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Memphis: A basketball haven in a football region
- Memphis Grizzlies will host franchise%27s first Western Conference finals games this weekend
- City of Memphis is in Southeastern Conference football territory but has rich basketball lineage
- University of Memphis certainly has impacted college basketball%2C as have many star players from city
MEMPHIS — As the basketball world descends on this city this weekend, when the Memphis Grizzlies host the Western Conference Finals for the first time in their history, many will discover that this event is not as much a novelty as it is the next logical step.
In a community whose love for basketball has often been its greatest currency, this playoff run is just the most recent layer in a civic history that has perhaps been underappreciated on a national scale. The story of how Memphis became one of America's top basketball destinations is now 40 years in the making. But perhaps it is best told through those who came to appreciate it from the outside.
Here, in the little basketball Mecca on the banks of the Mississippi River, three generations of fans have grown accustomed to those sleepy summer days when people of all races and socioeconomic strata pack sweaty inner-city gyms to watch superstar pros, college players and street legends play glorified pick-up games and cheer with the intensity of a Final Four matchup.
Here, there is nothing unusual about needing a scalped ticket to squeeze into high school games or for the local university to sell out FedEx Forum (capacity 18,119) on a Wednesday night against a program nobody has heard of.
And here, from the grassroots on up, it is considered a formality that Memphis — a metro area of 1.3 million — will produce more talent every year than cities three times its size, adding to a legacy that began when a team led by local players cracked the national consciousness at the 1973 Final Four.
"I didn't fully understand it," said University of Memphis coach Josh Pastner, who first arrived as an assistant in 2008. "There's no other place in America like it where it's such intense basketball passion and enthusiasm. It's the DNA of the city — the intensity, scrutiny, passion, emotional investment from all levels. It's just special."
And, in many ways, it's why the Grizzlies came to Memphis in the first place despite a middling television market and significant skepticism that the population could economically support an NBA team.
Though Memphis' infatuation with the sport hadn't been chronicled in movies like Indiana, nor did it have the mystique of New York, former owner Michael Heisley was convinced that a culture was in place for a team to succeed. Though other factors were involved in the move from Vancouver in 2001 — primarily, the construction of a new arena financed by public bonds — the city's predisposition to the sport was a factor in the NBA's support of the move.
"It's a sophisticated basketball town that's very passionate about all things basketball," said ESPN analyst Tom Penn, who worked as the team's assistant general manager when it made the transition to Memphis. "With the rich history of the University of Memphis and all the players that came from the Mississippi Delta region, there was this vision of having a team that could really capture the whole region and bring them together. We're seeing it play out now."
The Grizzlies have not always been able to tap into that, missing the playoffs in six of their first nine seasons in Memphis and not winning a single postseason game, much less a series, until upsetting the San Antonio Spurs in 2011. That lack of success made them second-class citizens in their own building for awhile, especially with the University of Memphis becoming a top-10 fixture toward the end of the last decade.
"When I took over, the stands were empty, nobody was talking about us, you didn't see any Griz apparel around town," coach Lionel Hollins said. "I used to tell the team, we have to create the excitement; you can't expect the fans to do it."
That won't be a problem this weekend. The Grizzlies regularly fill FedEx Forum now and tickets for Games 3 and 4 of this series were sold out in less than an hour. After fighting for years to shed the image of expansion-era futility, Memphis is now viewed as a legitimate, if not glamorous, NBA enterprise.
Who knows how long it will last? Success is difficult to sustain for any franchise, especially with the NBA's salary cap structure and the inherent disadvantages of operating in a small market. Appearances in the Western Conference finals aren't to be taken for granted.
But for this window in history, at least, it has completed the self-image Memphians have held more tightly than any other, as the gatekeepers of a basketball oasis in the middle of an area where football is king.
"No matter race, religion, beliefs or whatever, basketball has always been the one thing that brought everybody together as one," said Hank McDowell, a Memphis native who played six NBA seasons in the 1980s. "It's a long-lived story."
For McDowell, like most in the city, it began in 1973 when two kids from the Orange Mound neighborhood led then-Memphis State to the national championship game against mighty UCLA. Though the Tigers lost a title game remembered mostly for Bill Walton's 21-of-22 shooting performance, it represented something much bigger than a signature basketball accomplishment for the local college program.
To that point, both the city and the university had been defined to a certain extent by its difficult history of race relations, which escalated in 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis. Despite the simmering tension, and the fact that few of the city's great black players had gone to Memphis State, Larry Finch and Ronnie Robinson — teammates at nearby Melrose High — enrolled in 1969 and unwittingly changed everything. By the time they had led Memphis State to the national championship game, a cultural identity had formed around basketball and there was no going back.
"Memphis stood up for one thing and one thing only, and I don't know how long it had been since that happened," said McDowell, who would follow Finch and Robinson to Memphis State a few years later.
Without a major-league professional team — three ABA teams quickly came and went, as did a USFL franchise — college basketball (and, by extension, the high school scene that provided those players) became the biggest show in town.
After a few bad years in the late 1970s, Memphis State became NCAA tournament regulars again in the 1980s under Dana Kirk, reaching the Final Four again in 1985 with homegrown players: Andre Turner, Baskerville Holmes, Vincent Askew, John Wilfong and Keith Lee, who grew up just across the river in West Memphis, Ark.
Kirk was later found to have committed NCAA violations and tax fraud, but the program never got wiped out because the local players never stopping coming, from Sylvester Gray to Elliot Perry and eventually Penny Hardaway.
"Memphis has had a reputation of producing great players but unlike New York City and Chicago and places like that where they say basketball is king and queen, our great players weren't being crowned, per se, in Memphis (prior to 1973)," said Verties Sails, who won 709 games as head coach at Southwest Tennessee junior college.
"Those guys had to leave and go someplace else in order to establish how good they were until we finally got everybody going to the same area and the same university and that's when people found out how good basketball was in this town. In the '60s and '70s, there were so many great players who never had an opportunity to play in the NBA or big-time college basketball. There were Penny Hardaways nobody knew about."
Sails laments that the talent level in Memphis is not what it once was, and it's true that since Hardaway the city has not produced an NBA all-Star. (Philadelphia 76ers forward Thaddeus Young, who went to Georgia Tech, is arguably the most successful current pro from Memphis.)
The influence of Memphis high schools, however, is strong throughout college basketball: Minnesota, North Carolina and Ole Miss all had starters from Memphis last season and the Memphis Tigers, who went 31-5, had four local players among their top-five scorers. Next season, consensus top-100 recruits will enroll at Memphis (Austin Nichols, Nick King, Markel Crawford), Marquette (JaJuan Johnson) and Missouri (Johnathan Williams) and Louisville's starting point guard is expected to be transfer Chris Jones.
The local culture is so competitive, the last six champions in the state's largest division in are all different schools, but all within the Memphis City School system.
"I think those kids play with a chip on their shoulder," said Steve Forbes, Jones' coach at Northwest Florida junior college and a former Tennessee assistant.
"You go to those are bigger metropolitan areas but year in and year out I'd put Memphis up against any of them player-wise. Those kids are just tough, and they like to play. It's an unbelievable culture and if you've never been there to see it you probably wouldn't understand it. Kids are brought up at a young age to appreciate the game and be competitive. They love high school basketball, love Tiger basketball and now they love the Grizzlies."


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"In an age of digital production and automated assembly, we stay committed to creating hand-built, hand-finished boats – for one simple reason. There is no better way to craft such an exceptional product". – Sunseeker International.
Robert Braithwaite dreamt of building a new kind of boat in 1969 in the seaside town of Poole. His early designs were tailored to a few customers and he built those using revolutionary materials and technology. Looking at things in an unusual way was the founder's speciality and that became an obsession and passion. The Sunseeker team set about designing the exceptional and ultimately successful new boat, giving their customers exactly what they wanted. Innovations were made by taking direction from how their owners wanted to use their boats. This positive approach brought Sunseeker closer to their clients and put distance between them and their competitors.
Sunseeker International is the British luxury motor yacht manufacturer, now owned by Dalian Wanda Group since 2013. Sunseeker's yacht collection is regularly updated with new yachts or improved versions of already released yachts. They are specialists in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of custom and semi-custom, luxury performance yachts.
Robert Braithwaite, the founder of Sunseeker International, was named Ernst & Young's UK Entrepreneur of the Year in October 2002. Later, in the year 2016, the Sunseeker founder was honoured with a lifetime achievement award.
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Own this masterpiece of high performance, design, and engineering because it will take you to truly special places with the ones who are truly special to you. Being an owner of a Sunseeker isn't just a statement but is hard-won independence. A rare kind of liberty, that allows you to see new horizons from an unusual perspective. There are huge collections available at Sunseeker Motor Yachts and other boats for sale at Yachts for Sale for you to choose from.
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1. Who is the founder of Sunseeker and when was it founded?
Sunseeker's founder was Robert Braithwaite and it was founded in the year 1969.
2. Where is the Headquarters of Sunseeker located?
The Sunseeker's headquarters is in Poole, England.
3. What is the name of the parent company of Sunseeker?
The name of the parent Company of Sunseeker is Dalian Wanda Group.
4. What is the Sunseeker Yacht range?
The Sunseeker Yacht range is the largest and most extravagant in the range, Sunseeker Yachts represent the finest in Sunseeker style, design, practicality and ingenuity. It is an icon of elegance, power and performance on any horizon.
The Sunseeker Yacht range consists of 5 models ranging in size from 77 to 131 feet. They are: 131 Yacht, 116 Yacht, 95 Yacht, 86 Yacht, 76 Yacht.
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The Sunseeker Sport Yacht range is powerful, sleek, beautifully crafted and expertly finished. Every Sport Yacht in the Sunseeker range smoothly blends elegance and performance to achieve the remarkable. It consists of two models: 68 Sport Yacht (71'2'') and 74 Sport Yacht (74'10'').
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The Sunseeker Predator range is breathtakingly exquisite, a very rare model and an instant head turner in any waters. These thoughtfully crafted and uniquely styled Predator models are a combination of precision craftsmanship and cutting edge design. They achieve speed in excess of 45 knots and never go unnoticed. The Sunseeker Predator range consists of 4 models ranging in size from 54 to 74 feet. They are: Predator 74, Predator 68, Predator 57, Predator 50.
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The Sunseeker Manhattan range gives the long distance cruisers a notable presence in any waters. The impeccable styling and thrilling performance of a Manhattan is designed keeping in mind the need of relaxation as well as entertainment of the It consists of two models: Manhattan 52 (56') and Manhattan 66 (68'). The Manhattan 52 has been announced as the winner of 2017 Motor Boat Awards 'Flybridges up to 55ft' category and the Sunseeker Manhttan 66 was awarded the Motorboat and Yachting award 2018 for the 'best flybridge over 66ft'.
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The Sunseeker's San Remo is an exquisitely packaged 51'8'' spacious yacht that's expertly finished with an impeccable style and refined approach. It's a spectacle in any waters because of its contemporary styling blended with classic Sunseeker traditions. It is undoubtedly an icon of the future.
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The previous models in Sunseeker Yacht range are:
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- 2012 – Predator 54
- 2013 – Manhattan 53 and Portofino 48
- 2014 – Manhattan 73, Predator 84, 130 Sport Yacht, 80 Yacht, Predator 53
- 2015 – 101 Sport Yacht, Manhattan 63, 80 Sport Yacht
- 2016 – Manhattan 55, Portofino 40, 115 Sport Yacht, 115 Yacht
- 2017 – 28 Metre Yacht, Predator 80, 75 Yacht

