WILLIAM OLIVER STONE, A CONTROVERSIAL FILMMAKER

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films directed by Oliver Stone, the American filmmaker who was born on a day like today in 1946. 

William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American filmmaker.

Stone is known as a controversial but acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War, and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas. 

He has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.

Stone was born in New York City and later briefly attended Yale University. In 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He then served from 1967 to 1968 in the 25th Infantry Division and was twice wounded in action. For his service, he received military honors such as the Bronze Star with V Device for valor, the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one Silver Service Star. His service in Vietnam would be the basis for his later career as a filmmaker in depicting the brutality of war.

Stone started his film career writing the screenplays for Midnight Express (1978), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Scarface (1983). He then rose to prominence as writer and director of the Vietnam War film dramas Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), receiving Academy Awards for Best Director for both films, the former of which also won Best Picture. He also directed Salvador (1986), Wall Street (1987) and its sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), The Doors (1991), JFK (1991), Heaven & Earth (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995), Any Given Sunday (1999), W. (2008) and Snowden (2016).

Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. 

Stone has been critical of American foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by nationalist and imperialist agendas. He has approved of politicians Hugo Chávez and Vladimir Putin, the latter of whom was the subject of The Putin Interviews (2017). Like his subject matter, Stone is a controversial figure in American filmmaking, with some critics accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories.

More information: Instagram-Oliver Stone

Stone was born in New York City, the son of a French woman named Jacqueline and Louis Stone, a stockbroker.

Stone graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film in 1971, where his teachers included director and fellow NYU alumnus Martin Scorsese. The same year, he had a small acting role in the comedy The Battle of Love's Return.

Stone made a short, well received 12-minute film Last Year in Viet Nam. He worked as a taxi driver, film production assistant, messenger, and salesman before making his mark in film as a screenwriter in the late 1970s, in the period between his first two films as a director: horror films Seizure and The Hand.

Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. They often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as demonstrated in JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Nixon (1995).

Stone listed Greek-French director Costa-Gavras as an early significant influence on his films. Stone mentioned that he was certainly one of my earliest role models,...I was a film student at NYU when Z came out, which we studied. Costa actually came over with Yves Montand for a screening and was such a hero to us. He was in the tradition of Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers and was the man in that moment... it was a European moment.

Oliver Stone is a vocal supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Stone signed a petition in support of Assange's bid for political asylum in June 2012. In August 2012, he penned a New York Times op-ed with filmmaker Michael Moore on the importance of WikiLeaks and free speech.

Stone called Saudi Arabia a major destabilizer in the Middle East. He also criticized the foreign policy of the United States, saying: We made a mess out of Iraq, Syria, Libya, but it doesn't matter to the American public. It's okay to wreck the Middle East.

Stone has had an interest in Latin America since the 1980s, when he directed Salvador, and later returned to make his documentary South of the Border about the left-leaning movements that had been taking hold in the region.

Stone has criticized the U.S.-supported Operation Condor, a state terror operation that carried out assassinations and disappearances in support of South America's right-wing dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

More information: The Guardian

When you look at a movie,
you look at a director's thought process.

Oliver Stone

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL COMPLETES HIS 'MESSIAH'

Today, The Grandma has been listening Messiah, the oratorio that George Frideric Handel completed on a day like today in 1741.

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685-14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. 

Handel received his training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712, where he spent the bulk of his career and became a naturalised British subject in 1727. 

He was strongly influenced both by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition and by composers of the Italian Baroque. In turn, Handel's music forms one of the peaks of the high baroque style, bringing Italian opera to its highest development, creating the genres of English oratorio and organ concerto, and introducing a new style into English church music. 

He is consistently recognized as one of the greatest composers of his age.

Handel started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera.

In 1737, he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively, addressed the middle class and made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742), he never composed an Italian opera again. His orchestral Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain steadfastly popular. One of his four coronation anthems, Zadok the Priest, has been performed at every British coronation since 1727. Almost blind, he died in 1759 a respected and rich man, and was given a state funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Handel composed more than forty opere serie over a period of more than thirty years. Since the late 1960s, interest in Handel's music has grown. The musicologist Winton Dean wrote that Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order. His music was admired by Classical-era composers, especially Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.

Handel was born in 1685 (the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti) in Halle, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, then part of Brandenburg-Prussia.

More information: English National Opera

Messiah (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. 

It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Handel's reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. 

Instead, Jennens's text is an extended reflection on Jesus as the Messiah called Christ. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only scene taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion of Jesus and ends with the Hallelujah chorus. In Part III he covers Paul's teachings on the resurrection of the dead and Christ's glorification in heaven.

Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional alternate settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified, such as Mozart's Der Messias. 

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel's original intentions, although big Messiah productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.

The autograph manuscript of the oratorio is preserved in the British Library.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

 I should be sorry if I only entertained them.
I wish to make them better.

George Frideric Handel

SHERWOOD ANDERSON, WRITING AFTER A BREAKDOWN

Today, The Grandma has been reading some books written by one of her favourite writers,  the American novelist Sherwood Anderson, who was born on a day like today in 1876.

Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876-March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio.

In 1912, Anderson had a nervous breakdown that led him to abandon his business and family to become a writer.

