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Feb 27, 2014
Christian Science Monitor Talks about the Courage of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight--These Women are Fantastic
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight honored for courage
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight received Ohio Gov. John Kasich's annual courage awards on Monday night. Amanda Berry and her six-year old escaped from 10-years captivity in a Cleveland house.
By Ann Sanner and Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press / February 25, 2014
MEDINA, OHIO
The three women who survived a decade-long captivity in a Cleveland house before being freed received Ohio Gov. John Kasich's annual courage awards on Monday night.
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Kasich called the women's story one of hurt beyond imagination, but also a story that didn't end there.
"It is also a story of three women who found an inner strength and a courage that brought them through and sustained them," Kasich said near the end of his annual State of the State speech. "No one rescued them, they rescued themselves_first by staying strong and by sticking together, and then by literally breaking out into freedom."
RECOMMENDED: Crime falls in the US. Are you safer today?
The women - Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus andMichelle Knight - were freed when Amanda Berrypushed her way through a door and sought help.
Berry was kidnapped when she was 16 years old. Ten years later, in May, 2013, Berry screamed for help from the house with her six-year-old daughter and made her way to freedom with the help of a neighbor. She called 911.
The presentation nearly overshadowed Kasich's speech given the women's popularity since their release. They were household names in Cleveland for years as missing persons, and their discovery electrified a community accustomed to bleaker outcomes.
Kasich hugged the women as he entered the hall before his speech and pictures of that moment quickly flew across cyberspace.
As he announced the awards, Kasich called them "three extraordinary women, who despite having the worst in this world thrown at them, rose above it and emerged not as victims, but as victors."
The women walked onto the stage to be embraced by the governor and receive their medals. The audience stood and cheered for more than two minutes, the longest ovation of the night. It was a rare case of the trio being together following their rescue.
The women were rescued in May after being kidnapped by Ariel Castro from the streets of Cleveland between 2002 and 2004 at the ages of 14, 16 and 20.
Castro periodically kept them chained in rooms, sometimes in the basement, and restricted access to food and toilets. He fathered a girl with one of the victims.
Castro pleaded guilty in August to hundreds of charges. He told a judge at sentencing that he suffered from addictions to sex and pornography. "I'm not a monster. I'm sick," he said.
A month later, on Sept. 3, the 53-year-old Castro hanged himself in prison at the beginning of a life sentence plus 1,000 years.
Feb 25, 2014
Jason Evans Counts Down the Blacklist
Feb 24, 2014
CRIME
‘The Blacklist,’ Season 1, Episode 14, ‘Madeline Pratt’: TV Recap
- By Jason Evans
I used to love the Olympics. Then, NBC decided to put “The Blacklist” on a three week hiatus to make room for the Olympics. I have been going through serious “Blacklist” withdrawal lately! Thank goodness we all get our weekly dose of Spader-ific acting tonight.
In case you forgot where things left off on The Blacklist, Liz decided that she just could not adopt a baby at this time in her life, which came as a huge shock to “is he a good guy or is he a bad guy?” husband Tom. Tom went off to cry about it in the arms of his new friend, Jolene (who sure appears to be Lucy Brooks, the woman Red has been searching for in recent episodes). Meanwhile, Red had cleaned up all the remaining messy leaks from his kidnapping by killing FBI Director/secret mole, Dianne Fowler with a few shots to the gut. She died slowly and painfully, but not before telling Red that she knew what had happened to his family.
So, with all that in mind, let’s see where our story moves tonight…
The episode begins in Turkey where a grieving widow is accessing her husband’s safety deposit box. “I’m sorry for your loss, Ms. Reddington,” the bank manager says. The woman smiles as she opens the box. Red, who is getting acupuncture, is told by an assistant that the box in Istanbul has been cleared out. The woman who took it left a note asking Red to meet her a the Windsor Lounge.
The woman and Red are old friends who joke about meetings in Macau and Florence. The document she stole from his box are worth over $10 million but she says she only took them to get his attention. The woman is Madeline Pratt.
