Jul 19, 2016

David Bowie at Heathrow: Too cute



Ad of the Day: Heathrow Ai

rport Crafts Sweet First TV Spot Set to David Bowie Song

 An adorable 'First Flight' 



Flying is magical once again, if seen through a child's eyes.
This is the story of an adventurous little suitcase that heads to Heathrow Airport in London, makes it through security relatively unmolested and falls in step with another cute carryall on the same journey.
Oh, the romantic possibilities.
But this ad, the first television campaign in Heathrow's 70-year history, isn't a rom-com setup for inanimate objects. It's meant, instead, to be a look at travel through the eyes of an adorable 5-year-old named Harriett, whose companion, aside from her adults, happens to be a piece of luggage with a wide-eyed owl face. (Don't look now, but Owly is actually on sale at the John Lewis store in Terminal 2).



That roller bag gets as much exposure as the kid in the 90-second spot from Havas London, but the point's made: Going someplace on an airplane can be magical, if viewed from a child's perspective. Her old-school aviator hat and goggles are just icing on the cake.
The commercial, dubbed "First Flight" and set to David Bowie's "When I Live My Dream" from his debut 1967 record, just launched on social media and will hit TV in the U.K. on Thursday. A related contest with Qantas, asking people to share their favorite Heathrow memories, will give 70 winners a trip to Australia.
Surely they'll throw in Owly for the trip.
CREDITS
Client: Heathrow Airport
Agency: Havas London
Executive creative director: Ben Mooge
Creatives: Barnaby Packham, Daniel Bolton
Group business director: Caroline Saunders
Senior account director: Julia Mahoney
Agency producer: Kiri Carch
Assistant producer: Femi Ladi
Production company: Outsider
Directors: Dom and Nic
Producer: John Madsen
Director of Photography: Alex Barber
Editing: Ed Cheeseman, Final Cut
Post: The Mill
Sound: Antony Moore, Factory

copied from adweek.com

@Bakari Sellers: Would love to hear him speak at the Democratic Convention in support of Hillary Clinton





Bakari Sellers


Would love to hear him speak at the Democratic Convention in support of Hillary Clinton.

Well done last evening and yesterday on CNN going against the false claims of the trump group.

He speaks with passion yet never crosses the line of being inappropriate or saying the wrong thing on national television.

Good job at getting the message across.

Wish I could talk like that.


Chloelouise--Hillary girl forever

Jul 18, 2016

Steely Dan's backing musicians steal the show at BMO Harris Pavilion: @pietlevy from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on @theRonnieRe

By Piet Levy of the Journal Sentinel
There was no need for Steely Dan to further hype its BMO Harris Pavilion show Saturday night.
It did after all earn a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, thanks partially to its signature jazz rock arrangements. And the amphitheater on the Summerfestgrounds — which seats 5,000, and can accommodate a few thousand more standing in the back — was near capacity.

