By the arrival of the steamship George Cromwell at this port, yesterday, we have advices from New-Orleans to the 26th ult. The advices from Gen. BANK'S army being as late as the 25th, at which time he had pushed his forces several miles beyond Opelonsas.

The United States gunboat Cayuga arrived at New-Orleans on the 24th, from Sabine Pass. She reports that on the morning of the 18th inst., a boat from the gunboat New-London, and one from the Cayuga, with the Commanders D.A. MCDERMOT and ABNER READ, attempted a reconnoissance of Lighthouse Point, at the Pass. Capt. MCDERMOT and his five men landed, and were almost immediately attacked by a body of men, who were lying in ambush. The sailors were captured, and Capt. MCDERMOT was fired upon and mortally wounded. He died in three hours, and his body was returned under a flag of trade, and brought to New-Orleans on the Cayuga. When Capt. READ saw MCDERMOT fall, he ordered his men to pull back to the gunboat. He was fired upon from the shore, and was wounded, so that it is feared he will lose an eye. All the men in his boat but one were also wounded. The fire was returned once from the boat, and one man of the attacking party was killed. Commander MCDERMOT was buried in New-Orleans on the 25th.

Col. COWLES, under orders from Brig.-Gen. SHERMAN, Commanding in the absence of Maj.-Gen. BANKS, had been on an expedition to Pearl River. The expedition is said to have been entirely successful, Col. COWLES having captured the fallowing property, besides burning three schooners: The steamboat A.G. Brown, in good running order, about four years old, and very swift; the schooner George Washington, in good repair and fully rigged, with the exception of sails; about 10 bales of cotton, 108 barrels of tar, 222 barrels of resin, 21 cases of turpentine, 1 metallic lifeboat and a lot of hospital mattresses.

The Estoffette du Sud, a French paper, published in the Second District, and the Southern Pilot, a religious paper devoted to the Roman Catholic interest, were both suppressed on the 25th, by order of the military authorities, on account of the publication of treasonable and seditious articles.

We condense an account of Gen. BANKS' operations from the Era of the 26th, as follows:

"From a gentleman just in from the army of Gen. BANKS, and who has been through the whole of the present series of brilliant victories and rapid marches, we glean the following interesting items connected with the campaign:

The fight at Irish Bend is represented as being very severe; but the effect it had on the rebels repaid all the losses suffered by the Union army, if the loss of the lives of the patriotic can be atoned for. Col. (Acting Brig.-Gen.) BIRGE, of the Thirteenth Connecticut volunteers, was in command of the field, and the highest praise is due this gallant soldier for his coolness and bravery.

After the battle, a junction was made between the commands of Gens. GROVER and WEITZEL, and rapid pursuit of the enemy commenced, who were flying in the utmost confusion and terror. Rapid as was their flight, our boys overtook them, and succeeded in capturing all the Infantry -- the officers, artillery and cavalry alone escaping.

The Diana came up the Teche, and shelled the woods in which lay GROVER's command, but the only result of her fire was the wasting of ammunition and the destruction of some very fine lumber.

The sick and wounded rebels had all been put on board the Cornie by their comrades, and when they saw the hopelessness of any attempt to save their boats, they set file to all but the Cornie, and with her intended to attempt the running of the batteries, and escaping to New Iberia. Our troops were occupying Franklin at the time -- a part of Gen. GROVER's command having get in the rebel rear -- and when the rebels on the Cornie heard of this, they turned the boat over to Capt. JEWETT, of the One Hundred and Sixtieth New-York. Lieut. ALLEN, of Gen. WEITZEL's staff. Surgeon ALLIS, United States Navy, and several others who were wounded and prisoners on board, and skedaddled incontinently.

The boats burned by the rebels were the Gossamer, Newsboy, Era No. 2, Gen. Rusk and Diana.


By HOWARD KISSEL Daily News Drama Critic

Thursday, February 2th 1995, 3:75AM

MISSING PERSONS. By Craig Lucas. With Mary Beth Peil, Todd Weeks, Mary McCann, Jordan Lage, Camryn Manheim, John Cameron Mitchell and Cameron Boyd. Set by David Gallo and Lauren Helpern. Costumes by Laura Cunningham. Directed by Michael Mayer. At the Atlantic Theater Co., 336 W. 20th St.

IN BOTH ACTS OF CRAIG LUCAS' "Missing Persons," coffee is brewed onstage. This is a brilliant dramatic device, since nothing is more invigorating than the smell of fresh coffee. In a play like "Missing Persons," the audience needs all the help it can get.

Lucas' substantially revised 1981 play is about a family in which the father and son are poets, the wife (and mother) a literary critic. There is a certain likeable fancifulness to Lucas' treatment of time we go backward and forward with little warning; the character of the son appears both as a toddler and a man in his '20s, sometimes simultaneously.

The incidents that take place in the present Thanksgiving of last year have the quality of sitcom. Those that take place in the past the father's desertion of his wife and very young son seem like actual theater. The coyness and artificiality of much of the writing is presumably compensated for by frequent, knowing references to contemporary poets, as if this were a serious literary evening.

The only character I found credible was, not surprisingly, the critic, perhaps because she seemed like the only adult onstage.

Everyone else, regardless of age or occupation, had a Brady Bunch cuteness.

Another reason I liked the critic best was that Mary Beth Peil makes her so warm and sympathetic. Many of the people onstage are not, though John Cameron Mitchell is sweet as a goony pickup and Jordan Lage handles the role of the cryptic father well.

The set, a house most of whose walls are lined with books, is a knockout.

Given the odd structure of the play, it may seem foolish to offer advice. But the first act is very long, and it might be a good idea to brew the coffee at the end of the act rather than the beginning.

Summary: MISSING PERSONS. By Craig Lucas. With Mary Beth Peil, Todd Weeks, Mary McCann, Jordan Lage, Camryn Manheim, John Cameron Mitchell and Cameron Boyd. Set by David Gallo and Lauren Helpern. Costumes by Laura Cunningham. Directed by Michael Mayer. At the Atlantic Theater Co., 336 W. 20th St. IN BOTH ACTS OF CRAIG LUCAS' "Missing Persons,"coffee is brewed onstage. This is a brilliant dramatic device, since nothing is more invigorating than the smell of


BY GEORGE RUSH AND JOANNA MOLLOY

Thursday, January 11th 1996, 1:95AM

Oh, what we would have given to be a fly on the wall when Princess Diana and Madonna compared notes on manipulating the media.

This week, London's papers are running wild with the story that Madonna coached Di on how to handle herself in her recent TV interview. It's claimed that, back in November, the two blond celebrity goddesses chatted over tea on how to spin Di's tale of woe.

Well, almost. According to Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, the two did meet at a party. But Rosenberg says, "As far as I know, it was just a brief conversation. I know Madonna said she was impressed by Diana's looks and brains."

Some time ago, Madonna extended an invitation for the Princess to stay at her home. The singer's nagging stalker problem may have caused Her Royal Highness to beg off. But now that that ordeal is over, we can't wait to see the two of them jogging together, dueting on a dance record, and making crank calls to Charles and Sean.

David Mamet has finished a screenplay for a new movie, and Robert De Niro and Alec Baldwin are considering co-starring in it.

De Niro is interested in the part of billionaire Charles Morse in Mamet's "The Bookworm." Morse is a loner who likes books more than he likes people; except for, maybe, his gorgeous wife, Mickey Morse.

One day, Morse is flying to Alaska when his private jet crashes. The only survivors are Charles, a member of the flight crew, and Robert Green, an athletic rake who has been having an affair with Morse's wife. Alec Baldwin has been offered the role of Green.

After the crash, Green is supposed to be helping Morse find his way back to civilization. Green's real plan? Kill Morse so he and the wife can enjoy his money. That's the mission. But this being Mamet country, things turn out a little differently. We won't spoil it.

De Niro and Baldwin aren't set in stone for the adventure. But the Fox project is definitely ready for take-off. It'll be directed by Lee Tamahori, the New Zealander whose "Once Were Warriors" won raves.

FAR FROM THE LAST TYCOON

The main character in "Playground of the Gods" (Warner Books) is of Armenian descent, owns his own island and flies his own plane. Sound a lot like Kirk Kerkorian, the billionaire who once owned MGM?

Cathy Cash Spellman, who wrote "Playground," just laughs.

"Everybody wants to know that!" says the novelist, who mingles with the mightiest of moguls. "There are so many gazillionaires now with G-4s and private islands and incredible careers. I think I have to say that any resemblance to any mogul living or dead is not intentional."

The novel is set to become a movie produced by former TV wunderkind Brandon Tartikoff.

Just as New Yorkers are enjoying the snow in Central Park Tuesday, five perps have to ruin it. They put on ski masks not to protect themselves from the chill, but to hide their faces as they mugged two 17-year-olds at W. 97th St. They stole their money, took their jackets, and for good measure, pistol-whipped them in the head. Hope the $65 they got was worth the time they'll be doing: One of the 17-year-olds was Brendan O'Dwyer, son of Brian O'Dwyer, a city Human Rights Commissioner; grandson of city legend Paul O'Dwyer, and grandnephew of former mayor Bill O'Dwyer. No arrests yet.

E.R.'s George Clooney at Bowery Bar Saturday night, attracting so many rubbernecking babes from the bar area that he had to be moved . . .

Who else would be creative enough to do a legal analysis of snow? Lawyer Cheryl Fiandaca, whom Ch. 7-WABC News first hired from John Jay College of Criminal Justice to do commentary during the O.J. Simpson trial, has stayed on as the news program's legal eagle for now. Word is another station is trying to steal her, in a lawful way of course: Fiandaca's married to city Police Commissioner William Bratton. . . .

No, Plaza Hotel staffers are not so lazy that they've neglected to take down the Christmas decorations. Whoopi Goldberg has been filming a holiday scene from her film "The Associate" at the swank hostelry . . .

Comic Ellen DeGeneres has her singing debut today. She'll belt out the alphabet on "Sesame Street" . . .

It's a good time to support the city's firemen. Tonight, several of the firefighters who posed for their sexy 1996 calendar will be on hand at Thompson Street to sign your favorite month, all to benefit the burn center at N.Y. Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. Sorry, ladies, Thompson Street owner Terry Quinn the firefighter who inspired a character in Denis Hamill's "House on Fire" didn't pose this year.

NOBODY ASKED US, BUT . . .

Isn't it about time someone updated the ultimate chick flick, "Joan of Arc"? The Ingrid Bergman version, while great, is 50 years old and lacks action. We recommend Jennifer Jason Leigh . . .

