Monthly Archives: October 2019

Brandon ONeill as Dracula. Not pictured:the cellist, the blood, the smoke. Rosemary Dai Ross

Count Dracula is one of the most enduring monsters in literature, which either is ironic or makes perfect sense, considering his immortality. Bram Stoker's vicious yet refined vampire nobleman has weathered more than a century of rebirths and reimaginingshe's spurred more interpretations than any other classical monster (there are more than 200 films based just on his story).

He is the pop-culture darling of the ages, a supernatural villain we love to fear in all his many forms. He'll be breathed to life yet again when playwright Steven Dietz's adaptation of the Stoker tale (which is the most produced version for the stage, and which Dietz wrote in the mid-1990s in Seattle) is revived and revised specifically for ACT Theatre, which is producing the play through November 17.

But it's not all about the Count. In this Dracula, the focus shifts to Mina Murray Harker. Her character has always been ripe for a reckoning or a refresh, or both, and has enjoyed many alternate paths in modern retellings. She is the source of endless fascination, because she is an obvious heroine in Stoker's novel, pure of heart and mind, and yet she's just as much a casualty of Dracula's desires as her poor friend Lucy, even if Mina ultimately fares better.

No matter how many gender norms Stoker challenged, it was still the Victorian era. Mina could be given only so much agency. "But to simply make her a victim was super unsatisfying to all of us," director John Langs explained. "So Steven has done some reworking of the story, and she really comes to the forefront. The hunted becomes the hunter in this particular adaptation."

He describes it as a ritualistic retelling of the play that they're calling "the death of Dracula at the hands of Mina Murray." According to Langs, "Whenever we take on a classical work at ACT Theatre, we're trying to reframe it in the contemporary context."

In Dietz's Dracula, relevant themes are exploredlike the costs of hiding your secret life from the people you love most and the way corruption takes root. But as Langs put it, they also want "to tell a good monster story about power in this day and age, as a great allegory for the fear that is being generated by certain parts of society that has us all very, very worried. It's been really satisfying to drive a stake into the heart of a monster every day, and we hope that our audience feels that macabre pleasure with us."

The actors are core ACT Theatre members, many of whom took part in a yearlong workshop, which means they are intimately familiar with the material and its changes. Among them are actors who've gotten glowing praise from our critics, including Khanh Doan as Mina, Brandon O'Neill as Dracula, and Basil Harris as Renfield. Langs said about Harris: "He has such a unique and off-center quality to him, that I thought him taking on that pivotal role was just a perfect get for us."

There will be a live cello player onstage throughout the evening, and, Langs said, "gallons of blood, tons of smoke, lots of choreography, singing, sharp teeth... Even in our, maybe, erudite pursuits, we haven't shied away from making it great entertainment."

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In ACT Theatre's New Production of Dracula, the Hunter Becomes the Hunted - TheStranger.com

The upcoming adaptation of Stephen Kings sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, isnt arriving in theaters until November. A bit of a bummer for those who were wishing they could see it this Halloween season.

But now some people will have a chance to see it early. Its been announced that Fandango is bringing the movie to theaters early for one night only, and just in time for Halloween.

SYNOPSIS:

Doctor Sleep continues the story of Danny Torrance, 40 years after his terrifying stay at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and newcomer Kyliegh Curran star in the supernatural thriller, directed by Mike Flanagan, from his own screenplay based upon the novel by Stephen King.

Still irrevocably scarred by the trauma he endured as a child at the Overlook, Dan Torrance has fought to find some semblance of peace. But that peace is shattered when he encounters Abra, a courageous teenager with her own powerful extrasensory gift, known as the shine. Instinctively recognizing that Dan shares her power, Abra has sought him out, desperate for his help against the merciless Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who feed off the shine of innocents in their quest for immortality.

Forming an unlikely alliance, Dan and Abra engage in a brutal life-or-death battle with Rose. Abras innocence and fearless embrace of her shine compel Dan to call upon his own powers as never beforeat once facing his fears and reawakening the ghosts of the past.

Doctor Sleep stars Ewan McGregor (Star Wars: Episodes I, II & III, T2 Trainspotting) as Dan Torrance, Rebecca Ferguson (the Mission: Impossible films, The Greatest Showman) as Rose the Hat, and Kyliegh Curran, in her major feature film debut, as Abra. The main ensemble cast also includes Carl Lumbly, Zahn McClarnon, Emily Alyn Lind, Bruce Greenwood, Jocelin Donahue, Alex Essoe and Cliff Curtis.

