#Etho took quirky home with him | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

your-dietician · 3 years

Text

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/entertainment-heat-wave-is-coming-this-summer-what-to-watch-for-entertainment/

Entertainment heat wave is coming this summer: What to watch for | Entertainment

Remember 2019, when hot girl summer became a motto for living with confidence?

Well, with life getting closer to normal and vaccines nudging the pandemic into — fingers crossed — the rear-view mirror, 2021’s entertainment calendar for the next few months has a similar mood.

Call it a hot everything summer.

Blockbuster movies are returning to theaters. Live concerts are set to resume. Television and streaming shows are back to being a nice part of the mix, not a sole entertainment lifeline. And with travel heating up again, beach books can actually be read on a faraway beach.

To navigate this soaring heat index for fun, here is a list of recommendations that are sunny, breezy, steaming and sizzling. You get the idea.

Hot Jeff Daniels summer

Michigan’s resident acting great always keeps it real — remember his plaid dad shirt at February’s virtual Golden Globes? His latest project evokes his home state’s ethos of blue-collar endurance. “American Rust,” a nine-episode series premiering Sept. 12 on Showtime, stars Daniels as the police chief of a Rust-Belt Pennsylvania town who is feeling “ticked off and kind of jumpy” when a murder investigation tests his loyalties. If the preview looks a bit like HBO’s gritty “Mare of Easttown,” that’s a very good thing.

Hot goofy summer

In real life, metro Detroit native Tim Robinson could be a calm, collected guy. But as a sketch comedian, he’s made an art form out of wildly overreacting to life’s little embarrassments. “I Think You Should Leave,” his mini-masterpiece Netflix show, is back July 6 with a second season. Besides brilliantly making himself the butt of the jokes, Robinson always remembers his hometown friends. Let’s hope for repeat appearances by his pals like “Detroiters” co-star Sam Richardson and Troy’s own Oscar nominee, Steven Yeun.

Hot retro Motor City summer

The Detroit of the mid-1950s comes alive in director Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move,” available July 1 on HBO Max. The crime drama starring Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm and more is about some low-level criminals given a simple assignment that draws them into a mystery that stretches to the heights of the automotive industry’s power structure. The film was shot last year in Detroit under strict COVID-19 safety measures, because Soderbergh, who filmed 1998’s “Out of Sight” here, would accept no other city as a substitute.

Hot road trip summer

Six years ago, a young waitress from Detroit created a viral Twitter thread about a bizarre journey she took to Florida with a new friend to do some freelance stripping. It was as compelling as a novel and as vivid as a movie. Cut to June 30 when “Zola” hits theaters starring Taylour Page and Riley Keough. It’s a comedy and a thriller that defies expectations and makes J-Lo’s “Hustlers” seem mild. Director Janicza Bravo and screenplay co-writer Jeremy O. Harris have created a raunchy adventure that still respects A’Ziah (Zola) King as a strong woman and original writing voice.

Hot action dad summer

Yes, Matt Damon is now old enough to play a Liam Neeson-esque outraged father out for justice. In “Stillwater,” Damon is a worker for an Oklahoma oil rig who must travel to France to try and clear his daughter (Abigail Breslin) of murder charges. Think “Taken,” if it were a serious drama directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy of “Spotlight” fame. It comes out July 30, just in time to make Damon’s fans from his “Good Will Hunting” days feel ancient.

Hot reboot summer

It has been almost a decade since “Gossip Girl” ended its run, which is way too long to be without fashion tips from impossibly beautiful rich kids. The newly reimagined “Gossip Girl” on HBO Max arrives July 8 with some notable improvements, like the inclusiveness of its cast of newcomers. But it’s bringing back the original narrator, Kristen Bell (who grew up in Huntington Woods), as the voice of the title character with the hidden identity.

Hot sweating summer

Sweating is a bodily function, but what exactly is it all about? “The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration,” out July 13, will explore the biology, history and marketing behind the moisture that makes us glow (to use a polite term). It covers everything from the role of stress in sweat to deodorant research that involves people who can sniff out, literally, the effectiveness of a product. Since the New York Times recommended the book as one of its 24 summer reads, you know that author Sarah Everts did sweat the details.

Hot Olympic star summer

The 2021 Tokyo Games, which run July 23-Aug. 8, will feature the world’s best gymnast, Simone Biles. She still enjoys competing, but quarantining gave her some time to improve her work-life balance, as she told Glamour for its June cover story (which comes with a dazzling photo spread of Biles). “Before I would only focus on the gym. But me being happy outside the gym is just as important as me being happy and doing well in the gym. Now it’s like everything’s coming together.” For the 24-year-old GOAT, the sky — or, maybe, gravity — is the limit.

Hot variety show summer

“What percentage of white women do you hate? And there is a right answer.” That was among the questions posed by internet sensation Ziwe to her first guest, Fran Lebowitz, on the current Showtime series that carries her name. Combining interviews, sketches and music, “Ziwe” deploys comedy to illuminate America’s awkwardness on issues of race and politics. The results are hilarious, so find out about Ziwe now before her next project arrives, a scam-themed comedy for Amazon called “The Nigerian Princess.”

Hot ice road summer

Take the driving skills of the reality series “Ice Road Truckers” and add one stoic dose of Liam Neeson and you’ve got “The Ice Road,” which premiered Friday on Hulu. The adventure flick involves a collapse in a diamond mine, the miners trapped inside and the man (Neeson) who’s willing to steer his ginormous rig over frozen water to attempt a rescue mission. Crank up the AC temporarily!

Hot kindness summer

There is a better way to be a human being, and he shares a name with an Apple TV+ series. “Ted Lasso,” the fish-out-of-water sitcom about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who’s drafted to lead a British soccer team returns for a second season on July 23 —the date that Lasso fans will resume their efforts to be more empathetic and encouraging, just like Ted. Only there’s a new sports psychologist for AFC Richmond who seems impervious to Ted’s charms and home-baked biscuits. She doesn’t like Ted? We’re gobsmacked!

Hot podcast summer

When Michael Che guested on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” recently, his segment was interrupted repeatedly by Dave Chappelle, who kept plugging his “The Midnight Miracle” podcast available on Luminary. What Chappelle was selling is worth the listening. “The Midnight Miracle” brings him together with his co-hosts, Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, and his famous friends from the comedy world and beyond for funny and though-provoking conversations interspersed with music. If you were a fly on the wall of Chappelle’s home, this is what you might hear.

Hot series finale summer

The last 10 episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” start airing Aug. 12 on NBC, a too-short goodbye to one of the most underrated comedies in TV history. You can give all the glory to “The Office,” but the detectives of the Nine-Nine could go toe to toe with Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch in terms of quirkiness, humanity and office romances and bromances. It’s hard to pick a favorite dynamic among the characters, but the irritated father-incorrigible son vibes between Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) and Det. Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) are sublime.

Hot musical comedy summer

Keegan-Michael Key and “Saturday Night Live’s” Cecily Strong lead a star-studded cast in “Schmigadoon!,” an AppleTV+ series premiering July 16 that magically transports a backpacking couple to a land of 1940s musicals. Until Broadway reopens in September, this parody love letter to the power of musical theater should do nicely. And the premiere episode’s song “Corn Pudding”? Catchy!

Hot nostalgia tour

Hall & Oates are criss-crossing the nation with enough 1980s hits —”Maneater,” “Kiss on My List,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “You Make My Dreams Come True,” etc. — to make you want to trade your mom jeans for spandex leggings. As if they weren’t enough top-40 goodness, their opening acts are Squeeze, still pouring a cup of “Black Coffee in Bed” all these years later, and K.T. Tunstall, whose “Suddenly I See” is immortalized as the anthem of “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Hot all-female, all-Muslim punk band summer

A British import now airing on the NBC streaming spinoff Peacock, “We Are Lady Parts” would be notable alone for defying stereotypes about Muslim women. But this sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim aspiring rock band is a gem of both representation and laughs, thanks to characters like Amina, a shy doctoral candidate in microbiology whose complaints about a guy she calls “Bashir with the good beard” inspires a song.

Hot documentary summer

While Woodstock has become synonymous with epic music gatherings, the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 is finally about to get the pop-culture recognition it deserves. “Summer of Soul: (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” directed by the Roots drummer Questlove, will hit theaters and Hulu on July 2. It chronicles a mostly forgotten event that drew superstars like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Fifth Dimension, Sly & the Family Stone and B.B. King. Using his vast knowledge of music, archival footage and interviews with performers and those who attended, Questlove has created a history lesson that’s also the best concert you’ve never seen before.

Hot Marvel summer

Once you’re all caught up with the summer streaming sensation “Loki” on Disney+, please turn your attention to two new films. “Black Widow,” the long-awaited star turn for Scarlett Johansson’s former KGB assassin Natasha Romanoff, makes its debut July 9. It’s followed by “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for Sept. 3 and starring Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”) as the martial arts master of the title. All brought to you by the corporate global entertainment domination machine that is Marvel.

Hot biopic summer

“Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson, arrives Aug. 13 at theaters, nearly three years to the day the world lost the Queen of Soul. Although Cynthia Erivo gave a fine performance earlier this year as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha” on the National Geographic network, the odds are good that Hudson, chosen by Franklin herself for the part, will be the definitive screen Aretha.

