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Beowulf (2007 film)

Beowulf is a 2007 American adult animated fantasy action film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, based on the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and featuring the voices of Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman, and Angelina Jolie. The film depicts the rise and fall of the warrior Beowulf after he travels to Denmark to kill a monster. It was produced by Shangri-La Entertainment and Zemeckis's ImageMovers and features characters animated using motion-capture animation, which was previously used in The Polar Express (2004) and Monster House (2006).

Beowulf premiered at Westwood, Los Angeles on November 5, 2007 and was released theatrically in the United States on November 16, 2007 by Paramount Pictures, with Warner Bros. Pictures handling international distribution. It grossed over $196 million and received moderately positive reviews from critics, who complimented the CGI visual-effects, performance-capture, and voice acting, while criticizing aspects of the interpretation of the poem.

Plot
In 507, the legendary Geatish warrior Beowulf travels to Denmark with his band of soldiers including his best friend Wiglaf to help King Hrothgar, who needs a hero to slay Grendel, a hideously malformed troll-like creature with insuperable strength and cunning who attacked and killed many of Hrothgar's warriors during a celebration in the mead hall Heorot. Upon arriving, Beowulf becomes attracted to Hrothgar's wife Queen Wealtheow.

The men celebrate in Heorot to lure Grendel out while Beowulf strips naked and relaxes before Grendel arrives to ensure a fair and equal fight. During the fight, Beowulf discovers that Grendel has hypersensitive hearing and ruptures the creature's eardrum. Grendel shrinks in size and manages to escape only after Beowulf severs his arm, mortally wounding him. In thanks for freeing his kingdom from the monster, Hrothgar gives Beowulf his golden drinking horn, which commemorates Hrothgar's victory over the mighty dragon Fafnir.

In his cave, Grendel's mother swears revenge over his corpse. She travels to Heorot and slaughters Beowulf's men in the night. Hrothgar tells both Beowulf and Wiglaf that Grendel's mother is the last of the Water Demons. Hrothgar's adviser, Unferth, offers Beowulf his sword Hrunting to slay Grendel's mother. Beowulf and Wiglaf then travel to the demon's cave, where Beowulf enters alone and encounters the demon, who takes the form of a beautiful, gold-covered naked woman. He tries to kill her with Hrunting but fails due to her magic. Instead, she seduces him with promises to make him king in exchange for the drinking horn and a son to replace Grendel, which Beowulf agrees to when they both kiss. Afterwards, Beowulf returns to Heorot with Grendel's head and announces he has killed Grendel's mother. He recounts embellished stories of a fight, claiming he left the sword impaled in the body of Grendel's mother and lost the golden drinking horn in the battle.

Hrothgar speaks to Beowulf privately, and asks if he truly killed Grendel's mother. Despite Beowulf's boasting and calling Grendel's mother a hag, Hrothgar is not fooled. Hrothgar says all that matters is that Grendel is dead and the curse of Grendel's mother is no longer his to bear. He indirectly reveals that he had also been seduced by the demon, and Grendel was the result of their tryst. Beowulf is shocked upon realizing Hrothgar is Grendel's father and that the curse has now been passed on to him after his affair with the demon. Hrothgar declares Beowulf to be king upon his death and he commits suicide by jumping from the castle parapet onto the beach below. Grendel's mother appears as a gold light in the surf and drags Hrothgar's corpse into the sea as the crowd kneels to the newly crowned King Beowulf, fulfilling their bargain.

Fifty years later, the elderly Beowulf is the estranged husband of Wealtheow, who has converted to Christianity. Beowulf has a mistress, Ursula, but his tryst with Grendel's mother has left him sterile to both his wife and mistress. On the anniversary of Beowulf's victory against Grendel, Unferth returns the golden drinking horn, which his slave had found on the moors. That night, a nearby village is destroyed by a dragon, which then transforms into a golden figure, who orders Unferth to give a message to King Beowulf, the dragon's father: the sins of the father have returned to him (referencing the Faustian bargain curse cycle of Grendel's mother that he agreed to). Afterwards, Beowulf privately confesses to Wealtheow about his affair with Grendel's mother and they reconcile.

Beowulf and Wiglaf go to the cave once again, and Beowulf enters alone. When Grendel's mother appears, Beowulf throws her the golden horn, but she refuses it and the dragon attacks Beowulf's castle, threatening Wealtheow and Ursula. Despite his age, Beowulf goes to great lengths to stop the dragon and break the curse. Beowulf is mortally wounded in the struggle, but manages to kill the dragon by ripping its heart out, and he and the creature tumble to the rocky beach below the castle. The dragon transforms into its golden humanoid form, before being washed out to sea. Before he dies, Beowulf tries to tell Wiglaf the truth about his affair with Grendel's mother and acknowledge his son, but Wiglaf insists on keeping his legacy intact.

As the new king, Wiglaf gives Beowulf a Norse funeral. Wiglaf finds the golden horn in the sand and sees Grendel's mother give Beowulf a final kiss as his burning ship sinks into the sea. Grendel's mother slowly rises to the water's surface and seductively beckons Wiglaf towards her. He wades into the sea, while holding the golden drinking horn, before pausing halfway in the surf. They both stare at each other, with Grendel's mother seductively waiting and Wiglaf clearly tempted but showing resistance.

Cast

 * Ray Winstone as Beowulf, the title character. Zemeckis cast Winstone after seeing his performance as the title character of the 2003 ITV serial Henry VIII. On the topic of the original poem, Winstone commented during an interview, "I had the beauty of not reading the book, which I understand portrays Beowulf as a very one-dimensional kind of character; a hero and a warrior and that was it. I didn't have any of that baggage to bring with me." Winstone enjoyed working with motion-capture, stating that "You were allowed to go, like theater, where you carry a scene on and you become engrossed within the scene. I loved the speed of it. There was no time to sit around. You actually cracked on with a scene and your energy levels were kept up. There was no time to actually sit around and lose your concentration. So, for me, I actually really, really enjoyed this experience." Unlike some of his castmates, Winstone's animated counterpart bears little resemblance to the actor who was in his early 50s when he filmed the role; Winstone noted that his computer-generated counterpart resembled himself at the age of eighteen, although the filmmakers did not have a photo for reference. Winstone also played a dwarf performer, and the "Golden Man"/Dragon.
 * Crispin Glover and Angelina Jolie as Grendel and his mother, the antagonists. Glover had previously worked with Zemeckis in Back to the Future when he portrayed George McFly. Zemeckis had found Glover tiresome on set, because of his lack of understanding of shooting a film, but realized this would not be a problem as on a motion-capture film he could choose his angles later. Glover's dialogue was entirely in Old English. Jolie had wanted to work with Zemeckis, and had read the poem years before but could not remember it well until she read the script and was able to recall basic themes. The actress recounted her first impression of her character's appearance by saying "... I was told I was going to be a lizard. Then I was brought into a room with Bob, and a bunch of pictures and examples, and he showed me this picture of a woman half painted gold, and then a lizard. And, I've got kids and I thought 'That's great. That's so bizarre. I'm going to be this crazy reptilian person and creature.'" Jolie filmed her role over two days when she was three months pregnant. She was startled by the character's nude human form, stating that for an animated film "I was really surprised that I felt that exposed."
 * Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar. Hopkins noted in an interview that since Zemeckis is an American, he was not certain what accent Hopkins should use for the role of Hrothgar. Hopkins told him, "Well, Welsh would be my closest because that's where I come from." It was also his first time working with motion-capture technology. Hopkins noted, "I didn't know what was expected. It was explained to me, I'm not stupid, but I still don't get the idea of how it works. I have no idea [...] you don't have sets, so it is like being in a Brecht play, you know, with just bare bones and you have nothing else." When asked if he had to read the original poem of Beowulf in school, Hopkins replied: "No, I was hopeless at school. I couldn't read anything. I mean I could read, but I was so inattentive. I was one of those poor kids, you know, who was just very slow, didn't know what they were talking about... So I tried to get around to reading Beowulf just before I did this movie, and it was a good modern translation. It was Trevor Griffiths, I'm not sure, but I couldn't hack it, and I tend to like to just go with the script if it's a good script."
 * John Malkovich as Unferth. Malkovich became involved in the project because one of his friends, who had worked with Zemeckis, "spoke very highly of him. I had always found him a very interesting and innovative filmmaker. I liked the script very much and I liked the group involved and the process interested me a great deal also." He found the experience of working with motion capture to be similar to his experiences working in the theater. He also found the process intriguing: "Say you do a normal day of filmmaking. Sometimes that's 1/8 of a page, sometimes it's 3/8th of a page, normally let's say it's 2½ pages, maybe 3. Now it's probably a little more than it used to be but not always. So you may be acting for a total of 20 minutes a day. In this, you act the entire day all the time except for the tiny amount of time it takes them to sort of coordinate the computer information, let's say, and make sure that the computers are reading the data and that you're transmitting the data. It interests me on that level because I'm a professional actor so I'd just as soon act as sit around." Malkovich also recalled that he studied the original poem in high school, and that "I think we got smacked if we couldn't recite a certain number of stanzas. It was in the Old English class and I think my rendition was exemplary."
 * Brendan Gleeson as Wiglaf, Beowulf's lieutenant
 * Robin Wright Penn as Queen Wealtheow
 * Alison Lohman as Ursula, Beowulf's concubine when he is an old king
 * Costas Mandylor as Hondshew
 * Sebastian Roche as Wulfgar
 * Greg Ellis as Garmund
 * Tyler Steelman as Young Cain, Unferth's disabled slave
 * Dominic Keating as Adult Cain
 * Rik Young as Eofor
 * Charlotte Salt as Estrith
 * Leslie Harter Zemeckis as Yrsa
 * Fredrik Hiller as Finn of Frisia

Development
Author Neil Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary wrote a screen adaptation of Beowulf in May 1997 (they had met while working on a film adaptation of Gaiman's The Sandman in 1996 before Warner Bros. canceled it). The script had been optioned by ImageMovers in the same year and set up at DreamWorks with Avary slated to direct and Robert Zemeckis producing. Avary stated he wanted to make a small-scale, gritty film with a budget of US$15–20 million, similar to Jabberwocky or Excalibur. The project eventually went into turnaround after the option expired, to which the rights returned to Avary, who went on to direct an adaptation of The Rules of Attraction. In January 2005, producer Steve Bing, at the behest of Zemeckis who was wanting to direct the film himself, revived the production by convincing Avary that Zemeckis' vision, supported by the strength of digitally enhanced live action, was worth relinquishing the directorial reins. Zemeckis did not like the poem, but enjoyed reading the screenplay. Because of the expanded budget, Zemeckis told the screenwriters to rewrite their script, because "there is nothing that you could write that would cost me more than a million dollars per minute to film. Go wild!" In particular, the entire fight with the dragon was rewritten from a talky confrontation to a battle spanning the cliffs and the sea.

