Trudie Barthell

“Three teenagers have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy whose beating was captured on amateur video.”

Why is it that so many times when we see people commit heinous crimes, we do not intervene?

16-year old Derrion Albert, an African American honors student, was beaten to death by four or five guys. Chicago is where this brutality took place, gang violence is believed to have some influence. One story is that Derrion may have rejected the gang’s request to join them and ergo, they beat him with two-by-fours…to death. What sickens me isn’t the fact that it happened, that is nothing strange to this increasingly barbaric society, but the notion that someone can videotape this incident and yet find no way to help the victim is dismaying. So many times in society we witness detestable events, but find no way to embrace a moment of heroism and save another human being in obvious peril.

Derrion Albert, 16

I’m all for brothers doing their thing in MMA but this ninja bout to get the sleeves took off him!!!!!!

Secretary Clinton held a joint press availability with the Foreign Minister of Morocco. During the availability she clarified some of her earlier remarks about Israeli settlements and the the United States’ expectations of both of the parties going forward.

more about “Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Press Con…“, posted with vodpod

We have waited and waied and waited for The return of Toni Braxton,After several attempts, a bankruptcy, health issues  and having babies. Toni Braxton is back with her new single “yesterday” feat Tre’ songz.. This so far is the best song of 2009 as far as pop/rock goes. Toni Braxton seems to have regained all of her vocal abilities and brings it to life. songz doing his best Rkelly impersonation seems to be maturing  before our eyes. The lyrics to the song is incredible the production is simple but pure and effective but the vocal arrangements are incredible. If this is   any sign of what we should expect from T.B then her new Cd will be  a sure classic.. Toni’s Cd is scheduled to be released in Feb 2010

Lyrics

Lyrics-
Oh ohh noo ohh ohh

Gave you the benefit of the doubt
Till you showed me what you were about
Your true colors came out

Ohhhh

And your words couldn’t hide the scent
Cuz the truth about where you’ve been
Is in a fragrance I cant recognize

Standing there
Scratching your head
Blood shot eyes, drunk with regret
Hanging yourself ten feet over the edge

Im done with this
Feeling like an idiot
Lovin you, Im over it
I just dont love you, dont love you no more

You, you are so yesterday
Never thought you’d lose my love this way
Now you come begging me to stay

Say, you, you are so yesterday
I wont let you rain on my parade
Dont wanna hear a thing you say
So yesterday

Funny now how Im gone
The little light in your head came on
Now you realize it’s all your fault

Oh ohh

Dont you wish you had a time machine
That way you could change history
That’s the only way that you could be with me

Standing there
Scratching your head
Blood shot eyes, drunk with regret
Hanging yourself ten feet over the edge

Im done with this
Feeling like an idiot
Lovin you, Im over it
I just dont love you, dont love you no more.

You, you are so yesterday
Never thought youd lose my love this way
Now you come begging me to stay

Honey, you, you are so yesterday
I wont let you rain on my parade
Dont wanna hear a thing you say
So yesterday

And now you wanna reminisce
Say you wanna try again
Started with a little kiss
(we cant even regret) no no

now I never wanna see you, never wanna feel you
ever wanna hear you
I dont love you, dont need you, cant stand you
No More..

You, you are so yesterday
Never thought youd lose my love this way
Now you come begging me to stay)

Baby, you
you are so yesterday
I wont let you rain on my parade
Dont wanna hear a thing you say

So yesterday
So yesterday
So yesterday

The U.S. Open is in full swing, and one of the highlights has been the unexpected rise of Melanie Oudin, a 17-year-old who knocked off several higher-ranked players. It’s the kind of story that the media love.

That led a colleague to ask on Facebook:

Can a tennis fan explain to me why I keep hearing her referred to as “American-born Melanie Oudin”? What is the importance or significance of where she was born, e.g., they don’t say “Russian-born Maria Sharapova.”