Hot fiction summer

Terry McMillan calls “The Other Black Girl” essential reading. Entertainment Weekly describes it as “‘The Devil Wears Prada’ meets ‘Get Out,’ with a little bit of ‘Black Mirror’ thrown in.” This debut novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris mixes office politics with suspense in its story of Nella Rogers, an editorial assistant who’s the only Black staffer at a noted publishing company. When Hazel, a new Black employee, is hired, things seem to be improving. But then Nella starts receiving ominous unsigned notes. Sounds like yet another reason to keep working from home.

Hot slow dance summer

After nearly four months on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, “Leave the Door Open” remains the song most likely to provoke a quiet storm on the dance floor. The hit single from Silk Sonic (aka Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) may sound like a cover of a long-lost ‘70s classic R&B tune, but it’s a contemporary song that can make you forget the humidity long enough for “kissing, cuddling, rose petals in the bathtub, girl, lets jump in.”

———

Recent Stories You Might Have Missed

Source link

0 notes

weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

Text

The Weekend Warrior Home Edition May 1, 2020 – THE WRETCHED, VANILLA, DEERSKIN, BULL

Just think... this weekend would have been the start of the summer box office with Marvel’s Black Widow before COVID came along. Now, we’re waiting for anywhere from two to three months or longer for the next big studio release in movie theaters with so many other “big” movies already being dumped to digital.

This is yet another week with no movies in theaters unless you’re in driving distance to a drive-in (i.e. you have a car), but at least we have some great stuff to watch at home, including a few virtual film festivals and virtual cinemas.

The first major disaster brought on by the advent of COVID-19 was the cancellation of the annual SXSW Festival in Austin. The movie that was supposed to open the fest, Judd Apatow’s The King of Staten Island, starring Pete Davidson, was supposed to open SXSW in March and then play Tribeca earlier this month, but Universal reported earlier this week that it was going to release it via digital download on June 12, the same day it was going to get a theatrical release.

Amazon has teamed with SXSW to screen 39 projects, including seven features, that will screen free of charge on Amazon from April 27 through May 6. The four narrative features available are the British-Bulgarian dramedy Cat in the Wall from Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, which is being compared to Ken Loch’s I, Daniel Blake. There’s also the Guatemalan romance Gunpowder Heart, the French period film Le Choc du Futur and the French sci-fi anthology, Selfie. The docs being offered are Karen Bernstein’s I’m Gonna Make You Love Me is described as “Fellini meets Motown” about one man’s search for self-acceptance, while Matt Riddlehoover’s My Darling Vivian about Johnny Cash’s first wife, Vivian Liberto, who gave the country singer four daughters. Last up is Alex Lee Moyer’s TFW no GW, a doc about the state of isolation, rejection and alienation that we all seemed to be feeling these days. There will also be a ton of shorts available that you can learn more about at The Hollywood Reporter.

The second weekend of the Virtual Oxford Film Festival will launch a few more feature premieres, as well as a virtual panel and the Fest Forward collection of experimental films. First up, on Friday, May 1 is a panel called “Creating Black Stories in Mississippi” at noon central time, and if you’re interested in that, you may want to check out the Mississippi Shorts, Getting to the Root and 70 Years of Blackness, which will now run through May 8, giving you more time to see them. Friday will also see the premieres of Daniel Lafrentz’s crime-drama The Long Shadow, preceded by Will Goss’ short, Sweet Steel. (Hey! I know Will Goss!) There will be a Zoom Q&A for the two movies on Wednesday, May 6, at 6pm Central. Also available Friday is Travis Beard’s doc, Rockabul, which is about the Afghan band District Unknown who fought against the USA’s counter-culture campaign by challenging freedom of expression and youth identify in Kabul with a QnA on May 8 at 8pm central. The Fest Forward Collection includes 8 international animated films from places like Estonia and Egypt, and those will have a virtual QnA on Saturday, May 2, at 1pm Central. (All of these Oxford QnAs and panels are recorded and available to watch for as long as the films are available to watch.) You can get tickets for all these movies and events on Eventive.

This week’s Featured Film is the Pierce Brothers’ (Brett and Drew Pierce) horror flick, THE WRETCHED (IFC Midnight), which was a nice surprise since I’m not as easy a lay when it comes to horror flicks as other “horror fan” movie writers. The film involves a somewhat quizzical premise that isn’t too apparent as it begins, as we’re not exactly sure what is going on as it begins. It stars John Paul Howard as Ben, a young man living with his father (Jamison Jones), who has separated from Ben’s mother, as the two of them work at the nearby marina over the summer. Ben is immediately picked on and bullied by the locals, but he’s more distracted by the odd behavior of the woman next door (played by Madelyn Stunenkel). I’m not going to go too far into spoiler territory but the premise does involve witchcraft and an ancient evil that’s cropped up in the small town and is causing the disappearance of many small children… maybe… most of their parents seem to forget they have kids as they follow under the spell of the evil Ben’s discovered.

This is just a fantastic little scarer that at times reminded me of the original Fright Night, and I was really impressed with what the Pierce Brothers, first of all by working with a cast of great lesser-known actors, but the visual FX are fantastic and every aspect of the film’s mood and tone is just about perfect. I guess I’ve seen so much low budget horror that doesn’t really match the standards or production values of even some of the smaller-budget Blumhouse movies.

While you may not be near any of the scattered drive-in across the country that will probably be playing the movie, I definitely recommend downloading and/or renting it if you’re a fan of quality horror. The Pierces are extremely talented filmmakers who I’m sure will be doing better things down the road. For me, this is right up there with The Invisible Man, as far as this year’s stronger horror films.

Out now on VOD and Digital is Will Dennis’ quirky road comedy VANILLA (Gravitas Ventures) about a comedian (Kelsea Bauman) who goes on a three-day road trip from New York to New Orleans with an ice cream entrepreneur (Dennis), to sell his van with a questionable past to his ex-girlfriend. Both of them see the trip as a date, of sorts, but they set up a number of rules and boundaries to make the trip work. It’s a pretty simple premise that’s made more fun by the unique elements Dennis introduces. Vanilla is a sweet, cute romantic movie with two actors appearing in their first movie that reminds me a little of the early work of the Duplass Brothers or Joe Swanberg where there’s a simplicity to the storytelling, but it’s really driven by the wonderful chemistry between the two leads. It’s kind of amazing how enjoyable this movie is considering the inexperience of both actors, and I hope this gets seen by more people. This is a wonderful discovery film that I was told played at the Lighthouse International Film Festival in Jersey and the Phoenix Film Festival, just a reminder why film festivals are so important!

Also on VOD and Digital this Friday is Annie Silverstein’s BULL (Samuel Goldwyn), starring Rob Morgan from Mudbound, Just Mercy and Netflix’s Daredevil. Amber Havard plays 14-year-old Kristal, a young troubled girl who is on her way to ending up in jail like her mother. After an incident where Kristal is in danger of going to juvie, she’s given a choice instead to help her next door neighbor, Morgan’s bull rider Abe Turner, with errands around his home. Kris soon discovers her own love for bull riding, as this unlikely relationship grows. I’m a big fan of Rob Morgan as an actor, because his work is highly-underrated, and I do have to say that Bull is a great vehicle for Morgan to have more of a leading role than he normally gets. He shines in that capacity, and Havard does a decent job in their scenes together, even though it’s a far lower key role. Then again, I thought this was a moderately decent indie that covered topics very similar to other movies, including Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang last year and Chloé Zhao’s The Rider a year earlier. Unfortunately, the material and especially Silverstein’s writing isn’t up to par with those movies, and it took me a little longer to get into this vs. those other films. Oddly, this will probably be seen by more people due to its VOD release, and that’s fine since I’d love movies like this to find more of an audience even with its pacing issues.

Back in the VOD/digital world, we have a handful of new releases including Quentin (Rubber) Dupieux’s DEERSKIN (“Le Daim”) (Greenwich), which I got a chance to see at Rendezvous with French Cinema back in February before the world came to a screeching halt, and that series ended up also being sidelined. The movie stars Oscar winner Jean Dujardin from The Artist whose obsession with a designer deerskin jacket leads him into a life of crime as he tries to complete his all-deerskin wardrobe. I generally like Dupieux’s weird sense of humor, and though this is less of a genre film than Rubber, it’s an entertaining film as we watch Dujardin’s character get further and further into trouble as he becomes obsessed with making a movie… as well as abolishing the world of all other jackets besides his own. If that sounds weird like a strange premise, then you clearly don’t know Dupieux’s work, and maybe it’s not for you. Deerskin is a movie I fully appreciated, because it was so weird and you never know where it was going, even going into the realm of American Psycho as it went along. Dujardin’s expressive performance was quite fun to watch, plus it it also co-stars Adèle Haenel from Portrait of a Lady on Fire, for those who loved that movie. Again, not for everyone, but if you enjoy Dupieux’s strange filmmaking ethos then Deerskin is another highly original offering.

Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema will also be playing Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra’s new film Liberté (Cinema Guild), following it being a selection at the 57th New York Film Festival last year. This one takes place in the 18th century where a group of “bewigged libertines” engage in “pansexual games of pain, torture, humiliation and other dissolute, Sadean pleasure.” Sounds like something that would never play in Middle America if not for being available across the country thanks to this Virtual Cinema. I can’t remember if I saw Serra’s other film, The Death of Louis XIV, but this doesn’t sound like something I would watch unless I had free time at a festival, and clearly, I didn’t have time for this one at least year’s NYFF.