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June 23, 2011— -- In 1991, Hadassah Peri was randomly chosen to look after copper-mining heiress Huguette Clark, who chose to live as a recluse for decades at New York City's Beth Israel Hospital.
Clark died at the age of 104 in May, leaving Peri, a private nurse from Brooklyn, a rich woman -- $34 million to be exact, in addition to a valuable doll collection.
Legal papers filed in Manhattan's Surrogate's Court this week showed Clark's fortune to be $400 million, $14 million of which went to a god-daughter, but none to distant relatives. In her will. The heiress cited her longtime nurse as a "loyal friend and companion."
An inheritance like this can be the kiss of death -- or not -- for those who have always lived humble lives, say psychologists.
Those who have been able to anticipate eventual wealth or those like Peri, who have been devoted caretakers, may fare best.
"This may or may not be good," said Daniel Kegan, a Chicago psychologist and director of Elan Associates. "Obtaining a windfall acts as an amplifier of how you are living. If you are grounded, it can make things better for you. And if you're not, it can make it much worse."
"Celebrities give us good examples," he said. "If you've got a lot of money and are spending a lot of money, you frequent places that have more risk. And the more people want you to do bad things [with it]."
Lottery winners prove that money can often be more of a curse than blessing.
"Someone with a tendency for bad habits may indulge in those on a much larger scale," said Kegan.
William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988. He was tormented by relatives and an ex-girlfriend for money and now lives on a $450-a-month Social Security check.
Another, $314.9 million Powerball winner Jack Whittaker, was sued by an Atlantic City casino in 2004 for writing bad checks.
Evelyn Adams, who won the $5.4 million in two New Jersey lotteries in 1985 and 1986, lost most of her fortune gambling.
Billie Bob Harrell Jr., who won $37 million in Texas, killed himself in 1997 when his marriage fell apart.
The problem with lottery winners is that they don't have a realistic "plan" for their new wealth, according to Steven Danish, director of the Life Skills Center and professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
"They don't expect to win," he said. "They hope and pray, but they don't have any plans. They just want to be rich...Then all of a sudden everyone is your relative. You don't know you have so many relatives."
Such may be the case with Peri, he said. But she was rewarded for faithful service to Clark, and there are other examples of those whose inheritances could positively change their lives.
In 2010, Nepalese IIndra Tamang inherited some of the most valuable real estate in New York City where he had been a cook and butler to the late actress Ruth Ford and her husband Zachary Scott.
Now, he owns two multi-million-dollar apartments at the famed Dakota building, where John and Yoko Lennon lived when the former Beatle was murdered in 1980.
Homeless Cousin Inherits Estate
Tamang's former employer of 36 years also remembered him with an $8.5 million Russian art collection. Ford ignored her two grandchildren and daughter Shelley Scott, who later challenged the will and got a small settlement.
Tamang, 58, planned to keep living in his modest Queens apartment, despite the inheritance. "I am satisfied living where I am," he told the Wall Street Journal.
Another, Max Melitzer of Sandy, Utah, had been homeless for decades before his cousin, Morris Melitzer of Schenectady, N.Y., died of prostate cancer in 2010.
The cousins had been estranged for 30 years. Lawyers set out to find Melitzer, to let him know he had inherited $100,000. A private detective eventually found him living out of a shopping cart.
Later, it was revealed that Max Melitzer had been the driver in a car accident that took the life of his wife and two friends in Wyoming in 1990. The tragedy left the man with emotional issues.
Despite that, Melitzer had been charitable with a local non-profit, trying to donate bread. The newfound money allowed Melitzer to return to New York and reunite with family.
Such good fortune may be the case with Huguette Clark's nurse Peri, who has, so far, shown a philanthropic spirit.
The nurse said she was "profoundly sad" about Clark's death and was "awed" by her boss's generosity, pledging to use her inheritance for good.
"Just as Madame Clark demonstrated kindness toward others in her actions," she told the New York Post, "so, too, will I and my family devote a substantial portion of this bequest toward making the world a better place for all people."
Psychologist Danish concluded that those like Tamang, nurse Peri and even Melitzer, may prove to be different from ill-fated lottery winners.
"They are people who have served another person and have been seemingly more willing to help than to take," he said. "If they are giving back before they get the money, it will likely continue. It can be very positive."
"So they really are continuing to serve," he said. "But with a lot more resources."


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Fictional Characters
In creating a story from the scriptural and historical records, several fictional characters have been added to Savior of the World to assist in moving the plot forward. These fictional characters are Ezra, Benjamin, Micham, Micham's nephews, Aaron, Joshua, and Rebekah. Other characters, which are unnamed in scripture but mentioned in the historical record, have been given names in the production in order to clarify references to them. These include Mary's family and the shepherds Nathan, Eli, Asa, Reuben, Jeshua, and Amon.
In order to incorporate important Messianic prophecies into the Savior of the World production, the script includes several instances in which prophets speak from the colonnade. These scriptural commentaries clarify the eternal significance of the action below and are drawn directly from the Bible and Book of Mormon. Prophetic utterances should be treated with reverence and respect. In each instance, the on-stage dialogue pauses briefly, though appropriate stage business may continue, as Malachi, Abinadi, Micah, Luke, or Samuel the Lamanite speak.
In most cases, prophets can be costumed simply with the addition of a white or cream drape over their basic robe. In the Conference Center Theater production, Nephi, who appears both in the temple scene and later when Mary visits Elisabeth, was given a specific costume patterned after Arnold Friberg's paintings (see Costumes).


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Blind Items Revealed
This sometime reality star from a very hit network reality show was backstage at a show and told his friend that was with him that it was his favorite time of year. He did say that he avoided the women from his country because he hates them all and prefers women that are needier and willing to work to get famous. By working he meant having sex with him as much as he wants. Five or six models were begging to go out with the guy. He looked so a-holey picking one out.


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Colin Brinsden, AAP Economics and Business Correspondent
(Australian Associated Press)
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is expected to hand down a modestly improved budget position when his mid-year review is released later this week.
It may be only a couple of months since he delivered his delayed 2020/21 budget, but a lot has happened in the interim.
The economy is rebounding more strongly from recession than had been anticipated, the unemployment rate looks to have peaked at a lower rate than feared, and the iron ore price is going through the roof.
"The imminent budget update should show a better bottom line," Deloitte Access Economics' Chris Richardson told AAP.
But Mr Richardson and other economists aren't getting carried away by the string of positive developments.
The 2020/21 budget deficit is still likely to be around a whopping $200 billion, slightly smaller than the record $214 billion announced on October 6.
But at least it is heading in the right direction.
The government's most recent monthly financial statement for October showed the budget position was $3.6 billion smaller than expected after the first four months of the financial year.
Improving employment means fewer businesses are claiming the JobKeeper wage supplement, which ANZ calculates could be around $10 billion less over the December 2020 and March 2021 quarters than the government expected.
But the potential revenue raiser is the spike in the iron ore price to a seven-year high above $US150 per tonne.
That compares with Treasury's forecast of just $US55 per tonne for 2020/21 at the time of the budget.
"The stronger than expected iron ore price is a particularly important revenue booster, as it lifts company profits," ANZ senior economist Cherelle Murphy says.
She says this unexpected spike in iron ore prices could add billions of dollars to the bottom line.
"Although how prices, iron ore export volumes and the Australian dollar behave through the rest of the year are also important determinants," Ms Murphy says.
Even so, such developments will help absorb new spending initiatives since October.
These include COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capability, which Deloitte puts at $1 billion over 12 years, and extensions to the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement ($3.2 billion this year) and HomeBuilder ($240 million).
There was also a spray of initiatives announced on Monday – from small business energy and oil refineries support measures to aviation industry and university research assistance.
The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, to give its formal title, is also expected to see upgrades to economic forecasts after growth rebounded by a stronger 3.3 per cent in the September quarter.
The unemployment rate is also below where Treasury had anticipated it would be by now – seven per cent rather that eight per cent.
Economists expect Thursday's labour force report for November will show the jobless rate sticking at seven per cent.
As such, AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver expects growth for 2020/21 will be upgraded to flat (0.0 per cent) from a 1.5 per cent contraction, and the jobless rate revised down to seven per cent from 7.25 per cent for the financial year ending June 30, 2021.