I replied that tennis is an international game that brings out nationalistic feelings in some fans. Many of us who follow tennis cheer for their countrymen (although my favorite player of all time is Swedish-born Bjorn Borg). Curiously, that attitude manifests itself more in devotion to individual players than in the team-based Davis Cup, at least in the United States.

Tune in to the U.S. Open, and you will hear John McEnroe and brother Patrick bemoan the state of men’s tennis in America. Follow Wimbledon, and you will learn how the British yearn for one of their own to win that title. Fans of players wave the flag of the home country at matches.

As for “-born,” that could be a reference to the fact that some players were born in one country but now live in another. Sharapova, for example, has left her native Russia for the warmer climate of Bradenton, Fla.

It is indeed puzzling to see “born” attached to Oudin’s name. She was born in Georgia (the U.S. state, not the country) and still lives there. A simple “American” before her name will suffice.

And here’s a bit of advice to sports journalists and headline writers: “America’s sweetheart” and “girl next door” have already become shopworn ways to describe Oudin. Avoid these clichés.

I’ve made a bit of progress on my big project, but now need to take a break for a bit. So here’s what’s going on with it so far… the names which I’ve intentionally decided to add to the list on that page so far include Bruce Kovner, J. Danforth Quayle, Ann M. Fudge, Shirley Ann Jackson, Ann Dibble Jordan, Paul E. Singer and Yotaro Kobayashi, though probably only a few of their names appear on the map so far. Any other names not on the project page or above which have ended up below are probably going to get cleaned up the next time I update the map.

Unfortunately, these big maps and blog posts with links seem to be too slow to load, so I think I’m going to give up on pursuing this project, at least for now. Here’s a link to one I made called The Big Picture (which I can’t get to open in a reasonable amount of time spent waiting). It was an experiment, let’s put it that way. Names (unlinked) which appear in it follow below the links for the names on the Big Project map. I think I’ll try to limit the size of these as much as possible in the future- just including what I want to focus on.

Charles Hill

Hello blog world. I guess I am coming late to the blog party but here goes. I want to open up by inviting discussion of an issue that bears upon writing for movies but which, like many things I write and think about, has applications far beyond screenwriting, and that is “Why do some movies make me cry?” And I’m not talking about weepy scenes where somebody dies, but a different kind of crying that expresses something quite distinct from grief or sympathy with the dire plight of a movie character. I’m talking about tears of joy, tears of appreciation.

This came up recently when my wife and I went to see a screening of “Mamma Mia”. I confess I went with low expectations, my default setting these days when most movies seem to be disappointing, a waste of time, or actually painful to my eyeballs. I had little data on MAMMA MIA going in; I hadn’t seen the musical on stage and had no history to speak of with the Abba music. I figured I’d give it a shot mainly because of Meryl Streep, a trouper who usually manages to turn in a good performance no matter what movie she’s in.

As we left the theatre, my wife was wiping the corners of her eyes and remarked “My God, I don’t know why but I was crying buckets in there.” I admitted that I too had been crying off and on throughout the movie, and not just a tear and a sniffle, but great gushers pouring from both eyes and meeting in a stream under my chin. As a man, I am skilled at concealing such displays of emotion, so my wife thought she was alone in her tearfulness, but the movie had affected me in the same way. (It’s one of the joys of our marriage that we usually see the same movie — we both love it or hate it to much the same degree and we rarely disagree. If it’s bad, we both want to get up and leave at the same time, and if it’s good, we find later we enjoyed it for much the same reasons.)

In this case we both reacted spontaneously, involuntarily, to some mysterious emotional triggers in the movie. At first we were baffled and put off, as many people were, by the production’s odd rhythms and eccentric choices. We felt embarrassed for the actors who seemed to have been directed to pitch their performances way over the top, and we felt apprehension as they approached the moment of truth when they would open their mouths and start to sing.