Since the N.Y. Historical Society is struggling, why doesn't director Betsy Gotbaum bring exhibits out to the public? How about Penn Station, which is filled with bored people waiting for hours, staring at walls and columns that are virtually art-free and information-free . . .

Sorry to create panic in the streets it's The Who's John Entwistle who's playing at Tramp's on Jan. 21, not The Who, as one of the sponsors mistakenly told us Tuesday. The great bass player and his new band will play Who classics, as well as material from his new CD, "The Rock," to an intimate audience of 200. It's a rather luxurious way to listen to rock: Tickets are pricey, but you eat and drink for free, then have dessert with Entwistle at a private party at Le Zinc on E. 54 St. afterward.To make up for any confusion our readers may have encountered yesterday, Entwistle gave us a pair of tickets for the first fan who called: that would be Joe Townsend (no relation to Pete). Have fun, Joe.


When Karen Williams’ son died in a motorcycle crash, the Oregon woman turned to his Facebook account in hopes of learning more about the young man she had lost.

Williams found his password and e-mailed the company, asking administrators to maintain 22-year-old Loren Williams’ account so she could pore through his posts and comments by his friends. But within two hours, she said, Facebook had changed the password. “I wanted full and unobstructed access, and they balked at that,’’ said Williams. “It was heartbreaking.’’

Now, lawmakers in at least two states are considering proposals to require Facebook and other social networks to grant access to loved ones when a family member dies, essentially making the site’s contents part of a person’s digital estate. The issue is growing increasingly important as people record more thoughts and experiences online and more disputes break out over that material.

Williams ultimately got into her son’s account, but it took a two-year legal battle that ended with Facebook granting her 10 months of access before her son’s page was removed.

Nebraska is reviewing legislation modeled after a law in Oklahoma, which last year became the first state to take action.

“Mementos, shoeboxes with photos. That, we knew how to distribute once someone passed away,’’ said former legislator Ryan Kiesel, who wrote the Oklahoma law. “We wanted to get state law and attorneys to begin thinking about the digital estate.’’

Under Facebook’s current policy, deaths can be reported in an online form. When the site learns of a death, it puts that person’s account in a memorialized state. Certain information is removed, or restricted to friends. The profile and “wall’’ are left intact so friends and loved ones can make posts in remembrance.

Facebook will provide the estate of the deceased with a download of the account data “if prior consent is obtained from or decreed by the deceased or mandated by law.’’

If a close relative asks that a profile be removed, Facebook will honor that request, too.

Like the Oklahoma law, the Nebraska bill would allow friends or relatives to take control of social media accounts if the deceased person lived in the state. The measure would treat Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail accounts as digital assets that could be closed or continued by an appointed representative.

Facebook spokesman Tucker Bounds said the company was surprised by the Oklahoma law and was working closely with Nebraska legislators on the latest proposal. He declined to say how many people had requested access to accounts held by Oklahomans, but said, “I can tell you there aren’t people pouring out into the streets asking for access.’’

Oregon could be the next state to take up the issue. The Oregon State Bar Association hopes to propose legislation next year.

Summary: When Karen Williams’ son died in a motorcycle crash, the Oregon woman turned to his Facebook account in hopes of learning more about the young man she had lost. Williams found his password and emailed the company, asking administrators to maintain 22-year-old Loren Williams’ account so she could pore through his posts and comments by his friends. But within two hours, she said, Facebook changed the password, blocking her efforts. Now lawmakers and attorneys in at least two states are considering proposals that would require Facebook and other social networks to grant access to loved ones when a family member dies, essentially making the site contents part of a person’s digital estate.


ISTANBUL  AFTER years of waiting, Turkey was invited this month to begin discussions that may lead to membership in a very exclusive club: the European Union.

The stakes are high for Turkey and possibly even for relations between the Western and Islamic worlds. A legal fight between a Turkish prosecutor and the country's leading novelist, Orhan Pamuk, however, has complicated the talks.

Thomas Lohnes/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

The face of writer Orhan Pamuk at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Mr. Pamuk, who was scheduled to receive the Frankfurt Book Fair's prestigious peace prize Saturday, has been charged with making a statement that "explicitly insults" the Turkish state, a crime that carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

The alleged insult was Mr. Pamuk's statement to a Swiss newspaper in February that "30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands." He was referring to the civil that raged in Kurdish regions of Turkey in the 1980's and 1990's, and to the massacre of Armenians as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing during World War I. Most of the world considers this to have been a case of genocide, but Turkish leaders reject that label.

The prosecution of Mr. Pamuk is intensely embarrassing to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others who are eager to show Europeans that Turkey, long a conservative society dominated by the military, now embraces human rights and free speech.

"Our E.U. prospects will most likely be adversely affected by this lawsuit," Mehmet Ali Birand, one of Turkey's best-known journalists, warned in a recent column. "Anti-Turkish campaigners won't let it go. They will use it as fodder for one resolution after another. This will tarnish Turkey's already negative image."

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party, suggested in an interview on Thursday that he disapproved of the indictment. "These are not good things," he said. "Free expression is guaranteed in Turkey. If a prosecutor opens a file, it doesn't mean the case is decided. Judges will decide."

Even a decade ago, it was considered taboo, and was often illegal, to express unorthodox views on sensitive matters like religion, ethnic rights and the fate of Ottoman Armenians. But Turkish society is now racing toward European-style democracy, and the new openness here alarms diehard defenders of the old order, known collectively here as "Deep State."

It is these old-line nationalists, said Mr. Pamuk in his sunny, book-cluttered studio overlooking the Bosporus, who are using his indictment as a desperate attempt to keep Turkey from modernizing.

"It's a scandal, a shame," Mr. Pamuk said of his indictment. He described laws like the one under which he is being prosecuted as "hidden hammers that prosecutors want to keep in the drawer so they can hit whenever they want." Their purpose, he said, is to prevent Turks from speaking out on sensitive subjects.

When such issues are brought up, he said, the debate is "exaggerated, because taboos are still legally protected here." He added: "When people comment about political Islam or the army's role in politics or what happened to Ottoman Armenians or the way Turkey should treat its Kurds, unfortunately the comment does not appear neatly on the letters page of the newspaper."

Mr. Pamuk said he did not believe that the prime minister, who is leading Turkey's campaign to join the European Union, was behind his indictment. But he did suggest that Mr. Erdogan helped create the climate that made it possible.

"I blame him for his weakness and lack of determination," Mr. Pamuk said. "At the beginning of this year we had a wave of nationalist incidents and attacks on the E.U. project, including some by members of his own party. He did not look the problem in the eye and draw a clear line between anti-E.U. nationalism and the attitude of tolerance. He tried to avoid the subject."

Mr. Pamuk, 53, is not fundamentally a political figure, but he is a stubbornly independent one. In 1999 he refused an offer from the government to become a "State Artist," and he has criticized the government's policies on free speech, minority rights and other matters.

After the international success of his recent books, including "Snow" and "Istanbul: Memoir of a City," Mr. Pamuk has become to many here and abroad a symbol of Turkey's Westernizing ambitions. Last year, for example, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a member of the European Parliament and a former French student leader, told The Guardian, the British daily, that Mr. Pamuk "was one of the intellectuals who made me understand the importance of Turkey joining the European Union. It is so important for democrats in that country. Orhan is not only one of the most important modern writers in Europe, he is one of the examples of the possible modernity of Turkey."

While Mr. Pamuk encourages Turkey's democratization and strongly supports its campaign to join the European Union, however, he also reveres its age-old traditions.

"I have always believed Turkey should be proud of its two spirits, and not try to impose one above the other," he said. "My novels are a combination of experimental, modern innovations that come from the West, and the traditionalism of Persian epics, Sufi allegories and 19th-century Ottoman poetry. We should enjoy the fact the we have these two spirits, and combine them to create something new and rich, something that has never been done before."

Mr. Pamuk said that recent turns of opinion in Europe, reflected by votes against the proposed European constitution in France and the Netherlands, complicate Turkey's prospects for union membership but do not necessarily doom them.

"The French and Dutch referendums showed that voters in E.U. nations are more and more nervous about this enlargement process," he said. "It means taking Turkish Muslims and treating them as brothers. They don't want to do that. Unfortunately, there is a lot of anti-Turkish resentment. And in Turkey, which is getting more nationalistic, people see this and react against it. It makes Turkey's prospects of joining seem harder and harder.

"The E.U. with Turkey is a good project, but both sides still need to be convinced. If we reach the criteria for human rights, democracy and business ethics, then we can join the E.U. with our mustaches and water pipes."

Summary: The prosecution of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's leading novelist, has set back the country's bid to join the European Union.


In his long-awaited NFL debut, LaMichael James didn't have butterflies, but he did have plenty of burst after sitting on the sideline for the season's first 13 weeks.

After finding some holes en route to gaining 30 yards on eight carries, catching a 15-yard pass and averaging 26.3 yards on three kickoff returns, James also found a silver lining in his extended inactivity Sunday.

James hadn't played since the preseason finale against the Chargers on Aug. 30.

"I've got those fresh legs," James said. "That's 100 percent true. That's definitely a big a deal. At this level, those guys have been pounding for two or three months now. Today was my first day ever getting tackled. So I've got a little advantage and we'll take it."

With Kendall Hunter out for the season, James, a second-round pick who led the NCAA in rushing yards per game at Oregon last year, gave the running game an infusion of speed and quickness that was lacking the previous Sunday at St. Louis, the first game Hunter missed.

"He's a great player, very shifty, very fast, so he opened up a lot of things for us," quarterback Colin Kaepernick said.

James wasted little time making an impression. He returned the opening kickoff 34 yards after corralling it 8 yards deep in the end zone. The bit of boldness was a fitting start to what he termed a "stress-free" day. He said his teammates infused him with the confidence that he belonged during the week.

The game "really wasn't that fast to me," James said. "I was really calm, I wasn't nervous and I went out there and played."

Given his impressive debut, James was asked a logical question: Did he think he should have been activated much earlier?

"Not at all," James said. "The coaches know what they're doing. I'm just here to help the team win. I'm not sure if I was ready a few weeks ago."

For his part, head coach Jim Harbaugh had a less definitive response when asked what took so long.

"Yeah," he said. "That's a good question."

