Daily Archives: May 8, 2020

The New York Film Festivals Dennis Lim delivered director Albert Serra to me in the lobby of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center during the 57th edition of the festival last fall. Serra was traveling solo for the American debut of Libert, which picked up a Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival when it premiered in the Un Certain Regard section.

We didnt know where to record our conversation so we intruded on the festival staffs lounge. Serra set up two U-shaped leather chairs facing each other. He grabbed us drinks from the bar and moved in close. Talking to the director is a lot like watching his movies; you listen and watch closely for long, unbroken amounts of time. You dont analyze Serras filmthey analyze you. Some directors refuse to speak about their own workespecially with the pressbut Serra will gladly dissect his own, even if he objects to your questions, as you will see in our conversation.

Libert follows Madame de Dumeval, the Duke de Tesis, and the Duke de Wandlibertines expelled from the puritanical court of Louis XVI in 1774who intend to spread libertinage from Paris to Berlin. To further their cause they need the help of Duc de Walchen (Helmut Berger), a German seducer and freethinker, who is lonely in a country where hypocrisy and false virtue reign.

In our conversation, Serra discusses his artists sexual language, Liberts utopia of liberty, not knowing whats real and whats fake in his movies, upsetting uptight liberals, and what it means to create contemporary trash.

The Film Stage: The groups sexual language involves bondage and capture. Can you discuss the inspiration behind these elements?

Albert Serra: The film was inspired by Marquis de Sade. Theres complexity to this idea of freedom and desire how these two concepts can be matched if they can. If you think about sex, its always a relationship with somebody else or a lot of people or several people, whatever. I was talking yesterday about this friction and it is inevitable friction. Sometimes it can be very harmonious, but perfect harmony doesnt exist. Friction in itself creates more possibilities. Maybethere are people that can be super happy to live without desire, but with time, things tend to change, and the proper nature of desire is to get tired of the same practice with the same people in the same body. If you have a harmonious moment, in general, it will not last. This is our psychological experience as human beings. The permanent non-satisfaction of desire. Give a man everything he desires and everything will immediately not be everything. It means that you always need something else.

To create utopia you have to force things, it never happens naturally. There is some first moment where there is some resistance. Maybe forcing something, you will get yours and you realize the value of what youre doing and maybe your desire and your body adapts to this idea of inevitable friction in a pleasant way. Sometimes pain and pleasure get confused because its the first moment of you dont not knowing exactly what you are feeling. You dont know exactly if youre being forced to feel something or if you really like it. In this moment of confusion that is something nice.

Its part of the utopia of liberty, because not everybody can feel the same things at the same time. So there is always somebody that is feeling less or feeling differently.

Is that why you created an intimate environment and let improvisation happen?

I will not say improvisation. That sounds like we didnt know what we are doing and, in fact, we know what we are doing and the name of what we are doing is performance. Its really accepting the fatality as the characters of the film accept the fatality of their desire, the arbitrary weight of their desire. We accept the fatality even if its a film with a budget with some constraints. We accept the fatality of living unique moments. Its not improvisation. It starts from the very beginning with accepting that what you do at that moment wont happen again, we wont be able to shoot in the same intensity so every new moment will be different. Its totally acceptable as we dont know what we are doing. As we dont know what we are looking for, even.

Its not about improvisation. We have a very close and conceptual setup. The people, the place, the aesthetics. Its quite strong to think before the frame of where we will play this game. But then, everything gets forgotten and everything can happen. The non-communication aspect of my way of working, its fatalityits really a vision of fatality, but genuine fatality. Its not how we are pretending to accept these as if it were real, but the fact we are controlling through the process of production. No, we really accept this, thats all. These actors for me are not just actors representing somebody, but they are real artists themselves, working with their own fatality in front of the camera that is very subtle but its very precise. Thats all. This is a very different approach not common in cinema.

The actress who was hung by her hands from the tree and the actor who was whipped and screaming, was that really happening?

You never know until which point. I think this is the magic of the thing; because there is representation, its boring, since there is the real. Its like a documentary, people here are enjoying what they are doing. So here we are at a strange point. But even if I dont know myself, as I never asked anyone to do anything, people were enjoying it and somehow suffering. For me because of intimacy, again, this concept, its very personal to say, How is somebody enjoying it?

Obviously there are a lot of fake things, but there are also some real things. This idea corresponds with our idea of the night, the logic of the night. Sometimes we wake up the day up after and we say, Fuck, I dont remember what I did or what was real or if I said something wrong. It was very confusing and it was nice because the film reflects this confusion and the confusion of the night. But I am not capable of saying how much of this is real. It looks real, no?

Talking about the logic of the night, which has to do with the removal of the hierarchies, so on what basis are the characters choosing to sleep with each other?

