/Richard Widmark edge-of-your-seat action adventure GARDEN OF EVIL which Twilight Time has just released in a spectacular wide screen transfer emboldened by no less than three listening choices each of which graphically stress the essential importance of the monumentally powerful and unique Bernard Herrmann score.
The award-winning DICK DINMAN'S DVD CLASSICS CORNER ON THE AIR is the only weekly half hour show devoted to Golden Age Movie Classics as they become available on DVD. Your producer/host Dick Dinman includes a generous selection of classic scenes, classic film music and one-on-one interviews with stars, producers, and directors. To hear these as well as other DVD CLASSICS CORNER ON THE AIR shows please go to www.dvdclassicscorner.com or www.dvdclassicscorner.net.
- More >
John Wayne Cancer Foundation kicks off SHOW YOUR GRIT campaign on May 26
Join TCM on May 26 as we honor one of Hollywood's greatest stars, John Wayne, on his birthday with a full day of his films beginning at 6am. An icon of American individualism and courage, Wayne is perhaps best known for his work in the Western and war genres--where his image as the direct (sometimes gruff) yet always just and strong hero has become the stuff of screen legend for generations of film fans. Our tribute begins with an early Wayne film, Ride Him, Cowboy (1932) and continues through McLintock! (1963) at 5:45pm ET.
The day of programming is also in support of the John Wayne Cancer Foundation's Show Your Grit campaign, which kicks off on May 26. The John Wayne Cancer Foundation (JWCF) was created by his family in honor of Wayne's memory with a mission to bring courage, strength and grit to the fight against cancer. For 25 days, beginning on John Wayne's birthday and ending on Father's Day, June 19th, the John Wayne Cancer Foundation challenges you to #ShowYourGrit on social media to raise awareness and honor those who have shown courage, strength, and grit in the face of cancer.
To learn more about the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and to join the John Wayne movement please visit http://johnwayne.org/.
- More >
TCM Podcast An in-depth look at this month's films by the employees of TCM DOWNLOAD TODAY >
- Added:...
buy it now > ...
Wednesday, March 20, 2011
Removed: 10:00pm Springfield Rifle 12:00pm Casablanca Added: 1:00pm Virginia City 12:15pm Casablanca
Wednesday, March 20, 2011
Removed: 10:00pm Springfield Rifle 12:00pm Casablanca Added: 1:00pm Virginia City 12:15pm Casablanca
Wednesday, March 20, 2011
Removed: 10:00pm Springfield Rifle 12:00pm Casablanca Added: 1:00pm Virginia City 12:15pm Casablanca


text:
Aberdeen have one of the best youth academies in Scotland with Fulham and Wigan recently signing up teenagers from the Dons before they've made 30 first team appearances. Last week Ryan Fraser knocked back a new deal despite only breaking through this season with a trail of clubs including Swansea and Celtic showing interest.
Shaughnessy made his sixth first team appearance in the win over Motherwell and fully intends making his stay in the north east of Scotland a long-term arrangement.
Last week he signed a two-year extension to his Aberdeen deal and is delighted with the way his career has developed since signing from Salthill Devon.
"When I signed my previous contract for two years, my main aim was to push on and get close to the first team," the defender explained. "That's happened, so when I was offered another two years, it was an easy choice for me.
"I don't see many better places to develop while getting a chance in the side. I understand Ryan's decision, but it's each to his own.
Shaughnessy added: "It's not been a bad week and it's good to end it with the goal that takes us through."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Round Mound of Rebound is tired of being so, well, round. Or maybe he's just tired of Kenny and Ernie's jokes. Whatever the case, he's apparently trying to knock off a few pounds and using a gym full of tiny white women to do it. Good for him! [via Ball Don't Lie]
Charles Barkley Lifts More Than Just Cheeseburgers and Pizza Boxes
Watch Now


text:
- Report: #821763
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Regions Bank
Regions Bank1900 Fifth Avenue North Birmingham, Alabama United States of America
Regions Bank Regions Financial Corporation Regions Manipulated Transaction Order to Trigger $216 in Overdraft Fees Birmingham, Alabama
Ripoff Report
About you?
Ripoff Report
A business' first
line of defense
on the Internet.
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..
Does your business have a bad reputation?
Fix it the right way.
Corporate Advocacy Program™
Now, I'm not arguing that they should order the transactions from least to most; clearly, the most honest and fair practice would be to simply maintain the original order of the transactions. This business of rearranging the order of purchases to intentionally trigger a series of fees should be illegal. It is clearly a predatory practice.
I spoke with customer service and was advised that a fee will be charged when you use your debit card without the funds to cover the purchase. Well, yes, that's obvious enough. The problem is that I did have the funds to cover almost all of the purchases...if the bank had cleared them in the order they posted, rather than in the order they chose. I spoke with someone in management who was equally condescending and unyielding.
Mind you, my account is generally in good standing, and I've been a customer for almost fifteen years. I do not habitually overdraw my account; it's a very rare issue. I would be okay with having been charged one fee, but six is ridiculous. Unless the bank reverses this decision and refunds my money, I will close my account and go to a credit union. Bank of America just settled a $400 million dollar class-action lawsuit over this very issue, and countless other banks are currently under investigation for the same.
It's time to expect more, Regions. I expect more.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 01/12/2012 12:39 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Regions-Bank/Birmingham-Alabama-35203/Regions-Bank-Regions-Financial-Corporation-Regions-Manipulated-Transaction-Order-to-Trigge-821763. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report.
Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on Regions Bank
If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:Search Tips
In order to assure the best results in your search:
- Keep the name short & simple, and try different variations of the name.
- Do not include ".com", "S", "Inc.", "Corp", or "LLC" at the end of the Company name.
- Use only the first/main part of a name to get best results.
- Only search one name at a time if Company has many AKA's.
Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.