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WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. government said plans by Iran to build a natural gas pipeline through Iraq to Syria may run into problems with economic sanctions.
The semiofficial Fars News Agency in Iran reports that construction started on a natural gas pipeline through Iraq to Syria. The government said the project should be completed by June and requires about $3 billion in investments to support.
A preliminary agreement on what Fars said was a $10 billion pipeline deal was signed by Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian oil ministers last year in Iran's southern Bushehr province. Both downstream consumers are expected to take on Iranian gas from the South Pars offshore field to support electricity stations.
Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, brushed off the report, saying Washington has seen similar reports on the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline "six or seven or 10 or 15 times before, and it never seems to materialize."
In August 2011, after the trilateral deal was signed, Tehran said international lenders were lining up to support the multimillion-dollar pipeline project.
Nuland said Iran was "bragging" about the pipeline with the latest report.
"I would simply say that the construction of any kind of an Iranian-Syrian pipeline could potentially raise sanctions issues under U.S. law on either Iran or Syria, including for international entities who might decide to participate in it either by financing or by construction," she said.


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Slocum, Henry Warner
Slocum, Henry Warner slō´kəm [key], b. 1826 or 1827, d. 1894, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Delphi, Onondaga co., N.Y. A West Point graduate, he resigned from the army in 1856 and practiced law in Syracuse, N.Y., until war broke out. Slocum, rising to a major generalcy of volunteers (1862), fought in all the Eastern campaigns through Gettysburg (1863), where he commanded the right wing. In 1864 he led the 20th Corps at the end of General Sherman's Atlanta campaign. His troops constituted Sherman's left wing in the march through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–65). After the war, Slocum settled in Brooklyn, where he practiced law. He was a Democratic Representative in Congress (1869–73, 1883–85).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies


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11/02/2014 - Switzerland provided USD 3 billion in official development assistance (ODA) in 2012, or 0.45% of its gross national income (GNI), in line with its goal to reach 0.5% of GNI by 2015.
In a new Peer Review of Switzerland, the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) welcomed the country's progress in channelling more resources into fighting poverty and sharpening its development policies in line with the DAC's 2009 recommendations.
In particular, Switzerland complied with recommendations to make poverty reduction and sustainability an overarching goal for all its aid and for its aid agencies to co-operate more with federal Swiss bodies working in fragile states in areas like diplomacy and migration.
Noting its history of neutrality and pioneering humanitarian work, the DAC encouraged Switzerland to play more of a leadership role in development co-operation, particularly with regard to helping maximise the amount of private finance going into development projects.
"Switzerland's ODA has increased steadily since 2010 and its policy of long-term commitments to recipient countries serves as an example to others," said OECD DAC Chair Erik Solheim. "Switzerland is well-placed to become a more visible leader on development issues and can capitalise on its extensive experience on the ground to influence global policy in areas like conflict, fragility, food security and climate change."
Given Switzerland now ranks as a mid-sized donor, positioned between Norway and Denmark as the DAC's 11th biggest provider of aid by volume, the DAC recommended it work on ramping up its successful small-scale development projects into regional or national programmes whose size can enable more efficiency and sustainability.
Switzerland has shown that it has the right tools, systems and understanding of political risk to work in fragile states that need long-term support. The Review suggests that it focus more of its aid resources in such countries. Switzerland should also ensure that the share of its bilateral ODA going to least-developed countries does not decrease further. This is important given a shift in OECD countries' net bilateral ODA flows away from the poorest countries.
The DAC praised Switzerland's effective management systems for development co-operation and its shift to more streamlined and decentralised procedures for field offices. However it noted that staffing policies need to ensure the right skills over the long term.
As a major international financial centre that is home to many multinational companies working in developing countries, Switzerland can add value by continuing to work to ensure correct and transparent taxation of individuals and companies, the Review noted.
Each DAC member is peer reviewed every 4-5 years as a way to monitor its development co-operation, hold it accountable for past commitments and recommend improvements. Led by two DAC members, a review typically takes 6-8 months and involves interviews with the government of the country under review and officials, other donors, civil society and the private sector in developing countries. Read more here: www.oecd.org/dac/peer-reviews/.
The Peer Review of Switzerland included visits to Burkina Faso and Kyrgyzstan. Fellow DAC members Korea and New Zealand were peer examiners, and China was an observer. For further information, journalists should contact Ida McDonnell in the OECD's Development Co-operation Directorate or Catherine Bremer in the Media Division.
To receive a copy of the Peer Review of Switzerland, journalists should email: firstname.lastname@example.com. More information on the OECD's development work.
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If there's one sector of photography that's changing as fast as camera technology (or faster) it's in the area of LED light engineering. The lights keep getting brighter and brighter while the color accuracy gets closer and closer to 100 CRI. There's a more modern standard for color accuracy that's being used in broadcast and that's TCLI. Here's a quick overview: TCLI
When I first started buying LED panels in 2009 they ranged in the 80-85 CRI range and I can imagine that they would have fared even worse in the new TCLI tests, which measure spikes and chasms of color response in these kinds of lighting instruments. The lights, at the time I wrote the book about LED lights for photographers, also put out much less light. We worked higher up the ISO scale and made other accommodations.
Last year, and part of this year, I started buying what I call, new technology LEDs, in that they use SMD (surface mount device) technology which has yielded a much higher output. The first of these lights for me was the cute and cuddly Fiilex 360. But I soon augmented that lower powered light with a brace of RPS CooLED, 100 watt fixtures. They used a new SMD designed, dense, 1/1 inch LED that acted more like a traditional open-face lighting fixture and less like a panel. I liked that because I could use my soft boxes on those lights. While the color was better than previous generations it still required that I pay attention and make custom white balances and use caution mixing the "daylight" LEDs with actual daylight...
I'd heard rumors that the newest generation of lights were getting closer and closer to 100 CRI but it was only when my friend, James, a very color-picky cinematographer, bought the latest DraCast LED panel lights and started gushing about them that I sat up and took notice. I've spent the last week or so researching and what I finally landed on as the best compromise of price, color, output power and rugged build was the new line of lights from Aputure marketed under the name, Light Storm. And the products I liked best brought me back around, full circle, to the panel form factor.
With a fairly big video project looming, and an intense studio still life project just around the corner, I decided to improve my light inventory by getting a set of the Aputure Light Storm panels. It didn't hurt that I needed to buy and put a few more things into service in order to reduce my tax burden....
I ended up getting two of the LS-1s panels, which are very bright, and two of the LS-1/2 panels, which are smaller but only a stop less powerful. According to reputable sources, who have measured them with the latest Sekonic 700 series color meters, both of the units exceed 95 CRI and the smaller unit measures at 97+ CRI. We're well into the territory where the diffusion material you put in front of the lights makes more of a difference in color accuracy than anything else. They are color accurate plus they provide the punch I used to get from a 750 watt tungsten bulb in a decent, open-faced fixture. Hard to beat at the price. (They retail for $695).
Each light is not exactly self-contained. They come in three "parts." The first is the light itself which is mounted in a sturdy yoke and has no controls or connections, other than a power cable. The cable connects to a control box which allows one to raise or lower the power of the lights in 90 discrete steps. Since the control box is separate you can put the actual panels up high and you'll have two benefits. First, you move a good amount of the weight off the top of the stand, which makes the light and stand more stable. Secondly, you can adjust the intensity of the light without either bringing the light back down or standing on a step ladder.
The controller will also allow you to mount up a V-lock battery. With these bigger, more robust batteries you should be able to get about an hour of full power lighting without having to look for a wall plug. That's great for remote locations but the cost of the batteries is atrocious. Ah well, there's rarely free lunch.
Just downstream from the controller is a black, rectangular power supply. This plugs into the wall on one end and into the controller on the other. So you have three physical devices (light, controller, power block) as well as the interconnecting cables. A bit messy but manageable.
One more interesting feature is the inclusion, with every light, of a wireless, 2.4G remote control. With the remote you can turn the lights on and off, and you can control the power settings. Great for changing ratios while you are at camera position; especially when the lights are hung up high. There are separate channels so you can control three different banks of lights from one remote. Interesting, but I still keep reaching for the controllers and enjoying the tactile reality of lighting control.
The bigger light, the LS-1s, uses SMD LEDs but, like previous generations, hides them behind little plastic nubbins or clear lenses that create directionality (or micro focus) for each LED. The way the light is designed gives it a 20-25 degree light angle. It's got more throw that way. If you need a softer or wider beam you can easily put diffusion in front of the fixture. In fact, the maker provides an envelope with sheets of carefully selected diffusion to do just that.
The LS 1/2 uses its SMD LEDs naked. The light emitting business end of each small "lamp" is right on the surface and the fixture uses nothing to focus the beams. The light seems exceptionally bright but it does cast a very wide spread of light. You'll either want to use them with big diffusion or as background lights. They have beautiful color but you'll need to practice what you learned working with Lowell Tota-Lights from the tungsten era in order to get the most out of them, vis-a-vis modifications.
So, now that I've had a chance to play with them what's the bottom line assessment?
The color is so clean that this by itself means they've grabbed a spot as my preferred lighting tools. It's just so clean and perfect. The flesh tones require very little (usually none) work in PhotoShop and the power is quite welcome. Since the entire back of each lighting unit is one big, extruded heat sink I'm going to give them two thumbs up for engineering and (hopeful) reliability.
The ones I bought are single color temperature models. They just do daylight. 5500 Kelvin daylight. I've had bi-color panels in the past and, while the color flexibility is great to have, you lose half the power since the flexibility comes from turning a daylight set of bulbs up while turning tungsten bulbs down, and vice versa.
I bought four lights in total. Two big ones to use with diffusion as main lights and key lights and two of the half units to use to evenly (and widely) light backgrounds with direct (unmodified) lighting. They pack down smaller than the RPS lights and are smaller and lighter than the previous panels I owned.
All-in-all it's cost effective package for around $2400.
I've paid more for less...
Were I to persevere as a still photographer only I doubt I would have even considered the upgrade but one of my goals for 2017 is to drive the business toward a 50/50 split; photography and videography, and a set of Profoto strobes just won't hack the moving part of that equation. One more acquisition to write about before the end of the year. Stay tuned.
The Aputure Light Storm LS-1s fixture on the left, controller on the right.
A closer view of the controller, which also features DMX control.
Professional Limo connectors for a locking fit.
The 1/2 height model. Bright!!!


