Eileen Gray

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">We visited <a href="http://www.imma.ie/en/page_236727.htm">IMMA</a> last night to view the retrospective of Eileen Gray, designer of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-1027">E1027</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRf0VcYa87QPJuI4_k7Daj3pQyHXvdLFG6ZxtUUzguFqJZxEZpDnlSBG-tI-cPmLzy_3wcmKJqaqfv6f8dCe8DEU0igalqT8-Z26aztHU4VTALYoBTKWy7elMkL9q50oTiyD90iS8UC5P/s640/blogger-image--1615680456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRf0VcYa87QPJuI4_k7Daj3pQyHXvdLFG6ZxtUUzguFqJZxEZpDnlSBG-tI-cPmLzy_3wcmKJqaqfv6f8dCe8DEU0igalqT8-Z26aztHU4VTALYoBTKWy7elMkL9q50oTiyD90iS8UC5P/s640/blogger-image--1615680456.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">Architect Fiona O'Herlihy gave a talk about the work of Gray - Here's the blurb: </span><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Architect’s Response | Ruth O’Herlihy</strong></div><strong style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Thursday 17 October, 7.00 – 8.00pm, Galleries, IMMA</strong><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Eileen Gray regularly commented on how her Enniscorthy family home was the genesis for her architectural and design practice. As a frame of reference to discuss her retrospective exhibition Ruth O’Herlihy (Architect, Teacher, Director of McCullough Mulvin) reflects on domestic contexts, juxtapositions and the associated memories of spaces that act as a catalyst for her built work and ideas, coming from a rich architectural family context. Please note exhibition fee applies for gallery talks on the exhibition Eileen Gray </span><em style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Architect Designer Painter</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">.</span><br /><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjV4vKJ-cS5SIhdb3J2ggEhSpLuDN00T0_nQb84ue1U0kA3XP1xecxd6lTMM6aJM_VsJPn-X4WlLunOq6f3d5AbCPHmR429sl4SV2ZelXfLzq7xVghUUYN7OVPT0vcdvmkFIWhVOn7haM/s640/blogger-image--156567156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjV4vKJ-cS5SIhdb3J2ggEhSpLuDN00T0_nQb84ue1U0kA3XP1xecxd6lTMM6aJM_VsJPn-X4WlLunOq6f3d5AbCPHmR429sl4SV2ZelXfLzq7xVghUUYN7OVPT0vcdvmkFIWhVOn7haM/s640/blogger-image--156567156.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">While O'Herlihy's talk was quite interesting I got the feeling that Eileen Gray and her work was not something that she was influenced by.  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I also am not convinced by her statement that Gray was a "good architect but not a great architect".</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here's a few pics of some of the furniture pieces designed by Eileen Grey.  The side table pictured is hugely iconic.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqknE8l3_6UFv8NYkzGUQq9ac2-X-shce_QfZI5Z3CqWKUJDg7Pk9-glkbwtOpg79I9LTt2cKTi4dxJbUNa9SAmqqrtcG5x7gupEs_jVF1y8_GdJBJWY93wPIxTppz3eoZ16IZOVHSf6gw/s640/blogger-image--2089279790.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqknE8l3_6UFv8NYkzGUQq9ac2-X-shce_QfZI5Z3CqWKUJDg7Pk9-glkbwtOpg79I9LTt2cKTi4dxJbUNa9SAmqqrtcG5x7gupEs_jVF1y8_GdJBJWY93wPIxTppz3eoZ16IZOVHSf6gw/s640/blogger-image--2089279790.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">This piece was designed for and built in to E1027.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxust89nBdENiJzarjLvp9MWbNRVrRS8FCJUpnDAVQevhNt2PC7TrYnjoN4rB4bCejTpESMzeprMC5n-C-f5l4Ro_DQ4JMPgGvDUO5b6HEVVgwN7k2GTqmyjPsGnqiCJ6Mp1JPtFpvL46_/s640/blogger-image--83915874.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxust89nBdENiJzarjLvp9MWbNRVrRS8FCJUpnDAVQevhNt2PC7TrYnjoN4rB4bCejTpESMzeprMC5n-C-f5l4Ro_DQ4JMPgGvDUO5b6HEVVgwN7k2GTqmyjPsGnqiCJ6Mp1JPtFpvL46_/s640/blogger-image--83915874.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">A drinks trolley designed by Gray</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj082Xsj4kUC-_7uTbep-HiMPQtyFTAyjInDemyZ0q0HRzQPeeFvQX1Hmii2-CYbwr7xjL05L2PqTbFVu9uPSEzGMElSgvaFOMN4iAjfSqPEjVhxBnldL8aTzVovK-07LipP1N4MxXdS7b2/s640/blogger-image--550657782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj082Xsj4kUC-_7uTbep-HiMPQtyFTAyjInDemyZ0q0HRzQPeeFvQX1Hmii2-CYbwr7xjL05L2PqTbFVu9uPSEzGMElSgvaFOMN4iAjfSqPEjVhxBnldL8aTzVovK-07LipP1N4MxXdS7b2/s640/blogger-image--550657782.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The retrospective in IMMA is on until early 2014 and I urge you to visit.  There is also the permanent <a href="http://www.museum.ie/en/exhibition/eileen-gray-introduction.aspx">Eileen Grey Exhibition</a> in Collins Barracks Museum.  I visited this a few years ago and thought it was quite brilliant!</span></div>

Eileen Gray

We visited  IMMA last night to view the retrospective of Eileen Gray, designer of  E1027 Architect Fiona O'Herlihy gave a talk about th...

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Escape Plan: A breakout surprise

