Category Archives: New Utopia

It seems everyone agrees: American democracy has been corrupted by corporate lobbying. Donald Trumps promises, however disingenuous, to take on the role of money in politics by draining the swamp resonated with his frustrated followers. Meanwhile, progressive liberals like Elizabeth Warren have focused on addressing corruption by limiting the influence of business over our elected leaders. Though radically different, both apparently see corporate power as a bug, not a feature, of our political system.

Academics, searching for an explanation for the explosion of inequality in recent decades, have also identified business lobbying as the culprit. Thus, in their widely influential book Winner-Take-All Politics, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson contend that an explosion of lobbying since the 1970s has overpowered labor and other interest groups. This has resulted in the policy shifts that have facilitated the upward distribution of wealth, and the erosion of the middle class, during the neoliberal era.

The main effect of this framing is to narrow the focus of our political critique. If class power is primarily an outcome of business lobbying, then the main objective of progressives and the Left should be to restore normal pluralist democracy by limiting the influence of business on elected representatives. This will allow the policy pendulum to swing back toward labor and permit the enactment of pro-worker policies. The state, from this point of view, is essentially an impartial referee, balancing the interests of competing interest groups.

This liberal narrative is largely a myth. The power of capital does not depend on corporate lobbying but rather is built into the states DNA. In fact, the state plays an indispensable role in actively organizing capitalist class power. Individual businesses are motivated by the need to compete and to maximize their own profits, not by broad, classwide concerns. Consequently, a relatively autonomous state is necessary to act in the long-term interests of the system as a whole. Rather than simply doing the bidding of particular capitalists, the state organizes capitalists into a coherent class.

In this way, the state acts on behalf of capital, if not necessarily at its behest. However, it must also build support from business for the policies it develops. As I show in my book Corporate Capitalism and the Integral State: General Electric and a Century of American Power, one way it does so is by forming and mobilizing lobby groups. Such organizations do not just advocate for preexisting business interests but are also venues in which the state builds consensus around the classwide interests of capital. As such, they are part of an integral state, whereby state power extends beyond formal government institutions to incorporate civil society organizations.

The book traces General Electric (GE)s role at the center of this integral state through the first century of American corporate capitalism. As it shows, the company collaborated with state officials to form the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, the Committee for Economic Development (CED), and other major lobby groups. Its executives worked in these forums to organize corporate support for the New Deal, wartime production planning, tariff reductions and free trade, and the wage and price controls implemented during the 1970s crisis as well as the neoliberal reforms that would end it, plus the construction of a globalized imperial state.

By the time of the 1929 market crash, GE had already stepped out from the shadow of J.P. Morgan to become one of the first managerial-controlled behemoths. At the same time, its managers played the leading role within the Business Advisory Council, created by Franklin Roosevelt within the Commerce Department to build a base among business for the New Deal. Though support for these reforms among capital was thin at times nonexistent GE executives worked to convince capitalists that they were necessary to save the system and end the waves of class struggle from below.

GEs place within the vanguard of the new managerial elite was further reflected in its pivotal role within the state-corporate system for planning World War II production. While GE president Charles Wilson became the most important figure on the War Production Board, he was also a key force in forming the Committee for Economic Development. The latter aimed to extend support among an often-reluctant capitalist class for the creation of the state-led economic planning regime as well as the consolidation of a permanent military-industrial complex after hostilities ended.

The claim that the military-industrial complex has captured the state, forcing it to engage in needless conflict to boost arms sales, is wrong. Since the capitalist state does not control economic production directly, it relies on corporations to produce the goods and technologies necessary to maintain a global empire. Indeed, particularly striking about US planning for its postwar empire was how autonomous from business it was. Meanwhile, the Council on Foreign Relations served as a forum for developing a shared understanding of the national interest between state planners and corporate executives, including GEs Phillip Reed, within the new US-led world order.

In fact, capital was quite reluctant to support the unprecedented levels of peacetime taxation demanded by the new imperial state. It was also deeply skeptical about the monumental and expensive effort to rebuild Americas major industrial rivals through the Marshall Plan. Particularly concerning for business was the drastic, unilateral, across-the-board slashing of tariffs advocated especially by State Department officials. These fears were understandable, as American business had thrived since the nineteenth century behind what were among the highest tariffs in the world.

In this context, the State Department worked to build business support for the Marshall Plan, while the Treasury took the lead in organizing a consensus around the Bretton Woods trade regime. As a result of intense wrangling by state officials, supported by GEs Phillip Reed, the CED emerged as the primary base of corporate support for these measures. Reeds participation was especially noteworthy, since the state was then unleashing an antitrust onslaught that demolished the network of cartels GE had constructed over a half-century to control global electrical equipment markets.

To deflect protectionist pressures over the longer term, state officials and corporate allies worked to concentrate power over trade policy within executive agencies that were largely insulated from lobbying pressures. The frustrations this engendered were reflected in the backlash to a further round of tariff reductions in the John F. Kennedy years, as business claimed its concerns and objections went unheard especially as such agreements increasingly closed off avenues for even temporary trade adjustment assistance.