Trevor Macy and Jon Berg produced the film, with Roy Lee, Scott Lumpkin, Akiva Goldsman and Kevin McCormick serving as executive producers.

Flanagans behind-the-scene creative team was led by director of photography Michael Fimognari (The Haunting of Hill House), production designers Maher Ahmad (Get Hard) and Elizabeth Boller (Hush), and costume designer Terry Anderson (Den of Thieves). The music score is composed by The Newton Brothers (The Haunting of Hill House).

The only bad news is that the special early screening is only going to be on about 400 screens, so not everyone will have the opportunity to see it. Tickets for the event are on sale now, and you can head over to Fandango to see if itll be in your area.

After the early screening, Doctor Sleep will be released in theaters everywhere on November 8th. You can click right here for trailers and more if you missed anything.

[Source: via Bloody Disgusting]

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Originally posted here:

The Shining Sequel Doctor Sleep Coming To Theaters Early In Time For Halloween - Geeks of Doom

In 1911, the city of Houston finished construction on a $5 million train station that overshot its original budget by $4 million. The city had been so jacked up to build this thing that they had swatted the home of a former Houston mayor and a prominent synagogue out of the way to get it up.

When people had grown bored and disgusted by trains in the mid-70s, Union Station was abandoned for a shiny new Amtrak facility. But instead of knocking it down or blowing it up, as the city had done with the buildings that had been in Union Stations way initially, it was granted immortality by the National Park Service on the National Register of Historic Places.

When the Astros started muttering about getting a new stadium in 1995, and were actually threatening to leave Houston and become the new Washington franchise against which they are currently playing in the World Series, it was eventually determined that Union Station would make the perfect starting point for construction of their new facility.

Given the historic choo-choo depot that now serves as its main concourse, it makes sense that Minute Maid Park would incorporate a train into the ballparks home run celebrations. The train is piloted at 2.5 mph but still has an emergency brake, just in case of a horrifying accident occurring at a speed that many doctors consider an ideal pace for walking.

Juan Soto, who you may have heard is only 20 years old and already has three home runs in the postseason, went up to meet that train last night, bashing a home run to a part of Minute Maid Park where baseballs arent supposed to go. In the top of the fourth inning, he sent a Gerrit Cole fastball onto the unlit track of the silent Astros train, and the two inanimate objects became a pair of unwitting companions for the remainder of the game.

It was a pure, glorious moment for a sport that had been mired all day in important, unavoidable conversations regarding the hateful and idiotic rhetoric of an Astros assistant GM. For the several seconds it took for Sotos home run to reach the train tracks, all we could do was marvel at his skill, at his youth, and at the fact that hes a member of the Nationals, a franchise that has been trying to get to this moment since 2012.

In fact, it was earlier in the game that the Nationals had witnessed their first ever World Series home run, and it borders on cliche that it was hit by 35-year-old Ryan Zimmerman.

Zimmerman knows how to hit a postseason home run. Hes a tenured professor in home run-hitting, and in the scattershot of Nationals playoff appearances since 2012, hes knocked a few out. His journey to cutting the Astros early 2-0 lead in half with a solo shot goes back seven years, to when hed already been on the Washington roster for seven years.

Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche went back-to-back off Lance Lynn to give the Nationals a much-needed power surge in Game 2 of the 2012 NLDS. Unfortunately, they were down 7-1 at the time and would go on to lose by eight runs. Zimmerman didnt muscle another home run out until Game 5, when he would once again go back-to-back in run-scoring plays, following a Bryce Harper RBI triple with a two-run jack to give the Nationals an early 3-0 lead in a game they wound up losing 9-7.

Two years later, when the Nationals returned to the postseason, Zimmerman was naturally still with them, but by this point, his body had been set upon by the sport of baseball: It had chewed on his hamstring and bludgeoned his shoulder to the point that they would shift the third baseman and outfielder over to the NLs DH spot, first base, when the season was over.

But during the NLDS, Zimmerman was still called upon to swing a bat as a pinch hitter, despite being hurt enough not to play, as he would say later. After all, swinging a bat requires things like muscles and tendons, and Zimmermans werent in great shape: dashing from third to home on a play near the end of the season had been enough to keep him out of the lineup for three days.

Fortunately for Washington, he was playing in the bottom of the eighth of Game 2 in 2014 against the Cubs. Bryce Harper had just tied the game at 3-3 with a two-run bomb and it was Zimmermans job to win it. His three-run tater gave the Nationals a 6-3 lead that they used to beat the Cubs, and for the first time in Nationals history, Zimmerman had homered in a postseason game that his team would actually win.

