Search This Blog

Monday, October 29, 2012

Hurricane Preparation Tips

Hurricane Preparation Tips
For Sandy Super Storm
The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers tips on how to prepare for Hurricane Sandy and other tropical storms. Sandy is expected to be especially disastrous when it merges with a winter storm system, bringing powerful winds, rain, snow and storm surge along the Eastern Seaboard.

Before the hurricane:
— Know your surroundings and whether your home is in a flood prone area. Determine where you would go — and how you would get there — if you were ordered to evacuate
— Cover your home's windows, either with permanent storm shutters or marine plywood at least 5/8 of an inch thick
— Be sure trees and shrubs around your home are well-trimmed
— Clear clogged rain gutters
— Secure all outdoor furniture, decorations, trash cans and anything else that could blow away.
— Install a generator for emergencies

During:
— Listen to the radio or TV for information
— Secure your home, close storm shutters, and secure outdoor objects or bring them indoors
— Turn off propane tanks
— Avoid using the phone except for serious emergencies
— Ensure a supply of water for sanitary purpose such as cleaning and flushing toilets. Fill the bathtub and other larger containers with water
— Stay indoors during the hurricane and away from windows and glass doors

Do not:
— Drive into low-lying areas or over roads and bridges that are already under water

If evacuating, bring:
— Checkbooks
— Driver's license
— Credit card information
— Birth certificates
— Social Security cards
___

Source: FEMA.


How to Prepare Your Pets
Friday, October 26, 2012 - 11:45am
ASPCA Disaster Response


Breaking Update, 10/27/12: In anticipation of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall early Tuesday, the ASPCA wants to remind New York City residents that all evacuation shelters accept pets. Please take your animals with you if you need to evacuate.

To locate your evacuation zone, please check the OEM's Hurricane Evacuation Zone Finder (or call 311), and the site will direct you to the proper facility.

Low-lying areas of the city that are most at risk for flooding and other damage are designated as “Zone A” and include: Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn; Far Rockaway and Broad Channel in Queens; South Beach; Midland Beach; low-lying areas on Staten Island; and Battery Park City in Manhattan.

Here are some ways you can prepare for a major storm:

Get a Rescue Alert Sticker for your home. By posting a sticker similar to the one found in the ASPCA Pet Safety Pack in an easy-to-see location, rescue workers will be alerted that there are pets in your home. You should include the number and types of pets present, as well as your veterinarian’s contact information.

Choose a safe haven. First, decide which room in your home will be the safest spot to ride out the storm. Then, know in advance where you can take your family and pets in case of evacuation. Check with evacuation centers and area hotels to find a pet-friendly location. In New York and New Jersey, all evacuation centers are required to accept animals.

IDs, please! Make sure your pet is wearing collars and ID tags with up-to-date identification. This is the perfect time to have your pet micro-chipped if you have not already done so.

Stock up. Make sure you have plenty of food—for humans and pets!—water, medications, batteries, first aid kits and other emergency supplies on hand in case of a power outage.

Stay indoors.  At the first sign of danger, bring your pets indoors and keep them with you.

For more information, check out our complete list of disaster preparedness tips.

The ASPCA will continue to monitor the storm’s progress. Be sure to check our blog, and visit our Facebook and Twitter pages for breaking updates.
http://blog.aspca.org/content/how-prepare-your-pets-hurricane-sandy


Sunday, October 28, 2012

Les Enfants du Paradis🎬 Children of Paradise

Les Enfants du Paradis
Celebrating a French Classic: 
The Children of Paradise
Pierre Brasseur, left, and Arletty in "The Children of Paradise," the subject of a new exhibition. 
Pathe Cinema Pierre Brasseur, left, and Arletty in “The Children of Paradise”

PARIS – It has been called the best French film of all time and declared a national treasure by the United Nations.

Now Marcel Carné’s 1945 masterpiece, “Les Enfants du Paradis” (“The Children of Paradise”), is being celebrated at an exhibition here at the Cinémathèque Française, the center devoted to the preservation, restoration and showing of films.