At Liz and Tom’s house, Tom is still having trouble coming to grips with Liz not wanting to adopt. Tom says that a friend of theirs is pregnant and storms out, not wanting to talk to Liz any more.
Red and Liz meet at Red’s fabulous house (which actually belongs to a hedge fund manager who is on the run from the SEC). He tells Liz about Madeline Pratt, who is an expert in human communications. Red says she has asked him to help her in a heist.
They go to see Novak, who deals in the black market of rare and exotic antiques. Novak, by the way, is played by noted character actor Zach Grenier who you will recognize from dozens of films and TV appearances most notably his ongoing role as David Lee on the CBS’ The Good Wife. They ask Novak about some Syrian statue or effigy. Supposedly, a list of secret Russian agents from before the cold war ended are stored inside the effigy. Getting the list would be a huge intelligence coup.
Red is back at the FBI blacksite. Dir Cooper asks Red where Fowler is. He suspects Red had something to do with her disappearance. Yeah, like Red is going to tell him about that!
Red tells them about Pratt, who is a well-known socialite with relationships with powerful people. He tells them that Pratt wants to steal the effigy from the Syrian Embassy, which is where it is at the moment. Red says Liz should go undercover to help Pratt steal it, allowing the US to get the effigy and get Pratt at the same time. The danger though is that because she is going to be on Syrian soil, the FBI cannot rescue her if anything goes wrong.
Liz auditions for Pratt and does a good job, pickpocketing Pratt’s cell phone. She is hired to help steal the effigy. Pratt arranges for Liz to go to a party at the Syrian Embassy. Liz has to steal the effigy from a safe. There is a cool sequence where Liz displays her slippery fingers by stealing an ID badge from a Syrian official.
Tom is headed to a teacher’s conference in Orlando that weekend and wants Liz to come with him. She agrees.
It is the night of the theft and Red is Liz’s date for the Embassy party. He tells Liz that something is up because Pratt has not told them some key details of the heist, including the fact that she and her Syrian boyfriend are going to be at the party that night. They may be using Liz as a diversion so Pratt can steal the effigy herself. By going with Liz, Red can protect her.
At the blacksite, Cooper says he thinks Fowler is dead and that Red is the chief suspect. He wants Agent Malik to help him look into it.
Red and Liz are at the party. Pratt is there too. Red and Liz dance for a moment to help Liz calm her nerves. They create a distraction so Liz can go steal the effigy. Meanwhile, Red goes to dance with Pratt. He tells her they can get away right now. She only wants to know why Red disappeared last summer when they were in Florence.
Liz breaks into the Syrian safe, but it was all a trap. Alarms go off and embassy guards are everywhere. Pratt’s Russian/Syrian boyfriend grabs her and says, “I have to get you to the safe room.” Clearly, her plan was to be taken there so she could steal the effigy herself. Guards descend on Liz and Red goes off to figure out what he can do to help. Along the way, Red keeps on taking out Syrian guards. He’s cold and efficient. He manages to rescue Liz via a funny bit where he overpowers a guard after pretending to be a gay friend of Syria’s president. Meanwhile, Pratt uses all the distractions to steal the effigy.
Tom is getting ready to go to Orland with Liz but she calls him to say she is too busy at work. He’s angry and says they could use some time apart. He is going to Orlando without her.
The FBI figures out that a local man with ties to a Syrian warlord is connected to the effigy. After questioning him, they realize that the effigy does not contain the identity of 6 Russian agents, but actually 6 Russian nukes that are hidden inside the US.
Red finds Pratt and wants the coordinates of the Russian nukes. As they are talking about it, two men come up in a van and grab them. Pratt wakes up inside a prison. Nearby, a tortured Red lays on the floor. When the two of them are alone, Pratt tells Red that she already sold the effigy to the Russians. He responds by telling her a story from 20 years ago about how he ran out of gas on the way home to his family on Christmas eve. He got home late as a result and when he got there the whole house was covered in blood. It is a disturbing, but touching story about Red’s tortured life and his terrible loss. The story makes Pratt tear up and cry. He says the reason he did not show up in Florence last summer to meet Pratt was that he cannot suffer a loss like that again.