In a tied Game 4 of the 2017 NLDS, the Dodgers watched Julio Uras give up a run and the lead, as well as a couple of base runners, before yanking him so Zimmerman would have to face a fresh Pedro Bez. Zimmerman didnt seem to mind, pounding a three-run blast on the second pitch of the at-bat. It was the last time anybody scored in that game and the Nationals won 6-1.

Even though each of the Nationals postseason campaigns have ended the same way, each of Zimmermans postseason homers have shown an evolution of sorts, going from garbage time RBIs, to game-winning blasts, to last night, when he fired the inaugural shot of Nationals World Series run-scoring. In baseball, the stories dont always present themselves as clearly as we think, and we have to look back, sift through some box scores, find a few quotes, and decide that, yes, here is the beginning, middle, and end. Its a need we have to box every part of this sport into a three-act structure, despite so much of it being so dumb and so meaningless.

But for Zimmerman to hit the first home run of the series for the Nationals, and for Soto to follow him with a bomb on the train tracks, gives us such a clear glimpse of what it took for Washington to get here and of what lies ahead for a franchise with a 20-year-old superstar. Theyre still not World Series champions, but after Game 1, they appear to be on right track.

Read more from the original source:

A Pair of World Series Homers Puts the Nationals on the Right Track - FanGraphs

Halloween is a holiday we all look forward to, and in the correct setting, provides us with many opportunities to express our unique identities. However, it is also a minefield for those of us who have the threat of cultural appropriation looming over us like Harvey Weinstein leering at a casting couch. If you are devoid of progressive sensibilities, you might very well end up stepping on an unseen hazard (because of the minefield metaphor), hearing a brief yet sinister tutting sound, before the devastating explosion of offense erupts around you.

Nevertheless, have no fear (no pun intended), and allow me to take you by the hand (consent pending) and guide you deftly through the minefield (of which I previously referenced twice in the opening paragraph of this article), with the intention of avoiding the perils of the- look, Im going to stop using the minefield analogy now because I feel like Ive gone as far as I can go with it, but basically this is about Halloween costumes and how not to piss off minorities et cetera.

The obvious ones have been highlighted many times (Sombrero Man, Red Indian, Sexy Anne Frank etc). Therefore, I am going to flag up a few of the lesser-known problematic costume ideas.

Research the history of your chosen outfit. OK, so youve decided to dress up as a sexy witch however could that upset anyone? STOP! Witches are part of the pagan religion and as such are protected from being marginalized by non-pagans. Also, years ago, women were burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft and so these outfits could have a devastatingly negative effect on the ancestors of those persecuted in the 1700s. Only dress up as a witch if you know how to perform at least ten Wiccan rituals and can recite the entire script of Hocus Pocus off by heart.

Assume that fantasy monsters are an acceptable costume. Your friend has told you they plan to attend the campus Halloween Ball as a zombie from The Walking Dead, hey what a cool idea! WRONG. Do you think leprosy is cool? Well is it? Also, dressing up as someone who is technically dead is a huge trigger for anyone who has lost a beloved relative. Tell your friend to rethink this horrendously insensitive notion and encourage them to create a more appropriate monster costume, for instance Bad Orange Man, Bad Orange Man Supporter or Pro-lifer.

Consider how your costume might affect the people around you. While browsing amazon, you came across the perfect outfit. Mary Poppins! Who could possibly have an issue with this adored and respected Disney character? Well if you were to ask me this question, I would have to respond with an indignant Do you find being ignorant easy, or have you had to put in literally hours of practice in order to become this oblivious to people less privileged than yourself? Mary Poppins is not only a symbol of white misogyny; she is also a jarring reminder for the 99 percent of people out there who cannot afford childcare that the financial disparity between the haves and the have nots grows deeper by the day in Trumps America. To be honest, I am aghast that I am even having to explain this in 2019.

Dress as an animalunless you are a member of the noble Furry community. Dont dress as Freddy Krueger unless youve been convicted of child molestation. Dont dress as a demonic nun unless youve attended at least one satanic black mass in which you gave your body and soul to the Dark Lord. Dont dress as a vampire if you have no experience of being afflicted with anaemia and/or immortality. I could go on, but surely by now, you get the general idea.

All of this is pretty straight-forward, but unfortunately it stills needs to be repeated. Almost any costume has a risk of causing offense. To anyone who is still unsure, I would suggest simply dressing up as yourself. However, to play it completely safe this year, Im going as Blackface Justin Trudeau.

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Halloween costume 'do's and 'don't's - The Spectator USA

Halloween, All Hallows, is coming and, being Christian, we are preparing to pray and party.

Why?

