• Best Director: DAVID FINCHER, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Best Actor: CLINT EASTWOOD, Gran Torino
• Best Actress: ANNE HATHAWAY, Rachel Getting Married
• Best Supporting Actor: JOSH
OLIN, Milk
• Best Supporting Actress: PENELOPE CRUZ, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Best Foreign Language Film: MONGOL
• Best Documentary: MAN ON WIRE
• Best Animated Feature: WALL-E
• Best Ensemble Cast: DOUBT
• Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: DEV PATEL, Slumdog Millionaire
• Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: VIOLA DAVIS, Doubt
• Best Directorial Debut: COURTNEY HUNT, Frozen River
• Best Original Screenplay: NICK SCHENK, Gran Torino
• Best Adapted Screenplay: SIMON BEAUFOY, Slumdog Millionaire;ERIC ROTH, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Spotlight Award: MELISSA LEO, Frozen River; RICHARD JENKINS, The Visitor
• The BVLGARI Award for N
Freedom of Expression: TRUMBO
• Top Ten Films (in alphabetical order):
BURN AFTER READING
CHANGELING
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
THE DARK KNIGHT
DEFIANCE
FROST/NIXON
GRAN TORINO
MILK
WALL-E
THE WRESTLER
• TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS OF THE YEAR (in alphabetical order)
FROZEN RIVER
IN
UGES
IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS
MR. FOE
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
SNOW ANGELS
SON OF RAMBOW
WENDY AND LUCY
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA
THE VISITOR
• Top Five Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
EDGE OF HEAVEN
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
ROMAN DE GARE
A SECRET
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
• Top Five Documentary Films (in alphabetical order):
AMERICAN TEEN
THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)
DEAR ZACHARY
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
• William K.
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The US officials have not released any names. Earlier Friday, they confirmed the death of two Americans.
#39The consulate in Mumbai will continue to work with the Indian police until all missing American citizens have been accounted for, #39 said Gordon Duguid, acting deputy spokesman for the US State Department, in a statement.
The death toll at all 10 sites targetted by terrorists starting Wednesday evening has been put at 140 to 160 by nongovernmental estimates in India.
Two of the American victims were Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, according to the Synchronicity Foundation, a religious group from Virginia. The foundation said the two were staying at the Oberoi Trident hotel, one of 10 places ambushed by gunmen in the Indian financial capital Wednesday evening.
Two other victims believed to have had US citizenship were Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were murdered by suspected Islamist militants at the Nariman House Jewish Centre southern Mumbai.
They were identified in broadcast comments by leaders of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn, New York, where the couple had been members.
The Holtzbergs were in Mumbai carrying out missionary work and ministering to Mumbai #39s Jewish community since 2003.
Another three or possibly four people were killed at the Jewish centre.
The New York rabbi, Yehuda Krinsky, who leads the groups missionaries, was quoted by the New York Times as condemning the #39brutal murder of our finest #39.
#39Words are inadequate to express our outrage and deep pain at this tragic act of cold-blooded murder, #39 he said.
The rabbi and his wife left behind a two-year-old son, Moshe Tvzi, who was saved by his quick-thinking nanny on Thursday when she hid with him in a room after the gunmen stormed into the Nariman House.
The Scherrs were also on a spiritual mission to India, and were part of a group of 27 comprising four Canadians, seven Australians and 16 Americans. The foundation #39s spokeswoman Bobbie Garvey told a news conference that four Americans were wounded, but could not provide further details.
Alan was described as #39a passionate Vedic astrologer and meditation teacher who inspired many people to begin a journey of self awareness and meditation. #39
The identity of the fifth American victim was not clear.
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Gere was born on Aug. 31, 1949 in Philadelphia, PA, but grew up in upstate New York where his father, Homer, sold insurance and his mother, Doris, worked as a homemaker. Finding his way to the University of Massachusetts on a gymnastics scholarship, Gere studied philosophy and drama, only to drop out after two years to pursue acting. Gere spent a season each with the Provincetown Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Company before settling in NYC, where he eventually starred on Broadway as Danny Zuko in (1973). He continued to work in theater while securing his first film parts, making his debut in Report to the Commissioner (1975), before finally gaining notice as Diane Keatons hustler beau in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). He landed his first leads in two films released a week apart in the fall of 1978: Terrence Malicks lyrical Days of Heaven and Robert Mulligans urban working class family drama Bloodbrothers.” Stardom came two years later with American Gigolo (1980), Paul Schraders ambitious updating of Robert Bressons film (1959) to a contemporary Californian milieu. Playing a cocky prostitute, decked out in Armani suits and driving a fancy car, Geres character became not only a fashion statement but a symbol for the Reagan years about to come. MORE
Searching for old movies by Richard Gere – Penny DVD.
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Hi!
So youre still in high school?
Yeah.
Okay, good! [laughter] You know, in Princess of Nebraska [the companion film to Thousand Years], the leading lady was in high school when we filmed her. The producer and I had to go to the principal to get permission. Anyway, the principal made us promise that she would still study hard and get good grades and graduate.
Yeah, well, Im sure it made filming more difficult too because of the restricted number of hours [during which minors in entertainment are allowed to work].
Well, they released her for two weeks, at least, from school. Which was great.
