(Above) The Rainmakers group gathers at its 2019 meeting in Tampa, Fla. (Front Row, L to R) Shannon Loyd Calcines, Marsha Volchoff, Dave Lutton and Michael Maloof; (Second Row, L to R) Doug Loyd, Quinn Thurin, Steve Studley and David MacIntyre; (Second From Back Row, L to R) John De Souza, Tim Mitchell, Joe Miller and John Turpin; (Back Row, L to R) Dan Kingdom, Tommy Dunbar, Mike Riedmann, Jim Wallace and Trey Wallace (Not pictured: Dede Strano, Stephanie Maine and Alex Anderson)

LeadingREs Rainmakers Raise the Bar Even HigherLeading Real Estate Companies of the World (LeadingRE) was designed to unite the industrys very best independent real estate firms. Today, the global real estate network brings together a community of 565 market-leading, independent residential brokerages in more than 70 countries, representing some 130,000 sales associates.

Over the years, brokers within the LeadingRE fold have taken networking to a more granular level.

LeadingRE CEO Exchange Groups were started as a way to offer members co-consulting and idea-sharing in carefully matched groups that share key similaritiescompany size, market type, business philosophy, etc., explains LeadingRE President and CEO Paul Boomsma.

One of LeadingREs most-established CEO groups is the Rainmakers, meeting one to two times a year since the group was formed in 2004.

The Rainmakers come together to evaluate real estate trends, discuss market conditions and learn from one another, says Boomsma. They meet periodically for in-depth discussions on best practices for serving the needs of real estate consumers, in addition to advising one another on success strategies for their individual brokerages.

While the Rainmakers determine the goals, structure, location and frequency of their meetings, LeadingRE lends its support by arranging meeting logistics, providing options for facilitators and sharing relevant network program information on request.

LeadingRE exists to help the best independent real estate companies achieve even greater success, with tools designed to help them leverage their inherent strengths as independent firms, explains Boomsma. The CEO Exchange Groups give like-minded brokers a safe and open forum to dive deep into the issues impacting real estate consumers and brokerages today. Like the network as a whole, they are focused on quality and connectionsat a level that fosters impactful, lasting relationships.

In this special section, we introduce you to the members of the Rainmakers group, highlighting the rich history of their respective firms, their philosophy toward ongoing success, and the advantages they receive by being part of Rainmakers and LeadingRE.

Arizona Best Real Estate: Powered by PeopleMore than 100 years ago, John MacIntyre came to Arizona in 1919. The MacIntyre family has been active in residential real estate there for more than 68 years since. David MacIntyre has more than 50 years experience in the real estate industry, with more than 30 years as owner of Arizona Best Real Estate.

As an award-winning relocation company, Arizona Best has achieved great success with LeadingRE. This quality network of referrals enabled the firm to achieve a 77.46 percent close ratio, and provided 40 percent of GCI in 2019.

In 2018, Arizona Best was nationally recognized by SIRVA Relocation with the Broker of the Year award. The firm has also been ranked No. 1 in corporate relocation in Arizona for six years and counting, and is recognized in the top 1 percent of all real estate companies in the U.S.

Allison Rybarczyk, MacIntyres daughter, has been Arizona Bests relocation director since 2001. She has served on the LeadingRE Advisory Council since 2016 and was the chairperson in 2018. In 2019, Rybarczyk was awarded LeadingREs highest honor, the Hall of Fame award, which recognizes select individuals for their dedication, commitment and expertise toward programs that benefit all network affiliates. Only 12 individuals in history have received LeadingREs Hall of Fame award.

In the last 15 years, the Rainmakers have met with our firm twice, says MacIntyre. As a result of their suggestions, we continue to prosper with our model.

Our culture is quality people who enjoy being with other professionals in a caring, supportive family environment, adds MacIntyre. We have a full-time support staff to help our agents achieve their goals. Our company is more of a ministry to lift people up. We make lives better.

Looking ahead, MacIntyre is increasing the investment in the success of the firms agents. We are heavily investing our time and money into the best technology, such as SkySlope, Delta Media Group and Ultimate Information Systems; one-on-one mentoring; LeadingRE Institutes online library of nearly 400 courses; and Larry Kendalls Ninja path, books and installations.

Charles Reinhart Company REALTORS: Leading With QualityFor 49 years since its inception, Charles Reinhart Company REALTORS has been the sales leader in the Greater Ann Arbor, Mich., region. Beginning with just a handful of salespeople, the firm has grown to more than 300 sales associates and employees working out of six offices. Today, Reinhart maintains a 43 percent marketshare in Ann Arbor, and a 34 percent share of the entire MLS.

This kind of market domination is nearly unheard of anywhere in the country, says Chief Operating Officer Marsha Volchoff.

According to Volchoff, the company set itself apart from the very beginning. The focus was on building an organization with higher-quality real estate services than what existed in the marketplace at the time, she explains. Hiring selectively and training prodigiously has been the differentiator.

Volchoff also points to the firms diversification into mortgage, title, insurance, property management and commercial as key to its secret sauce.

One-stop shopping is easier for clients, and it helps ensure they receive a high level of performance in all the various parts of the transaction, she explains.

Volchoff and Director of Business Development Dave Lutton take great pride in what theyve achieved, a pride that runs deep in the company culture and has led to an unusually high rate of retentionthe average tenure is more than 15 years.

Today, Reinhart is part of the Real Estate One Family of Companiesalso a member of LeadingREand continues to operate as a separate brand with its own relocation staff. Relocation Director Susan Kellam has run an award-winning department for 33 years with one of the best conversion rates in the LeadingRE Network.

Charles Reinhart REALTORS was also an original member of the Rainmakers group.

The wise counsel of these brokers has been invaluable in helping the company adapt to changing business conditions to remain at the forefront of the industry, says Lutton. Having a high-quality sounding board for new ideas, and for accountability, is an important factor in running a successful company.

Cressy & Everett Real Estate: Embracing ChangeQuite a bit has changed for real estate consumers over the past 10-15 years, including their wants, needs and expectations, as well as the ways in which they connect, share information and negotiate. But for the almost 75-year-old Cressy & Everett Real Estateserving Northern Indiana, Southwestern Michigan, and beyondchange means new opportunities.

According to company President John De Souza, the industry will continue to change organically, transforming through innovation, technology, culture and compliance. At Cressy & Everett, we are always asking ourselves how we can best serve todays consumer with advanced industry practices, new communication tools, and smooth and productive methods. We want our consumers to have an above and beyond experience.

And De Souza is accomplishing that goal. A full-service brokerage, the Cressy & Everett team of 175-plus agents and nearly 40 support staff, serving in 11 offices, is committed to placing high attention on the consumer experience. Cressy & Everett was named the South Bend Tribunes Best Real Estate Agency and was among Northwest Indiana Business Magazines Best of Greater South Bend Michiana Business. The firm regularly serves more than 3,000 customers each year, averaging 18 transactions per agent, per year.

Its an evolving process to ensure that your brokerage name continues to stand for something because of what you do and who you are, says De Souza. We aim high, with intention. Since 1946, using the right blend of tools and services, we have professionally served the industry, our customers and our communities.

And the results speak for themselves. For 20 years, Cressy & Everett has consistently received a 98 percent satisfaction rating via a third-party survey.

The survey responses help inform our practice and help us grow in the ways we serve our communities, says De Souza. In 2021, well celebrate our 75th year, and we cant wait to see what the next 75 years bring! In a time of high change and disruption, we love being part of the story.

Florida Executive Realty: A Collaborative CultureDoug Loyd started out in the real estate business selling new construction at a master-planned community. When he eventually realized this was a self-liquidating proposition, he created Florida Executive Realty.

Today, Florida Executive Realty has six officeshome to about 200 sales associates and staffin the Tampa Bay area. Additionally, the company has a commercial division, and Loyd also owns a property management company.

The philosophy at the heart of the firms value proposition is the age-old Golden Rule.

People prefer to do business with people they know, like and trust, says Loyd, who runs the firm with his daughter, Shannon Loyd Calcines. Among other things, that means putting clients first and commission second.

Loyd and Calcines emphasize a collaborative culture within the company and encourage career-long learning.

While were representing people, we have to be on our game and make sure theyre getting great service and advice, says Loyd.

LeadingRE helps accomplish that goal. Loyd describes joining the network in 1998 as a defining moment that opened the door to world-class training and a valuable referral network. It changed the trajectory of the company, he says.

In 2004, Loyd joined the Rainmakers group, which made him a better broker and a better businessman, he says. It affected the quality of what we do, day in and day out.

Over the course of the companys history, Loyd is perhaps most proud of surviving the Great Recession. Most of the big Florida cities were a lot deeper in than the country as a whole, he recalls. But we walked through that massive correction and came out the other side a survivor.

As he looks to grow Florida Executive Realty for the futurewelcoming the third of his four children into the firm this yearLoyd will lean strongly toward qualitative over quantitative growth to protect and nurture a high standard of professionalism.

I fully intend to take the company into the future based on the values which have made us successful thus far: technical expertise, ethical excellence, liberal use of common sense, and always being nice people to do business with. For these are the things that will keep us secure from disintermediation and help build an even better Tampa Bay, says Calcines.

Hasson Company, REALTORS: An Intentional ApproachWhat started in 1983 as a small firm in Lake Oswego, Ore., has today become Hasson Company, REALTORS, comprised of nearly 175 agents in six offices and three satellite locations throughout the Portland metro area, Central Oregon, Oregon Coast, Hood River and Southwest Washington.

CEO Steve Studley explains that Founder and Director of Strategic Planning Mike Hasson wanted to create something different.

The primary objective was to create an environment for like-minded agents who recognize that there are tangible and intangible benefits of a firm that places consumers before agents, and agents before the company, he says.

According to Studley, an impressive company milestone was surpassing a billion dollars in sales volume in 2005, and today, were knocking on $2 billion with a similar agent count, he says.

Studley attributes the firms success to selective growth and a very disciplined approach to hiring the right agents. Our team is very intentional and has said no to so many things, like expanding into certain marketplaces or hiring agents that arent aligned with our values, he explains. The result is a clearly defined culture of top performers who averaged $11.3 million in sales and 19.8 transactions per agent in 2019.

Studley says its all about relationships. In todays environment, many models are built on numbers, he explains. Our value proposition is aimed at agents who want to be part of a company that believes personal connections matter.

This focus on connection extends to Hassons clients as well.

The industry has created this inertia of convenience, says Studley, but our idea is to connect with those consumers who value personal service and expertise. Thats the lane we see ourselves in.

Being part of LeadingRE and the Rainmakers group is another way Hasson Company focuses on connections.

Surrounding yourself with quality people gives you an opportunity to do business better and glean a tremendous amount of knowledge, he says.

Looking ahead, Studley says, Well continue to provide quality services for our agents and the necessary technology, but our emphasis will remain on personal connections and exceptional service.

Intracoastal Realty: Delivering Exceptional ExperiencesFounded in 1976 in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Intracoastal Realty has earned a reputation as a market leader, with 14 offices and more than 400 agents serving Southeastern North Carolina.

We are a full-service real estate firm with deep roots in the local community, says Founder and CEO Jim Wallace. Our focus on exceptional client experiences has allowed us to grow and serve our region with residential and commercial brokerage services, property management (long-term and vacation), and development services.

According to Intracoastal President Trey Wallace, the ongoing goal has been to build a real estate company that attracts the regions top real estate professionals.

We want career practitioners, and we empower our agents and staff to build businesses that stand the test of time and have the ability to weather all market conditions, he explains. We are thriving because our agents are singularly focused on their clients needs and success. That focus is possible because of the dozens of marketing, technology and support professionals that work with them to achieve exceptional results.

The Wallaces also attribute Intracoastals ongoing success to the culture of teamwork they have built, where the Golden Rule is a guiding principle, and the firms mantra, Experience the Exceptional, permeates the entire company.

A real estate transaction is an infrequent, significant and often intimidating process, says Trey Wallace. It is the biggest investment that most people make in their lives. We have found that the best results come from coordinating as many aspects of the transaction process as possible for our clients to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience.

