The five-day camp inaugurated by Yoga expert Baba Ramdev laid emphasis on the importance of Yoga in everyday life.

The camp is being organised by Paryaya Sri Palimaru Mutt, Pathanjali Yoga Peetha, at the parking area of the Sri Krishna Mutt in Udupi.

Baba Ramdev said that there are many aspects of Yoga that help to control and cure diseases. He claimed to have trained 10 crore Yoga enthusiasts so far. He, along with his students, have apparently trained as many as 20 crore people.

He emphasised the need to introduce Yoga in formal education.

My aim is to ensure a healthy India and healthy body for individuals. Practising Yoga helps overcome diseases and stress, Baba Ramdev stressed

He lamented that peace had become too expensive as countries were engaged either in war or in counter-terrorism activities and claimed, Yoga is one solution to sort out all the differences.

The Yoga guru, elaborating Yogas additional benefits, said that it is the ultimate solution for non-communicative diseases. Immunity can be improved. The students will stay away from addictions and unlawful activities by practising Yoga. They can improve their memory and also dream of a good future, he explained.

The Yoga camp will be held from 5 am to 7.30 am until November 20. A special camp will be held for women and children at 4 pm daily. A conference of saints were planned on November 19.

Many Yoga enthusiasts who participated on the first day of camp were guided by Baba Ramdev himself.

Tulasi to check radiation

Yoga expert Baba Ramdev advised people to keep a petal of tulasi in mobile pouches to prevent radiation signals from affecting humans.

He claimed that tulasi leaves have the power to check radiation signals. Radiation emanating from any electronic gadget can be checked by using tulasi leaves. People should grow tulasi plants in areas where electronic goods are placed, he added.

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Yoga should be introduced in formal education - Deccan Herald

captionOne of the many Trump impersonators at this years Politicon.sourceCourtesy of Abigail Bobo Photography

When Al Franken took the stage on a recent Saturday morning at Nashvilles Music City Center, he wore a crumpled suit without a tie. The top button of his shirt was undone. He looked out to a large, half-empty hall.

Franken began with a joke about the out-of-touchness of conservative New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks. It was an observation that might amuse a niche group of Twitter users and news junkies. Then he recounted a series of anecdotes from his nine years as a senator. Then came his impressions of his former colleagues Chuck Grassley and Mitch McConnell. Eventually, he started promoting his podcast.

I know that sounds pathetic, he said to the mostly silent, slightly restless audience.

In another universe, Franken might have used this appearance to reflect on the sexual-misconduct allegations against him, his resignation from the Senate, or his treatment of women. But he did not touch on any of that.

Thats because this was Politicon, an annual two-day conference that bills itself as the Comic-Con of politics.

As Franken spoke, I thought back to Nietzsches Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche writes, One begins to distrust very clever persons when they become embarrassed.

Franken has always been very clever. But that day, he seemed so incredibly embarrassed.

And no wonder. That hed even consider a gig at this event, its lineup crowded with mostly B-list, past-their-prime political celebrities, showed how far his star had fallen.

The weekend would see Fox News host Sean Hannity spar with James Carville, the one-time Democratic Svengali, who hasnt been relevant since the 90s. Former FBI director James Comey continued to overstay his 15 minutes of fame. Democratic strategist Donna Brazile and Reince Priebus, a one-time cast member in Trumps Oval Office, went head to head before a crowd sparser than Frankens. A gaunt Ann Coulter ranted about immigrants with her more subdued counterpart, the one-time George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum of the Atlantic.

Fresher faces like Lauren Duca, the viral liberal talking head who popularized the idea that Trump is gaslighting America, participated in panels like The Future is Female and signed copies of her new book. Lefty pundits from The Young Turks took on Tomi Lahren and the wet-mouthed antisocialist diehard Trump supporter Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. YouTube star Randy Rainbow, beloved by resistance moms for his musical parody videos (including a Trump-themed version of Despacito called Desperate Cheeto), sang his biggest hits and took audience questions.

Politicon, it soon emerged, was politics Twitter come to life, a physical embodiment of the most noxious Facebook spats blasted algorithmically across your Fox News-loving uncles feed. Pundits on the left and right took cheap shots at one another, trading the sort of barbs one hears every day on cable news.

The event was a tribute to political tribalism in the age of Trump, a place where team identity is everything. At Politicon, politics is understood not as a means by which to improve lives, but as blood sport. It left me empty, desperate for revelation.

Politicon does not pretend to be anything other than what it is: a colorful manifestation of politics as commercialized spectacle.

Rows of kiosks hawking political merchandise and booths promoting various podcasts and publications filled the giant, thinly populated hall.

A libertarian podcast called Good Morning Liberty advertised its website, BernieLies.com, and held a giveaway for a handgun. (Why not Warren lies? I inquired. Oh, we also have LizLies.com, host Charlie Thompson clarified.)

Lining the conference hall were posters of historical figures reimagined as pop-culture icons: George Washington sporting a Mike Tyson face tattoo, John F. Kennedy with a lip-shaped hickey on his cheek, a frowning Harriet Tubman wearing big headphones around her ears, Thomas Jefferson in red wayfarer sunglasses, and Benjamin Franklin as Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. The images suggested what Politicon would have looked like in another era: In lieu of Al Franken attempting a comeback from some unnamed demise, wed have Thomas Jefferson skirting around his affair with Sally Hemings during his keynote address and a panel comprising slave owners and freemen debating abolition.

For all this, tickets start at just 50 bucks a day. (Unless you want access to the VIP lounge a curtained-off area where I saw people ordering alcoholic beverages well before noon. Thatll run you another $200.)

Of course Politicon is very much a creation of our current era, a congress of depravity bubbling forth from the Trump eras primordial muck. The inaugural Politicon, with a lineup that also included Ann Coulter, Clay Aiken, and James Carville, as well as Trevor Noah, Newt Gingrich, and Michele Bachmann, took place in October 2015, three months after Trump announced his candidacy. Ted Hamm, a film producer whose credits include Get Out, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, helped bankroll the first iteration.

According to a Politicon spokesperson, Hamm still funds a part of the event, but ticket sales and sponsorships are becoming a larger component of the financing required to produce the event every year. While Politicon does not release information on how much it pays speakers, one performer told me on background that they were paid $,7,500.

