Osmond Thalassa

“I see empty seats! I was told this was sold out,” Bill Maher yelled into the crowd at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre Sunday afternoon. To his right, “Borat” director Larry Charles had a suggestion as to why. “Its for the Archdioceses of Toronto.” Charles and Maher, in Toronto to promote their upcoming doc, “Religulous,” were joined on stage by Toronto International Film Festival programmer Thom Powers, who moderated a discussion between two of America’s most prominent comic geniuses. Charles and Maher remarkably had not met prior to making “Religulous”. “If there was a God, this would be fate,” joked Charles. “This was our passion project.” Lionsgate teased the unfinished film- twenty minutes of which were shown to constant and resounding laughter, as it chronicles Maher and Charles as they travel the world discussing religion with various “experts” (focusing mostly on the “big 3″: Islam, Christianity and Judiasm). “We explore the origins of the beliefs and then show you what’s going on today,” said Charles. “It’s a suspense film.”
When asked about other comedic takes on religion (such as this summer’s “Evan Almighty”), Charles explained that while those films “poke fun,” “we stab it to death.” Their goal was evident throughout the nearly 90 minute presentation, in which both men brought the audience into bursts of applause for comical quips on the absurdity of current religion. “I should be an anti-preacher,” Maher decided. “This is my Sunday service.”

Both Maher and Charles discussed their own relationships with their subject matter. “Its been an evolution,” Maher deadpanned. “I used to make a career out of making fun of my religious childhood.” Half Jewish and half Catholic, Maher joked that he “used to go to confession with a lawyer.” Charles, technically Jewish but with secular parents, actually had at one point wanted to be a rabbi. “Are you out your goddamn mind,” his parents had reacted. “Get bah mitzfahed and get the hell out of there!”

But not everything was about getting a laugh. Charles spoke poignantly about what motivates people’s religious beliefs. “We should be mature enough as a species to not need that crutch to be nice to each other,” he said. Maher warned about the severe reprecussions of religion, summarizing it as “stupid and dangerous.” He added that “religion is just like a movie. It needs an ending.” Cue uproarious applause.
Though they could not say with certainty when “Religulous” will find its way to theaters, they agreed that they were eyeing a Spring release. When an audience member inquired if the release made either of them nervous for their personal safety, Maher simply answered: “No. Its a comedy.”

[Bill Maher and Larry Charles before showing off about 20 minutes from their new film, “Religuous” on Sunday. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE]

Does networking really work by Andy Lopata

‘Networking’ has become a buzzword in British business in recent years but many people are still confused by, or sceptical of, anything carrying the tag. Yet we all network. Talking with people we know; exchanging stories; expressing ideas; asking questions and offering our support.

Everyone has their own personal ‘network’, a sphere of influence which, according to American author and sales guru Joe Girard, extends to around 250 people. These are the people who help us to succeed, providing the benefit of support, advice, experience and expertise as and when we need it.

As Bob Burg says, in his book ‘Endless Referrals’,

“We are not dependent on each other; nor are we independent of each other; we are all interdependent with each other.”

Networking operates on this foundation with everyone looking to support and connect others within their sphere of influence.

In its formal manifestation, networking can be a successful part of your marketing approach but only with an effective strategy. You need to establish what you want to achieve and how and where you can realise these ambitions.

Networking where it is local, convenient or because you have been invited is not enough. Look at the opportunities available to you and how much time you can commit to them.

Most networks can be categorised into one of two types - network-building or referral-building. Network-building opportunities, such as monthly Chamber of Commerce evenings and internet-based networks, are about making new contacts and expanding your network. Referral-building groups, such as BRE, meet more frequently, aiming to build stronger levels of trust and understanding between members, thereby enhancing the quality of referrals passed.

Don’t expect an immediate return from networking. Understand the commitment needed to make it work; both at meetings, online and in building relationships with the people you meet through effective follow up. Sometimes less really is more! It may be better to commit regularly to one or two organisations rather than trying to get to every gathering in town.

Successful networkers don’t concentrate on trying to sell to people; they understand that they probably won’t meet their prospective customers in these forums. Even if they do, those prospects are probably not there looking for suppliers. Instead, they focus on building strong relationships and helping others. Many have found that the more they help people in their network; the more people want to help them.

