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Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 30 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
There are stars who fade and those who don’t. There are also those whose names are so etched in our collective memory, that to lose them from our “caress” (so to speak) would be nothing less than a travesty, a momentary lapse, on our part. We owe it to these men and women, these icons who came and enriched our lives and experiences, to never forget and always keep to heart, and for one simple reason: so as to bequeath them to generations that followed them and generations that will follow us. If we forget them, we forget everything.
Gamini Fonseka can’t be written about. Not that easily. There have been, to the best of my knowledge, books and essays and tributes running by the dozen, all attempting to present the man and his career in the best way possible. The problem with him however is that everyone has his or her way of describing him, and it takes a while to establish a point of congruence between them. For this man wasn’t just a fighter in the scripts he was in: he was also a lover, a moralist, someone who spoke for justice and fair play the way he thought he could. I saw him in Parasathumal and I saw him in Sarungale, and to me the two were (almost) one and the same.
That was Gamini. At his best.
There were, of course, those usual, less than memorable roles. We remembered the fisticuffs in them, the lovers crooning by bushes, the hero dashing his way to save the heroine. That hero was always Gamini. Even in his less than conventional performances – in Koti Valigaya and in Parasathumal – he couldn’t quite get rid of his bravado, that sense of daring and mischief which won him everyone in his country. “He was an icon” is at best, I feel, a clichéd and overused way of describing this, for the simple reason that he went beyond being just an icon. He became a symbol. And like all symbols, he ended up using the same trademarks. Again and again.
No, writers haven’t really done justice to the man. There were those who referred to him as a “Method Actor”, a man who emulated Marlon Brando and that in a way which was at best imitative, at worst crass. He was not Brando, that much is clear. He had his affiliations, his devotion to various stars held as sacrosanct in his day (including Paul Muni, the Austrian actor). But to call them imitative and hence regard them as rubbish would be to do a grave injustice to this man.
For the simple fact of the matter was, Gamini Fonseka knew his people. I remember watching an interview of him conducted by the inimitable Nuwan Nawayanjith Kumara sometime back. Gamini was, if memory serves me right, asked about his background and roots. Having recounted his past for a few minutes, he detoured and made a point which probably summed him up better than anything else could. “Just because I was brought up in Dehiwela,” he said, “and just because I was educated in Mount Lavinia, that didn’t mean I forgot my roots. We were from the village too, you must remember. We knew how to live with our community. We were hence never detached.”
He spoke with such conviction that I’m sure he was being honest with himself. And anyway, even in his less than serious performances you saw this pretty well. He was unparalleled in Chandiya and Yakadaya, two films which had him play out the hard-bitten antihero. Perhaps that accounts for how he could blend into other characters as well: he was repulsively empathetic opposite Vasanthi Chathurani in Amal Biso, and quietly poignant (not to mention convincing) in Sarungale. The latter film, incidentally, brought out and exemplified Gamini the lyricist (“Bambarindu Bambarindu” remains, for me, a haunting tribute to the crisis featured in that remarkable film, which at once personalises what Gamini, as the caste-conscious but gentle Nadarajah, grapples with).
He was also not a populist. Observe the films he directed. True, they were all concerned with the common man, but for Gamini what struck a chord in them all was his personal, intense preoccupation with justice and fair play. This could at times be a weakness, of course: it almost robbed Sagarayak Meda, which lampooned a dictatorial minister in a fictional government, of human density, for instance. His themes were all black and white, with no shades of grey. His world was occupied by the good and the bad, and in the end, the good triumphed, even if that moment of triumph could be bitter.
Towards the end of his career, his roles became less sympathetic. He infused sensitivity remarkably into his depiction of Simon Kabilana in Lester James Peries’ Yuganthaya, who was at once authoritarian and unsure (Sarath Amunugama, in a speech on Lester some years ago, once compared the final close-up shot of a distraught Simon to those harrowing close-up shots in Eisenstein’s landmark film Battleship Potemkin, of people so uncertain and afraid of the future), but he was repulsive as the mudalali in Sumitra Peries’ Loku Duwa. I have been told that he modelled himself on a real-life mudalali when he was acting in that film. I am sure it was that conviction which came through. At once.
Actors sometimes tend to play themselves. They do this so well that at times we forget the distinction between performer and performance. Gamini was like that. In one sense Parasathumal and Sarungale are clean different. But in another sense – taking into account his performances – they were virtually the same, because both had Gamini as Gamini. This is not a crude simplification but a spontaneous reflection on the man’s talent. In the end he won us. All those awards and titles he received, though rightly deserving, were peripheral. What mattered was how the people viewed him. What matter was how his name became his performance.
He was towering, this man. He knew when to step in a script and how to contort gesture and feeling. He was quiet in Gamperaliya but could be brash. He was authoritarian in Yuganthaya but could be forlorn (and he was, as Getawarayo showed). Together with Joe Abeywickrama, the man who made you laugh, and Tony Ranasinghe, the man who filled you with empathy for him from the word go, he formed the trinity of actors who continue(d) to enrich our collective unconscious. If that isn’t reason enough to celebrate him, I don’t know what would be.
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 30 2016
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 30 2016
Friday, March 25, 2016
What disturbs me is how easily audiences can confuse genuine self-amusement with genuine wit. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the two are clean different, that a movie which pits its own universe against the fourth wall (and thereby breaking it) isn’t necessarily witty. This confusion is (to my mind) pivotal to the success of Deadpool, and because of this, for better or for worse, it’s being touted as the Most Ironic Superhero Movie Out There. It’s not, and once again, by writing that I’m not revealing a spoiler.
First, the actors. Good god, they were awesome. Ryan Reynolds was born to play this role. He at once embodies the Deadpool those who grew up reading him (and those who didn’t) thought him as. His dialogues are as biting, acerbic, bordering on puns, and quick as the pace of the entire story. That’s always a good sign, after all. Suffice it to say therefore that Reynolds was spot on. There were, admittedly, sequences where I felt his wit seemed to outreach itself, but then again – this is Reynolds! This guy can (and I have seen his other performances) make us WANT to believe he’s overdoing it before going back just on time.
As for the others, I liked Morena Baccarin (Vanessa, girlfriend to Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool) and Ed Skrein (as Francis Freeman, AKA Ajax). Skrein played out Ajax (Deadpool’s nemesis) the way any super-villain of his sort should: to the point, with no frill, and certainly with no fireworks. At times this was confusing – are we supposed to accept this guy’s a SUPER-villain? – but then again he didn’t need fireworks. He has undergone the same procedure that Wilson and Wolverine have (a mutation program that obviously went wrong for the latter two) and is capable of superhuman powers that, in a villain, don’t need a costume to make them seem more awe-inspiring.
From what I’ve heard and read, there are two main complaints making the rounds with both critics and audiences. One, there was lack of exposition and plot development. Two, the trailer summed the movie up so nicely it summed up the entire story. Of these Complaint Number Two is the most valid, because a perusal of the trailer reveals 1) the story involves a girl, 2) she figures in his decision to go into a medication procedure that turns him into a mutant-superhero, and 3) the entire story’s going to be based on how he gets at the person responsible for his disfigurement. Call me cruel, but the trailer (as my friend Kavindu Indatissa said) “literally gave everything away”.
Complaint Number One is different. True, there was a noticeable lack of character development, and as Brian Tallerico (www.rogerebert.com) implied in his review this helps the film’s attempt at presenting its story in a purposefully shallow way. In terms of plot development many felt there was much to be desired, but I disagree on one point: that this deprived the movie of any vitality. Why? Because unlike most superhero movies, this one doesn’t play on shades of grey (which Spiderman, Batman, heck even Superman does!) but instead sustains a black/white dichotomy from beginning to end. Because of this the plot needed to be terse, and the characters needed to be at their most outward selves.
Which brings me to another issue: all that blood and gore. I found it a little too much, even for a superhero like Deadpool, but for the life of me I can’t really find fault with this. I doubt this has as many scenes of dismemberment, disembowelment, and what-not as, say, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, but even though I felt (and feel) that Deadpool almost tried to imitate Tarantino’s bizarre blood-and-gore fest I didn’t feel perturbed by it. Wade Wilson is Wade Wilson, and to consider his actions as the result of his insanity (after being mutilated and transformed) is to miss the point: Deadpool isn’t the Joker. He lives, exists, and plans out his daily schedule with an end in sight, and whether or not the way he moves about is at odds with how the X Men (curiously only two of them are featured with our hero) want him to “behave” is irrelevant. He is amused at his own motives and how he sets about realising them. And we are as amused as he is.
This is just one way of looking at the movie, I admit. But that’s exactly how most viewers and audience members, whose reviews I’ve read or with whom I’ve talked, tend to analyse the story: in terms of its deliberate conceit, shallowness, and playfulness. Given the fact that we saw a darker, less comic Deadpool in X Men Origins: Wolverine (also played by Reynolds), we naturally felt disjuncture seeing Wade Wilson act the way he does in here. He is not apologetic but tries to be, he seems insane but is not, and he is in love in the most curiously curious way possible (and of course, he likes “Wham!”).
I liked the movie. I am not a superhero film fan but Deadpool won me, if at all because the main criticism made about it was misconceived and misconstrued in more ways than one. I mentioned at the beginning that audiences confuse self-amusement for wit. Deadpool wasn’t about wit. He was about self-amusement. But I couldn’t have cared less. He was fun, the story was fun, heck even Ajax was fun!
I must admit, however: that last scene was probably the reason why the whole story ended up as a Valentine’s Day Movie. And yes, it was awesome. Just the right kind of ending.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
His argument, which wasn’t easy to counter, was simple: stop trashing the money-makers, leave them be, and go on enjoying the movies I’d grown up loving.
I am of course adamant and stubborn, and my opinion isn’t shared by the majority. My friend Yohan Cooray accused me (in his own special way) of pandering to the phobia that critics in this country display towards those who fulfil what I regard as the most primitive function of art: to entertain. I believe Yohan has a point, I know I might be having that phobia, and so I admit: his take on the impossibility of objectifying taste (in the movies at least) stands to reason. Makes me want to re-examine some hard truths about the cinema, both here and elsewhere.