Past Politicons had been held in Los Angeles. But Simon Sidi, the middle-aged British founder of the event, said he wanted to move the convention to the heart of the country, and so to the American south it went. The chaos of the gathering made it a perfect fit for downtown Nashville, crowded with tourist-baiting honky-tonk bars, its roadways cluttered with tractors hauling party buses packed with drunk people decked out in Halloween costumes and cowboy hats.

Sidi, who once produced Kanye West concerts and American Idol, described himself as a political junkie.

I loved the whole subject [of politics], and I wanted to do something Id like to see, he said.

For the founder of a political convention, he seemed oddly bereft of a political ideology, or at least one he would share. Then again, he is a master of spectacle, a former concert producer with an acute sense of showmanship perhaps that, in itself, is its own ideology.

Politics and entertainment have been bedfellows for all time, he told another reporter. Were not the Aspen Ideas Festival, he added, referring to the annual center-right conference that brings together (mostly) members of the elite to chat about important ideas, ranging from politics and economics to art, in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. Were here for people who want to enjoy politics.

Were here for people who want to enjoy politics.

Like the latest Marvel movie, politics is a hollow entertainment product to be consumed.

Sidis professed lack of political ideology invites others to fill the space with theirs, and every corner of the Music City Center reeked of it. Dressed in their finest pro-Trump gear, a gaggle of skinny teenage boys, almost all them white, were dead ringers for Nicholas Sandmann, the teenager from Covington who went viral earlier this year after footage emerged of him wearing a MAGA hat while seeming to taunt a Native American demonstrator.

A lonely Bernie supporter munched on a pickle.

A man clad head to toe in Tulsi 2020 merch griped about the corrupt Democratic Party. A tall drag queen, calling herself Lady MAGA, was surrounded by attendees, lapping up the attention she was getting as the token queer conservative. An older woman wore a mini-dress patterned with the word TRUMP, while a man in a Star Wars shirt reimagining Bernie Sanders as a Jedi waited in line to meet The Young Turks Kyle Kulinski. He told me hed made it himself just for Politicon. In the center of the hall stood a pop-up called A House Divided, displaying large MAGA flags on one half of the booth, while the other side was stocked with attire branded with the logos for Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and other 2020 Democratic hopefuls.

While tensions between the Sanders diehards and the MAGA zealots never boiled over, the dynamic of the weekend was painfully oppositional. A website called WeHateLiberals.com, for example, sold shirts bearing messages like Ukrainians for Trump and a photoshopped picture of the president shaking hands with Ronald Reagan. On inspecting my black-rimmed glasses and skinny jeans, Eric Grinnell, the owner of the website accurately assessed I am a liberal and accused me of being a person with a microphone who traps you into soundbites they put in their articles. (Did I just fulfill his prophecy?)

Judging from the name of Grinnells website, he seemed to have molded his political identity in response to something he hates rather than something he supports. The things liberals say about us are very hateful, Grinnell explained, a claim further substantiated by his domain name. Were uneducated, were trash, were rednecks, we cling to our Bibles and our guns, were deplorable. At WeHateLiberals.com, were doing exactly the same thing. The underlying hostility was not only confined to the right-wingers. When I approached the Green Partys booth, I asked a bespectacled fellow wearing a Blue Lives Murder t-shirt what he made of the convention. It grosses me out, he said. Im a little triggered by seeing all these aspiring-school-shooter MAGA chuds.

But its not all so bad. Javier Perez, a 19-year-old Rutgers student and Sanders diehard, told me, We have met so many amazing Trump supporters, he said. Despite his support for Sanders. Perez donned a MATH cap in support of second-favorite candidate, Andrew Yang. He and his friends had hung out with a group of really great Republicans, he said. But Trump, he stressed, is one of the worst presidents of all time. At the same time, to paint all Trump supporters as Hillary did in the 2016 election, as deplorables and racists, is really a mischaracterization, he added.

Among the weekends marquee events was James Carvilles interview with former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Carville came ready for a fight, but Sanders was as tight-lipped as ever. News nowadays was just opinion writing, she complained; the crowd, resplendent in MAGA gear, gleefully ate up her claptrap. Carville, taking the bait, tried to goad her into naming journalists she believed to be enemies of the American people a dangerous game in a world where journalists regularly receive death threats just for doing their jobs. Luckily, she declined to indulge him. Is [Washington Post reporter] Robert Costa an enemy of the people? the Ragin Cajun asked. One woman, seated near me in the audience, answered with an enthusiastic Yes! Later, Carville told Sanders he wanted to have a real conversation. Then, in the same breath he asked her if she, like the president, believed Mitt Romney was human scum.

A less highly anticipated event was trivia hour hosted by CNN political commentator Chris Cillizza. Cillizza built his brand by posing mundane questions like What if Donald Trump is just winging it? and ranking Anthony Scaramuccis quotes based on their levels of absolutely bananas-ness. Cillizza is the Platonic ideal of the Politicon speaker: more fixated on the spectacle of the news cycle than the weightiness of the news itself, a man with a totally apolitical approach to politics.

Cilizzas appearance triggered something inside of me, and for a short time, I gave into Politicon.

I teamed up with a libertarian couple to try and win the trivia contest. We tackled bracing questions like How many days was Anthony Scaramucci in office? (11) and What honor did Rudy Giuliani receive in 2001? (Times Person of the Year). For our efforts, we won second place. I was awarded a free Politicon tote bag, portable sippy cup, and T-shirt.

For a fleeting moment, as I laughed with the libertarians, I tricked myself into believing I belonged.

Cillizzas trivia hour was perhaps the most trivial episode in a weekend devoted to oppressive triviality. Descending into the Cilizza-verse acquiescing to the amorality of Politicon if only for a brief moment, can feel good. I suddenly saw how such rituals can bring Bernie Bros and MAGA nuts together, giving them a sense of belonging at a time when the internet has made that so scarce.

As I gleefully claimed my second-place trivia tournament prize, for a brief moment, I lapped up the dull, amoral wickedness of the Cillizza-verse.

But then I snapped the hell out of it.

I remembered this sort of identification, animated by antipathy, exacerbated by cable news and social-media algorithm is a false proxy for meaning.

My mind again wandered to Nietzsche. Nietzsche, who didnt care much for the Christian idea of evil, wrote in his list of aphorisms: The great epochs of our life are at the points when we gain courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us.

Nietzsche, who didnt care much for the Christian idea of evil, wrote in his list of aphorisms: The great epochs of our life are at the points when we gain courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us.

