Flexco introduces Natural Elements, a new line of wood vinyl plank products available in 4” by 36” formats in 18 colors and a luxury vinyl stone tile available in 18” by 18” sizes in eight colors.

Crossville puts its own twist on the traditional appeal of wood with the Wood Impressions Collection, which combines the look of wood with the superior durability of porcelain stone tile. 

Viridian Reclaimed Wood introduces a new line of engineered reclaimed hardwood flooring in four different species, according to Viridian co-owner Joe Mitchoff.

A rendering of he new stadium and complex to be built near the Forum in Inglewood was released by the Hollywood Park Land Company, Kroenke Group and Stockbridge Capital Group earlier this month.; Credit: Courtesy Hollywood Park Land Company

A measure that would allow an 80,000-seat NFL-caliber stadium to be built in Inglewood could be on that city’s ballot by this summer after developers submitted almost three times as many signatures than needed for a voter initiative.

“22,216 signatures were submitted to the city clerk today,” said Gerard McCallum, project manager with the Hollywood Park Land Company. “It was unbelievable. The response was more than we could have ever anticipated.”

Normally, before construction can begin on any project there has to be an environmental review, but that can take a long time and time is something in short supply for St. Louis Rams Owner Stan Kroenke and his plan to move the team to L.A.

“We would be going through another three year project process, and the current construction wouldn’t allow that,” said McCallum, referring to the redevelopment of 238 acres of the old Hollywood Park site that was permitted in 2009.

“If we were going to make any modifications, it would have to be approved this year,” said McCallum.

To speed things up, developers decided to bring the stadium project directly to Inglewood voters, which required 8,000 signatures.

Once the signatures are verified, Inglewood’s City Council will consider the measure, then developers hope a special election would take place before the start of the next NFL season.

McCallum says construction would begin whether the Rams or any other team decides to move here, though on Monday Kroenke made another move suggesting a return of the NFL to Los Angeles could be closer than it has been at any point during the last two decades, though not until after the 2015 season. From The St Louis Post-Dispatch:

Rams management sent a letter to regional officials on Monday afternoon. The letter said the team was converting its 30-year lease to an “annual tenancy,” effective April 1 and, “in the absence of intervening events,” extending through March 31, 2016.

The notice, which has long been expected, does two things:

• It allows owner Stan Kroenke to pull the team out of St. Louis as soon as 2016, because the Rams lease will now expire at the end of every season. The original lease was to expire in 2025.
• It also legally binds the Rams to play at the Edward Jones Dome next fall — a point on which many here were uncertain.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Now that we have a deal between Time Warner Cable and CBS, we can turn our Hollywood focus back on the movie industry.

Steve Julian: Business analyst Mark Lacter, would you agree it's been an up and down summer at the box office?

Mark Lacter: It's been a flaky summer for Hollywood, Steve.  On the plus side, ticket revenue was up more than 10 percent, and attendance increased around six-and-a-half percent compared with last year (this covers the first week of May through Labor Day weekend).  The problem is that the studios and their investors spent huge amounts of money to make a lot of these movies, and they had to compete in a very crowded market - 23 big-budget films came out this summer, which is way higher than normal, and some of them never had a chance.

Julian: Some examples?

Lacter: Probably the biggest clunker was "The Lone Ranger," which could end up losing close to $200 million for Disney.  Another big disappointment was "White House Down," which was distributed by Sony and brought in only $140 million, which for a big-budget action film is really bad.  Even a film like "Pacific Rim," which did well at the box office, might still end up in the red because the production and marketing costs were so high.

Julian: And summer, of course, is the time when studios want to bring out these monster releases -

Lacter: - right, what they call "tent poles" - and in that category, the biggest winner was Disney's "Iron Man," which took in $1.2 billion.  Also having a great summer was "Monsters University" from Pixar, with $700 million.  You also had "Despicable Me 2" and "Fast and Furious 6," which might not be our cup of tea (speak for yourself, it takes me back to my police car days!), but did very well for Universal.  Eight of the top 12 films this summer were sequels - and yet, sequels were no guarantee of success (a number of them really struggled).  And, some non-blockbuster films found considerable success: "Now You See Me" from Lionsgate only cost $75 million to make.

Julian: So, in some ways, Hollywood was its usual unpredictable self.

Lacter: That's right - and don't expect any big changes in strategy when it comes to big-budget films.  The prospect of having huge success with one of these blockbusters is just too great, but perhaps more important is the fact that many of these films are financed by multiple groups of investors, and so the risk is spread around.  It's not like the old days when a studio bankrolled the whole thing.