Animation and visual effects
Zemeckis drew inspiration for the visual-effects of Beowulf from experience with The Polar Express, which uses motion-capture technology to create three-dimensional CGI images of characters. Appointing Jerome Chen, whom Zemeckis worked with on The Polar Express, the two decided to chart realism as their foremost goal.

Animation supervisor Kenn MacDonald explained that Zemeckis used motion capture because "Even though it feels like live-action, there were a lot of shots where Bob cut loose. Amazing shots. Impossible with live-action actors. This method of filmmaking gives him freedom and complete control. He doesn't have to worry about lighting. The actors don't have to hit marks. They don't have to know where the camera is. It's pure performance." A 25 × 35-foot stage was built, and it used 244 Vicon MX40 cameras. Actors on set wore seventy eight body markers. The cameras recorded real-time footage of the performances, shots which Zemeckis reviewed. The director then used a virtual-camera to choose camera angles from the footage which was edited together. Two teams of animators worked on the film, with one group working on replicating the facial performances, the other working on body movement. The animators said they worked very closely on replicating the human characters, but the character of Grendel had to be almost reworked, because he is a monster, not human.

Over 450 graphic designers were chosen for the project, the largest team ever assembled for a Sony Pictures Imageworks-produced movie as of 2007. Designers at Imageworks generated new animation tools for facial, body and cloth design especially for the movie, and elements of keyframe animation were incorporated into the film in order to capture the facial expressions of the actors and actresses. The mead hall battle scene near the beginning of the film, among others, required numerous props that served as additional markers; these markers allowed for a more accurate manifestation of a battlefield setting as the battle progressed. However, the data being collected by the markers slowed down the studios' computer equipment and five months were spent developing a new save/load system that would increase the efficiency of the studios' resources. To aid in the process of rendering the massive quantities of information, the development team used cached data. In the cases that using cached data was not possible, the scenes were rendered using foreground occlusion, which involves the blurring of different overlays of a single scene in an attempt to generate a single scene film.

Other elements of the film were borrowed from that of others created by Imageworks: Spider-Man 3 lent the lighting techniques it used and the fluid engine present in the Sandman, while the waves of the ocean and the cave of Grendel's mother were modeled after the wave fluid engine used in Surf's Up. The 2007 film Ghost Rider lent Beowulf the fluid engine that was used to model the movements of protagonist Johnny Blaze. Jerome Chen worked to process large crowd scenes as early as possible, as additional time would be needed to process these scenes in particular. As a result, the film's development team designed a priority scale and incorporated it into their processors so graphic artists would be able to work with the scenes when they arrived.

So much data was produced in the course of the creation of the film, the studio was forced to upgrade all of its processors to multicore versions, which run quicker and more efficiently. The creation of additional rendering nodes throughout Culver City, California was necessitated by the movie's production. Mark Vulcano, who had previously worked on VeggieTales and Monster House, served as Senior Character Animator for the film.

In designing the dragon, production designer Doug Chiang wanted to create something unique in film. The designers looked at bats and flying squirrels for inspiration, and also designed its tail to allow underwater propulsion. As the beast is Beowulf's son with Grendel's mother, elements such as Winstone's eyes and cheekbone structure were incorporated into its look. The three primary monsters in the film share a golden color scheme, because they are all related. Grendel has patches of gold skin, but because of his torment, he has shed much of his scales and exposed his internal workings. He still had to resemble Crispin Glover though: the animators decided to adapt Glover's own parted hairstyle to Grendel, albeit with bald patches.

Zemeckis insisted that the character Beowulf resemble depictions of Jesus, believing that a correlation could be made between Christ's face and a universally accepted appeal. Zemeckis used Alan Ritchson for the physical model, facial image and movement for the title character of Beowulf. Avary had the idea to make Beowulf fight Grendel naked as a reference to Richard Corben's comic book Den, while also taking inspiration from legendary berserkers, who purportedly fought in battles while naked.

Music
The music for Beowulf was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri. A soundtrack was released November 20, 2007. Silvestri was largely responsible for the production of the soundtrack album, although actresses Robin Wright Penn and Idina Menzel performed several songs in the soundtrack's score.

Differences from the poem
"There are a lot of questions. For example, Grendel is described as half-man, half-demon. The mother is described as a water-demon. So who's Grendel's father? Grendel's always dragging men off alive to the cave. Why? Why is he never attacking Hrothgar? […] And if Hrothgar is Grendel's father, then what happens to Beowulf when he goes into that cave? Did he kill the monster? Did he kill Grendel's mother? Or did he make a pact with the demon? It was those kinds of questions that allowed us to explore deeper into the myth, and in a way that I don't think bastardizes the original myth; I think it actually is a deeper examination of it."

One objective Zemeckis, Gaiman and Avary shared was to expand on the original poem as it has been recorded. Beowulf is generally considered to be a pagan tale written down by Christian monks, which for Zemeckis and Avary represented the possibility that the original story had been tampered with in order to better fit Christian sensibilities. They found this to be a reasonable explanation for critical elements to the story that are absent from the poem, such as the identity of Grendel's father, why he abstains from attacking Hrothgar, and the lack of proof that Grendel's mother had been slain.

In order to restore those points, they offered their own interpretation for motivations behind Grendel's behavior and for what happened in the cave of Grendel's mother, justifying it by arguing that Beowulf acts as an unreliable narrator in the portion of the poem in which he describes his battle with Grendel's mother. Avary said their goal was "to remain truer to the letter of the epic but to read between the lines and find greater truths that had been explored before," while Gaiman commented, "the glory of Beowulf is that you are allowed to retell it" due to the presence of many other adaptations that offered their own take on it.

These choices also helped them to better connect the third act to the second of their screenplay, which is divided in the poem by a 50-year gap.

Some of the changes made by the film as noted by scholars include:
 * The portrayal of Beowulf as a flawed man
 * The portrayal of Hrothgar as a womanizing alcoholic
 * The portrayal of Unferth as a Christian
 * The portrayal of Grendel as a sickly-looking and child-like creature (somewhat similar to Tolkien's Gollum character), rather than a savage demon-monster
 * Beowulf's funeral
 * The portrayal of Grendel's mother as a beautiful seductress, more of a succubus rather, who bears Grendel as Hrothgar's child and the dragon as Beowulf's child (this is also the case in the plot of the 1999 film Beowulf, with the exception that the dragon is entirely absent there)
 * The fact that Beowulf becomes ruler of Denmark instead of his native Geatland

This is not the first time that the theme of a relationship between Beowulf and Grendel's mother was explored by Gaiman. In his 1998 collection of short stories, Smoke and Mirrors, the poem Bay Wolf is a retelling of Beowulf in a modern-day setting. In this story, Beowulf as the narrator is ambiguous about what happened between Grendel's mother and himself.

Themes

Drawing extensively on the theories of Freud,  Kristeva,   Lacan and Jung, as well as Žižek, many scholars have discussed the themes of the film. In particular, the portrayal of Grendel and his kin appeals to multiple forms of sexual unease, among them the castration anxiety, the monstrous feminine and the challenging of traditional gender roles. According to Nickolas Haydock, the film reflects the "American obsession with sex as the root of all evils," to the extent to compare Beowulf's and Hrothgar's portrayals to Bill Clinton and the history of sexual misconduct that caused his political decline. Nadine Farghaly also argues the story makes the point that unbridled desire only causes ruin.

Grendel's mother is represented in the film as a castrating, monstrous female who threatens masculinity. While Beowulf embodies phallic power through his physical strength, recurrent nudity and usage of a sword, all those prove useless against her, as she symbolically emasculates him by subsuming his phallus into the feminine power. This is metaphorized by Beowulf being seduced in her womb-like cave, where his sword strike magically fails at harming her body. After copulating with Grendel's mother, both Hrothgar and Beowulf find themselves unable to maintain fulfilling sexual relationships with Wealtheow or other women, becoming aged, bitter and even feminized in their impotency. In turn, Grendel's mother remains immortal and young, and through her offspring she proves capable to wield herself the robbed phallus. Grendel and the dragon act as extensions of her will, "mindless embodiments of feminine aggressiveness" who represent their fathers' emasculation and loss of patriarchal power.

Later Beowulf claims to have vanquished the mother, having supposedly rendered her dead with his sword in her cave, but the falsity of this only translates as a wishful, pretended triumph of the male over the female. His defeat to her, as well as his bargain for prestige and glory, transmits that male power "not only comes from the feminine, but remains eternally subject to it." However, authors have noted that he ultimately breaks the Oedipian triangle caused by his destructive son, as he manages to kill the dragon and seemingly thwart the cycle at the cost of his life. This has been interpreted as a last exaltation of masculinity, electing to die in self-sacrifice rather than living in his impotent, feminized state. He refers to himself as already "dead long time ago" in a previous scene. The film still underline the irresistibility of female power, as even Wiglaf, who had been shown to be abstinent from lust in contrast to his partners, is hinted to be similarly seduced by Grendel's mother.

The film contrasts those points to the original poem, using the "postmodern techniques of metatextuality and deconstruction". Whereas in the poem the heroic values of ancient warrior culture is reaffirmed, in the film it is shown to be in decline, even explicitly failing along with Beowulf. In the film, the character laments the old, heroic pagan religion is being replaced by Christianity, "leaving humankind with nothing but weeping martyrs, fear, and shame." In the poem Beowulf slays Grendel's mother and defeats her challenge on gender roles, but her film version is victorious over him, also using seduction instead of strength, which updates the ways in which the story views female power. The gold covering her skin and the Faustian bargain she offers embody similar modern views on the relationship between wealth and sex, particularly societal compulsions to enjoy them at the fullest, "not prohibited but demanded, which becomes a postmodern variation of Freud's death wish".