And it is this level of client care that ultimately sets Intracoastal Realty apart.

We have a high concentration of our markets top-performing agents whose local knowledge is unmatched in the areas they serve, says Jim Wallace. Our reputation in, and support of, our communities is something that is held in high regard by our peers and clients. That is something that has taken 43 years to build, but never something that we take for granted.

Jim Maloof/REALTOR: A Reputation of TrustFounded by Peoria native and former Mayor James Maloof in 1969, today, Jim Maloof/REALTOR is Central Illinois largest independent REALTOR with 14 branches in six counties, employing more than 250 agents and a support staff of 30.

The firm is currently run by President Michael Maloof, who is focused on evolving and expanding what his father created.

Weve never been satisfied with where we are, says Maloof. Were constantly looking to be agile and react to the market, and for pockets of the population we can serve.

To that end, Maloof acquired Crowne Realty in January, the No. 1 independent brokerage in Bloomington/Normal. The goal of the merger was expansion, but the deal was rooted in the value of relationships. As the new EVP at Jim Maloof Realty, Inc., Tammy Heard, says, The two companies are ambassadors to the communities we serve. Maloof and Crowne have established relationships and strong roots.

One of our primary advantages is that we have a reputation of trust, explains Maloof. If youre dealing with Maloof, then you can count on the fact that people will be honest to a fault.

The firms stellar reputation has led to its ongoing independence.

When youre the No. 1 broker, your brand has more value because the area has endorsed you as the leader, says Maloof. You dont change a winning hand.

As premier independent brokers, Maloof and Heard value the global reach provided by LeadingRE, and the intellectual equity provided by the Rainmakers network.

We get to share how we do things and learn, says Maloof. We dont hold back when we talk about cost, productivity, revenue and the potential for profit.

We learn from companies in other markets, then take that information back to our local market, adds Heard.

Looking ahead, Maloof will consider expansion into new communities, and will continue to serve through the companys charitable efforts, such as St. Judes Childrens Hospital. None of us want to have a child of ours affected by childhood cancer, so were extremely generous.

NP Dodge Real Estate: Industry PioneersNot many real estate firms can trace their history back to 1853. But thats when brothers Grenville and Nathan Phillips Dodge first left Massachusetts for the West to homestead and establish a land office in 1855.

One-hundred and sixty-five years later, the NP Dodge Company now serves as Americas longest running, family-owned, full-service real estate firm, and one of the 100 oldest family-owned businesses in the U.S.

We take great pride in our rich and long history in Omaha, says company President Mike Riedmann. We have been involved in many seminal events in United States history, from driving the Golden Spike at the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, to standing up for equal rights for all.

Today, NP Dodge is a family of companies with six wholly owned divisions: NP Dodge Real Estate Sales, Inc. (NP Dodge Real Estate); NP Dodge Insurance; NEI Global Relocation; TitleCore National; NP Dodge Property Management Company; and NAI NP Dodge Commercial Company.

NP Dodge Real Estate has eight company-owned and three satellite sales offices in Eastern Nebraska and Southwestern Iowa, comprised of more than 450 REALTORS covering 20-plus counties.

NP Dodge includes agents in a local tradition of service, trust and professionalism in an era when those qualities are rare and more valued than ever, explains Riedmann. Impeccable ethics and a sincere caring for the individuals involved in every transaction are longtime guiding principles for our company and for the Dodge family.

As one of the original members of RELO, the predecessor of LeadingRE, NP Dodge has long valued its relationship with the network, providing the firm with both national and international recognition, as well as important access to training, networking and innovative products and services. Riedmann also values the perspectives he receives from the Rainmakers group.

Our vision is to be the best place for agents to build their business by offering the best technology, training and marketing, as well as work environment, says Riedmann. We want their relationship with NP Dodge to be profitable, sustainable, satisfying, professional and enjoyable.

Old Colony REALTORS: Enhancing ExperiencesCelebrating its 75th anniversary in 2019, Old Colony REALTORS was founded in Charleston, W. Va., in 1944. Today, it is the largest real estate firm in the state, with 185 sales associates serving most of West Virginia, Southeast Ohio, Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Vice President of Sales Robert Thomas credits a series of strategic mergers and acquisitions as fueling the companys growth. A key part of Old Colonys history came in 2007, when it dropped all franchise affiliations.

We bring 75 years of experience through cycles of highs and lows, and dramatic changes in the nature and structure of the real estate transaction, says Broker and President R. Joseph Miller. And throughout, weve remained committed to adopting and developing the most current practices to enhance client satisfaction.

According to Thomas, Old Colony lives by its company tagline: Experience. The Difference.

To enjoy sustained success over 75-plus years, Old Colony leans into the supportive, family culture it has developed. Associates and employees take pride in the companys inclusive environment of professionalism and high standards.

We have an outstanding reputation that is backed by a 75-year history of success and experience, says Executive Vice President Tommy Dunbar. We enjoy a high degree of loyalty among agents who receive a broad range of support, including mentoring, training and assistance.

Dunbar also points to the firms broad-based services and market coverage as key to its success, along with its innovative policies and practices, and strong community connections. LeadingRE is also an important part of the equation.

Being a part of LeadingRE, and especially the Rainmakers group, has broadened our exposure and made us more knowledgeable, says Dunbar. We all gravitate to the shared experiences of comparable-sized, independent companies facing similar circumstances.

Looking ahead, Old Colony will focus on developing competitive technology platforms and adopting new systems to expand the professional development capacities of current and new agents.

We will also look at expansion into new geographic areas and capitalizing on new partnerships, models and market areas of growth, says Miller.

Strano & Associates Real Estate: A Culture of CommunityIn 1981, Bob and Dede Strano founded Strano & Associates Real Estatea leader in the Southwestern Illinois real estate market.

A three-generation, women-owned company, Strano & Associates has five offices throughout the Metro East area and 100-plus brokers. The firm also has one of the areas largest property management divisions.

In 2017, #StranoStands was launched to exemplify the companys community-focused culture.

While many companies paint their success with numbers and statistics, we prefer to gauge our success by the impact we leave on our clients, our community, and our agents and staff, explains President/Broker Stephanie Maine.

Maine elaborates on the four pillars that comprise the #StranoStands culture:

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How the Best Get Better RISMedia | - RisMedia.com

Stuck indoors or self-isolating? The following 12 projects were originally published as ways in which you could keep taking pictures in the dark, dark depths of winter. But with many of us now working at home, or keeping trips outside to the minimum during the coronavirus crisis, these indoor projects could just be the ticket. Photography ideas can feel hard to come by if you're confined to your home. Thankfully, with a bit of creative thought, you don't even have to leave your home to take some fun photographs!

We've put together 12 different home projects that you can shoot indoors in your own home, without worrying about getting outdoors and many of them can be done on your kitchen table using things (and people!) that you have available already

Overnight temperatures start to drop below freezing this time of year, and moisture in the air will form a plethora of icy patterns and textures on car windscreens. Akit lens is perfectly good for this project, but to get some contrast, try different heights and angles. Shoot in raw format, and use Aperture Priority with a setting of f/11.

When you convert the raw file, reduce Shadows and Blacks to accentuate contrast, and pull back the Temperature slider to get a cool, blue feel.

To get a classic studio still-life without a studio, tape a white pillowcase to a wall and kitchen worktop so it forms a scoop. With your camera on a tripod, frame up on a tumbler ofwater with a lemon slice. Stay level with the glass, but leave some headroom for the splash. Place an off-camera flash to one side but point it at the background, not the glass.

It may be feeble in illuminating power, butcandle light punches way above its luminosity in terms of atmosphere. To shoot a candlelit portrait, use Manual (M) mode and raw format. Include the candle in the shot, as the light is so warm that the light source is needed to help the viewer understand the image. Use an ISO of 1,600 and a fast lens like a 50mm f/1.8 at an aperture of f/2. Set a shutter speed of 1/100 sec, and focus on the nearer eye of your subject.

With a macro lens and a few everyday items, you can take incredible shots of oil drops floating on water. Like most macro shots, setting up carefully isessential, but the process forces you to focus on minute details. The discipline that comes from trying out this project will extend through your other styles of photography, so shooting delicate abstractsis of great overall benefit.

To prepare, fill a tumbler with water and add a drop of washing-up liquid to it. After agentle stir, leave it to settle for 5-10 minutes, then add a few drops of cooking oil.

When you shoot aportrait, the golden rule is to focus on the eyes. But rules are made to be broken, and youcan shoot evocative portraits without any of the face in focus.

Pick a window on a rainy day, and youll notice beads of water on the glass. With your subject positioned on the other side of the pane, you can use these beads as your focal point, and shoot a sombre, reflective portrait thats just as effective as aregular headshot.

Shoot inside-out to convey the idea that the subject is out in the cold, or shoot outside-in to give the sense of someone longing for a break in the weather. To make the shot really effective, you need a very shallow depth of field, so only the beads of water are held in sharp focus. To do this, use a lens with a fast maximum aperture like a 50mm f/1.8 prime. In Aperture Priority mode, dial in the lowest f/number, and frame up on the subject. Focus on the drops, and take the shot.

Its easy to make a fascinating image that captures the laws of physics! In a dark room, attach ameter of string to a light fitting and tie on the torch, and set up your camera on a tripod beneath it. Focus manually on the torch, and set the camera to Manual mode (M) with an ISO of 100, an aperture of f/11 and a shutter speed of 30 sec. Switch off theroom lights, then swing the torch in a circular motion so it starts orbiting in an ever-decreasing ellipse. Fire the camera shutter, and stand back until it closes.

To get multiple ellipses in one frame, use the Bulb setting and cover the lens with black card between torch swings. To change the torch color, place clear sweet wrappers over the bulb.

The reason we know how water drops behave is thanks to high-speed photography. But you dont need high-tech gear to create water art. The set-up for this project is simple, but youll need accurate focusing and good timing.

Fill a baking tray with water and place it on a worktop. Place a chair over it, so you have somewhere to attach a freezer bag half-filled with water. Punch a hole in the corner of the bag with a safety pin, and youll get a regular flow of drips into the tray.

Put your camera on a tripod and fill the frame with the drip tray water and the drip itself. Amacro lens can be useful but isnt essential. Whatever you place behind the driptray will be reflected in the water, so experiment withpaper sheets of different colors and textures. With your set built, place a flashgun to one side, propped up on some books, and point it at the background.

Accurate focusing is essential, so switch toManual Focus mode and place the tip of a pencil at the splash site, and focus on this. Now you just have toconcentrate on getting your timing right.

Move a small light source within the frame during a long exposure, and you will record ethereal streaks of light. You can trace around a subject with a torch to outline it, light it from different angles with the torch beam, or even move colored string lights behind it for an amazing background.

Place your camera on a tripod, then frame up and focus on your subject. Now switch to Manual Focus to lock off the focusing distance, and set the mode to Manual (M). Dial in an ISO of 200, ashutter speed of 8 sec, and an aperture of f/16. Set the Self Timer to 5 sec. You can now switch off the lights.

Fire the camera, get into position, and when the shutter opens you have the duration of the shutter speed to make your light painting. You can dial in a longer exposure if needed just keep the torch moving all the time to avoid hotspots. You can paint awhole subject in one long take, or can split the work into separate shots and blend them together in Photoshop.

When a match is struck, it flares into life so quickly that we cant actually observe what happens at the precise moment of ignition. But by shooting a rapid burst of shots at high frame rate, we can record this amazing moment and get a shot that straddles the divide between art and science. You need a macro lens to record it, but leave plenty of room around the match head when you compose, as the fiery flare is bigger than youd think!

Capturing wisps of smoke is easy toachieve if you can get the lighting right. To get the shot, light an incense stick and place it in front of a dark background. Use an off-camera flashgun in its Manual mode to light it from one side, making sure that the light doesnt spill onto the backdrop or the lens. Focus on the tip of the stick, then switch to manual focus to lock the focus distance.

