#artcle

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

New pics from The Good Nurse and article on Vanity Fair!!

First Look at ‘The Good Nurse’: Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne in True-Crime Thriller

The Oscar winners play a prolific serial killer and the friend who helped catch him in Netflix’s dark but surprisingly humane movie.

[mostlydaydreaming]

What we did in motion pictures was have a song and within that song try to elaborate. My usual method was to do what a writer does: get a plot. Say, here’s this fellow in a particular situation and how he would react. Mentally, I write myself a little story. Of course, sometimes you have a song that says, “Do that.” My best example is Singin’ in the Rain.

(Gene Kelly - Interview Magazine. Feb. 1985)​

[guidanceiasblog]

UPSC Current affairs snippet

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[ahmedsherif12]

Beauty and beast

يبدأ يومي بتفاصيل روتينية، وينتهي بتفاصيل روتينيّة، تكاد أن تكون، نفس التفاصيل تتكرر في أوقات مختلفة من اليوم، في أيام متتالية، ولكن، يبقى عقلي هو الشيء المتصاعد تدريجيًا.. إلى الجنون أحيانًا، وإلى النضج أحيانًا أخرى، أما معظم الأوقات، يظلّ بين ظِل ذلك وذاك، تأتي أمواجه العائرة بمدّها وجذرها، وتأخذ من شاطئ المَرْسَى بعض من أحاديثه، وتأتي إلى شاطئ العمر؛ وتدمّر من ذاكرته بعض الأعوام، لماذا لا تدمّر السنين؟ لماذا تظل السنين على وجه الذاكرة، بينما الأعمار نبذل جهد على إيجادها! ومع ذلك، عندما تأتي أمواج التدمير، لا تجد إلا أعوامي، وعندما تأتي أمواج التذكير، لا تجد إلا آلامي!!

ثم تنتقل الأمواج من شاطئ إلى شاطئ، تعطي وتأخذ منه ما يحلو لها، وما يتلائم مع الوضع الحالي للمحيط، فكل فصل مناخيّ له أحواله المختلفة عن الآخر، كذلك محيطي، كذلك عقلي، كذلك أنا!

ولكن، ما يثير أمواجي، ويجعلها مضطربة، ساحقة كل مركب قد تبحرها، ذلك الشاطئ، المضطرب، مثلي، لا أعرف، هل يملئه البعض بوجودهم، وتواجدهم، أم أنه يظهر هكذا، لعدم معرفته شعور وجود وتواجد شخص بداخله! فيتخيّله، كما أتخيّل يومي سعيدًا، فأبدو كذلك، إلا أنني، أكاد أن ينفطر قلبي، لعدم مرورها عليه...

عندما أصل إلى ذلك الشاطئ، أرى شخص غيري يقف فيه، أراني به مضطرب، غارق، يتبدّل مزاجه كتبدّل مكان عقرب الثواني في الساعة! أراني غير متّزن في ذلك الشاطئ، وكأنه مثلّث برامودا الحقيقيّ! الذي إذا أتى به شخص ما، يختفي، بدون سابق إنذار، وكأن مياه نهري تظل نقيّة، حتى تصل إلى هنا، وتتحوّل من مياه تسطيع أن ترى جمال روحك بها إلى مياه راكدة، أظل منتظر أحدهم، حتى تحوّلْت في ذلك الشاطئ وحشًا، كفيلم beauty and beast، أستطيع أن أشعر بتلك الوردة، الذي تساقطت كل أوراقها، ومع ذلك، لم أمت، هل أستمر في العيش لإقناعي بمدى وحشيتي، أم أوراق الوردة، عندما تسقط، وأكتب فيها قصائدي ورواياتي، ترى فيّ الجانب الحيّ بداخلي، وهذه الحياة الذي أعيشها، هي نتيجة هذا الجانب الحيّ! ولكن، إذا كان، فإنها حلقة مغلقة، تسقط الأوراق، للكتابة عليها، ونتيجة كتابتي تأتي أوراق مؤهلة للسقوط، ولكن، متى ستأتي الورقة التي تجعلني أحيا، نتيجة حياة، ليس نتيجة جانب حيّ!

