Podcasts about United Artists

Carolyn McDonald, interviewed on OWC RADiO by our host, Cirina Catania, is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, writer, and instructor who partnered with Danny Glover at Carrie Productions. She exec-produced HBO's "America's Dream" and TNT's "Buffalo Soldiers," as well as "Freedom Song." Cirina said she deeply resonated with Carolyn, not just because of the mutual Carrie Productions connection, but because of Carolyn's dedication to empowering and teaching the younger generation. Carolyn has taught in Nashville at the Watkins Film School, in New York at the Independent Film Project, and in LA with the Black TV and Film Collective. She is currently a screenwriting instructor at the New York Film Academy. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! The ever-popular OWC RADiO is sponsored by Other World Computing under the guidance and inspiration of CEO, Larry O'Connor. OWC has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient, and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs.  Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists, and one of the co-founders and former executive director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO, and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.

GET YOUR MULTIVERSE NEWS MERCH HERE:https://multiverse-news-shop.fourthwall.com/Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universesMarvel Studios skipped a countdown or other hype train idea and finally gave us the first full trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps last Wednesday. We're treated to a longer taste of Matt Shakman's take on Marvel's First Family as well as our first real look at Julia Garner's Silver Surfer who heralds the film's big bad, Galactus.Over the last weekend, Lucasfilm held Star Wars Celebration in Japan. Celebration typically takes place every one or two years. The next event will be in Los Angeles in April 2027. As far as the news from this year's event, let's break it down into bite-sized chunks.- Shawn Levy's Star Wars film starring Ryan Gosling will be called Star Wars: Starfighter and will come out in May 2027. The film takes place a couple of years after The Rise of Skywalker, but is a standalone project.- A Darth Maul animated series starring Sam Witwer called Maul: Shadow Lord will debut on Disney+ in 2026.- First footage from The Mandalorian and Grogu was shown to attendees, but no trailer has been released yet for the 2026 film from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.- Animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions will return for a third season this October with three of the most popular storylines from season one continuing.- Dave Filoni talked about Ahsoka season 2, confirming Hayden Christensen will return and showed first looks at Rory McCann as the replacement for Ray Stevenson in the role of Baylan Skoll.Netflix released the first trailer for the second and final season of The Sandman. The trailer showed us more of the family of cosmic beings who are coming together after Morpheus, the King of Dreams, has been rebuilding his kingdom. The show will release six episodes on July 3 and the final five on July 24.Alicia Silverstone is attached to reprise the role of Cher Horowitz in a Clueless sequel series at Peacock that is currently in early development.Warner Brother's Ryan Coogler film Sinners took the number one spot at the domestic box office from A Mincraft Movie this weekend, pulling in $45.6 million dollars. The film is the first R Rated horror movie to earn an A Cinema Score in 35 years.A reboot film of Highlander directed by Chad Stahelski and starring Henry Cavill has been in development for nearly a decade at Lionsgate. Now, the project is moving forward, but it will be headed to Amazon MGM Studios' United Artists, which is in final negotiations to acquire the package from Lionsgate.The first trailer for Jordan Peele's latest horror film Him has been released. The film stars Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers and will be released in theaters on September 19.Oscar voters will no longer be able to cast final ballots in categories in which they haven't seen all of the nominees, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday.Lost showrunners Carlton Cuse and Nick Cuse are developing a Star Wars series for Disney+ that is in the very early stages of development.Michael Bay and Sydney Sweeney are teaming up for a film adaptation of the Sega racing video game OutRun for Universal. Bay will direct and Sweeney will produce. The project is in the very early stages of development.Sarah Michelle Gellar and Elijah Wood have been cast to star in Searchlights Ready or Not: Here I Come. The film from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett is a follow up to 2019's horror hit Ready or Not. Gellar and Wood will star alongside Samara Weaving, who reprises her role as Grace, and Kathryn Newton.The first trailer has been released for season 8 of Rick and Morty. The new season will begin streaming on May 25 on Adult Swim.Another Enola Holmes film is officially in the works at Netflix, the third in the series. Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill will both return to star. Production is now underway in the UK.

Our very first Beatles movie! United Artists was keen to capitalize on Beatlemania. Help! was released less than a year after A Hard's Day Night. None of the Beatles were really fond of their experience making it. Why not? Should it have been better? Guest Paul Kind joins to discuss.___Please consider joining our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wwibofficialYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whywasntitbetterInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wwib_officialTwitter: https://x.com/WWIBpodcastTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wwibpodcastSubscribe! Rate! Review! Tell a friend!

Welcome to OWC RADiO, where we take a close look into the minds of innovators who are shaping the world of tech and creativity. Our host, Cirina Catania, goes behind the scenes today with Loren Mally, Director of Sales for the Jellyfish product line, a collaborative storage solution that's become a go-to for filmmakers, editors, studios, and creatives around the world. Please subscribe, hit that "like" button, and listen in to another great interview with two big brains. They talked about Loren's journey, OWC's vision, the power behind Jellyfish, the power of collaborative editing, and how the sales landscape is evolving — including whether AI is playing a role. Whether you're editing the next blockbuster, running a content studio, or simply love geeking out on tech, this one's for you. And, if you are at the NAB show in Vegas, stop by the OWC booth and say "hi" to Loren and the whole team. They'll be waiting for you in the upper South Hall #SLU2. ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient, and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem tailored for you. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is towards the long term, and, in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists, and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job!

Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL, the final episode uncovers how it all went wrong at the end.  From threats to his life, assassination attempts, to being banned for life and having to leave the country.  One final amazing episode to wrap up our four part series on how Lalit created the IPL.   Key Highlights Breaking new grounds and records in first two seasons, drama around the tender for two new team franchises Billion dollar Net worth threshold to bid for new teams – lobbying to lower threshold by various groups Minimum bid price, US 225 million per team -  Bids over 300 mil coming in for teams Sahara agreement signed quickly,  issue with winning consortium for second team (Lalit's suspicious with certain shareholders) Sunanda Pushkar (since then passed away), the unknown women in the deal?  Next call by Congress party leader Sashi Tharoor….. Lalit being forced to sign the agreement for second team under duress Next day news, Sashi Tharoor marrying Sunanda Pushkar – Lalit blows the whistle with a tweet Indian Parliament and political uproar follows – pressure on Lalit to resign, suspension while third season is wrapping up Ravi Pujari, known Indian gangster, death threats to Lalit life, assassination attempts in South Africa and Thailand Years of investigations and charges against him, nothing ever found of wrong doing BCCI suspend him, later life ban without a proper inquiry Chhota Shakeel & Dawood Ibrahim – incredible recordings and interviews with them Illegal betting – still a big issue today   Kochi team defaulted eventually as he predicted – Sahara also defaulted when billionaire owner went to jail Interim teams were brought in for two seasons before new auction -  new teams franchise fees around USD 800 mil per team Obvious question, after all this, how do you feel about what happened and you achieved?  Was it worth it? What keeps Lalit busy now – final thoughts   About Globally recognized leader, Executive Director of Modi Enterprises, with business interests across nearly every industry vertical. Built a billion-dollar brand in less than a year, launched a revolution to Indian broadcast entertainment, and negotiated partnerships with ESPN, Disney, Google, Ten Sports, B4U, Fashion TV, Voyages TV, Buena Vista Television, United Artists, Marvel, Nike and others. International business strategist who catalyzes transformation and change by capitalizing on unmet demand in domestic and overseas markets. Embraces technology and creates opportunities to enrich lives, create sustainable revenue, and optimize productivity through integration of emerging platforms in social and digital. An entrepreneur at heart with a phenomenal ability to connect people and ideas into revenue-generating enterprises, an active member of the board for one of the oldest and most successful industrial conglomerates in India, and the thought- leader behind radical change in India's leading Cricket administration, the BCCI. Recognized by Time, Sports Illustrated, Business Week, Forbes, Business Standard, and other influential global media outlets for launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of world's most popular Cricket organizations. Was Awarded ‘Indian of the Century” by India Today in Forbes nominated Modi as “Rainmaker of the Century” Against extensive political and economic challenges, brought IPL to South Africa, and sustained the same phenomenal levels of viewership and attendance despite the move. Columbia University and Stanford University Both did case studies on Modi, which are still being taught in Universities across the world. Created billions dollar opportunities, and played an integral role in shaping the cultural direction of Modern India as visionary behind transformational changes in broadcast, sports, entertainment, and consumer products.   Follow us on our social sites for the latest updates Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsentrepreneurs/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcusluerpodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sports-entrepreneurs Website: https://marcusluer.com Podcast: https://marcusluer.com/podcast To get in touch, please email us at podcast@marcusluer.com Feel Good by MusicbyAden https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_feel-good Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/bvgIqqRStcQ  

Send Kevin a Text MessageIn this episode of Don't Kill the Messenger, host Kevin Goetz welcomes an industry titan-- film producer and studio executive Mike Medavoy. With a career spanning over five decades, Medavoy has been closely involved with over 300 feature films, with seven winning Best Picture Oscars. From agent to studio chief to producer, his remarkable journey from Shanghai to Hollywood has shaped some of cinema's most important films, including Rocky, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Silence of the Lambs. With characteristic humility and wisdom, Medavoy shares fascinating stories from his illustrious career.Early Life and Global Upbringing (03:12)Born in Shanghai in 1941 to Russian-Ukrainian Jewish parents, Medavoy moved to Chile in 1947 before settling in California, speaking Shanghai-nese, Russian, Spanish, and English.Breaking into Hollywood (07:40)After UCLA and the US Army Reserve, Medavoy started in Universal's mailroom in 1964, making industry friendships that became the foundation of his career.From Agent to Studio Executive (11:15)Medavoy recounts transitioning from talent agent to Senior VP of Production at United Artists, where his first major film was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.United Artists and an Unprecedented Oscar Run (16:26)At UA, Medavoy helped shepherd three consecutive Best Picture winners: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, and Annie Hall.Formation of Orion Pictures (19:43)Medavoy discusses co-founding Orion Pictures, which produced classics like Amadeus, Platoon, and The Silence of the Lambs.Stories Behind the Classics (24:26)Fascinating behind-the-scenes stories about iconic films including Platoon, Terminator, and Apocalypse Now.Advice for the Next Generation (38:56) For emerging filmmakers, Medavoy recommends "The Story of Film" as essential viewing.Throughout this conversation, Medavoy reveals himself as not just an industry treasure but a thoughtful observer of both cinema and life. His journey from immigrant roots to Hollywood exemplifies the dream many pursue but few achieve. With remarkable candor, he discusses both triumphs and regrets, offering listeners a rare glimpse into the mind of someone who has truly shaped modern cinema while remaining, as Kevin notes, "a very charming and decent human being."If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or connect on social media. We look forward to bringing you more revelations from behind the scenes next time on Don't Kill the Messenger!Host: Kevin GoetzGuest: Mike MedavoyProducer: Kari CampanoWriters: Kevin Goetz, Darlene Hayman, Nick Nunez, and Kari CampanoAudio Engineer: Gary Forbes (DG Entertainment)For more information about Mike Medavoy:Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_MedavoyIMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005219/Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Only-Good-Your-Next/dp/0743400550For more information about Kevin Goetz:Website: www.KevinGoetz360.comAudienceology Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Audience-ology/Kevin-Goetz/9781982186678Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram: @KevinGoetz360Linked In @Kevin GoetzScreen Engine/ASI Website: www.ScreenEngineASI.com

Managing video content is more challenging than ever. In this episode of OWC RADiO, host Cirina Catania speaks with Sam Bogoch, CEO of Axle.ai. They explore how Axle's media asset management is transforming the way creators, businesses, and organizations handle large volumes of video. From AI-assisted tagging and search to automated organization, Axle.ai makes it easier to manage digital assets. Whether you're an independent filmmaker, a production company, or even a school or church, this technology is a game-changer. Axle.ai offers powerful tools to simplify content management. With features like automated tagging, intelligent search, and seamless collaboration, it helps teams find and organize their media faster than ever. During their conversation, Sam shares his journey in developing this groundbreaking technology. He explains how Axle.ai solves real-world challenges for creatives working with massive media libraries. If you've ever struggled to find a specific clip in a sea of files, this episode is for you! Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe and spread the word! We love our listeners and always welcome new ideas. Feel free to comment! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms! Chapter Markers: [00:00:00] - Introduction & Sponsor MessageCirina introduces the episode, guest Sam Bogoch, and acknowledges OWC as the sponsor.[00:01:14] - The Importance of AI in Media ManagementSam discusses the challenges of managing large media libraries and how AI is transforming the process.[00:07:05] - Axle.ai's Beginnings & EvolutionSam shares how Axle.ai was founded, inspired by gaps in the industry while working at Avid.[00:13:08] - How Axle.ai WorksA deep dive into how Axle.ai's AI-driven media asset management helps content creators efficiently find and organize files.[00:18:40] - Use Cases & Industry ApplicationsSam explains how Axle.ai benefits churches, sports teams, filmmakers, and corporate media teams.[00:23:14] - Future of AI in Media & Closing ThoughtsA look at where AI is headed in media asset management and final reflections from Cirina and Sam. Key Takeaways:= AI-powered media management saves time and eliminates the frustration of lost files= Automation is the key to efficiently handling large video archives= Axle.ai benefits everyone, from corporate teams to solo filmmakers= AI improves collaboration, allowing teams to access and edit media with ease= As media continues to evolve, AI-driven asset management will be essential for content creators ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and creates hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is to the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild,

Soutenez nous sur Patreon https://www.patreon.com/shitlistForfait 3€ épisode en accès anticipé sans pub Forfait 5 € épisode en accès anticipé sans Pub + Accès aux Podcasts Exclusifs Abonnez vous sur Peakgaming pour les streams jeu vidéo https://www.twitch.tv/peakgamingfrA l'occasion de la sortie du film de gangster The Alto Knights réalisé par Barry Levinson et mettant en scène Robert De Niro qui joue le rôle à la fois de Vito Genovese et Frank Costello. Nous en profitons pour vous parler du film zéro de l'exploitation des maladies et altération mentales au cinéma avec Rain Man qui a cartonné à la fin des années 80's. Un produit purement cadré pour la pêche aux prix se basant sur le cliché de l'autiste savant qui a emporté les foules et les statuettes mais fallait-il vraiment donner du crédit à ce film ? Produit avec un budget de 25 Millions de dollars par United Artists et distribué par MGM. Scénario de Barry Morrow et réécrit par Ronald Bass et réalisé par Barry Levinson accompagné à la photo par le grand John Seale responsable de la photo du Cercle des poètes disparus, La Firme, Lorenzo et Mad Max : Fury RoadMusique d'Hans Zimmer qui est pour la première fois crédité pour un film américain À la mort de son père, Charlie Babbitt interprété par Tom Cruise, vendeur de voitures italiennes, hérite d'une vieille Buick qu'il convoitait depuis longtemps par son père qui vient de décéder avec qui il n'avait plus de contact depuis des années, mais il se voit spolié de trois millions de dollars versés à l'Institution psychiatrique Wallbrook au profit d'un bénéficiaire anonyme qui se révèle être son frère caché Raymond Babbitt, un homme atteint d'autisme. Enregistré en live sur notre chaîne twitch ABONNEZ-VOUS ! Rattrapez le live sur notre chaine youtubeChroniqueur.e.es : Emmanuel.e PEUDON, Wonder Vesper et présenté par Luc LE GONIDECHost : Luc LE GONIDECMusique Jean Baptise BLAIS Montage et mixage son : Luc LE GONIDEC Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Donna Letier is the CEO and founder of Gardenuity, a fast-growing company merging gardening with the wellness sector through personalized container gardens and AI-powered gardening experiences. Donna has raised $8 million for her company so far, innovating Gardenuity Match, which uses AI and weather tech to custom-craft gardens around lifestyles, climate and environment. With over 20 years of retail experience, spanning public and private companies, Donna has worked in the areas of operations, brand marketing, and product development, and takes a data-driven approach with a consumer point of view. Previously, she was CMO for a home furnishings brand with over $500M in annual revenue. She has also been part of the marketing team at Neiman Marcus, MGM, Barneys New York, and United Artists. Donna has been featured in Story of a Brand, Cheddar News, Forbes, Tech FW, WFAA #UpWithHer, Growing Spaces, and The Grow Network.

Send us a textRemember this figure skating Rom-Com from the 90s? We kind of do, and one of us is so excited while another is not as excited. Former arrogant Hockey prospect Doug Dorsey can't play hockey anymore because of an eye injury while stuck-up figure skater Kate Moseley can't keep a partner. Can these "Opposites" work together to win? Will there be silly hijinks of two worlds colliding? Will they fall in love? We'll let you connect the dots on this one.Do You Remember Liking This Movie?

Today's show features a conversation with Charles Burnett, who Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh credit as one of America's greatest filmmakers.  His creative works tell personal and intimate stories – exploration of culture, relationships, social justice, mental illness, discrimination, and love. He was born in Mississippi in 1944 but moved to Watts in South Los Angeles in 1947. Killer of Sheep, based on his life in Watts,  was his student thesis film at UCLA but it wasn't until he was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2017 that it began to be seen. It was his first full-length feature and took five years to complete, and it set him apart, even at a young age, as a great filmmaker. The '60s were not necessarily kind to Black filmmakers and complicated music rights kept Killer of Sheep away from wide distribution until Steven Soderberg took it under his wing and helped restore it. He also cleared the music rights and found distribution.  It has since been admitted into the Library of Congress and called a national treasure. Other films from Charles include “The Annihilation of Fish” with James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave; My Brother's Wedding, The Glass Shield, and To Sleep With Anger starring Danny Glover. Martin Scorcese was quoted in a review by Daniel Borrero, saying, “Charles Burnett is one of the finest filmmakers in this country. His pictures speak in a unique voice that is uniquely and completely his own.  I am honored to be speaking with Charles Burnett and am grateful for his candor about the industry and his gracious depiction of unfolding events in his life. We can all learn from him. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more.