Use Manual mode, and set an aperture of f/8 and a shutter speed of 1/200 sec. Now take some test shots, and adjust the flash power to make the smoke brighter ordarker, until you have the perfect exposure.

Cover the base ofan ice-cream container with about 2cm of water and pop it in the freezer. Once its solid, place a colorful flower on the ice, and add enough water to cover it. Freeze it again, and the end result will be a flower encased in a block of ice.

Remove the frozen block from the carton, place it on a draining board, and set up your camera on a tripod. Use a torch to light the ice from different angles, and youll quickly find a number of highly textured, colorful compositions.

The small LED light on a smartphone is perfect for creating light traces. Witha little practice, you can draw any shape in the air by shooting a long exposure. Wear dark clothing and keep moving, and you wont appear in the shot.

To set up the camera, use Manual mode and pre-focus manually on the area where youre going to do your painting. A good starting point is ISO 100, f/16 and ashutter speed of 30 seconds.

More techniques to try at homeiPad photography hacks: Creative lighting ideas for cheap photography projects

Close-up filters: shoot macro photography without a macro lens

How to use polarizing filters for colorful cross-polarization effects

Digitizing slides and prints using a DSLR or mirrorless camera

The best light tents for photography

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Stuck at home: 12 fantastic photo projects to try indoors during the Covid-19 crisis - Digital Camera World

Epidemics have historically held a mirror to society, revealing our relationships to the environment we have created, not least our social and political connections. They have also tended to usher in profound social change. Speaking to the BBCs Newsnight late last week, Graham Madley, a professor of infectious disease modelling, gave a clear expectation of the magnitude of social change we should expect in the wake of Covid-19, whatever course of action we take.

As he put it, This is the kind of event, I think which is going to live on for decades in terms of peoples minds and you kind of look back in history and see things like the London Blitz these things that get fixed into folklore and people talk about for decades to come.

While the recent focus has understandably been on public health, coronavirus has also laid bare the security fault lines of our world as they really are, not as we might wish them to be. The human conception of national security is no less prone to social change than any other area of political life. Much of what came before will now be judged through the filter of this years events. Covid-19 has made pandemic disease the most pressing national security issue and has revealed just how badly prepared almost all countries are, both individually and collectively.

As Germany becomes the latest country to close its borders, Europes Schengen network of open frontiers is close to collapse so too are transatlantic routes between the members of the Nato alliance. The response among all of the countries of the West has been deeply insular. At the time of writing, a bitter row has erupted over attempts by Donald Trump to lure a German company working on a coronavirus vaccine to the US.

The apparent stakes of what Trump envisaged were underlined by the terse response from German politicians that no country should have a monopoly on any future vaccine. Not only has the response among so-called allies been far from coordinated, something close to nationalist isolationism has reappeared. It may well be Covid-19, not Brexit or Vladimir Putin, that pushes the EU and Nato to their respective breaking points.

Crises of this magnitude tend to reveal a weakness that had hitherto been hidden. In 2008, it was debt, in the form of subprime mortgages that precipitated the most severe financial crash in a hundred years. Despite the appearance of pandemics at the very top of the list of threats in both the US and UK National Security Strategies (from 2017 and 2015 respectively) the top level thinking on both sides of the Atlantic appears to have been based on mistaken assumptions; assumptions that remained uncorrected despite ample warnings to the contrary. The language in both strategy documents makes clear that pandemics, at least among national security officials, were seen in terms of diseases like Ebola, probably originating from the developing world and combatted by assisting poorly-developed local healthcare. The disparity with the warnings from the World Health Organisation, several prominent think tanks, and the US intelligence community, of a fast spreading coronavirus in an integrated, global economy could not be starker.

The arrival of Covid-19 is the long anticipated arrival of Disease X which the WHO predicted in 2018. Meeting in February of that year in Geneva, for the first time the WHOs panel of respected virologists, epidemiologists and bacteriologists included a known unknown in their planning assumptions, an as-yet unknown disease with the potential for pandemic. Trumps response in 2018 was to dismantle the specialist team within the National Security Council that was set up as a result of the challenge of dealing with Ebola in 2014.

In worldwide threat assessments, in both 2017 and 2018, the US intelligence community specifically mentioned a close cousin of coronavirus by name, saying it had pandemic potential. On both sides of the Atlantic we have specialist teams focusing on disinformation and cyber threats. We should be asking why no commensurate resources were in place for biological security. In the UK we published our first Biosecurity Strategy in 2018, which correctly identified the type of pandemic we now face. It is not clear to what extent this paper was ever implemented. Until the end of last week the Commons Select Committee webpage suggested that a review of the strategy had been on hold due to the December election. It has since been hastily updated. Indeed, we appear to be relying on an influenza pandemic preparedness strategy from 2011 to guide the public response.

It is not just the planning assumptions of Western national security teams that will shift. Coronavirus is already shifting the global balance of power. American leadership and the post-war system of multilateral institutions appear to be failing. The US Federal Reserve failed to calm the biggest one day drop in the financial markets since Black Monday in 1987. The WHOs sudden importance only serves to underscore years of underfunding, lack of international support and toothlessness. This relative impotence was matched by the unpleasant realisation that even an increase in the European Central Banks bond buybacks was not enough to prevent the euro, European equity and bond markets crashing. The indication is that central banks are running out of firepower, unable to cut interest rates any lower.

Where previously the US might have led the way, there is a worrying lack of leadership or coordination in the global response to Covid-19. Despite largely similar language regarding pandemics in national security documents the world over, there is a significant disparity in public health approaches. A lack of international cooperation will almost certainly hamper efforts to deal with the pandemic. Viruses do not respect national borders. Our responses cannot either.

Yet Donald Trump has managed to exacerbate already deteriorating transatlantic relations, aiming a broad critique at Europe rather than offering solidarity. As Damon Wilson at the Atlantic Council put it, America First apparently means blame everyone else The golden rule of leading an alliance is consultation dont take your friends by surprise, especially when your actions target them. This isnt about being nice What happens the next time we need our allies?

This is a worrying precedent for US global leadership, already seen by many as being in decline. The UK should take little comfort either from being excluded from the travel ban (on arbitrary grounds) or from Trumps instinctive air raid in Iraq. Killing another Iranian general, even if in retaliation for an attack which killed a British soldier, seems like fiddling while Rome burns; neither stabilising the situation in the Middle East nor addressing the more pressing crisis facing both the US and UK.

Even in the midst of their own public health crisis, China is engaging in a significant propaganda battle and power play, largely directed at ascribing blame for the pandemic to the US. It is at moments like this that fake news and disinformation really becomes weaponised and puts the power of creating mass civil disobedience into the hands of foreign aggressors. The Jack Ma Foundation, seen as a state proxy by some, has been busy tweeting about their offer of a donation of 500,000 testing kits and 1 million medical masks to the US. It follows the prominent appearance on social media of Chinese aid supplies landing in Italy, Japan, Korea, Iran and Spain. The comparison between the US and Chinese response to Covid-19 may well be one of the most important changes cemented in our collective imagination.

With what appears to be the comparatively low mortality rates of Covid-19, this will be an extremely painful warning of potential extinction level events. The national security environment will never look the same again. We need to reconceive how we think about security, both in terms of priorities and alliances.

It is hard to predict what the balance of geopolitical power will look like when we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, but it would be nave to think that things will remain as they have been for 80 years. National security planners have long suggested that we were in a new period of great power conflict they assumed that it would take the form of direct combat. The real battleground between states, much as it was during World War Two, appears to be the race for respirators, and the ability to co-opt civil society and industry. The Chinese government clearly realise this and have remembered Rahm Emmanuels famous dictum, Never let a serious crisis go to waste.

Continued here:

How Covid-19 is reshaping the balance of global power - TheArticle

Delawares Congressional Delegation is trying to get Air Force leadership to visit its base in Dover to address the contamination of neighboring wells with per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons (D-Delaware) and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) sent a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett this week requesting a site visit to Dover Air Force Base. The letter is a follow up to a similar request last summer.

Part of this is to advocate for our communities but also to advocate for Dover Air Force Basethat they get the attention and the we get the attention and resources that we need to be able to really address this, said Blunt Rochester, who is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee

The first letter from the Delaware politicians was sent after four Dover wells servicing five businesses, two residences and one office building tested 2,400 times above a federal health advisory last summer. This came as a result of years of using firefighting foam on the base which contained the chemicals and seeped into the groundwater.

The most recent letter was sent in response to preliminary tests last month showing two more wells with high PFAS levels.

Sen. Carper commends the response from the base to give bottled water and filtration systems to affected homes and businesses, but says the federal government should pay to hook the affected sites up to municipal water.

In a golden rule kind of world, where you treat other people the way we want to be treated, I dont think the federal government should stick the cost of clean drinking water on the families who did nothing to deserve this, said Carper, who sits on the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee.

A spokesperson from the base recently told Delaware Public Media plans to hook the affected sites up to municipal water is taking longer than expected as the project will require extending a water main pipeline.

The Air Force has been responding to contamination of drinking water supplies at Dover Air Force Base with PFOS and PFOA since 2014. In 2016, the Department of Defense found levels of the chemicals in the groundwater there up to 2.8 million parts per trillion40,000 times higher than the EPA health advisory level.

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Delaware Congressional delegation writes to Air Force for action on contaminated Dover wells - Delaware First Media

This is like nothing weve ever experienced before.

It isnt all hype. It isnt an exaggeration. Coronavirus has arrived and soon we will feel it in full force.

Sometimes life in a small place has its value. In moments like these when entire cities are shutting down, it can feel like a distant problem. For the most part, up until now, Citrus County is moving forward normally with caution but as normally as possible. Cities like Seattle are reeling from the complete upheaval of life. Schools are closed. The vast majority of major businesses have transitioned to a remote platform.

Places that are usually bustling are ghost towns. I stumbled across a website the other day that showed places with typically huge crowds. They had posted pictures of these places just one month ago compared to today.

It felt surreal.

That was just a picture. I wasnt even there. And it was eerie.

Even if Citrus County isnt feeling it yet, it will. And given the nature of the demographic of the area, we should be fully prepared to walk through this as a community using caution and wisdom.

Obviously, we need to engage in the personal hygiene guidelines being laid out for the general population. Wash our hands. Use hand sanitizer. Wipe down surfaces. And the one thats probably the hardest to manage use the practice of social distance.

Thats disruptive especially for those who dont feel sick, who havent been traveling, who arent around people who show symptoms. But in all reality, we need the disruption. Disruption is the necessary evil that helps contagion decrease. It doesnt eradicate it. But it definitely slows its progress.

And slower progress of the virus is what is absolutely essential.

This is, of course, an introverts dream. Stay home. Work in pajamas. Dont talk to anyone. Communicate via the written word. What could be better?

But in all truth, we need community. We need one another. And so this will test the foundation of our relationships and the strength of our bonds as a community. Were blessed to live in an age of technology. We can still see family and friends face-to-face without risk of perpetuating the problem.

We should make use of those tools. Theres no reason to socially isolate when we can communicate in other ways.

So what does it look like to be a good neighbor in the days of corona?

Practice caution. At this point, there isnt really a risk of overreacting. The risk is far more dangerous if we under react. Do all of the things that our health officials are telling us. Dont shrug off the need to sing Happy Birthday while washing your hands.

Keep distance. If we do it well it wont last forever.

The reality is that if we get to the end of all this chaos and it feels like it was for nothing then it was successful. The point is for nothing to happen. We want to stop the movement of the virus. The best measure of success would be that life just goes back to normal.

We need to be extra aware of how this virus affects the senior citizens in our communities. Read what there is to read. Get good information. Be conscious of all the ways that our normal behavior can negatively impact the people around us who have chronic illnesses and compromised immune systems.

Being a good neighbor doesnt change just because were facing a new challenge. The foundational understanding of being a good neighbor follows the same rule: think of others; care for others; and treat our neighbors they way we would want to be treated.

The Golden Rule still applies in the age of corona.