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43 S.Ct. 6
67 L.Ed. 112
UNITED STATES ex rel. MEMBERS OF WASTE MERCHANTS' ASS'N OF NEW YORK.
No. 245.
Argued October 9 and 10, 1922.
Decided Oct. 23, 1922.
Mr. P. J. Farrell, of Washington, D. C., for plaintiff in error.
Mr. P. H. Marshall, of Washington, D. C., for defendant in error.
Mr. Justice BRANDEIS delivered the opinion of the Court.
In March, 1919, the Waste Merchants' Association of New York filed in the Interstate Commerce Commission a complaint under section 13 of the Act to Regulate Commerce of February 9, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379, 384, as amended (Comp. St. § 8581). It alleged that existing tariffs on paper stock shipped in carload lots from New York Harbor imposed upon carriers the duty of loading cars; that the carriers had failed to perform this duty on shipments made by complainants' members; that these had been obliged to perform the service at their own expense; and that they were entitled, under section 15 of the act (Comp. St. § 8583), to allowances therefor. The prayer was that the carriers be ordered to pay, by way of reparation, allowances for the loading service and also other damages for violation of law and that the carriers be ordered to observe the law in the future. The Director General of Railroads and 184 transportation companies were made respondents; extensive hearings were had; the Commission filed a report embodying its findings of fact and conclusions, entered an order dismissing the complaint, and on August 7, 1920, overruled a petition for rehearing based on alleged errors in conclusions of fact and of law and newly discovered evidence. Then, on behalf of the association members, this petition for a writ of mandamus was filed in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. It prayed that the Commission be directed to take jurisdiction of the claims, to allow damages and to fix the amount thereof. Upon a rule to show cause, objection was made to the jurisdiction of the court over the subject-matter; and the case was heard upon demurrer to the answer, which set up more fully the proceedings before the Commission. The Supreme Court of the District dismissed the petition, on the ground that the relators, having participated in and obtained benefits from the alleged violations of law, were not in a position to complain. Its judgment was reversed by the Court of Appeals of the District, on the ground that upon the facts found by the Commission complainants were clearly entitled to relief. The case was remanded, with directions to issue the mandamus. 51 App. D. C. 136, 277 Fed. 538. It is here on writ of error.
We have no occasion to consider the merits of the controversy before the Commission. That it did not dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction is clear. It heard the case fully. It found that the rates charged were not unreasonable or discriminatory in violation of the Commerce Act, nor unreasonable for the service actually performed in violation of the Federal Control Act. Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 3115 3/4 a-3115 3/4 p. It found that the conditions complained of were an incident of the World War; that the arrangement for loading was a voluntary one beneficial to complaints' members; that there was no provision in the tariffs for allowance to shippers who load cars; and that therefore such allowance could not legally be made by the carriers. The Commission dismissed the complaint because it held that the petitioners were not entitled to relief. Waste Merchants' Association v. Director General, 57 Int. Com. Com'n R. 686.
Petitioners sought in the proceeding to set aside the adverse decision of the Commission on the merits and to compel a decision in their favor. The Court of Appeals granted the writ. This was error. Mandamus cannot be had to compel a particular exercise of judgment or discretion, Riverside Oil Co. v. Hitchcock, 190 U. S. 316, 23 Sup. Ct. 698, 47 L. Ed. 1074; Ness v. Fisher, 223 U. S. 683, 32 Sup. Ct. 356, 56 L. Ed. 610; Hall v. Payne, 254 U. S. 343, 41 Sup. Ct. 131, 65 L. Ed. 295; or be used as a writ of error, Commissioner of Patents v. Whiteley, 4 Wall. 522, 18 L. Ed. 335. The case at bar is not like Interstate Commerce Commission v. Humbolt Steamship Co., 224 U. S. 474, 32 Sup. Ct. 556, 56 L. Ed. 849, and Louisville Cement Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 246 U. S. 638, 38 Sup. Ct. 408, 62 L. Ed. 914, where the Commission had wrongly held that it did not have jurisdiction to adjudicate the controversy; nor is it like Kansas City Southern Railway Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 252 U. S. 178, 40 Sup. Ct. 187, 64 L. Ed. 517, where the Commission wrongly refused to perform a specific, peremptory duty prescribed by Congress.
Whether a judicial review can be had by some other form of proceeding, we need not inquire. Compare Louisiana & Pine Bluff Railway Co. v. United States, 257 U. S. 114, 116, 42 Sup. Ct. 25; Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co. v. United States, 240 U. S. 334, 336, 36 Sup. Ct. 354, 60 L. Ed. 675; Proctor & Gamble Co. v. United States, 225 U. S. 282, 32 Sup. Ct. 761, 56 L. Ed. 1091.