text:
The big brown
Charlie is brown, brownies are brown, there are even brown cows. Good things come in brown packages (except certain brown nosers…). This Big Brown Towel is an adorable play on an iconic big brown bag. And, it's on sale.
The Laundress is an eco-chic line of specialty detergents and fabric care committed to being green for you, your clothing, and the environment.


text:
Top Definition
Derived from Malibu which is the name of a carribean coconut flavoured rum. It means to be under the influence of the drink and to be intoxicated by it.
Sorry I missed your call last night, I was so malibised I didn't know what I was doing!
by punkdx June 22, 2009
Trending Now
Can you define these popular missing words?


text:
I am currently running WordPress 3.4.1, and I am using a customized version of the Bizz theme by WPExplorer. I am trying to keep the footer stuck to the bottom of the page when there is a small amount of content on the page (like this: http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/keeping-footers-at-the-bottom-of-the-page). I've tried probably a dozen tutorials, and I can't get any of them to work. Can someone walk me through it?
This is my site: http://hgsupport.x10.mx/support/
Any help would be great, thanks.


text:
Product Details
The Arva Mini Ovo Shovel is a super strong, medium-sized aluminum shovel that features a comfy "Y" handle, an ovalized shaft for strength, and the ability to turn into a hoe for snow removal. When your friend's buried and the snow is turning to concrete, shovel burliness matters – go metal, go strong, and go with as many removal modes as you can.
Trending Gear Reviews
adidas Energy Boost Snowboard Boot – 2015Price: $500
adidas The Blauvelt snowboard boot – 2016Price: $375 evo.com
adidas The Superstar snowboard boot – 2016Price: $300
Burton Photon snowboard boot – 2016Price: $369.95 evo.com


text:
Jenny Paulincommented on a post on Blogger.
thank you so much for joining in with the #GBBOBloggers2016 xx
- Mummy Mishaps (current)
Recipe - Rainbow frangipane tart #GBBOBloggers2015
Pastry week - a bit like bread week - is my nemesis. It's usually always a double take for me with pastry so when I saw the bakes for this w
Pina Colada Cheesecake - Great Bloggers Bake Off
I absolutely adore cheesecake. However I have only made a baked cheesecake a couple of times. I usually go for the easier no bake ones. So w
Chickpea Bread Gluten and Dairy Free
This week is bread week on Great British Bake Off and I know for a fact that a few of those joining in were dreading bread week slightly whe
Cranberry, Hazelnut and White Chocolate Biscotti - Stressy Mummy
Life in the stressy lane …
Black Forest Gateau inspired by The Great British Bake Off
The Great British Bake Off started again this week and one of the bakes is a Black Forest Gateau, I decided to bake my own delicious take on
Carole's Black Forest Cake #GBBOBloggers2015 - Cake Week
The Great British Bake off is back on our TV screens which means that yet again the Great Bloggers Bake Off is back as we all join in by bak
Madeira Cake
Hooray the Great British Bake Off is bake and with that comes the Great Blogger Bake Off hosted by the lovely Jenny at Mummy Mishaps. So ove
The top picnic spots in the UK revealed
It's National Picnic Week and the nation have their hampers ready to go but where's the best spot to sit down to an outdoor feast? Read here
The Ultimate Father's Day Gift Guide - Stressy Mummy
Life in the stressy lane …
Oreo frosted chocolate cupcakes recipe + #recipeoftheweek linky 9-15 Mar...
Blog post at A Mummy Too : They look very posh, mummy - JD, 5 So, week two in my new job: complete. Hurrah! And what better way to help inte
'Ice Cream Van' (24/365)
Posted just now by Jenny Paulin · Mummy Mishaps 365. Subscribe. Subscribe. RSS Feed. Add to Google Reader · View RSS Feed. Loading. Send fee
Bring Me A Dream (My 2nd Birth Story)
It was better. The medical team were just amazing. I actually felt Tiny Ched being born. I felt him being pulled out of me - something which
MummiesHangout | Bloggers talking for Britain
Google+ is the newest social media site on the block. Joining in with Facebook and Twitter, Google+ allows you to share, share, share and do
The Crazy Kitchen: Starting School - Helping Your Child to Cope
Our local NHS Trust no longer offers a routine 3 1/2 year check to children in the area, instead they ask parents to complete a questionnair