Far from being imposed on a passive state by business lobbying, state agencies worked continuously to hold together a shaky free-trade consensus through the rest of the century.

As the postwar boom slowed by the end of the 1960s, union wage militancy increasingly squeezed corporate profits, leading to declining investment and economic stagnation the so-called stagflation crisis. Throughout the crisis decade of the 1970s, state officials struggled to formulate a strategy for restoring labor discipline. While the Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter administrations fumbled with mandatory, and then voluntary, wage- and price-control schemes, these efforts were fraught from the very beginning. It gradually became clear that a deeper restructuring was necessary.

However, neither business nor the state had any sense of how to proceed. In this context, Treasury secretary John Connally and Federal Reserve chair Arthur Burns met with GEs Reginald Jones and John Harper of Alcoa and urged them to form a high-level organization to collaborate with state officials on finding a way out of crisis and in shoring up business support for wage and price controls while an alternative could be devised. This led to the formation of the Business Roundtable in 1971. Consisting solely of CEOs from the biggest corporations, it was a political powerhouse.

Rather than advocating for a pregiven agenda, the Roundtable worked with state officials to develop policy and mobilized its members in support of these measures. This collaborative approach distinguished it from other business associations. Thus even as business and the public gradually turned against wage and price controls, the Roundtable persisted in supporting them as the least of a variety of possible evils. While state officials and the Roundtable both sought to return to markets, the need to impose class discipline made this impossible especially as runaway inflation was jeopardizing international confidence in the dollar.

In the end, the crisis would be resolved through a two-pronged strategy: raising interest rates to engineer an economic recession, and further globalization. Shortly after becoming Federal Reserve chairman in 1979, Paul Volcker hiked interest rates to unprecedented levels, leading to a recession and skyrocketing unemployment. Though business and the state had sought to avoid the pain and uncertainty of a recession throughout the decade, it had ultimately become clear that there was no other viable path to restore class discipline. And it worked.

The Volcker Shock dramatically concentrated power over economic policy in the highly autonomous Federal Reserve. It also paved the way for further globalization through the removal of barriers to the movement of capital, opening the vast low-wage workforce of the global periphery to exploitation. Although the legitimacy among business of state efforts to pursue free trade had hit a low point during the crisis decade of the 1970s, the state ultimately succeeded in overcoming lingering doubts from the Kennedy days, keeping protectionist forces at bay.

To do so, it created a trade-advisory system of unprecedented scope within the Commerce Department, encompassing firms from across the economy. However, the real levers of power were safely located an arms length away, within the new Office of the US Trade Representative. Later, to support the passage of the agreement, Carter formed the Presidents Export Council, headed by GEs Jones and comprised of business executives and members of Congress as well as token trade-union representation. Though ostensibly advisory bodies, the purpose of these organizations was understood to include consolidating the free-trade consensus among business.

By the end of the 1970s, these efforts had succeeded in creating sufficient support for the elimination of Bretton Woods capital and exchange controls and for the creation of a new world of seamless capital accumulation. The power of finance, already pronounced by the 1970s, became even more significant, along with its ability to discipline industry. Yet integral state organizations especially the Roundtable were able to hold together an unstable class consensus between these different fractions of capital, which would be consolidated over the neoliberal years.

Contrary to common understandings, the rise of neoliberalism resulted from neither corporate lobbying nor state officials attempting to impose the economic doctrines of Friedrich von Hayek or Milton Friedman. Rather, the basic package of neoliberal policies deregulation, tax cuts, slashing welfare programs, monetarism, and globalization was arrived at through a long search for a way to restore class discipline, amid considerable uncertainty. Neoliberalism emerged not from the brains of state officials or conservative economists but from the crucible of class struggle.

Bringing neoliberalism to an end therefore involves much more than convincing state officials to read more John Maynard Keynes. Rather, breaking with the environmentally and socially destructive policies of the past four decades requires shifting the balance of class forces. While electoral victories or reforms aimed at limiting corporate lobbying may help to create space for this, a far broader and deeper class-based mobilization is necessary to challenge neoliberalism which first and foremost means breaking with globalization.

This is especially the case since the interconnection of finance and industry today makes it impossible to isolate finance by identifying it as the cause of bad capitalism (as opposed to good manufacturing). This is not only due to the success of state efforts at negotiating a compromise between these sectors but also because of the deep restructuring of the industrial corporation itself, such that finance has become more prominent within it. Today, industrial corporations are effectively run by investment groups and increasingly resemble financial institutions which has strengthened competitiveness and increased pressures to maximize profits.

However far away it may seem given the weakness of the Left and labor, the project of democratizing the state that is so necessary today goes far beyond limiting certain pathways for businesses to influence specific officials. What is called for, rather, is a deeper transformation of state institutions, such that instead of managing capitalism, they serve as organs of a democratically planned socialist economy. Individual reforms can be useful, but they must be part of a broader project of challenging capital at a systemic level ultimately aimed at replacing private control of the economy with democratic participation.

As we cross one ecological tipping point after another, challenging the class power of capital is no longer just a path to an uncertain utopia but necessary to ensure human survival. Yet this dire situation also offers us a unique opportunity to create a socialist future. A socialist strategy for dealing with this crisis should aim to take the productive capacities of private corporations under public control and to deploy them in the interest of social and ecological need.