The guys finally watch an actual movie of old in the 1957 classic Twelve Angry MenDirectorSidney LumetProducerHenry Fonda, Reginald RoseScreenwriterReginald RoseDistributorCriterion Collection, United Artists, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.Production CoOrion-Nova PicturesGenreDramaOriginal LanguageEnglishRelease Date (Theaters)Apr 20, 1957Budget($335,000) uncertain box officeStarring (and their age)Martin Balsam(Juror 1, 38), John Fieldler(Juror 2, 32), Lee J. Cobb(Juror 3, 46), E.G. Marshall(Juror 4, 43), Jack Klugman(Juror 5, 35), Edward Binns(Juror 6, 41), Jack Warden(Juror 7, 37), Henry Fonda(Juror 8, 52), Joseph Sweeney(Juror 9, 73), Ed Begley(Juror 10, 56), George Voskovec(Juror 11, 52), Robert Webber(Juror 12, 32)

After Micheal Cimino's The Deer Hunter won five Oscars, United Artists gave him carte blanche for his next film and he really went to town. As in he built and rebuilt at least one whole town, on stilts in a National Park so as not to damage the landscape. If only he'd waited 45 years he could have just bought Glacier National Park outright and really become his film's villains. Anyway, the film was hemorrhaging money is what I'm saying, and is all the better for it. A slight fictionalization of the historical Johnson County War, Heaven's Gate (1980) is a beautifully shot epic western where Cimino sought to just tell the stories of real people and forgot that talking about real people in their historical context is what historical materialism is. Cimino's seemingly accidental Marxism was not lost on star Kris Kristofferson, and Cimino even changed some details to ratchet up the class conflict that was, historically, already at a fever pitch. And, hey, it's not often that the historical villains we see in our Criterion films are still around and even have a website that glosses over their government-approved extrajudicial mass murders. "Guardians of Wyoming's Cow Country since 1872" and still shaping society 150 years later, because that's what happens when you don't stop greedy men from seizing absolute power.

Larry Jordan is one of the creative-tech industry's most intelligent, talented, and prolific trainers. This is a fun and informative interview with our host, Cirina Catania! Larry is a member of several guilds, worked in live television and the broadcast industry as a producer/director for many years and started his company, Larry Jordan and Associates, because he enjoyed communicating with and helping people who wanted answers on  how to edit smarter, better…and upgrade their skills so they could make a more lucrative living….Twenty-one years later, he has published over 3,200 reviews and tutorials, 570 45-minute training webinars, 700 YouTube tutorials and published 13 books! Whether you are a trainer wanting to upgrade your skills, an editor looking for answers, or simply someone who works in the creative industry and would like some advice about your future…this is the conversation to which you will want to listen! If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  Key Takeaways: 1 Great educators eliminate fear. Larry emphasizes that learning creative tools starts with confidence, not just skill.2 AI is disrupting media, but storytelling remains king. While AI is reshaping production, human creativity and narrative skills are still irreplaceable.3 The media industry is in flux. With 35%+ unemployment in LA media jobs, freelancers and professionals need to adapt and expand their skill sets.4 Social media is necessary—but it doesn't have to be painful. Larry avoids self-promotion and focuses on collaborating with professionals to handle social outreach.5 Storage solutions matter. Larry shares why a three-tiered backup system (SSD, RAID, and server storage) is essential for professional creatives.6 The future of tech is uncertain. As AI, automation, and economic shifts shake up the industry, the ability to pivot, adapt, and think ahead will determine success. Chapter Markers & Timecodes: 00:05 - Introduction: Cirina introduces Larry Jordan and his incredible contributions to the creative industry.01:30 - A Walk Down Memory Lane: The history of Larry & Cirina's collaboration and how Larry became a media guru.02:36 - From Radio to Broadcast TV: Larry shares his journey from radio broadcasting to directing live TV.07:32 - Teaching Media Professionals: How Larry transitioned into training and why he loves helping people master creative tools.08:39 - What Makes a Great Teacher? Larry's three essential principles for effective education and why storytelling matters.16:54 - The Future of Tutorials & Reviews: Larry explains how he approaches product reviews, tech training, and what sets his content apart.22:57 - The Magic of Live Production: Cirina and Larry reflect on their live broadcasting days and what makes live content so exciting.26:39 - SSD vs.

Send Kevin a Text MessageIn this episode of Don't Kill the Messenger, host Kevin Goetz sits down with Elizabeth Gabler, known for transforming literary works into cinematic successes. From her early days as an agent's assistant to becoming president of Fox 2000 and now Sony 3000 Pictures, Gabler shares insights from her remarkable career developing hit films like Life of Pi, The Devil Wears Prada, Mrs. Doubtfire, Marley and Me, and Where the Crawdads Sing.Early Career and Love of Reading (01:43)Gabler discusses her background in English literature and unexpected entry into entertainment, influenced by her early love of reading and her mother's influence as a librarian.United Artists and Early Development (10:12)The conversation explores her time at United Artists, working with industry legends like Jerry Weintraub and Billy Wilder, and developing projects like Roadhouse and Presumed Innocent that would later become successful films.Mrs. Doubtfire Development (13:30)Gabler shares the fascinating story of bringing Mrs. Doubtfire to the screen, including working with Robin Williams and director Chris Columbus, and overcoming initial skepticism about the project.Cast Away and Production Innovation (23:22)Discussion of the unique production process of Cast Away, including Tom Hanks' physical transformation and Robert Zemeckis making an entire other film during the production break.Life of Pi Journey (29:43)Elizabeth offers a detailed look at the challenging journey to bring Life of Pi to the screen, including Ang Lee's involvement and the innovative technical approaches required.Devil Wears Prada Casting (36:48)The pair discuss the casting process for The Devil Wears Prada, including securing Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, and the discovery of Emily Blunt.Current Projects and Personal Life (46:20)Gabler discusses her current project Klara and the Sun with director Taika Waititi and stars Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, while also touching on personal aspects including the recent loss of her husband Lee.This intimate conversation reveals not just the mechanics of bringing books to screen, but the passion, persistence, and vision required to create lasting cinema. Gabler's deep love for storytelling and family themes runs throughout her work and this discussion, offering insights into how personal values can shape professional success.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review or connect on social media. We look forward to bringing you more revelations from behind-the-scenes next time on Don't Kill the Messenger!Host: Kevin GoetzGuest: Elizabeth GablerProducer: Kari CampanoWriters: Kevin Goetz, Darlene Hayman, and Kari CampanoAudio Engineer: Gary Forbes (DG Entertainment) For more information about Elizabeth Gabler:Variety: https://variety.com/exec/elizabeth-gabler/IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1992894/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-gabler-7b030a19 For more information about Kevin Goetz:Website: www.KevinGoetz360.comAudienceology Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Audience-ology/Kevin-Goetz/9781982186678Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: @KevinGoetz360Linked In @Kevin Goetz

"Remegsz, kicsi?" – Rég röhögtünk úgy az állam túlkapásain, mint a Loupe új darabját nézve WMN     2025-02-04 18:06:00     Színpad Színház A Loupe Színházi Társulás legújabb darabja, a Titkosszolgák – avagy kiesett, kiugrott vagy kilökték első ránézésre abszurd, másodikra pedig fájdalmasan ismerős helyzetet dolgoz fel. Vinnai András rendszerkritikában bővelkedő tragikomédiáját Horváth János Antal állította színpadra. Kern András csak sejti, miért lett rosszul a decemberi előadáson Librarius     2025-02-05 08:00:51     Színpad Kern András Kern András elmagyarázta, hogy bár a vizsgálatok eredményei megnyugtatták, a történtek alapján valószínűleg egy pánikrohamról lehet szó. Faculty - Az invázium: Idegenek kontra tinédzserek, a tét ismételten az emberiség fennmaradása Mafab     2025-02-05 06:33:02     Film Talán ez a film volt az első DVD-lemezem, amit anno megvásároltam, több mint húsz esztendeje (ha jól emlékszem, a Házimozi magazin mellékleteként). Talán ez az emlék miatt, de az is lehet, hogy maga a film miatt, mindig egyfajta nosztalgiával tekintek vissza Robert Rodriguez 1998-as filmjére, ami, hát valljuk be, nem is sikerült annyira rosszul. Mi 7 alkalom, amikor egy sorozat utolsó évada annyira rossz lett, hogy a rajongók teljesen kiábrándultak Joy     2025-02-05 09:01:00     Film A sorozat fanoknak nincs is nagyobb rémálma a kaszán túl annál, mint amikor a kedvenc szériájuk pocsék befejezést kap. Február 5-én történt kultura.hu     2025-02-05 00:02:00     Film Mozi 1919-ben ezen a napon alapította meg Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks és D. W. Griffith a United Artists filmstúdiót, hogy független gyártású filmjeiket forgalmazhassák. A vállalkozás az aranykorát az 1920-as években élte, de később is számos emlékezetes mozi – többek között a Hair, a Rocky, az Annie Hall, az Esőember, a Hét mester Helyszíni közvetítéssel érkezik a Super Bowl Márkamonitor     2025-02-05 06:06:01     Film NFL Super Bowl Médiatörténelmi Super Bowl adás, 2029-ig meghosszabbított szerződés az Nfl-lel, 18-féle autó-motorsport sorozat idén és persze rengeteg labdarúgás – bejelentéseket tett a Network4 Media Group. A vállalat évindító sajtóeseményén a Net4+ streaming szolgáltatás számairól is szó esett.   "Büszkék vagyunk arra, hogy páratlanul értékes sportjogokkal rend Az egyik legjobb Mission: Impossible-mozi is ott van a hét legfontosabb streamingpremierjei között Player     2025-02-05 10:06:04     Film Mozi Ezen a héten is összegyűjtöttünk tíz olyan alkotást, amely most kerül be valamelyik streamingszolgáltató kínálatába, és amellyel érdemes lesz tenni egy próbát. Bejött a Futni mentem, mindenki Herendi Gáborral akar dolgozni Blikk     2025-02-04 19:14:08     Film Mozi Udvaros Dorottya Herendi Gábor A rendszerváltás óta eltelt időszak legnézettebb magyar filmje lett Herendi Gábor tavaly év végén bemutatott mozija, a Futni mentem, amely immár 663 ezer nézőnél jár, s ezzel átadta a múltnak A miniszter félrelép rekordját. Az Udvaros Dorottya főszereplésével vászonra került film rendezője büszke és boldog, de nem dőlt hátra, máris tervezi az új fi Ingyen elolvasható magyarul a Powerless – Hatalom nélkül előzménye! Sorok között     2025-02-04 19:03:15     Könyv Csodálatos meglepetést kaptunk a Powerless – Hatalom nélkül magyar kiadójától, a Lampion könyvektől. Másolom is a Facebookon közzétett posztjukat: Már csak nagyjából egy hónap, és érkezik Lauren Roberts nagy sikerű Powerless – Hatalom nélkül című romantasy regényének folytatása! Előtte azonban, hogy könnyebben visszarázódjatok Paedyn és Kai történe Tévénézettség: egy dologra már biztos jó volt a TV2-nek A Kiképzés port.hu     2025-02-05 06:00:00     Film Hétvége TV2 A hétköznapjaikat még feljebb tudták tuningolni, olyannyira, hogy mind az ötöt megnyerték. A hétvégéken azonban rendre alulmaradtak az RTL-lel szemben. Bulimiával küzdött a Házasság első látásra arája Story     2025-02-05 07:00:33     Bulvár Párkapcsolat Kajdi Csaba Több oka is volt, hogy Dávid Petránál evészavar alakult ki. Az egyik, hogy még Kajdi Csaba is beszólt neki az edzőteremben. A további adásainkat keresd a podcast.hirstart.hu oldalunkon.

"Remegsz, kicsi?" – Rég röhögtünk úgy az állam túlkapásain, mint a Loupe új darabját nézve WMN     2025-02-04 18:06:00     Színpad Színház A Loupe Színházi Társulás legújabb darabja, a Titkosszolgák – avagy kiesett, kiugrott vagy kilökték első ránézésre abszurd, másodikra pedig fájdalmasan ismerős helyzetet dolgoz fel. Vinnai András rendszerkritikában bővelkedő tragikomédiáját Horváth János Antal állította színpadra. Kern András csak sejti, miért lett rosszul a decemberi előadáson Librarius     2025-02-05 08:00:51     Színpad Kern András Kern András elmagyarázta, hogy bár a vizsgálatok eredményei megnyugtatták, a történtek alapján valószínűleg egy pánikrohamról lehet szó. Faculty - Az invázium: Idegenek kontra tinédzserek, a tét ismételten az emberiség fennmaradása Mafab     2025-02-05 06:33:02     Film Talán ez a film volt az első DVD-lemezem, amit anno megvásároltam, több mint húsz esztendeje (ha jól emlékszem, a Házimozi magazin mellékleteként). Talán ez az emlék miatt, de az is lehet, hogy maga a film miatt, mindig egyfajta nosztalgiával tekintek vissza Robert Rodriguez 1998-as filmjére, ami, hát valljuk be, nem is sikerült annyira rosszul. Mi 7 alkalom, amikor egy sorozat utolsó évada annyira rossz lett, hogy a rajongók teljesen kiábrándultak Joy     2025-02-05 09:01:00     Film A sorozat fanoknak nincs is nagyobb rémálma a kaszán túl annál, mint amikor a kedvenc szériájuk pocsék befejezést kap. Február 5-én történt kultura.hu     2025-02-05 00:02:00     Film Mozi 1919-ben ezen a napon alapította meg Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks és D. W. Griffith a United Artists filmstúdiót, hogy független gyártású filmjeiket forgalmazhassák. A vállalkozás az aranykorát az 1920-as években élte, de később is számos emlékezetes mozi – többek között a Hair, a Rocky, az Annie Hall, az Esőember, a Hét mester Helyszíni közvetítéssel érkezik a Super Bowl Márkamonitor     2025-02-05 06:06:01     Film NFL Super Bowl Médiatörténelmi Super Bowl adás, 2029-ig meghosszabbított szerződés az Nfl-lel, 18-féle autó-motorsport sorozat idén és persze rengeteg labdarúgás – bejelentéseket tett a Network4 Media Group. A vállalat évindító sajtóeseményén a Net4+ streaming szolgáltatás számairól is szó esett.   "Büszkék vagyunk arra, hogy páratlanul értékes sportjogokkal rend Az egyik legjobb Mission: Impossible-mozi is ott van a hét legfontosabb streamingpremierjei között Player     2025-02-05 10:06:04     Film Mozi Ezen a héten is összegyűjtöttünk tíz olyan alkotást, amely most kerül be valamelyik streamingszolgáltató kínálatába, és amellyel érdemes lesz tenni egy próbát. Bejött a Futni mentem, mindenki Herendi Gáborral akar dolgozni Blikk     2025-02-04 19:14:08     Film Mozi Udvaros Dorottya Herendi Gábor A rendszerváltás óta eltelt időszak legnézettebb magyar filmje lett Herendi Gábor tavaly év végén bemutatott mozija, a Futni mentem, amely immár 663 ezer nézőnél jár, s ezzel átadta a múltnak A miniszter félrelép rekordját. Az Udvaros Dorottya főszereplésével vászonra került film rendezője büszke és boldog, de nem dőlt hátra, máris tervezi az új fi Ingyen elolvasható magyarul a Powerless – Hatalom nélkül előzménye! Sorok között     2025-02-04 19:03:15     Könyv Csodálatos meglepetést kaptunk a Powerless – Hatalom nélkül magyar kiadójától, a Lampion könyvektől. Másolom is a Facebookon közzétett posztjukat: Már csak nagyjából egy hónap, és érkezik Lauren Roberts nagy sikerű Powerless – Hatalom nélkül című romantasy regényének folytatása! Előtte azonban, hogy könnyebben visszarázódjatok Paedyn és Kai történe Tévénézettség: egy dologra már biztos jó volt a TV2-nek A Kiképzés port.hu     2025-02-05 06:00:00     Film Hétvége TV2 A hétköznapjaikat még feljebb tudták tuningolni, olyannyira, hogy mind az ötöt megnyerték. A hétvégéken azonban rendre alulmaradtak az RTL-lel szemben. Bulimiával küzdött a Házasság első látásra arája Story     2025-02-05 07:00:33     Bulvár Párkapcsolat Kajdi Csaba Több oka is volt, hogy Dávid Petránál evészavar alakult ki. Az egyik, hogy még Kajdi Csaba is beszólt neki az edzőteremben. A további adásainkat keresd a podcast.hirstart.hu oldalunkon.

Cirina Catania, host of OWC RADiO, and Larry O'Connor, CEO and Founder of Other World Computing, discuss the fires in Southern California and what we should do to protect our media if we have to evacuate. We send our warmest thoughts and prayers to those who have lost their homes and the families of those who lost their lives. If you have had to evacuate, our sympathies are with you. During this crisis and those recently undergone by people in North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and other areas impacted by horrific natural disasters, we couldn't help but think about the advice we might give to help all of us prepare. Heaven forbid something else happens, but let's be ready if it does. This episode of OWC RADiO is advice on what to do if you have valuable media. What hardware, software, media management tools, and peripherals should you be prepared to take with you? If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works daily to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient, and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and discover an ecosystem serving your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is on the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists, and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CE,O and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, the National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television, and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C., and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job!

Michael Kammes is a technology visionary in the media and entertainment industry, with nearly 20 years of experience designing and building production and post-production workflows, systems, and facility integrations. As Senior Director of Innovation at Shift Media, Michael plays a pivotal role in shaping cutting-edge solutions for the industry. He's also held leadership roles at BeBop Technology and Key Code Media, showcasing his expertise in cloud-based post-production and systems integration. Beyond the technical side, Michael's creative work includes roles as a Dialogue Editor, Supervising Sound Editor, and Re-Recording Mixer. An Apple Certified Trainer, Avid Certified Support Representative, and member of Motion Picture Sound Editors, Michael is a sought-after speaker on trends in post-production and hosts the popular "5 THINGS" podcast, which draws an audience of industry insiders worldwide. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! Michael Kammes has visited OWC RADiO on several occasions and if you'd like to follow him further, visit any of the following links: 1. About his book on Remote Collaboration, 2. Virtualizing Post Production in the Cloud with Bebop Tech, 3. NAB 2019 ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and creates hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is long-term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists, and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO, and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, and Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, the National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television, and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery.