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b><i>Escape Plan</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/summit/escapeplan/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b> </b><br /><b>Three stars. Rating: R, for violence and profanity</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes it pays to approach a film with diminished expectations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the comic book nonsense of both <i>Expendables</i> flicks, not to mention January’s distastefully trashy <i>Bullet to the Head</i>, I held out little hope for Sylvester Stallone’s recent return to the big screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMAkmhfJbz28S0oYX61HPw_gGB0BsrKhW7J25QDpa7wf4ZHy1JYFUSQ9Cdol3V_kPCo3MHOekPIi1OCQQ7qdHJZbVeQXh5TBOUOZ-iG6oKKH5rFKKopOxFAeOv4Dz7fsgCIVpN9B_rz6Q/s1600/Escape+Plan+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMAkmhfJbz28S0oYX61HPw_gGB0BsrKhW7J25QDpa7wf4ZHy1JYFUSQ9Cdol3V_kPCo3MHOekPIi1OCQQ7qdHJZbVeQXh5TBOUOZ-iG6oKKH5rFKKopOxFAeOv4Dz7fsgCIVpN9B_rz6Q/s400/Escape+Plan+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Although trapped in a maximum-security prison that offers little hope for any sort of<br />escape plan, Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone, left) and Emil Rottmayer (Arnold<br />Schwarzenegger) have a few ideas ... all of them highly dangerous, of course, and<br />with little chance of success. But it's not like they have anything else to do...</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And although Arnold Schwarzenegger cleverly parodied his advancing age in <i>The Last Stand</i>, also released in January, box-office disinterest made that little action flick’s title seem prophetic, with respect to <i>his</i> career. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I therefore haven’t been surprised by the disinterest in <i>Escape Plan</i>, which arrives in theaters today after a rather lackluster publicity campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which just goes to show the folly of jumping to conclusions. Swedish-born director Mikael Håfström has uncorked a tidy little thriller, which gets much of its juice from a clever script by Miles Chapman and Jason Keller. The premise is intriguing, the execution is engaging — if occasionally burdened by exploitation flick clichés — and, yes, Stallone and Schwarzenegger acquit themselves honorably.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, they’re perfectly cast in this twisty prison saga, which seems to have been shaped with their strengths — and acting limitations — in mind. Håfström allows them to do what they do best, and they do it well; the result certainly won’t be more than a footnote in cinema history, but it’s a reasonably entertaining way to spend a night at the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ray Breslin (Stallone) has a most unusual career: He’s a structural engineer who specializes in prison design, or — more precisely — the weaknesses of such institutions. As the “field agent” half of the Los Angeles-based security firm Breslin-Clark, he allows himself to be incarcerated into various prisons as an apparent felon, in order to escape and thus expose design and (more frequently) staffing weaknesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although ostensibly on his own, Breslin always is monitored by his operational partners: handler Abigail Ross (Amy Ryan) and genius hacker Hush (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson). Partner Lester Clark (Vincent D’Onofrio) acts as the company “face,” securing the assignments and managing the tidy sums that Breslin charges for his talents.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following the completion of yet another routine assignment, Breslin is offered a tantalizing challenge by CIA operative Jessica Miller (Caitriona Balfe). Wanting to remove the political stink left by a decade’s worth of nasty headlines concerning Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition, shadowy U.S. black-ops agencies have collaborated to construct a top-secret über-prison at an undisclosed location, well away from prying media eyes. The goal is to <i>keep</i> its dangerous occupants locked up, no matter how clever — or desperate — they might be.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s where Breslin comes in: If he can’t break out, then All Concerned will be satisfied that their “detention center” lives up to its promise.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /> <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned ... which comes as no surprise to us viewers, of course. Breslin’s tracking chip is savagely removed; he’s beaten by guards; and his attempted use of the fail-safe “evacuation code” draws nothing but an amused grin from warden Willard Hobbes (Jim Caviezel).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breslin has been dumped into this high-tech facility on purpose, and all his “keys” have been thrown away. But why?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before he begins to suss out possible answers, Breslin is surprised by the helpful and downright friendly behavior of fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger). But while Rottmayer apparently can protect Breslin from the other inmates, that doesn’t help with the bigger picture; the situation seems hopeless.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chapman and Keller’s scenario is a riff on every classic heist thriller, all of which follow the same pattern: First set up “foolproof” security measures, showing us every intricate detail, and then grant our heroes the means to exploit subtle flaws in order to defeat said measures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, so, Breslin faces his own impossible challenge. Cameras are everywhere; prisoners are electronically tracked by concealed bar codes in their clothing; individual cell walls are transparent, affording no privacy; all cells are built well above floor level; all guards wear dark masks, to conceal their identities and thus prevent any means of cozying up to a given individual; and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The prison is a genius set by production designer Barry Chusid, whose various genre credits include <i>The Day After Tomorrow</i>, <i>2012</i> and the fan-beloved <i>Serenity</i>. His work here is damn impressive: worthy of the volcano lair that Ken Adam built for <i>You Only Live Twice</i>, which was a jaw-dropping milestone back in 1967.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of this film’s key mysteries concerns the prison’s actual location, and the answer to that question is a genuine surprise, which further enhances the story’s “impossible mission” tension.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Håfström’s most important contribution is his insistence that this material be played straight; our heroes don’t drop jokey one-liners, and there’s no sense that whatever follows will be good-ol’-boy child’s play (as with both <i>Expendables</i> entries). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Granted, it’s an eyebrow-raiser to accept that Stallone is a genius engineer, scientist, metallurgist and even astronavigator, not to mention his ability to MacGyver a helpful gadget from rather sketchy raw materials. But Stallone always has been good with grim resolve, and that turns out to be Breslin’s primary emotion; the script even offers a good reason for this attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schwarzenegger actually comes off better, displaying levels of presence and charisma that hearken back to his glory days. If we’re not allowed to understand Rottmayer’s motivations — his eager cooperation seems <i>so</i> suspicious — at least ol’ Arnie successfully sells the congeniality that goes with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, yes, thanks to cinematographer Brendan Galvin’s tight close-ups — and the fact that most of this prison’s “worst of the worst” felons are played by bit players and stuntmen who are shorter than our stars — the inevitable mano-a-mano beat-downs are persuasively choreographed ... and much more credible than, say, Stallone’s laughably overmatched fracas with the younger, larger and far tougher Jason Momoa, in the aforementioned <i>Bullet to the Head</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All this said, both Stallone and Schwarzenegger nonetheless have an acting range that extends no further than A to B, which allows Caviezel to steal the show. His subtlety is marvelous, particularly the half-smile that surfaces every time one of Hobbes’ “boys” misbehaves. Caviezel is the coolest villain I’ve seen in awhile, and his vile behavior here might upset folks who’ve grown fond of his kinder and gentler self on TV’s <i>Person of Interest</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The similarly talented Sam Neill also makes the most of his small part as Kyrie, the prison doctor: an inherently good man who begins to wonder if he has accepted the wrong assignment. Veteran tough guy Vinnie Jones is appropriately nasty as Hobbes’ thuggish lieutenant, Drake.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its virtues notwithstanding, Chapman and Keller’s script doesn’t always stand up to close scrutiny, starting with the biggest elephant in the room: It’s difficult to believe that so much money would be spent to “bury” mega-baddies in such a facility, lost to public view for all time, when it would be easier and cheaper to kill them. (Either way, nobody would know, right?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also was disappointed by the fact that Abigail and Hush, despite their mounting concern and much-ballyhooed investigative and computer skills, remain on the sidelines. Indeed, they play no part whatsoever in the climactic third act, which is simply wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Editor Elliot Greenberg keeps things going at a good clip, efficiently concealing the slightly too-long running time of 116 minutes. Composer Alex Heffes’ overbearing score, on the other hand, is painfully clumsy, badly placed and often irritating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the most part, though, this is an entertaining action flick that builds to a highly satisfying conclusion. I guess Stallone and Schwarzenegger <i>do</i>have some big-screen life left in them.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Amy Ryan Arnold Schwarzenegger Faran Tahir Jim Caviezel Sam Neill Sylvester Stallone Vincent D'Onofrio Vinnie Jones Escape Plan: A breakout surprise

Escape Plan   (2013) •  View trailer   Three stars. Rating: R, for violence and profanity By  Derrick Bang Sometimes it pays to ...

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UPDATED: David Tennant's Richard II Opens In Stratford-upon-Avon To Rave Reviews

