Top 60th birthday presents

Jaded Director (JD) wasn’t surprised when he heard how Defensive Performer (DP) has been trying to dodge brickbats for accepting a deeply polarizing acting assignment. While DP has never really hit the big time, she has nevertheless always managed to stay in the limelight with gigs that bank on DP’s over-the-top, hit-and-miss antics. Apparently, JD and DP’s paths had crossed many years ago, just as JD’s hit international project was starting to take off. In a glitzy public sortie, DP approached JD and explained why JD should consider tapping her services for JD’s acclaimed show. But DP’s next line was very telling, JD said. Just before DP continued greeting everybody in the room as if she were Ms Congeniality, DP told JD, “But assign the controversial parts to me, OK?” “As you can see, DP thinks that the only way to get people’s attention is to shock them. She is KSP (kulang sa pansin)—then and now,” JD told Rushes. Ouch. TOP OF THE TABLOIDS This week’s top show biz news from … [Read more...] about Polarizing decision par for the course for controversial performer

- A + A SERDANG (Aug 13): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Saturday (Aug 13) that he already had a meeting with Perikatan Nasional (PN) representatives two weeks ago. He said the meeting, which took place during the final week of the Dewan Rakyat session at the Parliament building, was attended by PN secretary general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin and PN treasurer Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar. "There has already been [a meeting]. Bersatu presented their views and I also presented mine...so that's about it," he said after visiting the Pahang Pavilion at the 2022 Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism (MAHA) Exhibition at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) here on Saturday. Ismail Sabri said the matter had also been announced when he officiated MAHA 2022 on Aug 6, and that it need not be raised again. The prime minister emphasised that the government was currently focused on resolving the people's issues and … [Read more...] about Meeting with PN already held, says Ismail Sabri

(CNN) The amount of new information in "The Princess" will likely depend on one's personal Royals-related media consumption, but the packaging of this stark and intimate documentary -- marking the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana's death -- serves as a sobering reminder of how the press hounded her from the moment of her engagement until her tragic death. Told entirely using clips and video, with nary a narrator's voice or talking head, the documentary essentially opens up a time capsule, propelling viewers back to the near-quarter century span from Diana and Prince Charles' fairy-tale wedding through their divorce and its aftermath. Even with the treasure trove of available material, it's a feat of editing and curation. Director Ed Perkins has smartly bookended the film with video of the paparazzi chasing her and the young Diana being peppered with questions by reporters about her upcoming marriage, meticulously filling the gap in between. As for pundit … [Read more...] about ‘The Princess’ creates a stark portrait of Diana’s life under the media microscope

By Radhika Marya, CNN Updated 1633 GMT (0033 HKT) August 13, 2022 (CNN) Some of the stars behind summer's hottest new music found themselves in hot water when listeners and disability advocates spoke out against a lyric viewed as an ableist slur. Backlash came quickly, and the artists were just as quick to respond. Lizzo took to Instagram to announce she had edited the lyric, noting, "I never want to promote derogatory language." Beyoncé's team issued a similar response within days of her album release, stating, "the word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced." The term in question, "spaz," first appeared on "Grrrls," a single released by Lizzo in June. It then appeared on "Heated," a track on Beyoncé's highly anticipated album, " Renaissance ," which dropped last month. The word, derived from "spastic," has different cultural connotations -- in the US, it's mainly a colloquialism to describe losing control. It can describe being "in the … [Read more...] about Artists have changed song lyrics before. But Beyoncé’s and Lizzo’s recent revisions are part of a new era

Have you ever finished a meeting and wondered whether everyone there stayed awake all the way through? At least some of the time, they probably didn't. A review of the research by resume writing site LiveCareer shows that 39 percent of employees admit they have fallen asleep during work meetings . That's just one surprising fact to emerge from LiveCareer's study. Here are a few more things it learned, both from reviewing research from other sources and from conducting its own survey of 1,000 U.S. employees. Use these insights when planning your own work meetings to make them more engaging and effective for everyone. 1. Your employees spend too much time in meetings. According to research by Atlassian, the average employee attends 62 meetings every month and considers 31 of them to be a waste of time. In its survey, LiveCareer asked employees how much time they spent in meetings, rather than how many they attended. The answers were disheartening. Eighty-one percent … [Read more...] about 39 Percent of Employees Have Fallen Asleep During a Meeting

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Theater can offer the ultimate opportunity for connection and understanding. It shows us that we are not alone in our feelings of pain and struggle. As the poet Andrea Gibson wrote, “…sometimes, the most healing thing to do is remind ourselves over and over and over: Other people feel this too.” In the play The Nosebleed playwright Aya Ogawa reflects on the fraught connection between Ogawa and Ogawa’s late father. As Ogawa describes him, he barely engages and mostly sits at his desk facing the wall whenever Ogawa visits. “It’s a deep reflection on and questioning of my relationship with my father through my perspective as an immigrant and a mom, and the absurdities and tragedies that coexist side-by-side in life,” says the Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based playwright who also directs and stars in the piece that manages to be deeply poignant but also hilarious at times. This Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 production is … [Read more...] about This Daring Play Mines The Complicated And Fractured Familial Bonds That Tether Us To The Past