Thursday, September 26, 2019

Google reaches legal drinking age: HahahaHappy Big 021 to Google - September 27, 2019

This is a reposting from an earlier post.  Some information may have been edited/added to original blog post.

Will share if there is a Google doodle celebrating their 21st.

Yes there is a great write up about Google celebrating itself with it's very own doodle by Forbes Science and Technology contributor, Kiona Smith of Forbes titled Friday's Google Doodle Celebrates Google, But What Does That Mean?



Below Google Doodle was from 2017:

From breathing out and breathing in to playing solitaire, Google celebrates 19th with 19 great games from doodles past! Happy birthday to Google :) may all your wishes come true :) Enjoy google's doodle by visiting 19th Google Birthday doodle or copy/paste this link https://www.google.com/search?q=google+birthday+surprise+spinner&oi=ddle&ct=googles-19th-birthday-us-6538650035683328&hl=en&source=doodle-ntp

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Oscar Race Begins – Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)


I recently attended TIFF for the 8th year in a row.  TIFF is held every September and just concluded its 44th festival, featuring over 300 films from around the globe.  They just announced the coveted Grolsch People's Choice Award, which went to the WW2 satire, JoJo Rabbit.  Depending on who you talk to - they either loved the movie or hated it, so it should be interesting to see where that film winds up during awards season.  I did not see JoJo Rabbit but 15 other films.  While I will not review all 15, here are a few films that I think may deserve Oscar attention and those that were underwhelming.
Renee Zellweger at the Judy premiere


1      How to Build a Girl:  Beanie Feldstein has been making a name for herself in films like Lady Bird and Booksmart, proving that she’s just not only Jonah Hill’s little sister.  Feldstein is perfectly cast to play Johanna, based on British writer Caitlin Moran, who wrote the screenplay.  (I hope this film gets a screenplay nod) Johanna is a bored early 90s suburban teen with an active imagination and writing talent. She enters a writing contest and becomes a music critic for a hipster rag based on the NME, reinventing herself in the process.  She becomes a meaner and sexier version of her former self, estranging herself from her family in the process.

Feldstein is believable and hilarious in the role and I also enjoyed the early 90s soundtrack featuring female fronted bands like Elastica and Bikini Kill.  It also features a nice acting turn by Alfie Allen as Johanna’s musician crush and Emma Thompson in a bit part as an editor who helps Johanna find her authentic writing voice.

Bad Education:  I was particularly excited to see this film directed by Cory Finley, since it was about a school district scandal a couple of towns over from where I grew up on Long Island.  Hugh Jackman plays Frank Tassone, the Roslyn Schools Superintendent who was convicted of embezzling millions from the district in the early aughts.  Allison Janney effectively plays a school official who was also convicted of the same crime, funneling school funds to pay for renovations on her Hamptons beach home.

The film captures the competitive culture of the North Shore where school ranking and Ivy league admissions make people want to live there.  Jackman is both sympathetic and mystifying as Tassone, a closeted man who is dedicated to his students’ success but also steals from them.  In addition to Jackman and Janney, the cast includes Ray Romano, Annaleigh Ashford, Stephen Spinella and Australia’s Geraldine Viswanathan, who breaks the story in her high school newspaper.  I would like to see Jackman nominated, as this is his meatiest role in years and had me convinced he was a local. 

ETA:  HBO picked up Bad Education, so it won't be eligible for the Oscars.   However, it will be eligible for the Emmys possibly in 2020.

3    Judy:  I had seen pictures of Renee Zellweger costumed and made up to be Judy Garland in the last year of her life, prior to the film and she definitely looked the part.  But nothing prepared me to actually see her act in the role and completely disappear.  Zellweger also did vocal training to sound like Garland in her later years, and her singing is quite effective.  I predict that Zellweger is a lock for a best actress nomination.  The rest of the film, directed by Rupert Goold,  is quite good, including flashbacks of Judy as a teen trying to rebel against movie boss Louis B Mayer, but it’s definitely made special by Zellweger.