Its arbitrary, because of this idea of giving, not receiving. This idea when you are in a place where its totally arbitrary, it means that you have not focused on what you are expecting, what you are feeling, what are your desires or what are your rights. You think about what other people feel, so you make a strange combination, and you simply act as a base. Add in the confusion of the points of view. This idea that you are a hunter but you are also the prey.

When its about giving, I think the arbitrary aspect is stronger. Okay, give to simply give. This gives the egalitarian aspect of the film. At the beginning, it looks like there is some hierarchy because there is some like some aristocrat. Gradually, slowly, this is totally destroyed and you see that there is no hierarchy at all.

What youre wanting to give the audience in Libert isnt necessarily a pornographic type of pleasure or eroticism. Your average film festival audience is kind of uptight liberals

Im trying to provoke them. Also with the title, Libert, it means if you dont do this, you are not free. All of these people that have sex in the movie are free. So its pushing the mental borders on people, I have to admit that its a provocation. Why dont you do this, why are you so boring? The confrontational aspect of this is important. I want them to be a little bit confronted. Its always true with this subject of sex. When people talk about sex in film they are not talking about the film itself, but about themselves. The very personal way the film is dealing with its subject. It touches something, and I was happy with this because it opens, in a weird way, I think in a very healthy way. The film allows you to project your own things because of its confused points of views.

In one of your interviews, you said with Libert youre creating contemporary trash. What does that mean?

Its not just a decorative historical film. Its more about the totally rotten way we relate to each other nowadays, physically. Harmony is lost. The possibility of harmony in the relation with bodies, I think its lost in general and I think its because of social media. It creates a lot of pain in people because they have such a strong control of their own image they are scared of everything. They are scared of everything you are not able to relate to give in a general or arbitrary way. It will not be nice anymore. Probably.

Its a very pessimistic approach. Its totally insane to think like this because I like to be optimistic but I dont see the way out of this problem of extreme difficulties of creating harmonies with bodies in the future. But maybe its my opinion, maybe Im wrong. I dont know, Im not a prophet or a visionary, but from what I feel, people are so in control of their own image. Being in control of your own image is worse than being in control of your own body or yourself, in general.

Libert is now playing in Film at Lincoln Centers Virtual Cinema.

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Albert Serra on the Utopia of Libert and Pushing the Mental Borders of His Audience - The Film Stage

Norway wants to increase the Norwegian cultivation of grain, fruit and vegetables in order to make the country more self-sufficient. This became clear when agricultural organisations and the government agreed on a new agricultural decision last week.

Negotiations between the growers' unions and the government started on the weekend of 25th of April and the deadline to come to an agreement was Thursday, but the parties had already reached an understanding on Thursday morning. Agreements were made easily. There were no requirements on the table, but negotiations were underway to amend agreements that already existed.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Olaug Bollestad: The parties agree on renewed agreements to give growers and food production more certainty. Agriculture is still relatively unaffected economically by the corona pandemic, but food production is of such great social importance that it was important to reach an agreement as soon as possible. The agreement puts grain, fruit and vegetables cultivation first, but also contains agreements on climate and environment.

The reason that grain, potatoes, fruit and vegetables are now given priority is to improve the economy and increase self-sufficiency as it is lower in this area than in meat production. The new agreement will apply from 1st of July and the prices of food products will also be adjusted.

More focus on Norwegian foodThe Corona crisis has also increased Norwegian food production, something that Lars Petter Bartnes, chairman of Norges Bondelag, the largest union for Norwegian growers, is pleased with: More and more people are seeing the value of Norwegian agriculture and the need for Norwegian growers. That is why it was important for us to start the negotiations this spring and not to wait until autumn. Agriculture is lagging behind other industries in terms of income development, but it was not time to have that discussion. We will come back to that matter in 2021, when we can conduct 'normal' negotiations.

But while there is more demand in supermarkets for food grown in Norway, the industry has faced challenges since the catering industry has closed. Kjersti Hoff, leader of Norsk Bonde- og Smbrukerlag, one of the interest groups for farmers and growers, believes that the new agreement shows that there is a need for more farmers and growers in Norway. It must therefore pay to be a farmer/ grower, so that more people choose this career.

Glad that potatoes are also given priorityIvar Skramstad, a grain and potato grower in Eastern Norway: I am happy that new agreements have been made so that we do not have to continue with the old agreement. At first glance, it looks positive, but we have yet to see the details. I am happy that grain and potatoes are also a priority in the deal. They are often forgotten when talking about fruit and vegetables. The agreement is important because agriculture is likely to be hit for the third year in a row: last year the rains washed us away, the year before that was much too dry and now we are in the Corona crisis. The situation is particularly critical for fruit and vegetable growers, with regard to labour.