Another foreign film to look out for via virtual cinema is César Diaz’s Belgian-Guatemalan film, Our Mothers (Nuestras Madres) (Outside Pictures), which will be available via Virtual Cinema Friday. Besides being the Belgian entry for the 92nd Academy Awards, it also won the Caméra d’Or at last year’s Cannes, where it premiered during Cannes International Critics Week. It stars Armando Espitia as young anthropologist Ernesto who works for the Forensic Foundation in Guatemala as the country is in the middle of trying the soldiers who began the country’s civil war. Ernesto’s job is to identify the bodies of the missing, including possibly his father whose went missing during the war. The project began as a documentary and then became a narrative film.

Semi-related to the above, Cinema Tropical will be releasing three new genre-breaking films from a new generation of Brazilian directors, the “Cinema Tropical Collection” also done in conjunction with Lincoln Center, beginning with Gabriel Martins and Maurílio’s In the Heart of the World on Thursday, April 30.

Another movie getting a “Virtual Cinema” release (i.e. VOD/Digital) is Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra’s “docu-thriller” THE INFILTRATORS (Oscilloscope), which tells the true story of two immigrants who are thrown into a detention center. Marco and Viri are members of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, a group of young DREAMers who want to put a stop to unjust deportations by being put in detention themselves, a plan that doesn’t go the way they planned. The film cuts between documentary footage of the real “infiltrators” with reenactments of the events inside the detention story, so it’s part documentary and part drama.

Also, Kino Lorber will be releasing Beanpole director Kantemir Balagov’s 2017 debut film, Tesnota (Closeness), virtually on Friday to help assist New York arthouse, Anthology Film Archives. This one is set in 1998 Nalchik in the North Caucasus of Russia and focuses on 24-year-old Jewish girl Ilana who works in her father’s garage, and while celebrating her young brother David’s engagement, he and his fiancée are kidnapped, but the Jewish community won’t go to the police to pay the ransom, so Ilana and her parents have to figure out a way to save them on their own.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Lots of stuff on Netflix this week, including THE HALF OF IT, the new film from Alice Wu, her first movie as as director since her terrific 2004 debut, Saving Face! This one stars Leah Lewis as Ellie Chu, a cash-strapped teen who writes a love to the school’s jock but ends up becoming friends with him and falling for the girl he has a crush on. I haven’t watched it yet to review, but I’m looking forward to it being a nice twist on Netflix’s other teen-oriented romance films.

Ryan Murphy’s second series for Netflix, Hollywood, will debut its first season on Friday, this one co-created with Ian Brennan (Glee, Scream Queens). It takes place in a post-WWII Hollywood and tells the story of a group of actors and filmmakers trying to make it. The cast includes Darren Criss, Patti Lupone, Mira Sorvino, Rob Reiner, Samara Weaving AND Michelle Krusiec, who starred in Alice Wu’s Saving Face! (See how it’s all connecting together?)

Chris Bolan’s documentary A Secret Love, which premieres on Netflix Wednesday, about two women, Pat Henschel and pro baseball player Terry Donahue, who fell in love in 1947 but had to keep that love a secret for 65 years due to the prejudice against lesbians they would have had to face.

Starting on Amazon this Friday is Upload, the new series from Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation), with the first season being made up of ten episodes. It stars Robbie Amell, who I got to interview last year for a small indie sci-fi film called Code 8. This is another dealing with life, death and the afterlife which seems to be a running theme through many series in recent years (such as Miracle Workers and The Good Place). In this one, Amell plays Nathan, a spoiled rich guy who ends up at Upload after a horrifying accident that takes his place, while Andy Allo plays the Upload “angel” assigned to Nathan who has to get him acclimated to his new afterlife. I’ve only watched the first episode of this so far, and it’s okay. I’m curious to see where it goes since it’s not a straight comedy perse like some of Daniels’ other work, and a lot is put on Amell’s shoulders to be funny, and Daniels is working with a lot of lesser-known actors for this one.

On Sunday, Showtime will launch the season debuts of Billions (Season 5) and the first season of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

Also, Lionsgate’s free movie offering this Friday is Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, my #1 movie of that year… thanks for nothing, #Schmoonlight!

Next week, more movies and shows not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #movies #Reviews #TheWretched #Deerskin #BlueStory #Bull #vanilla

0 notes

biofunmy · 5 years

Text

Best TV, movies on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon

Netflix shows “Stranger Things” and “Queer Eye” are coming back with new seasons in July. USA TODAY

This July, we highly reccommend that you spend your time with a gun-toting Earp, a teenaged private eye, adorable tiny scientists, a dead bride and America’s favorite action hero.

A new month means new TV shows and movies are becoming available on your favorite streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, which is a great excuse to stay inside and avoid the hot, sticky days of the height of summer. To stop you from mindlessly scrolling on your Roku or Apple TV, we picked out the five best films and TV series newly available this July, whether you want something old, something new, something dead or something with Tom Cruise.

If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: ‘Wynonna Earp’

Melanie Scrofano as Wynonna Earp on ‘Wynonna Earp.’ (Photo: Michelle Faye, Syfy)

Do you like a female-led supernatural series where a super-powered heroine and her quirky team of allies take down demonic threats to save a small town? I may be describing cult classic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but it’s also the plot of Syfy’s “Wynonna Earp,” a drama following a descendent of Wyatt Earp endowed with powers to destroy mystical threats on Earth. “Wynonna” brings a Western theme and setting to the battle between good and evil, and is a delight to watch.

Stream Seasons 1-2 on Netflix now, stream Season 3 on July 16.

If you believe in the power of fans: ‘Veronica Mars’

Hulu recently announced it is commissioning a new season of “Veronica Mars,” the teenage detective show that aired on UPN and CW from 2004 to 2007. It starred then-newcomer Kristen Bell as a southern California high schooler who worked alongside her father (Enrico Colantoni), who opened a private investigation firm after he was voted out as sheriff. (Photo: JUSTIN LUBIN/WARNER BROS.)

“Veronica Mars” is returning to TV with a new season debuting on Hulu on July 26, and the streaming service is making it easy to catch up on the first three seasons of the cult show ahead of time. “Mars” is a fan-favorite series that keeps resurrecting for a reason. Its tongue-in-cheek take on neo-noir is brilliant and,paired with a star-making performance from Kristen Bell, the first three seasons (particularly the first two) are can’t-miss TV for fans of mystery and drama.

Stream it on Hulu on July 1. New episodes available starting July 26.

If you like adorable children and science: ‘Mythbusters, Jr.’

Adam Savage, right, talks to the young mythbusters of Science Channel’s new spinoff series, ‘Mythbusters Jr.’ (Photo: Science Channel)

Science Channel lured Adam Savage back to the “Mythbusters” franchise by giving him a group of precocious young scientists to help him test the limits of myths and urban legends. Like many junior versions of popular reality shows, including “Masterchef Junior” and “Project Runway Junior,” the emphasis here is on learning and discovery, which fits right into the “Mythbusters” ethos. It might make you feel a little intimidated by the intelligence of its young cast members, but it can also inspire you to try your own home science project.

Stream it on Hulu beginning July 15.

If you love Tim Burton: ‘Corpse Bride’

Many of Amazon’s new movies arrive at the end of the month instead of the beginning, but so don’t forget about this Tim Burton animated classic. Creepy, dark, beautiful and sentimental, “Corpse Bride” hits all the notes of a Burton animated film and is perhaps only bested by “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in his canon.

Stream it on Amazon starting July 31.

If you want sci-fi and action: ‘Minority Report’

“Minority Report” is about a future where technology predicts crimes before they happen, but the Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise movie itself has turned out to be pretty prophetic. It debuted in 2002 and took place in 2054, and it showed a future with personalized advertising (check) and voice and motion controlled devices (check and check if you play video games). In addition to being prescient, it’s also a smart, rollicking thriller that has great twists and great performances.

Stream it on Hulu on July 1.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Last SlideNext Slide

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2019/06/29/new-streaming-july-2019-best-tv-movies-netflix-hulu-amazon/1500956001/

Sahred From Source link TV and Movies

from WordPress http://bit.ly/308nLtp via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

douglassmiith · 5 years

Text

When a Company Outgrows Its Founders: How a Little Breakfast Chain Plans to Go Big

Eggs Up Grill is a quirky, homegrown, Southeast breakfast chain. With new owners and a mandate to grow, the brand has a delicate balance to strike.

March 5, 2020 15 min read

This story appears in the March 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

After the papers had been signed and the hands shaken, Skip Corn turned to his partner, Chris Skodras. “I don’t want to go cry in front of my wife,” Corn said in his distinct Southern drawl. “But I can cry in front of you.”

And he did. So did Skodras. “We cried every day for six months,” says Corn, 68. “To hand your baby off to somebody — it’s a traumatic experience.”

Over more than a decade, these two friends had built a 32-unit franchise called Eggs Up Grill, based in South Carolina. They wanted their restaurants to have small-town charm, so they ran the company with a small-town ethos. Everything was done with love and gut instinct. They answered the phones; they solved franchisees’ problems. They insisted that every franchisee also work in their restaurant so customers could come and shake the owner’s hand. And now Skodras and Corn had gone and sold the majority of their company to a private equity group, the kind of buyer that’s often demonized for slash-and-burn, profit-at-all-costs tactics.

