“Shallow” is a song from the 2018 film A Star Is Born, performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
The song served as the first single from the film’s soundtrack and was released on September 27, 2018 by Interscope Records. “Shallow” was written by Gaga with Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt, and produced by her with Benjamin Rice.
~Wikipedia~
~~Shallow~~
A Star Is Born
Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper
~~Published on Sep 27, 2018~~
Listen to brand new music from Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga from the ‘A Star Is Born’ Soundtrack:
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a song written by George Harrison, first recorded by the Beatles in 1968 for their eponymous double album (also known as “the White Album“).
Regina Spektor’s performance of George Harrison’s classic, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” from Kubo and the Two Strings’ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, available now.
The epic action-adventure film from acclaimed animation studio LAIKA hits theaters Friday, August 19th. The soundtrack and the film’s original score is written and conducted by Academy Award winning composer, Dario Marianelli.
Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American 3D stop-motion fantasy action adventure film, directed by Travis Knight, written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler, and produced by Laika.
The film features the voices of Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, Rooney Mara and George Takei.
~PLOT~
In ancient Japan, Kubo (Art Parkinson) is a young boy who lives with his ill mother, Sariatu (Charlize Theron), in a cave on top of a mountain. Every day he goes out to a nearby village to tell stories by manipulating pieces of paper that form into origami that moves under music played from Kubo’s shamisen.
He tells tales of great warriors seeking revenge while battling monsters, primarily of a samurai warrior named Hanzo, who is Kubo’s missing father. Every day he quickly returns to his mother when the town bell chimes signaling sunset. She instructs him not to stay outside after dark or her Sisters (his aunts) and his grandfather, the Moon King, will come to take his remaining eye, as they took the other when he was a baby.
One day, Kubo learns of a ceremony where family members communicate with deceased loved ones (Obon). He arrives at a cemetery and tries to speak to his father, but he leaves in anger when his father does not respond to him. Because Kubo has stayed outside after sundown, his mother’s Sisters (Rooney Mara) find him and try to take his eye. After they destroy the village, his mother arrives to fend off her Sisters.
His mother sends Kubo away by touching a beetle crest on his robe which gives him wings, forcing him to fly away from his mother. She tells him to find his father’s armor in order to protect Kubo from his grandfather’s evil spirits. He takes a piece of her hair before she is seemingly killed by her Sisters.
Upon his return to the village, he is able to reclaim the helmet and puts it on. He is greeted by Raiden (Ralph Fiennes), the ghost that appeared to Kubo in his dream. Raiden is revealed to be his grandfather, the Moon King. The Moon King, who needs Kubo’s eye to rid Kubo of all his powers and memories, transforms into the “Moon Beast” and fights Kubo. Kubo is defeated and tossed into the cemetery where the Moon King corners him as well as the surviving villagers.
Kubo retaliates by taking off the armor and repairs his shamisen using the hair of his mother, his father’s bowstring, and one of his own hairs. He uses its magic to recruit the spirits of the villagers’ deceased, showing that memories are the strongest form of magic and can never be destroyed. The Moon King is defeated and becomes mortal, and in his human form has no recollection of who or what he was.
The villagers make him believe that he is a good man. After the villagers set their lanterns near a lake, Kubo is able to speak with his parents and make peace with them, saying that he is happy he was able to go on a journey with them.
They then appear beside him in the form of spirits.
Star Wars Daywas officially first celebrated on May 4, 2011.
In fact, the holiday became so popular that starting in 2012, the next day was jokingly called “Revenge of the Fifth”, a pun on the Star Wars movie title Revenge of the Sith. It might also have something to do with that day being Cinco de Mayo, but to this day fans still like to let their “evil sides” come out the day after Star Wars Day.
When is Star Wars Day?
Star Wars Day is on May 4th every year, playing on the catchphrase “May the Force Be With You.”
The very next day, (as if one day isn’t enough), May 5th, Star Wars fans celebrate Revenge of the Fifth, reserved for those who celebrate the dark side. It’s a play on the title of the third Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith.
Is It Revenge Of The Fifth or 6th?
People often get confused because the day after May 4th is not only Cinco de Mayo but “Revenge of the Fifth“.
Sometimes it is celebrated on May the 6th because people skip over the 5th for Cinco de Mayo.
Incredible true story of Gold Champion Jessie Owens
I went to the movies yesterday. I had seen the previews of this film and I knew it was a “must-see” for me.
I have seen some reviews. It seems that some critics feel that the film didn’t “perform” as expected. I don’t really follow what critics say. Most of the time, in my humble opinion .. like the weathermen … they are wrong.
I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.
For history buffs, for sports fans and for any interested in periods of time where ignorance, bigotry, racism and prejudice were the “law of the land”
Race is a 2016 biographical sports-drama film. It is the second feature biopic film about African American athlete Jesse Owens, who won a record-breaking four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.