In that moment, when I was drunk on Cilizza, my badness rebaptized itself as goodness.

Id abandoned my judgment and focused only on the positive the inherent fun of trivia, or the interactions between the very much in love libertarian couple on my team. Id studied the tender way the husband kept resting his hand on his wifes leg.

My enjoyment then reminds me now of how I enjoy a John Wick movie: delighting in each violent murder Keanu Reeves commits because I dont allow myself to feel the weight of what it actually means to take a life.

Putting aside the nefariousness of the event, Id become one with the crowd. Id seen them not as political animals but as vulnerable humans just looking for a fun weekend.

The feeling hadnt lasted long, and I hurried out of the hall.

As I fled, I walked past a wall of needlework depicting Trumps most deranged quotes and I thought about parasites.

I recalled a National Geographic documentary about the Leucochloridium, a parasitic worm. It takes over the eyes of a snail, turning it into a horrifying, strangely beautiful zombie, with two semi-translucent tentacles patterned like precious minerals, pulsating out from its shell. The now possessed snail is doomed to follow the parasites will, the narrator intones. The parasite compels the snail to ascend towards the sunlight, where it becomes lunch for a bird who plucks out its eyes. Inside the birds stomach, the Leucochloridium multiplies, and when the bird eventually defecates it out onto the forest floor, the toxic feces becomes food for a new generation of snails, who are then infected by the parasite. The cycle continues.

For a time, my social-media presence on Twitter, especially defined my professional identity as a journalist. I was a bird breeding Leucochloridium, each tweet a parasite-tainted dropping, infecting my followers. I could have continued exploiting the ills of our world for sweet, sweet content, and inflating the inauthentic, bombastic persona I had cultivated. Instead, I made a tactical retreat into a more thoughtful, less reactive existence.

Politicon brought together the desperate snails in search of sustenance, only to become zombified.

Politicon brought together the desperate snails in search of sustenance, only to become zombified.

The birds, whose stomach breeds this mind-controlling parasite, were the headliners: the public figures, the media, politicians, millionaires, billionaires, famous actors, and any influencer who makes a living off of telling other people how to think.

The toxic bird droppings that contain these parasitic worms?

Its your Facebook feed. Its cable news. Its Twitter. Its Politicon.

Its poison, disguised as nourishment. Politicon echoed something critic William Deresiewicz had said in a speech: By looking at social media and the news you are marinating yourself in the conventional wisdom. In other peoples reality: for others, not yourself. You are creating a cacophony in which it is impossible to hear your own voice.

By Sunday night, the vendors were packing up their stalls. The hall, which had felt oversized and empty all weekend, looked sadder and hollower than ever. I missed Randy Rainbows performance, which Id planned to attend, since my boyfriends mother frequently sends him his videos.

Everyone was gearing up for the grand finale: Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that fights liberalism on college campuses, protesting safe spaces by wearing literal diapers, among other things, debating The Young Turks Kylie Kulinski, a rising leftist star. A uniformed policeman sipped on a pink smoothie while vigorously nodding along to Kirk as he rattled off numbers about black employment, which he said had risen under Trump. Kirks teeth, nubby and square, extended from his gums in perfect alignment, slanted inward, like stout little Chiclets, so tiny in his abyss of his moist mouth.

Even before the debate ended, I leapt out the door. Idly scrolling through my Twitter feed, a virtual Politicon, I waded through the damp early-evening air, surrounded by drunk, boisterous partiers in cowboy hats looking for an authentic Nashville experience.

One short weekend of political hell had me all different kinds of messed up.

What saved me, in part, was Abigail Bobo, a seminary student and local photographer who documented the event for this publication. Just before Politicon, she had been at a prayer group where they had talked about how valuable humans are, how valuable they are to God, and how much God loves to impact and affect our lives, she said. She noted the sharp contrast between that gathering and the convention, an event predicated on people picking each other apart over nothing. She recalled Psalms 133:1: Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! and then remarked, This is not unity. No one at Politicon, she felt, had been valued.

Her perspective as an outsider, as well as her raw earnestness, moved me. Abigail was largely a stranger to the animosity Politicon was selling, someone who found her identity, her guiding kindness, through religion and empathy, not anger and ideological sniping.

I just kept wanting to go to people and tell them their voice mattered, and that they were empowered to actually make changes instead of just talk about the changes that they dont just have to sit here and argue about it that they are a child of God,

I just kept wanting to go to people and tell them their voice mattered, and that they were empowered to actually make changes instead of just talk about the changes that they dont just have to sit here and argue about it that they are a child of God.

she told me.

As I walked out of the convention, my boyfriend, also a writer, sent me a poem that he had written, something he hadnt done in a while, just for me. It was the first time anybody had ever written a poem for me. He described touching me and the ease of our intimacy. The final lines asked me to come now, come home. My face turned beet red and suddenly I was weeping.

I read the poem over and over again, in the throes of catharsis. I reminded myself to value the quietness of existence, and the small, lovely moments in life that make me feel OK in an ugly world. A good life, I told myself, is talking about God with Abigail over mozzarella sticks and fried broccoli. There is good in a world that lives in opposition to evil, that isnt beyond it, and its writing a poem for someone you love. Its finding peace within your vulnerability, weeping in a Nashville hotel room; its yearning for the refuge of your lovers arms. Its having a home you want to return to, somewhere who makes you feel safe.

Politicon, and everything it represents, simply aint it.

Link:
I went to a convention for politics nerds and it filled me with dread, loathing, and existential terror - Business Insider

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Global Cold Chain Tracking and Monitoring Market Types, Key Players, Applications and Statistical Forecast to 2028 - Hitz Dairies

To be perfectly honest with you, only one race really gets the punting fires burning at Cheltenham on Sunday, and that is the Greatwood Hurdle at 15:00.

And in a further bout of truth, I really do think that the market has now landed on the right favourite in the shape of Monsieur Lecoq.

He is three-from-five since joining the stable from France, will love the ground and I think a 7lb rise for beating Le Prezien by a short-head in the Welsh Champion Hurdle, the pair 6 lengths clear, on his return is fair enough.

There must be more to come from this 5yo but the problem is that the ship has sailed as regards his price, so we have to look elsewhere.

Recent Flat form puts Torcello in the mix

Ascot winner Gumball has a leading chance on the clock and I like the way Quoi De Neuf shaped at Chepstow, but I have been chipping away at Torcello since earlier in the week and I have little hesitation in putting him up as the bet in the race at 16/1 each way, four places, with the Betfair Sportsbook.

I got lucky with Nietzsche at a big price in this race last season and one of his part-owners was Dan Gilbert, who is solely responsible for paying the bills for Torcello.

And this has the look of a long-term plot to me.

Gilbert bought the 5yo for 33,000 in May and he has recaptured his best on the Flat in winning his last three starts, and he is now rated 88 in that sphere (he actually hit 91 when trained by Andrew Balding in 2017).

So if he can translate that ability to hurdles, then he must be a player here off a mark of just 127.

Granted, that is no more than fair on what he has actually achieved over hurdles, harsh even. His Tramore maiden hurdle win in 2018 worked out well enough but he failed to progress as expected in that department, it has to be said.

And I was expecting connections to put headgear on him here as he often looked in need of them over hurdles (he wore a hood when winning at Tramore, and has also been tried in cheek pieces).

But you can't question his attitude on the Flat of late, as he battled hard to land his hat-trick at Windsor by a short-head last month, and all of those three wins came on soft or heavy ground.

Maybe he has simply turned a corner again, so he will do for me at the prices.

Santos the right fav but he might just need the run

The rest of the Cheltenham card does little for my enthusiasm, as the other ITV races include a Cross Country race - this column does not "do" Cross Country, thanks - and a measly 13 runners cover the remaining three terrestrial contests, as classy as they are.

Not for me.

ITV viewers do have the Southern National at Fontwell to peruse though and Shanroe Santos looks a fair price at around the 5/1 mark.

He is just 1lb higher than when winning this race by 5 lengths last season, handles testing ground very well and he has had a wind op since we last saw him.

Everything looks set for a big run but his recent record suggests he may need a run to put him straight - he had a prep run before winning this race last season - and I fear a marathon slog here first-time-up could find him out.

No, just Torcello for me on the Sabbath. And they can leave out as many hurdles as they wish.

Good luck.

***

Check out the latest episode of our Racing...Only Bettor podcast, available in video format for the first time. In this week's show, we have an exclusive interview with Tiger Roll owner Eddie O'Leary...

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Sunday ITV Racing Tips: Torcello can go well in Greatwood - Betting.betfair

In a world of conscious uncoupling and trendy divorce rituals that border on bad satire, Noah Baumbachs Marriage Story is a lacerating exploration of a dying marital relationship.

The film opens with Charlie and Nicole (brilliantly played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson) listing each others virtues at the request of their mediator, hoping positive recollections will soften the blow of divorce (Nicole is a good listener, while Charlie is a terrific Dad, etc.). But thats no longer enough for the rising New York theater director and especially his creative partner/muse, a former Hollywood actress who briefly made a name for herself with a few TV appearances. Charlie is indifferent to Nicoles achievement (he never watches television anyway, he says matter-of-factly) and she, in turn, feels invisible. For years, Nicole has wanted to return to Los Angeles, her home base, a desire made all the more pressing when shes offered the chance to do a pilot. Charlie has never had any interest in moving to L.A.

Nicole relocates there with their 8-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), and the ugly tug-of-war between husband and wife over custody mushrooms, thanks in large part to the legal system and its practitioners (played to scene-stealing perfection by Laura Dern as Nicoles commanding attorney in stilettos, who earnestly espouses, What youre doing is an act of hope, and Ray Liotta as the $900-an-hour barracuda representing Charlie).

Charlie has the worst of it, attempting to keep his work in New York afloat while regularly flying across the country to see his son. Marriage Story provides a detailed look not simply at the dynamics of a couple spiraling downward, but also at the comic and horrible legal wrangling that takes place which, most tragically, distorts Nicole and Charlies relationship even in retrospect.

The granularity of the legal procedural elements alone makes Marriage Story a cutting-edge entry in the divorce movie subgenre. Add to the brew the complicated, contradictory emotions experienced by the warring parties vis a vis each other and, more important, within themselves. Each has valid points; neither is a villain. In true contemporary style, everyone is doing the right thing, and its almost impossible to cast blame, unlike in so many films that cover the same territory.

If Marriage Storyis an artistic leap for Baumbach, its seeds were evident in his 2005 The Squid and the Whale, a divorce narrative told from the perspective of a 16-year-old (Jesse Eisenberg) observing his artsy Park Slope family imploding. His mother, Joan (Laura Linney), is having an affair, but of greater relevance to their marital issues, she and husband Bernard (Jeff Daniels) are two writers whose fortunes are moving in opposite directions: Her career is soaring while his is dead in the water.

Like Marriage Storys Charlie, Bernard is intellectually pretentious, valuing creativity above all else and eschewing commercial success. Its a familiar Baumbach type, reaching full fruition in the filmmakers wonderful 2017 The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) with Dustin Hoffman as the aging patriarch, an artist grappling with mortality and legacy.

The anguish of divorce is natural film fodder, and its been amply covered over the decades in a variety of films, each informed by its genre and era. The slick sitcom Divorce American Style (1967) is galaxies away from Danny DeVitos dark (ultimately violent) 1989 farce The War of the Roses or Husbands and Wives, a 1992 Woody Allen flick that is at once a comic tribute to Ingmar Bergmans Scenes From a Marriage and a self-referential autobiographical pic detailing Allen and Mia Farrows disintegrating relationship. His is a rarefied New York City world where everyone lives in tastefully appointed and/or book-lined homes, makes good money and takes for granted satisfying careers in such settings as Columbia University and high-end editorial offices.

Indeed, all these films zero in on well-heeled, homogeneously white communities where men are usually the primary breadwinners while wives may or may not work. That said, womens employment or lack thereof was leading to donnybrooks in films about divorce way before Marriage Story or even The Squid and the Whale hit the screen. In Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and War of the Roses, the wives, Joanna and Barbara (Meryl Streep and Kathleen Turner, respectively), are unfulfilled precisely because they have no identity outside the home. Barbara launches a catering business, but her husband Oliver (Michael Douglas) looks down his nose at her. Hes Harvard Law, shes a State University gymnast; hes articulate, she gropes for the right word. Her career blossoms and she grows to detest him, literally wishing him dead.