Tears were understandable.

But so far, at least, Eggs Up is not looking like a private equity horror story. Instead, it’s looking like something far less dramatic, but a lot more common and instructive. It’s a tale of what happens when a company becomes too big for its founders and more experienced operators come in to wrestle with its full potential. The private equity group that bought Eggs Up Grill is called WJ Partners, and it has some experience in this game. It acquired Pure Barre in 2012 and eventually sold the fitness studio to bigger investors; by the time WJ fully exited in 2018, Pure Barre had exploded from 96 to more than 500 locations.

Related: 5 Tips for Expanding Your Small Business (The Right Way)

So if you live in the Southeast but haven’t heard of Eggs Up Grill — well, you’re about to. Shortly after the acquisition in 2018, the new owners installed a team of franchise veterans led by CEO Ricky Richardson, the former president of TGI Fridays. Eggs Up has already scaled to 40 locations and announced aggressive plans to reach 100 by mid-2022.

As it grows, Eggs Up will face a predictable question: How much can this growing company retain its authenticity? But that may not be the right way to look at it. Here’s another question that, in the end, might really be more important: How much of that authenticity was holding the company back?

Because the thing is, sometimes too much charm can be bad for business.

Rewind a few decades, and Eggs Up never looked like the kind of company on a path to private equity. Chris Skodras opened the first one himself in 1986, in Rhode Island. More than a decade later, he moved to South Carolina and brought his diner with him — reopening Eggs Up in Pawleys Island, S.C., just south of Myrtle Beach. It built a loyal following of families and beachgoers, and in 2005, Skodras decided to give franchising a shot.

That’s how he got talking to Skip Corn. The two men attended the same Friday morning Bible-study group, and Corn brought his kids and grandkids to Eggs Up every Sunday after church. Corn had just spent a career in management for the PGA Tour and was reinventing himself as a business consultant. In 2005, he signed a one-year contract with Eggs Up.

The duo became fast pals, and business thrived. “It was a friendship made in heaven, quite frankly,” says Corn. “He knew I was gonna do my job, and I knew he was gonna do his.” In time, Corn’s yearlong contract evolved into a 50-50 partnership. Skodras handled day-to-day operations; Corn took on accounting, marketing agency, compliance, and franchise sales.

There’s a story Corn likes to tell to illustrate Eggs Up’s franchisee-acquisition process — and, for that matter, the business’s entire ethos. One day, a guy named Michael McNeal calls up. He’s a UPS driver looking to start his own business. He already has approval for an SBA loan, so Corn drives seven and a half hours to meet McNeal near his home in Albany, Ga.

“I said, ‘Michael, what do you want to accomplish?’ ” Corn recalls. Before he could answer, the prospective franchisee’s wife cut in: “We want Michael to coach [his son’s] baseball team.”

Corn’s eyes lit up. Eggs Up Grill wasn’t looking for franchisees with restaurateur ambitions. It wanted regular folks like McNeal, who wanted to spend time with their kids. “What we focused on was character, morals, and ethics,” says Corn. “And we really felt like the Lord was bringing us good people.”

Related: What You Need To Know Before Starting A Franchise Business

Eggs Up grew slowly and steadily like this, signing new franchisees whose hearts passed the purity test. Many franchisees were drawn in by the brand’s guidelines: The restaurant would never open past lunch — its hours were 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. And franchisees needed to work in their store, meeting customers face-to-face. “Chris and I both knew we were never going to be gigantic doing it that way,” says Corn. “But we sure found incredible people.”

Still, the strategy also risked alienating incredible people.

One of them was Drew Hampton, a local who already was a multi-unit franchisee of Groucho’s Deli. He was a happy Eggs Up customer. The staff was unusually friendly; even the bussers were chatty. “They paid attention to the customer, and people are drawn to that,” he says. So he called Eggs Up and asked to become a franchisee, and in 2014, he opened the brand’s 11th store.

The place was an instant hit, with 600 to 700 customers visiting every Saturday and Sunday. Hampton was eager to open a second store — but Skodras and Corn weren’t interested. “If you want to open a second or third store, they’re not going to be successful,” he recalls them saying, “because you’re not going to be there.”

“I don’t want to own just one restaurant!” Hampton replied. “I want to own several and be able to scale something.”

At the time, Eggs Up had a strict rule. The on-site manager (who was usually the franchisee) had to own at least 10 percent of the franchise. Hampton could open a second location…but someone else would have to own 10 percent and work the floor. He didn’t want that.

This kind of friction isn’t uncommon in founder-run franchise systems, says Benjamin Lawrence, Ph.D., a professor of franchise entrepreneurship at Georgia State University. “The thing about founders is that they have a very different relationship to the brand,” he says. “They’re fundamentally interested in the brand as a reflection of their self-identity.”

It was true: Corn and Skodras valued personal relationships as much as growth. Over the years, Corn was contacted by several multi-unit operators looking to buy multiple locations, but he turned them down. “They don’t really know us, and we don’t really know them,” he reasoned.

In the end, Hampton relented. He found a partner and opened his second Eggs Up Grill as a part owner. On opening day, he says, nobody from corporate showed up. “They created a great brand,” he says. “But to take it to the next level, they needed help.”

Eventually, Skodras and Corn would agree — which is how they got to private equity.

Image Credit: Alvaro Dominguez

Over the years, private equity has taken a serious interest in franchising. Investment groups have acquired Buffalo Wild Wings, Ruby Tuesday, and the Texas chain Whataburger.

“Private equity likes franchising because they only have to invest limited amounts of capital for a high return,” says Lawrence, the Georgia State professor. Franchisees, of course, are the ones funding their locations, as well as managing employees.

For investors looking to scale fast, a company like Eggs Up Grill makes a decent proposition. It’s more nimble than breakfast titans like IHOP and Denny’s, and its restaurants require only about half the square footage. (Both IHOP and Denny’s are in the process of rolling out smaller concepts.) And because Eggs Up Grill offers limited hours of operation, serving breakfast and lunch crowds only, food and labor costs are lower.

But success is never guaranteed. Following a bad private equity deal in 2006, Quiznos lost 90 percent of its stores. And in 2010, private equity tried to scale Washington State’s Papa Murphy’s too fast. The plan backfired, and stores shut down.

“I’m not saying private equity is bad,” says Lawrence. “It can improve the system or get rid of low performers. But it does change the nature of the relationship.” When the strategy becomes hyperfocused on growth, decisions can become aggressive or risky.

But risk is relative. It’s a question of what you’re comparing it against. And in the case of Eggs Up, nonaggression was starting to look risky, too.

Skodras and Corn wanted to keep their organization lean and personal. For years, it was just the two of them, and even when they started growing, the corporate team never had more than five people, which meant nobody had assistants. They didn’t even have voicemail systems. “We answered the phone ourselves,” Corn says. But as they reached 20-plus locations, that tiny corporate team was stretched thin — and franchisees noticed. Sure, they could reach Skodras or Corn directly, but it could take days to actually get their attention.

Related: Our 41st Annual Franchise 500 Ranking

“They just didn’t have the infrastructure to be able to grow the brand like it was capable of,” says franchisee Scott Johnson. “They were more interested in quality than quantity.”

Around 2015, private equity firms started reaching out to Eggs Up. Generally, Skodras and Corn declined the meetings. They knew they were stretched thin, and they didn’t think they could do what these firms were proposing with five employees.

Then WJ Partners came along. It’s also based in South Carolina and had the personal connection Eggs Up valued: Corn knew Craig Wall, whose son, Benjamin Wall, is a founding partner. Through a friend, Corn met with Wall and his wife, Jaime, who’s also a WJ partner. “I was talking to people I knew, trusted, and felt comfortable with,” he says. Corn was also comforted by the fact that WJ Partners uses its own money; it doesn’t work with outside investors who might pressure it to break promises.

The Eggs Up deal took nine months to negotiate. Corn sat down with everybody at WJ Partners, “even people who weren’t going to be involved,” and pressed upon them the values of the company. He felt heard. And eventually, Skodras and Corn were ready to sign—and cry. Their baby was now officially someone else’s (though they retained a vested interest in the company, with no official roles).

The news came as a shock to many. “When I found out, I was very excited. WJ Partners has a solid background in scaling concepts,” says Hampton, the franchisee who had to give up equity in his second location.

The reality, he says, is that Eggs Up is easier to operate with private equity at the helm. In part, that’s because the new owners saw the chain very differently than the old owners. This wasn’t just a place driven by love and gut instinct anymore. Now it was a business meant to scale.

After the sale, WJ looked for a new leader to grow the company. It found that in Ricky Richardson, who had spent 20 years at TGI Fridays — including three as president. He learned a lot there but also saw what can happen when a brand loses clarity in its vision. It’s a problem for many legacy concepts and resulted in TGI Fridays closing 58 stores between 2014 and 2016.

“It’s hard to be all things to all people,” says Richardson. “The risk there is you end up diluting what you really stand for.” And a diluted brand is easy to attack. “What historically may have been indirect competitors end up being direct competitors,” he says. “You’re not as focused as you were in the past, so people can carve off little pieces of you.”

