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The Naseeruddin Shah interview | Writing has been th..Hindi movies. We were happy to plagiarise all the time – Firstpost

Posted: August 22, 2020 at 2:54 am


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In conversation with Firstpost, Naseeruddin Shah opens up about the bane of plagiarism in Hindi cinema, the joy of rediscovering Shakespeare and reciting Faiz in lockdown, and his fear of becoming a liability on his family.

In director Anand Tiwari's newest web-showBandish Banditsstreaming on Amazon Prime Video, Naseeruddin Shah's central character of Pandit Radhemohan Rathore, a Hindustani classical virtuoso, cuts a formidable figure. He is a patriarch with a conspicuously inflated ego that urges him to establish a gharana named after him, thereby setting the backdrop for the story that traverses the musical terrain of the country. Co-starring Sheeba Chaddha, Atul Kulkarni, Rajesh Tailang, Amit Mistry and Kunaal Roy Kapur in supporting acts, with newcomers Ritwik Bhowmik and Shreya Chaudhry in the lead,Bandish Banditssees Naseeruddin Shah assume centre-stage after a rather underwhelming response to his 2019 venture,The Tashkent Files.

In a Zoom call withFirstpost, theveteran actor opens up about landing a meaty role after years, the plague of plagiarism in Hindi cinema, and his fear of becoming a liability on his family.

What really struck me about your character of Pandit Ji inBandish Bandits is how, despite being an elderly character, it is well-written with nuances a rarity when it comes to how aged characters in Hindi entertainment are written. What about Pandit Jistood out for you the most, and how difficult was it to play him physically? Considering he was a classical singer, and it involved certain mannerisms and idiosyncrasies specific to his profession...

First of all, I found the whole story very interesting; I will come to the character in a bit. But I thought the way the story was unfolding, and the theme of the conflict between the different styles of singing and also the conflict between the variousgharanas themselves, along with the politics that goes on was extremely interesting. The fact that PanditJi wasn't a 'goody-goody' guy, and that he had grey shades negative shades also reminded me of a lot of some people and teachers I've known, my father being one of them. I drew upon him to give this benevolent, but stern attitude to my character.

The challenge itself was to be able to sing those numbers, at least to be able to lip-sync to them. Lip-syncing to songs has not really been my strong point I think the only time I have done it successfully was inGhalib, where Jagjitbhai sang so beautifully, and also in a song forMasoom. Otherwise, I've always failed to bring off those sizzling numbers, which sometimes I have been asked to do, and which I was completely ill-suited for.

But here were some very complex compositions, which I first had to get my head around. Luckily, I had this wonderful young man named Akshat as a teacher, who explained theaalaaps to me. When he [his character of Pandit Ji] goes 'aaa aaa aaa', it's not just 'aaa aaa aaa'. There's a differentsur in each of those 'aa's. So Akshat would work out whether it was asa, or apa, or aga, or are, or whichever of the seven notes it was, and would say that this is what Pandit Ji would have to sing. So, he first made me practise singing the notes, and then do theaakaar, as they call it, where one goes'aaa aaa'with each of the notes. I had to work really hard, but I must say I enjoyed it because it has been a long time since I had a part which extended me, and for which I had to do actual physical work. I really enjoyed that because I haven't done too many film roles in the last few years, and nothing very exciting has come my way. What I have done have been cameos mostly. So, after a long time, I had something that I could really sink my teeth into.

Naseeruddin Shah as Pandit Radhemohan Rathore in Bandish Bandits. YouTube screenshot.

Incidentally, another one of your projects,Mee Raqsam, is slated to release on another OTT platform soon. As someone who has been vocal about the mediocrity celebrated in Indian cinema, do you think the entry of digital platforms has made a significant difference to the quality of work being done inthe country?

It's too early to say. But one has to admit that all the work that's happened during the lockdown on the OTT platforms has been commendable. Some of it has been absolutely brilliant; none of it has been worthless, I'd say. Without any of the trappings, big budgets, and the unnecessary ornamentation, filmmakers have been trying to tell their stories stories they believe, stories that have affected them. So it certainly has garnered an audience, I think. I don't deny that there are still millions who want to see the blood-drenched revenge dramas. But an audience even wants to see content-driven drama at least they've suddenly realised that they like to see content-driven drama. I think it's the same dormant audience, which was watching Pakistani serials some years ago when they were being telecast, because those had tremendous content. The writing was incredibly good; the presentation also. And a lot of the acting also was excellent. Their films are very shoddy, but their television work is very good. I think it's that same audience which was craving to watch this. I believe they've had enough of watching blood gushing from people's wounds while they're having their dinner, you know. I don't think it's the most palatable thing to watch.

But it remains to be seen whether this will have a lasting effect. As soon as things return to normal if they ever do will we just go back to the '300-crore' monsters? Or will we finally learn our lesson? That's the question hanging in the air.

Naseeruddin Shah in Mee Raqsam. Facebook/SrishtiShreyam

During the lockdown, a lot of art forms have migrated to online spaces, including theatre that is currently witnessing numerous experiments. Youhaveclaimed to enjoy performing live the most, and you've also said in an interview that the prospect of your films being watched a 100 years from now terrifies you. What about it terrifies you? How are you coping in a world that isincreasingly attaining a dubious permanence through its digital footprints?

[Laughs] Actually, I have no reason to be terrified. I think it's something I like to say it's a clever line. But the fact is that no one remembers the crap, you know. They remember the good things. And luckily, I have done a few good things. The crap far outnumbers the good, of course, but it's the good ones that'll be remembered. When I name some movie I am thoroughly ashamed of, I am much relieved to know that no one has heard of it. So, it shouldn't really terrify me.

But, as I have said before,we stand poised at the moment to take a creative leap, as far as the writing, the presentation of movies, and as far as the presentation of theatre are concerned. I really wish that will happen, and we leap in the right direction and it certainly seems to be happening. It's very heartening to note that the majority of people putting things out during the lockdown are youngsters, and not the older generation. Andthat is great. In any case, I have tremendous faith in the younger generation because they've proved that the future is safe in their hands. I think they're far more aware, they're far savvier, they're much better informed, and I hope that their judgement will remain unimpaired. I have great faith in them.

Even Bandish Banditsfeatures actors from various generations, including the one after yours to which Atul Kulkarni, Sheeba Chaddha, and Rajesh Tailang belong. Then there are the newcomers like Shreya Chaudhry and Ritwik Bhowmik. Do you see significant differences in the ethics, sensibilities, and approaches of these different generations of artistes, or have they remained largely the same?

Atul is from a tradition where discipline is a way of life. Marathi theatre has always been very vibrant, very creative, very alive. Atul's introduction to acting has been through that, where you perform maybe three shows a day, that too in three different theatres. So you just got to have your wits about you all the time. Though Atul has been one of my students at the National School of Drama, I have been deeply inspired by some of his performances. I don't take any of the credit for his abilities. In fact watching him as Gandhi, and watching him in the filmNatarang,was truly mind-boggling.

It's not as if all actors from my generation were very professional and very dutiful, and so on. I was a pretty indisciplined actor myself when I was younger, and I am not proud of it. But I have to admit that I was, and there were many others too who were indisciplined. But by and large, I think the quality of discipline improved with Atul's generation, because somewhere, acting no longer remained an indulgence. Acting started to be taken seriously, and actors began to be taken seriously because they were not only just clowning around, they were voicing opinions, and this was around the '70s. These were valid opinions written by intellectual people, who knew what they were talking about, and actors were the mouthpieces for these opinions. So Atul comes from a generation like that. I come from a generation that was somewhat self-indulgent. And the less said the better about the generation before mine.

Naseeruddin Shah and Atul Kulkarni in a still from Bandish Bandits. Via Amazon Prime Video.

But I have seen that the quality of discipline getting greater and greater, the value of discipline getting greater and greater, and not just with the 'serious' actors, but with some of our younger stars as well. I have seen a great amount of discipline. I have noticed that they are punctual, hard working, they don't have too many bad habits, and that they've been exposed to so much more, so they are savvier as actors. As stars, they know exactly what to do.

And as far as actors like Ritwik and Shreya are concerned, they are of the generation, which has finally understood that it is a great deal of hard work that goes into the making of an actor. Luck has very little to do with it; I won't say it has nothing to do with it but luck means being at the right place at the right time, and that is a matter of calculations to a certain extent. So, I do think that the quality of acting is growing, and it is getting better and better. We have several absolutely outstanding actors, both male and female. I wonder how long it'll be before the film industry begins to recognise the abilities of a Gulshan Devaiah, or a Geetanjali Kulkarni...I wonder how long it'll be. But these people are quite sensational at their jobs, and they're not just flashes in the pan theyknow their job. There are so many, and I can enumerate several names of utterly outstanding young actors whom I envy. I wish I was as good as they are when I was that age.

So, I think it's getting better. But again, as I said, the quality of acting depends on the quality of the writing, and writing has been the bane of our Hindi movies. We have been just too happy to plagiarise all the time. I mean, plagiarism became legitimate in the '70s totally shameless and legitimate. Some of our so called 'masterpieces' are totally plagiarised movies. Hopefully, that is behind us.

I recently asked this question to both Nandita Das and Javed Akhtar, and would also like to ask you as someone who is fiercely political on screen and off it, what do you think of the apolitical artist, and their apolitical art? We see this term being used generously by people working in Hindi films. Do we have the space and luxury to appreciate apolitical artists today?

Art for art's sake? I don't think so. And FaizSaab said this almost a century ago, that he does not believe in art for art's sake. Art has got to have a motive and a purpose, which does not mean that you compromise on its aesthetics, at all. A painter would still be required to paint with as much excellence as if he was painting a beautiful woman, while he is painting a meaningful picture. Those who shy away from expressing their opinions are either genuinely apathetic, or they fear they have too much to lose. How much can a person who has been financially secure for seven generations lose? I don't understand.

At the moment, what are your biggest concerns as an artiste above the age of 60, whose mobility and consequently, access to work, has beenheavilyimpacted due to the pandemic perhaps far more than the younger generations have been affected and is likely to be this way for a while?

What are my anxieties? None, really, because I think while doing any work, which requires solitaryriyaaz, you can never be lonely. A lot of actors are confused about what kind ofriyaaz they should do. They know what musicians do, they know what dancers do, but actors are confused and askke hum kya riyaaz kar sakte hain. What do people do to stay in practice? And I say, just keep acting but not with your family [laughs]. Though that is also necessary sometimes.