At the time, he moved to Chicago and was eventually married three additional times. His most enduring work is the short-story sequence Winesburg, Ohio, which launched his career. Throughout the 1920s, Anderson published several short story collections, novels, memoirs, books of essays, and a book of poetry. Though his books sold reasonably well, Dark Laughter (1925), a novel inspired by Anderson's time in New Orleans during the 1920s, was his only bestseller.

Sherwood Berton Anderson was born on September 13, 1876, at 142 S. Lafayette Street in Camden, Ohio, a farming town with a population of around 650, according to the 1870 census.

Anderson suffered the breakdown that has remained paramount in the myth or legend of his life.

On Thursday, November 28, 1912, Anderson came to his office in a slightly nervous state. But even before returning home, Anderson began his lifelong practice of reinterpreting the story of his breakdown.

While diagnoses for the four days of Anderson's wanderings have ranged from amnesia to lost identity to nervous breakdown, his condition is generally characterized today as a fugue state. Anderson himself described the episode as escaping from his materialistic existence, and was admired for his action by many young male writers who chose to be inspired by him.

Anderson's first novel, Windy McPherson's Son, was published in 1916 as part of a three-book deal with John Lane. This book, along with his second novel, Marching Men (1917), are usually considered his apprentice novels because they came before Anderson found fame with Winesburg, Ohio (1919) and are generally considered inferior in quality to works that followed.

In 1920, he published Poor White, which was rather successful.

In 1923, Anderson published Many Marriages; in it he explored the new sexual freedom, a theme which he continued in Dark Laughter and later writing. Dark Laughter had its detractors, but the reviews were, on the whole, positive. F. Scott Fitzgerald considered Many Marriages to be Anderson's finest novel.

In his later years, Anderson lived on his Ripshin Farm in Troutdale, Virginia, which he purchased in 1927 for use during summers. While living there, he contributed to a country newspaper, columns that were collected and published posthumously.

Just weeks before his death, Anderson started on a radio script for The Free Company, a group of which Anderson was a founding member in early 1941. The Free Company consisted of a group of prominent writers and Hollywood and stage stars which is presenting a series of thirteen radio plays dealing with Civil Liberties over the Columbia Broadcasting System. Anderson drafted the story titled Above Suspicion, but died before finishing the radio play. Members of the company completed the script, and produced it May 4, 1941, in tribute to his memory.

Anderson died on March 8, 1941, at the age of 64, taken ill during a cruise to South America. His epitaph reads, Life, Not Death, Is the Great Adventure.

More information: Literariness

That in the beginning when the world
was young there were a great many thoughts
but no such thing as truth.
Man made the truths himself and each truth
was a composite of a great many vague thoughts.
All about in the world were truths
and they were all beautiful.

Sherwood Anderson

IAN HOLM CUTHBERT, ENGLISH TELEVISION & CINEMA

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films interpreted by Ian Holm, the English actor who was born on a day like today in 1931.

Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931-19 June 2020) was an English actor. 

After graduating from RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to drama.

Holm won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in the Harold Pinter play The Homecoming. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role in the 1998 West End production of King Lear. For his television roles he received two Primetime Emmy Awards for King Lear, and the HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2003).

He gained acclaim for his role in The Bofors Gun (1968) winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a second BAFTA Award for his role as athletics trainer Sam Mussabini in Chariots of Fire (1981). Other notable films he appeared in include Alien (1979), Brazil (1985), Dreamchild (1985), Henry V (1989), Naked Lunch (1991), The Madness of King George (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), and The Aviator (2004). He played Napoleon in three different films. He gained wider appreciation for his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Holm's appearance was used posthumously via CGI in 2024 film Alien: Romulus.

Ian Holm Cuthbert was born on 12 September 1931 in Goodmayes, Essex, to Scottish parents.

Holm was an established actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company before he gained notice in television and film. He began in 1954 with minor roles, progressing to Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the fool in King Lear.

Holm's first film role to gain much notice was that of Ash, the "calm, technocratic" science officer -later revealed to be an android- in Ridley Scott's science-fiction film Alien (1979).

Holm raised his profile in 1997 with two prominent roles, as the priest Vito Cornelius in Luc Besson's sci-fi The Fifth Element and the lawyer Mitchell Stephens in The Sweet Hereafter.

In 2001, he followed up his radio role as Frodo by appearing as Frodo's older cousin Bilbo Baggins in the blockbuster film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This brought him wider fame, somewhat overshadowing the rest of his acting career. He returned for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). He later reprised his role as the elderly Bilbo Baggins in the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Martin Freeman portrayed the young Bilbo in those films.

Holm died in hospital in London on 19 June 2020 at the age of 88.

More information: The Guardian

All performances are different.
I don't think it's necessary to compare one with another.
I am just me playing the role of Lear.
You're bound to get a Holm approach to it,
whatever that may be. I just got out there and did it.
I'm very much a doer in my acting.

Ian Holm

DONEC PERFICIAM, UNTIL WE ACHIEVE THE FINAL VICTORY

Donec perficiam is a Latin motto that means until you succeed, until you achieve it.

It was the motto of the Royal Catalan Guards (Reials Guàrdies Catalanes)  -the body guard of King Charles III -during the War of Succession. 