Only by democratizing the state, such that decisions over what we produce and how become matters of democratic deliberation rather than corporate power and market discipline, can we hope to create a future worth fighting for.

Continued here:

The State Organizes the Capitalist Class. The Working Class Will Have to Organize Itself. - Jacobin magazine

Did you ever see the footage of the night The Cure were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the band shuffled up the red carpet in New York to accept the honour?

Millions have. The clip went viral because of its accidental comedy value and whatever it tells us, if anything, about the occasional differences between certain British and American attitudes.

There is a very excitable interviewer on stage, bubbling with enthusiasm.

Her name is Carrie Keagan and she is absolutely determined or certainly gives that impression that these old English rockers should want to whoop it up.

Hi, guys. Hey! How are you? Im Carrie. Its soooo nice to meet you. Hi! Congratulations. The Cure, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, 2019. Are you as excited as I am?

At which point 59-year-old lead singer Robert Smith, who is already scratching his chin, gives her a sideways look that can be described only as a mix of bemusement and wonder. His timing is immaculate (he is a musician, after all) and his response is a moment of beautiful awkwardness.

Umm, he deadpans. By the sounds of it, no.

To give Smith the benefit of the doubt, he probably didnt mean to sound dismissive. Its just two very different people bouncing off one another. An English-American thing? It doesnt really matter where they are from. They are just different. Its going to need time, possibly quite a lot of time, before they get one another.

And that, in a nutshell, seems like a reasonable synopsis about how a lot of Leeds United supporters feel about Jesse Marsch now we are two and a half months into the getting-to-know-you stages at Elland Road, and there is growing evidence (just look at the comments section on any Leeds article on The Athletic, for starters) that many of those fans are already starting to look at their American leader through suspicious eyes.

Marsch is certainly confident and, heck, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. A bit of confidence can be vital for a football manager and, while it is true that maybe Marsch is still learning about his audience, he is not the first person at that club to go down the tub-thumping route.

People hate Manchester United because they are so successful, Jonathan Woodgate, then a Leeds player, said in 1999. People will hate us in a few years because we shall be winning everything.

Well, almost, Jonathan.

Leeds were relegated within five years of that statement and, even before they went down, had been financially shipwrecked because of mismanagement that led to a headline in the old News of the World UK tabloid of Post-war Iraq is being better run than Leeds.

They did reach a Champions League semi-final before the roof caved in. But they were also on their way to the third division of English football and administration in an era when the souvenir stalls outside Elland Road sold a T-shirt with the message: 2004 Premiership, 2005 Championship, 2007 Sinkingship, 2008 Abandonship.

The lesson, perhaps, is that sometimes it is better not to shout from the rooftops until there is something worth shouting about. Dont make promises you cant necessarily keep. Dont say stuff that might be held against you if it never happens.

It is something, for example, that Manchester City have done well since they got to where they want to be.

Ignore that old line from Sir Alex Ferguson about Manchester Uniteds noisy neighbours. You wont ever hear Pep Guardiola, or anyone else at City, talking about how many (more) trophies they are going to win, how long they expect to dominate English football, or how they are going to expand and improve the club. PR-wise, the policy at City is: do it first, talk about it after.

Plainly, Marsch takes a different approach.

He has a new set of fans to impress. He wants to talk big. Maybe he thinks, deep down, we dont need to be so stuffy, so reserved, so very English. He has some grand plans and he seems to go by the old Kevin Keegan rule of thumb that every football fan, deep down, is a dreamer.

Keegan was too, if you remember that when his Newcastle United side were promoted to the top flight in 1993 he had the nerve in his next programme notes to include a message for the attention of Manchester United: Watch out Alex, we will be after your title.

Marsch has not gone anywhere near as far but, in a relatively short space of time in Leeds, he has probably established a couple of things about the Premier League.

First, that every sentence to emerge from a manager tends to get dissected if the results on the pitch are not good. And, second, that maybe the scrutiny is even more intense when those words are spoken in an American accent and there is still an attitude among some English fans arrogance, ignorance, call it what you will that managers from the US can be an awkward fit for Premier League clubs.

It is an old-fashioned stigma and, put bluntly, it would not be tolerated if it applied to other groups.

And we know Marsch feels it because he has already talked to The Athletic about the experiences of his friend and former colleague, Bob Bradley, during a tough, brief, spell at Swansea City six years ago in which the then-Premier League clubs players, as well as the fans, found it hard to believe in the former US mens national-team manager.

I was angry about it, honestly, Marsch said. I knew how hard hed worked to get himself there and watching it crumble was awful. To see that happen to someone I knew had invested his entire life in the sport to be rejected in the way he was, it was hard for us Americans to swallow.

Bradley lasted 11 games at Swansea, winning two and losing seven, from October to December 2016.

Marsch has taken charge of 10 so far at Leeds three wins, two draws, five defeats and it was always likely there might be some early issues when another obvious problem, in the eyes of many Leeds fans, is that his name is not Marcelo Bielsa.

At the same time, it is also true that Marsch has not always helped himself when he has tried to be, well, more Carrie Keagan than Robert Smith.

