Vanessa (name)

Vanessa is a feminine given name, especially popular in the United States, Germany and Brazil. It was invented by the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift for Esther Vanhomrigh, whom Swift had met in 1708 and whom he tutored. The name was created by taking "Van" from Vanhomrigh's last name and adding "Essa", a pet form of Esther.
In 1726, the name Vanessa appeared in print for the first time in "Cadenus and Vanessa", an autobiographical poem about Swift's relationship with Vanhomrigh. Swift had written the poem in 1713, but it was not published until three years after Vanhomrigh died.
"Vanessa" was adopted as the name of a genus of butterfly by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1807.
Vanessa was the 71st most popular name for girls born in the United States in 2007. It has been among the top 200 names for girls in the United States since 1953 and among the top 100 names for girls since 1977. It first appeared among the top 1,000 names for girls in the United States in 1950, when it appeared on the list ranked in 939th place.
In Germany, Vanessa has been among the top 100 names for girls since 1976. The name became more and more popular and was the 7th most popular name for girls in the 1990s. In the following years its popularity dropped and the name is ranked in 42nd place for the decade 2000–2009.


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Hooper (film)

Hooper is a 1978 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham and stars Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jan-Michael Vincent, Brian Keith, Robert Klein, James Best and Adam West. The film serves as a tribute to stuntmen and stuntwomen in what was at one time an underrecognized profession.
At the time of filming, Sally Field and Burt Reynolds were in a relationship, having met on the set of "Smokey and the Bandit" the previous year.
Plot.
Sonny Hooper (Burt Reynolds) is the stunt coordinator on an action film, "The Spy Who Laughed at Danger", directed by Roger Deal (Robert Klein) and starring Adam West (playing himself). Sonny's antics and wisecracks are a trial for the egotistical director and his officious but cowardly assistant, Tony (Alfie Wise). Years of numerous "gags" and his use of alcohol and painkillers are beginning to take their toll. Sonny lives with his girlfriend Gwen Doyle (Sally Field) whose father Jocko (Brian Keith) is a retired stuntman.
Sonny is coerced by a friend into performing at a charity show, where he meets Delmore "Ski" Shidski (Jan-Michael Vincent), a newcomer who makes a spectacular entrance. They become friends after a barroom brawl, and Sonny invites Ski to work with him on the film. They begin a friendly rivalry in which the dangerous stunts escalate. After a freefall from a record 224 feet, Sonny quietly consults with his doctor, who warns him that one more bad fall could render him quadriplegic.
Roger decides to change the film's ending, adding a climactic earthquake complete with many explosions, fires and car crashes. Sonny and Ski would race through the carnage to a nearby gorge, where the bridge explodes before they can cross it. Roger suggests they rappel down one side of the gorge and up the other to safety, but Ski proposes jumping a car over the gorge, with Hooper adding that a rocket car can make the 335-foot jump. Roger loves the idea, ignoring the warnings that Sonny and Ski might not survive the landing even if the car lands on its wheels. Max Berns, the movie's producer and a longtime friend of Sonny's, warns Roger that the film is already over budget and they can't afford the $100,000 Hooper wants to perform the rocket car jump. Roger tells Max he wants the rocket car ending and to make cuts elsewhere. Tony is sent to talk Hooper down from his high price, but fails.
Meanwhile, Jocko suffers a stroke, but denies the gravity of his condition. Seeing Jocko in the hospital motivates Sonny to promise Gwen that he will quit the business after the film wraps. Then, Sonny's assistant and best friend Cully (James Best) reveals the rocket car stunt and Sonny's secret visit to his doctor to a horrified Gwen. Sonny later tells Roger that he is backing out of the gag, but Max convinces him to reconsider, as no qualified stuntman is available, or willing, to replace him and Ski cannot do it alone. Having no other choice, and even after Gwen threatens to leave him, Sonny goes through with the gag.
Sonny and Ski perform the first part of the gag perfectly. As they arrive at the now-demolished bridge, they find that the rocket pressure is below the minimum needed to make the jump, but they attempt it anyway. The rocket car clears the gorge, but overshoots the prepared landing area and lands hard on the far side. Ski emerges from the car on his own, but the impact is more of a shock to Sonny's system. Gwen tearfully pushes her way through the gathering crowd as the chief engineer extracts Sonny from the car. Sonny slowly comes out of his daze and takes Gwen in his arms.
As Sonny, Ski, Gwen, Cully and Jocko view the bridge lying in the river and the gorge the rocket car had jumped, Roger comes up to them and tries to apologize for all the grief he gave him during filming, but he comes off as trying to justify himself. Sonny's response is to knock Roger out with a single punch. He, Gwen, Ski, Cully and Jocko then triumphantly walk off the set.
Production.
The film was initially called "The Stuntman" and Reynolds committed to the film early and inexpensively. Lamont Johnson was originally due to direct in 1975 but the project was shelved in 1976. The project was reactivated in 1977 with Hal Needham as director and with Lawrence Gordon joining later as executive producer.
It was rumored that the Roger Deal character in the film was a send-up of Peter Bogdanovich, who had made two films with Reynolds.
The "destruction of Los Angeles" sequence that concludes both "The Spy Who Laughed at Danger" and "Hooper" was filmed in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area, with all but the final rocket car jump staged at the by-that-time-disused Northington General Hospital, a World War II military hospital near the University of Alabama. The huge stunt sequence was referred to by the crew as "Damnation Alley."
The rocket car jump took place on US Highway 78E between Jasper, Alabama. and Birmingham, Alabama. The bridge was in the process of being demolished due to damage from a traffic accident.
Reception.
"Hooper" enjoyed success at the box office being one of the top ten films of 1978, but ultimately the film was deemed a letdown in comparison to Reynolds' "Smokey and the Bandit", second only to "Star Wars" in box office gross the year before.
"Hooper" opened in 97 theaters and grossed $1,049,831 in its opening week. It expanded to 454 theaters and grossed $4,614,456 the following week before expanding again to 849 theaters and grossing $9,437,484. After 70 days of release, "Hooper" had grossed $55 million. It was withdrawn from release by year end having earned Warners' rentals of $31.5 million. The film was reissued in May 1979 and earned Warners a further $3.4 million bringing its rental to $34.9 million and its gross to $78 million in the United States and Canada, nearly 40% less than the gross of "Smokey" in 1977 ($126 million).
The film has a score of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 16 reviews.
Janet Maslin wrote in "The New York Times", "Mr. Reynolds is one of the most effortlessly appealing movie stars around, but consolidating his following has always been a problem: There are fans who like to watch him tearing up the highway, and there are fans who enjoy his delightfully flippant self-mockery, with all the covert thoughtfulness it implies. This time, Mr. Reynolds has made a movie to please fans of all persuasions, and to please them a great deal." "Variety" wrote that the work of the four lead performers was "a delight" that "boosts an otherwise pedestrian story with lots of crashes and daredevil antics into a touching and likeable piece." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "None of this makes very much sense. But sense is not the point in Reynolds-Needham films. Just thrills, spills, and Reynolds' leer. That's proving to be one of the most potent combinations in today's film industry." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" praised the "excellent" script, "inspired " casting, and direction by Needham that "brings such affection and amiability to the film that its people seem real even when what they're doing is patently fake—not in their awesome stunts but rather in their off-hours shenanigans." David Ansen wrote in "Newsweek", "'Hooper' doesn't dig very deep into its Hollywood subject, but it's a good example of decent, no-frills filmmaking that lets a surprising amount of feeling seep through the cracks of its all-action formula." Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" called it "a rousing and sweet-tempered sentimental comedy" that "should finally secure Reynolds a preeminent position in the affections of contemporary moviegoers." Penelope Gilliatt of "The New Yorker" was less enthused, calling the film "trite" and containing "frolicsome humor that is not contagious."
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Jack Solomon).
"Blooper reel" credits.
"Hooper" was also one of the first films to make use of the blooper reel credit roll. The technique showed a smaller screen of outtakes from the film to one side while the film's credits roll slowly up the other side. Needham refined this technique for later films such as "Smokey and the Bandit II", "Stroker Ace" and the "Cannonball Run" films. (In "Hooper" the credit reel was mostly a montage of many of the stunts performed in the film itself, owing to the film's tribute to the stunt industry.) This technique was later used in other films, including the CGI animated "Toy Story 2" and "A Bug's Life", for which the bloopers were intentionally created, and in TV series including "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Home Improvement". Most of Jackie Chan's films also feature blooper reel credit rolls, due to his experience in "The Cannonball Run".


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An Evening with Marlene Dietrich

An Evening With Marlene Dietrich is a concert-format television special, starring Marlene Dietrich, first broadcast in 1973.
Production.
Alexander H. Cohen, who had produced Dietrich's successful Broadway runs of her one-woman show in 1967 and 1968, suggested a television version of her show.
Dietrich would receive a fee of $250,000 for her participation in the project. It was said at the time that this was the highest one-shot fee ever paid to a performer to appear on television. After two airings (one in the UK and one in the US), the copyright on the show would revert to Dietrich.
Dietrich—wary of television as a medium—insisted that the show be filmed in a legitimate theatre in Europe, to best capture her act and audience reaction thereto. The New London Theatre in London was chosen as location for filming, although the theatre would still be under construction at the time of filming. (The theatre would only officially open the following year.)
Lighting designer Joe Davis was brought in to recreate Dietrich's stage lighting and designer Rouben Ter-Arutunian designed a set featuring scrims and incorporating a Dietrich sketch by René Bouche. Dietrich's costumes were by Jean Louis, and Stan Freeman conducted the orchestra, using orchestrations of the Dietrich repertoire by Burt Bacharach.
Taping took place on November 23 and November 24, 1972. Dietrich gave two complete shows to non-paying, invitee-only audiences. Shots of Dietrich interacting with the audience were also taped at the end of the second concert. She also shot retakes of "Lili Marlene" and "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)" (the latter both in English and German) sans audience against a black velour backdrop to facilitate a post-production split-screen montage of her singing beside old black and white stills from the 1930s and 1940s. The best selections from the various tapings would be combined to form the final, one-hour-long special.
Repertoire.
A set-list of twenty songs was devised for the taping, including foreign-language selections in French and German, which would facilitate variant edits for differing European markets:
Broadcast.
Originally titled "I Wish You Love," the show premiered in the UK on the BBC on January 1, 1973, and in the U.S. on January 13, 1973, on CBS Television (sponsored by Kraft Foods). The original UK runtime was 54 minutes, but the show was trimmed down to 50 minutes to meet US network demands.
To promote the show, Dietrich had a photo sitting with Milton Greene, which produced a famous portrait of her, appearing to wear nothing but her famous swansdown coat.
CBS organised a press conference with Dietrich at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and an exclusive interview with Rex Reed to publicize the US network showing. At the conference and in her interview with Reed, Dietrich - to the surprise of her producers and the network - slammed the show, claiming it wasn't on par with her live shows, that rehearsal time was severely limited and that the show was technically inept.
Despite her statements, the show garnered good (if not spectacular) ratings and generally positive reviews from the press.
As a result of her interviews, she was sued by producer Alexander H. Cohen - successfully in the UK, but unsuccessfully in the US.
After its initial US and UK broadcasts, varying edits of the show were broadcast around the world, including Australia, Germany, France, Spain and South Africa.
Home video.
For its home video release in the 1980s, the show was retitled "An Evening with Marlene Dietrich" (its current title).
A DVD version released by EMI in 2003 included five previously unreleased songs. The Dietrich estate sued EMI-Toshiba for including these unlicensed selections without their permission.
Previously unseen alternate takes of "Lola" and "You're the Cream in My Coffee" were included as bonus features on the Kino DVD release of "The Blue Angel". This material comes from the Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin, which holds all unissued material related to the television special as part of its collection.