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTZf1pw_weJTT-BasPX6EC8aCS0pFgCpnii4aMkXJGiIDmvCuQfsS5O6G5OP3zmmKTmsMOxxgi42JjPpVDcuVYr8nug_Z93abpAEboXDmQGuhnmwNiVLbC2jAizrTA72aEEK8-fkOijI/s1600/rich1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="568" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTZf1pw_weJTT-BasPX6EC8aCS0pFgCpnii4aMkXJGiIDmvCuQfsS5O6G5OP3zmmKTmsMOxxgi42JjPpVDcuVYr8nug_Z93abpAEboXDmQGuhnmwNiVLbC2jAizrTA72aEEK8-fkOijI/s640/rich1.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /> <br /> David Tennant's latest theatre project, Richard II, has opened to rave reviews after it's Press Night at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon last night.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>It's a 4 star review from The Times with Dominic Maxwell saying:</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He hasn't got a clue has he? You can see that from the moment David Tennant's Richard II arrives on stage with his chin uo, his hair Timotei-long, his robes and his diction refined to the point of self parody. This takes a moment to adjust to. So regularly do we root for Tennant as the heroic outsider, whether in Doctor Who or Broadchurch or even in his RSC Hamlet, that it's odd to see him back a losing horse. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When he descends from the ceiling on a golden throne, the gap couldn't be clearer between his notion of himself as a God-given ruler and our notion of him as a bit of a berk.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not that Tennant's performance or Gregory Doran's RSC production turn out to be cartoonish. One of the hottest tickets of the year long before it opened, this is a clear, propulsive, absorbing three hours of a history play that is no cinch to stage. After all, it's in verse. It has no battles. At the first sign of uprising, the belly aching Richard pretty much deposes himself ("Let's talk of graves, of worms, of epitaphs..."). "Richard II is not an action packed drama", understates the introduction to the Penguin edition of the play. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here, though, it grips, aided by Paul Englishby's beautiful period music and Stephen Brimson Lewis's spare, guilded sets. And what Tennant does, brilliantly, is to suggest a man who feels as hollow as his crown. Who play acts at being himself. Who makes bad judgments, such as expelling his cousing Bolingbroke, soon to become Henry IV, that are a weak man's idea of being strong. He is hiding his true sexuality too, to judge by his long kiss with his cousin, Oliver Rix's Aumerle. And when he is trounced by Nigel Lindsay's stocky, gym-teacher-like Bolingbroke, he goes from ruler to martyr. he proffers the crown as if holding out a stick to a dog ("Here, cousin!").</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's electrifying.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We don't love him, but we get his grief in a play suffused with a sense of loss. Jane Lapotaire's Duchess of Gloucester mourns her husband and Michael Pennington's John Of Gaunt mourns what Richard has done to England in anguished moments that are both magnificent and a bit hard to absorb so early on. By the second half, though, Doran's production can sell everything from wit to desolation. Near the end, the Yorks, played by Oliver Ford Davies and Marty Cruickshank, row about his turning in their son, Aumerle as a traitor. It's pretty funny. It's also a resonant reminder of how the power play and posturing of politics is no job for amateurs. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8A69tkeeGVcT9vSElHkjmf3OaU_aRIpKvB_1uUKL74_zBV2b6sEYmRN52DF0urgVRLDXW5z1PIpOyw94Ci3CzX_A2DDVw1sVyaBlqe3PgZzzlY4TGQdHXw0lTLK5UrLq81IBtExt0vAE/s1600/r2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8A69tkeeGVcT9vSElHkjmf3OaU_aRIpKvB_1uUKL74_zBV2b6sEYmRN52DF0urgVRLDXW5z1PIpOyw94Ci3CzX_A2DDVw1sVyaBlqe3PgZzzlY4TGQdHXw0lTLK5UrLq81IBtExt0vAE/s1600/r2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Writing a 4 star review for <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/first-night-richard-ii-royal-shakespeare-theatre-stratforduponavon-8887542.html#" target="_blank">The Independent</a> Paul Taylor says:</b></span><br /><div class="storyContent" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.546875px; text-align: justify;"><h5><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">They covered themselves in glory five years ago with Hamlet; now David Tennant and Gregory Doran join forces again for this lucid and gripping account of Richard II. Having played the most intellectually searching of Shakespeare’s protagonists, who is painfully miscast as a revenge hero, Tennant – in splendid form here – trains his talents on the most self-absorbed and inward-looking of the Bard’s monarchs, who is fatally miscast as God’s anointed deputy on earth.</span></span></h5></div><div class="storyContent" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><div class="body"><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In his gorgeous, gold-embroidered robes (and long, flowing hair extensions, to boot), this Richard is wrapped in the mystique of medieval majesty. But he occupies the Gothic throne with a slouch of disgruntlement, his features congealed in disdain. Admirably resisting any temptation to make the king likeable, Tennant vividly exudes the bored irritability that erupts in tyrannical caprice. And impatience is making him reckless, too. In this production, he brazenly hears the dispute between Bolingbroke and Mowbray at the (interpolated) ceremonial lying-in-state of the Duke of Gloucester, whose murky murder (and, implicitly, Richard’s involvement in it) is itself the bone of contention.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then Richard is a monarch who would always choose theatrical effect over political prudence. With his great gift for playfulness, Tennant runs heavily sarcastic rings round his usurper in the deposition scene. Holding the crown at arm’s length, and with his back to the assembled company, he calls out “Here cousin”, in the tones of someone inviting a dog to play fetch. This is not a Richard who luxuriates in the lyricism of grief. Tennant delivers the plaintive, self-pitying arias with a scathing irony for the most part, flecked by tiny surrenders to abject panic – as though he were at once sufferer and observer of the tragic process whereby, when the royal persona shatters, it exposes the naked, insecure person underneath. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By contrast, Nigel Lindsay’s Bolingbroke presents himself as a plain-speaking bloke who has returned from exile solely to claim his rightful inheritance – though there’s a suggestion in his hooded watchfulness and the brutality with which he dispatches Richard’s flatterers that he has a devious, long-term strategy. He plays his cards close to his chest and is embarrassed by Richard, whose upstaging antics leave him having to force face-saving laughter in front of his followers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Interestingly, though, Doran is more interested in the king’s relationship with his other cousin, the young Aumerle. I should perhaps issue a spoiler alert for the rest of this paragraph. This production gives the pair a charged, private sequence on the walls of Flint Castle (evoked by the mobile gantry that slices across Stephen Brimson Lewis’s excellent design). The monarch’s speech of speculative capitulation (“What must the King do now? Must he submit?”) reduces his devoted number one supporter to such heartfelt, quiet tears that Tennant’s Richard is touched to a moment of rare compassion for another creature – treating his cousin to a tenderly passionate kiss and a cradling on his breast. But Aumerle, whose riven emotional state is beautifully conveyed by Oliver Rix, turns into the production’s most extreme casualty of the world of divided loyalties. Shopped to the new king by his own father for his treacherous plots, to what desperate lengths might such a man go to prove that he’s been born again politically? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There isn’t a weak link in the cast. Ferocious eloquence overcomes deathbed infirmity in Michael Pennington’s superb portrayal of John of Gaunt, and Oliver Ford Davies gives a fine edge of grumpy comedy to the Duke of York’s conscience-stricken dithering. Another palpable hit for the Tennant/Doran collaboration, the production transfers to the Barbican in December and will be broadcast live in cinemas on 13 November.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYEUaQ91yFiBgZGmUqw-4NOCQlvFJdKb4iY2TGVYgrnkQ1IaIpV_qpGncUk81XgFFWajoklYMj02BYXstnt30EwLNrAmFsW1pYBVTBuml5Pa2MJkl6u1Cv4IG-TL1_U6qjcSUwrDBswM/s1600/r12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYEUaQ91yFiBgZGmUqw-4NOCQlvFJdKb4iY2TGVYgrnkQ1IaIpV_qpGncUk81XgFFWajoklYMj02BYXstnt30EwLNrAmFsW1pYBVTBuml5Pa2MJkl6u1Cv4IG-TL1_U6qjcSUwrDBswM/s1600/r12.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://t.co/jjsNaSWmEC" target="_blank">The Guardian's</a> Michael Billington also gives 4 stars and heaps praise upon the cast and creatives:</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This show marks the start of Gregory Doran's six-year plan to present the entire Shakespeare canon. It's fair to say that his own beautifully crafted, richly detailed production sets a high standard for himself and others to aim at. David Tennant, in a mesmerising performance that grows in power as Richard's authority declines, also reminds us that the Royal Shakespeare Company is an ensemble that paradoxically needs stars.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's a sign of Doran's care that he makes clear the complex back-story that illuminates Shakespeare's play. An audience needs to know that Richard's original sin lies in sanctioning the murder of his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Michael Boyd began his 2007 production by having Richard stepping lightly over the corpse of the dead duke. Doran, even before Richard's entry, shows us elaborate funeral rites with three sopranos singing religious anthems in the upper galleries and the Duchess of Gloucester bent in grief over her husband's tomb. This is clearly a court steeped in mourning.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The prelude also gives Tennant a vital context in which to work. His Richard, with his brocade gown and Christ-like hair, initially affects an air of listless boredom as his burly barons hurl accusations of treason at each other. But there's a thrilling moment when Tennant gives the banished Mowbray a piercing stare as if daring him to spill the beans about the king's part in Gloucester's murder. Tennant combines inner guilt with a careless disregard for realpolitik as he seizes the land and goods of John of Gaunt after his death: a point reinforced here by the fact that we see tuns of treasure being bodily transported.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tennant's strengths, as we know from his Hamlet, are a capacity for quicksilver thought and an almost boyish vulnerability. And, even if he might do more to convey the patterned lyricism of the language, what he brings out excellently is the fact that Richard only learns to value kingship after he has lost it. In his decline, Tennant casually tosses the crown away and, at one point, skittishly places it on the head of his adored Aumerle. But in the Westminster deposition scene, where Tennant is at his best, he challenges Bolingbroke to "seize the crown" and, when his rival rises to the bait, immediately inverts it to suggest a falling bucket. Tennant's great achievement is to attract our sympathy to what the gardener calls a "wasteful king" who abuses power when he has it and who achieves tragic dignity only in his downfall.