The Royal Catalan Guards were under the command of the Marquis of Foix, Colonel Antoni de Peguera i d'Aimeric, an enlightened military man who had been a member of the Academy of the Distrusted (Acadèmia dels Desconfiats), and framed the brave Vigatans who on the day of Santa Creu de Crist in 1705 (May 3) started the military uprising to overthrow Philip V of Bourbon.

The motto signified the idea that, despite the setbacks and defeats, they would never give up, but would persist in the fight until they succeed, that is, until the final victory is achieved.

The Catalan Black Flag or Black Star is based on the black flag of the Catalan Austrian side during the War of Succession and the siege of Barcelona in 1714, as a sign of not giving up and fighting without respite. They added the five-pointed star of the estelada, and a sautor (cross) like the one on the Santa Eulalia de Barcelona flag.

It represents relentless struggle. Therefore, the color is the opposite of the white flag, the traditional signal of surrender.

Donec Perficiam

1640, JUNTA DE BRAÇOS LEAD TO THE CATALAN REPUBLIC

Today, The Grandma has been reading about La Junta de Braços, the Assembly of Estates of the Principality of Catalonia that assumed the sovereignty and enacted a series of revolutionary mesures which had to lead to the Catalan Republic in 1640.

The Reapers' War, in Catalan Guerra dels Segadors, also known as the Catalan Revolt or Catalan Revolution, was a conflict that affected the Principality of Catalonia between 1640 and 1659, in the context of the Franco-Spanish War of 1635-1659.

Being the result of a revolutionary process carried out by Catalan peasantry and institutions, as well as French diplomatic movements, it saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic and the clash of Habsburg and Bourbon armies on Catalan soil over more than a decade.

It had an enduring effect in the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), which ceded the County of Roussillon and the northern half of the County of Cerdanya to France, splitting these northern Catalan territories off from the Principality of Catalonia.

The Junta de Braços or Braços Generals (States-General) was, during the early modern age, an institution of the Principality of Catalonia, convened by the Generalitat of Catalonia in cases of emergency or urgency. It was composed by the representatives of the Catalan Courts who at that time were in Barcelona.

The decision to convene the Junta de Braços was to be taken by the three deputies and the three oïdors that formed the Generalitat. It was constituted following the same system of the Catalan Courts, that is, by bringing together the members of the three estates of the realm: the ecclesiastic formed by the clergy, the military formed by the nobility, and the popular formed by royal towns and cities of the country. Only those who lived in Barcelona (or who were at that time) were summoned, due to the urgent nature of the issues that had to be raised and the precarious communications of the time made it impossible for a general call for all of Catalonia. This favored the presence of a majority of Barcelona residents, and of a greater number of nobles who lived in the city; and the presence of the ciutadans honrats (honorable citizens) of Barcelona was accepted, even though on an individual basis.

The Principality of Catalonia, in Catalan Principat de Catalunya, was a medieval and early modern state in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. During most of its history it was in dynastic union with the Kingdom of Aragon, constituting together the Crown of Aragon.

Between the 13th and the 18th centuries, it was bordered by the Kingdom of Aragon to the west, the Kingdom of Valencia to the south, the Kingdom of France and the feudal lordship of Andorra to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the east.

The term Principality of Catalonia was official until the 1830s, when the Spanish government implemented the centralized provincial division, but remained in popular and informal contexts. Today, the term Principat (Principality) is used primarily to refer to Catalonia, as distinct from the other Catalan Countries, and usually including the historical region of Roussillon in Southern France.

The first reference to Catalonia and the Catalans appears in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus, a Pisan chronicle (written between 1117 and 1125) of the conquest of Mallorca by a joint force of Northern Italians, Catalans, and Occitans.

At the time, Catalonia did not yet exist as a political entity, though the use of this term seems to acknowledge Catalonia as a cultural or geographical entity. The counties that eventually made up the Principality of Catalonia were gradually unified under the rule of the count of Barcelona.

In 1137, the County of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon were unified under a single dynasty, creating what modern historians call the Crown of Aragon; however, Aragon and Catalonia retained their own political structure and legal traditions, developing separate political communities along the next centuries. Under Alfons I the Troubador (reigned 1164-1196), Catalonia was regarded as a legal entity for the first time. Still, the term Principality of Catalonia was not used legally until the 14th century, when it was applied to the territories ruled by the Courts of Catalonia.

Its institutional system evolved over the centuries, establishing political bodies analogous to the ones of the other kingdoms of the Crown (such as the Courts, the Generalitat or the Consell de Cent) and legislation (constitutions, derived from the Usages of Barcelona) which largely limited the royal power and secured the political model of pactism.

Catalonia contributed to further develop the Crown trade and military, most significantly their navy. The Catalan language flourished and expanded as more territories were added to the Crown, including Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, and Athens, constituting a thalassocracy across the Mediterranean. The crisis of the 14th century, the end of the rule of House of Barcelona (1410) and a civil war (1462-1472) weakened the role of the Principality in Crown and international affairs.

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 laid the foundations of the monarchy of Spain. In 1492 the Spanish colonization of the Americas began, and political power began to shift away towards Castile. Tensions between Catalan institutions and the monarchy, alongside the peasants' revolts, provoked the Reapers' War (1640-1659), who saw the brief establishment of a Catalan Republic. By the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) the Roussillon was ceded to France.