When you have a network of people who trust you, like you and are ready to refer you, make sure you have a clear, focused message to make it easier for people to help you.

Many businesses struggle to gain results from networking because they are not able to express clearly what they need and how people can help them. By having a memorable and repeatable message, you make it simple for others to connect you to people in their network. Bear in mind that you may not be addressing your ideal contact but you may only be one or two steps away from them.

Don’t be afraid to identify ideal connections for your business and then ask for them. At a recent BRE meeting in Fylde in Lancashire, Bill McKenzie of Quay Imports asked for an introduction to Blackpool Zoo for a product imported from China. As a result, not only did Quay Imports do business with Blackpool Zoo, but through those meetings they were able to target the sector as a whole and now do business with a number of other, larger zoos, including London Zoo.

There are countless other examples like this from other companies for whom networking is a key part of their marketing strategy. Plan your strategy. Focus on what you want to achieve. Know what steps you need to take. Do this and then networking really can work for you.

About the Author
Andy Lopata is one of the UK’s leading Business Networking Strategists. He is the former Managing Director of BRE Networking and co-author of the Amazon.co.uk Bestseller ‘…and Death Came Third! The Definitive Guide to Networking and Speaking in Public.’

You can read more of Andy’s thoughts at ‘Connecting People’ - http://www.networkingandreferrals.blogspot.com/

reKon audio:
Total Control Where You Need it Most… in the Host!

The reKonT VST Nord Editor is a realtime MIDI synth editor that allows you full control of every sound shaping parameter found on the Clavia Nord Lead rack and keyboard synthesizers. Control your Nord from within your DAW to build lasting and meaningful patches that will bring new life to your Nord, and more importantly, your music. You also maintain all your patches on the computer itself without the hassle of manual dumps. All parameters are fully automatable and you can even use your favorite VST host (see Important Host Information for support), This ability to model your synth patches in realtime, inside your main music production environment is part of what makes the reKonT VST Nord Editor unique when compared to other hardware synth editors.

Now available is the ability to save and load your patches to and from the editor in the native, standard sysex format. Load up all your old libraries and recraft them with visible control!
This editor works on the Clavia Nord Lead/Nord Rack model(s) only! The VST Nord II Editor will be coming soon to support the Clavia Nord Lead II model(s).

The Clavia Nord LeadT synthesizer…

Clavia Music is a Swedish company offering a fine line of professional virtual analog synthesizers including the Nord Lead I, II, III, Nord [micro] Modular. Each numeric series boasts more features than it’s predecessor, yet retain similar compatibility. This is the second “virtual-analog” synth reKon audio has made a VST Editor for. We beleive the Nord has a flavor and quality that is sure to last for years to come and we are proud to offer our editor and presets for this fine synth.
ReKon-necting the Nord…

Dust that puppy off and put some MIDI cables on it! Now you can reKon-nect your Clavia Nord into your favorite host sequencer environment.
Current Platforms Include:

Windows - VST 2.4
Mac - VST 2.4 (OSX)

Price: $49.95
Do you want FREE Music Making Software?
Here is A big list with FREE music making software! | Part 2 | Part 3

One more for the road: the recaps of two more RBMS sessions before we head into the weekend.

On Thursday afternoon, Joan Beaudoin, a student and IMLS Fellow at Drexel’s College of Information Science and Technology, presented her paper “Digitizing Ephemera: Criteria for Assessing Materials.” Beaudoin had worked on a grant-funded project to assess a huge collection of visual Philadelphiana for digitization, and created a list of criteria based on her extensive literature review. The criteria, in order of prevalence:
Use and accessValueProcessing (time, effort, complexity, fragility)PreservationInstitutional mission/resource developmentIntellectual content (including level of cataloging/indexing already present)FundingCopyrightTechnology infrastructure (including the feasibility of digitally reproducing the salient features of the analog–I particularly liked this caveat. Sometimes there is no substitute for the real thing.)StaffingPartnerships/collaboration (including consortia, e.g. the Northwest Digital Archives)Using these criteria, Beaudoin then developed a matrix for scoring each of the institution’s collections, in much the same way as Helena Zinkham had assessed the materials at LC (only with more columns). Also like Zinkham, Beaudoin advised listeners to use objective criteria to assess materials, and to document decisions for future reference. Finally, she urged us to examine our mission statements, so that any digitization projects would be aligned with institutional goals.