In Kramer, Streeps Joanna and Hoffmans Ted hail from the same class, but her yearnings have been ignored so she jumps ship to find herself, abandoning her son to Ted, who must now juggle two jobs: high-powered advertising writer and Mr. Mom, a gig he is ill-prepared to tackle. Nonetheless, he grows increasingly attached to his young son. When Joanna returns (as meteorically as she disappeared) with her newly spawned career in tow, she demands custody of their child. Joanna is not a simpatico character, though many would still come to her defense and there was no shortage of ink shed on the topic at the time, the height of the womens movement.

Like Charlie in Marriage Story, the husbands in Kramer and War are baffled and enraged by their wives discontent. Each has worked hard to provide his family with a high standard of living. But unlike Charlie and, for that matter, Squids Bernard, the men in Kramerand War celebrate materialism, while their partners put a premium on communication. It was a long-standing trope that men dont listen on the one hand and refuse to confide their own feelings on the other. That truism persisted, perhaps, until Allen came along and created male figures who discussed their emotional experiences ad nauseam. Arguably, their relentless airing leads to the breakups in his films; openness has its consequences, too.

Extramarital affairs also have played a role in onscreen divorce whether as the cause or symptom of deeper issues.Squids Joan is a cheater and so is George (Albert Finney), Faiths (Diane Keaton) husband in Alan Parkers Shoot the Moon (1982). But nowhere is the extramarital affair a more defining event than in Paul Mazurskys An Unmarried Woman (1978), in which Erica (Jill Clayburgh) is unceremoniously dumped by her husband, Martin (Michael Murphy), for a younger woman. His infidelity leads to divorce and simultaneously becomes a vehicle for Ericas transformation from devastation to a freshly acquired sense of self-worth. Shes no longer interested in Martin and even refuses to tie the knot with her new boyfriend Saul (Alan Bates), an embodiment of sensitivity, warmth, charm and physical appeal. Her independence takes precedence over marriage or even committing herself to spending the summer with a lover whos beyond reproach.

Often the new love interest in divorce films stands in stark contrast to the spouse, thus functioning as further provocation. In Squid, Joans new beau (played by William Baldwin) is a youthful, intellectually limited tennis pro whom Bernard views as the consummate philistine. Similarly, in Shoot the Moon, Faiths post-breakup lover (Peter Weller) is a young construction worker shes hired to build a tennis court in her backyard, which George will have to bankroll. Squids Bernard and Husbands and Wives Gabe (Allen), both creative writing teachers, court their nubile, much younger students (played by Anna Paquin and Juliette Lewis, respectively).

At the same time, in these films, it often seems to be the husbands who suffer most intensely through the divorce, usually because theyre clueless. They also shoulder the exorbitant cost of child support and alimony, causing their own lifestyles to plummet. In Squid, Bernards new abode is in serious disrepair and sparsely furnished a far distance, literally and metaphorically, from his previous (and now his wifes) comfy Park Slope brownstone. In Divorce American Style, the lowered economic status of the hubby played by Dick Van Dyke is played for laughs. The films comic heavy, a sleazy ex-husband (delightfully brought to life by Jason Robards), spends his time concocting ways, one scheme more Machiavellian than the next, to get his ex-wife wealthily remarried so that he can regain his economic equilibrium.

Even in The War of the Roses, in which Oliver is staggeringly rich and doesnt need the family home, he feels entitled to it because he paid for it and moves back in to establish ownership resulting in a mounting melee of blood-curdling assaults. Hes also acting on the advice of counsel (a hilarious Danny DeVito), a figure of unabashed corruption as seen through a Borscht Belt lens who is the predecessor of the more finely realized legal avatars of divorce in Marriage Story.

The potential loss of ones child (or children) is the crucible for the divorced dad, as first (and most poignantly) dramatized in the groundbreakingKramer vs. Kramer, a film that depicts a father who, since his wife walks out on the family, is forced to become the superior parent and deserves custody. Who can forget its three-hanky ending, when Joanna relinquishes her court-awarded rights in favor of a higher moral ground? That was, of course, a feel-good Hollywood denouement, with its obligatory nod to feminism and its credibility up for debate.

More realistic was Shoot the Moon, which memorably illustrates the impact a breakup has on the whole family (including four daughters), as well as on new partners who are not bad people but, like everyone else involved, are trapped in a no-exit morass. Finneys George, a successful writer (again), is having an affair and the tensions between him and Keatons homemaker Faith are mounting, finally erupting in an overplayed dish-breaking scene. Moving in with his mistress (Karen Allen) and her son, George is suddenly part of a new family and losing contact with his own children especially his eldest, Sherry (Dana Hill), who, identifying with her mother, rejects him. In a drunken rampage, George spanks her mercilessly.

But the films final moments say it all. After George crashes through Faiths newly built tennis court, destroying it with his car, he is beaten to a pulp by Faiths construction worker lover (Weller). He lies battered on the ground, his children clustered around him, perhaps with forgiveness. He imploringly extends his hand to Faith, who, peering down at him, remains silent, immobile, refusing to take it. The love is gone, at least from her end.

The feelings are more oblique and messier in Marriage Story, something else that makes the film feel different from the similarly themed works that preceded it. Even as Charlie and Nicole hopelessly watch the demise of their relationship, theyre still connected, however tenuously. At the divorce arbitration, an unpleasant and contentious encounter, Nicole orders Charlies lunch, knowing what he wants when he cant make up his own mind. Its a telling and touching detail.

A year later, after the divorce proceedings have come and gone, a residual love remains between them, coupled with a renewed appreciation and even a redefined affection that in no way negates the inevitability or finality of the breakup. Its both unremittingly sad and also, in its exceptional nuance, unprecedented in films about divorce.

Originally posted here:
'Marriage Story' and the Evolution of the Divorce Film - Hollywood Reporter

On Monday, Nov. 12, University of Dallas students accompanied by Biology Professors Dr. Deanna Soper, Dr. Drew Steneson and Psychology Professor Dr. Scott Churchill visited the Perot Museum to receive a guided tour from Director of the Center for the Exploration of the Human Journey Dr. Becca Peixotto, a paleoanthropologist that brought rare hominid fossils to Dallas.

The unique opportunity allowed the UD group to see fossils that will most likely only be exhibited in Dallas until they return to South Africa, where they were discovered. The fossil skeletons Homo naledi Neo and Austalopithecus sediba Karabo were discovered in cave systems in 2013 and 2008, respectively.

According to Peixotto, Neo lived around 300,00 years ago, while Karabo lived 1.97 million years ago, and they are the remains of our fossilized relatives.

