First impressions of the Chorus’s controls are that they can be twitchy. And the boundary between pleasantly aqueous modulations and downright seasick ones at certain depth settings can be hard to navigate until you get a feel for how the depth and level controls work together. Ultimately, though, the Chorus provides intuitive routes to many modulation ends.
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Exceptionally wet blends, too, can betray digital origins. But there is a bit of hidden treasure among these most extreme sounds: If you max the level and use the most open damping setting, you can almost use the Reverb as a freeze pedal. Additionally, some players may dig these sounds—particularly those that evoke shimmer reverbs without sounding entirely like a shimmer reverb. Even if you rarely explore these corners of the Reverb’s tone collection, the less extreme sounds are plentiful and full of personality, and you can dial in many in-between shades that blend big spaces and cool understated facets.
Fender’s most important gift to the effects cosmos is spring reverb. That legacy, however, tends to obscure other high points in the company’s effects history, which is dotted with a few classics—if not runaway commercial hits. At appealing prices ranging from $79 to $99, the new Fender Hammertone pedals could easily be huge sellers. But what makes these effects extra attractive is that they don’t have the functional or operational feel of generic entry-level pedals. Most have a strong, even distinctive, personality—at least compared to other inexpensive effects. They each come with extra features and voices that stretch the boundaries of the foundational tones. And if the voices aren’t always the most refined or lush when compared to more expensive analog equivalents or expensive digital units, they are fun and prompt a lot of musical sparks. With one eye on 1960s and ’70s stylings (Hammerite-style paint, chrome- and candy-colored knobs) and another on concessions to modernity like mini toggles, smart one-screw back-panel access, top-mounted jacks, and smooth, sturdy pots, the Hammertone pedals are nice design pieces. They also seem very well made for the price. I’m usually skeptical about an inexpensive pedal’s ability to hold up over the long haul, but the Hammertone series seem put together right. Easy on the wallet, with an abundance of fun tones. General review below. -More to follow-
Podcaster Matt Walsh can be abrasive on Twitter, where he’s known for skewering liberals and their causes mercilessly. But when he began posing a four-word question to strangers a year ago, Walsh was polite and nonconfrontational; it was the question itself — and his insistence that there is a correct answer — that got under people’s skin.
The question was “What is a woman?” and it’s both the title and subject of a film released last week by Walsh and The Daily Wire, the conservative media company founded by Jeremy Boreing and Ben Shapiro. In the film, Walsh, a 35-year-old father of four who lives in Nashville, travels around the world asking the question of strangers, from women on the streets of U.S. cities to men in Africa. He also interviews specialists, including a gender-affirming marriage and family therapist in Nashville and author and psychologist Jordan Peterson. The Daily Wire bills the film as a documentary, although it’s not quite a documentary in the vein of those produced by National Geographic; it’s too cheeky for that. But neither is Walsh a conservative Borat making an outlandish “mockumentary” like those produced by Sacha Baron Cohen. He’s just a funny guy asking a serious question, one that he believes “brings down the house of cards” of gender ideology. “Most of the people we talked to either didn’t want to talk about it, or they appeared to be confused about something as simple as what a woman is,” he told me. The wafflers included the Nashville therapist who said, “I’m not a woman so I can’t really answer that,” to a group of women who laughed and said, “That’s a stumper,” to a man on the street who said, “I honestly don’t know.” Dr. Marci Bowers, a gynaecologist and surgeon, said womanhood is “a combination of your physical attributes and what you’re showing to the world and the gender clues you give.” Patrick Grzanka, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, said a woman is “a person who identifies as a woman” and angrily pushed back at Walsh, asking why he would even ask the question. It’s a question, of course, that’s not only being asked by a podcaster on the street but also in the halls of Congress. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to define a woman during Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in March. Jackson replied that she couldn’t, “not in this context. I’m not a biologist.” There is method in what Walsh’s critics see as his madness. He believes that extremists in gender ideology have dealt conservatives a winning hand in the culture war by trying to vaporize ideas about sex and gender that were unquestioned for most of human history. Walsh points out that he’s being called an “extremist” and a “dinosaur” for saying things that were widely considered biological facts two decades ago. “This is a fight we can actually win,” he told me. “When I say ‘we,’ I mean rational, sane people. "You don’t have to be a conservative to realize that men are men and women are women.” He added, “The other side can be brought to its knees by one question, ‘What is a woman?’ There’s a real weakness there, and we can win this fight, and then it becomes like kicking blocks out of the Jenga tower. You win this one, and then you move on to the other cultural battles.” Beyond that, Walsh hopes to bring the issue to the attention of people beyond the “conservative bubble of people who listen to my podcast” and reach people who are not politically engaged and may be unaware of what’s being taught on the frontlines of gender ideology. Some of the people Walsh interviews in the film say that gender cannot and should not be assigned by doctors at birth and that children should be encouraged to explore different forms of gender expression without being influenced by their parents or society. At the centre of this discussion is the issue of transgender rights, which Americans are still divided on, largely along party lines. According to a February report from Pew Research Center, 38% of Americans said that greater acceptance of transgender people is generally good for society, 32% said it is bad and 29% said neither good nor bad. Although a growing share of Americans say they know someone who is transgender or uses gender-neutral pronouns (they/theirs instead of she/hers and he/him) they remain sharply divided on the subject of pronouns. Last year, half of respondents said they are comfortable using alternative pronouns when asked, while 48% said they are not. These percentages are “virtually unchanged” since 2018, Pew said. Walsh, who calls progressive gender ideology a cult, uses the divide over pronouns as a tidy insult, often responding to negative tweets about him by simply saying of his critics “pronouns in bio.” Johnny Depp will release a new album with Jeff Beck next month. The actor made his latest appearance alongside Beck at the Sage concert hall in Gateshead on Thursday night (June 2). During their performance, per the BBC, Beck announced Depp’s next career move. He told the audience that the pair are due to release an album together next month. The gig came a day after Depp won his high-profile defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard. In photos from the evening, Depp and his security guards can be seen swarmed by a crowd of fans.
Depp – who began his career as a musician and founded the band The Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry in 2015 – and Beck have previously collaborated together on the 2020 track “Isolation”. He first turned up to perform alongside Beck in Sheffield on Sunday (May 29), following the closing arguments of his trial. Depp was absent from the Virgina court on Wednesday (June 1) when the jury announced their decision. The actor was seen leaving The Bridge Tavern pub in Newcastle shortly before the reading of the verdict, according to ITV News. Singer Sam Fender had spent the evening with Depp, sharing a photograph with the star to his Instagram Stories minutes after the verdict came in. “Some serious heroes,” Fender captioned the post, which he has since deleted amid backlash. Depp sued Heard for $50m over a Washington Post op-ed titled: “I spoke up against sexual violence – and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” The article does not mention Depp by name, yet his lawyers said it falsely implies he physically and sexually abused Heard while they were together. Heard countersued for $100m, accusing Depp of orchestrating a “smear campaign” against her and describing his lawsuit as a continuation of “abuse and harassment”. During closing remarks, both sides urged jurors to think about other victims of domestic abuse. Heard’s legal team highlighted the message that a verdict in Depp’s favour would send to others, while the actor’s representatives said her claims were “an act of profound cruelty to true survivors”. On Wednesday (June 1), the jury shared their verdicts, finding that Heard had defamed Depp on all three counts. She was demanded to award him $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages. Heard was found to have a partial win in her case and was awarded $2m in compensatory damages, but no punitive damages. With a career spanning multiple decades and 15 studio albums with his band, Jon Bon Jovi is an icon in every sense of the word. Previously ranked as one of "The Most Powerful and Influential People in the Music Business" by Billboard and even as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People, it's clear that Jon has had quite an impact on pop culture.