text:
Six candles were hardly enough to illuminate the stuffy cellar. Myra raised a hand and rubbed at her eyes. Her head throbbed, but if she stopped writing, she would lose her mind. She considered lighting a seventh candle but pushed the thought aside. The last patrol had returned empty-handed, and she could not afford to waste supplies to satisfy her whims.
The sound of feet tapping against stone startled her, and she put her notebook down at the knock on the door. "Come in," Myra called with as much cheer as she could muster.
The wooden door cracked open, and her cousin peeked in. "The General is looking for you," Thea said. "He requested you come to the Headquarters immediately."
Myra sighed. Calling one of the many underground cells "Headquarters," or Zack "General," did nothing to make their pathetic, ragtag team a real army. "If Zack wishes to talk to me, he can come here himself. You're not his messenger."
"He's busy, and this is important," Thea said with a serious expression on her youthful face. "We captured another one."
Myra snorted. "That's what you call 'important'? Zack should have figured out by now that we can't learn anything useful from that filth." She tucked her notebook underneath a moth-eaten blanket and walked to the candles, extinguishing them one by one. "Let's go, then. Better not keep the General waiting."
She followed Thea down the narrow torchlit corridor. Her cousin ran forward, her short golden ponytails bobbing up and down at every step. Myra found it hard to keep up with the pace and enthusiasm, but she tried to remain hopeful for Thea's sake.
About thirty Warriors had gathered inside the Headquarters, waiting for them. Myra spotted Lidia and Thomas, and, of course, the General. "Zack, what—"
He cleared his throat. "Captain Andersen, how good of you to join us."
Myra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "You called for me, General Wong."
"Follow me," Zack said.
Myra looked at her cousin. "You should go now, Thea."
The twelve-year-old pouted. "I'm a part of the Resistance too! In less than four years, I'll be allowed to join the Warriors' Council. I want to see the prisoner!"
"Why would you want that?" Myra asked. "There's nothing glorious about fighting a war or interrogating prisoners. Until you learn that, you can't be one of the Warriors. Go now. Grandma Pia is giving a talk at the school. You should attend as many lessons as you can."
Thea gave her a glare but complied. Once the girl was gone, Myra followed Zack and the rest of the Warriors into a small candlelit cellar. The air was heavier in this place, but she was certain their guest did not mind.
The prisoner was standing with his back towards the stone wall, heavy chains holding up his shackled hands. Another set of thick fetters encircled his ankles. The Resistance had discovered long ago that vampires possessed superior strength, but so far the titanium chains had been effective in detaining the captives.
Myra narrowed her eyes and looked over the prisoner. She had seen only a handful of vampires, all very different in looks, but all had been the same in their vanity and arrogance.
The first thing Myra noticed was his clothes. The bright lilac tuxedo complemented the vampire's dark complexion but made him look no less ridiculous. Vamps always dressed in style—or what they perceived to be style—while Resistance members wore whatever they could get their hands on. She wondered what the vampires would do once all the clothes ever made wore out beyond repair. They had destroyed all of the humans involved in production, and as far as she knew, they had set up no system to replace the goods they used up. These creatures could only consume and destroy and never create anything new.
"So this is the famous Resistance?" the prisoner asked, his sharp white teeth glistening under the candlelight as he gave his hosts a smug grin. "More pathetic than expected."
"You must be quite the fighter yourself to be captured by creatures as pathetic as us," said Thomas, and Zack threw the red-haired Warrior an approving look. "If we are pitiful, what does that make you?"
"We're not here to exchange lame insults," Myra interrupted and glared at the vampire. "We're here to give you a choice. You can die quickly, or your death can last weeks if you refuse to answer our questions."
"So, what are you two supposed to be?" The vamp glanced between Thomas and Myra. "The good and the bad cop?"
"What's he talking about?" Zack asked.
"It's an Old World thing," Myra said impatiently. "I'll explain it to you later." Really, did Zack ever read books? He was almost ten years older than her, but he knew less about the Old World than she did.
Zack turned back at the prisoner. "You heard your options. You can talk now, or you can wait for us to make you cooperate."
The vamp snickered. "You are wasting your time. The WeatherWizard is heavily guarded; you can never reach it and live to tell the tale."
"We know everything about the WeatherWizard," Zack said. "We wanted to ask you a few questions about Prince Vladimir."
The vampire laughed—an ugly, mirthless sound. "You cannot seriously think you can plan anything against him. The Dark Prince will swipe you away with his little finger. You kids have no idea what you are getting yourselves into."
"Perhaps you'll be willing to tell us," Zack said. "Lidia?"
The petite woman stepped forward. "Yes, sir?"
"I'll leave you alone with him. Make him sing. If he refuses, Thomas will take the next shift. One of us will be with him at all times until he agrees to cooperate."
"I can make him talk," Lidia said and threw the prisoner a look. She walked to the wall and took a hammer from the rack. It looked huge in her small hand, but her grip around the handle was strong. "I have an idea or two."
"I know you do," said Zack. "We'll be in the Headquarters in case you need us."
Myra tried to ignore the vampire's snigger at the word "Headquarters," hoping beyond hope that the prisoner would speak before her shift came.
Several stone walls separated the Headquarters from the prison cellar, but they did little to muffle the hellish screams. Myra closed her eyes for a moment. "Zack, if you don't need me here, I'll go to the clinic and help Dr. Dubois."
Her leader nodded absentmindedly, and she stood up, barely stopping herself from running towards the door. Once the screams were out of earshot, her pace slowed down. As usual, the corridor leading to the clinic was crammed with people. Patients occupied every bench; many more were standing. Myra sighed, feeling tired just looking at them, and opened the door to the doctor's cellar.
Dr. Dubois stood bent down, feeling a patient's stomach. Gary, her aide, waited next to her with a basket full of vials.
The old woman looked up and smiled at her. "Ah, Myra, it's good to see you. Do you have time to stay and help?"
"Sure. I saw the line on my way here—I think we need to open a second examination room. Do you think any of your apprentices are ready?" They better be. Dr. Dubois was the only one among them trained in medicine in the Old World, and she was over eighty years old. She had been training a few aides, but none of them knew as much as she did.
"I've considered this," the doctor said. "They need to start working on their own, but Lidia is the only one close to being ready. Have you seen her? She needs to be here, learning."
"We have a prisoner. Her skills are required for the interrogation."
Dr. Dubois frowned. "I know she likes killing vamps more than she enjoys healing people, but she needs to show some responsibility. Besides me, she's the closest thing to a doctor we have, and she hasn't come to the clinic at all the past three days. You come more often than she does."
"It's not her fault," Myra said. "She's one of our best Warriors. Zack has many tasks for her."
"We have plenty of Warriors. We don't have any doctors. Lidia has a head for medicine—more than anyone else I've seen—but she won't learn unless she comes to assist me."
"I'll talk to her," Myra said. "Do you need help with your patient?"
"I'm fine," the man in the bed said, and Dr. Dubois smiled.
"Yes, he'll be fine. Gary is helping me. If you have time, can you walk through the queue and check everyone's symptoms? If it's something straightforward, give them instructions and send them back to their cellars. If you spot any emergencies, send them ahead of the rest."
"Sure," Myra said and left the room. She hated the responsibility of deciding which cases were important and which were not, but someone had to do it. She had considered becoming Dr. Dubois's apprentice herself, but had discovered that her true passion lay elsewhere.
Myra gazed around the corridor and spotted a pale face at the front of the queue. She frowned and knelt beside the woman. "Nina, what's wrong?" Myra asked.
"It's Erik," Nina said and nodded at her nine-year-old son. "He's thrown up three times in the past couple of hours."
"Do you also have diarrhea?" Myra asked him. The boy nodded, and she turned back to his mother. "Did he drink any unboiled water?"
Nina shook her head. "I always boil his water before I let him drink."
Myra raised her eyebrow at Erik, who was now determinedly avoiding her eyes. "Do you have something to share?" she asked.
The boy looked down. "The water in the underground spring felt so cool and fresh. I hate the taste of boiled water. And it always stays warm, even when you leave it to cool."
Myra smiled and squeezed Erik's hand. "I know," she said. "I also tried fresh springwater once, when I was younger than you. But you have to learn to put up with boiled water. You don't want to be as sick again as you are now, do you?"
He shook his head and looked away.
Myra looked up at Nina. "He'll be fine in a couple of days. Give him plenty of water—clean water. He needs to stay hydrated. His sickness will pass on its own."
Nina frowned. "Are you certain? Perhaps he should see Dr. Dubois?"
"I'm quite certain," Myra assured her. "I'll come by the children's cellar and check on him tomorrow."
She stood up and moved on to the next patient. "What is it, Irene?"
"It hurts," the girl said. "Everywhere—my arms, my legs, my back. Even my face."
Great. As common as tummy problems were in their community, this affliction was much more prevalent. "Does it hurt more when you exert yourself? Do your legs hurt when you stand and walk?"
"Yes," Irene said. "And my arms hurt even with the slightest bit of exertion. When I open a door, or even when I brush my hair."
"Have you been taking your vitamin D?"
Irene nodded. "Every three days as instructed."
"We should increase your dosage," Myra said. "I'll talk to Zack; perhaps we can spare some supplies." But even as she spoke, she knew it would not be enough. It would never be enough. Irene needed natural sunlight. They all did.
Someone cleared his throat. Myra looked up, seeing a blob of red hair at the end of the corridor. She raised an eyebrow at Thomas. "Are you here as a patient?"
He snorted. "I'd rather die in my own bed." He took a few steps and approached her. "Zack needs you at the Headquarters. The search party is back."
Myra followed him, her steps quick. Finally, some real news. This last patrol had taken longer than expected, and she was beginning to worry.
Thomas and Myra entered the Headquarters, and Zack greeted them with a smile. "Captain Sanchez," he said as he turned to the tall woman sitting next to him. "Everyone has assembled. Do you have anything to report?"
Alerie Sanchez stood up from her seat. "We met no vampires on the way. All of us returned alive and unhurt."
I should have joined the party, Myra thought. She had almost asked Zack to let her go before her fears had stopped her. She did not feel ready to go Outside, but every day spent in those dark cells made her lose a bit of her mind.
Zack grinned. "It's been a while since a patrol report started like this. Please, go on."
"We found the ruins of a city thirty miles south of here," Alerie continued. "We looked through houses and shops, but the place has been searched. The vamps have taken almost everything, but we still found a few useful items."
She brought a sheet of paper close to the candle. "We found seven cans of peas, three cans of corn, thirteen cans of pork, two bars of chocolate, fourteen large candles, twelve pairs of trousers of various sizes, two pairs of slippers, one pair of flip-flops…"
Myra bit her lower lip as she listened to the list. "Is any of the food still edible?"
Alerie snorted and took a can out of her bag. "It says, Expiration Date: March 2531."
Everyone laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. The food had supposedly expired over forty years ago. "With cans you never know," Myra said. "Some of it may still be fine."
"Did you find any grains?" Zack asked. "Wheat? Rice? Corn?"
Alerie shook her head. "No. We searched everything. Someone had been there before us."
"What about medicines?" Myra asked.
"We found a few pharmacies, but they were pillaged. Nothing was left."
"Why would vampires need medicines?" Thomas mused.
"They don't," Zack said. "They knew we would find the place sooner or later. They wanted to cut off our supplies."
Everyone fell quiet. Thomas ran a hand through his red hair, and Zack buried his face in his hands.
"We need the medicines," Myra murmured, wincing as her voice shattered the silence.
"We do," Zack agreed. "But as we don't have them, we need to take necessary measures. For starters, we must reduce everyone's dosage of vitamin D."
Myra looked up. "Zack, we can't! The current dosage is already too low. Most of our people have never seen sunlight, and it shows. You haven't been to the clinic often enough, but I have. Every day we have more cases of bone pain, even amongst children."
"A little pain has never killed anyone," said Zack.
"It's not just pain," Myra protested. "This deficiency could lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Now those have killed plenty of people."
Zack rubbed at his forehead. "We have no choice. There are four hundred and thirty-seven of us here. Our current dosage with the available supplies gives us enough supplements to last a little over four months."
"And this is not the only thing we lack," said Thomas. "I think we'll run out of food before we have time to start worrying about cancer."
Zack nodded and looked at Alerie. "Captain Sanchez, did your party hunt down any game?"
"Two rabbits," she replied, her words emphasized by a cry from the prison cell.
Myra bit her lip and stared at the stone floor. Two rabbits for hundreds of people. She looked up and saw the same worry in her commander's eyes.
"Alerie," Myra said. "Did you come across any living woods?"
Alerie shook her head. "Everything was dead and barren."
"The rabbits must have come from somewhere," Myra said. "There must be patches of habitable ground. We need to find them."
Zack looked about to reply, when the door blew open and Lidia walked in. "The filth refuses to talk," she said as she collapsed into a chair.
"That's because he hasn't talked to me yet," Thomas said and got up.
Myra gave him a smile. "Good luck. And Zack, if you have no more need for me, I'll go check on my cousin."
"Very well," Zack said. "You're all dismissed."
Myra walked out of the Headquarters, and all the Warriors followed one by one.
"Hey, Myra, wait," Alerie called and caught up with her. "You should bring Thea to my room. I have something for her."
Myra remembered Alerie's report and grinned. "Is it what I think it is?"
Her friend smiled. "Don't get excited. There is barely enough for all the children. There will be nothing left for you and me."
"That's fine," Myra said. "Alerie, I wanted to talk to you. I've been thinking about joining the next patrol."
Alerie stopped in her tracks and looked her up and down. "You are eighteen, right?"
Alerie nodded. "Nineteen. Yeah, why not? You've been a part of the Warriors' Council for three years now. Most people start raiding later, but plenty of younger Warriors have successfully participated in patrols. How is your training going?"
"I'm passable with the gun and crossbow. Not so much in hand-to-hand combat."
"None of us can hope to defeat a vampire hand-to-hand anyway. I must warn you, though—even if you're perfect at hitting an unmoving target during a training session, shooting at a real vamp is something completely different."
"I'm sure it is," Myra said. "But in general, you don't think it's a bad idea?"
"Depends. I think it makes sense for you to go, as long as you go for the right reasons. If you feel you're ready and want to contribute, then fine. But that's not the main reason you want to go, is it?"
Would Alerie laugh at her if she confessed her true reasons? "Honestly, I want to go Outside. I want to see what it's like." Myra winced. Now that she had said it aloud, the words sounded even more childish than they had in her mind.
Alerie snorted. "Everyone does. But the Outside isn't everything it's hyped up to be: barren ground, rotting and dead trees, and thick clouds covering everything in shadow. Not much to see."
Myra gazed at the dark corridor, barely illuminated by the meager torchlight. "Anything is better than this."