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But this production, which combines period costumes with back-projections in Stephen Brimson Lewis's elegant design, is emphatically no one-man show. Nigel Lindsay's Bolingbroke is a palpably dangerous figure who treats Richard's remission of his initial banishment with surly disdain and openly scorns the deposed king's self-conscious theatricality. It is also good to see a number of RSC veterans operating at top form in key roles.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oliver Ford Davies is brilliant as the Duke of York in that he highlights both the comedy and pathos of a man torn between ancestral loyalty to the crown and a recognition of Bolingbroke's power. Michael Pennington's John of Gaunt is also a fine study of a dying man bursting with intemperate rage at Richard's betrayal of his country. And Jane Lapotaire turns the Duchess of Gloucester into a silver-haired figure whose widowed grief manifests itself in a burning appetite for revenge.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The packed houses for this production's run in both Stratford and at the Barbican may have much to do with Tennant's star presence. But this is the strongest company the RSC has fielded in years, and what Doran's production brings out is the rich complexity of a play that raises the eternal question of at what point it becomes legitimate to unseat a manifestly flawed ruler. Shakespeare's play may be set in 14th-century England. It remains, however, a timelessly political work.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPuqquCtmD2RVhKBWxItVSBrQn7mRqAG2k3jgUHOJRPU1tfv5FBkBHqtAT8h7YFBdrfaGUYcQLU71-2aBpTqDJ6SbwbrYtsoAriYK_D0FELCLBbfauR-wc9jYP0xWLsaxWN06FoLCXkbs/s1600/r13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPuqquCtmD2RVhKBWxItVSBrQn7mRqAG2k3jgUHOJRPU1tfv5FBkBHqtAT8h7YFBdrfaGUYcQLU71-2aBpTqDJ6SbwbrYtsoAriYK_D0FELCLBbfauR-wc9jYP0xWLsaxWN06FoLCXkbs/s1600/r13.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>It's another 4 star review from <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10385663/Richard-II-Royal-Shakespeare-Theatre-Stratford-upon-Avon-review.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">The Telegraph's</a> Dominic Cavendish:</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /> <span style="text-align: start;">Five years after his </span>spellbinding Hamlet<span style="text-align: start;">, David Tennant is back at the RSC and reunited with director (now artistic director) Gregory Doran for Richard II. Last time round there was a lot of hoo-ha about Doctor Who and a box-office frenzy. Maybe there’ll be more of that again, with Tennant joining Matt Smith for the 50th anniversary special next month. But for the moment, a calm air of focus prevails; Tennant, 42, is in his natural element – and day tickets are available.</span></span><br /><div class="secondPar" style="line-height: normal; text-align: start;"><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His hair takes some getting used to: great gingery-brown extensions trail girlishly downwards. Long, magisterial, quasi-medieval robes add to the effeminate impression. In Act III, at Flint Castle, beset by ruin, this Richard leans close and kisses his cousin Aumerle (the youthful, boyish Oliver Rix) on the lips. As with Hamlet, so with Richard – there’s an identity crisis at play (“remember who you are”, Aumerle counsels, as if that were possible), but here it’s of a sexual nature too. And in a further directorial flourish, Doran makes Aumerle the last face the imprisoned, ousted monarch sees, plunging the dagger into him.</span></div></div><div class="thirdPar" style="line-height: normal; text-align: start;"><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, though, this production is more reverent than radical. Doran has suggested he will work slowly, steadily, through the canon – and the first scene especially, in which Nigel Lindsay’s tough, gruff, almost too-too solid Bolingbroke squares up to Antony Byrne’s aggrieved Mowbray – each accusing the other of treason – feels slow and steady to a fault. Richard’s reign, some 20 years in at this stage (1398), was in severe trouble. Thanks to an emphasised aura of restraint – signalled by a stark, simple set from Stephen Brimson Lewis, augmented by subtle projections on towering screens – you don’t get much sense of the hurly-burly of this chapter of history or of events spinning wildly out of the king’s weakening control.</span></div></div><div class="fourthPar" style="line-height: normal; text-align: start;"><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With his startled eyes and concentrated frown, Tennant is frail, pale and consistently interesting but the nervous energy he excels in is confined to quarters early on. Trumpets sound, sopranos trill sacred music as if wafting incense; the king is embalmed in ceremony, cloaked in remoteness.</span></div></div><div class="fifthPar" style="text-align: start;"><div style="line-height: normal; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s the older hands who galvanise proceedings with emotional intensity in the first half. A quivering Jane Lapotaire as the widowed Duchess of Gloucester, spilling over with unconfined grief, that perpetually stooped, hangdog actor Oliver Ford Davies as the fretful Duke of York and Michael Pennington, little short of magnificent as John of Gaunt – lending febrile and ferocious emphasis to his “This sceptr’d isle” speech and to those last-gasp accusations against Richard.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The evening is always lucid but only truly crystalises as things fall apart. Richard spasms with panic as he grasps the frailty of existence, crawling on the floor in abjection. He’s appealingly sardonic as he bows in exaggeration before his usurper, and at the end, having taken on the aspect of Christ, he appears aloft on a gantry, looking down in beatific accusation as Bolingbroke contemplates the blood on his hands. Tennant shines, but he has shone brighter.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmBH9kWWElSe3qGXqrS9-eFFgic0h2B4_a1z027qu2Y8u9wUGiYi6SG0J67OzRkjEYVfYEDrqiT9tpXlfEFyVjRinktkGlX5kaVntZrHTr0YmMvTMuF_McCmfdd2cAEECbcBEcFMOWS8/s1600/r17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmBH9kWWElSe3qGXqrS9-eFFgic0h2B4_a1z027qu2Y8u9wUGiYi6SG0J67OzRkjEYVfYEDrqiT9tpXlfEFyVjRinktkGlX5kaVntZrHTr0YmMvTMuF_McCmfdd2cAEECbcBEcFMOWS8/s1600/r17.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="padding: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/theatre/437598/Richard-II-at-RSC-Stratford-upon-Avon-review" target="_blank">The Daily Express</a> gives a 5 star review with Neil Norman saying:</b></span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Often represented as effete and capricious, even gay, Richard needs a very special actor to seek out all the crevices of his personality.</span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Tennant is that actor. From the moment he arrives on stage in a kind of gilded sheath with his long hair held back by a crown to attend his uncle Gloucester's funeral, he shows us with sly precision a man in thrall to his own vanity, seduced by his anointed position and intelligent enough to be aware of both. As his role becomes increasingly challenging and challenged by the remorseless Bolingbroke (Nigel Lindsay), Richard's doubts about his fitness to rule leak out as if from invisible wounds while the sub-textual debates - pragmatist v aesthete, philistine v artist - hover in the ether.</span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gregory Doran's production is superbly orchestrated from the opening funeral in a soaring Gothic cathedral with three sopranos and musicians to Richard's abdication which turns into a tug-of-war over the crown with Bolingbroke.</span></div><div class="p1" style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a lucid, moving production packed with tremendous performances. From Michael Pennington's John of Gaunt, the last great Englishman, to Oliver Ford Davies's wonderfully bewildered Duke of York. Emma Hamilton as the Queen, Marty Cruickshank as the Duchess of York and Jane Lapotaire as the bereaved Duchess of Gloucester all make striking contributions.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The sense of England is prevalent throughout. Returning from Ireland Richard strokes the ground with a lover's caress, as if nourished by the earth itself. Whether sashaying around like a 14th-century David Bowie or stumbling like a Christ figure hauled before Bolingbroke's Pontius Pilate, Tennant captures Richard's androgyny, suggesting a man more asexual than bisexual. But he is no pushover. When the murderers come for him he goes down fighting. I was sorely tempted to cheer.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;"><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Verdict: 5/5</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 20px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjym_HFVfXyVynAKVr2yNb0trktrEhqQcsFO6JXWRsnNAmha64S6KiHEuXveI0nOTREvG87fTgFlyW5oOk-J4-8u6P7wsS05yFdgUbKMg7J4Tway9FkC2TKfXveOKBa_p8FhWg-8-ldrOg/s1600/r14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjym_HFVfXyVynAKVr2yNb0trktrEhqQcsFO6JXWRsnNAmha64S6KiHEuXveI0nOTREvG87fTgFlyW5oOk-J4-8u6P7wsS05yFdgUbKMg7J4Tway9FkC2TKfXveOKBa_p8FhWg-8-ldrOg/s1600/r14.jpg" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/richard-ii-royal-shakespeare-theatre--theatre-review-8888556.html" target="_blank">Henry Hitchings also rates the show as 4 star in The Evening Standard:</a></b></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Five years on from his electrifying Hamlet, David Tennant returns to the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Richard II. From the moment of its announcement this has been one of the year’s hottest tickets.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Tennant does not disappoint. He delivers a vivid, intelligent performance, at least as mesmerising as the best of his TV work. He is certainly not afraid to make Richard dislikable. Instead of the poetic soul we tend to see, his Richard is irritable. In the early scenes he is petulant and smug.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">With fluting voice and waist-length hair (Tennant sports mighty extensions) he is a picture of prissy narcissism. And he skips around the stage like a child who has had too many sweets.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">From the outset Tennant’s Richard is excitingly unpredictable and as his authority crumbles he transforms intriguingly from a gilded tyrant into a more vulnerable character — yet one who is capable of bursts of aggression. By the end he is a holy man in a flowing white robe.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Gregory Doran’s production moves slowly for the first hour or so but it is satisfying both visually and dramatically. It also benefits from the strongest RSC cast in a long time.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Tennant’s Richard contrasts nicely with Nigel Lindsay’s robust, manly Bolingbroke. Michael Pennington makes a poignantly eloquent John of Gaunt, while Jane Lapotaire and Marty Cruickshank bring real substance to lesser roles. Oliver Ford Davies deserves a special mention: his Duke of York is an unalloyed delight.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Doran places an unusual emphasis on the king’s cousin Aumerle (Oliver Rix) and it is Richard’s relationship with him — coloured by awkward lust — that defines the production.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">This is a clear, detailed and dynamic account of a drama that can often seem glutted with artful rhetoric and ceremonial formality. It is an impressive start to Doran’s campaign to stage all Shakespeare’s plays. Richard II will come to the Barbican in December, as well as being shown in cinemas on November 13.</span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>

