#and peter (bless him) plays the role of having recently moved to the area for plot-convenient reasons | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

newscheckz · 4 years

Text

Atwoli’s Speech during Labour Day 2020 at State House

New Post has been published on https://newscheckz.com/atwolis-speech-labour-day-2020-state-house/

Atwoli’s Speech during Labour Day 2020 at State House

May 1, 2020May 1, 2020

His Excellency The President and Commander In-Chief of the Defense Forces of the Republic of Kenya Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, C.G.H.

The Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Labour & Social Protection Hon. Simon Chelugui, CBS

The Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Social Protection Hon. Patrick Ole Ntutu

The Principal Secretary of Labour, Eng. Peter Tum, OGW,

Honourable Cabinet Secretaries Present

Executive Director, Federation of Kenya Employers, FKE Sis. Jacqueline Mugo, MBS, OGW PROLOGUE • Foremost Your Excellency, let me take this rare opportunity to congratulate you for your exceptional acceptance immediately we wrote inviting you to preside over the 55th International Labour Day Celebrations at Uhuru Park.

YouTube LABOUR DAY 2020: COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli’s full speech

• Fortunately, here you are Your Excellency and let me recognize the fact that throughout your presidency, you have stood with workers and at no one time have you left workers to be on their own. Thank you Your Excellency.

• Let me also congratulate all Kenyan workers together with their families on this occasion of the 55th International Labour Day.

• This year’s Labour Day will be remembered for many years to come given the difficult and challenging global health circumstances under which it is being communicated without celebrations.

• We pay our special tribute to all those workers who have lost their lives to the Coronavirus Pandemic and for those who have tested positive and hospitalized, we wish you quick recovery. • For the first time in our long history, Labour Day world-over is taking place behind closed doors with limited participation of government, workers, employers including the general public owing to the insurgence of the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) which came as a mysterious intruder into the world of work.

WORK PLACES • However, this Pandemic is no coincidence; God is sending us a message that after days of

YouTube LABOUR DAY 2020: COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli’s full speech

weeping, and if we listen to him and continue praying, there shall be joy but only if we can as a people change our general feelings towards humanity that might have angered our Almighty God. THANK GOVERNMENT • Your Excellency, allow me on behalf of millions of Kenyan workers, locally and abroad, to commend you and your government for the stringent measures that you have put in place to mitigate the negative effects of the virus and also your able Cabinet Secretary for Health Hon. Mutahi Kagwe for the good job he has so far exhibited together with his team.

• Indeed this shows your total commitment to save this nation, you mean well for Kenyans, Your Excellency.

• Let me also take this moment to thank those employers who have kept workers in full employment despite the pandemic and particularly those who have gone ahead to enter into separate agreements with their respective unions to ensure no worker losses employment as per your directive Your Excellency.

• We thank the Landlords as well particularly those who have accepted and allowed their tenants to stay either on half rent or without paying rent at all as they (Landlords) express their solidarity with the government.

• COTU(K)’s special thanks as well goes to our medical personnel, our Doctors, Nurses, Clinical Officers, Lab technicians, cleaners in our health facilities, Police Officers among others who have all put their lives on line for the sake of Kenyans affected by this pandemic. Truly we can’t thank you enough. May God Bless You All.

• Let me also appreciate the important role that the various companies across the country have played in terms of supply of face masks and other related equipments in mitigating the Pandemic.

ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

• Your Excellency, no doubt as a country just like the rest of the Global Community, we expect an unprecedented economic meltdown that will see a slow performance in the world economy but we promise to join hands with both the government and employers to examine the post corona virus period and we are optimistic that with the strong solidarity we have today, we will rebuild our economy in the shortest possible time.

• Meanwhile, we wish to thank particularly those leaders that have stood with you Your Excellency side by side as you steer this country to greater heights; we are also alive to the Agenda we had prior to this pandemic and it must succeed for our prosperity as a Nation.

BUILDING BRIDGES INITIATIVE • On a day like this in 2017, Your Excellency we proposed to Kenyans to accept to review our constitution particularly in the area of governance which has been a source of political troubles, misunderstandings and violence. When problems occur, it is workers, women and children who suffer. • We are glad that this agenda was finally mooted out of the famous handshake and dubbed Building Bridges Initiative that aims at relooking at our Constitution afresh.

• As Trade Unions and workers, we have already submitted our memorandum to the BBI team with regard to this demand and we are proposing a change in our governance structure where we have a President, a Vice President, a Prime Minister with two Deputy Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers to be appointed among the elected Members of Parliament so that our August House can have ministers within who can answer questions and defend government policies on behalf of the Kenyan people.

SALARIES AND REMUNERATION COMMISSION, (SRC)

• As workers Your Excellency, we are deeply concerned with the manner in which the, SRC is exercising its role.

• The Commission has deliberately continued to interfere with all Collective Bargaining Agreements, CBAs that the Unions have freely negotiated with the Employers especially those affecting parastatals and related government agencies.

• While the SRC role was to advise as per our 2010 Constitution, the Commission has since abdicated this role and usurped the responsibilities of social partners under tripartism arrangements to negotiate for salaries and fix wages and allowances for Workers without consulting social partners.

• This move Your Excellency by the Commission is in total contravention of our own legislations governing employee/ employer relations as well as the International Labour Organization, Conventions 87 and 98.

• Indeed we are optimistic that through the BBI Initiative, the SRC will be disbanded and removed from the list of Independent Commissions since Kenya boasts of a robust economy and a competitive business environment that is capable of regulating itself through its own market forces if we can tame corruption.

TOM MBOYA LABOUR COLLEGE, KISUMU • Your Excellency, in our efforts to transform the Tom Mboya Labour College, Kisumu to a world class institution that can offer training for workers locally and globally, COTU (K) has embarked on its renovation work that is half-way complete and now on halt due to the current Coronavirus Pandemic.

• We have since spent over Kshs. 120,000,000 (Kshs.120M) on this work from our own internal sources and whereas I wish to thank the Government for its earlier support in financing the first Phase of the College’s Resource Centre, we are optimistic that your government will consider completing the second and last Phase of this important Centre for workers’ education since an educated worker creates stability and industrial peace at work place.

NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY FUND, NSSF • Your Excellency, let me thank your government for the tremendous support it has given to the Board of Trustees and Management at NSSF in protecting workers’ funds.

• Today, the Fund now boasts of a Kshs. 300 Billion portfolio in assets and cash at hand and this growth has been as a result of your personal intervention in ensuring that there is no political interference in the running of the Fund.

• You exhibited this when you reorganized the Ministry of Labour because of NSSF in 2015.

• However, Your Excellency, we are concerned over the numerous attempts by individual politicians to amend the NSSF Act of 2013 so that they can remove both FKE and COTU (K) from the Board of Trustees for their own selfish ends and we call for your intervention to continue protecting these funds.

NATIONAL HOSPITAL INSURANCE FUND, NHIF • Your Excellency, let me thank you and your government for the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer at the NHIF.

• As workers, we call on the new CEO to remain firm and not fall victim to politicians who are out to loot the NHIF as they did under the previous CEO and to the period preceding 2017 elections.

• We are ready to extend our support to the new CEO in ensuring that he discharges his duties without any political interference and mismanagement.

REPOSSESSION OF GRABBED PARCELS OF LAND • Your Excellency, we thank you and your government for the bold step you have taken to repossess any grabbed land in the country particularly the recent move to repossess the Ruai Sewerage Land.

• This has send a very strong message to all those grabbers and those who occupy grabbed land across the country that it is just a matter of time that their ill-gotten parcels of public land will revert back to the rightful owners who are the Kenyan people.

• We urge your government not to relent in these efforts as the entire Kenyan citizens are behind you.

ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN TRADE UNION UNITY, OATUU

• Your Excellency, as the President of our Pan-African Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, OATUU let me take this opportunity on behalf of the workers on the continent to humbly thank you and your government for the commitment to contribute an annual Grant of USD. 200,000.

• We are pleased to inform you, Your Excellency, that already the first contribution of USD. 200,000 is in the process of being transferred to the organisation and once it is received, we will equally inform you. We thank you; Your Excellency.

MINIMUM WAGE • Your Excellency, we thank you for the so many cautionary measures you have taken to cushion workers on the cost of living and other hardships including food to the workers who are facing numerous difficulties during this period of Coronavirus pandemic. • However, Your Excellency we appeal to you that as you continue to protect us from this Pandemic, consider extending your offer to workers for tax exemptions from Kshs. 24,000 that you gave us up to Kshs. 100,000 as this will go a long way in cushioning most of the lowly placed Kenyans and any other support you may deem fit as a worker number one.

• We will continue to support you despite these difficult times we find ourselves in and we are now afraid and unable to make any demands for a Minimum Wage increase as we have always done.

• However, for now we want to thank you for the various measures you continue to take to assist workers both logistically and financially in mitigating the effects of Coronavirus and don’t get tired on the same.

• I thank you.