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Summary: In his long-awaited NFL debut, LaMichael James didn't have butterflies, but he did have plenty of burst after sitting on the sideline for the season's first 13 weeks.  After finding some holes en route to gaining 30 yards on eight carries, catching a 15-yard pass and averaging 26.3 yards on three kickoff returns, James also found a silver lining in his extended inactivity Sunday.  James hadn't played since the preseason finale against the Chargers on Aug. 30.  With Kendall Hunter out for the season, James, a second-round pick who led the NCAA in rushing yards per game at Oregon last year, gave the running game an infusion of speed and quickness that was lacking the previous Sunday at St. Louis, the first game Hunter missed.  [...] head coach Jim Harbaugh had a less definitive response when asked what took so long.


Famed Beverly Hills Courier columnist George Christy gives you an insider's peek into Hollywood's A-list parties and personalities.

Los Angeles couples and singles break up and make up from the pressures and expectations in the not-to-be-missed "Valentine’s Day" with its all-star ensemble cast. Directed by Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman"), the romantic comedy was written and storied by Katherine Fugate, a former child star and grandniece of Barbara Eden. The film opens during the Valentine’s Day weekend.

In alphabetical order, the actors include Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah.

Also, Taylor Lautner, whose paycheck will be $7.5 million for Northern Lights directed by John Moore about “extreme flying” (at 17, he’s the highest paid teenager, big-bucks beyond Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus), George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift, and others.

FULL STORY: Click here to read George Christy's full column at the Beverly Hills Courier

Summary: Is the ensemble-cast 'romcom' worth seeing?


Last year, the Independent Film Festival of Boston celebrated its 10th anniversary, marking a decade in which it evolved from just another scrappy local event to the best indie-movie smorgasbord in town. This Wednesday, the IFFB opens its second decade with the same mix of strengths that has sustained its growth: savvy curatorial cherry-picking of the best from Sundance, SXSW, and other recent fests; a welcome spotlight on local films and filmmakers; panel discussions and in-person appearances by directors; and a general eye for the weird and wonderful.

The 2013 festival runs from April 24-30 and will unspool mostly at the Somerville Theatre, with other venues including the Brattle, the Coolidge, and Theater 1 at the Revere Hotel. Discussed below are some notable films in this year’s festival.

For more information go to www.iffboston.org

The festival’s opening night presentation comes to Boston after going over big at SXSW and especially Sundance, where costars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley shared a special jury prize for “rare honesty, naturalism and transparency.” Translation: The movie’s a teenage romance with characters who seem like actual teenagers. Based on a novel by Tim Tharp, “Now” stars Teller (“Rabbit Hole”) as a life-of-the-party senior whose bravado masks insecurity; Woodley (“The Descendants”) is the class nobody he dates first out of pity and then — oh, you know. It’s an oft-told tale — a dab of John Hughes, a dash of “Perks of Being a Wallflower” — made fresh by the gentle realism of the playing and the levelheaded direction of James Ponsoldt (“Smashed”). (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Somerville)

“A Hijacking” is a drama about a commercial vessel hijacked by Somali pirates starring Pilou Asbaek (right).

From Denmark, a riveting moral drama about a commercial vessel hijacked by Somali pirates. As the crew is held for ransom and days stretch into weeks, and then months, writer-director Tobias Lindholm splits the action between the ship, where the Danish cook (Pilou Asbaek) becomes the pirates’ harried intermediary, and company HQ, in Copenhagen, where the CEO (Soren Malling) proves an all-too-cool negotiator. The film works as both a suspenseful nail-biter and a subtle indictment of the profit motive, whether it’s found in a high-rise office building or a Third World motorboat. Recommended. (Friday, 9:45 p.m., Somerville)

A documentary portrait of craftsmanship so obsessive it doesn’t know when to quit. British animator Richard Williams is best known for his groundbreaking work on the 1988 classic “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” but Kevin Schreck’s film zeroes in on “The Thief and the Cobbler,” a labor of love that Williams worked on for 28 years before it was finally taken out of his hands and released in bowdlerized form as 1994’s “Arabian Night.” (By then Disney had already pilfered the film’s visual ideas for “Aladdin.”) Williams doesn’t talk to the director but everyone else does, and the picture that comes into focus is that of a maverick genius betrayed by his love for detail. (Saturday, noon, Somerville)

A small, disarmingly democratic slice of life set in Reno about the friendship between a paroled convict (Richmond Arquette) and the title character, a wise but regretful older man (Paul Eenhoorn), who has lost touch with God. As in his debut feature, 2008’s little-seen “Luke and Brie Are on a First Date,” writer-director Chad Hartigan puts his faith in average people and little moments, watching as they forge connections almost in spite of themselves. An unassuming gem, more polished than mumblecore but far from the glossy certainties of the mainstream. (Saturday, 12:15 p.m., Somerville)

From straight outta Lexington comes Nathan Silver’s deadpan tale of suburban dysfunction and the human urge to belong. Co-writer/star Kia Davis suggests an evolutionary midpoint between Greta Gerwig and Lena Dunham as a lost 20-something who gets a job as a nurse’s aide for a maddeningly self-absorbed family. As the matriarch, Gert O’Connell is the quintessential progressive, noodgy outer-Boston mom — you could throw a tennis ball off Route 128 and hit about 10 of her. With the director’s own mother playing the grandmother, oy, is this a family affair. (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Somerville)

“Secundaria” is Boston University film professor Mary Jane Doherty’s work on young ballet dancers in Cuba.

Boston University film professor Mary Jane Doherty traveled to Cuba repeatedly over the years to complete this lucid, watchful portrait of young ballet dancers desperately trying to plié their way out of poverty and into the Ballet Nacional. The film follows a path familiar from documentaries like “Spellbound” and “First Position,” the difference here being that the young aspirants have the future of entire families on their shoulders. As we follow Doherty’s primary subjects — middle-class Gabriela, poor Mayara, poorer Moises — “Secundaria” reveals itself as being less about competing in dance and more about battling into adulthood. (Saturday, 1 p.m., Somerville)

“Good Ol’ Freda” tells the story of Freda Kelly (with Paul McCartney), who ran the Beatles’ fan club.

A documentary for Beatle fanatics who think they know it all. Freda Kelly was 17 years old when she was plucked out of a gaggle of fans at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and tapped to head up the Fabs’ fan club. In 1970, she was still at it, answering letters and mailing out photos even after the group disbanded. In between, Kelly had a front-row seat for all the cultural changes of the ’60s as enacted by the pop group that seemed to lead those changes. Kelly herself asks director Ryan White early in the film, “Who would want to hear a secretary’s story?” The answer (besides the faithful) is anyone interested in what legends look like to the invisible ordinary folk right next to them. (Saturday, 3 p.m., Somerville)

A fascinating film, but not entirely for the reasons its maker and subject think. Pittsburgh’s Steve Hoover documents his childhood friend Rocky Braat’s journey to India, where the young man finds his purpose caring for HIV-infected orphans. On one level, it’s a movie about a committed young altruist; on another, it’s about a lost soul using an exotic culture to define himself (and on still another level it’s about a guy using his best friend to make a movie). Rocky’s compassion can’t be denied — especially in a harrowing hospital sequence late in the film — but, almost in spite of itself, “Blood Brother” is about the West treating the Third World as a mirror rather than a place of its own. (Saturday, 3:15 p.m., Somerville)

A scene from Jane Gilooly’s “A Suitcase of Love and Shame.”

A SUITCASE OF LOVE AND SHAME

Perhaps the most formally bizarre entry in this year’s festival, Jane Gilooly’s film represents the aural evidence of a forbidden affair. The filmmaker bought a suitcase on eBay containing 60 hours of reel-to-reel tapes, mid-1960s love notes from a married Texas veterinarian to his girlfriend. Gilooly keeps the visuals minimalist in the extreme — “Suitcase” could be, and has been, an art installation. Still, listening to these twangy anonymous adulterers proclaim their passion, indulge in kinky pastimes, and eventually move toward breakup is weirdly moving. It’s a work of sonic voyeurism, an artifact of prehistoric sexting, a pre-feminist tragedy, and more. (Saturday, 6:45 p.m., Somerville)

A grand-jury prizewinner at this year’s Slamdance, a festival that likes to show neighboring Sundance what edgy looks like. Matt Johnson’s queasy low-budget drama — about two bullied high school kids making a film about killing their tormentors — may have too much edge for a lot of people, but it delves into interesting and unsettling areas: the way storytelling fuels revenge fantasies, the blurry line between pretending and doing, the distortions of movie geekery. A scurrilous but inspired work, and one worth arguing with. (Saturday, 9:15 p.m., Somerville)

With “My Sister’s Sister” — a high point of last year’s IFFB — writer-director Lynn Shelton vaulted out of the mumblecore pack with a deft, funny look at relationships, one that featured actual movie stars like Rosemarie DeWitt and Emily Blunt. DeWitt re-ups with Shelton here to play a Seattle masseuse who suddenly freaks out at the idea of touching someone. This doesn’t do much for business, let alone her relationship with bike-shop dude Scoot McNairy. It’s the director’s most baroque project yet, with ideas that can outrun the drama, but the supporting cast (Ellen Page, Allison Janney, Ron Livingston) is deep, and Shelton’s lightly parodic touch remains a treat. (April 29, 7:30 p.m., Somerville)

When someone ends up bruised and busted in a police station facing Timothy Spall, he’d better have a good story. The one told by Harvey (Luke Treadaway), the perp, is so-so; the one woven around it by writer-director Rowan Athale is much better. In a series of flashbacks, Harvey relates the familiar tale of a guy getting out of prison after being framed by the local psychopathic mob boss. He enlists his mates in an elaborate payback scheme made even more confusing by the impenetrable Yorkshire accents. There’s a girlfriend, of course, the typical wet blanket who wants Harvey to stay straight. The outcome seems predictable — but not so fast. Athale might not have Quentin Tarantino’s dazzle and depth, but he shares some of his narrative subversiveness. (Thursday, 9:15 p.m, Somerville)

Feminism may be dead, but the Riot grrrls live on, if only in the Moscow prison where members of their Russian incarnation, Pussy Riot, serve sentences for hooliganism. Sini Anderson’s surging, rough-and-ready portrait of Katherine Hanna, one of the movement’s founders, and lead singer for the bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, should renew enthusiasm for her cause and her music. The film starts with a question — why did Hanna pull the plug on her career in 2005? — and then relates Hanna’s tale from her origins as a teenage feminist putting on assaultive art shows to her success as a punk rock singer. At its best the film evokes the jagged edges of punk, mixing talking heads and crackling performance footage into gleeful, ’zine-like collages. So why did Hanna quit? The answer is both banal and devastating, but her defiant spirit and ferocious music prevail. (Thursday, 9:45 p.m, Somerville)

The title of Nathan Silver’s John Cassavettes-like slice of lowlife could apply to any of the characters, but perhaps is meant specifically for Natalia (Sheila Etxeberría), a woman under the influence if ever there was one. In short order she engages in a drunken fight with her boyfriend (shot in assaultive close-up), crashes a Seder at her best friend’s house, and ends up on the sidewalk. That’s where Maury (Ed Ryan) finds her. He invites her to crash at his apartment, an ad-hoc homeless shelter, already boarding a bunch of indigent oddballs who seem like rejects from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Silver divides the film into six truncated chapters, and the whole culminates with a full-stop image reminiscent of Michelangelo’s “Pieta.” (Friday, 7 p.m, Brattle)

Alice Lowe stars in Ben Wheatley’s “Sightseers.”