How I have been staying in touch is by reciting things, by memorising things. I have always had this nagging curiosity about Shakespeare's plays. I've read some of them like everybody has in school and college, but those are the plays everyone knows. So I resolved to go back to the ones I did not know about.Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, As You Like It everyone has read them.But there are 36 of them, and I have managed to plow through about 30. There are six still remaining, and I don't know if I will complete the record.

Naseeruddin Shah on stage in and as Einstein. Facebook/IndiaIFA

But my concern is not so much about being left out in the cold, or not getting employment. They'll always need an old man even in youthful stories, they'll need an old man or an old woman. But if it happens, it happens, which means I won't be of any use. What bothers me, if anything, is to become a liability on the family, and that is why I consider it my responsibility to look after my health.

There is this very heartbreaking line in one of the plays we do, calledDear Liar,where the lady who George Bernard Shaw was in love with and kept writing letters to her career has faded, and she has had to go away to America to earn crusts of bread by acting in small parts in Hollywood movies. She says that 'I thought the battle of life was fought in our youth' not a bit of it. It is when you're old and your work is not wanted that the battle rages and goes on and on.

After Irrfan Khan's passing, you gave an interview toTheIndian Express, where you recalled a scene rehearsal forMaqbool, in which you thought Irrfan had actually passed out, while he was just acting. You mentioned that you had never experienced something like that before. From such anecdotes and accounts, one can gauge just how invested the man was in his craft. In his presence, and in fact also in his absence, one realises how he challenged the 'star' system Indian cinema is obsessed with. In this context, how does one comprehend the loss of an artiste of Irrfan Khan's stature? Doesit subtract a kind of idiom from the craft of acting or filmmaking?

You cannot attribute such a cosmic significance to it there's no doubt that it is a massive loss. But the fact is that he had done enough to establish himself in all our hearts and minds. And living and dying is a big joke anyway. I have always believed that the way you die, or when you die is of no importance...it's how much you've done with your life that is of any importance. I think Irrfan did a massive amount with his life in the brief time that he was given, and he has left behind an example for all of us who will have to face the grim reaper sooner or later. [He has shown us] how to confront this eventuality with courage and fortitude. And people say that, you know, they only pretend, they only pretend. Well, the hell! Bravery is all pretence anyway. Bravery is nothing but the ability to hide your fears. Everybody feels scared, it's how well you can disguise your fears that qualifies you to be brave or not. And Irrfan was one of the bravest men I have ever come across. I miss him.

You say you are someone who isn't particularly comfortable striking a conversation with a stranger, which is why you try and reach out to people through your act while on stage. For Irrfan, interestingly, you had said that the audience reaches out to him every time. Have you ever aspired to achieve that through your craft, where you wish your audience reached out to you, and not the other way round?

I can't take that chance [laughs].

But why not?

I am quite okay reaching out to the audience. I like reaching out to them, provided I don't have to reach out to them in real life [laughs].

Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan in a still from Maqbool (2004). Via Disney+Hotstar.

Now that we are amidst such extraordinary times, which has allowed us to perhaps pause and introspect, what are the kinds of conversations you hope will emergefrom the Hindi film industry after this ordeal has passed?

In Hindi cinema, the only conversations one can expect is gossip and anecdotes, and I don't expect it to change. People can't change that quickly. And I am not a great fan of either gossip or anecdotage.

Finally, what are you doing to seek comfort during the lockdown?

As I said, I have read quite a bit of Shakespeare; I haven't watched as many movies as I thought I would. I've been more involved in reading. I have been reading Evelyn Waugh, who also is one of my favourite writers. And I have been reading Anthony Burgess I am finishing theEnderby Series. So yes, quite a lot of material has gone in during this period.

You have also been reading quite a bit of Faiz, if I am not wrong?

Yes, not a lot, but a bit, yes. I love reciting him.

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The Naseeruddin Shah interview | Writing has been th..Hindi movies. We were happy to plagiarise all the time - Firstpost

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August 22nd, 2020 at 2:54 am

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The Book Nook: The gift that keeps on giving – Jacksonville Daily Progress

Posted: August 17, 2020 at 4:56 pm


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That Sam-I-Am! That Sam-I-Am! I do not like that Sam-I-Am!

Penning these words from the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham, (published Aug. 12, 1960, by Random House), my mind goes down memory lane 30-something years, to when my sisters boys were toddlers, and our ritual was to read this book several times a day, at their request.

It was one of the first books my mom taught me to read, launching a lifelong love of books.

When I became an aunt, reading became a favorite pastime with my niece and my nephews, and it wasnt unusual for me to make sure they had access to Dr. Seuss, because his whimsical writing style was as much fun for me as it was for them. It didnt hurt that it got them hooked on reading, too!

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote, Make it a rule to never give a child a book you would not read yourself, something many folks have taken to heart when sharing their favorite books with kids, regardless of their age.

For parents, I think if they are avid readers, they want their children to love to read, said Jacksonville Public Library Director Trina Stidham, also noting that concerned parents know that reading comprehension skills will help their children in school and in life.

And, characters like Sam-I-Am give children someone they can identify with as they deal with certain questions or topics.

Within the pages of a book, a child can see how their favorite character dealt with a difficult situation and hopefully the child might ask themselves, What would I do? Who would I go to for help? Stidham said. I think most adults would agree that within the pages of a book, a child can see and escape to a whole new world that engages their brain while staying safe at home.

As kids grow older, books marketed toward their age group begin to address tough subjects like bullying, diversity, divorce and dealing with emotions they may not understand, Stidham said.

Ive found that as the kids grow older, its pretty cool to be able to turn them on to books Ive enjoyed or found helpful.

An adult nephew of mine has asked for family recipes, and while Ive shared those taught to me by my mom, Ive also sent him a copy of Robb Walshs The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos, which focuses on the kind of food I grew up eating. Another excellent cook on my husbands side of the family received my copy of Lisa Fains The Homesick Texan Cookbook, which takes traditional Texas recipes to a whole new level.

For me, a book is a gift that keeps on giving. And when its one you count among your personal favorites, its a gift twice-over.

Visit your local library to discover the treasures meant to be shared with your favorite readers. In Cherokee County, residents are served by libraries in Jacksonville, Rusk, Troup, Alto, Bullard and Wells.

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Every Best Picture Winner of the 1960s, Ranked According to IMDb – Screen Rant

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The 1960s saw a rise in notable filmmaking techniques and stars; these are the 10 Best Picture winners of the 1960s, ranked by IMDb.

The 1960s marked a period of great transition in the U.S. film industry. While the early and middle part of the decade was populated by traditional Hollywood musicals, the end of the decade was a different story entirely. Once the Hays Production Code was revoked in 1968, the filmmaking climate of gritty, personal, character-driven stories began to emerge in high volume.

RELATED: Oscars 1920-2020: Most Influential Best Picture Winner From Each Decade

Of course, the social unrest of the Civil Rights Movement and assassinations of various respected world leaders such as JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. began shaping the kinds of stories that were told on-screen post-1968.

Based on the famed Henry Fielding novel, Tom Jones earned Tony Richardson a pair of Oscars, one for Best Picture and another for Best Director. The film was also honored with Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Original Score.

The story follows Tom Jones (Albert Finney), a charming bastard rogue who gallivants across the English countryside looking for new women to bed. When Tom falls in love with Sophie Western (Susannah York), his playboy lifestyle is put to the test.

Carol Reed's Oliver! puts a lighthearted musical spin on Charles Dickens' infamous orphaned rascal, Oliver Twist. The film earned five Oscars in total, including Best Picture and Best Director (Reed).

The plot picks up when Oliver (Mark Lester) is auctioned to a mortician, prompting the young boy to run away from the orphanage and join a gang of juvenile pickpockets as a way to earn a living. The musical adaptation also won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for five-time Oscar-winning composer Johnny Green.

Johnny Green also won an Oscar for composing the score for West Side Story, the Best Picture winner of 1961. The classic gang-related musical earned 10 total Academy Awards, including Best Director honors for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

RELATED: 10 Best Villains In Musicals

The story tracks the heated rival between street gangs The Sharks and The Jets. When an epic battle is planned to determine respect and ultimate supremacy, a love affair between Shark Tony (Richard Beymer) and Jet Maria (Natalie Wood) leads to absolute mayhem.

Fred Zinnemann won four Oscars for Best Director over his illustrious career. The final honor in the category came following the release of A Man For All Seasons, a historical drama that took home a total of six Academy Awards.

Adapted from the Robert Bolt stage play (who also won an Oscar for adapting his own screenplay), the film stars Paul Schofield as Sir Thomas Moore, a rebellious knight who stood up to King Henry VIII's (Robert Shaw) repudiation of the Catholic Church as a means of divorcing one wife to marry another.

George Cukor's adaptation of the classic George Bernard Shaw play My Fair Lady resulted in a total of eight Oscar Awards. In addition to producer Jack Warner winning Best Picture, Cukor was also given a Best Director award.

Audrey Hepburn stars as Eliza Doolittle, a blue-collar English ingenue who becomes the object of experimentation by the pretentious Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). Higgins sets out to transform Liza into a radiant socialite and an upstanding member of society. However, Liza and Henry butt-heads at every turn until the dashing Freddy (Jeremy Brett) comes calling.

Midnight Cowboy still holds the distinction of being the only X-Rated movie in cinematic history to win Best Picture. The platonic love story between big city street hustler Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) and wide-eyed Texas cowboy Joe Buck (Jon Voight) also won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay (Waldo Salt) and Best Director (John Schlesinger).

RELATED: Dustin Hoffman's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

When naive Joe Buck arrives in bustling New York City, he's immediately humbled by the difficulty of his surroundings. When he meets street-wise Ratso, he forms an unlikely bond that carries them all the way to sunny Florida.

The timely topic of racial justice and police discrimination was confronted head-on in Norman Jewison's In The Heat of the Night, named the Best Picture of 1967.

The film follows Virgil Tubbs (Sidney Poitier), a black police detective who is suddenly arrested for murder in Sparta, Mississippi while awaiting a train. When local authorities learn that Tubbs is the ace homicide detective in Philadelphia, an investigation to find the real killer ensues. Rod Steiger also won an Oscar for playing southern Police Chief Gillespie.

The second Robert Wise 1960s musical to win Best Picture includes The Sound of Music. Wise also won his second Best Director Award following West Side Story in 1961.

Julie Andrews stars as Maria, a young Austrian nanny who aspires to become a nun. When the rakish George von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) asks the convent for help looking after his seven unruly children, Maria is given the position. At first, the Von Trapp children treat her poorly, but over time, Maria's kindhearted nature wins the family over.