In our 3rd episode with Lalit Modi, we will dive deep into the crazy 2nd Season of the IPL (which was held in South Africa) and as a bonus discuss the stories behind the creation of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20), including the Mumbai Terrorist attacks.  As always fascinating stories and some never before heard details.   Key Highlights Year 2 of the IPL – what happened and why Media rights re-negotiations and big win for IPL Newscorp enters frame NDTV deal  and how Sony ended up with the rights again Indian elections, national security risk and what happens next Finding a new host country – enter South Africa (one year before them hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010) Dealing with two South African Presidents Bringing the teams, media, fans, etc to South Africa Launching a USD 100 million media and marketing blitz in South Africa (including concerts, etc) Miss IPL Pageantry Kick off in Cape Town IPL impact to South African economy, estimated USD 1 billion Massive viewership increase in India as well – 400% Champions League T20 – the creation and stories Ownership of Format -  India (50%), South Africa (25%) and Australia (25%) Founding Federations have two teams, everyone else one team entering the competition Broadcast deal auction – huge drama and how ESPN/Star Sports won it and overpaid for it UAE keen to host it for next 10 years – makes bid Terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, Nov 26th, just days before the start of the first competition – tournament is canceled Lalit's detailed recollection of having friends and colleagues at the hotels and getting them out Stay tuned for the final Episode 4, how it all went wrong and hear Lalit's side of the story………   About Globally recognized leader, Executive Director of Modi Enterprises, with business interests across nearly every industry vertical. Built a billion-dollar brand in less than a year, launched a revolution to Indian broadcast entertainment, and negotiated partnerships with ESPN, Disney, Google, Ten Sports, B4U, Fashion TV, Voyages TV, Buena Vista Television, United Artists, Marvel, Nike and others. International business strategist who catalyzes transformation and change by capitalizing on unmet demand in domestic and overseas markets. Embraces technology and creates opportunities to enrich lives, create sustainable revenue, and optimize productivity through integration of emerging platforms in social and digital. An entrepreneur at heart with a phenomenal ability to connect people and ideas into revenue-generating enterprises, an active member of the board for one of the oldest and most successful industrial conglomerates in India, and the thought- leader behind radical change in India's leading Cricket administration, the BCCI. Recognized by Time, Sports Illustrated, Business Week, Forbes, Business Standard, and other influential global media outlets for launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of world's most popular Cricket organizations. Was Awarded ‘Indian of the Century” by India Today in Forbes nominated Modi as “Rainmaker of the Century” Against extensive political and economic challenges, brought IPL to South Africa, and sustained the same phenomenal levels of viewership and attendance despite the move. Columbia University and Stanford University Both did case studies on Modi, which are still being taught in Universities across the world. Created billions dollar opportunities, and played an integral role in shaping the cultural direction of Modern India as visionary behind transformational changes in broadcast, sports, entertainment, and consumer products.   Follow us on our social sites for the latest updates Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsentrepreneurs/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcusluerpodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sports-entrepreneurs Website: https://marcusluer.com Podcast: https://marcusluer.com/podcast To get in touch, please email us at podcast@marcusluer.com Feel Good by MusicbyAden https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_feel-good Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/bvgIqqRStcQ

LEGENDARY TV ACTRESS STEFANI POWERS STEFANI POWERS BIO Biography Stefanie Powers began her career as a teenager dancing for the Michele Paniaff Ballet Company and Jerome Robbins. At 16 she was put under contract to Columbia Pictures in the twilight of the Hollywood Studio System where she made 15 motion pictures and was loaned to United Artists for the John Wayne production of [error]. MGM Television bought her contract from Columbia to present her as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966). Her television credits include over 200 guest appearances, 18 mini-series and 2 more weekly series, The Feather and Father Gang (1976) and the long-running Hart to Hart (1979). Her long career has included appearances on the stage beginning in 1964 with "Under the Yum Yum Tree" in San Francisco which ran for 12 years after its initial opening. She has appeared on and off Broadway in musical shows and tributes; in the West End in the musical, "Matador" and "Love Letters". Appearances on the British stage included "The King and I", "The Adjustment" and "84 Charing Cross Road." Her stage appearances in the United States include "Annie Get Your Gun", "Oliver", "Applause" (the revival), "Sunset Boulevard" and "Gotta Dance" directed by Jerry Mitchell. In 2018 she appeared in the film The Artist's Wife (2019) with Lena Olin and Bruce Dern and a revival in London of "84 Charing Cross Road." She has an active life in wildlife conservation and is the creator of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, formed after the death of her long-time life partner William Holden. In that vein she has received numerous fellowships and awards for her tireless field work in conservation and is a faculty member of the Oxford Literary Festival at Christ Church College at Oxford where she heads forums with authors of outstanding books dealing with the crucial environmental issues of our day. She's been on the boards of four zoos in North America and is an independent board member of a cluster of 3 mutual funds which are a part of the American Funds, one of the largest mutual funds families in the world. She presented the PBS 13 part series, "Funding Your Dreams" as a road map for women contemplating investment options. As a member of the Writers' Guild of America she was nominated for her script of "Family Secrets", received five Emmy nominations for acting roles and a People's Choice Award. She resides in Los Angeles, London and Kenya. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Stefanie Powers  

Brian Burke is the Mac Man at Other World Computing. He and his team manage thousands upon thousands of transactions each year from people who have computer equipment lying around and would love to sell it for a very competitive price.  Listen in as our host, Cirina Catania, gets a quick quote live on the air for her MacPro. SellYourMac.com is owned by OWC and they love to buy and sell all kinds of equipment.  If you want to sell some of your gear but were not happy with the bid from Apple, visit Brian at Sell Your Mac!  If you have overspent during the holidays, take a moment and learn how to MAKE money rather than spend it! It's easier on the budget!  And when you get that check and are ready to buy more gear you absolutely must have, visit this special URL at MacSales.com and enter the code: OWCRADIO24 for 15% off on anything OWC-branded. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners.You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival.

Director Mateusz "Matt" Balcerek, interviewed here by our host, Cirina Catania, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 lister with a keen creative vision, blending personal stories and widely universal pop themes into his filmmaking roster. As the Founder of Sounds Better Productions, with offices in London, Warsaw, and LA, he leads the company in producing premium content across scripted series, feature films, and unscripted shows.  In his short film “Sunflower," Matt brings his family's history to life, creating a cinematic experience that resonates deeply with both the heart and the conscience. He talks about the behind-the-scenes making of the film, his family, the true story that inspired it, his amazing crew, and their hope for the future. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe, give us a review, and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. If you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient, and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. ABOUT OUR HOST: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker with over 150 projects to her credit, several of which have won Academy Awards. She is the former Sr VP of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former executive director of the Sundance Film Festival.

Lalit Modi, the founder of the IPL (Indian Premier League), sharing his in-depth recount and incredible details on how the IPL was created in this episode. How he orchestrated everything from the players, media deals, team owners to sponsors, and all within a few months.   Key Highlights Recap of Episode #1 Putting an “A team” together to make the IPL a reality, bringing IMG into the group (on success basis), finding the best experts from around the world, etc Learning from the best Leagues in the world to create a new franchise model First on the agenda, securing the top 100 players from around the world – challenges with scheduling of other Cricket globally Window from March-May was identified and locked in Creating the auction process and selling the idea to the players – brackets for players created – Minimum/Maximum cap spend on players USD 4- 5.5 mil by teams “Controversy” a key component of his strategy – keep media and people talking and guessing (free PR) “14 days” of playing Cricket  - players paid per day – USD 20k – 100k per day and some as high as USD 200k – so over USD 2 mil for the whole season  Lots of resistance at first with Media Owners – Nimbus thought they should own it because of the deal with the BCCI, black listed Murdoch (Fox), Zee TV already started ICL (competing competition) Need to create interest and competition with other broadcasters and agencies (aiming for USD 1 billion over 10 years) WSG (World Sports Group) bid USD 1b (both domestic and global rights) – partnered with SONY for year 1 in India Mapped out advertising inventory during the Match time Right to broadcast only, production done by League, etc Target USD 59 million in Year one as minimum to pay Teams (de-risk the purchase of team franchises – min USD 50 mil per franchise was his target (paid over 10 yrs) Key – an 8 pm ICT start, not to compete with other Indian Cricket afternoon slots – targeting Bollywood and entertainment budgets and appeal to Women in the household (who control the TV remote control at that time slot in the Indian household in those days) Next target – Team owners and the right profile – Shah Rukh Khan became key , Mukesh & Anil Ambani, Vijay Mallya, etc Bid for all cities allowed, highest bidder wins, if bidder wins more than one city, bidder can chose which city he wants to take Bids ranged from USD 65-120 mil  (for 10 yrs) Open process – in front of media and cameras Teams don't own Stadiums – not allowed Shah Rukh Khan – Nokia – sponsors his team and how that helped with upfront funding Everything done between January – April before the first ball was played Principal Sponsor deals for the League – USD 10 mil per year for title, USD 8 mil for associate – and stories behind it No open Media access to the matches – deliberate “controversy” strategy At the time already secured – USD 100 mil cheque for media (Year 1), USD 75 mil (10% of franchise fee) before it even started (not including sponsorship yet) Bidding process for Sponsorship rights (Hero Honda, DLF, etc) – DLF Indian Premier League Associate sponsor deals – Citi, Vodaphone, Kingfisher, etc Opening Ceremony and first game -  Shah Rukh Khan vs Vijay Mallya Sony struggling to get distribution across the country – not nationwide yet.   On day of first game, Lalit opens the doors to all media to cover the game. Sony furious. 100% TV coverage across India, all over the news and press   Shah Rukh Khan's teams win – Bollywood stars celebrating on the field – huge success Sony distribution went through the roof.  IPL was an instant success from then on Secret sauce – Competitive high profile owners, Shah Rukh Khan for entertainment and women audience, music, cheerleaders, etc To be continued…….   About Globally recognized leader, Executive Director of Modi Enterprises, with business interests across nearly every industry vertical. Built a billion-dollar brand in less than a year, launched a revolution to Indian broadcast entertainment, and negotiated partnerships with ESPN, Disney, Google, Ten Sports, B4U, Fashion TV, Voyages TV, Buena Vista Television, United Artists, Marvel, Nike and others. International business strategist who catalyzes transformation and change by capitalizing on unmet demand in domestic and overseas markets. Embraces technology and creates opportunities to enrich lives, create sustainable revenue, and optimize productivity through integration of emerging platforms in social and digital. An entrepreneur at heart with a phenomenal ability to connect people and ideas into revenue-generating enterprises, an active member of the board for one of the oldest and most successful industrial conglomerates in India, and the thought- leader behind radical change in India's leading Cricket administration, the BCCI. Recognized by Time, Sports Illustrated, Business Week, Forbes, Business Standard, and other influential global media outlets for launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of world's most popular Cricket organizations. Was Awarded ‘Indian of the Century” by India Today in Forbes nominated Modi as “Rainmaker of the Century” Against extensive political and economic challenges, brought IPL to South Africa, and sustained the same phenomenal levels of viewership and attendance despite the move. Columbia University and Stanford University Both did case studies on Modi, which are still being taught in Universities across the world. Created billions dollar opportunities, and played an integral role in shaping the cultural direction of Modern India as visionary behind transformational changes in broadcast, sports, entertainment, and consumer products.   Follow us on our social sites for the latest updates Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsentrepreneurs/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcusluerpodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sports-entrepreneurs Website: https://marcusluer.com Podcast: https://marcusluer.com/podcast To get in touch, please email us at podcast@marcusluer.com Feel Good by MusicbyAden https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_feel-good Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/bvgIqqRStcQ

It would still prove to be the American Century, but now it was overshadowed by the threat of the atom's power. Air raid shelters were built in public buildings. Families dug and poured concrete in their backyards to construct personal bomb shelters. Food was stocked, with water, batteries, Bibles, bunk beds and lawn chairs. The US government produced films on how to survive an atomic war, and what our duties as citizens were in that event. Don't believe me? Find the documentary The Atomic Café and decide what the government and military were trying to sell us. I was one of the millions of kids who learned to survive (perhaps?) an atomic blast by ducking and covering under my desk at school. At least survive the initial blast. The radiation was a different story. It was all responsible for an underlying uneasiness at all times, a subtle terror. This coupled perfectly with the feelings of unseen threat and malaise that film noir captured. The style or genre was at the end of its first and classic cycle in the US by the mid 50s and the height of anti-Communist and atomic fear. But it had a final entry that pulled it all together with a director and cast that was little equaled, then or now --- Robert Aldrich's 1955 Kiss Me Deadly, a classic film noir and fundamental influence on the French New Wave and auteurs such as Godard and Truffaut, as well as extending into the modern era, as we shall see next month. Distributed by United Artists, it had a winding path to excellence, but it's now widely acknowledged as a mainstay of noir, stuffed with talent.Website and blog: www.thosewonderfulpeople.comIG: @thosewonderfulpeopleTwitter: @FilmsInTheDark

Note from our producers: Use the code OWCRADIO2024 for 15% off any OWC-branded products at www.macsales.com! Happy Holidays :) Heather Hale, interviewed by our host, Cirina Catania, is a film and television director, screenwriter, producer, consultant, speaker, and author with over 200 hours of produced credits that have received multiple Emmys, ACE, and Telly awards. She has written numerous books on the entertainment business and is also a sought-after speaker and consultant.  An adventure traveler/athlete, Ms. Hale climbed Mt. Fuji (alone), skied a glacier in Sweden, ran a marathon in Dublin, Ireland, cliff-jumped in Jamaica, dog-sledded atop an iceberg in Alaska, sea-kayaked with Killer Whales breaching nearby, and rode Arabians across the Sahara Desert to celebrate the first dawn of the new millennium in sequins at the base of the pyramids. On top of all that…Heather is a master gardener, a seed keeper, a KOI pond Mama, and an artist! Truly a Renaissance woman.  This is a fun interview with a truly talented woman and we think you'll enjoy it. Cirina said she'd like to grow up and BE Heather Hale!!! If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com (use the code OWCRADIO2024 for 15% off OWC Branded Products), for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is on the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists, and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO, and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO, partner, Lumberjack System, and Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, the National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television, and new media projects for the big screen and networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C., and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that, after all these years, she still loves her job!

Lalit Modi, the Architect and Founder of the IPL (Indian Premier League) – we recorded four episodes to go very deep into his amazing stories from his early days as a young entrepreneur making his marks, to his entry into Cricket (board of BCCI) to the creation of the IPL and controversies after.  Lots of amazing stories, facts and anecdotes many told for the first time.    Key Highlights Lalit's early day, joining the family Tobacco business (Godfrey Philipps India) – the three criteria for the family to support a business JV with Disney in India – licensing, merchandise, etc  (Michael Eisner his mentor)  - looking to launch sports channel with ESPN – movies, etc Early days of DTH and cable operators in India – Star TV (Prime Sports later Star Sports) Placing Disney TV program on Doordarshan (DD) – huge hit Rupert Murdoch coming into the picture – Modi Entertainment Network – Zee TV story Power of Database from Godfrey Philipps India to launch sports network – IMG Bill Sinrich early days of sales of Indian Cricket rights Leveraging Indian Cricket rights to launch an encrypted sports channel (first India's Pay channel)   Lalit entering Cricket space – Mark Mascarenhas (Worldtel) – the key broker at the time 2002/3 – first time the concept of an Indian Cricket League comes up – 50 over game – Indian Cricket League (ICL) 2005 – Lalit becoming VP of BCCI – commercialization of Indian cricket taking off under his leadership First Lalit cancels Sahara contract – (paying only USD 100k per year, front of Jersey) – pushed to USD 1 mil per Day of Cricket (105 days) Nike new kit deal – (Reebok small deal before) – Nike bids 52 mil per year during tender process Terminating Murdoch's media contract story – new tender pushing fees up 10x – bids over USD 500 million – political pressure Harish Thawani – Nimbus – USD 612-625 mil (4 years) – launched NEO Sports on back of it ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa, 2007 - re-ignites the ideas of a T20 League BCCI board gives Lalit a green light to explore the idea since he had already made some a few billions over the past 2 years Indian Players not very enthusiastic – hadn't played the format Subhash Chandra – ZEE TV owner -  copied idea and launched ICL first – lots of issues BCCI stops Indian national team players from joining – international players joined IMG - Andrew Wildblood – enters the frame – Lalit hires them to put the concept together  (Aug 2007) Lalit knows key is for India to do well in T20 WC - offers a Porsche for Six Sixes to any Indian player to motivate them to win the T20 WC Negotiating with international players in South Africa Rudra Singh hits six sixes - India vs England – huge news, Indian fans catch the fever and Indian wins the WC Open Double Decker Bus parade for players – pouring rain on that day – team arriving from South Africa – nine hour tour – 4 million people on the streets T20 was the new buzz word in India – story to be continued………   About Globally recognized leader, Executive Director of Modi Enterprises, with business interests across nearly every industry vertical. Built a billion-dollar brand in less than a year, launched a revolution to Indian broadcast entertainment, and negotiated partnerships with ESPN, Disney, Google, Ten Sports, B4U, Fashion TV, Voyages TV, Buena Vista Television, United Artists, Marvel, Nike and others. International business strategist who catalyzes transformation and change by capitalizing on unmet demand in domestic and overseas markets. Embraces technology and creates opportunities to enrich lives, create sustainable revenue, and optimize productivity through integration of emerging platforms in social and digital. An entrepreneur at heart with a phenomenal ability to connect people and ideas into revenue-generating enterprises, an active member of the board for one of the oldest and most successful industrial conglomerates in India, and the thought- leader behind radical change in India's leading Cricket administration, the BCCI. Recognized by Time, Sports Illustrated, Business Week, Forbes, Business Standard, and other influential global media outlets for launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL), one of world's most popular Cricket organizations. Was Awarded ‘Indian of the Century” by India Today in Forbes nominated Modi as “Rainmaker of the Century” Against extensive political and economic challenges, brought IPL to South Africa, and sustained the same phenomenal levels of viewership and attendance despite the move. Columbia University and Stanford University Both did case studies on Modi, which are still being taught in Universities across the world. Created billions dollar opportunities, and played an integral role in shaping the cultural direction of Modern India as visionary behind transformational changes in broadcast, sports, entertainment, and consumer products.   Follow us on our social sites for the latest updates Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sportsentrepreneurs/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcusluerpodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sports-entrepreneurs Website: https://marcusluer.com Podcast: https://marcusluer.com/podcast To get in touch, please email us at podcast@marcusluer.com Feel Good by MusicbyAden https://soundcloud.com/musicbyaden Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_feel-good Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/bvgIqqRStcQ

We are thrilled to introduce you to Kevin Nicklaus. He is the powerhouse head of production at Sandstone Artists in LA. Kevin has been instrumental in shaping iconic shows like Bates Motel and Roots, and is now exec-producing groundbreaking projects such as the first live-action English adaptations of Junji Ito's work. Before we jump in, don't miss out—use code OWCRADiO24 at macsales.com for exclusive 15% savings on OWC branded products. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is to the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job!