Eurovision Song Contest Previews

The Eurovision Song Contest Previews are annually broadcast TV shows showcasing the entries into the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest. They were inaugurated in 1971 for the contest in Dublin, Ireland, and have been provided by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to all participating countries ever since.
For a period, the BBC were responsible for 'collecting' the preview videos and distributing them to the various participating countries. This has been carried out by the contest's host nation more recently. In recent years, the Nordic broadcasters (Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) have co-produced preview shows for broadcast across their region.
Background.
All participants in the Eurovision Song Contest are required to submit a video of their entry to the EBU via the host broadcaster, to be distributed across the Eurovision network. From 1971 until the early 1990s, it was compulsory for all participants to broadcast the videos. Since the mid-1990s it has become optional. Broadcasters either submit a performance of the given song – usually taken from their local national final – or a "music video" of the entry, specifically filmed for the purpose. In 1971, the Belgian preview video featured singers Nicole & Hugo who were forced to withdraw days before the Eurovision final due to illness, being replaced by Jacques Raymond and Lily Castel.
Occasionally countries rely on funding from their government tourism budget to produce the video, leading to highly commercial offerings highlighting the given country's natural beauty. Often songs would vary from the version that would be heard in the contest itself; either through a change in language or a variance between the length of the recorded version and the permitted live version, or through a variance in orchestration and arrangement.
Rules.
Early rules stated that the videos could not be broadcast in any less than two shows and the songs had to be broadcast in full. Later amendments allowed the videos to be broadcast incomplete, but that meant the length of each video still had to match. Generally speaking, the countries broadcast the shows in two parts, the entries divided as evenly as practicable between the two shows.
History.
1974.
In 1974, a two-night preview programme, "Auftakt für Brighton" ("Prelude for Brighton"), was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD. It was broadcast at the end of March and hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig. It was the first "preview"-type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously (rather than each national broadcaster showing their own preview programme). The programme was also notable in being the European television debut for the winners, ABBA, who were peculiarly credited in previews as "The Abba". It was first aired on German television Hessischer Rundfunk on 27–28 March and in Finland on 30 March as "Eurovision laulukilpailu". The UK did not broadcast the programmes, instead airing their own preview shows introduced by David Vine on BBC1 on 24 and 31 March. In the same year, the French entry was broadcast by all the nations showing the previews, even though the song was withdrawn from the Eurovision final itself.
1977.
In 1977, the previews were broadcast across Europe ahead of the original scheduled broadcast date of 2 April for the Eurovision final. When the contest was postponed to 7 May, this left a long gap between the preview shows airing and the final. It was also stated in the rule book that the name of the broadcasting TV station for each country be carried on screen to introduce the songs. But many broadcasters ignored this.
Modern day.
From approximately 2000, the videos have been available online via the Eurovision website and most broadcasters upload them to their own, local Eurovision site.
San Marino broadcaster SMtv televised the previews for the first time in 2012, showing the videos in multiple programmes in the run up to the contest on a rotating basis, hosted by John Kennedy O'Connor. SMtv each year since, under various formats, until O'Connor retired in 2019. In 2014 O'Connor presented each entry on location in San Marino and in 2015 each entry was linked by video to the participating country. The 2016, 2017 & 2018 previews were presented in a studio setting.
UK broadcasts.
In the United Kingdom, the BBC broadcast the programmes in two parts, every year from 1971 to 1994 on BBC1 and then again in 2002 and 2003 on BBC Choice, later BBC Three, in multiple shows over one week. The preview shows have been hosted by a variety of presenters over the years; including Terry Wogan, Gloria Hunniford, Ken Bruce and Lorraine Kelly.
Format.
Generally, but by no means always, the songs were broadcast in the order they would appear in the contest, with the UK entry saved until the end. For 1979 to 1982, the songs were shown in a random order, despite host Terry Wogan insisting in 1979 that the songs were being shown in competition order during the broadcasts. In 1982, the UK entry was scheduled to be broadcast at the end of the second programme, but was also included in the first programme in the absence of the Greek entry that was withdrawn while the shows were in production. In 1983, the UK preview video consisted of the group Sweet Dreams in speed boats off the coast of Dover, Southern England, with the engine noise of the vessels included in the soundtrack, partially obscuring the song itself.
With only two exceptions (1972 and 1973) the shows were broadcast on Sunday afternoons. In 1972, the shows were given a prime-time airing in the BBC1 evening schedule.
From 1976 to 1985, the BBC provided a specifically filmed 'video' of the artist on location in the UK. In all other years, they have simply provided the performance from the national final, although often the artist's record company will also send their own commercially released video for use by the broadcasters, but these were never shown in the UK broadcasts. From 1984, the BBC included the contributing broadcasters acronym on screen for each entry.
The 1994 preview show, which would be the last for eight years, was renamed "Tips For Le Top" and included analysis by "swingometer" expert Peter Snow who gave out the odds on victory for each act with two minutes of each song broadcast. It also featured a special Eurovision-themed edition of quiz show "Mastermind" with four fan contestants. The competition was won by David Bridgman representing United Kingdom with Wogan acting as quizmaster. The other contestants were Johnny O'Mahony (Ireland), Marc Dierckx (Belgium) and Henry Klok (Netherlands). Prizes were presented by four-time Eurovision hostess, Katie Boyle.
By year.
The UK broadcast details are as follows, with the countries listed in the order they were shown:
2000s.
2002 - Hostess: Lorraine Kelly
Broadcast: Monday, 20 May, Tuesday, 21 May, Wednesday, 22 May, Thursday, 23 May & Friday, 24 May.
2003 - Hostess: Lorraine Kelly
Broadcast: Monday, 19 May, Tuesday, 20 May, Wednesday, 21 May, Thursday, 22 May & Friday, 23 May.