Billy Wilder walked away with three Academy Awards for his work on The Apartment. In addition to Best Picture, Wilder earned Best Director and Original Screenplay honors.

RELATED: 10 Best Billy Wilder Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

The uproarious sex-comedy revolves around C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a staid insurance salesman who does everything in his power to climb the corporate ladder. His brown-nosing includes loaning his apartment to various insurance executives to carry out their extramarital trysts. When Baxter's boss asks for the key to his apartment, he must figure out a way to satisfy all involved.

David Lean's sweeping historical epic Lawrence of Arabia remains one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time. The seven-time Oscar winner currently ranks #109 on IMDb's Top 250 and holds a perfect 1000 Metascore.

Based on the historical writings of T.E. Lawrence, the story follows the titular English Lieutenant as he mobilizes a Bedouin Arab population in the Middle East and leads their uprising against Turkish forces during World War I. The four-hour film earned Lean his second Best Director Oscar after The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1958.

NEXT: Every 1980s Best Picture Winner, Ranked

Next MCU: 10 Most Underrated Characters That Are As Fascinating as the Main Cast

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Every Best Picture Winner of the 1960s, Ranked According to IMDb - Screen Rant

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The Best Things to Do in Seattle This Week: August 17-20, 2020 – TheStranger.com

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A new week in Phase 2 means a mixed bag of events happening virtually, in-person (modified to accommodate physical distancing, of course), and, sometimes, a combination of both. We're here to guide you through our top picks in every genrefrom the Suffrage Special Whistle Stop Tour to a Naked Giants Album Release Party, and from a Town Hall talk with wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght to the release of Chuck's Hop Shop's new Pay the Fee IPA benefiting King County Equity Now. In addition, check out our guides to supporting black-owned businesses and artists in Seattle, educating yourself through anti-racism resources, and donating to social justice causes. Find even more events on our complete streaming events calendar and our resistance & solidarity calendar, and check back on Friday for a roundup of the best local virtual events this weekend.

Mushroom Foraging for Beginners PNW fungi resource organizationSalish Mushrooms will lead a "fast-paced introduction" into mushroom-foraging. You'll learn about 10 types of mushrooms for beginners and where to find them, key characteristics to help with identification, and common poisonous mushrooms.

Auction of Washington Wines Online Auction & Virtual Gala Bid on a variety of wine-themed events and experiences through this live virtual auction and gala, whose proceeds will benefitSeattle Children's and Washington State University's Wine Science Research (who knew!).

POP+ Punk Book Club: 'Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl' Join an online discussion of Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, the wonderful memoir by living Pacific Northwest punk legend Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, as part of MoPOP's Pop+ Punk series.

Spirits of Latin America Book Talk With Ivy Mix Bartender Ivy Mix will discuss her new book about her travels through Latin America to research the histories and cultures of agave, cane, and grape spirits, and will teach you how to make aNovo Fogo Organic Cachaa- based cocktail from the book. For the Seattle edition, cocktail bar Navy Strength will have cocktail kits inspired by the book available for pickup, and the first 30 people who register will get a free copy of the book.

Climate Change Impacts on PNW Trees Symposium ThePacific Northwest International Society of ArboricultureandUW Botanic Gardens will co-host this virtualsymposium on the myriad ways in which climate change is affecting trees in our region. Professional arborists and those interested in environmental activism are encouraged to attend and ask questions.

The Science Inside Climate Pledge Arena You may have read about Amazon's plan for the former Key Arena, which will be home to the newly monikered local NHL team the Seattle Kraken, when they announced it back in Junethe company's "zero-carbon certified" stadium will feature 100% renewable electricity, "the greenest ice in the NHL," locally sourced food, solar panels, andon-site stormwater retention for landscaping. But how?! The Pacific Science Center will break down how all of these environmentally conscious amenities will work.

The True Story of Tommy Tucker The Museum of Flight, in partnership with the Smithsonians National Museum of American History, interrupts your Tuesday-night routine to tell you about a very important celebrity squirrel namedTommyTucker,who not only traveled the country performing tricks but also helped sell war bonds while sporting the latest women's fashion accessories.

Live on KEXP at Home: serpentwithfeet "The Pentecostal-forged queerness of Sylvester meets the gossamer harmonies of P.M. Dawns Prince Be and the sexualized spirituality of Prince," wrote former Stranger contributor KathyFennessy ofJosiah Wise's (aka serpentwithfeet) debut album. "It's rich and full, yet as intimate as a prayer." TheBaltimore-born artist will perform live on KEXP's YouTube channel.

George Dyson with Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Technology Beyond Programmable Control Author and historian George Dyson traces the history of humans' relationship to machines inAnalogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control. He'll join Town Hall in conversation with software engineerBlaise Aguera y Arcas.

Micheline Aharonian Marcom with Keenan Norris After being deported from the US, an undocumented college student travels back toCalifornia from Guatemala with a group of other migrants fleeing violence in their home country in Micheline Marcom's The New American. The Saudi Arabia-born, LA-bred author will discuss her latest novel withKeenan Norris (Brother and the Dancer).

Suffrage Special Whistle Stop Tour Thiseight-episode video series explores Washington State's role in the national women's suffrage movement, highlighting the local changemakers who led the way. Why a whistle-stop tour? The theme is based on the 1909 "Suffrage Special" train, which toted local and national suffragists across the country.

Virtual Silent Reading Party Thefirst worldwide silent-reading partywas such a huge success that we're making it weekly. Every Wednesday at 6 pm we're going to throw these parties, at least until stay-at-home is over.Attendees at the first Zoom silent-reading party included famous actors, writers, composers, artists, families, teenagers doing their homework, people staring into space listening to the music because it was just so beautiful, cats, and even one household on Orcas Island that was eating dinner and decided to broadcast the reading party as their background music. (What a brilliant idea!)It wasn't just a great party to be at. Behind the scenes, this was a roaring success as well.The Strangerbrought in revenue from the reading party for the first time ever, our musicianPaul Matthew Mooremadeten timesmore on Venmo tips than he's ever made in the tip jar at the Sorrento (thank you for your generosityhedeservesit!), and hundreds of people at the party have written us emails, clamoring for more. CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE

Jack's Prime Rib Dinner Tuck into a juicy slab of smoky prime rib cooked low and slow by Jack's BBQ, along with sides. Reserve a table for dine-in at either the Sodo or South Lake Union location, or place an order for takeout.

Jonathan Slaght: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl The rare Blakiston's fish owl, the largest living species of owl, coexists withbrown bears, tigers, and leopards in a remote forest in Eastern Russia. Unsurprisingly, it's in danger of extinction. Wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght is rightfully obsessed with them, as he'll prove in this Town Hall talk concerning his bookA Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl.

Kevin OBrien with Laurie Frankel "Summer means breezing through thrillers, and you can't really go wrong with a new one fromKevin O'Brien, aNew York Timesbest-selling author and a member of the Seattle7Writers collective," Rich Smith wrote last year, adding that the author "is good about providing some substance with his confectionary stuff, so expect to tear through this gossipy, creepy book in a couple of days without feeling too empty inside." This year, the "Capitol Hill flaneur" (per Elliott Bay) will discuss his new book, The Bad Sister, about "two half-sisters who learn that theyre at the center of a copycat killers obsession with the brutal murders on a college campus fifty years earlier." He'll appear in conversation with Laurie Frankel (This Is How It Always Is) in this livestreamed event.

Kiku Hughes A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Kiku Hughes's new historical graphic novel Displacement. Hear the local author/cartoonist talk about her work with Third Place Books.

Pay the Fee IPA Proceeds fromChuck's latest beer, an IPA made in collaboration with Seapine Brewing (and named after the call to "pay the fee" to Black and brown communities who have suffered most under the actions of SPD), will benefitKing County Equity Now, which is led by and champions Black-led and organizations and communities.

Burke From Home Trivia Night Test your knowledge of natural history and culture for a virtual trivia night hosted by theHolocaust Center for Humanity and the beloved Burke Museum. Once you register, they'll send you a Zoom link with the info to play along on a trivia platform called Crowdpurr.

Grounded - Weep Wave & Antonioni BIG BLDG's cozy weekly music series will welcome psych rockers Weep Wave and the grungy alt-rock band about whom Jasmyne Keimig once wrote: "Antonioni is what I imagined, as a millennial, the great local Seattle bands of the '90s sounded like, back when Seattle was Amazon-free and you could rent a room on the Hill for, like, $200 and a bag of magic beans or whatever. It's easy to picture the characters from10 Things I Hate About Youlistening to them."

HDLSC Presents: Peyote Ugly Space out to synth-psych trio Peyote Ugly's trippy jams on High Dive's virtual stage.

NVCS Presents: Naked Giants Album Release Party Local rock trio Naked Giants will give you a sneak peek into their sophomore album, The Shadow, with this virtual Nectar performance. You can also see the band perform on-demand here.

SAMA Sounds: Carmen Rizzo, Meriem Ben Amor, Kiran Ahluwalia Join Seattle Sacred Music & Art and Seattle Theatre Group for an exploration of sacred sounds from around the globe, featuring live music every Thursday evening.

BJ Cummings with James Rasmussen & Paulina Lopez: The River That Made Seattle Author BJ Cummings will read excerpts from The River That Made Seattle: A Natural and Human History of the Duwamishonline and show new and old photographs highlighting the river's Native, immigrant, and industrialist histories. He'll be joined by theDuwamish River Cleanup Coalition's James Rasmussen and Paulina Lopez.

Goethe Pop Up Book Klub: Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear Yoko Tawanda's dreamy novel Memoirs of a Polar Bearcenters three German polar bears who write books, perform at the circus, and find peace at a Berlin zoo. Read it and discuss your thoughts at this online book club with German cultural center Goethe Pop Up.

Maaza Mengiste & Salar Abdoh Maaza Mengiste, the author ofBeneath the Lions Gaze and the Man Booker Prize-longlistedThe Shadow King, will discussAddis Ababa Noir, an anthology she helped edit featuringEthiopias capital city from various perspectives.

MarginShift Presents: Barton Cardenas Harrison Roth and Wright Soothe your weary soul with poetry from Ebo Barton, Brenda Cardenas, Roberto Harrison, Dia Roth, and Carolyne Wright.

Molly Wizenberg Wizenberg is the co-host of the local comedy/food podcast Spilled Milkand the author of Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage, about the experience of opening Delancey, the acclaimed pizza restaurant in Ballard, with her ex-husband. She'll offer her life story as an insight into the changing nature of sexuality and the unexpected turns of life that can disrupt even the most seemingly stable families: At the age of 36, married to a man, she unexpectedly found herself attracted to a woman.