We used to think of human evolution in terms of a ladder or there is that terrible t-shirt that shows a chimpanzee and then all of a sudden you have Homer Simpson on a computer, said Peixotto. Thats not how we understand human evolution anymore.

Peixotto explained that the popular representation of human evolution, the March of Progress, was not entirely accepted by the scientific community. Instead, Peixotto suggested that human evolution occurred in a braided stream where species interbred.

The UD group followed Peixotto through the exhibit where they learned that the work of a paleontologist can challenge our thought of what it means to be human.

We can tell from the taphonomy, so whats happened to the bones since the animal died, and from lots of geologic clues, that [the fossils] werent washed in with a flood, they werent drug in by carnivores, they didnt all fall in at the same time from a hole in the ceiling, said Peixotto. Our hypothesis is that Homo naledi was deliberately depositing the dead in this cave system We see evidence of behavior that suggests that Homo naledi was able to recognize self and other, and when other wasnt anymore.

Peixotto said that purposeful burial rituals were one of the aspects considered to be unique human activities, such as tool usage and language, both of which have been observed in other species.

Sophomore physics major David Foust found the experience to be enjoyable and enlightening to the human experience.

Knowing that they had burial rituals was fascinating to me, said Foust. I presumed that they had conscious experience, which seems to have been confirmed [through the evidence]. I was awestruck that they used the caves to bury their dead.

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Students view rare fossils at the Perot Museum - University of Dallas University News

When he was 17, Yair Dor-Ziderman experienced the trauma of death in a particularly jarring way. In 1994, his childhood friend Arik Frankenthal, then a private in the Israeli military, was abducted and killed by Hamas. All Dor-Ziderman remembers now is feeling numb, he said in a recent interview with Calcalist. As everyone else around him collapsed, he started questioning himself. Why wasnt he crying like everyone? During the funeral, he forced himself to shed tears.

It is even more clear today because Dor-Ziderman, now a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, spent the last few years studying the way people deal with death. On Friday, a new research paper he co-authored will be published in the scientific journal NeuroImage, discussing a study he and his fellow researchers conducted that revealed the mechanism the human brain employs to shield people from accepting their own mortality.

The key concept is mortality salience, the moment awareness of death occurs and the brains defensive mechanism springs into action, he explained. The study shows that the brain has an unconscious but very basic belief that death is something that happens to others, not to me, he said. And that belief is activated whenever we come into contact with something that could remind us of death. We repress its relation to us and project it onto others, and that protects us. The study made me understand not just how the brain constantly interprets reality to construct a story, but how fundamental the mortality denial mechanism is to our consciousness and brain.

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Looking Death in the Eye: Why Your Brain Is Convinced You'll Live Forever - CTech

Defy marks the evolution of Las Vegas hard rockers Otherwise from a true blue rock quartet to a multidimensional act. Defy, Otherwises fifth full-length album, is a bold, electronically-complemented offering that explores the full spectrum of rock music. Known for their socially conscious lyrics, resounding riffs and escalating choruses, Otherwise deviates away from their personal norm on Defy, sampling digitization as a supplement to their traditional hard rock sound. However, where the introduction of digitization has operated as a parasite on the integrity of lesser bands music, vocalist Adrian Patricks exemplary rhythm helps Otherwise seamlessly incorporate it into their sound.

Bad Trip, the first track off Defy, begins with a steady, calculated rhythm that will leave listeners subconsciously bobbing their heads before evolving into a crescending chorus that introduces the tone for the rest of the album. The second and third tracks, Money and Crossfire, follow the same pattern, staggering Brian Medeiross lonesome drums against lead guitarist Ryan Patricks powerful riffs. Keen listeners will notice electronic elements used sparingly in each number.

Defy gravitates toward radio friendliness starting with Lifted and Picking At Bones, the albums fourth and fifth tracks. Adrian excels here, displaying his ability to blur the line between genres while maintaining the integrity of the bands hard rock identity.

Aint Done Yet sees Otherwise return to their roots. Ryan, who this author believes to be one of the most underrated guitarists of the modern rock scene, exhibits his full musical prowess, offering intoxicating chord progressions that listeners can sink their teeth into. Ryans ability to define a song without monopolizing the sound is primarily what differentiates Otherwise from their failed counterparts.

With Dont Even, Otherwise adopts an aggressive, socially aware stance that touches on everything from the political indoctrination to racial divisions (Im not allowed to sing, I have to scream cause Im not white). However, Dont Even isnt your typical socially conscious song that is built solely on a lyrical foundation. The riffs from Ryan and bassist Tony The Beast Carboney perfectly complement Adrians ironic singsong chorus, allowing each member to collectively express their unique set of values and personality through their musical contributions.

Finally, the album hits on all cylinders with Fame and Miss Fortune and Good Fight. The band fully explores its hard rock beginnings with Good Fight, an inspirational anthem of dedication, desire and perseverance. Medeiross marching drums combine with Adrians impassioned vocals to take listeners on the journey of Otherwise, a band that has never masked its family-first approach to fame and entertainment.

Fame and Miss Fortune chronicles the pressures of operating under a microscope in the age of social media (checkin every seven minutes, hoping that you might get noticed). The song explores the way we conceptualize artificial popularity, judging others based on their ability to generate an internet following. From a musical standpoint, Fame and Miss Fortune benefits from an energetic chorus and rhymatic verses, making it the complete package. In both Fame and Miss Fortune and Good Fight, Otherwises unadulterated energy permeates throughout each song, counteracting a sobering message while stimulating the senses of the listener.

Overall, Defy is a fantastic addition to an Otherwise catalog defined by steadiness and consistency. At the end of the day, the digital additions were a bold endeavor that seem slightly unnecessary, though thats more a testament to Otherwises musical prowess than an indictment on the actual sound. If youd like to listen to a hard rock band that takes pride in their craft and has steadily improved since their debut offering, give Defy a listen.

Otherwise performing live at Route 20 Outhouse | Photo by Matthew Rago

Otherwise performing live at Route 20 Outhouse | Photo by Matthew Rago

Otherwise performing live at Route 20 Outhouse | Photo by Matthew Rago

Otherwise performing live at Route 20 Outhouse | Photo by Matthew Rago

Otherwise performing live at Route 20 Outhouse | Photo by Matthew Rago

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Otherwise, 'Defy' album review - The Independent

Pop songstress Ralph released her EP Flashbacks and Fantasies on Wednesday (Nov. 13).