text:
High Commission of Canada Nigeria
Services for Canadians
Information for Canadians travelling or living abroad. Tips on travel documents, travel health, returning to Canada and more.
Electronic Travel Authorization
Visas and Immigration
Information and forms for visiting, working or living in Canada.
Find out the steps and the information you need to provide.
High Commission of Canada
13010G, Palm close, Diplomatic drive,
Central Business District Abuja, Nigeria
Contact and office information >>
High Commissioner's Message >>
Countries of accreditation:
Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe
NIGERIA - AVOID NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL (with regional advisories)
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada advises against non-essential travel to Nigeria, with the exception of Calabar and Lagos where you should exercise a high degree of caution.
- Date Modified:


text:
Everything in 'Disneyland Park'
Unique Dining, Shopping and Interactive Street Entertainment Add to the Fun of Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration
Guests May Sing Along with Resort Music Groups, Choose a Dazzling Anniversary Souvenir, Enjoy Sparkling Beverages and Special Treats, and Discover New Magic on Select Attractions The Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration will touch every aspect of the guest experience, beginning May 22, 2015. As guests enjoy the spectacular, new shows highlighting the celebration, they'll also […]
Disney California Adventure, Disneyland News, Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort
Disneyland Resort Horticulture and Resort Enhancement Fun Facts
At the Disneyland Resort, stories grow from the ground up — literally. From carefully manicured flowers on Main Street, U.S.A., to desert plants in Cars Land, the landscape is part of the detail that tells the "story" of each land in the parks. More than 800 species of plants indigenous to 40 nations grow at […]
Disney California Adventure, Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness Returns with New Track and Good Old Rollicking Fun
Hold onto your hats and glasses! The wildest ride in the wilderness is up and running with an upgraded track, restoration of the historic Rainbow Ridge Mining Town, new paint on portions of the mountain and updates to the train vehicles. Guests taking a ride on this runaway mine train will discover some new surprises, […]
First Disneyland Mountain
For 55 Years, the Matterhorn Has Thrilled Guests and Dominated Disneyland Park Skyline Since June 1959, the Matterhorn has been a highly visible landmark for Disneyland Park, a sign to travelers that they are nearing The Happiest Place on Earth. Now part of the Disneyland "Mountain Range of Thrill Rides" – including Space Mountain, Big Thunder […]
"it's a small world" 50th Anniversary History & Fun Facts Around the World
Around the world, Disney is celebrating the 50th anniversary of "it's a small world," which debuted at the 1964 New York World's Fair as an exhibit to salute UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). Since UNICEF is dedicated to the welfare of children all over the world, the theme for "it's a small world" became an […]
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room Celebrates More Than 50 Years
First Audio Animatronics Show at Disneyland Park Opened June 23, 1963 ANAHEIM, Calif. – June 23, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, the world's first Audio-Animatronics show and a place where the birds sing words and flowers croon with guests at the Disneyland Resort. Part of the […]
Fairy Tale Princesses: A Disneyland Resort Tradition Offers Guests of All Ages Dream-Come-True Encounters
Test Your Knowledge of the Disney Princesses ANAHEIM, Calif. – Since opening day at Disneyland in 1955, Disney Princesses have appeared in the park, parades, shows and personal encounters in and near Fantasyland. Through the years, park guests have expressed their affection and admiration for these special Disney characters. Today, as part of the recent […]
From Videopolis to 'Mickey and the Magical Map,' A Fantasyland Theatre Timeline
The new, live theatrical presentation "Mickey and the Magical Map' is the first full-scale stage show in the Fantasyland Theatre since "Snow White – An Enchanting New Musical," which ran from 2004 to 2006. The new production brings technical enhancements to the theatre, which has entertained Disneyland Park guests in a variety of ways since […]
Fun Facts: 'Mickey and the Magical Map' in Fantasyland Theatre at Disneyland
The new, live stage production "Mickey and the Magical Map" premiered in May 2013 in the newly refurbished Fantasyland Theatre, in Disneyland park. Like all live entertainment at the Disneyland Resort, "Mickey and the Magical Map" is designed to bring children of all ages together for a magical storytelling experience. The innovative production also takes […]
Fun Facts: Fantasy Faire at Disneyland Park
The new Fantasy Faire at Disneyland Park offers guests a variety of royal experiences: enchanted encounters with Disney Princesses, two fun-filled shows based on Princess stories, a food cart offering "twisted" treats and a shop for Princess souvenirs, all in Fantasyland next to Sleeping Beauty Castle. Like the design of Fantasyland itself, the architecture in […]
Showing 11 - 20 of 26