Covering much the same picturesque northern England terrain as Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip,” though with more sex and serial killing, Ben Wheatley’s black-comic road movie overdoses on absurdities before reaching its oddly poetic climax. Despite her dotty mother’s protestations, frumpy Tina (Alice Lowe) joins new beau Chris (Steve Oram, who co-wrote the screenplay with Lowe) in a trailer (or “caravan”) touring such attractions as the Crich Tram Village and the Cumberland Pencil Museum. Chris has little patience with rude people, and Tina’s initial disapproval of the subsequent murder spree gives way to avid participation. It’s a Monty Python version of “Badlands,” with a dark heart underlying its inspired, if tiresome, nonsense. (Friday, 9:30 p.m, Somerville)

A year after Pam White started on a book about her mother, Marian, a painter who fell victim to Alzheimer’s, Pam herself was diagnosed with the disease. She was 63. Her son Banker White (with co-director Anna Fitch) records his mother’s fight against the disease, and the equally courageous efforts of Pam’s husband and her children in caring for her; their daily struggle will resound not only with those who face the same situation, but with all who must someday confront the inevitabilities of decline, loss, and grief. The film’s intercutting of scenes from home movies of Pam as a child with similar scenes from the present day, punctuated with shots of Pam’s mother’s paintings, evoke the persistence of memory and identity. In a poignant moment, one of Pam’s friends catches herself using the past tense. “I didn’t want to say ‘was,’ ” she insists. “Because she still is.” (Saturday, 2:45 p.m., Somerville)

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a nursery school teacher falsely accused of child molestation in “The Hunt.

An hour or so into Thomas Vinterberg’s drama about a nursery school teacher falsely accused of child molestation, a nagging question persists: Why doesn’t he just call a lawyer? This implausibility only calls attention to the film’s contrivances. Mads Mikkelsen’s cheekbones add intensity to his portrayal of the victim of this witch hunt (and get this — he’s a hunter!) as does Vinterberg’s giddiness-inducing post-Dogme style. The primitive male-bonding rituals do suggest a world where the Dark Ages lurk just around the corner. But the real star is Annika Wedderkopp as the girl who cried wolf: She’s an uncanny looking child, and if she has a twin they could be featured in “The Shining II.” (Saturday, 9:45 p.m, Somerville)

Why hasn’t Hollywood realized that old people are a gold mine of story material? Though Nathan Hansen’s documentary opens with a quote from Simone de Beauvoir about how a society should be judged by the way it treats the elderly, his film is more about what old people can offer than what they need. In a style reminiscent of Errol Morris, he interviews seniors from disparate backgrounds, each with exemplary tales to tell. They include a Japanese-American woman whose dream of becoming a teacher ended when she and her family were put in an internment camp during World War II, and a Native American Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder who exorcised his demons through carpentry. Asked why he works with old wood, he sums up the film’s theme, explaining that society disposes of used things too quickly, and is the poorer for it. (April 28, 12:45 p.m., Somerville)

Director Xavier Dolan’s third film is “Laurence Anyways,”afictitious biopic

Orson Welles made his first film at 26. Xavier Dolan, at 24, has him beat — he’s already made three. Though no “Citizen Kane,” “Laurence” is also a fictitious biopic. Framed by an interview heard in voice-over, the narrative covers in flashback 10 years in the life of the title writer (Melvil Poupaud) following change of genders from male to female. Fred (Suzanne Clément), the woman he loves, complicates the process, but their persistent relationship allows Dolan to explore the ambiguities of gender and desire. Sometimes the imagery overdoes it, such as a scene in which an indoor deluge marks a character’s epiphany. But lapses aside, “Laurence” combines the lacerating melodrama of Fassbinder with the exuberant flourishes of Almodóvar, confirming Dolan as a talent of Wellesian potential. (April 28, 2 p.m, Somerville)

Timid audio engineer Gilderoy (Toby Jones) doesn’t know what he’s in for when he starts work at the title studio, hired ostensibly to work on the soundtrack of a ’70s Mario Bava-like slasher film for Santini (Antonio Mancino), a conceited hack director (“It’s not a horror film,” he insists, “It’s a Santini film.”) Gilderoy’s not the only one bewildered. I expected the movie within the movie to become the actual movie, with special effects turning into actual carnage. But for more than an hour the only things tortured are fresh vegetables, splattered and crunched to simulate the sounds of the atrocities in the film — which is never seen. Or is it? Director/writer Peter Strickland emulates existential horror films like Roman Polanski’s “The Tenant” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” as the term “looping” takes on a diabolical new meaning. (April 28, 8:45 p.m., Somerville)

Adam Brody and Zoe Kazan in a scene from Daisy von Scherler Meyer’s “Some Girl(s).”

I lost track of Neil LaBute after the inexplicable “Wicker Man” (2006), but Daisy von Scherler Meyer’s adaptation of his 2005 stage play finds him in his comfort zone of cynical, sometimes sadistic experiments in male/female incompatibility. Here Adam Brody (the 21st-century answer to Matthew Broderick) plays an unnamed writer who is dropping in on old flames (Kristen Bell, Zoe Kazan, Jennifer Morrison, Mia Maestro, and Emily Watson) to make amends, or something. They include an unhappy housewife, a slut, a ditz, the one true love, etc. — a balanced assortment of stereotypes — with whom he engages in his alternately narcissistic and masochistic project. By “some girl” number two he reveals about as much as he has to offer (“I really suck”). Meyer makes the most of hotel rooms and a talky script. This was better when it was Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers.” (April 29, 7 p.m., Somerville)

Did the world really need another adaptation of this Shakespearean classic? Probably not. But Joss Whedon’s modest black-and-white film, shot in just 12 days at his California home, is a breezy delight that proves worthy of keeping company with his other TV and filmmaking credits, including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The Cabin in the Woods.” The cast is full of the filmmaker’s pals and regular players — Alexis Denisof as Benedick, Amy Acker as Beatrice, Fran Kranz as Claudio — making it feel like the Bard by way of “The Big Chill.” Even Whedon’s most devoted fans may have doubted the wisdom of following “The Avengers” with something this challenging. They can rest easy. He hath indeed better bettered expectation. (Saturday, Somerville, 4 p.m.)

You’ve never seen a movie like this documentary from director Joshua Oppenheimer. It’s about Indonesian death squads who tortured and executed communists in the 1960s. Their story would be dramatic enough told straightforwardly, but Oppenheimer has the kooky-brilliant-outrageous idea to let former squad members also craft their own revealing narratives, complete with reenactments, done up in cinematic genres from noir to musical. The controversial result can be as absurd as it is horrific to watch. Can these unremorseful killers, as casual about dispatching a human life as they are about dressing in drag, be for real? Should you feel bad for even giving them your time? Just when it all seems a bit too staged and slimy to stomach, you see the bile erupt onscreen, too, and the volume of it haunts. Executive produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris; in Indonesian, with subtitles. (April 28, 5:45 p.m., Somerville)


A detail from a painting by Oscar Rabin. Photograph: Oscar Rabin

The Soviet regime condemned them as dissident artists and banned their work as degenerate. Now the defiance of Russian painters denounced as traitors is being recalled with an exhibition of their work in London.

They include Oscar Rabin, now 86, who risked arrest and worse almost 40 years ago when he organised what became known as the "Bulldozer exhibition", a daring protest by Moscow artists fighting for freedom of artistic expression. Within hours of opening, it was raided by the KGB, who bulldozed the works and targeted protesters with water cannons.

Rabin relived the horror of seeing art crushed and artists arrested: "It was very frightening … The bulldozer was a symbol of an authoritarian regime just like the Soviet tanks in Prague." Two of his own paintings - a landscape and a still life - were among those flattened by bulldozers or burned by the invading KGB.

There were no political themes to the painters' choice of subject, but they did not conform to the Soviet ideal of realism in art. "I chose those images consciously because I did not want to annoy the authorities more than necessary by showing work that was too provocative," he said.

He knew the risks, though: "The exhibition was prepared as a political act against the oppressive regime, rather than an artistic event. I knew that we'd be in trouble, that we could be arrested, beaten. There could be public trials. The last two days before the event were very scary, we were anxious about our fate. Knowing that virtually anything can happen to you is frightening."

The artists chose a vacant suburban lot to avoid accusations of disturbing public order, the law repeatedly invoked to ban demonstrations. "They couldn't say we were obstructing traffic or creating an inconvenience. We also chose a Sunday, not a working day."

He was arrested and punished with expulsion from Russia, but was allowed to leave with his family. Paris has been his home for the past four decades.

Now, some of his Expressionist still lifes and landscapes are to be shown at the newly-opened Aktis Gallery, in London SW1, which specialises in 20th-century Russian artists working in exile.

Previously unseen early and recent work, being shown until 31 March, will also include expressive work by another dissident, Vladimir Yankilevsky, 74, who was declared "degenerate" by President Nikita Khrushchev.

He recalled: "I lived in isolation. I could work freely but I could not display freely … I couldn't sell or exhibit." Only official artists, members of the union, could buy materials, so he was forced to walk the streets at night, foraging for discarded wooden boxes and detritus with which to create his own materials. "I had to use different materials … to be creative," he said.

The London exhibition will also include deformed human figures painted by Oleg Tselkov, who has been compared to Francis Bacon, yet whose show in 1971 was closed down after 15 minutes. There are also "metaphysical" still lifes by Dmitry Krasnopevtsev (1925-1995) who was denounced as a traitor after Life, the American magazine, reproduced one of his paintings. He lost his state workshop and any chance of taking part in official exhibitions throughout the 1960s and 70s.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these artists found recognition in Russia and worldwide. But they still feel a shadow across Russia. Yankilevsky said: "These days in Russia, there is freedom of artistic expression, but the authorities wouldn't like anything criticising them."