Cortney Stewart is a 2003 graduate of Lecanto High School. She has bachelors degrees in political science and international affairs, a masters degree in intercultural studies and is currently working on her Ph.D. in international conflict management. She most recently spent two years teaching and training students, teachers and government officials in Baghdad, Iraq. Email her at seeingbeyondccc@gmail.com.

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Be a good neighbor in the days of coronavirus - Citrus County Chronicle

Because you have so little faith

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

Matthew 17:20

Recently, a close friend of mine, an astrophysicist and astronaut-just a really good person-moved to the Seattle area where I had lived for eight years in the 90s. I have a couple of friends who have lived there for many years, one a retired senior business executive I worked with for eleven years, the other a senior public service official I worked with for eight years. I have known these men for many years since, having numerous conversations with them, sometimes monthly, but certainly quarterly to this very day. In short, we are close.

When my astrophysicist friend decided to accept a senior executive position with Amazon he moved to Seattle from Colorado. I told him I had lived there and would reach out to my two friends to see if they could connect with him as a friendly gesture. No substantive expectations other than a perfunctory touch base. I sent a note to both men, copying my newly relocated friend. My friend then sent a note, reaching out to my two friends, copying me, closing the loop.

After three weeks of silence, I sent a note to one of these men asking if he had a chance to connect with the Seattle transplant. No answer. I asked once more. The answer I received: Im sure hes very busy with moving to the area. I know were busy too. In other words, Im not interested in reaching out to your friend: period. And dont ask me again.

Honestly, I was flabbergasted. My wife pointed out that I had really put a burden on these two friends and my consternation reflected more on my own bruised ego than the actual substance of the request. Perhaps there was a part of that. But my initial thoughts were that this was rather sad.

I ruminated about this much longer than warranted, I suppose, but I just couldnt shake it. I had been very close to these two friends over the years, extending myself many times. Furthermore, I thought if either of them had asked me, it wouldve been a no-brainer simply because they asked. So, I stewed over this for a few days, finally asking one of my closest friends, a retired executive vice president of Disney what he thought. His answer was quite instructive and exactly what I expected; not that I was a little crazy as my wife continued to suggest: Im concerned about your inability to let this go. She had said.

First, he was nonplussed because it was one of those things, in his opinion, you just do because a close friend asked. Second, and this is the larger issue, nobody knows what opportunities may have sprouted within the chemistry of bringing these people together. I do not mean this in any manipulative or strategized networking opportunity. Not at all. Who knows? The wind spreads mustard seeds. Some grow and others lie dormant.

My friend from Disney went on to list numerous times when he did, and continues to do, something for someone in this same way with absolutely no expectations and received opportunities he could never have guessed would ever occur. He speaks from the experience after 14 years in retirement and well into his own global leadership consulting / speaking company, with five internationally acclaimed books, multimedia platforms including his work with theAmerican Military JCS among many other companies and organizations. In short, he turns down three times more business than he could ever handle at 76 years old and going like a house afire. I thought: Why is it this man with so many, many accomplishments and years of experience leading thousands of people at Disney has the time and understanding to do something for a friend when my other friends just decided to let it go? Maybe thats a partial explanation of how and why he enjoys the success he has had over his career and continues to this day. Maybe thats why hes an exceptional leader and person.

I then began to look back on my own career, trying to find this same connection. The answer was just the Golden Rule I suppose. If someone asked and I could help I just did. No, certainly not every time. But many times. I liked people. I learned it from my parents. Its a gift they gave me that I so cherish. In fact, what success I did enjoy in my career came, many times, from relationships that sprouted from mustard seeds like this with few expectations.

My wife continued to ride me because I couldnt seem to shake my disappointment, chalking it all up to my weak ego. During this same time, I went with my wife to a doctors appointment. In the waiting room there was a TED Talk on the TV monitor about the top five things that prolong life. The number one qualifier was consistent social interaction. This I think is the essence of my dilemma. When I told this to my wife she said: Well, if thats true youll live well past 100.

Being a very private person, my wife has four of her own friends: me, her mother, our daughter and our son. Thats it. Why should I have been so surprised that she cant even begin to understand the power of a mustard seed and a lost opportunity? Its simply not in her genetic wiring. This is not an indictment of my wife, being married to her for over half a century. Its just her disposition. I know this to be true because no matter how many times I explained my thinking she simply could not understand what I was saying other than considering it to be highly self-centered and egotistical. My friend from Disney understood it before I could finish explaining it.

I think it comes down to attitude and temperament. In the end its certainly the obvious nice thing to do. But there is something else thats undefinable. Its being enthusiastic about people simply because they exist in this world and getting to know them is like opening a gift on Christmas morning. Two people can look at a piece of land. One can see nothing but dirt. The other can see verdant fields of beauty for a dynamic future. Same piece of land. Totally different perspective.

There is no right answer to this conundrum. Each of us sees the world through our own set of glasses. Ill rely on my own, which in this case, gave me a unique vision I trust: to keep spreading those mustard seeds. One of them just might move a mountain.

Photo: Pexels / Shutterstock

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Spreading Mustard Seeds - The Good Men Project

In their landmark study First Break All of the Rules: What the Worlds Best Managers Do Differently Gallup introduced their Q12 employee engagement survey. The Q12 describes in priority order what the best managers do and need to do to create high performing teams. Number one on the list is, Clarify Expectations Up Front.

Ive lived this idea for 40+ years as a recruiter and trainer. In my first search project for a plant manager, the president and I walked through the factory and identified the top six things the person needed to fix over the first 6-12 months to be considered successful. This list of performance objectives became the job description.

More recently, I worked with a Board consisting of investors and founders for a $150 million food manufacturer getting ready to hire a new CEO. After a few hours of wrangling we finally agreed on these two critical performance objectives:

Now Im working with the founder of a recently funded startup looking for a head of engineering. I asked him what the biggest thing the person has to accomplish in the first year to be considered successful. This is what he came up with:

Last month I asked a team of hiring managers to define success for a customer success manager for a complex business process application. Heres what they came up with as the major objective:

Every job can be fully defined by 6-8 performance objectives like the above describing the major objectives and their critical subtasks. Heres why this is essential information for everyone involved in the hiring process including the candidate.

Sourcers: You dont need to be a Boolean expert to find people who meet the performance requirements of the job.By being creativeits easy to find 15-20 highly qualified people who have the right titles, worked for comparable companies and who have progressed rapidly AND would see the job as a likely next step. These steps increase the likelihood the person will respond to your message AND the hiring manager will want to see the person.

Recruiters:Persistence is criticalin order to engage with at least half of the 15-20 prequalified people the sourcer has found. Then during the first conversation figure out if you can make a strong case that one of your openingsputs the person on a better career trajectorythan other opportunities being considered. If not, get at least two prequalified referrals. None of this is possible without knowing the job.

Hiring Managers. Since hiring managers need to clarify job expectations after the person is hired, they might as well do this before the hire.

Interviewers. When members of the hiring team dont know the actual performance requirements of the job, they overvalue first impressions and assess people on factors that are too generic to make a difference.

Candidates. The strongest people wont waste time with recruiters or hiring managers who cant answer the question,What are some of the tasks and challenges involved in this role?Thats why every candidate should ask it early in the interview to ensure theyll be accurately assessed.

It has been proven time and again, e.g.,Googles Project Oxygen, that clarifying expectations upfront is the key to successful management. Whats surprising is that its not a prerequisite for hiring. Unfortunately, too many people are still hired based on their depth of skills, first impressions and if their salaries are consistent with the budget. By following the Golden Rule of Hiring things will finally begin to change:Hire for the Anniversary Date, Not the Start Date.

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The Golden Rule of Hiring: Hire for the Anniversary Date, Not the Start Date. - Thrive Global

Home buyers have for decades been advised to never put a less than 20 percent down payment on a house, but 70% of young home-buyers are willing to break that rule this year (Credit: iStock)

Add the 20-percent-down-payment rule to the list of norms millennials are tossing out the window.

Around 70 percent of millennials said they would put down less than 20 percent of the price of a home as a down payment this year, breaking a rule of thumb thats stood for decades, according to Business Insider. More than a quarter said theyd put down less than 10 percent, which was almost unheard of in their parents generation.

Its not surprising that its an appealing option. It could take a renter in a high-cost city like Los Angeles nearly a decade to save up enough money for a 20 percent down payment on a home in their city.

Some agents are advising their clients not to wait, arguing its better for a homebuyer to get their foot in the door now and start building equity rather than wait to save up for a 20 percent down payment. It could all work out for a buyer if their home quickly increases in value.

Putting down less than 20 percent means homebuyers will have to pay private mortgage insurance a monthly payment on top of a mortgage thats usually between 0.3 percent and 1.2 percent of the homes value.

But that payment is automatically cancelled once a mortgages loan-to-value ratio hits 78 percent or lower, which can happen if a home value increases enough. Still, appreciation could slow in the future and either way, a lower down payment means higher monthly payments.

Regardless, it seems many home-buyers dont see much of a choice. [Business Insider] Dennis Lynch

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Millennials are ready to break the golden rule of home-buying - The Real Deal

"Lo-Lo's" means one thing in metro Phoenix:hot, crispy fried chicken. So when a store front popped up on Van Buren Street with a sign reading "Lo-Lo Jr's," questions started to fly.

Yes, it is the same Lo-Lo's restaurant family, this time run by Larry White III, the son of Larry "Lo-Lo" White and great grandson of Mrs. White, the Southern food chefand owner of Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe on Jefferson Street.

"I just wanted to help continue my family legacy," Larry Jr. says, sitting in a red booth inside his newly opened fast-casual restaurant.

The space, currently quite bare, features a row of booths, a few bar stools and awalk-up order window whereLarry Jr. cooks chicken and fries for customers.

Lo-Lo Jr's first day of business was Wednesday, Jan. 29, and the restaurant is in a soft open phase. Larry Jr. says he hopes to have a grand opening in about a month.

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The White family hasbeen cooking Southern food in Phoenix for decades, since Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe opened in 1964. The restaurant quickly became known for its fried chicken, pork chops, oxtail and catfish. Although Mrs. White now takes more of a backseat role, the restaurant is still open every day.

Her grandson, Larry White, known to his friends and family as "Lo-Lo," worked in the cafe, busing tables until he was old enough to help in the kitchen.

HUNGRY?:Metro Phoenix's best chicken sandwiches

In 2002, heopened Lo-Lo's Chicken &Waffles using many of his grandmother's tips to create his own recipes. Now the restauranthas locations in Scottsdale, Gilbert and the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Larry also runsMonroe's Hot Chicken, which opened in downtown Phoenix last year.

An affinity for food runs in the family. Another of Mrs. White's grandsons, Christian Buze, has opened multiple locations of his Southern restaurant Root and Soul in downtown's DeSoto Central Market and another in Scottsdale. Both locations have since closed, buta third may be in the works.

Larry's son, Larry White III, also worked at Lo-Lo's as a server and then a manager before branching off to create Lo-Lo Jr's.

"I was working there since I was a kid," he says. "I just love serving people, giving them a smile."

On a chilly Wednesday afternoon, a worker donning ahard hat and orange vest walksinto the new spot. While looking at the menu, he jokesaround about wanting Mrs. White's oxtails before ordering some chicken.

"She was just in here yesterday," Jr. replies, chatting about his great grandmother whileloading the customer's to-go box with extra spicy sauce.

The new restaurant is in its early days, but name recognition is drawing customers inside. Larry Jr.and one employeechatwith friends through the order window at the new fast-casual joint as chicken sizzles in the fryer behind them.

NEW IN PHOENIX:Restaurants that opened in January 2020

Larry Jr. learned the spice mixes and recipes from his family, and soonhe says, he'll hang their pictures on the walls.Currently, the restaurant is a work in progress, he says of thelocation just east of the I-10.

"I love this spot," Jr. says about the area. "But it could do with some life, some good golden, Southern fried chicken."

While Lo-Lo Jr's has an extensive menu listed on its website, Larry Jr.is starting off with a condensed version of essentials.

The menu includes:

The restaurant is currently open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, and Larry Jr.hopes to expand to include late night dining to catch the "after club crowd." But for now, he sticks to serving lunch and dinner.