So here you are in New York to promotea different movie. To promote A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. You like New York?
I love New York. I actually live here part of the time; I have an apartment here which I actually got years ago when we were doing some other films here. And Ive worked here a lot too. I shot two or three films here. So I love New York. But its changing! [laughs]
Im not sure I can offer much input on that. Im too young to have experienced the change!
Yeah? What part of town do you live in?
I live in Brooklyn.
Yeah? Well, Brooklyn is changing too. Even when you were younger.
Oh, yeah!
Yeah. Anyway.
So where do you live the other part of the time? Dont you live on the West Coast?
I live in San Francisco, where my mother and mother-in-laws are. And theyre getting pretty old, so this last year we had to do a lot to sort of take care of them.
Well, San Franciscos a beautiful city.
Yes. I like it there too, so Im very lucky! [laughs]
So your movie A Thousand Years of Good Prayers was based on a short story of the same name. How did you find that short story?
Well, Im very good friends with the editor for Francis Ford Coppolas magazine All-Story. His name is Michael Ray, and he reads almost everything and almost everything comes across his path. And he told me that this youngwell, [the author in question, Yiyun Li] is not young any more. Shes thirty and shes got two kids
Well, thats young to everybody but me! [laughter]
Well, okay! Its young to me, too. And youre really young! No, she lives in the Bay Area, she finished this collection of short stories thats about to be published, and she teaches at Mills. And [Michael Ray] said I should read Thousand Years. And I really liked it. It resonated in so many ways for me. And then I talked to her about writing the screenplay for the movie. Well, I worked with her. I sort of talked her through what worked for me, what didnt work, what were the different elements we needed. Yeah.
Well, the movie thats come out of it is this really delicate piece and it deals a lot with both the father-daughter relationship and also language barriers. And I read that you were drawn to the story because you saw yourself in the father-daughter dynamic?
Yeah. I was more the daughter in this case. [laughs] I came up to America on my own, and even though I went back to visit a few times, my father didnt come over to me until maybe ten or twelve years later. And by that time Id become pretty Americanlearned a new language, a new culture. And it was very difficult dealing with my father, especially over dinners, and he asked a lot of probing questions about things, and I just didnt really want to answer sometimes. And I know he was also kind of looking through my things in the house when I was gone during the day. And there were a lot of conflicts growing up. So those are the kinds of things that all really kind of made me like the story and really get inside that story.
Yeah. I mean, Im not familiar with the original short story; are there story elements that you added?
There we some things we changed. We didnt have a whole lot added. For example, the lover was Romanian instead of Russian, and we made his role a little less also. We made him Russian because in Spokane, where we were filming, there were actually more Russians. And the Chinese and the Russians were very connected with each other. So I thought it would be a better metaphor, in a way, about their past together. And the ending with the Iranian woman was changed. In the book it ended more between him and the Iranian woman, but I didnt want to end with that. I wanted to end with the father and the daughter. So those are the kinds of changes and things that we did.
So you shot in Spokanewas the original story purposely set in?
It was set in Iowa, which is the reason, when I spoke to Yiyun about it, was that she wanted it in a very sort of nondescript middle American town. And Spokane is very much like that too, and there happened to be a production company that could help me make the movie really cheap there! [laughter]
Of course, theres the subplot of the fathers language barrier and his struggling to improve his English while in America. So how did you approach that?
Well, that was a lot from the actor [Henry O], whos very anal with that stuff. Because he knew English really well and Chinese really well, he was constantly trying to figure out, If I spoke Chinese and English, what would I do wrong? So he was making that work, and hed constantly send me pages of these things. So thats basically how we worked at it a lot. And I used to teach English as a second language, so I knew enough about what kinds of things the Chinese tend to make mistakes on and stuff like that. But the other part that I find really interesting is when he speaks in Mandarin and she speaks in Farsi, and I consciously didnt subtitle it, because I want the audience to be in the same position as they are as characters and understand each other through the body language and the music of the language, rather than in specifics.
Right, because each one can only understand the other so much, whereas between the father and the daughter there are subtitles because they can both understand everything because theyre speaking the same language.
Right, but on a more universal level theres certain things that people can also understand quite a bit.
Right.
Where are you from originally? You look
Brooklyn. [laughs]
Brooklyn, but your parents are from my parents were raised in the U.S., but heritage-wise, my dad is Eastern European Jewish and my moms half-Irish and half-European mutt.
Okay. [laughs] Yeah, youre complete Europe. Everything.
Ive been told often that I look Russian, and Im actually not at all. But nobody guesses Im a quarter Irish.
Yeah. Thats a tough one. Its not obvious that youre RusI mean, Irish. [laughter]
Wow, I completely forgot what I was going to ask. Oh! Heres something that caught my attention: when the father is going around the complex and visiting the neighbors, he meets a blonde woman lying by the pool in a bikini, and she looks very young and happy-go-lucky and so-on but it turns out shes a
Forensic scientist, yeah. Well, part of the thing about shooting in Spokane was that there are very few actors in Spokane and they couldnt afford to bring in good actors from L.A. or New York. So I asked a casting person to just bring in real people that are interesting. The Mormons are real Mormons, the two guys. And the woman was somebody that came in and said, Oh, I just finished a forensic science major and I couldnt get a job because theres not enough dead bodies in this town. [laughter] And she just gabbled on just like [her character in the film does] at the pool.