Hey lovelies! We're so excited to finally be back in your ear balls with our first full episode of Season 4! We sit and chat with the amazing duo, Jordan ‘Joho' Daniels (He/Him) and Dr. Jon Paul (They/Them) of the Black, Fat, Femme Podcast (BFF).  We dive into the intersectional experience of being queer, POC and fat plus how to use fear as a catalyst for change, how to maintain your self worth through the current political season, and building a mindset and life for yourself, where the limit does not exist (don't listen to your inner plastics). We hope you enjoy this episode! FEATURED GUESTS: Dr. Jonathan Paul Higgins (They/them) Instagram | Twitter | Website | BioSite Dr Jon Paul is a Leo and an educator, professor, national speaker, freelance journalist, thought leader, and media critic who is passionate about television and film. A Culture Strike 2021 Disruptor and Twitter Spaces Spark Creator, Dr. Higgins is a trailblazer who is creating, sharing, and crafting the stories their ancestors didn't get to tell. Dr. Higgins has held positions at both Chernin Entertainment & Edith Productions and currently consults at United Artists, Amazon, and other media leaders. Some fun facts about them are that they were on “Nailed It” and that they are an avid user of Peloton. Jordan 'JoHo' Daniels (He/Him) Instagram | Twitter  JoHo is a Libra and a Fat Queer Afro-Jew writer, photographer, activist, and fashionista. As co-host of the BFF: Black Fat Femme podcast, JoHo focuses on diving deep into the guests' experiences, their power as BFFs, and their joy. As a creative, Jordan has been featured locally and nationally in publications such as Tablet Magazine, Essence, and San Diego Voyager. During his free time, Jordan plays kickball in his queer kickball league, volunteers in the community, and spends his weekends at museums and art galleries." EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: 00:00 Welcome to Queerify! 01:48 Introducing the New Season and Guests 02:49 Meet Dr. John Paul and Joho 03:41 Diving into Personal Quirks and Interests 05:08 Discussing the Spectrum of Sexuality 05:50 Celebrity Crushes and Attraction 11:00 The Birth of the Black Fat Femme Podcast 15:40 Navigating Identity and Intersectionality 29:12 Wellness Journeys and Self-Care Practices 37:21 Nature and Personal Preferences 37:50 Relaxation and Popcorn 38:37 Social Media Habits 39:38 Good and Evil Inclinations 42:10 Advocacy and Fear 45:33 Standing Your Ground 49:07 The Power of Collective Action 54:44 Messages of Hope and Resilience 01:02:50 Radical Acceptance 01:07:57 Closing Remarks and Socials

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, Kevin Tumlinson, and Jena Brown as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including how Marvel and DC lost their Super Hero trademark, the elite college students that can't read books, and publishing made perfect. Then, stick around for a chat with Richard Chizmar! RICHARD CHIZMAR is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author. He is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the bestselling novella, Gwendy's Button Box and the founder/publisher of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint. He has edited more than 35 anthologies and his short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including multiple editions of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA's Board of Trustee's award. Chizmar (in collaboration with Johnathon Schaech) has also written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, Showtime, NBC, and many other companies. He has adapted the works of many bestselling authors including Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Bentley Little. Chizmar is also the creator/writer of the online website, Stephen King Revisited. His fourth short story collection, The Long Way Home, was published in 2019. With Brian Freeman, Chizmar is co-editor of the acclaimed Dark Screams horror anthology series published by Random House imprint, Hydra. His latest book, The Girl on the Porch, was released in hardcover by Subterranean Press, and Widow's Point, a chilling novella about a haunted lighthouse written with his son, W.H. Chizmar, was recently adapted into a feature film. Chizmar's work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor. You can follow Richard Chizmar on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also check out the Richard Chizmar Fan Page set up by his readers. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/writersink/support

Stay in touch and sign up for Paco's weekly email newsletter, The Nerdletter. In this episode of Weird Finance, Paco talks to Katherine Kubler about her journey as a director, producer and filmmaker. Katherine talks about her early career at William Morris Endeavor and Paramount Pictures, and her passion for financial independence ignited by a lack of formal education on the subject. She candidly shares the challenges of navigating public perception and personal trauma while working on her Netflix documentary, The Program, which explores her harrowing time in a cult-like program. Katherine also talks about the importance of building a supportive community, transitioning from a skilled editor to a business owner, and balancing the public's expectations with her private life. Katherine Kubler (@katherinekubler) is a Los Angeles-based Writer, Director, and Editor. She is the owner and Executive Creative Director of Tiny Dino (@tinydinoagency), an award-winning creative agency whose clients include Paramount Pictures, United Artists, MGM, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Amazon, and Roku. She develops film/tv projects through her production company, Omnivision.Katherine recently directed and executive produced the Netflix original documentary series The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping with Academy Award-winning production company Fishbowl Films. Now streaming.The theme music was written and performed by Andrew Parker, Jenna Parker, and Paco de Leon.If you'd like to contact us about the show or ask Paco a question about finances, email us at weirdfinancepod (at) gmail.com or submit your questions here. We'd also love your listener feedback about the show; here's a short survey.

Send Kevin a Text MessageIn this episode of "Don't Kill the Messenger," host Kevin Goetz sits down with Hollywood power couple Paula Wagner and Rick Nicita. Wagner has worked in the top ranks of the entertainment industry as a talent agent, studio executive, and producer. She co-founded Cruise/Wagner Productions with Tom Cruise, producing blockbuster hits like the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. Nicita worked as a successful talent agent for 5 decades before turning to production and consultation. He is currently Chairman of the American Cinematheque. Together, Wagner and Nicita offer insight into cultivating some of the most successful careers in Hollywood.Early Careers and Transition to Becoming Agents (02:21)Paula Wagner shares her journey from actress to agent while Rick Nicita recounts his path from law school dropout to William Morris. The couple then talk about how they met.Hollywood Speed Round and the Art of Being an Agent (14:45)Rick talks about some famous clients including Kevin Costner and Nicole Kidman in a celebrity speed round, and the trio discuss negotiating deals, choosing the right projects, and the importance of building long-term relationships.Memorable Career Moments (28:04)Paula talks about her involvement with Tom Cruise in Rain Man and Born on the 4th of July, and Rick discusses shares his experiences with high profile clients.Cruise/Wagner Productions and United Artists (32:57)Paula discusses her partnership with Tom Cruise, and the pair share the challenges of reviving United Artists while navigating industry changes and economic crises.The Changing Landscape of Hollywood (40:00)The trio discuss stardom, and how it has changed over the years, delving into the challenges of creating new movie stars and the future of audience engagement and storytelling.Broadway and Beyond (48:00)Paula shares about her transition to Broadway producing and her upcoming projects High Noon, and The Others. The couple reflects on the art of balancing film and theater productions.Paula Wagner and Rick Nicita's careers offer a unique, insider perspective on the genesis of some of Hollywood's biggest names. Wagner's journey from actress to top agent, then to successful film producer and now Broadway impresario, demonstrates her versatility and understanding of the creative process. Nicita's legacy as an agent and his transition to production and consulting highlight his expertise in talent management. Together, their experiences provide for a fascinating and inside look at how stars become stars.Host: Kevin GoetzGuest: Paula Wagner and Rick NicitaProducer: Kari CampanoWriters: Kevin Goetz, Darlene Hayman, and Kari CampanoAudio Engineer: Gary Forbes (DG Entertainment)For more information about Paula Wagner:Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_WagnerX (Formerly Twitter): https://x.com/producerpwagnerIMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0906048/For more information about Rick Nicita:Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_NicitaX (Formerly Twitter): https://x.com/ricknicita?lang=enIMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1131362/For more information about Kevin Goetz:Website: www.KevinGoetz360.comAudienceology Book:

Filmmaker and technologist Richard Taylor joins OWC RADiO host Cirina Catania to offer insights into his documentary on the 70's band, RAZZ. Learn about his workflow, handling legacy footage, color grading in Final Cut Pro, and insights on media management, editing, and archiving. If you enjoy our podcast, please like, subscribe, rate us, and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. If you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is to the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO, and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, the National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film and television projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations on the road. She is very proud that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job! For past interviews with Richard Taylor, navigate to Gossip and Gear with Richard Taylor, listen to Good Coffee and Good Audio for Podcasts, or search our database for other shows featuring Richard. Thanks for listening to OWC RADiO!

What if your Amazon packages could talk? What if they had palpitating, expectant hearts as they sped to your house? And, what a let down, after you'd ripped them open, shredded them, and left them for the recycler. What ingratitude, after their selfless commitment to your happiness.Tool-maker, turned bassist Gary Unwin brings this anthropomorphic idea to life, abetted by lead singer and Vox Continental organist Brian Bennett. Here, courtesy of the Hi Fi's, a busy, up and coming band of wannabe British invaders plying their rock n roll trade in Germany (as the Silver Beetles had done before them) - you get all the cringy, crooning drama (along with thumping timpani) you could want - and it's TNT.I discovered this diamond on an obscure Star-Club singles vinyl collection that Rich sent me after I bought my new turntable, and it captivated me from the first play. Of all the possible lyrical manifestations, a monologue delivered by a cardboard box, once lovingly wrapped and sent by one ardent lover to another via “the parcel farm,” and then abandoned, was beyond unexpected… and, just what I needed.

In this episode we strap on the mutton chops like biker Jesus pumped full of amphetamines and look straight up to the heavens with the voice of a demon for a warts ‘n all take on one of the most influential bands of the last fifty years.If you're not familiar with Motörhead, they are best known for the song, Ace of Spades and I have described them in the past as what it would sound like if Chuck Berry was hit by an out of control freight train driven by drunken pirates.While there have been many members over the years, and some were more important than others, there's only really one bloke who matters in the Motörhead story, Lemmy Kilmister.Lemmy wasn't a satanic metal head. But he was certainly anti-religion with songs like, [Don't Need] Religion, Bad Religion and God Was Never on Your Side. This episode also features cameo guest star appearances from Joseph of Nazareth, Ian Kilmister, Santa Claus, Wales, The Beatles, The Cavern Club, Liverpool, Europe, The Kinks, The Rockin Vicars, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Sam Gopal, Escalator, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Birds, Hawkwind, Silver Machine, Canada, Bastard, Top of the Pops, BBC, United Artists, On Parole, Phil ‘Philthy Animal' Taylor, ‘Fast' Eddie Clarke, NME, Ted Carroll, Chiswick Records, Mike Tyson, Snaggletooth, the War-Pig, Joe Petagno, Napoleon, Bronze Records, Austin Healy, No Sleep ‘till Hammersmith, Stand By Your Man, Plasmatics, Wendy O. Williams, The Young Ones, Miss Money Stirling, Ace of Spades, Mama I'm Coming Home, Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne, Nightmare/The Dreamtime, 1916, James Hetfield, Asteroid 250840 Motörhead, Asteroid 243002 Lemmy, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Lemmysuchus, The Natural History Museum, Lorna Steel, Hall of Heavy Metal History, Thrash Metal and New Wave of British Heavy Metal Sauceshttps://guitar.com/news/music-news/james-hetfield-ace-of-spades-tattoo-lemmy-ashes/ https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2017/august/fearsome-jurassic-crocodile-named-after-motorheads-lemmy.html https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/29/lemmy-kilmister-obituary https://www.universeguide.com/asteroid/21506/lemmy Inside Motörhead https://www.loudersound.com/news/lemmy-considered-breaking-up-motorhead-after-nme-readers-voted-them-the-best-worst-band-in-the-world Spin April 2009 Edition https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/growing-old-disgracefully-lemmy-on-heartbreak-ageing-and-his-penchant-for-nazi-memorabilia-2142747.html https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jul/11/news.culture#:~:text=Though%20no%20official%20statement%20has,Axis%20countries%2C%22%20he%20said. #666 #SketchComedy #Sketch #Comedy #Sketch Comedy #Atheist #Science #History #Atheism #Antitheist #ConspiracyTheory #Conspiracy #Conspiracies #Sceptical #Scepticism #Mythology #Religion #Devil #Satan #Skeptic #Debunk #SatanIsMySuperhero #Podcast #funny #sketch #skit #comedy #comedyshow #comedyskits #HeavyMetal #weird 