David Tennant Gregory Doran Reviews Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Shakespeare Theatre Theatre UPDATED: David Tennant's Richard II Opens In Stratford-upon-Avon To Rave Reviews

David Tennant's latest theatre project, Richard II, has opened to rave reviews after it's Press Night at The Royal Shakespeare The...

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Tenth Doctor Month - The Weeping Angels Named As Your Favourite Foe

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEXYBD6_w0RYfjFU3Js3Qhqey_JZ3IMnh2gBnGNe7WRlbpom844jgR36hQ2nBCYg2QfWNxlb4Znnlc_gCItJGm4n1S8L1iH585FyX7TphJCwkeiQyj16VgnIfmqgHrJBp2AFf4ttdcFsw/s1600/blink.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEXYBD6_w0RYfjFU3Js3Qhqey_JZ3IMnh2gBnGNe7WRlbpom844jgR36hQ2nBCYg2QfWNxlb4Znnlc_gCItJGm4n1S8L1iH585FyX7TphJCwkeiQyj16VgnIfmqgHrJBp2AFf4ttdcFsw/s640/blink.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;">As we celebrate Tenth Doctor month as part of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary year celebrations we asked you who your favourite for to battle with David Tennant's Doctor is?</span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">It was a close contest, but the winner was The Weeping Angels, who scored a massive 31% of the vote, scoring closely in second place was The Master with 28% and third favourite the Daleks with 13%.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.poll-maker.com/results35624x88015d14-2?v=99" target="_blank">View the full results here.</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fafafa; clear: both; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-67-Ft56JvigVyFYvbxjjzfUcxb7ZC8TlObySyDE9smoDkD13pr3vJqgObjYhsF5613h84M98RYFkciLGIAHZG2DMK7QIZaL8mOVBzKF-wi7sgnRwAx63K5SIWlK1PfE_Qto6igeQOM/s1600/weepingangel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-67-Ft56JvigVyFYvbxjjzfUcxb7ZC8TlObySyDE9smoDkD13pr3vJqgObjYhsF5613h84M98RYFkciLGIAHZG2DMK7QIZaL8mOVBzKF-wi7sgnRwAx63K5SIWlK1PfE_Qto6igeQOM/s640/weepingangel.JPG" style="-webkit-border-image: url(data:image/png; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 9; border-image-source: url(data:image/png; border-image-width: 9px; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></span></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;"></span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;"><b style="background-color: white;">Heart Of Stone:</b></span><br style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">The Weeping Angels are time-sensitive killers, as old as the universe, who thrived on chronon energy. They would send their victims back in time just by touching them, to live their lives in a different time zone, and the Angels would feed on the potential time energy created by the vanishing people's preordained lives being disturbed.</span><br style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Once known as the Lonely Assasins, because they could never touch anything without sending it back in time, they could only move and attack if they weren't being observed; if they were seen, they immediately became quantum locked and froze in to solid stone. They could cross vast distances in the time it took their victim to blink. The Doctor used the unwitting Sally Sparrow to trap them - when Sally and her friend Larry accessed the TARDIS, the Angels gathered around it, hoping to feed of it's energy, but the Doctor had pre set a dematerialisation sequence, meaning that it vanished around Sally and Larry. Caught off guard the Angels were all left looking at each other when the TARDIS vanished and so the four of them were frozen for eternity, unable to close their eyes and unable to not see one another.</span><br style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;" /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: #fafafa; clear: both; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7ylqQgrc3bIiOD2nQpLTj3GHvUx6nocrHE-zCymCSA7H415jJ6rgsrCeZtSX89jS6wzoptq2in-9noJy-coPQMgQco6xkOaOB62wFgP3EifGtyWvBdXSVgXb7FM1ZfF88GrmePKAcNA/s1600/angel1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge7ylqQgrc3bIiOD2nQpLTj3GHvUx6nocrHE-zCymCSA7H415jJ6rgsrCeZtSX89jS6wzoptq2in-9noJy-coPQMgQco6xkOaOB62wFgP3EifGtyWvBdXSVgXb7FM1ZfF88GrmePKAcNA/s640/angel1.JPG" style="-webkit-border-image: url(data:image/png; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 9; border-image-source: url(data:image/png; border-image-width: 9px; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></span></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div>

David Tennant Doctor Who Tenth Doctor Month Tenth Doctor Month - The Weeping Angels Named As Your Favourite Foe

As we celebrate Tenth Doctor month as part of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary year celebrations we asked you who your favourite for to battl...

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Richard II Music And Speeches CD Released Today

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlseUqfNByhUM16IWt3OkX64euwG27dsItatRGTtf6C9kGsk43IYopbbjvSG85ViFHgw-4Z77qKYTXmUmOL6ss1w_8X2MqhnjVfxOeOYpt09tgQ_ecXUTl6pS15-cvIPo0gs_Vs_2ENU/s1600/richardonstage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlseUqfNByhUM16IWt3OkX64euwG27dsItatRGTtf6C9kGsk43IYopbbjvSG85ViFHgw-4Z77qKYTXmUmOL6ss1w_8X2MqhnjVfxOeOYpt09tgQ_ecXUTl6pS15-cvIPo0gs_Vs_2ENU/s640/richardonstage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A new RSC CD featuring music and speeches from David Tennant's Richard II is released today.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This CD features music from the new production composed by Paul Englishby, along with speeches performed by cast members David Tennant, Jane Lapotaire and Michael Pennington It also includes music composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams from the 1913 RSC production of <i>Richard II</i>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Track listing</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Lacrimosa (Paul Englishby)<br />2. Richard (Paul Englishby)<br />3. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur? (speech Act I Sc ii Duchess of Gloucester - Jane Lapotaire)<br />4. In Paradisum (Paul Englishby)<br />5. Methinks I am a prophet new inspired (speech Act II Sc i John of Gaunt - Michael Pennington)<br />6. True Born Englishman (Paul Englishby)<br />7. Sicut Cervus (Paul Englishby)<br />8. Of comfort no man speak (speech Act III Sc ii Richard II - David Tennant)<br />9. Bolingbroke (Paul Englishby)<br />10. Requiem Aeternam (Paul Englishby)<br />11. Eased with being nothing (Ralph Vaughan Williams)<br />12. Greensleeves (arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams)<br />13. In weeping after this untimely bier (Ralph Vaughan Williams)<br />14. Agnus dei (Ralph Vaughan Williams)<br />15. Pie Jesu, Amen (Paul Englishby)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The CD is out now and costs £5 or £4.50 for RSC members</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: #fafafa; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.rsc.org.uk/shop/item/62328-richard-ii-music--speeches-cd-2013/" style="display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Order your copy here</span></b></a></div>

David Tennant Merchandise Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre Richard II Music And Speeches CD Released Today

A new RSC CD featuring music and speeches from David Tennant's Richard II is released today. This CD features music from the new product...