After Red finishes the story, the Syrians who grabbed them come in to take Red out for more torture. Pratt cannot bear it and tells them where the effigy is located in exchange for them not hurting Red any more. It turns out the whole thing was a setup. Red was never being tortured, he was doing all this to trick Pratt. She’s furious at him and asks if the story about his family was true. He doesn’t answer.
The FBI rushes to find the effigy, hoping that the Russian have not gotten there first. But, they have and there is a big shootout. The Russian bad guy fights with Ressler for a bit before being captured. When Ressler looks inside the effigy, nothing is in it except sand.
Dir Cooper tells Red that nothing about this went right. No list of missing briefcase nukes and the FBI was note even able to find Pratt, who seemed to have escape from Red’s capture. Cooper figure out that Red knows the locations of the bombs. Red is happy to trade the bombs for the effigy itself, though it is certainly not clear why he would want it seeing as it was empty.
Liz thinks Tom is going to leave her. She tells Ressler about it and he cancels his dinner plans with his new girlfriend (who is his ex fiancée) to listen to her story. At the teacher’s conference, Tom runs into Jolene/Lucy and smiles.
Cooper has a meeting with an FBI agent named Walter Gary Martin, who seems very mysterious. He says he knows that Cooper is looking into the disappearance of Fowler. He tells Cooper to stop. Now. He is very forceful and says the DC office is handling the case. “We’ll take it from here,” he says in a very menacing voice.
And the episode is over!
As Blacklist episodes go this was unusual. For the first time I can recall, the subject of the episode, Madeline Pratt, end up just fine – neither captured nor dead. She’s presumably back in Florence. Also, it is very unclear why Red wanted the effigy in the end. Some of what happened involving the hunt for the effigy by the FBI and the Russians doesn’t really make sense. I need to think about it a bit more, but this episode just felt “off” at times. It is clear that Liz and Tom’s relationship is headed downhill. I wonder if they can recover. It is clear that we are going to find out a lot more about Jolene/Lucy next week, which is a major part of the current mythology. I can’t wait for that!
So what did you think? It is your turn to share your thoughts and theories about the show by posting something in the comment section. As always, I’ll be highlighting the most thought-provoking posts in my recap next week. I’ll see you there!
If you want to read more of Jason Evans’ commentary on the Movie and TV industry, follow him on Twitter @TVFilmTalk and be sure to check our Speakeasy every Monday and Wednesday for his recaps of The Blacklist and Arrow.
from WSJ Speakeasy
from WSJ Speakeasy
A Question for Sharon Waxman of The Wrap--Ralking about the Oscars
Google Hang-Out: The Wrap and the Oscars
I just accidentally stumbled on your hang-out today but I liked it.
A good prep for watching the Oscars.
It was a little more realistic than some shows and the people seemed friendly--because things like the Oscars do border on the ridiculous for the average person but we still want to watch them.
Just wanted to ask one question.....why do you think Saving Mr. Banks was not noticed more, particularly since Philomena has received so much attention--they are kind of in the same category.
For me, that movie was very powerful as it touched on alcohol which has affected every inch of my family.
I loved Emma Thompson in the role of PL Travers.
I do not really look for your website since I mostly look for the news but it keeps coming up on my e-mail and I put your thing about Piers Morgan in my blog.
I would like to put your answer in my blog ...the ronnie republic.
Thank you for your time....chloe louise
I just accidentally stumbled on your hang-out today but I liked it.
A good prep for watching the Oscars.
It was a little more realistic than some shows and the people seemed friendly--because things like the Oscars do border on the ridiculous for the average person but we still want to watch them.
Just wanted to ask one question.....why do you think Saving Mr. Banks was not noticed more, particularly since Philomena has received so much attention--they are kind of in the same category.
For me, that movie was very powerful as it touched on alcohol which has affected every inch of my family.
I loved Emma Thompson in the role of PL Travers.
I do not really look for your website since I mostly look for the news but it keeps coming up on my e-mail and I put your thing about Piers Morgan in my blog.
I would like to put your answer in my blog ...the ronnie republic.