Even to this day, the 60-year-old maintains the rigorous schedule of a touring rockstar, but it seems as though that lifestyle could be taking a toll on him and his abilities. So, what happened to Jon's voice that has fans and peers worried about the future of his performing career? Here's what we know.Although Jon has enjoyed a decades-long career without any noticeable faults in his performances, that seems to be changing. According to a concert review by twincities.com of Jon's April 2022 show in St. Paul, Minn., the rock star's performance was "shockingly poor." "Bon Jovi didn’t just miss a note here or there, he struggled throughout the two-plus hour show," the review further noted. That wasn't the only show where Jon drew criticism from viewers, however, as similar comments were echoed by Indy Star regarding the star's show in Indianapolis, Ind. that same month. The publication claimed that Jon's singing was lackluster, noted that his "voice never fully shined," and wrote that "the belting never showed up." Jon's recent performances have been dragged on social media as well, with fans posting unflattering videos of the New Jersey-born star struggling to sing his hit tracks.Without a definitive confirmation from Jon, the jury is still out on exactly what the cause behind his lackluster singing could be. However, we have some guesses. Jon was diagnosed with COVID-19 in October 2021, per People. Although there is still much to be learned about the illness, it has been proven that it can take a toll on a singer's abilities. According to "COVID-19: Impact on the Musician and Returning to Singing; A Literature Review," the virus "can affect the voice and can lead to paresis/paralysis of laryngeal nerves to long-term changes in respiratory function." Jon has never opened up about struggling with the long-term effects of COVID, but he did tell the Star Tribune that he "couldn't have sung for at least two weeks" while he was down with the illness. Other factors could also be at play, though, These include Jon's age, potential technical difficulties on stage, and the lack of his right-hand man and vocalist, Richie Sambora, whose sound was an integral part of the group until he left in 2013. As part of his YouTube channel Justin Hawkins Rides Again, singer Justin Hawkins, of the band The Darkness, made a video discussing the problems that he saw in Jon's recent performances. Justin, who is also a touring musician, called Jon's singing "tired" and noted that it "sounds like he needs some kind of therapy." Justin offered his opinion on the cause of Jon's voice change. "It doesn’t sound like it’s a polyp or some sort of lump on his vocal cords ’cause that would be more unpredictable," he explained. "He would be hitting the notes and then it would squeak off and it would do something unexpected… but that’s not what’s happening here. This sounds like he’s super tired." Justin suggested that there could also be a medical issue at play. "To hold a note with it being off-key suggests some pitching issues that might be to do with hearing, as well," he added. Justin called Jon a "great singer" but maintained that "this sounds like something is eating away at him from the inside … and I feel like the people around him need to tell him to stop." Jon has not responded to Justin's comments as of the time of this writi Justin Timberlake has sold the rights to his songs including hits such as Cry Me A River and Rock Your Body to Hipgnosis Song Management, the latest pop star to cash in on his body of work in the red-hot market for music streaming.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although a report by the Wall Street Journal said the transaction was valued at just above US$100 million. The deal was made on behalf of Hipgnosis Songs Capital, a partnership between Hipgnosis Song Management and funds managed by investment firm Blackstone, the advisory firm owned by music executive Merck Mercuriadis said in a statement. Timberlake rose to fame as one-fifth of 1990's boy band NSync, becoming a pin-up for good looks.After NSync parted ways, Timberlake launched his solo career in his debut solo album Justified, in 2002. His FutureSex/LoveSounds album arrived at the forefront of a new sound in the pop charts, fusing pop, R&B, hip-hop and dance. He also appeared in films such as The Social Network, Friends With Benefits and The Trouble With The Curve, alongside Clint Eastwood. The deal comes at a time when the lack of live concerts and delayed release of new recordings due to the pandemic prompt artists to monetise their older work. Earlier this year, Hipgnosis Song Management acquired the music catalogue of Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, while British singer-songwriter Sting sold his career music catalogue to Universal Music Publishing Group. Hipgnosis buys artists' song catalogues and earns revenue when the music is streamed online or used in movies or advertising. The firm's partnership with Blackstone aims to invest $1 billion for buying music rights, record songs and manage catalogues. Randy Rhoads didn't like several aspects of the white Jackson® offset V RR1, so he commissioned Grover Jackson once again to craft him another guitar, the black Jackson® offset V RR2. According to Rhoads, the fretboard went too far into the body of the white Jackson® RR1, making it much more difficult to reach the higher frets. The black Jackson® RR2 allowed for much more travel up the neck of the guitar. Secondly, the new RR2 would have more definition on the upper wing than the RR1 to avoid any confusion between Jackson's custom masterpiece and a Gibson V.
