Letter to the Libyan Nation

Letter to the Libyan Nation Waheed Burshan was an important figure in the Libyan war of liberation. Supported by France, Britain, and the United States, that war ended with Gaddafi's defeat in the fall of 2011. Schooled in the United States, trained in American universities, and having spent most of his professional career in Chicago, he is considered "pro-western" on the Libyan political scene. Above all, however, he is a new actor, tied to none of the entrenched factions. Here, he launches an urgent appeal for dialogue and national reconciliation.



__________




My name is Waheed Burshan; I am Libyan.



After spending the Gaddafi years in exile in the United States, I joined at its outset in February 2011 the democratic revolution that was to free Libya from 40 years of tyranny.



Trained as an engineer, I worked with others in the first liberated areas of the country to disrupt the dictator's communications systems and paralyze the armed columns that he had ordered to attack his own people.



I also contributed to the creation of an air bridge designed to supply weapons from abroad to the rebellions in Jebel Nafusa and the Zintan region.



The revolution triumphed in autumn 2011 with the aid of several friendly countries, foremost among them France and the United States. At last, the future seemed open: fraternity, liberty, and prosperity would reign; we were united.



Three years after our liberation, my heart bleeds.



Torn apart, I witness the destruction of those hopes and the division of our beautiful country.



With my fellow citizens, I eye with trepidation the looming fratricidal war, the approaching chaos, the ruined and paralyzed economy.



With my brothers in Tripoli and Misrata, in Benghazi and Tobruk, in Zintan and Jebel Nafusa, I know that none of the present forces can hope on its own to prevail and that, at the end of this process, if nothing stops the race to the abyss, there can be only defeat for us all and the crushing of our hopes.



Will we give that satisfaction to the enemies of the revolution, to those nostalgic for the dictatorship, to those who conclude from the current chaos that Gaddafi had his good side and that at least Libya's house was held together?



Will we stand by and watch the posthumous triumph of the man who ruined the country and who, through bloody repression over decades, prepared the ground for the partisans of terrorism and the enemies of peace?



What can be done by the men and women of good will who, from one end of the country to the other, refuse to resign themselves to that fate? What steps must we take if we do not want to see the revolutionary dream dissolve into a nightmare?



Initiatives have been launched from outside the country but so far have failed to break the deadlock.



The United Nations is doing its best but will never be able to make decisions that must be made by Libyans themselves.



I belong to no political party and am not on any side in this conflict.



I have but one allegiance--and that is to a united and indivisible Libya.



I belong to the silent majority that is fed up with division and that believes that Libya is and should remain one nation.



And I have joined with other members of that majority, men and women of good will without partisan attachments, to launch an appeal to the conflicting parties to sit down at the negotiating table.



We have sent messages to all of the present political and military forces, without exception, to invite them to reflect and reconsider, to put their problems on the table, and to remember that what unites them is greater than what separates them.



We have invited them all to a meeting of reconciliation. That meeting should be held in a country that is not involved in supporting any of the opposing forces and factions. France, the friendly country par excellence, would appear to be an obvious choice.



For peace to be restored, each party will have to abandon a piece of its dream of power, put aside some share of its beliefs and convictions, and, most important, renounce the negation of others by either force or law.



For peace to be restored, for this great nation of six million people and immense resources that borders six countries and enjoys 1,900 kilometers of Mediterranean coast, this country where all could have their fair share, there is no solution except compromise, no viable outcome except mutual tolerance, no positive future except one achieved by sharing our common wealth and closing our development gap, no workable formula except a democratic system with a modern constitution that takes into account the unique characteristics of the country.



For peace to be restored and an end put to the suicide of our nation, for peace to be restored without it being imposed by this or that foreign power with its own agenda, a peace imposed at the end of a gun, Libyans and Libyans alone must agree on a just compromise in which we all--I will say it again--give up some measure of our aspirations and goals.

The choice is that or chaos.



The choice is broad national dialogue, disintegration on the model of Somalia, or the return of tyranny under cover of a return to order.



This appeal is addressed to all Libyans of conscience.



This message is meant for all who believe in the Libyan nation, a nation that the dictatorship devastated, divided, and pitted against itself, a nation that, in our dreams, was to give birth to the revolution.



There is still time.



Not much time, but hopefully just enough.



With the military conflagration that, as I write, ravages the eastern and western ends of my country the last windows of opportunity for dialogue threaten to close--but all is not lost if all sides can agree, with the help of friendly countries, to come together and reconsider their course.

Steven Soderbergh Doesn't Care If You Like 'Ocean's 12,' But Don't Hate It For The Wrong Reason

Steven Soderbergh Doesn't Care If You Like 'Ocean's 12,' But Don't Hate It For The Wrong Reason For many Steven Soderbergh fans, "Ocean's Twelve" sits somewhere toward the bottom of the director's vast filmography, slotted near other perceived failures like "The Good German." And that's fine with Soderbergh himself, just as long as those casting aspersions in the direction of "Ocean's Twelve" are doing it for the right reasons.



"Obviously people can say whatever they want. But I could never hate something that's at least, even on a superficial level, beautiful to look at. I reserve that kind of ire for what I consider to be actual filmmaking incompetence," Soderbergh said while sitting in his Tribeca-based office in New York last month. "So it's legit for somebody to say, 'I didn't like it. It didn't work for me.' But if you can't say that and then acknowledge that it's spectacular to look at and the score is just fantastic, then you're kind of outing yourself as taking a sort of ideological position about the movie that's separate from the movie. You've got an agenda here, because you're not even acknowledging the things that by any standards are worth acknowledging. That shit makes me a little crazy. Can't you separate out anything that you think is good? Just good?"



Released on Dec. 10, 2004, "Ocean's Twelve" would become a box office hit, grossing $362 million worldwide. But despite some positive notices from notable critics such as Manohla Dargis, Wesley Morris and Roger Ebert, most reviews were negative to outright vitriolic. ("Hits a new low in condescending facetiousness, with no fewer than 15 performers of varying talents, tongues firmly in cheeks, undercutting all the genre's action conventions while camping up a storm on two continents," Andrew Sarris wrote in the New York Observer.) In the 10 years since, "Ocean's Twelve" has been included on multiple lists of the worst sequels of all time. Entertainment Weekly put it at No. 16, three slots ahead of "Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise"; Ranker has it at No. 14, five spots ahead of "Basic Instinct 2."



But today, Soderbergh's plea for "just good" consideration feels warranted. "Ocean's Twelve" is such an outlier within Hollywood's sequel-crazed culture that now it seems almost revolutionary. We'd only be so lucky to have a major studio release featuring some of the biggest stars on Earth -- George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones among them -- be so weird. In a world where most sequels attempt nothing more than to replicate the success of the first film (often with diminishing returns), "Ocean's Twelve" completely reworked its predecessor's DNA. It's a heist movie about the subterfuge of a heist -- indeed, the main robbery takes place off-screen in film's midsection -- while also being a meta commentary on making movies. For instance, here's a famous thing that happens in "Ocean's Twelve": Julia Roberts plays a woman named Tess, who looks so much like the real Julia Roberts that she gets called into action to impersonate Julia Roberts during a key point in the heist. (Bruce Willis, incidentally, plays himself during this sequence.) That it even exists is cause for celebration: "Not the second one," Soderbergh told HuffPost Entertainment when asked if he could make "Ocean's Twelve" in the current studio climate. "No fucking way."



To celebrate the 10th anniversary of "Ocean's Twelve," Soderbergh discussed the film at length on a rainy day in late November, all while knowing what many a commenter might write at the end of this piece: It was bad 10 years ago, and it's bad today. Ahead, an edited transcript of our conversation.





Steven Soderbergh on the set of "Ocean's Twelve"



When did you know people didn't like the movie?

When the reviews started coming in -- which I don't read, but I know what's happening because I can tell. Whether it's my producers telling me or somebody emailing me and saying sorry about Entertainment Weekly. That kind of thing. The funny thing was that in terms of the previews and testing process, "Ocean's Twelve" tested as well as the first one did. I think in these situations, when you're making a sequel to a movie that has been successful, you're dealing with expectations. That is what this film confronted and got beaten by, because it's a completely different movie from the first one. It's weirder. I would argue -- and I'm happy to be challenged on this -- that it's one of the biggest budgeted stoner movies of all time. It certainly rewards a viewing in an altered state. It's very digressive. In my mind, if you forced me to watch one of the three, it's the one I would watch. Because in terms of the imagery and the music, it is unquestionably the most arresting of the three. But, as I said, I think people were really expecting a fairly faithful recreation of the first movie in terms of structure, attitude and intention.



In an interview with Entertainment Weekly before the third movie came out, George Clooney joked that you said "Ocean's Thirteen" should have been called "The One We Should Have Made Last Time." Do you think that?

Here's the perfect analogy: Woody Allen can't just leap from "Annie Hall" to "Manhattan," he has to make "Interiors" in the middle in order to get to where he got in "Manhattan." I happen to like "Interiors" -- or at least think there is a lot of really compelling, interesting stuff in it -- but it is not roundly considered a success or even on the level of his other dramatic movies. It was his first run at that kind of movie. But even when I saw it when I was 15, I recognized that there was some good stuff there. "Manhattan" comes out and everyone goes, "Oh, that's what we wanted." So I guess I view it like that. "Ocean's Twelve" was a necessary iteration. I don't think we could have gone from the first one to the third one -- at least I don't think any of us would have felt like that was, artistically, the right sequence. I think we had to do the second to get to the third one. Look, nobody got hurt ...



Right.

... and if someone was asking about making films and asked which they should look at, I would definitely say the second one. In terms of shot construction, cutting patterns, the use of music -- from a filmmaking standpoint, that's the best of the three. There are obviously aspects of the others were really satisfying. I think even the writers of the other films would agree that Ted Griffin's script for the first one is flawless. It's an immaculately constructed and genuinely witty script. Those are hard to write. And part of the pleasure of the third one, for me, was working with Al Pacino. That's a dream come true and we had a great time. He was awesome. That really made it fun. But it's always dangerous to ask artists (a) what they think of their own work, and (b) especially when you're discussing something that didn't go down well. I've made lots of things that have proven problematic for people. You have to be careful not to fall into this defensive mode where you kind of imply that it's everybody else's fault that it didn't go over. It's not that they're ahead of their time, it's just a combination of expectation and what's going on in the zeitgeist.



The visuals and Dave Holmes' score feel very influenced by 1960s European films. Did you have specific ones in mind?

Well, yeah! And maybe this was part of the problem, because it's a film that doesn't work, but I'm totally fascinated by it, which is "Modesty Blaise." When I was doing the interview book with Richard Lester, he agreed: "Joe Lousy, not the go-to guy when you're trying to get zany." No, he's not. But, good filmmaker. It's just a movie I find really compelling. This is the problem with filmmakers, sometimes: We end up being influenced by things that were not successful or liked, but that we thought were great. If you talk to anybody of my generation, it can be "Seconds," the John Frankenheimer movie. Amongst filmmakers, that's a very influential movie. Everybody hated it and it tanked. So I can understand if you're somebody who's financing a movie, there is the risk, when you're dealing with a cinema-literate filmmaker, that they're building their aesthetic on the backs of things that are very compelling to them, but might not have been well liked or even seen.



What did the studio think about "Ocean's Twelve" back then?

The only point of contention, and it was a big one in the sense that it was perfectly legitimate for it to be a big point of contention, was the Julia Roberts scene. I remember scouting in Chicago, I think in Grant Park, on a cell phone with [former Warner Bros. president] Alan Horn, and him going, "Are you sure this Julia thing is going to work?" I said, "Yes. There's a precedent. It's in 1940 in 'His Girl Friday.' It's going to work. People will be able to follow it. Their heads will not split in half. I think it's going to play." But I understand from Warner Bros.' point of view that's a weird idea to put a pyramid on top of. It's a little meta.







Did Julia Roberts and the rest of the cast trust that it was going to work?

If they didn't, they hid it well. But my memory of it was everybody was in on the joke, and happy to be in on the joke. Everyone was trying to find ways to keep enhancing the joke, too. In the scene where they're trying to get her ready and Bruce Willis comes in, all of the guys were trying to come up with ways in which to build this joke. As crazy as it was -- I think we had 23 drafts, we were constantly writing -- you could have stopped me at any point and I had the movie in my head. I could have recited to you verbally the entire movie scene by scene. I knew what it was. But we were constantly recalibrating scenes and trying to make sure the math of it ultimately would add up. In my opinion it does. When you get to the very, very end, the math of the movie actually does add up. But it's admittedly very convoluted.



Matt Singer made a great case for how "Ocean's Twelve" is actually movie about the difficulty of making a great sequel. I've seen other people write that it's about the perils of movie stardom. Were those added dimensions something you consciously tried to add in?

Yeah, I can't say that I was thinking of making anything other than coming up with ideas that engaged me, that I was excited about or that I thought were fun. From a directing standpoint, they are tricky movies for me. Much more, as I said in the DGA Quarterly issue, when we were talking about "Traffic" versus the "Oceans" movies. It's no question: the "Oceans" films were way harder. Coming up with interesting ways to keep the narrative chugging along and coming up with interesting ways to shoot stuff ... there are days you hit a wall, in a way that you wouldn't on a quote-unquote normal movie. Because you want to find this balance between something that has style and yet doesn't become what I always refer to as mounting the camera on the end of a fan blade. You want to come up with stuff that's sort of arresting but isn't distracting. That can be tricky.



Do you have an example?

The scene with them prepping Julia and Bruce coming in, I was having real trouble trying to figure out what the visual approach to that specific scene was. What I discovered early on was that I was too close to the actors. The initial run at it was much more in there with them and something was not right. It was italicizing stuff in a way that was not correct. So I started thinking about "Midnight Run." Because Martin Brest likes in a lot of those situations to be a little bit further back. That's a movie I like a lot, and thinking about the scenes with Dennis Farina and his guys, I decided to back off in that moment. Once I did that, it all went very quickly. But it took me half a day.



Not italicizing things is something I think the movie does well. Because audiences are bringing in their knowledge of the stars' off-screen friendships, it could have become just a bunch of famous people hanging out having fun. But it's not, even though they are having fun.

Here's a perfect example of someone who had an issue with the movie before they showed up. Someone called me after the movie came out and said, "I didn't know you guys shot at George's house in Lake Como." I said, "We didn't, what are you talking about?" They said, "I just read this review that was pretty scathing," and the critic's position was what you were saying: I've got a real problem with everybody going to hang out at George's house. This is an argument for the end of production notes. Because in point of fact, the story of where we shot Toulour's villa is really interesting. It was Luchino Visconti's house. It was where he was born and where he died. So it was kind of great to be shooting there. So here's someone who already is coming in [unhappy], and even facts don't matter. To prove their point, they're making something up. It's one thing to walk in, again, with an expectation and having it dashed ...



But to play devil's advocate, by having major scenes shot at Lake Como, which is a place that a great many people equate with George Clooney, aren't you inviting that comparison?

I'm talking about somebody who gets paid to do this. For a regular audience member it doesn't matter.





Vincent Cassel on the Lake Como set of "Ocean's Twelve"



"Ocean's Twelve" was your first sequel, so was there anything you learned doing that movie that carried over to either "Ocean's Thirteen" or -- even though you didn't direct -- "Magic Mike XXL"?

It certainly was the case on "XXL," where we felt like we constructed a universe that we now wanted to deepen and expand. Same thing with "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen." Let's put it this way: I guess we'll find out, but I hope we learned some lessons in doing the second "Magic Mike" by identifying what people responded to in the first film. I think that's the trick. Because sometimes it's not what you think. You've made a successful movie that a lot of people like, and you go back and want to explore that world again, and without knowing it you've sort of expanded things within that world that weren't what people responded to. So we had a lot of conversations on "XXL" about what we wanted to expand. What aspects of the first movie we wanted to expand. I hope we've been smart about that, while at the same time making a movie that is very different from the first.



So how do you balance being an artist with giving the audience what it wants?

I think with "Ocean's Twelve," you could make the argument that I sacrificed the characters, our core group, by introducing two new characters. I took real estate away from the Oceans gang, and handed it over to two new people [Jones and Vincent Cassel, who plays Toulour]. And on top of it, built a very elaborate plot. So I think a lot of people felt like, "I came to see the guys be sort of the guys, and you took from them!"



You also shifted the focus away from George and put it onto Brad. Do you feel like that was another thing that threw the audience off?

Clearly it was something like that, yes. In retrospect, you have to find this balance where you're being considerate of the audience, but at the same time, you're leading them. You're not being led by them. You're telling your story the way you want to tell it.



To be fair, if people hated "Ocean's Twelve" as much as the narrative seems to suggest, they probably wouldn't have seen the third film in the way they did.

Their discontent wasn't so deep that they threw the franchise out the window. Maybe they just felt like ... it's hard to tell. I'm just speaking as a moviegoer: that group of people is pretty hard to resist. A movie like "Ocean's Thirteen" opening with that group of people and you have Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin ... I would think you'd look at it and go, Okay, I want to see that. So maybe their discontent didn't go so deep because at the very least there was some understanding that the second one was not a retread of the first one, so if we missed, it was a sincere miss. I'd rather have someone be upset because you went off the reservation, as opposed to saying, "You not only stayed on the reservation, you didn't even move. You stayed on the same chair in the same room."



You said "Ocean's Twelve" was the one you would watch when presented with all three. But because people don't like it, does that sour the film at all for you?

No. It's nice when people like something, but all of my pleasure is in the making of it. So the result is something I can't really control. You rather people like something than not like it. But no, I'm just looking at the piece.



It's almost a no-win situation: you do something different, fans aren't happy. You do the same thing, fans aren't happy.

That's the sequel business. There has been lately, I think in an attempt to mitigate that, lots of variations in these franchises. They're splintering off characters, they're doing the origin story, they have different casts. Which you should be doing! It was a little different in our case, because part of the fun of it is having the whole group. The idea that we're going to do this movie, but we're just going to carve out a couple of the characters? You want to see all of them. Everybody, top to bottom. It's a slightly different set of problems to solve. The movies at the end of the day to me were about camaraderie and loyalty and professionalism. Those are things that I actually take really seriously in my life. To be able to work on a piece in which that is really front and center was really pleasurable to me.



So would you say the "Oceans" films are actually really personal to you?

I'm just saying that for all of their fizzy, frothy surface, those are subjects I take very seriously. Anybody who knows me will tell you that my friends are really important to me, and being good at my job and trying to be better at my job is really important to me. So there is always, for me, I was always happy in which those are being promoted. There's a lot of that in the new "Magic Mike."



When was the last time you watched "Ocean's Twelve"?

I watched it recently for the first time since we finished it to prepare for this. Because I forget shit.



What did you think?

I'm really happy with the image construction and the sound of it. There's a real playfulness to it. Let's put it this way: I didn't look at it and go, I should have done X, Y or Z. I'm fine with the choices that were made 10 years ago. The DNA of it is what it is. It is a sweater. It may not be a sweater you like, but it is a sweater. If you start pulling shit out of it, it's going to fall apart.

16 Holiday Wedding Ideas

16 Holiday Wedding Ideas Holiday weddings are so festive and give even more of a reason to celebrate! And the best part...the decor is already set! Embrace the season with bright colors, warm spaces and of course, amazing Winter wonderland outdoor photos. Check out the amazing inspiration below to help you to create the perfect holiday wedding!





Photo by Dawn E. Roscoe Photography






Stationery by Pink Champagne Paper, Photo by Kristen Dee Photography






Floral Design by Hello Darling, Photo by Kina Wicks






Event Planning by LVL Weddings and Events, Floral Design by Honey & Poppies, Photo by Aaron Young






Photo by Chelsea Elizabeth Photography







Styling by Vanessa Noel Events, Florals by Stella Bloom Designs, Photo by Anna Delores Photography






Styled by Lots of Lovely, Photo by Alicia Pyne Photography






Floral Design by Carol Lynn Events, Photo by Robert Burge Photography






Photo by Jennifer Fujikawa Photography






Beauty by Hair and Makeup By Steph, Photo by Jacque Lynn Photography






Headpiece via Styled By TC, Photo by Tina Chiou






Truvelle Bridal via Love and Lace Bridal Salon






Photo by Nicole Cassano Photography via Loverly






Stationery and Photo by Starglow Studios






Photo by Ryan Flynn Photography via Inspired By This






Event Design by Your Dream Day, Photo by Christina Littleton Photography






And for more holiday wedding inspiration, check out Inspired By This!

Island for One, Please: Why I Love Traveling Solo

Island for One, Please: Why I Love Traveling Solo For TueNight.com by Courtney Colwell





(Photo: Courtesy Courtney Colwell)




Are you one of those people who say they could never work virtually because they'd miss being around other people?



Not me. When I tell friends that, they look at me in bewilderment. "But if you were stranded on a deserted island..." and I cut them off with, "Wait, where is it?"



I've been looking for that island for years.



No, I don't need to go 100 percent off the grid, and it's not that I don't like people. It's just that sometimes I prefer solitude. I find travelling alone, even in a crowded city, can give me some sense of "alone." About 10 years ago, I took my first solo trip -- on my way to visit a friend in Hong Kong, I decided to go to China on my own. It was one of the best trips I've ever taken, but eventually, I forgot that part of what I had loved was being on my own.



Then, a few years ago, a friend bailed on a trip to Prague about a week before we were due to leave. Stressed out from a terrible job, I decided to go anyway. I came back from that trip deciding that the job's hours were not worth all of the perks, and I quit. I believe that had my friend been with me, I would not have done the soul-searching needed to come to that decision. Having that time on my own allowed me to truly relax and refocus. Sometimes, you need to get a little lost in order to find yourself.



While I do enjoy traveling with friends, I also try to take a trip on my own every so often. (As I write this, I'm packing for a safari in Botswana.) Beyond just getting away, I look forward to some additional benefits:



You're on your own schedule. If you want to sleep past noon, you can do it. If you don't want to go out in the rain, you don't have to. There's no waiting two hours for someone to finish getting ready while your stomach, which was expecting dinner in an earlier time zone, slowly digests itself.



You own your itinerary. If you want to visit that obscure museum, go for it. If you don't, you don't. And you can avoid waiting for hours in line to overpay for a tourist-trap you had no interest in seeing. I mean, have you been to Alcatraz?



You set your own expectations. This means greater flexibility with accommodations and transportation, as only your opinion matters. There is a vast difference in the amount of time I spend researching a hotel for myself versus one I'm sharing with friends. My approach is pretty simple: When traveling somewhere new, I find out where the Four Seasons (or the Mandarin Oriental or another top hotel) is located, and then find a nearby hotel within my budget. I can't afford the Four Seasons, nor do I want to spend that much on a room I'll barely spend time in. But I know the Four Seasons is never in a bad neighborhood, so I can expect a certain level of safety. What I don't expect is to be staying at the Four Seasons... for $200 a night.



You're more likely to meet new people. This may seem counterintuitive, but I always find that by taking a day tour or two early on in a trip, I'll meet other travelers. For example, when I went to Beijing, I joined a group tour of the Great Wall and met an Australian. We met for dinner that evening and then toured other parts of the city the following day. On a walking tour in Prague, I met a couple of Brits and we went for drinks afterward. And if you don't hit it off with anyone, you don't have to see them again. I found some of my best stories are from meeting people along the way, like a guy I sat next to on the ferry from Punta Del Este, Uruguay, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had just sailed solo from Spain to South America, waking himself every two hours with an egg timer to make sure he was still on course. Like Robert Redford in All Is Lost, but crazier.



It can build confidence. Traveling alone (and I mean to more far-flung locales than, say, Jamaica) has helped to remind me that I'm more capable than I sometimes give myself credit for. I can figure things out; I can find my way.



And while I haven't found my own island, yet, I'm getting closer.



Read more about traveling alone on TueNight:

• Sleeping Your Way Around The World -- No, Really


• 
  


• What I Learned From My Stalker


• 
  


• A Music Journalist's Go-To Spots in London

About TueNight:

TueNight is a weekly online publication for women to share where they've been and explore where they want to go next. We are you, part two. www.tuenight.com

Beanie Sigel Was Not Intended Target Of Shooting, Police Say

Beanie Sigel Was Not Intended Target Of Shooting, Police Say PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. (AP) — Police do not believe wounded rapper Beanie Sigel was the intended target of a shooting at his brother-in-law's New Jersey home.



Pleasantville police Lt. Danny Adcock tells The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/1vOALBP) Sigel may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 40-year-old, whose real name is Dwight Grant, remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition. He was shot in the abdomen Friday after dropping his children off at school.



Adcock says officers found the rapper's brother-in-law with scrapes and bruises to his face and arms but aren't sure how they happened. Adcock says "cooperation from the family is minimal."



Sigel was recently released from federal prison after serving more than a year for tax evasion.



___



Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.com

5 Things That Are So Raven

5 Things That Are So Raven You probably watched "That's So Raven" on the Disney channel growing up -- it was the first and only Disney sitcom to break 100 episodes -- but maybe you haven't thought about Raven, Eddie, Corey and Chelsea in awhile. Here's your chance to go back to the future and learn some trivia about the best high school clairvoyant in San Francisco.



Dec. 10 is Raven-Symoné's birthday and here are five things you didn't know about "That's So Raven" -- unless of course you're a psychic and already predicted what's to come:







1. Raven-Symoné legitimately believed she had psychic powers while filming "That's So Raven."







In a forgotten interview with the African American Literature Book Club (AALBC), Raven-Symoné was asked, "You played a clairvoyant in your Raven role. Have you ever sensed that ability in yourself in real life?" She responded:

Yes, I have. I don't really like to talk about it too much, because it's a little personal for me. But I'm a very spiritual person, and I believe that there are amazing special gifts that people are blessed with. It just depends on whether you want to listen or not.

"That's So Raven" was basically real!







2. The characters in "That's So Raven" went to the same high school from "Saved by the Bell" -- Bayside High.







The set and school name are the same. "That's So Raven" seems to reference the connection in the episode "Double Vision," in which Raven Baxter has a kiss with a character named Ben who looks an awful lot like Zack Morris.



Both "Saved by the Bell" and "That's So Raven" shared writer Michael Poryes, although it's unclear if it was his idea to set the Disney show in the world of Zack and Kelly Kapowski. For what it's worth, "That's So Raven" is set in San Francisco while "Saved by the Bell" is set in Los Angeles, so there isn't perfect continuity.



The show "iCarly" also apparently takes place on the same set, but that school isn't called Bayside High.



Image Top: Getty, Image Left: "Saved by the Bell" & Image Right: "That's So Raven"







3. Lindsay Lohan lived with Raven-Symoné while she was filming the show.







Well, at least they tried to. Apparently, Lindsay Lohan started to get really famous around this time and as Raven-Symoné told Us Magazine, in 2008, that Lohan "was there probably three times ... She had her clothes in the apartment we were supposed to live in together."



Raven-Symoné further explained to Global Grind in 2010:

I was like "I know you're not going to college right now and I'm not going to college so let's have a roommate experience." She was real, real cool actually. She became real busy with work, and she never really moved in I just got rent from her for 14 months.

4. Raven-Symoné burst into tears when she had to wear the boa constrictor around her neck and really got sick.







In the Season 1 episode, "Party Animal," Raven Baxter drapes a boa constrictor around her neck for a family house party. The moment was especially memorable for the show outside of the episode due to its placement in the opening credits.



In 2003, Raven-Symoné admitted to The New York Times that filming the scene was very traumatic. As Times writer Suzanne MacNeille explained at the time, "There have been a few rough spots on the set: she burst into tears when she had to drape a boa constrictor around her neck in one episode."



Raven-Symoné was quoted as saying: "The sick faces I'm making are for real."







5. Originally, Raven-Symoné wasn't supposed to be the lead character and the show was going to be called "The Future Is On Me" or "Absolutely Psychic."







Raven-Symoné was initially hired as a supporting role for the show, but Disney decided she was so talented that the show should so be about Raven.



At first, the lead character was named Dawn Baxter when the show was called "The Future Is On Me." Then the character was changed to Rose Baxter as the show name became "Absolutely Psychic." When Symoné was hired, the character name became Raven Baxter and the show found its now iconic title, "That's So Raven."







BONUS: In 2006, Raven-Symoné was asked "What's not so Raven." This is what she said...







In 2006, Raven-Symoné was asked: "Your show is called 'That’s So Raven,' but I’m curious: What’s not so Raven?" Raven-Symoné replied:

[Laughs] I’ve never gotten this question before ...



Well for Raven Baxter, not so Raven is to leave a friend hangin’. That’s so not Raven. Not so Raven is to not match shoes with your outfit. Or miss out on a great opportunity because you’re shy.

In a follow-up, she was asked, "What about Raven-Symoné?" and she responded, "I cannot help but keep it real, and it’s hard for me to hold my tongue. Not telling you how I feel? That’s not so Raven."

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Jennifer Lopez Slays In Slit Skirt And Gladiator Boots

Jennifer Lopez Slays In Slit Skirt And Gladiator Boots Gladiator boots might not be for everyone, but Jennifer Lopez rocked a pair for the "American Idol XIV" red carpet.



Lopez donned Sophia Webster gladiator boots with a thigh-high slit skirt for Tuesday night's event at CBS Television City in Los Angeles. The 45-year-old appeared alongside fellow judges Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. to promote the upcoming season -- Lopez's fourth as a judge -- of the reality competition, which premieres Jan. 7.



"When I took the step to go on 'American Idol,' which everybody thought -- in my life -- wasn't a good idea, but in my gut I felt like this is the right thing, this is something I should do," she told USA Today last month. "It's about music. I love it. I feel like I have something to offer to this. When I did it, there was no script and there was no song, and it was just me being me, and people liked me. It was such a great response."

It's Dry Skin Season! 8 Ways to Stop Flaking Out

It's Dry Skin Season! 8 Ways to Stop Flaking Out By Shira Scott for GalTime.com



Flaking, cracking, itching. That about describes what Mother Nature does to my skin when the temperature begins to slowly make its descent into the 40s, 30s, 20s and below, and I don't fight back. I've become kind of a pro at keeping my skin silky smooth year-round thanks to lots of great advice from doctors, friends and yes, the internet. Here are eight tips that really work to manage and even prevent dry skin.



1. Take a short shower in warm, not hot, water. And give the tub a time out. While long, hot baths (with candles and a glass of wine, which is also a no-no) may be soothing, they can dry the skin.



2. Apply a rich moisturizing cream, lotion or ointment several times a day. Read the label carefully to make sure the product doesn't contain alcohol.



3. Wash your skin with a gentle cleanser. Avoid antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers during the colder months.



4. Use a humidifier at home to maintain air moisture. You may need to place several around the house if you don't have one installed in your heating system.



5. Drink plenty of fluids and avoid booze. Alcohol can cause dehydration.



6. Protect your skin from wind, snow and freezing temperatures by wearing gloves, a scarf and a hat. Your face and hands are particularly vulnerable.



7. Try not to scratch or rub your skin.



8. Avoid irritating or itchy clothing. You know that sweater you love that keeps you scratching all day? It may be time to give it away.



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The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken I have lived in New York City for 32 years. I am a 58 year old African American man who has worked for a number of public officials, some assigned NYPD security details for some or all of the time I worked for them. As a result, I have known many NYPD police officers over the years. In fact, an uncle and a cousin, with whom I was very close until they passed, had long careers as police officers.



My interaction with the NYPD has been on the whole positive over these last 32 years (store security guards are another story). Nonetheless I will admit: I do everything I can to avoid police officers no matter what the circumstances. And when I do encounter them, I concentrate intently on defusing the situation that my skin color too often seems to create.



At the risk of generalizing, I find that especially with younger officers, there often seems to be this outside bravado, which I think may simply mask insecurities. Whatever the explanations, the challenges that people of color face with police don't seem to be improving with new generations. As an African American man, when I encounter a police officer I still see my job as out thinking and out feeling them, so as not to get caught in a web of pathology from which no good can come.



Perhaps ironically, what brought all of this to mind for me recently was not my visit to Ferguson last week; or the deeply troubling grand jury decision in the Eric Garner homicide; or the arrest and detention of protesting students at the theological seminary where I am the executive vice president. Instead, what really brought my experience home is a recent conversation I had with my 28-year-old physical trainer, who is Latino. My trainer explained that he has been stopped and frisked by the police over 30 thirty times -- for nothing.



These completely unjustified police stops, which take place because of who he is rather than what he has done, happen when he leaves the house to go to school, to shop at the grocery store, to visit his girlfriend or a family member, and to head to work. He describes it as a gross and dreadful ritualistic cycle that seems to be accompanied by a certain level of sadism on the part of the officers involved.



I confessed to my trainer that in spite of the fact that our health club is only eight blocks from my apartment, I never walk or jog there because the route is usually desolate and I do not want to be harassed by the police. Sadly, I am afraid that if I were to jog down this empty thoroughfare as a black man, I would be too tempting of a target for the NYPD regardless of the circumstances. So I drive those eight blocks twice a week.



Now I'm stopping to ask: how in God's name did we get here? Racism is such a deep, ingrained and insidious force in our culture. It is persistent and parasitic. It lives and thrives in any soul, and can sap the goodness of even the best of us. Coupled with power and authority, propelled by myths and stereotypes, and fueled by irrational fears promulgated by irresponsible media outlets, racism leads us to create a city ethos where a million innocent people a year are harassed by authorities under the name of community safety. This is insanity masquerading as policy.



We find ourselves in a city where a young man cannot leave for work or where a former senior staffer for public officials cannot jog eight blocks to his gym without worrying about being harassed by the police.



We have got to fix this. A civilized society requires no less of us.

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You Say You Want a Revolution

You Say You Want a Revolution Driving down Martin Luther King Way towards downtown Oakland today I passed a mile of fresh graffiti under the highway. One pillar had been tagged with "All cops are bastards." Windows on two businesses were boarded up, their fronts painted with "Forgive yourself," and I still cannot tell who wrote those words, the shop owners or the people wrecking them.



My home away from home, Yoga Tree Telegraph, is at the intersection of the #Blacklivesmatter protests that turned violent in downtown Berkeley last night and the entrance to Highway 24 in Oakland, where, just a couple minutes ago, I drove past a horde of Highway Patrol officers in full riot gear, lights flashing on their SUVs, ears bent toward shoulders with fingers cupping headsets. Protests over the Ferguson verdict have taken the form of mass highway blockades, and at this moment here in the studio I can hear the heavy bellow of a semi-truck's horn -- like a dying animal -- undoubtedly stuck on the highway, and I'm overcome with emotion.



My teacher Pete Guinosso begins class. "There's no way we can ignore the helicopters," he says, "so we might as well bring them in," and we close our eyes.



"Revolution," my teacher says, "starts with tenderness."



We act out when we don't feel heard, when our community, our loved ones, and our lives feel threatened. What the decision regarding Michael Brown and these protests here at home have brought to the forefront of our attention is that we as a culture must work on our abilities to speak truth and, most importantly, to listen.



At this very moment, my chest is ablaze, my stomach is churning, and my eyes are streaming. I was born and raised in Berkeley and Oakland. This is my home and I care deeply about my community. I am both proud of a country that can take to the streets, and saddened to my core at the form this protest has taken here. We are meeting violence with violence, and I can feel our collective fear and anxiety as potently as the helicopters who've been circling our neighborhoods for the last two weeks.



Don't get me wrong: I am deeply disturbed by the state of equality and human rights in our country. I also respect and honor the men and women who put their lives on the line to be our first responders, who brave the alarm page to extricate an accident victim from a car, to go after the bad guys if something happens to us, to uphold a system of right and wrong. With the decision in Ferguson, I understand -- I see -- the hypocrisy of putting my trust in such a statement, but I also believe in change... and that change starts with us, in our own bodies.



When I look and listen to my own body, I cannot pretend to be a black person. I am a relatively privileged white woman living in a white man's corporate society. That said, I feel stifled, repressed, and locked in by a system I don't agree with on a daily basis. My student loan debt could feed a small country. Community, yoga, writing -- these things all feed me, and with them I'm trying, bit by bit, to be the change I want to see. But it's hard. And discouraging... or at least it was until I found a group of like-minded souls. On #BlackLivesMatter, the organizers ask people not to dilute their message by changing the message to #AllLivesMatter. And so I won't. I'll speak, instead, to what I know.



In yoga training, we are learning to lead through non-violence and compassion, to send breath into the most uncomfortable of positions, to move from a place of stillness. We learn how to listen, how to release what we don't need, how to voice what we do. We are doing the work of becoming healers, and part of my work is here on the page, the rest is out there in the world.



And so I say to you, whoever you are, wherever you are, speak up for what you believe in and listen to the voices around you. Open yourself to the world so you can be seen and heard. Share your story so others might share theirs.



From Eckhart Tolle:



"No one chooses dysfunction, conflict, pain. Nobody chooses insanity. They happen because there is not enough light to dispel the darkness."



Be the light.



--



For more from Jenine, check out her blog or find her on Facebook.



She's currently part of Pete Guinosso's Lighting the Path Yoga Teacher Training at Yoga Tree in the San Francisco Bay Area.

HSBC: Merry Christmas! But We Can Still Repossess Your Home

HSBC: Merry Christmas! But We Can Still Repossess Your Home HSBC’s Christmas cheer this year includes a Scrooge-like reminder of its power to repossess homes.



A sign posted in a branch location in central London thanked the more than 100,000 customers who “trusted us with your mortgages this year.” In slightly smaller font beneath the message, a warning reads: “Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments of your mortgage.”



James Ball, an editor at The Guardian newspaper, tweeted a photo of the sign, which also imparts a jolly “Season’s greetings” from the bank.

Merry Christmas! Pay us or we'll take your home! http://ift.tt/12tkW7T

— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) December 10, 2014

Lenders came under increased scrutiny in the U.K. in April after the Financial Conduct Authority -- the agency that regulates the City, Britain’s version of Wall Street -- passed new rules to ensure that borrowers get mortgages they can afford to pay back. By the bank's own estimate, the exhaustive interviews for a loan from HSBC now take more than 90 minutes.



The ominous line in HSBC’s holiday sign is likely a mandatory disclosure for advertising mortgages. Similar regulations exist in the U.S. A Federal Trade Commission rule requires all lenders and mortgage-assistance services disclose in these exact words: “If you stop paying your mortgage, you could lose your home and damage your credit rating.”



Neil Brazil, an HSBC spokesman, could not immediately comment on the sign.

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Inside The Top-Secret Selection Process For Oprah's Favorite Things (VIDEO)

Inside The Top-Secret Selection Process For Oprah's Favorite Things (VIDEO) For 14 years, it was the hottest ticket in television. After it debuted on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Oprah's Favorite Things became the talk of the holiday season, sending unsuspecting audience members into stunned hysterics and tugging at the heartstrings when it honored the selfless and deserving, like Hurricane Katrina aid workers and dedicated schoolteachers.



Though "The Oprah Winfrey Show" ended its farewell season in 2011, Oprah's Favorite Things lives on in O, The Oprah Magazine. Helping to lead the charge is the magazine's creative director, Adam Glassman. Together with his team, Glassman gathers items in a top-secret style closet for Oprah's consideration -- but he recently let cameras inside the carefully protected room to see the selection process.



"I have the greatest job in the world," Glassman says in the above video. The team spends months "hunting, gathering, looking, searching" for things that Oprah will like and hasn't seen before, he adds.



View all 72 of Oprah's Favorite Things for 2014.



Throughout the year, Glassman and the team adjust, update and fine-tune the list based on Oprah's feedback, and 2014 was no different. "We worked with Oprah two or three times in person and on Skype to go through what we call a 'run-through,'" he explains. "We bring everything in that we think Oprah's going to like so that she can go, 'Yes,' or, 'No.'"



To make the final list, products must meet specific criteria. "It has to be something Oprah likes. It has to be very attainable. It has to be beautiful and useful," Glassman says.



As well as the team knows Oprah and what she's looking for, sometimes she surprises them, as she did this year. "There was one item that we all loved here... We were sure it was going to be a slam dunk, that Oprah would like it," Glassman says. "Nope!"



Everything on Oprah's Favorite Things list is truly something she loves, but Glassman says that there's one particular product that has remained a clear front-runner over the years.



"Oprah's favorite Favorite Things through the years, whether it's on the show or in the magazine, was a Breville panini maker," he reveals. "We've had it two or three times in the magazine; the show has done it at least two times. She gives [it] to everyone. She gave it to Tom Cruise -- and she gave me one. We all have this panini maker!"



From 2014's distinctive heart-shaped framed photo collage to glossy golden Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, the list has something for everyone, which Glassman says is part of the charm of Oprah's Favorite Things year after year.



"I think what's so great about Oprah's Favorite Things is whether you're buying something for your mom, you're buying something for your kids [or] you're buying something for a teacher, we have done the work for you," Glassman says.



"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN. Find OWN on your TV.







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