Higher costsAs has been known for some time, due to the pandemic, Norwegian growers are facing the challenge of obtaining enough manpower this season. The Norwegian state has already relaxed the rules to make it easier for growers to recruit. There is still great uncertainty among growers: many have chosen to grow less, while others have managed to gather enough manpower for sowing.

The collapsed Norwegian krone also poses challenges, says potato grower Skramstad: The price of technical equipment has risen by about 20 to 30 percent since mid-March and I expect fertiliser prices to rise just as fast. Then the grain price would have to increase by at least 20 percent to match the costs, but I see that as a utopia.

However, compensation for the increased expenditure resulting from the Corona crisis was not discussed in the negotiations last week. Chairman of Norges Bondelag, Bartnes: "We know that vegetable growers have higher costs and face uncertainty, so we have to keep a close eye on that."

Source: nrk.no

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Norway wants to expand local fruit and vegetable cultivation - hortidaily.com

The Fan Carpet are delighted to share with you the brand newTrailer and Poster for the official Suzi Quatro documentary releasing this summer - "SUZI Q" - featuringAlice Cooper,Deborah Harry(Blondie),Joan Jett, Cherie Currie(The Runaways),Tina Weymouth(Talking Heads),Donita Sparks(L7),Henry Winkler(Happy Days),Kathy Valentine(The GoGos),KT Tunstall,members of the Quatro family, and many more.

SUZI Q is the definitive, unexpurgated story of the girl from Detroit City who redefined the role and image of women in rocknroll, when she broke through around the world in 1973. Singer, songwriter, bass player, author, actress, radio presenter, poet, still touring and recording music there is only one Suzi Q.

From Australian filmmakers Liam Firmager and Tait Brady, SUZI Q positions Suzi as the trailblazer and inspiration for a generation of women who were to follow after her in the next decade, but whose trailblazing status was not sufficiently recognised by the music industry and contemporary audiences, especially in North America. SUZI Q reminds contemporary audiences of her pioneering influence, white-hot talent and string of incandescent rock hits, like CAN THE CAN, 48 CRASH and DAYTONA DEMON that were the vehicle for her explosion of gender stereotypes in rock n roll, rewriting the rule book for the expected image of women in rock music and reaching millions of people worldwide in the process.

With theaters closed, Utopia Distribution will host a "SUZI Q" virtual event on July 1st featuring the film and an exclusive Q&A featuring Suzi Quatro and a Special Guest (available for 24 hours only) in advance of the film's traditional release on VOD and DVD on July 3rd. To buy your ticket for the July 1st event powered by Altavod, visit:

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Utopia Distribution Unveil The New Trailer For Suzi Quatro Documentary SUZI Q Featuring Debbie Harry, Alice Cooper And More - The Fan Carpet

Josh Whitehouse is excited to get the band back together.

In mid-March, the actor and musician was in Los Angeles and in the middle of pre-production for Daisy Jones and the Six when COVID-19 caused production to stop. The literary adaptation follows an acclaimed, but fictional, band from the Seventies. Whitehouse came into the project a real musician he fronts his own band, More Like Trees, although the role required him to learn bass. Some of his costars were learning their instruments from scratch. Preproduction meant band rehearsal, and they were just starting to get good.

But acting is often a waiting game, and in the meantime Whitehouse is continuing to hone his skills and write his own music. He also has another film making its at-long-last debut. The 30-year-old actor is the lead in Valley Girl, a musical film remake of the 1983 Martha Coolidge-directed film starring Nicolas Cage. They were big shoes to fill, says Whitehouse.

A still from Valley Girl.Courtesy

Whitehouse plays Randy, a punk kid from Hollywood who plays in a band and falls in love with Julie, a girl from the Valley. Its a Romeo and Juliet plotline, and the reboot is a candy-colored, upbeat PG-13 version of the original. Theres lot of stuff in the original [film] which maybe you wouldnt want your kids watching, says Whitehouse.

The movie is being released on demand and in select drive-in theaters, a particularly appropriate setting for its play on nostalgia. The story lives in a nostalgic flashback for the main characters memory, who retells the story of her first love to her teenaged daughter. Time tends to smooth the edges of memory, and Valley Girl is hoping that fact will work in its favor. Although filmed four years ago and originally slated for a 2018 release, the movie was delayed due to controversy over inappropriate posts and behavior by supporting actor Logan Paul, a YouTuber who, coincidently, is the antagonist of the film.

Music has become the through-line of Whitehouses career. But despite that, Whitehouse isnt trying to typecast himself as Mister Music Man.

A still from Valley Girl.Courtesy

When he first moved to London at age 18 to pursue music, acting wasnt even on the radar for the now 30-year-old Brit. He got scouted by a modeling agent, and ended up doing a few campaigns for preppy teen clothing brand Jack Wills. The photographer Elaine Constantine cast him in her feature film Northern Soul, he got an agent, and the roles kept coming. (As did the campaigns he was the face of Mr. Burberry in 2016.)