Details: Lo-Lo Jr's, 2145 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix.lolojrs.com.

Reach the reporter at tirion.morris@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @tirionmorris, on Facebook at Tirion Rose and on Instagram at tirionrose.

Support local journalism andsubscribeto azcentral.com today.

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Say hello to Lo-Lo Jr's, the newest restaurant in the White family fried chicken empire - AZCentral

Christy Cormier remains intentionally calm even when the world around her is crazy. She is the owner and licensed massage therapist at Aura Massage and Wellness. It feels like its the perfect work for her. Christy is determined, strong, and works with her heart as well as her hands. She sets an intention before a massage knowing her work heals more than just the body.

Christy is happily engaged he romanced her by showing up with family-sized peanut butter cups and a big heart. She is working on being the best version of herself, and like most things she does, she is taking deliberate steps to get there. She is a great example for her children, and for the rest of us.

What was your first job? I was a Hostess at Prejeans. My oldest son worked there as well. Full circle

Describe a typical day in your life.I'll usually wake up really early; somedays I go to bootcamp at Empire Fitness. Every day I get the kids off to school. I dont like rushing us; the morning sets the tone of the day. So I have coffee, check social media, have a big breakfast and head to the salon. When I get there, I go in my office to set my intentions to heal my clients and I just relax a bit to focus my energy on all the possibilities and experiences the day may bring. Every day varies, there are many different reasons people will come in. From pain management to relaxation, my goal is to help each one. There is a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, when I've brought someone comfort.

What advice would you give the younger you?Dont give up so easily, you're stronger than you think.

What event in your life most shaped who you are now?Becoming a mother changed my path. I'm so grateful for my kids. I needed them.

What values do you live by?Golden Rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

What do you most appreciate?Laughter. This world can be so heavy. Theres nothing better than laughing with loved ones.

What is your favorite journey?The one back to myself. For a long time the last thing I wanted to "be" was me. After long periods of darkness and toxic relationships. I was able to find healing and peace in sobriety. I began taking care of and value myself and I was able to extend that care to others.

Where is your favorite place to be alone?In my room at work. It is a very soothing and peaceful space. I'll meditate and do yoga in there.

What living figure most inspires you?My kids. They've overcome so much at such young ages. They inspire me to be better.

What was the best advice you were ever given?"What if everything goes well" and "you've gotten through much worse."

What book would you tell everyone to read?"How to make s*** happen" by Sean Walen. Obviously some language in there, but such a no nonsense approach to improving your life.

What is the best thing about where you live?Food, culture and hospitality.

How do you "let the good times roll"?With my friends and family. I love festivals, live music and art.

What did you want to be when you grew up?Mom, teacher, artist, contortionist.

What is your motto?No act of kindness is ever wasted.

How would you like to be remembered?As someone who helped. Who made people feel better. Who understood.

What do you say to yourself when you doubt yourself?What are you learning? What do you need to do?

What three things are vital to BEing YOU?Peanut butter cups; empathy; awkwardness.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?Awesome

What is your favorite word? Awesome

What do you collect?Nothing really but I was gifted owls for a while. I never turn down a blessing or good luck trinket

What food could you live on for a month?Sushi

What would you change about yourself?My confidence

What literary, movie or cartoon character do you most identify with?Vanellope. I have glitches too but we're both still kinda awesome.

Describe yourself in five words.Compassionate, awkward, humorous, stubborn, growing.

What is your idea of happiness?Laughing with my family and friends with food!

What is your favorite movie? "Singles." Such a '90s movie.

What music defines who you are?I love all genres, I'm really eclectic. My family will play "3 little birds" for me, though, so I guess that's it.

Who is your style icon? Stevie Nicks

What do you most regret?Allowing myself to be mistreated by others and myself. Not letting go of things I should have, not believing in myself. I guess it was part of my process though. I try to use what I've been through to help others.

What question do you wish I'd asked?What is your favorite local nonprofit.

What would the answer be?Faith House

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Be You: Christy Cormier's work involves her heart as well as her hands - The Advocate

Does rank or status determine how successful a person is? Some may think so, but according to one Space and Missile Defense Command leader, it does not.

Kendal Cunningham, the integration synchronization chief for the Space and Missile Defense Command Center of Excellences Capability Development Integration Division, says success can be measured by the Golden Rule treating others the way one would want to be treated.

People think the higher they are in rank is what makes them successful, Cunningham said. In actuality, the higher you get, the less important your rank is; its your ability to work with others and how you treat people and interact with them that really makes you successful.

Cunningham, a retired colonel, decided to join the Army after his brother, who served as his role model, enlisted in the Air Force. He wanted a way out of small town life, but he did not know the Army would become a 30-year career, turning into a civilian career after retirement.

I wanted to serve my country, but I didnt know itd be for that long, he said. I got in the Army and started having so much fun, next thing I knew itd been 30 years. I had some thoughts about going to law school but ended up on a different path.

Cunningham first came to SMDC in 2006 where he served as the deputy chief of staff G-3 Operations and then chief of staff until he retired in 2010. After retirement Cunningham began his civilian career at Army Materiel Command, first serving as a senior strategic planner, then as the deputy chief technology officer.

He returned to SMDC in 2017, and found that many of his former co-workers were still at the command.

There are people Ive come to know, some now maybe 10-plus years, who are still here, and theyre still doing great things for the command, he said. Its always good to work with good people.

Since returning to SMDC, Cunningham has taken an active role helping his co-workers and staff members become more successful in their everyday lives and careers by teaching them what he has learned about being successful.

I really take pleasure in seeing the people who work for me be successful. And I try to help them reach that success, he said.

Cunningham said his years of military service taught him that collaborating on projects can be difficult, but the way to success is working together and leaning in when others need help.

Because I know that if I come to you, youll help me; and you know if you need something from me, Ill do what I can to help you, he said. The little old lady in tennis shoes can say no for various reasons, but if you treat her with respect and dignity, itll go a long way.

Cunningham said his experiences during his career gave him a fresh perspective on the way people view success in a persons career and life and that the best way to measure success is the way someone treats others, because people never forget the way they are treated.

I just think were losing the respect we have for each other, he said. One of the things I tell my people here in the integration office is when youre trying to do your job remember that everybody works for somebody. What makes you successful is how you treat people. How you answer a tasker or support others in need is how they will react when you are in need.

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Treating people with respect goes a long way - Theredstonerocket

Following its inter-season hiatus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has returned to NBC, this time without the direction it once had. Fans of the show are well-versed in the many storyline changes the show has undergone in recent seasons. Amy Santiago (Melissa Fuermo) and Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Baugher) have found themselves in new positions, isolated from their former detective colleagues, and Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) has departed from the 99th precinct entirely. Going into the premiere, it could only be suspected that the dynamic of the show would receive a notable jolt given these recent changes.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, like nearly every comedy on television, has, until recently, followed the golden rule of sitcoms: Dont change a thing. Sitcoms are largely expected to remain consistent throughout their runs without significant character evolution, lest producers risk upsetting the dynamic of the show viewers have come to be familiar with. After six seasons, however, Brooklyn Nine-Nines writers were clearly getting bored, but they werent sure where to goand it doesnt look like Season 6 helped them find any direction.

The first episode of the two-part premiere focused on a manhunt assigned to the shows protagonist Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), who must track down a suspect in the attempted assassination of a local Brooklyn politician while Holt begins serving his year-long demotion as a patrol officer. What initially appeared to have been a last-minute joke inserted into the Season 6 finale turns out to be a long-running plot arc for the former captain, and as one could predict, he has trouble adjusting to his low-ranking position. Most of the episode follows Jake as he is constantly undercut by Holt in his investigation, dampening Jakes excitement as he attempts to solve the high-profile crime.

Over the course of this procedural plot, we see Holt acting as the wise authority figure guiding Jake, the brilliant yet immature detective, to the cases conclusionin other words, its no different than a typical episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Despite clear attempts at reworking the shows existing dynamic, it appears the writers are unable to let go of the familiar format. While the plot aims to demonstrate how uncomfortable the characters are in their newfound roles, little of the storyline has actually changed. Furthermore, this was all done at the expense of the other shows characters, with Charles (Joe Lo Truglio), Amy, Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz), and Terry (Terry Crews) all being sidelined to highlight the more-of-the-same plot disguised as a shake-up.

The second episode introduces the precincts new captainJulie Kim (Nicole Bilderback). While an improvement from the first episode in terms of character inclusion, as Amy, Rosa, Charles, and Terry all assume larger roles, the lack of direction in the show is even more glaring. As Kim has now replaced Holt, Jake and his former captain try to sleuth out her alleged sinister motive. By the end of the episode, Kim quits after Jake makes it clear how unwelcome she is and, once again, the 99th precinct is left without a captain, which leaves us wondering what the point of the episode was.

A number of multi-episode plots in recent years, such as Jake and Amys marriage, Holts job changes, and the departure of Gina, have indicated the writers are attempting to move Brooklyn Nine-Nine toward serialized plots. With this episode, though, they erase their progress.

It feels as though Brooklyn Nine-Nine has lost its direction. The writers are unsure how much change they are comfortable with or if they even want to change the show at all, while simultaneously making it clear that they have become bored with what they have created. This disinterest can be seen when Amy and Jake, in the first episode, discuss having a child, only to completely drop the idea by the second episode.

This experimentation has also come at the expense of Holt and Jakes characters. Holt has long been characterized as resolute, having endured decades of racist and homophobic discrimination within the NYPD to attain the title of captain. In one of the early episodes, he attributes his success in spite of adversity to doing [his] job, and doing it right. However, in breaking into Kims house to uncover dirt in an attempt to undercut her, Holt is portrayed as petty, vindictive, and selfish, the antithesis to the upstanding captain we have known since Season 1.

Then, Jake makes Kim feel so unwelcome that she transfers to another precinct. Jakes behavior is attributed to his daddy issues, given that he had seen Holt as a father figure. Up until this point, Jakes childhood abandonment had been a prominent aspect of his storyline and character, but the writing of this episode turned what once made Jake more complex into something extremely ugly, made worse by the lack of resolution offered between Jake and Kim.

The episodes, however, were still enjoyable. The moment where Jake and Amy agreed to have a child showed a new, more mature side of Jake, and there were a number of notable references to Cheddar, Holts beloved corgi who died last year. The best part, however, was Vanessa Bayers guest appearance as Officer Debbie Fogle, Holts temporary new sidekick who is borderline obsessed with her pedometer app Foot Friends.

Season 7 had an awkward beginning to be sure, but there remains plenty of room for the Brooklyn Nine-Nine writers to make up for the initial stumble.

Featured Image by NBC

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'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Stumbles in Season Seven Premiere - The Heights - The Heights

After surveying the wreckage of the Iowa caucus clown car, scattered in pieces by the side of the road to defeat, a liberal friend of mine asked, This has to be on purpose, right? Nobody is this incompetent. Do they want Trump to win again?

The answer to that pained rhetorical question is yes.

For a number of liberal authors, editors, speakers, professors, celebrities, organizations, unions, political action committees, newspapers and cable networks, hating President TrumpDonald John TrumpWinners and losers from the New Hampshire primary Sanders on NH victory: Win is 'beginning of the end for Donald Trump' Biden, Warren on ropes after delegate shutout MORE has become a cash cow on steroids. They cant rake in the money fast enough before the next pile crashesin front of them.

With regard to the embarrassing meltdown in Iowa, the companies tied to the fiasco Acronym and the Shadow app seem to be doing quite well for themselves, if not for Democratic voters, since Trumps election.

Thats exactly the point: Many liberal operatives have never made this much money, and, for that reason, some need if not want Trump to be reelected. The We Hate Trump gravy train must not be allowed to derail.

Will they ever acknowledge that to thedesperate base of the Democratic Party, the supporters of Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersWinners and losers from the New Hampshire primary Sanders on NH victory: Win is 'beginning of the end for Donald Trump' Buttigieg congratulates Sanders on 'strong showing' in New Hampshire MORE (I-Vt.), dubbed the Bernie Bros, or the progressives who have pledged allegiance to The Squad? Of course not.