Julian: Though, sounds like it's bad news for the city of Los Angeles: the "Man of Steel" sequel is going to be shot in Michigan?

Lacter: Mayor Garcetti has actually declared a state of emergency because the city keeps losing business to other states that offer big tax incentives to films - what's known as runaway production.  The truth is that business has been lost over the years, but L.A. is hardly in any danger of losing its spot as the center of entertainment.  And, you can see that with the L.A. County Board of Supervisors signing off on Disney's plan for a TV and movie production facility near Santa Clarita that will add more than a half-million square feet of studio space.

Julian: And, Universal's expanding, too.

Lacter: Earlier this year, Universal was given the approval to build more production facilities, and Paramount is planning an expansion, as well.  Now, these are all very ambitious projects - not the sort of investments that would be made if these studios were looking elsewhere to make movies and TV shows.  And, of course, they mean jobs - actually, employment levels in the entertainment industry have remained fairly steady going back the last decade.

Julian: Are there states that are pulling back their incentives?

Lacter: Yes, the state of North Carolina, which has been especially aggressive in using tax incentives to draw in movies and television going back to the 80s, is phasing out the giveaways because legislators have decided that the economic benefits aren't worth the tax revenues being lost.  And, other states with tax incentive programs are pulling back as well - they're finding that the payback is very difficult to measure.

Mark Lacter writes for Los Angeles Magazine and pens the business blog at LA Observed.com.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Rob Marshall is either the bravest director in Hollywood or the most foolhardy. Three of his five theatrical films — the musicals "Chicago," "Nine" and now "Into the Woods" — don't just invite comparison to the eccentric genius of other artists, they insist on it.

Originally a Bob Fosse stage project, "Chicago" was so imbued with Fosse's vitriolic spirit that even in Marshall's more straightforward hands the movie version felt like the missing piece in a triptych with Fosse's "Cabaret" and "All That Jazz."

"Nine" is the musical created from Fellini's masterpiece "8 1/2."

(Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini's "8 1/2")

Odd enough that someone thought Fellini's intimate but epic fugue on his own creative doubts and sexual fantasies should be adapted by others for Broadway; stranger still to re-import the hybrid back to the screen, in the workmanlike form Marshall gave to it.

And now we have "Into the Woods," a film placing Marshall in the long line of moviemakers defeated by Sondheim's difficult musical brilliance and penchant for challenging material. It's distinguished company, reaching back all the way to "A Hard Day's Night" director Richard Lester's re-invention of "A Funny Thing Happened (On the Way to the Forum)" as a kind of psychedelic Keystone Cops movie, and forward to Tim Burton's more adept but still wrong-headed Murnau-meets-Hammer-Horror approach to "Sweeney Todd."

Even director Hal Prince, the principal theatrical collaborator during Sondheim's most fertile and formative period, made an absolute hash of their shared stage success "A Little Night Music" in a film version later disavowed by both men, and mostly remembered for Elizabeth Taylor's chirpy and discernibly flat rendition of "Send in the Clowns."

Liz singing "Send in the Flat Clowns"

It's just possible that the real problem is that Sondheim's self-reflexive and deconstructive impulse (his musicals are almost always and to varying degrees commentaries on the Musical itself) makes his projects unfit for screen adaptation. In movies, we miss the artifice of the proscenium, the sweat on the actor's brow. But if any of Sondheim's late-period projects held out the hope of a successful movie version it was surely "Into the Woods," a droll recombination of the fairytale form's literary DNA into something like Sondheim's masterpiece "Company," set in a realm of magic beanstalks and slippers made of glass.

The characters are straight out of the Disney pantheon (or "Shrek"): Cinderella meets Rapunzel meets Red Riding Hood meets Jack and his Beanstalk, with a generic Wicked Witch, a couple of not so charming Prince Charmings, plus a peasant couple thrown in. But the issues at stake — marital fidelity, raising children, the fear of aging and death — are complicated, and filled with gray tones which Sondheim and librettist James Lapine masterfully etched across the fairytale's Manichean black and white.

What seemed audacious when Sondheim and Lapine conceived it in 1987 ought to fit comfortably into the era of "Sleepy Hollow" and "Maleficent," but in Marshall's hands, it does not. The good news is that though populated by what old school TV shows used to call a Galaxy of Today's Brightest Stars (Anna Kendrick as an appealingly unglamorous Cinderella; Chris Pine as the nymphomaniac Prince who stalks her; Meryl Streep quite moving in the Wicked Witch role made famous on Broadway by Bernadette Peters) this is mostly a very well-sung movie. There have been controversial excisions and revisions (enabled by Lapine, who is Marshall's screenwriter), but as an introduction to one of Sondheim's more beloved scores, "Into the Woods" makes for a solid musical primer.