George Zoritch

George Zoritch (6 June 1917 – 1 November 2009), was a Russian-born American ballet dancer who starred in performances by Ballet Russe companies on stages all over the United States from the 1930s to the 1960s. Internationally known, he was one of the most glamorous figures and striking personalities in mid-twentieth-century ballet.
Early life and training.
Born Yuri Zoritch in Moscow during the Russian Revolution in June 1917, he was taken by his mother, an opera singer who had been deserted by her husband, to the quieter city of Kovno (Kaunas), the provisional capital of Lithuania. Known as "Little Paris" because of its rich cultural and academic life, the city offered refuge from the revolutionary strife of Moscow. There, Madam Zoritch joined the opera company at the National Opera and Ballet Theater, while Yuri and his brother began their first dance lessons. When Yuri was 14 years old, the family relocated to Paris to advance his training. A promising student, he won a scholarship to study with one of the most prominent teachers in the city, Olga Preobrajenskaya, a former star of the Russian Imperial Ballet. In later years, he would polish his classical technique through study with such famous pedagogues as Anatole Vilzak, Anatole Oboukhoff, and Bronislava Nijinska.
Professional career.
After only nine months' study with Preobrajenskaya, young Yuri, was given his first professional job in 1932 by the dancer and actress Ida Rubenstein, who had a short season booked at the Paris Opera featuring ballets created by Michel Fokine. Following this engagement, Zoritch rapidly became a sought-after performer in a number of companies linked with former stars of Sergei Diaghilev's famous Ballets Russes.
Ballet Russe companies.
An engagement with Nijinska's Ballets de Paris in 1935 led to his long-time membership in the two Ballets Russes offshoots formed after Diaghilev's death in 1929: Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, directed by René Blum, and Original Ballet Russe, directed by Colonel Wassily de Basil. In the de Basil company, the 18-year-old Zoritch became a favorite of the choreographer Léonide Massine, who cast him in no fewer than eleven ballets, notably "Symphonie Fantastique" (1936), set to the hallucinatory music of Hector Berlioz. Massine and Tamara Toumanova took the lead roles of the Young Musician and the Beloved. Zoritch danced in the Melancholy "pas de trois" in the first movement (Reveries), as the Young Shepherd in the third movement (Scene in the Fields), and, with Roman Jasinski and Paul Petroff, as one of the three Monsters in the fifth movement (Dream of the Night of the Sabbath).
In 1938, after a dispute with Colonel de Basil, René Blum won legal rights to the name Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which he soon sold to wealthy American businessmen. With Massine as artistic director, they created a company expressly to tour the United States and to present occasional seasons in Monte Carlo and London. Yuri Zoritch, now known as George, was one of its principal male dancers, along with Igor Youskevitch and Frederic Franklin. They often danced with ballerinas Alexandra Danilova, Rosella Hightower, and Nathalie Krassovska. During the company's American tours over the next few years, Zoritch's startling good looks and winning personality on stage attracted increased attention to his dancing. "It is impossible for him to make a bad line, to move unrhythmically," wrote one critic, "for there is a catlike smoothness about everything he does."
Zoritch was notable in two new roles in vastly different works by Massine: in "Bogatyri" (1938), set to music by Alexander Borodin, he portrayed Khan, the fearsome Mongol leader, and in "The New Yorker" (1940), set to music by George Gershwin, he was the magazine's signature character of the effete Eustace Tilley. Neither of these works enjoyed much success, however, and both were soon dropped from the repertory. Between these two, Zoritch appeared in a more substantial ballet, as the Fiancé in Frederick Ashton's "Devil's Holiday", a major work in a prologue and three scenes set to music by Vincenzo Tommasini on themes of Niccolo Paganini. Presented at the Metropolitan Opera House in October 1939. it had a star-studded cast and a complicated love story that required the Devil himself to sort out. Hence Ashton's alternate title: "Le Diable s'Amuse".
Broadway and Hollywood.
During the 1940s, Zoritch had a parallel career in Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies.
Of Zoritch's performance in "Night and Day", a writer in the "Hollywood Reporter" commented, "If the handsome Zoritch can act the way he dances and looks, there is another new-name star from this film.: Unfortunately, Zoritch never shed his thick Russian accent, which doomed his chances of ever taking speaking parts.
Back to ballet.
In 1951, Zoritch went to France and joined Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. Based in Cannes in summer and Deauville in winter, this company had regular seasons in Paris and often toured in France and other countries of western Europe. Wherever it performed, it was extremely popular with audiences. It had an illustrious roster of ballerinas, including Tamara Toumanova, Alicia Markova, and Nathalie Krassovska, and a strong repertory of Russian classics as well as works by Harold Lander, George Balanchine, George Skibine, and John Taras. Zoritch danced the princely roles but was often cast in works that showcased the beauty of his physical features rather than the artistry of his dancing. He once took eighteen curtain calls after a performance of "Le Spectre de la Rose", in a new version choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. Costumed as the Spectre in a sheer, rose-colored body stocking with a single strand of small roses trailing across his bare chest and over one shoulder, his beautifully proportioned figure was perfectly revealed. It is little wonder at the audience's prolonged applause. There is a famous photograph by Maurice Seymour of Zoritch in this role, standing in repose with arms curved softly aloft, that has been much admired and frequently reproduced.
In 1957, at age 40, Zoritch returned to the United States and rejoined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, then under the direction of Sergei Denham. He soon demonstrated that he was, in the words of Walter Terry, "the perfect cavalier" for the company's current ballerinas and distinguished guests such as Alicia Alonso and Yvette Chauviré. Ann Barzel supported this judgment, claiming that Zoritch's "elegance was the backbone of the classics" in the company repertory. These included "Giselle, The Nutcracker, Raymonda," and act 2 of "Swan Lake". Basides these Russian classics, Zoritch excelled in other works in the repertory. He was particularly acclaimed as the Poet in Michel Fokine's Romantic reverie "Les Sylphides", set to the music of Frédéric Chopin.
In the course of his long career, Zoritch's most famous role, however, was in a revolutionary work created in the early twentieth century: Vaslav Nijinsky's "L'Après-midi d'un Faune", set to Claude Debussy's symphonic poem in 1912. Debussy's "Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune" (1894), inspired by an 1876 poem of Stéphane Mallarmé, was considered by some music historians as "the beginning of modern music." Nijinsky's choreography was certainly new and modern, very different from previously seen forms of theatrical dance. George Zoritch was ideally suited to reinterpret Nijinsky's vision of a lusty young woodland creature lounging in the heat of a summer afternoon. With a figure that had been likened to "a Greek youth sculpted by Praxiteles," he projected an elegant eroticism particularly suited to the role.
Later years.
Having become an American citizen, Zoritch settled down in his new, adopted country and moved gradually from performing to teaching. He played an important part in the growth of regional ballet across the United States but remained associated with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo until 1962, when the company was dissolved. In 1964, he opened a ballet school in West Hollywood, California, where he exercised strict discipline and often employed sarcasm in giving corrections to his pupils. Finding children disagreeable, he preferred older students, to whom he gave master classes. Leaving California, he joined the dance faculty at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He established a home there and taught at the university from 1972 to 1987. He never really stopped teaching. Amazingly spry and upright even in old age, he had been known to teach from a wheelchair if the opportunity arose. In 1994, he was a recipient of a Vaslav Nijinsky Medal, sponsored by the Polish Artists Agency in Warsaw, for work in honor of Nijinsky, referring to his performances of Nijinsky's roles in "Le Spectre de la Rose" and "L'Après-midi d'un Faune.
In his memoir, Zoritch readily acknowledged that he was not a bravura technician. Declaring that artistry was more important than technique for dancers like him, he wrote, "Good ballet dancing is not simply a gathering of a vocabulary of steps; it is more like a good conversation, having theme and meaning. None of us older dancers enjoyed the phenomenal techniques displayed by today's dancers. We enjoyed, however, a mood, a quality, and artistry, which comes from keen individual perception."
Zoritch's personality, charm, and wisdom survive delightfully in the 2005 documentary film "Ballets Russes", a priceless reunion of the survivors from the post-Diaghilev days. Four years later, in 2009, he was hospitalized after a fall in his home in Tucson. He died in November, at age 92, beloved by former colleagues and students alike.


Jazz dance

Jazz dance is a performance [dance] and style that in the United States arose in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz or to Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African-American vernacular styles of dance that arose with jazz music. Vernacular jazz dance incorporates ragtime moves, Charleston, Lindy hop, and mambo. Famous vernacular jazz dance entertainers incorporate The Whitman Sisters, Florence Mills, Ethel Waters, Al and Leon, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Dawn Hampton, and Katherine Dunham. Dramatic jazz dance performed on the show stage was promoted by Jack Cole, Bob Fosse, Eugene Louis Faccuito, and Gus Giordano.
The term 'jazz dance' has been used in ways that have little or nothing to do with jazz music. Since the 1940s, Hollywood movies and Broadway shows have used the term to describe the choreographies of Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins. In the 199, colleges and universities applied to the term to classes offered by physical education departments in which students dance to various forms of pop music, rarely jazz.
Origin.
The origin of jazz dance can be traced to African ritual and celebratory dances from around the seventeenth century. These dances emphasized polyrhythm and improvisation. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade brought ten million enslaved Africans to the Americas. By 1817 in New Orleans, city laws "restricted gatherings of enslaved people to Sunday afternoons in Congo Square, known as Place Publique".
Swing dancing.
In 1917, jazz pianist Spencer Williams wrote a song called "Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble" which inspired a jazz dance called the shimmy. The shimmy is done by holding the body still "except for the shoulders, which are quickly alternated back and forth". The dances that emerged during this period were the Charleston and the Lindy hop.The Charleston is "characterized by its toes-in, heels-out twisting steps". It can be done as a solo or with any number of people.
The Lindy hop was a wild and spontaneous partner dance that was extremely rhythmically conscious. When the Great Depression began in October 1929, many people turned to dance. Because of this, the Aubrielle and the Lindy hop are now considered to be under the umbrella term "swing dance stylized, continuously flowing movements that developed the technique and style for the combinations that followed". Cole's style has been called hip, hard, and cool". Fosse combined "vaudeville, striptease, magic shows, nightclubs, film and Broadway musicals".
Pop music and television.
Contemporary jazz became well known because of its television shows unlike "So You Think You Can Dance". Mia Michaels's earlier work exemplifies this style. Some other companies and choreographers that create contemporary jazz dance are Sonya Tayeh, Mandy Moore, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Commercial jazz, which has been popular since the 1980s, combines aspects of hip hop and jazz and is often done to pop music. This style can be seen in the music videos of Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul. Commercial jazz often includes more "tricks." Commercial jazz and contemporary jazz are both seen at dance competitions. Another variety of jazz is Latin jazz. "Maria Torres developed and popularized the fusion at Broadway Dance Center". Latin jazz has an emphasis on the movement of hips and isolations. It can be seen in the films "El Cantante" and "Dance with Me", as well as on TV dance shows.


Life, and Nothing More...

And Life Goes On ( "Zendegi va digar hich"; also called Life, and Nothing More...) is a 1992 Iranian film directed by Abbas Kiarostami. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It is considered the second film in Kiarostami's Koker trilogy.
After the 1990 earthquake in Iran that killed over 30,000 people, Kiarostami went to search for the stars of his previous film "Where Is the Friend's Home?". This film is a semi-fictional work based on these events, shot in a documentary-style. It shows a director (played by Farhad Kheradmand) on this journey through the country in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Plot.
A film director and his son, Pouya, start a journey towards Koker, where approximately half of "Where Is the Friend's Home?" took place. During the first half, they search for a highway to the village, as most of the roads have been damaged or blocked by the earthquake; meanwhile, the two cross paths with several locals (who were also witnesses of the earthquake) and often ask directions.
After changing his route several times, the two finally reach one of the villages in which the movie was filmed. They visit one of those who acted, and accompany him for a little while. The director and his son visit the destroyed village and hear additional stories of those who survived, among them a young married couple that lost many relatives in the disaster but decided to marry anyway (since the dead did not foresee their demise). One scene featuring this couple is a focal point of the third film in Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, "Through the Olive Trees".
Later, the director and his son find another child who acted in the movie and take him to the tents, where people from Poshypa (the neighbouring village to Koker) are living their houses have been destroyed. The people have good a television and are gathering to watch an important soccer match. The son of the director wants to watch the final match of the Football World Cup with the other kids, so his father leaves him there with the intention of returning later to pick him up. He talks with other witnesses of the earthquake and admires the spirit they have had to move on with their lives.
The film's last shot is several minutes long; the director is struggling to reach the town in his car. He passes a man carrying a tank and drives up a hill until the engine begins overheating and he is unable to continue. The man with the tank helps him restart the engine. The director seemingly leaves as the man with the tank goes walking uphill. The director's car races several meters before trying to climb the hill again and after he makes it, the director picks up the man with the tank. Following this scene, the credits roll.
Part in the trilogy.
"Life, and Nothing More..." is the second film of the Koker trilogy. The first film, "Where Is the Friend's Home?", is a fairly straightforward fiction in which the fourth wall is respected. Following the 1990 Iran earthquake, Kiarostami travelled to the affected area to discover the fates of the child actors who had appeared in "Where Is the Friend's Home?". This journey is partly fictionalized in "Life, and Nothing More...", which blends fiction with reality. The filming of an episode in this movie is the subject of "Through the Olive Trees", which is made in the same style of docufiction as its predecessor in the trilogy.
Each of the films in the Koker trilogy seem to jump to a higher reality where its predecessor is seen as fiction; because of this, the filmmaker himself (Kiarostami) is fictionalized in the second and third film (twice in the latter).