#COTU #FRANCIS ATWOLI

0 notes

tomoyanosekai · 4 years

Text

There And Back Again ~笑顔の弁当~ (Egao no Bento: Bento of Smiles)

“I guess I’m back.”

“Hanami.” Hanami is the Japanese traditional custom and event dedicated to enjoying the transient beauty of flowers, usually referring to cherry blossom (sakura) or plum (ume) trees. I’ve never been to a Japanese Hanami Party, but something I’ve always admired and appreciated was the sublime beauty behind the changing of the seasons. Just like the changing of the four seasons, the seasons of life are always continuing to change before my very eyes. It won’t be Spring for another month yet, but it’s February. Usually when you think “February,” many people think either Valentine’s Day or melancholic feelings about being single. That was neither the case for me; considering the fact that I was working on Valentine’s Day and wasn’t worrying about any of that. Honestly, February has been less than uneventful; I can safely say that it was quiet and sort of boring. However, in the large pockets of free time that I had at my disposal, I continued pursuing things I’ve always wanted to do for a while.

Although life has ultimately gotten lonelier at times due to the ever-evolving landscape known as adulthood with myself and friends, living day by day has been hard. Despite that, I’ve been finding ways to pass the time, especially by taking most of that time for self-care. With a new season of life, I’ve been taking more time to cook, exercise, and most of all, spending more time in the Bible. I wrote before that the thing I enjoyed most about working at a ramen restaurant was interacting with the customers and seeing their smiles as they enjoyed their food. That sentiment hasn’t changed a bit as I’ve been practicing cooking. As Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:10,

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

Two weeks ago, I decided to make some bentos for my friends, or Japanese lunch boxes; a common staple found when going out to a Hanami Party. When making the bentos, I made sure to keep it balanced and healthy by including vegetables, some carbohydrates, and lots of protein. Although successfully making a bento has been a goal ever since I began to try my hand at cooking and testing various recipes, it took a few attempts through trial and error to get the flavors I was looking for. However, after completing the bentos, being able to see my friends’ smiles and having that opportunity to bless them in a unique way was something that I was able to enjoy. The impact that came from the smiles of my friends enjoying my cooking really hit me hard; even though life was changing for all of us, we were all able to enjoy some food while being able to talk and observe the changing of the seasons in our lives.

Pictured above: Salad, Karaage (Japanese Style Fried Chicken) over a bed of Fried Rice, Dashimaki Tamagoyaki (Japanese Style Omelets), and an Octopus Sausage

However, I also think that the concept of bento has played a fascinating role in my life this month as well. Like I wrote before, life has become a bit lonely for me, especially since my schedule with work and classes hasn’t been able to match up with other people most of the time. Because of this, it’s been hard to create a firm sense of dedicated community that could help fill in my pockets of free time. Although I have no concrete community anymore that relies on people purely from one area or another of my life currently, I know that community for me has simply formed like that of a bento; it’s not purely one person or one specific group, but a bunch of people from different groups that I’ve been in that helped form my current sense of community. Life is changing, but I’m still appreciative of everyone that’s still here.

As life’s been moving forward, I’ve been looking back at a lot of past posts on this Tumblr account from five years ago. The more I think about and look back at my life so far, the more I find that about 80% of the time, reality has often been stranger than fiction. Looking back five years ago around this time, I was still mulling over making a decision regarding college and my future. Even more than that, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself on things that seem so insignificant now. I didn’t know what I wanted back then, and I still don’t know even now. If I told my 2015 self who was mulling over the future that I’d still be in college for a fifth year while working part-time at a ramen shop, I probably wouldn’t have believed myself; especially since I’m finishing at a Community College. Despite all that, here I am in the present doing all of those things. But why do I bring up events from five years ago? As of recently, I came back to East Los Angeles College (ELAC) to finish off the one class I need to graduate.

Coming back to finish one class at ELAC has been a really weird experience. As I go back to school at a Community College, I’m finding that this experience is reminding me of high school more than anything. My previous four years of being surrounded by Christians at Biola has been wonderful, but coming back to a place of secular education has led to a small case of culture shock. The classmates I’m interacting with remind me of all of my memories from high school, and the fact that this class reminds me of all the acting I did in Speech and Debate definitely feels nostalgic in a really weird way. But even as I’m feeling nostalgic, I think this return to public schooling has been a good reality check for me, especially since people will not be like all the people I’ve met at Biola. This new season for finishing schooling in a different place has been reminding me of all the memories and experiences I had in high school. The only difference is that I know I’ve changed immensely ever since leaving that type of environment, only to come back with a different mindset and perspective after five years. Obviously, I am not that same person who left high school five years ago.

After reobserving the past, looking at the present and towards the future, I still have no idea what’s next. If God has continually changed and can continue to change my plans and expectations, I know that the next steps found after graduating can only be led by Him and his timing. Just as he opened up the opportunity for me to finally go to Japan, he also changed my plans, where it’s taking me five years to finally (and hopefully) graduate. But in the meantime, the sense of ironic finality that comes from finishing my college career only serves as a reminder for me to remember where I came from before beginning my journey at Biola. Who knows what’s next? Only time can tell as I continue to live each day vigorously, yet patiently. As King David writes in Psalms 27:14,

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

“From here on out, it’s my stage!!”

0 notes

trendsdresscom · 4 years

Text

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Fun Facts

Noah Centineo almost played someone else.

Lara Jean (a.k.a. Lana Condor) had crushes on a bunch of different dudes in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, including instant fan-favorite Peter Kavinsky (Centineo). But Centineo almost played another one of Lara’s crushes, Josh—that is, until director Susan Johnson saw how much chemistry Condor and Centineo had from the onset.

“When we did chemistry reads, I knew I loved Israel, and I knew I loved Noah, but I wasn’t sure who would play which role,” she told IndieWire. “I initially was thinking of Noah for Josh, because I thought, ‘Oh, he seems like boy next door,’ but then once I saw Lana and Noah’s chemistry I knew we had to go that direction. Israel was great with Janel. I thought that fit really well.”

Hollywood execs tried to whitewash the characters.

Hollywood has been preaching the importance of representation for quite some time, but it wasn’t until recently that we finally started to see a turning point. From Black Panther to Crazy Rich Asians and even TATBILB joining in with an Vietnamese-American lead. However, author Jenny Han revealed in an essay she wrote for The New York Times that producers tried to coax her to whitewash the characters.

“Even before the book came out in 2014, there was interest in making a movie. But the interest died as soon as I made it clear the lead had to be Asian-American,” she wrote. “One producer said to me, as long as the actress captures the spirit of the character, age and race don’t matter. I said, well, her spirit is Asian-American. That was the end of that.”

Lara’s lockscreen photo wasn’t staged for the movie.

There’s a scene in TATBILB where the camera focuses on Lara’s iPhone l0ckscreen, which shows a photo of her and Peter napping on a couch. As perfect as that photo was for the scene, it turns out it wasn’t intended for the movie and was an IRL shot of Condor and Centineo on set.

“The two of them were in the green room on set at the high school location, in the area where we put the actors,” Johnson said to ET Online. They actually were sleeping on the couch in that room like that, so we just stood over them and took that picture and it’s so friggin’ cute.”

Condor and Centineo developed their “hot tub” chemistry way before the scene.

The steamy hot tub scene, you know when Lara leaps over to Peter and gives him a big ol’ smooch, seemed almost too perfect and that’s mainly due to the characters’ off-screen chemistry.

“We went to the hot tub all the time in our apartments and stuff,” Condor said to People. “The transition was super easy to bring to the camera. I’m so blessed to have worked with him—he’s an awesome guy.”

Condor and Centineo bonded through hot yoga.

The on-screen lovebirds also strengthened their chemistry by attending hot yoga classes when they first met.

“Very early on in the stages of production, we went to yoga together. It was hot yoga and I feel like that maybe was the moment where we became friends outside of work as well,” she recalled. “You know, doing yoga with a person is kind of intimate so I think doing that [at the beginning of] shooting, really helped us connect and feel comfortable around each other.”

Condor and Madeleine Arthur improvised their ski lodge arrival scene.

In the scene when Lara and Chris arrive at the ski lodge, they begin to discuss Chris attending an EDM concert, which was never written in their script. Arthur (Chris) told Shine On Media that the scene was “ad-libbed.”

Jordan Bruchett auditioned to play Peter.

Centineo’s character, Peter Kavinsky, was almost played by Jordan Bruchett, who ended up playing Lara’s model UN crush John Ambrose McClaren in TATBILB. However, the character was recast for the sequel.

Kavinsky moving the popcorn off the couch was improvised.

The cast members of the film had a lot of room to improvise in their scenes, including the scene where Kavinsky had a pillow fight with Lara Jean’s younger sister and moved the bowl of popcorn on the floor. Everyone knows that pillow fights can get messy, and Peter Kavinsky made sure his (fake) girlfriend and her sisters wouldn’t have to do any hard labor afterwards. A MAN.

