Pakistan's Golden Thrones - Argentine Journey

Ken Russell

Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell 3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011 was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being over-obsessed with sexuality and the church. His films often dealt with the lives of famous composers or were based on other works of art which he adapted loosely. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios.

He is best known for his Oscar-winning film Women in Love (1969), The Devils (1971), The Who's Tommy (1975), and the science fiction film Altered States (1980). Classical musicians and conductors held him in high regard for his story-driven biopics of various composers, most famously Elgar, Delius, Liszt, Mahler and Tchaikovsky.

British film critic Mark Kermode, attempting to sum up the director's achievement, called Russell; "somebody who proved that British cinema didn't have to be about kitchen-sink realism—it could be every bit as flamboyant as Fellini. He now makes very strange experimental films like Lion's Mouth and Revenge of the Elephant Man, and they are as edgy and out there as the work he made in the 1970s".

Russell was born in Southampton, England, on 3 July 1927, the son of Ethel (née Smith) and Henry Russell, a shoeshop owner. His father was distant and took out his rage on his family, so Russell spent much of his time at the cinema with his mother. He cited Die Nibelungen and The Secret of the Loch as two early influences.

He was educated in Walthamstow and at Pangbourne College. He harboured a childhood ambition to be a ballet dancer but instead joined the Royal Air Force and the Merchant Navy as a teenager. On one occasion he was made to stand watch in the blazing sun for hours on end while crossing the Pacific. His lunatic captain feared an attack by Japanese midget submarines despite the war having ended. He moved into television work after short careers in dance and photography.

His series of documentary "Teddy Girl" photographs were published in Picture Post magazine in the summer of 1955, and he continued to work as a freelance documentary photographer until 1959. After 1959, Russell's amateur films (his documentaries for the Free Cinema movement, and his 1958 short Amelia and the Angel)[8] secured him a job at the BBC, where he worked regularly from 1959 to 1970 making arts documentaries for Monitor and Omnibus. Among his better-known works were: Elgar (1962), The Debussy Film (1965), Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), Song of Summer (about Frederick Delius and Eric Fenby) (1968) and Dance of the Seven Veils (1970), a film about Richard Strauss. He once said that the best film he ever made was Song of Summer, and that he wouldn't edit a single shot. The Elgar film proved to be ground-breaking because it was the first time that an arts programme (Monitor) had shown one long film about an artistic figure instead of short items, and also it was the first time that re-enactments were used. Russell fought with the BBC over using actors to portray different ages of the same character, instead of the traditional photograph stills and documentary footage.

His television films became increasingly flamboyant and outrageous. Dance of the Seven Veils sought to portray Richard Strauss as a Nazi: one scene in particular showed a Jew being tortured while a group of SS men look on in delight, to the tune of Strauss music. The Strauss family was so outraged they withdrew all music rights and imposed a worldwide ban on the film that continues to this day.[citation needed]

Russell's first feature film was French Dressing (1963), a comedy loosely based on Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman; its critical and commercial failure sent Russell back to the BBC. His second big-screen effort was part of author Len Deighton's Harry Palmer spy cycle, Billion Dollar Brain (1967), starring Michael Caine.

In 1969, Russell directed what is considered his "signature film", Women In Love, a rollicking adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel of the same name about two artist sisters living in post-World War I Britain. The film starred Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed, Jennie Linden and Alan Bates. The film is notable for its nude wrestling scene, which broke the convention at the time that a mainstream movie could not show male genitalia.

Women in Love connected with the sexual revolution and bohemian politics of the late 1960s. It was nominated for several Oscars, and won one for Glenda Jackson for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Russell himself was nominated for an Oscar — that for Best Director (his only nomination)— as were his cinematographer and screenwriter.