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Jesus Christ People, Leave Me Alone!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal">Hola to all the true believers, nonbelievers and everyone in between! Jesus People have really stepped up their game here in Redneckville over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been getting lots of church flyers on my door and even a few on my car which really annoys me. It’s supposed to be against the rules here at the Palatial Estates for people to go door-to-door or put fliers on cars but if anyone tries to run them off they’ll be accused of supporting El Diablo, Al Qaeda and/or Barack Obama. Of course most people here think Obama IS an Al Qaeda supporting Anti-Christ anyway. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Lately though, the Jesus People have gotten much more aggressive than just leaving flyers.  A couple of weeks ago a man and woman showed up at my door on a Saturday at 11 am hoping to talk to me about Jesus. They were from the Baptist Church which is the Big Dog of churches here in town. They pretty much dominate everything. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyhoodle, these two banged on my door and when I answered immediately handed me this little Jesus booklet talking about not just the history of Jesus, but the entire 6,000 year history of Earth. The highlight was the Eternal Life Birth Certificate… <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfLqWEgNUvBFmsqD2mgkkWrZG1ASorCcutRnKPhbRVXxvn-HSoMiRoAbSzJx2GF0cFjjtjjzdh0VGS-vXRfyChrqAJgJdClSvZikYOX1GxMoPohB-wJDGVmWozPGOhQtpHYJV6HsJtZ1l/s1600/Eternal+Life+Birth+Certificate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfLqWEgNUvBFmsqD2mgkkWrZG1ASorCcutRnKPhbRVXxvn-HSoMiRoAbSzJx2GF0cFjjtjjzdh0VGS-vXRfyChrqAJgJdClSvZikYOX1GxMoPohB-wJDGVmWozPGOhQtpHYJV6HsJtZ1l/s1600/Eternal+Life+Birth+Certificate.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Just fill it out and keep it with you at all times because that’s your ticket to Heaven! Just show St. Peter that and he will step aside and let you right in. Hell … er … Heck, you won’t even have to stand in line OR watch the orientation and safety video if you have one of those with ya. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">After they handed me the booklet they attempted to invite themselves in so they could sit down, have a glass of lemon iced tea and talk Jesus with me. I politely yet firmly stood my ground and told them to have a nice day. The nerve of those people! Trying to come into my home and talk Jesus shit when there was college football on! <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There was another Jesus related incident today. I had just finished my weekly shopping trip to Aldi and was returning my cart like a good member of society would when a woman walked right up to me and handed me yet another Jesus booklet while saying “Hello! You should read this.” Then she turns and walks off. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIsx-50WHKrDa6GtVhlLSeTlOBekVJxqRrR-FuFA6_xjyhJszoaq3UDlx31gSQWKvnoWHS-ZvCAwz57xyqLPdw62xCPi7ycgzP0POnVhA_lAIkoWiZDjuniK1QkBFD6CS9etzkfQaBEHT/s1600/The+Blood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIsx-50WHKrDa6GtVhlLSeTlOBekVJxqRrR-FuFA6_xjyhJszoaq3UDlx31gSQWKvnoWHS-ZvCAwz57xyqLPdw62xCPi7ycgzP0POnVhA_lAIkoWiZDjuniK1QkBFD6CS9etzkfQaBEHT/s1600/The+Blood.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">So this is how people are spreading the good word now? Harassing people in their own homes and accosting them in grocery store parking lots? Really? REALLY?! <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m all for freedom of religion and I consider myself a Christian, but I’m also for freedom FROM religion. I shouldn’t be harassed both in public and at home by people who seem to believe that not only am I in need of saving but arrogantly believe that THEY have been chosen by God to do so. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve never been a big fan of organized religion and don’t believe that you have to go to church every week or even ever to be a good Christian. In fact, I’ve found lots of churches that are full of really bad, fake Christians. So many people feel that just showing up for an hour or so every Sunday plus on Christmas Eve and hating gays is all it takes to get into Heaven. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I do know lots of people who have found great churches to attend and become involved in. They find lots of comfort in going to church and their church is like a family. That’s awesome! I’m very happy for them and honestly sometimes would like to find that too. Unfortunately that just doesn’t exist here in Redneckville. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Seriously though Jesus people, let me watch college football and do my grocery shopping in peace. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/jayman68" target="_blank">Facebook</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>

Jesus Christ People, Leave Me Alone!

Hola to all the true believers, nonbelievers and everyone in between! Jesus People have really stepped up their game here in Redneckville ov...

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The Human Scale

Last night I attended the opening of the <a href="http://adfilmfest.com/portal/ny2013">Architecture and Design Film Festival</a>, seeing <a href="http://adfilmfest.com/portal/1444"><i>The Human Scale</i></a>, a documentary that "questions our assumptions about modernity, exploring what happens when we put people into the center of our equations." The heart of the film is Jan Gehl and <a href="http://www.gehlarchitects.com/">his eponymous architecture office</a> that is responsible for urban designs in Copenhagen, New York, and other cities around the globe. The film focuses on these two cities as well as Dhaka, Bangladesh; Chongqing, China; and Christchurch, New Zealand.<br /><br /><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zKCngloeZgyTuIw7iA8kc_aCGtKQnqFCMKIOwfG5mQer4IBr9n9UII1lV5Wg0AfnZRlexF59rayWPFkSTdIg-7HeYuwPuHm3iL7kpr4T03JydV1FnXPl1M0fJ8cd0hzx6E7FbmSM_Np5/s1600/1016131801-00a.jpg" /><br /><br />The film's title indicates much of what Gehl and his compatriots promote: walkable and bikeable cities, and low-scale buildings (no more than, say, five stories) that enable often spontaneous interaction. Gehl's presence is fairly small and low-key (unlike the <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2010/09/jan-gehl-soundbites.html">quippy talk</a> he gave at the Center for Architecture three years ago), but architects from his office also chime in, providing much of the film's direction. While Le Corbusier makes an early adversarial role, fortunately the film does not denigrate into other urban clichés, instead focusing on fairly logical and no-nonsense means of making cities more lively.<br /><br />For people who follow urbanism and urban design, the film doesn't really provide anything new, but its argument and heart are strong. The ideal audience, though, are the people who have a stake in shaping Dhaka, Chingqing, Christchurch, and other cities. By seeing the positive contributions that Gehl's office has made to Copenhagen and New York, ultimately the film is about good urbanism, not just a good architectural practice.<br /><br />A preview of the film:<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="361" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/75411301?color=ffffff" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />If you missed the film at ADFF last night, have no fear; <i>The Human Scale</i> is <a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/films/the-human-scale/">opening tomorrow at IFC Center</a>, running for five days. As part of the film's run at IFC, certain screenings have in-person appearances:<br /><blockquote><b>Fri Oct 18</b><br />6:30pm: Director Andreas Dalsgaard, Jeff Risom (Head of the Gehl Institute), and Andy Wiley-Schwartz (New York City Department of Transportation)<br />8:25pm: Dalsgaard, Risom, and David Byrne (Talking Heads founder, writer, musician and avid urban cyclist)<br /><br /><b>Sat Oct 19</b><br />8:25pm: Dalsgaard, Fred Kent (Founder and president of the Project for Public Spaces), and David Sim (Partner Gehl Architects)<br /><br /><b>Sun Oct 20</b><br />6:30pm: Dalsgaard, Alex Marshall (Author -<i>The Surprising Design of Market Economies</i>), and Caroline Samponaro (Transportation Alternatives)</blockquote>Director Andreas Dalsgaard previously made a documentary on Bogotá, Colombia, which led him to learn about Gehl and eventually make <i>The Human Scale</i>. <i>Bogotá Change</i> (2009) can be seen below in its entirety:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="427" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/32562204?color=ffffff" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>

The Human Scale

Last night I attended the opening of the Architecture and Design Film Festival , seeing The Human Scale , a documentary that "questions...