Actings become the main steering wheel in my life, says Whitehouse. My music is my passion, and if I make money from film I tend to use that to then go and support my ability to make music.

Some of Whitehouses music has ended up in the movies hes acted in. It just kind of happens, I become inspired by the film Im working on, so I tend to write as the character, he says. One of these songs ended up in the credits of The Happy Worker.

Theres a musical element and Cage connection to The Happy Worker. Whitehouse stars in the David Lynch-produced film (he originally planned to direct it several decades ago, but did Twin Peaks instead) shot by the auteurs longtime collaborator Duwayne Dunham. Tight-lipped about details, Whitehouse described the film as a steam-punk utopia, and the plot as a bunch of down-and-outs living in the Utah desert, working together to dig a huge hole. And theyre all really, really happy. Theyre singing and dancing, and you dont know why theyre digging for the whole film.

While in quarantine, hes been continuing to write and play for More Like Trees. The drum-and-bass trio, which also includes his older brother Matt Whitehouse, released a new album in January and theyve been releasing videos. Whitehouse has been keeping busy; hes also working on preproduction for a short animated film with his brother, performing on Instagram Live, and continuing to hone his bass skills.

Whitehouse is looking forward to the day he can get back on stage. And hopefully hell soon be reunited with his other bandmates his Daisy Jones costars, including Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, and Suki Waterhouse.

We have a WhatsApp chat group, so we can all stay in touch, says Whitehouse, who moved to L.A. at the start of the year. Theyre such a lovely bunch of people. Its been really nice making some new friends in L.A.

Josh WhitehouseCourtesy

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Josh Whitehouse Talks 'Valley Girl' Remake, 'Daisy Jones and the Six' - WWD

Shedding the cowboy antics of Star Wars and the utopian idealism of Star Trek, Amazon Prime Video's The Expanse highlights how royally we can screw things up, which is made only worse by being in the vacuum of space.

Rather than slick spaceships and operatic overtones, The Expanse takes a hard, cold look at what colonizing the solar system could look like in the next few centuries.

I'll admit I'm only a couple of seasons in so far, but I haven't been able to watch anything else since I started. It's so damn watchable.

The story centres around Jim Holden (Steven Strait) and his crew of misfits as they bounce from one crisis to another in the colonized solar system. Things go from bad, to worse and then much worse.

Holden is a reluctant, but capable leader. Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) and Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) make up the rest of the team, each with their own can't-help-but-root-for-them attitudes.

Luckily, they have each other (for the most part) and a relatively stable moral centre.

The expanded cast includes some fantastic performances from Thomas Jane, who plays a hard-done-by detective and Jared Harris as a gang/rebel leader with an impossible accent.

But the highlight is easily Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala, a powerful diplomat looking after Earth's interests. She doesn't suffer fools lightly, performing delicately when she needs to, but able to flip the switch to badass in an instant.

The series, based on novels of the same name by James S. A. Corey, is set during a solar system-spanning Cold War. On one side is Earth, governed by the decadent UN, and the other is Mars, a militaristic but fragile state which is bound in a tenuous peace. However, one little provocation and that could all come crashing down, along with all of human civilization.

Originally released on American channel Syfy, the series was picked up by Amazon after it was cancelled following its third season. Prime released the fourth season in 2019 and announced a fifth is already in the works.

And thank goodness Amazon scooped it up. The mystery surrounding an unusual and dangerous alien substance that can alter matter (being experimented on with the most Machiavellian way imaginable) is the main throughline for the plot.

But The Expanse is about much more than this existential threat, it's about the incredible world it's set in.

This isn't the idealized universe of Star Trek, where money and hunger have gone the way of the dodo, in The Expanse, water has become more precious than gold. It's a world full of greed, corruption and inequality. It is capitalism gone mad in the far reaches of space.

People have inhabited asteroids in the belt, which is being taken advantage of by the dominant planets in the system, Mars and Earth.

Mars, with the know-how to turn their rusty-red planet into a garden, is low on resources because of their spending on the military, just in case there's a war.

And Earth, after years of degradation and sea-level rise is changed (but all too familiar) with an elite pulling the strings for selfish ends.

One also has to admire the writers (both screen and novel) restraint when it comes to the technology. Yes, humans have been able to reach the other planets and stellar rocks in the solar system, but the ships people use are definitely built for speed, not comfort. They're blocky, with wires and scaffolding unceremoniously strapped to their sides.

New languages and phrases seem so natural. Yes, a group of people living on asteroids probably would develop their own culture and a sizeable chip on their shoulders.

Differences in gravity, resources, time, it's all taken into account and given its due. Sometimes I'll pause an episode just to remark, wow, they've thought of everything.