The six-song compilationis the Canadian singer-songwriter's second EP, and first collection of tracks to be unveiledsince her debut albumGood Girldropped last fall.

A classically trained vocalist known for her disco-pop bops, Ralph -- real name Raffaella Weyman --createdFlashbacks & Fantastiesout of a desire toexperiment with her sound and showcase her evolution as an artist.

She released the EP independently, allowingherself to letgo of thepressure she had previously felt to create a pop radio hit, she says.

"When you go into the studio with a really intense preconceived goal, it can almost produce things that feel less organic or true to yourself," she explains. "Ithink that this EP isrepresentative of the fact thatI don't have these constraints of people being like, 'This is what we want from you.'I have the freedom to go into the studio, and I could write a flop, and people could be like, 'What the f--k is she doing?'Or it could be cool."

With experience in musical theater, jazz, folkand hip-hop, Ralph was able to blurgenre lineson Flashbacks & Fantasies,sublty sneaking in each of her different inspirations without feeling the needto createone cohesive goal or sound.

"I listened to a lot of Miley Cyrus' last EP," she reveals."I thought it was really cool. I liked that that she hada bunch of different sounding songs."

After spending the summer touring with fellow Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, Ralph is ushering in an era of carving her own path. She's already working on new music -- most recently writing a track inspired by Noah Cyrus' "f--ckyounoah" --and she begins her first North American headlining tour next year, playing shows in states she'snever even visited.

Ahead of the release of Flashbacks & Fantasies-- as Ralph debates on what to wearfor her release party -- Billboard chatted with the singer about the inspiration behind her songs, touring with Jepsen, and loving Lizzo.

What was the creative process behind this EP?

"No Muss No Fuss" is the oldest song on there. My songs are mostly autobiographical, but this was inspired by a conversation that I heard two girls having in a cafe near thestudio I was at in Montreal. They were talking about when you really like someoneand then it falls apart, and you feel pretty hurt, but you get over it. Butby the time you get over it, the person is reinterested in you and keeps popping up around you. It's this sassy, cheeky song that's like Mariah Carey's "Obsessed" meetsAriana Grande's "thank u, next." Why are you so obsessed with me?But I wish you well.

The other Ariana song I equated to my EP was "Thinking Bout You."I was post-breakup, doing laps around this park with the wind in my hair and listening to that song, and thinking it was thisbeautiful, powerful, sad, cinematic pop song. When I was writing "Looking For You," I realized I had never really done a cinematic pop song before, so I was like, "This is what we need to do."

I wrote "Gravity" in Toronto. I had listened to a lot ofmusic podcasts where they feature different artists and theyunpack one song. I've been reallyenjoying that because I think it makes me more of a critical thinker when it comes to songwriting.I was thinking about that and I was listening to "One Kiss" by Dua Lipa. At thattime I felt like everyone was listening to "One Kiss," and I was like, "What makes 'One Kiss' a universally great song?" My brother said that it was the fact that the content isn't overly complicated, so I was like, "Here's a cool challenge. Write a song that isn't overly complicated." I went into the studio with this game plan to write a song where theBPM was going to be 118 or higher, which is a challenge for me because I haven't really written anything that's super fast. I wanted toexplore new depths within my dance-y Ralphworld.

With "Headphone Season," I had just finished organizing and performing at a pro-choice benefit concert here in Toronto. I spent a lot of time around fired up women, thinking about what it means to be a female-identifying person in this climate right now. The song is something we can all relate to in the sense that we've had strangers on the street, on the subwaymake a comment about howwe could improve our appearance that would benefit them or make them feel more comfortable. It's like, "In what world would I do something for you because you asked me to strange person?"The headphone line is so apt because even today I was on public transportation and I put my headphones in. I didn't even listen to music. I just put my headphones in because I feel more safe when I look less approachable. I'm hoping that there are a couple of lines that really resonate with people, if not the whole song.

Did you make a conscious decision torelease an EP instead of waiting to release another album?

It was a conscious choice. You see more and more big artists doing single releases, EP releases. I don't think thatan EP reflects anything negative anymore. No one can really focusvery well these days. I find that a 10 to 12 song album is really hard for people to listen to. You end up havingfour to six songs that people really listen to. We were like, "You know what? It costs a lot. It's a lot of time. Let's just do an EP with songs that we feel really strongly about instead of trying to getting caught up in the 'Weneed to make an album to prove ourselves.'" We dont need to prove ourselves.

Were there any artists you had on repeat while creating this EP?

A lot of contemporary pop, top 40, because I wanted to seewhat was charting and why. Maggie Rogers and Lizzoaretwo artists that I admire because they're doing really, really well on Spotify, on the radio, on YouTube, but they're really honest about their sound. It's so unique.I think they have a lot of control in their own image and their own sound, which is inspirational for me. Lizzo's got really beautiful self-loveballads, which was also appealing to me.

You did a premiere with us back in March2018 where you said that you hope to befriend Carly Rae Jepsen one day. A year later you just wrapped up atour with her. What was it like to be able to work with her?

I'm just amazed by her. I would go out and watch the show every night.She always performedwith the same energy and the same joy. She's been on a world tour for a year,and that takes a lot out of you. Her stamina was impressive. The way she still connects with her fans and the way that she creates a really loving family atmosphere with her tourmates and bandmates was also really impressive to me. Every night she was like, "I love your outfit. You guys sounded so great."I always notice when I'm opening for someone and they say onstage"Thank you so much to Ralph. What a great opener." Like you have no obligationto say that, but as an opener, I always really appreciate and notice when a headliner takes a moment to just saythank you. You can just tell she's a true professional, and very grateful and conscientious that everyone around her feels good. That's something that I'd like to carry into my future tours.

Speaking of your future tours, what are you most excited for on your upcoming one?

I've only done shows in San Francisco, LA, and New York, so I'm really excited to meet my fans in different states and to travel and play music in America. Touring is a sign of success, that people want you to be in different places. I'm really thrilled there's enough interest in the states. My struggle now is finding the outfits. My reoccurring theme here is "What am I going to wear?"