text:
Created by chasidy023. Created in One Tree Hill,90210,Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, GossipGirl,Smallville,PrettyLittleLiars, The Lying Game, Glee,Jersey Shore, Degrassi,Teen Wolf, American Teenager,Switched at Birth,The O.C.,True Blood, The Secret Circle & Ringer... 142 sets from 18 members. Ended 6 years ago.
Enter your vampire diaries fashion sets. 3 days, 10 winners, and no limit


text:
(Hill-errr-eeee Klent-un) PN. (1) Cunt (2) Tax Burden (3) The act of eating out another woman and then going home and kissing your wife. (4) Dirty Sanchez and Snow-Ball's sticky little cousin.
1) My wife was bitching about me being out of town too much so when I left my girlfriend Jenny's house I went home and gave my wife a big ol' Hillary Clinton.
SirIsaacHillary tərəfindən 02 Sentyabr 2005
the bitch that probably will change the way gamers,hackers,and anyone else in the video game industry will live because her and jackass thompson are giving us a hard time about the ratings and the fact that games promote violence.and any one who is with the "down with cool games" fad can surely on any sunday morning KISS MY ASS.
HC:"i still think kids shouldnt have any thing that resembles fun or cool"
gamer and computer explorer tərəfindən 28 Avqust 2005
An inspiration to pant suit wearing, short haired feminists everywhere.
I am probably going to need a chain saw to remove that overgrown tree in my front yard. The trunk is easily the circumference of Hillary Clinton's cankles.
UncleBenTheRice tərəfindən 31 Mart 2016
A marginalized micro aggression against the Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton has a dumpy butt and seven chins.
mattpartakesin420 tərəfindən 22 Mart 2016
It wants to be President of the United States, but here's what most want to happen: rising to the top before presidency, and then falling back down to Hell where it belongs...
If that bitch Hillary Clinton DOES become President, I'll have yet another reason to move to Japan...
Lunar180 tərəfindən 09 Mart 2008
If elected America's first drag queen president.
Guy: Hey it's that Democratic dude clinton running for president.
Me: You mean Obama
Guy: No Obama's not white
Me:Wait Hilary she's a woman
Guy: No fuckin way that's a chick!!!!!
Me: I'm telling you Hillary Clinton is just a very unattractive woman
Guy: O.O
Me: You mean Obama
Guy: No Obama's not white
Me:Wait Hilary she's a woman
Guy: No fuckin way that's a chick!!!!!
Me: I'm telling you Hillary Clinton is just a very unattractive woman
Guy: O.O
Not Me yet tərəfindən 06 May 2008
The Devil Incarnate. A dumb bitch who should not be President and will most certainly lead us in the wrong direction as a country.
Hillary Clinton couldn't keep Bill in line, how can she keep our country in line?
juggernautx584 tərəfindən 14 Fevral 2008


text:
Pet friendly Charlotte hotels and motels are listed below along with the pet policy if available. Search for cheap and discount pet friendly hotel rates in or near Charlotte, NC for your upcoming individual or group travel with your pets. We list the best petfriendly Charlotte North Carolina hotel and motel rooms allowing pets or dogs. Review the dog friendly Charlotte hotel list below to find the perfect lodging for you and your pets. Planning group travel? Find Charlotte NC Group Hotel Rates or Plan a Charlotte Meeting
Enter your stay dates and any discounts you qualify for to see Charlotte, NC rates found only on HotelPlanner!
How should we direct your call?


text:
It's Amitabh Bachchan v/s Farhan Akhtar
The makers of Karthik Calling Karthik just couldn"t avert the clash, as preponing would mean competing with Shahrukh Khan"s My Name is Khan and postponing would mean losing to IPL. So, Farhan, who is known for his performance in Rock On, is fighting out with the Big B at the box office.
Karthik Calling Karthik starring Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone is directed by debutante Vijay Lalwani. It is a love story with a thriller angle. Teen Patti is also a thriller based on the game of gambling. It boosts of big names like Amitabh, Hollywood actor Ben Kingsley, R Madhavan and Saira Mohan.
Let's see who will come out victorious, Amitabh or Farhan! Who knows if both the films turn into hits!