Steely Dan's 

backing musicians 

steal the show at 

BMO Harris 

Pavilion

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel music writer Piet Levy shares photos and his thoughts from Steely Dan's show at the BMO Harris Pavilion on July 16, 2016.
Concert Recap: Steely Dan at BMO Harris Pavilion
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel music writer Piet Levy shares photos and his thoughts from Steely Dan's show at the BMO Harris Pavilion on Jul
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel music writer Piet Levy shares photos and his thoughts from Steely Dan's show at the BMO Harris Pavilion on July 16, 2016.
But Steely Dan's Walter Becker just couldn't help himself.
"It's just the finest band we've ever had," Becker boasted early on, in the middle of "Hey Nineteen."
"You've got yourself a ring-a-ding-ding party, ding-a-ding-ding party, ring-a-ding-ding," he continued as part of an offbeat, four-minute rant. "All night folks, we're going to hit those grooves, hit them hard, play those hits, you love these hits, you know you do. We're going to go on down that setlist, it's going to be pow, ba-bow, pow, boom, ring-a-ding-ding-ding, 'Oh, I love that one.'"
He also promised that after the show, couples would retreat to their "sanctum sanctorum of love, and the rest is history."
I have no idea if that last premonition came to be — and folks, I don't want to know.
But Becker was right about one thing — the backing band was terrific.
In fact, Becker and Steely Dan co-captain Donald Fagen essentially let the 11 supporting musicians steal the two-hour show.
Not that they didn't showcase their bona fides. Fagen effortlessly played a complex keyboard intro leading into "Josie." Becker on guitar brought twisted, nimble blues chops to "Pretzel Logic;" and during "Reelin' in the Years," his tight, high-pitched guitar riffs almost sounded like a psychedelic piccolo.
But during a band roll call, after Becker introduced Fagen with a thousand superlatives (and called him a gourmet chef to boot), white lights flooded the crowd, which appropriately went wild — but it was drummer Keith Carlock and trumpet player Michael Leonhart who took charge.
Walt Weiskopf was the star of sprawling set highlight "Aja" on sultry saxophone. Becker relinquished lead guitar to Jon Herington for most of Saturday's 17 songs. Fagen didn't even sing during "Dirty Work," letting the "Danettes" — backing vocalists La Tanya Hall, Carolyn Leonhart and Cindy Mizelle — take the lead.
There was a time in the '70s when Steely Dan was a studio-only band, its perfectionist recording tendencies finding new fans even during a 12-year hiatus. Now, it's a touring-only band — there hasn't been a new album since 2003 — and Becker and Fagen are content to take a creative back seat.
But fans Saturday were also content to belt out the distinctively quirky lyrics, to dance in the aisles and to be dazzled by fine musicianship — even if the two men who started it all weren't doing much dazzling.
Fagen was right to call opener Steve Winwood "intimidating." That's what happens when you have another Rock and Roll Hall of Famer on the bill.
The hourlong set spanned Winwood's eclectic and accomplished career, from "Gimme Some Lovin'" (the Spencer Davis Group); to "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" (Traffic); to "Can't Find My Way Home" (Blind Faith, his short-lived supergroup with Eric Clapton); to "Higher Love," from his solo career. The four-piece backing band cast away the latter's '80s gloss in favor of funky jazz rock, without sacrificing any energy.
And while guitarist Jose Neto often figuratively and literally commanded the spotlight — particularly with '70s funk guitar washes for the Buddy Miles cover "Them Changes" — Winwood on guitar matched his skills, with arena grandeur, and a touch of Texas roadhouse spice, during Traffic's "Mr. Fantasy." And Winwood's voice for "Lovin'" was just as sweet and soulful Saturday as on that 1966 recording.

More On Music

Find out about the week's must-see shows, concert tickets and more in the newsletter "Piet Levy's Music Picks." Subscribe at jsonline.com/newsletters.
Piet talks about concerts, local music and more on "TAP'd In" with Jordan Lee, 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9).

THE TAKEAWAYS

■The four-year-old BMO Harris Pavilion has more concert action than usual this summer, but I'm concerned some people won't come back. The lines to get in were massive, wrapping deep around the block, and taking 30 to 40 minutes to get in. No doubt many people missed a lot, and possibly all, of Winwood's set. The reason for the ridiculous delays: just four metal detectors stationed at the gate. Inexcusable.
■During Winwood's "Higher Love," you could see the tip of a sailboat through the mesh behind the stage swaying perfectly to the music.
■After Winwood ended, I had to wait 15 minutes to use the restroom. Ladies, on the other hand, had no wait at all. "I've never seen this in 60 years of my life!" one woman screamed, raising her arms in giddy jubilation.

THE SETLIST

1. "Black Cow"
2. "Aja"
3. "Hey Nineteen"
4. "Black Friday"
5. "Show Biz Kids"
6. "Kid Charlemagne"
7. "Time Out of Mind"
8. "Dirty Work"
9. "Bodhisattva"
10. "Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More"
11. "Babylon Sisters"
12. "I Want To (Do Everything For You)" (Joe Tex cover)
13. "Josie"
14. "Peg"
15. "My Old School"
16. "Reelin' in the Years"
Encore
17. "Pretzel Logic"


About Piet Levy
Piet Levy covers music for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and TapMilwaukee.com. For more music updates, you can also follow him onFacebook and Instagram​.

