#datebook

[dateinthelife]

29 July 1966

On this date, a magazine comes out where some guy I've never heard of says "English groups won't last" and Bob Dylan comes out swinging against "message songs."

I'm sure nothing will come of any of it.

[siriuscitrus]

Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook is what I’m trying to use for a planner this year, and has all sorts of goodies hidden inside! it has recipes, information, what days the moon phases are, and Wiccan holidays that occur with the moon cycles. There are some readings in between each weekly spread, and a legend in the front of the book with spits for notes in the back. I’m enjoying it.

[tomorrowxtogether]

Review: K-pop quintet Tomorrow X Together makes up for lost time at triumphant S.F. show

The sustained hero’s welcome that K-pop group Tomorrow X Together received Thursday, July 21, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium when they entered the stage after three years away felt like a long-awaited airport lobby group hug.

The sold-out show served as a joyful give-and-take — from their MOA (“Moments of Alwaysness”) fan base to TXT for providing inspiration and solace during tough times, and from TXT to MOA for rocking with the group during a period of pandemic-related isolation.

Group member Yeonjun summed it up when addressing the crowd: “Physical distance is not a drawback. MOAs and Tomorrow X Together are always together.”

The South Korean quintet has had to live up to outsized expectations. In 2019, TXT was the second boy band to debut for its Big Hit (now HYBE) management company — the first being BTS. On the strength of its debut single “Crown,” and follow-up “9 and Three Quarters (Run Away),” the five-member unit (Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Hueningkai) was an instant hit, exceeding and exploding expectations. With catchy songs, powerful choreography, and youthful energy, it was seemingly following a path to superstardom freshly snow-plowed by its Big Hit big brothers.

Then COVID struck.

The band members’ schedules and lives rearranged, they regrouped and released increasingly savvy, challenging music that distanced them from their fresh-faced rookie era. Subsequent releases still held moments of joy but also reflected frustrations and confusion of adolescence and an uncertain world. With tours canceled, the music served as comforting ravens to their fan base in the form of danceable, thinkable pop like “Can’t You See Me?” and “We Lost the Summer.”

Dressed in pink prom suits with sew-on bleeding-heart patches, their opening five-song set peeled back the layers of their career: the opening emo-pop anthem “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You),” the kaleidoscopic pop of “Magic” and “Wishlist,” the giddy debut-era “Blue Orangeade” and matured Britpop glide of “Ghosting.” It was an energizing TXT trail mix — more savory than sugary, still looking like a snack.

The show — the sixth U.S. stop on its Act: Lovesick tour — reinforced how TXT has evolved over three years. For nearly three hours, the group morphed in and out of personas. They changed outfits like high schoolers late for drama class — from suits to sailor tops to full rock ‘n’ roll regalia, even monster-like gauze-wrap tops. But no matter how grown or edgy they looked, they still felt like sweet kids at heart.

The LED backdrop screens reflected each mood — an icy church on a deserted planet (Krypton?), a castle, an amusement park in the clouds, an outdoor garden lit up with decorative lights, and a forbidden forest. Some of the screens were front stage left and right and must have partially blocked the view for those sitting on the sides. Fortunately, the guys took time to make their way to the far ends of the stage, even going so far as to meander into the audience and upper deck to allow more personal interaction as a phalanx of security cleared the path.

Over the evening, they showed their prowess for maximalist pop and nuanced ballads. The loudest roar of the night came with the familiar opening keyboard stab of their effervescent debut single “Crown,” which was performed flawlessly. “Magic” and “Blue Hour” were dazzling Bruno Mars-level jollies. “Trust Fund Baby” and “Anti-Romantic” highlighted their balladry, especially Taehyun who exerted as much emotion and energy singing as he did dancing.

On the flip, darkness descended during “Maze in the Mirror,” “Eternally,” and “Can’t You See Me” — a moody trifecta delving into isolation. Similarly, Yeonjun owned “Frost” and “New Rules” with an impressive spotlight dance solo and sinister facial expressions.

Rock elements came into play early and often. But if TXT is really about that rock ‘n’ roll life — and from the Nirvana and AC/DC T-shirts they were wearing during part of the show, I think so — then they should lean into it. “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You),” “Good Boy Gone Bad,” and “LO$ER=LOVER” are guitar-based alt-pop songs, and “Can’t You See Me” was remixed with metal elements, so why not have an actual guitarist or band playing on tour? Their show was performed entirely with an instrumental backing track. The prop mike stands during “LO$ER=LOVER” were used to strike rock star poses, but felt more redundant than epic with their headset mics.

