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Memory from Cats the Musical

Cats

 

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One Last Blooming Before Winter Sets In: Lessons From My Jasmine Plant

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On This Day: September 30

Updated September 29, 2012, 2:28 pm

NYT Front Page

On Sept. 30, 1938, British, French, German and Italian leaders agreed at a meeting in Munich that Nazi Germany would be allowed to annex Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.

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On Sept. 30, 1924, Truman Capote, the American author of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood”, was born. Following his death on Aug. 25, 1984, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1788 The Pennsylvania Legislature elected the first two members of the U.S. Senate – William Maclay of Harrisburg and Robert Morris of Philadelphia.
1791 Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” premiered in Vienna, Austria.
1924 Author Truman Capote was born in New Orleans.
1927 Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hit his 60th home run of the season to break his own major-league record.
1946 An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.
1955 Actor James Dean was killed in a car accident at age 24.
1962 Black student James Meredith succeeded on his fourth try in registering for classes at the University of Mississippi.
1966 The Republic of Botswana declared its independence from Britain.
1982 The situation comedy “Cheers” premiered on NBC.
1991 The military in Haiti overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country’s first freely-elected president.
1992 George Brett of the Kansas City Royals reached 3,000 career hits during a game against the California Angels.
1993 A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern India, killing an estimated 10,000 people.
1997 France’s Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silence during the systematic persecution and deportation of Jews by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.
2004 Merck & Co. pulled Vioxx, its heavily promoted arthritis drug, from the market after a study found it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
2005 Cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad were published in a Danish newspaper, offending many Muslims worldwide.
2007 Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre completed his 421st career touchdown pass, breaking Dan Marino’s NFL record.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Elie Wiesel, Author, Nobel Peace Prize winner

Author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel turns 84 years old today.

AP Photo/Charles Sykes

Marion Cotillard, Actress

Actress Marion Cotillard turns 37 years old today.

AP Photo/Joel Ryan

1931 Angie Dickinson, Actress (“Police Woman”), turns 81
1933 Cissy Houston, Gospel singer, turns 79
1935 Johnny Mathis, Singer, turns 77
1939 Len Cariou, Actor, turns 73
1943 Marilyn McCoo, Singer (The Fifth Dimension), turns 69
1953 Deborah Allen, Country singer, turns 59
1954 Barry Williams, Actor (“The Brady Bunch”), turns 58
1957 Fran Drescher, Actress (“The Nanny”), turns 55
1958 Marty Stuart, Country singer, turns 54
1960 Blanche Lincoln, Former U.S. senator, D-Ark., turns 52
1961 Crystal Bernard, Actress (“Wings”), turns 51
1961 Eric Stoltz, Actor, turns 51
1963 Eddie Montgomery, Country singer (Montgomery Gentry), turns 49
1964 Trey Anastasio, Rock singer, musician (Phish), turns 48
1971 Jenna Elfman, Actress (“Dharma and Greg”), turns 41
1980 Martina Hingis, Tennis player, turns 32
1982 Lacey Chabert, Actress (“Mean Girls,” “Party of Five”), turns 30
1982 Kieran Culkin, Actor, turns 30
1984 T-Pain, Singer, rapper, turns 28

 

Historic Birthdays

Truman Capote 9/30/1924 – 8/25/1984 American novelist, short-story writer and playwright.Go to obituary »
64 Etienne Bonnot Condillac 9/30/1715 – 8/2/3/1780
French philosopher, psychologist, logician and economist
73 Zacharias Frankel 9/30/1801 – 2/13/1875
Bohemian rabbi and theologian; founded Conservative Judaism
73 Antoine-Jerome Balard 9/30/1802 – 3/30/1876
French chemist; discovered the element bromine
71 Sir Charles Stanford 9/30/1852 – 3/29/1924
Irish-born English composer, conductor and teacher
77 Thomas Lamont 9/30/1870 – 2/2/1948
American banker and financier
71 Jean Perrin 9/30/1870 – 4/17/1942
French Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1926)
62 Hans Geiger 9/30/1882 – 9/24/1945
German physicist; introduced the Geiger Counter
87 Nora Stanton Barney 9/30/1883 – 1/18/1971
American civil engineer, architect and suffragist
90 Sir Nevill Mott 9/30/1905 – 8/8/1996
English physicist
72 Kenny Baker 9/30/1912 – 8/10/1985
American movie and radio singer and actor

 

 

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Heroine, 2012

Her long face and sad eyes are good for conveying melancholy, but if those were the only two essential qualities to pull off a story with a script as scattered as this one, then we have a winner on our hands.  But given that it takes more than that to make a story stick, the fact is that sitting through two and half hours of Heroine is quite the ordeal.  Because, what we have here is loosely packaged pulp that is as sensational in depicting the life of a Bollywood heroine as it is messy.