Those entrenched elite liberals purposely manufacturing, manipulating and exploiting the hatred and rage directed at President Trump, for personal gain or that of their organizations, will continue to utter pejoratives against Trump and publicly wish him ill will. But privately? Theyre probably thanking their lucky stars that the most unorthodox, boastful political outsider in the history of the presidency came their way.

It is a relationship forged by King Midas.

If you are one of the millions of Americans liberals have conditioned to hate President Trump regardless of his positions or any verifiable successes hes had that may positively affect your life you need to remember the golden rule of politics: Follow the money.

Instead of parroting the rumors about collusion with Russia, the need for his impeachment or how the president is a national embarrassment, take a long, hard look at those who profess to have your back.

Liberal authors are getting six- and seven-figure book advances for hating Trump. Their liberal publishers make millions off those books. The liberal political action committees have enjoyed record-setting fundraising for the past three years. Marginal celebrities tweet self-serving hateful comments. Liberal speakers command thousands of dollars in fees. And the liberal cable TV hosts and their networks are realizing millions of dollars in profits from attacking Trump.

Do you honestly believethey want the riches money, career advancement, personal recognition to stop? Do you think any of them would sacrifice that gain to rectify the pain and suffering that might be plaguing downtrodden Americans?

Beyond that, look at the politicians who swear they are advocating on your behalf chief among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Reps.Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Their public profiles and power bases grew exponentially with Trumps election and their constant vilification of the president.

Imagine where they would be now had Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWinners and losers from the New Hampshire primary Sanders wins New Hampshire primary Trump swipes at resigned prosecutors, judge in Roger Stone case MORE won in 2016. They would be but a shadow of their manufactured selves.

Make no mistake: This same formula existed when former President Obama was in office and scores of conservatives and Republicans got rich by attacking and demeaning him. During the Obama years, the Republican Congress and elite GOP establishment did next to nothing for their base. We can only imagine how many of them secretly prayed for Obamas reelection in 2012.

As the Disney song tells us in Beauty and the Beast, its a tale as old as time.

And precisely because of that sort of fairy tale, Trump was elected president. Across the country, millions of Americans realized that both political parties and their respective power brokers have played them for chumps for years for their own gain. They decided to cast the elites aside and vote for Trump.

Its likely to happen again in November maybe even in greater numbers. And you can bet thatsome liberal Democrats who stand to profit from Trumps reelection will secretly root for that to happen.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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The betrayal of Democratic voters: Many 'liberals' need Trump to win | TheHill - The Hill

Taxing existing property ownership much more heavily would turn freeholders into leaseholders, weaken property rights, change the historic relationship between state and citizen, and mortally damage the foundations of British society. It would be toxic for capitalism and conservatism, the two systems that it is this Governments historic mission to save.

Most economists believe that taxing property is less economically damaging than taxing income. They are wrong. People and companies arent prisoners in one country or home. Imposing a meaningful wealth tax would lead to massive, negative behavioural changes.

It is true that longstanding homeowners have made vast, untaxed capital gains as prices have shot up; but the answer to housing affordability is to build a lot more homes and, when appropriate, hike interest rates. Taxing unrealised capital gains via a mansion tax would see equity-rich, cash-poor pensioners forced to extract equity, sell up, or roll over their liabilities into a whopping inheritance tax bill.

Council tax was higher in real terms in the 1970s and 1980s, but that is no reason to return to those sorry days. Its purpose is to contribute to local services, not to confiscate wealth. Adding extra bands one version of the proposals discussed in recent weeks would mean revaluing all homes. Millions would pay more: it will make the poll tax look like a tea party. Local government finances need to be overhauled, but not in this way.

Hitting the rich with higher taxes is popular, but the Government is doing lots of unpopular things: HS2, retaining foreign aid, banning petrol cars and gas boilers, Huawei. Johnson has rejected populism in these areas, rightly or wrongly, and he should do the same on tax. None of his Northern voters backed him because they thought he would hit the better off: they just want their own families to prosper. They bought into the Tory message of levelling up, and rejected Corbyns socialist levelling-down.

The Government grabbed 43.6 per cent of the vote last year; its potential market is even greater if it can unite the centre-Right from North to South, Brexiteers and Remainers, graduates and non-graduates. While these groups disagree on much, such as the environment or immigration, one policy could unite all of them: keeping taxes low. A similar approach has helped hold the Republican coalition together in the US and saved conservative parties elsewhere.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph last year, Johnson quoted Ibn Khaldun, a great medieval Arab intellectual and early supply-side economist. The PM paraphrased him beautifully: If you cut taxes on the olive harvest, or whatever it was in 14th-century Tunisia, actually people grew more olives, and tax yields went up. It doesnt apply in every case but he is making a valid point. Johnson should ask Mr Javid, who also understands the role of incentives, to order every Treasury bureaucrat to read Khaldun, and then tear up their daft plans. Here is another golden rule: there can be no such thing as a successful tax-raising Tory government.

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The Tories are courting disaster by flirting with a tax raid on wealth - Telegraph.co.uk

Our critics on great artists who might've been lost to the canon.

Claude McKays Romance in Marseille is a modern masterpiece. Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Random House

Did you know theyre doing spoiler alert warnings in books now? There it is, printed in the first pages of the preamble to Claude McKays Romance in Marseille: New readers are advised that this introduction makes details of the plot explicit. Its interesting to imagine what prompted this forewarning. Had readers been rage-tweeting about plot points of novels being spoiled by scholarly intros? Or was the publisher, Penguin Classics, merely protecting itself from hypothetical complaints? Im embarrassed by the implication in either case were readers, not babies! But I dont blame Penguin Classics for following the golden rule of public relations: When in doubt, play it safe.

Mostly because Romance in Marseille plays it safe in no other ways. Reading it, I got the sweaty, panicked sensation of wanting to do something with the information I had (This book is incredible) before anyone else did. This is how I imagine it feels to be a jewel thief who finds a key to the museum, except what Im empowered to do with this hot tip instead of stealing a fortune is composing a review. Well, I made my bed.

Lafala is a sailor born in West Africa (an unspecified part of it) who moves to the port of Marseille and gets fleeced by a Moroccan prostitute. Filled with self-loathing over the incident, he stows away on a ship to New York but is caught and imprisoned next to a toilet, where he gets frostbite. Upon arrival, both lower legs have to be amputated. Its just like one of those shirts you see for sale to tourists on Canal Street: WELCOME TO NEW YORK. NOW GO HOME. A clever and unscrupulous lawyer (Jewish, of course, in the books sole nose-wrinkling stereotype) gets wind of Lafalas case and together they sue the shipping company. Lafala receives a windfall and heads back to Marseille to take up a footless moneyed version of dockside life and to locate the treacherous siren who jilted him.

The book is newly available, but McKay, who died in 1948, started writing it 91 years ago. Its history is a rats nest of logistical bloopers. First the book was called The Jungle and the Bottoms. The manuscript was abandoned for a couple of years while the author suffered from syphilis and other distractions. Then he moved to Morocco and took it up again, reworking the story and retitling it Savage Loving. This he swapped for the current title after his agent deemed Savage Loving too obscene, before abandoning the novel again, seemingly for good, in 1933. McKay barely mentioned it in his 1937 memoir and apparently forgot about the project entirely until an 87-page draft popped up again in the hands of a collection to which McKay had donated his papers. (He was not an ardent organizer of his own work.) McKay left a longer, 172-page draft in possession of his only child, who eventually donated it to the New York Public Librarys Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The shorter one wound up at Yales Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The two have now been reconciled for the first time to yield the book as published. Romance in Marseille, in other words, was never actually a lost or forgotten novel; it was just peculiarly hard to track down.

If you skipped the introduction and surrendered access to Google, you could easily mistake it for a novel written last year. Its about bodies, disability, sex, Islam, slavery, and capital. There are lesbians. There is gender-bending. There is socialism. All of this in 130 pages custom-designed, it would seem, for the modern obliterated attention span! But as with any novel, the themes are only bits of thread unless woven into a dazzling tapestry of a character, which is what we have in Lafala.

In one of many brain-rupturing pieces of data embedded in this editions introduction, it turns out that Lafala was based on a real person of McKays acquaintance: a Nigerian seaman named Nelson Simeon Dede who had stowed away on a steamer from France, gotten captured, lost both feet, won restitution, and returned to Marseilles with prosthetics and an upgraded net worth. McKay recognized the stowaway as a piquant racial metaphor for the philosophical condition of the fugitive. Lafala, his fictional version, is handsome, charismatic, very black, not particularly saintly, and pretty zen about the distribution of his fortunes and misfortunes. In the misfortunes column hes got the trauma of being locked in a freezing toilet-jail and having both legs sawed off so that he can never dance or breezily stroll again. On the plus side, the money isnt terrible and having cork prostheses is interesting and women love to fondle his stumps. Life is a tragic joke, is Lafalas operating thesis.

After the amputations have healed, Lafala sails back to Marseille courtesy of the same shipping company that de-footed him. Hes eager to be back where the thick scum of life forms and bubbles and breaks in a syrup of passion and desire. The port city is home to a thicket of bums, peddlers, pimps, fishermen, sailors, barflies, idlers, dockers, gangsters, leftists, and families, and the news of Lafalas fortune travels quickly. Hes set upon by a wide range of mercenaries, most of whom he cheerfully repels. At a caf he spots Aslima the prostitute who originated this whole fiasco and confronts her. She apologizes and claims some responsibility for his lack of feet; after all, if she hadnt robbed him, he wouldnt have had an international meltdown. They call a truce and become joyfully re-entangled, but the prostitutes motives are murky. The hardiest hustler on the shore, Aslima is a canny handler of the local male population. Is she aiming to regain Lafalas trust only to rip him off again? Is she in it for love this time? Will she return to Africa with Lafala, as he wishes? Only chapters eight through 23 will tell.

Prose-wise, there are a lot of superlatives to be highlighted in those chapters. In Romance in Marseille there is the best description Ive ever read of human legs, as well as the best description of waking up and feeling like shit, the best description of erotic satisfaction, and to dip into extravagant specificity for a moment the best description of a Corsican pimp fretting that his girlfriend is mentally distancing herself from him.

McKay, who was born in the hills of Jamaica in 1889, was a headliner of the Harlem Renaissance. The son of farmers, hed worked up an interest in English poetry Milton, Keats, Shelley, Pope thanks to his older brother, a schoolteacher, and an English neighbor who encouraged McKays literary experiments. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1912, enrolled at Tuskegee and Kansas State College, and left the South two years later for New York. His first American poems were published a few years later, and his first novel, Home to Harlem, was the movements first official American best seller. But he spent nearly as much time out of the country as in it, traveling from England to Russia to Germany to France to Spain to Morocco over the course of 12 years.

Home to Harlem got mixed reviews. Langston Hughes loved the book. W.E.B. DuBois wrote that it nauseated him and made him feel like taking a bath. It depicts what McKay called the semi-underworld of single black working-class men in New York City after World War I: a landscape of pool halls, cabarets, SROs, labor disputes, and women in Champagne-colored stockings. Like Romance in Marseille, its a picaresque starring a working-class single man. Unlike Romance, the world its characters, its economy is entirely black. Its very good, and it reads like it was published in 1928, which it was not a complaint, just a fact. Marseille, on the other hand, is a novel out of time.

Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay (Penguin Classics, February 11)

The title is not a misleading title, exactly, but Romance in Marseille does conjure the image of a genteel divorce on a soul-affirming Mediterranean frolic instead of an otherworldly queer fuckfest. The cover design colludes in this trickery with its illustration of a demure lady and an expressionless man, neither of whom can be found in the text. But hey. Maybe it will fool some demure and expressionless people into reading the book. They wont know what hit them.

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The Best New Novel Was Written 90 Years Ago - Vulture

John Pavlovitz wrote this piece in late September 2019.