Grover Jackson had plans to build Rhoads two more guitars, but he waited until he received proper feedback from Rhoads about The black Jackson® RR2. Randy was able to call Jackson and give him his criticism on RR2, but due to his unfortunate passing on March 19th, 1982, Randy Rhoads never received the next two guitars. Grover put away the next two guitars, RR3 and RR4 until the NAMM show. At the NAMM show, the Jackson® RR3 Prototype was accidentally sold - this is the Jackson® guitar RR3 that is now being offered for sale. Randy Rhoads commissioned these Jackson® guitars and they were designed by both Randy Rhoads and Grover Jackson. The Rhoads family is in possession of the first Jackson® guitars, RR1 and RR2. The RR3 Jackson® features innovations such as an Ebony fingerboard with a graphite nut, neck-through-body construction, Seymour Duncan pickups, strings through body construction, an angled headstock, custom brass hardware, high fret accessibility, Charvel/Jackson®'s neck radius, and one volume knob and one tone knob. This custom guitar has no serial number and has a hand-painted Jackson® logo. Custom-made guitar case included. Last week, reports suggested that BMG and Warner Music Group were vying to purchase the catalog of Pink Floyd. Now, the companies are facing another competing bid, for Iver Heath-based One Media iP has made an offer for a portion of the song rights.Berlin-headquartered BMG and the publicly traded Warner Music Group have yet to comment on their reported efforts to acquire the catalog of Pink Floyd – nor has the nearly six-decade-old group addressed the matter. But according to anonymous sources with knowledge of the talks, the winning bidder could spend over $500 million on the body of work.
The sum would rival that which Bruce Springsteen reportedly received from Sony Music Entertainment for his own catalog in December of 2021. Other legacy artists, including but certainly not limited to Sting, Paul Simon, Fleetwood Mac, ZZ Top, and America, have likewise cashed in on their catalogs since the corresponding sales rush initiated in 2020. On the heels of these high-profile deals and a more recent collection of smaller-scale transactions, however, some have expressed the belief that the red-hot catalog space could finally be cooling down. In any event, at least one more blockbuster agreement appears to be in the works, and as highlighted at the outset, One Media is looking to get in on the action, founder and CEO Michael Infante has confirmed. The Sun shed light upon One Media’s offer for the catalog of Pink Floyd – or one percent of this catalog, to be specific – and the company posted an excerpt from the appropriate article to its website. One Media’s £3.5 million ($4.29 million at the present exchange rate) bid for the single-percent interest “should be taken seriously,” per the piece, and “includes access to anti-piracy software which would help protect the music.” One of the most divisive, hot-button issues in the guitar community is the ever-growing popularity of instruments that have been given the ‘relic’ treatment. First brought to market by Fender in the 1990’s, relics are pre-aged guitars, made to look old, beat up, and rusted out in the same way that real vintage guitars often are. Finishes are dinged and damaged, hardware is tarnished, and faux cigarette burns are even found, straight from the factory. Many guitar makers offer this kind of thing these days, and it is easy to see why: the price of actual vintage instruments from the golden era. Everybody wants a cool, weathered 1963 Strat, but few can pay the 30 grand or so required to capture one. Relics are often seen as the next best thing. They are really an acknowledgement by long-time companies like Fender and Gibson that their main competition for new guitar sales are the guitars that they, themselves, made in decades past. Since many people want an aged Strat, Tele, or Les Paul, they figured they might as well give it to them.
This tends to rub those among us who are very experienced players the wrong way, especially when the relic in question is in the hands of a middle-aged newbie guitarist who can’t yet play a song all the way through. Others question the ‘older is better’ mentality and see relics as the equivalent of buying a new car that is already beat up-looking and rusty.
Love them or hate them, relic guitars are probably going to be around for a long time. They have an appeal that some folks just can’t resist, and that is evident by the amount of them out there. Also, underneath all the phony ‘mojo’ is usually the best straight-up vintage style guitar a company like Fender makes. It really is all about a customer’s perception of them: are they a tool to make the green seem less so, or are they an affordable alternative to a guitar that may just require a home equity loan to purchase which is, of course, too valuable to gig with? Each of us has to make that call for ourselves but one thing is certain: if all you can dream of is an axe that looks like it was dragged behind a dump truck on the way to the guitar shop, there is no shortage of possible candidates to consider. The Collaboration of Ukrainian Nationalists with Nazi GermanyBoth the Ukrainian state and its society have undergone dramatic changes since the beginning of the new millennium. With the “Orange Revolution” in 2004 and even more with the “Revolution of Dignity”(Euromaidan) in the winter of 2013/14, a slow and difficult process of inner liberalization, democratization and modernization took shape that might finally result in the integration of the country into the European Union.