The script is neither here nor there in allowing the viewer to take a stand on whether one wishes to sympathize with our heroine or tell her to knock it off.  One moment she wants stardom, the other, love.  And the moment after that, she wants superstardom, love be damned.  Oh, and in the midst of these variances, she also wishes to be an artist.  Well, such is apparently the life of a Marilyn Monroe-styled actress in today’s Bollywood.

We’re told there’s plenty of alcohol and substance abuse, sex for favors, and an insatiable appetite for self-love.  That might seem like an interesting mix of ingredients for a story that might speak of the rise and fall of a diva, but what we’re offered is quite a pathetic hodge-podge of a series of neurotic episodes that our heroine attempts to navigate time and time again without much success in any sense of the word.  Narcissism is alive and well is what we’re made to see, but beyond that there is little else we know of our heroine.  When characters aren’t developed, they eventually appear hollow and lacklustre.

Kareena Kapoor is tolerable enough, but no high marks here for any exceptional performance.  I suppose with a script as weak as this one, and the demands of portraying every negative emotion from one frame to the next, it would be a tall order for any actor to deliver with conviction.  At the risk of sounding unkind, I’d say that her eye-makeup is the only variable on her face.  Her two male co-stars are equally forgettable, although Mr. Rampal seems to have a little more chemistry with her than Mr. Hooda.

Heroine

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Kanakambaram: Firecracker Flowers On My Mother's Porch

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The Face of Friendship: Being Showered By Ginormous Zuchinni and Eggplant

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On This Day: September 29

Updated September 28, 2012, 2:28 pm

NYT Front Page

On Sept. 29, 1957, the New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1. The Giants moved to San Francisco for the next season.

Go to article »

On Sept. 29, 1901, Enrico Fermi, the Italian-born physicist who helped develop America’s first atomic weapons, was born. Following his death on Nov. 28, 1954, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1789 The U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
1918 Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough on the Hindenburg Line during World War I.
1954 New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays made a running catch with his back to home plate on a 450-foot blast by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz in Game 1 of the World Series.
1957 Baseball’s New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds before moving to San Francisco for the next season.
1978 Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment a little more than one month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.
2000 Israeli riot police stormed a major Jerusalem shrine and opened fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175.
2005 John Roberts was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Zachary Levi, Actor (“Chuck”)

Actor Zachary Levi (“Chuck”) turns years old.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

Ian McShane, Actor (“Deadwood”)

Actor Ian McShane (“Deadwood”) turns 70 years old today.

AP Photo/Joel Ryan

1931 Anita Ekberg, Actress, turns 81
1935 Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock singer, musician, turns 77
1942 Bill Nelson, U.S. senator, D-Fla., turns 70
1942 Jean-Luc Ponty, Jazz violinist, turns 70
1948 Bryant Gumbel, TV personality, turns 64
1955 Gwen Ifill, Broadcast journalist, turns 57
1957 Andrew “Dice” Clay, Comedian, turns 55
1962 Roger Bart, Actor, turns 50
1966 Jill Whelan, Actress (“The Love Boat”), turns 46
1969 Erika Eleniak, Actress, turns 43
1970 Brad Cotter, Country singer (“Nashville Star”), turns 42
1988 Kevin Durant, Basketball player, turns 24

 

Historic Birthdays

Enrico Fermi 9/29/1901 – 11/28/1954 Italian-born American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1938). Go to obituary »
57 Pompey The Great 9/29/106 BC – 9/28/48 BC
Roman statesman and general of the Roman Republic
68 John Leslie 9/29/1527 – 5/31/1596
Scottish bishop; advisor to Queen Mary
66 Francois Boucher 9/29/1703 – 5/30/1770
French painter, engraver and designer
47 Horatio Nelson 9/29/1758 – 10/21/1805
English naval commander
84 Caroline Yale 9/29/1848 – 7/2/1933
American educator of the deaf
54 Walther Rathenau 9/29/1867 – 6/24/1922
German statesman, industrialist and philosopher
80 Miguel Aleman 9/29/1902 – 5/14/1983
Mexican president (1946-52)
91 Greer Garson 9/29/1904 – 4/6/1996
English-born motion-picture actress
71 Trevor Howard 9/29/1913 – 1/7/1988
English stage and screen actor

 

 

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Kesari Halwa: Because You're Worth It

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