However, the main difference from the poem is portraying Beowulf as a flawed hero destroyed by his own negative qualities, like lust for power and unchecked male desire, which raises questions about the morality underlying heroism. Despite the superficial characterization of the Water Demons as Others, the film blurs the line between heroes and monsters, as Grendel can talk, and the dragon's human form resembles Beowulf himself, representing his repressed wishes. In turn, Beowulf and Hrothgar are rendered impotent just like Grendel, who lacks genitalia altogether, and then Beowulf ends up losing an arm like Grendel does. At the end, although the men from the film pretend to be champions against demonkind, they are ultimately revealed to be only its very originators.

Release
At Comic-Con International in July 2006, Gaiman said Beowulf would be released on November 22, 2007. The following October, Beowulf was announced to be projected in 3D in over 1,000 theaters for its release date in November 2007. The studios planned to use 3D projection technology that had been used by Monster House (another motion-captured animated film that Zemeckis was involved on, but only as an executive producer), Chicken Little and the 3D re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but on a larger scale than previous films. Beowulf would additionally be released in 35 mm alongside the 3D projections.

Originally, Columbia Pictures (which also distributed Monster House) was set to distribute the film, but Steve Bing did not finalize a deal and instead arranged with Paramount Pictures for North American distribution and Warner Bros. for international distribution. Beowulf was also set to premiere at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, but was not ready in time. Instead, the film's world premiere was held in Westwood, Los Angeles on November 5, 2007.

Critics and even some of the actors expressed shock at the British Board of Film Classification rating of the film—12A—which allowed children under twelve in Britain to see the film if accompanied by their parents. Angelina Jolie called it "remarkable it has the rating it has", and said she wouldn't be taking her own children to see it. In the United States, the Motion Picture Association of America gave the film a PG-13 rating for "intense sequences of violence including disturbing images, some sexual material and nudity".

Marketing
To promote the film, a novelization of the film, written by Caitlín R. Kiernan, was published in September 2007. This was followed by a four-issue comic book adaptation by IDW Publishing released every week in October 2007.

A video game based on the film entitled Beowulf: The Game was released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and PSP formats. The game was announced by Ubisoft on May 22, 2007, during its Ubidays event in Paris. It was released on November 13, 2007, in the United States. The characters are voiced by the original actors who starred in the film. On November 1, 2007, Beowulf: The Game was released for mobile phones. The side-scrolling action video game was developed by Gameloft.

Several cast members, including director Robert Zemeckis, gave interviews for the film podcast "Scene Unseen" in August 2007. This is noteworthy especially because it marks the only interview given by Zemeckis for the film.

Home media
Beowulf was released for Region 1 on DVD February 26, 2008. A director's cut was also released as both a single-disc DVD and two-disc HD-DVD alongside the theatrical cut. The theatrical cut includes A Hero's Journey: The Making of Beowulf while the single disc director's cut features four more short features. The HD DVD contains eleven short features and six deleted scenes.

The director's cut was released on Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2008, and in the United States on July 29, 2008. The Blu-ray edition includes a "picture-in-picture" option that allows one to view the film's actors performing their scenes on the soundstage, before animation was applied (a notable exception to this is Angelina Jolie, whose scenes are depicted using storyboards and rough animation rather than the unaltered footage from the set).

Box office
Beowulf ranked #1 in the United States and Canada box office during its opening weekend date of November 18, grossing $27.5 million in 3,153 theaters.

At the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed an estimated domestic total of $82.3 million and a foreign box office total of $114.1 million for a worldwide gross of $196.4 million.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Beowulf has received an approval rating of 71% based on 194 reviews, with an average score of 6.50/10. The website's consensus reads, "Featuring groundbreaking animation, stunning visuals, and a talented cast, Beowulf has in spades what more faithful book adaptations forget to bring: pure cinematic entertainment." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

Giving Beowulf three out of four stars, Roger Ebert commented that the film is a satire of the original poem. Time magazine critic Richard Corliss described the film as one with "power and depth" and suggested that the "effects scenes look realer, more integrated into the visual fabric, because they meet the traced-over live-action elements halfway. It all suggests that this kind of a moviemaking is more than a stunt. By imagining the distant past so vividly, Zemeckis and his team prove that character capture has a future." Corliss later named it the tenth-best film of 2007. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers praised the motion capture used in the film and argued that "The eighth-century Beowulf, goosed into twenty-first century life by a screenplay from sci-fi guru Neil Gaiman and Pulp Fiction's Roger Avary, will have you jumping out of your skin and begging for more... I've never seen a 3-D movie pop with this kind of clarity and oomph. It's outrageously entertaining."

Tom Ambrose of Empire gave the film four out of five stars. He wrote that Beowulf is "the finest example to date of the capabilities of this new technique [...] Previously, 3D movies were blurry, migraine-inducing affairs. Beowulf is a huge step forward [...] Although his Cockney accent initially seems incongruous [...] Winstone's turn ultimately reveals a burgeoning humanity and poignant humility." Ambrose also argues that "the creepy dead eyes thing has been fixed." Justin Chang of Variety thought that the screenwriters "have taken some intriguing liberties with the heroic narrative [... the] result is, at least, a much livelier piece of storytelling than the charmless Polar Express." He also stated that "Zemeckis prioritizes spectacle over human engagement, in his reliance on a medium that allows for enormous range and fluidity in its visual effects yet reduces his characters to 3-D automatons. While the technology has improved since 2004's Polar Express (particularly in the characters' more lifelike eyes), the actors still don't seem entirely there."

Kenneth Turan of NPR criticized the film, writing: "It's been 50 years since Hollywood first started flirting with 3-D movies, and the special glasses required for viewing have gotten a whole lot more substantial. The stories being filmed are just as flimsy. Of course Beowulf does have a more impressive literary pedigree than, say, Bwana Devil. But you'd never know that by looking at the movie. Beowulf's story of a hero who slays monsters has become a fanboy fantasy that panders with demonic energy to the young male demographic." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times compared the poem with the film, stating that "If you don't remember this evil babe from the poem, it's because she's almost entirely the invention of the screenwriters Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman and the director Robert Zemeckis, who together have plumped her up in words, deeds and curves. These creative interventions aren't especially surprising given the source material and the nature of big-studio adaptations. There's plenty of action in Beowulf, but even its more vigorous bloodletting pales next to its rich language, exotic setting and mythic grandeur."

Academic response
Scholars and authors criticized the changes made to the poem's story. Southern Methodist University's Director of Medieval Studies Bonnie Wheeler is "convinced that the new Robert Zemeckis movie treatment sacrifices the power of the original for a plot line that propels Beowulf into seduction by Angelina Jolie—the mother of the monster he has just slain. What man doesn't get involved with Angelina Jolie?' Wheeler asks. 'It's a great cop-out on a great poem.' ... 'For me, the sad thing is the movie returns to... a view of the horror of woman, the monstrous female who will kill off the male,' Wheeler says. 'It seems to me you could do so much better now. And the story of Beowulf is so much more powerful.'" Other commentators pointed to the theories elucidated in John Grigsby's work Beowulf and Grendel, where Grendel's mother was linked with the ancient Germanic fertility goddess Nerthus.

However, there were also positive academic reviews. Philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma argued that "Zemeckis's more tender-minded film version suggests that the people who cast out Grendel are the real monsters. The monster, according to this charity paradigm, is just misunderstood rather than evil (similar to the version presented in John Gardner's novel Grendel). The blame for Grendel's violence is shifted to the humans, who sinned against him earlier and brought the vengeance upon themselves. The only real monsters, in this tradition, are pride and prejudice. In the film, Grendel is even visually altered after his injury to look like an innocent, albeit scaly, little child. In the original Beowulf, the monsters are outcasts because they're bad (just as Cain, their progenitor, was outcast because he killed his brother), but in the film Beowulf the monsters are bad because they're outcasts [...] Contrary to the original Beowulf, the new film wants us to understand and humanize our monsters."

title: Beowulf (2007 film)


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Sloppy Seconds (band)

Sloppy Seconds is an American, Ramones-influenced punk band sometimes referred to as a junk rock band from Indianapolis, Indiana, that started in 1984. They gained notoriety in the underground punk scene with gritty and controversial songs like "Come Back, Traci," "I Don't Want to be a Homosexual", "Janie is a Nazi", "I Want 'em Dead" and "So Fucked Up."

The band's unusual and controversial lyrics encompass pornography, classic horror movies, classic television shows, comic books, alcohol, being fat, and getting drunk.

Establishment
Sloppy Seconds was formed in 1984 by a group of friends from Indianapolis, Indiana. The band spent its first three years writing songs and honing its craft, releasing its first record, a four-song EP called The First Seven Inches, in 1987.

Following the release of the first EP, the band went into the studio on its own, assisted by producer Paul Mahern, without a record label deal. Knowing from an early date that they were not a prolific recording band, the band sought to make an impact with its first full-length release, tabbing the record Destroyed as a play on Destroyer, a 1976 platinum album by stadium rockers KISS. In search of a home, the band sent out a demo tape including rough mixes of the first four songs completed for the project, with Toxic Shock Records ultimately picking up the project. This debut album was finally released in 1989, featuring parody artwork by Mike Kreffel, a fan of the band.

A series of three singles followed for fans of the 7-inch vinyl format, featuring popular album tracks such as the anthemic "I Don't Wanna Be a Homosexual" and their controversial paean to underaged porn queen Traci Lords, "Come Back Traci."

Band name
Their name derives from the slang term "sloppy seconds", describing the act in which a man has intercourse with another person who already has received another man's semen in the relevant orifice.

Reunion
In January 2008, the band announced they had signed to Kid Tested Records, owned by Dave Parasite of the Parasites. That year, they released Endless Bummer, their first full-length in ten years. In June and July 2008, the band promoted the album with a tour of the United States, which included an appearance at Insubordination Fest.

Sloppy Seconds' first studio album, Destroyed, was reissued on Kid Tested records in 2010. They went on a short East Coast tour in May and June 2010.

Personnel

 * B.A. – vocals
 * Ace "Spice" Hardwhere – guitars
 * Bo'Ba Jam – bass
 * Steve – drums

Former members include guitarist and founding member Danny "Roadkill" Thompson, alias "Dr. Roadkill", who left the band in 1993.