I suppose the problem of taste-objectification is one of aesthetics: what is art and what is not, we constantly ask ourselves. If 12 Years a Slave is art, does that make Star Wars: The Force Awakens kitsch? Besides, who determines the criterion which differentiates the one from the other? These questions remind me of the age-old debate between critical appeal and commercial success, a debate that still hasn’t been resolved in the movies and one which reflects the distinction between art as decor and art as utilitarian, criticised amply by the inimitable Ananda Coomaraswamy, who, if he were alive today, would have written extensively on the movies.
What works for the unperceived minority (or those whose taste is reserved for esoteric movies) doesn’t work for the majority, everyone knows. This is where my friend made his point, because not only can’t taste be objectified, it also can’t be imposed. One can take to a work of art spontaneously, but just because a particular film, owing to a non-linear narrative or sloppy editing done to deceive the eye of the viewer, escapes the praise of that spontaneous cine-phile it doesn’t mean he or she should be lambasted. In this Yohan is correct and I am wrong.
Where I am not wrong however is this: in the movies, it’s difficult to blur the distinction between art and kitsch. Forget the United States of America. Take Sri Lanka. For every Dadayama there’ll always be more than one Kavuda Raja, and for every Akasa Kusum there’ll always be more than one Gamini. I know there’s no commonality that binds these movies together, except for one point: they are all driven by a personal vision. Only difference is, the director of Aksharaya infused his personal vision more so than the director of, say, Kavuda Raja, whose outlook on the cinema depended on the accumulation of popular tastes and cliches.
Perhaps this is my pessimism at work here, but in Sri Lanka (it being the small country it is), this distinction may continue for quite some time, and until then, the likes of me and Yohan will be destined to fight out with each other.
In the USA this problem virtually doesn’t exist. David Denby, in an article written for the “New Republic” (“Has Hollywood Murdered the Movies?”), practically rants and raves by way of attacking the superhero movie genre and Christopher Nolan, but at the end of the day we are left wondering: how is it that the same industry which produces such obviously recycled movies as Iron Man and Captain America (which rarely obtrude on a human experience, inspite of their good-versus-evil storylines) can churn out 12 Years a Slave and a director as obstinate and admirable as Wes Anderson? Makes one want to grill Mr Denby, no doubt.
I doubt most Sri Lankans watch Wes Anderson (even I find his films somewhat obscurantist), but this doesn’t marginalise one salient fact: in the West the fine line between art and kitsch has eroded, in part due to the decline of the studio system (which, admittedly, still dominates) and in part due to the emergence of a free, independent cinema.
How about Sri Lanka? First of all, our film industry was and always will be teetering between two extremes, but I don’t necessarily see anything bad in this. In a small country such as ours it’s only natural that polarities come out more extremely. And how so?
In the nearly 70 years since Kadawunu Poronduwa was made, we’ve seen only one H. D. Premaratne come and go (and thank goodness he came up somehow!). Sure, there was Vasantha Obeyesekere, who valiantly tried to make use of popular cinema as a means of articulating social discourse, but by and by (and I say this honestly) his work eventually tilted to one side of the divide. Sure, we have Udayakantha Warnasuriya, but then again his films, like the films of Chandran Rutnam (who once told me that the key function of movies is to entertain), are all largely atonal. Consequently, his political thrillers are worlds away from his romances and comedies, and for this reason the distinction between artiness and non-artiness becomes apparent even in his cinema.
The best filmmakers, hence, operating for and in an industry like ours, can’t afford to make critically acclaimed works of art all the time. Nor can they always aim at connecting the box-office with the critic. That’s why there are foreign film festivals and of course financiers out there to bait. That’s why producers are hard to find here for a film like Aksharaya, which those inevitable cultural puritans pounded rather too much. That's why even as enlightening a figure as Lester James Peries found it difficult to wed the commercial with the arty, while in his most successful work – Golu Hadawatha, Akkara Paha, and Nidhanaya – he went more than any other director in his time to achieve this task.
My point therefore is that inasmuch as we critique this essential divide, we can’t ignore it in assessing movies which (we feel to be) inadequate and debased. Along the way we glance at the past rather nostalgically. We also yearn for reruns of classics, forgetting that while they’re watched on television by a great many people probably a fraction of that TV audience, who wish these films to be aired again and again, went to watch them when they were first screened in the country.
In short: we need a Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) as much as we need a Christopher Nolan. We need Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man as much as we need him in Chaplin, even though very few Sri Lankans I’ve met even know there was a movie made on that inimitable artist, let alone the fact that it starred the man who’d get to play Tony Stark about 15 years later.
There’s little space for these reflections to take their intended course, and an academic essay is not what I am aiming at here. Suffice it to say that my friend Yohan hit the point rather brutally, coming short of accusing me of being snobbish towards the money-makers. I am not, but it’s easy for people to think I am. Not because I deride entertainment as a key function of the movies, but because I believe that the directors of these films, by transforming the unreality and gross crudities rampant in their work into emotion, are (for the lack of a better way of putting it) duping audiences.
And you know the tragedy of all this? We don’t care. We just seem to go on. If that isn’t cause for sober reflection, I don’t know what is.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
There was a standing ovation then, for Gamini Fonseka had just described this actor the best way anyone could. He had put into words what decades and performances had achieved for Malini Fonseka. And for the life of me, there is no better way I can go by way of summarising her. That would be merely superfluous.
Malini is, without a doubt, the “Queen” of our cinema. And rightly so. She has achieved an enviable dexterity in both commercial and serious films which only a handful of actresses have. Through all this, though, she has retained modesty. No false pride has detracted her from delving into different films and different performances. No preconceived notions about “good” or “bad” roles have set her back. Perhaps this is the key to her agility. What is surprising about it is that she didn’t come from an “acting” background: it was purely her love for both stage and cinema which took her to where she is now. That’s achievement, but hardly the romantic “rags-to-riches” story one gets to hear every day.
Her first stints at acting, not surprisingly, had been at the stage, a typical phenomenon among actors here at that time. She was educated at Gurukula Maha Vidyalaya in Kelaniya, which bordered the Vidyalankara Campus (now the University of Kelaniya). Apparently the University was staging a play, but those producing it there were on the lookout for an actress to take the lead role. This had been a problem because the Campus had no female students at the time, only boys and monks.
The dancing teacher at Gurukula was told to find a suitable person for the role. Malini was asked then to take part in the play, but, according to her, “I did not accept it then and there, because I had to ask permission from my parents.” The play was Noratha Ratha, produced and directed by H. D. Weerasiri: it marked the first time young Malini acted outside her school. From then on, the stage would entice her, getting her roles in such plays as Guttila by S. Karu.
Then came 1965. She was acting in a play called Akal Wessa, and would later win the Best Actress
award for it. Among the crowd that had thronged at Lumbini Theatre that night was Tissa Liyanasuriya, by then a two-time film director. He and Joe Abeywickrama were on the lookout for a “new face” to take on the lead role in his next film. She hadn’t been a unanimous choice: “Some people thought that I was far too thin and unsuitable for the film,” she tells me. Liyanasuriya and Abeywickrama, though, were satisfied by her test screening, and took her in.
The film was of course Punchi Baba, which would be released in 1968. Tissa Liyanasuriya himself once described her to me: “I didn’t order her around. She was fully aware and involved with what she did, and liked the script, story, and role. Others had wanted an incumbent for the film’s lead. Joe and I were adamant: we wanted a newcomer. Seeing her, we were quite confident that she could do it.” The film proved a launch pad for the budding film-actress in Malini, proved amply by her (relatively) minor role as the sister to Henry Jayasena in G. D. L. Perera’s Dahasak Sithuvili that same year.
Looking back, Malini says that none of the directors she worked with “imposed” their methods on her: “They were all quite respectful of my acting capabilities and the sort of performances I was generally comfortable with.” Most cinemagoers will remember her for those countless commercial flicks which, in more ways than one, lent the “Queen” tag to her career. But she had her share of serious films as well. Akkara Paha and Nidhanaya figure prominently among this crowd, but there were others too. Amaranath Jayatilaka’s Siripala saha Ranmenika, for instance, saw her play a very unattractive wife to Ravindra Randeniya, which won her unqualified praise from Satyajit Ray (“He couldn’t reconcile my character in the film with me!” Malini nostalgically remembers).
She admits that even at this stage, she didn’t entertain any preconceived attitude to “good” acting: “I didn’t come from an acting background. Hence my education was firmly based on what I experienced hands-down.” That, by the way, has been the main path through which giants in cinema have emerged. As she tells me all this, I am reminded of the American filmmaker John Ford, whose legendary directing style all boiled down to one dictum: “Photograph the actor’s eyes.” Echoed in that was Ford’s own underestimation of his real directorial power. I think it’s a case of modesty on her part, but the way I see it, Malini Fonseka’s attitude to acting, though not completely shaped up on a “clean slate” (given her adolescent encounters with the theatre), was almost wholly made up of firsthand experience.
For me, however, and doubtless for thousands of other avid followers of serious Sinhala cinema, she will be best remembered for her association with Dharmasena Pathiraja. From a minor part in his debut Ahas Gawwa to a lead role in his pièce de résistance (and undervalued masterpiece) Soldadu Unnahe, Malini took on the demands of the so-called “socially engaged cinema” with unabated interest. She became part of the repertoire of actors who surrounded Pathiraja, among them Wimal Kumar da Costa (her classmate at Gurukula), Amarasiri Kalansuriy (with whom she was paired in H. D. Premaratne’s unforgettable Apeksha), and Vijaya Kumaratunga.
She lists Aradhana among her favourites. It won her the Best Actress award at the Presidential Film Awards ceremony that year. Indeed, her very first directorial effort, Sasara Chethana, an ambitious Western-styled action thriller, was made during this time, in 1984. She has since directed three other films: Ahinsa (1987), Sthree (1991), and Sandamadala (1994).
As the years went by, it seemed as though she took on increasingly matriarchal roles, as evidenced by her acclaimed performances in Punchi Suranganawi (2002), Wekanda Walauwwa (2003), and Ammawarune (2006). It would be unforgivable to omit her role in Prasanna Vithanage’s Akasa Kusum (2009) here, and I think it needs more than a mere mentioning in this article. She won her quite a number of awards internationally, including the Silver Peacock at the Indian Film Festival (which she herself once called the “biggest achievement in my forty years” in cinema).
The role was that of a former film star whose return to fame is marked by scandal. In hindsight, perhaps Prasanna Vithanage was spot-on for having chosen her to play the character. Echoing the “fading film star” motif which has figured in countless films in the West, the film delved into the patriarchal “despotism” that is at the heart of both our country and our popular entertainment industry.