text:
You may recognize Max Collins as the tattooed, redheaded singer from Eve 6. While still with that band, Collins has ventured into a solo project. With his first album, Honey From the Ice Box, on its way, we spoke to him about the past, present, and dark comedy of his music.
Patrick Emmel: Max Collins is coming back to start a solo project. Before we get into that, we have to deal with Eve 6. How did you become the bassist and singer? Bassists always have a bad rap in the band. So were you the lead singer that had to pick up the bass because you didn't have a bass player or are you more like Sting, or Fat Mike from NOFX, where the bass was your thing and you just happened to sing as well?
Max Collins: Believe it or not, I started out by playing the bass. My dad, when I was a little kid and we drove around listening to the radio, he would always point out the bass line: "You hear that? You hear that low bit there? That's the bass." So I guess I had kind of a curiosity about it. There was something about it that was just kind of cool to me about the instrument of the member of the band that's sort of holding it down. And it probably suited my kind of natural disposition.
The singing thing actually happened perfectly conversely to the way that you described it. One of the first garage bands I was playing in, the singer was trying to sing something, and I suggested: "Why don't you try singing it like this?" And I heard myself sing and I was like, "Huh. I sort of hit a couple notes there." Soon after that, I had gotten enough moxie up to try and write a song, and that became it. The bass became totally secondary.
Patrick: So did you pretty much kick the lead singer out and that became Eve 6, or was it a couple bands after that?
Max: You know, Jon Siebels, the guitar player for Eve 6, was definitely [there]. I don't know if you could even call what we were doing at that time a band. We were just kind of jamming with friends. So yeah, maybe you could say that was a very early incarnation of what would become the band.
Patrick: Have you ever walked into a place where a cover band was playing, and they just so happened to be playing "Inside Out?" I know it sounds too coincidental if that would happen, but you never know.
Max: I try not to darken the doors of too many karaoke establishments, but I probably have. Back in the day when I was a big fan of, uh… beverages alcoholic, I would often find it hilarious to sing my own songs at karaoke bars. I remember doing "Here's To the Night" or something at a karaoke bar once and I was forgetting the words. It was a pretty pathetic, albeit hilarious display for myself and my buddies.
Patrick: Now, was that one of those private karaoke bars where you rent out a private room, or were you out in the audience for everyone to see that Max Collins can't sing his own songs in karaoke?
Max: Oh yeah, this was a good, old-fashioned everyman's karaoke bar. Nothing fancy.
Patrick: Did anyone try to follow you up and sing [the song] again?
Max Collins: I don't have much of a recollection of that night except I know that much happened, but [laughs] yeah…
Patrick: The beverages alcoholic….
Max: [laughs] Yeah…
Patrick: Is it flattering that bands play your music like that or is it almost insulting that they think they can play it as good as you?
Max: Oh, no. It's totally flattering. It's totally strange and wonderful. You write the song and people like it and then people want to play it. It's great.
Patrick: So how did you decide to branch off just a little bit from Eve 6 and do Max Collins in… Max Collins?
Max: As Eve 6, we're still doing shows. We're doing a tour this summer and I still love those dudes and enjoy playing loud rock with them. I just feel, creatively, I'm in that place where I sort of need to be completely kind of selfish and uncompromising and follow my whimsy wherever it goes and not really concern myself with other people's expectations or opinions or anything. I was in this band, Eve 6, for basically my entire, not just adult life, but young adult, teenage life. So I guess I just have this burning desire to just kind of totally do it my way and shed any perceptions and create these strange little pop songs, record them the way I want to with my friends and make weird videos and put it out into the world. And I intend to continue doing that for as long as I'm around.
It's been a really gratifying process for me. To have both things is cool for me. I'm nothing but grateful for the fact that Eve 6 has given me kind of a platform, a fan base, a listenership, devoted people who care about my songwriting . And I'm happy to give them Eve 6 songs when I'm with Eve 6, and I'm thrilled to get my new stuff out there as well.
Patrick: I'm guessing the tour you're talking about is the Summerland Tour, obviously, this summer?
Max: Yeah.
Patrick: Are you going to try to hijack the whole tour and do the Max Collins solo project before Eve 6 goes on stage? [laughs]
Max: [laughs] Yeeeeeah, I don't think that would go over too well. You know, [the solo stuff] is pretty different in a lot of ways and the people coming to this tour want to hear Eve 6 music. They don't want to hear Max Collins music. What I might end up doing, depending on whether or not we go to Triple-A radio with the single "Sports Bar," [is] some little radio appearances and playing my new solo single and stuff like that. I'm doing a residency here in LA at the Viper Room in May with Jody Porter, the guitar player of Fountains of Wayne. He and I have been friends for a long time. And he has a record coming out, too. I do plan to do some solo touring hopefully in the Fall, but I'm kind of keeping busy with local stuff, and I have a solo show in Oakland June 3rd as well.
Patrick: Now you say residency. Every time I hear "residency" I think of doctors.
Max: [laughs]
Patrick: Does that mean you have a weekly gig at the Viper Room?
Max: That's exactly right, yeah. It's every Monday night. My friend Jody, he has a record coming out called Month of Mondays. He's doing that and he came down and saw a show of mine I did last weekend and was like, "Why don't you play on mine?" and I said, "Sure." It's just going to be me and an acoustic guitar and a percussionist. I made this video for my single that's kind of weird and dark. To me it's funnier than it is scary. Some people love it and a lot of people, it makes them angry. Dave Navarro saw the video and loved it and had me on his "Dark Matter" show to perform it and, of course I write everything on the acoustic guitar but, I hadn't performed publicly these new songs with just a guitar and percussion. We did that there and it just felt really good.
Patrick: The video you're talking about, obviously, is for "Sports Bar?"
Max: Yeah.
Patrick: When you played that on Dave Navarro's show, did you happen to have anybody in animal outfits in the background?
Max: No, but you would almost expect there to be. No, it was just myself and my compatriot, my brother in rock Brian Young, who is also the drummer for Fountains of Wayne and now The Jesus and Mary Chain. It's just me and him and we just rocked in there.
Next: The strange story behind "Sports Bar"