Albums

 * Destroyed (Toxic Shock) (1989)
 * Knock Yer Block Off (Taang!) (1993)
 * Live: No Time for Tuning (self-released) (1996)
 * More Trouble Than They're Worth (Nitro) (1998)
 * Endless Bummer (Kid Tested) (2008)

Singles and EPs

 * The First Seven Inches 7-inch EP (Alternative Testicles) (1987)
 * Germany EP (1988) (Hebre Scherbe) (1988)
 * "Come Back, Traci" / "Leaving On A Jet Plane" (Toxic Shock) (1989)
 * "Where Eagles Dare" / "Ice Cream Man" (Roadkill) (1990)
 * "I Don't Wanna Be A Homosexual" b/w "Human Waste" (Toxic Shock) (1990)
 * Lonely Christmas EP (Taang!) (1992)
 * 12/29/94 (Fireside Bowl – Chicago, IL) EP (V.M.L.) (1994)
 * Split 7-inch with The Vindictives (V.M.L.) (1997) – "Why Don't Lesbians Love Me?" / "Pervert At Large"
 * Garbage Days Regurgitated EP (Nitro) (2000)
 * "You Can't Kill Joey Ramone" / "Can't Stand Rock'n'Roll" (Wallride) (2010)
 * Split 7-inch with Dangerbird (Failure) (2017) – "Johhny Be Dead"
 * Split Hits The Fans Split 7-inch with Antiseen (Failure) (2002) – Thanks For The Mammaries"

Compilations

 * The First Seven Inches...And Then Some! (Taang!) (1992)
 * NeoComicon 2005 (self-released) (2004)

Compilation appearances

 * War Between The States: North cassette (Wally And The Beaver) (1985) – "Before Cable"
 * There's A Method To Our Madness (Phantom) (1986) – "Jerry's Kids)
 * District of Colombia cassette (Fucksafe) (1988) – "So Fucked Up", "If I Had A Woman", "Germany", "I Don't Want To Take You Home"
 * France Kontakt Usa cassette (Broken Tape) (1988) – "I Don't Want To Take You Home", "So Fucked Up"
 * War Between The States: North cassette (TPOS) (1989) – "I Don't Want To Take You Home", "So Fucked Up"
 * Caroline Records-Rock Sampler 6 (Adventures In Music) (1992) – "If I Had A Woman"
 * Welcome to Our Nightmare: A Tribute to Alice Cooper (Triple X) (1993) – "Serious"
 * Decade Of Disaster (Westworld) (1994) – "Veronica"
 * Punk Chartbusters Vol 2 (Wolverine/Soundcarrier (1995) – "The Candy Man"
 * Ox-Compilation #23 – Eye-sore (Ox Fanzine) (1996) – "Come Back, Traci"
 * 15 Bullets-The Wolverine Compilation (Wolverine) (1996) – "Ice Cream Man"
 * KPNK: Punk Radio – All The Hits All The Time (Countdown Records) (1997) - "The Candyman"
 * Deep Thoughts (Nitro) (1998) – "The Thing From Uranus", "Let's Kill Trendy"
 * V.M. Live presents... (V.M.L. Records/Liberation Records) (1999) – "Steal Your Beer", "Your Sister", "Come Back, Traci", "The Queen From Outer Space", "Conned Again"
 * Son Of Slam Chops (Triple X) (1999) – "I Don't Wanna Be A Homosexual"
 * The World According To Stone Entertainment (Volcom/Stone) (1999) – "Smashed Again"
 * Social Chaos Anarchy In North America Tour '99 (Beloved)
 * U.S. Indies Covered Punx Collection (Two Children) (2000) – "The Candyman"
 * A Punk Tribute To Metallica (Cleopatria) (2001) – "Hit The Lights"
 * That Darn Punk (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Kung Fu) (2001) – "Queen Of Outer Space"
 * Punk It! Vol. 4 (Imperial) (2003) – "V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N. (In The Summer"
 * Punk Chartbusters Vol. 1 + 2 2XCD (Wolverine) (2003) – "Candyman (Sammy Davis Junior)"
 * Punk It! Vol. 5 (Imperial) (2004) – "Hit The Lights"
 * Rockzilla JPN Nitro Records Compilation Vol. 1 (Nitro) (2004) – "Ephedrine Machine"
 * Punk It! Best! (Imperial) (2004) "V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N. (In The Summertime)", "I Won't Grow Up"
 * The Blackest Box 2XCE (Cleopatria) (2007) – "Hit The Lights"
 * Rock'n'Roll In My Soul 2XCD (Wolverine) (2008) -"Mighty Heros"
 * The Ultimate Metallica Tribute 2XCD (Red Line) (2008) – "Hit The Lights"
 * Sick Girl Soundtrack – "So Fucked Up", "I Want 'em Dead"
 * Insubordination Fest Baltimore MD '08 live CD & DVD (Insubordination) (2009) – "Let's Kill The Trendy"
 * Punk Rock Xmas (Rhino) – "Hooray For Santo Claus (Theme From 'Santa Claus Conquers The Martians')"
 * The World's Greatest Metallica Tribute (Tributized) – "Hit The Lights"
 * Temporary Loss Of Self (Control) (Crash Course Tapes) – "So Fucked Up"

Music videos

 * "Veronica" (1989)
 * "Fifteen Minutes... Or It's Free" (1998)
 * (((PBS))) Punk Broadcasting System Volume 1 DVD (Cold Front) (2001) – "Fifteen Minutes Or It's Free"

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sloppy Seconds (band)


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Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville

Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, (12 October 1773 – 8 January 1846), styled Lord Granville Leveson-Gower from 1786 to 1815 and The Viscount Granville from 1815 to 1833, was a British Whig statesman and diplomat from the Leveson-Gower family.

Background and education
Granville was the second son and youngest child of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford from his marriage to Lady Susanna Stewart, daughter of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway. His elder, paternal half-brother was George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland.

Granville was educated at Dr. Kyle's school at Hammersmith, and then privately by John Chappel Woodhouse. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in April 1789 but never took a degree. Nevertheless, ten years later, in 1799, the honorary degree of DCL was conferred upon him.

Career
Granville began his career as a member of the House of Commons, representing Lichfield from 1795 to 1799, and Staffordshire for the next sixteen years. From 1797 to 1799 he was Colonel of the 2nd Staffordshire Militia. Granville served as British ambassador to Russia (10 August 1804 – 28 November 1805 and 1806–1807) and France (1824–1828, 1830 –1835, 1835–1841).

In 1815 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Granville of Stone Park in the County of Stafford. In 1833 during his second stint as ambassador to France, he was created Earl Granville and also Baron Leveson of Stone Park in the County of Stafford.

Personal life
While a recent historian describes Granville as "a drab figure, the original stuffed-shirt – starch outside, sawdust within,", he was celebrated as a male beauty in his own time, with Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger comparing him to "Hadrian's Antinous".

Lord Granville married Lady Harriet Cavendish (1785–1862), daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Georgiana Spencer, in 1809. They had two sons and two daughters:

Prior to marrying Lady Harriet Cavendish in 1809, Granville was the lover of Lady Harriet's maternal aunt, Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, née Lady Henrietta Frances Spencer, with whom he fathered two illegitimate children: Harriette Stewart and George Stewart. For seventeen years she "loved [Granville] to idolatry", but then, she understood that he must marry in order to further his career and assure his posterity, and so she actively collaborated in the arrangements for his wedding to Harriet (known in the family as "Harry-O"), who was understandably reluctant to marry her aunt's lover.
 * Lady Susan Georgiana (d. 30 April 1866) married George Pitt-Rivers, 4th Baron Rivers. Together they had twelve children, eight of whom survived infancy.
 * Lady Georgiana Charlotte (d. 19 Jan 1885)
 * Granville George (11 May 1815 - 31 Mar 1891)
 * Granville William (2 Oct. 1816 - 1833)
 * Hon. Edward Frederick (3 May 1819 - 30 May 1907)

Granville had numerous other love affairs, including with Lady Hester Stanhope, the adventurer and antiquarian, who attempted suicide after he jilted her in 1804. It was speculated at the time, and by her biographers since, that Stanhope was pregnant at the time with Granville's child.

Lord Granville died in January 1846, aged 72. The Countess Granville died in November 1862, aged 77. A younger son William died in 1833.


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Siyum

A siyum (סיום) ("completion"), in Judaism, occasionally spelled siyyum, is the completion of any established unit of Torah study. The most common units are a single volume of the Talmud, or of Mishnah, but there are other units of learning that may lead to a siyum.

The typical structure of a siyum event includes a conclusion of the study, reading of the Hadran text, kaddish, and a celebratory meal.

The custom to make a siyum is first mentioned in the Talmud: "Abaye said: grant me my reward, for when I see a young Torah scholar who has completed a tractate, I make a celebration for the rabbis."

Type of study
The typical siyum is on a single book of Talmud, or on an entire seder of the Mishna. This is due to the Talmud being an explanation of the Mishna, with each tractate of the Mishnah being relatively short, but the Talmudical version of it occupying an entire book.

Talmud and Mishnah are organized in 6 sections (or "orders"), called sedarim in Hebrew. Sometimes, a siyum may be made on the completion of all the Mishnah of a seder, rather than the completion of all six at once. Conversely, a larger Talmudic siyum than usual may cover all Talmud in a seder, or even all of the Talmud comprising all six sedarim. Such a siyum is known as a Siyum HaShas, as HaShas is an abbreviation of the Hebrew for "the six orders."

Especially starting in the 20th century, other Judaic religious topics have been used to make a siyum, though often less formal than the standard Mishnah/Talmud siyum. One of the most common is the completion of the Mishna Berurah, a detailed work of the rules Jews practice each day, each Sabbath, and relating to each festival. Young schoolchildren sometimes make an informal siyum on completion of one of the five books of the Torah ("Books of Moses").

Shared study
In many cases, the unit of study is not completed by any single person. Instead, the unit is split among participants, who complete one section. Jointly, the participants complete the whole unit.

This is especially common for the completion of the entire six orders of the Mishnah after a person dies before the anniversary, and also frequently for one order of Mishnah within the month after their death.

This format is also sometimes used to complete all the Talmud, with typically a single tractate assigned to each participant (though smaller tractates may be combined or larger tractates broken down further). In especially large groups organized communally, the Talmud may be broken down to the folio level, with thousands of participants. This is sometimes called a Shas-A-Thon, as it allows the enormous body of material to be completed jointly in a short period of time, sometimes a single day.