The exhibition brings together 300 photos, costumes, paintings, posters, musical scores, letters and other documents that capture the history of what was until then France’s most expensive film (and at more than three hours, long as well).

Based on a real-life killing by the 19th-century mime Baptiste Debureau, who accidentally struck a drunk with his cane, the film is a series of interlocking stories of love and betrayal set in the Paris theater world of that time. Scenes from the film are projected on screens mounted throughout the exhibition.
At the entrance is a life-size facade modeled on Théâtre des Funambules in Paris, on the “Boulevard du Crime,” the nickname for the Boulevard du Temple.

Among the other highlights are a copy of the original script by Jacques Prévert, a poet as well as a screenwriter, and Carné’s creative partner; a 1956 portrait in charcoal of Prévert by Picasso; maquettes by the designer Alexandre Trauner, who did most of Carné films; and Carné’s folding director’s chair.

There is a section explaining how Carné managed to make the film during the Nazi occupation (although it was released only after the liberation). He shot most of the picture in southern France, recreating the “Boulevard du Crime” with a vast set of 50 facades at the Victorine studios in Nice.
The exhibition captures Carné’s belief that keeping French film alive was a personal act of patriotism. “After Pétain signed the provisional armistice, there were two possible postures to assume: either go into exile or work in my own country and try to show that France was not entirely vanquished,” he said in 1981. “I chose the second.”

The exhibition continues at the Cinémathèque Française until Jan. 27.
*

*



* Pierrot:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot

* Review: http://www.thefilmpilgrim.com/reviews/les-enfants-du-paradis-review/6068

Les Enfants Du Paradis

Blu-ray Review





'If Scorsese's Hugo was 2011's love letter to the cinema,
Carné's film is 1945's love letter to the theatre.'

Marcel Carné's majestic Les Enfants Du Paradis is a sweeping romantic epic, a luscious tale of love four ways (not what you're thinking) told with style and great affection. If Scorsese's Hugo was 2011's love letter to the cinema, Carné's film is 1945's love letter to the theatre.

As such, there is exploration here of dramatic convention and the lives of those who transform themselves for every one to see. As Simon Kinnear states in his review, 'if their Eden lies on stage, does that mean that real life is a form of exile for them?'. Frequently, the two clash as real loves are glimpsed by on-stage lovers, wrapped in the arms of others. Les Enfants is, simply, a recognition of the pure power of theatre craft, a recognition of its enduring ability to mirror our real life experiences and change them for better or worse.

Carné and regular screenwriter Jacques Prévert do not stop there. Their film explicitly considers dramatic genre, starting with Lacenaire's (Marcel Herrand) early dismissal of Tragedy, Farce, in his eyes, is the true genre of the intelligent writer. Like its somewhat obscure contemporary, Stranger Than Fiction - which dissects genre in a very different way - Carné's film sets about finding its classic dramatic identity by perfectly mixing elements of both. In the hands of a master craftsmen, each sticks equally but it is telling that Frédérick's (Pierre Brasseur) end goal is Othello, a reference which tells you where Les Enfants is ultimately heading.

Before it gets there though, Carné has woven a spectacular tale of every facet of love, with the main players representing each element, as object of desire Garance (Arletty) hops between their beds. True love Baptiste (Jean-Louis Barrault) is the most honourable, yet his inability to act represents love's fleeting and idealised nature. Without the substance to stand up and be counted, love is just a passing notion of empty romance, as Baptiste defaults to the unfortunate Nathalie (María Casares). Nathalie herself is Baptiste with substance; a person in love who acts recognisably on their desires. Casares is magnificent in a well-written supporting role.

The other elements are charm (Frédérick), danger (Lacenaire) and money, the latter represented by Louis Salou's Comte de Montray. Each is dismissed in tick-box fashion as lacking the necessaries to hold on to Garance, herself an idealised version of that which men desire, signified by her name, eventually revealed to be false and reflective merely of a beautiful flower. Baptiste is the only one with a chance and he cannot succeed without the input of the other's characteristics. Frédérick gets him close but the actions of Montray and Lacenaire are structured solely against him, as Carné engages in an assessment of desirable characteristics.