أرى رغبة بالمزيد في سؤالي، ولكن، هل أستحق هذا المزيد! أم أن قناعتي بوحشيتي لها رأي آخر، لا أعرف، أنا منهك، تعبت الإنتظار، لا أجيد إلا الكتابة؛ لإظهار ما بداخلي، الsocial media جعلت مني شخص آليّ! يقولون علماء النفس، أن الرسالة، والمشاعر، يصل منها 30% فقط من الكلام، وباقي النسبة من الملامح، وحركة الجسد في الإخبار، ولكن، فقدت النسبة الأكبر من التواصل مع الأشخاص، وصبّت كل مشاعري في تلك ال 30%، وأراه تفسير جيّد، لبقائي على قيد الحياة، رغم سقوط كل أوراق وردتي، وهو أن مع كل ورقة تُسقط، يسقط معها بعض من كلماتي، الذي تعطها بعض الحياة، ولكن، يظل الوحش هو الظاهر...

كما قلت، أنا لا أعرف شيء، ولا أجيد شيء إلا الكتابة، ولكن...

[dailyniall]

Niall Horan interview: life after One Direction

Niall Horan’s solo debut shows he needn’t fear ditching the ‘comfort blanket’ of the band

There are girls outside Niall ­Horan’s hotel — the smartest in Stockholm, according to my cabbie — but not enough to trouble the traffic. Had the 24-year-old Irishman still been part of One Direction, the street would have been at a standstill.

Inside, there is none of the madness that came with being in the biggest boyband since the Beatles. He strolls along a corridor with no security in sight. Life as a grown-up solo star must feel pretty relaxed.

“Nah, it’s still full-on,” says Horan, whose slinky single Slow Hands has been one of the biggest hits of the year, going platinum in the US. “I’ve been busy every day for the past six years, and that’s how I like it. Give me a day off and I’m bored after 15 minutes.”

His schedule does look daunting. To promote his debut solo album, Flicker — a mix of folksy ballads and soft rock, in debt to Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and Horan’s favourite band, the Eagles — the singer is spending six weeks continent-hopping, playing the sort of intimate shows 1D skipped to head straight to arenas. His first, in Dublin, he describes as terrifying.

“I asked to play Ireland early, but I didn’t expect it to be scheduled first,” he says. “In hindsight, it was good to have a home crowd riling me on, but I wasn’t prepared for the silence or the staring. It freaked me out.

“With 1D, the screaming didn’t stop. We’d all run around and there was always some explosion going off or prop coming on. Now, I just stand there thanking God for my guitar. When I put that down, I haven’t a clue what to do with my hands.”

It was Horan’s idea to play Flicker in full before it came out. “I wanted to watch people’s reaction,” he says. “They don’t know the lyrics, so they can’t sing along. I’m forcing them to ­listen. But, of course, that means playing to a relatively quiet crowd, which is spooky. I miss the comfort blanket of being in a band.”

For those only faintly familiar with One Direction, the X Factor-formed boyband that Horan joined at the age of 16, he was the baby-faced blond who dated Ellie Goulding and strummed an acoustic on stage, mostly — he shrugs now — because no one ever suggested he shouldn’t. By 2012, a combination of Horan’s Irish charm and sideswept hair (huge in South America, apparently) saw sales of his doll outstrip those of all four of his bandmates, including the handsome Harry Styles.

Since 1D’s demise in January last year — or rather hiatus, as it is still officially described — the competition between the quintet has heated up. All are now successful solo acts, but, like Take That and the Spice Girls before them, that first flush of post-band fame is unlikely to last for them all.

There are girls outside Niall ­Horan’s hotel — the smartest in Stockholm, according to my cabbie — but not enough to trouble the traffic. Had the 24-year-old Irishman still been part of One Direction, the street would have been at a standstill.

Inside, there is none of the madness that came with being in the biggest boyband since the Beatles. He strolls along a corridor with no security in sight. Life as a grown-up solo star must feel pretty relaxed.

“Nah, it’s still full-on,” says Horan, whose slinky single Slow Hands has been one of the biggest hits of the year, going platinum in the US. “I’ve been busy every day for the past six years, and that’s how I like it. Give me a day off and I’m bored after 15 minutes.”

His schedule does look daunting. To promote his debut solo album, Flicker — a mix of folksy ballads and soft rock, in debt to Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and Horan’s favourite band, the Eagles — the singer is spending six weeks continent-hopping, playing the sort of intimate shows 1D skipped to head straight to arenas. His first, in Dublin, he describes as terrifying.