The film is also notable for the BAFTA-nominated costume designs of Russell's wife, Shirley, the mother of his 5 children, with whom he would collaborate throughout the 1970s; the couple ultimately divorced. The colour schemes of Luciana Arrighi's art direction (also BAFTA-nominated) and Billy William's cinematography, which Russell used for metaphorical effect, are also often referred to by film textbooks. Russell enjoyed a short-lived prestige during this period, when he was praised as "Britain's Orson Welles.

In the 1990 film The Russia House, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, Russell made one of his first significant acting appearances, portraying Walter, an ambiguously gay British intelligence officer who discomfits his more strait-laced CIA counterparts. Russell has since occasionally acted.

The 1991 film Prisoner of Honor allowed Russell a further opportunity to explore his abiding interest in anti-Semitism through a factually-based account of the Dreyfus Affair in France. The movie featured Richard Dreyfuss in the central role of Colonel Georges Picquart, the French army investigator who exposed the army establishment's framing of the Jewish officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

In 1991, Russell directed his final film of any note, Whore. It was highly controversial and branded with an NC-17 rating for its sexual content. The MPAA and the theatre chains also refused to release posters or advertise a film called Whore, so for this purpose the film was re-titled "If You Can't Say It, Just See It". Russell protested his film being given such a rating when Pretty Woman got an R, on the grounds that his film showed the real hardships of being a prostitute, and the other glorified it.

By the early 1990s, Russell had become a celebrity: his notoriety and persona had attracted more attention than any of his recent work. He became largely reliant on his own finances to continue making films. Much of his work since 1990 has been commissioned for television, and he has contributed regularly to The South Bank Show. Prisoner of Honor (1991) was Russell's final work with Oliver Reed; his final film with Glenda Jackson before she gave up acting for politics, The Secret Life of Arnold Bax (1992) was also to be his last composer biographical drama.

In May 1995, he was honoured with a retrospective of his work presented in Hollywood by the American Cinematheque. Titled Shock Value, it included some of Russell's most successful and controversial films and also several of his early BBC productions. Russell attended the festival and engaged in lengthy post-screening discussions of each film with audiences and moderator Martin Lewis, who had instigated and curated the retrospective.

Russell had a cameo in the 2006 film adaptation of Brian Aldiss's novel Brothers of the Head by the directors of Lost in La Mancha. He also had a cameo in the 2006 Colour Me Kubrick. He directed a segment for the horror anthology Trapped Ashes (2007) which also includes segments directed by Sean S. Cunningham, Monte Hellman, and Joe Dante. Prior to his death in 2011 he was reputed to be in pre-production for two films: The Pearl of the Orient and Kings X.

Efforts such as The Lion's Mouth (2000) and The Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002) have suffered from low production values (for example, being shot in video on Russell's estate often featuring Russell himself) and limited distribution.

From 2004, Russell was visiting professor at the University of Wales, Newport Film School. One of his many tasks was to advise students on the making of their graduate films. He also presented the Finest Film Awards (for graduate filmmakers of Newport) in June 2005.

Russell was appointed visiting fellow at the University of Southampton in April 2007, where he acted in a similar capacity to his role at the Newport Film School, until March 2008. His arrival was celebrated with a screening of the rare director's cut of The Devils hosted by Mark Kermode.

He began production of his first full length film in almost 5 years, Moll Flanders, an adaptation of Daniel Defoe's novel, starring Lucinda Rhodes-Flaherty and Barry Humphries, but a finished film failed to materialise. Also in 2007 Russell produced A Kitten For Hitler, a short film hosted by the Comedybox.tv website. Russell commented that "Ten years ago, while working on The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg and I had a heated discussion on the pros and cons of film censorship. Broadly speaking, Melvyn was against it, while I, much to his surprise, was absolutely for it. He then dared me to write a script that I thought should be banned. I accepted the challenge and a month or so later sent him a short subject entitled A Kitten for Hitler. "Ken," he said, "if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched."Russell joined Celebrity Big Brother in January 2007, at the start of the series, but left voluntarily within a week after an altercation with Jade Goody.