Patrick: Who came up for the idea of that video? In a strange fashion, I liked it, but I like strange videos across the board. It's a very odd (Max laughs) contrast: you playing acoustic guitar up on the stage and you have these random people in animal costumes that are accosting you…
Max: I came up with the idea, and here is the short version of the events that provided the idea. My friend Thad Bridwell, who directed the "Sports Bar" video, he was shooting a short film a few months back. He was riding shotgun in the director's car. The director of the short film was driving a BMW and he was bragging about the car and saying people in Kuwait drive these things because they can handle any terrain, and right after he finished saying that he hit a rock or something and like, killed the car.
So the car is not running anymore and they're stranded in the middle of the desert without cell reception, not in walking distance of any sort of civilization and there's no traffic or anything.So they're there, just like, "F#%k," you know? "What're we gonna do?" and Francis, the Native American man in the "Sports Bar" video happen to be driving by, got their car towed and fixed their car himself.
Thad stayed in touch with him and became friends with him. When we started talking about wanting to do videos for this record, namely for "Sports Bar," Francis told Thad that he had built a fully-functioning, Old West-style saloon on his property near Joshua Tree. So we went and saw it and were just like, "Okay, we have the location. Now we just need the idea."
I think it was in a Days Inn or some s#*tty hotel somewhere for an Eve 6 one-off or something, and I just had one of those waking dreams. It just kind of came to me. And I even saw people with animal heads and, down to specifics, the guy with the bulldog head pushing my forehead. I just saw that and I knew I wanted to have Francis, the Native American man, set up to be a hero so the audience would be convinced he was gonna save the day and then completely dash those expectations and just knock the wind out of the viewer. Thad's really talented and was able to execute that and illustrate it in a way that's really funny and chilling at the same time. We were going for Monty Python meets David Lynch.
Patrick: Well you definitely got the David Lynch theme down, and the darker angles of Monty Python.
Max: [laughs] Yeah, with the blood squirting thing, we were thinking of the Holy Grail scene with the knight disembodied and, "it's just a flesh wound." We wanted lots and lots of blood.
Patrick: Now, I have to ask you about another theme in the evolution of Max Collins: the hair. Way back in the day you had the hair really short and showed that you're a redhead. I'm a redhead, too, so I feel your pain.
Max: [laughs] Yeah, totally man, we have to stick together.
Patrick: But later on, like in the video "Think Twice," you had that curly mop going on. And now you're back to short again, at least in the "Sports Bar" video.
Max: Yeah, well, the curly mop, that was an unfortunate phase and thankfully it was only captured on celluloid. It was still unfortunate in the "Think Twice" video but it got so much more unfortunate after that because, during the tour for "It's All In Your Head," the Eve 6 record, we were sort of like a traveling band of bums. There wasn't a lot of bathing going on. It was sort of dark [laughs] and I had [these] inadvertent dreadlocks that formed [at] the back of my head just because I was never washing my hair. So, yeah, it got ugly. But I think I'm going to start growing it out a little bit. I think I'm going to start growing the top out a little bit but keep the sides under control. I'm feeling [inspired] to change it up a little bit. How do you do your red hair?
Patrick: Aw man, I've gone through a massive amount of phases. I had the gradual bowl surfer style in the '90s …
Max: So you have straight hair…
Patrick: Yeah, the only curling I have going on is in the back when I know I need to cut it. I get that hockey mullet thing going on.
Max: That's what's so great about the shaved head. It's just so low-maintenance.
Patrick: Yeah. You changed things up a little bit with the facial hair!
Max: Yeah, that's true. Much to the chagrin of my wife. She's totally not down with it. I have such a contrarian personality that when people start saying, "You should really shave that moustache," it just strengthens my resolve to grow it out.
Patrick: So Honey From the Ice Box, the solo album, comes out May 6th?
Max: Yeah. I got the title from a novel I read a few months back, and one of the characters is speaking to a friend of his and wants to…thinks his sister's hot, and he says, "She's honey from the icebox. Cold sweets won't spread." And I just liked the way that sounded. So yeah, it's coming out May 6th, and I'm pretty excited about it.
Patrick: It's just a digital release at the moment?
Max: Well, I did a PledgeMusic campaign to fund the record, so people who pledged will get their CDs as well. We're shipping them out to correspond with the release date. I am manufacturing CDs but they're limited in number. For the most part, it's digital. I'm doing vinyl, too, but again it's a pledger thing for the most part.
Patrick: So this was pretty much pledgers and you putting money into this album.
Max: Yeah, entirely. No label involvement or any other money.
Patrick: Was that stressful? I mean, obviously you get full control over your work, but then you have to deal with everything else that you normally wouldn't have to deal with.
Max: Yeah, it was stressful, and I learned a lot from it. If I do it again, I think I'll be better about it. I've definitely had a lot of cramping in my hand from writing innumerable "Thank you" letters and handwritten lyrics, but it's been fun. One of the things I did was matching tattoos. So I got a matching tattoo with a fan. I have one more of those to do. We have a trip to Medieval Times with a pledger. We tried to keep it sort of ridiculous, keep it interesting.
Patrick: Who got to choose the tattoo? You, or the pledger?
Max: I'm definitely open to the creative process between myself and the pledger and, of course, I get veto power if someone says, "Let's get matching Tazmanian Devils on our… whatever."
Patrick: So there's a discussion to it.
Max: Exactly. So, in this case, we [the fan and I] happen to have both read this novel The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, and we both really liked it so we decided to get an apple. So I got half an apple and she got half an apple.
Patrick: Wow. What did your wife think about that one?
Max: My wife is so cool. She wouldn't be my wife if she weren't. We've been together for a long time now. It just takes a special kind of girl to deal with having a boyfriend/husband that's a touring musician.
Follow Max on:
Twitter: @MaxCollinsMusic
Instagram: @MaxCollinsMusic
Max Collins Music website
Patrick Emmel stands in solidarity with Max Collins and the red-headed masses. You can see more of his work at www.theineptowl.com or heckle him on Twitter @Patrick_AE.
Patrick last interviewed a more current member of Nine Inch Nails, drummer Ilan Rubin, on his new project The New Regime, and helped comedian Doug Stanhope make some beef stroganoff while interviewing him about dark comedy.