CWOT


Moshing

Moshing (also known as slam dancing or simply slamming) is a style of dance in which participants push or slam into each other, typically performed to "aggressive" live music. Moshing usually happens in the center of the crowd, generally closer to the stage, in an area called the "pit". It is intended to be energetic and full of body contact.
The dance style originated in the hardcore punk scenes of California and Washington, D.C. around 1980. Through the 1980s it spread to other branches of punk rock as well as thrash metal and grunge, which exposed it to the mainstream. Since then, moshing has occasionally been performed to energetic music within a wide variety of genres, including alternative rock, EDM and hip hop, while remaining a staple at punk and heavy metal shows.
Variations of moshing exist, including "pogoing", "circle pits", and "wall of death". Dancing can be done alone as well as in groups.
While moshing is seen as a form of positive fan feedback or expression of enjoyment, it has also drawn criticism over dangerous excesses occurring in offshoots. Injuries have been reported.
History.
Etymology.
The term "mosh" came into use in the early 1980s American hardcore scene in Washington, D.C. Early on, the dance was frequently spelled "mash" in fanzines and record liner notes, but pronounced "mosh," as in the 1982 song "Total Mash" by the D.C.-based hardcore band Scream. H.R. of the band Bad Brains, regarded as a band that "put moshing on the map," used the term "mash" in lyrics and in concert stage banter to both incite and to describe the aggressive and often violent dancing of the scene. To "mash it up" was to go wild with the frenzy of the music. Due to his Jamaican-accented pronunciation of the word, fans heard this as "mosh" instead.
By the mid-1980s, the term was appearing in print with its current spelling. By the time thrash metal band Anthrax used the term in their song "Caught in a Mosh", the word was already a mainstay of hardcore and thrash scenes. Scott Ian and Charlie Benante of Anthrax and S.O.D. have both been credited with the term originating from Vinnie Stigma of the New York hardcore band Agnostic Front. Through the mainstream success of bands like Anthrax, Stormtroopers of Death, and multiple thrash metal bands in the late 1980s the term came into the popular vernacular.
Origins.
The first dance identifiable as moshing may have originated in Orange County, California, during the first wave of American hardcore. Examples of this early moshing can be seen in the documentaries "Another State of Mind", "Urban Struggle", "The Decline of Western Civilization", and "American Hardcore", as well as footage from the shows of the era. Dave Wood, an avid concert-goer and roadie of The Weirdos, popularized moshing at a show at The Roxy in 1977. At the time, California hardcore punk bands such as Black Flag and Fear were becoming popular in Orange County. Jerry Roach's club, the Cuckoo's Nest in Costa Mesa was known as the "birthplace of slam dancing". Fear's 1981 musical performance on "Saturday Night Live" also helped to expose moshing to a much wider audience.
Crossover into mainstream genres.
By the end of the 1980s, the initial wave of American hardcore punk had waned and split into other subgenres. The Seattle-based grunge movement was among the many styles of music that directly evolved from hardcore. Through the mainstream success of several grunge bands, the word "mosh" entered the popular North American vocabulary and the dance spread to many other music genres. According to John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, "it didn’t matter what kind of music you were playing or what kind of band you were; everybody moshed to everything. It was just kind of the enforced rule of going to concerts."
Variations.
The pogo was the first form of moshing. According to The Filth and the Fury, it was invented by Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in 1976.
A circle pit is a form of moshing in which participants run in a circular motion around the edges of the pit, often leaving an open space in the centre.
A wall of death is a form of moshing which sees participants split into two halves, before slamming the two sides into one another. According to Noisecreep, the consensus is that it was invented by American hardcore punk band Sick of it All. However, the band's vocalist Lou Koller, has stated that he merely revived the practice in 1996, as he often saw a similar act performed in the 1980s New York hardcore scene. Loudwire senior writer Graham Hartmann referred to it as "Perhaps the most bad ass and dangerous ritual you can experience in a mosh pit". Venues will often ask bands not to organize the Wall of Death themselves due to the inherent risk involved and liability.
Hardcore dancing is a term that covers multiple style of moshing including windmilling two stepping, floorpunching, picking up pennies, axehandling and bucking wheelbarrowing. The practice began in New York city in the 1980s.
Physical properties of emergent behavior.
Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca studied the emergent behavior of crowds at mosh pits by analyzing online videos, finding similarities with models of 2-D gases in equilibrium. Simulating the crowds with computer models, they found out that a simulation dominated by flocking parameters produced highly ordered behavior, forming vortices like those seen in the videos.
Opposition, criticism and controversy.
The American post-hardcore band Fugazi opposed slamdancing at their live shows. Members of Fugazi were reported to single out and confront specific members of the audience, politely asking them to stop hurting other audience members, or hauling them on stage to apologize on the microphone.
Consolidated, an industrial dance group of the 1990s, stood against moshing. On their third album, "Play More Music", they included the song "The Men's Movement", which proclaimed the inappropriate nature of slamdancing. The song consisted of audio recordings during concerts from the audience and members of Consolidated, arguing about moshing.
In the 1990s, the Smashing Pumpkins took a stance against moshing, following two incidents which resulted in fatalities. At a 1996 Pumpkins concert in Dublin, Ireland, 17-year-old Bernadette O'Brien was crushed by moshing crowd members and later died in the hospital, despite warnings from the band that people were getting hurt. At another concert, singer Billy Corgan said to the audience:
Another fan died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on September 24, 2007. The 20-year-old male was dragged out of the mosh pit, unconscious, to be pronounced dead at a hospital after first-aid specialists attempted to save him.
Reel Big Fish's 1998 album "Why Do They Rock So Hard?" included their mosh-criticizing song "Thank You for Not Moshing", which contained lyrics that suggested that at least some individuals in the mosh pit were simply bullies who were finding conformity in the violence.
Mike Portnoy, founder and ex-drummer of Dream Theater, and Avenged Sevenfold where he briefly filled in after the death of The Rev, criticized moshing in an interview published on his website:
Sixteen-year-old Jessica Michalik was an Australian girl who died as a result of asphyxiation after being crushed in a mosh pit during the 2001 Big Day Out festival during a performance by nu metal band Limp Bizkit. At that same festival, post-hardcore band At The Drive-In ended their set early after only three songs due to the audience’s moshing.
Groove metal group Five Finger Death Punch had an incident when, during the song "White Knuckles" at a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, a young man received a compound fracture on his ankle in a mosh pit. Ivan Moody, the band's lead singer, stopped the show, leaped into the crowd with Zoltan Bathory, the band's rhythm guitarist, and carried the injured fan onto the stage, from where he was taken to the hospital. Moody has been quoted as saying: "I looked him square in the face and asked him if he was okay, or if there was anything I could do for him. He looked over at me, still in shock, and said 'You guys fucking rock!'"
Moody stated "I've felt bad because of what has happened. I miss the old Pantera kids who would just throw each other. Just respect other people; come on." Bathory stated: "Because he broke his leg I threw down my guitar. We just finished when he broke his leg, and I came out and I stayed with him until the paramedics picked him up. These are my people and that's how it is."
Joey DeMaio of American heavy metal band Manowar has been known to temporarily stop concerts upon seeing moshing and crowd surfing, claiming it is dangerous to other fans.
Former Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn spoke about the state of audience interaction following the onstage incident and subsequent legal issues involving Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, who was eventually found innocent of criminal wrongdoing in the death of a concertgoer, despite being held "morally responsible". Fehn briefly addressed the Blythe situation, stating "I think, especially in America, moshing has turned into a form of bullying. The big guy stands in the middle and just trucks any small kid that comes near him. They don’t mosh properly anymore. It sucks because that’s not what it’s about. Those guys need to be kicked out. A proper mosh pit is a great way to be as a group and dance, and just do your thing."


Nigel Ogden

Nigel Ogden is an English theatre organist, known for presenting and performing on the BBC Radio 2 programme "The Organist Entertains" from 1980 to 2018.
Ogden was born in Manchester, England, the son of a church organist, and had several years of piano lessons, before taking up the organ at the age of twelve. As a child, his family took him to Blackpool Tower Ballroom to hear performances on the Wurlitzer organ there, by Reginald Dixon.
He studied to be a teacher, then worked as a sales demonstrator for an organ retail business in Hyde, Cheshire, where he later started his own business selling organs. From 1972, he started appearing on "The Organist Entertains", eventually taking over from Robin Richmond as presenter in March 1980.
Ogden is also a composer and a touring musician, playing both theatre and church organs, and was the organist for the Channel 4 production of Dennis Potter's "Lipstick on Your Collar".
Ogden was awarded with a British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Gold Badge of merit on 17 October 2012.
He has released a number of CDs.
After the final episode of "The Organist Entertains" was broadcast in 2018, Ogden began to present regularly on The Organist Encores podcast.


The Maydays

The Maydays are an improvised comedy company founded in Brighton, England, in 2004 by John Cremer.
Their shows include "Confessions", "Tonight's Top Story", "Guest Who" and "The Fringe Show". The Maydays are Jason Blackwater, John Cremer, Alexis Gallagher, Rebecca Macmillan, Jules Munns, Liz Peters, Jenny Rowe, Joe Samuel, Katy Schutte, Heather Urquhart and Rhiannon Vivian.
After making a debut at the Brighton Fringe in 2004, and taking their first show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006, the Maydays went on to win "Best Comedy Show" in the 2007 Brighton Fringe with their show "Mayday! The Musical". Related shows have included "Argus! The Musical" and "Evening Standard! The Musical". The company began a residency at the Komedia in 2008, and currently perform "Confessions" there on a monthly basis.
Since 2008, several members of the Maydays have travelled to Chicago to study Longform Improvisation at IO Theater and the Annoyance Theatre, and have since brought international tutors to the UK.