Strange Storytelling Hour Outside Worlds w/ Emmett Montgomery Storytellers recount peculiar tales and bizarre happenings based on their own experiences in this multi-episode series co-presented by the North Bend Film Festival. For this round, local comic and wizardly ex-Mormon Emmett Montgomery will tell tales revolving around "how to exist safely beyond our front doors."

Re/frame: Still Life Join Ann Poulson, the Henrys Associate Curator of Collections, for an interactive online tour of the gallery's collection.

Steven Holl: Making Architecture Renowned American architect Steven Holl will talk about his exhibitMaking Architecture, currently on view virtually at the Bellevue Arts Museum as part of the Seattle Design Festival.

Welcome to El: An Intimate Night of Comedy with El Sanchez Beloved local comedian El Sanchez recorded an intimate, hilarious show at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center just before the quarantine took effect. For those who missed it, the show is now on demand!

2020 Democratic National Convention Normally the DNC looks like a bunch of people milling about and giving each other standing ovations and waving signs. It's kind of like a concert festival, but for politicians who are just there to play the hits and get offstage. Maybe it'ssupposedto mean more than that, and maybe the 2020 version of the DNC, being held as a series of livestreamed, socially-distant events and speaking engagements when the country is literally on the verge of implosion, will live up to that. Watch live as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris officially accept their nominations, as other prominent Democrats like the Obamas, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders deliver speeches, and even as pop stars like Billie Eilish and the Chicks perform.

Pike-Pine Summer United Get 10% off your bill at local bars and eateries like Amandine Bakeshop, A Pizza Mart, Bateau, and tons of other places on Capitol Hill moving into Phase 2 of reopening by mentioning The Stranger's Pike-Pine promotion. Various locations (Capitol Hill)

Doe Bay Fest Artist Residency Local artists have been invited to post up in the Orcas Island-adjacent Doe Bay resort (which is currently operating at 50% capacity) to bring live music to the people throughout the summer. Catch sets in-person from performers like Anna Tivel and Ok Sweetheart this week. Doe Bay Resort (Olga)

Saint Joan Despite George Bernard Shaw's trenchant atheism, his classic depiction of the Maid of Orleans stresses her strength, bravery, faith, and humanity in the face of political and religious oppression. The original date of this production, staged by Mathew Wright, was canceled due to COVID-19. This is a digital rendition.

Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair The Seattle Art Fair was canceled, but a bunch of local galleriesmany of which are in Pioneer Squareare taking it upon themselves to keep the tradition alive while abiding by social distancing guidelines with a DIY, self-guided version featuring exciting new pieces by artists like Anthony White.

Seattle Design Festival Now in its 10th year, Design in Public's Seattle Design Festival will switch over their programming to the internet to continue to explore how urbanism, architecture, and design can further justice, ecology, and community. Look forward to livestreamed webinars and discussions, a weekly "Thinkercyze" virtual challenge, and even in-person displays throughout the city that you can visit while social distancing.

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The Best Things to Do in Seattle This Week: August 17-20, 2020 - TheStranger.com

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That Hideous Strength CS Lewis’s Fantasia of Consciousness at 75 – Discovery Institute

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Image: C. S. Lewis, by Anca Budisan.

Editors note: Published on August 16, 1945,C. S. LewissThat Hideous Strengthis a dystopian novel that eerily reflects the realities of 2020. This week and next, to mark the books three-quarter century anniversary,Evolution News presents a series of essays, reflections, and videos about its themes and legacy.

M.D. AeschlimansThe Restoration of Man: C.S. Lewis and the Continuing Case Against Scientismhas recently been republished in an updated new edition by Discovery Institute Press and in French translation by Pierre Tqui in France.

Seventy-five years ago today, in that momentous year 1945, C. S. Lewis published the third and final volume in his series of three space-fiction, mythopoeic, dystopian novels,That Hideous Strength.The novels are hard to categorize and have never reached the levels of popularity of his Narnia chronicles and satirical and apologetic works, but their over-arching philosophical project entails a profound meditation on thecharacter of Western and world history over the previous 150 years but especially during the catastrophic, apocalyptic period 1914-1945. The novel deserves comparison with the more famous dystopias such as the Russian Evgeny ZamyatinsWe(1924), Aldous HuxleysBrave New World(1932) and George Orwells1984(1949), and also the English Catholic-convert Msgr. R.H. Bensons apocalyptic fantasyLord of the World(1907); but it even merits comparisons with first-order philosophical-historical writing in the tradition of Thomas CarlylesThe French Revolution(1839) and Alexander SolzhenitsynsGulag Archipelago(1974) and with the history and philosophy of science as conveyed by Alfred North Whitehead, Pierre Duhem, and the great Hungarian refugee scholars Michael Polanyi and Stanley L. Jaki. The very width of its inter-disciplinary scope and depth of its philosophical-ethical penetration make it a hard book to categorize but are also characteristics of itsimportance and power as a work of metaphysical fiction.

Himself a wounded veteran of World War I, Lewis delivered in 1943, in the middle of a second, even vaster and more destructive world war, a series of invited university lectures in the north of England that were published by Oxford University Press later that year asThe Abolition of Man, a dystopian title with an innocuous-sounding, specialist subtitle,Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools. High claims continue to be made for this short, dense, lucid expository essay; the outstanding Oxford literary scholar A. D. Nuttall (1937-2007), author of one of the finest books of the last fifty years on Shakespeare, wrote of it: The argument as it unfolds is dazzling. It is in a way odd that a work which so thoroughly routs whole volumes of Nietzsche and Sartre is not more widely admired, especially as the style in which it is presented is brilliantly lucid. In Lewiss own Preface toThat Hideous Strength, he tells us that the novel is a tall story about devilry, though it has behind it a serious point which I have tried to make in myAbolition of Man. It is also a uniquely revealing ghost story and can be profitably read alongside the science journalist Deborah Blums excellentGhost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death(2006).

The novel is a narrative, fictional version of a philosophical anatomy of the satanic dimension and implication of much modern history from 1914 onwards, which Lewis himself had lived through, viscerally as a soldier, intellectually as a scholar, and vicariously as a spectator of world events and as a novelist. But unlikeBrave New World,1984,We,orLord of the World, it also contains a benign vision of human possibility and glimpses of beatitude. It reminds one of the clairvoyant, apocalyptic psychological and metaphysical insights of Dostoevsky but also contains visions of cosmic, human, and even animal and vegetable harmony that are reminiscent of St. Francis of Assisi, Dante, Spenser, Shakespeares late romances, Blake, Tolstoy, and G. K. ChestertonsThe Man Who Was Thursday. Albert Schweitzers reverence for life and the pious, imaginative ecology of Wendell Berry are more recent examples.

But if a way to the better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst. For Lewis, the great modern apostasy that had led to the 20th-century Armageddons had taken place in the late 19th century with the marriage of Darwinian and Nietzschean thinking that simultaneously produced a calamitous decline in religious-humanist belief in Natural-Law theism and an enormous increase in post-moral cynicism and ruthlessness in the writings of Nietzsche and the emergent ideology of Social Darwinism, whether in its nationalist-fascist-militarist form, a so-called scientific-socialist Communist form, or in the less fully organized competitive-capitalist form. In 1992 the literary critic John Carey publishedThe Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939, in which he argued that during this whole period in the British Isles only two major writers withstood the glamorous, radically enlightened appeal of Nietzsche: G. K. Chesterton and Arnold Bennett. Lewis may well be seen as a disciple of Chesterton, and like him he felt the seismic shift of consciousness away from the often-contested but durable Judaeo-Christian Natural-Law tradition of figures such as Samuel Johnson, Burke, Jane Austen, Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Lord Acton, and William Jennings Bryan.

A.D. Nuttall astonishingly argues that Lewiss short philosophical treatiseThe Abolition of Manrouts whole volumes of Nietzsche and Sartre, but that its very lucidity has put modern intellectuals off and led to its undervaluation.That Hideous Strengthattempts to give a vivid narrative picture of how the gigantically potent Darwinian-Nietzschean heresy actually works out in practice, something that Lewis felt was truly evident during the decades of his life up to 1945. In an anti-reductionist 1972 essay on Blake, the combative Cambridge moralist and literary critic F. R. Leavis pointed out that Though we have to recognize that Darwins life testifies to the existence of intelligence and purpose, his theory of evolution offered to dispense with the need for thesewords (emphasis added).

Lewiss novel conveys the idea that the human person is inevitably, almost gravitationally, drawn to some conception of ultimate worth and significance. The difficulty that ensues, G. K. Chesterton epigrammatically put it, when people cease to believe in God is not that they believe in nothing, but that they believe inanything. The clairvoyant Dostoevsky saw that the destruction of the orthodox belief in the God-man Jesus Christ led to new divination and deification, the pursuit and celebration of the man-god, homo deus, foreshadowed by the Marquis de Sade and Max Stirner and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and fully articulate in Nietzsches conception of the post-moral Superman. It could take nationalist, racialist, imperialist, utilitarian, or Promethean-proletarian forms, or eventuate in a simple but thoroughgoing hedonistic egotism as in the Marquis de Sade and Stirner; but some assumption or assertion of ultimate worth or value, for individuals or groups nations, races, classes is inevitable. Language and conceptualization themselves assume or entail it.

In a brilliant pre-World War I essay On Reading, Chesterton had intuitively discerned the depth of the Nietzschean threat (so alluring to his friend George Bernard Shaw) and had compared Nietzsches celebratory, histrionic immoralism to Shakespeares depiction of the iniquity of the usurper Richard III in his play: what the incipiently mad egotist Nietzsche praised and celebrated, the orthodox Christian Shakespeare deplored and condemned. Suffering nightmares about his own murders, Richard tries to steel himself and his followers:

Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls. Conscience is but a word that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in awe. Our strong arms be our conscience; swords, our law.

Souls is of course ironic, as Richard does not believe in the soul at all, but only in the will. Richard is a cynical nominalist Conscience is but aword

The skeptical, nominalist thinking of Hume (a brilliant sophist G. E. M. Anscombe) and the French philosophes in the 18th century stripped the emerging natural sciences of their fiduciary rational core, creating a radically reductionist positivism that, as the distinguished contemporary Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009) put it, renounces the transcendental meaning of truth and reduces [even] logical values to features of biological behavior. In his history of positivist thought,The Alienation of Reason, Kolakowski entitles one chapter The Destructive Consequences of Humes Work.