WATCH: The "Into the Woods" trailer

But though Marshall has taken a lot of flack for daring to cut out characters (most notably the stage production's Narrator, who served as a kind of Greek Chorus in the original) and for softening plot points (Rapunzel died onstage), the big problem is that Marshall isn't nearly ruthless enough in rethinking "Into the Woods" as an honest-to-God movie. There are many moments (Johnny Depp ending a scene with a stagy howl at the Moon that virtually screams "and... fade out!;" the unseen death of a major character) where Marshall embraces the limitations of stagecraft when something bigger and more cinematic is needed, as if afraid to mar the pedigree of Broadway with Hollywood's debased visual stamp.

"Giants in the Sky," Jack's coming-of-age number, where he describes finding manhood in the sexual and physical dangers available above the clouds in the Giant's Castle, is a showstopper onstage, where we're willing to accept rhetoric in place of physical immediacy. Onscreen, it's simply frustrating for a character to suddenly appear and tell us he's just had the adventure of a lifetime, and that it's too bad we missed it.

The Woods themselves — both character and symbol onstage, a kind of living maze representing moral confusion — are lush here and geographically nondescript, like a particularly plush unit set, done up in a generic Lloyd Webber-meets-Disney house style.

Perhaps most unfortunately of all, Marshall seems constitutionally incapable of conveying the pervasive satiric impulse at the heart of the Sondheim/Lapine original, which could have been called "What Happens After Happily Ever After." Without ironic distancing, the film's second half, where the characters betray each other in decidedly contemporary sexual and self-interested terms, plays as non-sequitur.

It's possible to imagine a more idiosyncratic movie director who both understands and embraces the arsenal of cinematic effects available through editing, camera movement and design transforming "Into the Woods" into a rousing cinematic triumph — the young Terry Gilliam comes to mind. But Hollywood doesn't really embrace its daring cranks and visionaries very often, as Gilliam's difficult career demonstrates. Whenever possible, today's studios like to import genius at a safe remove, and then hand it off to a reliable journeyman who won't make waves or piss off the suits. The limitations of that approach are visible in every scene of "Into the Woods," and perhaps they explain its failure best of all. It's one thing not to be up to the task of adapting a work of odd brilliance. It's something else again to not even take it on.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

California Jerry Brown will sign a bill to expand California's film and television tax credit program into law in Hollywood; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A moment Hollywood's been waiting a while for will take place... in Hollywood. 

A ceremony is planned for Thursday morning at the Chinese Theater where Governor Jerry Brown will sign the "California Film and Television Job Retention and Promotion Act" into law.

The bill - also known  as AB 1839 — will more than triple the funding for California's film and television production tax credit program. 

The push to expand and enhance the tax credit program has been going on for more than a year. In August of 2013, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti used the term "state of emergency" to characterize the flight of film and television production to other states and countries. Garcetti is expected to speak at the ceremony. 

Los Angeles-area Assemblymen Mike Gatto and Raul Bocanegra are also expected to be on hand. They introduced AB 1839 in February and moved it strategically through the legislature in Sacramento. While there were few vocal opponents of expanding the tax credit program, the big question was by how much. Many supporters hoped to see the annual pot raised from the current $100 million to at least $400 million, but an exact dollar amount wasn't specified until very late in the legislative process.

In April, the state Legislative Analyst's Office released its hard look at the current tax credit program, pointing out that the state is only getting back 65 cents in tax revenues for every dollar it’s spending on the film and TV subsidy.  The bill to expand the program kept moving.

California's magic number turned out to be $330 million dollars, not as high as chief rival New York State's $420 million per year, but still more than triple California's current offering. Along with the extra cash, AB 1839 also changes the way the tax credit program will be administered.   Rather than using a one-day lottery to determine which productions receive the credit, the state will measure the projects based on their potential to create jobs.   A project that overestimates that potential could be penalized.  

In this file photo, California Gov. Jerry Brown speaks during a news conference on January 17, 2014 in San Francisco, California. Brown on Thursday signed a bill that more than triples the state's annual tax credit for film and TV production to $330 million.; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Gov. Jerry Brown has headed to the cradle of the Hollywood film industry to sign legislation that more than triples the state's annual tax credit to $330 million a year for films and TV shows produced in California.

Brown says the increase is needed to help prevent other states and countries from hijacking film and TV production by offering their own lucrative incentives.