But as soon as the performers broke the ice and began to sing, something magical happened. We found ourselves deeply moved by the simple spectacle of people singing and dancing with joy. We got choked up every time a musical number kicked in, and the tears began to flow like someone had turned on faucets in the corners of our eyes. The weeping grew to an almost ridiculous extent, climaxing with the big show-stopping “Dancing Queen” production number in the middle of the movie, where my sweater started getting wet from the tears falling on it.

I am no stranger to this kind of crying; it’s a rare experience but one of the main reasons I love movies and chose to spend my life working in the movie industry. But MAMMA MIA offered such an extreme example that it made me return to a lifelong interest in the emotional triggers, the kinds of scenes and situations that evoke these strong emotions.

I tried to analyze what was making me cry so freely in this case. I thought of other movies and situations that evoked a similar response. The same kind of thing sometimes happens when I am watching movies on an airplane, like MY DOG SKIP or OCTOBER SKY. I start out cynical, expecting the movie to underwhelm, but after a couple of reels the tears are running down my cheeks and the flight attendants are wondering if something’s wrong with me. Maybe it’s something about the high altitude but that doesn’t account for the fountains of tears evoked by MAMMA MIA which I saw at a theatre about ten feet above sea level.

If I had to put a name on the emotion I was feeling it would be “gratitude.” I was somehow deeply grateful that people were risking something and expressing their feelings through music, dance, and film. There was a kind of admiration for the audacity of the filmmakers’ vision, and appreciation for people attempting good old-fashioned entertainment.

There was also something powerful about what I call “choral movement”, a technique of film and stage directing in which masses of people move in unison. I first became aware of this as a young film student watching the early films of Sergei Eisenstein, who made crowds of people flow like rivers across the screen to evoke strong emotional responses. Later I noticed and enjoyed it in the work of directors like David Lean and John Ford, and in movie musicals from the heyday of MGM and Warner Bros. Ford in particular could wring tears from my eyes by directing a small group of people to act like a Greek chorus, moving and speaking all together. He does it a number of times in his remarkable series of movies about the U.S. Cavalry, beginning with FORT APACHE, where he stages a dependably tear-jerking sequence set at a formal dance. Officers, enlisted men, wives and sweethearts all join hands and dance together, becoming a single organism that makes a strong visual metaphor of the young nation. (Anybody know what song the regimental band is playing?)

MAMMA MIA makes effective and conscious use of the Greek chorus idea, literally providing a chorus of Greek extras, non-professional actors playing villagers who comment on the action and often move in unison to express the solidarity of the community or the infectious energy of the dances and songs. It was this sense of an entire community being moved by music and emotion that brought about the biggest explosion of tears for me.

Other things in movies and life bring about those tears of gratitude. Sometimes I get them watching movies about history, science fiction, or fantasy, when an artist has pulled off a particularly effective image or sequence. The balletic fight scenes in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, for example, or certain scenes in GLADIATOR, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, JURASSIC PARK, or occasionally in a Star Trek movie. Sometimes it’s a matter of wish fulfillment for me — I have read and vividly imagined a scene, and am thrilled at some deep, tear-triggering level of my being that someone has realized the same vision skillfully on the screen. In this way, the passion and commitment of Peter Jackson and his team in bringing THE LORD OF THE RINGS to the screen caused the tears of gratitude to flow every ten minutes or so as one after another of my favorite scenes was executed brilliantly.

Such tears are not the exclusive province of the movies, of course. Music, theatre, and even current events can trigger them. I’m thinking about the strong emotional response many people, including me, had to the election of Barack Obama. It can still bring tears to my eyes to think about that night or go back to the unforgettable image of Jesse Jackson, tears running down his cheeks and finger pressed to his lips to keep them from quivering with the strong emotions at play.

I guess what MAMMA MIA was providing with its floods of tears was catharsis, the sometimes explosive physical response to emotional situations that Aristotle wrote about. I’m curious to know if other people had similar reactions to the movie, although I’m aware some people didn’t, and in fact walked out after ten minutes because they just couldn’t handle Pierce Brosnan trying to sing. I’d like to hear from you about movies and situations that bring about tears of joy or gratitude. What is the organ of the body that is affected by these scenes? Why do we cry with joy rather than laughing or smiling? What do you think?

