Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Bryan Cranston makes out with Julia Louis-Dreyfus at Emmy Awards
Bryan Cranston makes out with Julia Louis-Dreyfus at Emmy Awards
Andy Murray Overcomes Cramping at U.S. Open to Win His First Match
There may be some comfort in that. Tennis, after all, is about points, not style points. But what was far from reassuring for Murray, once a U.S. Open champion, was that he was cramping and suffering (and muttering) against Robin Haase after just two sets in this age of the men’s tennis marathon.
“It’s not the worst I have ever felt necessarily, but it’s the worst I have ever felt after an hour and a half of a tennis match,” he said after his 6-3, 7-6 (6), 1-6, 7-5 victory.
Opening day was, to be sure, a scorcher at Flushing Meadows: bare, sunscreen-lathered shoulders rubbing up against bare, sunscreen-lathered shoulders in the vast walkways of the Open, which were soon crowded enough to pass for Roland Garros amid the afternoon rush for the ice cream vendors and the outside courts.
Inside Louis Armstrong Stadium, Judy Murray, Andy’s mother and former coach, brandished a fan decorated with the Scottish colors in the second row of the stands.
Smelling salts or a blindfold might have come in handy, too, because there were stretches of this strange-but-true match that had to be tough for a parent to watch.
Three years ago, when Haase and Murray played here in the second round, Haase won the first two sets before Murray recovered to win the next three. This time, the eighth-seeded Murray looked like he had taken the memory and the lesson to heart, winning the first two sets himself.
But that was when the trouble began in earnest: Murray, not one to mask his frustrations, has played through all sorts of pain in his career, as when he beat Jarkko Nieminen despite major back trouble at the French Open in 2012. But Monday was a full-body breakdown: cramps in Murray’s legs, cramps in his right side, cramps in his left side, cramps in his right arm, cramps in his left arm, cramps just about everywhere it seemed.
“For me it was unexpected, and therefore quite difficult mentally to deal with,” Murray said. “Sometimes it can happen in one area of your body, but when it starts to kind of go everywhere, you don’t know exactly where it’s going to creep up next. When you stretch one muscle, something else then cramps, too.”
It also was unexpected because Murray said he had trained particularly hard and well in the lead-up to this tournament. He had felt good enough to declare beforehand that this was the best prepared he had felt coming into a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon last year (he won that Wimbledon, putting an end to a 77-year drought for British men in singles).
That was presumably no throwaway statement from a veteran like Murray, by now quite adept at tapping the brakes on runaway expectations by understating his own chances. “I got a great training block over in Miami done, so physically I’m where I would want to be,” Murray said on Saturday. “My body is pain-free, which is good.”
Forty-eight hours later, his body was pain-wracked, which was clearly not good, even if he did manage to hit a backhand return winner in mid-cramp in the fourth set, which made for quite an unusual and acrobatic follow-through.
Haase, an attack-minded Dutch veteran, had problems of his own on Monday. He was feeling nauseated and also had a foot injury.
“I was more busy with myself, and I was struggling myself,” he said of Murray’s increasingly apparent problems. “I tried to play my game, and it didn’t bother me what he did or what he felt.”
Jessica Lange wins Miniseries or Movie Lead Actress Emmy
Jessica Lange wins Miniseries or Movie Lead Actress Emmywww.imaits.com
Jessica Lange won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie on Monday night for her performance on American Horror Story: Coven on FX.
“I’m profoundly surprised at this, but very grateful,” Lange said in her acceptance speech. “Special thanks to everybody who is part of my life on this show, starting with, as Kathy [Bates] said, one of the greatest crews that work tirelessly.” She also thanked her castmates, “a cast that is a dream come true, beginning to end,” and added, “Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.”
Jessica Lange wins Miniseries or Movie Lead Actress Emmy
Jessica Lange wins Miniseries or Movie Lead Actress Emmy
Hayden Panettiere Reveals She’s Having a Girl
Hayden Panettiere Reveals She’s Having a Girl
“I can’t wait for her to come out,” the Nashville star slipped in while speaking to Giuliana Rancic on the red carpet, causing the host to exclaim, “It’s a girl?!”
“Yes, it’s a little girl. I have to shop,” Panettiere, 25, joked. “I want to go shopping, I want to paint the room … I’m working with my amazing interior decorator, Ben Vandiver, who did my house in Nashville. He’s trying to do something that she can grow up in and you don’t have to change everything.”
FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY
As far as choosing a name for her daughter, Panettiere explains that she and fiancé Wladimir Klitschko have to take a few extras into consideration. “We have to make sure that it is American and Ukrainian all at the same time,” she says. “We’re still working on it but we have some options.”
For now, she’s focusing on her outfit. “I love [Lorena] and she did such a fabulous job — the only thing that’s difficult, honestly, is making sure everything is tucked in away and in there, and then the shoes. Walking around all night in the heels — my feet get sore when I’m wearing no shoes. My size 5 feet have never felt this amount of weight on top of them!”
And what’s the expectant actress craving? “[Pregnancy] probably just accentuated my craving for chicken noodle soup,” she shares. “I’ve always been a chicken noodle soup lover.”
The Strange Symbiosis Of Taylor Swift And Kanye West
The Strange Symbiosis Of Taylor Swift And Kanye West
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The 2014 VMAs are in the books, but perhaps overlooked amid all the hoopla is an incident that occurred five years ago at the very same ceremony–and may have had a bigger impact on the popular culture of the past half decade than anything that occurred last night.
Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s controversial moment at the 2009 VMAs has been replayed, rehashed and parodied more than many of both artists’ songs. The words “I’mma let you finish” still conjure images of the scene: West storming the stage moments after Swift won the award for Best Female Video, then snatching the microphone from the startled starlet and launching into a tirade about why Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” deserved the honor.
For West, the fallout was swift as Taylor. After being booed off the stage by many fellow artists in the crowd, the rest of the world started weighing in, from Perez Hilton all the way up to Barack Obama, who called West a “jackass” in what he thought was an off-the-record moment with a reporter
West apologized for his actions multiple times, even doing so on air with Jay Leno, saying he was “ashamed” of what he’d done. But it wasn’t enough: the comments kept coming from all angles, and Donald Trump went as far as tocall for a boycott of all things Kanye. A month later, West cancelled a tour he’d planned with Lady Gaga as rumors of poor ticket sales swirled.
Though observers almost unanimously agreed that West was out of line at the VMAs, quite a few (this writer included) came to believe that reaction against him in the weeks that followed was disproportionate. Some, perhaps West himself, believed his career had been damaged irreparably and was possibly over, a punishment far too dire for his actions (the motives behind those overreactions could be a topic of another article, if not an entire book).
Half a decade later, though West is arguably the biggest male musical superstar in the world; a case can also be made for Taylor Swift on the female side. And the incident that intertwined their destiny may have helped push both artists to greater artistic and financial heights over the past five years.
The numbers tell the tale. In 2009, just a few months before the VMAs, the 19-year-old Swift made her debut at No. 69 on the Forbes Celeb 100 power list with earnings of $18 million. West ranked No. 46 with $25 million.
In the aftermath of the incident, however, Swift cemented her status as a mainstream celebrity, rocketing to No. 12 with $45 million in 2010. West fell off the list entirely as his earnings plummeted to $12 million (Swift has remained in the top 20 every year since, and her earnings have risen steadily to this year’s peak of $64 million).
Meanwhile, West went into a brief pop culture exile. The reaction to his antics had made him more determined than ever to create brilliant music, and he re-emerged a little over a year later with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Many believe the operatic album to be his best—and perhaps one of the best hip-hop albums of all time.
“Because of the perception I was under after the Taylor Swift incident, the only way for me to somehow buy my affection of the public back was to deliver an absolutely perfected product,” he later said. “So if you listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, that’s the closest thing to a perfected album.”
His earnings crept back, too: he earned $35 million in 2012 and landed at No. 20 on the Celeb 100 this year, his highest spot yet, with earnings of $30 million. Over time, though, his tune about the incident itself has changed from apologetic to something else.
“I don’t have one regret,” he told the New York Times last year. He said he gave into peer pressure to apologize, explaining that creating My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was his version of “a long, backhanded apology.”
“It was like, all these raps, all these sonic acrobatics,” he explained. “‘I was like: ‘Let me show you guys what I can do, and please accept me back. You want to have me on your shelves.’”
For her part, it seems Swift hasn’t forgotten the incident, but that it’s far enough in the past for her to joke about. Her pal Ed Sheeran evenInstagrammed a picture of some jam Swift had given him with the inscription: “Yo Ed—I’m really happy 4 you and I’m gonna let u finish but this is the best JAM OF ALL TIME. —T”
Both Swift and West are poised to be remembered as two of the most prominent and successful entertainers of their generation. And, to be sure, both are talented enough that they probably would have attained that status with or without the 2009 VMAs.