Siyum HaShas
An event known as a Siyum HaShas marks the completion of the entire Talmud. This is a monumental undertaking, consisting of 2,711 folios (5,422 pages) of study.

The Daf Yomi study program is the largest Siyum HaShas event, with hundreds of thousands of participants. In this program, a schedule of study includes a specific daf or blatt (folio) to be studied by all participants on any particular day. In this standard calendar, the entire Talmud is covered approximately every seven and a half years. Enormous siyum gatherings follow, arranged around the world.

The main event for the 13th Siyum HaShas, organized by Agudath Israel of America, took place on January 1, 2020, in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey with a sellout crowd of over 90,000. Other Siyum HaShas events were held globally, with several "satellite" Agidath Israel locations around the United States, and several other arranged in the United States and Israel by the Dirshu organization.

Although Siyum HaShas is most commonly associated with Daf Yomi, this is not always the case. Many serious students of the Talmud have completed it on their own schedules, either by themselves, with a partner, or a small study group. However, it is not very common, even among regular Talmudic students and researchers, and those who do so are often viewed as elites.

Another alternative form of Siyum HaShas involves the shared study method (see above).

Format
A siyum usually includes:

 * one or more participants to the study performing a reading and explanation of the last topic studied
 * the same or another participant reading the lengthy Hadran prayer (which may be broken up amongst participants)
 * recitation of a special version of the Kaddish; this version is the longest form of Kaddish, including the length introductory section used at burial, as well as the lengthy paragraph of Kaddish d'Rabannan
 * greetings and congratulatory remarks
 * a celebratory meal, or seudat mitzvah, which may also include additional speeches

The term siyum sometimes refers to the celebratory meal itself.

Common occasions
An enduring custom is for the community to complete a unit of Torah or tractate(s) of Talmud during the 30 days following the death of a beloved one and hold a communal siyum thereafter, in tribute and honor of the memory of the deceased (see also Bereavement in Judaism).

It has become customary for synagogues to arrange a siyum on the morning before Passover to allow those fasting for Ta’anit Bechorim (Fast of the Firstborn) to break their fast, taking advantage of the halakhic principle that prioritizes Torah study.

A siyum ha-sefer, meaning “completion of the book,” is also held as a ceremonial completion and dedication of a sefer Torah, a handwritten copy of the Torah, the most important Jewish ritual object, which is kept in the Ark of a synagogue. This is not technically related to the other forms of siyum.

Usually, when an individual or a group conclude the study of any tractate of the Talmud, or even of a seder of Mishnah (less commonly, of a single tractate of Mishnah), a siyum is celebrated. At the end of every volume of the Talmud a special hadran prayer is printed with a set order of prayers and a special kaddish, Kaddish D'itchadita, in honor of the completion of that volume, which Judaism considers to be an important achievement and a milestone worth celebrating.

In the merit and honor of a deceased individual, it is customary to undertake Mishnah study with the goal of holding a siyum. The entirety of the Mishnah is divided among many family members or volunteers, to be completed at shloshim or at yahrtzeit. (Sometimes, a single seder is completed for shloshim, which may also contribute simultaneously to the completion of all six for the yahrtzeit.)

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (based on the Nemukei Yosef, the Ran, the Rashbam, and the Eliyah Rabbah) extends the concept of a siyum to include even a festive meal celebrating the completion of any mitzvah (commandment) that has taken a significant duration of time (such as a number of weeks or months). In contrast, Rabbi Osher Weiss suggested that a siyum could be done upon finishing in-depth study of a Biblical book or of a book "from the core of the Oral Torah" such as Mishnah and Gemara, but not upon finishing later works which comment on these books.

title: Siyum


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Don't Bother to Knock

Don't Bother to Knock is a 1952 American psychological thriller starring Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe and directed by Roy Ward Baker. The screenplay was written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 novel Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong. Monroe is featured as a disturbed babysitter watching a child at the same New York hotel where a pilot, played by Widmark, is staying. He starts flirting with her, but over the evening her strange behavior makes him increasingly aware that she is unhinged. How he copes with the situation ends up profoundly impacting all three lives.

Plot
Lyn Lesley is the lounge singer at New York's McKinley Hotel. She muses to the bartender about her relationship with an airline pilot, Jed Towers, revealing she had ended their six-month relationship with a letter. Jed has checked in at the same hotel and approaches her; she explains that she sees no future with him because his coldness with people shows he "lacks an understanding heart". He strongly rejects her dismissal, but ultimately retreats to his room.

Meanwhile, elevator operator Eddie introduces his reticent niece, Nell Forbes, to guests Peter and Ruth Jones as a babysitter for their daughter Bunny. The Joneses leave for an awards convention banquet downstairs. After she puts the child to bed, Nell tries on Ruth's negligee, then her jewelry, perfume, and lipstick. Seeing the striking young Nell from his room directly across an air shaft, Jed calls her on the house phone; alternately curious and put-off, she rebuffs his aggressive advances. When Eddie checks up on her, he is appalled to find Nell wearing Ruth's things and orders her to take them off. He tells her she can have such indulgences for herself by finding a boyfriend to replace the one she is still struggling to get over, a pilot who was killed in an aircraft accident. After Eddie leaves, Nell puts them back on and invites Jed over.

He brings the bottle of whisky he has been drinking and pours both of them large glasses. Nell tells him a series of lies, painting herself as a wealthy globe-trotter. She is startled when he reveals that he is a pilot. She confides that her boyfriend Philip died while flying a bomber to Hawaii during World War II. Aware something awry is going on, the precocious Bunny appears and shatters Nell's charade. Furious, Nell shakes the child and orders her back to bed. Jed hears her sobs and comforts her, letting her stay up with them. When Bunny hangs out an open window next to Nell, the troubled woman fights with an urge to push her out. Jed snatches Bunny away, but the incident is witnessed by long-term hotel resident (and notorious busybody) Emma Ballew.

Out of Jed's earshot, Nell threatens Bunny, putting her back to bed. Jarred by events and Nell's roller-coaster swings, Jed's thoughts return to Lyn. Nell begs him not to leave. As he is fending off a kiss from her, Jed sees the telltale scars of slashing on her wrists. Nell confesses that after Philip died she tried to kill herself with a razor.

When Eddie checks up on Nell after his shift is over, Nell shoos Jed into the bathroom and quickly tidies the room. Irate that Nell is still wearing Ruth's things, Eddie orders her to change clothes, then harshly rubs off her lipstick. This enrages Nell, who accuses Eddie of being just like her repressive parents. Then, when he suspects there is someone in the bathroom, she hits him over the head with a heavy ashtray. While Jed tends to Eddie, Nell slips into Bunny's room.

A prying Emma Ballew knocks on the door, accompanied by her reluctant husband. Fearing desperately for his job, Eddie urges Jed to hide while he slips into the closet. Jed sneaks into Bunny's room, not noticing, in the dark, that the child is now bound and gagged; he slips away down the hall, but the Ballews see him and assume he was an intruder in Nell's room. Nell plays along as a victim, they alert the hotel detective, and a chase is on. She is now so deluded that she believes Jed is Philip. Locking Eddie in, she again goes into Bunny's room.

At the bar, Jed tells Lyn about Nell. She is pleasantly surprised by his concern. Suddenly realizing that he saw Bunny on the wrong bed, Jed rushes back up. Anxious to simply check on her daughter, Ruth Jones arrives first, and screams when she enters Bunny's room. The women grapple. Jed pulls Nell away and unties Bunny, but Nell slips away in the confusion when the detective arrives.

Eddie explains that Nell had spent the previous three years in an Oregon mental institution following her suicide attempt, but was supposed to have been cured. In the lobby, Nell steals a razor blade from a sales display. Surrounded by a mob, she holds it at her own throat. Lyn tries to calm her down. Jed appears, and, waving off police, demands Nell give him the weapon. She does, and he tries to get through her haze that he is not Philip and that the real Philip is dead. He assures her that she will get the help she needs by leaving with an officer. As she is led away, Lyn is taken by Jed's display of genuine empathy, and impulsively yields to a reconciliation.

Cast

 * Richard Widmark as Jed Towers
 * Marilyn Monroe as Nell Forbes
 * Anne Bancroft as Lyn Lesley
 * Donna Corcoran as Bunny Jones
 * Jeanne Cagney as Rochelle
 * Lurene Tuttle as Ruth Jones
 * Elisha Cook Jr. as Eddie Forbes
 * Jim Backus as Peter Jones
 * Verna Felton as Emma Ballew
 * Willis Bouchey as Joe the Bartender (as Willis B. Bouchey)
 * Don Beddoe as Mr. Ballew

Critical response
The reviewer for the New York Post was generally pleased with the film's individual performances, but panned its plot and structure. He described Monroe as “surprisingly good”, and Widmark “terse, decisive and efficient, in veteran pilot style.” Of the work's direction, plot, and portrayals he wrote: “The picture’s suspense sequences are fairly effective both in gradual build-up and climaxes, but the conclusion, implying that all this had taken place merely to awake Widmark to his love for the singer, reduces the film to trifling proportions. The plot structure is painfully mechanical and obvious. Only characterizations and the psychotic continuities lend it temporary semblance of solidity.”

The Albany Times-Union film critic was unenthusiastic: “Having whooped the undeniable physical assets of Marilyn Monroe from the rooftops, her home studio seems bent now upon telling the world that its blond property is also geared for heavy dramatic acting. The effort put forth…is something less than overwhelming, and seems oddly unnecessary. Why not just let her just be Marilyn Monroe, instead of a psychotic menace?....Miss Monroe walks through the picture as if she had been hit on the head….The action, transpiring entirely in the hotel, never gets higher than the eighth floor…..The picture has a brunette stranger, Ann Bancroft, as a nightclub songstress who jilts Widmark, takes him back the same evening. Not sensational—but neither is she psychotic.”

The film's reputation has improved since its release, with many modern critics considering Monroe's performance as initially underrated. It is now considered by Monroe fans to contain some of her best acting. Film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a mostly positive 2011 review, and seems to be captured by Monroe's performance. He wrote, "Wacko psychological thriller, set entirely in a NYC hotel, and helmed without urgency by Roy Ward Baker (The Vault of Horror/Asylum/Scars of Dracula). It lacks emotional depth, but is diverting as it gives off nervous energy and remains watchable throughout. Marilyn Monroe was in 12 previous films, but this was her first co-starring headliner role. Playing someone mentally deranged, Marilyn wonderfully channels how her mentally troubled mom acted and gives a believable performance (she's the best reason for seeing this forgettable pic). It's based on a novel by Charlotte Armstrong and is written by Daniel Taradash."