It also doesn't hide the audience from the cruelty and inequalities, and it doesn't pull away from the atrocities that could happen. It's a warning of what we could become.

It's science fiction without the utopia, and although somewhat depressing, it adds a layer of realism that is so compelling to watch.

Needing an escape from planet Earth? I get it. Here are some other sci-fi shows worth checking out I haven't already recommended (like The Mandalorian, Star Trek Discovery and Picard).

Battlestar Galactica (remake), available on Amazon Prime Video. A deep, though sometimes convoluted plot that touches on humanity and artificial intelligence. An excellent musical score that reverberates throughout.

Westworld, available on Crave (with HBO add-on). A theme park made for the elite with no limits, the characters within the fantasy are highly intelligent robots, what could go wrong?

Space Force, available on Netflix on May 29. Needing something a little lighter? Steve Carell is tasked with forming the Space Force (an actual real thing), a new branch of the American Armed Forces with no idea of what it's supposed to be. Hopefully, it will be a sufficient replacement for The Office for the streaming giant.

For All Mankind, available on Apple TV Plus.What if the Soviets landed on the moon first? This alternate history drama takes a look at what could have been and what it would mean for America's psyche.

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STREAMING WARS: The Expanse trades sci-fi fantasy for realism and it works - SaltWire Network

Books are just about the only part of our culture right now that is chugging on, more or less as normal. And thank goodness for that, because summer reading is going to be excellent this year (and not just because we're potentially going to be spending most of it still in quarantine). From books about outbreaks to books that offer complete escape, here's what you'll want to have on your nightstand for those warm summer nights.

And if all else fails, there's always Midnight Sun.

1. The Brothers York, by Thomas Penn (June 16)

I have a vast, sad void in my life now that I've finished Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, and I can't wait to fill it with this War of the Roses biography about the house of York. Already out in the U.K. where it was named one of the best books of 2019 by The Guardian and the Telegraph The Brothers York also earned an endorsement from Mantel herself, who writes that "with insight and skill, [author Thomas] Penn cuts through the thickets of history to find the heart of these heartless decades." One might recognize the biography's central trio of brothers Edward IV; George, Duke of Clarence; and Richard III from the works of Shakespeare, yet the history behind the plays is well worth your time; Lit Hub calls it a "juicy, impeccably researched work."

2. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (June 30)

This is maybe less of a "beach read" than it is a great book to take camping, if only because its spooky Bram Stoker-esque atmosphere is way better for reading by the light of a campfire. (For a quarantine-appropriate alternative, try reading it under the covers with a flashlight). The book begins in Mexico City in the 1950s, when the beautiful bachelorette Noem is summoned home from a party by her father due to his receiving a concerning letter from Noem's cousin, Catalina. Though it is rambling and strange, Catalina claims in the note that her new husband is trying to poison her and that their grand home in a remote mountain village is "sick with rot, stinks of decay, brims with every single evil and cruel sentiment." Off Noem goes to find out what's happening, only to be pulled deeper into the nightmare.

3. The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones (July 1)

The Only Good Indians earned the rare triple crown of starred reviews from the trades, and its author, Stephen Graham Jones, has been described as "the Jordan Peele of horror literature." But if that weren't enough to get you hyped, the novel follows the supernatural events that unfold after four young Blackfoot men kill a pregnant elk on forbidden tribal land. Years later, a demonic force comes to take revenge for the bloodshed in this story that, in the words of Publishers Weekly's starred review, "works both as a terrifying chiller and as biting commentary on the existential crisis of indigenous peoples adapting to a culture that is bent on eradicating theirs."

4. Utopia Avenue, by David Mitchell (July 14)

Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell has made us wait five years for his next novel, but at a chunky 600 pages, Utopia Avenue sounds like it's going to be worth it. The book presents itself as the "unexpurgated story" of a British psychedelic rock band that "released only two LPs during its brief and blazing journey from the clubs of Soho and draughty ballrooms, to Top of the Pops and the cusp of chart success, to glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American fortnight in the autumn of 1968." Each chapter title is apparently taken from the name of one of the band's songs, and focuses on one of its four members. Addressing the ambitious undertaking, Mitchell has said, "Can a novel made of words (and not fitted with built-in speakers or Bluetooth) explore the word-less mysteries of music, and music's impact on people and the world? How? Utopia Avenue is my rather hefty stab at an answer."

5. The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue (July 21)

Emma Donoghue's novel about the 1918 influenza had its publication date bumped up to this summer because, well, duh. "Back in October 2018, the centenary of the Great Flu prompted me to start The Pull of the Stars, set in a Dublin maternity ward at the height of the misery in 1918," the Room author told the Irish Times. "Two days after I delivered my final draft, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic." Admittedly, the misery of disease might be the last thing you want to read about right now, but Donoghue's book which centers on health-care workers in a city hospital under quarantine is described as "deeply involving and profoundly moving." Read if you're an enthusiastic 7 p.m. applauder (and if you're looking for more coronavirus-adjacent literature, start here).

