if you liked the beatles music today, you must see...

Across the Universe (2007)

Release Date:
9 October 2007 (Canada) more
Genre:
Drama | Musical | Romance more
Tagline:
All you need is love. more
Plot:
The music of the Beatles and the Vietnam War form the backdrop for the romance between an upper-class American girl and a poor Liverpudlian artist. full summary | full synopsis (warning! may contain spoilers)

Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 6 nominations more
User Comments:
I count myself lucky... more
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)
Evan Rachel Wood ... Lucy Carrigan

Jim Sturgess ... Jude

Joe Anderson ... Max Carrigan

Dana Fuchs ... Sadie

Martin Luther ... JoJo (as Martin Luther McCoy)

T.V. Carpio ... Prudence

Spencer Liff ... Daniel
Lisa Hogg ... Molly
Nicholas Lumley ... Cyril
Michael Ryan ... Phil

Angela Mounsey ... Martha - Jude's Mother

Dylan Baker ... Max's Father
Erin Elliott ... Cheer Coach

Robert Clohessy ... Jude's Father

Curtis Holbrook ... Dorm Buddy

Fun Stuff
Trivia:
According to Julie Taymor she used 30 songs of The Beatles as a basis for the script that covers events from 1963 to 1969, but in the film those 7 years are compressed in two years. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: In the scene on the roof top the lead vocal microphone has an XLR connector on it. The only thing that used XLR at the time was the Canon P series of film camera. Sound equipment still used twist lock cable with four pins. more
Quotes:
Max: She loves you - yeah! Yeah! Yeah! more
Movie Connections:
References Yellow Submarine (1968) more
Soundtrack:
Something more
FAQ
Was Prudence a Lesbian?
What Songs are featured in this film
Are there any other Beatles references in this movie?
more
User Comments
(Comment on this title)
176 out of 223 people found the following comment useful:-
I count myself lucky..., 17 September 2007
10/10
Author: DavidGunnar from Canada

... to have been able to see this film in the beautiful Elgin Theatre with Julie Taymor there to answer questions / talk about the film afterwards (at the Toronto International Film Festival).

Wow!!!

I was carried away, I was moved to tears, I stood up and cheered.

For those who commented about the singing - the actors sang all the songs themselves. What's more, though they did record the songs in studio first as part of the rehearsal process, most of the song performances used in the film were recorded live as they played out the scenes. Perhaps that's why - for me - the songs worked so well; it actually felt like the characters were just moved to sing. Amazing performances from - mainly - unknown actors.

And I felt the story had a strong narrative line, aided / supported by the songs. It used the background of history, not just as a painted backdrop, but to add meaning and depth to the characters and the story they were living. Made me wish I'd been there (born in '65, too young to remember the 60's); I'll have to content myself with living vicariously through Jude and Lucy and the others.

Add to everything else Julie Taymor's glorious visuals, and I was truly swept away. I saw 36 films at the festival, but this was head and shoulders my favourite.

I fell in love with this film, and look forward to sharing it with friends and family who didn't have the luck to see it as I did. It's a film that will, I'm sure, reward repeated viewings.



check out: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AKPIFbCPifE&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S9QyE8DLJmI&feature=related

etc..etc.

twist and shout today

lots to think about but, above all, great fun....more later perhaps but , for now, one of the songs today was "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Gerry and the Pacemakers which was adapted from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ("carouse'l" I believe)

here it is in another version as the theme song/ victory hymn of Liverpool Football Club (hometown of gerry and the pacemakers):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11MQnQ8QjJs (from about 1:30 on)

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOyoixsRkQ4

which is Glasgow Celtic fans singing the song to Barcelona fans on the day of of an Al Qaeda bomb attack in Spain which killed hundreds of people.....now that's the way you talk to people who are hurting: you sing to them...very cool....sad but touching

craig ferguson speaks from the heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bbaRyDLMvA

thanks Jeremy for sharing....

interesting video.....not what we are used to ...and not what we are trained to expect.....he's playing a dangerous game here....in general, I think, the audience doesn't want serious, sober (no pun intended) respectful treatment of celebrities......we want to hear that Britney's crazy....that Bill Clinton's a womanizer....that George W is stupid....that Micheal Jackson is a freak show.....that's what our culture has taught us and take us off that path at your peril.....don't be surprised if they stop watching .....you've dumbed us down too long....we don't know anything else

and pirates!

Yacht seized by suspected pirates arrives in Somalia
Apr 06, 2008 11:02 AM ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOGADISHU, Somalia–A French luxury yacht seized by suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden with 30 crew members on board has arrived in northern Somalia, officials and fishermen said Sunday.
About 10 suspected pirates had stormed the 88-metre Le Ponant on Friday as it was returning, without passengers, from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The pirates then guided the vessel down Somalia's eastern coast.
Local fisherman Mahdi Daud Anbuure told The Associated Press that he saw the ship arriving at the northern town of Eyl, with a small boat heading toward it, apparently with supplies.
France's prime minister said Saturday that he hoped to avoid using force to free the crew but no options had been ruled out. There are 22 French citizens, including six women, on board, as well as Ukrainian citizens, authorities said.
A French frigate, Le Commandant Bouan, temporarily was diverted from NATO duties and is tracking the yacht, French military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said Saturday. He said an airplane dispatched from a French base in Djibouti flew over the yacht, reporting that all appeared calm aboard the ship.
Fishermen reported seeing heavily armed pirates heading out from the area nine days ago, district commissioner Hareed Iise Umar said.
Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah, information minister for the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland, said he hoped international forces will "rescue this ship" at Eyl, about 500 kilometres north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
More than two dozen ships have been seized by pirates off Somalia's coast in the last year.
In August, Denmark's government paid a ransom to win the release of the crew of a Danish cargo ship hijacked by pirates and held captive for about two months.
The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.
But an increase in naval patrols has coincided with a rash of kidnappings of foreigners on land.
Two police officers were killed and another was wounded late Saturday during the attempted kidnapping of a German aid worker, Bangah said. Four people were arrested.
Somalia – wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy – does not have its own navy, its armed forces are poorly paid and the transitional government formed in 2004 with UN help has struggled to assert control.
Two UN contractors currently are being held hostage in the south, and several aid workers and a French journalist have been seized in the past few months.
The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 per cent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years