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Dominic's night: Paradis hits 1,000 points in big Red Raider win
ROCHESTER — Dominic Paradis knew his 1,000th career point was going to come. In typical, cool, calm Paradis fashion, he wasn't going to rush it.
The 6-foot-5 senior forward reached the milestone Tuesday in a big Spaulding High School boys basketball 63-51 win at home against Merrimack, hitting the first of two foul shots with 37.7 seconds to play to hit 1,000 on the nose.
"It was on my mind, but I was going to let the game come to me," Paradis said of the milestone point. "I knew it was going to come. I wasn't going to force anything. We needed to get the win first. And it came, so I'm pretty happy about that."
Paradis ended the game with a team-high 17 points, including 11 of 11 from the foul line and 13 points in the second half. It was the Red Raiders' (12-3) biggest win to date, dropping the defending Division I champs to 11-5. The Tomahawks knocked Spaulding out of last year's tournament in the semifinals.
Although it was a big point night for Paradis, the Red Raiders won the game at the defensive end. They led 30-17 at the half and never let Merrimack get closer than eight in the second half.
"They were really packing it in," said Merrimack coach Tim Goodridge. "They were really bothering Gendron and their weak side help was (effective). ... And we gave them too many second looks. I thought we played pretty good D, but we didn't rebound the basketball and they were getting second and third shots. That enabled them to get that 13-point lead."
Tomahawk star Eric Gendron netted a game-high 26 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter when Merrimack made its run.
But Gendron couldn't get untracked in the opening half, scoring just five points as Spaulding's defense forced the Merrimack star into a variety of tough shots that wouldn't fall.
Spaulding got the lead to 17 (42-25) in the third quarter after an inside hoop by sophomore Anthony Ciccotelli, who scored 12 points off the bench.
Merrimack whittled it to 11 by the end of the quarter (45-34) on two Gendron free throws and Brandon Malloch's inside bucket.
The Red Raiders started the fourth quarter on n 8-0 run, getting four points from Paradis, who scored 10 points in the last quarter.
He had just four points at the half, all on free throws, sitting a good portion with two fouls.
Down 53-34, Merrimack finally caught fire. Actually Gendron caught fire, drilling four NBA 3-pointers in a span of 1:26.
His fourth trey completed a 13-2 run to cut the Red Raiders' lead to 55-47 with 1:54 to play.
Enter Paradis, who scored his team's next six points to cool off Merrimack's surge. His inside bucket gave him 13 points, He followed with two free throws with 53.4 seconds to play to rise to 15 points and a 999 total, and then calmly hit the milestone point from the foul line.
Paradis is the first Red Raider boy to reach the 1,000-point mark since Luke Croteau did so in 2007.
The senior forward was mobbed on the court by his teammates, getting plenty of hugs and chest bumps before action resumed.
"We really picked it up defensively and had a lot of energy this game," Paradis said. "We've got to keep that spirit up, that pride, the rest of the way."
Fifteen seconds later senior teammate Alex Gray, all 5-10 of him, ended the win with an exclamation point, dunking the ball from the left side to finish off a press break set to bring the partisan Spaulding crowd to its feet once again.
"It's amazing," Paradis said. "What a way to end the game."
Gray said it was the "Go" play where he gets a pick near half court and then breaks for the basket.
"I told my guys if you hit me with a pass I've going to try and dunk it," Gray said. "And then it happened. ... It was crazy. It was like a game-winner almost with those two added together."
"That was something," said Spaulding coach Tim Cronin with a smile. "That's the Go play and he goes. But you have to play to win at the end of the game. Even though they're coming back, don't go into a stall. Play to win."
The Red Raiders finish the season up with three tough games. They host 11-4 Bishop Guertin Friday, and then travel to Nashua South (12-3) and Manchester Memorial (11-3) next week. To finish in the top four, they will likely need to win two of three.
"We hadn't beaten one of the teams near the top, so that's why this was a big win for us," Cronin added, whose team had lost two of three coming in. "I thought the defense was excellent, I really do. We stressed that all week long. I thought our defense let us down at Salem (62-58 loss last week). We got back to defensive basics." Spaulding, 63-51
MERRIMACK (51) — Gendron 7-7-26, Jarry 0-4-4, Franzen 4-0-9, Borque 3-0-6, B. Malloch 3-0-6, Keefe 0-0-0, Whelan 0-0-0, Conlin 0-0-0, A. Malloch. Totals: 17-11-51.
SPAULDING (63) — Paradis 3-11-17, Fogg 1-0-3, MacGregor 3-0-6, Nevejans 3-2-8, Leahy 2-0-4, Ciccotelli 4-4-12, Gray 3-0-7, Bellio 1-3-6, Connelly 0-0-0, Colucci 0-0-0. Totals: 20-20-63.
Merrimack (11-5) 9 8 17 17 — 51
Spaulding (12-3) 13 17 15 18 — 63
3-pointers: M-6 (Gendron 5, Franzen); S-3 (Fogg, Gray, Bellio).


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SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Feb. 14, 2009) - The 2007-08 season was the most successful and memorable in ETSU women's golf history. The Buccaneers - under the guidance of 2007-08 Atlantic Sun Conference Coach of the Year Stefanie Shelton - captured the program's first-ever conference title and competed for the first time in the NCAA Championships.
The Bucs hope to continue to build on those successes as they begin their 2009 spring season Sunday at the Aztec Spring Invitational in San Diego. Coming off a successful fall campaign, the team enters the spring semester with a great deal of confidence and anticipation.
ETSU is coming off a 2007-08 season that saw the team garner its highest ever national ranking, rising to No. 42, and capture two team championships with overall victories in the South Alabama Lady Jaguar Invitational and the Atlantic Sun Conference championships. In all, since coming to ETSU in 2002-03, Shelton has led the Bucs to seven tournament team titles, which includes a first place showing in the Sea Trail Intercollegiate back in September of this season.
Led by a bevy of talented and experienced players, Shelton's squad has potential low scores throughout the lineup. However, no player in the program's existence has experienced so much success as quickly as junior Laura Jansone (Jurmala, Latvia). In her two seasons at ETSU, Jansone has made history, becoming the first woman to win an individual championship in golf during the 2006-07 season, and then rewriting the record books once more by posting a school record for single round score with a 67 in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference championships and then going on to earn medalist honors in that event - which was the first conference individual title for an ETSU player ever. Having led the team in stroke average (76.2) a year ago, the first-team All A-Sun selection struggled at times in the fall semester of this year and finished third on the team with a 76.7 stroke average, but that didn't stop her from picking up the third individual title of her career with a first place showing in the Sea Trail Intercollegiate.
Along with Jansone, the Bucs also return senior Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales), along with juniors Kennie Leigh Eisenhower (Newport) and Sinead O'Sullivan (Galway, Ireland). Meanwhile, joining the ranks are freshmen Mayte Vizcarrondo (Cadiz, Spain), Malin Mansson (Kalmar, Sweden) and Nina Muehl (Vienna, Austria).
Gould comes into the season having been a three-year contributor to the team and having posted five Top 10 finishes a year ago, including a tie for fifth in the A-Sun championships. She was a second-team All A-Sun pick as a sophomore and currently ranks fourth on the team in stroke average.
Meanwhile, O' Sullivan broke through in a big way last season, joining Jansone as the only other woman to ever capture an individual championship. She did so by winning the South Alabama Lady Jaguar Invitational, where she posted a personal best with a 69 in the final round. In the fall, she was one of two ETSU players to finish with a team-best stroke average of 76.5. Fellow junior Eisenhower played in all four events for the Bucs in the fall and showed improvement in her game, finishing fifth on the team in stroke average and posting her best finish with a tie for 35th at the UNCG-Starmount Classic.
As for the newcomers, Vizcarrondo made an immediate impact in the fall, finishing tied with O'Sullivan at 76.5 for the team's best stroke average. She posted two Top 5 finishes and enjoyed a season best third place showing in the Palmetto Intercollegiate. Mansson finished tied for 36th at the Sea Trail Intercollegiate to help the team to that victory. In the meantime, Muehl was a transfer pickup over the semester break and will play in her first events for ETSU this spring.
The Bucs will once again face an ever-more-challenging schedule again in the spring of 2009. The team will play in seven events this spring, including the always critical Atlantic Sun Conference Championships which are set to begin April 13.
For more on ETSU women's golf throughout the season, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women's golf link.