His website describes John as a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina." In the past four years his blog, "Stuff That Needs To Be Said," has reached a diverse worldwide audience.A 20-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice both inside and outside faith communities.In 2017 he released his first book, A Bigger Table. His newest book, Hope and Other Superpowers,arrived Nov. 6.

I have always considered myself a moderate; sometimes the feeling lately is that being a moderate is moving from center to far left, as judged by the power of the conservative movement.

This essay speaks to this beautifully; questioning: when is the middle left and will the pendulum swing back before its too late?

I’m Not The Radical Left, I’m The Humane Middle

***

Im not the Radical Left, Im the Humane Middle

By John Pavlovitz

Apparently, Ive been radicalized and I wasnt aware.

Certain people call me the Radical Left all the time.

I never considered myself radical before.I just thought I was normal, ordinary, usual.

I thought equity was important to everyone.I imagined America was filled with people who took that Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness stuff seriously for all people.I thought the Golden Rule was actually mainstream.

Recently I took an inventory of my positions, screening for the extremism:

I believe in full LGBTQ rights.I believe we should protect the planet.I believe everyone deserves health care.I believe all religions are equally valid.I believe the world is bigger than America.I believe to be pro-life, means to treasure all of it.I believe whiteness isnt superior and it is not the baseline of humanity.I believe we are all one interdependent community.I believe people and places are made better by diversity.I believe people shouldnt be forced to abide by anyone elses religion.I believe non-American human beings have as much value as American ones.

I believe generosity is greater than greed, compassion better than contempt, and kindness superior to derision.

I believe there is enough in this world for everyone: enough food, enough money, enough room, enough care if we unleash our creativity and unclench our fists.

Im not sure how these ideas became radical, though it seems to have happened in the last few years.

I grew up being taught they were just part of being a decent human being.

I grew up believing that loving my neighbor as myself, meant that I actually worked for their welfare as much as my own.

I was taught that caring for the least in the world, was the measure of my devotion to God.

I thought that inalienable rights of other people were supposed to be a priority as a decent participant in the world.

I dont think Im alone.

In fact, Im pretty sure most people reside here in this place alongside me: the desire for compassion and diversity and equality and justice; that these things arent fringe ideologies or extremist positions but simply the best way to be human.

I think most people want more humanity, not less.

I think the vast middle is exhausted by the cruelty of these days.

That these aspirations seem radical to some people, is probably an alarm that theyve moved so far into the extremes of their fortified ideological bunkers and been so poisoned by the propaganda, that normal now seems excessive, that equality now seems oppressive, that goodness feels reckless.

Maybe the problem is, these people are so filled with fear for those who are different, so conditioned to be at war with the world, so indoctrinated into a white nationalistic religion of malice that theyve lost sight of what being a human being looks like anymore.

I am pretty sure that I dont represent the Radical Left, but the vast, disparate, compassionate, Humane Middle; people who are not threatened by someone elses presence, who do not see another persons gain as their loss, who dont worship a Caucasian, American god.

I suppose humanity feels radical to inhumane people.

In that case, Ill gladly be here in my extremism.

***

Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them. Umberto Eco, philosopher, novelist (1932-2016)

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Caught in the middle again: That's me - By Reade Brower - Courier-Gazette & Camden Herald

Organized sports provide boys with what is probably the most influential education on masculinity.

There are plenty of good lessons being taught to our sons out on the field or the court. They learn focus, grit and the importance of teamwork.

There are also, sadly, a lot of bad ones too. Sports' informal curriculum on masculinity is often a crash course in machismo. It teaches boys to suppress vulnerability, and harness aggression and dominance. Winning is everything. Don't cry like a girl, don't throw like a girl, and don't run like a girl; do any of the above and you will, pejoratively, and maybe even violently, be called "gay." Also, don't be gay.

This education starts early. At the end of one of my first-grade son's soccer games this past fall, the opposing team aggressively chanted "we won" over and over again as they high-fived our team at the end of the game. No matter that this league doesn't keep score for this age group, nor that this goes against the most basic understanding of human decency. Neither their coach, nor a single one of their parents, told them to stop.

We are amid a much needed reckoning with masculinity, and have begun thinking hard about the way certain elements of the gender education boys receive can be harmful to them and others. As part of this reckoning, many coaches and parents (my son's former rivals notwithstanding), have begun to consider what they are getting right with young male athletes, and what they are getting wrong.

How to talk to young athletes

Dan Blitstein, a volunteer youth soccer coach and coach advisor, can easily recall the unsettling emotions he felt as a child while playing sports.

"There was this one time, before a soccer game, when a player on my team pushed me. I remember feeling these conflicting desires. On one hand, I want to beat the [you-know-what] out of him, because I was a boy and that is what I was supposed to do. But I didn't want to. Then I started crying because I felt so conflicted and confused, and didn't know how to articulate how I was feeling."

Today, Blitstein tries to make sure that the boys he coaches have a decent emotional vocabulary to avoid the jumble of rage and confusion he felt as a child. In addition to helping them express themselves, he also gives them the space and time to share their thoughts and feelings, and treats them as though these thoughts and feelings matter.

Such an attitude is increasingly common among youth coaches but not yet the norm, said Ruben Nieves, National Director of Training at the Positive Coaching Alliance, a national nonprofit aimed at making youth sports a more positive and character-building experience.

One of PCA's key messages is that coaches should value player growth over winning, and a big part of helping children grow as athletes -- and people -- is by listening to them.

"There should be no, 'Because I told you so,' which can teach kids not to worry about other people's feelings," Nieves said.

When it's time for a pep talk, he added, coaches should focus on character and team-building traits, rather than taking down the opponent.

"The modern coach is more willing to talk and engage with their players about kindness, friendship, love and empathy," he said, explaining that these touchy-feely subjects used to feel off-limits in the traditionally tough and stoic atmosphere of sports. "These coaches know that athletes who have a strong emotional intelligence are going to be more emotionally healthy and are going to perform better together."

Part of building emotional intelligence, Nieves said, is making room for crying. He's seen more tears in competitive sports in the past decade, and tries to tell the athletes in his life that when someone cries they are showing just how much they care and caring is a good thing.

Nieves also suggests keeping the pep talks gender-neutral. "Talk about being a better person, not a real man," he said. Doing this makes it less likely that they will see their worth as an athlete and worth as a male human being as one and the same. The fewer prescriptive messages boys hear about what it means to be a man, the less they will feel pressure to live up to certain masculine ideas and the less they will feel like a failure if they don't.

Also, keeping the language gender neutral makes sports a more hospitable place for LGBTQ boys and young men, who may not feel comfortable with binary gender labels, or the gender essentialism compressed into a phrase like "real man."

Though even as sports teams might shed some of their hierarchical elements, sports will always be, by nature, hierarchical. There are winners and losers; bests and worsts.

Lesle Gallimore, a former Division I women's soccer college coach and past president of United Soccer Coaches, an organization for soccer coaches of all levels, said there is a way to foment competition and facilitate confidence and even a little swagger, without excessive cockiness.

"You can teach kids to celebrate the win, without demeaning the other team," she said. What qualifies as demeaning? Gallimore suggests considering the Golden Rule. How would I want to be treated if my team lost?

Coaches can also, in the case of a hard match or a loss, use sports to teach boys about humility.

"The best thing about sports for me is the unpredictable nature of it. You can train and train, but there will always be an element that you can't control," Blitstein said. "You have to roll with it, work together, adjust, and keep going."

This is also, of course, the case with life, and it's a lesson that counteracts so much of what is often labeled as the "toxic" elements of masculinity. Boys need more opportunities to learn that we don't always get what we want; that it's okay to, fairly and respectfully, fight for things. But sometimes a loss is a loss, and "no" means "no," and those moments demand acceptance and even a little grace.

Coaches and parents need to watch their own behavior

Many of the lessons on masculinity taught in sports come not through what adults say to kids, but how adults act with one another.

Today, coaches and parents tend to treat youth sports as extremely high stakes -- never mind the absolutely tiny chance that any single kid will become a college (let alone professional) athlete.

Winning is everything to so many adults, and if getting there seems to demand rage, they will rage. Parents scream at coaches and other parents, and coaches scream at parents and other coaches. Everyone screams at referees.

"If you listen and look, it's questionable whether people are enjoying this," Nieves said about a number of recent youth sports matches he attended. "People are angry. The kids are crying ... because adults are yelling at them. Because mom is embarrassing me and making a scene on the sidelines, and the coach never lets me handle the ball," all because he or she only cares about winning.

When youth players see the adults getting angry, behaving disrespectfully and prioritizing winning above everything else, it gives them permission to behave the same way.

Another problem with today's coaches is that they are, in the case of male teams, rarely women. Sexism in the world of coaching is still ubiquitous; it's commonplace to see men coaching girls and women, but rare to see women coaching men.

"The more boys can be coached by women, the less toxic masculinity" you will see, Gallimore said. "With female coaches, they are typically held more accountable for the way they talk about the opposite sex."

When boy athletes are coached by women, they learn to respect women, and also might be exposed to different models of leadership.

Men are socialized to lead by force, whereas women are socialized to lead by way of relationship building. This latter model tends to involve more listening, and taking the time to understand who the athlete is outside of sports. Gallimore doesn't think these skills are limited to women by any means, but they could become more commonplace if more women were given high-level coaching jobs with both genders.

Until there are more women coaches, and fewer alpha-male ones, parents will have to take some of this into their hands. They might consider having the same behavioral expectations for their sons on the field or the court as they do off it. Excessive aggression or rudeness should be no more tolerated during a game than it is during family dinner.

They should also respect their children's feelings during or after a game, and encourage their kids to respect the feelings of others, be it their teammates, their opponents, coaches or referees. If the culture of the team makes any of this difficult, it's probably time to switch teams.

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Why sports can be so toxic to boys and how we unravel that culture - Gwinnettdailypost.com

Jets CEO Christopher Johnson has one golden rule he sticks to: No playoff mandates.

It doesnt matter what happened the year before, nor what optimism the offseason brings. In his opinion, its counterproductive to tie someones job to the playoffs. So he refuses to do it.

Is it the right call? It doesnt matter. Thats how Johnson feels.

Still, its been nine long years since the Jets last made the postseason. Its the third-longest drought in the NFL behind just the Browns (17) and Bucs (12). Johnson has admitted hes an impatient man. Considering he now has GM entering his first full offseason in Joe Douglas, a second-year coach in Adam Gase, and a third-year quarterback in Sam Darnold, his already-low patience is undeniably wearing thin.

The Jets should begin free agency in a few weeks with roughly $80 million in cap space. Douglas will have four draft picks in the first three rounds of the draft.

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A 10-step plan to end the Jets' long playoff drought - The Athletic

Listen: we dont have to agree about everything. We dont even have to agree about most things. We dont have to love each other. We dont even have to like each other. And we certainly dont need to think alike or dress alike or worship alike or vote alike or love alike. But if this experiment in freedom is to succeedand there are some days the outlook is decidedly grimthen weve got to find some way of relating to one another that is not toxic or partisan or hateful or so self-righteous that were doomed to failure before we even start.

America has been a warring nationa military empire intent on occupation and conquestfor so long that perhaps we, the citizens of this warring nation, have forgotten what it means to live in peace, with the world and one another.

Wed better get back to the fundamentals of what it means to be human beings who can get along if we want to have any hope of restoring some semblance of sanity, civility and decency to what is progressively being turned into a foul-mouthed, hot-headed free-for-all bar fight by politicians for whom this is all one big, elaborate game designed to increase their powers and fatten their bank accounts.

Maybe Robert Fulghum, author ofAll I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, was right: maybe all we really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be is as simple as remembering the basic life lessons we were taught as children.

What were those lessons? Fulghum reminds us:

Share everything. Play fair. Dont hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Dont take things that arent yours. Say youre sorry when you hurt somebody. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cupthey all die. So do we. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learnedthe biggest word of allLOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we allthe whole worldhad cookies and milk about three oclock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you arewhen you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

The powers-that-be want us to forget these basic lessons in how to get along. They want us to fume and rage and be so consumed with fighting the so-called enemies in our midst that we never notice the prison walls closing in around us.