He also improvised that scene where he spins Lara Jean around by her back pocket.

Remember Lara Jean’s first rule in the contract? No kissing, but Peter is allowed to put his hand in her back pocket, à la Sixteen Candles. The two go on to make their (fake) couple debut in the school cafeteria, where Peter adorably spins Lara Jean around by her back pocket to face him. It’s one of their cutest moments in the movie, and Centineo totally improvised it. According to the film’s director Susan Johnson, “He did it in the rehearsal and I was like, ‘That is beautiful, we’re going to change the shot around!'”

The gold necklace that Kitty wears throughout the movie says “feminist.”

Kitty Covey is one of the film’s cult characters for her spunky personality and good-natured teasing of Lara Jean. And it turns out the youngest Covey sister is a budding feminist too. Throughout the movie, Kitty wears what looks like a bar necklace, but it’s actually the word “feminist” dangling in golden script.

The Netflix film was actually a book first.

As with all great movies these days, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before had its inception as a novel. The book was written by Jenny Han and published by Simon & Schuster in 2014 as a 421-page novel in the young adult fiction genre. Two more books were written too, leaving plenty of material for more films.

Lara Jean’s letters are based on something the book’s author does IRL.

If Lara Jean’s fictional love letters felt real to you, there’s good reason. It turns out To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before‘s author has a habit of writing letters (and then not sending them) to get closure from ended relationships. She disclosed this in a screenshot of a 2010 email to a colleague that she posted to Instagram, where she also revealed she knew the title for To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before before she knew the plot.

Lara Jean and Peter sit at the same table where Dr. Covey used to sit with the Covey daughters’ mom.

In the scene where Dr. Covey takes Lara Jean to the diner, he explains that they were sitting at the very table where he and Lara Jean’s mother used eat all the time, and where she’d play the same song over and over. It’s the same table where Lara Jean and Peter later enjoy a cherry coke and a chocolate shake.

Emilija Baranac channeled Mean Girls to play Gen.

When asked how she got into character for her girl role as Peter’s ex, Gen, Baranac told Shine On Media: “I just thought I am Regina George.”

The Covey sisters are just as close IRL.

They may bicker onscreen, but the Covey sisters are ride and die—just like the actresses in real life. Janel Parrish, Anna Cathcart, and Condor expressed just how excited they were to be working together again with an adorable triple Instagram.

Before filming started, Jenny Han gave Condor a “Get Ready Pack.”

The “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Get Ready Pack” was designed to help the Condor get into character and included Korean snacks, sheet masks, candles, a diary, and stationery.

While on set, Han and Condor reportedly formed a deep connection, bonding over similar upbringings and adolescent experiences. “From the very beginning, I told Lana I want her to keep working and for this to be a great stepping stone for the rest of her career,” Han told Glamour. “Young white actresses, like Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson, who are at the helms of YA franchises go on to have these big, amazing careers. I just wanted Lana to be able to have those same kind of opportunities. I didn’t want it to be just a one-time thing for her to be the lead of a romantic comedy.”

The sequel is based off of the second book.

Before Netflix picked up the project, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was a book trilogy—as in three books! Immediately after the success of the first movie, fans started begging for a sequel. In December 2018, Netflix confirmed the rumors with a holiday-themed promo. The film is set to release on the streaming network on February 12—so get your popcorn ready.

And the full cast is returning.

Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Anna Cathcart, Janel Parrish, John Corbett, Emilija Baranac, and Madeline Arthur will all be in the TATBILB sequel.

Lara Jean and Peter are dating in the sequel—for real!

The sequel’s trailer shows the two main character’s navigating their first real relationship without a contract after faking their relationship in the last movie.

But it won’t be smooth sailing for the couple.

Audiences fell in love with Peter and Lara Jean, but it doesn’t look like the sequel is going to be the lovefest people are hoping for. Netflix announced that a third main character John Ambrose McClaren will stir things up, played by Jordan Fisher.

Lara Jean might not end up with Peter.

Breathe. It’s going to be okay, but yes, in the trailer it appears that Lara Jean is seen all dolled up and holding hands with none other than, John Ambrose McClaren. We’re waiting for context here.

The premiere has already happened.

Even though To All the Boys I’ve Ever Loved: PS. I Still Love You premieres on Netflix on February 12, the stars celebrated the film’s premiere on February 4.

Ross Butler is joining the cast.

In April, Netflix confirmed that 13 Reasons Why actor Ross Butler will play Peter Kravinsky’s best friend, Trevor Pike.

And so is Sarayu Blue.

Holland Taylor will also be a new face.

There isn’t too much information about her character, Stormy. But in the books, she was John’s grandmother, and in a new trailer, she appears to be a confidant of sorts for a conflicted Lara Jean.

Condor and Centineo love each other IRL.

“I really do still love you,” shared Condor on Instagram (along with an adorable snap of the pair at the premiere). The two say it’s a platonic love, and both are dating other people.

The first film’s director didn’t return for the sequel.

Although TATBILB director Susan Johnson wanted to work on the sequel, she had a scheduling conflict with production. Instead, her colleague and the first film’s director of photography, Michael Fimognari, took over for the second installment.

Netflix is releasing an exclusive soundtrack for the sequel.

The soundtrack for the first movie blew up, even though Netflix didn’t release anything officially. So this time around TATBILB is making sure to give fans what they want, which means exclusive vinyl and CD copies of the movie’s soundtrack sold at Urban Outfitters.

A third film is coming.

Condor and Centineo spilled the tea with fans when they announced that not only is a third film happening, but it’s already in post-production! Netflix confirmed the threequel, but hasn’t announced a release date yet.

And the threequel already has a title.

You can thank Condor for this juicy tidbit too. Join us as we try to figure out any and all spoilers about To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: Always and Forever, Lara Jean. It’s based off the third book in the trilogy, which has the same title.

Jordan Fisher isn’t confirmed for the third film—that we know of.

We sense that Netflix is holding off for the sake of spoilers. Fisher appeared in the promotional video that announced the third film, but he wasn’t included in the shot that revealed the news, so read into that as you will.

There definitely won’t be a fourth movie.

Even though there are only three books, deep down some fans were secretly hoping there’d be more movies. Sadly, Centineo crushed those hopes with one tweet: “Tonight was my last night as Peter Kavinsky. I hope you all love these last installments as much as we do. Forever grateful for the opportunity to be yours. Thank you, Lana, thank you, Michael, Thank you, Matt Thank you Netflix, grateful to every person who told this story with us.”

Jenny Han hadn’t planned on writing a third TATBILB book.

After the success of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, author Jenny Han decided to continue Lara Jean’s story with one more book. But apparently her third and final installment to the trilogy, Always and Forever, Lara Jean, was just as much of a surprise to her as it was to her fans. The author explained to Bustle that she was deep into another project, but that she kept wanting to go back to Lara Jean: “I just saw myself feeling really nostalgic about Lara Jean. There are actually a couple storylines that I wanted to finish out in the second book that I didn’t, so I thought that I could do that with this last book.”

Centineo wants the sequel to be like Twilight.

As in, he doesn’t want there to be a clear favorite between Peter Kavinsky and John Ambrose in the sequel’s love triangle. “I would like to see fans bicker about it and have it be like the whole Edward Cullen-Jacob thing [from Twilight]. I love that,” Centineo told EW.

Condor was a fan of naps on the TATBILB set.

As the lead, Condor was constantly napping in order to conserve her energy for upcoming scenes. It’s a habit that seemed to rub off on her costar, Centineo. “He actually said, ‘‘wow, as I was shooting The Stand-In, I really remembered how much you conserved your energy on To All the Boys, because it’s just so demanding,'” Condor told CNBC Make It.

Condor started a YouTube channel.

The young star announced her new channel, where she plans to “share more of my life” with fans, via Instagram. She’s already released her first video and, spoiler alert, it’s a makeup lover’s dream.

Fisher is engaged in real life.

He may be involved in a high school love triangle in the sequel, but Fisher’s real life relationship status is far less complicated. The singer announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Ellie Woods in May.

You can now look just like Lara Jean.

Jenny Han has written other best-selling books.

TATBILB wasn’t Jenny Han’s first rodeo with YA fiction. The author is also responsible for The Summer I Turned Pretty series, which could be made into a movie next.

Condor gained millions of followers after the first film.

Condor recalls the morning after TATBILB premiered on Netflix during a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon: “I woke up the next morning and my phone was just, like blowing up. I checked on my Instagram and it was just millions of followers. And in my head I can only think of ‘that is one million human beings, just lined up in a row, holding hands around the world.’”

Fisher actually played the piano—and wrote John Ambrose’s letter in the sequel.

If you weren’t already in love with John Ambrose McClaren, this fact about Fisher will seal the deal. His piano solo and sweet response to Lara Jean’s letter? Both came courtesy of the actor himself. He tweeted, “Oh and yes that was actually me playing piano. OH and I actually wrote the letter that John Ambrose sent back to Lara Jean. Wrote, sealed, everything.”