This is why he saw so much potential in a little breakfast brand. “What’s so appealing about Eggs Up Grill is the level of authenticity that comes with it,” Richardson says. He talks a lot about authenticity. It’s a little ironic, given the transformation he’s tasked with leading, but it’s clearly germane to Eggs Up’s messaging: We may be scaling, it seems to say, but we’re still the local guys.

“That connection is really differentiating and compelling for a guest,” Richardson says.

There’s also a difference between authenticity and, well, inefficiencies created by authentic founders. Since joining the company in July 2018, Richardson has made fast work of plugging those holes.

For example, the once-tiny corporate team is now a lot bigger. In the past, franchisees might have waited two days to hear back from someone. “Now if I call, somebody will answer in 30 seconds,” franchisee Hampton says. “They give you support on marketing agency, site selection, P&Ls — they look out for the bottom line.” Plus, he says, there’s no emotion involved. “It’s just business.”

Richardson also tightened up costs. Eggs Up used to have 72 menu items; now it has 55. He eliminated poor-performing dishes like tuna and egg salad and negotiated better deals with vendors.

Last year, he also opened a training facility and new restaurant prototype in Spartanburg, S.C., not far from Eggs Up headquarters. The store demonstrates a refreshed, contemporary look, and it has already rolled out new, Instagrammable items: a shrimp and grits omelet, baked peaches and cream pancakes.

Related: Can Jon Taffer Fix Franchise Restaurants?

To ensure consistency, Richardson created a team of franchise consultants, who visit each store a few times each quarter to check food quality and ascertain how servers, managers, and bussers interact with guests and with the franchisee. “It’s nice when they stop by,” says franchisee Rob Johnson, who works alongside his brother, Scott. “It doesn’t feel like an inspection or anything hostile.”

But there’s no doubt about the purpose of the visits. The corporate office wants to ramp up profits and sell more stores. “We’re projecting plus or minus 18 restaurants opening in 2020, which, comparatively, is almost a 50 percent growth rate,” says Todd Owen, the company’s new VP of franchise development. “We actually opened five in January.”

Owen, who previously helped Qdoba Mexican Eats expand from 60 to 600 locations, says he was lured in by Eggs Up’s strong market position under WJ Partners. It’s well-funded, franchisees are stoked about the brand, and Richardson has stacked the new executive team with industry veterans.

Results are already visible. Recently, Eggs Up signed a 10-store multi-unit deal with a Wendy’s franchisee. “We want to be one of the big dogs,” says Owen. “But we’re not just wishing; we’re getting there.”

For now, Eggs Up will limit its growth to the Southeast. “I look at it like we can’t afford to make one mistake,” says Owen. Because if Eggs Up Grill becomes just another anonymous place to buy bacon and pancakes, what does it really have to offer?

The new challenge, then, is to figure out which parts of the old regime can help this new regime grow.

Corn has no regrets about selling. He likes the new changes and understands the value of having a big corporate office to handle the day-to-day operations. “Now instead of calling Skip for 50 percent of the answers and Chris for 50 percent of the answers, you can call one of 10 people and get somebody who’s an expert in that field,” he says. In a way, that’s what the two partners always wanted: better support for franchisees.

And unlike the old owners,

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

Via http://www.scpie.org/when-a-company-outgrows-its-founders-how-a-little-breakfast-chain-plans-to-go-big/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/when-a-company-outgrows-its-founders-how-a-little-breakfast-chain-plans-to-go-big

0 notes

riichardwilson · 5 years

Text

When a Company Outgrows Its Founders: How a Little Breakfast Chain Plans to Go Big

Eggs Up Grill is a quirky, homegrown, Southeast breakfast chain. With new owners and a mandate to grow, the brand has a delicate balance to strike.

March 5, 2020 15 min read

This story appears in the March 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

And he did. So did Skodras. “We cried every day for six months,” says Corn, 68. “To hand your baby off to somebody — it’s a traumatic experience.”

Tears were understandable.

Related: 5 Tips for Expanding Your Small Business (The Right Way)

Because the thing is, sometimes too much charm can be bad for business.

Related: What You Need To Know Before Starting A Franchise Business

Still, the strategy also risked alienating incredible people.

“I don’t want to own just one restaurant!” Hampton replied. “I want to own several and be able to scale something.”

Eventually, Skodras and Corn would agree — which is how they got to private equity.

Image Credit: Alvaro Dominguez

Over the years, private equity has taken a serious interest in franchising. Investment groups have acquired Buffalo Wild Wings, Ruby Tuesday, and the Texas chain Whataburger.

But risk is relative. It’s a question of what you’re comparing it against. And in the case of Eggs Up, nonaggression was starting to look risky, too.

Related: Our 41st Annual Franchise 500 Ranking

“They just didn’t have the infrastructure to be able to grow the brand like it was capable of,” says franchisee Scott Johnson. “They were more interested in quality than quantity.”

“That connection is really differentiating and compelling for a guest,” Richardson says.

Richardson also tightened up costs. Eggs Up used to have 72 menu items; now it has 55. He eliminated poor-performing dishes like tuna and egg salad and negotiated better deals with vendors.

Related: Can Jon Taffer Fix Franchise Restaurants?

The new challenge, then, is to figure out which parts of the old regime can help this new regime grow.

And unlike the old owners,

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/when-a-company-outgrows-its-founders-how-a-little-breakfast-chain-plans-to-go-big/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/611766117574344704

0 notes

laurelkrugerr · 5 years

Text

When a Company Outgrows Its Founders: How a Little Breakfast Chain Plans to Go Big

Eggs Up Grill is a quirky, homegrown, Southeast breakfast chain. With new owners and a mandate to grow, the brand has a delicate balance to strike.

March 5, 2020 15 min read

This story appears in the March 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

And he did. So did Skodras. “We cried every day for six months,” says Corn, 68. “To hand your baby off to somebody — it’s a traumatic experience.”

Tears were understandable.

Related: 5 Tips for Expanding Your Small Business (The Right Way)

Because the thing is, sometimes too much charm can be bad for business.

Related: What You Need To Know Before Starting A Franchise Business

Still, the strategy also risked alienating incredible people.

“I don’t want to own just one restaurant!” Hampton replied. “I want to own several and be able to scale something.”

Eventually, Skodras and Corn would agree — which is how they got to private equity.

Image Credit: Alvaro Dominguez

Over the years, private equity has taken a serious interest in franchising. Investment groups have acquired Buffalo Wild Wings, Ruby Tuesday, and the Texas chain Whataburger.

But risk is relative. It’s a question of what you’re comparing it against. And in the case of Eggs Up, nonaggression was starting to look risky, too.

Related: Our 41st Annual Franchise 500 Ranking

“They just didn’t have the infrastructure to be able to grow the brand like it was capable of,” says franchisee Scott Johnson. “They were more interested in quality than quantity.”

“That connection is really differentiating and compelling for a guest,” Richardson says.

Richardson also tightened up costs. Eggs Up used to have 72 menu items; now it has 55. He eliminated poor-performing dishes like tuna and egg salad and negotiated better deals with vendors.

Related: Can Jon Taffer Fix Franchise Restaurants?

The new challenge, then, is to figure out which parts of the old regime can help this new regime grow.

And unlike the old owners,

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/when-a-company-outgrows-its-founders-how-a-little-breakfast-chain-plans-to-go-big/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/03/when-company-outgrows-its-founders-how.html

0 notes

scpie · 5 years

Text

When a Company Outgrows Its Founders: How a Little Breakfast Chain Plans to Go Big

Eggs Up Grill is a quirky, homegrown, Southeast breakfast chain. With new owners and a mandate to grow, the brand has a delicate balance to strike.

March 5, 2020 15 min read

This story appears in the March 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

And he did. So did Skodras. “We cried every day for six months,” says Corn, 68. “To hand your baby off to somebody — it’s a traumatic experience.”

Tears were understandable.

Related: 5 Tips for Expanding Your Small Business (The Right Way)

Because the thing is, sometimes too much charm can be bad for business.

Related: What You Need To Know Before Starting A Franchise Business

Still, the strategy also risked alienating incredible people.

“I don’t want to own just one restaurant!” Hampton replied. “I want to own several and be able to scale something.”

Eventually, Skodras and Corn would agree — which is how they got to private equity.

Image Credit: Alvaro Dominguez

Over the years, private equity has taken a serious interest in franchising. Investment groups have acquired Buffalo Wild Wings, Ruby Tuesday, and the Texas chain Whataburger.

But risk is relative. It’s a question of what you’re comparing it against. And in the case of Eggs Up, nonaggression was starting to look risky, too.

Related: Our 41st Annual Franchise 500 Ranking

“They just didn’t have the infrastructure to be able to grow the brand like it was capable of,” says franchisee Scott Johnson. “They were more interested in quality than quantity.”

“It’s hard to be all things to all people,�� says Richardson. “The risk there is you end up diluting what you really stand for.” And a diluted brand is easy to attack. “What historically may have been indirect competitors end up being direct competitors,” he says. “You’re not as focused as you were in the past, so people can carve off little pieces of you.”

“That connection is really differentiating and compelling for a guest,” Richardson says.

Richardson also tightened up costs. Eggs Up used to have 72 menu items; now it has 55. He eliminated poor-performing dishes like tuna and egg salad and negotiated better deals with vendors.

