Global
Review Fun Fact: “Mr. Memory” was based on an actual vaudeville-like act.
You don’t have to be the British music hall savant “Mr. Memory” - or a man who knew too much - to remember that Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed “the Master of Suspense.” But if Hitch had directed the Patrick Barlow stage adaptation of The 39 Steps - which toured England and scored the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2007 then ran on Broadway for two years - instead of his spy movie of the same name, the famed British movie director might have been called “the Master of Silliness.”
Remarks at Peace Resource Center of San Diego, June 23, 2018.
There are three things that are almost always underestimated: the U.S. military budget, altruism, and sadism.
First, the military budget.
The ongoing building and maintenance of Trident submarines and ballistic missile systems constitute war crimes that can and should be investigated and prosecuted by judicial authorities at all levels. As citizens, we are required by International Law to denounce and resist known crimes.
– Kings Bay Plowshares Indictment of US for war crimes, April 4, 2018
Dave & Busters with Individuals with Disabilities - 6/27/18
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
3665 Park Mill Run Drive, Hilliard
Franklin County Recreation is teaming up with Dave & Busters to offer this event for individuals with disabilities. Volunteers will help welcome attendees and families and socialize and play games with them. This will be a great interactive event to help our neighbors with disabilities have a fun evening out. Volunteers are needed primarily to play games with the attendees and assist in any other way as prescribed by the staff of Franklin County Recreation. The purpose of Franklin County Recreation is to promote community activities, leisure time and social opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities, and to help recreation members connect to opportunities in their community. paul@columbusgivesback.org
Peace, love and Donald Trump?
I get the skepticism regarding the tentative nuclear disarmament agreement the president and Kim Jong-un reached last week, but not the cynicism — not the outright dismissal.
It’s too easy to hate Trump, but he isn’t the point. In his reckless unpredictability — in his lust for applause and desperation to steal headlines from the Robert Mueller investigation — he snatched an opportunity to meet with the leader of North Korea . . . “Little Rocket Man” . . . and talk about reducing the danger of nuclear war. Say what?
It hardly seems possible — but maybe Trump has a mission far beyond anything he himself envisions: visiting creative destruction, you might say, on the planet’s geopolitical infrastructure, loosening the certainties of nationalism and armed self-defense. Perhaps the salvation of Planet Earth begins with cluelessness and ego: a superpower leader who has no idea what he’s doing.
A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed.
A narcissist is person who has an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration, sexual gratification, applause and a lack of empathy for others.
A paranoid person or group exhibits excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of other individuals or groups.
A megalomaniac is a pathological egotist, someone with a psychological disorder who exhibits symptoms like delusions of grandeur and an obsession with greatness, power or wealth.
A xenophobe is a person who is fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or of people from different countries or cultures.
“Updated” and “re-imagined” versions of classics often misfire but like the transformation of Romeo and Juliet into West Side Story Eduardo Machado’s reworking of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is one of the best. With Lysistrata Unbound, the Cuban playwright has transformed the comedy into a Greek tragedy for our own militarized times, but in doing so definitely retains the spirit - if not the letter - of Aristophanes’ biting 411 BCE satire, Just as Spike Lee did in Chi-Raq, his 2015 anti-gun, anti-gang violence adaptation of Lysistrata.
Trivia Pursuit Question of the Review: What movie ends with the song “We’ll Meet Again” and what happens when this WWII era song is heard?
One of the best things the dramatic arts can do is to transport us through time and space to long ago and far away and to bring back to life actual figures and historical events. Williard Manus’ Their Finest Hour: Churchill and Murrow does this and much more with his fine two hour two-acter, four-hander mostly set during the Battle of Britain. For in addition to resurrecting legendary CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow (Tyler Cook) and famed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Michael Karm), Manus tosses Murrow’s mistress Pamela Churchill Harriman (carnally reincarnated by seductive Chantelle Albers) into the heady mix, proving that the personal is not only political, but historical as well.
The United States is closely following developments in Hudaydah, Yemen. I have spoken with Emirati leaders and made clear our desire to address their security concerns while preserving the free flow of humanitarian aid and life-saving commercial imports. We expect all parties to honor their commitments to work with the UN Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen on this issue, support a political process to resolve this conflict, ensure humanitarian access to the Yemeni people, and map a stable political future for Yemen. – Complete official statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, June 11, 2018