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School will be letting out soon for the summer which means the kids will be logging even more playground time — and you'll be tackling a lot of tough stains. Here are the best methods for getting rid of them.
Grass: Your best line of defense is an enzyme-based liquid laundry detergent like Arm & Hammer, because the enzymes target protein-based stains. Rub a little of the detergent into the stain. Wash the items in the hottest water that's safe for the fabric and use chlorine bleach if the garment label says you can.
Dirt: Teach your kids to brush off any loose dirt before they even come into the mud room. If they don't follow your advice, brush off as much as you can yourself. Then pretreat the remaining dirt with a prewash stain remover like Shout and launder.
Blood: After drying their tears and bandaging the boo-boo, soak the fresh stain in cold water or apply hydrogen peroxide to it with an eye dropper. If the blood has already dried, brush it well to remove the surface deposit. Then soak the fabric in cool water (hot water will set in the stain) with your enzyme detergent. Wash as usual.
More From Good Housekeeping
Tree Sap: If there's a brave little tree climber in your tribe, you'll be dealing with this one. First, pretreat the stain and wash the clothing in the warmest water with the type of bleach that's safe for the fabric. Before you toss the item in the dryer, make sure all the sap's been removed. Heat from the dryer could soften any sap that's still there and transfer it to other items in the load. If any sap remains, sponge the stain with rubbing alcohol and wash again.
Ice Cream: It's not a day in the park, if it doesn't include an ice cream cone. Pretreat or soak the fabric using an enzyme laundry detergent for at least 30 minutes and launder.
Any other tough stains you have to combat during the summer? Let us know in the comments and we'll follow up with more tips!


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Photos: Philip Seymour Hoffman's funeral held in NYC
By KAREN MATTHEWS;
Associated Pre;
NEW YORK – Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Ethan Hawke, Amy Adams and Ellen Burstyn have paid their respects to Philip Seymour Hoffman, an actor widely considered among the best of his generation.
Hoffman's private funeral was held Friday in Manhattan. It ended with pallbearers bringing the coffin out of the church and putting it back in the hearse.
The list of mourners also included Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Louis C.K., Mary Louise Parker, John Slattery, Jerry Stiller, Marisa Tomei, Spike Lee, Diane Sawyer and her director husband, Mike Nichols.
The 46-year-old Hoffman was found dead Sunday of an apparent heroin overdose in his apartment.


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"Britannia Mews, by Margery Sharp, is an underrated novel by an underrated author. It's the story of a woman who throws over her rather cushy life as a daughter of privilege to marry an artist who turns out to be quite unlike her romantic vision of him. The narrative doesn't shy away from ugly emotions and ugly truths. People make fools of themselves, they grow angry, they hate one another—and find unlikely intimacies in that. There's no patience in the book for sugar coating anything. I'm sure that was shocking to me when I first read it. But maybe what moved me most was the sense of having found a kindred spirit. I felt immediately at home in Sharp's unsentimental understanding of what makes people tick. I was around thirteen when my mother gave it to me with the very clear message that it was an important book to her, which could be a dangerous thing to do. But it became a real bond between us, a kind of reference point that's found its way into our conversations for thirty-five years now."
Robin Black's debut collection of short stories If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This is out now.
More From ELLE
Photo: Marion Ettlinger