So you just wrote it in?
I just wrote it in. So, yeah, a lot of thats just a reflection of a certain aspect of that town. Its not that eccentric, so to speak, but its very much that town.
And the way youre describing it, taking different residents of Spokanethat calls to mind the way that Gus Van Sant casts his movies largely from Portland.
Right. I love his films. I love the ones in which he works that way, in Portland, Oregon, and it reminds me of Fargo, where they shot it and used a lot of real people. I think its a really interesting way to work.
Do you cast this way often, or was this sort of a new thing?
This was kind of a new thing. And I was forced into it, like I said, because I couldnt afford to bring in good actors, and I went, This is going to be really bad, so could we look for some interesting people? [laughs] So, you know, it happened by accident. I was forced into it, yeah.
Well, it worked!
Yeah, it really did! In the script, you know, Yiyun really wrote in a lot of very interesting, eccentric Middle American people, so that was the inspiration.
So, for example, were you looking specifically for Mormons, or were you looking for random people and the Mormons came up?
Well, some were random. The Mormons were very specific, because there was a very long scene written, and I had actors read them and it just didnt feel right. You know, the Mormons are so committed in a veryI dont know how to say ita very innocent way, almost, and it comes across in how they are, and no actor could duplicate that, really. So I thought that the two guys [that we cast] were great. They read the script, they believed in it, they made some changes for their own purposes and they just did it. They got a standing ovation from the crew afterwards. And they drank a lot of ice water too. They were like, Do we have to drink this again? when, yes, it was another take, so they did have to drink it again. Anyway!
Yeah. I mean, the scene with the two Mormons is a very interesting scene especially because when you have people coming door-to-door you usually say No, thank you. And the father opens the door and he invites them in.
Yeah, hes equally naïve, too.
Yeah, hes naïve, but it also invites the audience to see that from a different perspective. And its not the largest part of the movie, but its an interesting side effect of telling the fathers story.
Absolutely. And it also, in a way, expresses his loneliness and his isolation and the connection that he finds with these two guys who are from another planet, so to speakbut he connected with them by saying, Oh yuck, young communists. Which I find so fascinating.
Well, youve got the way that he approaches new people that he hasnt met before and then you contrast it with the relationship that he has with his daughter. And even though he still isnt a shouter or a loud person, his relationships with new people are still very different.
Right, because somehow he was still able to communicate with them. I mean, hes kind of a talker, and he kind of likes to make things up a little bit. But with the daughter it gets so serious and intenseon both of their parts. I think she brings it out of him, so that it always becomes this very tense sort of silence.
Right. And theres even a part of the movie where theyre discussing happiness as measured by how much somebody talks, and he says, If youre happy, youre going to want to talk to people, and she says, You were silent once. Does that mean you were unhappy too?
No, those are great lines. Those are great lines. Exactly from the book. I love those lines. You know, that same conversation happened at different times at dinners with my parents. You know, I just have nothing to say sometimes, and they would say, Is something upsetting you? Are you unhappy? If youre not unhappy why arent you talking? Its exactly those kinds of conversations.
And even though Yilan is insisting you dont have to talk to be happy, at the same time, the silence between them versus when shes on the phone with one of the friendsis it the Russian who calls her?
Its the Russian.
Right, its the Russian, and shes talking, and even her dad talks more with strangers, so its kind of like being around each other makes them tense enough as tothey feel less happy around each other.
That kind of feeds on itself that way. And I think the history of what he went through and how it affected her mother and her always kind of is the subconscious thing behind it. Yeah.
And its interesting because he himself says, I wasnt a good father. He admits this to the Iranian woman.
I think he feels bad about it. I think hes admitting that hes been irresponsible. And at the same time I find it interesting that as much as she has problems with her father, shes also reliving her fathers life in a way. Shes having an affair with a married man, and replaying that history, you know? Shes so full of contradictions that I like her a lot! [laughs] Her bed is half filled with books, which says a lot about someones life, and I like the fact that she is so controlling in a way and yet has not control over her life. When the Russian lover calls, shes so happy. You know, shes so waiting for those calls. But she has no control over that. Anyway! But do you think high school students would enjoy the film like you do? [laughs]
Well, I think some of them would! I think it depends. I mean, some of them would rather watch Hannah Montana! [laughter] Not knocking Hannah Montana, of course, because I watch it sometimes.
Right, I do too! I do too. I have to sort of understand that world, so [laughter]
Well, you know, Disney Channel has its merits! But there are plenty of high school students that would love a film like this.
Right. Especially in a city like this, where people all have kind of an immigrant background anyway. And the relationship between yourself and your parentsm sure theres certain similarities.
I feel like high school students are often underestimated, though, in terms of taste. And even those who do have lowbrow taste have appreciation for finer things as well.
But I have to say thats more the two coasts. If you go to the heartlands of America uh. My heart sinks. You know, I wont go there. You know? [laughter]
Well, I think in any city youre going to be exposed to more culture than if youre in a little town in the middle of nowhere. Like, Chicagos in the middle of the country, but
Well, Chicagos pretty sophisticated.