In one interview this week, Marsch was asked what he thought Leeds United would look like in three years. It looks like the best academy in Europe, he replied, with young players who are playing in the first team consistently, and where we are competing for Europe consistently.

His intention, he explained, is to bring through world-class players who can perform here but can also help us financially by selling them to the most massive clubs for massive amounts of money, then reinvest that into the infrastructure of the club, until we get to the point five or 10 years from now when we can really talk about competing for titles and being one of the best teams in Europe. Thats the goal.

It sounded like some kind of football utopia and, in ordinary circumstances, which set of fans would not like to hear from their manager that he is ultra-ambitious and fully intends to drag their club into a brave new world?

Unfortunately for Marsch, these are not ordinary circumstances.

Leeds are in the bottom three with only two games of the season to go, and the fingers of relegation are tightening around their neck, just two years after they finally escaped an EFL they spent 16 painful seasons in when they last dropped out of the elite.

He has been parachuted into a club, and a city, living on their nerves.

Leeds have been undermined by injury issues but also shot themselves in the foot by having the worst disciplinary statistics of any team in 30 years of the Premier League. Marsch cannot take all the blame for that, having been there less than three months, but it has been a confetti show of yellow and red cards on his watch, too.

Perhaps there is also a slight cultural difference here, in terms of football-speak, and Marsch has not fully grasped that there are certain things he might say now that will jar with his new audience in Yorkshire.

This might never have been such an issue at the first European club he led, serial Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg, or while he was managing New York Red Bulls in MLS back home before that.

It is actually a shame, in one sense, that a manager who is unafraid to show his personality and prefers not to speak in cliches already seems to be opening himself to scorn and based on his latest round of interviews after Leeds lost 3-0 at home to Chelsea on Wednesday now appears to be taking a more cautious approach to what he says.

On reflection, he probably wishes it had not been made public that he has tried to bring together his players by reciting quotes from Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

In another sense, it is difficult to pass over his decision to announce, on a national UK radio station, that the fans still-beloved Bielsa was guilty of over-training the players, and had left them physically, mentally, emotionally and psychologically in a bad place. Where to start? It was silly and unnecessary and, even if he believed every word, the kind of thing Marsch really ought to have kept to himself.

More than anything, however, lets not forget that the best place to judge a football manager is almost always on the pitch rather than what he says into a microphone.

If it isnt to end well for Marsch at Leeds, it will be because they have gone down and do not look like a side that will swiftly come back up.

Lets judge him by his tactics and his ability to motivate his team. Lets see what happens in the next two games and the reaction from the fans.

Its just starting to feel like Marsch, 10 games in, is straying dangerously close to finding out that the people who fill Elland Road can chop you down to size if they dont like what they are seeing and hearing.

(Top photo: Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)

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Leeds United and Jesse Marsch are going to need time to get one another - The Athletic

The winners of the 2022 New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards will be announced Thursday, May 12 at 6pm. The selections will be made immediately beforehand at the organization's 86th annual voting meeting.

The awards include a cash prize of $2,500 for Best Play, made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation. The awards will be presented during a private ceremony on Friday, May 20.

The New York Drama Critics' Circle comprises 22 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, which has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season (with optional awards for foreign or American plays, musicals and special achievements), is the nation's second-oldest playwriting award, after the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Recent Best Play winners include Heroes of the Fourth Turning, The Ferryman and Mary Jane. Recent Best Musical winners include A Strange Loop, The Band's Visit and Hamilton.

Each year the New York Drama Critics' Circle may also award special citations to individuals, groups and/or productions for outstanding contribution. Recent recipients include playwrights Paula Vogel and Taylor Mac, actors Deirdre O'Connell and Lois Smith, and the Broadway productions of Jitney and American Utopia.

Adam Feldman, theater critic and editor for Time Out New York, has served as president of the NYDCC since 2005. Joe Dziemianowicz serves as vice president; Zachary Stewart is treasurer.

In addition to Feldman, Dziemianowicz and Stewart, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are David Barbour, David Cote, Vinson Cunningham, Greg Evans, David Finkle, Jeremy Gerard, Charles Isherwood, Chris Jones, Christopher Kelly, Soraya Nadia McDonald, Johnny Oleksinski, David Rooney, Frank Scheck, Alexandra Schwartz, Helen Shaw, David Sheward, Marilyn Stasio, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Matt Windman. Emeritus members include Melissa Rose Bernardo, Michael Feingold, Robert Feldberg, Elysa Gardner, Brian Scott Lipton, Jesse Oxfeld, Michael Sommers, Steven Suskin, Linda Winer and Richard Zoglin.

For more information on the New York Drama Critics' Circle, please visit http://www.dramacritics.org.

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New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards Will Be Announced Tomorrow - Broadway World

EXCLUSIVE: The Gotham Film & Media Institute today named Ahya Simone, Br Rivera and Paige Wood (Femme Queen Chronicles), Ariel Zucker and Daryl Paris Bright (GYNO), Chy Chi (Hot Dish), Stacie E. Hawkins (Night Watchers), Connor Austin Jones (On The Line), Maia Nikiphoroff (The Rise of Elisa Lynch), Lauren Ciaravalli (S.L.U.T.), Lori Webster Fore (Soul City),David Barker, Jernimo Rodriguez and Jay van Hoy (Wiring Utopia), and Edith Rodriguez (Youth) as the fellows and projects for its 2022 Gotham TV Series Lab, taking place today through May 13th.