Improvathon

The word Improvathon is a portmanteau of the words "improvisation" and "marathon" and is used to describe and extended performance by a team of improvising performers. The format establishes a group of characters early on, who become part of a continuous plotline. Commonly, as well as scenes which progress the story, performers may participate in musical numbers and other challenges or games. The action is directed for both performers and audience by writers who develop the plot in response. Whilst some performers may take a break at some point during the event, traditionally some core cast members will participate for the entire duration, going one or two nights without sleep. The sleep deprivation reduces performers to their "lizard brain" state, where they become too tired to censor themselves, resulting in a unique and euphoric form of theatre. Many audience members stay for the full duration, sharing the sleeplessness with the actors.
In Edmonton, Canada, where the concept was originally devised, it is known as a Soap-A-Thon.
Soap-A-Thon.
The Soap-a-thon has most notably been made popular by Canadian improv company Die-Nasty who completed their first 50-hour Soap-A-Thon in 1993 at the Varscona Theatre. They have produced further Soap-A-Thons every year since.
Improvathons, UK.
London.
2005.
In 2005, Die-Nasty's director at the time Dana Anderson exported the format to the UK, working with British director and theatrical innovator Ken Campbell. The 36-hour Improvathon began at 10 am, 17 December 2005 at Ladbroke Grove's Inn on the Green.
Following this experiment, Sticking Place (now renamed Extempore Theatre) Artistic Director Adam Meggido developed the event into the London Annual 50 Hour Improvathon, involving performers from all over the world.
2008.
Name: "Casino Oui Oui"
Producer: The Sticking Place
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 17 January – Sunday 19 January
Set: A casino in Monaco in the mid-1960s
Venue: At The People Show Studios, Pollard Row, Bethnal Green
2009.
Name: "Pack Up Your Troubles"
Producer: The Sticking Place
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 6 February – Sunday 8 February
Set: 1944, a Kent village
Venue: At The People Show Studios, Pollard Row, Bethnal Green
2010.
Name: "We Are Not Amused"
Producer: The Sticking Place
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 22 January – Sunday 24 January
Set: Victorian era, England
Venue: Hoxton Hall
2011.
Name: "Studio 50"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 21 January – Sunday 23 January
Set: Studio 50 (a New York night club), 1977
Venue: Hoxton Hall
2012.
Name: "Tales from the Greek Games"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 11 May – Sunday 13 May
Set: Ancient Greece, the first Olympic Games
Venue: Hoxton Hall
2013.
Name: "Cairo 1926"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 11 – Sunday 13 January
Set: Cairo 1926
Venue: Hoxton Hall
2014.
Name: "Xanadu"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 24 – Sunday 26 January
Set: The Starship Xanadu, a pleasure cruiser travelling from planet to planet
Venue: Hoxton Hall
2015.
Name: "Tinseltown"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 29 – Sunday 31 May
Set: Sleepless Studios, A B-movie production house in Hollywood's Golden Age
Venue: The Lost Theatre, Stockwell
2016.
Name: "The Orient Express"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 29 April – Sunday 1 May
Set: Sleepless Studios, A B-movie production house in Hollywood's Golden Age
Venue: The Lost Theatre, Stockwell
2017.
Name: "Lord of Thrones"
Duration: 50 hours
Dates: Friday 20 – Sunday 22 January
Set: All the literary fantasy worlds combined - Tolkien, George R R Martin, etc.
Venue: Wilton's Music Hall
Liverpool.
2008.
The first Liverpool Improvathon took place in 2008 as part of Ken Campbell Metafex Festival at the Kazimier, Wolstenholme Square. "Oh Wait!" lasted 30 hours and was directed by Dana Anderson of Die-Nasty. The action took place on the RMS Pedantic as it made its way from Liverpool to New York. Some of the participants of this event went on to form Liverpool-based, improvisation comedy troupe Impropriety
2010.
Name: "The Last Resort"
Producer: Impropriety
Duration: 33.5 hours
Dates: Saturday 10 April – Sunday 11 April
Set: 1950s, a holiday camp somewhere in the north of England
Venue: The Kazimier
2011.
Name: "Dearly Beloved"
Producer: Impropriety
Duration: 33.5 hours
Dates: Saturday 14 May - Sunday 15 May
Set: The Fools Rush Inn, at a wedding, which brought together and posh family and a rather less high-class family. It took place two weeks after the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton.
Venue: The Kazimier
2012.
Name: Back to The Studio
Producer: Impropriety
Duration: 33.5 hours
Set: Behind the scenes at Channel 33.5
Venue:
Bristol.
2010.
In 2010, The Sticking Place, in association with Die-Nasty, presented the 30-hour Bristol Jam Improvathon. The events ran from 6pm on Friday 5th until Saturday 6 November at midnight, with performers from Impropriety also taking part.
The action took place at the Easyspeak Speakeasy in 1920s America.
2015.
In 2015 the Bristol Improv Theatre re-launched the Bristol Improvathon with the Closer Each Day Company and support from various other improv groups from around the South-West. It was titled "Time Busters" and was set in the town of Glastonbury where a team of archeologists were searching for the body of King Arthur. The event was advertised as a 26-hour, 385 second improvathon and ran from 6pm on Friday 13 March to 10pm Saturday 14 March.
2016.
The newly named Bristol Improv Marathon was hosted for the second year running at the Bristol Improv Theatre, once again in association with Closer Each Day Company and various improv groups from around the South-West. The title was "Ride on Time" and the plot was centred around the re-opening of the fictional theme park "Fantastic Planet of Fun".
2017.
The 2017 Bristol Improv Marathon was hosted for its third year, March 24–25 and was the first marathon hosted by the Bristol Improv Theatre following the refurbishment and relaunch of their main venue. Once again the event was produced by the Bristol Improv Theatre in association with Closer Each Day Company and various improv groups from around the South-West. The title was "Check-Out Time at the Grand Hotel" and the plot was centred around the closing of a fictional remote hotel.
2018.
The 2018 Bristol Improv Marathon took place on March 17-18 and was titled "Pirates of the Severn Seas". Once again it was staged at the Bristol Improv Theatre and produced in conjunction with Closer Each Day and other local improv companies. The story focused on pirates, citizens of 'Port Royal', and various plotters who sought to destroy their way of life.
2019.
In 2019 the Bristol Improv Marathon took place on March 15-16 and was titled "Channel 26 (hours)". It continued to be hosted at the Bristol Improv Theatre whilst being produced by Closer Each Day, with the rest of the cast of 30 being sourced from the local improv community, either via invitation or open auditions. The story focused on the lives of the people working at local news station Channel 26, and their various misadventures.
2020.
In 2020 the Bristol Improv Marathon took place on March 13th-14th and was titled "When In Rome: XXVI Hours BC". It was hosted at the Bristol Improv Theatre in collaboration with Closer Each Day Company and The Wardrobe Theatre. The other performers were from Degrees of Error (the Bristol Improv Theatre's resident company) or the local improv community via auditions. It focused on the events of a selection of characters in a generic ancient imperial Rome setting. It was the last show with a live audience at the Bristol Improv Theatre before it shut its doors due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
YT Improvathons.
The performance format discussed above is not to be confused with the annual event held by the Christian Youth Theatre in the United States. Each year, teams of young people come together to compete in playing improvisational games over two-days.