4    A Beautiful Day in the Neighboorhood:  Like Zellweger, Tom Hanks does a remarkable job becoming Fred Rogers, embodying his goodness and carefully controlled emotions.  He plays a supporting role in this film to Matthew Rhys’ Esquire journalist, who has daddy issues and learns to deal with his anger by interviewing and befriending Rogers.  Directed by Marielle Heller with humor and sensitivity, the film never gets overly sentimental, yet the script is a bit too predictable.  Still this film is worth seeing as a companion piece to last year’s excellent documentary “Wont You Be My Neighbor.”   I also predict an Oscar nomination for Hanks.  Whether it will be best actor or supporting, we shall see.

5    The Report: Written and directed by Scott Z Burns, The Report examines the investigation led by Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) and special investigator Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) into the CIA’s torture practices (aka Enhanced Interrogation Techniques) post 9/11.  Driver is excellent as he relentlessly tries to bring to light that the techniques were illegal and not effective.   I found the ending of the film particularly home hitting with a speech by the late Senator John McCain.  The film also stars Jon Hamm as a member of the Obama administration.  I hope the script gets a screenplay nod.

6    The Aeronauts:  Starring the Theory of Everything’s Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, this Amazon produced adventure about 1850s air travel via balloon is a wild ride.  The story is nothing too extraordinary but the special effects and chemistry between the leads is.  I hope this film gets some technical nods.

Disappointments

       The Goldfinch:  Having read Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer prize winning novel and seeing the handsomely shot trailer for this film, I was really looking forward to seeing this.  Unfortunately, the film strips The Goldfinch to its basic plot about a young boy named Theo who loses his mother in a terrorist attack at the Metropolitan museum.  He winds up stealing a painting in the confusion and the film traces Theo’s life over the next 15 years or so.  The richness of the characters is more or less gone and the film becomes a beautiful bore, not helped by the lifeless performance of Ansel Elgort as the adult Theo. (Oakes Fegley as young Theo is much better).  There are some bright spots in the performances including Finn Wolfhard’s Boris, Theo’s Russian friend with a sketchy upbringing and Geoffrey Wright as Hobie, the antiques artisan who becomes Theo’s surrogate parent.

      The Laundromat:  Also written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Stephen Soderberg, the
Laundromat takes a satirical look at the Panama Papers scandal of 2016, involving legal and illegal dealings of the 1% and offshore accounts.  Despite a stellar cast led by Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, the film has too many threads, some dropped and tries to be a bit too clever. 

3    My Zoe: Written and directed by Julie Delpy, a favorite of mine, this was a polarizing film for me.  Delpy plays a devoted mother to Zoe, her eight year old daughter, who suddenly grows ill from a brain injury.  Delpy is going through a separation from her husband, which complicates their custody issues of the little girl.  Zoe eventually is pulled from life support and her mother in an act of desperation, takes some of her tissue to see if she can be cloned.  The last third of the movie was interesting and poses some interesting ethical questions, but I felt it could’ve been a movie all on its own.  The happy shoe-horned ending doesn’t feel earned either.    

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Eighteen years ago today our country was attacked, crumbling NYC's World Trade Center.

This is a re-posting of previous annual 911 blog posts by AllThingsDigitalMarketing. Please visit this blog frequently and share this with your social media and professional networks. Thanks.

Today the weather is near identical to the gorgeous, sunny, breezy day as 18 years ago - when  we mourned victims and lives lost from the 9/11 attacks.



I'm sharing this double rainbow I caught 2 days ago, Monday, 9/9/2019 at 5:45pm on my way home.

It's a snapshot from my Facebook page.  Had to share here especially since it was only 2 days before 9/11.




I'm not superstitious but do believe in the resilience and beauty of mother nature and the meanings she brings.




So much symbolism for me, and a double rainbow is so meaningful especially among eastern cultures.