Well, thats what Im saying. Its in the middle of the country, but a high schooler there is going to be more culturally educated than a high schooler in the middle of the closer you are to those sorts of things, the more you absorb them, I think. But then those who dont have that exposure drag down others opinions of all of us. So [laughs]
So are you enthusiastic and hopeful about Obama?
I yes!
Good!
I used to be a Hillary supporter, but then I switched, because I disapproved of the way she was running her campaign. Wait, wait, Im the interviewer here! I should be asking the questions!
All right, all right! Thats what II hate to be answering questions always. I have to ask questions sometimes. But okay!
Well, let me turn the tables on you. What do you think about Obama?
I like him. I think hes a breath of fresh air. I think he has to take some clearer stances about issues. Thats where he needs to go now, and I really would look forward to that.
I think, because hes such a strong public speaker, its easy to forget what his stances actually are. But hes getting a lot of younger people into politics, which is great!
No, I hope all the young people will go out and vote. Its really important. And, if anything else, thats the most important thing for America right now. And I hope they all go see A Thousand Years of Good Prayers! [laughter]
You're allowed to say that; it's your interview! Well, though, I think Obama has engaged young people more thoroughly than any candidate before other thanand I wouldnt even know this, but maybe JFK.
Um yeah, but not as much.
And even though MTV is still going strong and all of that, I think teenagers are becoming more aware of the other cultural stuff out there. But maybe thats just me, because Im biased.
I think theres a certain percentage of young people that are like you, and then theres other ones that either dont care or are maybe very religious or whatever.
Okay. So, anything else?
There is another film called Princess of Nebraska
Oh, right, I knew there was something I forgot to ask you!
Its the sister film to this, and were going to figure out a way to release both of them at the same time on different platforms.
Right. It is based on another short story written by the same author?
Same author, short story, from the same book. Its very different. Its about a young girl whos nineteen and shes four months pregnant and shes trying to deal with that. Its about twenty-four hours in her life, dealing with that.
Was that also filmed in Spokane?
No, it was filmed in San Francisco. She actually goes to school in Nebraska; thats why she calls herself the princess of Nebraska. But she doesnt want to get an abortion in the middle of nowhere, she says, and shes always wanted to see San Francisco, so she goes there. So thats the story. And its really like a mirror to A Thousand Years, because in A Thousand Years youve got Yilan, who in a way is running from her own past and her own history and her own culture. And here youve got a younger woman who doesnt really have a past and an identity. She actually identifies with Paris Hilton a lot.
[laughs] Oh god.
She says, I like her; I think she says what she wants; she does what she wants. Thats an exact quote from the movie.
Oh boy. [laughter]
But she learns! Through the movie. Yeah.
If Paris Hilton is your idol, and thats caught onscreen, I should hope that you learn! [laughter] And so thats a companion film to this one.
Yeah. Itll be released on some kind of parallel platform. I dont quite know yet. Maybe on the internet, for free even, or maybe it might be in a movie theater downtown or something.
Are there still movie theaters that do double features, or is that pretty much gone?
Thats pretty much gone. I wanted that. In France theyre going to do that with these two films and I really liked that; here, apparently, economically its not feasible. The last time Quentin Tarantino did it, it was a big disaster.
Grindhouse. Was it really? I never heard how it went. I was rooting for it!
If it had gone well, then that might have made a comeback. But they werent very good films to begin with!
Well, Id been planning on seeing Grindhouse but I see movies so rarely that I ended up not seeing it, and now I should have been there helping it!
Yep! [laughter]
Well cinemas changin.
Yeah, it is.
A lot of the smaller cinemas are just [a slitting motion across the throat]
Well, I was just talking with someone about how independent cinema in America is pretty depressing. You know, some of the really interesting stuff doesnt really get shown, or when it gets shown it just gets shoved aside. I think there needs to be a new venue of some kind, which I think is coming. I think that cameras are so accessible now for young people to do things, and it needs to go on the internet, now, because its distributed in the different way. To get a film out in theatres is too expensive.
Yeah, thats the thing. Theres still independent film but its got to be shot for $5 because its got to be shown in the internet or else nobodys going to see it.
But thats happening right now. And thats one of the things were trying to do for Princess of Nebraska.
Go see the film if you can find it playing near you; it's well worth a trip. Meanwhile, look it up on IMDb.
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"You can't blame me for saying no to playing mother to an actor with whom I co-starred in so many films. But I had a bigger reason for my refusal. The film required me to leave Mumbai for two months at a stretch. Both my children are too young to be left behind for such a long time, especially since they don't even go to school yet," Raveena told IANS.
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Different ways to apply for an Immigrant Visa
Conventional Refugee (Political Asylum)
An applicant can request an application for political asylum in Canada, if that person has a well founded fear of persecution because of his/her religion, race, nationality, membership of a particular social group and political opinion. If the individual can provide proof of such reason for why they cannot go back to their home country or cannot get protection from their country, then they have a very likely chance of successfully attaining an Immigrant Visa.
Live-in-Caregiver (Nanny or Domestic help)
The purpose of this program was to meet the shortage of domestic help in Canada.
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Dear Noel,
Having met you last week, I felt the need to write and continue our discussion about your decision to end your life soon. I don't write this as someone with strong religious or pro-life views but as another disabled person, who like you uses a wheelchair, who became disabled and who needs round-the-clock assistance in their life.