The Last Warning

The Last Warning is a 1928 American mystery film directed by Paul Leni, and starring Laura La Plante, Montagu Love, and Margaret Livingston. Its plot follows a New York producer's attempt to re-stage a play five years after one of the original cast members was murdered in the theater. The film is based on the 1922 Broadway melodrama of the same name by Thomas F. Fallon, which in turn was based on the story "House of Fear" by Wadsworth Camp, the father of the writer Madeleine L'Engle.
Conceived as a followup to Leni's wildly successful 1927 production "The Cat and the Canary" (also starring La Plante), the film was produced by Universal Pictures under Carl Laemmle. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles in the summer of 1928 on sets recycled from Universal's "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925). It premiered on Christmas Day 1928 before expanding in January 1929, and was released as both a part-sound as well as a silent film; the silent version is the only known extant version. It was the final film directed by Leni before his death from blood poisoning on September 2, 1929.
Response by critics to "The Last Warning" varied, with many praising its performances and cinematography, though several commented on its incoherent plot, and others criticized its integration of sound, feeling it presented optimally as a silent film. In 2016, Universal Pictures selected the film for restoration, using elements from two different prints owned by the Packard Humanities Institute and the Cinémathèque Française.
Plot.
In a Broadway production of a play entitled "The Snare", one of the actors, John Woodford, inexplicably dies during a stage performance, and his body disappears. Few clues exist as to what caused his death, aside from several drops of liquid found that resembled chloroform. Rumors of a love triangle between Woodford and two cast members circulate as a possible motive for his death.
Five years after the theater's closure, producer Arthur McHugh decides to solve the mystery by again staging the play with the remaining cast and re-enacting Woodford's murder. During rehearsals in the abandoned theater, strange occurrences plague the cast, including ominous noises, falling scenery, and an unexplained fire. Doris, the lead actress, has her purse stolen from her dressing room by an unseen assailant; Mike Brody, the stage manager, reportedly receives a telegram warning him to drop out of the play, signed by John Woodford, and the theater's new owner, Arthur McHugh, also receives a visit from Woodford's ghost.
The production continues, and during the final rehearsal, Harvey Carleton inexplicably disappears from the stage during a blackout. Doris spots a mysterious masked figure in a theater box in addition to a man resembling John Woodford, but both disappear. Behind a picture hanging on the stage, a lever is discovered which opens a trap door, where the cast find Harvey incoherent. Arthur and Richard Quayle, another cast member, venture inside, where they discover a tunnel that leads to Doris's dressing room.
Arthur has police officers appointed at the theater for the show's opening the following night. During the performance, an electrical wire charged to 400 volts is discovered connected to a candlestick onstage, and Arthur lunges at Richard to prevent him from touching it during the final scene. The unseen masked assailant is discovered hiding inside a grandfather clock onstage, but he drops through a trap door in the floor just after shooting one of the police officers. The assailant scales the theater and throws a dummy resembling John Woodford onto the stage. He then begins swinging from a rope, but is brought back down by a stagehand who cuts it.
The masked assailant is discovered to be Brody, who caused Woodford's death via electrocution and had been behind the "hauntings" to prevent the theater from being used.
Production.
Screenplay and filming.
The film was envisioned as a companion piece to director Leni's earlier "The Cat and the Canary", due to that film's great popularity. Universal assigned Leni to the project under the assumption that his previous success would yield significant box-office results. It is based on the 1922 play of the same name by Thomas F. Fallon, which ran for 238 performances from October 24, 1922, until May 1923 at the Klaw Theatre. Fallon's play was in turn based on the story "House of Fear" by Wadsworth Camp, the father of writer Madeleine L'Engle.
Casting.
Actress Laura La Plante, a former-teenage actress who had previously starred in Leni's "The Cat and the Canary", was given top-billing in her role as Doris Terry, though her part in the film is considerably less involved than in the former. Film historian John Soister characterizes La Plante's role as that of an ingénue, consisting primarily of reactions to "assorted assaults, visions, and set-ups." The film marked La Plante's first talking picture. British actor Montagu Love was cast opposite La Plante, receiving second-billing. Soister notes that Love was "cast against type" for his role, that of "no-nonsense" theater owner Arthur McHugh.
Margaret Livingston, an actress who had also begun her career as a teenager, was cast in the role of actress Evalynda Hendon; her performance in the film helped earn her a role in Universal's "The Charlatan", released later that year. In the role of Richard Quayle, Leni cast actor John Boles, who subsequently had a minor part in "Frankenstein" (1931). Bert Roach was cast as Mike Brody, the producer who re-stages the play in the film. Barbara, an elderly character actress who starred in the original play in which Woodford was murdered, is portrayed by Dutch actress Carrie Daumery. This was Daumery's only film credit from the silent era, and her role is likened by Soister and others to that of Flora Finch in "The Cat and the Canary", but stripped of any comedic tone.
Filming.
Principal photography began in August 1928. The theater set used in the film had originally been used in the 1925 "The Phantom of the Opera" starring Lon Chaney, and was located in Universal City, California.
Release.
According to the American Film Institute, "The Last Warning" had its theatrical debut in New York City on January 6, 1929. However, special advance screenings occurred on Christmas Day 1928 in several U.S. cities, including Chillicothe, Missouri, and Manhattan, Kansas.
The film was marketed as a successor to producer Leni's previous film "The Cat and the Canary", attributed to producer Laemmle's "discriminating supervision." It is often considered one of the last silent films produced by Universal Studios, but it was also released in a "part-talkie" Movietone version with a brief minute or two of synch-sound footage added, as well as screams, cries, and other sound effects. These scenes have since been lost. Few prints of the film exist in the United States: One is owned by the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection in Rochester, New York, which was originally owned by the Cinémathèque Française, and is slightly edited and entirely silent with French intertitles.
Critical response.
Though it re-teamed Leni with "The Cat and the Canary" star Laura La Plante and features a similar style, "The Last Warning" lacks the supernatural elements of "The Cat and the Canary" and is therefore usually considered in the mystery genre rather than the horror genre; some historians, however, have classed it as a horror film. Elements of comedy present in Leni's "The Cat and the Canary" are also absent from the film. Extant published reviews of the film were varied.
Mordaunt Hall of "The New York Times" noted the film contained "some finely directed passages," but that it was "not especially disturbing." Martin Dickstein of the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" described the film as being "related with such vagueness that the picture fail[s] to hold together," but praised Leni's "propitious use of 'the camera angle,' and it is through this inventive maneuvering of the lens that the picture achieves at least a visual significance." A critic of the "Los Angeles Times" similarly found the cinematography "highly interesting" and the plot "lost in a maze of double and triple exposures," adding that there "is a decided lack of spontaneity in the sound sequences."
The majority of the criticism surrounding the film had to do with its integration of sound. Irene Thirer of the "New York Daily News", who felt the film "should never have been a talkie," elaborating that the dialogue episodes "retard the action" and "are not well done." "The Montana Standard" noted that the film "presents many thrills" and was widely enjoyed by the audiences at the film's premiere in Butte. A critic of the "Hartford Courant" alternately felt that, "as a talking picture, the film retains all the chill values of the play, with its eerie noises, screams, fright-fraught dialogue and general noise and excitement," but conceded that "it decidedly is not the scary kind of mystery play that the average person would find too startling." Sid Silverman, writing for "Variety", noted the use of sound effects as "multiple, continuous, and in detail," and that the film included "enough screams to stimulate the average film mob into sticking through it." Hall also criticized the film's utilization of sound, writing: "There are too many outbursts of shrieking, merely to prove the effect of the audible screen, to cause any spine-chilling among those watching this production."
The "Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune" noted that "The Last Warning" "the most thrilling mystery film released this season," while the "Billings Gazette" deemed it "the greatest mystery picture ever filmed." "Photoplay" was less laudatory, noting: "This could have been a gorgeous mystery story, but it's an obvious cross between "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Terror", with none of their consistency or power."
In a retrospective assessment, author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film two and a half out of four stars, commending its camerawork and direction, but criticizing the film's story as "silly." Commenting on the finale, film historian Graham Petrie notes that Leni and cinematographer Hal Mohr "handle the camera with the utmost possible freedom, culminating in a scene in which the camera swings on a rope with the villain from one part of the theater to another. Along the way, Leni revels in the shadows, cobwebs, tilted angles, subtly distorted perspectives, ominously confined spaces, and clutching hands that had by now become his trademark." Petrie, who classifies the film as a thriller rather than a mystery, emphasizes that its stylistic and visual elements supersede narrative plausibility and characterization.
2016 restoration.
In 2016, the film underwent digital restoration by Universal Pictures, sourced from both the Cinémathèque Française print, as well as a print featuring the original English title cards owned by the Packard Humanities Institute Collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The restored print was screened at the Castro Theatre as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on June 4, 2016. It was again screened in September 2016 at Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles. This restored edition of the film had its home media premiere in a Blu-ray and DVD combination set by Flicker Alley in 2019.
Other adaptations.
"The Last Warning" was re-made in 1939 by Joe May under the title "The House of Fear".


Ground Zero (band)

Ground Zero was a Japanese noise/improvisation band during the 1990s led by the guitarist and "turntablist" Otomo Yoshihide that had a large and rotating group of performers with two other regular performers.
History.
Ground Zero was formed to play the John Zorn game piece "Cobra". They first played in August 1990 and last played in March 1998. The band's last project was in 1998 when they re-worked material from a 1992 Cassiber concert in Tokyo; it was released on the second CD of Cassiber's double CD, "Live in Tokyo" (1998).
Musical style.
The band performed on such instruments as turntables, sampler, shamisen, saxophone, koto, omnichord, electric guitar and two drum kits. They were the first free improvising musicians to use turntables
Their music mixed free jazz, improvisation, pop, rock and experimental noise. Their album "Revolutionary Pekinese Opera ver. 1.28" is a sound collage piece combining noise music and samples of peking opera and "Consume Red", on which the performers improvise around a short sample of "hojok" music played by the Korean holy musician Kim Seok Chul.


Pundette

A pundette is a female TV commentator or pundit in the US, often conservative. The term was coined in the 1990s to describe anti-Bill Clinton commentators who came to prominence on cable TV during the Lewinsky scandal. Bill Clinton was president of the United States at the time.
Role.
According to Stephen Klien, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Communication at the University of Missouri, pundettes "seemed to capitalize on a combination of conservative identity, confrontational rhetorical style and sexual attractiveness in order to gain media attention"
Susan Estrich, a self described pundette, said her success was not so much because she had "run campaigns and taught law for 20 years and thus might know what I'm talking about, but that I have blond hair and legs almost as good as those of the twenty- and thirty-something blondes with whom I am usually paired."
The term is sometimes used dismissively by those that disagree with a pundette's position. Women described as pundettes, however, often embrace the term.
More recently the term has expanded to include women commentators in a variety of fields, political views and races.
In the arts.
"The Accidental Pundette" is a comedy play by Nancy Giles based on an incident where she lost her temper during a panel discussion on "Larry King Live".


The Naked Stage

Naked Stage / Goli oder is an international contemporary theatre festival, held annually in the last week of October in KUD France Prešeren, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Up until 2006, its focus has been the improvisational theatre. As of 2006, the festival is dedicated to improvisation in various fields of contemporary art. Naked Stage was designed and is organized by the most prominent Slovenian improv group, Narobov. Artistic directors of the Naked Stage are Maja Dekleva and Gregor Moder.
Goals.
The Naked Stage festival has two principal goals. It offers Slovenian and international audiences a profile of the most interesting progress in improvisational theatre. At the same time, it provides artists an opportunity to research new terrains in improvisational theatre through intense workshops. In the field of theatre, the festival is dedicated exclusively to longform improvisation, avoiding short games and formats. It is growing in is experimental extension, as premiers compose a noteworthy portion of all performances.
History.
2005.
Invited theatres and special guests: Teater Narobov (Slovenia), Quicksilver Productions (Belgium), Isar148 (Germany), Theater im Bahnhof (Austria), Impromptu Theatre (the Netherlands), and: Lee White (Canada), Tom Johnson (USA), Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger (Australia/Austria), Leon Düvel (Germany)
2004.
Invited theatres and special guests: Teater Narobov (Slovenia), Theater im Bahnhof (Austria), The Brody Theater (USA), Die Gorillas (Germany), Stockholms Improvisationsteater (Sweden), and: Yann Van den Branden (Belgium), Bronwyn Mertz (Australia/Austria), and young Slovenian actor Nejc Simšič
2003.
Invited theatres: Improklub (Slovenia), Isar148 (Germany), Unexpected Productions (USA), Improvvisatione Teatrale Italiana (Italy), Theater im Bahnhof (Austria)
2002.
Invited theatres and special guests: Improklub (Slovenia), Gledališče Ane Monro (Slovenia), and: Jakob Schweighofer (Austria), Roland Trescher (Germany), Daniel Goldstein (USA), Henk Van der Steen (Netherlands), Albin Juhanović (B&H)