The Gotham TV Series Lab provides teams of up-and-coming creators, writers and producers with the knowledge, resources and mentor support necessary for writing strong pitches and creating solid development strategies. The five-day program is composed of workshops, panels and case studies, with a particular focus on the inner workings of the writers room and new trends in the marketplace.

This year, for the first time, two of the 10 projects included are from the Expanding Communities program,by way of recommendations from partner organizations, Gyno and Night Watchers. Expanding Communities is dedicated to providing resources, a community space, and industry access to individuals with disabilities, as well as Black, Indigenous, PoC, and LGBTQIA+ creators across the film, TV and audio industries.

We are proud to announce the newest cohort for our fourth annual Gotham TV Series Lab which provides writers and creators new to the TV field with first-hand mentorship opportunities with industry experts, said The Gothams Executive Director, Jeff Sharp. This years selections feature ambitious projects with exciting world-building concepts and powerful self-possessed characters representing the continued vitality of this ever expanding art form. We are so grateful to be of service in supporting these amazing creators in reaching their intended audiences.

The Gotham TV Series Lab operates under the artistic direction of Senior Manager, Episodic and International Programming, Gabriele Capolino.The 2022 Lab is being guided by Lab Leaders Neerja Narayanan (Creative Producer, Sony Pictures International Productions) and Rae Benjamin (CEO/Founder, In the Cut; Staff Writer, Netflixs The Witcher).

All 2022 fellows will automatically participate in the 44th Gotham Weeks Project Market, where they will pitch their projects to industry decision makers. More information on the .projects selected for this years lab can be found below.

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The Gotham Sets Fellows And Projects For 2022 TV Series Labs - Deadline

Will Royal Caribbean's new Icon Class cruise ships be the largest in the world?

When Royal Caribbean announced plans for a new class of cruise ship, they provided very few details, but becoming the new biggest cruise ship in the world wasn't part of the announcement.

It now looks like perhaps the Icon Class ships will be larger, according to recent comments made by a Royal Caribbean executive this week.

Travel Weekly is reporting the newly promoted Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations, Sean Treacy, indicated Icon of the Seas will be larger than the Oasis class cruise ships.

"Icon will be the biggest. It launches in the fall of next year and will be the first new ship class for Royal in a decade," Mr. Treacy said while onboard Wonder of the Seas during a trade event.

Travel Weekly went on to say a Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirmed the fact Icon of the Seas, which will be the first Icon Class cruise ship, will be larger, "Icon-class ships will be bigger than our Oasis class."

The disclosure by Mr. Treacy is the first public statement about the fact Icon will be larger than Oasis Class, although it's not clear in what aspect will Icon be larger.

According to Royal Caribbean's Form 10-K filing with theU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 5, 2022, it still lists Icon of the Seas has having slightly less passenger capacity than Wonder of the Seas or Utopia of the Seas.

In the filing, Icon and the other unnamed Icon Class ships have approximately 5,600 berths compared to Wonder and Utopia's 5,700 berths.

When Royal Caribbean first announced the Icon Class in October 2016, they estimated the ship would be able to handle approximately5,000 passengers. Of course, the cruise line indicated at that time and for some time thereafter that the concepts were still being developed.

There are three Icon Class ships on order:

The keel was recently laid for Icon of the Seas at the shipyard in Finland, which signals the official start of construction.

Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley confirmed that Icon will initially debut in the UK, and then sail from Miami.

While Royal Caribbean has not announced yet what the ship will look like, itineraries, or other important features, they have hyped the vessel as a game changer.

The ship is unbelievable," said Mr. Bayley in a recent interview. "It's an amazing ship. Whats fascinating about Icon is the sheer amount of product."

Bayley indicated Icon of the Seas will feature a combination of tradition, evolution and revolution cruising elements from Royal Caribbean.

Favorites, such as the Schooner Bar, will continue to be found on Icon.

On the other hand, evolution elements revolve around continuously improving elements that cruisers love, such as entertainment venues and waterslides. Finally, revolution elements are industry-firsts and are meant to be WOW factors for the company.

Read more from the original source:

Royal Caribbean exec: Icon of the Seas will be bigger than Oasis Class - Royal Caribbean Blog

11 May 2022, 14:21

Who is starring in Conversations with Friends and how do you recognise the cast?

After the huge success of Normal People back in 2020, Sally Rooney is back with another adaptation.

Conversations With Friends is based on the 2017 book of the same name and is described as a coming of age drama.

The story follows 21-year-old student Frances as she navigates a series of relationships, including with her ex-girlfriend turned best friend, Bobbi.

But who is in the cast of Conversations with Friends and why do you recognise them? Heres what we know

Alison Oliver is playing the main role of Frances.

She is fairly new to acting, but has previously had roles in Fame Dogs, Woggie, and Home Brewed.