6. The Queen of Tuesday, by Darin Strauss (August 18)

Publishers solicit blurbs in order to sell books the quotes are essentially advertising material but when two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Colson Whitehead gets behind a novel, you sit up and listen. His endorsement of the "gorgeous, Technicolor take on America" sits on the cover of Darin Strauss' forthcoming Queen of Tuesday, which weaves together memoir and fiction as it circles around its central character, actress and I Love Lucy star Lucille Ball. Strauss' grandfather was at a party with Ball (hosted by Fred Trump!) in New York in 1949, and the novel imagines an affair between the two. While fictionalizing a real person in such a way can be fraught, Strauss is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (for Half a Life) and I trust that Lucy is in good hands.

7. Sisters, by Daisy Johnson (August 25)

If you're not aboard the Daisy Johnson train yet, well, where have you been? Johnson became the youngest author to ever be shortlisted for the hyper-prestigious Man Booker Prize in 2018 at the age of 27 for her debut novel, Everything Under, and she follows it up with Sisters, a story about teenagers July and September who move to a remote family home on the seaside with their single mother. While we don't have too many details about the book yet this far out, her publisher calls it "alive, original, and surprising" as well as a "seriously smart and compulsively readable novel about a young woman attempting to find her own agency within an all-consuming relationship." The Guardian hails Johnson as being "the next generation," writing that Sisters is a "short, sharp explosion of a gothic thriller whose tension ratchets up and up to an ending of extraordinary lyricism and virtuosity." Sold.

8. Migrations, by Charlotte McConaghy (August 25)

Don't judge a book by it's cover, although if you must, it might as well be the gorgeous Migrations, the U.S. debut of Charlotte McConaghy. Franny Stone arrives in Greenland with the goal of finding the world's last flock of Arctic terns as they make their final migration, and convinces the captain of the Saghani to ferry her in the pursuit. (There is, as you might expect, more to Franny than she initially lets on to the captain). Early descriptions make it sound like a novel with a topical climate change theme and a plot that examines the slippery brink of extinction. Shelf Awareness praised it as "brimming with stunning imagery and raw emotion" and "the incredible story of personal redemption, self-forgiveness, and hope for the future in the face of a world on the brink of collapse." Bonus: In the sweltering days of August, its descriptions of the frozen Arctic can cool you down.

9. This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire, by Nick Flynn (August 25)

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City author Nick Flynn is publishing yet another memoir with a fantastic title, this one called This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire. The book appears to reference the fire set by his mother in their house when he was seven years old, a story he revisits now that he is a parent himself. The book also deals with him excavating the emotions around his mother's suicide when he was 22, and cheating on his wife. Flynn is never not terrific I sometimes can't make up my mind if I prefer his prose or poetry more and This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire is already garnering early praise that reflects that fact. "Readers will devour this powerful memoir of letting go," Publishers Weekly promises in its starred review.

Link:

9 books to read this summer - The Week

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To present a thorough value chain analysis, the report analyzes the region-specific procedures built by the business. The global market is analyzed across key geographies namely: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, Spain), Middle East & Africa ( Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries).

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Moreover, the specification of upstream including equipment and raw material, downstream demand analysis are also covered in this report. It then relates the throughout probability of forthcoming conceptions and research conclusion. The report comprises investment feasibility analysis explaining the total technical feasibility of this undertaking and price structure.

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Global Comforters Market 2020 By Demand drivers Beckham Luxury Linens, Utopia Bedding, AmazonBasics, Elegant Comfort - Cole of Duty

Get your popcorn ready.The Brand Film Awards U.S. is taking place as a virtual event today. It will showcase the years most artistic, creative and effective films produced by and for brands. Dont miss the workshop, which starts at 2 p.m. EST. And the awards ceremony begins at 4 p.m. EST.Register here!

The Trump administration has shelved the CDCs guide for reopening the country. The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework, was written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. The Trump administration has been closely controlling the release of information amid the pandemic and has instead sought to put the onus on states to handle the coronavirus response.(Associated Press)

You already knew this, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons is popular. Nintendo sold more than 13 million units of the game in its first six weeks of release. Nintendosaid on Thursday that it made $3.3 billion in operating profit for the fiscal year ended in March a 41% surge from a year ago. Profit in the three months to March more than tripled compared with the previous quarter.Sales were driven in large part by Animal Crossing, a game set on an island utopia.