But there’s little doubt that the incident, however traumatic to both at the time for vastly different reasons, was perversely symbiotic—and is at the very least something that has caused both stars to shine brighter today.
But there’s little doubt that the incident, however traumatic to both at the time for vastly different reasons, was perversely symbiotic—and is at the very least something that has caused both stars to shine brighter today.
The Normal Heart
Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images
Well, at least this Emmy prediction actually happened.
The film adaptation of Larry Kramer's Tony Award-winning play The Normal Heartreceived 16 nominations, and managed to walk away with the top honor of Best TV Movie at the 2014 Emmy Awards, but fans began to worry that the cast may walk away tonight empty-handed (we'll tell you why in a second).
Referencing stars Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo, Ryan Murphy told the audience, "After 30 years, it took the super powers of Erin Brockovich and The Hulk to get this thing alive. We're gonna use the rest of our time to ask the young people watching to become Larry Kramers, to find a cause you believe in that you will fight for, that you will die for…This is for all of the hundreds of thousands of artists who passed from HIV AIDs in 1981. Your memory and your passion burns on in us and this is for them."
HBO
While The Normal Heart took home the top prize, it also lost in a number of categories, creating some of the Emmys biggest upsets.
Mark Ruffalo, who was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his performance as Ned Weeks, lost to Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch, who was not present to accept his award.
Julia Roberts, who played Dr. Emma Brookner, was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, but also lost to Kathy Bates for her work in American Horror Story: Coven. Jim Parsons, Tony winner Joe Mantello, Alfred Molina and Matt Bomer all received nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, but that went to Sherlock's Martin Freeman.
Famous Slogans by Indian Freedom Fighters
Famous Slogans by Indian Freedom Fighter
Unlike a defensive call for help, a slogan by freedom fighters is an offensive cry for war. The word “slogan” literally means a “war cry,” as it has been derived from the Scottish roots “Slaugh-Army, Gharim-Cry.” For a revolutionary, a slogan is what the pulse is to a doctor. It is a catch phrase, coined in the background of a developing story of a freedom movement. The right slogan at the right time is like striking iron when it is red hot. Many effective slogans were created by Indian freedom fighters, and they did achieve the unity of purpose that was nothing short of freedom from British rule. Although different political segments differed notably in their philosophy, they all aimed and focused on “freedom.” There was the great leader Bapu. The father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in non-violence and his efforts realized freedom for India. On the other hand, there were aggressive revolutionary youth who did not hesitate even to bomb the political meetings to raise their voices,loud enough to be heard attentively by the concerned British rulers who were turning a deaf ear to them. The Indian freedom fighters were red with blood and, in the course of the freedom movement, many of them like Bhagat Singh were hanged like “strange fruits” on trees.
1. Quit India
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
In August, 1942, the most respected Hindu Leader, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi, gave a call for immediate independence and an orderly withdrawal of the British, demanding them to “Quit India.” It was a movement of civil disobedience. Immediately after his call, the whole leadership of Congress and more than 60,000 Indians were arrested. Then American President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressured Churchill to accede to the call, but he did not agree with it. He was heavy handed, and the call was a failure in the short term, but it communicated to the British fully that India was no more controllable by them, and they had no other choice except to find some respectable way to quit India.
2. Inquilab Zindabad (Long Live the Revolution)
Bhagat Singh
Famous Muslim Leader Hasrat Mohani had created the slogan “Inqilab Zindabad”; “Long live the revolution.” The slogan is synonymous to Bhagat Singh, the Indian youth revolutionary. Along with Batukishwer Dut, shouting the slogan “Inqilab Zindabad,” he threw two bombs and many leaflets inside the Central Legislative Assembly. He was arrested and won admiration and national support. The trial was conducted by a special tribunal at Privy Council in England. He was convicted ofmurder and hanged at the age of 23.
3. Jai-Hind
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose, popularly known as Nitaji, the respected leader, created the slogan “Jai Hind”; “Long live India!” in 1947. He decided to use the slogan at the end of every meeting, and today it is an official salutation in India. The Government of India officially adopted “Jai-Hind” as the Indian National Slogan. Nitaji was one of the most famous and influential leaders in the history of India. As an Indian freedom fighter, he also created two other slogans: “Dilli Chalo”; March to Delhi ‘and “Give me your blood, I will give you your freedom”. He belonged to a “Prosperous family,” and had a brilliant, academic background.