Just after Beaudoin’s talk, I quickly switched rooms to hear Julianne Simpson’s take on “Collecting Medical Ephemera in the 18th and 20th Centuries”–a bit of a misnomer, since the ephemera under discussion were from the 17th and 20th-21st centuries. Simpson, who is Rare Books Librarian at the Wellcome Library, talked about the Library’s outstanding collection of early medical ephemera and recent efforts to catalog the 17th century items in ESTC. She also briefly mentioned the strong link between medicine and printing in 17th century Britain, when booksellers were often purveyors of patent remedies. There was a lively discussion in the question-and-answer period about why this might have been, with consensus seemingly reached on the notion of booksellers’ shops as early convenience stores.

More interesting from my perspective (not having large quantities of early modern medical ephemera to hand in local collections) was the Wellcome Library’s efforts at collecting contemporary medical ephemera–trade cards, pharmaceutical company giveaways, you name it, they’ll collect it. What to do with the tide of incoming materials? It turns out that they use a system very much like one we have in place here: incoming items are thrown into boxes which are periodically emptied and categorized. While we use our existing subject and vertical file structures, the Wellcome has decided to sort their ephemeral materials into broad categories based on the NLM Classification. I was much taken with the ease and practicality of this idea, and some day (when things slow down!) it might be nice to reorganize some of our ephemeral materials in this way.

So, that wraps up my conference recap. Next week: back to more news from the home front, and believe me, there’s no shortage of things to discuss!

Monday morning we woke up in Spiceland, Indiana and had breakfast at the Spiceland Country Market before finishing the last 45 minutes into Indianapolis. After arriving in the hotel, Coach got settled and then had his first weekly Sirius NFL Radio Show with Adam Schein previewing this week’s games. We didn’t have too much going on until a 7:00 dinner at The Capital Grille with our usual crew of particpants. During dinner there was a lot of football talk as usual but one of the better stories was baseball related.

While in New York Coach had taken in a Yankees/Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium. His seats were right next to the Yankee dugout so after the game an usher comes to get him and walks him through the dugout out the players’ entrance so he doesn’t get mobbed with the 54,000 people that had attended the game.

He is almost out of the clubhouse when one of the security guard grabs Coach and says, “one of the Yankees would like to see you.” Of course Coach goes back into the clubhouse and another security guard walks him to Roger Clemens’ locker and says “Roger would like to talk to you.” Clemens is not at his locker so Coach waits patiently and when he turns around he is looking into the training room. Derek Jeter is in there and motions to Coach and says “Come on in Sir.”

Coach kind of laughs and says “he really called me Sir” and walks into the training room. As Coach says this is something special, not even all the Yankees are allowed in the training room. As he enters Jeter introduces him to Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and then of course Clemens is in there as well. This was the night that Clemens had a no-hitter into the 6th inning and it was a huge Yankee win over the first-place Red Sox, not that all wins over the Red Sox aren’t big, but this one was emotional. They all stood around and talked about the game and individuals that had a big game and Clemens was talking fairly emotionally about these guys around him and they are the reason that he came back and how special this team is and the guys are to him. To hear Coach talk about this and watch his eyes light up was really something to see!

Correct an AutoCorrect Entry. Today I want to go over some of the third party applications that are like AutoCorrect on steroids. I’ll list them below. Next to email as my most used application is “auto-enter shorthands”. If you haven’t discovered “auto-enter shorthands” applications yet, I hope this article will get you to try out some of these wonderful productive, enhancement applications.

These applications are designed for just this task and have more options available than AutoCorrect plus they work in all applications not just Office. I’m confident you’ll appreciate the added productivity to your computer experience. For those that have physical problems typing this is a life saver.

You can also insert large blocks of text with just a few letters. You’ll need to check the limit for each application if you have really large blocks of text as each application differs. I’ll discuss other methods for inserting blocks of text in Part Two (coming soon).