Directed by Stephen Hopkins and written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, the film stars Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt, and Carice van Houten.
Principal photography began on July 24, 2014, in Montreal, Canada. Forecast Pictures, Solo Films, and Trinity Race produced the film, Entertainment One released the film in Canada, Focus Features and TriStar Pictures in the United States on February 19, 2016, and Square One Entertainment will release in Germany on May 5, 2016. The film was supported by the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, the Jesse Owens Trust and the Luminary Group.
James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic gold medalist.
Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as “perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history”.
His achievement of setting three world records and tying another in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been called “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport” and has never been equaled.
At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin,Germany, Owens won international fame with four gold medals: 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4 × 100 meter relay.
He was the most successful athlete at the games and as such has been credited with “single-handedly crushing Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy.”
In 1936, Owens arrived in Berlin to compete for the United States at the Summer Olympics. According to fellow American athlete James LuValle, who won bronze in the 400 meters, Owens arrived in Berlin to a throng of fans, many of them young girls, yelling “Wo ist Jesse? Wo ist Jesse?” Many of them had come with scissors and had begun snipping at Owens’ clothing, forcing him to retreat back onto the train.
After that, when Owens left the athletes’ village, he usually had to go with some soldiers to protect him.
In contrast, Adolf Hitler was using the games to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany.He and other government officials had high hopes that German athletes would dominate the games with victories. Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of “Aryan racial superiority” and depicted others, including those of African descent, as inferior. Owens countered this by winning four gold medals.
The Choice is a 2016 American romantic drama film directed by Ross Katz and written by Bryan Sipe, based on Nicholas Sparks‘ 2007 novel of the same name about two neighbors who fall in love at their first meeting.
The film stars Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Maggie Grace, Alexandra Daddario, Tom Welling, and Tom Wilkinson.
Principal photography began on October 13, 2014, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Lionsgate released the film on February 5, 2016.
Travis Shaw is a vet, living in small coastal town Beaufort, falls in love on his first meeting with Gabby Holland, who moves in next door. Gabby is a med student who is in a relationship with a fellow doctor.
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
Google Images
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Travis Parker and Gabby Holland set off into an interesting journey of life as neighbors and then young lovers. Travis Parker is a happy man with wonderful friends, great occupation and an enviable life. He thinks his life is already full of joy and happiness – then Gabby Holland moves in the house next door.
And what blossoms is an emotional and inspiring love story. It is a story about overcoming barriers to be with your loved ones. It is about pure and intense romantic love, trust, strength, and the choices we can make to show them.
Travis visits Gabby in the hospital after she is put in a comatose state after getting into an accident. Gabby has not woken up and the doctors say she probably never will. The choice Travis has to make is whether to take Gabby off life support or to send her to long term care where she may never wake up. He decides to take his chances and move her to long term care. Three months later, Gabby wakes up from her coma and moves back into their house.
Freeheld is a 2015 American drama film directed by Peter Sollett and written by Ron Nyswaner.
The film stars Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Steve Carell, Luke Grimes, and Michael Shannon, and began filming in October 2014 in New York.
It is based on the 2007 documentary short film of the same name about police Officer Laurel Hester’s fight against the Ocean County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders to allow her pension benefits to be transferred to her domestic partner after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The film also includes a song called “Hands of Love” by Miley Cyrus.
The film is based on the true story of Laurel Hester (Moore), a police officer in Ocean County, New Jersey. The story narrates the difficulties faced by a lesbian police detective and her domestic partner, Stacie Andree (Page).
Following her diagnosis with terminal lung cancer in 2005, Hester repeatedly appealed to the county’s board of chosen freeholders in an attempt to ensure her pension benefits could be passed on to her domestic partner.
Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester spent 25 years investigating tough cases in Ocean County, New Jersey, protecting the rights of victims and putting her life on the line. She had no reason to expect that in the last year of her life, after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, that her final battle for justice would be for the woman she loved.
The documentary film “Freeheld” chronicles Laurel’s struggle to transfer her earned pension to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree. With less than six months to live, Laurel refuses to back down when her elected officials – the Ocean County Freeholders -deny her request to leave her pension to Stacie, an automatic option for heterosexual married couples. The film is structured chronologically, following both the escalation of Laurel’s battle with the Freeholders and the decline of her health as cancer spreads to her brain.
As Laurel’s plight intensifies, it spurs a media frenzy and a passionate advocacy campaign. At the same time, “Freeheld” captures a quieter, personal story: that of the deep love between Laurel and Stacie as they face the reality of losing each other. Alternating from packed public demonstrations at the county courthouse to quiet, tender moments of Laurel and Stacie at home, “Freeheld” combines tension-filled political drama with personal detail, creating a nuanced study of a grassroots fight for justice.
Lili Elbe defied convention and pushed the boundaries of medical science to become the first transgendered woman
Horatia Harrod 8 December 2015
Einar Wegener would kill himself in the spring.