One can spot out a kind of naked austerity in Malini’s performance in the film. There are no attempts at frilling or exaggerating: here, more than in any of her previous films, she achieves a deliberate underplaying on her part. This underplaying is essential for her character of Sandya Rani, whose nostalgic reveries of the past are underscored by a harsh, all-too real present. The clash of personal feeling and class/social realities (especially when she gets involved in the scandal the film centres on) is the epicentre of the film, and she epitomises this clash succinctly. Suffice it to say that it represents the achieving of an overarching goal Malini’s career has revolved around: the removal of the theatrical and the excessively emotional from her acting.
Perhaps this is one way I can explain what Gamini Fonseka said was unexplainable. Malini Fonseka is well aware of her capabilities and potential. She needs no perpetual limelight, however, and purely because we ourselves know her worth. That, at the end of the day, may well be the secret to the fame she has subsisted on throughout all these years and decades, although I still feel we are yet to come up with an indefeasible, indisputable summing up of her value, both as actress and as national icon.
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 23 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
His argument, which wasn’t easy to counter, was simple: stop trashing the money-makers, leave them be, and go on enjoying the movies I’d grown up loving.
I suppose the problem in our debate was one of aesthetics: what is art and what is not, we constantly ask ourselves. In the context of our cinema this remains as true as it’s going to get, not merely because audiences are going to sustain this distinction for time to come, but because directors, in their efforts at either making profits or winning ego-boosters by the name of awards and accolades, refused or rather couldn’t wed the two. They couldn’t aim at a fusion of the arty and the commercial, in other words.
Not that there weren’t exceptions. Of course there were. But they were few, far in between, and too indiscernible to offer reason for hope. Which is why, at the end of the day, when we look back nostalgically to the past, we talk of reruns of classics and retrospectives of directors who’re either dead or aged. Prime among them are directors who kept audiences alive to the movies they made, of course, and to me, there remains no better name to bring up as the exception to what I pointed out a short while back than H. D. Premaratne.
Premaratne was, to put it pithily, a genius. Only a genius, after all, could have made Sikuruliya, Apeksha, Parithyagaya, and Deveni Gamana, just like that and in that order. These movies captured him at his best, exemplifying his attitude to the cinema (critics would have a term for this: “middle cinema”) in ways virtually no other director in his time could match. Which is why, when we refer to our past and attempt at locating the moorings of popular culture in our cinema, his name remains un-erasable.
Premaratne’s films worked their magic on us long before we began realising it. How?
He was earthy. Down to earth. His storylines, if one looks at them carefully enough, were all rooted in our people, though that does little by way of differentiating them from the stories his contemporaries went for. What distinguished his work, hence, wasn’t just the fact that he went for the ordinary: it was the fact that he could, in film after film, transform whatever ordinary plotline it was into a tool of social and political comment. Premaratne wasn’t an activist the way, for instance, that Dharmasena Pathiraja or Dharmasiri Bandaranayake was. But at the end of the day, he was as allied to the same concern for the dispossessed and marginalised as they were.
What proved to be his strength could, nonetheless, be his weakness. From Sikuruliya to Saptha Kanya there were 11 films, all of which were box-office hits. He was inconsistent in his work: sometimes, as with Deveni Gamana, he infused the political into the aesthetic, pairing the two in ways which did the social issue he was examining proper justice, and sometimes, as with Saptha Kanya, he let go of political realities so beautifully that, like the best American directors, he made us forget the unreality of his stories and made us fall in love with them.
So how did this become a weakness? There is a gulf between the social and the personal, though I don’t mean to say that they are irreconcilable. In Premaratne’s better films, he could bring the two together wonderfully – witness his take on feminist issues in Sikuruliya, the issue of dowry and marriage in Parithyagaya, and of course the theme of virginity and its sacrosanct place in our society in Deveni Gamana. But even in his more commercially successful work, his inability at doing away with this gulf showed. That didn’t mar his image. But it was a weakness.
I am thinking here of Visidela, a film which, like much of Premaratne’s other work, caught hold of an actual political experience and used it as background material for the fictionalised world that he created. The story of Visidela takes place around the time of the bheeshanaya, with its main characters all figuring in the tragedy that leads to probably the most downbeat ending that Premaratne contrived in his films. What we see, understand, and empathise with, is the plight of the characters played by Anosha Sonali and Jackson Anthony, siblings who get carried away by the idealism of youth despite the harsh realities that exist outside (and sometimes even within) their village.
I know what certain critics would have thought of this: that in making the bheeshanaya “background material”, Premaratne privileged the plight of these two siblings, which essentially made the political aspect of the story a mere instrument at the hands of the personal. What this assumes is that this makes the personal “lower” in terms of relevance than the political, an erroneous misconception in film aesthetics. I’d say that the director’s weakness comes up in another form: not when he privileges the personal over the social, but when he dabbles in the two at the same time rather confusingly.
The authors of “Profiling Sri Lanka” write that Premaratne’s films display an uneven quality, which to a certain extent is true. That unevenness comes up strongly in Visidela, and I can pinpoint the exact time when it does come up: when, after Sonali and her lover (Razi Anwer) flirt with each other over Samitha Mudunkotuwa’s rendition of “Gumu Gumuwa Wadule”, we see Sonali’s uncle (played to perfection by W. Jayasiri) making covert sexual advances on her (the theme of incest, I must note here, wasn’t that convincingly portrayed, especially when contrasted against how he treated socially relevant themes in his other work).
I remember talking with a friend of mine about the disjuncture between these two sequences, and I remember pointing at the (random) references made by certain characters to the bheeshanaya in the film. These references (Gnananda Gunawardena for instance, as a buffoonish police officer, summarises what the police are doing in areas of rebellion with a cliché: “We are establishing peace!”) become distracting as the movie goes on, and by the end of the story, when Anthony’s character comes up swearing revenge on Jayasiri, thereby rendering the image of the peaceful, virtuous village a myth, we fail to reconcile the political with the personal.
Contrary to what critics would have thought, hence, what fails in Visidela isn’t its refusal to privilege the political but its inability to conflate its socio-political context with the fictionalised story of Anthony, Sonali, Anwer, and Jayasiri.
Premaratne didn’t direct only Visidela, of course. There were other films, other masterpieces, each as loved as the other. Throughout the 1980s he became more politically committed, and this meant that (out of necessity) he had to do away at least partly with the slickness and romantic idealisations that were part and parcel of his initial work. This culminated in Saptha Kanya, a film which despite its romantic moorings displayed an almost indifferent attitude to its social context.
It was almost as if he were trying to deliberately weed politics and social themes out of stories which played around with romantic fiction, as if he were trying to drive home the point that political activism in the cinema couldn’t cohabit with entertainment-frill. When he tried to do away with this distinction with his last film, Kinihiriya Mal, consequently, we didn’t quite feel the full thrust of his magic. Like Visidela before it, hence, his last film remained ambitious and therefore larger-than-life.
These are reflections. They don’t pretend to be anything else. There’s so much to H. D. Premaratne that has escaped the critical eye, if at all because critics who refuse to see anything merit-worthy in directors who bridged the gap between the arty and the commercial are reluctant to do justice to him. “Profiling Sri Lankan Cinema”, admittedly, records his shortcomings, as few as they were. But this is not enough. Premaratne’s genius remains elusive. He gave us Saptha Kanya and at the same time Apeksha and could deftly examine society in ways his contemporaries could not. If we can't acknowledge that, we have failed in acknowledging the man.
What my friend Yohan pointed out above is true. What he implied is truer. If we stop trashing the money-makers and re-assess them, perhaps we’d see reason for hope. And hope, let’s admit it, is grossly missing in our cinema. We have the likes of H. D. Premaratne to thank for having enlivened our industry, no doubt.
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 16 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
That was then. Since that time I’ve questioned myself about the inclusion of opinion in articles which are touted as factual (when they are not) and have come to the conclusion that the writer writes while the reader reads (so, for instance, the writer is not required to read the reader’s comment). The reader has discretion. So does the writer. Both are tied or at least used to be tied together by this mutual freedom which the one accorded to the other.
In this universe we refer to as a blogosphere, however, we have the good, the bad, and the mediocre. In my opinion (yes, this is an opinion piece, don’t get that wrong) the latter of these three are just about the guiltiest of perpetuating the kind of intellectual glut I alluded to above, because THAT’s the group which dabbles in speculation while attempting to write facts.
Two blog posts caught my attention this year, in this regard: Vichakshana Arangala’s piece on Ananda College, and Thisuri Wanniarachchi’s piece on Big Matches. I don’t think either of them was (that) mediocre, but that doesn’t help matters. Not one bit.
There’s a world between these two articles. The first (characteristically titled “Ananda College: A Breeding Ground for Racism, and a Threat to Peace, Tolerance, and Secularism”) caught my attention at once because it was obviously written (and the writer, Vichakshana Arangala, admits this) as an affirmation of former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s hot-headed speech against what she called “Sinhala Buddhist schools”.
The second was more nuanced, less direct, but certainly as opinionated. I admit Thisuri Wanniarachchi’s piece on Big Matches (“What Your Schools Didn’t Teach You”) caught my attention more for the themes she selected for discussion than how she discussed them. Her writing was to the point and unapologetic, which is why, over these past few months, I’ve come to appreciate her articles (especially her political articles).
But I digress.
Vichakshana (who describes himself as an “Ex-Buddhist Atheist”) extrapolated more, I admit. He has since taken his post down (and made his blog private), but fortunately I remember sections of it well. The entire thrust of that article amounted to portraying a) Colonel Henry Steel Olcott as a kind of Western agent who castrated Buddhism, b) Ananda College as a repository of Sinhala Buddhist, anti-minoritarian chauvinism, and c) his school-mates there as paranoid, extremist, murderous, and basically every other trait that could justify his paranoia.
The problem with Vichakshana’s piece is that he generalises while trying to make us believe that he doesn’t. Let me be clearer: he makes us believe that the specificity of what happened to him takes on a general character, when it does not. In other words, he commits that classic mistake bloggers and op-ed columnists commit again and again: de-legitimising the wrongfulness of the social ill they condemn by ranting and raving and indulging in wild extrapolations (I couldn’t help raising my eyebrow, for instance, when he wrote that “Anandhism” – a term I have not come across before – was comparable to Tamil schools promoting Prabhakaran, not least because I am yet to come across a Buddhist equivalent of Prabhakaran, literally at least, from the past 50 years).