Alongside these remarkable changes, extremely emotional and conflict-laden debates about the historical past and national legacy are also taking place. This often leads to painful retrospection, taking into ac-count that recent Ukrainian history was battered by two World Wars and also 70 years interlocked with the Soviet Communist regime a history full of repression, violence, ethnic conflicts and paternalism. It is the narrative of a repeated national awakening and keen fights for freedom, but also of aggression against vulnerable ethno-cultural minorities in similar circumstances. A Ukrainian feeling of national cohesion arose in the 19th century, firstly in the arts, language and intellectual ideas. Poets like Taras Shevchenko, musicians like Mykola Lyssenko and painters like Oleksandr Murashko planted the seeds of Ukrainian culture and character. As in many other ethno-cultural groups of the centenary, national patriotism also gained traction, along with the vision of an independent Ukrainian state. These efforts have been stunted twice, first of all by external forces in the course of both World Wars (and more than ever in their results.) Moreover, the Ukrainian fight for independence has regrettably twice turned into political and military radicalization, not least at the expense of minorities like the Jews. It is possible to retrace this ambivalence surrounding idolized heroes bravely and somewhat successful fighting for freedom in both World Wars, while at the same time unable to prevent mass crimes committed by their own followers. This is true, for example, in the case of Symon Petljura, the highly esteemed govern-mental head of the short-lived independent Ukraine at the end of World War I, and similarly true in the case of Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian na-tionalist organization OUN-B in the 1940s. Petljura was assassinated in Parisin May 1926 by the Jewish activist Salomon Schwarzbart, who avenged his family killed by Petljura troops in the Russian Civil War years before. Bandera was murdered in Munichin 1959 by a Soviet KGB (Комитетгосударственнойбезопас-ности/Committee for State Security) agent. Consequences of challenging NAZI authority Auxiliary police 109, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 201-st Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftant-battalions participated in anti-partisan operations in Ukraine and Belarus. In February — March 1943 50-th Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftant-battalion participated in the large anti-guerrilla action «Winterzauber» (Winter magic) in Belarus, cooperating with several Latvian and 2nd Lithuanian battalion. Schuma-battalions burned down villages suspected in supporting Soviet partisans. ("Gerlach, C. «Kalkulierte Morde» Hamburger Edition, Hamburg, 1999"). All inhabitants of the village Khatyn in Belarus were burnt alive by the Nazis with participation of the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion on 22 March 1943. Waffen-SS Division "Galizien" By April 28, 1943 the German Command had created the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian) manned by 14,000 Ukrainians. The history, composition, and function of the Waffen-SS Galizien are the topic of contentious debate among scholars still today. Some have held that these men volunteered eagerly for war against the Soviets, claiming that as evidence of active support of Nazi Germany: [Williamson, G: "The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror"] while others claim that at least some of them were victims of compulsory conscription as Germany suffered defeats and lost manpower on the eastern front. [cite book | author=Melnyk, Michael | title=To Battle: The Formation and History of the 14. Gallician SS Volunteer Division | publisher=Helion and Company Ltd] Sol Litman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center claims that there are many proven and documented incidents of atrocities and massacres committed by the Waffen-SS Galizien against minorities, particularly Jews during the course of WWII: [cite book | author=Litman, Sol | title=Pure Soldiers or Bloodthirsty Murderers?: The Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division | edition=Hardcover | publisher=Black Rose Books | year=2003| id=ISBN 1551642190] however other authors, including Michael Melnyk, [cite book | author=Melnyk, Michael | title=To Battle: The Formation and History of the 14. Gallician SS Volunteer Division | publisher=Helion and Company Ltd] and Michael O. Logusz [cite book | author=Logusz, Michael | title=Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945 | publisher=Schiffer Publishing] maintain that members of the division fought almost entirely at the front against the Soviet Red Army and defend the unit against the accusations made by Litman and others since the war. Neither the division nor any of its members were ever charged with any war crime. The singer Grimes has made millions recently in an unusual way: by selling art and short videos as NFTs, also known as non-fungible tokens — and, she isn't the only one. NFTs represent the rights to a digital work of art or other media — and some people think they'll soon be more commonplace than bitcoin. In fact, NFTs are already growing ubiquitous: Infamous influencer Logan Paul has made millions off them; rapper Azealia Banks sold a 25-minute audio sex tape for the equivalent of $18,000; and, Kings of Leon will become the first band to release an album in the form of an NFT. In the latter case, with the purchase of the band's NFT, owners can access special perks like tickets to future concerts, exclusive audiovisual art, and more.