Summary: Dissident artists including Oscar Rabin and Vladimir Yankilevsky to exhibit at newly-opened Aktis Gallery


site had sat empty since a mayoral groundbreaking ceremony.

The mayor was Abe Beame, and the year was 1976. The ceremony marked the first of three decades of false starts in a slice of the city that had more than its share of undelivered promises.

But finally, last year, megadeveloper Stephen Ross built a two-story retail and office building at Third Ave. and E. 156th St., and renovated the parking garage next door.

Shoppers in the neighborhood known as the Hub said they like what his firm, the Related Cos., delivered.

Yonarys Ramos runs errands at the building's Rite Aid on her way home from work in the admissions office of Boricua College because the drugstore stays open until 9 p.m.

Ramos, who has four kids, gets school supplies at its Staples. And she thinks the prices are right at its Nine West outlet store — her cousin bought a purse there for just $5.

"I hope they build more stores," said Ramos, 31.

She'll get her wish if Related becomes a joint-venture partner with Blackacre Capital and Cypress Equities in a massive development planned nearby at a nearly empty, six-acre site at E. 149th St. and Bergen and Brook Aves.

Related wants in on the proposed 1.1 million-square-foot project, called the Plaza at the Hub. Before getting involved, the developer is asking the Bloomberg administration to move a city agency into an office building that would be part of the project, sources said.

Also, Related is seeking changes in the development plan, for instance, to include more housing. The current design calls for up to 250 apartments, 375,000 square feet of shops, a large supermarket, a 14-screen movie theater and about 1,000 parking spots.

Officials at the city Economic Development Corp. and execs at Related — which built the ritzy Time Warner Center and is now constructing the Gateway Center mall at the former Bronx Terminal Market — wouldn't discuss the proposed project. Regarding the Third Ave. project, Glenn Goldstein, the president of Related's retail division, did say he's in "advanced negotiations" with a casual restaurant about renting the last vacant space, on the ground floor of the garage.

While development officials were reticent, real estate brokers were eager to talk about changes the proposed Plaza at the Hub project would bring.

"A regional-tenanted corridor would get an opportunity to have lots of national tenants — and parking spaces, so people would come in by car," said broker Steve Lorenzo of NAI Friedland Realty. "It would bring the Targets of the world to the Hub and make it a place for 21st-century shoppers."

In the meantime, smaller retail sites are in play in the bustling shopping district situated between Mott Haven and Melrose, whose merchants include urban fashion retailers like Dr. Jay's and discounters like Conway and kids' clothing store Youngland.

Joseph Shamosh, the president of Youngland, owns a development site at the corner of Westchester and Bergen Aves. that's being marketed on real estate database CoStar.

At 306 E. 149th St., Lorenzo is trying to lease 40,000 square feet of retail space for Atlantic Development Group, which plans to build stores and apartments.

Susan Kaufman is looking for one or more tenants for a vacant 8,000-square-foot building at 368 E. 149th, which her grandfather, vaudeville song-and-dance man Abraham Kaufman, built in the 1920s. His business partner was a circus sideshow performer known as Zip the Pinhead.

A rep for Starbucks has taken a look at the building, Kaufman said, as have service organizations and phone stores.

"Tenants are desperate for space in the Hub," she insisted.

Some retail chains recently signed leases in the Hub, though many are scaling back expansion plans in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island because of the tough economy.

"In the next year and a half, you'll see a lot of conservatism on chain retailers' part," said broker Michael Friedman of In-Line Realty.

Walgreens took space on Third Ave. at E. 148th St., and eateries Subway and Little Caesars rented at the Orion, Procida Realty & Construction's Third Ave. condo development just north of Related's new building.

For discount clothing retailer Forman Mills — which opened a 36,000-square-foot store in Related's project — the Hub has turned out to be an effective location for its New York City debut.

Stretching the Hub's demographics a bit, Rick Forman, founder of the 25-store chain, said, "It gave us an entree to 1 million people in a mile and a half radius."

His store at the Hub, which has been open for nearly a year, has met sales projections and is profitable, he said. To celebrate its one-year anniversary, he's considering a big sale the first weekend in August with 20% off every item in the store.

When buildings were demolished to create the site where Related built Forman Mills and other stores, Vincent Valentino, executive director of the Hub's Business Improvement District, was a rookie cop, and Third Ave. was his beat. Thirty years of failed plans made him wonder if anything would ever get built.

"I was a doubting Thomas because it went through so many developers," Valentino said. Now that the long-empty lot is filled with busy stores, "it feels great," he said.

Summary: The South Bronx site had sat empty since a mayoral groundbreaking ceremony.  Finally, last year, after three decaes of false starts, megadeveloper Stephen Ross built a two-story retail and office building at Third Ave. and E. 156th St., and renovated the parking garage next door.


It was -20C when I took this picture. The fog you see is actually ice fog: lots of tiny ice particles suspended in the air. This happens when it's very cold but the sea has not frozen. It was February 1992 and I was in the northwest of Russia, on an island called Solovets in the White Sea.

I used to travel to Russia a lot, especially after glasnost when it became possible to visit the countryside. At the time, many people in the White Sea area spoke Karelian Finnish, so I was able to converse with them. It was like going back to my childhood: life there had not changed much over the years. Finland and Russia have a complex relationship. We fought each other in the second world war and there have been all kinds of troubles, but they are our neighbours and I think it is better to keep good relations. I like the country, the people, everything there.

Travelling round that part of Russia is quite easy because people follow an old byzantine tradition that says they have to be kind and polite to strangers. I have heard it said that this is because they believe every foreigner could be the next Christ. They are very poor but will always find you somewhere to stay: even if their home is small and crowded, there will be room for your sleeping bag.

The night before I took this, I stayed up until the early morning talking, playing chess and drinking vodka with a Finnish film-maker. I eventually fell asleep, but he roused me and said: "Get up, Pentti. If you don't get good pictures now, then you are a duffer!" He was right. It honestly felt like I could have photographed anything. In fact, anyone could have been working the camera – the circumstances were so perfect. It was around nine in the morning, just after sunrise and, although it was cold, the light was enchanting. The man in the picture might be going off to work, I don't know. He had his dog with him. It ran back and forth, always waiting up ahead. The dog is small, but it is important.

I feel like I received this photograph, I didn't take it. If you're in the right place at the right time, then all you have to do is push a button. Being a photographer doesn't come into it.

Another evening, I was sitting on some steps with my friend. We were drinking vodka and talking about how sorry we were about the situation in Russia, how it felt like everything had collapsed. We were almost crying about how sad everything seemed. Then we looked round and saw a group of dogs running around and having fun. My friend said: "Pentti, don't worry – this country is a paradise for dogs." I thought: "That is the point of view I will adopt when I photograph here."

So when I put the shots together for my Russian Way landscape series, I only chose ones that had dogs and a road in them. When I photograph dogs, I always have something to feed them – some sausage or sardines. They are quite easy to befriend. Give them something twice and they'll be your friend for life.

Influences: "My grandmother, the photographer Hildur Larsson; Kristoffer Albrecht; Paul Strand; André Kertész and Josef Koudelka."

Top tip: "Get a book of great photographs and spend a week studying each shot. Every day, think about a different aspect: subject, composition, tonal range, the moment when the image was taken and how the photograph was made."

• Work by Pentti Sammallahti can be seen at the Photographers' Gallery, London, W1.

Summary: 'I was up all night drinking vodka. When I saw this view in the morning, all I had to do was press the button'


Sip up and slim down. Quick and easy to prepare, these smoothie recipes are packed with refreshing fruits and MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids)—the Flat Belly Diet powerhouse ingredient that specifically targets belly fat. These 10 filling, creamy smoothies are perfect for breakfast, lunch, or a snack.

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¼ c mashed ripe avocado (MUFA)

¼ c fat-free vanilla yogurt

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

COMBINE all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Pour into a tall glass. Garnish with sliced mango or strawberry, if desired, and serve.

NUTRITION (per serving) 298 cal, 5 g pro, 55 g carb, 5 g fiber, 47 g sugar, 9 g fat, 1.5 g sat fat, 54 mg sodium

More from Prevention: 29 Awesome Avocado Recipes

1 c frozen unsweetened blueberries

1 Tbsp cold-pressed organic flaxseed oil (MUFA)

COMBINE milk and blueberries in blender, and blend for 1 minute. Transfer to glass, and stir in flaxseed oil.

NUTRITION (per serving) 273 cal, 9 g pro, 29 g carb, 4 g fiber, 24 g sugar, 14.5 g fat, 1.5 g sat fat, 103 mg sodium

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie

½ c fat-free plain yogurt

2 Tbsp creamy natural unsalted peanut butter (MUFA)

COMBINE ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and serve.

NUTRITION (per serving) 366 cal, 18 g pro, 40 g carb, 3 g fiber, 32 g sugar, 16.5 g fat, 3.5 g sat fat, 151 mg sodium

Vanilla Yogurt and Blueberry Smoothie

1 c skim or soy milk

6 oz (80-calorie) vanilla yogurt

Handful of ice OR 1 cup frozen blueberries

1 Tbsp flaxseed oil (MUFA)

COMBINE milk, yogurt, and fresh blueberries plus ice (or frozen blueberries) in a blender. Blend for 1 minute, transfer to a glass, and stir in flaxseed oil.

NUTRITION (per serving) 443 cal, 18 g pro, 63 g carb, 4 g fiber, 57 g sugar, 14.5 g fat, 1.5 g sat fat, 221 mg sodium

½ c skim or soy milk

6 oz (80-calorie) vanilla yogurt

¼ c chocolate chips (MUFA)

Handful of ice OR 1 cup frozen raspberries

COMBINE ingredients in a blender. Blend for 1 minute, transfer to a glass, and eat with a spoon.

NUTRITION (per serving) 462 cal, 16 g pro, 77 g carb, 10 g fiber, 64 g sugar, 13.5 g fat, 7.5 g sat fat, 174 mg sodium

More from Prevention: Flat Belly Chocolate Desserts

1 c frozen unsweetened peaches

2 tsp cold-pressed organic flaxseed oil (MUFA)

PLACE milk and frozen, unsweetened peaches in blender and blend for 1 minute. Transfer to glass, and stir in flaxseed oil.