Noel, is your life really not worth living?
In interviews, you repeatedly say that because of your accident, you can't feel, you can't touch the world and can only watch as it passes by. I disagree. Throughout the interview, when we talked for example about your beloved wife who you lost to cancer, you filled up, overcome with emotion.
In a different way, when we discussed your ongoing fights for support and assistance with your care providers, you talked with passion and anger.
You proudly showed me the racing magazine where you were "owner of the month" after your horse won at Ascot. You asked one of your staff to read out the poetry you have written since your accident. You are definitely a man who can feel.
As for not being able to touch the world around you - from an onlooker's point of view this again just isn't true. You appear to touch the world in so many ways.
You have staff who clearly respect you and enjoy working for you. You have family, a grandson and friends. Through the neo-Nazi attack that led to your accident, you have become a celebrity, a campaigner against racism, a fighter for justice. You have organised exchanges for young people from Berlin to come to Birmingham to show them that integration is possible.
You have written your autobiography. In fact Noel, it seems to me that since becoming disabled you have actually touched more people and embraced life in ways that perhaps you wouldn't have if you hadn't had your accident. You are very much alive.
I know that at the moment, your situation is frustrating. Pressure sores - the result, you say, of cutbacks in the health service - mean you've hardly been out of your bed, never mind your house, for many months now.
You said that as a disabled person you'll never walk on the beach, be able to stand up and cheer when your football team scores, or kiss the head of your prize-winning racehorse.
I can really relate to the idea that there are now things you can't do. I used to magine walking hand-in-hand along a sunset beach with my lover. But the reality of not having four-wheel drive on my electric wheelchair and sinking, immobile into the sand, kept me on terra firma. But if you're interested, I can let you know where there are beaches with sand so compacted that you can wheel on them with ease; others with boardwalks to the sea and there are now even beach wheelchairs.
Like you, I became disabled. But for me it was at the age of seven, following a childhood illness. I know adapting to your new life and situation can be difficult. I remember as a teenager being too unwell to go out with my friends, thinking I'd always have to live with my parents and that I'd have no choice but to rely on my mum to look after me. Life wasn't much fun and at times I didn't see any point in the future.
Today, I have the assistance I need that allows me to live in my own home, to have
friends, a partner and a career as a comedian. In other words, I have a life I could never have imagined back then.
How? I was lucky enough to get support, advice and information from other disabled people who've been in my situation, who showed me that there was another way and who taught me how to get what I need to live my life.
I know you've received only some of what you need in terms of access and assistance, and this has been hard won. Don't you think it's maddening that so many disabled people remain isolated, uninformed and unsupported in negotiating the confusing world of welfare, health care, social services, legislation, assessments and adaptations.
Maybe that's why assisted suicide seems to be increasingly seen as an option by disabled people, not just those who are terminally ill.
Worn down, feeling like a burden and with their needs unmet, it's perhaps understandable why people like yourself might choose death. But surely before we
even consider assisting people to die, we need to assist them to live.
One of the main problems I have with assisted suicide stories like yours, Noel, is that the media perpetuates the idea that to be disabled or ill must be the greatest tragedy of all. Disability inevitability equals no quality of life.
I know when people read your story, many will agree that yes, if they were in your situation then they would want to die too. Most people are so scared of illness, of disability, of getting older, that wanting assisted suicide is seen as an entirely rational desire. What scares me is that views like these will also be held by the doctors, the media, the courts, the government and all the others who have the power to decide if we live or die.
I'm sure by now you know how I feel about assisted suicide. Until the day when good quality health and social care are universally available regardless of age, impairment,
race, gender or location, I believe there is no place for legalised assisted suicide.
I just think it's too easy for a society to promote assisted suicide as a right rather than work to overcome the barriers to supporting older, ill and disabled people to live fulfilled and valuable lives. Forget the right to die, isn't it more urgent that we campaign for the right not to be killed?
We may have differing perspectives on this debate but I think what we share is our respect for each other. Thank you for sharing your story with me and for letting me into your life. I hope your one-way ticket to Switzerland is an open one so we can continue this discussion over the coming years.
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Back in Chili, New York, when I was in 6th or 7th grade, my friend, Dave M., admitted to us that he'd sent away for the lifesize Frankenstein with glow-in-the-dark eyes. Unlike the paper model advertised on your site, this one was advertized as polyethylene. We were all amazed that he'd had the balls to order this thing -- I mean, we all always wondered how cool these things from the comic books could be... especially the lifesize Frankenstein with glow-in-the-dark eyes.
With the Frankenstein, we confused "polyethylene" with "polystyrene," the hard plastic that was used to make the football players for the vibrating football game we all had.
A few weeks after the order, we were hanging around in Dave's room. His mom poked her head in the door and handed him en envelope that had just arrived in the mail. It was a standard manila size and the return address was the same as the one he'd sent off to for the the lifesize Frankenstein with glow-in-the-dark eyes. We were all a little confused. How could you put a life-size 6 foot Frankenstein in an envelope?