4. “Swaraj Mara Janamasiddha Hak Hai”; Self Rule is My Birthright
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
The slogan “Swaraj Mara Janamasiddha Hak Hai”; “Self rule is my birthright,” was created by the fiery Indian Leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He was also known as “Lokmanya Tilak”; the leader acknowledged by the masses. British authorities were not at ease with him and scornfully used to call him the “Father of Indian Unrest.” What appeared “unrest” to the British, was, in fact, the fight for freedom. His slogan inspired millions of Indians all over the world and played a pivotal role in the fight for freedom.
5. Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan; Long Live Youth, Long Live Farmer
Lal Bahadur Shastri
The slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”; “Long Live Youth, Long Live Farmer” was created by Lal Bahadur Shastri who was a loyal follower of Mahatma Gandhi and had joined the Indian Independence Movement in 1920. He would be one of the most trusted fellows of Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru. He emerged as a hero Prime Minister of India during the 1965 War with Pakistan which ended after the Tashkent declaration in India. The next day after the agreement, he died of a heart attack there in Tashkent.
6. Satvameva Jayathe; Truth Will Win
Madan Mohan Malaviya
Madan Mohan Malaviya was a famous Indian educationalist and freedom fighter. He is remembered for popularizing the slogan “Satvameva Jayathe”; “Truth Will Win.” The slogan was taken from the old Indian Scripture “Mundaka Upanishad.” The slogan was received with such an enthusiasm that it was adopted as the Indian National Motto. The slogan appears in Devanagari script at the base of the Indian National Emblem. It is also inscribed on one side of Indian coins.
7. Aaram Haram Hai
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
“Aram Haram Hai”; “Rest is a Religious Deviation,” was a slogan given by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a devout follower of Mahatma Gandhi. He believed in the untiring effort for the cause of freedom and worked ceaselessly for its achievement. He led the nation by example. Even in the last moments of his life, he had been thinking of the welfare of his nation. Robert Frost’s verses, as given below, were found written on a pad in the last moments of his life:
‘The woods are lovely, dark, and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go, before I sleep.
8. Vande Matram; I Bow to Thee Mother!
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
“Vande Matram”; “I Bow to Thee Mother!” is taken from an ancient novel Anandamath written in Begali and Sanskrit by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1882. The song is a hymn to Durga Devi, considered an Indian national embodiment. Khudiram Bose, a young revolutionary and Indian freedom fighter, killed many British officers by bombing and was planning to kill the Magistrate Kingsford. He was arrested, convicted of murder, and hanged on August 11, 1908 with the holy book Bhagwad Gita in his hands and “Vande Matram” on his lips in the last moments of his life. Distinguished from the Indian National Anthem, the first two verses of the song including “Vande Matram,” have been adopted officially as the Indian National Song.
9. Simon Go Back
Sir John Simon
Sir John Simon was the chairman of a commission named “Simon Commission” after him. It comprised of seven members of the British Parliament and was sent to India in 1927 with an aim to study and reform the Indian Constitution. Clement Attlee was also one of its members. He became the British Prime Minister afterwards and would oversee the granting of freedom to Pakistan and India in 1947. Lajpat Rai led a peaceful procession to protest against the Simon Commission and created the slogan “Simon Go Back.” Police batons were used to charge the procession to disperse, and LalaRajpat Rai was severely hit on the chest and died soon afterwards. His death’s anniversary falls on November 17 and is observed as Martyrs’ Day in India.
10. Don’t Pay Tax (During Satyagraha)
Salt March
One of the most effective slogans of the Indian freedom fighters were “Don’t Pay Tax” emerged during the Salt March, also known as Namak Satyagraha. It was a direct action and tax resistance against the British monopoly of salt production in colonial India. The salt march was led by Mahatma Gandhi and culminated into “Purna Swaraj” “Self Rule” declaration by the Indian National Congress on January 26, 1930.
Conclusion:
Nothing is free in this world of supply and demand, particularly when it comes to “freedom.” It is never achievable for free. It needs blood and much more than that. Most of the blood was given by the Indian freedom fighters by quite a few famous leaders and many more unidentified commoners as reflected by the famous Indian poetess Amrita Pritam in her eulogy to the great Punjabi Poet Waris Shah, saying:
Uth Dard mandan dia dardia, uth tak apna Punjab
Aj Bele Lashaan bichhian, te lahu di bhari Chenab!
Get up, O friend of the distressed, rise and see your Punjab!
The field is full of corpses, and the River Chenab is full of blood!
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