NUTRITION (per serving) 213 cal, 9 g pro, 26 g carb, 2 g fiber, 22 g sugar, 9 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 103 mg sodium

1 c skim or soy milk

6 oz (80-calorie) lemon yogurt

1 med orange peeled, cleaned, and sliced into sections

1 Tbsp flaxseed oil (MUFA)

COMBINE milk, yogurt, orange, and ice in a blender. Blend for 1 minute, transfer to a glass, and stir in flaxseed oil.

NUTRITION (per serving) 420 cal, 18 g pro, 57 g carb, 3 g fiber, 54 g sugar, 14 g fat, 1.5 g sat fat, 219 mg sodium

4 oz canned pineapple tidbits in juice

1 Tbsp cold-pressed organic flaxseed oil (MUFA)

PLACE milk, canned pineapple in blender, add of ice, and whip for 1 minute. Transfer to glass and stir in flaxseed oil.

NUTRITION (per serving) 271 cal, 9 g pro, 30 g carb, 1 g fiber, 29 g sugar, 14 g fat, 1.5 g sat fat, 104 mg sodium

1 c frozen, unsweetened strawberries

2 tsp cold-pressed organic flaxseed oil (MUFA)

COMBINE skim milk and strawberries in blender. Blend, transfer to glass, and stir in flaxseed oil.

NUTRITION (per serving) 216 cal, 9 g pro, 26 g carb, 3 g fiber, 19 g sugar, 9.5 g fat, 1 g sat fat, 106 mg sodium

More from Prevention: 25 Delicious Detox Smoothies

This article originally appeared on Prevention.com

Summary: Shed belly fat and satisfy your sweet tooth with these delicious fruit smoothies


Gary Hume's gallery claims that his new show, American Tan, represents a master "at the height of his form". But this is actually his worst show yet; the end, in fact, of whatever eminence he once had, precisely because he is so obviously straining to reignite a jaded style. Actually, "straining" seems the wrong word. He has painted a lot of pictures, and they sort of have a common theme - but the intellectual effort just seems too much and he slumps back, lights a fag, reads a magazine and, after a while, slaps on a bit more tan-coloured gloss.

Cheerleaders are the antiheroes of this series of works dedicated to vaguely sneering at America. But all the hint of satire does is to confirm Hume's loss of artistic relevance, as it fails to bite into anything but his own reputation. All good art thinks - it thinks visually - but Hume is no thinker. Here, he combines his familiar Picabia-lite figures with jokes about American abstraction so lame there must be a level I'm not spotting - is that really a pastiche of Pollock or a pastiche of someone pastiching Pollock? The Byzantine sophistication is itself faked, as if someone were playing with the idea of being washed up. Hume is so lost in self-reference, he can't even pull off a lucid failure.

I almost want to apologise for reviewing an artist who is quite obviously falling apart, but I did go in hope of a decent comeback. After all, what is British art now? Some pretentious public sculpture that connives with popular delusions of omniscience. At least Hume never tried to be loved. But, even at his very best, he was never first-rate. Look closely into his shiny surfaces, and you will see a tiny artist trapped in the empty wastes of his own style.

· Until October 6. Box office: 020-7930 5373.

Summary: 1 star White Cube, London


BRISBANE, Calif. — Bebe stores Inc. said Friday that it recently detected suspicious activity on computers that run the payment processing system used for its stores, making it the latest company to disclose a data breach.

The women’s clothing and accessories company said it hired a computer security firm to block the attack and prevent it from continuing.

The disclosure means Bebe has joined a growing group of companies hit by data breaches. They include Home Depot Inc., Target Inc., Michaels, SuperValu Inc., Neiman Marcus and others. Bebe currently runs 175 retail stores, including its online store, and 35 outlet stores. Six of the stores are located in Massachusetts.

The company said that its investigation to date suggests the attack was on data from payment cards swiped in its US, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands stores between Nov. 8 and Nov. 26. The data may have included cardholder name, account number, expiration date, and verification code.

Purchases made through bebe’s website, mobile site/app, in Canada or in its international stores were not affected, the company said.

The retailer advised customers that used a payment card at a US, Puerto Rico or US Virgin Islands store during the time frame to review their account statements for any unauthorized activity. If they see any unauthorized charges, they should contact the bank that issued the card.

In addition, bebe said that it is offering free credit monitoring services to customers who made a purchase using a payment card at a US, Puerto Rico, or US Virgin Islands store during the specified time frame.


The bands on Jasmine Hagans’s wish list include pop-blues players Viva Viva, grunge rockers Drug Rug, and one-man ensemble Animal Hospital. This isn’t a parade of indie artists bound for a late-night show at an Allston bar, it is the programming notes for possible concerts at the Museum of Fine Arts. Hagans, 25, is the mastermind behind the museum’s concert series, which aims to create a lively blend of arts in a unique venue.

“From world to classical music, the museum is a living space to showcase a diverse and eclectic series, as reflected in the encyclopedic museum that we are,’’ said Hagans.

Hagans, an accomplished drummer and graduate of Northeastern University’s music industry program, worked her way up from MFA intern to lead concert manager. Since she began her current role almost two years ago, she has reinstituted year-round concerts and conceptualized and launched the Sound Bites program, which brings free live music into the galleries once a month.

“I can’t imagine working in any field other than live music,’’ said Hagans, whose MFA desk is surrounded by concert posters and piled high with new CDs.

“I have a special love for Boston and aim to feature local talent as often as possible,’’ said Hagans, who booked locals The David Wax Museum, Debo Band, and Kristin Hersh to play at the museum. She also plans on featuring local student films before future concerts, spotlighting up-and-coming filmmakers along with musicians.

You are the daughter of three-time-Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter Tim Hagans, who is also an arranger and composer. What influence did that have on you?

Some people have rose-colored glasses; I have musical glasses that affect the way I view and interact with the world. I grew up going to a lot of concerts and had a firsthand view of what it’s like to be a professional musician. Instead of going the ups and downs of the performance route, I knew I wanted the stability of a full-time job, which is why I chose the business side of music.

Why did you decide to join the MFA? Do you have an interest in art?

After I graduated, I went abroad and taught English for a year in South Korea. For the first time, instead of spending a lot of time around live music, I was exposed to a lot of visual art, which really resonated with me. Suddenly I saw a whole new arena of visual art to explore. There is so much to learn, and it’s fun to approach it as someone who is completely new to the field.

What was one of your favorite performers that you’ve brought to the museum?

Last summer we had Debo Band, an Ethiopian funk band, play outside in the courtyard under the summer stars. It was a really cool summer dance party.

How do you go about deciding on bands that you want to feature?

I work hard to develop relationships with agents who represent bands about to break into the national scene; the other half is from research or hearing about a band. I also get ideas from going to a lot of shows at the Middle East or T.T. the Bears, or from hearing opening bands at larger venues like House of Blues or Berklee Performance Center.

Did your father ever play at the MFA?

I was going through old press releases from the concert series, and found one from 1986, the year I was born. My dad played in the courtyard in our summer series that year. Since I work here now, it almost feels like coming full circle.

Summary: The bands on Jasmine Hagans’ wish list include pop-blues players Viva Viva, grunge rockers Drug Rug, and one-man ensemble Animal Hospital. This isn’t a parade of indie artists bound for a late-night appearance at an Allston bar, it is the programming notes for possible concerts at the Museum of Fine Arts. Hagans, 25, is the mastermind behind the museum’s concert series, which aims to create a lively blend of arts in a unique venue. “From world to classical music, the museum is a living space to showcase a diverse and eclectic series, as reflected in the encyclopedic museum that we are,’’ said Hagans.


After hacking its way from rough to bunker and back again in 2014, Adidas AG ADDYY said Thursday it’s more or less back on the fairway.

The German-based sportswear company, the world’s second-largest after Nike Inc. NKE , said it expects net profit to rise by between 7%-10% this year, after a wretched 2014 in which it saw a collapse in sales at its TaylorMade golf unit, took a big write-down on the sale of its shoe brand Rockport, and ripped up its plans for the former Soviet Union due to the Ukraine crisis.

Adidas said it had written €78 million off in goodwill against its Russian business last year, in addition to cancelling a swath of planned store openings, as business slowed sharply due to the collapse of the ruble. For Adidas, as for many German companies, Russia was a market on which it had counted for a big contribution to sales and profits for years to come.

The company also took a €82 million hit on the book value of footwear maker Rockport, which it agreed to sell in January for $280 million to Berkshire Partners and New Balance.

However, it said 2015 looks brighter because it has pretty much finished clearing out excess stock at TaylorMade with massive discounting. Overall sales fell 6% in North America last year, after accounting for currency swings.

Overall operating profit fell 25% to €883 million last year, with write-downs and inventory clearances causing a second straight operating loss in the final quarter of the year. The year was rescued mainly by a strong performance in western Europe, helped by Germany’s victory in the soccer World Cup. Adidas is the German soccer team’s official kit supplier.

The company said it would keep its dividend at €1.50 a share and begin the second phase of a €1.5 billion share buyback program this month, as previously announced, as an expression of confidence in its financial position. That, combined with the brighter outlook, pushed the shares over 3.3% higher by lunchtime in Frankfurt.

Adidas last month said it has now started looking for a new chief executive to replace the long-serving Herbert Hainer. However, Hainer will still be around long enough to lay out a new five-year strategic plan at the end of the month.

Summary: After three profit warnings in the last 18 months, the owner of TaylorMade says business will improve this year.


Max Motschwiller has left Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in order to become the sixth general partner with later-stage VC firm Meritech Capital Partners, Fortune has learned.

Motschwiller began his investing career in 2009 with Summit Partners, before joining Kleiner Perkins in 2012 to focus on digital investments. The move to Meritech is a major upgrade, in the sense that he will be one of six equal partners.

“The youngest partner is 45, so I think they wanted to bring in someone a bit younger,” explains Motschwiller, who is only 28. “They also have more enterprise experience than consumer experience, so I’ll hopefully help balance that out a bit.”

Paul Madera, a Meritech co-founder and partner, adds: “We recognize we’re not getting any younger, and have been thinking about generational change and how to better relate to the younger entrepreneurs. We talked to over 40 people for the last 18 months, but Max is the one name we kept coming back to. Not only do entrepreneurs love him, but we spent a lot of time together as a partnership — not just Monday meetings — and we found him very smart and easy to get along with.”

While with Kleiner, Motschwiller spent a majority of his time working on growth equity investments, although he also was utilized a bit by the early-stage venture team. Meritech last year raised $565 million for its fifth fund. Recent portfolio additions include Nextdoor and GuideSpark.

Sign up for Term Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on venture capital and private equity.