I have great respect for those who think outside the norm, but there are limits, and those limits are framed not by outsiders but by those who seek to defy convention. Simply put, Vichakshana commits the same mistake others of his calibre do: rationalising paranoia, opinion, and specific events in terms of some conspiracy which (he feels) brainwashes those he opposes. This lends little credence to what he’s trying to say.
But there was one thing Vichakshana didn’t do, and that’s going on a tangent. Thisuri Wanniarachchi did just that.
Thisuri began writing of fraternities between popular schools in this country and then decided to talk of the objectification of female students a la “Big Match Season” and the racism inculcated by Ananda College at THEIR Big Match (of all things)! Unlike Vichakshana’s assertions however, I was jarred by what Thisuri actually wrote. With Vichakshana the problem was with the manner of his presentation. With Thisuri the problem was with WHAT she presented.
I know the usual reply she got to her article: that she was a “Feminazi”, that she couldn’t enjoy her school-life, that she was too “elitist” to enjoy the beer-drinking, socialising, shouting, whistling, and hooting culture of popular schools in Colombo. What these did was to reinforce the image of students from these schools that she had painted: unable to contain criticism and prone to wild outbursts. I don’t think you can blame anyone for thinking that the reactions she got echoed much of what she wrote about those who reacted to her post.
I don’t claim to be a cricket fan (I’m not) and I won’t comment on anything connected with the Big Match. All I know is that at one point her article reeked of the same kind of opinionated biases which two bloggers (Dilshan Senaratne and Ravindu Ariyawansa) took on and exposed. For example: her notion that in the USA only elite Universities organise anything comparable to a Big Match was only half-true and beside the point she herself was trying to make.
The most common quasi-journalistic fallacy is mistaking the particular with the general, and in her article Thisuri effectively conflates Sinhala Buddhists with extremists (I quote: “The Sinhala-Buddhist centric schools conveniently forgot to teach their kids that racism is a reflection of one’s lack of education”). This was admittedly more sober than Vichakshana’s piece, but again, extrapolation has its limits. When those limits are breached under the guise of analysis, hell tends to (metaphorically) break lose. While I don’t agree with much of the comments her article provoked, hence, there was reason and wit in Dilshan’s and Ravindu’s “replies”.
I don’t pretend to know things that I don’t. I don’t know the first thing about cricket and my guess is that I shouldn’t talk about a particular topic unless I’ve “been there, done that”. As Dilshan correctly points out, all it takes is the ability to string two words together and voila! – You’ve got your widely shared, widely circulated op-ed “masterpiece”. The way he unveiled the fatal contradiction in Thisuri’s article – that by railing against the fraternal elitism of the schools she picked on, she used an elite society she’s familiar (the United States) with to provide a point of reference – was a classic on the art of counterargument.
So, to sum up the arguments against both these writers: schools aren’t older than Universities here, people feel justifiably proud of schools because they spent 12 to 14 years there, that is not a sign of immaturity, dressing up as women is probably not equivalent to being biased against transgender people, “Sinhala Buddhist schools” aren’t necessarily bigoted at the outset, students of a particular school DO NOT ALWAYS reflect the values the school espouses, and wild extrapolations paraded as factual analysis help neither the writer nor the reader.
Don’t get me wrong. Assault is terrible. Being drawn out forcibly and interrogated for being an atheist and anti-Buddhist is terrible. And normalising both of these is terrible. They should be called out and they should be condemned. I believe that they are.
But miracles don’t happen overnight. My guess is they never will. That’s where social media plays a role (I think the boy from Kuliyapitiya proved this well), and that’s where reasoned, proportionate judgment will prevail over opinionated bias and prejudice. It wasn’t merely opinion which got that little boy a spot in Trinity College, after all. It was facts. And analysis. Those who ended up calling the villagers of Kuliyapitiya idiots and bumpkins got the boy nowhere, let us not forget.
Whether we like it or not, hence, winning both sides of a debate isn’t as simple as ranting and raving and extrapolating. There’s more that needs to be done. Much more.
Uditha Devapriya is a freelance writer who can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
I remember the first time I saw Henry Jayasena. Not in a film. Not on stage. It was in Doo Daruwo, the TV series which first brought to Sri Lankans an idea of what long-running mega-series were. “Sudu Seeya” was a name which kept cropping up, and for some inexplicable reason the actor who played the grandfather in it became indistinguishable from the role. That was how I got to know about him. He was and remains (for me at least) “Sudu Seeya”. Always.
And right until his death more than six years ago, that’s the name I kept on using. I don’t think my generation got to know him through any other way. There were his films and plays. There were those songs he sang. He had his share of ups and downs, of greater and lesser roles. Everybody did. It took some while, though, for me and the rest of my generation to get to fully assess the true worth of the man. Even after all these years, I’m not sure whether we’ve done enough justice to him. Writers can do scant justice to monuments, after all.
Henry Jayasena was not just an actor or a writer. He had the inner conviction of a true patriot to absorb the best of both worlds (East and West) without feeling the need to imitate one or the other. True, there were those who claimed that his acting was a tad too stylised, to the point where he seemed to overact. Perhaps this was a legacy of his stints at the theatre.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
Jayasena’s book Play is the Thing intricately details his early years, so I won’t duplicate it here. Suffice it to say that his interest in the theatre, enlivened by visits made to his hometown Gampaha by Rukmani Devi and the Jayamanne brothers, was looked down upon by his father, Albert. Henry’s father had taught him a little, before he was enrolled at Lorenz College (“a kind of poor-man’s school for English,” as he puts it in the book) and later at Nalanda College, Colombo 10 (back then in its infancy).
At both schools, he had increasingly become enamoured of the stage – at Nalanda he had written and produced a play, the first past pupil there to do so within its premises – and, thanks to his father, had had been introduced to W. A. S. Perera (Siri Aiya) of the popular children’s radio program Lama Tiraya, broadcast over Radio Ceylon. His first real job was as an English Assistant Teacher at a school in Dehipe. Jayasena’s first play, Janaki (based on the Ramayana), had been staged here.
It wasn’t at this school, though, that his career really began. Soon after, he was moved to another job, one that would stay with him for the better part of his life and career: as a clerk at the Public Works Department (PWD). It provided Henry with a financial cushion. His film career began in 1959, opposite Punya Heendeniya and Joe Abeywickrama in Sri 296.
A voyage of sorts to Russia and England (through a UNESCO fellowship) would follow arguably his most nuanced role in film, as Piyal in Gamperaliya (1964). Perhaps here I should repeat what Lester James Peries once told me: “Henry came from the stage. So did Trilicia Gunawardena (who played Anula). Personally, I don’t think they played a part in a more graceful, restrained manner than they did in Gamperaliya. Henry himself thought that he was underplaying. That is why, in his later performances, I thought he overacted a little.”
I remember the last scene in the film, where Piyal and Nanda (played by him and Punya Heendeniya) succumb to their repressed feelings. Piyal, unable to veil his jealousy any longer, hurts Punya’s feelings. The restraint he epitomised until then in the film was in stark contrast to this momentary loss of cool. That was when I understood what Peries meant, when he commented that in no other film of his (except perhaps for Nidhanaya) did an ensemble cast prove its greatest strength.
This is not to belittle his other film credits. It’s just that, as Piyal (even in Gamperaliya’s sequel, Kaliyugaya), Jayasena invested his performance with a kind of restraint he did not maintain (out of necessity perhaps) in most of his other performances. There may have been one solid exception. I’m thinking here of G. D. L. Perera’s Dahasak Sithuvili (1968), in which he is a clerk obsessing over whether his love interest is going out with a colleague from work.
There are sequences in the film (for instance, when he comes across photos of his lover and the colleague, frolicking by the sea), where the “grace under pressure” he exhibited back in Gamperaliya almost seems to reach breaking point. But no: at the critical moment, his current of memory is disturbed, and he pulls back just in time.
There were other films, both off-beat and commercial. Of his later performances though, none could quite match his role in Dharmasiri Bandaranayake’s Hansa Vilak (1980). In Jayasena’s performance there, we see a fusion of the theatrical and restrained. As the wronged husband to Swarna Mallawaarachchi, who later goes back to her to the fury of Bandaranayake (who’d maintained an extramarital affair with her in the film), he laces his role with theatrical finesse and drama. At times, this becomes too theatrical, but the conviction in his playing strikes through to us anyway.
What of Henry the stage-man? He was always cautious, for one thing. He was the kind of playwright who never turned out to be an aesthete. He wasn’t too overjoyed at castrating his work of any local colour. This was true especially when it came to Hunuwataye Kathawa. Bertolt Brecht had pioneered his own method of drama, called “Verfremdung” (alienation). This meant a stripping off of rhetoric and emotion, achieving a sort of “distancing effect”, with the staging of a play. Deliberately however, Jayasena rejected this approach in his adaptation. He came for his share of criticism, but I think he was right in this.
Perhaps he taught us a lesson here. He knew the theatre, inside-out. He realised that for all the trends the rest of the world had popularised, he still would have to shape and adapt his stories to suit his own people. He understood that we had our own stories to enrich our theatre with. He also understood that it was not imitation, but adaptation, which would develop our stage. That this didn’t mean a local playwright should be divorced from the issues of his time was proved by his next play, Apata Puthe Magath Nathe: the closest thing to a political statement Jayasena came up with. It was based on a true incident, was banned, and was later staged to wide acclaim.
That was Jayasena. Unapologetic. Unbending.
Today we talk of stars and icons. We measure fame in terms of “the moment”, which means that we relegate legends, sometimes erroneously, to the background. I believe, however, that if we all could take stock of those we forgot as icons, those we left behind in order to become part of the culturally uprooted and Westernised, then we can all mend our ways. Especially today, when the English theatre continues to bloom, and the Sinhala theatre continues to be reborn.
We have Henry Jayasena to thank for this, I am sure.
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 9 2016
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 9 2016
Sunday, March 6, 2016
There was a time when I considered songs which were otherwise rubbish as monumental purely because of their rhythm, but that was way back. Even now though, I am pretty much an ignoramus when it comes to reviewing a poem or lyric.
In the late nineties, when I began responding to music and lyrics a little spontaneously, there were two lyricists from here I usually went for. This wasn’t because of any bias or prejudice on my part, but because these two wrote songs which seemed to be aired whenever I turned on the radio. They were Sunil Ariyaratne and Ajantha Ranasinghe. Ariyaratne’s lyrics tended to veer into satire and even nonsense a tad too much after some time. Ranasinghe’s lyrics were easier and more spontaneous. I liked Ranasinghe more.