He had chosen a date – May 1, 1930 – after a year spent in torment. The cause of his suffering was quite simple: he was sure he was a woman, born into the wrong body. Or perhaps it was more complicated: sometimes Wegener, whose life is portrayed on film by the Oscar-winning British actor Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, felt he was two people in the same body, each fighting for supremacy.
One was a Danish landscape painter, a steadfast man who, in his own words, “could withstand storms”. He was married to a woman whose strength and talent matched, or perhaps even surpassed, his own: Gerda Wegener, a successful Art Deco illustrator who produced portraits of fashionable women for magazines such as Vogue and La Vie Parisienne.
The other shared none of these qualities.
Lili Elbe was, as she set down in letters and notes for an autobiography, a “thoughtless, flighty, very superficially-minded woman”, prone to fits of weeping and barely able to speak in front of powerful men. But despite her womanly defects, by February 1930 she was becoming too powerful for Wegener to resist.
“I am finished,” he wrote at the time. “Lili has known this for a long time. That’s how matters stand. And consequently she rebels more vigorously every day.”
As it turned out, Wegener did not commit suicide on the appointed date.
In February 1930 he was told of a doctor who might be able to help him – who did, in fact, perform a series of ground-breaking operations that allowed Einar to become Lili.
But all the same, by September 1931, Elbe was dead, the victim of a misjudged surgery to transplant a womb into her body. (Ciclosporin, the drug that prevents the rejection of transplanted organs, was first used successfully in 1980, almost 50 years after Elbe’s death.)
In the year before her death, Elbe had divorced Gerda, given up painting, and was embarking tentatively on a relationship with a French art dealer.
“It is not with my brain, not with my eyes, not with my hands that I want to be creative, but with my heart and with my blood,” she wrote. “The fervent longing in my woman’s life is to become the mother of a child.”
According to her own telling, Wegener’s transition into Elbe began by chance, when one of her wife’s life models failed to turn up.
The couple’s mutual friend, an actress named Anna Larsen, suggested that the slight Einar might step in instead.
At first she resisted, but eventually she gave in to Gerda’s pleas.
“I cannot deny, strange as it may sound, that I enjoyed myself in this disguise. I liked the feel of soft women’s clothing,” she wrote. “I felt very much at home in them from the first moment.”
The procedures by which the then-47-year-old Wegener became Elbe are not precisely known, partly because the library and archive of the Institute for Sexual Research were destroyed by the Nazis in May 1933.
In the biography Man into Woman, which incorporates many of Wegener/Elbe’s diary entries and letters, as well as conversations with the book’s “editor”, Niels Hoyer, details are elusive.
Certainly she underwent a series of operations at the Dresden clinicof Kurt Warnekros – a doctor described breathlessly in the book as a man of limitless masculine potency, Lili’s savior and creator. These cost around 5000 kroner – around £12,000 in today’s money – which Wegener raised by selling off a number of paintings.
Aside from the fatal womb transplant, and the removal of Wegener’s testicles and penis, the ovaries of a young woman were also grafted into Wegener’s body.
(Elbe suggests in her memoir that when she was operated on, an existing pair of shrunken ovaries was found in her body.)
Ricki and the Flash is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Diablo Cody, about a woman who leaves her family to become a rock star and later gets a chance to make amends. The film stars Meryl Streep, Mamie Gummer, Kevin Kline, Sebastian Stan, Rick Springfield, Audra McDonald, and Ben Platt.
~~GALLERY~~
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PLOT
Ricki chased her dreams of becoming a famous rock star by abandoning her family.
She gets a chance to put things right when her ex-husband Pete asks her to visit Indianapolis and help their estranged daughter Julie through a difficult time.
Ricki has a rock band that plays a regular gig at a small bar, when she isn’t working as a cashier to make ends meet. Julie recently attempted suicide because her husband cheated on her and is divorcing her.
Despite being broke, Ricki comes to Indianapolis to help her daughter, but Julie is hostile. Likewise, her two sons are hostile and unwelcoming. One is gay and the other recently became engaged, though no one told their mother. Still, Ricki gets through to Julie.
Unfortunately, her husband’s second wife, Maureen, returns unexpectedly, confronting Ricki with some hard truths. She wasn’t there for her children when they needed her and Maureen was. Ashamed, Ricki returns to her band in California angry and bitter, insulting her guitarist who is in love with her. He makes her realize he cares and they make love. Maureen sends Ricki an invitation to the son’s wedding as an olive branch, but Ricki can’t afford to go. Her boyfriend sells his best guitar to pay for the tickets. Despite her attempts at reconciliation, it’s clear she’s still an outsider.
The wedding guests look askance at Ricki when she gets up to toast the bride and groom. As her gift, having no money, she has her band take over and play for the guests.
Her son and his bride start the wedding dance and slowly the guests join in.
It Is What It Is 