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Stock Market vs. Personal Consumption Expenditures

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIUIc0WoYgRm8U-By7RAp3b32uSc_B2rCpPjfhR007QvdHCpdFEpdj6a0gmg1eD8Ti5tpoBakATQRq83556YqD9sWWaG4zsqGNUPD5hZtWxYrz6EjVourQ-JO57wyjGssCiWcTUBXxzAU/s1600/Stock+Market+vs.+Personal+Consumption+Expenditures.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIUIc0WoYgRm8U-By7RAp3b32uSc_B2rCpPjfhR007QvdHCpdFEpdj6a0gmg1eD8Ti5tpoBakATQRq83556YqD9sWWaG4zsqGNUPD5hZtWxYrz6EjVourQ-JO57wyjGssCiWcTUBXxzAU/s320/Stock+Market+vs.+Personal+Consumption+Expenditures.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />Q: What could possibly go wrong long-term?<br />A: This or that?<br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=ntW">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

Stock Market vs. Personal Consumption Expenditures

Click to enlarge. Q: What could possibly go wrong long-term? A: This or that? Source Data: St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

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McDonnells receive avalanche of pumpkins at Virginia Executive Mansion

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YyeJoHGPeBHD4q0NbhbF2lAsmOAyRlOEcZL7QKNPMRwvykiHQpBT-TYdPZFG9kT9qoOEp5GDjCR-61bxdUV9ikFwDOiulVs2j3cmY9uqy04NJ80lSE8e9OseqpU1sj2bmJeHD1GEsbqY/s1600/Bob+McDonnell+fall+pumpkins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_YyeJoHGPeBHD4q0NbhbF2lAsmOAyRlOEcZL7QKNPMRwvykiHQpBT-TYdPZFG9kT9qoOEp5GDjCR-61bxdUV9ikFwDOiulVs2j3cmY9uqy04NJ80lSE8e9OseqpU1sj2bmJeHD1GEsbqY/s400/Bob+McDonnell+fall+pumpkins.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkYfdDZjmxiXiD4ISXwwkGZaINu4_QBHk0S0-niOr1ysvdnUkD-LxbpfgchqHpba53d86Ede5lQWCfn0SzL37o5n99IyEAcwn7r4nBg8TseNAKVZA6Uaho6aV2fCJVONhClq7fYafx3xdV/s1600/Bob+McDonnell+fall+pumpkins+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkYfdDZjmxiXiD4ISXwwkGZaINu4_QBHk0S0-niOr1ysvdnUkD-LxbpfgchqHpba53d86Ede5lQWCfn0SzL37o5n99IyEAcwn7r4nBg8TseNAKVZA6Uaho6aV2fCJVONhClq7fYafx3xdV/s400/Bob+McDonnell+fall+pumpkins+2.jpg" width="382" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Photos courtesy of Michaele White, Governor’s Photographer</i></div><br />Governor Bob McDonnell and First Lady Maureen McDonnell received a delivery of several hundred Virginia pumpkins Thursday from the Virginia Pumpkin Growers Association and its members.  Growers from the <a href="http://http//www.vdacs.virginia.gov/shippers/pumpkins.shtml"><b>Brann/King Farm</b></a> in Riner, <a href="http://www.ashlandberryfarm.com/"><b>Ashland Berry Farm</b></a> in Beaverdam, and <a href="http://pumpkinva.org/association-members/"><b>Cassell Farm</b></a> in Laurel Fork donated pumpkins, gourds, and other decorative items to the governor and his staff to show how locally-grown pumpkins are fresh, nutritious, and how they support the local economy.

Ashland Berry Farm Bob McDonnell Brann/King Farm Cassell Farm Executive Mansion Maureen McDonnell Virginia Virginia Pumpkin Growers Association McDonnells receive avalanche of pumpkins at Virginia Executive Mansion

Photos courtesy of Michaele White, Governor’s Photographer Governor Bob McDonnell and First Lady Maureen McDonnell received a delivery of s...

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Principal Algorithm Engineer (C++/ OOD / Algorithm / Image processing / Computer vision) (#110247)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Position</b>: Principal Algorithm Engineer</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Location</b>: Milpitas, CA </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Duration</b>: Full time</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Job Description</b>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Film and Scatterometry Technology (FaST) Division provides industry leading metrology solutions for worldwide semiconductor IC manufacturers. The FaST Division portfolio of metrology products includes hardware and software solutions for optical film thickness, optical critical dimension (CD), composition, and resistivity measurement systems. These products are essential for the IC manufacturers as they provide critical metrology capabilities for the development and implementation of their advanced IC processes. The FaST division is committed to support our customers to achieve performance entitlement of our solution and we effectively partner with our customers from their early research and development phase to the high volume in-line manufacturing implementation specific for their process needs. The division consists of a global team located in US, Israel, China, and India.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><b>Responsibilities:</b></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <div>1) Develop and maintain software architecture for algorithms/computational engines/data acquisition/signal processing and offline data analysis software.</div><div>2) Demonstrated ability in scientific programming; strong background in applied mathematics, computational electromagnetics (field theory), and knowledge of optical modeling especially as applied to scatterometry and thin film metrology. Knowledge of reflectometry and spectroscopic ellipsometry a plus.</div><div>3) Works on complex problems that impact the design success of current products or addresses broad design issues of future products or technologies. Tasks include: define future product development strategy, develop a problem statement, research into particular solutions, develop code, and test prototypes; design, code, and test/integrate into tool product software.</div><div>4) The candidate will be responsible for developing and improving measurement capabilities, system optical models, calibrations development, and analysis tools for optical metrology applications.<br /><br /><b>Preferred Qualifications:</b></div><div>PhD in Computational Physics highly desired with 10 yrs industrial experience.</div><div>Proficiency in computational methods, C++, and object oriented design.<br /><br /><b>Minimum Qualifications:</b></div><div>Doctorate (Academic) with at least 7 years of experience.</div><div>OR</div><div>Master's Level Degree with at least 8 years of experience.</div><div>OR</div><div>Bachelor's Level Degree with at least 10 years of experience.<br /><br />Kindly send your resumes to <a href="mailto:Sivaram.bose@kla-tencor.com"><u>Sivaram.bose@kla-tencor.com</u></a></div><div></div></span> </div>

Principal Algorithm Engineer (C++/ OOD / Algorithm / Image processing / Computer vision) (#110247)

Position : Principal Algorithm Engineer Location : Milpitas, CA Duration : Full time Job Description : The Film and Scatterometry Technolo...

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When Will Construction Pay Fully Recover? (Musical Tribute)

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTd1znuh9vwlPhfn0SeU3V1rizqIRF8Nm8TkoCN97v4ZOnjJt7B8ljAF46zzxS6wG2OdS1S1l-e7sYhCJv_QiCzg4HBfGE66b3jSnVcLn-Cdyx0eXwA_8EZyOdDwE4bEKOtnS4HgU4RQ/s1600/Real+Average+Hourly+Earnings+for+Construction.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTd1znuh9vwlPhfn0SeU3V1rizqIRF8Nm8TkoCN97v4ZOnjJt7B8ljAF46zzxS6wG2OdS1S1l-e7sYhCJv_QiCzg4HBfGE66b3jSnVcLn-Cdyx0eXwA_8EZyOdDwE4bEKOtnS4HgU4RQ/s320/Real+Average+Hourly+Earnings+for+Construction.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tGSUjuSBt1A" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=ntA">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

When Will Construction Pay Fully Recover? (Musical Tribute)

Click to enlarge. Source Data: St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