And how couldn’t I? Ranasinghe was the lyricist who gave us (and could give us) “Indunil Gangulal” and “Sili Sili Seethala Alle”, who could write of love and of his country’s heritage just like that. He was “rooted” in the truest sense of that word. That showed. All the way. It took some time for me to realise just how integral he had been to my cultural sensibilities, for my knowledge of Sinhala remains at best passable and consequently I didn’t (or couldn’t) respond to Sinhala lyricists the way I could to, say, English poets.
“Integral” is a powerful word, I know. But that’s what he was to me. Always.
Ajantha Ranasinghe came to me with those film songs he wrote. That is how I first “met” him. Listen to these songs today, and you will realise how he transforms the simplest metaphor into a substantive reality. This was him at his best, and this strength was what he kept with him for the most, for instance in “Bodha Meedum”
බොඳ මීදුම් කඳු රැල්ලේ
සුරංගනා රජ දහනේ
ඔබේ සිනා කඳුළු බිඳත්
There was nothing obscurantist about Ranasinghe. He came to us simply and directly. He could write about love in a hundred different ways, I’m willing to bet, and be able to establish the commonalities that bound them together in one go. That this was complemented by his rootedness, that he never removed himself from the bonds which tied him to his humble background, everyone knew. Which was how he entranced us with his pen, particularly with those songs that celebrated love so minimally and yet intensely:
මාල ගිරා ගෙල
මාල පොටක් බඳු
ගෝමර පෙති මාලේ...
රුව දිලෙනා ලීලේ...
He neither simplified nor elaborated beyond what was necessary to evoke fragrance. Like the best among his contemporaries he knew how to evoke spontaneous reaction, to arouse memory and that by distilling what his verses were trying to get at throughout his songs. Even when he wasn’t writing about love and dwelt on other more mundane matters, he showed this pretty well. As with “Indunil Gangulal”, which like the above quoted lyrics moves over its themes in fragments before distilling them in one go:
සිව් මහා නදී ගලා බැසලා
රත්තරන් ගොයම් කරල් පැසීලා
සදා ජීවිතෙන් පුදා රකිව් ලංකා...
I wrote before that I met him firstly through his film songs. I met him again, this time personally for an interview and a biographical sketch. He spoke slowly, with conviction, and went through each and every facet to his career. Ranasinghe hailed from Thalammahara, in Pannala. He drove his point about his upbringing well in that interview, I remember. Only someone who could move with the village, he told me, could have written “Mala Gira”, with those lines and verses celebrating those little, little details that never escape the eyes of those whose bonds with birthplace were unbreakable.
We talked for well more than an hour. Not enough, I should think. Not by a long shot.
He wasn’t a pedant, however. He wrote of love, true. He could appear austere and was rarely ostentatious, true. But he wrote other songs, most of which are marginalised today but which showed his versatility well. The lyrics he wrote for Jothipala, for instance, are sung by everyone. They found their way into our films and those in turn made them even more popular. I am willing to bet, though, that when people sing them they think of Jothipala firstly and whoever composed them secondly. Inevitable, a little tragic, but also a little comforting, since Ranasinghe is remembered more (I’d like to think) for those paeans of love and life where he articulated his rootedness well.
Ajantha Ranasinghe died on February 27. He was 75, I read. A loss certainly, and one which will be felt even more in the coming years. Our cultural firmament had a place for the likes of him. My bet is he’ll continue to occupy our collective unconscious, our unyielding cultural tastes. There’s a reason for this, of course. Ranasinghe wasn’t a pedant. Nor was he a populist. He liked to be a moderate.
I think the last word should be his: “We need to move. We need to progress. We can’t be singing ‘Gal Lena Bindala’ forever. But at the same time, we need to be mindful of form. If we can fine-tune content to that basic form, while keeping in mind that almost everything in culture is evanescent, we cannot flounder.”
Aptly put, I’d like to believe. A pity he left us so quickly.
Written for: The Island LIFESTYLE, March 6 2016
Thursday, March 3, 2016
That was how I first became acquainted with Tony Ranasinghe. It’s been quite a while, but I’m not sure whether I ever got to understand his performances for what they were worth.
I remember the film critic Christopher Orr, in an article in “The New Republic”, chastising a “New York Times” article on the inimitable Cary Grant. He singled out one sentence for critique: “Grant made more than 50 movies as a leading man, but the only thing that ties them together is that they starred Cary Grant”. He posed this (obvious) question: “It's hard to know what to make of this contention, which could be directed at nearly any prolific actor. Is there something other than Robert Duvall's presence that ‘ties together’ the 80 or so features in which he's appeared?”
I don’t know what the “New York Times” was thinking, but my guess is that it was spot on. What Orr missed (I may be wrong in this, of course) was that inasmuch as all films starring Mr X would be tied together by the fact that they starred Mr X, this self-evident “laurel” would be applicable only to “the best” performers. Not the mavericks. Of course Mr X acted in films which featured him, but it takes a combination of acting, looks, charm, and intelligence (my criteria for an actor, by the way) to demarcate those films particularly for having cast him, a point driven home even more if half of them turn out to be rubbish. No one can say that all of Grant’s credits were as laudable as the ones in The Philadelphia Story or North by Northwest, after all.
Tony was like that. He acted in a great many films. He’s remembered for even the worst among them. Like the best actors, he graced the screen long after the film he was in failed to move us. That’s how actors are, after all. Their performances outlive their personal lives.
I met him more than a year ago, when I was compiling a book on actors and directors from his generation. I got the notion he wasn’t too interested in talking about his life or childhood, not because he disliked them but because biographers, because of their tendency to privilege facts over analysis, preferred glossing over personal anecdotes rather than the true worth of this extraordinary actor. For Tony, acting didn’t (or shouldn’t) just propel someone to fame. It should make him reflect and (more importantly) realise the parameters within which he was working.
He was against Stanislavski, for one thing. Stanislavski, as those who profess acting as a career would know, revolutionised acting. His theories won him an audience on the other side of the Atlantic. While much of Europe celebrated Shakespearean theatre, the USA championed a different mode of acting (“The Method”), which privileged spontaneity over reason, exemplified the most (arguably) by Marlon Brando and James Dean. Tony’s distrust over this was evident from the word go. He used Brando to justify his point: “In Brando’s early years he was superb. But towards the end, he could never play anyone beyond himself. He was always Brando. In his worst films, like The Ugly American, this proved a handicap. That is why I never professed ‘The Method’.”
This not only explained his distrust over “new fads” in acting, both here and there, but also his preoccupation with Shakespeare. There were actors he held to heart – he named John Gielgud, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, and Kenneth Branagh – and my guess is what won him over was the fact that they never tried to over-simplify themselves the way Brando did. They were reason-driven, never prone to emotion, and always mindful of the essential divide between the actor and his/her performance (something those who took to “The Method” often do away with).
And in a way, that’s what made Tony the actor he was. There was a time when he exemplified a certain “image”, which he couldn’t really get out of. He was in Delovak Athara, Parasathumal, and Hanthane Kathawa, three films which represented him at his best, as a hero beset with flaws which in the end undermined him rather tragically. He was also in Ran Salu, as a philanderer who abandons the woman he impregnates. He was a little unnerving in that, but as a villain he predicted and foresaw the kind of roles he would get much, much later.
I think Chandran Rutnam spoke for these performances when, in a phone conversation, he acknowledged that Tony was “our answer” to Montgomery Clift and James Dean, the American cinema’s embodiment of masculine fragility. Like Clift and Dean, Tony’s first few performances followed variations of the same motif: his characters all try to win the day, but some flaw or the other makes them lose their footing towards the end. In Delovak Athara it was a persistent desire to be obedient to his family and associates, in Parasathumal it was a lack of courage to stand up against his landowning “boss” when he starts wooing the object of his love, and in Hanthane Kathawa (which had his best performance from this time) it was an inability to reciprocate love.
In the decades that followed those performances changed. He became more aggressive, culminating in his performances in Duhulu Malak and Ahasin Polawata and then detouring wildly to films which had him as a villain. He was miscast in Baddegama, but that didn’t mean we forgot his Fernando. He was superb in Saptha Kanya (he told me that people had difficulty identifying him), somewhat lacklustre in Prasanna Vithanage’s Sisila Gini Ganee not a little lecherous in Asoka Handagama’s Channa Kinnari. True, he was a supporting character in the latter two, but that didn’t make us forget the man. If at all, he reinforced the defeatist, acerbic outlook they conceded ground to.
He didn’t just act, of course. He wrote. His scripts for both film and television remain among the best written in this country. But Tony was a literary man, who was both a voracious reader and critic. When we talked about a certain film which had him, for instance, he was quick to criticise the way it was scripted, going as far as to show me the gap which existed between the source material (a novel) and its adaptation. For him, what justified a film was how close to what it was based on it was. And he stood by this principle in a great many scripts he authored. Like Awaragira, based on G. B. Senanayake’s last published work and an adaptation which clearly showed a fidelity to its source material (not least by its two-and-a-half hour duration).
Then again he was not a man who marginalised the cinema that easily. He recognised it for what it was and for the pitfalls actors like him could be tripped by. Which was why he never forgot restraint, why he never forgot to instil discipline and sobriety wherever he was. He brought this point up when we were talking about Shakespearean actors. He made his point more specific when he brought up a name: Richard Burton. “When he was at his best, Burton was restrained,” he told me, “but in his later performances, particularly towards the end of the 1960s, he couldn’t control himself. He was and he remained, at his worst, crass.” I’m sure that summed up pretty much everything Tony never stood for: a sense of complacency which undermined and in the end tripped actors of a lesser calibre.
My conversation with the man was short, though. Sadly. Looking back I don’t think our newspapermen or critics did enough justice to his worth. Perhaps they were preoccupied by other actors or perhaps they didn’t have the time. I don’t know. All I know is that with his death we lost the last of the trinity of actors who helped change our cinema (the other two, of course, being Joe Abeywickrama and Gamini Fonseka). I won’t pick and choose or be selective with these three names, however.
I will say this, then. Tony made me fall in love with our films. He rescued me from my visceral dislike of them, inculcated during childhood and not always for good reasons. He won me over personally too, for he was at once restrained and open. Joe was always the man who made you laugh. Gamini was always the “hero” to his last. But Tony occupied a middle-ground. That was what signified all those grins, smiles, glares, and glances which adorned nearly all his performances, I’d like to think.
Tony Ranasinghe died last year. He left behind some great performances. Those will never die. They aren’t meant to. If we can watch them even now and remember the actor behind the character and the man behind the actor, I know we have done justice to him. And I know he would have liked that too.
He was serious, this man. And versatile. He loved his career. Almost as much as we did.
Written for: Daily News TOWN AND COUNTRY, March 2 2016