But let’s back up. What, exactly, are NFTs, what is the point of buying them, where can they be purchased, and why are we suddenly hearing about them so much? As stated above, NFTs are digital tokens representing a work of art or media. What they are not is cryptocurrency, because their value is not static or prone to only small fluctuations in value. Instead, NFTs' value can go up and down, depending on demand. In that way, buying an NFT is like buying an actual work of art: Demand dictates worth, and is subject to the whims of the market, no matter how extreme. (In this way, NFTs are also a little like stocks.) NFTs can be purchased through online marketplaces like OpenSea, which artists use to mint their work. Once minted, these works are published into tokens, and from there, buyers can either purchase the NFTs or bid on them with cryptocurrency. But, unlike purchasing a physical painting, say, when you buy an NFT, you are obtaining the rights to a digital asset, not the actual asset. To put it another way, one cryptoartist told me that this article could even be minted into an NFT; if someone bought it, they wouldn't be buying the literal article, but the digital asset of it. EXAMPLE Auction house Christie's brought the hammer down on a record-breaking piece of work yesterday: a non-fungible token (NFT) on the Ethereum blockchain that sold for $69.3 million. The work is by Mike Winklemann, or "Beeple," and is titled Everydays: The First 5000 Days. The hammer price, or the bid on which the auctioneer's gavel falls, was $60.25 million. The final price includes a so-called buyer's premium, or auction house fee, of $9.05 million. There are the people who simply don’t understand why an NFT by this artist named Beeple is sold for $69.3 million. But Zucker says that the people who are drawn to NFTs — for whatever reason — are touched by it in different ways. "As I see it, especially after the past year of the pandemic, we live increasingly in the digital world," Zucker says. "So it stands to reason that we are developing systems of value around the aesthetic and creative elements that populate that world." Sarah Zucker, who works across mediums and specializes in screen-based artwork, was excited about the possibility to edition and value her work the same way other, more “traditional” artists have always been able to. She minted her first NFT in 2019. “To have your work be viewed and discussed as something real and tangible has psychic and emotional benefits beyond the obvious life-changing aspect of being able to support yourself directly from your work,” . Lora Smith LOS ANGELES, August 22 -- Action movie hero Dwayne Johnson, star of the "Jumanji" and "Fast and Furious" franchises, topped the annual list of the world's highest-paid actors, Forbes magazine reported. Johnson, the former wrestler once known as The Rock, pulled in US$89.4 million (S$123 million) from June 2018 to June 2019, the magazine said. That includes his salary and a share of profits from films, US$700,000 per episode of HBO series Ballers, and seven figures in royalties from his line of clothing, shoes and headphones with Under Armour. Last year, Johnson was second behind George Clooney, who reaped a windfall from the sale of his tequila company. Next on this year's list were two stars of Avengers: Endgame, the highest-grossing movie of all time. Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor, took in US$76.4 million, while Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr earned US$66 million, Forbes said. Other "Endgame" stars - Bradley Cooper, Chris Evans and Paul Rudd - also landed in the top 10. Most of Cooper's earnings, however, came from A Star Is Born, the musical drama he directed, produced, co-wrote and starred in with Lady Gaga. Cooper collected US$40 million of his US$57 million total from that film, Forbes said. The fourth-biggest earner was Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, with US$65 million, and Hong Kong-born actor and martial artist Jackie Chan with US$58 million. The figures are pre-tax and do not include deductions for fees given to agents, managers and lawyers, Forbes said. Lora Smith For an apparently abandoned village, Doel certainly seems to have a life, and it’s not just tourists. Despite many inhabitants taking up offers of cash premiums and selling voluntarily around 2000, Doel still has residents who have endured, residents who are once again legally allowed to stay there.