No matter what happens in the next presidential election, no matter how many ways the powers-that-be attempt to sow division and distrust among the populace, no matter how many shouting commentators perpetuate the belief that there is only one right view and one wrong view in politics, the only us vs. them that will matter is whether we the people care enough to stand united in our commitment to the principles on which this nation was founded: freedom, justice, and equality for all.

The rest is just noise intended to distract us from the fact that life in America has become a gut-wrenching, soul-sucking, misery-drenched, demoralizing existence, and its the government that is responsible.

Even so, heres why Im not giving up on the American dream of freedom, anddespite all the reasons to the contrarywhy you shouldnt either: because this is stillourcountry.

Im outraged at what has been done to our freedoms and our country. You should be, too.

We have been subjected to crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and never-ending letdowns.

Weve been held up, stripped down, faked out, photographed,frisked, fracked, hacked, tracked, cracked, intercepted, accessed, spied on, zapped, mapped, searched, shot at, tasered, tortured, tackled, trussed up, tricked, lied to, labeled, libeled, leered at, shoved aside, saddled with debt not of our own making, sold a bill of goods about national security, tuned out by those representing us, tossed aside, and taken to the cleaners.

Weve had our freedoms turned inside out, our democratic structure flipped upside down, and our house of cards left in a shambles.

Weve had our children burned by flashbang grenades,our dogs shot, and our old folks hospitalized afteraccidental encounters with marauding SWAT teams.

Wevebeen told that as citizens we have no rights within 100 miles of our own border, now considered Constitution-free zones.

Weve had our faces filed in government databases, ourbiometrics crosscheckedagainst criminal databanks, and ourconsumerist tendencies cataloguedfor future marketing overtures.

Weve seen the police transformed from community peacekeepers to point guards for the militarized corporate state. The police continue to push, prod, poke,probe, scan, shoot and intimidate the very individualswe the taxpayerswhose rights they were hired to safeguard. Networked together through fusion centers,police have surreptitiously spied on our activities and snooped on our communications, using hi-tech devices provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

Weve been deemed suspicious for engaging in such dubious activities astalking too long on a cell phone and stretching too long before jogging, dubbed extremists and terrorists forcriticizing the government and suggesting it is tyrannical or oppressive, and subjected toforced colonoscopies and anal probesfor allegedly rolling through a stop sign.

Weve been arrested for all manner of crimes that never used to be considered criminal, let alone uncommon or unlawful, behavior:letting our kids walk to the playground alone,giving loose change to a homeless man,feeding the hungry, andliving off the grid.

Weve beensodomized, victimized, jeopardized, demoralized, traumatized, stigmatized, vandalized, demonized, polarized and terrorized, often without having done anything to justify such treatment. Blame it on a government mindset that renders us guilty before weve even been charged, let alone convicted, of any wrongdoing. In this way, law-abiding individuals have had theirhomes mistakenly raided by SWAT teamsthat got the address wrong. One accountant found himself at the center of amisguided (armed) police standoff after surveillance devices confused his license plate with that of a drug felon.

Weve been railroaded into believing that our votes count, that we live in a republic or a democracy, that elections make a difference, that it matters whether we vote Republican or Democrat, and that our elected officials are looking out for our best interests. Truth be told,we live in an oligarchy, politicians represent only the profit motives of the corporate state, whose leaders know all too well that there is no discernible difference between red and blue politics, because there is only one color that matters in politics: green.

Weve gone from having privacy in our inner sanctums to having nowhere to hide, withsmart pillsthat monitor the conditions of our bodies,homes that spy on us(withsmart meters that monitor our electric usage and thermostats and light switches that can be controlled remotely) and cars that listen to our conversations,track our whereaboutsand report them to the police. Even our cities have becomewall-to-wall electronic concentration camps, with police now able to record hi-def video of everything that takes place within city limits.

Weve had our schools locked down and turned into prisons, our students handcuffed, shackled andarrestedfor engaging in childish behavior such asfood fights, our childrens biometrics stored, their school IDs chipped, their movementstracked, and theirdata bought, sold and barteredfor profit by government contractors, all the while they are treated like criminals and taught to march in lockstep with the police state.

Weve been rendered enemy combatants in our own country,denied basic due process rights, held against our will without access to an attorney or being charged with a crime, and left to waste away in jail until such a time as the government is willing to let us go or allow us to defend ourselves.

Weve had the very military weapons we funded with our hard-earned tax dollars used against us, fromunpiloted, weaponized drones tracking our movementson the nations highways and byways andarmored vehicles, assault rifles, sound cannons and grenade launchersin towns with little to no crime to an arsenal ofmilitary-grade weapons and equipment given free of charge to schoolsand universities.

Weve been silenced, censored and forced to conform, shut up infree speech zones, gagged byhate crime laws, stifled by political correctness, muzzled by misguidedanti-bullying statutes, andpepper sprayedfor taking part in peaceful protests.

Weve been shot by police forreaching for a licenseduring a traffic stop,reaching for a babyduring a drug bust,carrying a toy sword down a public street, andwearing headphonesthat hamper our ability to hear.

Weve had our tax dollars spent on$30,000 worth of Starbucksfor Department of Homeland Security employees,$630,000 in advertising to increase Facebook likesfor the State Department, and close to$25 billion to fund projects ranging from the silly to the unnecessary, such as laughing classes for college students and programs teaching monkeys to play video games and gamble.

Weve beentreated like guinea pigs, targeted by the government and social media for psychological experiments on how to manipulate the masses. Weve been tasered for talking back to police, tackled for taking pictures of police abuses, andthreatened with jail time for invoking our rights. Weve even beenarrested by undercover cops stationed in public bathroomswho interpret mens shaking off motions after urinating to be acts of lewdness.

Weve had our possessions seized and stolen by law enforcement agencies looking to cash in onasset forfeiture schemes, ourjails privatized and used as a source of cheap laborfor megacorporations, ourgardens smashed by policeseeking out suspicious-looking plants that could be marijuana, and ourbuying habits turned into suspicious behaviorby a government readily inclined to view its citizens as terrorists.

Weve had our cities used for military training drills, with Black Hawk helicopters buzzing the skies, Urban Shield exercises overtaking our streets, and active shooter drills wreaking havoc on unsuspecting bystanders in our schools, shopping malls and other soft target locations.

Weve been told that national security is more important than civil liberties, that police dogs noses are sufficient cause to carry out warrantless searches, that thebest way not to get raped by policeis to follow the law, thatwhat a police officer says in court will be given preferenceover what video footage shows, that anupright posture and acne are sufficient reasons for a cop to suspect youof wrongdoing, that police canstop and search a driver based solely on an anonymous tip, and that police officers have every right to shoot first and ask questions later if they feel threatened.

You should be. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and right these wrongs.

Stop waiting patiently for change to happen, stop waiting for some politician to rescue you, and take responsibility for your freedoms: start by fixing whats broken in your lives, in your communities, and in this country.

Get mad, get outraged, get off your duff and get out of your house, get in the streets, get in peoples faces, get down to your local city council, get over to your local school board, get your thoughts down on paper, get your objections plastered on protest signs, get your neighbors, friends and family to join their voices to yours, get your representatives to pay attention to your grievances, get your kids to know their rights, get your local police to march in lockstep with the Constitution, get your media to act as watchdogs for the people and not lapdogs for the corporate state, get your act together, and get your house in order.

Appearances to the contrary, this country does not belong exclusively to the corporations or the special interest groups or the oligarchs or the war profiteers or any particular religious, racial or economic demographic.

This country belongs to all of us: each and every one of uswe the peoplebut most especially, this country belongs to those of us who love freedom enough to stand and fight for it.

As I point out in my bookBattlefield America: The War on the American People, we are fast approaching the point at which we will have nothing left to lose.

Dont wait for things to get that bad before you find your voice and your conscience. By then, it will be too late.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns character reflects inThe Gulag Archipelago:

How we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The cursed machine would have ground to a halt! IfifWe didnt love freedom enough. And even more we had no awareness of the real situation. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.

Take your stand nowusing every nonviolent means at your disposalwhile you still can.

Dont wait to reflect back on missed opportunities to push back against tyranny.

Dont wait until youre the last one standing.

Time is running out.

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We're All In This Together: A Case For Not Giving Up On The American Dream OpEd - Eurasia Review

KJ Apa in 'I Still Believe'

I dont write as much about IMAX as I used to four or five years ago, mostly because the notion of a big movie playing in the IMAX format is no longer enough of a rarity to justify commentary. It wasnt so long ago that it was unusual for a movie like American Sniper or Focus to get the IMAX treatment, but now the only impediment is usually competition, or (in rarer cases) a big movie with an extended engagement (Star Wars, a Chris Nolan movie, etc.).

Almost every big movie gets a week in the prized format, with plenty of big movies playing in IMAX and/or Dolby Vision, AMC Prime or other premium large format auditoriums. Even in a time when more movies get the IMAX Experience, I Still Believe qualifies as a special case.

The Lionsgate release, opening on March 13, will become the first faith-based drama to play in IMAX. Oh, and itll get a sneak preview of sorts in IMAX auditoriums alone on Wednesday, March 11. Directed by the Erwin Brothers, penned by Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn and Madeline Carrol, the Kingdom Story Company film is a Christian biopic about musician Jeremy Camp (played by Riverdales KJ Apa) and his relationship with his first wife (Brit Robertson) who fell ill shortly before their wedding.

I Can Only Imagine

While titled after Camps song, the film is hoping to remind interested viewers of I Can Only Imagine, which was a breakout hit two years ago. It, along with Peter Rabbit and Game Night, was among the few wide releases to thrive alongside Black Panther. That early 2018 release concerned the true-life story which led to MercyMes I Can Only Imagine, the best-selling Christian single of all time.

The Erwin Brothers directed that one, from a screenplay by Jon Erwin and Brett McCorkle, which went on to earn a robust $83 million domestic and $86 million worldwide on a $7 million budget. It is the fifth highest-grossing musical biopic and the sixth-biggest Christian flick in North America. Minus the Narnia movies and The Passion of the Christ, it is second only to Sony and Affirms Heaven Is For Real ($91 million and $101 million worldwide) in 2014.

Faith-based films had a moment in 2014, with Heaven Is For Real joining Foxs Son of God ($59.7 million domestic and $70 million worldwide on a $25 million budget) and Freestyle Releasings Gods Not Dead ($60 million domestic on a $2 million budget). Most of the Christian breakouts have been somewhat positive and inclusive dramas, with most of the persecution complex flicks (like Persecution, Saving Christmas or October Baby) have flopped or been budgeted to where $5 million is win.

Unplanned

Gods Not Dead and last years Unplanned ($21 million from a $6 million debut) are exceptions. Most hits come from major studios (like Lionsgate, Sony and Fox) and are closer in spirit to Veggie Tales (in terms of preaching the Golden Rule) than Gods Not Dead 2. We usually get at least one such biggie a year, such as Sonys Soul Surfer ($47 million) in 2011, the aforementioned hits in 2014, Sonys War Room ($73 million) in 2015, Sonys Miracles from Heaven ($73 million) in 2016, Lionsgates The Shack ($93 million) in 2017, Lionsgates I Can Only Imagine ($86 million) in 2018 and Foxs Breakthrough ($50 million) in 2019.

I will argue that Lionsgate is using IMAX to designate that I Still Believe is declaring itself to be the big mainstream faith-based drama of the year. Id be a little surprised if it isnt. For the first time in a while, a film is being designated as a major-league contender specifically because it will play in IMAX theaters.

The IMAX version (buy tickets HERE) will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes content and will, as noted above, open 24 hours earlier than the conventional domestic release. It is a way of designating that it, as opposed to STXs My Spy, Sonys Bloodshot or Universals The Hunt, will be the big movie of that specific weekend. And if history is any indication, it wont have to rely on faith to be the next mainstream faith-based theatrical hit. The IMAX engagement is essentially Lionsgate calling their shot.

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Box Office: IMAX Positions I Still Believe As Next Big Faith-Based Hit - Forbes