Brown signed the bill Thursday at the former Grauman's Chinese Theatre, where handprints and footprints of stars from the eras of Humphrey Bogart to Robert De Niro are embedded in concrete.

Under the new system, credit will be awarded based on the number of jobs a production creates and its overall positive impact on the state.

The historic cinema is now called the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX.

Film tax credit doc

How an Upstate NY school now heats with locally produced wood chips.

Matthew Wood is Head of Software Engineering and Architecture at BBC Audio and Music. He runs a team of software engineers and client side developers and likes making things. Matthew gave a plenary talk entitled "How the BBC make Web sites" with Michael Smethurst.

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Angell Hall
Organized By: Hopwood Awards Program

All are welcome to tea, coffee, light refreshments, and conviviality in a beautiful, historic setting.

El oscarizado actor regresa a nuestras pantallas en la segunda temporada de este 'thriller', esta vez ambientado en Afganistán y rodado sin un tumor del tamaño de un niño en el estómago. "En mis 60 años de carrera, nunca había interpretado a un personaje durante tanto tiempo como a Dan Chase", reconoce Leer

Me personé ayer en el  Teatro Real para asistir de nuevo a "Gianni Schicchi". Estuve en el estreno hace una semana, pero quise repetir porque es una fabulosa miniatura de Puccini y porque establece una relación definitiva, explícita, entre Woody Allen y la ópera.

The company’s 83-year-old chairman, John Malone, will be the interim CEO.

Grace Kellyová (12. listopadu 1929 – 14. září 1982) byla filmová ikona, jež stihla prožít pod dohledem veřejnosti dva životy: ten kratší patřil úspěšné hollywoodské herečce, ten delší monacké kněžně. Oba obestírá romantický opar dokonalosti. Neprávem: neobešly se totiž bez kontroverze, pragmatičnosti i obyčejného lidského zoufalství.

Happy birthday, Juhi Chawla

According to the Garda Siochana, Ireland's national police and security service, the US citizen was discovered unconscious on a bathroom floor Tuesday evening

Sydney Sweeney calls out Hollywood for being 'fake'Sydney Sweeney, American actress who rose to fame with her iconic character in drama series Euphoria, gave a peek behind curtains and revealed a harsh reality of Hollywood. The 27-year-old actress shared her frustration with how the industry...

Sydney Sweeney blasted Hollywood's "women empowering other women" mantra as "fake" and a "front." The actress said that "none of it's happening."

1. Anupamaa producer Rajan Shahi's ex-wife breaks silence in Rupali Ganguly-Esha Verma case  Bollywood Life
2. Exclusive: Rupali Ganguly's Lawyer Sana Raees Khan Reveals Why The Actress Is Seeking Rs 50 Crore In Defamation Compensation  NDTV Movies
3. Amid defamation case and Rs 50 crore compensation sent by Rupali Ganguly; Esha Verma posts a note on star  The Times of India
4. Anupamaa producer Rajan Shahi supports actor Rupali Ganguly amid family dispute  India Today
5. Actor Rupali Ganguly files ₹50 crore defamation suit against stepdaughter Esha Verma  The Hindu

Le Petit Pali, the newest addition to Avi Brosh’s Palisociety portfolio, has expanded its bespoke footprint with the debut of its third signature hotel, Le Petit Pali Brentwood, a reimagination of the former Brentwood Inn (née Brentwood Motor Hotel in 1947), a storied motor lodge and well-recognized westside property in Los Angeles. Le Petit Pali, which debuted with two signature hotels in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in July 2023, is a bespoke bed & breakfast concept from Brosh and team, rooted in unique and distinct details, beautiful and comfortable interiors, and exceptional locations for today’s well-traveled and discerning guest. Sitting on a winding stretch of Sunset Boulevard, just west of The Getty Center and slightly north of the bustling and charming enclave of Brentwood Village, Le Petit Pali Brentwood is a 25-room hotel completely reimagined by Brosh and the Palisociety in-house design team. The exterior is anchored by a classic center court layout with four guest room b...

Vicky was last seen in Bad Newz. He will now be seen in Chhava. The film, another Dinesh Vijan production, will see Vicky play the role of Chhatrapati Sambhaji. He will then be seen in Love and War alongside Ranbir Kapoor.

Meet rihest family of Bollywood surpassing the net worth of the Khans, Kapoor,

We looked at some bold instances of Bollywood's beautiful appearing in the buff.