Summary: Meritech adds its sixth (and youngest) general partner.


updated 03/13/2015 AT 06:10 PM EDT

•originally published 03/13/2015 AT 05:10 PM EDT

Who says Thighmasters and ballroom dancing can't mix?

, one of the 12 celebrities who will participate in the 20th season of

. PEOPLE has learned that Somers, 68, will incorporate the exercise tool that she made famous in the '90s into her opening night performance.

The plan is to somehow feature the device that's supposed to exercise the hip adductors into her cha cha with partner

. They'll do it while dancing to

In this video, Somers –

this season – demonstrates to her partner how to properly utilize the device.

"I happen to be an expert in this," Somers tells Dovolani. "I think we are going to have a lot of fun."

"Oh yes," Dovolani replies, while using the Thighmaster. "As long as we keep this nearby."

The 20th season premiere of

premieres Monday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Summary: Watch Somers get ready to use the famous exercise apparatus in her premiere performance


Updated MAR 23, 2015 3:47p ET

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Experiementation and implementation are big parts of Arizona State's spring football practices. More importantly for this version of the Sun Devils, coach Todd Graham has used the first week of spring drills to reset the bar.

"I told them that everybody's excited about back-to-back 10-win seasons," Graham said Saturday after practice. "I'm disappointed because we underachieved."

What worked to get to those marks isn't good enough now. The Sun Devils aren't satisfied with the status quo, even in the most familiar places this spring.

"If we have the same Mike Bercovici we had last year, we're in trouble," offensive coordinator Mike Norvell said. "We got a guy that's pretty dang good that is the starter, but he's got to improve. He's got to take his game to the next level if we want to get to what our goals are."

This spring, Graham admits Bercovici is well ahead of the backup competition that includes redshirt freshman Manny Wilkins and early enrolled freshman Brady White -- incoming freshman Bryce Perkins is finishing up at Chandler High and will add to the mix in the fall.

Bercovici has job security, which is not exactly a comforting setup. As his role change proved last season -- when starter Taylor Kelly went down with a foot injury -- ASU is a play away from needing a qualified backup.

Wilkins impressed in December in practices leading up to the Sun Bowl, and Norvell sees a more natural leader during spring ball. On Saturday, ASU's defense was impressive in its first true scrimmage with pads, yet Wilkins responded by leading the offense on a long drive into the red zone. There, a quick toss on a slant route was jumped and intercepted.

"All I'm looking at is no negative play, 100 percent ball security, I'm looking at takeaways," Graham said of his evaluation of a backup. "This is how we picked Taylor Kelly as the starter. Taylor took care of the ball better, and every time he took the offense, he took the ball down and scored seven points."

So Wilkins got half of it right. Taking to Graham's lessons in sports psychology, it's also about how he responds with positive energy. Wilkins, who has taken his own leadership role, doesn't get rattled like he did a year ago.

"Out here right now, I just feel older," he said. "I'm more comfortable with the offense. I feel more patient. I'm just trying to prove this team that if it comes down to it, I could lead this team."

Meanwhile, White could provide solid competition. One of the more heralded recruits in ASU's most recent recruiting class, the early enrollee from Hart High in Newhall, Calif., is learning the playbook one installation at a time, he said. Norvell likes the youngster's collective nature in the pocket, and White has gained about 15 pounds, putting himself around 195 pounds since enrolling at the beginning of the spring semester.

"It was just a key point for me to get here early," White said. "Throughout high school I was really looking into it. I always did extra classes, did summer work to get ahead, in order to be able to graduate early. I think it's a huge advantage."

Of course, ASU's preference would be for Wilkins, White and Perkins to wait in the wings.

To Norvell's point, the man mentoring them, Bercovici, must also improve himself. His arm strength brings a different dynamic than Kelly, who got out of trouble with his legs. Now with the quarterback position his to own, Bercovici must adopt ASU's biggest strength of 2014 while adding his own twist to the position.

Last year, the Sun Devils forced 27 turnovers and only gave it up 13 times, the margin of 14 ranking as the sixth-best mark in college football. Indeed, luck may have had something to do with it -- ASU ranked third in turnover luck factor, according to FootballStudyHall.com -- but nine combined interceptions by Kelly and Bercovici to 34 touchdowns thrown helped tremendously. Bercovici did throw four picks in three starts and limited action elsewhere.

Kelly initially won the starting job over Bercovici for three reasons: He drove the ball, finished in the red zone and avoided turnovers.

If they aren't laughing at your goals they aren't set high enough

Bercovici is continuing to grow as a leader, and that is important to ASU developing quarterback depth; Wilkins said the senior has been harder on his backups than Norvell. Bercovici has also penned two open letters to Sun Devil fans. The first, co-authored by senior teammates and roommates D.J. Foster and Jordan Simone, explained "The Grind" they promised would bring them a Territorial Cup and a chance at a championship. The second, written by Bercovici alone, detailed the quarterback's commitment to remaining at ASU, even through tough times.

Bercovici says he's adopted a leadership approach of "controlled intensity."

"I'm a real intense guy," Bercovici said. "I'm wired 24/7, but the controlled intensity is to know that ... when you look at the quarterback, you can be confident."

The Sun Devils certainly are confident they're on the right path to winning the Pac-12 and chasing an appearance in the College Football Playoff.

How their confident leader improves -- and how he helps groom his backups -- will determine much about whether the goals become reality.

Follow Kevin Zimmerman on Twitter

Summary: ASU football quarterback Mike Bercovici must improve and develop his backups if the Sun Devils hope to reach their goals.


George Clooney and Amal Clooney

04/04/2015 AT 11:00 AM EDT

on Friday, with a date night at Babbo.

, wore seemingly coordinated, and equally sophisticated, ensembles of black and white. They've been lighting up the Big Apple. lately – dining at Kappo Masa, Patsy's, Café Boulud and elsewhere.

And when they aren't together, the Clooneys are entertaining one of their many famous friends, including Greek food with Bill Murray at Taverna Kyclades and lunches with

editor-in-chief Anna Wintour at The Lambs Club.

They've been spending a lot of time on the east coast while Amal, 37,

; and George, 53, shoots the New York-based movie

Amal "takes great care" of George,

, who was invited to their wedding, and enjoyed a

with the couple in early March.

Summary: The couple have been spending their time in the Big Apple in recent weeks


(REUTERS) — Netflix Inc has urged the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to reject the pending $48 billion merger of AT&T Inc T and DirecTV DTV unless its concerns about the deal are addressed.

A Netflix NFLX spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the video streaming company does not oppose the merger in principle but is rather seeking remedies that would help resolve its competitive concerns.

“While we are participating in the government’s review, we are not opposing the merger,” the spokeswoman, Anne Marie Squeo, said in a statement. “We’ve been highlighting concerns about AT&T’s broadband practices and the need for appropriate remedies since last September.”

According to regulatory disclosures posted on Tuesday, Netflix representatives met recently with more than 20 FCC officials and raised concerns about the combined company’s gatekeeping power as it would become the country’s largest pay-TV provider with potentially expansive broadband reach.

Though the filing does not amount to a formal “petition to deny” the merger, it marks the strongest language yet from Netflix on the proposed merger of the No. 2 wireless carrier and the largest U.S. satellite-TV company. Previous FCC filings from Netflix on the deal called for approval with conditions.

“The combination of these companies would increase the incentive and ability to limit competition and innovation in the online video space,” Squeo said.

Netflix’s April 30 meeting with the FCC’s merger reviewers came just days after the agency’s strong opposition helped thwart another mega-deal between the two largest U.S. cable providers, Comcast Corp CMCSA and Time Warner Cable Inc. TWC .

The growing online video and over-the-top video markets became a critical issue in the review of that merger, fueled by heated opposition from Netflix, Dish Network Corp DISH , some media companies and public interest groups.

Summary: Netflix said it does not oppose the merger in principle, but it has concerns the deal could limit competition in the online streaming market.


05/13/2015 AT 11:30 AM EDT

Autumn Allen, a 13-year-old aspiring singer from Cambodia, was the victim of a Mother's Day prank on a Cambodian television show that's drawn international outrage for its treatment of the girl.

), a talk and variety show, invited Allen onto the show for its Mother's Day episode, promising her that her "dream to meet her mother would come true," according to

During the broadcast, Allen told the presenters her only memory of her mother, who stayed in the U.S. when her father took her to Cambodia about seven years ago: "She held me and kissed me and told me that she would always love me," Allen said.

For the big "reveal," though, the show brought out its judge, cross-dressing comedian Chuop Rolin, instead.

Reaction to the show's stunt was swift. Cambodian political analyst

the show's producer as "stupid and brainless and heartless," a sentiment echoed across social-media platforms.

to the outrage on Facebook: "Thank you for the enormous show of support regarding the Motherâs Day show. I am sure there was no harm intended and I had fun on the show." She later shared a letter of apology from myTV, the network that airs

, and said the network would be making a public apology soon.

Allen said that she has tried to contact her mother several times since moving to Cambodia, but her attempts were unsuccessful. She added that her father believes her mother was living in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Summary: The show brought out a cross-dressing comedian instead of Autumn Allen's long-lost mother


PARIS— It's difficult to spend five minutes in a French cafe without hearing at least three people order pastis. Now the French are planning to hook Americans on the chalky white, anise-flavored drink that is the French workingman's favorite aperitif.

With its purchase last year of Austin, Nichols & Company from the Liggett Group, Pernod Ricard, the company formed in 1974 through the merger of two family-owned pastis-making concerns, got a long-desired foot in the door of the United States spirits market. Pernod Ricard is the second largest European group selling alcohol drinks and the seventh largest in the world, with sales of close to $1 billion last year.

Now, with a month-old $1 million advertising campaign focusing on four trend-setting areas - New York, California, Florida and the Chicago area -the French group is moving to exploit the extensive American sales network of Austin, Nichols and get sweet-toothed Americans savoring the slightly bitter drink that accounts for 45 percent of its Pernod Ricard sales in France. Pernod will be aimed at the upwardly mobile upper-middle-class market so successfully tapped by Perrier.

Some industry analysts expect the company to do well in its assault on the American market. ''Pernod is an extremely successful product in Europe that has not yet been really properly promoted in the United States,'' said Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Impact, a wine and spirits newsletter. ''It's a classic example of underutilization of a product because of a lack of marketing. With the right promotion it should enjoy increasing sales in America,''

Spurred by record sales in the United States of vodka, gin and light rum -Americans consumed 2.5 billion bottles of spirits last year - and a worldwide trend toward mixed drinks, the group is marketing Pernod in the United States not as an aperitif diluted with water, the way it is drunk in France, but as a spirit to be mixed with other beverages.