In 2008, he made his New York directorial debut with the Off Broadway production of Mindgame at the SoHo Playhouse produced by Darren Lee Cole, a thriller by Anthony Horowitz and starring Keith Carradine, Lee Godart and Kathleen McNenny. "After reading Mindgame, I was convinced that I had to direct this play in New York ... Anthony Horowitz has written a fascinating thriller with a new surprise every five minutes", said Russell.

In March 2008, he was invited by the University of Wales to mark the start of the construction phase of a new £35m Newport City University Campus. "I think the City Centre Campus is a brilliant idea!", Russell was quoted as saying.

Besides books on film-making and the British film industry, Russell also wrote A British Picture: An Autobiography (1989; published in the US as Altered States: The Autobiography of Ken Russell, 1991). He also published six novels, including four on the sex lives of composers – Beethoven Confidential, Brahms Gets Laid, Elgar: The Erotic Variations, and Delius: A Moment with Venus. Mike and Gaby's Space Gospel is a science-fiction rewriting of Genesis. His last novel, also science-fiction and published in 2006, is called Violation. It is a very violent future-shock tale of an England where football has become the national religion. At the time of his death, he had a column for The Times in the Film section of times 2.

At several stages of his career Ken Russell struggled to break into the film industry. Before 'making it', Russell enjoyed a brief fling with photography. An exhibition displaying some of Russell's work was on display during the summer of 2007 in central London's Proud Galleries in The Strand, London.

The exhibition, entitled Ken Russell's Lost London Rediscovered: 1951–1957, ran until 21 August 2007 and included over fifty limited edition prints from Russell's personal collection. As implied by the title, the prints displayed were all taken in and around London, with many of the pictures being taken in the Portobello Road area of London.

An exhibition Ken Russell: Filmmaker, Photographer taken from Ken Russell's archive at the TopFoto image library ran at the Lucy Bell Fine Art Gallery, St Leonards on Sea, from 17 March 2010 until 30 April 2010. It then transferred to the TopFotoGallery, Edenbridge, Kent until 19 June 2010.

Gomez, Joseph A. (1976). Ken Russell: The Adaptor as Creator. Muller. ISBN 0-584-10203-8.

Phillips, Gene D. (1979). Ken Russell. Twayne. ISBN 9780805792669.

Flanagan, Kevin M., ed (2009). Ken Russell: Re-Viewing England's Last Mannerist. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-6954-3.

Record sales expected on Cyber Monday

PARKER COUNTY — With the chaos of Black Friday shopping finished, shoppers have another, calmer opportunity for sales with Cyber Monday.


The retail holiday began around 2005, when online shopping also became popular.


According to comScore, an online source for examining digital business, studies found that last year, more than 107 million consumers spent more than $1,028 billion online during Cyber Monday, a 20 percent increase in sales from the previous year.


“Shopping online is a huge convenience because a lot of people don’t want to get out and fight the traffic,” Casey Cooper, store manager for Teskey’s Saddle Shop, said.


Teskey’s is one of many local businesses around Parker County that has an online retail presence as well as a physical store location.


“We redid our website two years ago and we noticed the growth it’s given us,” Cooper said. “We had seasonal sales before, on a lower scale, but this is the first year that we’ve really gone all out.”


Like Amazon.com and other online shops, Teskey’s is promoting new discounted items every two hours, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday. Deals include 25 percent off outerwear, knives, felt hats, boots and jeans, 10 percent off ropes and 35 percent off Teskey’s branded tack. Free shipping is also offered on orders totaling more than $250.


“You get almost as good of a deal sitting in your house on the computer as you do getting out in traffic and fighting the crowds,” Cooper said.


According to comScore Black Friday (November 25) saw $816 million in online sales, a 26 percent increase over a year ago. Thanksgiving day also saw an increase of 18 percent to $479 million.