The late 19th-century marriage of the sub-rational and sub-moral Darwinian idea of survival of the fittestand Nietzsches idea of the post-moral will to power produced a predatory mindset that had much to do with the sanguinary tragedies of the century to follow and our own time, as a large scholarly literature has shown. (Fine recent examples are Richard WeikartsFrom Darwin to Hitler(2004) and Yvonne SherrattsHitlers Philosophers(2013).)Sherratt notes that Nietzsches infamous workZarathustra, in which he had coined the idea of the Superman, was printed in 150,000 copies during the First World War, and handed out to German soldiers at the front.

LewissAbolition of Manis not a theological work, but a metaphysical argument, a brilliantly lucid philosophical treatise defending the perennial philosophy. ButThat Hideous Strengthis simultaneously a science-fiction, mythopoeic, and theological work, with roots in and affinities to Biblical apocalyptic literature,The Odyssey, DantesComedy, MiltonsParadise Lost, SwiftsGullivers Travels, and the transcendental visions of William Blake, most luminously in his 1803 Auguries of Innocence. A key passage for both Blakes visionary poems and Lewiss visionary novels is St. Pauls assertion in the Epistle to the Ephesians: It is not against flesh and blood that we [fight]; we have to do with princedoms and powers, with those who have mastery of the world in these dark days, with malign influences in an order higher than ours (Eph. 6:12, tr. Ronald Knox). Blakes late visions are often disappointingly intermittent and obscure, but he was clear in believing that The strongest poison ever known comes from Caesars laurel crown. The pursuit of power, without virtue, condemned by Christian thinkers such as St. Paul and St. Augustine as the libido dominandi, becomes the enlightened modern will-to-power of Nietzsche and his legion of admirers and disciples, including H. L. Mencken, Clarence Darrow, Emma Goldman, and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the USA. Power without goodness, mental and physical force without ethics or justice, is that hideous strength.

Malign influences in an order higher than ours are depicted inThat Hideous Strength.The force connecting humans with these transcendental influences is ideological or philosophical by voluntarily opening themselves mentally to post-moral idols of power the intellectuals of the new technocracy, nowadays called post-humanists or transhumanists, enter truly trans-human realms of conceptual and existential reality. Less consciously than Marlowes Dr. Faustus, Lewiss new class of scientific-political conditioners collaborate with ferocious, predatory potencies in the universe. Even the popular contemporary futurist Yuval Harari worries today about unleashing new post-humanist technologies (Homo Deus, 2016). Lewis argued the point with particular brilliance in chapter three ofThe Abolition of Manin 1943.

Machiavellis, Marlowes, and Sades immoralist assertions have a gruesome, criminal irony and the first two thinkers are often ambivalent but Nietzsches penetrate higher and deeper in gnomic affirmations of destructive, inhuman effect. In 1884 he wrote of war: one must learn from warto sacrifice many and to take ones cause seriously enough not to spare human lives. With a kind of sick longing, the neurasthenic, intellectual Nietzsche ludicrously celebrates brutal visions of unjust and merciless power. Conscience is but a word that cowards use

Lewiss philosophical project in both the expositoryAbolitionof Manand the imaginativeThat Hideous Strengthis to show that none of the varieties of modern Naturalism can escape self-contradiction and self-refutation because language, rationality, ethics, and human cognition, conceptualization, intentionality, and identity themselves have metaphysical and supernatural dimensions.

Having vigorously argued against the Pharisaical Bertrand Russell in a notorious 1957 BBC television interview with him, the witty, sardonic moralist Malcolm Muggeridge went on to attack the Oxford logical-positivist philosopher Alfred Ayer in another interview for his glib, nihilistic nominalism, the emotivist thesis that ethics is never rational but only subjective: How you ever became Professor of Logic, Freddie, I shall never know. Nor do we now, in retrospect, except as the manipulative machinations of an elite, obscurantist, sophistical inner ring.

Trained himself at the very highest level in philosophy, like his contemporaries T. S. Eliot and Jacques Maritain, Lewis saw the ascendancy of all forms of modern Naturalism as both self-refuting and catastrophic, learnd foolishness often developing into transgressive iniquity. The Logical Positivists, Russell and Ayer, the Marxists and their scientific-intellectual fellow-travelers such as J. D. Bernal, J. B. S. Haldane, and C. P. Snow in Britain, were contemporary with the vastly influential American philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952), whose mind-numbing, tortuously obscure prose style resembles the endless circumlocutions of the depraved inner ring of intellectuals at the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.) at Belbury inThat Hideous Strength: like Miltons fallen angels, by their perverse reasoning and language they are all in wandering mazes lost (Paradise Lost, II:561).

The only way to avoid metaphysics is to say nothing, the American philosopher E. A. Burtt argued in 1924 inThe Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, producing a classic epigram of the perennial philosophy. Voluble, moralistic Naturalists such as Russell, Dewey, C. P. Snow, and C. H. Waddington, whom Lewis critiques inThe Abolition of Man, carried forward the destructive project of Hume and the French philosophes and had no grounds for opposing the Nietzschean-Social Darwinist program that laid waste so much of the 20th century and whose confusions are still with us.

These concurrent influences make much more of a reality Petrarchs famous poetic lament of 700 hundred years ago about the occlusion of the light and life of reason: Ed si spento ogni benigno lume/Del ciel, per cui sinforma umana vita And all the kindly lights, by which human life is guided, are extinguished in Heaven Povera e nuda vai, Filosofia,/Dice la turba al vil guadagno intesa. You go poor and naked, Philosophy, says the crowd, bent on selfish gain. (Sonnet 7)

Yet it is the very luminosity of Lewiss argument inThe Abolition of Manand of his brilliant mythopoeic fable inThat Hideous Strength a fantasia of consciousness and conscience, not of the unconscious and dark will that continues to give intellectual, moral, and imaginative sustenance 75 years after their first publication. Philosophy is here properly clothed in her radiant garments, and the kindly lights of Heaven are not extinguished.

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That Hideous Strength CS Lewis's Fantasia of Consciousness at 75 - Discovery Institute

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AMAZON to premiere Welcome to the Blumhouse movie series for Halloween – TV Blackbox

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Sharing the spine-tingling suspense thats a Blumhouse signature, each film presents a distinctive vision and unique perspective on common themes centered around family and love as redemptive or destructive forces.

This slate marks the first-ever program of Amazon Original movies on Prime Video that are thematically connected.

The films showcase exciting up-and-coming talent, alongside established actors in exceptional and shocking new roles. Welcome to the Blumhouse will launch in October, timed for the Halloween season, on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Amazon Prime Video will launch the initial slate of four films as double features starting with The Lie directed by acclaimed writer/director Veena Sud (The Killing, 7 Seconds) and Black Box directed by up-and-coming writer/director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. (Born with It), both premiering on October 6.

Launching the following week on October 13 is Evil Eye, from talented young directors Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani (A Days Work, Jinn) and executive produced by Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Quantico, White Tiger), and Nocturne written and directed by filmmaker Zu Quirke (Zugzwang, Ghosting), making her feature film debut. The latter four films will launch in 2021.

said Julie Rapaport, Co-Head of Movies for Amazon Studios.

The Lie is written and directed by Veena Sud, and stars Mireille Enos (The Killing), Peter Sarsgaard (An Education) and Joey King (The Kissing Booth 2, The Act). When their teenaged daughter confesses to impulsively killing her best friend, two desperate parents attempt to cover up the horrific crime, leading them into a complicated web of lies and deception. Produced by Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Christopher Tricarico, and Jason Blum. Executive produced by Howard Green, Kim Hodgert, Jeanette Volturno, Couper Samuelson and Aaron Barnett.

Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. (Born With It) and script by Osei-Kuffour Jr. and Stephen Herman, Black Box stars Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World 3, The Circle), Phylicia Rashad (Creed), Amanda Christine (Colony), Tosin Morohunfola (The Chi, The 24th), Charmaine Bingwa (Trees of Peace, Little Sista), and Troy James (The Flash, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an agonising experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Jay Ellis, Aaron Bergman, Lisa Bruce, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold, Mynette Louie and William Marks.

Based off the award-winning, best-selling Audible Original production from writer Madhuri Shekar, Evil Eye is directed by Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani, and stars Sarita Choudhury (Mississippi Masala, Lady in the Water), Sunita Mani (GLOW), Omar Maskati (Unbelievable), and Bernard White (Silicon Valley). A seemingly perfect romance turns into a nightmare when a mother becomes convinced her daughters new boyfriend has a dark connection to her own past. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Lisa Bruce, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold, Guy Stodel, Anjula Acharia, Emilia Lapenta and Kate Navin.

Nocturne is written and directed by Zu Quirke in her breakout feature debut. Starring Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria, The Handmaids Tale, Players Table), Madison Iseman (Jumanji: The Next Level, Annabelle Comes Home), Jacques Colimon (The Society) and Ivan Shaw (Insecure, Casual). Inside the halls of an elite arts academy, a timid music student begins to outshine her more accomplished and outgoing twin sister when she discovers a mysterious notebook belonging to a recently deceased classmate. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Lisa Bruce, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold, Matthew Myers and Fodhla Cronin OReilly.

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AMAZON to premiere Welcome to the Blumhouse movie series for Halloween - TV Blackbox

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No Exit Theatre Collective Presents George Bernard Shaw’s ARMS AND THE MAN in Live-Streamed Reading Series – Broadway World

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Arms and the Man, directed by Ben Natan, will be performed Friday, August 14 at 7 p.m. on the No Exit Theatre Collective Facebook page. All shows in their Fortnightly Reading Series are abridged to run less than 90 minutes, with a Q&A with the artists to follow.

Ben Natan, co-artistic director, founded NETC to give theatre artists a space to work on their craft during the pandemic.

This show is the first in their LOVE AND CONSEQUENCES micro-season.

Arms and the Man follows Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler in their Fortnightly Reading Series.

The cast will feature Jackie Alexis as Raina, Meagan Sisler as Bluntschli, Daniel Cabrera as Sergius, Kym Zlogar as Louka, Tessa Ramirez-Keough as Catherine, Keith Hale as Major Petkoff, Kassandra Perez as Nicola/Bluntschli's Friend, Emma Josephine Rucci, Swing. Technical directed by Daisy Phillips. Script managed by Caity MacNeill.

Honoring the activist roots of theatre and their artists is at the core of No Exit Theatre Collective. They seek to affect change with their work. With each production they put on, the creative team selects a social justice organization to support. Their support comes from their virtual tip jar.