He opened the envelope, reached inside and pulled out a folded piece of plastic. As he began to unfold it, we could see the face of a screen-printed green and black drawing of Frankenstein. I fell apart laughing and snatched it away, dancing around the room with it. It just hit me. "Polyethlene's not what they make the football players with. It's what they make Totem Trash Bags from!" The eyes weren't glowing though... until we shook out the envelope and found a little sheet with two round stickers of glow-in-the-dark material. I guess that the manufacturers saved money by not paying someone to pre-apply these -- thus passing the savings on to the consumer.
Frankenstein was renamed "Totem Frankenstein" and Dave and I (who were both budding cartoonists) drew many exciting and hilarious adventure with this new hero -- usually somehow involving him blowing down the street in the breeze.
(Thanks to Steve Conley for the reminder.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:Good
- Music:Ricky Marti
"But no. I am definitely not an amputee actor," says the San Francisco native, whose athletic build, designer jeans, motorcycle boots and troublemaker smile tend to prove the point.
The only hint of a disability about Yaeger is a slightly groggy expression that he's nursing with coffee at a Mission District cafe on a recent weekday afternoon. He just finished filming his death scene near Redding earlier in the morning for the forthcoming "Hell Patrol" zombie movie.
"If I tell people about my amputated leg while I'm wearing pants, they usually say something like, 'Wow, you're really tough,' " says Yaeger, surrounded by not-so-tough-looking bookworms and skinny skateboarders. "But if I'm wearing shorts and they see my one leg it's more like (adopts hushed sympathetic tone) 'Oh. That really sucks.' "
With a slightly sinister smile, Yaeger, 31, admits that he gets a kick out of being underestimated since losing his left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2006 - and he doesn't mind it when people (including those interviewing him) subconsciously slip in double entendres like asking whether he "gets a kick" out of his almost daily awkward moments.
"You know what?" says Yaeger. "I'm relatively new at being a guy with one leg."
Getting severely injured, however, is nothing new to the former professional BMX stunt rider, who grew up in Daly City and South San Francisco and spent summers at a family cabin near Chico, riding motor bikes and getting into trouble along with his two older brothers.
"How many accidents have I had? Oh, boy," says Yaeger, letting out a short sigh before listing as many broken-bone incidents as he can remember. The list begins when he was 4, riding with his brother on the front of a three-wheel ATC dirt bike. That's when he swung his legs into the front tire, turning his little foot upside down and practically grinding it to bits. He especially remembers the way the rubber
melted into his wounds.
"I've pretty much broken every bone in my body, except for my femurs," he says with a hint of pride.
It was a typical foggy Daly City evening in March 2006 when Yaeger was riding his Ducati Monster 1000 home from a friend's house. While making the same turn he had made probably a hundred times at the John Daly Boulevard exit on southbound Interstate 280, an unknown white vehicle ran him off the road, sending him and his bike down a 30-foot embankment. On the way down he banged into a guardrail and pole.
After about 15 minutes, Yaeger awoke from what he recognized as a concussion. Face down in the dirt, and still able to hear his motorcycle engine humming nearby, he took inventory. The good news: His neck wasn't broken. The bad news: When he tried to crawl, it felt as if his lower half was separating from his pelvis. The lifesaving news: Yaeger's cell phone was in his jacket pocket. With no one in sight, he pulled out the phone and called 911.
"I should be dead," says Yaeger, still with a smile. "That near-death experience is what thrust me into acting. Before, I just kind of fiddled with the idea. After that accident, I changed."
Yaeger's father, Timothy Yaeger, a congregation elder for many years at the Peninsula Christian Fellowship church in San Bruno, saw the same change.
Watching him lie in an induced coma with a collapsed lung, torn bladder and broken pelvis for three weeks at San Francisco General Hospital, Timothy Yaeger wondered how his son would respond to the news that his leg would have to be amputated.
"Kurt was never a woe-is-me kind of person," says the elder Yaeger. "He was always talented and driven. But after the accident, he took on an entirely new kind of aggressive personality. Nothing was going to bring him down, and he was going to attack whatever life gave him."
Although Yaeger was released from the hospital about three months after the accident, it took nearly 25 surgeries before the doctors finally determined how far up his leg needed to be amputated.
Complications and nearly unbearable pain aside, Yaeger dedicated his new lease on life to acting. In the past year and a half since he began walking again, Yaeger has acted in several commercials and landed lead roles in locally produced feature films due for release next year, including "Hell Patrol" and Michael Anderson's "Tenderloin." He now splits his time between the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Depending on the audition description and whether or not Yaeger is feeling a little mischievous, sometimes he lets the casting director know about his amputated leg and sometimes he doesn't.
"I had absolutely no idea," says Anderson, who auditioned Yaeger in "Tenderloin," an independent film (on coincidentally named Fake Foot Productions) about a wounded Iraq war veteran who comes to San Francisco and ends up managing an SRO hotel in the Tenderloin. "I just thought that he was a natural. I believed everything he was saying during the audition. He didn't sound like an actor, yet he was reading our lines."
After impressing Anderson with his acting, Yaeger jumped from standing to his knees atop a dresser to act out a mouse-chasing scene.
"Before making the jump, Kurt goes, 'I can also do this,' " says Anderson. "I'm thinking, big deal. Then when we realized he had only one leg, it was like, 'Wow!' "
Yaeger credits the near-death experience for his positive attitude. "I don't have a fear of death anymore," he says. "So I don't have a fear of looking foolish in front of the camera."