During the War of Succession (1701-1714), the Crown of Aragon supported the Archduke Charles of Habsburg. 

After the surrender of Barcelona in 1714, King Philip V of Bourbon, inspired by the French model, imposed absolutism and a unifying administration across Spain, and enacted the Nueva Planta decrees for every realm of the Crown of Aragon, which suppressed the main Catalan, Aragonese, Valencian and Majorcan political institutions and rights and merged them into the Crown of Castile as provinces, ending their status as separate political entities.

More information: Barcelona Metropolitan

Catalunya triomfant,
tornarà a ser rica i plena.
Endarrere aquesta gent
tan ufana i tan superba.

Catalonia triumphant
Shall again be rich and abundant.
Drive away these folks
Who are so proud and arrogant.

Els Segadors, National Catalan Anthem

JAMES EARL JONES, THE EGOT & DARTH VADER'S VOICE

Today, The Grandma has received sad news. James Earl Jones, the American actor, has passed away.

James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931-September 9, 2024) was an American actor known for his film roles and his work in theater. 

He was one of the few performers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985, and was honoured with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009, and the Academy Honorary Award in 2011.

Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, in 1931, he had a stutter since childhood. Jones said that poetry and acting helped him overcome the challenges of his disability. A pre-med major in college, he served in the United States Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting. His deep voice was praised as a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas to his projects.

Jones made his Broadway debut in the play Sunrise at Campobello (1957). He then gained prominence for acting in numerous productions with Shakespeare in the Park including Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear.

Jones worked steadily in theater, winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a boxer in The Great White Hope (1968), which he reprised in the 1970 film adaptation, earning him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Jones won his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a working class father in August Wilson's Fences (1987). He was a Tony award nominee for his roles as the husband in Ernest Thompson's On Golden Pond (2005) about an aging couple, and as a former president in the Gore Vidal play The Best Man (2012). His other Broadway performances included Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), Driving Miss Daisy (2010–2011), You Can't Take It with You (2014), and The Gin Game (2015-2016). He received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.

Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Claudine (1974). Jones gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film. Jones's other notable films include The Man (1972), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Sneakers (1992), The Sandlot (1993), The Lion King (1994), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). 

On television, Jones received eight Primetime Emmy Awards nominations winning twice for his roles in thriller film Heat Wave (1990) and the crime series Gabriel's Fire (1991). He also acted in Roots (1977), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Picket Fences (1994), Homicide: Life on the Street (1997), and Everwood (2004).

James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931.

Jones began his acting career at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. In 1953, he was a stage carpenter, and between 1955 and 1957, he acted and was a stage manager. In his first acting season at the Ramsdell, he portrayed Othello.

Jones died at his home in Pawling, New York, on September 9, 2024, at the age of 93.

More information: The Guardian

And it was the idea that you can do a play
-like a Shakespeare play, or any well-written play,
 Arthur Miller, whatever -and say things
you could never imagine saying,
never imagine thinking in your own life.

James Earl Jones

TV SERIES STAR TREK PREMIERES ITS 1ST EPISODE IN 1966

Today, The Grandma has been watching one of her favourite TV Series, Star Trek, whose first episode was ired on a day like today in 1966.

Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. 

Since its creation, the franchise has expanded into various films, television series, video games, novels, and comic books, and it has become one of the most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series, which debuted in the US on September 8, 1966, and aired for three seasons on NBC. It was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network.

The series followed the voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. 

In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels, the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, and television westerns such as Wagon Train.

The Star Trek canon includes the Original Series, 11 spin-off television series, and a film franchise; further adaptations also exist in several media. After the conclusion of the Original Series, the adventures of its characters continued in the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated Series and six feature films. A television revival beginning in the 1980s saw three sequel series and a prequel: The Next Generation, following the crew of a new starship Enterprise a century after the original series; Deep Space Nine and Voyager, set in the same era as the Next Generation; and Enterprise, set before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of the Next Generation crew continued in four additional feature films.

In 2009, the film franchise underwent a reboot, creating an alternate continuity known as the Kelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. The newest Star Trek television revival, beginning in 2017, includes the series Discovery, Picard, Short Treks, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds, streaming on digital platforms.

More information: Star Trek

Star Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called Trekkies or Trekkers. The franchise spans a wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. 

From 1998 to 2008, there was a Star Trek–themed attraction in Las Vegas. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world. The constructed language Klingon was created for the franchise. Several Star Trek parodies have been made, and viewers have produced several fan productions.

Star Trek is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also notable for its progressive civil-rights stances. The Original Series included one of the first multiracial casts on US television.

As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek. Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space -a so-called Wagon Train to the stars -he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale.

Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets. The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas.

Many of the conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism, feminism, and the role of technology.

Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of the past, most specifically by ending violence.

The Star Trek media franchise is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by Paramount Global. Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as Wagon Train to the Stars and as Horatio Hornblower in Space.

The opening line, to boldly go where no man has gone before, was taken almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957.

Star Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and was broadcast worldwide. The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. 

Star Trek conventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves trekkies or trekkers.

An entire subculture has grown up around the franchise, which was documented in the film Trekkies. 