This week, they will be supporting the Wallace Foundation, with 20 percent of the tips from their virtual tip jar. The Wallace Foundation provides artistic opportunities and resources for underserved and less privileged communities.

"Recently, one of our members lost a close loved one. In order to honor their memory, we are supporting the Wallace Foundation for this week's show. At NETC, we believe in radical accessibility and know what truly makes an artist is the chance to be creative," said co-artistic director Ben Natan.

Their virtual tip jar is where you can support their work. Each show week, 20 percent of tips go toward the organization selected by the creative team. The remainder of that money is equally split among the artists involved in the production.

On off-weeks, the funds from this tip jar go towards supporting the collective - buying rights to shows, upgrading their streaming capabilities, and expanding their team. Any funds that remain roll over to the following week's performance. Their tip jar is on Venmo, @NoExit-TC.

You can find constant updates by subscribing to their newsletter. Subscribe for constant updates on their collective, straight to your inbox. Their newsletter is written by editorial director Ryanne Salzano.

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Paul Williams: Life on the high seas with the maritime drug busters – Independent.ie

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The warship is pulled from alongside the naval dockyard at Haulbowline Island by a tugboat before gently gliding under its own steam through the shimmering waters of Cork harbour.

nder the gaze of St Colmans Cathedral and the picturesque seaside town of Cobh, the L George Bernard Shaw turns its bow towards the ocean for another patrol over the horizon in the area of the Atlantic known as the cocaine highway into Europe.

The ships powerful engines pick up speed as it traverses the channel at the harbour entrance overlooked from either side by the old forts of Camden and Davis propelling it into the mercifully flat expanse of the ocean. The sky is azure; the sunshine glorious.

The first thing that our military mariners learn when they go to sea is not to take the Atlantic for granted; rather it is a mercurial beast, with mountainous waves and swells that can push a ship and its crew to the limits of their endurance.

The Irish Independent has been given exclusive access and a bottle of sea sickness pills to spend several days on the 67m patrol vessel to witness first-hand what the Naval Service calls a maritime defence and security operation.

Whenever we have visitors, the weather is good and the ocean is calm, but this is the exception and it is deceptive, the captain, Lieutenant Commander Phil Dicker, tells us as he supervises the bridge.

Out here we have some of the roughest, stormiest seas in the world, with waves of over 24 metres in the north-west Atlantic regularly recorded in huge swells, which can make life pretty uncomfortable boarding a yacht carrying a drug shipment in a force-seven gale is not for the faint-hearted.

The veteran sailor, who has more than 20 years service, knows what he is talking about. On a winters night in 2008, he took part in a major operation resulting in the seizure of over 750m worth of cocaine when the Naval Service intercepted the yacht Dances with Waves in the midst of gale-force winds and seven-metre waves 240km off the south coast.

It was one of Europes biggest maritime seizures of a drug that has been the source of violence and devastation on the streets of Irish towns and cities.

The captain sets a course that will take the patrol 200 miles south-west of Fastnet Rock to the edge of the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which has some of the worlds richest fishing grounds, and is the busiest shipping lane between the Americas and western Europe.

The 90-metre warship was commissioned last year and is the newest addition to the fleet, the fourth of its class, purpose-built for the Irish Naval Service. The ships are named after famous Irish literary figures: the others are the Samuel Beckett, the James Joyce and the William Butler Yeats.

The George Bernard Shaw carries enough fuel, safety equipment, support systems and essential supplies to ensure its 55 personnel are self-sufficient for up to four weeks at sea. It also bristles with enough firepower to start a small war.

About an hour off shore, Lt Cmdr Dicker issues the order to the gunnery crews to prove the ships weapons which, in laymans terms, involves test-firing them. After establishing a safe cordon around the ship and with no other vessels on the horizon, the ship erupts in gunfire. The primary weapon, the powerful Oto Melara 76mm cannon at the bow, fires a deafening fusillade that obliterates a target buoy several kilometres away. It can accurately fire up to 85 rounds a minute at a target 20km away.

For a while, the George Bernard Shaw feels like it is engaged in a full-scale battle as its two deadly 20mm Rheinmettall cannons join the barrage in chorus with two more 12.7mm heavy machine guns and four smaller general-purpose machine guns. There is no doubt that this is a ship not to be tangled with.

Its engines also make it one of the fastest ships operating in the Atlantic, delivering up to 23 knots with an operational range of 6,000 nautical miles. The on-board generators can supply enough electricity to power a small town.

The ship is also equipped with an array of information technology and state-of-the-art detection and tracking systems capable of monitoring the movements of all vessels within the EEZ. It also collates intelligence that is pooled and shared by various agencies including the Air Corps Maritime squadron, who support their Naval Service colleagues operating two versatile Casa 235 aircraft.

This is our day-to-day business in the navy where we patrol the Irish EEZ and beyond when we are required to. Our role is to protect the vast natural resources within that 200-mile radius which belong to the Irish State, including fossil fuels, fisheries, renewable energy. Fish conservatively worth up to 2bn a year are extracted within our waters every year, so our job is to ensure that this resource is adequately policed and protected, says Lt Cmdr Dicker as the firing ends and the voyage resumes.

The Irish Navy is the States only law enforcement agency out here and we are its sentinel on the high seas; the ship is the equivalent of the garda patrol monitoring the road and who is using it. This is our beat and we are the roadblock, using a ship that is an agile and resilient resource with a crew that possesses all the expertise and the firepower, if necessary, to carry out whatever mission we are assigned.

The ship has a responsibility to uphold Irish and EU sovereignty, but today the emphasis is on drug trafficking, which is one of the Naval Services top operational priorities. Over the past 12 years, its men and women have been directly involved in the interception of more than 2bn worth of cocaine.

A big part of what we do involves drug interdiction operations and we are on constant alert for suspicious vessels. The crew members on watch are encouraged to be curious just like the dedicated garda and investigate any ship on our screens that is acting out of the ordinary, says Lt Cmdr Dicker.

If we spot something suspicious, as we regularly do out here, the information is relayed back to Naval Ops in Haulbowline for a full background check on the vessel to see if it is on any international suspect lists. Unless I am specifically told not to intercept the vessel, I will go and find out who it is and what they are up to as a matter of course.

Today we are headed into the southerly most part of our area of operations, which is the main route for cargo ships between Western Europe and North and Central America. Consequently, it is also the main cocaine smuggling route into Europe. It is the international drug dealers Route 66 or cocaine highway and they tend to hide in plain view.

The Naval Service is a member of a Joint Drugs Task Force with the garda and customs, which in turn plays a key role in the EU-funded Maritime Analysis Operations Centre (Narcotics) Maoc (N) which is based in Lisbon and headed by former garda assistant commissioner Michael OSullivan.

Maoc is responsible for co-ordinating the collective police, naval, air force and customs resources of seven nations to combat the trafficking of cocaine along Europes western coastline, which is also the main source of supply for Irish gangs such as the Kinahan cartel.

In a recent interview with the Irish Independent, OSullivan described the Irish Naval Service as the unsung heroes in the fight against international drug trafficking

The Irish Navy go out there on the high seas in all weathers at short notice to track suspect vessels we are monitoring we would be blindsided without them, the former drug squad detective said.

As it continues its journey, the George Bernard Shaw receives an urgent message from Naval HQ ordering them to locate and track a suspicious ship that is crossing the Atlantic from the US and headed for Western Europe. While it later turns out to be an exercise, the vessel of interest suddenly elevates the patrol to mission status.

The suspect ship is outside the EEZ, in the southwest approaches to the zone. The requirement for the operation is for us to maintain a covert presence and we are now working up to the highest state of readiness that the ship comes to, says the captain. We have proven our weapons, weve proven all our systems on board and made sure our boats and machinery are working correctly so that the platform, as we term it, is fit to fight.

The first phase of the operation is for the George Bernard Shaw to locate the vessel and covertly monitor its progress over the horizon using high-tech radar systems.

As this is an intelligence-led operation, sent down from Maoc and the Joint Task Force, the Naval Service must be prepared to board the vessel and arrest the crew if ordered to do so. Alternatively, they will hand it over the covert surveillance to one of their other navy partners. The service conducts operations like this on a regular basis but for security reasons they are rarely made public.

Over the next 24 hours, the crew prepares for every eventuality. Every member can multitask. Cooks double as machine gunners, while electricians are also members of armed boarding crews.

The second phase of an operation like this is the boarding phase, which will involve an armed team in high-speed rhibs [rigid-hulled inflatable boats] and they will go covertly to maintain the element of surprise, get on board very quickly, secure the crew and the ship, says Lt Cmdr Dicker.

The next is the search phase, where we conduct an initial search to determine if there is an illegal cargo on board, and then we are into the diversion phase, which is to put a crew on board to bring the vessel back to port. At the same time, a second navy ship would be dispatched to the area with members of the garda and customs to make formal arrests.

As the shadowing operation takes the warship deeper into the Atlantic, the specialist armed teams practise their shooting skills and boarding drills.

As the operation enters its third day, the ship receives new orders: find out what flag the vessel is flying. This will require sending a surveillance team under the cover of darkness. The George Bernard Shaw is now more than 300 miles from Cork. At 10.30pm, after the sun has dropped down below the horizon, the boarding crews depart the mother ship in two high-powered rhibs and disappear into the eerie darkness.

The boats will travel up to 16 miles over the horizon and creep up on the target ship, obtain images and return without the suspects ever knowing they were there. It is a nervous time as the George Bernard Shaw remains in total darkness and in radio silence, waiting for the teams to make it back safely.

We are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean if something goes wrong here, there is very few people I can call. It is a time when we need absolute focus, says the captain.

Then, about 90 minutes later, two tiny dots of light can be seen in the dark distance signifying that the surveillance teams are on the way home with information to send back to base and to their partners in Maoc.

The exercise that has just taken place is similar to an operation co-ordinated by Maoc two years ago that led to the seizure of over two tonnes of cocaine by the UKs National Crime Agency off the coast of Cornwall.

A Naval Service vessel and an Air Corps maritime patrol aircraft shadowed a catamaran carrying the cocaine from South America for a British crime syndicate as it sailed close to Irish waters.

When todays mission is over, the captain radios the skipper of the suspect ship to inform him that he had been used in a surveillance exercise. He asks if they had detected either the George Bernard Shaw or the rhibs; they had seen nothing out of the usual.

Lt Cmdr Dicker is happy with the outcome. That for us is mission accomplished. It means that our level of readiness and training are up to standard for the real thing.

Petty Officer Aileen Hanna, the head chef on the L George Bernard Shaw, has laid down the gauntlet to fiery celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay: could he could cook for the ship's crew in the middle of an Atlantic storm?