Jul 17, 2016

How to Alter Your Trouser Waistband

J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami Talks the Danger of The Republican Platform and His Quest for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

J Street

Tomorrow, the Republican National Convention will kick off in Cleveland. The Democrats will start pouring into Philadelphia the week after. After almost a year of heated political maneuvering, we’re about to enter into the homestretch of 2016.
In the lead-up to the conventions, the Democratic and Republican parties completed work on their party platforms this week, and the documents tell the tale of two parties moving in very different directions when it comes to Israel.
While Democrats made modest progress toward a balanced, productive policy, the GOP took an alarming turn in a dangerous direction.
The Democratic platform, for the first time, included language recognizing the legitimate rights and national aspirations of the Palestinian people. While affirming the importance of the two-state solution for securing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, it made clear that Palestinians too deserve “independence, sovereignty and dignity.”
This step brings the party’s doctrine more into line with the consensus of its members, who want to see American diplomacy bring the sides together to resolve the conflict and improve the lives of both peoples.
And it moves past the tired trope that being pro-Israel means ignoring the legitimate rights of Palestinians -- a trope that both Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders rejected during their primary campaigns, when they engaged in substantive conversations about the conflict and the two-state solution.
Of course there must be and will be further movement in the party's position in the future. It’s established, bipartisan American policy to oppose unlimited expansion of Israeli settlements and a party that stands for equality and justice will one day call out the ongoing occupation. In fact, over 40 percent of the platform committee supported an amendment that would have done just that, signaling the direction in which the party is moving on these issues.
Yet while the progress in the Democratic Party is an encouraging sign for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans, changes in the Republican Party platform are a sobering reminder that irresponsible and extreme ideas are gaining traction on the American political right.
For decades, Republican presidents have combined strong support for Israeli security with opposition to settlements and support for two states. President George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees and President George W. Bush called for a Palestinian state in a landmark Rose Garden speech. Both put the full weight of American diplomacy -- at Madrid and Annapolis -- behind efforts to resolve the conflict.
These positions have formed the basis for decades of bipartisan consensus around Israel and the US-Israel relationship.
The 2016 Republican platform disregards that legacy entirely. It withdraws support for the two-state solution, deletes all reference to Palestinians and makes a point of emphatically rejecting the notion that Israel is an occupying power in the West Bank.
These positions move the GOP far outside the American consensus and place the party at odds not just with the 80 percent of Jewish Americans who support two states -- but with the stated position of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Republican abandonment of its commitment to resolving the conflict and securing Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state lines the party up with the minority of Israelis who support the settlement movement and one-state annexationists.
These changes didn’t come from nowhere -- they appear to be driven by the concerted lobbying efforts of far-right activists in groups like “Iron Dome PAC." These hardliners have even slammed AIPAC from the right, insisting that they give up on bipartisanship altogether. They want their party to equate support for Israel with support for Greater Israel -- and they want to treat Palestinians as if they don’t exist.
These ideas are not just hopelessly out of touch with reality, and with most voters. They are dangerous.
But one need look no further than this Congress to feel concern that these forces are succeeding in promoting legislation, sometimes supported by more mainstream groups, that seeks to blur the Green Line and undermine the basis for the two-state solution.
For those who believe the future of Israelis and Palestinians -- and possibly the peace and security of the Middle East -- depend on a negotiated resolution of their conflict, the growing partisan divide on these issues must be of real concern.
We can only hope that once Election Day is past, responsible leaders in the Republican Party who understand the region and the world will stand up to those advancing a reckless agenda and help bring the parties back into alignment on these critical issues.
Our goal must be rebuilding bipartisan consensus around diplomacy and two states, not making Israel even more of a partisan political football.
- Jeremy

Jul 7, 2016

Is Bill O'Reilly Insane?