The third movie will explore the relationship between Dr. Covey and Trisha

An unexpected love story to emerge from the To All the Boys sequel? The one between Lara Jean’s father, played by John Corbett, and their neighbor Trina, played by Sarayu Blue.

During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Janel Parrish, who plays oldest Covey sister Margot, said the next movie will explore the relationship. “One of my favorite parts of the third film is watching this budding relationship with our dad and his new lovely, beautiful, sexy woman,” she said. “There’s definitely some mixed reactions with the girls, and there may be some friction in the beginning.”

Fisher listened to “Good Life” by Kanye West on set.

When asked at the movie’s premiere what music he listened to on the set, Fisher replied with Kanye West’s “Good Life.” He then gave viewers of the official To All the Boys Instagram Story a taste of the track.

Margot Covey will play a larger role in the third film.

Parrish told ET that even though she only briefly appears in the sequel, Margot will have a more major part in the third movie. “You get to see a lot of family time in the third movie, which I love,” she explained. “I think it’s one of my favorite parts of the film, is the bond between the sisters, because I’m so close with mine and my family.”

Peter and Lara Jean will soon be faced with college plans.

“A lot of the third movie is based around college,” Condor confirmed to Entertainment Tonight. Post-grad plans will become important in the development of Peter and Lara Jean’s relationship.“We tackle more real life because there’s really no distractions,” she continued. “It’s just him and I, and [we] figure it out.”

Han added, “The third movie really explores what happens when you’re in a relationship and then you have all the real-life stuff that comes into play,” adding that, “fans should always be worried” about the couple. “If I’m doing my job right, you’re worried.”

The cast traveled to Korea to film To All the Boys: Always and Forever, Lara Jean

In the third book, the Covey sisters venture to Korea for a visit to their grandmother. While there, they explore more about their late mother’s family. “We spent a lot of time in Korea shooting…We were there for so long, I hope that they just show a lot of Korea,” Condor told ET. “And ultimately, I want to celebrate the culture, so I think it’s really important that we keep as much of Korea in the movie as possible.”

Fisher is actually Team Peter and Centineo is Team John.

While fans my be divided about Lara Jean’s love triangle in the sequel, the actors who play her love interests are not. In an interview with People, Fisher referred to the kiss between Lara Jean and John as “sweet” yet “so heartbreaking.” He continued, “I’m team Peter, and it’s funny because Noah is actually team John.”

Nerisha Penrose Assistant Editor Nerisha is the assistant editor at ELLE.com, covering all things beauty and fashion.

The post To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Fun Facts appeared first on Trends Dress.

from Trends Dress https://trendsdress.com/2020/02/22/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-fun-facts/

0 notes

yourdailykitsch · 7 years

Note

Your blog is phenomenal. You are just wonderful and incredibly informative That Interview magazine article just wrecked me, what a truly beautiful and sensitive soul Taylor is. Do you happen to have the entire article? I'd love to know more as I am completely lost and new in the world of fandom. Thank you for your time and all your efforts in promoting and sharing your love of Taylor.

Thanks for the blog love! Always love sharing Taylor information with new fans.

The Interview Magazine article is probably the most he’s ever opened up to date. Sometimes he’s super guarded in interviews and other times he really opens up. It’s interesting

Here is the entire article, it’s long:

When I told a female friend I'd be interviewing Taylor Kitsch, the actor who broke out as the hard-nosed, brooding fullback Tim Riggins for five seasons on NBC's Texas high school football melodrama Friday Night Lights her jaw actually dropped. Kitsch's rugged looks - he's a former model and junior hockey player - and world-weary onscreen demeanor, often have this effect on women; another friend referred to him as a "classic hunk." But the 32-year-old British Columbia native possesses a surprising absence of vanity. Kitsch bought a home in Austin while filming FNL, and still lives there, ducking the Hollywood spotlight as much as possible. When I met up with him in New York, he wore a T-shirt and jeans to a luxury hotel lounge and asked if I was planning to "get some grub." He's remarkably grounded, with a ready laugh and a tendency to pepper his speech with the word fuckin'. The lack of pretense shows in his latest effort, the gritty drama Lone Survivor, which happens to be Kitsch's third collaboration with director Peter Berg (after FNL and the big-budget action pic Battleship, 2012). Based on former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's nonfiction book, the film, which co-stars Mark Wahlberg, Eric Bana, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, and Alexander Ludwig - depicts a botched 2005 mission in Afghanistan. Kitsch playsLieutenant Michael Murphy, one of four SEALs drastically outnumbered by Taliban forces. The protracted gunfight at the center of the movie is unsparing, graphic, and hyper-realistic, but Lone Survivor surrounds it with moments of unsentimental tenderness among its band of brothers.Lest you think Kitsch is only interested in stoic roles as athletes and soldiers (he was also a Civil War veteran transported to Mars in 2012's John Carter), he's subverting his image with upcoming turns as a gay activist in a TV-movie adaptation of the 1985 Larry Kramer play The Normal Heart, and as a doctor in the Canadian comedy The Grand Seduction. And he recently wrote, directed, and produced a half-hour short about small time criminals, Pieces, which he's planning to adapt into a feature. I sat down with Kitsch to talk about the movie, his time spent sleeping on subways in New York and his car in Los Angeles, and inevitably, how he reacts to his female admirers. (To my awestruck friend, and other aspirants: he's single - but read on for how not to approach him.)TEDDY WAYNE: I didn't really know the story behind Lone Survivor. What, other than Peter Berg's involvement, drew you to it?TAYLOR KITSCH: There's not a day that goes by that you don't think about it, really. [Marcus] Luttrell's become a great friend of mine now, and I was talking to him about it. It's not even the responsibility of just the performance or just the memory of Murph being part of the SEAL community - this is a torch I have for the rest of my life. How often in this gig do we get to have that, and want it? You didn't know of the book or the story, and now you're going to think of my performance when you think of Mike Murphy, and that's an incredible responsibility.WAYNE: How much of that is solely inspired by the real figure and how much of the work is purely fictional?KITSCH: I think so much of it is that it actually happened, that these guys are still out there doing it. When you meet guys who were buds with Murph, guys that fought right next to him, you really do see how much it means to them that the film's done right. You have the opportunity to be like, "Okay, let's see what I'm fucking made of here, let's see what I'm capable of doing," and training to do it.WAYNE: So what was the training?KITSCH: There's a workout called the Murphy that he created when he was in the SEALs. It's, like, a mile run and then a hundred pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 sit-ups, then another mile run, with a 40 - to 50-pound weighted vest. Some guy claims to have done it in under 30 minutes. I couldn't get there. I was under 35, which is a fucking insane time. I was in the best shape of my life.WAYNE: How about the weapons training?KITSCH: We went to Albuquerque. We had guys who had fought with Luttrell to teach us the weapons systems. And that's live fire; it's not like standing there and just shooting at a target. They call it bounding, and all these other things these guys do as a team. Murph was the leader of the guys, so he's making the call, and you really do see it kind of seamlessly int he film. When he makes a call of "peel right" or "peel left" or "get on line," it's those things that the SEALs fucking love. We got the technical part of it.WAYNE: Was there any improv?KITSCH: Absolutely. Some of this funnier stuff - when I'm in the hide with Mark [Wahlberg] talking about a girl and a Coldplay concert, that was roughly scripted and we just went with it, and Mark is fucking on it. That guy has endless energy, he's quick. Pete would call cut, and the whole crew would burst out laughing. Or we would even have a bit of a camera shake because the camera guy's dying, you know?WAYNE: You were a junior hockey player in Canada before you injured your knee at age 20. Do you feel like you were on the path to professional hockey?KITSCH: Yeah, at least semi. I was hopefully going to go on a scholarship and turn pro. If I even scratched the lineup, it would've been fourth line, up and down from the minors, but, I mean, a minor career was a dream as well.WAYNE: When that injury happened, was it clearly career ending?KITSCH: In retrospect I think it was career ending. But at the time, it was that denial of, "fuck it, I'm gonna recoup it." But then I recouped it, and my first game back it blew out again.WAYNE: So what were you thinking in terms of life plans?KITSCH: Oh, it's over. I was devastated. It really is close to art simulating life in the sense of what FNL was - if you wreck your knee, that's it, everything is gone. Obviously it's not; it's a blessing in disguise, but at the time I remember my best friend came and took me off the ice and I was a wreck. My mom was in the stands and she was a mess, and then I was in the dressing room and I refused to take my gear off. I just knew the second time I did it - like, buddy, uh-oh.WAYNE: So did you do any acting by that age?KITSCH: I loved it. I always grew up winning all these public-speaking competitions in school.WAYNE: Did you move to New York soon after the injury?KITSCH: Yeah, at 21.WAYNE: I read that you were, at points, homeless and sleeping on subways - is that true?KITSCH: It's true. Only for a couple weeks. It wasn't like I was walking around with a grocery cart. I didn't have a visa; I couldn't get fucking work. I wish I could've waited tables. I was taking classes for free with my acting coach, Sheila Gray - she's been amazing, and so I finally paid her back after the first movie I did - and then I just ran out of money. I was staying at my best friend's place. He sublet a bedroom in a big family house, and I was sleeping on his floor, then I wore that out, and I leased a place up on 181st Street in Washington Heights, pretty fucking sketchy area, and I couldn't get electricity because, one, no money, and two, I had no Social Security. So from that best friend, I would take his girlfriend's blow-up mattress and use candles. And then that wore out, got kicked out of there, and I would go back to my buddy's place, and at midnight or whenever, he wanted to go to bed, I'd be like, "All right, I'm gonna go stay at" - make up somebody's place - or a gal's place or whatever, and then that ran out. [laughs] Quite literally. And then I'd sleep on the subway until 5:30, 6 in the morning, and I'd go to the gym and work out for god knows how long and have a shower and just loiter.WAYNE: And you were also a model at this point?KITSCH: Yeah, but I was completely out of work. Didn't work, really. And I was living in a spot that they give you, and by the time you get a job, you owe them so much back end that you're in debt anyway, so then I left that because that was just stupid to just keep building debt.WAYNE: What was your first big break?KITSCH: While I was homeless, I met my manager through one of the guys at the modeling agency. She's like, "Yeah, I'll take a meeting, whatever," just being nice to him. So I had a meeting, and 10 minutes in, she's like, "Okay, I'll take you on." Then my first reading - still homeless - I got but I couldn't do because I didn't have a fucking visa again. So I stayed and studied more and then I moved away to Barbados to work with my dad and dig ditches, and that was the most time I ever spent with my dad in my life on a one-time basis. I made like, 6K. Then I bought a little - it's called a Firefly or a Chevy Sprint, which is like a 12-inch wheel hatchback car that lives on fumes. It'll go forever, and so I bought that when I got to Vancouver - moved back - moved down to L.A., sublet a room for two months. That money ran out, and then I lived in my car.WAYNE: So you had two homeless stints. And both times you picked the transportation choice of the city you were in - subway in New York, car in L.A.KITSCH: Yeah, that's a good point.WAYNE: You need to be in a seaside place for a while and live a few months in your boat.KITSCH: I know! I was super-angry one day in L.A. - my car's a piece of shit, and then the front window wouldn't go down, and so I'm screaming at the handle, forcing it down, the window shatters, and it's the bigger one, 'cause it's a hatchback. So now I'm fucking homeless and I got a plastic bag with duct tape. So I stayed over at my best friend Josh Pence's place, and I'm like, "I think I'm gonna go home," and his mom overheard it, and she's like "You're not fucking driving 23 hours to Vancouver with a plastic bag," and so I went to the junkyard and got it replaced for, like, $75.WAYNE: I thought she was going to say, "No, you should stay here and fulfill your dreams," but she was just making sure you got a new window.KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah! When you're doing it, it's not like, "Oh, man, I'm really paying the price." You just did it. I'd go to Trader Joe's and get a big thing of cottage cheese and brown rice cakes, like, four bucks - that's all I'd eat. And I'm a nutritionist, so I'm like, that's probably the best bang for my buck. I've got protein, carbs..."WAYNE: You start doing the protein-price ratio. Split pea soup is good for that, too.KITSCH: Yeah, garbanzo beans-WAYNE: Tuna fish.KITSCH: Yeah, the cans, that was New York. The Sunkist cans?WAYNE: Starkist, right? But it should be Sunkist - just drinking Sunkist orange soda all day long.KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, have diabetes at 25. So she gave me the money, I got the thing, drove from three in the morning till midnight, straight. Back at home with mom and then my first or second reading was Snakes on a Plane [2006]. Got it. And then The Covenant [2006] and then Friday Night Lights.WAYNE: In the first few episodes of FNL, Riggins seems to be a secondary character.KITSCH: He was. I was told he wasn't gonna last.WAYNE: What happened? People started responding to you?KITSCH: Yeah, I guess. Whatever it was, people clicked to me, and the studio loved him and what we were doing with him.WAYNE: Most of the humor comes from Riggins off-the-cuff moments.KITSCH: Yeah, the dry humor that Riggins has - that's mostly improv. I played hockey my whole life. I was just hanging out with a bunch of pro-hockey players who were good friends. Calling everybody six, seven, two, zero - that's Riggins. Calling that whole apology on the field, all of it was made up on that day of.WAYNE: You mentioned digging ditches with your father was the most time you ever spent one-on-one. You were raised by your mom for the most part?KITSCH: Yeah, for the most part, with my two bros. I'd see my dad every Christmas for the most part growing up, but he left when I was one-ish, and then I'd spend a couple weeks over Christmas with him. I remember going fishing with him; I remember snow-mobiling. I remember him carrying me around on the ice because he played hockey growing up, too. I remember those flashes, and I don't know if it's made up in my head - but I do remember blips, and being super pumped that he's letting me, at 6 years old, rip on the open lake in the snowmobile.WAYNE: Riggins didn't have a father around. Not to get too precious about it, but did that inform the role?KITSCH: Absolutely. I had no doubts when I was going to play it. It just felt super-organic.WAYNE: Do you see your dad more often these days?KITSCH: No, maybe once or twice a year. Not even. I haven't seen him in years. I've stayed in contact via e-mail, but I don't reach out as much as I should, I guess, but I don't have that - this may gut him, but I don't have that...where I'm like "I want to know what's going on," or "Why did you..." My brothers and I talk about it a lot but - and sometimes it's joking, you know, but...I think it's affected them more, especially one of them a bit more, just because he was older - he was 8. And my mom was with an older guy, and he was a super-sensitive man, and he connected more with me than either of my two brothers. So I think I got a lot of that sensitive part that allows me to be that kind of actor through him. My mom and he split up when I was 12, and I wanted to go live with him, and then I would still go spend weekends, neither of my brothers would, but I'd go spend a weekend with him as much as I could. And he was getting older, and I was not conscious of that either, and then my mom told me he'd died not long ago - man, and it was shitty that I couldn't have reconnected before he did, because it had been five, six, seven years from the last time I saw him. And he was just the softest soul.WAYNE: You live in Austin now. What were your thoughts when you first got there for filming FNL?KITSCH: I didn't even know where Austin was. Quite literally, I'm like, "We're going where to shoot this fucking thing?"WAYNE: You thought it was Boston? "Massachusetts Forever."KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, totally! Which doesn't have the same kind of tone does it? And Austin was like nothing what it is now. It's, like, the fastest-growing city in the U.S. now. But I bought a place end of second-season, and that's my place now, just a little 1,000-square-foot condo.WAYNE: What's your life like there?KITSCH: I golf a lot. I'm in a men's hockey league. I've made some great friends there. I'm on my motorcycle a lot. Kyle Chandler [of Friday Night Lights] lives there, so whenever we can make time, we'll go on these long rides together. Had a great gal there. Southern belle.WAYNE: "Had," you said?KITSCH: Yeah, it's been tough lately. You never know how it's going to turn out. But I was with her for years.WAYNE: And she was from Austin herself?KITSCH: From Corpus [Christi]WAYNE: How did you meet her?KITSCH: Through my stunt double. He's like, "You gotta meet this gal; she's ridiculous active." She's a yoga instructor now, but she wasn't when we met. But just a super-sporty Southern belle, you know? Great.WAYNE: I don't want to embarrass you, but I told a female friend I was interviewing you, and she was momentarily stunned. I feel like male actors don't often discuss this, but does it ever get almost boring, or do you ever feel objectified if women respond this way? I mean, it's a good problem to have, but is there ever a point where it's like, be careful what you wish for?KITSCH: You're conscious of it. I mean, I'm never going to be like, "Oh, this attention from women sucks." It's flattering 99 percent of the time. After the premiere screening in L.A., there was a young woman, beautiful, mid - to late, twenties, and you're pretty crushed after this movie, it hits you hard, and I was talking to a guy who had served. All of a sudden this girl comes up and she's like, "Hey, I just gotta say this movie was this-and-that, but that fucking scene of you walking down the hall [in which Kitsch is shirtless]..." And then it inevitably went to, "What are you doing later tonight? Can I give you my number?" I kind of took offense to it. That's the one shitty experience out of it, but it's still flattering. Out of every thing in that fucking movie, that's what you took?WAYNE: Is dating a non-actor much more appealing to you?KITSCH: Absolutely. I mean, it's hard because you're all in or I'm all in, and I become super-myopic with work and kind of shut everything else out, and I don't know anything different because that's what's gotten me this far, so I live a pretty unbalanced life. And it's tough because the gal can't really relate in that sense. It doesn't mean she's not supportive, but that part of it wasn't relatable. She didn't understand, "Oh, okay, this guy's gonna be off the grid basically for whatever it is."WAYNE: That'd be tough no matter what.KITSCH: Yeah, it is, but if you're dealing or dating another actress or whatever who goes through that same process, then maybe they might have a bit more acknowledgment of it.WAYNE: But you seem pretty divorced from the Hollywood scene. You're not tabloid fodder that much. How do you safeguard your privacy?KITSCH: Austin helps. No Facebook. If anyone ever thinks I'm on Facebook or Twitter, it's not me, for the record - it's never me.WAYNE: But you are on MySpace right?KITSCH: [laughs] Totally.WAYNE: It sounds like you've preserved your lifestyle pre-acting, pre-fame as much as possible.KITSCH: I try. When I'm in L.A., I'm with one of my best friends, who's an actor coming up, and it's good to have that dialogue. In Austin I don't have that a lot. So that's one of the downfalls of being in Austin, if there is one, that I don't have another couple artists to bounce shit off. It's great to decompress, but it's tough because it goes from a hundred miles an hour living this fucked-up lifestyle to you're in your apartment, dead silence, and you're like, "Oh, what do I do today?" I guess I go for a coffee by myself and just read a couple scripts or something.WAYNE: You're doing a couple different movies this year - The Normal Heart, The Grand Seduction. Far different from Battleship and John Carter. These are more in an indie direction.KITSCH: I was always on that track, from The Bang Bang Club [2011], which is one of my proudest things I've ever done in my life. And that's kind of my personality, too. I'm going to keep swinging for the fences. I'm not going to play another Riggins - that's done. I can go and now try and disappear into Normal Heart. I was just talking to Ryan Murphy about it, the director, who took a fucking leap of faith with me to go and play this, another true story - that's a bigger risk than what John Carter was, because if you don't go in there and nail that role, this could be a fucking career-ender.WAYNE: Do you have any ambitions beyond acting?KITSCH: I wrote and directed a short [Pieces] that Oliver [Stone, who directed 2012's Savages] has seen, that Berg has seen, that [John Carter director Andrew] Stanton has seen, all the producers of John Carter have seen, and I just got two to four million bucks to make it into a feature. So I'm going to hopefully write it in January, February. Pete's mad for it, and Pete will tell you - man, he'll fucking rip it in half - but he's been incredibly supportive, so hopefully, I'll go shoot that in Detroit and Texas.WAYNE: Can you see yourself transitioning at some point to someone who directs, like Peter Berg did?KITSCH: Absolutely. I'd be fucking stupid not to be taking notes from a Stone or a Berg. The way I direct is open. I want to empower you as an actor, and when you're not on track, I'll tell you, but when you are, I want you to fucking just go with it. And so I cast Derek Phillips, who played my brother in Friday Night Lights - he's unrecognizable in the film. And then my best friend in L.A. [Josh Pence], whose mom gave me money for the window, he plays the other guy in the short.WAYNE: Would you ever do an over-the-top comedic role?KITSCH: I'd love to, it's just got to be the right one. When I work, I take it super-seriously, but when you get to know me, man, I'm not - I laugh as much as possible. Growing up, I was that guy at school getting kicked out of class every day to make someone laugh. Voted funniest guy in the school twice.WAYNE: Just twice? What happened the other times - you finished second?KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, totally! Last. The jokes didn't hit that year. I was off.