The history of Les Enfants is also worthy of mention. Produced partially under Nazi occupation, the film is all the more of a technical marvel for it. Incredibly modern camera-work signifies cinematographer Roger Hubert's populist eye and amazingly detailed sets bring 19th century Paris to live. The dedication required in marshaling the hundreds of extras again and again must have been immense, a fact reflected in the overall quality of a Romance on equal footing to fellow classics like Casablanca. A monumental achievement, now displayed on a very impressive restoration.
*

*

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Charles Baudelaire 📚 L'Albatros

Charles Baudelaire
 Tumblr: Image 
L'Albatros
Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.

A peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches,
Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d'eux.

Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule!
Lui, naguère si beau, qu'il est comique et laid!
L'un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule,
L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!

Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer;
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.

Les Fleurs du Mal 

***********************  ********
Etude /Analysis

Conclusion :

Selon Baudelaire, la place du poète dans la société est comparée à un albatros : majestueux dans le ciel, son élément mais ridicule sur terre et au contact des hommes. 
De même, le poète se situe au-dessus du commun des hommes pour ses poèmes, mais mêlé à la foule, il n'est rien et devient ridicule. Baudelaire faisait ainsi partie de la génération des poètes maudits, c'est-à-dire non compris par les gens de son époque.

http://bacfrancais.chez.com/albatros-baud.htm


http://fleursdumal.org/poem/200

********** 📚 ********

Alfred de Musset - Le Pélican

Alfred de Musset
File:Alfred de musset.jpg
December 1810 – May 1857

Le Pélican

https://66.media.tumblr.com/3d87a096a0f89d072d8c2a1cca7ba65e/tumblr_py5cllkhZr1uoh1aio1_540.png
Quel que soit le souci que ta jeunesse endure,
Laisse-la s'élargir, cette sainte blessure
Que les noirs séraphins t'ont faite au fond du cœur:
Rien ne nous rend si grands qu'une grande douleur.

Mais, pour en être atteint, ne crois pas, ô poète,
Que ta voix ici-bas doive rester muette.
Les plus désespérés sont les chants les plus beaux,
Et j'en sais d'immortels qui sont de purs sanglots.

Lorsque le pélican, lassé-d'un long voyage,
Dans les brouillards du soir retourne à ses roseaux,
Ses petits affamés courent sur le rivage
En le voyant au loin s'abattre sur les eaux.

Déjà, croyant saisir et partager leur proie,
Ils courent à leur père avec des cris de joie
En secouant leurs becs sur leurs goitres hideux.

Lui, gagnant à pas lents une roche élevée,
De son aile pendante abritant sa couvée,
Pêcheur mélancolique, il regarde les cieux.

Le sang coule à longs flots de sa poitrine ouverte;
En vain il a des mers fouillé la profondeur;
L'Océan était vide et la plage déserte;
Pour toute nourriture il apporte son cœur.

Sombre et silencieux, étendu sur la pierre
Partageant à ses fils ses entrailles de père,
Dans son amour sublime il berce sa douleur,
Et, regardant couler sa sanglante mamelle,
Sur son festin de mort il s'affaisse et chancelle,
Ivre de volupté, de tendresse et d'horreur.

Mais parfois, au milieu du divin sacrifice,
Fatigué de mourir dans un trop long supplice,
Il craint que ses enfants ne le laissent vivant,
Alors il se soulève, ouvre son aile au vent,
Et, se frappant le cœur avec un cri sauvage,
Il pousse dans la nuit un si funèbre adieu,
Que les oiseaux des mers désertent le rivage,
Et que le voyageur attardé sur la plage,
Sentant passer la mort, se recommande à Dieu.

Poète, c'est ainsi que font les grands poètes.
Ils laissent s'égayer ceux qui vivent un temps;
Mais les festins humains qu'ils servent à leurs fêtes
Ressemblent la plupart à ceux des pélicans.