The senior non-commissioned officer (NCO) has the distinction of becoming the Naval Service's first female chef after joining up 18 years ago, following in the footsteps of her grandfather and father, who were also in the navy.

But PO Hanna is also a trained machine-gunner, which makes her more than a match for Ramsay, who is famed for his temper tantrums in the kitchen.

Every day on patrol, seven days a week, Aileen and her able cooks Alex Pluchart and David Onderko - both of whom are originally from Poland - prepare an average of 120 meals for a hungry and very appreciative crew of officers, NCOs and sailors.

Having spent four days at sea, we can understand why the cook is the most important person on the ship, even in the eyes of the captain. The grub is as good as anything served in a top-notch civilian eatery.

"It doesn't matter what sort of weather we are in, we still have to be in here working every single day. After 18 years of experience, I know how to make an omelette in a force-10 gale, but it's not nice," PO Hanna says.

"The food is what keeps people going when things are tough. It is not an easy life at sea. There are fabulous moments and I have great memories, but it is hard work and it is our job to keep morale up.

"We cater for different tastes and needs; we are the hub of the ship and we take pride in that. People can't go out and order a chipper or luxuries like that, so we try to make things as nice as we can here."

But like everyone else on board, PO Hanna and her staff are also trained to do other important jobs on board.

"We need to be able to do almost everyone else's job on board. I fire machine guns, I handle the ammo, I do firefighting, I do damage control; you need to be able to multitask on board an Irish Navy ship. It keeps the job interesting. I love it.

"I would love to see Gordon Ramsay cooking in a force-10 gale down in the galley, frying an egg and then make his way to the deck and fire off shots like Alex does," she smiles confidently, standing next to Alex, who has just fired 100 rounds from her general purpose machine gun.

Now there's a challenge for you, Gordon.

Read this article:
Paul Williams: Life on the high seas with the maritime drug busters - Independent.ie

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Independence Day Special: Interesting developments ahead of August 15, 1947 – Zee News

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the nation in celebrating the 74th Independence Day by unfurling the national flag at the majestic Red Fort on Saturday (August 15) and address the nation from the ramparts of the iconic monument. Since India secured independence from the British colonial on this day 73 years ago, the day holds a great significance for every Indian citizen.

Two nations were carved out of India 73 years ago, but ahead of that several developments took place. The DNA report has delved deep into the pages of history to inform you about those incidents and also about the key architects of the partition and independence including first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Lord Mountbatten, who was the last Viceroy of India, set the design of the partition. He considered Jawaharlal Nehru to be a leader who followed principles but when someone firmly presented his argument, Nehru would immediately submit. He viewed India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as sensible and a firm leader, but Mohammad Ali Jinnah was very stubborn and nobody could influence him.

When the news of India's partition started spreading in June 1947, there was a panic situation in Karachi, where people withdrew Rs 6 crore from their bank accounts.

A robbery took place in Delhi's Viceroy House, where Lord Mountbatten's military advisors lived, but thieves could never be caught. Notably, Viceroy's House is today's Rashtrapati Bhavan.

As the situation in the country began to deteriorate amid strikes and riots, 70 Hindus were kidnapped from Rewari in Haryana.

Indian leaders were worried about these developments, but Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was concerned about his cigars. He wrote a letter to one Yunus of Dehradun asking him where were the cartons of his cigars. Notably, when India was burning in the fire of partition, Jinnah was more concered about getting his cigars.

By the end of June 1947, riots started spreading across the country, and curfew was imposed in cities like Gurgaon, Dhaka and Lahore. Jinnah, however, was interested only in knowing how much money was left in his bank account. Bombay and Lahore branches of Bank of India told him that there were 7 lakh 97 thousand, 149 rupees, 12 ana and 3 paise left in his accounts.

In the first week of July, an American citizen came to India to meet Mahatma Gandhi. He asked Mahatma for his autograph, but Gandhiji asked him to pay Rs 20. After bargaining, Gandhiji agreed to give him autograph for Rs 15 and got this amount deposited in the Harijan Welfare Fund.

As Indian Army was also to be divided between the two nations, the Government of India announced a new pay scale for the soldiers and fixed a monthly salary of Rs 3000 for the post of General while Rs 35 was fixed for a soldier with class 10 qualification.

With Jinnah's stubbornness, Lord Mountbatten was very upset. The latter wrote a letter to Jinnah's daughter Patricia and said her father was stuck in a situation from which it is very difficult to come out in a respectful manner. Further, he wrote that he too had ruined everything because of his over confidence. He also expressed his disappointment that despite working so hard, he made a huge mistake in understanding Jinnah, and he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.

After a meeting of top leaders in the first week of July 1947, Mahatma Gandhi referred to George Bernard Shaw in his prayer meet. Bernard Shaw used to say that an Englishman is never wrong, he does everything according to principles. He serves the King but beheads the Monach using the principle of democracy. Therefore, which principle they would apply to leave India, Mahatma guessed.

On July 12, 1947, when Justice TL Shevde took oath in Nagpur wearing a Gandhi cap, a British judge asked him if he slept wearing a Gandhi cap? To this, Justice Shevde replied "yes" like you sleep wearing a hat on your head.

The next day in a press conference, when Mohammad Ali Jinnah was asked if he could tell how would he make Pakistan a modern democratic country. Jinnah said when did I say that? I never said that.

Ahead of partition, when 470 Indian Civil Service officials were asked what did they want? 400 of them opted for retirement on 15th August, while 40 decided to stay in India and the rest 30 went to Pakistan.

The British government wanted its flag, Union Jack, to be included in the flags of India and Pakistan. Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah refused to accept this. On August 14, the British flag from the Lucknow Residency was removed and sent to London. This British flag was continuously waving there since 1857.

Notably, Rs 2 lakh was sanctioned for organizing the events related to Independence Day in Lucknow.

In Mumbai, a name plate with M A Jinnah - Bar At Law was also removed from a chamber of lawyers. This was the name plate of Mohammad Ali Jinnah who was also an advocate.

India got independence at midnight, but the reason behind was no less interesting. A telegram from Lord Mountbatten was sent to Britain suggesting that it was advised by some Indian astrologers who considered it auspicious.

When someone asked Jinnah about role of the army in Pakistan, he became very angry. He stared at the person from top to bottom and said that there will be a government of citizens in Pakistan and those who diffe have no right to come to Pakistan. But his claims proved wrong like the rest of his claims and the army ruled in Pakistan for 33 years.

By the first week of August 1947, the number of refugees in Delhi swelled to 80,000, and there was a shortage of food. Schools were run in two shifts so that studies were not impacted.

During this time only, it was decided that the Prime Minister's official residence would be at 7 Prithvi Raj Road in Delhi, but 7 Race Course was later made the official residence of the Prime Minister of India. This is curently renamed as 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

Interestingly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which was established in 1928 as cricket was very popular in India. The then BCCI chairman Anthony de Mello had suggested that the partition should not divide the cricket team as it would affect the spirit of the game.

See more here:
Independence Day Special: Interesting developments ahead of August 15, 1947 - Zee News

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The 49 Best Things to Do in Seattle This Weekend: August 14-16, 2020 – TheStranger.com

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A slew of major festivals are coming at you social distance-style this weekend, from the Seattle Design Festival to the Seattle Tattoo Expo, along with a special Best Coast streaming show, Pike Place Market's Dine & Donate event, and a reading with Akwaeke Emezi. Read on for all of our top picks for virtual and in-person events, or check out our guides to movies to stream this weekend. For event more options, check out our complete streaming events and protests & resistance calendars, as well as our guides to outdoor and socially distanced things to do this summer and anti-racism resources and events.

Othello International Festival in a Box Budding South Seattle soccer players and general fun-havers (and their families) can scoop up boxes filled with all the trappings of a cute summer day: art supplies, Sounders soccer balls, a jump rope, sidewalk chalk, seed starter kits, snacks, and COVID-related safety stuff like masks and hand sanitizer. The day after claiming parcels from the no-contact drive-through, participants can tune in to a livestreamed soccer clinic on Zoom with the Sounders themselves. New Holly Gathering Hall (Othello)

Solitude Social Club Hugo House's bookish happy hour gives the digital floor to guest writers every Friday evening. This week, tune in to hear how author Sharyn Skeeter (Dancing with Langston) is finding happiness and meaning through literature during this period of isolation.

Virtual Sanctuary Tour - Animal Enrichment Say hello to sweet rescue goats, llamas, and other residents ofPasados Safe Haven on this virtual tour.

Idol Across America Live Virtual Auditions For the first time since the show's inception, American Idol auditions will take place across all 50 states (virtually, of course).

NITE WAVE Best '80s Party Ever! This high-energy virtual show is an '80s jukebox, complete with hits from Duran Duran, INXS, the Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode, and more. Donations will benefit Northwest Harvest.

Rave the Vote With DJ sets, educational segments, and calls to action broadcasted live on Twitch, this virtual voter registration drive and dance-music festival features electronic music heavies like A-Trak, Analog Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Yaeji, and many others.

Vote Ready Live Reward yourself for registering to vote (or for having already registered) by enjoying live virtual performances by acts like the War on Drugs, Waxahatchee, Hand Habits, and Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear.

Island Theatre Ten-Minute Play VIDEO Festival Bainbridge's Island Theater will host its ninth annualTen-Minute Play Festival online, promising 11 plays in two back-to-back one-hour programs. Perfect for those who miss the theater but whose attention spans have been jumbled up during quarantine.

Akwaeke Emezi with Esm Weijun Wang Returning to Elliott Bay for the first time since the release of her debut novel Freshwater,Akwaeke Emezi will talk about her well-received latest book,The Death of Vivek Oji, in which a Nigerian woman copes with the unexpected loss of her son. She'll be joined in conversation withEsm Weijun Wang.

Moss Volume 5 Launch The Pacific Northwest-based literary journalMoss (which once featured a poem by The Stranger's own Rich Smith) will celebrate its fifth volume with a virtual reading with novelist andjournalistOmar El Akkad, writer and scholarBeth Piatote, poet and editorMalcolm Friend, andMosspoetry editorAshley Toliver.

NAACP Arts, Culture & Entertainment Festival The NAACP will kick off its 111th Annual Convention with a virtual festival celebratingBlack brilliance, powered by its Hollywood Bureau. Along with showcasing rising Black talent, the festival will invite speakers, artists, and actors to touch on social and racial justice through the lens of television, film, music, and more.