In prior posts I discussed the abuse of unemployment insurance and my belief that it should be privatized.  Today I am discussing employers and their treatment of vacation time.

In California, companies are not required to provide vacation time, but many often due to attract and retain talented employees.  Unfortunately, I think many companies are looking for ways to trim expenses wherever they can and vacation hours are being targeted.  I offer the following educational piece on how to defend yourself.

Due to the recession, I have heard a lot about employers forcing employees to use up their vacation time prior to some date or event, such as by the end of the year or the employee will lose the hours.  They may not come out and say you will lose it, they may be simply suggestive of it and are hoping you misinterpret their suggestion in such a way that you relieve them of some of your vacation hours before you normally would have liked to.

I’m not a lawyer, but I do try to research and consolidate information into a useful format for you.  You should click on the link I provide at the bottom of this post for more information and you should review your employer’s policy manual to see their vacation time policy.

If an employer offers vacation time, it is earned as unpaid wages which cannot be forfeited.  In other words, an employer can not make you forfeit vacation time any more than they could make you forfeit a part of your salary.

According to the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, this is known as a “use it or lose it policy” and it is illegal in California.  Clearly, the fact that there is an acronym for it and it shows up on every FAQ sheet I looked at means that many companies attempt it.

A company can stop accruing your vacation time at a given point, but they must have a clearly defined policy in place that states how many hours you can accrue before the accrual is capped, or some other methodology.  Outside of such a policy, there is no limit to what you can accrue and there is no legal way for a company to take vacation hours from you or stop the accrual of those hours.

What you need to know is (Labor Code Section 200-243):

• Employers do not need to provide vacation time.  They can choose whether part-time, full-time, neither or both get any.
• Vacation time is accrued daily just like wages, which means when you leave for any reason, they must pay you up through the day of termination, not just through the last pay period, and you must be paid those hours at your most current wage.
• An employer can not make you use your vacation time.
• An employer is allowed to have in place a “No Additional Accrual Policy.”  All that means is when you hit the ceiling on your vacation time, according to their policy, you stop accruing it.  They can’t take it away, and they can’t make you take it, they just don’t have to make it any bigger.  You should check to see if your company has such a policy.
• An employer can opt to pay all of your vacation time to you rather than continuing to accrue it.  Again, you remain whole because vacation time is considered earned wages so the employer simply cashed your “wages” out and gave them to you.
• If your company permits you to take vacation time in advance of actually earning it, and you leave for whatever reason, they can not deduct the unearned vacation time from your final paycheck.  In other words, your company simply takes a risk that you will accrue those “owed” vacation hours back, but if you don’t, there is nothing they can do about it.
• PTO time is treated exactly the same, from a legal standpoint, as vacation time.  It too, is considered earned wages.  If you leave, they must pay you out the total value to the day of termination at your current rate.
• A company can delay accrual of wages when you first start.  For example, they can have a policy that states that vacation time does not accrue for the first six months of employment.  Understand that they must have a policy in place that actually defines this, otherwise, if you qualify for vacation time, it begins accruing the first day you work.  This prevents employees from saying you have to work a year before you can take a week of your vacation time off.  Unless their policy specifically states that, you earn time off your very first day.
• Employers can control when vacation time is used.  This does not mean they can make you take it, it means they can control who takes how much and when.  This is to prevent entire departments being crippled by too many people leaving at the same time or someone critical to a process taking 12 weeks in a row.  They could split the 12 weeks up, for example.

Ultimately, you should review your company’s employee policy manual and see what their specific policy is on vacation time, if any.  You might be surprised at what you find.

If you’ve left your company and have calculated that you were not paid all of the vacation wages due to you because of, for example, a “use it or lose it policy”, you can file a wage claim.

If you think that suggesting any of the legal arguments about vacation time to your employer led to a discriminatory termination, you can always file a claim.

Site Reference: California Labor Law