“Despite some analysts’ predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce with more than $800 million in spending,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
"We now turn our attention to Cyber Monday, a day that Shop.org says will see eight-in-ten retailers running special online promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest day of online spending ever, with sales exceeding $1 Billion, and we fully expect to see another record set this year.”


Last year the start of the holiday shopping season also marked one of the largest crackdowns on online piracy and counterfeiting to date by the Obama administration. Federal officials will announce the latest actions taken against online piracy on Monday.


Last year Cyber Monday sales surpassed $1 billion and analysts have predicted a 20 percent increase this year. Amazon.com was the top online retailer on Black Friday, followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.

Cyber Monday expected to hit record sales

Cyber Monday might have started as a made-up holiday to give underdog e-commerce sites jealous of Black Friday a day of their own, but it has become an undeniably real thing — surprising even the people who invented it.


Last year, for the first time, the Monday after Thanksgiving was the biggest online shopping day of the year by sales, and the first day ever that online spending passed $1 billion, according to comScore, a research company that measures Web use.


This year, with a record-breaking Black Friday — shoppers spent $816 million online, 26 percent more than last year, in addition to spending more offline — online retailers are gearing up for Monday to once again be their best of the season.


Seventy-eight percent are offering promotions, according to Shop.org, an industry group. Almost half will offer discounts, while 38 percent will run limited-time flash sales and a third will have free shipping.


“It’s going to be up there again, no doubt,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore and an e-commerce expert.


“We were all surprised last year when we saw it turned out to be the biggest day of the season,” he said. “But more and more retailers have become a part of the Cyber Monday kickoff, more and more consumers are aware of it and know there are special deals coming — and you put that together and you’ve got an important day.”


The Monday after Thanksgiving was Amazon.com’s busiest day for the first time last year, when it sold 13.7 million items. Previously, the busiest day fell in mid-December on the last day Amazon offered free shipping in time for Christmas.


The day was also the biggest last year for LivingSocial, the daily deal site, and for PayPal, which saw a 19 percent increase in online payment volume over the year before.


Many retailers have such high hopes for the day that they are trying to expand it. Toys “R” Us offered Cyber Monday deals on Sunday night, and will continue them through the week. West Elm began its promotion last Wednesday, and Target went so far as to offer Cyber Monday deals in September.


Still, there are naysayers who view the day as more hype than reality. At Blue Nile, the online jeweler, the last day for free shipping by Christmas remains the biggest sales day, said Mark Vadon, Blue Nile’s chairman.


Sales during the online shopping day topped $1 billion last year and could reach $1.2 billion this year, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. What is known as Cyber Monday became the largest online sales day of the year for the first time in 2010, the report said. Though the online bargain day still has a long way to go before it catches up with Black Friday, Internet retailers are expected to do well this year after high sales from the weekend. ComScore reported that e-commerce spending was up 26 percent online for the days following Thanksgiving, the Associated Press reported Sunday. A Friday estimate from IBM research found that online shopping was up 20 percent.


Black Friday sales set records this year, pulling in $52.4 billion, according to figures from the National Retail Foundation. Those numbers, which represent sales over a four-day period that starts on Thanksgiving, are up 16.7 percent compared with the same period last year.


Shopping behemoth Amazon is making a big push for Cyber Monday, though it is also doing its best to feed consumers’ appetites for bargains by staggering the release of their best deals throughout the week. Other stores on the Web-- such as Best Buy, Barnes and Noble and Overstock.com --- are offering deep discounts on electronics, toys and other products.


It’s estimated that half of all Cyber Monday purchases last year were made at work, attributed partly to the fast-paced nature of online shopping. While there’s little risk of being trampled on the way to grab the best online specials, shoppers still need to jump on deals before stock runs out.

Google Adsense Earnings in China

We have witnessed the rapid development of China's Internet, it not only provides a great deal of technology and content for the progress of China's network, but also trains and provides a great deal of talents along with the growth of the network industry. It can be said that if there is no millions of Chinese personal Webmasters, there will be no nowaday high speed developing Chinese Internet.