Don't Bother to Knock has a rare 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, although this is based on only 11 reviews as of 2021.

Recognition
The film was nominated for consideration by the American Film Institute on its 2001 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.

title: Don't Bother to Knock


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User talk:Snigle

Thanks for experimenting with Wikipedia. Your test worked, and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thanks.

title: User talk:Snigle


text: User talk:63.19.219.187

title: User talk:63.19.219.187


text:
File:Don't bother to knock.jpg

summary
Don't Bother to Knock poster

Fair use in Don't Bother to Knock
Though this image is subject to copyright, its use is covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:
 * 1) It's a low resolution copy of a Film Poster / VHS or DVD Cover.
 * 2) It doesn't limit the copyright owner's rights to sell the film in any way, in fact, it may encourage sales.
 * 3) Because of the low resolution, copies could not be used to make illegal copies of the artwork/image.
 * 4) The image is itself a subject of discussion in the article or used in the infobox thereof.
 * 5) The image  is significant because it was used to promoted a notable film.

Source

 * 1) Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the Film Poster/ VHS or DVD Cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the film company or the artist.  Claimed as fair use regardless.

title: File:Don't bother to knock.jpg


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/MIMARO

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was Keep. R e  dwolf24  (talk) 02:35, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

MIMARO
Dictionary definition of an acronym. It refers to the provinces of Mindoro Oriental, Mindoro Occidental, Marinduque, and Romblon in the Phillipines, similar to the use of BONYWASH to refer to Boston, New York, and Washington. inks 03:25, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep or possibly merge. Kappa 08:27, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * keep Usrnme h8er 11:16, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/MIMARO


text:
NNS Thunder (F90)

USCGC Chase (WHEC-718) was a Hamilton-class cutter High Endurance Cutter of the United States Coast Guard. She was laid down on October 26, 1966, at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, launched on May 20, 1967, and commissioned on March 11, 1968. Chase is the fourth of twelve Hamilton class, 378 ft cutters, and the third cutter named in honor of Salmon Portland Chase. She was decommissioned on March 29, 2011, and transferred to the Nigerian Navy as an excess defense article under the Foreign Assistance Act as NNS Thunder (F90).

Design
Chase is designed as a high endurance cutter. Her crossing range of 9600 nmi at 20 kn, and 80 ft flight deck, capable of handling both Coast Guard and Navy helicopters, making Chase a platform for extended patrol missions. Her missions included enforcement of all U.S. maritime laws and treaties, fisheries conservation, marine pollution response, defense readiness, and search and rescue. Chase was one of the first naval vessels built with a combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion plant. Chase's engineering plant includes two 3500 hp diesel engines, and two 18000 hp gas turbines, which can achieve a top speed of 28 kn. Two 13 ft diameter controllable pitch propellers, combined with a retractable and rotatable bow propulsion unit, giving Chase high maneuverability. Chase's capabilities are enhanced by advanced air search and surface search radars including the AN/SPS-73 digital surface radar system that incorporates a state of the art computerized collision avoidance system. Chase uses the Shipboard Command and Control System (SCCS) which uses a network of computers including large screen displays and a dedicated satellite network for communications. A closed circuit TV system will enable the commanding officer to monitor flight deck operations, machinery conditions, towing, damage control, and related activities from the bridge.

Vietnam and the 1970s
After being commissioned in 1968, Chase participated in Operation Market Time. From December 1969 to May 1970, under Commander, Task Force 115, Chase participated in more than twelve gunfire support missions in the Vietnam War. For her service, Chase was awarded the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation and Vietnam Service Medal. Chase visited the ports of Subic Bay, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Kaohsiung (Taiwan) on this patrol. In June 1970, Chase returned to her homeport in Boston, Massachusetts transiting the Panama Canal.

Between September 1970 and December 1972, Chase assumed Ocean Station duties at various times on the Charlie, Delta and Echo stations. During this period Chase visited ports such as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba and Kingston, Jamaica. In 1972 Chase transited the Arctic Circle, and visited England, Denmark, Norway, and Portugal.

In 1973, Chase participated in Operation Seaconex, (COMCRUDESFLOT TWO), an exercise with a screen of seven destroyers and an amphibious assault ship, helicopter (LPH) carrying anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters and Harrier vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jets protecting a convoy from air, subsurface and surface threats. On this operation, Chase transited the Straits of Gibraltar and visited Portugal and Morocco. Between the years 1970 and 1974 Chase conducted three or four Search and Rescue cases daily while on various Ocean Station duties.

Between the years 1974 and 1978 Chase continued to patrol the waters of the Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean. Chase visited Guantanamo Cuba Naval Base, Haiti, Spain, Morocco, France, England and Italy. In 1976 Chase was in the Mediterranean on a cadet cruise during the then on-going Lebanon Crisis which culminated in the U.S. naval evacuation of nationals from Beirut (Operation Fluid Drive), led by the attack aircraft carrier USS America after the assassination of two U.S. officials there. In 1977 Chase was among the cutters assigned to protect a part of the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) created as a result of passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, protecting the area from Cape May, New Jersey to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina from foreign encroachment. In 1980, Chase was back in the U.S., on scene at the America's Cup in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1982, Chase participated in “Safe Pass 1982,” a member of the Fleet Composite Operational Group.

1980s
1981 Chase participated in the Mariel Boatlift, rescuing Cuban civilians in district 7; all crew received humanitarian medals. From October 1983 to July 1984, Chase served in Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Grenada. For her service Chase received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. Until March 1988 Chase continued to display her versatility in performing all Coast Guard missions. Chase repatriated more than 338 migrants during its Haitian Migration Interdiction Operations (HMIO) between the January 1985 and March 1988 and also conducted many drug interdiction operations.

An engine room fire on May 8, 1985, disabled the cutter as it was traveling 70 mi southeast of Cape Cod. One crewman was killed. A Coast Guard helicopter removed the crewman's body to a Cape Cod funeral home, and the cutter Chilula was sent to tow the disabled cutter to Boston.

In 1989, Chase was temporarily decommissioned and entered Bath Ironworks Shipyard in Portland, Maine, to undergo the Fleet Renovation and Modernization (FRAM) program. At Bath, Chase was virtually torn apart and reassembled with substantial improvements to many of her systems. Approximately seventy five percent of the shipboard electronics were changed or modified; a third of the existing engineering systems were overhauled or replaced; and major internal space reconfigurations improved the crew's living conditions.

1990s
On March 22, 1991, Chase returned after completing FRAM, and was recommissioned. After 23 years of service in Boston, Massachusetts, the Mayor of Boston proclaimed October 14, 1991, as "Chase Appreciation Day." Chase was to depart for her new homeport of San Pedro, California.

Chase arrived at her new homeport of San Pedro, California on November 15, 1991. Within a year, Chase continued to lead the Coast Guard and represent the U.S. On September 22, 1992, Chase visited Vladivostok, Russia, serving as the host for the historic reopening of the American Consulate. In 1994, Chase led U.S. Forces into Port-au-Prince Harbor, Haiti and established the first Harbor Defense Command in foreign territorial waters. During this period, Chase participated in Operation Able Manner/Vigil in Haiti. Chase interdicted 130 Cuban asylum seekers. In 1995, Chase boarded the M/V Xin Ji Li Hou off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, and interdicted 150 Chinese migrants. Between April and June 1997, Chase was leading the way again by being the first Coast Guard cutter to participate in Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT 97) held in Southeast Asia. Chase worked with the Royal Thai Navy and visited Singapore, Songklha and Pattaya, Thailand. Chase received the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation from Vice Admiral Card for the boarding and custody exchange of the high seas driftnet vessel CAO YU. In 1998, Chase departed with USS Russell (DDG-59), USS Crommelin (FFG-37), and USS O'Brien (DD-975) for Military Interdiction Operations (MIO) in the Persian Gulf. During this patrol, Chase diverted four vessels in violation of United Nations Sanctions against Iraq, interdicted 1,527,740 gallons of fuel-oil, and conducted eighty-six gunnery exercises.

In 1999, Chase seized seven metric tons of cocaine, then the second largest cocaine bust in Coast Guard history. Also on this patrol, Chase was also the first U.S. military ship to pull into Corinto, Nicaragua, in over thirty years.

In August 1999, Chase arrived at its new homeport in San Diego, California. There, Chase earned an overall EXCELLENT during its Tailored Ship's Training Availability, and was awarded the Distinguished Coast Guard Battle "E" Ribbon.

Nigerian service
In 2011, Chase was decommissioned and donated to the Nigerian Navy, which commissioned her as a frigate, NNS Thunder. Thunder was commissioned into Nigerian service on January 23, 2012.

In March 2012, Thunder collided with a vessel owned by Total S.A. on the Bonny River.

Thunder was the sole vessel from Africa at the 2013 International Fleet Review in Sydney. It was her longest voyage.

NNS Thunder is confirmed to be operational due to its recent patrol of Nigerian waters early 2019 after being grounded since 2016 due to failure of its critical components and machinery.

title: NNS Thunder (F90)


text:
48-bit computing

In computer architecture, 48-bit integers can represent 281,474,976,710,656 (248 or 2.814749767×1014) discrete values. This allows an unsigned binary integer range of 0 through 281,474,976,710,655 (248 − 1) or a signed two's complement range of −140,737,488,355,328 (−247) through 140,737,488,355,327 (247 − 1). A 48-bit memory address can directly address every byte of 256 terabytes of storage. 48-bit can refer to any other data unit that consumes 48 bits (6 octets) in width. Examples include 48-bit CPU and ALU architectures that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size.

Word size
Computers with 48-bit words include the AN/FSQ-32, CDC 1604/upper-3000 series, BESM-6, Ferranti Atlas, Philco TRANSAC S-2000 and Burroughs large systems.

The Honeywell DATAmatic 1000, H-800, the MANIAC II, the MANIAC III, the Brookhaven National Laboratory Merlin, the Philco CXPQ, the Ferranti Orion, the Telefunken Rechner TR 440, the ICT 1301, and many other early transistor-based and vacuum tube computers used 48-bit words.