Star Trek was ranked most popular cult show by TV Guide. The franchise has also garnered many comparisons of the Star Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

 By creating a new world with new rules,
I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics,
and intercontinental missiles.
Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek:
we were sending messages and fortunately
 they all got by the network.
If you talked about purple people on a far off planet,
the television network never really caught on.
They were more concerned about cleavage. T
hey actually would send a censor down
to the set to measure a woman's cleavage
to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing.

Gene Roddenberry

FCB PLAYS THEIR 1ST MATCH AT JOHAN CRUYFF STADIUM

Today, The Grandma has been watching some football matches, and she has started with the first match that F.C.Barcelona Femení played at Johan Cruyff Stadium on a day like today in 2019.

Johan Cruyff Stadium, in Catalan Estadi Johan Cruyff, is a football stadium operated by Barcelona in Sant Joan Despí, Barcelona, Catalonia. Located in the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, the club's training facility and youth academy, about 7 km from the Camp Nou. The stadium is home to Barcelona Femení, Barcelona B and Juvenil A (U19 A team). 

It is named in honour of legendary Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff who died in March 2016.

It is a UEFA Category 3 stadium and houses 6,000 supporters. As part of the Espai Barça project, it is the replacement for the Mini Estadi, which was in front of the Camp Nou and was demolished in 2020, and the land of the Mini Estadi will be used to build the Nou Palau Blaugrana.

Estadi Johan Cruyff broke ground on 14 September 2017 and was completed in Summer 2019.

It was opened on 27 August 2019, with a friendly match between the under-19 teams of Barcelona and Ajax. The match ended up in a 0-2 score where Ajax was the winner.

On 26 August 2019, a day before the stadium was officially opened to the public, Barcelona paid tribute to Cruyff by unveiling his statue at the Camp Nou.

On 7 September 2019, Futbol Club Barcelona Femení played their first game at Johan Cruyff Stadium against CD Tacón winning 9-1 with Alexia Putellas scoring the first goal.

More information: F.C.Barcelona

 It's like everything in football -and life.
You need to look, you need to think,
you need to move, you need to find space,
you need to help others. It's very simple in the end.

Johan Cruyff

JOHN DALTON, COLOUR BLINDNESS & ATOMIC THEORY

Today, The Grandma has been reading about John Dalton, the English scientist, who was born on a day like today in 1766.

John Dalton (6 September 1766-27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. 

He introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. He also researched colour blindness; as a result, the umbrella term for red-green congenital colour blindness disorders is Daltonism in several languages.

John Dalton was born on 5 or 6 September 1766 into a Quaker family in Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in Cumberland, England. His father was a weaver. He received his early education from his father and from Quaker John Fletcher, who ran a private school in the nearby village of Pardshaw Hall. Dalton's family was too poor to support him for long and he began to earn his living, from the age of ten, in the service of wealthy local Quaker Elihu Robinson.

When he was 15, Dalton joined his older brother Jonathan in running a Quaker school in Kendal, Westmorland, about 72 km from his home. Around the age of 23, Dalton may have considered studying law or medicine, but his relatives did not encourage him, perhaps because being a Dissenter, he was barred from attending English universities. He acquired much scientific knowledge from informal instruction by John Gough, a blind philosopher who was gifted in the sciences and arts.

At 27, he was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at the Manchester Academy in Manchester, a dissenting academy (the lineal predecessor, following a number of changes of location, of Harris Manchester College, Oxford). He remained for seven years, until the college's worsening financial situation led to his resignation. Dalton began a new career as a private tutor in the same two subjects.

In 1794, shortly after his arrival in Manchester, Dalton was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, the Lit & Phil, and a few weeks later he communicated his first paper on Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours, in which he postulated that shortage in colour perception was caused by discoloration of the liquid medium of the eyeball. As both he and his brother were colour blind, he recognised that the condition must be hereditary.

Although Dalton's theory was later disproven, his early research into colour vision deficiency was recognized after his lifetime. Examination of his preserved eyeball in 1995 demonstrated that Dalton had deuteranopia, a type of congenital red-green colour blindness in which the gene for medium wavelength sensitive (green) photopsins is missing.

Arguably the most important of all Dalton's investigations are concerned with the atomic theory in chemistry. While his name is inseparably associated with this theory, the origin of Dalton's atomic theory is not fully understood. The theory may have been suggested to him either by researches on ethylene (olefiant gas) and methane (carburetted hydrogen) or by analysis of nitrous oxide (protoxide of azote) and nitrogen dioxide (deutoxide of azote), both views resting on the authority of Thomas Thomson.

The main points of Dalton's atomic theory, as it eventually developed, are:

-Elements are made of extremely small particles called atoms.

-Atoms of a given element are identical in size, mass and other properties; atoms of different elements differ in size, mass and other properties.

-Atoms cannot be subdivided, created or destroyed.

-Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole-number ratios to form chemical compounds.

-In chemical reactions, atoms are combined, separated or rearranged.

Dalton published his first table of relative atomic weights containing six elements (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulfur and phosphorus), relative to the weight of an atom of hydrogen conventionally taken as 1.