Related: Can Jon Taffer Fix Franchise Restaurants?

The new challenge, then, is to figure out which parts of the old regime can help this new regime grow.

And unlike the old owners,

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/when-a-company-outgrows-its-founders-how-a-little-breakfast-chain-plans-to-go-big/

0 notes

mastcomm · 5 years

Text

After the Oscar Glare, These Filmmakers Went Their Own Way

PARK CITY, Utah — When the writer-director Benh Zeitlin was unexpectedly thrust into the middle of the Oscar melee in 2012 with his debut feature, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” it was a surreal, discomforting experience filled with stiff tuxedos and awkward small talk — light years away from his ragtag existence in New Orleans, where he makes lyrical, atmospheric movies with his friends.

Zeitlin was soothed somewhat by the people he met on the trail: a sit-down with Daniel Day-Lewis, a kind word from Sally Field, an interaction with Martin Scorsese, who was struggling at the time with his edit of “Wolf of Wall Street.”

“It was cool to see someone that legendary be just as stressed as me when I was cutting ‘Beasts,’” said Zeitlin, a Hollywood outsider who before his Oscar run had only visited Los Angeles once in his life.

Eight years later, this one-time Oscar wunderkind finally popped back up at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with his sophomore effort, “Wendy,” a grass-roots “Peter Pan” seen through the eyes of a liberated, adventurous Wendy Darling. Where had he been?

The pressures of the Oscar spotlight can be enormous. As nominees this year have surely discovered, becoming part of the Hollywood ecosystem comes with its own set of challenges, ones that often require you to conform to specific expectations rather than to pursue your own creative endeavors. Zeitlin and another director who went through a similar experience, Tom McCarthy of “Spotlight,” resisted that pressure — and at Sundance this month, the results of their decisions were on display.

Zeitlin’s time among the glitterati had crystallized what he wanted his future to look like, and it was nothing like theirs. As the recipient of two highly coveted nominations — best director and best adapted screenplay (his film also drew a best picture nomination) — Zeitlin had earned an invitation into the club. He could have easily parlayed his success into a hefty studio payday. Yet he chose a decidedly different route. He did hire an agent, temporarily, to fend off incoming offers, including the opportunity to work on a mega-budget “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie for Disney. “He served as my bouncer,” said Zeitlin, now 37, who instead took his newfound cachet and created his own pirate adventure.

“When it became clear that we were going to have this opportunity to make whatever we wanted, we were like, ‘O.K., we got to make the craziest one now, because who knows if they’ll ever let us back in,’” he said.

The Oscar visibility did buy him something: a bigger budget, a more ambitious palette and significant development money from his new studio partner, Fox Searchlight — the company that secured a first-look deal with the auteur when it paid $2 million for global rights to “Beasts.”

He filmed on the islands of Montserrat and Antigua, Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and in Louisiana. Postproduction lasted close to two years. And the film was made using the same unconventional approach he employed for “Beasts”: writing and rewriting all the way through production with his sister, Eliza Zeitlin, who also served as the production designer; casting nonactors to play the roles; preferring practical magic — like using a thermite mixture to create underwater fire — to computer graphics.

Zeitlin debuted his film on Sunday to mixed reviews. The Playlist’s Greg Ellwood said “Zeitlin’s talent to soar cinematically remains intact,” while Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly wrote, “By the ninth montage of cliffs and shore and joyful screaming down a hill, it all starts to feel a little like a film-school reel.”

Zeitlin’s decision to spend so much time on his own arts-and-crafts project left many shaking their heads. They may be equally perplexed to see the writer-director Tom McCarthy, who took on the Catholic Church in the best-picture winner “Spotlight” (2015), return to Sundance with “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made,” a kids’ movie co-starring a computer-graphic polar bear that will debut on Disney Plus next week.

“I’ve seen a lot of people win Oscars, win best pictures, do that thing, and then it’s like they’re almost trying too hard to go back to the well,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want to do that.”

The awards race marathon — which this year concludes on Feb. 9 — is a boon for the industry: Studios spend gobs to promote their best films, and the Hollywood ecosystem froths from the trickle-down economics. Everybody from trade publications to florists to limo drivers benefits from the awards industrial complex — everyone, except maybe the talent. Yes, their star power rises in both ephemeral and concrete ways, but for those hellbent on creating their own destiny, the months away from their work can be dispiriting.

Zeitlin had been away from his New Orleans home for most of the year following the Sundance debut of “Beasts.” “I was both desperate to get home and desperate to get to work,” he said. “It was the first year I hadn’t created anything, and that was the most intense feeling.”

McCarthy too had moved his family temporarily to Los Angeles for his awards-campaign obligations. It was a “wholly uncreative” time, he said.

The 53-year old director, who began his career as a character actor, had been warned years earlier that this would happen. Back in 2004, he had a toe-dip experience with the awards race when his directorial debut, “Station Agent,” vied briefly for accolades against Peter Jackson’s final “Lord of the Rings” installment. McCarthy kept running into the New Zealander on the campaign trail, and Jackson’s frenetic pace didn’t align with the rest of the nominees’ behavior. His secret: In between all the glad-handing he would hole up at a hotel in Los Angeles writing “King Kong” with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

“He said to me, ‘If you can, cling to the work,’” McCarthy recalled.

Cut to 2016, and McCarthy found his creative reprieve two weeks before the Oscars, when his New York theater friend Brian Yorkey asked him to help out on a new Netflix series “13 Reasons Why.” A surprising follow-up to “Spotlight”? Maybe. But the project was set to start shooting soon, and McCarthy could dive in, writing and directing on what would become one of the streaming giant’s most popular series.

“I really just wanted to work,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t have another movie ready, and I didn’t want to just jump into another movie.”

That same ethos has now returned McCarthy to Sundance, 17 years after the festival launched his directing career. His friends have given him grief for giving up his indie cred; one text message read, “See you’re keeping it real at Sundance with your Disney movie.” He, too, is aware of the irony. For “Station Agent,” his producers gave out beef jerky as the film’s party favor. For the “Timmy” premiere, Disney created an ice sculpture of a polar bear.

Still, McCarthy finds no shame in making a kids’ movie. To him, chronicling the adventures of a quirky, complicated kid detective was just as invigorating as depicting the Boston Globe newsroom in “Spotlight.”

“This film was still a tremendous challenge, dealing with what does it mean to make a movie for 10-year-olds, and what does it mean to have a polar bear in the movie? Whenever I’m engaged like that, I’m happy,” he said.

Zeitlin’s grand experiment of keeping Hollywood at arm’s length has also meant he could maintain his single-minded approach to making movies. It helps that he’s changed very little in his life since “Beasts.” He moved into a different rented house, though not a nicer one. He’s single. He doesn’t own a car, or even a pet.

“My biggest fear is not being able to make my art,” he said. “If people don’t like my movie or whatever, knowing that I can always go home and live, and make things that I want to make has always been really important to me. So, I’ve never taken on anything that would be a real problem if I lost it.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/after-the-oscar-glare-these-filmmakers-went-their-own-way/

#Entertainment

0 notes

itstrentonpaul-blog · 6 years

Text

Christopher Street: A Walk Down Memory Lane

Even in a geographical sense, Christopher Street has always been a place of disruption. The thoroughfare cuts diagonally through the historic Greenwich Village, which is itself one of the few neighborhoods in Manhattan that doesn’t pay mind to the city’s rigid grid system. Over the course of the early 20th century, it was a safe haven for New York’s LGBTQ community and home to events—including the Stonewall Inn protests—that would become flash points for the mainstreaming of the gay rights movement all across the country.

It remains to this day an important symbol of LGBTQ life in New York (photographs of the sign at its intersection with Gay Street are tourist souvenir shop staples), even though it’s now more populated with luxury shops and extravagant gyms than the nightlife hotspots that it was once famous for. A timeline of the key events that happened in and around Christopher Street has been put together so we can take a closer look at its role in shaping the history of New York nightlife and LGBTQ culture.

1799

In the 1740s, Sir Peter Warren, a wealthy Irish admiral builds an expansive estate in the Village of Greenwich, two miles north of New York City. Along the southern boundary of the Warren Estate is its main thoroughfare—a long street that cuts a slight diagonal as it runs west from the Hudson River right into the heart of the village. Originally called Skinner Road after the British Colonel William Skinner, the oldest street in Greenwich Village is renamed Christopher Street in 1799 after one of Warren’s heirs, Charles Christopher Amos.

1881

Henry James’ novel Washington Square is published in book form, in which he writes of Greenwich Village: “This portion of New York appears to many persons the most delectable. It has a kind of established repose which is not of frequent occurrence in other quarters of the long, shrill city: it has a riper, richer, more honorable look of the upper ramifications of the great longitude thoroughfare—the look of having had something of a social history.”

1910

The Village’s first “goofy club” opens at the corner of Charles St and West 4th, two blocks north of Christopher Street. The Toby Club has cobwebs hanging off its ceiling like stalactites, and skull and crossbones made from real skeletons mounted on the walls. These themed-to-the-extreme bars—pirate ships, prisons, farms, wigwams—will pop up throughout the Village in the 20s, earning the neighborhood a reputation for its quirky take on nightlife.