“I asked to play Ireland early, but I didn’t expect it to be scheduled first,” he says. “In hindsight, it was good to have a home crowd riling me on, but I wasn’t prepared for the silence or the staring. It freaked me out.

“With 1D, the screaming didn’t stop. We’d all run around and there was always some explosion going off or prop coming on. Now, I just stand there thanking God for my guitar. When I put that down, I haven’t a clue what to do with my hands.”

It was Horan’s idea to play Flicker in full before it came out. “I wanted to watch people’s reaction,” he says. “They don’t know the lyrics, so they can’t sing along. I’m forcing them to ­listen. But, of course, that means playing to a relatively quiet crowd, which is spooky. I miss the comfort blanket of being in a band.”

For those only faintly familiar with One Direction, the X Factor-formed boyband that Horan joined at the age of 16, he was the baby-faced blond who dated Ellie Goulding and strummed an acoustic on stage, mostly — he shrugs now — because no one ever suggested he shouldn’t. By 2012, a combination of Horan’s Irish charm and sideswept hair (huge in South America, apparently) saw sales of his doll outstrip those of all four of his bandmates, including the handsome Harry Styles.

Since 1D’s demise in January last year — or rather hiatus, as it is still officially described — the competition between the quintet has heated up. All are now successful solo acts, but, like Take That and the Spice Girls before them, that first flush of post-band fame is unlikely to last for them all.

Not that Horan need worry. Since the release of Slow Hands in May, the Mullingar-born singer has looked a far less likely contender for an early exit. Co-written with the Adele collaborator Tobias Jesso Jr, the song has proved the post-1D hit with the strongest staying power. Last month it was the most played song on US Top 40 radio. Meanwhile, Styles’s much-hyped solo career seems to have stalled, while Horan’s other bandmates have called in big names to help them: Zayn Malik with Taylor Swift; Liam Payne with rapper of the moment Quavo; Louis Tomlinson with the EDM DJ Steve Aoki.

With Flicker, Horan has his sights set even further than 1D’s vast fan base. The album’s only duet, the jaunty Seeing Blind, is with the Grammy-winning country singer Maren Morris. “I don’t know much about country music, but I saw Maren performing at the Grammys and was blown away,” Horan says. “I asked my manager to get me her email and sent her Seeing Blind. Thankfully, she was mad up for a duet. She recorded her part on St Patrick’s Day, her in Nashville and me in New York, with a Guinness, watching the session on Skype.”

Being an ex-One Directioner comes with unusual kudos. In the past, boybands could expect at best fleeting fame, while few from their ranks sustained solo careers. 1D were lucky in that their rise coincided with the repositioning of glossy pop. No longer was it aimed solely at teens. Ed Sheeran was among 1D’s regular co-writers, ditto producers who had worked with U2, Shakira, Pink and Madonna.

“We arrived at a time when pop was becoming credible,” says Horan, who worked with Jacquire King, producer of Kings of Leon and Tom Waits, on Flicker. “For the boybands before us, it was a different era. They did covers and dance routines. Nothing felt natural. For us, there was freedom. If we didn’t like a song, we didn’t record it.”

Horan describes his years in the band as “like the best school trip you’ve ever been on — we were just floating around, having fun. We spent a lot of time on flights. Playing to thousands of people felt normal. That was our day, just as getting up and going to work is for most people. It was impossible to understand the madness that other people saw. I’d watch videos of us on YouTube and read articles about us, because, when you’re in that bubble, you haven’t a clue.”

When the band became a brand ­flogging everything from bicycles and bedding to toothpaste and nail polish, Horan surely sensed the scale of the band’s fame? “So the toothpaste seemed mad,” he says. “But then along came the 1D duct tape and the toothpaste suddenly seemed sensible. I said no to the duct tape, but the rest of the band wanted it.”

Horan seems unnervingly normal for a twentysomething reportedly worth £50m who spent five years being screamed at and counts Justins Rose, Timberlake and Bieber among his golfing buddies in LA, but he admits there was a period of re­adjustment after 1D called it a day. Sensibly, he spent it backpacking.

“Eight weeks, with just a bag on my back and a couple of mates,” he says. “Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines. I don’t want to say I went to find myself, ’cos that sounds like a load of shite, but I did change, big time. “I realised I’d become a bit of a recluse, which I didn’t like. Had there been the option to go shopping at 3pm at Westfield, for example, I’d say no. Kids would be leaving school and I’d have to keep my head down, wear a hat. As a tourist, no one bothered me.