I turned this controversial photo below  upside-down in 2011 to celebrate the 10th year and today marks 18 years of resilience; Also a symbol of rising peace. Flagship 1 WTC stands at the symbolic height of 1776, the year when we Americans declared our independence and "all men created equal," now once again, 1776 beautifying NYC's skyline. This photo is symbolic for our rising towers, faith and independence. I share this post (update it a bit) every anniversary year.
For those born on 9/11 or near that date, please visit birthdaySpirit.org ~~  no matter what your age, visit birthdaySpirit.org and celebrate all goodness born on this tragic day of mourning. You can even register to stay up to date on happenings and things about 9/11 birthday members.
Photo below, "The Falling Man," by Richard Drew; which I call
"Flipped Falling Man."


two haikus commemorating 10 years after 9/11

▐║ 911 ten
▐║ years later falling man is
▐║ still provocative

▓▌▄▒║ ▓║ ║▌

▐║ pin-straight
Falling Man

▐║ endless time still shows
the world

▐║ our
land, brave and free


by
Gloria
Buono-Daly     &nbsp (c) 2011


Emotionally charged, mixed feelings - 2001 to 2015. From Poet Laureate, Billy Collins' prose commemorating all of the 9/11 victims, "The Names," posted below, to one of the most provocative, unforgettable images by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, of a man falling from the twin towers, positioned perfectly in the middle. 

The photo was taken at about 9:41 am on 9/11/01 -- 15 minutes before the 1st building, the South tower, collapsed. Videos would show that the falling man was actually a tumbling man in the air and this is one moment in his time that was captured.


Note how perfectly straight, positioned in the middle and parallel to the burning towers the falling man is. The above photo was branded distasteful and voyeuristic -- never to be shown again, yet the incredible "falling man" is still around.


For those of 

you 

wondering 

how our 

WTC 

looked before 

9/11/01, 

here's a 

photo 

by 

photographer 

Joseph Lopes 

taken in 1979.  





There is much up side today. By the 11th anniversary (2012) the new multi-billion-dollar World Trade Center, was back up in lower Manhattan's skyline.

One World Trade Center (formerly known as the Freedom Tower) which was completed on August 30, 2012 and the final component spire installed on May 10, 2013.

Additional complexes include 7 World Trade Center, three other high-rise office buildings, a museum and memorial, and a transportation hub similar in size to Grand Central Terminal. The Four World Trade Center opened to tenants and public on  November 13, 2013. The 9/11 memorial is complete, and the museum opened May 21, 2014. Three World Trade Center open in 2015 and the $4 billion Transportation Hub, the most expensive ever also called "Oculus" (originally opened back in 1903) reopened  March 4, 2016.  Two World Trade Center's full construction has been placed on hold until tenants can be found; It began construction in June 2008 and is still expected to be completed by 2020. Three World Trade Center, in the very center of  the new WTC began construction in 2010 and is scheduled to open by 2018 (earlier than anticipated). As posted by wtc.com "The defining aspect of 3 WTC is its load-sharing system of diamond-shaped bracing, which helps to articulate the building's east-west configuration. This allows unimpeded 360-degree panoramic views of New York."  WTC overview photo above by Joe Woolhead, Silverstein Properties

Budgeted at 3.9 billion upon completion, flagship, One World Trade Center, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, has been opened since November 3, 2014. At 104 stories (1368 feet high), the decorative architectural spire atop makes the building stand at the symbolic height of 1,776 feet. Observation decks will adorn the 100th, 101st and 102nd floors. Tenants so far include magazine publisher Conde Nast and the federal government's General Services Administration. Visit time lapse of 1 WTC video animation of rebuilding 1 WTC.

Rendering of 1 WTC photo left courtesy of Wikimedia.

At 72 stories (977ft high) Four World Trade Center, was the first office building to open, (October 2013). First tenants were Port Authority, the Bistate agency that owns the trade center site and lost its headquarters when the twin towers were attacked. According to many articles and documentaries, there were about 200 people who jumped to their deaths, some were able to be identified only for the victim’s families and to provide closure for them. But there was no time to recover or identify those who were forced to jump prior to the collapse of the towers. We lost almost 3,000 lives that day.

Where were you on 9/11/2001?
I was working on Wall Street( on the corner of Wall and Water Streets). It was a beautiful, clear skied morning. I arrived early as I usually do and was at my desk on the computer when I heard a loud bang and felt rumbling underneath my desk at 8:46 a.m. I shouted "What was that?" Then 15 minutes later another bang, as some fellow employees arrived - initially we thought it was from a missile. Hard to imagine it would be the biggest single attack on American lives. I still keep asking myself "how could this be?" I was curious and ran outside to see what was happening.