RALPH TOUR DATESDec5 -Toronto, ON @ ModClubDec7 -New York, NY @ BerlinFeb 5- Nashville, TN @ The High WattFeb 6- Atlanta, GA @ VinylFeb 8- Washington, DC @ SongbyrdFeb 9- Allston, MA @ Great ScottFeb 11- NewYork, NY @ Mercury LoungeFeb 12-Philadelphia, PA @ Voltage LoungeFeb 15- Cleveland, OH @ Beachtend TavernFeb 16- Chicago, IL @ SchubasFeb 17- Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street EntryFeb 19- Denver, CO @ Globe HallFeb 20- Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby CourFeb 22- Seattle, WA @ Columbia City TheatreFeb 23- Portland, OR @ HoloceneFeb 26- San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du NordFeb 27- Los Angeles, CA @ MoroccanFeb 29- Phoenix, AZ @ Valley BarMar 2- Dallas, TX @ DadaMar 3- Austin, TX @ Stubbs IndoorsMar 4 - Houston, TX @ White Oak Music HallMar 10- Victoria, BC @ Lucky BarMar 11-Vancouver, BC @ BiltmoreMar 13- Calgary, AB @ DickensMarch 14- Edmonton, AB @ TempleMarch 16- Winnipeg, MB @ Good Will SC

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Ralph Is Carving Her Own Path With 'Flashbacks & Fantasies' EP - Billboard

pic of Sebastian ManiscalcoPNimg

American comedian Sebastian Maniscalco returns to Montreal Friday and visits Ottawa for the first time on Saturday as part of his You Bother Me tour. In this edited interview, the Chicago-born funnyman was surprisingly serious as he talked about the evolution of his act, the slow growth of fame and how he stays hungry.

Q: Heres an obvious question, given the title of your tour. What bothers you?

A: Hmm, what does bother me? Ive made a career basically describing things that I see on a daily basis. Basically human behaviour types of things. When I get on a plane and someone opens a bag of chips and starts eating, it drives me up the wall. Just the little nuances of life that maybe someone might not pay attention to. Also my act is centred around my upbringing, my family, and the dynamics of the relationship between my father and I, my wife and I, my wifes family and myself. All those scenarios, they dont necessarily bother me but theres an annoyance. So its basically storytelling deep rooted in family and angst.

Q: But politics isnt part of it?

A: No. Ive always been a huge fan of comedians who just talk about day-in, day-out stuff. I think people nowadays are so beat over the head with politics. You post a photo of spaghetti and meatballs and by the end of the comments, theyre talking about immigration policy. How did we get there from a photo of meatballs? I like to keep politics out of it. Ive always said that whatever a politician is doing at any particular time is not as funny as what my dad is doing. So Ill stick with my father.

Q: You move around a lot on stage. How did that physicality evolve?

A: That happened over time. I was a huge fan of John Ritter growing up, who was on Threes Company, and definitely had a great ability to make people laugh through physical movement. I really soaked up a lot of what he did. It took time. Sometimes it just takes a lot of practice to peel the onion of insecurity off while youre up on stage and feel as comfortable as you would around your mother or father. It took me a while to get there but once I started feeling comfortable, and feeling that I had the ability to make people laugh with body movement, I implemented it into the storytelling.

Q: What made you want to do comedy in the first place?

A: Ive always been a huge fan of stand-up comedy, and when they went around the class in second grade, asking kids what they wanted to be, I said stand-up comedian. Which was a little bit off the planet for a kid that young. Every other kid wanted to be a teacher or firefighter or policeman, but I really fell in love with standup at a young age through Johnny Carson, and subsequently watching George Carlin and Eddie Murphy and Jerry Seinfeld and Don Rickles. I was fascinated with how they remember it and how theyre telling it like it was the first time theyre telling it. Thats the trick, to keep the same type of passion the first time you tell the story, all the way through the hundredth time you tell the same story.

Q: So how do you do it?

A: Its just revisiting the experience that I lived. You just automatically remember the story and start telling it to a new group of people. Its not that hard to remember the beats of a story because I lived it. Its not like I go in my office and write for four hours and come up with a story. Its all based in reality.

Q: Youve done some movies lately. How do you like that type of work?

A: Its a great departure from what Im doing on stage. Typically these movies Ive been doing are dramatic roles and I like to explore the drama part of entertainment through acting, just because Im kind of a serious guy, to be honest with you, and to do some of these movies has been refreshing for me and a challenge.

Q: Is that a direction youd like to explore a bit more?

A: Not full time. I just landed a little role in a movie called Spinning Gold, which is actually shooting up in Canada. Its a movie about Tim Bogart and Casablanca Records in the 1970s where I play Georgio, who was a German-Italian guy whos credited with being the father of disco, and discovering Donna Summer. I have to learn a German accent for that. These little pops in movies really give me a nice diverse resume. Now I can make people laugh but hopefully in the long run I can make em cry.

Q: Youve had some lucky breaks in your career but also a loyal fan base. Whats your secret?

A: My success in standup comedy was all grassroots, going to comedy clubs, making people laugh, hanging out outside the comedy club, shaking hands, taking pictures, selling my DVD, people coming back the next time I came into town, bringing maybe their neighbour or aunt or uncles. It became one of those things where people saw it and wanted to share it with friends and family. Before you knew it, theres people renting a big limo bus and 50 people would get out. It spread through word of mouth, and started to grow exponentially but it took about 10 years. It was a gradual, slow burn, and then came to a boil about four years ago.

Q: To borrow another phrase from you, how does a performer at your level stay hungry?

A: For me, its almost harder to stay where Im at than it was to get there, just because when youre coming up, no one really knows who you are and the expectations are kinda low. Whos this guy? Then all of a sudden youre funny, and now people are wanting to hear new material and that new material has to be as good as, if not better than, the old material. You have to maintain a certain standard of excellence in order for people to want to come back and see you. So I stay hungry just by that challenge alone, to make these people go home with a smile on their face. Theres no shortage of hunger here.

Q: Your comedy is fairly clean. Is that important to you?

A: Yeah. I like to appeal to a lot of different people. I dont like to fragment my audience. Sometimes theres a 12-year-old in the audience and sometimes right next to him is his 90-year-old grandmother. And everybody in between. Its something Im very conscious of. I do use some language but its not language thats gratuitous. Its there for a reason. Its not distracting. The content of the act is very PG-13, and very digestible. If you want to take your family out for a night of entertainment, you dont want to cringe because the entertainers talking about something thats uncomfortable.

Sebastian Maniscalco performs Friday at 8 p.m. at the Bell Centre and in Ottawas Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday at 8 p.m.

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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Preview: Funnyman Maniscalco on staying hungry and avoiding politics - Montreal Gazette