text:
The most common types of mood disorders are major depression, dysthymia (dysthymic disorder), bipolar disorder, mood disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance-induced mood disorder. There is no clear cause of mood disorders.
Ulcerative colitis is a long-term condition where the colon and rectum become inflamed. The colon is the large intestine (bowel) and the rectum is the end of the bowel where stools are stored. Small ulcers can develop on the colon's lining, and can bleed and produce pus.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging a nerve in the back of your eye called the optic nerve. The symptoms can start so slowly that you may not notice them. The only way to find out if you have glaucoma is to get a comprehensive dilated eye exam.
The post Different Types of Glaucoma and the Medication for it appeared first on HoneyBee Pharmacy.
Celecoxib, sold under the brand name Celebrex among others, is a COX-2 inhibitor and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug. It is used to treat the pain and inflammation in osteoarthritis, acute pain in adults, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, painful menstruation, and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
The post What You Should Know About an Arthritis Medication appeared first on HoneyBee Pharmacy.
A stroke is a serious life-threatening medical condition that happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. Strokes are a medical emergency and urgent treatment is essential. The sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen.

domain: medical


text:
for children with cancer
Emotional support is an essential part of the healing process for children with cancer and their families.
Play also plays a vital role in the lives of sick kids. It allows children to forget about negative experiences and to express their feelings.
Through various patient-focused programs, we ensure patients never lose a sense of joy or the will to fight.

domain: health


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by Karen B. London, PhD
Let’s face it: all of us love puppies. Younger canine are typically adopted from shelters and rescue teams shortly, whereas senior canine take longer. In response to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, senior canine have an adoption price of 25 p.c, whereas youthful canine, together with puppies, have a 60 p.c adoption price.
This implies far too many nice canine are handed over just because they’re older. That’s a loss not just for these canine but in addition for potential adopters.
Understanding Senior Canine
Senior canine are typically completely different from youthful canine in various methods. For one, senior canine are calmer, extra relaxed, and sleep greater than youthful canine, which suggests pet mother and father of senior canine additionally get to sleep extra (which is purpose sufficient for most individuals to think about senior canine a blessing). Older canine are nonetheless playful however usually spend much less time enjoying than puppies, who appear to spend each waking second enjoying. Senior canine are usually much less enthusiastic about novel experiences, working round, and exploring and are extra enthusiastic about (and even grateful for) the little pleasures, akin to a scratch behind the ear, a great spot within the automotive, a sleep in a sunny spot, and time collectively doing something — or nothing in any respect. However, senior canine could require endurance as they transfer slowly or take a very long time to lie down, rise, or come to you.
At What Age is a Canine Thought-about a Senior?
A canine is taken into account a senior when they’re at the very least 75 p.c of the best way to their anticipated lifespan. The precise age that qualifies this stage is completely different for various kinds of canine. Some breeds that dwell an particularly very long time could not grow to be seniors till they’re 12 years previous, whereas others could enter the senior zone a lot sooner, at the same time as early as age 5. Smaller canine usually dwell longer than bigger canine, so it’s typical for giant canine to be thought-about seniors years earlier than their smaller buddies are. Many shelters and rescues, nevertheless, think about any canine who’s seven years or older to be a senior.
Advantages of Adopting a Senior Canine
There are many advantages to adopting a senior canine. Listed here are just some:
You Know What You’re Getting
You don’t need to surprise how a senior canine’s character will develop; they already are who they’re! They might take a number of days, weeks, or months to settle in, so you might even see their habits change as they grow to be comfy of their new dwelling, however that’s true for a canine of any age. Figuring out what you see is what you get when adopting a canine is fantastic. You may undertake the canine you join with upon assembly them with out worrying about who they are going to grow to be sooner or later.
They Have Fewer Train or Exercise Wants
It’s plenty of work to train canine, whether or not meaning occurring walks, enjoying video games of fetch, taking them working, or another high-octane exercise. Older canine nonetheless have to get out and have adventures, however these experiences don’t must be almost as lengthy or as intense, which might really feel much more manageable for a lot of potential adopters. Senior canine are content material to hang around enjoyable for extra hours every day than youthful canine, which tends to make them a bit simpler to combine into our lives. They’re additionally not continuously on the lookout for one thing to do or entering into bother as a result of they’re bored.
You Get To Skip Damaging Pet Levels
Whether or not puppies are chewing in your furnishings, sneakers, or palms, it’s not probably the most enjoyable expertise. In case you are adopting a senior canine, these damaging pet levels are previously. Anyone else needed to cope with the injury, however you may benefit from the firm of a canine who is aware of higher what to do with their enamel.
You’ll Be Saving a Life
As a lot as we want it weren’t true, there may be not all the time sufficient area in shelters for each canine, and much too usually, shelters need to make robust decisions about which canine to avoid wasting. Sadly, older canine’ age is commonly a strike in opposition to them just because they aren’t as often adopted. That implies that when you undertake a senior canine, you could very effectively be saving that canine’s life. It’s arduous to consider a greater, extra compelling purpose to decide on a senior canine than that.
Many senior canine can be found.
As a result of many individuals are solely enthusiastic about adopting puppies, there’s generally plenty of competitors for these kids. If you wish to undertake a senior canine, you may normally have your choose of canine. Meaning you will be picky about traits that matter to you, together with the canine’s measurement, colour, breed, intelligence, playfulness, or another trait.
Decrease adoption charges.
Many shelters supply discounted adoption charges for senior canine. The financial savings could also be minimal, however they nonetheless go away extra money for high-quality pet food or a comfortable canine mattress in your new greatest pal!
They Could Already Be Educated
Senior canine normally have some coaching, so that you don’t have to show them the whole lot. It’s an actual pleasure to undertake a canine who already is aware of that the toilet is exterior quite than inside, is comfy strolling on a leash, is aware of how you can sit, is aware of their identify, and maybe has many different abilities. After all, all canine will possible want some coaching once they come into a brand new surroundings, and never all senior canine have been beforehand skilled, but it surely’s extra frequent for senior canine to have already got some coaching than it’s amongst youthful canine.
Challenges of Adopting a Senior Canine
Canine supply nice pleasure at all ages and stage but in addition current some trials. Puppies want fixed supervision to maintain them and your own home protected, and adolescents are well-known for his or her damaging chewing and tendency to disregard us. Whereas senior canine are effectively previous these developmental points, they, too, include predictable challenges.
They Could Have Some Baggage or Dangerous Habits
It’s usually stated that senior canine include extra baggage or unhealthy habits, and which may be true for some seniors, however age shouldn’t be all the time a very good predictor of behavioral challenges. Many senior canine can be found as a result of their earlier house owners misplaced endurance with them, fearful about offering well being care, discovered themselves homeless or beneath severe monetary stress, or the earlier pet dad or mum has died.
Mobility May Be An Difficulty
Senior pets could have mobility points as a result of stiffness of their joints, lack of muscle, or different pure getting older processes. This lack of mobility could make it arduous for senior canine to navigate stairs or get out and in of the automotive.
They Probably Have Some Well being Issues
Well being issues usually tend to happen in senior canine than in another age group. Medical issues could imply fewer choices for actions, a big time dedication to get the mandatory care, and will be costly. Due to their age, senior canine are additionally extra prone to have dental points, which, along with being costly to deal with, can warrant pet mother and father being extra cautious with their canine’s toys and chews so that they don’t injury their enamel.
You Received’t Have As A lot Time With Them
The largest problem of adopting a senior canine is dealing with the information that we’ve got much less time to get pleasure from collectively. After all, there are not any ensures about lifespan for any canine of any age, however with senior canine, we will be extra sure that our time with them is proscribed. The upside to this, although, is that it makes every second collectively valuable, and that’s a particular and wonderful strategy to dwell.
Making ready to Undertake a Senior Canine
Preparation is sensible earlier than adopting any canine. Making preparations earlier than adopting a canine makes the transition extra possible for everybody to go easily. When adopting a senior canine, there are a number of significantly necessary objects so as to add to your to-do record.
Contact Your Native Veterinarian
Senior canine may have extra medical care than youthful canine, so scheduling an intensive examination quickly is sensible. Professional tip — until the canine urgently wants care, schedule this for a few weeks after the adoption. The veterinary expertise could also be much less aggravating in your new pal as soon as they’re used to their new dwelling and really feel they will belief you.
Select Excessive-High quality Meals
Good meals is related to enhanced well being, and senior canine can profit from good vitamin in plenty of methods, together with higher digestion, much less stiffness, and maybe extra restorative sleep.
Buy Comfy, Supportive Beds
Beds that supply assist and have a smooth, fuzzy floor can enhance a senior canine’s high quality of life. If you should purchase beds of various sizes or varieties, your new canine will let you already know which one is most pleasing to them. In case you plan to have them sleep in your mattress (Is there something extra scrumptious?), be certain they’ve a number of steps out there to get out and in of mattress so that they don’t have to leap. Not all senior canine can bounce, and even those that can bounce could trigger themselves ache in the event that they do attempt to leap up on the mattress to be with you.
Have Cleansing Provides Out there
Generally having a canine means having to scrub up a multitude, so it’s good to have towels and an enzymatic cleaner readily available.
Discovering the Proper Senior Canine for You
It doesn’t matter what age canine you might be in search of, it’s greatest to decide on a canine who matches your preferences and life-style and with whom you may join. Discovering the correct senior canine for you is about discovering that match on this explicit age vary.
The most effective items of recommendation about choosing the proper canine for you — and this is applicable to senior canine and people of different ages — is to base your alternative on a canine’s habits quite than their appears. This may be simple to say however arduous to do — but it surely’s critically necessary. Your canine’s habits is way extra prone to have an effect on your relationship than their appears. Select a canine who is an effective match for you, and you’ll fall in love with their look. Nonetheless, loving a canine’s look doesn’t make them the correct canine for you. It’s particularly necessary not to decide on a canine simply because they resemble the canine who was beforehand the love of your life. The black spot over their eye, the pink coronary heart on their nostril, or their comically outsized ears will not be the important thing components that made your relationship with that canine so unimaginable, so don’t assume one other canine with related traits can be pretty much as good for you as that canine was.
There are different sensible components to think about, too. One is grooming. Some canine should be brushed each day, which is tough for many who don’t even commonly brush their hair to decide to.
In case you relish silence, a canine who barks so much as a result of they’re alarmed, enthusiastic, or just likes to chime in irrespective of the event shouldn’t be your best option. The identical applies in case your accomplice is pushed insane by barking or when you dwell in an condo constructing.
If you wish to choose up your canine or have them sit in your lap, a 15-pound canine has benefits over a 115-pound canine. If you need a canine to sleep in your mattress with you, adopting one sufficiently small to share the area is smart. And sure, I do know that even the smallest canine appear to take over the entire mattress, but it surely’s nonetheless simpler to assert a little bit of area for your self when the canine shouldn’t be as massive as you might be.
In the end, it’s best to think about a person canine quite than a kind of canine. Certain, retrievers are well-known for loving the water and enjoying fetch, however some present disdain for each. Take note of who the canine in entrance of you truly is quite than who you count on them to be.
And see if a canine is listening to you as effectively. Don’t be involved if a canine is distracted once they first meet you (they’ll in all probability sniff round and discover the realm), but it surely’s an incredible signal in the event that they specific an curiosity in you inside a couple of minutes. A canine who brings you a toy, accepts your supply to play, needs to be close to you, or fortunately welcomes petting or different bodily contact is being sociable. Most of us desire a sociable canine, however we don’t all the time consciously select a canine primarily based on them demonstrating sociability.
Senior Canine Adoption FAQ’s
You will have questions on what to anticipate when adopting a senior canine. At all times seek the advice of your vet about any particular issues about your canine, however listed here are some fundamental FAQs to get you began.
Is Adopting a Senior Canine a Good Concept?
Adopting a senior canine shouldn’t be a good suggestion; it’s an incredible concept! So many senior canine want houses, and you’ll have your choose of them, probably saving their life and making your personal higher.
What Ought to I Know Earlier than Adopting a Senior Canine?
It’s necessary to know that each canine is a person, so merely realizing they’re a senior canine doesn’t let you know all it’s essential learn about them. Get to know them for who they’re and select the following love of your life primarily based on all they’ve to supply past simply the variety of years they’ve been alive.
What Are the Issues with Adopting an Older Canine?
Adopting an older canine in all probability means you gained’t have as a lot time with them as you’d with a youthful canine, though that’s not true in each case.
When Is a Canine Thought-about a Senior?
A canine is taken into account a senior when they’re within the final quarter of their anticipated lifespan, though that interval can range primarily based on a canine’s measurement and breed. Many shelters and rescues think about any canine who’s at the very least seven years previous to be a senior canine.
Can You Prepare an Older Canine?
You may completely practice a canine of any age! Anybody who suggests you may’t educate an previous canine new tips or another talent, for that matter, is simply plain fallacious.
Last Ideas on Adopting a Senior Canine
There’s an unfounded however frequent concern that it is going to be arduous to bond with a canine on the older aspect, however that’s merely not true. Biologically talking, individuals and canine are uncommon due to our means to determine deep relationships at any age. Senior canine and their pet mother and father fall deeply in love, generally at first sight and generally over days, weeks, and months.
All of us need to welcome a canine into our houses and hearts who will make us completely satisfied and improve our lives. Usually, the correct canine for that objective is a senior canine, and the fun of adopting a senior canine are many.
If it’s essential place a senior canine, submit them on Undertake a Pet’s Rehoming website. If extra individuals learn about how fantastic it may be to undertake a senior canine, it can grow to be extra possible that every of them will discover their strategy to a loving dwelling.
Karen B. London, Ph.D., is a Licensed Utilized Animal Behaviorist and Licensed Skilled Canine Coach who focuses on working with canine with severe behavioral points, together with aggression, and has additionally skilled different animals together with cats, birds, snakes, and bugs. She writes the animal column for the Arizona Day by day Solar and is an Adjunct Professor within the Division of Organic Sciences at Northern Arizona College. She is the writer of six books about coaching and habits, together with her most up-to-date, Deal with Everybody Like a Canine: How a Canine Coach’s World View Can Enhance Your Life.