1920

The Wartime Prohibition Act comes into effect, but the boozy Village is having none of it. On January 16, the very day the act comes into effect, the first person to be arrested for violation of the law is one Barney Gallant, co-owner of a local watering hole called the Greenwich Village Inn, for buying and drinking a glass of sherry in front of an undercover cop. When he returns from his court hearing, Village residents throw him a booze-filled bash in the Inn.

Throughout the Prohibition Era, New York will flagrantly disobey the drinking ban, but nowhere as fervently as in the Village. Christopher Street and the rest of the Village will in fact thrive during prohibition; illegal speakeasies and bootlegging alcohol proves to be lucrative business.

1934

Prohibition ends and the New York State Liquor Authority is formed to regulate the sale of booze in the city. At this time gay bars were still not openly operating, but the way the authority wrote its rules meant they would later become the unexpected collateral damage of the legislation. While the authority did not directly cite gay bars in any of its extensive regulations, police will go on to interpret a rule against running a “disorderly” establishment to mean venues frequented by gay people. And so gay bars (and also serving gay people in any bar) became, in practice, illegal.

The Mafia sees a business opportunity here. Bosses, including the heads of the notorious Genovese family, will start buying up bars in the Village over the next few decades—including the Stonewall Inn in 1966—paying off the police and blackmailing staffers and patrons. Pretty soon, the Family will have control over majority of the gay nightlife in the Village, a monopoly that will continue deep into the 1960s.

1938

In December, local entrepreneur Barney Josephson turns the basement of One Sheridan Square—then, a dungeon-themed goofy club just off Christopher Street—into a jazz and supper club called Cafe Society. According to an interview with the New York Times, Josephson is on a mission to end the racial barriers put up by clubs across the city: ”I wanted a club where blacks and whites worked together behind the footlights and sat together out front,” he says. He books African-American artists and has them perform at what is thought to be the first club with a racially integrated audience, which paves the way for nightlife diversity to flourish well beyond the neighborhood. Jazz greats—Billie Holliday, Hazel Scott, Sarah Vaughan, Josh White, Mildred Bailey, Art Tatum, Mary Lou WIlliams, Teddy Wilson—will all play at Cafe Society until it closes its doors in the 1950s. Its slogan encapsulates the radical bar’s ethos: “The wrong place for the right people”.

1950s

For many gay and lesbians living in WWII America, their sexual identities were relatively tolerated. A need for as many drafts as possible after Pearl Harbor meant that when gay people enlisted in the army, they weren’t turned away. And while LGBT people still weren’t permitted to be open in the army, they were for the most part left be, and many actually found military life a time to flourish. But then the war ended and all this changed.

In post-WWII America, the US government wipes the social progress made during war and looks to restore the “traditional” gender roles it disrupted. During this time, the FBI maintains a list of gay Americans, who will subsequently be targeted by police for an array of illegal activities, including cohabitation and kissing in public.

Since the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, many queer people of color had been leading a (relatively) open life in the north Manhattan neighborhood—as celebrated gay artist Bruce Nugent put it: “Nobody was in the closet. There wasn’t any closet.” But the 1950s police crackdown drove Harlem’s gay community back into the closet. An exodus of gay people of color from Harlem to the Village begins.

1960s

Drag queens begin to flock to the Village from all over the city, escaping places where dressing in female clothing in public results either in arrest, or beating from homophobic vigilantes. The piers at Christopher Street waterfront—known as the Village piers, or the Christopher Street piers—become a place where drag queens congregate publicly. In the face of laws barring gay men from being seen in public together, gay men and drag queens begin to cruise the waterfront and steal away with anonymous lovers to the squalid flophouses dotted along the waterfront.

Marsha P. Johnson, known by her hordes of admirers and the dozens of adopted streetkids she took under her wing as Saint Marsha, is the queen of the Christopher piers. Tall and muscular, she dons wigs and outfits put together from thrift store and dumpster finds, often topping them off with an eccentric headpiece like a stuffed bunny or a box of chocolates. Christopher Street regulars will spot her roller skating around the piers, or running naked up the street. In and out of mental institutions and prison (she would famously tell a judge that the “P” in her name stood for “Pay it no mind”) throughout the decade, she embodies everything that is liberated and welcoming, but deeply complex, of the drag queen enclave nestled along the West side waterfront.

1966

Gay nightlife in Greenwich Village continues to be subject to intense police scrutiny. Proprietors of gay-friendly bars are routinely harassed; gay patrons are refused service.

In a bid to spotlight this discrimination, on April 21, 1966 the gay rights group the Mattachine Society decides to hold a Sip-in. Activists hatch a plan to go around bars in the Village, and test out whether they will still receive service after revealing to bartenders that they are gay—all in front of the half dozen reporters they have invited along for the ride. After successfully ordering drinks at a couple of spots, they head to Julius bar at the corner of West 10th and Waverly Place. The former 1920s speakeasy—which is still around today—is actually an incognito gay bar, but the manager is in cahoots with the activists and refuses them service in front of the reporters. They run with stories about the incident, marking a significant step on the road to ending gay discrimination in bars.

1969: June

Throughout the late 1960s, raids on gay bars on the loose interpretations of the state liquor authority regulations, become increasingly frequent. According to some historical accounts, however, police were supposedly getting tired of the Mafia’s stronghold on the city’s bars—although it is disputed to what extent the police are actually just feeling the pressure of residents who live near the bars filing complaints about the disorder on their doorstep.

At around 1 am on the morning of June 28, one such raid happens at the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street. But rather that comply with orders to vacate the premises, those propping up the bar fought back against the police.

As the story goes, the police attempt to arrest a lesbian who is wearing men’s clothing. The never-identified “Stonewall Lesbian,” as she will henceforth be known, fights back against the police officers, who hit her over the head with a club. As tensions rise, something snaps, and a violent clash between the police and the swelling crowd around the bar ensues. The fighting continues until the early hours of the morning, spilling out into the streets and attracting more people from the neighborhood to join in the conflict.

The largest percentage of protestors there that night are blacks and Latinos, because they heavily frequented the bar. In the days following the raid, the rioting continue, with more demonstrations by the residents of the Village against the police. Amid the chaos and uncertainty happening on Christopher Street, it’s a moment that’s come to be known as the trigger for the modern mainstreaming of the gay rights movement.

1969: July

In the immediate aftermath of Stonewall, gay activists and residents of the neighborhood begin debating how to harness the thrust of the riots into an assertive fight for freedom. The progress the Mattachine Society (the same advocacy group responsible for the Julius’ Sip-in) had been making now seems vanilla by comparison to the physical confrontation between the community and authorities on the streets of Greenwich Village, and a thirst for something more militant takes hold. The Gay Liberation Front is born, with a flyer announcing the occasion: “Do you think homosexuals are revolting? You bet your sweet ass we are.”

1969: October

The Stonewall Inn closes. Its Mafia bosses supposedly thought it was too visible and volatile and cut their losses. The rusty sign comes down, and it won’t be until the early 1990s that the bar reopens for business, heralded by a new, neon red “The Stonewall Inn” sign proudly displayed in the front window.

1970

On June 28, a few hundred gay men and lesbians march from Christopher Street up Sixth Ave and to Central Park bearing handmade banners with slogans like “Gay Pride” and “Gay is Good.” It’s the first gay pride march in New York—known back then as the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day. Initially, eager to avoid fueling the stereotype of the flamboyant queer, the organizers try to bar drag queens from taking part—but the drag queens are having none of it, and go out ahead of the parade with their own banners. From then on, they will be officially included in the parade, which has taken place every year since.

1970: August

Since Cafe Society’s closure in the 1950s, One Sheridan Square has gone through a number of iterations. In 1970, for a brief period of time, it’s a gay disco called Haven that circumvents the jurisdiction of the State Liquor Authority by operating as a “juice bar.” After Stonewall, relations between the police and gay community are still tense, and in August, police raid the club on the grounds that they’re searching for drugs. They smash the sound system, the bar, and lighting equipment, resulting in damage of over $75,000. Members of the staff are arrested on charges that are later dropped, but the club isn’t able to get back on its feet, and closes.

1973

The Oscar Wilde Bookshop, founded by leading gay activist Craig Rodwell as the first store in New York to exclusively sell titles by gay and lesbian authors, moves to Christopher Street. First opened at 291 Mercer Street in 1967, it moves to the corner of Christopher and Gay Streets (the etymology of Gay Street’s name, incidentally, is a total coincidence).

1980

In November, Ronald K. Crumpley, a 38-year-old former transit police officer, goes on a shooting spree through the Village, killing two men and wounding six others. Crumpley opens fire outside a deli at the corner of Washington and 10th Streets, wounding two people before moving on to Ramrod, a gay club on West Street between 10th and Christopher. There, he continues shooting, killing Vernon Koenig, a 21-year-old church organist, and the Ramrod’s 24-year-old doorman, Jorg Wenz, in addition to injuring four others. During the spree he is reported to have said, “I’ll kill them all—the gays—they ruin everything.” Crumpley will die in 2015 at the age of 73, while housed in a secure psychiatric hospital.

1981

Reports begin to spread of gay men in the United States becoming sick with what is at first thought to be rare forms of cancer and immune diseases. By the end of the year, nearly 300 cases of severe immunodeficiency have been reported, mainly in New York and San Francisco. Half of the cases are fatal. By 1982 the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is formally introduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the disease that is sweeping through the country, and decimating the Village’s gay population.