Rock star tropes aside, the evening solidified the feeling that TXT is ready for Chase Center or Oakland Arena levels. Perhaps HYBE wants to ensure that TXT doesn’t skip any steps in their development — something that Olivia Rodrigo insisted on her “SOUR” tour that played Bill Graham Civic earlier in May. The trade-off of not having a full stadium show with an enlarged scale and scope is that TXT’s long-awaited first Northern California concert carried an intimacy a cavernous arena couldn’t provide.

The encore reaffirmed this thought. Emerging in white tour t-shirts and denim overalls with one hook loose, New Jack Swing-style, they waded through the crowd, even reaching the upper balcony, to vibe with fans during an ecstatic “Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go.” It was a gesture that reflected gratitude and solidified the intense bond between TXT and MOA. They’ll get to stadiums together soon. As the song goes, tomorrow is always a day away.

[t3ddyyyy]

Can someone help me find Out where this is from? I got it at goodwill a few days ago and I want to order some more paper for it

I’ve looked up filopac and no luck so I’m wondering if there’s any paper formats similar to this that’s the same size ish

[occamyeggshells]

Eddie Redmayne relished shedding nice guy persona to play a serial killer in ‘The Good Nurse’

During Bay Area visit, Oscar-winning actor opens up about working with friend Jessica Chastain and bringing 'Cabaret' to London's West End.

Eddie Redmayne has made some remarkable physical transformations to bring the stories of real-life people to the screen, from theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to early 20th century transgender artist Lili Elbe. But in playing Charles Cullen, thought to be the most prolific serial killer in recorded history, he had to play himself.

Well, a version of himself, at least. Redmayne is widely regarded as one of the nicest stars in Hollywood, and a giving actor to his co-stars. As a nurse, Cullen often displayed a caring and charming demeanor toward his patients and co-workers.

But underneath that friendly exterior was a killer. In “The Good Nurse” — which opens in select theaters Wednesday, Oct. 19, and streams on Netflix beginning Oct. 26 — the star of the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise relished the challenge of exploring the dichotomy of a man who might have killed some 400 patients from 1988 to 2003, yet was a trusted friend to a fellow nurse, played by Jessica Chastain, who eventually helped bring him to justice.

“The thing I loved about the script was that it defied definition,” Redmayne told The Chronicle in an exclusive interview in San Francisco hours before “The Good Nurse” closed the Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 16. “I went into it thinking it was going to be a true-crime story, which on the one hand it is, but it focuses on the woman who was able to prevent this man from doing these things. The violence was ended through her compassion, ultimately.

“But also it felt like it was highlighting the cracks in the system. It was dumbfounding to me that this may well be the most prolific serial killer in American history and I’d never heard of him. And he had worked at nine hospitals, many of whom had a great sense of what he was doing.”

Chastain plays Amy Loughren, the real-life nurse who worked with detectives (played in the film by Nnamdi Asomugha and Noah Emmerich) to arrest him. Redmayne said he and Chastain, who are good friends, prepared for the role by spending time in nursing school, and both had conversations with Loughren.

Danish director Tobias Lindholm, known for his work with Mads Mikkelsen in “The Hunt” and “Another Round,” said the idea was not to make “The Good Nurse” a thriller but, as he put it, “a friendship story.”

“What Eddie and I were struggling with the most was to keep him friendly, never to invite us into his darkness,” said Lindholm, who accompanied Redmayne and Asomugha to Mill Valley. “I think that helped because you like him, even though you know he did it, there’s no signs of it. You are a little, ‘But he’s so nice. Could it really be him?’ I mean, he’s such a good friend to Amy.”

Redmayne said the fact that he and Chastain are friends — they met a decade ago at Giffoni, the noted children’s film festival in Italy, and have remained in touch since — created instant chemistry.

“We’d always dreamt of working together, and then this came along — it was a no-brainer,” said Redmayne, who laughed as he explained, “but my expectations were high. I’m a bit of a pessimist. I therefore think that if it’s fun to make, maybe the thing won’t be great. But Jessica is wonderfully galvanizing, so despite the subject matter, we had a really wonderful time making it.”

There was at least one day, though, that wasn’t much fun. It was during an intense interrogation scene between him, Asumogha and Emmerich when Redmayne displayed the type of transformation he achieved in his Oscar-winning performance as Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” and in his Oscar-nominated work as Elbe in “The Danish Girl.”

Lindholm said Redmayne requested that the set be chilly, so cold air was pumped in between takes. Then the director surprised his lead actor by handcuffing his wrist to the interrogation table. That was not in the script.