domain: pet


One week in, and this has already been a Pride month unlike any other. But one thing remains the same, and that’s radical acceptance for any and all members of the LGBTQ+ community, wherever they are in their journey.
For former X-Factor star Trevi Moran, that journey has led her to publicly coming out as a transgender woman. She shared the news in an emotional video posted to her YouTube channel on Saturday, and opened the video by saying:
“Hi. My name is Trevi Moran. I am a transgender female. It’s a good start. I can’t believe I just said that out loud. I’ve dealt with this feeling my entire life, and I know that I’m a woman deep down. It’s just a feeling. You know.”
The YouTuber, who appeared on Tana Mongeau’s webshow MTV No Filter, has been open with fans about her struggles in the past. She’s been vocal about dealing with alcoholism and previously posted a video in 2017 about questioning her identity as a cisgender gay man. In her coming out video, she explained:
“I hit a rock in my journey in 2017 when I thought I wasn’t transgender because I thought that people were pushing me to be transgender. No, I just had a lot of demons back then — a lot of eating disorder stuff, self-confidence issues. It wasn’t the time for me to come out back then. But now I’m here, and I’m transgender.”
She shared her original plan for coming out included a photo shoot, music, and even a show, but didn’t feel right “glamorizing it and trying to capitalize off it.” But, feeling “sick of waiting,” she decided to post this announcement instead. She continued:
“I’m going through a lot right now. I am two months in on hormones. My brain is just everywhere. I am so hormonal, I mean my ass is getting fat as f**k. And I’m growing breasts, and it hurts. I’m going through a lot right now, and all just because I just want to be me, and self-express myself.”
Trevi also revealed she’d been documenting her transition, among other major life events including a relapse and rehab stint. “I don’t know how I’m gonna do it, but I’m gonna sell a f**kin’ show,” she promised fans.
The 21-year-old concluded with an important message for any fan who may be struggling. She said:
“If you’re ever lost, just don’t go out, go in. Go in and find yourself. Because going out and distracting yourself defeats the purpose.”
What a powerful message!
We thank you for your courage Trevi!
Ch-ch-check out her video (below):
Source: Read Full Article


text:
Reviewed by: David Pickup
Author: James Wilson
Publisher: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill
I wonder if the era of the great advocate has disappeared. Not many barristers, and even fewer solicitors, are famous now. In the past we had Sir Edward Marshall Hall, Sir Patrick Hastings and Lord Birkett, who thrilled the media of the time and then wrote their biographies with accounts of their forensic victories. We seem to have lost that interest in the drama of real-life court cases. The ‘decline of the English murder’, to coin a phrase.
As students we learned about real law through cases. Lawyers at least retain an interest in real law: sex, money, fame, religion and snails in bottles – it is all there. This book is a good mix of 50 tales from the courts covering murder, warfare, the press, sport and many others. The accounts of each case are interesting and include something new for everyone. It is not just a historical study of important cases but is bang up to date.
Fortunately, it avoids being too preachy, yet makes some interesting points. First, all litigation ends in failure for someone and lawyers are slap bang in the middle. ‘Be careful what you wish for’ is another lesson. Many litigants hoped for one result and inadvertently got the opposite. Courts are for the rich and powerful, have always been so and will probably always be so.
Are they the best place to debate issues? Have courts replaced churches as arbiters of morals? Have courts replaced the referees where disputes on sports fields started?
One wonders what cases will be written about in years to come. Will there be any interesting cases at all? The decline of legal aid may mean less dramatic cases. Read about it and enjoy the law while you still can.
David Pickup is a partner at Aylesbury-based Pickup & Scott

domain: law


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Assays from the west zone have returned substantial results and these will be included in an updated mineral resource to be reported in the fourth quarter 2018.
Resource modelling and estimation will be undertaken by the company's external consultants DMT Kai Batla.
Highlighted results from the latest assays include: 13 metres at 0.14% cobalt, 0.67% copper and 0.75% zinc, including 2 metres at 0.29% cobalt, 1.36% copper and 1.26% zinc; and 13 metres at 0.13% cobalt, 0.5% copper and 0.83% zinc, including 3 metres at 0.27% cobalt, 1.14% copper and 1.62% zinc.
Celsius managing director Brendan Borg said: "Results from the west zone at Opuwo highlight the continued discovery of significant additional mineralisation outside the large existing mineral resource.
"Our consultants are awaiting final data to allow updating of the resource model, with the release of an updated mineral resource [supporting] future studies at Opuwo."
Scoping study near completion
Celsius has largely completed work programs preceding Opuwo's scoping study, with remaining work relating to financial modelling.
The study is on track for release before the end of October.
The company is aiming to define a long-life, reliable source of cobalt at Opuwo and considers the project to have several advantages, including:
A large scale;
Favourable mineralogy comprising cobalt and copper sulphide minerals;
Low in deleterious elements such as arsenic, cadmium and uranium;
Mining-friendly, politically stable and safe location with excellent infrastructure; and
Best exposure to the lithium-ion battery boom through cobalt.