Dalton suffered a minor stroke in 1837, and a second in 1838 left him with a speech impairment, although he remained able to perform experiments. In May 1844 he had another stroke; on 26 July, while his hand was trembling, he recorded his last meteorological observation. On 27 July, in Manchester, Dalton fell from his bed and was found dead by his attendant.

More information: Science History Institute

 This paper will no doubt be found interesting
by those who take an interest in it.

John Dalton

ALEX MORGAN, INTERCONTINENTAL SOCCER CHAMPION

Today, The Grandma has been reading the latest news about Alex Morgan, the American professional soccer player, who has announced her retirement.

Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker for the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club San Diego Wave FC, which she was a captain of, and the United States national team. She co-captained the United States with Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe from 2018 to 2020.

Shortly after graduating early from the University of California, Berkeley, where she played for the California Golden Bears, Morgan was drafted number one overall in the 2011 WPS Draft by the Western New York Flash. There, she made her professional debut and helped the team win the league championship.  

Morgan, who was 22 at the time, was the youngest player on the national team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, where the team was runner-up.

At the 2012 London Olympics, she scored the match-winning goal in the 123rd minute of the semi-final match against Canada. She finished 2012 with 28 goals and 21 assists, joining Mia Hamm as the only American woman to score 20 goals and provide 20 assists in the same calendar year and making her the sixth and youngest U.S. player to score 20 goals in a single season. She was subsequently named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year and was a FIFA World Player of the Year finalist.

Morgan also helped the United States win their titles at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cups, where she was named to the Dream Team for both tournaments, while she won the Silver Boot in 2019.

Morgan joined Portland Thorns FC in the NWSL's inaugural season in 2013 and helped the team win the league championship that year. Morgan played for the Thorns through the 2015 season, after which she was traded to the expansion team Orlando Pride.

In 2017, Morgan signed with French team Lyon, where she won the continental European treble, which included the UEFA Women's Champions League. 

Morgan joined the expansion team San Diego Wave FC in 2022; she received the NWSL Golden Boot as the league's top scorer that year and helped win the NWSL Shield the following season.

Off the field, Morgan teamed with Simon & Schuster to write a middle-grade book series about four soccer players: The Kicks. The first book in the series, Saving the Team, debuted at number seven on The New York Times Best Seller list in May 2013. Additionally, a film starring Morgan in her acting debut, Alex & Me, was released in June 2018 where she plays a fictionalized version of herself.

In 2015, Morgan was ranked by Time as the top-paid American women's soccer player, largely due to her numerous endorsement deals. Morgan, along with Canada's Christine Sinclair and Australia's Steph Catley, became the first women's soccer players to appear on the cover of FIFA video games in 2015 -Morgan appeared alongside Lionel Messi on covers of FIFA 16 sold in the United States. She was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2019 and 2022.

On September 5, 2024, Morgan announced via social media that she would be retiring and her last match would be September 8, 2024.

More information: Instagram-Alex Morgan

Born to Pamela and Michael Morgan in the Los Angeles County suburb of San Dimas, California, Morgan was raised with her two older sisters, Jeni and Jeri, in the nearby suburb of Diamond Bar. She was a multi-sport athlete growing up and began playing soccer at an early age with AYSO, and her father was among her first coaches. However, she did not begin playing club soccer until age 14 when she joined Cypress Elite. With the club team, she won the Coast Soccer League (CSL) under-16 championship and placed third at the under-19 level.

Morgan attended Diamond Bar High School, where she was a three-time all-league pick and was named All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). At the school, she was known for her speed and sprinting ability.

Morgan played for Olympic Development Program (ODP) regional and state teams as well. She later credited the program as an integral part of her development as a soccer player: ... programs like ODP helped me especially because I did come into the club scene late and it was important for me to play as much as possible, play with the best players and learn from the best coaches. That, for me, was crucial to my development.

In 2006, at 17 years old, Morgan was called up to the United States under-20 women's national soccer team.

On January 14, 2011, Morgan was the first overall pick in the 2011 WPS Draft by the Western New York Flash.

After the WPS later suspended operations in early 2012 due to legal and financial difficulties, Morgan joined her national teammates Hope Solo, Sydney Leroux, Megan Rapinoe and Stephanie Cox on the Seattle Sounders Women for the 2012 season.

On January 11, 2013, Morgan was one of three U.S. national team players to join the Portland Thorns FC for the inaugural season of the National Women's Soccer League via the NWSL Player Allocation.

On October 26, 2015, it was announced that the Thorns had traded Morgan, along with teammate Kaylyn Kyle, to expansion team Orlando Pride in exchange for the Pride's number one picks in the 2015 NWSL Expansion Draft and 2016 NWSL College Draft as well as an international roster spot for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

On January 5, 2017, Morgan signed with French champions Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) for a reported $33,000 per month.

Following the Champions League Final, the Pride announced Morgan's addition to their 2017 active roster on June 21, 2017, waiving Christina Burkenroad to make room on the 20-player roster. After recovering from the hamstring injury she suffered in the final, Morgan made her competitive return for Orlando on July 1 against the Chicago Red Stars.

On September 12, 2020, Morgan signed with English FA Women's Super League team Tottenham Hotspur.

Morgan returned to Orlando Pride ahead of the 2021 season.

On December 13, 2021, expansion team San Diego Wave FC announced the signing of Morgan.