Frances former lover and closest friend is played by Sasha Lane.

You might recognise her for starring as Star in American Honey, while she has also starred in Utopia, The Miseducation of Cameron Post and Loki.

Actor Nick is played by Joe Alwyn who has previously starred in The Favourite, A Christmas Carol, Long Halftime Walk and Mary Queen of Scots.

You might also recognise him as Taylor Swifts boyfriend.

Jemima Kirke is playing journalist Melissa who previously starred as Hope Haddon in Sex Education.

Her other credits include Girls, Maniac and Untogether.

Sallay Garnett grew up between Maynooth, Ireland, and West Africa.

She starred as Mary Magdalene in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's iconic Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican in 2019 and is also known for her roles in A Girl from Mogadishu and Striking Out.

Tommy Tiernan is best known for hosting The Tommy Tiernan Show and for playing Gerry in Derry Girls.

Caoimhe Coburn Gray's credits include LOVE+ with Malaprop Theatre Company and the short film Flicker.

Kerry Fox previously played author Janet Frame in the movie An Angel at My Table directed by Jane Campion, which gained her a Best Actress Award from the New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

Justine Mitchell is known for Your Bad Self (2010), Amber (2014) and Pure (2019).

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Conversations with Friends cast: Who is in the new drama and where have you seen them before? - Heart

Welcome to Fix It, our series examining projects we love save for one tiny change we wish we could make.

For a movie called Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we sure saw a lot of madness but very little of the multiverse.

In the latest entry into the MCU, Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) fights to save America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) from Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). America has the incredible power to travel through the multiverse, only she's unable to control it.

One of the movie's most fun visual sequences occurs when one of America's uncontrolled multiverse jumps takes her and Stephen through a series of different universes. These include one where everything is animated and one where everything is just... paint. After that montage, Stephen and America find themselves on Earth-838. From there, the movie splits most of its remaining runtime between that universe and the "original" Marvel universe: Earth-616.

Instead of breaking the multiverse wide open, Multiverse of Madness limits itself. What could have been a chance for Marvel to stretch its imagination falls flat, with the exciting possibility of the multiverse reduced to two possibilities: New York, and New York... but with flowers.

We're already extremely familiar with Earth-616. We've spent over 20 movies and several TV series exploring it. So let's talk about Earth-838. It's got a few quirks separating it from Earth-616: Pizza comes in ball form, people go on red and stop on green, everyone wears dark clothing and hats, and everything is covered in flowers, suggesting this New York is some kind of eco-utopia. Oh, and in this universe, they have memory machines that broadcast your recollections to anyone who may be walking by, just in case you're looking for some handy-dandy exposition dumps.

These things certainly differentiate Earth-838 from Earth-616 visually, but we never find out enough about this universe to understand why these changes may exist, or why they matter at all. It quickly becomes clear that Earth-838 is less a new sandbox to play in it than it is an efficient way to introduce the Illuminati outside of Earth-616 and its canon. The multiverse shouldn't just be a one-way ticket to cameo town: It should be an exciting and meaningful expansion of the world.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Xochitl Gomez, and Rachel McAdams in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."Credit: Marvel Studios 2022

Even when we do learn about changes between Earth-838 and Earth-616, they're always in relation to the Avengers and their battle against Thanos. There's a disappointing lack of imagination here, and an inability to look beyond Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The multiverse is infinite, yet all the movie cares about is what superheroes are like in different universes. Even then, the differences tend to the underwhelming. You're telling me that all that separates Earth-616's Doctor Strange from his multiversal counterparts is a ponytail or a longer beard? Come on, we've seen Frog Thor and Alligator Loki we know things can get much weirder. Plus, thanks to Zombie Strange, we know the movie is capable of getting weirder.

My desire for weirdness and more glimpses of the multiverse no doubt stems from the recent release of Everything Everywhere All At Once, which delves into the concept of the multiverse in a far more satisfying way than Multiverse of Madness. In Everything Everywhere All At Once, action plays out across multiple universes, not just two. Every universe has a distinct feel to it and its own arc. Many are delightfully outlandish: In one universe, people have hot dog fingers. In another, sentient rocks with googly eyes carry out a heartfelt conversation.

Throughout Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, I kept wishing it would engage with the true potential of the multiverse in even one-tenth of the same way that Everything Everywhere All At Once does. Relegating the sheer awesomeness of infinite universes to a quick montage early on simply isn't enough. If anything, it feels like the movie is just ticking a cursory box to say, "see, there are more universes" before jumping back into its main plot, designed to keep Phase 4 on track.

If done right, the multiverse would have opened up the world of Marvel. Instead, its squandered potential reminds us just how narrow the focus of the MCU is.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is now in theaters.

More here:

'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' pales in comparison to 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' - Mashable

For 20 years in New England, Tom Brady was the ultimate team-first guy. He constantly signed cap-friendly deals that allowed the Patriots dynasty to roll on.

Guess what, nice guys dont always finish last, because Tommy Boy, your ship (more accurately, probably a yacht) has come in!

Fox Sports announced Tuesday that when Tom Brady retires he is going to become their lead NFL analyst, inking a 10-year, $375 million deal. Fun stat, Tom Brady has earned $333 million on the field in his 22-year career. Thats a helluva retirement job.