Spring in The 100 Acre Wood by Peter / Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition of 495 pcs

Summer in The 100 Acre Wood by Peter / Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition of 195 pcs

Fall in The 100 Acre Wood by Peter / Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition of 495 pcs

Winter in The 100 Acre Wood by Peter / Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition of 495 pcs

Summer in The 100 Acre Wood by Peter / Harrison Ellenshaw is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition of 495 pcs

McNicoll, V M. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8720, 2020, 4 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/326019
<a href="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/gid_326019.jpg"><img src="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/gid_326019.jpg" title="Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8720, 2020, 4 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/326019" height="150" border="1" /></a>

The Woodpeckers, established by Meher Attari and Neha Taneja, transforms vintage wood into contemporary, stylish handcrafted furniture

Revelwood, BlackLine to Help Midsize Companies Transform their Finance & Accounting Operations into True Modern Finance Organizations

Fluence Technologies, the only pure-play provider of financial close and consolidation software purpose-built for mid-sized companies, and Revelwood, experts in the Office of Finance, have formed a strategic partnership to bring Fluence's SaaS financial consolidation solution to mid-size organizations throughout North America.

Koury Reid, an experienced sales executive, joins Revelwood's leadership team to help drive further growth.

Revelwood Named 2022 Americas Solution Provider of the Year and 2022 Americas Best New Partner by BlackLine.

Revelwood, experts in providing technology solutions for the Office of Finance, was named the winner of the Workday Adaptive Planning FY23 Solution Provider of the Year Award – Americas. The award was announced during the Workday sales kick-off on February 28, 2023, in Las Vegas.

Revelwood, experts in solutions for the Office of Finance, has partnered with Incorta® to further expand the company's strategic data, analytics and accounting solutions for finance organizations in businesses of all sizes, across all industries. Incorta offers an open data delivery platform powered by smart lakehouse technology. The technology simplifies the data ingestion and delivery approach, giving clients unrivaled data access to deliver fast, accurate insights.

Revelwood, the Workday Adaptive 2023 Solution Provider of the Year – Americas, is expanding to companies in Europe.

Revelwood, experts in providing technology solutions for the Office of Finance, has earned the Workday Adaptive Planning Partner of the Year Award – Americas 2024. This is the latest of several awards Revelwood has earned from Workday in just a few short years. The other awards are the FY23 Solution Provider of the Year – North America, the FY22 Solution Provider of the Year Award for Most Growth – Americas, and the 2019 Adaptive Insights Partner Rising Star of the Year award.

Patricia Jane Wood is the primary contact at Durban Aviation Services Ltd. You can contact Durban Aviation Services Ltd by phone using number 01892 610200. Durban Aviation Services Ltd ... Prime Aviation 15.78 km Saint Hill Rd, East Grinstead RH19 4NG, United Kingdom Airlines. Charter A 18.06 km 6 Copthorne Road, Felbridge, EAST GRINSTEAD, RH19 2NS

Bank of Shorewood, Shorewood, Illinois, was closed today by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation - Division of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.Bank Closure:Heartland Bank and Trust Company, Bloomington, Illinois, Assumes All of the Deposits of Bank of Shorewood, Shorewood, Illinois

Some of the noms de guerre Lee employed at KOTV sign-off time were dillies. He lists a few in GroupBlog 321.

Did Top 40 popularizer McLendon give phony names to his DJs to make them expendable if they asked for more money? More in GroupBlog 323.

Tulsa World article about "Etruscan Dreams Jewelry by Valerie," a 2-hour special showcasing Valerie Naifeh's pieces on ShopNBC, Cox channel 117 in Tulsa, at both 1 and 6 p.m. Saturday.

Joe Robertson asked about Lee Woodward and his actor brother Morgan. Lee replied and supplied a photo.

Radio interview with Morgan Woodward on the 2nd hour of TV Confidential, Wed 9/26 at 7pm on WROMRadio.net. Podcast available next week.

From Lee Woodward, a short video about his brother Morgan on YouTube: "COOL HAND LUKE's Man Behind the Mirrored Glasses with Morgan Woodward" At the bottom of the main page.

Royal Air Force Station Upwood or more simply RAF Upwood is a former Royal Air Force station adjacent to the village of Upwood, Cambridgeshire, England in the United Kingdom.

It was a non-flying station which was under the control of the United States Air Force from 1981, and one of three RAF stations in Cambridgeshire used by the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). Upwood, along with RAF Molesworth and RAF Alconbury are considered the "Tri-Base Area" due to their close geographic proximity, and interdependency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Upwood

When lan and Nina Graham spotted the 'Woods for Sale' sign on the side of the A40 earlier this year the same idea occurred to them both instantly...