Welcome to El: An Intimate Night of Comedy with El Sanchez Beloved local comedian El Sanchez recorded an intimate, hilarious show at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center just before the quarantine took effect. For those who missed it, the show is now on demand!

Auction of Washington Wines Online Auction & Virtual Gala Bid on a variety of wine-themed events and experiences through this live virtual auction and gala, whose proceeds will benefitSeattle Children's and Washington State University's Wine Science Research (who knew!).

Pike-Pine Summer United Get 10% off your bill at local bars and eateries like Amandine Bakeshop, A Pizza Mart, Bateau, and tons of other places on Capitol Hill moving into Phase 2 of reopening by mentioning The Stranger's Pike-Pine promotion. Various locations (Capitol Hill)

Pike Place Market Dine & Donate Pike Place Market turns 113 years old this month! The occasion is usually marked by Sunset Supper, where over 100 local restaurants, wineries, breweries, distilleries, and other market vendors commune on the cobblestones as the sun goes down. But since it's postponed until next year, make a pledge to dine at a participating restaurant (like Caf Campagne, Matts in the Market, orPikes Pit Bar-B-Que) and donate to the Power of Pike Place Recovery Fund. Various locations (Downtown)

Organic Mango & Sticky Rice Pop-Up A quintessential Thai treat is coming to Wallingford for a sunny window of time. Stop by this pop-up for a whole mango with lots of coconut milk and freshly made sticky rice in your choice of classic coconut, pandan, or Thai tea. 1714 N 44th St. (Wallingford)

59th Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival While COVID has closed off many opportunities to enjoy live music the way we used to do, it's also opened up a ton of opportunities to enjoy experiences we likely would have never gotten around to seeing in ye olden times (of 2019). The Philadelphia Folk Festival (now in its 59th year) is a pretty big deal, but not a lot of Portlanders usually have it on their radar. But for 2020, now you can bring that fest to your TV with a couple clicks, and that means enjoying live music from Los Lobos, Allen Stone, Shakey Graves, Ben Gibbard, Rhiannon Giddens, Ivan Neville, and many, many more. It's not just live music, either: The Philadelphia Folksong Society is planning on adding campfire open mics, zoomable campsites, a craft show, and all the things that make going to a fest feel likegoingto a fest.

Best Coast - Streaming Show! Former Stranger music contributor Megan Seling once wrote, "People have called Best Coast 'chillwave,' but that term is as illusive as 'hipster,' soI like to think of the lo-fi band as 'beachcore.' Dont get that confused with Jimmy Buffett, thoughBest Coast are more magical than novelty. There arent any songs about margaritas (I dont think), but their relaxed, fluid pop is slightly distorted and fuzzy, like the sonic equivalent ofa lens flare glowing in the corner of all your vacation photos." On the 10th anniversary of their first album,Crazy For You, they've put together a mini-concert documentary and virtual birthday party with some surprise special guests, which will be available to watch for 72 hours after its premiere.

Saint Joan Despite George Bernard Shaw's trenchant atheism, his classic depiction of the Maid of Orleans stresses her strength, bravery, faith, and humanity in the face of political and religious oppression. The original date of this production, staged by Mathew Wright, was canceled due to COVID-19. This is a digital rendition.

Savage Love - On Demand If you missed the June 4 live virtual edition of Savage Love, the beloved sex advice column and podcast byThe Stranger's own Dan Savage, you can now watch it anytime you want on-demand.

Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation The Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation, presented by Velocity Dance Center, will move online this year, allowing you to register for the whole festival or mix and match to build your own schedule. Just like the past 26 festivals, this one will feature a week of intensive and drop-in workshops, including one with local dancers Morgan Thorson and Fox Whitney.

The Art of Protest Artists likeDre Gordon, Lynda Sherman, Kerstin Graudins, Andrea Marcos, Colleen Maloney, Kate Hoffman, Eileen Jimenez, and many others show work dealing withsocial, ethical, economic, environmental, racial, health, and political issues facing the world. Columbia City Gallery Opening Friday

Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair The Seattle Art Fair was canceled, but a bunch of local galleriesmany of which are in Pioneer Squareare taking it upon themselves to keep the tradition alive while abiding by social distancing guidelines with a DIY, self-guided version featuring exciting new pieces by artists like Anthony White.

Big Day of Play Seattle Parks and Recreation's Get Moving Initiative presents this online (and TV- and radio-broadcasted) event encouraging families to celebrate their neighborhood communities by tuning in to live performances from local artists (like R&B singer Josephine Howell), taking part in fitness activities, watching dance performances, and more.

Dog Days of Summer Witness the thespian talents of local cats and dogs (or just fawn over their cuteness) in this free virtual show.

Maynard House Historic Home Tour Join theSouthwest Seattle Historical Society for a virtual tour of the Maynard House, which has been around since before Seattle was even called Seattle.

Paws for a Cause: Virtual FUNdraising Pawty! All proceeds from this virtual fundraiserwhich includes bingo, a pet talent show, trivia, a remote scavenger hunt, and an auctionwill benefit theAmerican Cancer Society.

The Princess Bride Join your pals atDistant Worlds Coffeehouse for a virtual screening of the most quotable love story of all time, The Princess Bride, via Zoom. If you're so inclined, you can stop by and order an Inigo Montoya Mocha (righteously delicious hot or iced) and a treat to go (or via third-party delivery).

Pig & Pint with Stoup Brewing Rhein Haus is roasting a whole pig and serving it with tasty sides and pints of brews on draft from Stoup Brewing. Dine in at their bier hall or outdoor biergarten, or order ahead for pickup. Rhein Haus (Capitol Hill)

BritCon Cosplay Contest 2020 If your interests lie somewhere in between Anglophile and extraterrestrial, get yourself logged onto this virtual fundraiser for BritCon, Bellevue's geeky convention celebrating British sci-fi and fantasy media. Your cosplay could win you prizes, so long as at least 70% of your look is made by you.

HDLSC Presents: The Rock Show Wear your saddened heart and smeared eyeliner on your sleeve at this virtual High Dive concert withGreen Lake Basement, who will be churning out emo and pop-punk bangers galore.

NVCS Jai Ho! India Independence Day Bollywood Dance Party Jai Ho! stalwart DJ Prashant will lay down those high-energy Bollywood remixes at this virtual dance party celebrating India's Independence Day.

Black Lives Matter Book Club Muse overKhalil Muhammad'sThe Condemnation of Blackness in this virtual Black Lives Matter book club with Ada's Technical Books.

Robin LaFevers in conversation with Leigh Bardugo Escape intoRobin LaFevers's final installment of her His Fair Assassin series, which may contain just enough Frenchdrama and familial betrayal to make you forget about our current reality for a couple of hours. The author will join Third Place Books and fellow writerLeigh Bardugo for a discussion online.

August Spasm: The South Park Swap Meet! Support artists and small businesses in Seattle's South Park neighborhood at this in-person shopping event co-presented by the Punk Rock Flea Market. Be sure to wear a mask and keep your distance. Hand sanitizer will be available for all customers. Big Top Curiosity Shop (South Park)

Justice for Breonna Taylor and Vanessa Guillen Virtual 5k Participate in this virtual 5K to raise money for the GoFundMe pages of Breonna Taylor (whose murderers have still yet to be charged) and Vanessa Guillen (who was brutally murdered by a fellow soldier).

Semi-Virtual Evergreen Half Marathon and 5 Mile Run, jog, or walk, a half- or five-mile course in this "semi-virtual" race.You'll have two days to complete the race at your own pace (and while staying socially distant).

Bob's Corn Sunflower Experience Thirty-seven varieties of sunflowers are blooming and ready to be picked across the Snohomish farm's 12 acres. Pick a bouquet, grab something to eat, and shop from sunflower-themed crafts from local vendors in this year's social distancing-accommodated rig. Bob's Corn and Pumpkin Farm (Snohomish)

Seattle Tattoo Expo 2020 The Pacific Northwest is a legendary province for permanently decorated flesh, but it's not the only one. This two-day expo hosted by Hidden Hand Tattoo will return, virtually this time, featuring seminars and other online events with professional ink-givers from all over the world.

Seattle Design Festival Now in its 10th year, Design in Public's Seattle Design Festival will switch over their programming to the internet to continue to explore how urbanism, architecture, and design can further justice, ecology, and community. Look forward to livestreamed webinars and discussions, a weekly "Thinkercyze" virtual challenge, and even in-person displays throughout the city that you can visit while social distancing.

BrasilFest Virtual 2020 Get a glimmer of Brazil's African, Portuguese, and indigenous roots with virtual folk music performances, food demonstrations, and dance classes.

Eric Swalwell with Denny Heck - Endgame: Inside the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump California congressmanEric Swalwell will join Town Hall and fellow politician Denny Heck with insights from his new book, Endgame, which outlines how he and his colleaguesresisted, investigated, and impeached our unfortunately still-sitting president.

A Virtual Summer Social to Benefit The Washington State Governor's Mansion Foundation Get dolled up at home (or don't) and enjoy live music by Beethoven,Ravel, Debussy, and other famous composers performed bySteinway Artist Judith Cohen.

The Royal Room Staycation Fest with Beyond Captain Orca! "Beyond Captain Orca!have established themselves as a cosmic force in the Seattle underground-rock scene," wrote Dave Segal a couple years ago. See them live on the Royal Room's virtual stage.

Stern Grove Festival Enjoy live sets fromLos Lobos, Michael Franti, Ben Gibbard, Tarriona "Tank" Ball (from Tank & the Bangas), and other well-known music-makers at the 83rd season of San Francisco'sStern Grove Festival, taking place online for all to see.

Jacqueline B. Williams & Friends Historian and longtime Capitol Hill resident Jacqueline B. Williams will revisit her 2001 bookThe Hill with a Future: Seattles Capitol Hill 1900-1946. She'll be joined byNan Little and Capitol Hill Historical Society co-founders Rob Ketcherside and Tom Heuser.

Virtual Lecture: Ghost of the Northern ForestA Visual History of the Great Gray Owl What does a year in the life of the Nordic American Great Gray Owl look like? Author and photographer Paul Bannick will show you, based on his own research.

Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation's Virtual Furry 5K 2020 You and your real or imaginary dog can help raise money for the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation's Help the Animals fund at their annual Furry 5K fundraiser. It's virtual this year, which means you can stay socially distant and post about your route on social media.

Hempfest Online Event The Hempfest team will try out their new livestreaming platform and show you "a sample of [their] new web presence."

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The 49 Best Things to Do in Seattle This Weekend: August 14-16, 2020 - TheStranger.com

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