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Don't blame obese patients for being overweight, doctors told | Society | theguardian.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Doctors must treat obese patients with respect and be careful not to blame them for becoming overweight, new draft official NHS guidance says.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/the-national-institute-for-health-and-care-excellence-nice" title="More from guardian.co.uk on The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice)" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice)</a> says <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/obesity" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Obesity" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">obesity</a>is a serious problem not only for individuals who risk type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, but also for the NHS, which is having to spend an estimated £5.1bn a year dealing with the consequences.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">In draft guidance on services to help people manage their weight, which is now out to consultation, Nice says that quick fixes do not work. Programmes such as those run by WeightWatchers and Slimming World are not a magic bullet, it says.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">People should be referred to programmes that not only offer to help people cut down on the calories, but also change their eating and exercise behaviour for the long term.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">"This draft guidance isn't about quick fixes, it is about ensuring lifestyle weight management services support people in the long term," said Professor Mike Kelly, director of the centre for public health at Nice.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">"Programmes that address diet, activity and behaviour change can help people who are obese lose weight but they are only cost-effective if the weight is kept off."</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Kelly stressed the severity and scale of the problem.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">"Being overweight or obese can have serious consequences for an individual's health, not only physically, with increased risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, but it can also affect their mental health as a result of stigma and bullying or discrimination.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">"Levels of obesity in England are rising, with a little over a quarter of adults classified as obese and a further 41% of men and 33% of women overweight. This is a huge proportion of our population."</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">People should not be blamed for being fat but nor should they be misled about what they can expect from a weight management programme, Nice says.</p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 13px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">GPs and those who run programmes should explain that none of them is a magic bullet – motivation and commitment are needed to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. People should be told how much – or how little – they can actually expect to lose, but also of the health benefits of losing even a small amount.</p><p data-inview-name="12th para" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Nice recommends that GPs should focus mainly on adults with a BMI (body mass index) of more than 30 – but among black African, African-Caribbean and Asian groups, a lower threshold can be used.</p></div><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/16/dont-blame-patients-overweight-doctors-told">http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/16/dont-blame-patients-overweight-doctors-told</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Don't blame obese patients for being overweight, doctors told | Society | theguardian.com

Doctors must treat obese patients with respect and be careful not to blame them for becoming overweight, new draft official NHS guidance say...

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Score A Win For The Bloggers

Heh, I was reminded of a famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi when I saw <a href="http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2013/10/obama-stop-focusing-on-bloggers.html">this post over at Free North Carolina</a>,<br /><br /><blockquote>“<i>First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win</i>.” </blockquote><br />It's gotta make you feel good to know that those fuckers in government actually feel the unrelenting pressure we put on them.<br /><br />I know they don't openly acknowledge it very damn often so when they do it is as sweet as a ripe melon on a hot day.<br /><br />Head on over to <a href="http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/">Brock's place</a> and watch the video he embedded to truly savor the moment but in the mean time, here is the money quote from Obama himself;<br /><br /><blockquote>"Now that the government has reopened and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do, and that’s grow this economy, create good jobs, strengthen the middle class, educate our kids, lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul." </blockquote><br />Never give up.<br /><br />Keep fighting these bastards at every opportunity because<i> it does make a difference!</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSI8KsJSH01z8gY1vlGgJAfeeDanmVsx6TDoNsP2uTHB5XbeWuMvbyo3UUjy8XqHIhc6Uv6_hcQr4og6RPMeCEFZrd5cyftiIsO3zZDIoBetUIxXCk8wN6cKgVhXL0M8SnVKxi5cpz_QPn/s1600/crybaby-obama2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSI8KsJSH01z8gY1vlGgJAfeeDanmVsx6TDoNsP2uTHB5XbeWuMvbyo3UUjy8XqHIhc6Uv6_hcQr4og6RPMeCEFZrd5cyftiIsO3zZDIoBetUIxXCk8wN6cKgVhXL0M8SnVKxi5cpz_QPn/s640/crybaby-obama2.jpg" /></a></div>

Score A Win For The Bloggers

Heh, I was reminded of a famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi when I saw this post over at Free North Carolina , “ First they ignore you, then t...

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Listen Now: Richard II Review From BBC Radio Three

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYGwgONv5lvFoJbjUGR-aWZLpdbDAD08xWEG8uH0ansEB_SGqjNbGEbV3wmzXDELuyflKvUCAknTCo8CM-3xmd9EUhSspytKdHsEI1PlSj_Kz6a1ZfBP-VMm9kgOCLkxmbjkZML5lfjZDg/s1600/RII-08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYGwgONv5lvFoJbjUGR-aWZLpdbDAD08xWEG8uH0ansEB_SGqjNbGEbV3wmzXDELuyflKvUCAknTCo8CM-3xmd9EUhSspytKdHsEI1PlSj_Kz6a1ZfBP-VMm9kgOCLkxmbjkZML5lfjZDg/s640/RII-08.jpg" width="572" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Following the opening night of <i>Richard II </i>at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon tonight, Susannah Clapp and Anne McElvoy have reviewed the performance on BBC Radio 3's <i>Night Waves</i>. The production, directed by Gregory Doran, stars David Tennant in the lead role.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anne McElvoy praises David for his physicality and mercurial clarity and refers to a production that is at once traditional and contemporary. They also speak highly of the performances by Oliver Ford Davies and Michael Pennington.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The review also includes a clip of David Tennant and Michael Pennington as King Richard and John Of Gaunt</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jxdsq"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Listen to the review here</span></b></a><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><a href="http://www.david-tennant.com/2009/id194.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For more information about Richard II visit our website</span></a><br /><br /><br /><br />

David Tennant Gregory Doran Richard II Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre Listen Now: Richard II Review From BBC Radio Three

Following the opening night of Richard II at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon tonight, Susannah Clapp and Anne McElvoy hav...

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KTribe Lamp

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">We got a new floor lamp from Patrick in <a href="http://shadowlight.ie/">ShadowLight</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's the KTribe designed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Starck">Phillipe Starck</a> and it is gorgeous!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">It has a stainless steel frame with a bronze lampshade.  </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3qEs273GlFF_A65n5hZ_W98W1sxu1XydIehbbTjQ2D005RsTxYNtRg-TDJowgc4ysLD7uiPNieRA6KnIrzt8yv_HcKY7wnB-OoPBVUGlMDcRZFHZSyaItr-0aMhe8tBWbPH10SCJbrDg/s640/blogger-image--2038597199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ3qEs273GlFF_A65n5hZ_W98W1sxu1XydIehbbTjQ2D005RsTxYNtRg-TDJowgc4ysLD7uiPNieRA6KnIrzt8yv_HcKY7wnB-OoPBVUGlMDcRZFHZSyaItr-0aMhe8tBWbPH10SCJbrDg/s640/blogger-image--2038597199.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;">Patrick had given us a loan of a show lamp for the House Beautiful shoot nearly a year ago - Ciaran thought it was so nice that he decided to order it.  Delivery time was not too bad, he ordered it about 4 weeks ago.  It looks great in situ by our brown leather armchair.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ei2PtRq8rTXc1mNrQY3JZdpoMDlfwF3RDj75JRx9VC8SAv5SOMZlSxTdFCn5GsWgXMaR_CG3oOn5KGFfLCMQZ9eZayNhatdoATqgX5gXJbXLms29QAMB-P1ud0sxQWlTyKJ-cFkDYpgD/s640/blogger-image--1563439557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Ei2PtRq8rTXc1mNrQY3JZdpoMDlfwF3RDj75JRx9VC8SAv5SOMZlSxTdFCn5GsWgXMaR_CG3oOn5KGFfLCMQZ9eZayNhatdoATqgX5gXJbXLms29QAMB-P1ud0sxQWlTyKJ-cFkDYpgD/s640/blogger-image--1563439557.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">For more great pics of lights in our house <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.406512522718423.78990.122333021136376&type=3">click here</a></span>

KTribe Lamp

We got a new floor lamp from Patrick in  ShadowLight It's the KTribe designed by  Phillipe Starck  and it is gorgeous! It has a stainles...

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Klout Wavy Lays Chips Perk !

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ogqSTYCWKIw/UmBKRGfVuuI/AAAAAAAAKSg/2yn2ak_tFCk/s1600/13+-+1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ogqSTYCWKIw/UmBKRGfVuuI/AAAAAAAAKSg/2yn2ak_tFCk/s320/13+-+1" width="320" /></i></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I'm an influencer on this website called Klout and have tried out all kinds do awesome products from food to movies and love being a member!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I was recently perked with Lays potato chips the new wavy style!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I was sent these three flavors:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Roasted Garlic and sea salt:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>So yummy and tastes like garlic bread!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Ranch:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I absolutely love ranch flavored foods especially chips!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Original:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Great for dipping with salsa, cream cheese, dip or even hummus!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>

Klout Wavy Lays Chips Perk !

I'm an influencer on this website called Klout and have tried out all kinds do awesome products from food to movies and love being a mem...

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