20 notes · View notes

pope-francis-quotes · 6 years

Photo

21st June >> (@zenitenglish) Pope Francis’ Address to WCC Ecumenical Meeting in Geneva (Full Text). ‘What is really needed is a new evangelical outreach.’ Pope Francis on June 21, 2018, addressed the ecumenical meeting to mark the 70thanniversary of the foundation of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the WCC Ecumenical Center in Geneva. The Full Address of the Holy Father, provided by the Vatican Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am happy to meet you and I thank you for your warm welcome. In particular, I express my gratitude to the General Secretary, the Reverend Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, and the Moderator, Dr. Agnes Abuom, for their kind words and for their invitation on this seventieth anniversary of the founding of the World Council of Churches. In the Bible, seventy years represents a significant span of time, a sign of God’s blessing. But seventy is also a number that reminds us of two important passages in the Gospel. In the first, the Lord commands us to forgive one another not only seven times but “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22). That number, of course, does not serve as a limit, but opens up a vast horizon; it does not quantify justice but serves as the measure of a charity capable of infinite forgiveness. After centuries of conflict, that charity now allows us to come together as brothers and sisters, at peace and full of gratitude to God our Father. If we are here today, it is also thanks to all those who went before us, choosing the path of forgiveness and sparing no effort to respond to the Lord’s will “that all may be one” (cf. Jn 17:21). Out of heartfelt love for Jesus, they did not allow themselves to be mired in disagreements, but instead looked courageously to the future, believing in unity and breaking down barriers of suspicion and of fear. As an ancient Father in the faith rightly observed: “When love has entirely cast out fear, and fear has been transformed into love, then the unity brought us by our Saviour will be fully realized” (SAINT GREGORY OF NYSSA, Homily XV on the Song of Songs). We are heirs to the faith, charity, and hope of all those who, by the nonviolent power of the Gospel, found the courage to change the course of history, a history that had led us to mutual distrust and estrangement, and thus contributed to the infernal spiral of continual fragmentation. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, who inspires and guides the journey of ecumenism, the direction has changed and a path both old and new has been irrevocably paved: the path of a reconciled communion aimed at the visible manifestation of the fraternity that even now unites believers. The number seventy reminds us of yet another Gospel passage. It recalls those disciples whom Jesus, during his public ministry, sent out on mission (cf. Lk 10:1), and who are commemorated in some Churches of the Christian East. The number of those disciples reflects the number of the world’s peoples found on the first pages of the Bible (cf. Gen 10). What does this suggest to us, if not that mission is directed to all nations and that every disciple, in order to be such, must become an apostle, a missionary. The World Council of Churches was born in service to the ecumenical movement, which itself originated in a powerful summons to mission: for how can Christians proclaim the Gospel if they are divided among themselves? This pressing concern still guides our journey and is grounded in the Lord’s prayer that all may be one, “so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). Dear brothers and sisters, allow me to thank you for your commitment to unity, but also to express a concern. It comes from an impression that ecumenism and mission are no longer as closely intertwined as they were at the beginning. Yet the missionary mandate, which is more than diakonia and the promotion of human development, cannot be neglected nor emptied of its content. It determines our very identity. The preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the earth is part of our very being as Christians. The way in which the mission is carried out will, of course, vary in different times and places. In the face of the recurring temptation to tailor it to worldly ways of thinking, we must constantly remind ourselves that Christ’s Church grows by attraction. But what makes for this power of attraction? Certainly not our own ideas, strategies or programmes. Faith in Jesus Christ is not the fruit of consensus, nor can the People of God be reduced to a non-governmental organization. No, the power of attraction consists completely in the sublime gift that so amazed the Apostle Paul: “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings” (Phil 3:10). This is our only boast: “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6), granted us by the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life. This is the treasure that we, though earthen vessels (cf. v. 7), must offer to our world, so beloved yet so deeply troubled. We would not be faithful to the mission entrusted to us, were we to debase this treasure to a purely immanent humanism, adapted to the fashion of the moment. Nor would we be good guardians if we tried only to preserve it, burying it for fear of the world and its challenges (cf. Mt 25:25). What is really needed is a new evangelical outreach. We are called to be a people that experiences and shares the joy of the Gospel, praises the Lord and serves our brothers and sisters with hearts burning with a desire to open up horizons of goodness and beauty unimaginable to those who have not been blessed truly to know Jesus. I am convinced that an increased missionary impulse will lead us to greater unity. Just as in the early days, preaching marked the springtime of the Church, so evangelization will mark the flowering of a new ecumenical spring. As in those days, let us gather in fellowship around the Master, not without a certain embarrassment about our constant vacillations, and, together with Peter, let us say to him: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68). Dear brothers and sisters, I wanted to take part personally in the celebrations marking this anniversary of the World Council, not least to reaffirm the commitment of the Catholic Church to the cause of ecumenism and to encourage cooperation with the member churches and with our ecumenical partners. In this regard, I would like to reflect briefly on the motto chosen for this day: Walking, Praying and Working Together. Walking. Yes, but where? From all that has been said, I would suggest a two-fold movement: in and out. In, so as to move constantly to the center, to acknowledge that we are branches grafted onto the one vine who is Jesus (cf. Jn 15:1-8). We will not bear fruit unless we help one another to remain united to him. Out, towards the many existential peripheries of today’s world, in order to join in bringing the healing grace of the Gospel to our suffering brothers and sisters. We might ask ourselves whether we are walking in truth or simply in words, whether we present our brothers and sisters to the Lord out of true concern for them, or if they are removed from our real interests. We might ask ourselves too, whether we keep walking in our own footsteps, or are setting out with conviction to bring the Lord to our world. Praying. In prayer too, like walking, we cannot move forward by ourselves because God’s grace is not so much tailored to fit each individual as spread harmoniously among believers who love one another. Whenever we say “Our Father”, we feel an echo within us of our being sons and daughters, but also of our being brothers and sisters. Prayer is the oxygen of ecumenism. Without prayer, communion becomes stifling and makes no progress, because we prevent the wind of the Spirit from driving us forward. Let us ask ourselves: How much do we pray for one another? The Lord prayed that we would be one: do we imitate him in this regard? Working together. Here I would like to reaffirm that the Catholic Church acknowledges the special importance of the work carried out by the Faith and Order Commission and desires to keep contributing to that work through the participation of highly qualified theologians. The quest of Faith and Order for a common vision of the Church, together with its work of studying moral and ethical issues, touch areas crucial for the future of ecumenism. I would also mention the active presence of the Church in the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism; collaboration with the Office for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, most recently on the important theme of education for peace; and the joint preparation of texts for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. These and various other forms of working together are fundamental elements in a sound and time-tested cooperation. I also value the essential role played by the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in the training of future pastoral and academic leaders in many Christian Churches and Confessions worldwide. The Catholic Church has long participated in this educational project through the presence of a Catholic professor on the faculty, and each year I have the joy of greeting the group of students who visit Rome. I would likewise mention, as a good sign of “ecumenical team spirit”, the growing participation in the Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. I would also note that the work of our Christian communities is rightly defined by the word diakonia. It is our way of following the Master who came “not to be served but to serve” (Mk 10:45). The broad gamut of services provided by the member churches of the World Council finds emblematic expression in the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace. The credibility of the Gospel is put to the test by the way Christians respond to the cry of all those, in every part of the world, who suffer unjustly from the baleful spread of an exclusion that, by generating poverty, foments conflicts. The more vulnerable are increasingly marginalized, lacking their daily bread, employment, and a future, while the rich are fewer and ever more wealthy. Let us be challenged to compassion by the cry of those who suffer: “the programme of the Christian is a heart that sees” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 31). Let us see what we can do concretely, rather than grow discouraged about what we cannot. Let us also look to our many brothers and sisters in various parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East, who suffer because they are Christians. Let us draw close to them. May we never forget that our ecumenical journey is preceded and accompanied by an ecumenism already realized, the ecumenism of blood, which urges us to go forward. Let us encourage one another to overcome the temptation to absolutize certain cultural paradigms and get caught up in partisan interests. Let us help men and women of good will to grow in concern for events and situations that affect a great part of humanity but seldom make it to the front page. We cannot look the other way. It is problematic when Christians appear indifferent towards those in need. Even more troubling is the conviction on the part of some, who consider their own blessings clear signs of God’s predilection rather than a summons to responsible service of the human family and the protection of creation. The Lord, the Good Samaritan of mankind (cf. Lk 10:29-37), will examine us on our love for our neighbor, for each of our neighbors (cf. Mt 25:31-46). So let us ask ourselves: What can we do together? If a particular form of service is possible, why not plan and carry it out together, and thus start to experience a more intense fraternity in the exercise of concrete charity? Dear brothers and sisters, I renew to you my cordial thanks. Let us help one another to walk, pray and work together, so that, with God’s help, unity may grow and the world may believe. Thank you. [00994-EN.01] [Original text: Italian] © Vatican Media 21st JUNE 2018 16:29ECUMENISM AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE, PILGRIMAGES