“We put on the handcuff, there’s this little click sound,” Lindholm recalled. “And he looks up and smiles. It’s like he found something there. I know that he’s the kind of actor who feeds from these real settings, real obstacles, and I realized ‘Oh my god’ when I saw what he’d found when we handcuffed him.”

Lindholm said the scene took 11 hours to shoot. Asomugha — known to Bay Area sports fans from his days playing football for Cal, the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers — remembered it well.

“He’s pounding the table and he’s yelling and screaming. The camera was on him, and he did that nonstop for maybe 30 minutes,” said Asomugha of Redmayne. “Then the camera turned around and was on us. And he did the exact same thing, maybe with even more energy than he did when the camera is on him — just to aid us as actors.

“You don’t get that a lot. You hope to get that a lot from other actors, but the reality is you don’t. And for him to do that, I knew immediately, ‘Oh, this is a guy who not only cares about his work, but he cares about the people who are working opposite him.’ That’s exactly who he is as a person. He just genuinely cares about you and what you have to say and what’s going on in your life, and how your day was versus ever talking about himself, which I think is just remarkable.”

What’s going on in Redmayne’s life is that he is using his schedule promoting “The Good Nurse” and some treasured downtime with his family — he is raising two young children with wife Hannah Bagshawe, whom he first met in high school — to come down from the high of his first theater role in a decade.

He recently finished playing the Emcee opposite Jessie Buckley’s Sally Bowles in a production of “Cabaret” in London’s West End, and it was among the most rewarding professional experiences of his career. Both he and Buckley won the coveted Laurence Olivier Award for musical acting.

Redmayne said the experience took him back to his roots.

“When I was like 10 or 11, I was one of a hundred children in a production of ‘Oliver’ in the West End, at the London Palladium, a very beautiful old Victorian London theater,” Redmayne said. “I used to get to leave school, to go travel across London on the Tube to Oxford Circus, to go through the stage door of this stunning theater. I found it very seductive and and romantic. That’s where I got the bug for acting.

“I hadn’t done a musical onstage professionally since then, until ‘Cabaret.’ It was a wonderful thing. It was an immersive experience coming out of the pandemic, and there was an intimacy to it because everyone had not been to the theater for an age. It felt clandestine, and scintillating.”

[brian-in-finance]

‘Belfast’: Kenneth Branagh makes a masterful memoir of his tumultuous Irish boyhood

Set during the Protestant-Catholic conflicts of the late 1960s, the film is both specific and universal, grand and intimate, sweetly romanti

A scene in which Grandpa cajoles Grandma into a little dance in the living room is about as romantic as anything you’ll ever see. — Chicago Sun-Times

‘Belfast’ Review: An Evocative, Sober Exploration of Family Struggles | Arts | The Harvard Crimson

Branagh’s film tells a touching, unabashedly human story of eerily normal family struggles in the midst of nightmarish circumstances.

Hill endows his protagonist with unparalleled innocence and affability. His face expresses the frustration and the confusion with the murky rules of the adult world one would expect from an actual child.

Review: ‘Belfast’ Is An Intriguing Look At Childhood Sentimentality That Struggles To Find Its Narrative Footing

'Belfast' is a bittersweet, nostalgic journey into childhood. Its gorgeous and well performed, but its tonal inconsistencies leave it a good

… from the opening the film boasts a number of intriguing shot choices that really catch the eye (along with the effortless occasional switch between black-and-white and color). It’s lovely, and one of the best shot films of the year.

In ‘Belfast,’ Kenneth Branagh makes art of the day that changed his life forever

The director’s 19th film is a childhood memory piece set during the Troubles that addresses some unfinished family business.

Remember… it’s definitely been a moment — I’m 60 years old also — to relish what’s in front of you and what you’re doing. I also realize it’s something I owe to that kid. — Sir Kenneth Branagh

[impact24pr]

‘Karate Kid II’ kicked off Tamlyn Tomita’s career. Now she’s back, 34 years later, in ‘Cobra Kai.’

'The Joy Luck Club' actress talks about reprising her role as Kumiko more than 30 years later for the Netflix series and why she owes her success to Ralph Macchio.

[doronjosama]

My new datebook arrived from Japan. I get a Moomin one every year, and usually pick my patronus, Little My. I didn't know the flower would be glittery! 🥰 #moomin #moominvalley #moomins #littlemy #japanesegoods #getorganized #datebook #calendar #pink #glitter #mypatronus https://www.instagram.com/p/B7BY_TwDgAo/?igshid=q89xxjk8p7oc