Nijinsky (film)

Nijinsky is a 1980 American biographical film directed by Herbert Ross. Hugh Wheeler wrote a screenplay that explores the later life and career of Vaslav Nijinsky; it was based largely on the premier danseur's personal diaries (a bowdlerized 1936 version was edited and published by his wife, Romola de Pulszky), and her 1934 biography of Nijinsky, largely ghostwritten by Lincoln Kirstein, who later co-founded the New York City Ballet.
Plot.
The film suggests Nijinsky was driven into madness by both his consuming ambition and self-enforced heterosexuality. He became involved with Romola de Pulszky, a society girl who joined impresario Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes specifically to seduce Nijinsky. After a series of misunderstandings with Diaghilev, who is both his domineering mentor and possessive lover, Nijinsky succumbs to Romola's charms and marries her. After this, his gradual decline from artistic moodiness to a diagnosis of schizophrenia begins.
Critical reception.
Reception to "Nijinsky" is mixed. It holds a 40% rating and an average score of 5.6/10 at Rotten Tomatoes.
In his review in "Time", Richard Schickel opined, "Some people will be titillated by the openness with which homosexual love is portrayed in the film. But this is mostly a slow, cautious biography, elegantly attentive to Edwardian decor and dress. It slights Nijinsky's melodramatic story and, finally, offends with its relentless reductionism. There are times when excesses of good taste become a kind of bad taste, a falsification of a subject's spirit and milieu. This is never more true than when the troubles of a genius are presented in boring and conventional terms."
"Time Out London" calls it "the best gay weepie since "Death in Venice" … the first major studio film to centre on a male homosexual relationship (albeit a doomed one) without being moralistic … director Ross and writer Hugh Wheeler … do right by their male characters (Alan Bates, in particular, is a plausibly adult Diaghilev), their grasp of the historical reconstructions seems more than competent, and their dialogue and exposition are unusually adroit. Best of all, they never show ballet for its own sake, and have the courage to keep emotional dynamics in the forefront throughout."
Channel 4 says, "What could have been a powerful period drama quickly descends into soap opera territory … but it's always watchable, and director Ross … laces the action with some well-choregraphed dance."
Director Tony Richardson, who had intended to direct the planned 1970 film on Nijinsky, considered this 1980 film a "travesty".


Zack Taylor

Zachary Taylor is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe, appearing in the television series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers". He is the original Black Ranger of the first generation of Power Rangers. He was played by actor Walter Emanuel Jones.
Character history.
"Mighty Morphin Power Rangers".
Zack and his close friends Kimberly Hart, Jason Lee Scott, Billy Cranston and Trini Kwan were picked as the five original Power Rangers by the wise sage Zordon to defend Earth from the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa. After traveling through time Zack was chosen as the Black Power Ranger, gaining the Mastodon Power Coin and the Mastodon Dinozord.
Quick-witted and clever, Zack relies on a combination of skill, strength, and agility to win his battles. The original Black Ranger is an energetic, charismatic, and fun-loving young man. He enjoys athletics (such as basketball, American football, and scuba diving), dancing (especially to a fresh beat bumping out of his friend's boombox), parties, and girls. Whenever he didn't have an arm around Trini or Kimberly, Zack could be found pursuing his attractive, but hard-to-get classmate, Angela. Zack always loved a good joke. Though he loved all the people close to him, Zack's best friend was clearly Jason. Zack is extremely confident and positive. Only four occasions saw Zack ready to give it up: when the Green Ranger took out Zordon, Alpha 5 and the Command Center while removing the Rangers from the Megazord; when his team was placed under a spell to take away their confidence; and when their Dinozords were commandeered by Lord Zedd's first monster, Pirantishead. But the first occasion happened very early in the series when his friends pretended to have forgotten his birthday. Zack went off into a secluded area, and into a trap by Rita Repulsa. For some time, he had to fight the powerful Knasty Knight alone. Oddly enough, despite his plentiful confidence, Zack is an extreme ophidiophobe, arachnophobe, and entomophobe meaning he is terrified of snakes, spiders, and insects although, on one occasion when performing magic for a group of children seeking shelter from a monster attack, he handled two fake snakes and used them to scare off Bulk and Skull. Because of this, it can be assumed that Zack's fear of snakes deteriorated over time, especially after an encounter on Rita's Island of Illusion where his strength of will was tested against his fear of snakes.
Zack enjoyed martial arts just as much as he did dancing and, as a result, created his own fighting style, called Hip Hop kido. The customized art consisted of dance-like maneuvers flourished with fast and powerful strikes, much like Capoeira or as seen by actor Daniel O' Neill in Bangkok Adrenaline. This effective combination of power and prowess made Zack an incredibly formidable combatant.
However, he would sometimes tone down his style and mimic the attacks of Billy to simultaneously strike opponents.
He was also very resourceful. On several occasions, it was his cunning that led his team to victory. Such occasions included his discovery of the means to overcome the Knasty Knight who was sent to isolate and destroy him on his birthday- the monster possessed the ability to redistribute the Ranger's force in order to fry the weapons they used against him. When the storm-bringing chimera monster Goatan froze the Megazord, Zack analyzed what little resources the Megazord had left and used it to regain dominance in the battle.
After Tommy Oliver joined the team, he and Zack quickly became close friends as a result of their similar interests. When Tommy was nervous about trying to engage a romantic relationship with Kimberly, it was Zack who Tommy sought for advice. Before Tommy appeared (or if Tommy is not at the Youth Center) Zack is usually Jason's sparring partner when practicing Karate. Tommy and Zack would also act as sparring partners for each other, as well. Though Jason was the Ranger Tommy selected to take on his Green Ranger powers after Rita eliminated Tommy's link to the Morphing Grid, Zack is the only other individual to don the Dragon Shield when Tommy gave it to him so that it's enhanced regenerative powers could heal Zack from the Oysterizer monster's acidic attack.
In the Season 2 episode "Green No More, Part 1", Zack's cousin Curtis was introduced, who would have a small recurring role throughout the middle of the season. Curtis was very similar to Zack due to their similar interests in dance and music, as well as their smooth-talking speech pattern. He also formed a friendship with Trini's crush Richie. The two once even managed to fight off a group of Putties while they were skating.
When Walter Jones (Zack), Austin St. John (Jason), and Thuy Trang (Trini) left the show (over contract disputes), their characters stopped making new on-screen or face-to-camera shots- simply being shown in their Ranger uniforms, using old footage, or with doubles who were never directly facing the cameras- before they were written off in the two-part "Power Transfer" episode in which their characters were chosen to attend the World Peace Conference. Zack's powers were transferred to Adam Park. Though Jason later returned in "Power Rangers Zeo", "", and the tenth anniversary special "Forever Red," it was never stated what became of Trini or Zack after the peace conference, although Jones did return to the show in a few episodes in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy and Power Rangers Wild Force mainly doing voicework for monsters and villains.
"Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink".
Kimberly is the main character in this comic book mini series published by Boom! Studios. The series is a modern remake but also serves as a continuation from Kimberly's exit in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Kimberly needs to rescue a French town under siege from Goldar. She seeks help from Zordon who uses the Sword of Light to activate the latent pink energy within her. Kimberly then teleports to Zack and Trini in South America for their help. Zordon uses the Sword of Light to share Kimberly's power with them. Zack once again becomes the black ranger. It is also revealed that Zack and Trini are in a relationship.
Power Rangers Super Megaforce.
During the final minutes of the episode "Legendary Battle", the Black Mighty Morphin Power Ranger appears and takes part in the battle against the Armada's final assault. It is assumed that it is Zack while his replacement, Adam, participates as the Green Zeo Ranger.
"Power Rangers Beast Morphers".
Zack returns in the extended trailer for Season 2 of "Power Rangers Beast Morphers", set to air in 2020. However, only the Black Ranger suit is shown and it is unknown if Walter Jones will reprise his role unmorphed or through voice-over.
2017 film.
Zack appears in the 2017 film reboot, played by Chinese-Canadian actor Ludi Lin. He is initially introduced as a school truant with an apparent need for adrenaline, willing to attempt the team's more extreme stunts, such as jumping over a chasm. In the course of the film, it is revealed that he lives in a mobile home park with his ill mother, and Zack is her only carer. Zack is bilingual, speaking English, and using Mandarin Chinese to communicate with his mother. He is the first Ranger to try and pilot his zord, despite being told that it is only controllable once they have morphed, taking the Mastodon on a run through the hills. He rallies in time to assist the team in facing Rita in the final battle.
Reception.
The choice of color for the Black Ranger (Zack Taylor) and Yellow Ranger (Trini Kwan) have been a source of criticism, due to the belief these colors are representations of their racial backgrounds. There are many parodies illustrating the perceived inherent racism of the show. According to the producers, this was not noticed until the tenth episode of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers".