Filed under Twitter spat I wasnt expecting. The lead singer of Guns N Roses Axl Rose tweeted on Wednesday night that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is an asshole, with no context to explain the insult. Mnuchin, who has played a role in assembling the U.S. economic response to the coronavirus, responded by asking what Rose had done for the U.S. lately. The social-media exchange went viral.

Political callouts have agencies supersizing public affairs efforts. In 2019, disruption became the new normal in public affairs comms, as agencies and brands they represent dealt with the third year of the Donald Trump presidency. Read about the big public affairs trends from over the last year in PRWeeks latest Agency Business Report. Plus: Check out this profile of Porter Novelli.

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Breakfast Briefing: 5 things for PR pros to know on Thursday morning - PRWeek

Ryan Anderson/Stuff

Maria Ivanova and her husband are fighting to help Russian tourists stranded in New Zealand get home.

A group of Russian tourists stranded in New Zealand have been given just $50 to tide them over.

When the coronavirus outbreak shut down global borders, many tourists were stranded all over the world.

Since March 31 more than 14,000 Russians stuck in countries overseas have been flown home in dribs and drabs.

But not from New Zealand, and a group of some 174 Russian nationals desperate to return to their "motherland" have been told to keep waiting with no definitive end date in sight.

READ MORE:* Coronavirus: Corona utopia or Kiwi myopia?* Coronavirus: Small businesses drowning in Covid-19 lockdown debt * How to get thousands of Kiwis home when the world is shutting down

Maria Ivanova parents are among the "abandoned" and she is calling for answers from both governments on behalf of her community, which she says is doing it tough.

The-Dominion-Post

The Russian Embassy in Messines Rd, Wellington.

Ivanova has lived in New Zealand for 11 years but had her parents fly over to be here for the birth of her childin February.

They were booked to return to Moscow in late March, but those flights were cancelled and they are still here.

Through community Facebook groups, Ivanova, who lives in Titirangi in West Auckland, quickly found out her parents were not alone.

The group of stranded Russians are now in regular contact with each other, the Russian Embassy in Wellington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), trying to get some answers on when they can return home.

Ryan Anderson/Stuff

Ivanova's parents came here in February for the birth of her daughter.

"It's getting pretty desperate to be honest," Ivanovasaid.

"The majority [of the 174]are on tourist visas so came here with a set budget like my parents did. And when you have to stay on longer that money dries up pretty quickly.

"Many are older and are also running out of medicine and stuff like that so though it's not at crisis level yet, it's heading that way fast."

The Russian government has implemented a financial support program for stranded citizens like Ivanova's parents.

More than 10,000 test positive for Covid-19 in a day in Russia. Officials put this down to increased testing.

Those who had booked return tickets from March 16 to May 31 are eligible to get financial support through the government services website.

However, the site is currently experiencing technical problems which meanssome people have been unable to access any funds.

"Even those who got their applications through and weren't denied, they only received $50,"Ivanovasaid.

"My understanding was it was supposed to be $50 a day but to date those few who have received support have only got the one-off payment."

The Kiwi-Russian community has rallied around those stuck here, offering food and accommodation to those in the most need.

Sergei Glagolev, the second secretary at the Russian Embassy, said work is being done to get the group home and to work out the issues with the online servers.

According to embassy estimates there are still some30,000 Russians stranded around the world, Glagolev said.

"We would like to emphasise that Russia is not refusing to bring back its citizens from other countries," he said.

"This work is being carried out with due account of the sanitary-epidemiological situation that is taking shape in Russia and the real capacity to receive arriving people and put them in two-week quarantine.

"Certain repatriation flights are organised after a discussion in the Government Emergency Response Centre, which is making a schedule based on the current situation and capacity in Russias regions."

Russia hasmore than 166,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than 1500 deaths.

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Coronavirus: More than 170 Russian citizens 'abandoned' in New Zealand - Stuff.co.nz

I remember one Christmas afternoon when my mother disclosed that her father was a great Stalin man. I almost choked on my drink at the news but when she explained, it made perfect sense. My maternal grandfather had been a staunch unionist and an Orangeman but became disillusioned after experiencing long term unemployment during the Great Depression. Embittered he looked, like many of the working class, to the supposed workers utopia in the Soviet Union. As a result, on VE Day 1945, 93 Northumberland Street flew the Hammer and Sickle while every other house sported the Union Flag. The story makes me smile now as it did then, but it makes an important point VE Day was not all about Britain. The USSR were our gallant allies and did the heavy lifting. British losses in the war, depending on what source you use, were between 330,000 and 400,000 dead while Soviet dead numbered a staggering 25,000,000. It was the Red Army which destroyed most of the German army and stormed into Berlin forcing Hitlers suicide. Subsequent attempts by sections of the British media to present World War II as an almost wholly British triumph do not bear up to scrutiny. Actually, it is hard to see how any power even the USSR or the USA could have beaten the Third Reich on its own, certainly not by May 1945. Victory was a team effort and even countries that had been defeated and occupied such as Poland, France, Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands contributed substantial ground forces to the Allied war efforts after their countries had been overrun.