More information: The Guardian

 Winning and losing isn't everything; sometimes,
the journey is just as important as the outcome.

Alex Morgan

VICENT ANDRÉS ESTELLÉS, 100 YEARS OF COMMITMENT

ASSUMIRÀS la veu d’un poble,
i serà la veu del teu poble,
i seràs, per a sempre, poble,
i patiràs, i esperaràs,
i aniràs sempre entre la pols,
et seguirà una polseguera.

I tindràs fam i tindràs set,
no podràs escriure els poemes
i callaràs tota la nit
mentre dormen les teues gents,
i tu sols estaràs despert,
i tu estaràs despert per tots.

No t’han parit per a dormir:
et pariren per a vetlar
en la llarga nit del teu poble.

Tu seràs la paraula viva,
la paraula viva i amarga.

 Ja no existiran les paraules,
sinó l’home assumint la pena
del seu poble, i és un silenci.

Deixaràs de comptar les síl·labes,
de fer-te el nus de la corbata:
seràs un poble, caminant
entre una amarga polseguera.

Vida amunt i nacions amunt,
una enaltida condició.

No tot serà, però, silenci.

Car diràs la paraula justa,
la diràs en el moment just.

No diràs la teua paraula
amb voluntat d’antologia,
car la diràs honestament,
iradament, sense pensar
en cap altra posteritat,
com no siga la del teu poble.

Potser et maten o potser
se’n riguen o et delaten;
tot això són banalitats.

Allò que val és la consciència
de no ser res si no s’és poble.

I tu, greument, has escollit.

Després del teu silenci estricte,
camines decididament.

YOU WILL ASSUME the voice of a people
and it will be the voice of your people,
and you will be, forever, people,
and you will suffer, and you will wait,
and you will go through the dust,
and a dust cloud will follow you.

And you will be hungry, and you will be thirsty,
you will not be able to write poems
and you will be quiet for the whole night
whereas your people sleep,
and you will be the only awake,
and you will be awake for everyone.

You were not given birth for sleeping:
you were born for staying awake
for the long night of your people.

You will be the alive word,
the alive and bitter word.

Words will not exist anymore,
but the man assuming the sorrow
of his people, and it is a silence.

You will stop counting syllables,
you will stop making the knob of the tie:
you will be a people, walking
through a bitter dust cloud.

Life upwards and nations upwards,
an ennobled condition.

Not everything will be a silence, though.

 
Since you will say the proper word,
you will say it at the proper moment.

You will not say your word
with any will of anthology,
since you will say it honestly,
irately, with no thinking
about any posterity,
except for the one of your people.

Maybe they will kill you or
they will mock you, maybe they will betray you;
these are only banalities.

What is worth is the conscience
of being nothing unless you are people.

 
And you have, gravely, chosen.

After your strict silence,
you walk decisively.

Vicent Andrés Estellés

(4 de setembre de 1924, Burjassot, País Valencià)

BENGT LINDSTRÖM, A FEELING FOR COLOUR AND FORM

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Bengt Lindström, the Swedish artist, who was born on a day like today in 1925.

Bengt Karl Erik Lindström (September 3, 1925,-January 29, 2008) was a Swedish artist. 

Lindström was one of Sweden's best known contemporary artists with a characteristic style of distinct colours, often including contorted faces.

In 2003, Lindström became disabled due to a stroke and he became unable to paint.

The year 2004 saw the release of a film about Bengt's life: Lindström-Le Diable de la Couleur et de la Forme (Lindström-A Hell of a Feeling for Colour and Form).

Lindström was born in 1925 at Storsjö kapell, Härjedalen, Sweden. He was only three days old when Sámi King Kroik, his godfather, administered the Baptism of the Earth, where the child is placed between two roots of a tree to grant him protection from the Gods. 

Bengt grew up in the vast landscape of Sápmi (sometimes referred to as Lapland), with mountain ranges, glistening lakes and endless forests. He went to school in Härnösand, where he started writing short science-fiction stories, became an athlete and started to draw and paint. The Sámi people, as well as local lumberjacks, would tell Bengt about the tales and legends of the Great White North. All this created the basis for the major influence of Sámi culture and traditions in Bengt's work.

In 1944, he moved to Stockholm to study under the Swedish painter Isaac Grünewald. He also participated in drawing lessons given by Aksel Jörgensen at the Copenhagen Fine Arts School in Denmark. 

In 1946, Bengt travelled to the United States to study at the Art Institute of Chicago and was inspired there by the work of De Kooning.

In 1947, he moved to Paris, where he studied under the French painters André Lhote and Fernand Léger. 

Bengt was granted a scholarship by the Swedish magazine Aftontidningen, which helped him move into a workshop in Arcueil, France. In 1953, he returned to Paris, to a workshop in Rueil-Malmaison, where he continued the development of his unique style of painting. Soon after, he started collaborating with the Rive Gauche Gallery in Paris and Tooth & Sons Gallery in London. He developed his most known figurative art with masks, gods and monsters in France at Savigny-sur-Orge.

As from 1968, he started dividing his time between his workshop in France and his atelier in Sundsvall, Sweden.