Compersion


Surinder Kaur

Surinder Kaur (25 November 1929 – 14 June 2006) was an Indian singer and songwriter. While she mainly sang Punjabi folk songs, where she is credited for pioneering and popularising the genre, Kaur also recorded songs as a playback singer for Hindi films between 1948 and 1952. For her contributions to punjabi music, she earned the sobriquet Nightingale of Punjab, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984, and the Padma Shri in 2006.
In a career spanning nearly six decades, her repertoire included Punjabi Sufi Kafis of Bulleh Shah and verses by contemporary poets like Nand Lal Noorpuri, Amrita Pritam, Mohan Singh and Shiv Kumar Batalvi giving memorable songs like, "Maavan 'te dheean", "Jutti kasuri", "Madhaniyan", "Ehna akhiyan 'ch pavan kiven kajra" and "Ghaman di raat". In time her wedding songs, most notably "Lathe di chadar", "Suhe ve cheere waleya" and "Kaala doria", have become an indelible part of the Punjabi culture.
Kaur was married to Joginder Singh Sodhi, a professor at the Delhi University. The couple had three daughters, the eldest of whom is also a Punjabi folk singer. Kaur died in New Jersey in 2006 following a prolonged illness.
Early life.
Surinder Kaur was born to a Punjabi Sikh family in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab in British India. She was the sister of Parkash Kaur and the mother of Dolly Guleria, both noted Punjabi singers. She had three daughters of which Dolly is the eldest.She was influenced by Renu Rajan, a prominent figure in punjabi folk music.
Career.
Surinder Kaur made her professional debut with a live performance on Lahore Radio in August 1943, and the following year on 31 August 1943, she and her elder sister, Parkash Kaur cut their first duet, "maavan 'te dheean ral baithian", for the HMV label, emerging as superstars across the Indian subcontinent.
Following the Partition of India in 1947, Kaur and her parents relocated to Ghaziabad, Delhi. In 1948, she married Professor Joginder Singh Sodhi, a lecturer in Punjabi literature at Delhi University. Recognising her talent, Kaur's husband became her support system, and soon she started a career as a playback singer in Hindi film industry in Bombay, introduced by music director, Ghulam Haider. Under him she sang three songs in the 1948 film "Shaheed", including "Badnam Na Ho Jaye Mohabbat Ka Fasaana", "Aanaa hai tho aajaao" and "Taqdeer ki aandhi…hum kahaan aur thum kahaan". Her true interest however lay in stage performances and reviving Punjabi folk songs, and she eventually moved back to Delhi in 1952.
In the decades to follow, she got married, after the 1947 partition of old British Punjab, in 1948. Her husband continued to guide her singing career. "He was the one who made me a star," she later recalled. "He chose all the lyrics I sang and we both collaborated on compositions." Together Kaur and Sodhi arranged for her to sing such Punjabi folk classics as "Chan Kithe Guzari Aai Raat", "Lathe Di Chadar", "Shonkan Mele Di", and "Gori Diyan Jhanjran" and "Sarke-Sarke Jandiye Mutiare". These songs were written by various well-known Punjabi poets but made popular by the singer Surinder Kaur. The couple also served as the public face of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), an arm of the Indian Communist party in Punjab, spreading messages of peace and love to the most remote villages of East Punjab. She also travelled to many parts of the world performing Punjabi folk songs, gaining rapid popularity.
In all, Kaur recorded more than 200,000 songs, including duets with Asa Singh Mastana, Karnail Gill, Harcharan Grewal, Rangila Jatt, and Didar Sandhu.
Although her life and collaboration with Sodhi was cut short upon the educator's death in 1976, she continued the family's creative tradition via duets with their daughter and other disciples. Her daughter, Rupinder Kaur Guleria, better known as Dolly Guleria and granddaughter Sunaini Sharma, culminating in the 1995 LP, 'Surinder Kaur – The Three Generations'.
Awards and recognition.
She was conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Punjabi Folk Music in 1984, by the Sangeet Natak Academi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Theatre, the "Millennium Punjabi Singer award", and Padma Shri award in 2006 for her contribution in Arts. The Guru Nanak Dev University conferred on her a doctorate degree in the year 2002.
Illness and death.
Towards the later part of her life, wanting to get close to her "mitti" (her soil), Surinder Kaur settled in Panchkula in 2004, with an aim to construct a house in Zirakpur, near Chandigarh. Subsequently, on 22 December 2005, she suffered a heart attack and was admitted to General Hospital, Panchkula. Later, however, she recovered and personally went to Delhi to receive the coveted Padma Shri Award in January 2006. It is another matter that she was painfully aware of the events that delayed the honour for so long, despite her unparalleled contribution to Punjabi music. But even when she received the award, she was regretful that the nomination for the same had come from Haryana and not Punjab, India for which she worked tirelessly for over five decades.
In 2006, a prolonged illness prompted her to seek treatment in the United States. She died in a New Jersey hospital on 14 June 2006 at the age of 77. She was survived by three daughters, the eldest, singer Dolly Guleria who lives in Panchkula, followed by Nandini Singh and Pramodini Jaggi, both settled in New Jersey. Upon her death, the Prime minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh described her as "the nightingale of Punjab", and "a legend in Punjabi folk music and popular music and a trend-setter in Punjabi melody." and added, "I hope that her immortal voice will motivate other artists to practice the right Punjabi folk music tradition".
Legacy.
A Doordarshan documentary titled, "Punjab Di Koyal" (Nightingale of Punjab), on the life and works of Surinder Kaur was released in 2006. It later won the Doordarshan National Award. There is also book named as Overcome and Become written by Preet Inder Dhillon about the five women of Punjab, the first one is Surinder only.


Janet van de Graaf

Janet Van De Graaff is a Canadian improv artist and television actress.
She has worked with Toronto's The Second City and has played various roles in the TV series "History Bites" on Canada's History Channel.
She is married to actor Bob Martin. Their namesakes are used as characters in the musical "The Drowsy Chaperone", which was originally created for their stag party.
Awards.
She has won three Canadian Comedy Awards, for Best Female Improviser (2002 & 2004) and Best Female TV Performance (for "History Bites" in 2002).


We Have a Pope (film)

We Have a Pope (original title: Habemus Papam) is a 2011 Italian-French comedy-drama film directed by Nanni Moretti and starring Michel Piccoli and Moretti. Its original title is Latin for "We have a pope", the phrase used upon the announcement of a new pope. The story revolves around a cardinal who, against his wishes, is elected pope. A psychoanalyst is called in to help the pope overcome his panic. The film premiered in Italy in April 2011 and played in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival.
Plot.
On the death of the pope, the conclave meets in Rome. Early ballots end with black smoke, since none of the main candidates reaches the quorum. After several rounds of voting, Cardinal Melville is elected, though he had not previously been considered a frontrunner.
At the moment of the public announcement, with the faithful are gathered in St. Peter's Square and the cardinal proto-deacon ready to announce the name of the new pope, the newly elected pope has a panic attack and fails to appear on the balcony.
The spokesman of the Holy See evades questions from the press and the curiosity of the outside world by reporting that the new pontiff felt the need to sequester himself in prayer and reflection before being introduced to the public, and by explaining that he will make his official appearance within a few hours. This does not happen.
In accordance with the laws of the Church, until the identity of the new pope is announced publicly, the ceremony of election is not over and no one in the conclave can leave the Vatican.
The College of Cardinals, deeply concerned by the crisis and the depression from which the new pope seems to be suffering, calls in the psychoanalyst Professor Brezzi (whose role is played by director Nanni Moretti). The cardinals react to the psychoanalyst with some suspicion, but still allow him to examine the new pope. Brezzi, in the presence of the cardinals, tries to initiate a psychotherapy session which, however, fails to reveal anything to explain the depression and helplessness that plague the pontiff.
Brezzi reveals that his ex-wife is also a psychoanalyst and the newly elected pope is taken secretly to see her. After meeting with her he escapes his minders and runs away during a walk. Unaware of his absence, the cardinals kill time by playing games, ranging from cards to an international volleyball tournament organized by Brezzi.
The spokesman makes everyone believe that the Pope is in his quarters in prayer, and eventually the cardinals find Melville and give him another chance to announce his acceptance. Melville comes out onto the balcony claiming "I am not the leader you need", asks the crowd to pray "for what he is about to do", and then retreats back into St. Peter's Basilica.
Production.
"We Have a Pope" was announced in May 2009 as a co-production between Sacher Film, Rai Cinema and the French company Le Pacte. Fandango joined as a co-producer later in the year. The production involved a budget of eight million euro. French actor Michel Piccoli was cast in the leading role after auditioning six scenes in Italian in August 2009. The character's name, Melville, was inspired by the French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville. Some of the minor characters were played by members of the production team, whom Moretti found suitable for the roles when working on the set.
Principal photography started 1 February 2010 and was finished by the end of May. Studio constructions at the Cinecittà studios in Rome included replicas of the Sala Regia and the Sistine Chapel. Other scenes were shot in the Palazzo Farnese and Villa Medici, which otherwise house the French embassy and the French Academy in Rome, respectively.
Themes.
Portrayal of the conclave proceedings.
The film reveals the overwhelming reluctance of a pope-elect to assent to his election as Supreme Pontiff. Director Nanni Moretti explained his aim with the film at the press conference following the press screening in Rome: "I wanted to depict a fragile man, Cardinal Melville, who feels inadequate in the face of power and the role he's called to fill ... I think this feeling of inadequacy happens to all cardinals elected Pope, or at least that's what they say."
The procedure of papal conclave requires a two-thirds supermajority vote to elect a new pope. Then, when the Cardinal Dean asks the pope-elect if he accepts his election, the Pope-elect is free to decline, though typically Cardinals who intend to refuse their election explicitly state this to their colleagues before a two-thirds majority is reached. The Pope-elect immediately enters office and ends the conclave once he accepts his election. All ceremonies regarding his installation are purely ceremonial.
Release.
The film was released in Italy on 15 April 2011 through 01 Distribution in collaboration with Sacher Distribuzione. It was launched on 460 screens. With 1,298,524 euro in revenues during the first weekend, the film entered the Italian box-office chart as number two, behind the American film "Rio" which premiered simultaneously. "We Have a Pope" showed In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Reception.
In France Les "Cahiers du cinéma" listed the film as the best picture of the year 2011.
Deborah Young of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "a well-written, surprisingly mainstream comedy" and noted how it was less political than earlier works by Moretti, such as "The Mass Is Ended" and "The Caiman": "Here the storyteller overpowers the moralist in every sense. Not a hint of clerical sex scandals clouds the surreal image of frolicking white-haired Cardinals; the most critical line in the film suggests the Church needs a leader who will bring great change, but even that plays as an offhand remark." Young went on to compliment the production design and cinematography, and called Moretti "one of the most creative filmmakers working in Italy". However, Young wrote, "the finale is a let-down, leaving the feeling of an artist paralyzed by his own perfectionism and his desperate search for originality at all costs."
Reactions from the Roman Catholic community were mixed. Vatican correspondent Salvatore Izzo called for a boycott of the film in the newspaper "Avvenire", owned by the Italian Episcopal Conference. Izzo wrote: "We shouldn't touch the pope – the rock on which Jesus founded his Church." He continued: "Why should we support financially that which offends our religion?" Vatican Radio commented on the film and found it to contain "no irony, no caricature" of the pope. Regarding the prospect of an official condemnation of the film from church authorities, Sandro Magister, an Italian journalist specialising in Vatican issues, said: "If there were to be one, it would only help the producer. He would be very happy with a polemic that is completely without foundation."