Yaeger is also getting involved with rights for disabled actors. He cites a statistic from a 2005 Screen Actors Guild study showing that while nearly 20 percent of Americans have some sort of disability, less than 2 percent of characters on television are shown with one, and only a half percent of those have speaking parts.
Yaeger hopes that little-known monetary incentives and tax breaks given to films for casting disabled actors will help the cause and break stereotypes. He is helping to get that word out. But the perception of what it truly means to be disabled is something Yaeger continues to work on.
"I was shooting a background Afghan refugee camp scene for 'Charlie Wilson's War,' and there were all these guys with missing limbs," says Yaeger of the scene, which didn't make the final cut. "I was looking at them thinking, 'Man, that sucks for them!' Then I realized, 'Oh wait, I'm an amputee too.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:normal
- Music:David Guetta
Back in Chili, New York, when I was in 6th or 7th grade, my friend, Dave M., admitted to us that he'd sent away for the lifesize Frankenstein with glow-in-the-dark eyes. Unlike the paper model advertised on your site, this one was advertized as polyethylene. We were all amazed that he'd had the balls to order this thing -- I mean, we all always wondered how cool these things from the comic books could be... especially the lifesize Frankenstein with glow-in-the-dark eyes.
With the Frankenstein, we confused "polyethylene" with "polystyrene," the hard plastic that was used to make the football players for the vibrating football game we all had.
A few weeks after the order, we were hanging around in Dave's room. His mom poked her head in the door and handed him en envelope that had just arrived in the mail. It was a standard manila size and the return address was the same as the one he'd sent off to for the the lifesize Frankenstein with glow-in-the-dark eyes. We were all a little confused. How could you put a life-size 6 foot Frankenstein in an envelope?
He opened the envelope, reached inside and pulled out a folded piece of plastic. As he began to unfold it, we could see the face of a screen-printed green and black drawing of Frankenstein. I fell apart laughing and snatched it away, dancing around the room with it. It just hit me. "Polyethlene's not what they make the football players with. It's what they make Totem Trash Bags from!" The eyes weren't glowing though... until we shook out the envelope and found a little sheet with two round stickers of glow-in-the-dark material. I guess that the manufacturers saved money by not paying someone to pre-apply these -- thus passing the savings on to the consumer.
Frankenstein was renamed "Totem Frankenstein" and Dave and I (who were both budding cartoonists) drew many exciting and hilarious adventure with this new hero -- usually somehow involving him blowing down the street in the breeze.
(Thanks to Steve Conley for the reminder.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:Good
- Music:Robbie Williams
Taiwanese American actor Michelle Krusiec (pronounced Kroozik) first found national and international critical acclaim in her starring role opposite Joan Chen in the romantic comedy Saving Face, directed by Alice Wu. Her award winning performance as an awkward, closeted lesbian garnered her a Best Actress nomination in the 2005 Golden Horse Ceremony, Asia's equivalent to the Academy Award.
Michelle stars alongside Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean in Far North.
Based on a short story by Sara Maitland, Far North stars Michelle Yeoh and Michelle Krusiec as Saiva and Anja, two women struggling to survive in the Arctic tundra after fleeing hostile soldiers. When a wounded stranger (Sean Bean) appears on the ice, Saiva and Anja nurse him back to health, but his presence severely disturbs the relationship between the two women.
Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal the horrific events that forced Saiva into her solitary northern existence, including how she rescued Anja when she was just a baby, as well as the resourceful way in which she eluded her would-be captors.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:normal
- Music:Black Eyed Peas
Date: December 14th, 2008
Location: Downtown Toronto
The event is on a Sunday and you would only be needed the morning of.
The event is for charity, and all proceeds will go to the Children's Wish Foundation.
The event will be media covered, and will be great experience if you are trying to build your portfolio.
In terms of compensation, you will recieve another form of compensation, and will not be monetary. No one is getting paid for this!
The look is natural, and the event is for a Christmas Themed fashion show which will include singing performances, skits, fashion show sponsored by Melanie Lyne, Gap, the Bay, Children's Wish Foundation and will feature evening wear by Calvin Klein, Adrianne Papel, Tahari, Nine West, Suzi Chin, and some others.
Let me know if you are interested. There are only 5 positions for MUA.
Stylists:
If you have a clothing brand you would like to promote, let me know and we can work something out. I would like to feature some local Toronto artists in the show as well.
It is GREAT exposure and there will be over 300 people in attendance.
Furthermore, if you would like to help style the shoot and feel confident in donating some spare time to help the event co ordinators, let me know!
Have a great day and contact me at:
416 918 7175
info@jessicamartins.net
For more information.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:lol
- Music:David Guetta
Date: December 14th, 2008
Location: Downtown Toronto
The event is on a Sunday and you would only be needed the morning of.
The event is for charity, and all proceeds will go to the Children's Wish Foundation.
The event will be media covered, and will be great experience if you are trying to build your portfolio.
In terms of compensation, you will recieve another form of compensation, and will not be monetary. No one is getting paid for this!