“I began to wonder if I wasn’t as recognisable as I’d imagined. I realised I might have spent years worrying about nothing. Now I walk around London all the time. In fact, I love taking the Tube so much, I’ve just sold my car.”

Horan’s easy-going attitude extends to his solo career. “I haven’t a f****** clue what’s going to happen,” he says. “Success for me isn’t about fame and fortune. I just love going round the world making people happy — as clichéd as that sounds. Spend 30 quid to see me and I’ll make sure you get your money’s worth.”

Still, Horan insists that if the call came to reform One Direction, he’d be back in a flash. “If it comes tomorrow, I have my bag packed. If I have to wait till I’m 60, so be it. I’m serious. We’ll be like the Eagles and never stop.”

Flicker is out on Friday

[worshipmoment]

Priorities, Entertainment, and the Lordship of Christ

Our media-driven culture has redefined the pursuit of happiness. The American Dream—which used to consist of a loving family, a nice house, a white picket fence—now includes instant fame, endless riches, easy romance, and the blank-check promise that anyone can achieve his or her dreams. Reality television and the rise of the Internet are perhaps somewhat to blame for this phenomenon. But ultimately the problem lies in the human heart.

We were created to long for satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy, and those desires are good in and of themselves. But our fallen world tries to meet those desires through money, romance, fame, and other earthly pleasures. Yet temporal things can never bring lasting satisfaction to a heart that was created to find its ultimate joy in God.

King Solomon learned that lesson the hard way. After experimenting with everything the world could offer, Solomon finally concluded it was all vanity, and that without God, no one can have true enjoyment (Ecclesiastes 2:25-26, 11:9, 12:13-14).

Christians should not allow entertainment to define their understanding of happiness, romance, modesty, masculinity, success, fulfillment, justice, or anything else. The Word and the Spirit should shape our worldview, not Hollywood.

Sadly, however, many Christians today are more affected by the movies they watch than the sermons they hear. They show more enthusiasm for video games or televised sporting events than they do for pursuing Christlikeness. They fill their minds with the sounds of talk radio or the latest hit songs rather than letting the Word of God richly dwell within them. Deep down, they enjoy exploring the pleasures of the world—even if only vicariously—as they watch actors play out scenes in which sinful pursuits are seemingly fulfilled with little or no consequences. The irony is, of course, that in real life those same actors are just as miserable as everyone else—a sobering reality that keeps supermarket tabloids in business.

Our priorities, passions, plans, and pursuits must be grounded in our love for Jesus Christ. Only in Him can we find true satisfaction (cf. Matthew 11:28, John 7:37). In serving Him we can lay up eternal treasure (Matthew 6:20). In pleasing and glorifying Him we fulfill life’s greatest purpose (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:9). He is to be the object of our affections, ambitions, and hopes (cf. Romans 14:7-8, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 1:20-21).

As the author of Hebrews exhorted his readers,

Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Priorities, Entertainment, and the Lordship of Christ by John MacArthur

[mostlydaydreaming]

Gene to the rescue

In 1954 Betsy was offered a lead role in an important new film, “Marty.” The offer was then withdrawn unless she wrote a letter to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, the only way to clear herself of the ‘taint’ of communist or sympathizer, and she had to ‘name names.’ She could not do that, and was entirely miserable at the thought of losing the role in such a way.

She said: “Gene rode to my rescue.” He stormed in to Dore Schary’s office at MGM and threatened to stop work on his film (Its Always Fair Weather) unless she was given the part. Gene waited while Schary called the American Legion in Washington and vouched for Betsy. She got the part. It was a great success, won a Golden Palm at Cannes and she was nominated for an Oscar.

Its worth noting that during this time Betsy was no longer faithful to Gene, and he knew it, but he still stepped up to support her.

(Betsy Blair - The Memory of All That)

“Marty” was awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival...

“I just can’t tell you what it meant to me. There was that afternoon when Gene gave a press conference. I thought I’d cry. That’s how happy I was. You know how he started it off? ‘I am the husband of Betsy Blair,’ he announced. Everyone smiled and then tears came to my eyes and I thought I would just pass out with happiness...”

(Betsy Blair - Modern Screen, November 1955)

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

Not new pics but new Eddie Redmayne's Cover and Article on GQ Germany March 2017 @redbatchedcumbermayned