As I was walking on Water St. and reached Liberty St., it was at about 10:00 am, I saw large billows of gray smoke, appearing to turn day to night, enveloping hundreds if not thousands of people running for their lives towards me – apparently heading towards the river. I asked some folks what is happening now and all were in shock. With all the commotion, all they could say while they were running was “it’s down, it’s down.” At that moment, I thought another plane came down. I ran back to the office and learned from colleagues that the South tower collapsed (incidentally, this was the 2nd building hit). The North tower (1st building hit) collapsed at about 30 minutes later. And the world would never be the same.


"The Names" poem by Billy Collins posted below:
Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,
I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,
Then Baxter and Calabro,
Davis and Eberling, names falling into place
As droplets fell through the dark.
Names printed on the ceiling of the night.
Names slipping around a watery bend.
Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.
In the morning, I walked out barefoot
Among thousands of flowers
Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,
And each had a name --
Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal
Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins.
Names written in the air
And stitched into the cloth of the day.
A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.
Monogram on a torn shirt,
I see you spelled out on storefront windows
And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city.
I say the syllables as I turn a corner --
Kelly and Lee,
Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor.
When I peer into the woods,
I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden
As in a puzzle concocted for children.
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,
Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton,
Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple.
Names written in the pale sky.
Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.
Names silent in stone
Or cried out behind a door.
Names blown over the earth and out to sea.
In the evening -- weakening light, the last swallows.
A boy on a lake lifts his oars.
A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,
And the names are outlined on the rose clouds --
Vanacore and Wallace,
(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)
Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z.
Names etched on the head of a pin.
One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in a green field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart


Additional information at the following links:


║ Chiff.com http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/september-11.htm

New York City's $4 billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub is finally open to the public — take a look inside

║See CBS video, “The Passionate Eye,” http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyemonday/video_player.html?fallingman&playerType=wmp

║Video “911 The Falling Man”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EFvGuIXIJc&feature=related Images of bodies hanging out of windows, holding on across the steel across windows, leaning out for air.

║Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/ten-years-later.html


My two 911 haikus:
║ 911 ten ═ years later falling man is ═ still provocative

║ pin-straight Falling Man ═ endless time still shows the world ═ our land, brave and free

Search engine stats for the term 911 on Sept. 11, 2014
Match type  &nbsp Broad   &nbsp   &nbsp Exact
Google   44,900,000   &nbsp 44,400,000
Yahoo   &nbsp 54,200,000   &nbsp 54,100,000
Bing     &nbsp 54,200,000   &nbsp 54,200,000

Search engine stats for the term 911 on Sept. 11, 2011
Match type  &nbsp Broad   &nbsp   &nbsp Exact
Google   981,000,000   &nbsp 431,000,000
Yahoo   &nbsp 246,000,000   &nbsp 240,000,000
Bing     &nbsp 245,000,000   &nbsp 242,000,000

RESOURCES & THINGS TO DO IN MEMORY OF 911 IN ADDITION TO VISITING THE 911 MEMORIAL
▓▌▄▒║ ▓║ ║▌ Soothe your soul by listening to music in memory of 911 like Unhappy Birthday, by The Bacon Brothers, Originally from the album "White Knuckles" reworked for the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 with updated lyrics, written by Michael and Kevin Bacon, Directed by Bill Keller
▓▌▄▒║ ▓║ ║▌ visit the NYC FireStore on Greenwich Street, NYC
▓▌▄▒║ ▓║ ║▌ World Trade Center Status Detailed By Developers 11 Years After September 11th Attacks , by the Associated Press, September 10, 2012
▓▌▄▒║ ▓║ ║▌ World Trade Center Timeline, by WTC organization

▓▌▄▒║ ▓║ ║▌ Downtown Manhattan Future Skyline animation, by Silverstein Properties


Please check out all the links in the resource section above and share this on your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks you enjoy! Thanks!

This is a re-posting of previous annual 911 blog posts by AllThingsDigitalMarketing. Please visit this blog frequently and share this with your social media and professional networks. Thanks.

Visiting this blog frequently and sharing this with your social media and professional network is much appreciated. Thanks.