“Court bailiffs appearing at doors used to be a fairly normal occurrence; and so was dealing with vandalism because the municipality wouldn’t provide the appropriate measures to help,” said Brian Waterschoot. Waterschoot is a member of Doel2020, a group responsible for promoting and representing the village through dialogue discussions about its future. “Looting, arson; these were all things that Doel regularly had to deal with, with little done to prevent them from happening,” he explained. While there might not be many of them, the village’s few remaining inhabitants have a certain pride in their houses. As a result, there is a surreal contrast in the village between quaint homes and buildings left exposed to the elements and the whims of vandals. “We settled with the authorities to stop further deterioration of buildings and vandalism by allowing people to live there. Metal plates have been installed to prevent access to abandoned houses, and a barrier that requires a Belgian ID card has been set up on the main road. People now feel a bit safer,” said Waterschoot. There are many buildings that could be habitable or that could be assigned a new function with a minimum of effort, he added. “The current situation is that we’re just trying to live in relative peace. Everyone has different reasons for being in the area, but we all share a common concern,” said Waterschoot. That concern is crystal-clear: What comes next? The future of Doel While it has existed in a state of administrative deadlock for years, progress is being made on the issue of Doel with a view towards the long term. After years of uncertainty, some things have changed for the better. One important reason for this is the “complex project”, which aims to create a framework to be implemented by 2030. This is the first opportunity we’ve had in years to sit together and discuss Doel, said Waterschoot. In May 2019, the Flemish government announced that it had selected the so-called ninth alternative for the expansion of the port of Antwerp, which combines a limited new dock that connects to the existing Deurganck dock with new container capacity via a more compact building strategy. In this scenario, Doel is safe, said Waterschoot. The future of Doel and the form the village can take are now the things that need to be researched carefully. Doel can never become the village it once was but the potential is enormous, explained Waterschoot. Its location close to the River Schelde, the port, the history of the village and the historic buildings that are left are all important features which a future Doel could be proud of, he added. One further plan for the future of Doel is a project being developed by the architects of the University of Leuven. The students have prepared detailed repair schedules for three valuable historic buildings in the derelict village. In this way, the students hope to warm the government and the people from the neighborhood to the idea of the reconstruction of the village. Another question that is yet to be answered is what would be done with the destroyed buildings. “In a way, it could make sense to keep some of these buildings in their current state, as they indeed show the impact of a government failing to act,” said Waterschoot. This decision may have given a reprieve to the people of Doel, but what happens next remains unknown. For now, the future of the village is similar to its past, uncertain, hopeful and well supported by a few loyal residents refusing to give it up. Pete McGee BANGKOK, August 20 -- In July, at the Bangkok Asean Film Festival, Vietnamese movie The Third Wife was honored with a Special Mention prize, with the jury noting its meticulous craftsmanship, strong acting and confident directing. In the movie set in rural Vietnam in the late 19th century, a young girl becomes the third wife of a wealthy land-owner. There are sex scenes and sequences showing child-birth. But while the film has been well-received overseas, including winning a prize at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, it has been yanked out of cinemas in Vietnam. Audiences, reported Vietnam News, are shocked that the character is played by Nguyen Phuong Tra My, who was then only 13 years old. Citizens have blasted Vietnamese film-maker Ash Mayfair over her casting decision. My's mother was also slammed for allowing her daughter to be involved, with some detractors wondering if she was blinded by the pursuit of fame and money. The VnExpress portal cited child protection experts as saying that the sex scenes could have a psychological effect on a young actress. Mayfair told the Hollywood Reporter: "We didn't do anything wrong and we broke no law. They can't attack us on those grounds so there have been attempts to smear the ethics of the actress' mother, publishing her personal details online and saying she had sold her daughter for money." Defending the subject matter in her film, she said: "These questions are open for debate and I have no problem with that. We talk about women's rights and we are very critical about patriarchal traditions that have been in the country for centuries." My was reportedly selected after the director auditioned more than 900 candidates. My, who is now 15 and was said to have convinced her parents that she could perform the role, is upset that the movie cannot be seen by Vietnamese, even as it has drawn applause elsewhere. Hollywood trade publication Variety, in its review of the film, said: "In May (portrayed by My) and in Ha and Xuan (the other two wives), there are all the women and girls of the past who've been ignored, abused, forced into competition with one another, made to endure a degradation of spirit and a commodification of body so complete it should have resulted in their annihilation, like silkworms steaming alive inside their cocoons". "But with The Third Wife, new talent Mayfair reclaims just a few of those silvery strands from the neglect of history and weaves them into a film so sensuous we can lose ourselves in it, but so vividly real we might also be able to find ourselves there." Vietnam's censors have reportedly asked Mayfair to submit an edited version of the movie for screening clearance. |
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