0 notes

etechwire-blog · 6 years

Text

Spider-Man PS4 release date, news and features

New Post has been published on https://www.etechwire.com/spider-man-ps4-release-date-news-and-features/

Spider-Man PS4 release date, news and features

Games based on superheros have a pretty patchy history. Before Rocksteady blew us all away with the Batman Arkham games, superhero titles usually felt like cheap experiences rushed out to cash in on fan excitement surrounding an accompanying movie.

The exception was Spider-Man 2, a Treyarch-developed tie in to the movie of the same name, which, for the first time, put us into the shoes of the legendary web-slinger in a fully open-world New York.

With such an amazing legacy to live up to, who could blame us for being excited when at E3 2016 Sony announced a new Spider-Man game was in development from Insomniac Games, the development studio behind the Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, Sunset Overdrive and Spyro the Dragon games?

[Update: E3 2018 and the PlayStation Showcase brought us some brand new Spider-Man footage just a few months ahead of the game’s release. The footage is a who’s who of villains, with Electro, Rhino, Scorpion, Vulture, and Mr Negative all making appearances to really punish Spider-Man. Not only does the footage give us a good look at combat, it really showcases the traversal mechanics. Spidey moves fluidly both on foot and through the air. It’s clear that the game is very cinematic, moving fluidly between gameplay and cutscenes. Watch it for yourself below:]

Cut to the chase

What is it? A new Spiderman game from the studio behind Ratchet and Clank and Spyro the Dragon series

When’s it out? September 7 2018

What can I play it on? PS4

Spider-Man PS4 Trailers

The most recent trailer came with the announcement of Spider-Man’s release date. You can watch for yourself below:

Paris Games Week in 2017 saw another trailer and it gave us a much better look at the game’s story than we’ve ever seen before. Giving us our first look at Peter Parker without the Spider-Man costume and showing well-known characters like Mary Jane, King Pin and even Miles Morales it’s well worth a watch. You can see it for yourself below:

At E3 2017 Sony showed off a second trailer for the game, which gives us a more in-depth look at the game’s combat and story.

At the previous year’s E3 Sony announced the game with an impressive reveal trailer. Features shown off in this first trailer include a city with internal, as well as external, areas to explore, vehicle-based missions (for Spidey’s enemies, not the man himself, thank god), and a whole load of web-based fighting.

Spider-Man release date

Sony has now confirmed that Spider-Man for PS4 will be released on September 7 2018.

Spider-Man PS4 Features

Read on for the few details that have been released so far.

Development is coming on well

Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games has posted an update on the current state of the game to Twitter to bring in 2018. It’s a small update, but a sweet one, as it tells excited players that the game is now far enough into development that it’s being tested by the whole studio. This is pretty promising given the only release date we have for the game so far is 2018.

Day 2 of a studio-wide #SpiderManPS4 playtest is underway. Yes, this is our official job! #gamedev pic.twitter.com/gVBpQtHtoVJanuary 5, 2018

Ratchet and Clank Engine

Just after E3 2016 Insomniac confirmed that the game would be running on the same engine as the recently-released Ratchet and Clank remake for the PS4.

The news was confirmed by the official Insomniac Games twitter account, although it also stated that the development team has been iterating on the engine since.

The PS4 version of Ratchet and Clank is one of the console’s best looking titles, so we think its engine being used to power the new Spider-Man game is no bad thing.

Heh, Rachel. We always iterate our engine between games. We don’t have more than one though.June 27, 2016

Not based on Spider-Man: Homecoming

Although the game being released this year coincides nicely with the return of Spidey to the big screen with Spider-Man: Homecoming, the game’s creative director, Bryan Intihar, has confirmed that the game will not be tied into the movie.

The news was confirmed in a post on the official US PlayStation blog which said that, “Nope, this isn’t the same Spider-Man you’ve met before, nor is our game based on the upcoming movie.”

While it’s a shame that we won’t be web-slinging through the streets of NYC as Tom Holland, we can’t help but think this has the potential to be a good thing for the game, as its developers will be free to forge their own path without having to stick to the plot, characters, and themes of the movie.

In a recent behind-the-scenes look at the game shown at D23, Insomniac said that the game will actually be more inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, featuring an older, 23 year old hero.

A more seasoned Peter Parker

In the same blog post, Intihar said that the game will feature “a more seasoned Peter Parker who’s more masterful at fighting big crime in New York City.”

At this year’s D23 it was revealed that in this game Peter would be 23 years old and more experienced as Spider-Man.

Rather than sitting through yet another Spidey origins story, we’re going to jump right into the fun gameplay stuff. According to Insomniac, the game will more fully explore how Peter Parker and Spider-Man’s worlds collide in an attempt to tell a human story as well as a superhero story.

While it’s always satisfying to see the downtrodden nerd get blessed with super-powers, this isn’t necessarily fun from a gameplay perspective.

Hopefully this direction will allow players to jump right in with a fully powered-up superhero, and get to the good stuff right away.

So what is the story?

In the trailer shown at Paris Games Week 2017 we got our best look at the game’s story yet. Though the game is separate from the movie universe, the Peter Parker in the trailer does look remarkably like Tom Holland. It seems that William Fisk (or Kingpin as he’s more well-known as) is locked up, resulting in less crime and a Peter more at ease with his life.

Suddenly, a new villainous faction run by Mr Negative appears to cause problems while Norman Osborn makes a play for the Mayor’s office. The trailer also gives us a glimpse of Aunt May and a redhead who we assume must be Mary Jane.

Miles mystery

Interestingly, Miles Morales appears to play a much larger role than we initially thought given that Peter introduces him to Aunt May and tells her he’ll be helping out. Miles Morales is also someone who takes up the role of Spider-Man in the comics universe so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of help he offers Peter. Certainly his appearance suggests that this Spider-Man game will be breaking some new story ground.