All Hallows Eve is a celebration, deeply Christian, aholiday of creative mothers,when adults party,and devils are defeated,when we are unafraid, awash in love.

This is a day in the West of the World where we face common fears and cross ourselves and have a laugh. I have visited many holy places where the dead, skulls, bones, and the incorrupt, are there to see. The first time I saw such things, I thought: Yikes! What is this? My guide, very wise, said something like this: They were here in life and now they are with us in death. The good pray for us, the dead gibber their excuses, the bodies? They are here to remind us.

Those men I have known who have seen demonic evil: prison and concentration camps in Nazi Germany, atheist gulags in China or the Soviet Union, have not been light about evil. They also do not fear evil. When you have been sent to shovel human excrement by men with endless, ugly, hatred of saints, angels, and God, then you lose fear. They never lost their memory of pain and pity for the victims, both prisoners and guards, but perfect love had cast out all fear.

If you find a religious person who is afraid, who sees demons behind every jack-o-lantern, even if carved by a puckish grandchild, then you will see a man more susceptible to demons, than the trick-or-treater.

Evil be to he who thinks evil of trick-or-treat. Honor our righteous dead, pray for deliverance from evil, and then party as children kept safe by the Almighty. All is well and all will be well as Omnipotence makes every broken thing whole one the course of eternity.Nothing can frighten absolute love.

The Beloved is so good, true, and beautiful that He casts out all fear.

Much of what becomesevil to us or bad for us is not because of the nature of thing or event itself, but our intent. There are actions that are always evil, burning a stand of sequoia for fun, but most of the things we do are not this way. Most of life is good, if we would make it so. As one professor put it for most of our actions: Intent is the content of morality.

Few things are so base they cannot be good, there are generally ten.

Few things are so good they cannot be base, there are seven such virtues.

Demons?

They are already damned.

Monsters?

They are real, but will, over the long work of God over time, be defeated.

The dead?

If they love us, they can pray for us. If they hate us, they cannot harm us. We pray for them and we ask for their prayers: in Gods economyno soulis forever gone.

No denying that evil twists, turns, torments any jollification to make that good vile. A good luck symbol becomes a the Nazi swastika in diabolical hands. Purity becomes purity culture in priggish minds.

All Hallows is a recognition that death is sad: a severe mercy. When we were broken by the bad choices of our ancestors, we could not retain immortality. Nobody wise would wish to be immortal as we are: boredom without end, Amen. Death moves us fromthis life where we are broken to the possibility of the world to come where we are whole.

All Hallows is the day to recall not choosing damnation, but paradise. We pray for our dead, our own souls, and then we rejoice. The party is an image of the wedding feast to come. We wear costumes either to mock our usual false fronts or to memorialize our deepest wishes. Hidden in the costume, we areknown but unknown.

This makes us the very image of God: Known, but Unknown.

Halloween?

We cant wait at Saint Annes: prayers and then a party. Thats human history summarized.

See the article here:

More All Hallows': Damnation to Demons, Grace to All People - Patheos

Click here to listen to the audio.

In Episode 2, the Troutman Battery + Storage team interviews Mike Hopkins, CEO of Bakken Midstream, who is, objectively, destined for immortality on Storage Mt. Rushmore; (2:40), (although, as he adamantly tells the team, he is still, very much alive). While focusing on storage, Mike provides a 360 degree view of the evolution of North American energy markets including his intimate background with the Canadian natural gas industry in Alberta (6:30), and how that experience shaped his thoughts about the role of government and regulatory intervention in markets (in particular, with respect to Californias involvement in fostering the in-state battery and storage markets)(16:00). He says that if government intervention is required they should . . . as soon as possible, return to what I would think of as normal regulatory policy which is about ensuring that resources are fully valued and the value is efficiently extracted. The podcast covers how the Energy Storage Act in California was revolutionary for storage, taking the asset from an R&D concept to the facilitator of a tradable commodity. We hear about Mikes experience as a first-mover storage proponent with Ice Energy in SCEs revolutionary 2014 all-source RFP, his views on the future of project finance and PPAs for battery resources, his views on how battery project development is funded in 2019 (and investor risk assessments of the same efforts), the future of repeatable C&I battery deployment (like rooftop solar), the importance of communication and control systems on the distribution grid to facilitate commercial values (and the need for price transparency), the necessity of reflecting customer demand in product development, and details regarding ICE Energys storage technology and its market success.

See original here:

Battery + Storage Podcast Episode II - With Mike Hopkins, CEO of Bakken Midstream, Lead Director of Plus Power and previously long-time CEO of Ice...