"Sofia Coppola became the second woman in the festival's history to win best director at this auteurist temple."
As a serious student of cinema, I would like to make a few comments on the names that appear in this article:
Ruben Östlund. Won the Palme d'Or for The Square. I do not know this director's work, but I just watched the compelling trailer for his previous film, Force Majeure, and ordered it!
Pedro Almodóvar (head of jury). Man, his movies can be fucked up! -- but many of them star Penélope Cruz, so, you know, just shut up! But Talk to Her -- definitely one of the best films out there about necrophilia (see, you already do not want to see it, right?) -- is a true masterpiece. Most of his films -- no matter how bizarre the subject matter and junkie characters -- are filled with a kind of poignant humor, a filmic sigh ... I think he's one of the true greats.
Sofia Coppola. She had me at The Virgin Suicides. Lost in Translation was good; Marie Antoinette was great -- she made many brave, bold choices and Kirsten Dunst helped her pull it all off. Somewhere was somewhere in between, I think. Have not seen The Bling Ring yet. I truly believe she's just getting started.
Maren Ade. Do not know her work.
Jane Campion. Sweetie, An Angel at My Table and The Piano -- all great films. She definitely has her own, very distinctive style. I'd like to think she's a bit influenced by Ozu, my film god ...
Andrey Zvyagintsev. See Maren Ade. But I hear Leviathan is terrific. Have any of my readers seen it? Either of you?
A5 MUSLIM WOMEN IN INDIA CHALLENGE "INSTANT DIVORCE"
"Half of Muslim women in India are illiterate, and only 14 percent have ever worked outside the home"
"It cannot be Allah's will to break up families in this way."
It certainly is not. It is the will of the mindless, spineless Human Males who see a younger gal at the office; get illicit and then say, "Talaq, talaq, talaq."
Jewish Human Males are not exempt, either: The Talmud says that you can divorce your wife if she burns your dinner.
C1 INSPIRED AND LIBERATED
"Since its release last year, the Shakira song 'Chantaje' has tallied more than 1.2 billion views on YouTube and 326 million plays on Spotify."
What about Pandora?
Actually, this is the first time I have ever heard this lady's music. I admit to being fascinated from the opening of Me Enamoré ... and apparently Chantaje is a huge hit. I particularly liked "Trap".
This is not my normal music genre of choice -- but I really liked this album. The fact that she sings (mostly) in Spanish had a lot to do with my reactions, I think. It's a sexy language, and not knowing what she was singing about helped me concentrate on the actual music, which is my main interest, in any case.
A small complaint -- I wish she wouldn't have used so much electronic drums. My ears can spot those suckers a mile away. Hire Peter Erskine instead.
"The items in the Louisiana senator John Kennedy's office include Mardi Gras beads, assorted soldier figurines and a personally meaningful stapler from the mid-1990s."
"He is, in fact, the only senator for whom a simple Google search is a humbling exercise ..."
"He's missing the bone structure."
"I would rather drink weed killer than support the Affordable Care Act."
"'There are one or two jerks,' he continued. 'There are three or four folks who believe they're one of the founders of the country. But most are very, very nice.' He was asked to name the jerks. 'Nahhhhhh'."
"James R. Clapper, Jr., the former director of national intelligence, testified before the Judiciary Committee that he had experienced 'many encounters with media' in his career. 'I'm sorry about that,' Mr. Kennedy shot back."
"'Pay your taxes, Bernie! We need the money!' he cried out, for reasons that perhaps defied immediate explanation."
Dude, change your name.
D6 PIVOTAL GRAND SLAM IS LATEST CHAPTER IN JUDGE'S REMARKABLE TALE
"Aaron Judge's power, by now, is well known around the major leagues ... Oakland starter Andrew Triggs learned how forceful Judge can be [when] on a 2-1 count, he left a 90-mile-per-hour fastball over the heart of the plate. Judge's swing had an easy motion, and the flick of his arms belied his strength, as the ball sailed 376 feet into the right-field stands for his first career grand slam."
With the Orioles fading fast, unless the Red Sox start winning consistently, the Yanks could run away with their division. They really are that good.
B1 HACKERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA AS WAY TO GET PAST DEFENSES
"Cybersecurity companies say spear phishing, the act of sending a malicious file or link through a seemingly innocuous message, on social media is one of the fastest-growing methods of attack."
Just be careful what you click on. Period.
B1 WHAT'S THEIRS CAN BE YOURS, TOO
"The Chinese government estimates that the sharing economy last year accounted for $500 billion in transactions, and projected it would account for 10 percent of China's economic output by 2020."
"'We thought about putting GPS trackers on the balls,' said Xu Jie, chief executive of Modern Capital, the venture capital firm backing Zhulegeqiu ... 'But we did the math and we discovered that hiring a few people to physically track them down was cheaper'."
That sure says something about how cheap Chinese labor really is.
"The Defense P.O.W./M.I.A. Accounting Agency is an arm of the Pentagon tasked with accounting for the roughly 45,000 recoverable lost service members dating back to World War II."
Long story short -- it's hard hard work, and federal governmental agencies are notoriously lazy. Can you believe this: a $115 million annual budget, tasked with accounting for the roughly 45,000 recoverable lost service members dating back to WWII -- and they only averaged 90 bodies annually in the past five years.
Congress, frustrated by the low numbers, mandated that the agency increase the number to at least 200 per year by 2015, but it has yet to meet that total.
So it's just another quota to some guy caught in that traffic on the 295.
"Colgate tried to move into frozen foods with its Colgate Kitchen Entrees in 2014. (It had made an earlier attempt in 1982.) The brand extension was a failure because experts said, when people hear 'Colgate,' they think of toothpaste, not tasty cuisine."
Yeah, exactly.
TIME MACHINE
May 29, 1881
136 years ago
Page 10 BISMARCK'S PROMISES
"According to the Berlin correspondent of the Standard, Prince Bismarck proposes to subsidize German shipping. The Chancellor has humor enough himself, but he must doubt the existence of that quality in his countrymen if he expects them to take in sober earnest his inexhaustible suggestions of State aid for everything and everybody . . . Indirect taxes compensated by direct doles, that is the philosopher's stone. Is its appearance sufficiently dazzling to make men at the coming election forget to ask for the balance-sheet?"
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