domain: news


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Ha. Ha haha haha. Haha.
In Ohio, instructor Robert Balla faces a new cap on the number of hours he can teach at Stark State College. In a Dec. 6 letter, the North Canton school told him that “in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act… employees with part-time or adjunct status will not be assigned more than an average of 29 hours per week.”
Mr. Balla, a 41-year-old father of two, had taught seven English composition classes last semester, split between Stark State and two other area schools. This semester, his course load at Stark State is down to one instead of two as a result of the school’s new limit on hours, cutting his salary by about a total of $2,000.
Stark State’s move came as a blow to Mr. Balla, who said he earns about $40,000 a year and cannot afford health insurance.
“I think it goes against the spirit of the [health-care] law,” Mr. Balla said. “In education, we’re working for the public good, we are public employees at a public institution; we should be the first ones to uphold the law, to set the example.”
His mistake is in believing the public story that Democrats told was the “spirit” of ObamaCare. That spirit was not about reducing costs or even expanding access. It was about federal control along with shifting our entire political dialogue far to the left of where it was. It was about settling questions firmly in favor of statism over individual liberty.
The above is an excerpt of a WSJ article, posted by Walter Russell Mead. He adds:
Universities are citadels of blue model thinking and most faculty members are relentlessly liberal in their politics. But the reality is that these same universities are some of the nastiest and most exploitative employers in America. The exploitation of adjuncts is an ugly feature of contemporary American academic life, and the smug complacency about it among many beneficiaries of the two tier system should remind us all that moral hypocrisy can co-exist with impressive degrees.
Indeed. Universities exploit their adjuncts at one end and exploit parents and students at the other. Look at it this way: Now that the universities will save money on pay and on their healthcare costs, will they pass those savings on in the form of reduced fees?


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DATE: April 3, 2019
SNIP: Scramble across exposed rocks in the middle of Antarctica and it’s possible to find the mummified twigs of shrubs that grew on the continent some three to five million years ago.
This plant material isn’t much to look at, but scientists say it should serve as a warning to the world about where climate change could take us if carbon emissions go unchecked.
The time period is an epoch geologists call the Pliocene, 2.6-5.3 million years ago.
It was marked by temperatures that were significantly warmer than today, perhaps by 2-3 degrees globally. These were conditions that permitted plant growth even in the middle of the White Continent. Higher, too, were sea-levels. It’s uncertain by how much, but possibly in the region of 10-20m above the modern ocean surface.
What’s really significant, though, is that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was very similar to what it is today – at around 400 CO2 molecules for every million molecules of air.
Indeed, the Pliocene was the last time in Earth history that the air carried this same concentration of the greenhouse gas.
And it tells you where we’re heading if we don’t get serious about addressing the climate problem. Temperatures may currently be lower than in the Pliocene, but that’s only because there is a lag in the system.
Prof Jane Francis, the director of the British Antarctic Survey, pulled her fossilised shrub material from rocks just 500km from the South Pole.
“These are twigs similar to southern beech,” she told BBC News. “I like to call them the remnants of the last forests of Antarctica.


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Dorris Frederick Daniel Keim, 94, of Marissa, Ill., died at 11 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, at Sparta Community Hospital in Sparta, Ill.
He was born on May 13, 1918, to Frederick Michael Keim and Emma, nee Kunze, Keim in Marissa, Ill. He worked 34 years in the United States Postal Service and served four years in the military. He was a member and past president of the Marissa Lions Club, Marissa Rotary Club, Randolph County Shrine Club, Marissa Board of Education, and past patron of Amaryllis Chapter 750 OES. He was a life member of the VFW Post 2698, American Legion Post 172, Scottish Rite, Marissa Masonic Lodge 881 and Randolph Shrine Club. He was also a member of Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, Moose Lodge 1221, Marissa Lions, Shriners (AINAD Temple), Amaryllis Chapter 750 OES and Royal Neighbors of America. He was a recipient of the Lion's Melvin Jones Fellowship Award.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Beverley C., nee Boden, Keim; and a grandson, Matthew A. Wayland.
Survivors include his daughter, Gail (Jack) Templeton and grandsons, Andrew Templeton and Eric (Eve) Wayland, his son, David (Pam Mayo) Keim and grandsons Michael (fiancee Aundrea) Keim, Phillip (fiancee Janet) Keim, Ryan (Danyale) Keim.
Memorials may be made to the Shriners Children's Hospital. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.heilschuessler.com
Visitation: Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, and 10 to 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, at Heil-Schuessler Funeral Home in Marissa, Ill.
Funeral: Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, at Heil-Schuessler Funeral Home in Marissa, Ill., with Rev. Gail Geisel officiating. Burial will be held at the Marissa Township Cemetery in Marissa, Ill.
Published in Belleville News-Democrat on Feb. 22, 2013


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We are Stillwater's original coffee house and local watering hole. We've moved to
... New location: 217 North Main Street Stillwater, MN 55082 | (651) 430-3207.
Chilkoot Café and Cyclery features a full service café specializing in high quality
... We have served our great coffee in a great little coffee shop – all with a river
view since 1992. ... Voted best Ice Cream Parlor in Minnesota by WCCO tv poll.
Tin Bins is a cafe in Stillwater, MN, specializing in fresh bakery, artisan ... In-
house bakery and gourmet coffee; Tin Bins' signature breakfast selections;
Chilkoot Café and Cyclery is a unique locality in Stillwater, Minnesota. We focus
on fresh and local ingredients and a customer first bike experience.
About Us · Our Coffee · Our Fundraisers · Our Blog · Contact Us · Shop.
Dunn Brothers Coffee. 1798 Market Drive suite 2 Stillwater MN 55082. Hours of
Operation:Sunday thru Thursday 6AM-9PM, Friday & Saturday 6AM-10PM.
Daily Grind Espresso Cafe Twin Cities; Daily Grind Espresso Cafe, Stillwater; Get
Menu, Reviews, Contact, Location, Phone ... Breakfast, Coffee and Tea ... 317
Main St S, Stillwater, MN 55082 .... An average Indy shop in a wonderful location.
L'Etoile Du Nord is a Belgian-powered café in scenic Bayport, Minnesota. Join us
soon for local and seasonal meals, artisan pastries and coffee, and authentic ...
Aug 21, 2013 ... These are some of the coffee shops you'll find here in Minnesota that ... Daily
Grind in Stillwater features a menu with a wide array of items.
Stillwater's newest café and coffee house located on the main floor of the River ...
drinks, and bakery - all the things you want from a top-notch coffee shop.

domain: food


text:
It was only just recently when Marvel's Avengers' newest patch was supposed to launch and deliver new and improved quality of life benefits for players. But following its delay, fans were met with errors connected somehow to the patch that caused their systems to crash on PS5. Unfortunately, while this specific error has apparently since been fixed, another substantial bug has appeared in its place. With yet another unfortunate incident, it looks like Marvel's Avengers still cannot catch a break.
Thor and Iron Man are the only playable characters in Marvel's Avengers who are capable of authentic flight. Other characters' unique traversal capabilities allow them to leap wide bounds or pendulum-swing from perch points. However, Marvel's Avengers' latest game-breaking bug has bestowed the janky ability to fly upon different characters. Redditor u/DilllPickl3 shares their experience with this bug as it affects Captain America, where simple jumps into the air seem to hoist the player upward and suspend them there to fly around in an unintended and janky animation.
Players can continue to attack from this suspended, sped-up state, as Captain America can be seen ricocheting his shield around and dashing rapidly. Redditor u/TheLastBandit6 has reported this bug affecting Hawkeye, who floats around Marvel's Avengers' HARM room and can still fire arrows when his arm is not awkwardly stuck behind his back.
Another instance of this bug comes from Redditor u/ultrarareprotege21 and features Marvel's Avengers' newest character Spider-Man, who hovers around after jumping into the air. The bug seems to affect any character who jumps, and may be correlated to that input entirely as a result. Spider-Man seems to be able to exit from this state on command and leap back into it, but it is undetermined if this bug is exploitable and completely controllable at this point.
Marvel's Avengers' Crystal Dynamics has yet to comment on this bug and whether it is linked to the new patch or its recent crash fix. Some players seem to at least be having a bit of fun with it in the meantime as it allows them to fly about while attacking, but of course most fans want Marvel's Avengers to go back to its intended physics and have this bug removed.
Marvel’s Avengers is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

domain: entertainment


text:
So I surprised myself last week when I was tinkering in the studio with some fold formed copper charms. Rarely one to plan out an exact design beforehand, I started out this pair by simply annealing matched squares of copper, folding them, hammering flat, annealing again, and unfolding---revealing beautiful rustic creases in the metal. Now normally I would next turn to my favorite texturing rock (plucked from our garden) and start banging away as if my life depended on it. For some reason, I stopped short halfway through this time.
How about we just leave half shiny, smooth, and serene---as a stark contrast to the chaos of the textured side?
And this is how designs are born.
I'm quite fond of making coin-like discs out of copper, so that's the final shape I decided to go with here. Reminiscent of an ancient coin plucked from the soil, perhaps. I filed a bit along the folds of each, sanded, sanded, sanded, oxidized, buffed, and sealed with wax. Simple, perfect for everyday wear, yet noteworthy enough to make you feel like a pagan goddess.
LoveRoot on Etsy

domain: design