Thank you for your time....chloe louise
Richard Anderson: Welcome to My Site...
Richard Anderson: Welcome to My Site...: Greetings, I use the word "greetings" again because have the desire to thank all of you for your interest in my works... and now h...
ronnie in south park: The Rolling Stones Thrill Abu Dhabi--Bringing the ...
ronnie in south park: The Rolling Stones Thrill Abu Dhabi--Bringing the ...: Music Connect: Radio: Feed: The Rolling Stones thrill Abu Dhabi Saeed Saeed Febru...
Feb 24, 2014
The National: Personal Memories of Interviewing The Rolling Stones
Personal memories of interviewing The Rolling Stones
February 16, 2014 Updated: February 16, 2014 16:24:00
When The Rolling Stones hit the du Arena on Friday night, the four core members will fuse together to form a musical unit as tight-knit and intuitive as any in rock history. Offstage, however, they are four men with very distinct lives and personalities.
Mick Jagger lives up to his billing: an energetic man of parts, hard to pin down. In conversation he moves easily from matey Mockney – “Ello, ’ow are ya? Sweltering, innit? Sweltering!” – to imperious brand manager. “Bands are never a democracy. Much better to have a dictatorship.”
Get Jagger on to music, though, and he’s genuinely engaged, becoming slightly riled at the suggestion that he doesn’t give much away in his songs. “That’s rubbish. It’s all very revealing, so revealing I find it embarrassing.” He speaks with love and knowledge about Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons and country music, and with enthusiasm about younger acts he admires, such as Kings of Leon: “They have that kind of Texas weirdness that you don’t find in a lot of modern rock bands.”
He can also be funny, excusing the existence of countless Rolling Stones tribute bands “because we can’t be in two places at once, can we? We can’t be doing that big wedding in Northumberland while we’re down the O2”. And he’s not above laughing at himself. “My children go, ‘Wow, look at that shirt, dad!’ Like the one in the Dancing in the Street video. You look at it now and you think, I know it was done in 10 minutes but you could’ve done better than that.”
At 70, rock ’n’ roll no longer rules Jagger’s life. Father to seven children, ranging from 14 to 43, much of his time is taken up with film production. “I enjoy the buzz of performing,” he says. “Whether it’s a kitchen with 10 people or a stadium, it’s instant gratification. But I have other interests. It’s not like 1965 where you’re on some sort of train ride – you don’t have to do that, so you don’t.”
For Keith Richards, also 70, the need to perform seems more urgent. The Stones guitarist told me about having “white line fever” – for once, not a drug reference. “Touring becomes like an addiction,” he said. “There are loads of people out there who want to see what you do and you feel like doing it. It’s as simple as that.” You sense that, given the chance, he would like the Stones to play live more often.
Richards still refers to other musicians as “cats”, which is pleasingly on-message, but far from the slurring debauchee of legend, these days he’s switched on: articulate, polite, warm, the Stones’ heart to Jagger’s head. He’s amusingly self-deprecating about his own singing voice. “I get a lot of that flak, you know: ‘The Grizzle’, and all that crap.” He duly grizzled, then laughed. “Everybody has got a great voice, it’s just a matter of what to do with it.”
Richards’ foil is Ronnie Wood. With just under 40 years’ active service, the former Faces guitarist remains the Stones’ new boy. He shares Richards’ love of the road – and has persevered with his 1970s hairstyle – but seems less settled, admitting he sometimes struggles with life away from the band. “When you’re touring, everything is organised, it’s all regimented and that can be a comfort. When you come home it can be tricky.” Wood has recently gone through some well-documented personal issues: repeatedly trying to kick alcohol, splitting with his wife and remarrying, but there’s a sweet, easy humour to him. He gently plugged his son’s rock band to me, and talked about his love of painting.