Quand ils parlent ainsi d'espérances trompées,
De tristesse et d'oubli, d'amour et de malheur,
Ce n'est pas un concert à dilater le cœur.
Leurs déclamations sont comme des épées:
Elles tracent dans l'air un cercle éblouissant,
Mais il y pend toujours quelque goutte de sang.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/3d87a096a0f89d072d8c2a1cca7ba65e/tumblr_py5cllkhZr1uoh1aio1_540.png


Friday, October 12, 2012

Guy Who's Never Seen a Play Reviews Cyrano

Bros on Broadway
A Guy Who's Never Seen a Play in His Life Reviews Cyrano
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c8103fe4fe3061553fe45b8d2dedea2b/8257ee9069e4ff95-25/s2048x3072/d8a43e1613a7b23aca838f9f050bb7ddaf650280.pnj
Does our first "Bro on Broadway" Get Bromanced by Cyrano de Bergerac?
By Josh Macin • Oct 12, 2012 • New York City

Look, we get it: A lot of people don't do theater. It's not that they don't want to. It's just that they don't know they want to. Seven days ago, Josh Macin -- jock, fraternity brother, World of Warcraft gamer -- was one of those people.
Josh MacinJosh Macin
TheaterMania tapped Macin to be our first ever "Bro on Broadway" reviewer. As an average guy, his assignment was to see a show and do what great theater reviewers do best: Tell us what a show's about, and what it's honestly like to see it. His review -- uncensored and without agenda -- is below. And hilarious.

BRO: Josh Macin
Age: 23
Occupation: Barback
Bro Credibility: Josh is the current Pan American Middleweight Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Champion.
Fun Fact: Josh makes spare cash helping lonely guys rewrite their Match.com profiles so they attract more "ladies." Really.
Show Reviewed: Cyrano de Bergerac

Bro Review

The combination of my severe ADD and the fact that Cyrano de Bergerac was the first play I've ever seen, ever, made for an interesting spectacle at the American Airlines Theatre.

The show started off with a lot of talking. The curtain went up, and a bunch of people onstage dressed like pictures in history books just started talking. I didn't know why, and I couldn't make sense of it. What sounded like animal noises eventually became recognizable words only after I realized every line was a rhyme.

Rhyme.
"What could be worse than a play in verse? Do you think I'll be reimbursed?"

That's f***ing annoying, right?

So it was all terrible until Roxane -- played by the blonde girl [Clemence Poesy] from one of my favorite movies ever, In Bruges -- came onstage and got my juices flowing. She didn't have to put on the red light. She glimmered in her tower and I couldn't help but think:

1. What book is she reading?
2. Did all women in the 1600's wear their dresses backwards? Why is her dress on backwards?
3. Will I get in trouble for going onstage to spit game to her? Theatre [Ed's Note: theater] chicks dig me.

Shortly thereafter a drugged clown appeared on stage for a performance. He was rudely interrupted by the loud slam of an entrance door to the theater. A man who looked like he had testicles growing from his face stormed in, angry. I quickly realized that they were not testicles -- they were, in fact, his sniffer, and this wordsmith was no ordinary man. He was Cyrano [Douglas Hodge], and he too was in love with my Roxane.

Cyrano's nose was so disturbingly large that my nose was actually itchy while he spoke. I just knew this guy wasn't getting laid. I vowed that if Roxane fell in love with him I would never see another play and would break my In Bruges DVD to pieces. But it turned out things were way more complicated than Roxane and Cyrano's nose. For starters, Roxane was totally into this other guy named Christian with ridiculous boots, and also Cyrano was actually a badass alpha dog who could totally get laid.
Douglas Hodge and Clemence Poesy in <i>Cyrano de Bergerac</i>Douglas Hodge and Clemence Poesy in Cyrano de Bergerac

Christian's boots: Literally 10 sizes too big. What's the return policy on those?

It turned out that Christian not only had terrible fashion-sense, but he couldn't rap to chicks either. So Roxane gave him the whole "I love you but I'm not in love with you" spiel that I've grown accustomed to hearing over the years.

Now, Cyrano knew that his nose would get in the way of the romantic kiss, and Christian knew he was too dumb to land this dame. So they conspired in a genius plan: Cyrano would be the brains behind the operation and Christian the brawn. That's when the show got interesting.