text:
- Report: #394652
Report - Rebuttal - Arbitrate
Complaint Review: Stoneleigh Recovery Associates, LLC
Stoneleigh Recovery Associates, LLC1919 S. Highland Ave, Suite 325-B Lombard, Illinois U.S.A.
Stoneleigh Recovery Associates, LLC Illegal Practices For Contacting Supposed Clients Lombard Illinois
Ripoff Report
About you?
Ripoff Report
A business' first
line of defense
on the Internet.
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..
Does your business have a bad reputation?
Fix it the right way.
Corporate Advocacy Program™
Apparently, Stoneleigh Recovery Associates, LLC starts digging for information on neighbors and begins harassing them if they can't contact the party they are are trying to reach.
Wolflake, Indiana
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 11/24/2008 05:16 PM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Stoneleigh-Recovery-Associates-LLC/Lombard-Illinois-60148/Stoneleigh-Recovery-Associates-LLC-Illegal-Practices-For-Contacting-Supposed-Clients-Lomb-394652. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report.
Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on Stoneleigh Recovery Associates, LLC
If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:Search Tips
In order to assure the best results in your search:
- Keep the name short & simple, and try different variations of the name.
- Do not include ".com", "S", "Inc.", "Corp", or "LLC" at the end of the Company name.
- Use only the first/main part of a name to get best results.
- Only search one name at a time if Company has many AKA's.
Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.