An open world

We know this game is going to feature an open world and we really can’t wait to swing around it. One of the most satisfying things about previous open world Spider-Man games was being able to see New York from the web slinger’s point of view and we’re looking forward to seeing what the latest gaming engines can do here.

According to Insomniac this is the biggest game map they’ve created and will be even bigger than their Xbox exclusive Sunset Overdrive map, Sunset City.

Quick-time events

From the trailer shown at E3 2017 it looks as though the game will make use of quick-time events for its more action-packed moments. We’re not fans of how these can take away control from the player, but we won’t know the effect for sure until we try out the game for ourselves.

What we want to see

With so little solid information released about the game, we can’t help but speculate as to what direction Spider-Man’s first PS4 outing might take. None of this is in any way confirmed, but we’d love to see these features make their way into the new game.

A friendly Spider-Man

Spider-Man has always been one of Marvel’s lighter-hearted heroes. He’s a quippy, funny, teenager who’s almost, almost, more concerned about his grades than the fate of the world.

While past games and movies have included gun-toting villains, we hope the new game doesn’t stray too close to the real world. We want colourful bad-guys with bombastic plans, not the gritty realism of the Nolan Batman films.

This isn’t an excuse to shy away from having an impactful story, but if it could stop short of a Logan-esque bleak-fest then we’d be very grateful.

A neighbourhood Spider-Man

Related to the previous point is that we’d like to see Spider-Man stay true to his roots as a neighborhood superhero, rather than the more globe-trotting heroes seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As far as we’re concerned, the Spider-Man 2 game was at its best when Parker was doing something as simple as retrieving a child’s balloon. He’s a character that’s motivated by trying to clean up the city he loves, rather than grander ambitions like trying to save the world.

We’re reassured that the game won’t be related to the Homecoming film which seems to tie Spidey more into the wider Marvel Universe, and hopefully this will mean that Insomniac are free to focus on the New York setting rather than worrying about the rest of the Avengers.

A wide cast of supporting characters

Not being related to the movie should also allow Insomniac to explore Spider-Man’s ecclectic cast of villains, which range from the Sinister Six, to Venom, Doctor Octopus and Kingpin.

However, with Disney owning the rights to most of the Marvel Universe and Sony owning the rights to Spider-Man’s corner of it, it’s difficult to know exactly how much of the Marvel IP Insomiac has access to.

There has been a lot of crossover between Spider-Man and Daredevil in the comics, with Peter Parker even donning Daredevil’s suit to act as a decoy on one occasion, but with the Daredevil license currently being used by Netflix for an original series it’s not clear whether the character is up for grabs in the game.

There are lots of unknowns at this point, but it’s definitely a case of ‘the more the merrier’ when it comes to Spider-Man’s supporting cast.

E3 is the world’s largest exhibition for the games industry, stuffed full of the latest and greatest games and gaming hardware. TechRadar will be reporting live from Los Angeles all week to bring you the very latest from the show floor. Head to our dedicated E3 2018 hub to see all the latest news from the show.

#date #features #news #PS4 #release #SpiderMan

1 note · View note

newstwitter-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/bbc-martin-mcguinness-vigils-held-for-sinn-fein-leader-17/

BBC: Martin McGuinness: Vigils held for Sinn Féin leader

Image copyright Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Image caption Crowds gathered to pay tribute to Martin McGuinness in west Belfast

Vigils have been held across the island of Ireland for Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, who has died aged 66.

His body was returned to his Derry home on Tuesday afternoon.

Image copyright Peter Morrison

Image caption Senior Sinn Féin members, including leader Gerry Adams, carry Mr McGuinness’ coffin

Hundreds of people accompanied the coffin, draped with an Irish tricolour, as it was carried through the Bogside area.

The ex-IRA leader turned politician died in Altnagelvin Hospital overnight aged 66. It is understood he had been suffering from a rare heart condition.

His death prompted the Northern Ireland Assembly to be recalled on Wednesday. The funeral will be in Londonderry on Thursday.

Image copyright PACEMAKER

Image caption The coffin was carried through the Bogside to Mr McGuinness’ family home

Vigils took place in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday night to mark the former deputy first minister’s death.

One, on the Andersonstown Road in west Belfast, attracted hundreds of people.

Image copyright Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Image caption Hundreds gathered at a vigil for Martin McGuinness in west Belfast on Tuesday night

It took place on the site of the former Andersonstown Road police station.

Some of those gathered were holding candles and sang songs while others watched on.

Father Gary Donegan offered prayers and told the crowd how he had “anointed and blessed” Mr McGuinness “weeks ago”.

Image copyright Pacemaker

Image caption Former Ardoyne priest Father Gary Donegan offered prayers at the vigil in Andersonstown

Another vigil was held near the General Post Office headquarters in Dublin city centre, in the Republic of Ireland.

Similar events were held in Galway, in the Republic of Ireland, and Dungiven in County Londonderry.

The Queen is sending a private message to Mr McGuinness’ widow, Buckingham Palace confirmed.

Image copyright David Lynch

Image caption Crowds gather in Dublin to pay tribute to Martin McGuinness

The flag above Leinster House, which houses the Irish parliament, will be flown at half mast on the day of Mr McGuinness’ funeral.

Among the seismic moments in his time in government was the famous handshake with the Queen in 2012 and a toast to her Majesty at Windsor Castle.

Media captionA look back at the life of Martin McGuinness

Politicians and others have been giving their reaction to Mr McGuinness’ death, as have those who lost loved ones or were injured in the IRA campaign.

Colin Parry, whose 12-year-old son, Tim, died in an IRA bomb in Warrington in 1993, said that although he did not forgive the IRA or Martin McGuinness, he found him a man who was “sincere in his desire for peace”.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said: “Throughout his life Martin showed great determination, dignity and humility and it was no different during his short illness.

Media captionThe Queen shook hands with Martin McGuinness in 2012

Prime Minister Theresa May said although she could never “condone the path he took in the earlier part of his life, Martin McGuinness ultimately played a defining role in leading the republican movement away from violence”.

“In doing so, he made an essential and historic contribution to the extraordinary journey of Northern Ireland from conflict to peace,” she added.

Media captionColin Parry’s 12-year-old son was killed by an IRA bomb – but he says he liked Martin McGuinness

Mr McGuinness became deputy first minister in 2007, standing alongside Democratic Unionist Party leaders Ian Paisley, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster.

A visibly ailing Mr McGuinness stood down from his post in January to protest against the DUP’s handling of an energy scandal, in a move that triggered a snap election.

Analysis: BBC News NI Home Affairs Correspondent Vincent Kearney

No-one knows how many people Martin McGuinness killed, directly or indirectly.

As a senior commander in the Provisional IRA for many years, there is no doubt there was blood on his hands.

Security sources say he went on to become chief of staff of the organisation from the early 1980s, right through until the end of the IRA’s campaign of violence.

Nothing happened in Derry without him knowing.

Read more here:

Former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit, who was injured and whose wife was paralysed by an IRA bomb in Brighton’s Grand Hotel in 1984, described Mr McGuinness as “a coward”.

“The reason he suddenly became a man of peace, was that he was desperately afraid that he was going to be arrested and charged with a number of murders,” he said.

Media captionLord Tebbit said Martin McGuinness was “a coward, a murderer”

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Enda Kenny said Mr McGuinness’ death represented a “significant loss, not only to politics in Northern Ireland, but to the wider political landscape on this island and beyond”.

Mr Kenny will attend Mr Guinness’ funeral as will Irish President Michael D Higgins.

DUP MP Nigel Dodds, who survived an IRA gun attack in Belfast in 1996 as he was visiting his sick child in hospital, said: “We can’t forget his past…. This will also be a difficult day for victims. But he did help move people forward when it comes to the peace process.”

Media captionMartin McGuinness, from paramilitary to politician

Born in 1950, Martin McGuinness grew up in Derry’s Bogside, radicalised, he said, by discrimination and murder on the streets of his city.

He had a leading role in the IRA during a time when the paramilitary organisation was bombing his home city.

Media captionTony Blair tells BBC’s Today programme what made Martin McGuinness formidable foe also made him formidable peacemaker

The shift to politics came slowly: Mr McGuinness was chief negotiator in the blossoming peace process and took on the post of education minister.

By 2007, he was Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister standing alongside First Minister Ian Paisley. The two forged an unlikely alliance – but they were working together for the same goal.

Image copyright PA

Image caption Hundreds of people accompanied the coffin, draped in the Irish flag, as it was carried through the Bogside area

He worked alongside DUP first minister Peter Robinson and, until January, was in office with Arlene Foster.

In recent years, he said: “My war is over. My job as a political leader is to prevent that war and I feel very passionate about it.”

His funeral cortege will leave his home on Thursday at 13:20 GMT ahead of Requiem Mass at St Columba’s Church Longtower at 14:00. He will be buried in the City Cemetery.

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

0 notes

newstwitter-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/22/bbc-martin-mcguinness-vigils-held-for-sinn-fein-leader-15/