''Dangerously delicious - the 86 percent proof drink from France,'' says its current American ad campaign. ''The goal is to present it as a kind of anise-flavored vodka,'' explains Harold Berkowitz, president of Austin, Nichols, the company that first introduced Campari, the bitter Italian aperitif, in the United States. ''If we can do that, we're home.'' Exports 20 Percent of Sales

Today, exports account for 20 percent of Pernod Ricard's sales. The company's target is to sell 100,000 cases of Pernod a year in the United States in five years' time. In 10 years, it hopes to be selling as much pastis outside of France as it does within France - 80 million liters last year.

The question is: Will Americans go for Pernod? ''They'll like it because they have adventurous tastes,'' said Patrick Ricard, the 35-year-old son of the pastis empire builder, Paul Ricard, who started the family business from his Marseilles grocery store. ''Look what Perrier did in the States and they had only water to sell.''

''If Americans drink Campari, they'll drink Pernod,'' Mr. Berkowitz said, pointing to the recent popularity of Kahlua and Amaretto, drinks he believes Americans would not have touched 10 years ago. ''Fifteen years ago, no one even bothered to seek statistics on vodka consumption in the United States. Now it's the No.1 spirit consumed there.''

The ''dangerously delicious'' advertisement is fitting for a drink with a somewhat checkered past. The first Pernod was a brand of absinthe, the deadly concoction beloved of Germinal, the heroine of Emile Zola's novel of alcoholism among the working classes and the subject of the Degas painting ''The Absinthe Drinker,'' which shows an alcoholic woman staring down into a glass of greenish liquid in a Paris cafe. Long thought to cause madness, absinthe was outlawed in France in 1915 after a Swiss man believed to have consumed it massacred his entire family.

Various anise-flavored substitutes were soon marketed by competing branches of the Pernod family and, in 1932, a nondistilled anise and licorice version of the drink from Marseilles was bottled by Pernod's competitor, Paul Ricard, which made pastis the aperitif of the working people in southern France. Sales soared in Brittany and other economically depressed regions of northern France. Immense Rainbow-Colored Vats

''They thought they were buying sun,'' said Daniel Emard, president of the Pernod branch of Pernod Ricard and the son of one of Pernod's founders, Jean Emard, as he showed visitors at the company's headquarters near Paris immense rainbow-colored vats and a blending console resembling a space mission-control installation.

The key to getting Americans to drink Pernod, according to Patrick Ricard, is to teach them how. ''Pernod has been in the best bars in the States for 50 years, but barmen didn't know how to serve it,'' Mr. Berkowitz said. ''Once I even had it served over shaved ice.''

To correct such anomalies - Pernod must be served with water or a mixer in a 5-to-1 ratio or, as Mr. Berkowitz puts it, ''no one can drink it'' - Austin, Nichols is busy devising recipes for Pernod's onslaught on the American market.

Anise-flavored drinks have long been popular around the Mediterranean ports - Greeks drink ouzo, Italians, Amaretto and the Spanish are Pernod Ricard's best customers outside France - but the company was not sure whether it would please Anglo-Saxon palates, so it tested it first in Britain. The British liked it mixed with orange juice or bitter lemon. 'Why Not French Coffee?'

At first shocked by such unorthodox concoctions, Pernod Ricard executives are now using orange mixers to give the drink a new cachet in France and advise Americans to mix it with orange juice, bitter lemon or even coffee. ''There's Irish coffee; why not French coffee?'' Mr. Emard asked.

Promoting mixtures once considered bizarre in France is part of a new export marketing strategy aimed at giving foreigners what they want instead of trying to impose French tastes. ''It's about time the French stopped telling the world that the French way is best,'' Mr. Ricard said.

Until Pernod's merger with Ricard, designed to end cutthroat competition that had prevented both companies from making inroads abroad, the anise-flavored drink had not been exported on any scale. ''Only three drinks are sold worldwide,'' Mr. Ricard said, ''French wine, French champagne and Scotch whisky; we are going to make pastis the fourth.''

Illustrations: Photo of Patrick Ricard Photo of Pernod logo Graph of Pernod-Ricards earnings


How do you cook up a cookbook? In the case of Maida Heatter, whose ''Book of Great Chocolate Desserts'' was recently on the best-seller list, the basic ingredients were a love of cooking and dumb luck. Mrs. Heatter had been an avid cook for years and ran her own cooking school, but she might never have written a book if it weren't for her chance meeting with Craig Claiborne of The New York Times.

For almost 10 years, Mrs. Heatter had been making scrumptious desserts in her Miami Beach kitchen, overlooking Biscayne Bay, for her husband's nearby restaurant. When she heard that the Republicans were going to hold their convention in Miami Beach in 1968, she concocted a publicity gimmick for the restaurant that aroused Mr. Claiborne's curiosity.

''I suggested to my husband that he make an elephant meat omelet,'' Mrs. Heatter said. ''It got a lot of press attention. Craig Claiborne was coming down to cover the convention for The Times, and called to ask if he could interview me.''

Mrs. Heatter seized the opportunity: ''Craig thought he was coming to my house for an elephant meat omelet. He didn't know he was coming to see my desserts. I had about 30 cakes on the table -the most impressive things I could arrange.''

It worked. Mr. Claiborne published some of Mrs. Heatter's recipes in The Times and suggested that she write a book. Mrs. Heatter thought a book would be easy - just a matter of collecting her dessert recipes for the restaurant. But at Mr. Claiborne's urging, she expanded the collection to include souffles and other desserts that required preparations too last-minute to be transported to the restaurant. Mrs. Heatter wrote her manuscript in longhand and sent it to Alfred A. Knopf, the home of such culinary eminences as Julia Child, James Beard, Simone Beck and Marcella Hazan. Two weeks later, Knopf offered an advance for the manuscript, which was published in 1974 as ''Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.''

Mrs. Heatter has stayed with Knopf, and her editor, Nancy Nicholas, ever since, and continues to rely on her husband instead of an agent for business advice. ''Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies'' was published in 1977, the chocolate book came out last September - Knopf reports 115,000 copies in print - and a fourth book of desserts is due to be published in the fall of 1982.

''Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts'' was Miss Nicholas's idea. ''It seemed to me that chocolate was the thing that most interested her, and she had done things with chocolate I'd never seen,'' says Miss Nicholas, an avid cook herself who tests 70 percent of Mrs. Heatter's recipes.

''I wanted to do more than give out recipes in my book,'' Mrs. Heatter says. ''I wanted to be more of a teacher. I was very unsure of myself as a writer in the first two books and was very inhibited about wording things, but in the chocolate book I finally let loose and said what I wanted.'' The daughter of the celebrated newscaster Gabriel Heatter, Mrs. Heatter went on an 18-city publicity tour, her first, for the chocolate book. ''I had never been on TV before, and I loved it,'' she says. ''I made the world's best hot fudge sauce across the country.''

Besides inventing her own recipes, Mrs. Heatter collects new ones wherever she can. She often asks restaurant chefs for recipes and says she usually succeeds in getting them, even if the chefs don't know who she is: ''Professional chefs are very generous, but I know housewives who would never give you a recipe.''


WASHINGTON, May 20— Leaders in both political parties read national significance, especially unhappiness over proposed Social Security cuts, into yesterday's victory by Steny H. Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, in a special election to the House.

Representative Guy Vander Jagt, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, concurred with such Democrats as Charles T. Manatt, the Democratic national chairman, in identifying the Social Security issue as a key factor in Mr. Hoyer's ability to retain the solidly Democratic Fifth District that adjoins northeast Washington.

Beyond that issue in a race that both sides last week were describing as fundamentally a local contest, some Democratic party officials found the result a lift for their efforts to regain credibility as a political institution.

Mr. Manatt said a key to Mr. Hoyer's victory, by 55 percent to 44 percent for Audrey Scott, the Republican, was his articulation of ''basic Democratic themes on important and significant national issues.''

Representative Tony Coelho of California, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said both parties had been heavily involved in the race, but that the Republicans were first to contend that the contest was equivalent to a referendum.

Ann F. Lewis, political director of the Democratic National Committee, said the election outcome showed that ''good Democratic candidates who talk about the Administration program and how it affects people can get elected.''

Martin D. Franks, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said he felt that the combination of victory and the fact that the committee had given about $21,000 and the help of 100 volunteers to the Hoyer race helped to regain the credibility the campaign committee had lost in recent years.

Mr. Franks said the committee hoped to become valuable next year to Democratic candidates, both incumbents and challengers, by being able to offer money, campaign consultants, negative information on Republicans and an effort to begin ''softening up'' Republican candidates with attacks well in advance of the 1982 election.

But Mr. Vander Jagt, admitting that he had believed last weekend that Mrs. Scott had a good chance to win, also said he found reasons for optimism in the result.

He said the Democrats had a 3-to-1 edge in registration in the district, a margin that helped carry Gladys Spellman to an 80 percent share of the vote last November when the Democrat won re-election. Stricken with a heart attack just before election day, she is still in a coma, and the House declared the seat vacant in April.

In such a district, he said, Mrs. Scott had run about as far behind Mr. Hoyer as President Reagan had run behind President Carter last fall.

He acknowledged, however, that there might still be more damage ahead from the proposed Social Security cuts. He said the proposed cuts could hurt Republican chances in a special election in July for the seat in Mississippi vacated by former Representative Jon Hinson, a Republican.

Other officials of both parties, who did not want to be identified, attributed Mr. Hoyer's victory more to hard organizational work than to issues. But Republican designs on an upset had included the hope that ramifications of Mr. Reagan's popularity could overcome even an energetic effort by the party and by labor in a solidly Democratic district, party officials said. ---- Pittsburgh Mayor Nominated By The Associated Press

Mayor Richard Caliguiri of Pittsburgh had an 18-to-1 margin over his closest competitor to win the Democratic party's nomination to seek re-election in November.


06/04/2015 AT 08:35 PM EDT

' massive biceps aren't his only major draw: He can play the piano too!

In a video posted to

on Tuesday, Evans teams up with his equally hunky brother Scott for a duet of

's "Fire and Rain." Things start off well enough, but soon the brothers can't hold back their laughter.

"Chris and I messing around over Memorial Day weekend," Scott captioned the cute video.

"Unfortunately we had the giggles and couldn't make it through the whole thing without laughing for here is just a tease ... With some sung apologies to each other."

What do we have to do for a full video? Sa-woon.

Summary: "Unfortunately we had the giggles," writes Scott of the video