Addressing
The IBM System/38, and the IBM AS/400 in its CISC variants, use 48-bit addresses.

The address size used in logical block addressing was increased to 48 bits with the introduction of ATA-6. The Ext4 file system physically limits the file block count to 48 bits.

The minimal implementation of the x86-64 architecture provides 48-bit addressing encoded into 64 bits; future versions of the architecture can expand this without breaking properly written applications.

The media access control address (MAC address) of a network interface controller uses a 48-bit address space.

Images
In digital images, 48 bits per pixel, or 16 bits per each color channel (red, green and blue), is used for accurate processing. For the human eye, it is almost impossible to see any difference between such an image and a 24-bit image, but the existence of more shades of each of the three primary colors (65,536 as opposed to 256) means that more operations can be performed on the image without risk of noticeable banding or posterization.

title: 48-bit computing


text:
Brian McCardie

Brian McCardie (22 January 1965 – 28 April 2024) was a Scottish actor and writer, known for his role as John Thomas "Tommy" Hunter in the BBC police procedural series Line of Duty.

Early life
Brian McCardie was born on 22 January 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland. He attended St. Brendan's, then St. Athanasius Primary Schools before going on to attend Our Lady's High School in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. His parents moved from Motherwell to Carluke, South Lanarkshire while he was at school and he developed an interest in theatre, starring in a production of the musical "Godspell" with a local drama group consisting of youngsters from local schools.

Career
McCardie began his career in 1989, appearing in an episode of EastEnders as Seb. In 1990, he appeared in the television film Forget About Me as Bunny, before going on to appear in Waterfront Beat between 1990 and 1991 as PC Ronnie Barker. He portrayed Alasdair, alongside Liam Neeson in 1995's blockbuster, Rob Roy.

McCardie portrayed organised crime boss John Thomas "Tommy" Hunter in Line of Duty between 2012 and 2014. He also appeared in the BBC One three-part drama Time in 2021, as Jackson Jones, written by Jimmy McGovern, directed by Lewis Arnold and starring Stephen Graham and Sean Bean. He also appeared in Sky Atlantic's Domina, set in Ancient Rome, playing Cicero. He performed his self-penned one-man play Connolly at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast but the cancellation of 2020's Edinburgh Festival meant he lost the opportunity to present it in a six-week run in Edinburgh's Cowgate, where James Connolly was born and raised.

McCardie performed readings of his own poems at various venues around Ireland and was filming them for distribution online.

Death
McCardie died on 28 April 2024, at the age of 59.

Selected filmography

 * Forget About Me (1990, TV Movie) – Bunny
 * Waterfront Beat (1990–1991, TV Series) – PC Ronnie Barker
 * Tonight at 8.30 (1991, TV Series) – Bill – 1st Soldier
 * Murder Most Horrid (1991, TV Series) – Supermarket Assistant
 * Doctor Finlay (1993, TV Series) – Archie Henderson
 * Taggart (1994–2010, TV Series) – Thomas Keenan / Fisher / Martin McLean / Alex Currie
 * Dirty Old Town (1995, TV Movie) – Vic Leigh
 * Rob Roy (1995) – Alasdair McGregor
 * Kidnapped (1995, TV Movie) – David Balfour
 * The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) – Angus Starling
 * Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) – Merced
 * 200 Cigarettes (1999) – Eric
 * Kavanagh QC (1999, TV Series) – Philip Boxer
 * Rituals and Resolutions (1999, Short) – Will
 * Beyond the City Limits (2001) – Sergei Akotia
 * Mr. Barrington (2003) – Mr Barrington
 * Solid Air (2003) – Robert Houston Junior
 * The Bill (2004, TV Series) – Taffy Saunders
 * Ellie Parker (2005) – Acting Student
 * Murphy's Law (2006, TV Series) – Billy Johnstone
 * Low Winter Sun (2006, TV Movie) – Det Con Joe Geddes
 * Lilies (2007, TV Mini-Series) – Dadda Moss
 * The Whistleblowers (2007, TV Series) – Tim Robey
 * Rebus (2007, TV Series) – Brian Robertson
 * Shameless (2008, TV Series) – Paddy McGrath
 * Kiss of Death (2008, TV Movie) – Michael Bovery
 * Heroes and Villains (2008, TV Series documentary) – Hernán Cortés
 * The Damned United (2009) – Dave Mackay
 * Wasted (2009) – Party Host
 * Seaside Stories (2009) – Dr. Forbes
 * Soulboy (2010) – Fish-shop Bobby
 * Anywhere But Here (2010, TV Movie) – Peter McBride
 * Thorne: Sleepyhead (2010, TV Mini-Series) – Frank Calvert
 * Accused (2010, TV Series) – DI Warren
 * The Witcher 2 (2011, Video Game) – (English version, voice)
 * The Ripper (2011, Computer Game) – The Reverend (voice)
 * Case Histories (2011, TV Series) – Terence Smith
 * Titanic (2012, TV Mini-Series) – First Officer Murdoch
 * Vexed (2012, TV Series) – Robert Randell
 * Doors Open (2012, TV Movie) – Charlie Calloway
 * Line of Duty (2012–2014, TV Series) – Tommy / John Thomas Hunter
 * The Crash (2013, TV Series) – Charlie Harris
 * MI High (2013, TV Series) – Mr. McNab
 * For Those in Peril (2013) – Dr. Forbes
 * The Groundsman (2013, Short) – Steve
 * Filth (2013) – Dougie Gillman
 * Ghosts (2014) – Jacob Engstrand
 * Peterman (2014) – Bill
 * Wasted Time (2014) – Danny
 * The Musketeers (2015, TV Series) – Sebastian Lemaitre
 * Dropping Off Michael (2015, Short) – Duncan
 * Holby City (2015, TV Series) – Archie Pugh
 * Outlander (2015, TV Series) – Sir Marcus MacRannoch
 * Snatch (2016, TV Series) – Uncle Dean
 * Scarlet (2016, Short) – Fisherman
 * Rebellion (2016, TV Mini-Series) – James Connolly
 * The Job (2016) – Geoff
 * Fortitude 2 (2017, TV Series) – Lazlo Hindemith
 * Come Out of the Woods (2017, Short) – PC Brian Cassidy
 * Walk Like a Panther (2018) – Ziggy Barrow
 * Ordeal by Innocence (2018, TV Mini-Series) – Bellamy Gould (Transmission BBC 1 Easter 2018)
 * Agatha and the Truth of Murder (2018, DPS Productions, TV Movie) – Sir Hugh Persimmion
 * Moscow Noir (2018, 8 Part TV Series) – Lord Pendergast
 * Giri/Haji (2019, 8 Part Series) – Jack Sister Pictures
 * Last of The Czars (2019, Netflix/Nutopia, 6 Part Series, TV Series documentary) – Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin
 * Our Ladies (2019) – Police Sergeant
 * Charles lst (2019, TV series) – Sir John Pym
 * Domina (2021, TV series) – Cicero
 * Time (2021, TV series) – Jackson Jones
 * Six Four (2023, 4 Part TV Series) – Bill Martin
 * Mia and The Dragon Princess (2023) – Skipper Matthews
 * The Long Shadow (2023, 7 Part TV Series) – Steve
 * Damaged (2024) – Avery Thompson

title: Brian McCardie


text:
WWWL

WWWL (1350 AM, "The Bet New Orleans") is a commercial radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts a sports gambling format. The station's studios are located at the 400 Poydras Tower in Downtown New Orleans. Its transmitter site is in Algiers, near the city limits of Gretna and Terrytown. The station operates at 5,000 watts during the day and 480 watts at night, using a non-directional antenna. The station is simulcast on FM translator station W225CZ (92.9 FM).

Early years
This station carried the call sign WSMB from its founding until 2006. It signed on the airwaves April 1, 1925, as New Orleans' first professional radio station, a joint commercial venture by the local Saenger Theatre and the Maison Blanche department store. Programming was provided by the Saenger, allowing Maison Blanche to sell radio sets in the store so customers could hear the station's programming. For most of its early history, the studios were located on the thirteenth floor of the Maison Blanche Building on Canal Street, a few blocks from the theater. By the 1930s, WSMB was an affiliate of the NBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the Golden Age of Radio.

Switch to MOR and talk
As network programming shifted to TV in the 1960s, WSMB moved to a full service format of middle of the road music (MOR), news and talk. WSMB found success in the ratings, primarily on the strength of morning drive time personalities Roy Roberts and Jeff Hugg, known as Nut and Jeff, and midday political talk show host, Keith Rush. Musically, the station in the 1960s was a mix of pop standards and the softer sounds of rock and roll. In the 1970s, WSMB moved to a more adult contemporary music sound. The station played moderate amounts of music during morning and afternoon drive times while being music intensive and leaning toward oldies overnights and weekends.

By 1980, as music listening shifted to FM, WSMB's ratings had dropped. The station gradually cut back on music through the early 1980s. By 1985, WSMB was strictly news and talk, using the ABC Radio Information Network and its Talk Radio service. Moving to all talk still did not bring ratings up. In 1988, WSMB was sold to Winton Communications, which kept the talk format in place but could not improve the ratings.

Move to all-talk and sports
In 1996, WSMB was bought by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also owned the news-talk powerhouse 870 WWL. Sinclair turned WSMB into a sister station of WWL, running talk programs that weren't available on AM 870, and adding WWL's newsgathering expertise. In 1999, Sinclair sold its New Orleans radio stations to Entercom. WWWL began broadcasting sporting events that were bumped from WWL due to scheduling conflicts, including basketball and football from LSU and Tulane University. The station was the radio home of the New Orleans Brass minor league hockey team from 1997 to 2002 and has sometimes been a local radio outlet for national broadcasts of NFL football.

With all the sporting events on WSMB's schedule, it became an all-sports station between 1999 and 2001. Programming at that time included syndicated shows from ESPN Radio and an afternoon show hosted by local sports commentator Kaare Johnson. Other local personalities heard on the station included sports trainer Mackie Shilstone. There was a period where most programming consisted of psychological call-in shows, featuring hosts such as Dr. Laura and Dr. Joy Browne. From 2005 until November 2006, the station carried a progressive talk radio format as an affiliate of Air America Radio. The Food Show with Tom Fitzmorris remained on the air through all these format changes. It is the longest-running talk show of any kind in New Orleans, airing weekdays since July 18, 1988, and now heard on WWL-FM HD2 or in podcast format.