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5R55S Transmission Rebuild - The Modern Generation
Performance Automatic makes it easy to fit a modern 5R55S in Project Generation Gap
The modernization of classic Mustangs and Fords with a modular motor or EFI is a common occurrence. Take MM&F's on-going Generation Gap project car, where Tech Editor Mark Houlahan is reviving a '68 Mustang with a helping hand from his son Kyle. The first order of business was to convert the '68 from a coupe to a fastback-thanks to Drake Customs and Dynacorn. Moving past the visual upgrades and custom work, the Houlahans plan on stuffing an '06 Mustang GT engine under the hood. For those unfamiliar with the modern generation of engines, the '06 Mustang GT features a 4.6L modular engine that boasts three valves per cylinder, and cranks out 305 hp while knocking down 20-plus mpg.
In keeping with the modernization theme, Houlahan turned to the 5R55S automatic- transmission-the unit that is behind the Three-Valve mod motor in the '05-'10 Mustangs.
"The 5R55S is a physically compact unit having five forward speeds with an Overdrive. Like most five- and six-speed automatic transmissions, it has a very low First gear, followed by a pretty standard gear spread after that," noted Tom Cyr of Performance Automatic. First gear features a 3.22:1 ratio, which is far better than any other automatic transmission before it. The rest of the gearing package includes a 2.29:1 (Second), 1.55:1 (Third), 1.00 (Fourth), and 0.71:1 (Fifth/Overdrive).
The transmission's roots go back to 2003, where it saw life in the Thunderbird. The predecessors to the 5R55S are the 5R55N and 5R55W units that came into service in 2002. The series is part of Ford's new generation of electronically controlled transmissions that began showing up in various passenger cars in 1995.
Getting a junkyard transmission is usually a crapshoot, as its former life is unknown, so we turned to Performance Automatic to freshen up the late-model slush box. The company pulled apart the five-speed automatic transmission and rebuilt it to its Super Street specs.
"For its size, the 5R55S has some very strong planetaries, precision roller and needle bearings, and large Intermediate and Overdrive apply areas," stated Cyr. He continued, "Performance Automatic upgrades all of the clutch materials, both Intermediate and Overdrive bands are reinforced and get a high-performance lining, and a new Overdrive planetary is installed. We also change the input shaft to a 300M unit, as it's standard with our Super Street version."
Performance Automatic (PA) makes it easy to fit this transmission behind any Ford modular or 5.0L engine thanks to its Pro-Fit bellhousing system. PA also added a deep-sump oil pan so it holds more fluid. Cyr explained, "The deep trans pan adds extra fluid and when modifications are made to the torque converter, it creates more heat. Most people don't realize that aftermarket converters hold less fluid. This can be compensated with a deep aluminum pan."
A Ford Racing engine wiring harness was used for this project and it's designed for a manual transmission, which left us with two choices. First was to convert the harness over to an auto setup and re-pin it for the transmission plug-in. It's a process that is time consuming and requires a bit of skill at reading schematics. The other option is to add a transmission controller, which PA offers with its 5R55S packages. Add in the Pro-Fit bell and you can back any 4.6L or 5.0L engine with a 5R55S box. The controller is programmable via laptop and made simple for the novice computer users out there. The transmission can also be upgraded with the PA paddle-shift setup.
Generation Gap continues to blend the old with the new and this Overdrive is ready for a long life of reliable service.
Performance Automatic (PA) makes it easy to fit this transmission behind any Ford modular or 5.0L engine thanks to its Pro-Fit bellhousing system. PA also added a deep sump oil pan so it holds more fluid.
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note: a much better Blu-ray and DVD version of this title has been reviewed by DVD Savant, here.
A superb epic and a remarkably mature look at colonial politics and the roots of foreign wars, Zulu Dawn is a terrible casualty of audience taste and the collapse of the British film industry. This prequel to 1965's mega-hit
Zulu by necessity takes a different approach to its historical battle between African natives and British regular troops: Instead of a glorious, victorious last stand, this conflict is an ignominious rout and resounding defeat. An analytical review follows below.
Unfortunately, while this Tango disc release is recommended because the movie is so good (and so relevant to the world today), the quality of the disc is not good at all. That bad news is further discussed below as well.
Whereas Zulu was a 60s Queen-and-country feel-good movie, 1979's Zulu Dawn is another story altogether, a revisionist post- Vietnam look at colonial warmongering at its worst. We tend to think of the English as benign colonials because classic Hollywood movies tended to favor them while making the Dutch, Spaniards and Germans into villains. Englishmen of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were definitely men of different times and different outlooks, but not that different from today's plunderers: They didn't claim the choicest pieces of global real estate for their empire by being nice guys.
Thus we have the Zulu wars, which according to this movie began as a territorial grab by the governor of Natal, citing the 'barbaric' customs of the Zulus as a pretext. He and Lord Chelmsford (a relation of Victoria) issue an ultimatum in her name, even though her communiqués instruct them not to incite violence. The ultimatum warns that Natal 'will have no choice' but to invade, whereas the decision to do so was never in question. Contemptuous of the enemy, Chelmsford thinks that victory will be a walk in the park. His only fear is that Cetshwayo will avoid engagement, and "not offer his Impis (armies) for destruction."
As his troops flow into Zululand Chelmsford positions Durnford, his only commander with local experience, as a rear guard to insure that the charismatic officer will not steal the spotlight. He warns the London Times correspondent "Nogs" (Ronald Lacey of Raiders of the Lost Ark to stick to the facts. Nogs insolently tells Chelmsford that he sees a deliberate and unprovoked invasion of Zululand. All that puzzles Nogs is the Why. For sport? Reputations?
Under a stirring, expectant score by Elmer Bernstein (one of his best of the 70s), we witness the invasion on a grand scale. Director Douglas Hickox (Theatre of Blood) stages giant panoramas of troop movement and maneuvers as a huge pageant and captures the action with multiple cameras, many with telephoto lenses. The only drawback to the filming style is the use of coral filters to dull down the bright colors, reducing the crimson wool jackets to a sickly orange. The idea must have been to keep the film from being too pretty, but the result is that Zulu Dawn has a slightly dated look.(Wrong! Apparently all video copies of the film have been mistimed. See this footnote from the original Director of Photography. ) 3
The pre-battle tension is almost intolerable. Poor Colonel Pulleine has to camp at Isandlwana, a place he cannot pronounce. 1 The Zulus dispatch expendable 'spies' to pretend to be captured, and after savage beatings, 'volunteer' false information. Cetshwayo even sacrifices a small force of older warriors just to give his enemy a false sense of security. Chelmsford splits his army into two (perhaps three if you count reinforced patrols) and goes on ahead to reconnoiter, eating a lavish lunch while his men go hungry waiting for their mess tents to catch up.
The native attacks are much more frightening than in the original Zulu due to the lack of an assumed positive outcome. Chelmsford's cocky young lieutenants are shooting Zulu boys for sport when they come across their real foe - thousands of warriors waiting the order to advance. The attacks are not the warrior games of the earlier film, as King Cetshwayo wants a decisive victory in order to get on with the harvest and save his people. The 1600 brits left behind at Isandlwana have a complicated technological fighting apparatus to set up, while each Zulu is his own general, once the attack command is given. As a terrified soldier on the firing line says to his neighbor, having guns may not guarantee victory -- those spears don't run out of bullets!
Armchair generals that become anxious over blunders at Pearl Harbor and the Little Big Horn will have apoplexy watching Zulu Dawn. The Brits don't realize how desperate their situation is and only a few officers are capable of improvising in the heat of battle. The priggish quartermaster is more concerned with his own authority than the calamity rising around him, and insists on doling out ammunition as if the day will be won by balanced inventory books. Our initial reaction is to want somebody to shoot him dead so the contents of the ammo wagon can be distributed immediately. It's debatable whether the boasted 'unassailable British square' of fire could hold off a sustained charge by so many massed enemy footsoldiers, even if Chelmsford's entire force were present. With the trickle of bullets reaching the lines, the Brits haven't a prayer. When one is cutting down hordes of attackers like wheat, the failure of the enemy to withdraw becomes unnerving - one knows that if they close in with those sharp, spade-like swords, it's all over. I'm sure that this particular Third World pacification problem was solved a generation later with WW1-era machine guns. But it is true that every round from those big-caliber rifles is aimed and powerful enough to cut down two or three men in a crowd. But when the bullets run out ....
The battle is a staggering spectacle, with fighting men (real men, not CGI pixels) stretching from the foreground as far as the eye can see. The foreshortening of long lenses makes the advancing Zulus appear to be seconds away from overrunning the defenses, creating a nervousness copied many years later by Paul Verhoeven for his Big Bug attacks in Starship Troopers. At one crucial point, the affectedly calm Colonel Crealock upbraids a young Lieutenant (James Faulkner, actually, one of the producers of the movie) for not keeping cool under the stress of battle. We'd like to see Crealock shot dead as well. That kind of cool only really becomes admirable under the immediate threat of death, as when the modestly competent Colonel Pulleine shows grace and poise while proclaiming the battle well-fought but lost. Unlike eveery other 'cavalry to the rescue' epic, the rout is a total wipe-out. The raiding victors slaughter everyone including cooks and the wounded in the hospital.
Zulu Dawn has a weird political effect. We're concerned for fighters on both sides, but unlike other epics are not asked to choose the Anglo cause, quite the opposite. Without condeming the brave soldiers, the script makes it clear that the war is an abomination, a sham invented by profiteers and opportunists eager to conquer weaker enemies. We have little choice but to honor the Zulu and the fighting wisdom of their 'barbaric' king.
Surely, this same anti-traditional approach coupled with the downbeat ending convinced distributors and perhaps even audiences that Zulu Dawn wasn't worth wide distribution in the U.S.. We were having troubles with upstarts in Iran at the time, ingrates who didn't appreciate our puppet tyrant the Shah. Nobody wanted to see a movie where the 'savages' win.
The all-star cast play character roles, with a romance triangle only hinted at between Lancaster, Ward and Calder-Marshall. Some parts are limited but none are cameos. O'Toole and Mills play hateful warmongers and Freddie Jones a conscience-stricken parson. The two-dozen officers are all easy to tell apart, as the script makes clear distinctions between the snooty officer's mess, the crude realities of the general infantry line (Bob Hoskins is as much a babysitter as a tough sergeant) and the local Boers and native batallions. The film is a huge undertaking and is pulled off on a colossal scale --- for a massive conflict with a real 'cast of thousands,' Zulu Dawn is possibly the most complex and detailed battle action movie this side of Sergei Bondarchuk's
War and Peace.
Savant's not hiding his predjudices here; Zulu Dawn is his favorite battle film precisely because it is so virulently anti-colonial. 'Native' populations don't like having their countries overrun with alien foreigners and tend to fight back in very nasty ways. Just to be fair to neocon readers, the creative force behind both Zulu pictures is Cy (Cyril) Endfield, a fine director who was blacklisted out of Hollywood in 1950. If you can see it (TCM showed it once, about ten years ago) his Try and Get Me! is a movie so bitterly critical of the American way of life that it had to be made by some kind of subversive genius.
As great a movie as Zulu Dawn is, Tango's new DVD is a major disappointment that will do for the moment only so that people will have a way to see this remarkable movie. The disc has handsome menus but barely suffices in any other category. In other words, here comes the bad news.
Zulu Dawn was produced in Panavision and in Dolby Stereo - the logos are there on the screen as evidence. 2 The transfer is an ugly, grainy, poorly encoded flat letterbox framed at about 1:85, with no 16:9 enhancement. The only thing that can be said in favor of the transfer is that it's formatted slightly better than the old Laser transfer of the late 1980s. That was one of those Image eyesores that pan-scanned the movie while squeezing it a bit to pull in a little more horizontal information.
This letterboxed image is indeed wider, but it itself is a 1:85 pan-scan of the full 2:35 image, cutting off the extreme left and right of the frame. This is the format decried by Europeans with their widescreen PAL televisions. The practice may have gone out of favor by now, but several years ago Savant heard many complaints from Sergio Leone fans that their western classics were being compromised by this 'chop to fit' practice.
The encoding might not look too terrible on a small television, but on a larger monitor it starts to break up and obscures detail on wide shots. The hundreds of tiny figures running in a shot should have a lot more resolution, and there's a borderline blobbyness happening all the time, like fat grain imposed on a good picture.
The mono audio is also not terrible, but Savant would die to hear this one in Stereo. Dolby tracks in 1979 were pretty sophisticated and should put the audio from the earlier film to shame.
Zulu Dawn is so good that if you find this disc at a bargain price (or are simply a millionaire with a limitless DVD budget, like most of Savant's readers) I recommend it in spite of its flaws, and perhaps to hold a place on your shelf for a decent disc someday. Obviously the rights for this one are flopping around between cheapo outfits, when it behooves some classy label to come to the rescue and do a decent disc version. As it's only twenty-six years old a lot of filming participants must still be alive and willing to talk about it for potential special edition extras. Gee, Mr. Faulkner, care to write Savant an email?
The exciting trailer is given a slightly better encoding and has full-width Panavision dimensions. The only thing good about this disc of Zulu Dawn is that Savant can finally retire his old laserdisc, which has so much laser rot that the battle of Isandlwana seems to be fought in the middle of a blizzard.
The fairly handsome box cover promotes Bob Hoskins up in the billing, from about 23rd, to first. Peter O'Toole and John Mills who?
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
Zulu Dawn rates:
Movie: Excellent +
Video: Poor, let me count the ways ...
Sound: Good -
Supplements: Trailer
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: September 22, 2005
1. Along with many other Zulu words, like Cetshwayo, there is a huge variety of English spellings for Isandlwana.
2. The logo doesn't say 'Lenses by Panavision,' which could mean a flat lens system rented from the vaunted camera system company, but plain old 'Panavision,' which means genuine anamorphic 2:35.
3. A Note from ZULU DAWN Director of Photography Ousama Rawi , June 17. 2006:
Dear DVD Savant, Recently your review of the Tango DVD of Zulu Dawn was brought to my attention. I would like to address some of your opinions. I was the Director of Photography on that film and I can assure you that no "coral filter" or any other image degrading or altering filter was used on that motion picture other than correctional diffusion on close-ups of some of the ladies. It was shot in Panavision Anamorphic, totally "clean" for projection at an aspect ratio of 2.35 as you correctly surmised.
I was never invited to supervise the original VHS and Laser transfers of the film nor was I invited to supervise this latest transfer for the Tango release. I would have been happy to offer my services both times and I am prepared to offer them in the future should a distributor ever consider inviting the cinematographer to a timing (grading) session of a film he or she has shot. It is a sad state how few of these older films ever get the transfer treatment they deserve. I am sure I speak for many cinematographers who all would love the opportunity to guide their films through this stage of the process. I have spoken to the producer of film who only discovered that there was a Tango release like the rest of the general public. He was not aware that the rights had been sold by the banks involved.
I'll be happy to give you more information should you desire it. My reason for writing is purely to set the record straight. The original answer print of the film was rich in colour and resolution. I was proud of the way it looked. What a pity all this work can be demolished so easily by a cheap, inferior video transfer. Regards, Ousama Rawi Return
An interesting and entertaining website about the Zulu Wars is
THE ANGLO-ZULU WAR. We learn that Isandlwana weakened the Zulu armies so badly that a more coordinated assault a few months later successfully conquered the territory.
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