1985

As AIDS ravages the Village, clubs start to close. The health department shuts down the Minecraft, a gay S&M club that has been open since 1976, on the grounds that its activities could spread AIDS. Gay bathhouses are also shut down by the city, including the St Marks Baths. Two gay clubs in the Village, The Anvil and Hellfire, close voluntarily. During this time, gay and queer establishments revert once again to the old tactics of operating as pseudo private members clubs to avoid closure.

1986

Bailey House, the country’s first housing complex for HIV/AIDS sufferers, opens on the western end of Christopher Street, in a four-story building that had once housed a gay disco. The space is operated by the AIDS Resource Center, a private organization dedicated to providing housing for homeless people living with AIDS. Some of its residents have likely frequented the disco it used to house in the years preceding AIDS epidemic. As gay rights advocate William K. Dobbs told the New York Times in 1995, “What was once a giddy walk to the piers now symbolically and literally ends with AIDS.”

Bailey House will expand into an HIV/AIDS charity that will run additional residences in other parts of the city, as well as a host of programs for sufferers. The building at 180 Christopher will continue to operate, and a federal program providing housing for people with HIV/AIDS will come into effect.

1992

Marsha P. Johnson’s body is found floating in the Hudson River off the Christopher Street piers at the beginning of July, a few days after the Gay Pride Parade. The police name the cause of death suicide, though her family (blood and adopted) will push for a murder inquiry that never happens. ANOHNI’s former band, Antony and the Johnsons, will be named after her.

1993

AIDS cases in the city reach their peak, then begin steadily declining; drugs and treatment drastically improves, and stigma subsides, so for sufferers the disease becomes manageable enough to live a full life. After more than a decade of being caught in the jaws of the AIDS crisis, Christopher Street is unrecognizable. The majority of the neighborhood’s gay residents are gone; many have died, and others have moved away, unable cope with living among sickness and dying.

The AIDS epidemic, but also the crack crisis in New York at this time causes the demographic of the Village to shift from predominantly white gay men to black and hispanic. During this time, the western stretch of Christopher Street from Hudson Street down to the river also goes through a seismic economic downturn. Shops shutter, crime rates rise, and the once throbbing heartbeat of gay New York is slowed down to a thready pulse.

1994

Rudy Giuliani is sworn in as the Mayor of New York, and inherits a city riddled with the scars of the AIDS and crack crises. Throughout two terms in office, he will implement his infamous “broken windows” policing initiative of taking a zero tolerance to crime that drags the city out of the darkness it had descended into, scrubbing it down to a gleaming—in places sterile—shine. The Village flourishes in this time as well, but not the same way it once did.

By the end of his mayorship in 2001, the former magnet for the wayward, beacon of bohemians, and haven for every flavor of queer in between will look very different. Expensive gyms, elegant brunch spots, and luxury boutiques will open and it transforms into one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. Perhaps it’s because of pure economics—as artists can no longer afford to live there, or maybe LGBTQ people feel safe living all over the city now, but Christopher Street and its Village is more gay in spirit now than in actual makeup.

2016

On Sunday June 26, Christopher Street was the final destination of the city’s Pride Parade. Four decades after the Riots, the Stonewall Inn has been designated a national monument.

History isn’t just woven into the fabric of the street, it’s still being made there.

#NYC #christopher street #lgbtq #history #gay #culture #LGBTQ stories #LGBTQ history #pride #new york

0 notes

newstfionline · 7 years

Text

Faded Yukon Gold Rush Town, Population 20, Mines Its Weirdness

By Dan Levin, NY Times, Oct. 15, 2017

KENO CITY, Yukon Territory--The journey to the heart of Yukon’s historic mineral wealth started with a question posed to a waitress at the aptly titled Gold Rush hotel in the territorial capital of Whitehorse: What’s the weirdest place in Yukon?

Her answer was a patch of pay dirt around 290 miles north, past endless forests of spruce and golden-leafed aspen, at the end of a gravel road known as the Silver Trail. There lies Keno City, a gold-rush-era relic with about a dozen full-time residents, tap water not fit for human consumption and two bars whose owners haven’t been on speaking terms for more than a decade.

Perched among hills rich in silver, zinc and lead, Keno City began as a Swedish prospector’s staked claim in 1919, its name inspired by a popular gambling game and intended to lure hearty fortune-seekers with the promise of an ore-laden metropolis in Canada’s frigid northern reaches.

People made a go of it here for 70 years, as the region became one of Canada’s largest producers of silver. But in 1989, the town was largely emptied by the closure of the United Keno Hill Mine. That turned the nearby company town of Elsa into a ghost town and prompted even the most stubborn holdouts to rebrand their beloved mining outpost as a quirky testament to human tenacity.

“You walk into a place like Keno and you’re like: ‘What? How many people live here, 12?’,” said Dirk Rentmeister, 57, a former miner who grew up in Keno and was drying out a freshly detached moose head in his driveway.

For the record, the population is 20, according to the 2016 census, but that includes part-time residents like Mr. Rentmeister, the owner of the Silvermoon Bunkhouse motel, who returns each summer to capitalize on visitors’ desires for nostalgia, nature and all-terrain-vehicle rides through the wilderness.

While this dot on the map has seen prospectors, prostitutes, miners and bootleggers come and go, it serves as a lesson on the dangers of betting it all on resource extraction, a capricious industry that has left the region scarred by environmental contamination and economic collapse.

Since its well was damaged in 2015, the hamlet has relied on drinking water trucked in by the government. Officials have found dangerous levels of uranium, arsenic and other minerals in the groundwater, contamination too costly to treat for so few residents.

“It’s a scary situation,” said Mike Mancini, the former director of the Keno Mining Museum, who owns the only pizza joint for hundreds of miles. “That’s what people are concerned about. How long will the government pay the bill?”

Still, residents have stuck around this long, and they refuse to consider leaving.

As a child, Mr. Mancini, 56, lived in a tarpaper shack in No Cash, a nearby station for the mine’s tramline, before his family moved to Keno. He stayed after the mine shut down and helped transform an old clapboard dance hall into the museum, which houses artifacts like antique mining equipment, midcentury home appliances and funeral dresses.

Making pizzas has helped Mr. Mancini make ends meet, but the lifestyle keeps him here, as do his neighbors.

“We’re like one big unhappy family,” he said. “Some people still don’t agree with things that happened 40 years ago, but if there’s an emergency, we come together.”

Little love is lost between the owners of Keno’s two bars, which just happen to face each other across the unpaved main street.

On one side is the Keno City Hotel, a long-derelict maroon clapboard pile that Leo Martel bought 11 years ago and renovated, its first-floor bar now furnished with pool tables, a piano and a sign over the bar top reading, “I thought I was wrong once, but I made a mistake.”

On the other side lies the Sourdough Roadhouse, a pub that Jim Milley bought 10 years ago, crushing Mr. Martel’s dreams of a bar monopoly.

Theirs is a feud steeped in competition and fermented with age. Both first arrived in Keno as young men. Both serve alcohol. And both nurse mutual grudges that neither is willing to let go of.

“He backed into a liquor license,” said Mr. Milley, 63, a wiry chain-smoker with a long gray beard, as he stood on his pub’s front porch, several feet away from Mr. Martel’s hotel door. “Now we have two bars for 12 people.”

“I wanted that bar across the street before Jim,” Mr. Martel, 66, said, his blue eyes narrowing as he sipped a beer in the hotel later one evening. “He needs conflict.”

Keno thrives by embracing its eccentricities. The village has no cellphone service or stores, and the nearest police officers are stationed 38 miles away.

At times, locals said, unusual characters show up, like the woman who wandered into town one winter and began burning library books to stay warm, and the ex-convict who came looking for a stockpile of buried guns and money he had heard about from a fellow inmate. (He never found it.)

In Mr. Mancini’s front yard, bushes have grown up among a collection of junked, rusting 1950s cars.

Back in the ‘70s, he said, residents used to celebrate the end of the long winters by swapping partners. These days, they host a summer solstice party under the midnight sun at the top of Keno Hill, 6,000 feet above sea level, and end the season with a raucous Labor Day weekend festival known as Keno Gras, featuring costumes and a pig roast.

The town’s bohemian ethos has turned Keno into something of a magnet for people looking to escape the constraints of the modern world.

“This place feels like time took a holiday in 1978 and never came back to work,” said Doug Tremblay, 59, who works for the territorial government in winter but spends summers panning for gold in rivers and streams, a hardscrabble method known as placer mining that has been attracting people to Yukon for over a century.

Mr. Tremblay began placer mining a few years ago, a passion he admitted is stoked more by the thrill of discovery than the prospect of striking it rich.

“When you see gold rimmed along the bottom of a pan,” he said, “it’s better than sex.”

#Yukon Territory #Keno City

0 notes

mastcomm · 5 years

Text

After the Oscar Glare, These Filmmakers Went Their Own Way

McCarthy too had moved his family temporarily to Los Angeles for his awards-campaign obligations. It was a “wholly uncreative” time, he said.

“He said to me, ‘If you can, cling to the work,’” McCarthy recalled.

“I really just wanted to work,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t have another movie ready, and I didn’t want to just jump into another movie.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/after-the-oscar-glare-these-filmmakers-went-their-own-way/

#Entertainment

0 notes