How many personal webmasters are there in nowaday China in deed? 100,000? 500,000? Or more or less, as long as it is a great figure. Then what is the exact number of excellent sites China has? Should be numerous as well, I think.


But, we don't know if this group has became a pot of slop or it was born soured, the whole world has preparedness to keep away from this group, of course, here you and me included.


For now, in Europe and the United States, more than half of the free hosting providers refuse the application from Chinese users. An increasing number of sites directly prohibit Chinese IP.


Three months ago, I turned on Google Adsense. It went well during the experiment. It IS an experiment to try new technology or services. Here is a report of with some details to help to get started with Google Adsense. It may be especially helpful for webmasters in China since not many people are familiar with the check and the process to claim the money. Due to the Adsense Terms and Conditions, I cannot disclose details of my earning, click-through rate related to my site performance. Don't ask me for that. I won't tell.


For the last 5 days in Britain, the BBC had done a 'China Special' week on TV, Radio and web. The Beeb have run several reports on China's economy (fastest growing in the world) and it's internet user base (has grown to over 90 million).
My question is does adsense run on Chinese Web Pages? With the speed of China's growth and internet take-up, I'm thinking it may be worth building a new site for china or maybe trying to convert one of my sites. The only way I can think of making revenue would be through adsense and I know that adsense displays ads relevent to the user's country but I doubt it would be able to show Chinese Characters in those small blocks!


It is for rules. The Chinese Webmasters do not know, or do not want to know, or even they know but still not to comply with the rules, including any rules.


Now we are talking about Google Adsense, a lot of people know that Google Adsense banned a large number of ads accounts of Chinese sites. Big ones, small ones, well-known ones and non-known ones. All only for one: violation of the rules.


Don't these webmasters know the rules of the game? I definitely should be No. A lot of Webmasters never and will never go to read any rules; On the contrary, they will very confidently go stand in the perspective of their own Google Adsense rules envisaged;


Don't they understand the rules of the game? It might be No..
If you have experience of creating a website with any certain rules, you would be amazed at understanding of some people who come to the site, (of course, not just limited the WEBMASTERS here) they might very carefully read the rules, but only one result: they absolutely do not understand what you talk about.


So, when their Google Adsense account banned, there will be a lot of Webmasters will exclaim:
- Why Google banned me for clicking the Ads in my site via proxy server?
- I just clicked the Ads in my site twice a day!
- I fortunately I have a lot of accounts to run Adsense.
- Etc.


Are there some ones who never wnat to comply with the DOs? Must be the most, these people are the product of an intensive course, full of lust on anything and over confident, know the rules but deliberately violate them. These Webmasters always think they are the most intelligent, while other people are all fools.


Innocent or ignorance don't worth mentioning, what they need do is to know and lesson from the failure. But in fact the friends around us is not the case, the subsequent acts surprised me very much. Then what they do for that?
- Opposed Union.
A lot of people who had been punished set up or take part in opposition coalition, regardless of whether they should be punished.
- Abuse.
If Google Adsense Team is willing to put their representations received as part of the open letter, I think we can experience most filthy language in the world's.
- Malicious Retaliation.
Malicious revenge are the most frightening behavior, and unbelievable if I told you that. I had been in several big China Webmaster Forums, and saw relevant discussions and organizations in those forums. They have three purposes:
- 1, Abuse Google Adsense and any one who has support Google Adsense.
- 2, Gang fights to a website which with Adsense. No real fights here, but tens of hundreds of people simultaneously attack the Google Adsense ads on a site to make the account being suspended; and their aim is to have all of China's Google Adsense Account banned then have Google Adsense stopped exit China.
- 3, Intimidation to webmasters. A few years ago with a site if there is association grudges occur between webmasters one would speak a hard saying: I will hack your site! It was through the network technology's invasion and destruction of sites. Now may be not the case, they will say: Tell me your site, I will blow up your Google Adsense!