When embarking on your mokuhanga journey, whether through making or collecting, one name stands out above the rest: (pause) Yoshida. The Yoshida family of artists have helped create some of the most important and exciting mokuhanga prints of the last 100 years. Their designs, techniques, and marketing transformed the perception of prints in Japan and around the world.   I speak with Dr. Monika Hinkel, Lecturer in the Arts of East Asia at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies) at the University of London and an Academic Member of the Japan Research Centre. Dr. Hinkel is also the curator of the current exhibtion (at the time of recording)  about the Yoshida family of artists, titled Yoshida: Three Generations of Printmaking, being held at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, England.   Dr. Hinkel joins me to discuss the Yoshida family, from Hiroshi to Ayomi, the exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery—the first of its kind in the United Kingdom—the Yoshida family's history, and their impact on the global art community.   Please follow The Unfinished Print and my own mokuhanga work on Instagram @andrezadoroznyprints or email me at theunfinishedprint@gmail.com  Notes: may contain a hyperlink. Simply click on the highlighted word or phrase. Artists works follow after the note if available. Pieces are mokuhanga unless otherwise noted. Dimensions are given if known. Print publishers are given if known. Dulwich Picture Gallery - located in London, England the Dulwich Picture Gallery is the worlds first public "purpose-built" public art gallery founded in 1811.  Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) - was an American artist known for his innovative and boundary-defying work that blurred the lines between painting, sculpture, and everyday life. Emerging in the 1950s, Rauschenberg challenged the conventions of traditional art with his "Combines," a series of works that incorporated found objects, photographs, and non-traditional materials into paintings, creating dynamic, multi-dimensional pieces. Characterized by a spirit of experimentation and a desire to break down the distinctions between art and the real world, Rauschenberg played a crucial role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Charlene (1954) mixed media Pop Art - was an art movement from the 1950s and 1960s that incorporated imagery from popular culture, such as advertising, comic books, and consumer goods. It challenged traditional art by blurring the lines between high art and everyday life. Key figures like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used bold colors and familiar icons to both celebrate and critique consumer culture, making Pop Art one of the most influential movements in modern art. Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmakers - is the current exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from June 19, 2024 -  November 3, 2024.  Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) - a watercolorist, oil painter, and woodblock printmaker. Is associated with the resurgence of the woodblock print in Japan, and in the West. It was his early relationship with Watanabe Shōzaburō, having his first seven prints printed by the Shōzaburō atelier. This experience made Hiroshi believe that he could hire his own carvers and printers and produce woodblock prints, which he did in 1925.  Kumoi Cherry Tree 23" x 29 1/8 " (1926) Yoshida Fujio (1887-1997) - the wife of Hiroshi Yoshida and the mother of Tōshi Yoshida (1911-1995) and Hodaka Yoshida. Fujio was so much more than a mother and wife. She had a long and storied career as a painter and printmaker. Fujio's work used her travels and personal experiences to make her work. Subjects such as Japan during The Pacific War, abstraction, portraits, landscapes, still life, and nature were some of her themes. Her painting mediums were watercolour and oil. Her print work was designed by her and carved by Fujio.  Flower - B (1954) 15 3/4" x 10 5/8" Yoshida Tōshi (1911-1995) - was the second child of Hiroshi Yoshida and Fujio Yoshida, although the first to survive childhood. Beginning with oil paintings and then apprenticing under his father with woodblock cutting. By 1940 Tōshi started to make his mokuhanga. After his father's death in 1950, Tōshi began to experiment with abstract works and travel to the United States. Later travels to Africa evolved his prints, inspiring Tōshi with the world he experienced as his work focused on animals and nature.  American Girl A (1954) 15 7/8" x 11 1/8" Yoshida Chizuko (1924-2017) - was the wife of painter and printmaker Hodaka Yoshida. Beginning as an abstract painter, Chizuko, after a meeting with sōsaku hanga printmaker Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955), Chizuko became interested in printmaking. Chizuko enjoyed the abstraction of art, and this was her central theme of expression. Like all Yoshida artists, travel greatly inspired Chizuko's work. She incorporated the colours and flavours of the world into her prints. Jazz (1953) 15 3/4" x 11" Yoshida Hodaka (1926-1995) - was the second son of woodblock printmaker and designer Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950). Hodaka Yoshida's work was abstract, beginning with painting and evolving into printmaking. His inspirations varied as his career continued throughout his life, but Hodaka Yoshida's work generally focused on nature, "primitive" art, Buddhism, the elements, and landscapes. Hodaka Yoshida's print work used woodcut, photo etching, collage, and lithography, collaborating with many of these mediums and making original and fantastic works. Outside of prints Hodaka Yoshida also painted and created sculptures. Abstract (1958) 11" x 15 7/8" Yoshida Ayomi - is the daughter of Chizuko and Hodaka Yoshida. She is a visual artist who works in mokuhanga, installations and commercial design. Ayomi's subject matter is colour, lines, water, and shape. Ayomi's lecture referred to by Jeannie at PAM can be found here. She teaches printmaking and art. You can find more info here.  Spring Rain (2018) woodblock installation  Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), a designer of more than six hundred woodblock prints, is one of the most famous artists of the shin-hanga movement of the early twentieth century. Hasui began his career under the guidance of Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1971), joining several artistic societies early on. However, it wasn't until he joined the Watanabe atelier in 1918 that he began to gain significant recognition. Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) commissioned Hasui to design landscapes of the Japanese countryside, small towns, and scenes of everyday life. Hasui also worked closely with the carvers and printers to achieve the precise quality he envisioned for his prints. Spring Rain at Sakurada Gate (1952) 10 3/8" x 15 3/8" Shōzaburō Watanabe (1885-1962) - was one of the most important print publishers in Japan in the early 20th Century. His business acumen and desire to preserve the ukiyo-e tradition were incredibly influential for the artists and collectors in Japan and those around the world. Watanabe influenced other publishers, but his work in the genre is unparalleled. The shin-hanga (new print) movement is Watanabe's, collecting some of the best printers, carvers and designers to work for him. A great article by The Japan Times in 2022 discusses a touring exhibition of Watanabe's work called Shin Hanga: New Prints of Japan, which can be found here.    Impressionism - was an art movement that emerged in France in the late 19th century, characterized by a focus on capturing the fleeting effects of light and color in everyday scenes. Instead of detailed realism, Impressionist artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas used loose brushwork and vibrant colors to convey the atmosphere and momentary impressions of their subjects. This movement broke from traditional art by often painting en plein air (outdoors) and prioritizing personal perception over exact representation, leading to a revolutionary shift in modern art. Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) - was a key figure in the development of abstract art, known for using color and form to express emotions and ideas without representational content. His influential writings and innovative approach helped shape modern art, making him a central figure in movements like Expressionism and the Bauhaus. Stars (1938) 13 7/8" x 10 1/4" colour lithograph  Charles Freer (1854–1919) - was an American industrialist and art collector, best known for his significant contributions to the field of art through the establishment of the Freer Gallery of Art. Freer was a wealthy entrepreneur who made his fortune in the railroad industry. In his later years, he became an avid collector of art, particularly Asian art, including Chinese and Japanese ceramics, paintings, and sculptures. Nakagawa Hachiro (1877-1922) - was a close friend of Yoshida Hiroshi and traveled to the United States together for the first time in 1899. He was a yōga painter and showed primarily in Japan. Landcape in The Inland Sea 13.94" x 20.87" colour on watercolour  The Great Kanto Earthquake - struck Japan on September 1, 1923, with a magnitude of approximately 7.9. It devastated the Kanto region, including Tokyo and Yokohama, causing widespread destruction and fires that led to the deaths of over 100,000 people. The earthquake also resulted in significant infrastructure damage, homelessness, and economic disruption. In the aftermath, the disaster prompted major rebuilding efforts and urban planning changes. Additionally, the earthquake led to social and political unrest, including widespread anti-Korean sentiment, as rumors falsely blamed Korean immigrants for the disaster. Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) - born in Edo, Hiroshige is famous for his landscape series of that burgeoning city. The most famous series being, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-1859), and the landcape series, Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833-1834). His work highlights bokashi, and bright colours. More info about his work can be found, here.  Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji No. 21 Lake at Hakone 14" x 9 1/4" Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) - a designer of more than six hundred woodblock prints, Kawase Hasui is one of the most famous designers of the shin-hanga movement of the early twentieth century. Hasui began his career with the artist and woodblock designer Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1971), joining several artistic societies along the way early in his career. It wasn't until he joined the Watanabe atelier in 1918 that he really began to gain recognition. Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) had Hasui design landscapes of the Japanese country-side, small towns, and everyday life. Hasui also worked closely with the carvers and printers of his prints to reach the level Hasui wanted his prints to be.  Selection of Views of the Tokaido (1934) Bishu Seto Kilns 15 3/4"  x 10 3/8" Itō Shinsui (1898-1972) - Nihon-ga, and woodblock print artist and designer who worked for print publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962). Shinsui designed some of our most famous shin hanga, or “new” prints of the early 20th century. One of my favorites is “Fragrance of a Bath” 1930. Kasumi Teshigawara Arranging Chrysanthemums (1966) 21 7/8" x 16 1/2" Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) - is one of the most famous Japanese artists to have ever lived. Hokusai was an illustrator, painter and woodblock print designer. His work can be found on paper, wood, silk, and screen. His woodblock print design for Under The Wave off Kanagawa (ca. 1830-32) is beyond famous. His work, his manga, his woodblocks, his paintings, influence artists from all over the world.  Tama River in Musashi Province from 36 Views of Mount Fuji (1830-32) 9 7/8" x 14 7/8"  Boston Museum of Fine Arts - a museum with a rich history with Japanese artwork, especially woodblock prints. It holds the largest collection of Japanese art outside of Japan. Many of their woodblock prints are held online, here. A video on YouTube found, here, describing the MFA's history, and its collections.  Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955) - originally designing poetry and books Onchi became on of the most important sōsaku hanga artists and promotor of the medium. His works are highly sought after today. More info, here. Nijubashi Bridge to the Imperial Palace from Scenes of Lost Tokyo (1945) 7.8" x 11.1" published by Uemura Masuro Tarō Okamoto (1911–1996) was a prominent Japanese artist known for his avant-garde works and dynamic use of color and form. His art, which includes painting, sculpture, and public installations like the "Tower of the Sun," often explores themes of chaos and modernity. Okamoto was influential in Japanese contemporary art and also made significant contributions as a writer and cultural commentator. More info, here.  Seashore (1976) lithograph 5.55" × 22.05" Oliver Statler (1915-2002) -  was an American author and scholar and collector of mokuhanga. He had been a soldier in World War 2, having been stationed in Japan. After his time in the war Statler moved back to Japan where he wrote about Japanese prints. His interests were of many facets of Japanese culture such as accommodation, and the 88 Temple Pilgrimage of Shikoku. Oliver Statler, in my opinion, wrote one of the most important books on the sōsaku-hanga movement, “Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn.” St. Olaf College - is a private liberal arts college located in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1874 by Norwegian-American settlers, it has a strong emphasis on a comprehensive liberal arts education, integrating rigorous academics with a commitment to fostering critical thinking, leadership, and global citizenship. The college is known for its vibrant community, strong programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). St. Olaf is also recognized for its strong music program, including its acclaimed choir and music ensembles. More info, here. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) -  is an art museum in Detroit, Michigan, founded in 1885. It is known for its extensive collection of artworks from various cultures and periods, including significant American, European, and African art. The DIA is particularly famous for Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals and serves as a major cultural center with diverse exhibitions and educational programs. More info, here.   baren - is a Japanese word to describe a flat, round-shaped disc, predominantly used in creating Japanese woodblock prints. It is traditionally made of a cord of various types and a bamboo sheath, although baren have many variations.    Jeannie Kenmotsu, PhD - is the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon. She specializes in early modern Japanese art, with a focus on painting, illustrated books, and prints. Her interview with The Unfinished Print about her work about the Joryū Hanga Kyōkai can be found, here.    © Popular Wheat Productions opening and closing credit - by Gordon Lightfoot - Affair on 8th Avenue from the album Back Here On Earth (1968) on United Artists. logo designed and produced by Douglas Batchelor and André Zadorozny  Disclaimer: Please do not reproduce or use anything from this podcast without shooting me an email and getting my express written or verbal consent. I'm friendly :) Слава Українi If you find any issue with something in the show notes please let me know. ***The opinions expressed by guests in The Unfinished Print podcast are not necessarily those of André Zadorozny and of Popular Wheat Productions.***                        

On this week's Film Sack, we talk about Daughters of Satan! Daughters of Satan is a 1972 American horror film directed by Hollingsworth Morse and written by John C. Higgins. The film stars Tom Selleck, Barra Grant, Tani Guthrie, Paraluman, Vic Silayan and Vic Díaz. The film was released by United Artists in the fall of 1972, screening as a double feature with Superbeast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's Film Sack, we talk about Daughters of Satan! Daughters of Satan is a 1972 American horror film directed by Hollingsworth Morse and written by John C. Higgins. The film stars Tom Selleck, Barra Grant, Tani Guthrie, Paraluman, Vic Silayan and Vic Díaz. The film was released by United Artists in the fall of 1972, screening as a double feature with Superbeast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a Text Message.Follow us as we go back and see our old friend Paul Kersey who is now living in L.A. during the 80s. We don't remember a whole lot of this movie but we're guessing there are a bunch of punks who don't know who they're messing with and get what's coming to them. So we're just wondering if this is a sequel that tried something new or pretty much followed the same formula as the first film. Join us as we go back to 1982 and watch Charles Bronson clean up the streets of New York, we mean L.A, again, or for the first time, because it's L.A. or, well... we don't know. We just hope it's good. Do You Remember Liking This Movie?

Karen Bolt, the Development Executive for actor and activist Danny Glover, and an accomplished Independent Producer, is a close friend of our OWC RADiO host, Cirina Catania. Over the years, Karen and Cirina have collaborated on several of Mr. Glover's projects, including insightful interviews with Bob Moses head of the Algebra Project in San Francisco and one of the key instigators of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's. They also shared memorable experiences in Salt Lake City during the filming of "Just a Dream," directed by Danny Glover. Karen's impressive portfolio includes award-winning short films like "The Secret Weapon: Yesterday is Today" and "The McHenry Trial-Don't Judge a Kid by Their Hoodie," which have collectively garnered over 147 awards. In this episode, she shares invaluable advice for aspiring independent producers, drawing from her extensive experience in the industry. Cirina says, "As a poignant aside, after we hung up, I realized that our conversation reminded me of the fact that it has been 60 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed—a milestone closely tied to the legacy of Bob Moses, a key figure in that movement. We'll dive deeper into that topic in a future episode." Thank you for tuning in to OWC RADiO. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and many thanks to Other World Computing for sponsoring our show. Visit MacSales.com for an amazing selection of gear! ABOUT OUR HOST CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is to the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.”

Fred e Alexandre recebem Fábio Rockenbach (Curso "A Experiência do Cinema") e a estreante no PFC, Renata Teófilo (uma de nossas fiéis ouvintes), para debater um dos filmes mais controversos da história do cinema americano.  Acusado de ser o responsável por quase falir a lendária United Artists, execrado pela maioria dos críticos como "lixo fílmico", o épico de Michael Cimino sobre um dos aspectos mais sórdidos da formação dos Estados Unidos, "O Portal do Paraíso" (Heaven's Gate, 1980) é na verdade um excelente filme, que sofreu por conta de problemas da produção e por ter sido usado por alguns para esvaziar o poder de diretores que faziam sucesso na indústria nos anos 70.  Aos poucos, com a restauração e relançamento do filme, ele vem sendo redescoberto como um clássico genuíno do cinema de Hollywood. ---------------------- Acesse nosso site: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.filmesclassicos.com.br⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Acesse nossa página no Facebook : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/podcastfilmesclassicos/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hugh Cornwell takes us through early records of his life, rare records of the Stranglers, solo materials, analogue recording and more. Topic Include: Aussie tour, New Album Does Hugh have a record collection? Early music in the Cornwell household Hugh's early musical trainings Quitting PhD program to pursue music Formation and evolution of The Stranglers Recollection of the early UK punk scene Keyboards fill in a lot of sound United Artists investment in The Stranglers Bonus singles in early Stanglers albums Does Hugh have masters and tapes for post Stranglers material? Making materials available on vinyl Remixing and removing keyboards from recordings Running digital files to analogue provides improved sound Memories and learnings from Steve Albini Moments of Madness LP and road testing songs Leaving songs to be finished in the recording studio Song and lyric writing process Hugh's movie Podcast Discussion of Silent movies Interview wrap up Hugh Cornwell's Aussie tour info here Preorder new LP "All The Fun of the Fair" here. Extended, Commercial-Free & High Resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2Y6ORU0 Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36qhlc8

The names United Artists and James Bond once went together. That's no longer the case.

It's been 60 years since the release of The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night movie and the ensuing soundtrack. It was released in the summer of 1964 and was a huge hit. Of course, the music was also a huge hit. In fact, the movie had made a profit even before it was released because United Artists (the producers of the movie and, importantly, holders of the soundtrack rights) had advance orders of over 2-million in the U.S. alone for the soundtrack album.In that spirit, I'm re-releasing an episode from January of 2021 that I did with musician and producer Tim Bovaconti. Tim's a great guy and a very much in demand player on the Canadian music scene. His love of The Beatles and their music shines through in his words. Enjoy.

Andrew Murphy owns a video agency, Arise Digital, and coaches freelance videographers. His company helps industry experts build their authority online with short-form social media content. Listen in to his interview with our host, Cirina Catania, and learn more about the necessary skills to turn your passion into a full-time career. See below for links that will give you more information on Andrew: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewmurphyfilms/Facebook(s): https://www.facebook.com/andrewmurphyfilmsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/andrewmurphyfilmsOther Sites: https://open.spotify.com/show/0OBa8GdXjBhWAIV5H7JMbZ?utm_medium=share&utm_source=linktreeAdditional URLs: Linktree: linktr.ee/andrewmurphyfilmshttps://www.andrewmurphy.com.au/amf-video-business-accelerator (4-week video business program) If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! ABOUT OWC: Other World Computing, under the leadership of Larry O'Connor since he was 15 years old, has expanded to all corners of the world and works every day to create hardware and software that make the lives of creatives and business-oriented companies faster, more efficient and more stable.  Go to MacSales.com for more information and to discover an ecosystem that serves your needs. As Larry says, “Our dedication to excellence and sustainable innovation extends beyond our day-to-day business and into the community. We strive for zero waste, both environmentally and strategically. Our outlook is to the long term, and in everything we do, we look for simplicity in action and sustainability in practice. For us, it's as much about building exceptional relationships, as it is about building exceptional products.” ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job!

Under the hood with great gear: We love the new RAY microphone from Lewitt, the first microphone with autofocus for your voice. It is a large-diaphragm condenser mic that is small, lightweight, ultimately portable, and has an amazing ability to focus on the sound of our voices to eliminate distractions. Plus, it is very affordable. RAY has many features for podcasters and content creators that you will want to hear more about. This conversation between Moritz Lochner, the COO and Head of Product and Marketing at LEWITT, and our host, Cirina Catania, takes a deep dive into that design process. We also talked about the new Control 2 Interface, yet another innovative product from the fine minds at LEWITT. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! About Other World Computing: Founded in 1988, Other World Computing (OWC), is committed to providing innovative performance-driven, quality solutions that enable the creators of today and tomorrow to realize their imaginations. As a partner to the digital artist, the company provides a range of 21st-century solutions to Capture, Create, and Collaborate. From live recordings to the recording studio, to the film set, to the field and stadium, to ingesting data locally to the storage on an enterprise rack for web or corporate backup or securing of data, from professionals to enthusiasts; Other World Computing knows that there is no room for compromise when it comes to one's vision. With sustainability and exemplary customer service as core values, the company strives for zero waste from both an environmental and strategic business operations perspective. The long-term outlook on everything from refurbishing and recycling to sustainable practices in our offices and manufacturing is a demonstration of the company's dedication to pursuing innovation for the global good. As the provider of the essential solutions to manifest creations, Other World Computing is dedicated to delivering excellence on a planetary scale. ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job!

We are adventuring with Emily Tidwell, an action sports photographer based in Reno, Nevada. She creates commercial, editorial, and event coverage for the outdoor industry. Emily has shot amazing coverage for some of the action industry's biggest publications, including Red Bull and Patagonia and she uses OWC cards and drives for her daily workflow needs. Our host, Cirina Catania, had a great time interviewing Emily since they have so much in common, especially their mutual love for the outdoors! Emily, you are one of a kind and we wish you all the best. And to our audience, we hope this inspires you to go out and "Do something wonderful today!" For more information on Atlas Memory Cards, visit Cirina's interview with Farshid Tabrizi on OWC RADiO: If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe and tell all your friends about us! We love our listeners. And, if you have ideas for segments, write to OWCRadio@catania.us. We are always up for new ideas! You can find OWC RADiO at OWCRadio.com, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all other podcatchers! About Other World Computing: Founded in 1988, Other World Computing (OWC), provides innovative performance-driven, quality solutions that enable the creators of today and tomorrow to realize their imaginations. As a partner to the digital artist, the company provides a range of 21st-century solutions to Capture, Create, and Collaborate. From live recordings to the recording studio, to the film set, to the field and stadium, to ingesting data locally to the storage on an enterprise rack for web or corporate backup or securing of data, from professionals to enthusiasts; Other World Computing knows that there is no room for compromise when it comes to one's vision. With sustainability and exemplary customer service as core values, the company strives for zero waste from both an environmental and strategic business operations perspective. The long-term outlook on everything from refurbishing and recycling to sustainable practices in our offices and manufacturing is a demonstration of the company's dedication to pursuing innovation for the global good. As the provider of the essential solutions to manifest creations, Other World Computing is dedicated to delivering excellence on a planetary scale. ABOUT CIRINA CATANIA: Cirina Catania, is a successful filmmaker, former Sr Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at MGM-UA and United Artists and one of the co-founders and former director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is the founder, CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit, High School Media Collective. Cirina is Founder/Lead Creative at the Catania Group Global, Showrunner and Host of OWC RADiO and partner, Lumberjack System, as well as Tech Ambassador for companies such as Blackmagic Design.  She is a long-time member of the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, Cinematographers Guild, the National Press Club, National Press Photographer's Association, and more. She has worked as a writer, director, supervising producer, cinematographer, post-producer, or marketing exec on over 150 film, television and new media projects for the big screen as well as for networks such as National Geographic and Discovery. Cirina is based in San Diego, D.C. and Berlin when she is not on the road filming in the Amazon or other exotic locations. She is very proud of the fact that she has not yet contracted Malaria and that after all these years, she still loves her job!