Hurricane Katrina
The station's previous studios adjacent to the Louisiana Superdome were destroyed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Its frequency, as well as all other operational Entercom and Clear Channel frequencies, was used to simulcast the programming produced by the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans with the staff of sister station WWL. Normal programming was resumed on December 19, 2005.

Change to WWWL
The WSMB call letters were relinquished in November 2006, when the programming was switched to repeats of shows originated on WWL, becoming "WWWL - WWL On Demand". The WSMB call sign was picked up by another Entercom station located in Memphis (which became WMFS in 2009).

On June 30, 2008, ESPN Radio returned to AM 1350, as WWWL became a full-time affiliate. On October 14, 2013, WWWL re-branded as 3WL: Sports, Food & Fun; the format would continue to primarily feature sports programming, switching to NBC Sports Radio and featuring a morning show with T-Bob Hebert and Kristian Garic, but with an afternoon lineup featuring lifestyle programming such as Tom Fitzmorris' The Food Show, and John "Spud" McConnell moving from WWL midday to host afternoon drive.

On February 9, 2017, WWWL began running announcements redirecting 3WL listeners to WWL-FM-HD2, where the format would be moving full-time. The next day at noon, WWWL flipped to urban adult contemporary as "Hot 103.7", using new FM translator W279DF to enable its signal to be heard with FM quality. The first song on "Hot" was "Rude Boy" by Rihanna. The new format competes with market-leading WYLD-FM and KMEZ with a younger skewing take on the format, focusing solely on R&B hits from the 1990s through today, as opposed to the playlists of its two competitors, who include songs from the 1970s and 1980s.

On February 14, 2018, WWWL flipped to an urban oldies format, but maintained the Hot branding and on-air staff. The station now focuses primarily on classic R&B from the 1970s and 1980s. On April 11, 2018, WWWL's FM translator W279DF was replaced by W225CZ, which operates from a taller antenna at 92.9 FM. At the same time, the station re-branded accordingly as Hot 92.9.

On June 28, 2021, WWWL/W225CZ flipped to sports gambling, branded as "The Bet New Orleans". The previous urban oldies format and "Hot" branding continued to air on WLMG-HD2.

title: WWWL


text:
User talk:Konfab user

Welcome from Redwolf24
Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. We as a community are glad to have you and thank you for creating a user account! Here are a few good links for newcomers:
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing, policy, conduct, and structure tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style
 * Merging, redirecting, and renaming pages
 * If you're ready for the complete list of Wikipedia documentation, there's also Topical index.
 * User:Redwolf24/Bootcamp My own personal summarized Bootcamp.

Yes some of the links appear a bit boring at first, but they are VERY helpful if you ever take the time to read them.

Remember to place any articles you create into a category so we don't get orphans.

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, please be sure to sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes (~~~~) to produce your name and the current date, or three tildes (~~~) for just your name. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome.

Redwolf24 (Talk) 03:28, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

P.S. I like messages :-P

WinCustomize
Hi there! As you are new to Wikipedia, I encourage you to read the policies and guidelines, which will give you some of the background useful when editing articles.

If you want to make assertions in the way that you have done on the WinCustomize, you must provide evidence for them, or they will be removed. Wikipedia is not a place for opinion, only for fact (though these can be facts about the opinions of particular groups or notable people), and these facts must be verifiable.

Specifically to the WinCustomize article, if you say that Brad Wardell has bashed Konfabulator - well, first of all, it should not be you that is saying this, as your personal opinion is not important; you should attribute the statement to group of people (perhaps Konfabulator users? Mac users? People who have been banned from WinCustomize?) that you can point to, and you should provide links to those places where those people expressed that opinion (Konfab forum threads?), and you should also link to the places where they say Brad Wardell bashed Konfabulator, so that people can go and see for themselves. If it is as common a situation as you imply this should not be at all hard.

Similarly, if you wish to say that Jafo is a bad admin, you should provide evidence of this. Given that you should be writing without bias, it is also appropriate to write about the large number of users over at WinCustomize that do feel Jafo does a good job. You must attempt to cover all points of view, even if you hold a particular one. If you are confident that others would come to the same conclusion with all the evidence available, there should be no problem in you doing this. If you are not, then maybe you shouldn't be writing it in the first place. :-)

Note that a link to the WinCustomize forums is not going to be particularly helpful as an example fo elitism (especially if it doesn't work!). A link to a particular forum thread or threads on the topic might be more appropriate - I seem to remember that this discussion came up recently, so you could use that thread. GreenReaper 23:28, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Konfab user


text:
Sports Tonight (Australian TV program)

Sports Tonight is an Australian sports news and information program, hosted by Roz Kelly. The original series, which was developed by executive producer Steve Tucker, aired between 1993 and 2011, before it was revived in 2018 and axed again in 2020.

Original run
The show ran from 1993 to 2011. From 1993 until 2005, the show ran for half an hour on each weeknight after Ten Late News. The two shows merged in 2006, but there was some criticism by viewers that Sports Tonight was not long enough, and that it should have remained the same. The Friday edition, however, remained as a stand-alone program in order to recap that night's football results.

In 2011 the weekend 5:30 pm editions of Sports Tonight normally seen on Network 10 were removed from those timeslots, due to the weekend news bulletins moving to 6 pm. To compensate for this, a Sports Tonight-branded sports report was incorporated into these bulletins. This edition of Sports Tonight had been airing in the 5:30 pm weekend slot since 1999/2000.

Towards the end of its original run, the program was branded as Toyota Sports Tonight. In late 2006, the show was sponsored by Toyota and its upcoming Toyota Aurion, although only minor modifications were done to the on-air graphics to match those of the Aurion colours. In early 2007, the graphics were updated with a heavily sponsored on-air look.

Since March 2009, a weeknightly 9:30 pm edition (started out at 7 pm) of Sports Tonight aired on One with a weekend wrap edition on Sundays. Since 8 May 2011 with the relaunch of One, it aired at around 10:30 pm weeknights (which varies if other programming is on) and at 11:00 pm on Fridays.

In December 2010 Sports Tonight updated their on-air graphics. On 5 July 2011, it was announced that the show would be axed; the show continued to air until just before the conclusion of the football seasons. The final episode aired on 30 September 2011.

Revival
On 4 July 2018, Network Ten announced that the show would return after a seven-year absence, with Matt White to host alongside panelists Josh Gibson and Laurie Daley. It originally aired weekly on Sunday nights at 9:15 pm from 15 July 2018; however, following the end of the AFL and NRL seasons, the show shifted to a Monday night timeslot. As CBS Studios International had acquired Ten Network Holdings in 2017, the logo and on-air graphics were again updated to a package based around the standardised graphics package and title sequences from CBS Sports that debuted in February 2016 as part of Super Bowl 50.

In March 2019, Network Ten announced that the show would return for 2019 and would be hosted by Roz Kelly alongside panelists Scott Mackinnon and Ant Sharwood. The show aired on Wednesday nights. The final episode was aired on 27 November 2019.

Hosts and panelists

 * Roz Kelly (2019)

Panelists

 * Scott Mackinnon (2019–present)
 * Ant Sharwood (2019)

Reporters

 * Nick Butler
 * Lauren Markham

Former hosts

 * Tim Webster (first host, 1993–2004) – now on 2CH in Sydney
 * Bill Woods (alternative host, 1993–2005) – now on Fox Sports Australia
 * Leigh Diffey (weekend host during 2005 and 2006. Last appeared on Sunday 3 December 2006)
 * Ryan Phelan (last appeared on Thursday, 21 December 2006)
 * Mark Aiston (presented on 8 September 2007 due to Brad McEwan, Rob Canning and Neil Cordy being all unavailable, also presented during the 2007–2008 summer period) – now no longer at Network 10
 * Brad McEwan (Sunday to Thursday presenter between 2007 and 2011)
 * Matt White (1993–2004, 2018)
 * Rob Canning – now no longer on television
 * Neil Cordy (fill-in) – now no longer working in the media
 * Bill McDonald (fill-in) – now no longer working in the media

Former panelists

 * Josh Gibson (2018)
 * Laurie Daley (2018)

Former reporters

 * Kelli Underwood – AFL and Senior all sports reporter, including Tennis; based in Melbourne – now at the ABC and Fox Sports Australia
 * Amy Hetzel – Producer and reporter; based in Sydney
 * Greg Rust – Motorsports reporter; based in Sydney (also motorsports host and commentator)
 * Nathan Templeton – deceased
 * Aimee McKay – Reporter, based in Sydney and Adelaide. Also hosted 'Seriously Footy' a Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions AFL show, based in Sydney

Awards
Sports Tonight had been nominated for the Most Popular Sports Program for the Logies a total of 12 times.

The show was nominated in every year from 1997 until 2010, with the exception of 1999 (not awarded in this year) and 2001 (sports programs included those of the Sydney Olympic Games the previous year).

title: Sports Tonight (Australian TV program)


text:
Talk:A Gathering of Eagles

Untitled
Just in case anyone thinks this is a copyvio from, I wrote that several years ago.--Rogerd 03:29, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

A good start. I've added a Plot section that I reconstructed from my own memory of my many viewings of this suprisingly enjoyable film.--Temlakos 16:24, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Aircraft ID
Recently, User:63.3.14.130 complained in the article that the aircraft featured in the arrival of "Happy Jack" Kirby should have been a DC-3. I agreed and edited the article. In retrospect, given the era, a DC-3 would have been unlikely. (A DC-3 did land at the beginning of Strategic Air Command (film)). I don't think the aircraft ID is critical to the plot and have removed refs to both types of aircraft until we get some resolution.-- Jim in Georgia Contribs  Talk  19:34, 13 September 2012 (UTC)

Wrong Wing?
The film may have been released in 1963, but wasn't filming at Beale done in 1962? That would have meant that the units at Beale were under the 4126th Strategic Wing. Universal paid for a swimming pool at the alert facility at the end of the runway (personal knowledge on my part, but if anyone can confirm from a reliable source it could be added to the section on SAC cooperation.) --Lineagegeek (talk) 21:24, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * All true, but since the film was not released until June 1963, by which time the 4126th SAW had been relegated to history, and the equipment and many of the personnel were still with the 456th at Beale, the attribution to the latter makes more sense.--Reedmalloy (talk) 15:42, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:A Gathering of Eagles