The look is natural, and the event is for a Christmas Themed fashion show which will include singing performances, skits, fashion show sponsored by Melanie Lyne, Gap, the Bay, Children's Wish Foundation and will feature evening wear by Calvin Klein, Adrianne Papel, Tahari, Nine West, Suzi Chin, and some others.
Let me know if you are interested. There are only 5 positions for MUA.
Stylists:
If you have a clothing brand you would like to promote, let me know and we can work something out. I would like to feature some local Toronto artists in the show as well.
It is GREAT exposure and there will be over 300 people in attendance.
Furthermore, if you would like to help style the shoot and feel confident in donating some spare time to help the event co ordinators, let me know!
Have a great day and contact me at:
416 918 7175
info@jessicamartins.net
For more information.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:More emotions
- Music:Black Eyed Peas
Finally theres a picture of me barefoot and whistling to the mountains of Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut. Thanks to David Greyson and Denton Froese for sharing these pictures with me! Ill be posting some pictures soon of the following trips, down the Labrador coast and another around the coast of Newfoundland.
For those of you whod like to do a cruise like this, visit www.adventurecanada.com. Ill be joining them in May of next year for their Celtic Quest trip from Spain to Scotland, as well as Scotland Slowly which will take us around the coast of Scotland and up to Shetland and Orkney.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:cry
- Music:Backstreet Boys
The 50-year-old actor's voting woes began Tuesday morning when he ran into trouble at his polling station: His name was missing from the registration rolls. He said his name was nowhere to be found on the books at a YMCA in downtown Manhattan, where he'd previously voted in presidential elections. "I had been voting there for years," he said in a telephone interview. "I have not moved, I have not changed party affiliations. There's no reason why it shouldn't be in the rolls. So I was given a paper ballot and filled it out, but I wanted my vote to be registered there and I don't trust paper ballots." Robbins, who lives with partner Susan Sarandon and has been registered to vote in New York since 1988, said he doesn't trust paper or affidavit ballots because "oftentimes those things get lost or thrown away." So he did not submit his and asked to speak to a supervisor. "I stayed in the voting place and asked to see someone from the Board of Elections and told them I wasn't going to leave until someone from the Board of Elections came and explained to me why I wasn't being allowed to vote why my name had been taken off the voter rolls." The supervisor said a police officer had been called over, Robbins said, "at which point, I said to him, 'Are you trying to intimidate me?' " The police at the location said he had "every right to be there," Robbins said. Police said there was no police involvement. After hours of waiting, Robbins said he was told to visit the board's downtown office, which confirmed what he knew to be true: he's a registered voter. A judge then issued a court order allowing him to vote and that he did, at the same location where his trouble began. "If anything, it seems like a random thing, but in randomness there are numbers, and there have been in the past," said Robbins, who said that other voters also were not listed. "This is just one example of how difficult it is to vote in the United States," he said.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:smile
- Music:Crazy Town
Despite being unable to participate, I was eager to follow the election. Gabriel and I retired to our separate hotel rooms to watch Recount to get in the mood for the following day's election coverage. The next morning we met at 8am to watch the East Coast polls close. We went to a restaurant friendly to foreigners, asked if we could turn on their TV, and then watched outsider's coverage of the election by the BBC. CNN was not available.
After a couple hours of watching, we were joined by a Canadian. Then two American guys, one of them a former UCSC student. As news of Obama's victory got out, the crowd at the restaurant grew. Based on a very unscientific sampling - it seems that folks from around the world are happy to see Obama as president.
The highlight of Obama's speech - his girls are getting a puppy. If I had known this during the primary the Clinton v Obama debate would have been much easier for me to sort out.
Then I went to an internet cafe to check the status of California's propositions...
Proposition 8 passed. Ouch. Next I found a map at latimes.com that broke down the vote by county. San Francisco voted No on Prop 8 in an overwhelming manner. No surprise. But Los Angeles County passed it, and not by a slim margin. I can almost understand it in the mostly agrarian Central Valley where not everyone knows and interacts with openly gay people on a regular basis, But LA? Seriously - in a land of entertainment populated by actors, costumers, makeup artists, and hair stylists Prop 8 managed to pass. Gays allow this town to run, it's not about marriage folks, it's about equal rights.
Two steps forward and one step back.
Similar posts: actor canadian
- Mood:Very good
- Music:Michael Jackson
“She ends up seducing a coworker, played by Clifton Collins Jr. [‘Capote’], who loses a testicle in an accident, to sue the company to get a million dollars from it,” continued Kunis. “Jason Bateman falls in lust with her, wants to have sex with her, but he’s married [to Wiig] so he tries to justify it by hiring a gigolo [who is] Ben Affleck, playing his best friend.”
[...] “[When Bateman] hires a gigolo to seduce his wife, it works,” explained Kunis [...]. “Then he freaks out, because his wife is [also going to] have sex with this 19-year-old, dumb kid [played by Dustin Milligan], who’s really funny in the movie,” said Kunis. “Then, ultimately, Jason and I finally get together. We schtup, we have fun, and then you realize that I stole everything. And then, hilarity ensues.”
We’ll undoubtedly be keeping an eye on “Extract” as it prepares itself to hit theaters in 2009. But, with Judge’s bad-luck track record, we can’t help but wonder: Will the film even come to theaters.
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- Mood:More emotions
- Music:Linkin Park
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