from today's paper

Poaching of African elephants for ivory leaves young to run wild
Apr 07, 2008 04:30 AM Craig Kielburger Marc Kielburger

For a farmer in the heartland of Africa, the scene is devastating: trampled crops, uprooted trees and demolished huts. All are telltale signs of a rampaging elephant, an increasing danger for those living in rural areas.
Few understand why more and more elephants are seemingly out of control. Experts are at a loss to explain this behaviour, but some are beginning to suspect a cause that, at its core, is very human.
"With older elephants being shot, either by professional hunters or by poachers, there isn't a sense of wisdom being passed down through generations," says Don Young, a veteran naturalist and safari guide in East Africa. "We think we see the impact of this in the delinquency of young elephants becoming more and more destructive."
Young explains that elephants live in close-knit communities which, like humans, require regular parental guidance and strong role models. These positive influences socialize the younger elephants, teaching them to stick with their herds instead of wandering for food into nearby communities.
Like humans, without these influences, the younger elephants are more likely to go out on their own and even become aggressive, Young says.
This may explain what's happening, especially considering the re-emergence of ivory poaching, which has found its way back onto the black market despite a 20-year ban. A report published last year and funded partly by the U.S. government found that, in 2006 alone, as many as 23,000 African elephants were killed for their ivory – a number not seen since the 1989 international poaching ban. The poaching is fuelled by an insatiable desire for luxury ivory goods in countries such as Japan, China and the United States.
This is wreaking havoc on elephant communities, as increasing numbers of young elephants are fending for themselves, without the guidance of elders.
"What an infant elephant learns at his mother's side is critical to its survival and success," Young says.
"The increased killing of large bull elephants has taken away an older generation that, we believe, gave a role model structure (to younger elephants)."
The consequence is more frequent, violent clashes between young elephants and human communities near grazing lands that made international headlines. In worst-case scenarios, they have led to villagers attacking elephants out of frustration, anger and revenge.
"This is a magnificent, dignified, emotionally alive animal that we have slaughtered for no other reason than ivory," Young laments. "It shames me as a human what we have done to them."
Elephants were once among our most protected species. After excess poaching cut the population by roughly a million in the 1970s and 1980s, the United Nations spearheaded a strict international ban on ivory sales. Rich countries poured funds into conservation parks and anti-poaching programs, essentially saving the species.
With that funding largely dried up, and the world's attention elsewhere, elephants are in danger once more, not only from poachers but from a breakdown of their species' once-complex hierarchy.
For Young, how the world protects these remaining elephants is a reflection of how well it can protect itself. After all, the African bulls are the planet's largest land mammals, living within social structures remarkably like ours.
"If we can keep a planet that can sustain wild elephants, it'll be a mark of our ability to learn from our mistakes and grow up as a species," he says. "We have to balance the rights of humans with the rights of our fellow mammals."

editorial in today's london free press: http://www.londonfreepress.com/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?x=letters&p=16257&s=letters

Editorial
Time to end kids' homework blues

Just like wide ties and miniskirts, philosophies of education drift in and out of style every 10 years or so. It seems every time a different political party takes the reins at Queen's Park - or a new generation of school administrators ascends to power - our schools shift gears and embrace new, "better" concepts of education. We're sure it drives teachers up the wall, as politicians and administrators adjust and tinker. Many baby-boomers might fondly remember the almost laissez-faire Ontario education system of the 1960s, when open concept classrooms were the cutting edge and learning might have been more by osmosis than by studious endeavours. That didn't work so well, but we're certain it created some fine hippies. Skip ahead to the 1990s and Ontario's version of back to basics, with no time for frills such as elementary school shop and home economics classes or outdoor education centres, which might explain why it's so tough to find a young plumber or carpenter in this province. Instead, there was academics and homework - lots of it, as a way to keep our kids pace with high-achieving students in places such as Japan. Even kindergarten pupils were not exempt. Now Toronto's public school board, realizing Ontario kids spend more time on homework than any other students in Canada, is looking at rules to reduce homework and thereby lessen stress on students. The homework workload is also getting attention locally, with London school trustee Peter Jaffe noting it takes "enormous effort" for parents to keep on top of their kids' assignments. Particularly irksome - and unfair - are long and involved homework assignments that teachers expect to be completed during school holidays. With 11-year-old Grade 6 pupils expected to do an onerous 60 minutes of homework nightly, we suspect a lot of family time is sacrificed or parents simply cut to the chase and do much of the homework on behalf of their children to get it out of the way. It's time for educators to get real about homework loads - and understand the busy lives families lead in after-school hours. As Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's education minister said, kids need free time and "opportunities to play, imagine and be bored." POSTED BY: Wayne Newton, london POSTED ON: April 3, 2008 EDITORS NOTE: As published in The London Free Press on Apr. 3, 2008.