Here are some other staggering quick outs about Bradys move to the booth.

$37.5 million annually is more than Tom Brady has made in any season of his 23-year career, save for 2021 when he made $39 million. Hes due $30 million in 2022, so the Fox gig would technically be a promotion. If there is such a thing as a promotion from being Tom Brady on a football field.

The quick, lazy comparison made by many on Tuesday was you know, Joe Montana tried to broadcast, and he wasnt very good, why does Fox think that Bradys worth this money? Because it doesnt matter if hes good. CBS paid Tony Romo $18 million, and we know hes not good. ESPN backed up a similarly sized Brinks truck to Troy Aikmans doorstep, and though hes come a long way during his career at Fox, nobody is speaking his name in the same sentence as John Madden or Merlin Olsen. The money doesnt matter because Fox needs a splash. People are going to watch football games regardless of the broadcast team, but whether hes good, bad or bad or Collinsworth, Tom Brady the announcer is going to be water cooler conversation. (Dated reference, I guess the discourse would happen now on Twitter? People bottle their own water and tote it around these days from what Ive seen.) The last word on performance goes to Nick Fitzy Stevens.

If we get vanilla presser deferential TB12? Meh.

If we get Im the baddest motherfker on the planet Brady? Hell be great.

What do you think if youre Tony Romo? What do you think if youre Troy Aikman? Here people thought your deals were totally off the Richter scale and Tom Brady gets $20 million more. And he doesnt get it now, its bread on a windowsill, his, whenever he wants it. What about the Mannings? You have a year of the Manning-cast, you work from home, people think Eli is nerdly funny. And now the countdown is on until Tom Brady not only moves into your neighborhood, but hes apparently bulldozing your McMansions and building his own pliability utopia on top of them.

What does this mean for the duration of Tom Bradys playing career? Most pundits seem to think that this meant Brady would play one more season and move up to the booth. That may be. This is a fascinating turn of events for Brady. I never saw this for him. I saw a Michael Jordan-style post career. Clothing line, maybe eventually ownership, but definitely not coaching and any regular gig that would weigh him down. You know, like broadcasting the 4:25 p.m. game every week. But I guess he has $375 million reasons to say why not.

My initial reaction was I guess this puts an end to the Brady to Miami for an ownership stake hypothesis. Some have agreed: Jeff Darlington and Rich Eisen came to a similar conclusion. While others compared him to Dwyane Wade in that Wade is apparently an analyst somewhere and also apparently owns a piece of the Utah Jazz. The fact that I wasnt totally aware of either fact makes me think that comparing Tom Brady to Mr. Wade might be akin to apples and oranges. I want the Brady to Miami thing to go away. Maybe when hes retired, if he wants a stake of the team and that isnt seen as a conflict of interest, fine. (How could it not be, youre literally meeting with coaches and players on your opponent on a weekly basis under the guise of broadcast preparation. That feels like something the NFL would like to avoid.) Just like Stanley would do anything to take points away from Dwight during Beach Day, Ill do anything to keep TB12 out of South Beach.

Brady will be fine in the booth. Hes a hard worker, hes a capable speaker who understands the game. If he cuts loose, hell be great. If he tries to play it safe, hell get crushed. There will be no neutrality on Bradys broadcasting performance. I would imagine that after 22 years of gridiron dominance there are some trolls out there sharpening their knives to take him down a peg or two in something hes new at. Brady will be a must see, when and if he ever ascends to the booth. As we know with Tom Brady, things can change quickly.

More articles from the BDN

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Don't listen to the trolls. Tom Brady will be fine in the broadcast booth. - Bangor Daily News

Special to Seacoastonline| Portsmouth Herald

KITTERY, Maine Seacoast Maritime Charters, in conjunction with Star Island Corporation,announces a new offering for area residents and guests.

For the 2022 season, guests are now welcome to ride the mail boat to Star Island at the Isles of Shoals. Subject to availability and by prior reservation only, members of the public may ride the M/V Utopia and the M/V Shining Star on scheduled daily runs to supply the Oceanic Hotel on the historic island, considered by many to be the unofficial capital of the Isles of Shoals.

Star Island supports a population of up to 400people in the summer. Little-changed since its heyday in earlier centuries,Star Island is known for its sustainability program and for having the largest off-grid solar power array in New England. These leisurely informal trips provide an insiders view into the comings and goings of island life, and are a fascinating and unique way to experience the Isles of Shoals.

On a typical trip, guests will ride out with mail, food, freight and whatever else is headed out to the island that day- along with commuting island staff, hotel guests and volunteers. Some trips include a stop at the local lobster wharf to pick up the evenings meal.

In summer, coastal weather is generally calmest on the morning trips. On the way, out we typically see seals, porpoises and the occasional whalein addition to gannets, loons and a variety of other birds, including bald eagles. We will most often pass close to working fishermen and commercial traffic navigating the Piscataqua River. The run to the Isles of Shoals takes about an hour. Guests are welcome to engage in conversation with the crew, help navigate the boat or simply enjoy the ocean breezes and the sunshine sparkling on the water.