text:
Want Free Shipping Every Day? Learn How.
I run a vintage and retro clothing shop. I make clothes from vintage patterns using modern fabric. I love finding exciting artists with amazing designs on spoonflower to make my dresses with & hope to hook up with designers to produce an exclusive range
© 2008-2015 Spoonflower Inc


text:
hospital checklist for delivery | free printable
A few months ago (holy cow, almost 8 months ago!) I asked you gals what you would bring to the hospital when delivering a baby. I took notes on your suggestions and well, after 3 1/2 hours of pushing, had a baby! I then modified my list on what I actually used and now have a handy dandy "master list" for next time… if there is a next time. In the meantime, it's yours for the taking ;)
(Simply right click to save the image above and print on 8.5×11 paper)
The lines under miscellaneous would include things like doctor/nurse gifts. Ummmm, you know you're a craft blogger when you're creating during labor! Ha ha! Ours was a simple scrapbook paper wrapped chocolate bar with a personalized note to each of the hospital staff that completely pampered this first time in labor momma. Love our local hospital!
Fast forward to bringing baby home. Are you nursing? Bottle feeding? I personally did both. I nursed (er, am nursing still) 90% of the time but saved one feeding with formula so daddy could feed baby and bond; it is also so nice to be able to leave for more than 2-3 hours if I have a church meeting, a girls night out or etc., and I depend on a good formula to take my place.
Pregnant? Check out how to dress your bump for fall!
my sweet little one month old would love this prize!
The little one in my womb to be born in March would benefit from this gift!
We're expecting our first nephew this weekend. This would be great for him!
This would definitely help me out! I'm expecting and I'm due in May :)
Well happy early baby shower gift to you, Melissa! You are the lucky winner. Check your email :)
my sweet baby Tate
My sister called me today and said "we are pregnant"! So excited..this is my first baby giveaway i have ever entered
My friend Jennifer just gave birth to a baby girl and she is getting it if I win!
My little nephew would get it.
Thank you so much for offering such a wonderful giveaway. I would give this entire prize to my sweet friend. She is expecting her very first baby in just two weeks! Speaking of sweethearts… Dutch is an absolute doll! Are you sure you won't reconsider adding him to the giveaway? ;)
Becoming a first time mom in March… I would love this
I have a new baby girl due March 27th that I would love this stuff for! :)
my sweet little niece Maleah!!
I just had a baby last week, so winning would be totally awesome! Thanks for the giveaway.
[…] What if I forget something? Should I pack it this early? I've found a lot of great lists (this one and this one (which isn't so much like a hospital list but a to do list)), and about 5 […]


text:
Display caption
Stothard was one of the most prolific of the illustrators of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He collaborated with Blake and Flaxman and represents a gentler, sweeter manifestation of Neo-classicism. Here he tackles a warlike subject that Flaxman might have chosen, but in the rich colour and sinuous complexity of his design betrays a debt to Rubens as well as to the Greeks.
August 2004


text:
Patrick Kell, IMBA's Southwest Regional Director, is again prospecting for new trail development, this time partnering with local residents, the Dixie Mountain Bike Association (an IMBA Chapter), Kane County, and the Kanab Field Office of the... Read More / Post Comments
Chris Bernhardt
Chris Bernhardt leads IMBA's Trail Solutions program as Director of Consulting Services.
Project Manager Shane Wilson spent several weeks in Cedar City, UT, earlier this year resulting in a proposal for a massive new system of trails, as reported... Read More / Post Comments
In Pocahontas State Park near Richmond, Virginia, IMBA Trail Solutions is about to finish a one-mile Gateway Trails project. But this isn't just any build... Read More / Post Comments
The Trail Solutions team returns to Coldwater Mountain this month, coinciding with a television commercial that highlights the great riding at the trail system. Set to air next year, the commercial will help promote tourism in eastern Alabama.... Read More / Post Comments
This past weekend Trail Solutions' staff led nearly 40 volunteers and 10 land managers in an Advanced Trail Building School near Lorane, OR. A mixture of classroom and field exercises, the curriculum expands on the information taught by the... Read More / Post Comments


text:
RadioShack (NYSE:RSH) is getting hammered by a lack of visibility and short sellers (short interest is a staggering 36% of float). With proper management moves, RSH could start a new move up. At current price levels, there appears to be significant safety (based on strong balance sheet) and huge upside (stock trading below book, huge short interest, strong international opportunities).
RadioShack has lost Institutional interest and since management has been slow to detail their plans for the next several years, investors have fled the stock, causing it to hit an all-time low ($4.05) this last week. The worst move management made was suspending the "stock buyback". Even if they buy back a small amount of shares each quarter, the threat of a strong bid there keeps the hedge funds away from shorting it into the ground.
The current price is baseless. It is all from short sellers driving it into the ground while there are no buyers given the lack of visibility. Management should do the following and if they do, it is in my opinion, the stock could easily soar back to $10-15 per share:
- Provide clear-cut guidance as to their 3-5 year time business plan.
- Provide earnings expectations on the above plan.
- Reinstate the stock buy back. At these levels, earnings could soar.
- Reaffirm that the dividend is 100% safe. They recently doubled the dividend to 50 cents per share, which yields over 12%.
- Provide monthly updates on sales.
- Re-brand the name. "Your best buy is to head to The Shack." - It kind of slams the competition in a sneaky, effective way.
- Another ad campaign - "Your one stop for not just accessories, but phones, electronics, everything you need!"
- Close stores that are under-performing.
- Continue to explore International growth with the ultimate goal of spinning off a new company stock tied to it - RadioShack International, for example.
- Get Institutional interest back. Executives must show they are serious by jumping on current prices with insider buying.
If James Gooch (current RSH chief) gets his act together and starts focusing on this list, he can restore RSH back to a powerful player in retail. RadioShack has a lot going for it - strong balance sheet; smaller, more manageable stores; foothold on smalltown U.S.A. Investors just need more clarity on the CEO's vision.
52wk high: 16.25
52wk low: 4.05
Div Rate: 0.50
Yield: 12.0773
Market Cap: 409.64 M
Volume: 5.81 M
Disclosure: I am long RSH. I plan to add to my holdings if price remains depressed and/or the company provides more clear-cut plans for the future.