Do you include a signature delimiter –(space)(return) for your typed signatures ? Probably not, but if you create a shorthand and assign a short cut to this, it’s easy and quick. Here is one of my plain text sigs that’s inserted using a shortcut of two letters.

–
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page

More titles at eMusic to get excited about:

The Contrast-Underground Ghosts. The latest (5th album, I think) from these Rainbow Quartz stalwarts, who have become big favorites of Little Steven and his Underground Garage, with their 60s garage-new wave-power pop sound (i.e., the Rainbow Quartz sound).

Brandon Schott-Golden State. If a Joe Pernice-Elliott Smith-Jon Brion hybrid is something you’ve dreamed about creating in a lab somewhere, put down the smock and grab this disc. This is billed as an “advance” on eMu, with a supposed CD release date of July 31, so you can be the first one on your block to experience its sonic joy.

Peachfuzz-Catch Your Snap. Great archetypal power pop in the vein of The Lolas, Velvet Crush and Splitsville, with the occasional flashes of humor, punk and alternarock.

(Side note to those who subscribe via RSS feed: Sorry I’m driving you crazy with what appear to be multiple posts, but I still haven’t gotten into the habit of adding the labels, as I usually tend to realize it within milliseconds after hitting the “Publish” button.)

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker’s lavish wedding

It may just be the celebrity wedding of the year. Eva Longoria wed her boyfriend Tony Parker in a lavish Parisian ceremony on Saturday. Everything from the venue to the ring was glamorous and romantic. As one guest told OK! magazine, “It’s like a royal wedding!”

An event of this size required cooperation from the French national police, who set up nearly $2 million worth of security measures. A spokesperson told the Daily Mail, “We are taking no chances. All the roads have been shut off and sniffer dogs are being used to check for explosives. There is a no-fly zone above both venues and nobody will be allowed anywhere near without a permit.” With their help, the wedding went off without a hitch.

The bride was the first to leave from her $11,000 a night suite at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome for the 5:20 pm ceremony at the Church of Saint Germain l’Auxerrois on the banks of the Seine. The location was discovered by Eva and Tony’s wedding planner Mindy Weiss. The Daily Mail claimed the Roman Catholic couple was “smitten with the medieval church on sight.” It was decorated with more than 1,000 flowers for the wedding.

Eva wore a silk wool couture mermaid gown made by her friend, Venezuelan designer Angel Sanchez, reported People magazine. The dress featured silk gazar metallic embroidery, a scoop back and a long train.

As guests showed up for the church ceremony (some in dark red coaches), their cell phones and cameras were sealed in plastic bags, according to People. For the privacy of A-list attendees like Jessica Alba (with boyfriend Cash Warren), Sheryl Crow and Thierry Henry, a screen was put up to block the church’s entrance from the press. Other famous guests included Longoria’s “Desperate Housewives” co-stars Nicolette Sheridan, Teri Hatcher and Felecity Huffman (with husband William H. Macy), as well as Ryan Seacrest and Mario Lopez (with girlfriend Karina Smirnoff).

One guest told Life & Style magazine, “The cutest part of the wedding was Eva’s nieces. They were the flower girls, and they were absolutely adorable. They had their hair done in ringlets and wore miniature, fluffy versions of Eva’s gown.”

Eva and Tony exchanged rings made by Piaget Possession. Hers is 18K white gold with two rows of 80 brilliant-cut diamonds surrounding a row of 27 square-cut diamonds. His was also 18K white gold, but does not have diamonds. Each ring features a special French engraving.

Father Dominic Schubert officiated the service, which lasted an hour. He told Us Weekly, “The couple wanted a quiet church wedding and now they have been married by God. They wanted proceedings to be low-key and dignified and they are extremely happy with how everything went. We were delighted that they were able to celebrate their love in front of so many family and friends.”

OK! magazine reports that the ceremony took place in both French – which is Tony’s native language – and English. Tony said his vows in English and Eva said hers in French. OK! claims “she broke into giggles when she struggled to pronounce the word ‘poverte.’”