There was an out-pouring of joy and relief on VE Day. People had endured years of blackouts, and rationing, many had lost their homes and loved ones. In my own family, my maternal grandmother had a brother killed in Kent trying to defuse an unexploded bomb during the Blitz, followed by her nephew four years later in Normandy. My paternal grandfather lost his younger brother in Germany in the final weeks of the war while another was fortunate to be evacuated from Dunkirk.

VE Day is also often seen as the end of the Second World War which it was not. While London and New York partied, the Americans were suffering their worst casualties of the Pacific War on Okinawa and looked upon the prospect of an invasion of mainland Japan with horror. General MacArthur warned the US Defense Secretary, Stimson, that US casualties would be around a million in such an undertaking. For the soldiers who ended the war in Germany or Italy, VE Day was a welcome, but apparently temporary respite. Many faced being shipped to Asia or the Pacific to finish off Japan and a slogan among British troops was Burma looms ahead.

In popular culture the war is seen as straight forward battle between good and evil. The liberation of the camps and the salvation of Europes Jews from genocide are now seen as reasons for fighting, but these are modern reconstructions. Elements of the UK press occasionally reported on the genocide of Jews (a term not invented until after the war) but no one seemed particularly interested in reading about it. When the Soviets uncovered the first death camp at Maidanak in eastern Poland in late 1944, the US and UK press refused to publish reports of ovens and human ashes used as fertiliser. The stories seemed too fantastic to be credible and were dismissed as Soviet propaganda. As a result, the Soviets kept quiet about what they found at Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1945 until after Germanys defeat by which time, British and American troops had discovered the charnel houses of Bergen-Belsen and Dachau for themselves. Churchill and Roosevelt knew full well about Hitlers attempts to exterminate European Jewry but downplayed it because they were afraid of encouraging the widespread anti-Semitism in their own societies.

My experience of interviewing British war veterans at the turn of the century indicated they thought Hitler was a menace who had to be removed, but the enemy was German militarism, not Nazisim per se. The wilder stories about German atrocities were dismissed as the type of brutal Hun propaganda their fathers had been fed in the Great War and they were deeply sceptical of what they were told about their enemies. The American public were more interested in the Pacific which was seen as a war of revenge for Pearl Harbour, while the conflict in Europe was regarded as Roosevelts War. Eisenhower became so frustrated about the lack of animosity GIs showed towards their German enemies he insisted on them being shown around concentration camps. One young soldier, visibly sickened by the sight of naked, emaciated corpses stacked like cordwood, was asked by his Supreme Commander, Still having trouble hating them?

Much of that is now largely forgotten along with the fact that while in Europe British soldiers fought to liberate countries, in Asia their main role was to return Burma, Malaya and Singapore to British rule. Britain can be rightly proud of its role in the defeat of Germany and Japan but that doesnt explain the current nostalgia and downright jingoism for a war which is outside the memory for anyone under eighty. Unfortunately, the Second World War has become mythologised much as the First World has been. The Blitz spirit is constantly evoked and the Queen even quoted Well meet again, a popular ballad from the war, in her recent Coronavirus address. At least she actually served in the conflict.

History of course is always more nuanced. Yes, there was great courage and stoicism among the general public but also shirkers, spivs and looters. The notion that the entire country pulled together for the war effort is a myth. Albert Sutton, a Dublin RAF veteran I interviewed, recounted with some bitterness that the Blackpool landlady he was billeted with gave the bacon eggs she was supposed to feed him to her paying customers, while he got a piece of dry toast. Other local ex-servicemen also recalled with anger the fact that worker in Shorts and other war industries were paid more than them and that some contemporaries who opted not to enlist, even lamented the end of the war as it brought the gravy train of overtime and big orders to an abrupt end.

World War II is commemorated largely in the UK and Commonwealth, the United States and Russia. Everyone else suffered defeat and collaboration, civil war and dead who fought on both sides. National nightmares are not the stuff of nostalgia or celebration.

1945 was the last time the United Kingdom was a big player on the world stage; the story since then has been one of continuous decline. The empire has gone and the country has rejected partnership with its European neighbours opting to go it alone or more likely, become an American client state in all but name.

Victory in Europe is rightly a source of pride but the main celebration surely should be of the decades of peace that followed. The Germans and French get that, the British on the whole do not. There has been no war between major European States since 1945. That is the lasting legacy of VE Day and a cause of celebration for us all.

p013007 by PhotosNormandie is licensed under CC BY-SA

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VE Day (Victory in Europe) Then and Now - Slugger O'Toole