Lindström was influenced by and often based his work on the ethnic traditions of the Nordic world and Sámi culture. He was also influenced by the paintings of the COBRA group, active in the period Bengt studied in Copenhagen.

COBRA was represented in Copenhagen by Asger Jorn and includes the famous artist Karel Appel, artists who were about 10 years older than Lindström. Unlike the COBRA group, Lindström used his paint by the bucket, with heavy applications of mostly primary and secondary saturated colours, using his fingers as well as big brushes.

[...] I work with extremely pure and intense colours. When I juxtapose them, it often gives the impression of 'having no soul', isn't that so? something too decorative. Thus red against green, against blue may create harmonies which must not become too beautiful or too pleasant. No, something more must be added to the work, it must have a soul, yes, a soul you can feel, in order to be moved.

His work became internationally well respected because of its powerful presentation of human themes, depicted in vivid colours.

Lindström is probably best known for his large works, such as oil and acrylic works, mural paintings and colourful sculptures, but he used a great variety of media, including glass, dry point, tapestries, graffiti art, lithography and engraving. His most famous sculpture is probably the massive Y-sculpture at Midlanda Airport north of Sundsvall, Sweden.

On 29 January 2008, Lindström died at his home in Sundsvall, Sweden.

More information: New City Art

Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic,
so what you see is not what you see.

Philip Guston

SCHITT'S CREEK, A HARD NEW LIFE FOR THE ROSE FAMILY

Today, The Grandma has been watching one of her favourite TV series, Schitt's Creek, the Canadian television sitcom.

Schitt's Creek (stylized as Schitt$ Creek) is a Canadian television sitcom created by Dan Levy and his father, Eugene Levy, that aired on CBC Television from 2015 to 2020. It consists of 80 episodes spread over six seasons.

Produced by Not a Real Company Productions and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it follows the trials and tribulations of the formerly wealthy Rose family. After their business manager embezzles the family business, Rose Video, the family loses its fortune and relocates to Schitt's Creek, a town they once purchased as a joke. Now living in a motel, Johnny (Eugene Levy) and Moira (Catherine O'Hara) -along with their adult offspring, David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) -must adjust to life without wealth.

The series concept came from Dan Levy who wondered how wealthy families, as frequently depicted on American reality television, would react if they lost all their money. He developed the series with his father Eugene before pitching it to several Canadian and American networks. It was first sold to CBC Television in Canada and secured final funding to start production in its sale to Pop in the United States. Although limited in popularity for its first few seasons, its regional appearances on Netflix after its third season is credited for its rise in stature (the so named Netflix bump) and a dynamic social media presence.

Schitt's Creek received critical acclaim and garnered a cult following, particularly for its writing, humour and acting. It has won various prizes, including two ACTRA Awards and 18 Canadian Screen Awards.

It is the first Canadian comedy series to be nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Series. It also received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series and a total of 19 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Comedy Series twice.

It received 15 of these nominations for its sixth and final season, setting a record for most Emmy nominations for a comedy series's final season. For its portrayal of LGBTQ+ people, it received three nominations for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, winning twice.

At the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, the series' final season swept all seven major comedy awards. It was the first time a comedy or drama series received all seven awards; Dan Levy notably received Outstanding Comedy Series, Writing and Directing for a Comedy Series (sharing the last with Andrew Cividino). It set records for winning all four major acting categories (Lead Actor/Actress and Supporting Actor/Actress) for O'Hara, Murphy and both Levys -a first for a comedy or drama series; for most Emmy wins by a comedy series in a single season (beating The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's 2018 record), and for most Emmy nominations and wins by a comedy series in its final season.

The wealthy Rose family  -video store magnate Johnny (Eugene Levy), his wife and former soap opera actress Moira (Catherine O'Hara), and their pampered adult children David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy)- lose their fortune after being defrauded by their business manager. They move towards rebuilding their lives with their sole remaining asset: a remote town named Schitt's Creek somewhere in Canada, which Johnny bought for David's birthday in 1991 as a joke.

The Roses are forced to relocate to Schitt's Creek, moving into two adjacent rooms in a run-down motel. While the family adjusts to their new lives, their well-to-do attitudes conflict with the town's more provincial residents, including mayor Roland Schitt (Chris Elliott), his wife Jocelyn (Jenn Robertson), and their son Mutt (Tim Rozon), the motel's clerk Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire), town council members Ronnie Lee (Karen Robinson) and Bob Currie (John Hemphill), veterinarian Ted Mullens (Dustin Milligan), and Jazzagal member and Café Tropical waitress Twyla Sands (Sarah Levy).

Dan Levy came up with the idea for the show while watching reality television. I had been watching some reality TV at the time and was concentrating on what would happen if one of these wealthy families would lose everything. Would the Kardashians still be the Kardashians without their money? He turned to his father Eugene to help develop the show, who came up with the series title. Dan decided to make the location of Schitt's Creek vague, but has said that it is in Canada.

Schitt's Creek is produced by Not a Real Company Productions in association with the CBC and Pop TV. Pop TV joined the production team in season two after the series' first season was produced solely in association with the CBC.

More information: CBS

I love comedy.
Playing the underdog, and getting
the laughs is my form of entertainment.
I could think of nothing different
that I would want to be doing at this time in my life.

Eugene Levy