What I learned from reading Disney's Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow. ----Get access to the World's Most Valuable Notebook for FoundersYou can read, reread, and search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. You can also ask SAGE any question and SAGE will read all my notes, highlights, and every transcript from every episode for you. A few questions I've asked SAGE recently: What are the most important leadership lessons from history's greatest entrepreneurs?Can you give me a summary of Warren Buffett's best ideas? (Substitute any founder covered on the podcast and you'll get a comprehensive and easy to read summary of their ideas) How did Edwin Land find new employees to hire? Any unusual sources to find talent?What are some strategies that Cornelius Vanderbilt used against his competitors?Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Vesto helps you see all of your company's financial accounts in one view. Connect and control all of your business accounts from one dashboard. Tell Ben (the founder of Vesto) that David sent you and you will get $500 off. ----Join this email list if you want early access to any Founders live events and conferencesJoin my personal email list if you want me to email you my top ten highlights from every book I read----Buy a super comfortable Founders sweatshirt (or hat) here ! ----(8:00) When in 1955 we heard that Disney had opened an amusement park under his own name, it appeared certain that we could not look forward to anything new from Mr. Disney.We were quite wrong.He had, instead, created his masterpiece.(13:00) This may be the greatest product launch of all time: He had run eight months of his television program. He hadn't named his new show Walt Disney Presents or The Wonderful World of Walt Disney.It was called simply Disneyland, and every weekly episode was an advertisement for the still unborn park.(15:00) Disneyland is the extension of the powerful personality of one man.(15:00) The creation of Disneyland was Walt Disney's personal taste in physical form.(24:00) How strange that the boss would just drop it. Walt doesn't give up. So he must have something else in mind.(26:00) Their mediocrity is my opportunity. It is an opportunity because there is so much room for improvement.(36:00) Roy Disney never lost his calm understanding that the company's prosperity rested not on the rock of conventional business practices, but on the churning, extravagant, perfectionist imagination of his younger brother.(41:00) Walt Disney's decision to not relinquish his TV rights to United Artists was made in 1936. This decision paid dividends 20 years later. Hold on. Technology -- developed by other people -- constantly benefited Disney's business. Many such cases in the history of entrepreneurship.(43:00) Walt Disney did not look around. He looked in. He looked in to his personal taste and built a business that was authentic to himself.(54:00) "You asked the question, What was your process like?' I kind of laugh because process is an organized way of doing things. I have to remind you, during the 'Walt Period' of designing Disneyland, we didn't have processes.We just did the work. Processes came later. All of these things had never been done before.Walt had gathered up all these people who had never designed a theme park, a Disneyland.So we're in the same boat at one time, and we figure out what to do and how to do it on the fly as we go along with it and not even discuss plans, timing, or anything.We just worked and Walt just walked around and had suggestions."----Get access to the World's Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast 

What role do drums play in Rock? Should that be keeping the beat or leading from the front? Who are some of the greatest drummers in rock music? The beat goes on as Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot focus on the contributions of drummers to rock music with drummer Joe Wong. Wong also hosts a podcast on drummers called The Trap Set. There's also an interview with Bernard Purdie.Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9TBecome a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvcSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnGMake a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lUSend us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs:The Beatles, "Come Together," Abbey Road, Apple, 1969The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967James Brown, "Funky Drummer," Funky Drummer (single), King, 1970Wild Flag, "Romance," Wild Flag, Merge, 2011Little Richard And His Band, "Heeby-Jeebies," She's Got It (single), Specialty, 1956Michael Jackson, "Billie Jean," Thriller, Epic, 1982Earth Wind and Fire, "Can't Hide Love," Gratitude, Columbia, 1975Rush, "Tom Sawyer," Moving Pictures, Mercury, 1981Elvin Jones, "Agappe Love," Poly-Currents, Blue Note, 1970The Rolling Stones, "Paint It Black," Paint It Black (single), Decca, 1966Battles, "Atlas," Mirrored, Warp, 2007Can, "Paperhouse," Tago Mago, United Artists, 1971The Who, "Young Man Blues," Live at Leeds, Decca, 1970The Who, "I Can See For Miles," I Can See For Miles (single), Track, 1967Dennis Coffey, "Scorpio," Evolution, Sussex, 1971Queen, "Fat Bottomed Girls," Jazz, EMI, 1978Violent Femmes, "Blister In the Sun," Blister in the Sun (single), Slash, 1983Phil Collins, "In The Air Tonight," Face Value, Virgin, 1981Fela Kuti, "Zombie," Zombie, Coconut, 1976Aretha Franklin, "Rock Steady," Rock Steady (single), Atlantic, 1971Led Zeppelin, "Rock and Roll," Led Zepplin IV, Atlantic, 1971Led Zeppelin, "Dazed and Confused," Led Zeppelin, Atlantic, 1969Led Zeppelin, "Stairway To Heaven," Led Zepplin IV, Atlantic, 1971Public Image Ltd., "Under the House," The Flowers of Romance, Virgin, 1981Led Zeppelin, "When the Levee Breaks," Led Zeppelin IV, Atlantic, 1971Sleater-Kinney, "Youth Decay," All Hands on the Bad One, Kill Rock Stars, 2000XTC, "Senses Working Overtime," English Settlement, Virgin, 1982James Brown, "I Got the Feelin'," I Got the Feelin', King, 1968Rolling Stones, "Honky Tonk Woman," Honky Tonk Woman (Single), Decca, 1969The Stairsteps, "O-o-h Child," O-o-h Child (single), Buddah, 1970Doris Troy, "Just One Look," Just One Look (single), Atlantic, 1963Gil Scott-Heron, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Flying Dutchman, 1974The Exciters, "Tell Him," Tell Him (single), United Artists, 1962Melvin Bliss, "Synthetic Substitution," Reward (single), Sunburst, 1973Public Enemy, "Don't Believe The Hype," It Takes a Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Def Jam, 1988Ultra Magnetic M.C.s, "Ego Trippin'," Ego Trippin' (single), Next Plateau, 1986Naughty By Nature, "O.P.P. (instrumental version)," O.P.P. (single), Tommy Boy, 1991EPMD, "I'm Housin'," Strictly Business, Fresh, 1988Wale, "Lacefrontin'," The Eleven One Eleven Theory, Maybach Music, 2011Steely Dan, "Home At Last," Aja, ABC, 1977The MC5, "Kick Out the Jams," Kick Out the Jams, Elektra, 1969See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 171 looks at "Hey Jude", the White Album, and the career of the Beatles from August 1967 through November 1968. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a fifty-seven-minute bonus episode available, on "I Love You" by People!. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata Not really an error, but at one point I refer to Ornette Coleman as a saxophonist. While he was, he plays trumpet on the track that is excerpted after that. Resources No Mixcloud this week due to the number of songs by the Beatles. I have read literally dozens of books on the Beatles, and used bits of information from many of them. All my Beatles episodes refer to: The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn, All The Songs: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Release by Jean-Michel Guesdon, And The Band Begins To Play: The Definitive Guide To The Songs of The Beatles by Steve Lambley, The Beatles By Ear by Kevin Moore, Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald, and The Beatles Anthology. For this episode, I also referred to Last Interview by David Sheff, a longform interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from shortly before Lennon's death; Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, an authorised biography of Paul McCartney; and Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. This time I also used Steve Turner's The Beatles: The Stories Behind the Songs 1967-1970. I referred to Philip Norman's biographies of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, to Graeme Thomson's biography of George Harrison, Take a Sad Song by James Campion, Yoko Ono: An Artful Life by Donald Brackett, Those Were the Days 2.0 by Stephan Granados, and Sound Pictures by Kenneth Womack. Sadly the only way to get the single mix of “Hey Jude” is on this ludicrously-expensive out-of-print box set, but a remixed stereo mix is easily available on the new reissue of the 1967-70 compilation. The original mixes of the White Album are also, shockingly, out of print, but this 2018 remix is available for the moment. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, a quick note -- this episode deals, among other topics, with child abandonment, spousal neglect, suicide attempts, miscarriage, rape accusations, and heroin addiction. If any of those topics are likely to upset you, you might want to check the transcript rather than listening to this episode. It also, for once, contains a short excerpt of an expletive, but given that that expletive in that context has been regularly played on daytime radio without complaint for over fifty years, I suspect it can be excused. The use of mantra meditation is something that exists across religions, and which appears to have been independently invented multiple times, in multiple cultures. In the Western culture to which most of my listeners belong, it is now best known as an aspect of what is known as "mindfulness", a secularised version of Buddhism which aims to provide adherents with the benefits of the teachings of the Buddha but without the cosmology to which they are attached. But it turns up in almost every religious tradition I know of in one form or another. The idea of mantra meditation is a very simple one, and one that even has some basis in science. There is a mathematical principle in neurology and information science called the free energy principle which says our brains are wired to try to minimise how surprised we are --  our brain is constantly making predictions about the world, and then looking at the results from our senses to see if they match. If they do, that's great, and the brain will happily move on to its next prediction. If they don't, the brain has to update its model of the world to match the new information, make new predictions, and see if those new predictions are a better match. Every person has a different mental model of the world, and none of them match reality, but every brain tries to get as close as possible. This updating of the model to match the new information is called "thinking", and it uses up energy, and our bodies and brains have evolved to conserve energy as much as possible. This means that for many people, most of the time, thinking is unpleasant, and indeed much of the time that people have spent thinking, they've been thinking about how to stop themselves having to do it at all, and when they have managed to stop thinking, however briefly, they've experienced great bliss. Many more or less effective technologies have been created to bring about a more minimal-energy state, including alcohol, heroin, and barbituates, but many of these have unwanted side-effects, such as death, which people also tend to want to avoid, and so people have often turned to another technology. It turns out that for many people, they can avoid thinking by simply thinking about something that is utterly predictable. If they minimise the amount of sensory input, and concentrate on something that they can predict exactly, eventually they can turn off their mind, relax, and float downstream, without dying. One easy way to do this is to close your eyes, so you can't see anything, make your breath as regular as possible, and then concentrate on a sound that repeats over and over.  If you repeat a single phrase or word a few hundred times, that regular repetition eventually causes your mind to stop having to keep track of the world, and experience a peace that is, by all accounts, unlike any other experience. What word or phrase that is can depend very much on the tradition. In Transcendental Meditation, each person has their own individual phrase. In the Catholicism in which George Harrison and Paul McCartney were raised, popular phrases for this are "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" or "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." In some branches of Buddhism, a popular mantra is "_NAMU MYŌHŌ RENGE KYŌ_". In the Hinduism to which George Harrison later converted, you can use "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare", "Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya" or "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha". Those last two start with the syllable "Om", and indeed some people prefer to just use that syllable, repeating a single syllable over and over again until they reach a state of transcendence. [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Jude" ("na na na na na na na")] We don't know much about how the Beatles first discovered Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, except that it was thanks to Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's then-wife. Unfortunately, her memory of how she first became involved in the Maharishi's Spiritual Regeneration Movement, as described in her autobiography, doesn't fully line up with other known facts. She talks about reading about the Maharishi in the paper with her friend Marie-Lise while George was away on tour, but she also places the date that this happened in February 1967, several months after the Beatles had stopped touring forever. We'll be seeing a lot more of these timing discrepancies as this story progresses, and people's memories increasingly don't match the events that happened to them. Either way, it's clear that Pattie became involved in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement a good length of time before her husband did. She got him to go along with her to one of the Maharishi's lectures, after she had already been converted to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and they brought along John, Paul, and their partners (Ringo's wife Maureen had just given birth, so they didn't come). As we heard back in episode one hundred and fifty, that lecture was impressive enough that the group, plus their wives and girlfriends (with the exception of Maureen Starkey) and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, all went on a meditation retreat with the Maharishi at a holiday camp in Bangor, and it was there that they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead. The death of the man who had guided the group's career could not have come at a worse time for the band's stability.  The group had only recorded one song in the preceding two months -- Paul's "Your Mother Should Know" -- and had basically been running on fumes since completing recording of Sgt Pepper many months earlier. John's drug intake had increased to the point that he was barely functional -- although with the enthusiasm of the newly converted he had decided to swear off LSD at the Maharishi's urging -- and his marriage was falling apart. Similarly, Paul McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher was in a bad state, though both men were trying to repair their damaged relationships, while both George and Ringo were having doubts about the band that had made them famous. In George's case, he was feeling marginalised by John and Paul, his songs ignored or paid cursory attention, and there was less for him to do on the records as the group moved away from making guitar-based rock and roll music into the stranger areas of psychedelia. And Ringo, whose main memory of the recording of Sgt Pepper was of learning to play chess while the others went through the extensive overdubs that characterised that album, was starting to feel like his playing was deteriorating, and that as the only non-writer in the band he was on the outside to an extent. On top of that, the group were in the middle of a major plan to restructure their business. As part of their contract renegotiations with EMI at the beginning of 1967, it had been agreed that they would receive two million pounds -- roughly fifteen million pounds in today's money -- in unpaid royalties as a lump sum. If that had been paid to them as individuals, or through the company they owned, the Beatles Ltd, they would have had to pay the full top rate of tax on it, which as George had complained the previous year was over ninety-five percent. (In fact, he'd been slightly exaggerating the generosity of the UK tax system to the rich, as at that point the top rate of income tax was somewhere around ninety-seven and a half percent). But happily for them, a couple of years earlier the UK had restructured its tax laws and introduced a corporation tax, which meant that the profits of corporations were no longer taxed at the same high rate as income. So a new company had been set up, The Beatles & Co, and all the group's non-songwriting income was paid into the company. Each Beatle owned five percent of the company, and the other eighty percent was owned by a new partnership, a corporation that was soon renamed Apple Corps -- a name inspired by a painting that McCartney had liked by the artist Rene Magritte. In the early stages of Apple, it was very entangled with Nems, the company that was owned by Brian and Clive Epstein, and which was in the process of being sold to Robert Stigwood, though that sale fell through after Brian's death. The first part of Apple, Apple Publishing, had been set up in the summer of 1967, and was run by Terry Doran, a friend of Epstein's who ran a motor dealership -- most of the Apple divisions would be run by friends of the group rather than by people with experience in the industries in question. As Apple was set up during the point that Stigwood was getting involved with NEMS, Apple Publishing's initial offices were in the same building with, and shared staff with, two publishing companies that Stigwood owned, Dratleaf Music, who published Cream's songs, and Abigail Music, the Bee Gees' publishers. And indeed the first two songs published by Apple were copyrights that were gifted to the company by Stigwood -- "Listen to the Sky", a B-side by an obscure band called Sands: [Excerpt: Sands, "Listen to the Sky"] And "Outside Woman Blues", an arrangement by Eric Clapton of an old blues song by Blind Joe Reynolds, which Cream had copyrighted separately and released on Disraeli Gears: [Excerpt: Cream, "Outside Woman Blues"] But Apple soon started signing outside songwriters -- once Mike Berry, a member of Apple Publishing's staff, had sat McCartney down and explained to him what music publishing actually was, something he had never actually understood even though he'd been a songwriter for five years. Those songwriters, given that this was 1967, were often also performers, and as Apple Records had not yet been set up, Apple would try to arrange recording contracts for them with other labels. They started with a group called Focal Point, who got signed by badgering Paul McCartney to listen to their songs until he gave them Doran's phone number to shut them up: [Excerpt: Focal Point, "Sycamore Sid"] But the big early hope for Apple Publishing was a songwriter called George Alexander. Alexander's birth name had been Alexander Young, and he was the brother of George Young, who was a member of the Australian beat group The Easybeats, who'd had a hit with "Friday on My Mind": [Excerpt: The Easybeats, "Friday on My Mind"] His younger brothers Malcolm and Angus would go on to have a few hits themselves, but AC/DC wouldn't be formed for another five years. Terry Doran thought that Alexander should be a member of a band, because bands were more popular than solo artists at the time, and so he was placed with three former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, a Beach Boys soundalike group that had had some minor success. John Lennon suggested that the group be named Grapefruit, after a book he was reading by a conceptual artist of his acquaintance named Yoko Ono, and as Doran was making arrangements with Terry Melcher for a reciprocal publishing deal by which Melcher's American company would publish Apple songs in the US while Apple published songs from Melcher's company in the UK, it made sense for Melcher to also produce Grapefruit's first single, "Dear Delilah": [Excerpt: Grapefruit, "Dear Delilah"] That made number twenty-one in the UK when it came out in early 1968, on the back of publicity about Grapefruit's connection with the Beatles, but future singles by the band were much less successful, and like several other acts involved with Apple, they found that they were more hampered by the Beatles connection than helped. A few other people were signed to Apple Publishing early on, of whom the most notable was Jackie Lomax. Lomax had been a member of a minor Merseybeat group, the Undertakers, and after they had split up, he'd been signed by Brian Epstein with a new group, the Lomax Alliance, who had released one single, "Try as You May": [Excerpt: The Lomax Alliance, "Try As You May"] After Epstein's death, Lomax had plans to join another band, being formed by another Merseybeat musician, Chris Curtis, the former drummer of the Searchers. But after going to the Beatles to talk with them about them helping the new group financially, Lomax was persuaded by John Lennon to go solo instead. He may later have regretted that decision, as by early 1968 the people that Curtis had recruited for his new band had ditched him and were making a name for themselves as Deep Purple. Lomax recorded one solo single with funding from Stigwood, a cover version of a song by an obscure singer-songwriter, Jake Holmes, "Genuine Imitation Life": [Excerpt: Jackie Lomax, "Genuine Imitation Life"] But he was also signed to Apple Publishing as a songwriter. The Beatles had only just started laying out plans for Apple when Epstein died, and other than the publishing company one of the few things they'd agreed on was that they were going to have a film company, which was to be run by Denis O'Dell, who had been an associate producer on A Hard Day's Night and on How I Won The War, the Richard Lester film Lennon had recently starred in. A few days after Epstein's death, they had a meeting, in which they agreed that the band needed to move forward quickly if they were going to recover from Epstein's death. They had originally been planning on going to India with the Maharishi to study meditation, but they decided to put that off until the new year, and to press forward with a film project Paul had been talking about, to be titled Magical Mystery Tour. And so, on the fifth of September 1967, they went back into the recording studio and started work on a song of John's that was earmarked for the film, "I am the Walrus": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] Magical Mystery Tour, the film, has a mixed reputation which we will talk about shortly, but one defence that Paul McCartney has always made of it is that it's the only place where you can see the Beatles performing "I am the Walrus". While the song was eventually relegated to a B-side, it's possibly the finest B-side of the Beatles' career, and one of the best tracks the group ever made. As with many of Lennon's songs from this period, the song was a collage of many different elements pulled from his environment and surroundings, and turned into something that was rather more than the sum of its parts. For its musical inspiration, Lennon pulled from, of all things, a police siren going past his house. (For those who are unfamiliar with what old British police sirens sounded like, as opposed to the ones in use for most of my lifetime or in other countries, here's a recording of one): [Excerpt: British police siren ca 1968] That inspired Lennon to write a snatch of lyric to go with the sound of the siren, starting "Mister city policeman sitting pretty". He had two other song fragments, one about sitting in the garden, and one about sitting on a cornflake, and he told Hunter Davies, who was doing interviews for his authorised biography of the group, “I don't know how it will all end up. Perhaps they'll turn out to be different parts of the same song.” But the final element that made these three disparate sections into a song was a letter that came from Stephen Bayley, a pupil at Lennon's old school Quarry Bank, who told him that the teachers at the school -- who Lennon always thought of as having suppressed his creativity -- were now analysing Beatles lyrics in their lessons. Lennon decided to come up with some nonsense that they couldn't analyse -- though as nonsensical as the finished song is, there's an underlying anger to a lot of it that possibly comes from Lennon thinking of his school experiences. And so Lennon asked his old schoolfriend Pete Shotton to remind him of a disgusting playground chant that kids used to sing in schools in the North West of England (and which they still sang with very minor variations at my own school decades later -- childhood folklore has a remarkably long life). That rhyme went: Yellow matter custard, green snot pie All mixed up with a dead dog's eye Slap it on a butty, nice and thick, And drink it down with a cup of cold sick Lennon combined some parts of this with half-remembered fragments of Lewis Carrol's The Walrus and the Carpenter, and with some punning references to things that were going on in his own life and those of his friends -- though it's difficult to know exactly which of the stories attached to some of the more incomprehensible bits of the lyrics are accurate. The story that the line "I am the eggman" is about a sexual proclivity of Eric Burdon of the Animals seems plausible, while the contention by some that the phrase "semolina pilchard" is a reference to Sgt Pilcher, the corrupt policeman who had arrested three of the Rolling Stones, and would later arrest Lennon, on drugs charges, seems less likely. The track is a masterpiece of production, but the release of the basic take on Anthology 2 in 1996 showed that the underlying performance, before George Martin worked his magic with the overdubs, is still a remarkable piece of work: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus (Anthology 2 version)"] But Martin's arrangement and production turned the track from a merely very good track into a masterpiece. The string arrangement, very much in the same mould as that for "Strawberry Fields Forever" but giving a very different effect with its harsh cello glissandi, is the kind of thing one expects from Martin, but there's also the chanting of the Mike Sammes Singers, who were more normally booked for sessions like Englebert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz": [Excerpt: Engelbert Humperdinck, "The Last Waltz"] But here were instead asked to imitate the sound of the strings, make grunting noises, and generally go very far out of their normal comfort zone: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] But the most fascinating piece of production in the entire track is an idea that seems to have been inspired by people like John Cage -- a live feed of a radio being tuned was played into the mono mix from about the halfway point, and whatever was on the radio at the time was captured: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] This is also why for many decades it was impossible to have a true stereo mix of the track -- the radio part was mixed directly into the mono mix, and it wasn't until the 1990s that someone thought to track down a copy of the original radio broadcasts and recreate the process. In one of those bits of synchronicity that happen more often than you would think when you're creating aleatory art, and which are why that kind of process can be so appealing, one bit of dialogue from the broadcast of King Lear that was on the radio as the mixing was happening was *perfectly* timed: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "I am the Walrus"] After completing work on the basic track for "I am the Walrus", the group worked on two more songs for the film, George's "Blue Jay Way" and a group-composed twelve-bar blues instrumental called "Flying", before starting production. Magical Mystery Tour, as an idea, was inspired in equal parts by Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the collective of people we talked about in the episode on the Grateful Dead who travelled across the US extolling the virtues of psychedelic drugs, and by mystery tours, a British working-class tradition that has rather fallen out of fashion in the intervening decades. A mystery tour would generally be put on by a coach-hire company, and would be a day trip to an unannounced location -- though the location would in fact be very predictable, and would be a seaside town within a couple of hours' drive of its starting point. In the case of the ones the Beatles remembered from their own childhoods, this would be to a coastal town in Lancashire or Wales, like Blackpool, Rhyl, or Prestatyn. A coachload of people would pay to be driven to this random location, get very drunk and have a singsong on the bus, and spend a day wherever they were taken. McCartney's plan was simple -- they would gather a group of passengers and replicate this experience over the course of several days, and film whatever went on, but intersperse that with more planned out sketches and musical numbers. For this reason, along with the Beatles and their associates, the cast included some actors found through Spotlight and some of the group's favourite performers, like the comedian Nat Jackley (whose comedy sequence directed by John was cut from the final film) and the surrealist poet/singer/comedian Ivor Cutler: [Excerpt: Ivor Cutler, "I'm Going in a Field"] The film also featured an appearance by a new band who would go on to have great success over the next year, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They had recorded their first single in Abbey Road at the same time as the Beatles were recording Revolver, but rather than being progressive psychedelic rock, it had been a remake of a 1920s novelty song: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies"] Their performance in Magical Mystery Tour was very different though -- they played a fifties rock pastiche written by band leaders Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes while a stripper took off her clothes. While several other musical sequences were recorded for the film, including one by the band Traffic and one by Cutler, other than the Beatles tracks only the Bonzos' song made it into the finished film: [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, "Death Cab for Cutie"] That song, thirty years later, would give its name to a prominent American alternative rock band. Incidentally the same night that Magical Mystery Tour was first broadcast was also the night that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band first appeared on a TV show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, which featured three future members of the Monty Python troupe -- Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones. Over the years the careers of the Bonzos, the Pythons, and the Beatles would become increasingly intertwined, with George Harrison in particular striking up strong friendships and working relationships with Bonzos Neil Innes and "Legs" Larry Smith. The filming of Magical Mystery Tour went about as well as one might expect from a film made by four directors, none of whom had any previous filmmaking experience, and none of whom had any business knowledge. The Beatles were used to just turning up and having things magically done for them by other people, and had no real idea of the infrastructure challenges that making a film, even a low-budget one, actually presents, and ended up causing a great deal of stress to almost everyone involved. The completed film was shown on TV on Boxing Day 1967 to general confusion and bemusement. It didn't help that it was originally broadcast in black and white, and so for example the scene showing shifting landscapes (outtake footage from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, tinted various psychedelic colours) over the "Flying" music, just looked like grey fuzz. But also, it just wasn't what people were expecting from a Beatles film. This was a ramshackle, plotless, thing more inspired by Andy Warhol's underground films than by the kind of thing the group had previously appeared in, and it was being presented as Christmas entertainment for all the family. And to be honest, it's not even a particularly good example of underground filmmaking -- though it looks like a masterpiece when placed next to something like the Bee Gees' similar effort, Cucumber Castle. But there are enough interesting sequences in there for the project not to be a complete failure -- and the deleted scenes on the DVD release, including the performances by Cutler and Traffic, and the fact that the film was edited down from ten hours to fifty-two minutes, makes one wonder if there's a better film that could be constructed from the original footage. Either way, the reaction to the film was so bad that McCartney actually appeared on David Frost's TV show the next day to defend it and, essentially, apologise. While they were editing the film, the group were also continuing to work in the studio, including on two new McCartney songs, "The Fool on the Hill", which was included in Magical Mystery Tour, and "Hello Goodbye", which wasn't included on the film's soundtrack but was released as the next single, with "I Am the Walrus" as the B-side: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Incidentally, in the UK the soundtrack to Magical Mystery Tour was released as a double-EP rather than as an album (in the US, the group's recent singles and B-sides were added to turn it into a full-length album, which is how it's now generally available). "I Am the Walrus" was on the double-EP as well as being on the single's B-side, and the double-EP got to number two on the singles charts, meaning "I am the Walrus" was on the records at number one and number two at the same time. Before it became obvious that the film, if not the soundtrack, was a disaster, the group held a launch party on the twenty-first of December, 1967. The band members went along in fancy dress, as did many of the cast and crew -- the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performed at the party. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys also turned up at the party, and apparently at one point jammed with the Bonzos, and according to some, but not all, reports, a couple of the Beatles joined in as well. Love and Johnston had both just met the Maharishi for the first time a couple of days earlier, and Love had been as impressed as the Beatles were, and it may have been at this party that the group mentioned to Love that they would soon be going on a retreat in India with the guru -- a retreat that was normally meant for training TM instructors, but this time seemed to be more about getting celebrities involved. Love would also end up going with them. That party was also the first time that Cynthia Lennon had an inkling that John might not be as faithful to her as she previously supposed. John had always "joked" about being attracted to George Harrison's wife, Patti, but this time he got a little more blatant about his attraction than he ever had previously, to the point that he made Cynthia cry, and Cynthia's friend, the pop star Lulu, decided to give Lennon a very public dressing-down for his cruelty to his wife, a dressing-down that must have been a sight to behold, as Lennon was dressed as a Teddy boy while Lulu was in a Shirley Temple costume. It's a sign of how bad the Lennons' marriage was at this point that this was the second time in a two-month period where Cynthia had ended up crying because of John at a film launch party and been comforted by a female pop star. In October, Cilla Black had held a party to celebrate the belated release of John's film How I Won the War, and during the party Georgie Fame had come up to Black and said, confused, "Cynthia Lennon is hiding in your wardrobe". Black went and had a look, and Cynthia explained to her “I'm waiting to see how long it is before John misses me and comes looking for me.” Black's response had been “You'd better face it, kid—he's never gonna come.” Also at the Magical Mystery Tour party was Lennon's father, now known as Freddie Lennon, and his new nineteen-year-old fiancee. While Hunter Davis had been researching the Beatles' biography, he'd come across some evidence that the version of Freddie's attitude towards John that his mother's side of the family had always told him -- that Freddie had been a cruel and uncaring husband who had not actually wanted to be around his son -- might not be the whole of the truth, and that the mother who he had thought of as saintly might also have had some part to play in their marriage breaking down and Freddie not seeing his son for twenty years. The two had made some tentative attempts at reconciliation, and indeed Freddie would even come and live with John for a while, though within a couple of years the younger Lennon's heart would fully harden against his father again. Of course, the things that John always resented his father for were pretty much exactly the kind of things that Lennon himself was about to do. It was around this time as well that Derek Taylor gave the Beatles copies of the debut album by a young singer/songwriter named Harry Nilsson. Nilsson will be getting his own episode down the line, but not for a couple of years at my current rates, so it's worth bringing that up here, because that album became a favourite of all the Beatles, and would have a huge influence on their songwriting for the next couple of years, and because one song on the album, "1941", must have resonated particularly deeply with Lennon right at this moment -- an autobiographical song by Nilsson about how his father had left him and his mother when he was a small boy, and about his own fear that, as his first marriage broke down, he was repeating the pattern with his stepson Scott: [Excerpt: Nilsson, "1941"] The other major event of December 1967, rather overshadowed by the Magical Mystery Tour disaster the next day, was that on Christmas Day Paul McCartney and Jane Asher announced their engagement. A few days later, George Harrison flew to India. After John and Paul had had their outside film projects -- John starring in How I Won The War and Paul doing the soundtrack for The Family Way -- the other two Beatles more or less simultaneously did their own side project films, and again one acted while the other did a soundtrack. Both of these projects were in the rather odd subgenre of psychedelic shambolic comedy film that sprang up in the mid sixties, a subgenre that produced a lot of fascinating films, though rather fewer good ones. Indeed, both of them were in the subsubgenre of shambolic psychedelic *sex* comedies. In Ringo's case, he had a small role in the film Candy, which was based on the novel we mentioned in the last episode, co-written by Terry Southern, which was in itself a loose modern rewriting of Voltaire's Candide. Unfortunately, like such other classics of this subgenre as Anthony Newley's Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, Candy has dated *extremely* badly, and unless you find repeated scenes of sexual assault and rape, ethnic stereotypes, and jokes about deformity and disfigurement to be an absolute laugh riot, it's not a film that's worth seeking out, and Starr's part in it is not a major one. Harrison's film was of the same basic genre -- a film called Wonderwall about a mad scientist who discovers a way to see through the walls of his apartment, and gets to see a photographer taking sexy photographs of a young woman named Penny Lane, played by Jane Birkin: [Excerpt: Some Wonderwall film dialogue ripped from the Blu-Ray] Wonderwall would, of course, later inspire the title of a song by Oasis, and that's what the film is now best known for, but it's a less-unwatchable film than Candy, and while still problematic it's less so. Which is something. Harrison had been the Beatle with least involvement in Magical Mystery Tour -- McCartney had been the de facto director, Starr had been the lead character and the only one with much in the way of any acting to do, and Lennon had written the film's standout scene and its best song, and had done a little voiceover narration. Harrison, by contrast, barely has anything to do in the film apart from the one song he contributed, "Blue Jay Way", and he said of the project “I had no idea what was happening and maybe I didn't pay enough attention because my problem, basically, was that I was in another world, I didn't really belong; I was just an appendage.” He'd expressed his discomfort to his friend Joe Massot, who was about to make his first feature film. Massot had got to know Harrison during the making of his previous film, Reflections on Love, a mostly-silent short which had starred Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and which had been photographed by Robert Freeman, who had been the photographer for the Beatles' album covers from With the Beatles through Rubber Soul, and who had taken most of the photos that Klaus Voorman incorporated into the cover of Revolver (and whose professional association with the Beatles seemed to come to an end around the same time he discovered that Lennon had been having an affair with his wife). Massot asked Harrison to write the music for the film, and told Harrison he would have complete free rein to make whatever music he wanted, so long as it fit the timing of the film, and so Harrison decided to create a mixture of Western rock music and the Indian music he loved. Harrison started recording the music at the tail end of 1967, with sessions with several London-based Indian musicians and John Barham, an orchestrator who had worked with Ravi Shankar on Shankar's collaborations with Western musicians, including the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack we talked about in the "All You Need is Love" episode. For the Western music, he used the Remo Four, a Merseybeat group who had been on the scene even before the Beatles, and which contained a couple of classmates of Paul McCartney, but who had mostly acted as backing musicians for other artists. They'd backed Johnny Sandon, the former singer with the Searchers, on a couple of singles, before becoming the backing band for Tommy Quickly, a NEMS artist who was unsuccessful despite starting his career with a Lennon/McCartney song, "Tip of My Tongue": [Excerpt: Tommy Quickly, "Tip of My Tongue"] The Remo Four would later, after a lineup change, become Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, who would become one-hit wonders in the seventies, and during the Wonderwall sessions they recorded a song that went unreleased at the time, and which would later go on to be rerecorded by Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke. "In the First Place" also features Harrison on backing vocals and possibly guitar, and was not submitted for the film because Harrison didn't believe that Massot wanted any vocal tracks, but the recording was later discovered and used in a revised director's cut of the film in the nineties: [Excerpt: The Remo Four, "In the First Place"] But for the most part the Remo Four were performing instrumentals written by Harrison. They weren't the only Western musicians performing on the sessions though -- Peter Tork of the Monkees dropped by these sessions and recorded several short banjo solos, which were used in the film soundtrack but not in the soundtrack album (presumably because Tork was contracted to another label): [Excerpt: Peter Tork, "Wonderwall banjo solo"] Another musician who was under contract to another label was Eric Clapton, who at the time was playing with The Cream, and who vaguely knew Harrison and so joined in for the track "Ski-ing", playing lead guitar under the cunning, impenetrable, pseudonym "Eddie Clayton", with Harrison on sitar, Starr on drums, and session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan on bass: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Ski-ing"] But the bulk of the album was recorded in EMI's studios in the city that is now known as Mumbai but at the time was called Bombay. The studio facilities in India had up to that point only had a mono tape recorder, and Bhaskar Menon, one of the top executives at EMI's Indian division and later the head of EMI music worldwide, personally brought the first stereo tape recorder to the studio to aid in Harrison's recording. The music was all composed by Harrison and performed by the Indian musicians, and while Harrison was composing in an Indian mode, the musicians were apparently fascinated by how Western it sounded to them: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "Microbes"] While he was there, Harrison also got the instrumentalists to record another instrumental track, which wasn't to be used for the film: [Excerpt: George Harrison, "The Inner Light (instrumental)"] That track would, instead, become part of what was to be Harrison's first composition to make a side of a Beatles single. After John and George had appeared on the David Frost show talking about the Maharishi, in September 1967, George had met a lecturer in Sanskrit named Juan Mascaró, who wrote to Harrison enclosing a book he'd compiled of translations of religious texts, telling him he'd admired "Within You Without You" and thought it would be interesting if Harrison set something from the Tao Te Ching to music. He suggested a text that, in his translation, read: "Without going out of my door I can know all things on Earth Without looking out of my window I can know the ways of heaven For the farther one travels, the less one knows The sage, therefore Arrives without travelling Sees all without looking Does all without doing" Harrison took that text almost verbatim, though he created a second verse by repeating the first few lines with "you" replacing "I" -- concerned that listeners might think he was just talking about himself, and wouldn't realise it was a more general statement -- and he removed the "the sage, therefore" and turned the last few lines into imperative commands rather than declarative statements: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] The song has come in for some criticism over the years as being a little Orientalist, because in critics' eyes it combines Chinese philosophy with Indian music, as if all these things are equally "Eastern" and so all the same really. On the other hand there's a good argument that an English songwriter taking a piece of writing written in Chinese and translated into English by a Spanish man and setting it to music inspired by Indian musical modes is a wonderful example of cultural cross-pollination. As someone who's neither Chinese nor Indian I wouldn't want to take a stance on it, but clearly the other Beatles were impressed by it -- they put it out as the B-side to their next single, even though the only Beatles on it are Harrison and McCartney, with the latter adding a small amount of harmony vocal: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "The Inner Light"] And it wasn't because the group were out of material. They were planning on going to Rishikesh to study with the Maharishi, and wanted to get a single out for release while they were away, and so in one week they completed the vocal overdubs on "The Inner Light" and recorded three other songs, two by John and one by Paul. All three of the group's songwriters brought in songs that were among their best. John's first contribution was a song whose lyrics he later described as possibly the best he ever wrote, "Across the Universe". He said the lyrics were “purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! I don't own it, you know; it came through like that … Such an extraordinary meter and I can never repeat it! It's not a matter of craftsmanship, it wrote itself. It drove me out of bed. I didn't want to write it … It's like being possessed, like a psychic or a medium.” But while Lennon liked the song, he was never happy with the recording of it. They tried all sorts of things to get the sound he heard in his head, including bringing in some fans who were hanging around outside to sing backing vocals. He said of the track "I was singing out of tune and instead of getting a decent choir, we got fans from outside, Apple Scruffs or whatever you call them. They came in and were singing all off-key. Nobody was interested in doing the tune originally.” [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The "jai guru deva" chorus there is the first reference to the teachings of the Maharishi in one of the Beatles' records -- Guru Dev was the Maharishi's teacher, and the phrase "Jai guru dev" is a Sanskrit one which I've seen variously translated as "victory to the great teacher", and "hail to the greatness within you". Lennon would say shortly before his death “The Beatles didn't make a good record out of it. I think subconsciously sometimes we – I say ‘we' though I think Paul did it more than the rest of us – Paul would sort of subconsciously try and destroy a great song … Usually we'd spend hours doing little detailed cleaning-ups of Paul's songs, when it came to mine, especially if it was a great song like ‘Strawberry Fields' or ‘Across The Universe', somehow this atmosphere of looseness and casualness and experimentation would creep in … It was a _lousy_ track of a great song and I was so disappointed by it …The guitars are out of tune and I'm singing out of tune because I'm psychologically destroyed and nobody's supporting me or helping me with it, and the song was never done properly.” Of course, this is only Lennon's perception, and it's one that the other participants would disagree with. George Martin, in particular, was always rather hurt by the implication that Lennon's songs had less attention paid to them, and he would always say that the problem was that Lennon in the studio would always say "yes, that's great", and only later complain that it hadn't been what he wanted. No doubt McCartney did put in more effort on his own songs than on Lennon's -- everyone has a bias towards their own work, and McCartney's only human -- but personally I suspect that a lot of the problem comes down to the two men having very different personalities. McCartney had very strong ideas about his own work and would drive the others insane with his nitpicky attention to detail. Lennon had similarly strong ideas, but didn't have the attention span to put the time and effort in to force his vision on others, and didn't have the technical knowledge to express his ideas in words they'd understand. He expected Martin and the other Beatles to work miracles, and they did -- but not the miracles he would have worked. That track was, rather than being chosen for the next single, given to Spike Milligan, who happened to be visiting the studio and was putting together an album for the environmental charity the World Wildlife Fund. The album was titled "No One's Gonna Change Our World": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] That track is historic in another way -- it would be the last time that George Harrison would play sitar on a Beatles record, and it effectively marks the end of the period of psychedelia and Indian influence that had started with "Norwegian Wood" three years earlier, and which many fans consider their most creative period. Indeed, shortly after the recording, Harrison would give up the sitar altogether and stop playing it. He loved sitar music as much as he ever had, and he still thought that Indian classical music spoke to him in ways he couldn't express, and he continued to be friends with Ravi Shankar for the rest of his life, and would only become more interested in Indian religious thought. But as he spent time with Shankar he realised he would never be as good on the sitar as he hoped. He said later "I thought, 'Well, maybe I'm better off being a pop singer-guitar-player-songwriter – whatever-I'm-supposed-to-be' because I've seen a thousand sitar-players in India who are twice as better as I'll ever be. And only one of them Ravi thought was going to be a good player." We don't have a precise date for when it happened -- I suspect it was in June 1968, so a few months after the "Across the Universe" recording -- but Shankar told Harrison that rather than try to become a master of a music that he hadn't encountered until his twenties, perhaps he should be making the music that was his own background. And as Harrison put it "I realised that was riding my bike down a street in Liverpool and hearing 'Heartbreak Hotel' coming out of someone's house.": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Heartbreak Hotel"] In early 1968 a lot of people seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as if Christmas 1967 had been the flick of a switch and instead of whimsy and ornamentation, the thing to do was to make music that was influenced by early rock and roll. In the US the Band and Bob Dylan were making music that was consciously shorn of all studio experimentation, while in the UK there was a revival of fifties rock and roll. In April 1968 both "Peggy Sue" and "Rock Around the Clock" reentered the top forty in the UK, and the Who were regularly including "Summertime Blues" in their sets. Fifties nostalgia, which would make occasional comebacks for at least the next forty years, was in its first height, and so it's not surprising that Paul McCartney's song, "Lady Madonna", which became the A-side of the next single, has more than a little of the fifties about it. Of course, the track isn't *completely* fifties in its origins -- one of the inspirations for the track seems to have been the Rolling Stones' then-recent hit "Let's Spend The Night Together": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together"] But the main source for the song's music -- and for the sound of the finished record -- seems to have been Johnny Parker's piano part on Humphrey Lyttleton's "Bad Penny Blues", a hit single engineered by Joe Meek in the fifties: [Excerpt: Humphrey Lyttleton, "Bad Penny Blues"] That song seems to have been on the group's mind for a while, as a working title for "With a Little Help From My Friends" had at one point been "Bad Finger Blues" -- a title that would later give the name to a band on Apple. McCartney took Parker's piano part as his inspiration, and as he later put it “‘Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing. I got my left hand doing an arpeggio thing with the chord, an ascending boogie-woogie left hand, then a descending right hand. I always liked that, the  juxtaposition of a line going down meeting a line going up." [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] That idea, incidentally, is an interesting reversal of what McCartney had done on "Hello, Goodbye", where the bass line goes down while the guitar moves up -- the two lines moving away from each other: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Goodbye"] Though that isn't to say there's no descending bass in "Lady Madonna" -- the bridge has a wonderful sequence where the bass just *keeps* *descending*: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Lady Madonna"] Lyrically, McCartney was inspired by a photo in National Geographic of a woman in Malaysia, captioned “Mountain Madonna: with one child at her breast and another laughing into her face, sees her quality of life threatened.” But as he put it “The people I was brought up amongst were often Catholic; there are lots of Catholics in Liverpool because of the Irish connection and they are often religious. When they have a baby I think they see a big connection between themselves and the Virgin Mary with her baby. So the original concept was the Virgin Mary but it quickly became symbolic of every woman; the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working class woman. It's really a tribute to the mother figure, it's a tribute to women.” Musically though, the song was more a tribute to the fifties -- while the inspiration had been a skiffle hit by Humphrey Lyttleton, as soon as McCartney started playing it he'd thought of Fats Domino, and the lyric reflects that to an extent -- just as Domino's "Blue Monday" details the days of the week for a weary working man who only gets to enjoy himself on Saturday night, "Lady Madonna"'s lyrics similarly look at the work a mother has to do every day -- though as McCartney later noted  "I was writing the words out to learn it for an American TV show and I realised I missed out Saturday ... So I figured it must have been a real night out." The vocal was very much McCartney doing a Domino impression -- something that wasn't lost on Fats, who cut his own version of the track later that year: [Excerpt: Fats Domino, "Lady Madonna"] The group were so productive at this point, right before the journey to India, that they actually cut another song *while they were making a video for "Lady Madonna"*. They were booked into Abbey Road to film themselves performing the song so it could be played on Top of the Pops while they were away, but instead they decided to use the time to cut a new song -- John had a partially-written song, "Hey Bullfrog", which was roughly the same tempo as "Lady Madonna", so they could finish that up and then re-edit the footage to match the record. The song was quickly finished and became "Hey Bulldog": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hey Bulldog"] One of Lennon's best songs from this period, "Hey Bulldog" was oddly chosen only to go on the soundtrack of Yellow Submarine. Either the band didn't think much of it because it had come so easily, or it was just assigned to the film because they were planning on being away for several months and didn't have any other projects they were working on. The extent of the group's contribution to the film was minimal – they were not very hands-on, and the film, which was mostly done as an attempt to provide a third feature film for their United Artists contract without them having to do any work, was made by the team that had done the Beatles cartoon on American TV. There's some evidence that they had a small amount of input in the early story stages, but in general they saw the cartoon as an irrelevance to them -- the only things they contributed were the four songs "All Together Now", "It's All Too Much", "Hey Bulldog" and "Only a Northern Song", and a brief filmed appearance for the very end of the film, recorded in January: [Excerpt: Yellow Submarine film end] McCartney also took part in yet another session in early February 1968, one produced by Peter Asher, his fiancee's brother, and former singer with Peter and Gordon. Asher had given up on being a pop star and was trying to get into the business side of music, and he was starting out as a producer, producing a single by Paul Jones, the former lead singer of Manfred Mann. The A-side of the single, "And the Sun Will Shine", was written by the Bee Gees, the band that Robert Stigwood was managing: [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "And the Sun Will Shine"] While the B-side was an original by Jones, "The Dog Presides": [Excerpt: Paul Jones, "The Dog Presides"] Those tracks featured two former members of the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and Paul Samwell-Smith, on guitar and bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano. Asher asked McCartney to play drums on both sides of the single, saying later "I always thought he was a great, underrated drummer." McCartney was impressed by Asher's production, and asked him to get involved with the new Apple Records label that would be set up when the group returned from India. Asher eventually became head of A&R for the label. And even before "Lady Madonna" was mixed, the Beatles were off to India. Mal Evans, their roadie, went ahead with all their luggage on the fourteenth of February, so he could sort out transport for them on the other end, and then John and George followed on the fifteenth, with their wives Pattie and Cynthia and Pattie's sister Jenny (John and Cynthia's son Julian had been left with his grandmother while they went -- normally Cynthia wouldn't abandon Julian for an extended period of time, but she saw the trip as a way to repair their strained marriage). Paul and Ringo followed four days later, with Ringo's wife Maureen and Paul's fiancee Jane Asher. The retreat in Rishikesh was to become something of a celebrity affair. Along with the Beatles came their friend the singer-songwriter Donovan, and Donovan's friend and songwriting partner, whose name I'm not going to say here because it's a slur for Romani people, but will be known to any Donovan fans. Donovan at this point was also going through changes. Like the Beatles, he was largely turning away from drug use and towards meditation, and had recently written his hit single "There is a Mountain" based around a saying from Zen Buddhism: [Excerpt: Donovan, "There is a Mountain"] That was from his double-album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden, which had come out in December 1967. But also like John and Paul he was in the middle of the breakdown of a long-term relationship, and while he would remain with his then-partner until 1970, and even have another child with her, he was secretly in love with another woman. In fact he was secretly in love with two other women. One of them, Brian Jones' ex-girlfriend Linda, had moved to LA, become the partner of the singer Gram Parsons, and had appeared in the documentary You Are What You Eat with the Band and Tiny Tim. She had fallen out of touch with Donovan, though she would later become his wife. Incidentally, she had a son to Brian Jones who had been abandoned by his rock-star father -- the son's name is Julian. The other woman with whom Donovan was in love was Jenny Boyd, the sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie.  Jenny at the time was in a relationship with Alexis Mardas, a TV repairman and huckster who presented himself as an electronics genius to the Beatles, who nicknamed him Magic Alex, and so she was unavailable, but Donovan had written a song about her, released as a single just before they all went to Rishikesh: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper"] Donovan considered himself and George Harrison to be on similar spiritual paths and called Harrison his "spirit-brother", though Donovan was more interested in Buddhism, which Harrison considered a corruption of the more ancient Hinduism, and Harrison encouraged Donovan to read Autobiography of a Yogi. It's perhaps worth noting that Donovan's father had a different take on the subject though, saying "You're not going to study meditation in India, son, you're following that wee lassie Jenny" Donovan and his friend weren't the only other celebrities to come to Rishikesh. The actor Mia Farrow, who had just been through a painful divorce from Frank Sinatra, and had just made Rosemary's Baby, a horror film directed by Roman Polanski with exteriors shot at the Dakota building in New York, arrived with her sister Prudence. Also on the trip was Paul Horn, a jazz saxophonist who had played with many of the greats of jazz, not least of them Duke Ellington, whose Sweet Thursday Horn had played alto sax on: [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, "Zweet Zursday"] Horn was another musician who had been inspired to investigate Indian spirituality and music simultaneously, and the previous year he had recorded an album, "In India," of adaptations of ragas, with Ravi Shankar and Alauddin Khan: [Excerpt: Paul Horn, "Raga Vibhas"] Horn would go on to become one of the pioneers of what would later be termed "New Age" music, combining jazz with music from various non-Western traditions. Horn had also worked as a session musician, and one of the tracks he'd played on was "I Know There's an Answer" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "I Know There's an Answer"] Mike Love, who co-wrote that track and is one of the lead singers on it, was also in Rishikesh. While as we'll see not all of the celebrities on the trip would remain practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, Love would be profoundly affected by the trip, and remains a vocal proponent of TM to this day. Indeed, his whole band at the time were heavily into TM. While Love was in India, the other Beach Boys were working on the Friends album without him -- Love only appears on four tracks on that album -- and one of the tracks they recorded in his absence was titled "Transcendental Meditation": [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Transcendental Meditation"] But the trip would affect Love's songwriting, as it would affect all of the musicians there. One of the few songs on the Friends album on which Love appears is "Anna Lee, the Healer", a song which is lyrically inspired by the trip in the most literal sense, as it's about a masseuse Love met in Rishikesh: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "Anna Lee, the Healer"] The musicians in the group all influenced and inspired each other as is likely to happen in such circumstances. Sometimes, it would be a matter of trivial joking, as when the Beatles decided to perform an off-the-cuff song about Guru Dev, and did it in the Beach Boys style: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] And that turned partway through into a celebration of Love for his birthday: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Spiritual Regeneration"] Decades later, Love would return the favour, writing a song about Harrison and their time together in Rishikesh. Like Donovan, Love seems to have considered Harrison his "spiritual brother", and he titled the song "Pisces Brothers": [Excerpt: Mike Love, "Pisces Brothers"] The musicians on the trip were also often making suggestions to each other about songs that would become famous for them. The musicians had all brought acoustic guitars, apart obviously from Ringo, who got a set of tabla drums when George ordered some Indian instruments to be delivered. George got a sitar, as at this point he hadn't quite given up on the instrument, and he gave Donovan a tamboura. Donovan started playing a melody on the tamboura, which is normally a drone instrument, inspired by the Scottish folk music he had grown up with, and that became his "Hurdy-Gurdy Man": [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man"] Harrison actually helped him with the song, writing a final verse inspired by the Maharishi's teachings, but in the studio Donovan's producer Mickie Most told him to cut the verse because the song was overlong, which apparently annoyed Harrison. Donovan includes that verse in his live performances of the song though -- usually while doing a fairly terrible impersonation of Harrison: [Excerpt: Donovan, "Hurdy Gurdy Man (live)"] And similarly, while McCartney was working on a song pastiching Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, but singing about the USSR rather than the USA, Love suggested to him that for a middle-eight he might want to sing about the girls in the various Soviet regions: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Back in the USSR"] As all the guitarists on the retreat only had acoustic instruments, they were very keen to improve their acoustic playing, and they turned to Donovan, who unlike the rest of them was primarily an acoustic player, and one from a folk background. Donovan taught them the rudiments of Travis picking, the guitar style we talked about way back in the episodes on the Everly Brothers, as well as some of the tunings that had been introduced to British folk music by Davey Graham, giving them a basic grounding in the principles of English folk-baroque guitar, a style that had developed over the previous few years. Donovan has said in his autobiography that Lennon picked the technique up quickly (and that Harrison had already learned Travis picking from Chet Atkins records) but that McCartney didn't have the application to learn the style, though he picked up bits. That seems very unlike anything else I've read anywhere about Lennon and McCartney -- no-one has ever accused Lennon of having a surfeit of application -- and reading Donovan's book he seems to dislike McCartney and like Lennon and Harrison, so possibly that enters into it. But also, it may just be that Lennon was more receptive to Donovan's style at the time. According to McCartney, even before going to Rishikesh Lennon had been in a vaguely folk-music and country mode, and the small number of tapes he'd brought with him to Rishikesh included Buddy Holly, Dylan, and the progressive folk band The Incredible String Band, whose music would be a big influence on both Lennon and McCartney for the next year: [Excerpt: The Incredible String Band, "First Girl I Loved"] According to McCartney Lennon also brought "a tape the singer Jake Thackray had done for him... He was one of the people we bumped into at Abbey Road. John liked his stuff, which he'd heard on television. Lots of wordplay and very suggestive, so very much up John's alley. I was fascinated by his unusual guitar style. John did ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun' as a Jake Thackray thing at one point, as I recall.” Thackray was a British chansonnier, who sang sweetly poignant but also often filthy songs about Yorkshire life, and his humour in particular will have appealed to Lennon. There's a story of Lennon meeting Thackray in Abbey Road and singing the whole of Thackray's song "The Statues", about two drunk men fighting a male statue to defend the honour of a female statue, to him: [Excerpt: Jake Thackray, "The Statues"] Given this was the music that Lennon was listening to, it's unsurprising that he was more receptive to Donovan's lessons, and the new guitar style he learned allowed him to expand his songwriting, at precisely the same time he was largely clean of drugs for the first time in several years, and he started writing some of the best songs he would ever write, often using these new styles: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Julia"] That song is about Lennon's dead mother -- the first time he ever addressed her directly in a song, though  it would be far from the last -- but it's also about someone else. That phrase "Ocean child" is a direct translation of the Japanese name "Yoko". We've talked about Yoko Ono a bit in recent episodes, and even briefly in a previous Beatles episode, but it's here that she really enters the story of the Beatles. Unfortunately, exactly *how* her relationship with John Lennon, which was to become one of the great legendary love stories in rock and roll history, actually started is the subject of some debate. Both of them were married when they first got together, and there have also been suggestions that Ono was more interested in McCartney than in Lennon at first -- suggestions which everyone involved has denied, and those denials have the ring of truth about them, but if that was the case it would also explain some of Lennon's more perplexing behaviour over the next year. By all accounts there was a certain amount of finessing of the story th