In the best part of the whole play, Roxane stood in her tree-house while Cyrano hid below and recited the most disgustingly beautiful lines I've ever heard to her. Christian just stood there useless with him, and I totally believed their plan was working. Roxane was falling for their synergistic game. You could tell. When Christian climbed the ladder of her tree house after Cyrano talked him in, I actually prayed he wouldn't open his mouth and f**k everything up.

Cyrano ultimately gained my utmost respect. When Christian, on his sudden deathbed, wants Roxane to know about the combined effort in wooing her, Cyrano tells Christian that she knows about it but still loves him. Christian dies a happy man and Cyrano proves to be selfless. Respect.

The ending was very appropriate and moving, but I wish they cut the death scene 30 seconds shorter. Apparently, in the 1600's they didn't do drive by shootings or stabbings. These cats utilized the wood-drop technique for assassinations. So somebody tried to kill Cyrano by throwing wood at him and cracked his skull as he visited Roxane for the last time. While he's dying he reads one of "Christian's letters" out loud to Roxane and she recognizes that Cyrano was the conjurer of the love spell. He denies it and dies in Roxane's arms. Nobody ended up getting laid, Roxane was as confused as ever, and there were three nuns on stage in the final scene that were totally pissing me off.

All in all the acting in the show is amazing. Visually there's a lot to watch, but the language is really hard to keep up with. I still don't know why all the dresses were on backwards. I do think Cyrano is a great show for people who like things that rhyme, are into poetry, or are romantics.

I can't decide if I enjoyed the experience, but I have decided to keep my In Bruges DVD.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Ironies of Life

Ironies of  Life


Women :

The most important thing for a woman is financial security.

Although this is so important, they still go out and buy expensive clothes and stuff.

Although they always buy expensive clothes, they never have something to wear.

Although they never have something to wear, they always dress beautifully.

Although they always dress beautifully, their clothes are always just 'an old rag'.

Although their clothes are always 'just an old rag', they still expect you to compliment them.

Although they expect you to compliment them, when you do, they  don't believe you.





Men :

All men are extremely busy.

Although they are so busy, they still have time for women.

Although they have time for women, they don't really care for them.

Although they don't really care for them, they always have one around.

Although they always have one around them, they always try their luck with others.



Monday, October 1, 2012

Mockumentary Pulls In Real Players

A Mockumentary Pulls In Real Players


Jane Edith Wilson, an actress, was able to convince politicians like Mitt Romney during the Republican presidential primaries that she was a conservative worried about the direction of the country.

TORONTO — During the Jan. 3 broadcast of ABC’s “World News Tonight” Diane Sawyer introduced a heartbreaking segment from the Iowa caucus, featuring a distraught voter being consoled by Mitt Romney. “Save the small families of America,” she begged through tears, as Mr. Romney hugged her and promised he would.


The actress Jane Edith Wilson with Michele Bachmann in 2011
 
As audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival recently discovered, that was no conservative Christian in Mr. Romney’s arms. It was the actress Jane Edith Wilson, star of “Janeane From Des Moines,” which might be called a mockumentary but which features a rather prestigious lineup of supporting players, including Mr. Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. They were running in this year’s Republican primaries as “Janeane” went shopping for a candidate to support.

ABC was certainly not the only news organization taken in by Ms. Wilson’s performance, nor Mr. Romney the only politician. As Juana Summers of Politico reported during a campaign stop by Mrs. Bachmann, “Janeane Wilson, 47, who drove from near Waukee, Iowa, to see Bachmann got more than 10 minutes with the presidential candidate but finished still unsure.” Kathie Obradovich, a political columnist for The Des Moines Register, blogged about Janeane and her indecision about whether to vote for Mr. Santorum, Mrs. Bachmann or Mr. Perry.

ABC News and Ms. Summers declined to comment, as did the Romney and Bachmann campaigns. But Ms. Obradovich was good-natured about the ruse. “I do remember there was a camera hovering over her, but as far as I remember, I don’t think she went out of the way to get my attention,” she said, adding with a laugh, “When I interview people, I don’t usually ask for a driver’s license.”