Wood is a diehard rocker who clearly loves being a Stone, whereas the taciturn drummer Charlie Watts is detached from the world of rock ‘n’ roll. Jazz remains his first love. For Watts, 1964 was not the year in which the Stones released their debut album, but the year in which he “saw Sonny Rollins in New York, in the original Birdland club. It was amazing. I’d never seen anyone like him”. Later, when Rollins played on the Stones’ 1981 album Tattoo You, Watts was star-struck. “I’d sit there and think: ‘Bloody hell, what am I going to do here?’ I feel like an impostor in that whole world, it’s the highest company you can keep.” By comparison, he seems to regard The Rolling Stones, and rock music in general, as amusingly ephemeral.
Yet despite their differences, or perhaps because of them, the group have endured for more than half a century. “There are people who burn bright and fade quickly, and there are those who burn bright and keep it going,” Watts told me. “You have to admire that.” He was talking about Sonny Rollins. It probably wouldn’t have occurred to him that he could just as easily have been describing his own remarkable band.
Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/personal-memories-of-interviewing-the-rolling-stones#ixzz2uGB8XT00
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CNN: Find Your Head and Put It On--Piers Morgan Bangs on but not on CNN
My only real issue with Piers was that (like Bill Maher), he's not a qualified debater - he's an arguer. He talks over his quest's answers in a berating and demeaning way. This is not discussion, it's not debate and it's most certainly not an interview.
Can't believe your saying that about Bill.......as a dem Bill is a ball and chain for the party. He is a gifted comedian but his insults were out of line...also he was a bully to Ms. Palin. I don't agree with Sarah but she gets to talk just like Bill...In the long run he was more offensive. Also, he is a grand self-promoter at others expense. All the dems are so in love with Bill because he is funny but in reality he uses his humor as a ruthless weapon and, as you said, does not really debate. Liked Piers, but still miss Larry.
George Strombo was a gifted interviewer........
Strombo was one of the best talk shows out there but they would not run it, instead, endless repeats of AC 360 and Piers......3 times each in one evening...over and over....couldn't they run Strombo once rather 3 of AC and PM.
That's where CNN made their giant mistake...CNN, find your head and put it on.
from the Wrap:
Piers Morgan CNN Show To End Its Run
TV | By Todd Cunningham on February 23, 2014 @ 5:01 pmFollow @toddcnnnghm
RELATED
New York Times confirms Wrap report from January, saying the show was in trouble
“Piers Morgan Live” will be canceled after a three-year run in CNN’s 9 p.m. news hour, the network confirmed to TheWrap.
“It’s been a painful period and lately we have taken a bath in the ratings,” Morgan told David Carr of the New York Times, who reported that Piers Morgan Live will “probably” see its last episode air this March. Though CNN said no official end date for the show has been determined yet.
TheWrap reported exclusively last month that Morgan’s show was in trouble.
Carr wrote:
Mr. Morgan said that his show, along with much of the rest of CNN, had been imprisoned by the news cycle and that he was interested in doing fewer appearances to greater effect — big, major interviews that would be events in themselves. Although a change has long been rumored, it was the first time that both he, and the CNN executives I talked to, acknowledged that his nightly show was on the way out. Plans for a replacement at the 9 o’clock hour are still underway, but Mr. Morgan and the network are in talks about him remaining at CNN in a different role.
“Piers Morgan Live” has failed to deliver on ratings in the three years since the British host took over the format from Larry King.
CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker has acknowledged multiple times that primetime needs a lot of work, and the ratings-challenged Morgan was a likely target. Morgan damaged himself by taking a strong partisan position against guns during his yearlong coverage of the gun debate, according to network insiders.
For the week of Jan. 6, MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” topped the time slot with 325,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 news demographic, while Fox News’ “The Kelly File,” drew 305,000, and “Piers Morgan Tonight,” had 159,000, according to Nielsen.
Also read: Nancy Grace Rips Piers Morgan: It’s Not Right for a Brit To Lecture Us About Gun Control!
Morgan’s show has averaged less than half a million total viewers in recent weeks, while competitors draw closer to 1 million, more on par with predecessor Larry King.
Zucker has acknowledged multiple times that primetime needs a lot of work. The view from inside the network is that Morgan damaged himself by taking a strong partisan position against guns during his yearlong coverage of the gun debate.
Morgan acknowledged as much in his comments to Carr: “Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it,” he said. “That’s run its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.”
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