Once at the island, visitors have the opportunity for a 45 minute walk ashore (morning trips only), a self-guided tour of beautiful Star Island (dont miss a peak into the historic stone chapel) while the vessel is unloaded and readied for the return trip.

On the return trip back to America (as the original Isles of Shoalers would say) the passenger list could include island staff and guests as well as mail, luggage, recycling, empty fuel tanks and the occasional surprise. We have hauled everything from pianos to palm trees and many things in between.

Our regular morning trips run from late June to September, leaving Portsmouth at 7:30 a.m., and returning before 11 a.m., on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Every Tuesday afternoon in summer there is an expanded trip which includes a guided stopover at Appledore Island (or an afternoon at Star Island) and a tour of the grey seal colony on neighboring Duck Island. This trip departs Portsmouth at 1:20 p.m., returning to the dock at around 6 p.m.

Other Mail Run trips are available throughout the season from April to October andthere is often room for guests. These trips sometimes have a quick turnaround, and do not always allow for island walks. Guests are welcome on all of these runs, space permitting. Call for off-season availability.

Call Seacoast Maritime Charters to learn about available trips and to reserve a space at 207-337-0446. Last minute reservations are encouraged, as long as there is room on the boat.

The service helps to support the non-profit Star Island Corporation, which maintains the island and offers it to the public for visits like these.

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Star Island Mail Boat now welcoming passengers to Isles of Shoals - Seacoastonline.com

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Last Updated 53 mins ago

With the worlds biggest cruise ship having recently set sail with passengers for the very first time heres what those waiting to board Wonder of the Seas can expect.

Having reported a few months ago that the ship was due to launch back in March, it has since completed its maiden voyage sailing around both the Eastern and Western sides of the Caribbean on 7-night cruises.

And, with Wonder of The Seas having recently arrived in Europe with the ship set to sail in the Mediterranean throughout the summer months many will be wondering what it is actually like on board this monster-sized vessel.

Well, you are in luck as throughout this article we will take a look at what the ship offers when it comes to places to wine and dine, relax, keep fit as well as the variety of entertainment choices on offer to passengers.

Its not the first time that one of Royal Caribbeans fleet has earned the title of the worlds biggest cruise ship with its Symphony of the Seas having previously held it.

In fact, with Wonder of the Seas now in operation the company now owns the worlds five largest ships with each of them able to accommodate nearly 7,000 passengers at any one time.

So, how big exactly is Wonder of the Seas?

Measuring in at a mammoth 1,118 feet (362m) in length and weighing in at 236,857 tonnes Wonder of the Seas spans across 18 decks, making it possible to play host to a maximum capacity of 6,988 passengers.

And, this number does not even include crew members with the ship also having enough space to accommodate up to 2,300 cruise ship staff.

Royal Caribbeans newest addition Wonder of the Seas features a brand new neighborhood on board, which spans over two of the ships decks.

Named the Suite Neighborhood, passengers are able to stay at one of its 188 suites on offer, as well as sit back and relax at one of the neighborhoods bars and restaurants or soak up the atmosphere at its freshly designed sun deck and infinity-style plunge pool.

The ship also offers seven other neighborhoods to visit on board with each providing their own unique options for drinking and dining in along with a variety of entertainment to enjoy.

With nearly 3000 cabins on board Wonder of the Seas 2,867 to be precise there are a selection of different rooms that can be booked by cruise-goers.

This includes the following staterooms:

All rooms offer occupants the chance to connect to WiFi, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of the ships room service options and spa-like services.

With 20 different restaurants to choose from, you are certainly not going to find it a difficult task to find somewhere to eat or drink when on board Wonder of the Seas with the ship offering all types of cuisine.

Whether youre looking to eat at one of the vessels upmarket eateries, or wanting to grab a quick and easy snack on the go you are not going to be lost for choice for what this ship has to offer.

Those on board can even check out a new addition to the selection of Royal Caribbeans dining options the Mason Jar which offers some of the best when it comes to Americas southern delicacies.

Due to its huge size, Wonder of the Seas is able to offer passengers the opportunity to choose from a selection of swimming pools on board.

This includes the ships huge pool deck which boasts a number of slides, as well as a variety of sun loungers and beds to soak up the sun.

For anyone who is fortunate enough to spend time sailing into the sunset on Wonder of the Seas there is certainly a wide variety of entertainment options for cruise passengers to enjoy.

This includes:

And this is just a taste of what you can expect with the ship also boasting its Central Park, which features in excess of 10,000 plants.

You can check out what else Royal Caribbeans new monster cruise ship Wonder of the Seas has to offer by clicking here.

A few weeks ago we reported that Royal Caribbean had begun constructing the next addition to its fleet of cruise liners with Utopia of the Seas set to sail in 2024.

Once built and in operation the ship will take over from Wonder of the Seas as being the worlds largest cruise liner.

Read more:

Travel Insurance That Covers Covid-19 In 2022

Royal Caribbean Cruises Welcome Back Self-Service Buffets

The Worlds Largest Cruise Ship Is Set To Sail in 2024

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This Is What To Expect On Board The World's Biggest Cruise Ship - Travel Off Path