After the vows were made, the wedding party headed for Vaux-le-Vicomte Chateau, a 17th century castle. The newlyweds left the church in a black Rolls Royce Phantom. A witness told Us, “The crowds of hundreds of fans outside went wild and shouted, ‘congratulations’ to them in chorus as they drove out.”

The reception ended in fireworks. Mario Lopez told People, “It was so great – such a fun wedding. It’s been one event after another. I’m tired!” Ryan Seacrest told OK!, “The wedding was very emotional. It makes you think… Right now I’m looking at this Chateau and thinking how small my house is by comparison!”

On Friday I had the good fortune of watching a program of seven Oscar-nominated shorts presented by Apollo Cinema. Having spent much of my summer watching mostly terrible shorts, I was curious and happy to see a program of shorts wherein even if I didn’t like one or two, I had some assurance that they were watchable.

The shorts were watchable in various degrees, with one exception. Here are my thoughts concerning each:

1. Gopher Broke (USA) - This was solid sub-Pixar computer animated comedy. It wasn’t nearly as bad, in either its pandering or its animation, as the turnout of 20th Century Fox’s animated department, which basically made me happy. Some of the gags were genuinely funny, and the image of a slow-motion bovine flying through the air pretty much brought the house down. Ultimately meaningless, but good show nonetheless.

2. Two Cars in One Night (New Zealand) - This was not watchable. I hated hated hated this, with its awkward pacing and its film-school fast-motion effects and its pitiful non-actors and aren’t-kids-like-little-adults pandering. It boggles my mind that this was nominated for the award. Thank God it didn’t win. I also appreciate that the Apollo Cinema programmers buried this at the very beginning of the program, so that people would forget about it at the end.

3. Little Terrorist (India) - This is a completely inoffensive, unspectacular film. I suppose the message is rather pretty, that we should all get along, though the cinematography is surprisingly dull. I think my biggest problem with this is that it’s an Indian film which is very much about its intended target - first world nations. This isn’t a film for the Indian populace about how we should all get along and love Pakistani children - after all, we used to be one nation. It’s a film for Britons about how Indians should get along and love Pakistani children - after all, we used to be one nation under your rule.

4. Birthday Boy (Australia) - Why is this animated? There’s nothing in this film that really justifies animation as its mode of expression, which makes me think that the director just doesn’t like working with actors. Anyway, this isn’t horrible, I suppose, but it’s not very good either. One moment - when the boy opens an unexpected care package on the porch - is perfect for being so tenderly underplayed. Overall mediocre.

5. Ryan (Canada) - I didn’t love this, but I understood what made it the winner. Smugly innovative, the film is an animated documentary about a Canadian animator made with this bizarre computer rotoscoping that allows the filmmaker to create visual representations of emotional and psychological illness. This is a VERY strong film for which it was hard for me to create an attachment, emotionally or intellectually (the latter because of its hard-nosed insistence on obscurity).

6. At 7:35 (Spain) - This was my favorite short of the night. Of a perfect length, joyfully demented, and boundlessly entertaining, this is the debut short by the young Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo. If this is any indication of where Vigalondo is heading, this author is looking forward to an exciting filmmaking career.

7. Wasp (UK) - My fascination with the face of Nathalie Press, the lead actress in this film and in My Summer of Love, continues. Press is not a particularly beautiful girl, but her face is so expressive and so filled with meaning that it’d be a dream for me to cast her in one of my films. Physically, the Spacek connection is inevitable, and I think that she, like Spacek, could develop into one of the finest actresses of her generation. Wasp is very British, with lots of out-of-focus hand-held camerawork and social realist posturing, but it’s also very good. Memorable, frustrating, with just enough touches of insanity (its recurring musical theme, the actual wasp itself) to work as a coherent whole.

Chucklef*ck Comedy Night - Chucklef*ck: noun The comedy show that occurs every Monday night at 8pm; the comedy show that is completely free to attend; the comedy show in which 5 performers strive to amuse you; the comedy show that dare not speak its name. usage: i sure had a good time at Chucklef*ck. Hosted by Carrie Callahan, with a new lineup every week.

CHUCKLEF*CK
at BELA DUBBY’S
13321 Madison Ave in Lakewood
8 pm