From the July 6 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
 
 
DAVID MENDELL: Just because President Obama attended the wedding of a relative who was a Muslim doesn't necessarily mean he has deep ties to Islam. 
BILL O'REILLY (HOST): You wouldn't say that if your father and your stepfather, both Islamists, and then your half brother and half sister, both Muslims, you wouldn't call those deep ties? 
MENDELL: Well, they are ties. President Obama is a very unique cultural figure. He has ties to various worlds. He has ties in the African-American world. He has ties to Kansas where his mother was born. He himself is a devout Christian. I would follow him around on the campaign trail back here in Illinois -- 
O'REILLY: Whoa, whoa, whoa, devout Christian? He doesn't go to church on a regular basis. How did you arrive at that assessment? Why would he be -- he's a Christian. I believe he's a Christian. I'm not one of these guys who says he's a Muslim. But I don't think he's a devout Christian. 
MENDELL: Well, he would go along the campaign trail here in Illinois, he would have the Holy Bible sitting in the door compartment of his vehicle, and he would refer to it consistently. He and Michelle would attend services of, you can go back to Jeremiah Wright if you want but -- 
O'REILLY: I don't know if that's devout in Jeremiah Wright's church is a little political.
MENDELL: But he's given expensive interviews about his beliefs in Christianity. 
O'REILLY: Yeah but what you say and what you do are not necessarily the same thing. I base my analysis on the fact that in my opinion -- and I could be wrong, but I'm not -- President Obama's sympathetic treatment of Muslims put the country in danger because he has not elevated the risks that we have to the level it should be. And he allowed ISIS to be created because of his foolish decision to withdraw troops in Iraq and to pretty much run wild for five years. So another president, angry about the jihad, would not have done that. Am I wrong?
MENDELL: Well, I think President Obama is very sympathetic to all cultures, all religions. He grew up in a multiplicity -- 
O'REILLY: Is that good for a commander in chief to be very sympathetic to all cultures and all beliefs when thousands of people are being murdered? 
MENDELL: Obviously you think it's a bad quality. 
O'REILLY: You don't? 
MENDELL: Well, I think he is a unique figure in that he can see various viewpoints. I'm not here necessarily to argue --
O'REILLY: He's the commander in chief of the country -- wait, wait, wait, Mr. Mendell. Mr. Mendell, he's the commander in chief of the United States, and his main charge is to protect us. It's not main charge as to be touchy-feely to all different cultures.

copied from mediamatters.org



Is Bill O'Reilly Insane? 

Jul 6, 2016

SDPD Needs Your Help: Homicide Cases Involving the Homeless--$1,000 Reward--Crime Stoppers San Diego




Lisa McKeanSan Diego Police Department AGENCY
View larger photoWe are asking for your help in identifying the suspect(s) who are targeting our homeless community. Please view the attached press release with pictures of a person of interest. For the video mentioned on the flyer, please visit our Facebook and Twitter page to view. We currently have multiple resources deployed in our communities to inform our homeless population of these attacks. We are asking your help in spreading the word also to our homeless; to remain vigilant, avoid sleeping alone, and stay in open, well-lit areas.

copied from Nextdoor South Park

The Arab Heroes Who Saved the Mark Family: The @JewishPress on @TheRonnieRe

The Arab Heroes Who Saved the Mark Family 

The first people on the scene were Arabs driving by who stopped and helped save the Jewish terror victims.

Islam Albid - The first person who helped save the Mark family after the terror attack.
Islam Albid - The first person who helped save the Mark family after the terror attack.
Photo Credit: Mabat - Israel TV
After Jihadi terrorists opened fire on the vehicle of Miki Mark and his family on Friday near Otniel on July 1, 2016, the first people on the scene were an Arab couple from the village of Al-Farar, Islam Albid and his wife, a nurse.
Seeing the overturned car, they immediately stopped and managed to get a door open and pull the trapped and wounded children out of the car.
The couple got the wounded children into their car, tried to calm them down (in perfect Hebrew) and called for a Red Crescent ambulance.
Albid told Israel TV that he did it “for humanistic reasons and of course for Allah.”
A few minutes after that, an Arab doctor, Dr. Ali Abu Shruch, a kidney surgeon from the village of Dahariya in the southern Hebron Hills, drove by with his brother and his brother’s wife. They were on their way to pray in Jerusalem.
In an interview on Israeli TV (see video below), the doctor described how he assessed the situation, and freed the mother, Chava Marks, who was being suffocated by the seat belt.
At that point a Red Crescent ambulance and an IDF army jeep arrived. A MDA ambulance arrived a few minutes after that.
It was then, when the doctor checked the father, Miki Mark, that he realized this wasn’t an accident, but a terror attack and they had been shot, and Miki was dead.
During the interview, Dr. Abu Shruch emphasized that he wasn’t a hero. He has an obligation to treat everyone and as a doctor he doesn’t get involved in politics, he was doing his job.
He said his friends have all blessed him for his honorable actions.
The doctor passed a message along to the family saying, “I know the damage to the family is hard, but I want them to know I did all that I could to help them.”
After the funeral, members of the Mark family pointed out that the first people on the scene trying to help save them were Arabs, and one must not think all Arabs are terrorists.
There is hope after all.
Jewish Press News Briefs
About the Author: JewishPress.com brings you the latest in Jewish news from around the world. Stay up to date by following up onFacebook and Twitter. Do you have something noteworthy to report? Submit your news story to us here.
copied from the jewishpress.com and here is a link to the page: