Christmas is now largely a secular celebration, despite the plaintive cries for us to “remember the true meaning of Christmas” and to “put Christ back into Christmas”.
Christmas was celebrated behind the Iron Curtain and its influence has spread to non-Christian countries such as China and India. In post-Christian Europe, Christmas is a major celebration. Christmas is universal. It represents the most successful marketing triumph of the modern era. Atheists like my friends who run Caribbean Dialogues will get together with family and friends, find time to relax, cherish good times and talk about the global crisis of capitalism.
]]>Showdown of the Awami League led grand alliance and BNP led four-party alliance in Barisal city at different times marked the end of the month-long hectic election campaign across the division.
The election campaign by all political parties and independents was remarkably peaceful everywhere in the division this time. No major untoward incident was reported from any place of this region.
Female and young voters who constitute more than 60 percent of the voters in the division are likely to be dominant factor in the victory of the candidates representing the two major alliances, according to observers.
]]>Khaleda wrapped up her election campaign addressing a number of street rallies at various places in the capital.
Hasina also addressed a few rallies through videoconference after flying back to the capital from Chittagong.
Earlier, Khaleda addressed a grand rally in the capital and Hasina in the port city.
Meanwhile, parliamentary candidates from major electoral alliances brought out processions in the capital. Supporters of some candidates paraded many city streets even after midnight.
In the final campaign hours, the candidates were busy in door-to-door campaigning and addressing rallies across the country.
]]>For the last three years, the 9-year-old shop has been located on Huff Road on Atlanta’s westside, where Waddell and a staff of designers have been helping customers create their own window treatments.
With the exception of a few gently used draperies from local show houses, the shop specializes in custom window treatments. Customers can combine fabrics, colors and trims to create their own look in every room of the house. They’re also welcome to take drapes home and hang them for a few days to get a feel for how they’ll look.
“Curtains are the one bold statement that can make a difference in a room,” said Waddell. “So taking them home is the best way to find out if it works for you or not. If it doesn’t, we have designers on staff to help you solve your special window issues.”
]]>They will host the Gippsland Power at Gold Coast Stadium on May 9, ahead of the Carlton-Fremantle clash.
And on May 30 the Coasters will play the Oakleigh Chargers, before St Kilda and Melbourne take centre stage.
Gold Coast Football Club chief operating officer Scott Munn said the club was hoping for a big turn-up at both matches as the young club will reap the rewards.
The Coast will have five away trips next season, including matches in NSW and Tasmania, along with the usual ventures to Melbourne.
With such a young team that will one day make up the side that enters the AFL in 2011, Munn said it was important to give the players a feel for interstate travel.
“With the draw we just wanted to get the players assimilated into travel,” he said.
“We play four or five games interstate one of them is in Sydney and we play a game in Tasmania.
“We will just be getting the boys ready, and next year for us is about building the squad and getting them ready for the following year. The actual results in the TAC Cup are not that important.”
]]>The Birkenhead Library Cinema Club is in its 37th season and has become known for showing films people would be unlikely to see in a multiplex.
Using projection equipment rescued from a former cinema, and based in the Assembly Rooms upstairs in the historic town hall on Hamilton Square, the club has gathered a significant following.
But the review currently being consulted on by Wirral Council now poses the most significant threat.
“The town hall is a grade I-listed building, but if it’s taken over by a private organisation, we could end up being charged for the use of the rooms, and that could well be prohibitive.
Mike Taylor, the club’s projectionist, who showed The Sound of Music twice a day for two years, has a passion for old cinema, and even recorded its decline in the second half of last century.
His cuttings and photographs from this period fill eight scrapbooks, five of which he donated to the record office at Liverpool Central Library.
For 15 years he has worked the projector for film buffs at the club which meets on Thursdays.
Mr Taylor said they are due to return after a Christmas break, but fear they may not even see through the current season.
]]>“There’s no reason something like that can’t happen here. This is history. It shouldn’t be lost,” said the musician who played so many shows in Carnegie Hall that she called it “my hall.” “Once it’s gone, if it’s gone, it’s gone forever. All the history and the things that have happened here are gone and that’s a bad thing.”
Antrim told Detzler she was almost in tears at the thought of the theater’s history coming to an end. He told her not to cry because he thinks something can be done.
Rachel Gloss and Kelly Warner said they have seen as many films at the Ioka as they could and are sad to lose their local theater, one they could even walk to.
]]>The Michael Croft Theatre is named after the founder of the National Youth Theatre and a former teacher at the school. It’s a spacious, high-ceilinged venue, ideally suited to Leonard Bernstein’s fusion of opera and musical theatre that is West Side Story.
With no set to speak of, director Drew Stocker had strategic objects lowered from the flies such as shop dummies or road signs to indicate the shifting locations in 1950s New York.
Bearing in mind that the cast was made up solely of sixth form students, it would perhaps be too much to expect that this extremely challenging work met every expectation.
The principals’ singing, although generally very good, did occasionally falter over the higher notes.
The story of star crossed lovers from rival Manhattan gangs a loose interpretation of Romeo and Juliet was brought closer to home by the producers’ anti-knife crime agenda.
Considering the age of the performers, this made the evening even more relevant.
The balcony scene could’ve been more dramatically staged, but otherwise this was an entertaining production and an excellent way to christen the new building.
]]>The group had been rehearsing on Monday evenings and Saturday mornings to get the show ready.
Taking on the role of Dick Whittington was Lynsay Scott, with Millie Brown as the cat Felix, and Fairy Silver Chime was Tessa Douglas.
Also performing in the show were Jessica Douglas, Thomas Tierney, Nicole McMullan, Stuart Brown, Leah Bradley, Stuart Brown, Emma Brown, Millie Brown, Fraser Scott, Nicola Ramsay, Holly Brown and Erica Bradley.
Directing the play was Cambuslang actor Graham MacGregor, who also appeared in the show as Sarah the Cook, Neptune, Lord of the Ocean, and the Sultan of Morocco.
“It’s not about making the children into actors, it was all about them having a good, fun experience, and giving them some confidence in themselves.”
Music for the show came from Natalie McLaughlin, costumes and pops from Anne Ferguson, set dressing by Moira and Jim Gordon, and make-up was by Donna Brown.
]]>The curtain to the commode, however, hasn’t been put up yet because other work on equipment located near to the toilet is still being performed.
The toilet, called by NASA as the waste and hygiene compartment (WHC), is a booth-like compartment that separates liquid waste from solid waste.
It is located in the U.S. laboratory onboard the ISS known as Destiny.
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