The license would have said that Ms. Wilson is 48, has red hair and lives in Los Angeles. What it wouldn’t say is that she has appeared on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “ER,” “The Bernie Mac Show” and “Seinfeld,” and can currently be seen in commercials for Tide and Hyundai. Until she became a mother, she was a regular on the Los Angeles stand-up comedy circuit.

She met the filmmaker Grace Lee during the making of Ms. Lee’s tongue-in-cheek “American Zombie” (2007), and they reconnected while attending a seminar on the crowd-funding of documentaries. Ms. Wilson had wanted to make a film about the Christian left (she is a socially progressive Episcopalian). Ms. Lee had another notion.
“I knew she was a great actress, and a great improviser,” Ms. Lee said. “We were talking about politics and Iowa; she comes from Iowa originally. And I thought this would be a more interesting approach to these topics.”

The topics include the Obama health care plan, Planned Parenthood and gay marriage, all of which the fictional Janeane fiercely opposes, until her husband, Fred (Michael Oosterom), loses his health insurance, she receives a diagnosis of breast cancer, and Fred turns out to be gay.  
As schematic as the plotline may be, Ms. Wilson’s stealth performance as the frumpy, frazzled Janeane seems singular, and exhausting: not only did she have to bulldog her way to the front of the press corps to get close to the candidates, she also had to stay in character even when the camera was elsewhere.

“It was an elongated improv, for hours on end,” she said. When she was waiting to meet the candidates, she was improvising with strangers. “Iowans are friendly, and you have to be friendly too,” Ms. Wilson said. “I like to think I’m a friendly person. And I don’t have contempt for Tea Party patriots or people who are very conservative or different from me ideologically.”

She never abandoned the masquerade, not in Iowa. Which was occasionally frustrating. “When I was at a Santorum event, a woman told me this harrowing story about all these emergency room visits she’d been through and how she owed $20,000 and how she’s going to pay it off on an installment plan,” Ms. Wilson said. “And then she immediately says how much she hates Obamacare and how much she loves Santorum and hopes he wins. And there’s a part of me that wanted to say, ‘Are you crazy?’ ”

On the other side was an Iowa woman who responded to Janeane’s litany of woes by pressing her phone number on Ms. Wilson and briefing her on health care options. “She said, ‘Call me, and I’ll walk you through it,’ ” Ms. Wilson said.
Both actress and director had experience with the caucuses. In 1988 Ms. Wilson was performing stand-up to entertain volunteers in both parties, and Ms. Lee was covering them for the University of Missouri student newspaper.

“We knew it was a media circus,” said Ms. Lee, who grew up in Missouri, “and an interesting place for political theater. We were frustrated about what was going on in the election. We said, ‘What tools do we have as artists?’ We don’t have money, we don’t have Super PACs. But I know how to make a film, and she knows how to act. We thought we could combine those things and start a conversation.”
Some of the conversation has been heated. “Two guys got really mad at one of our screenings here, and one said, ‘This is the most deceitful movie I’ve ever seen,’ ” Ms. Lee said, referring to a showing at the Toronto festival. “The crowd booed them. When Jane mentioned, ‘I’m a Christian,’ one of them said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed as a Christian?’ ”

Critics’ reaction has been less fevered on the festival circuit, where the film, which will be released in New York on Oct. 12 and on several online platforms before the election. “It admirably refuses to go the predictable route of ‘punking’ the candidates for easy satire or cheap laughs,” Dennis Harvey wrote in Variety, while the entertainment Web site Toronto Film Scene said, “This film makes Michael Moore look subtle.”

Ms. Lee, whose credits include “The Grace Lee Project,” a documentary about women also named Grace Lee, said the intention was not to deceive. “I never ever say it’s a documentary,” she said, pointing out that it wasn’t showing as part of the festival’s documentary section. “I make documentaries. I think I know what they are.”

For Ms. Wilson it was a job like no other. “It’s the craziest thing I ever did in my life,” she said. “If something crazier than this comes along, I welcome it.”
Ms. Lee added, “I have some ideas.”