In lieu of that, he’s tried to take four different local and interstate holidays but all were cancelled due to coronavirus outbreaks. A year and a half in, he’s really starting to feel the effects.
“I’m feeling exhausted and I’m feeling, even in my work team and other people I talk to, everyone’s resilience is down,” he said.
Mr Hakim, who is also an independent councillor for Melbourne City, has now resorted to taking a “staycation” long weekend in the Melbourne CBD – walking distance from his Docklands home.
He’s booked himself in for a luxurious weekend at the W Hotel in Flinders Lane, and is planning to wine and dine himself, get a massage and facial and wander up to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Princess Theatre.
Continuing his attack against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday compared the organisation with madrassas run by radical Islamists in Pakistan. The Gandhi scion also insinuated that the RSS is doing something “fundamentally different” and planting its people in the various institutions of the country.
Gandhi made the claims in a video interaction with Kaushik Basu, a professor at Cornell University in the US and a known Congress sympathiser. When one of Basu’s colleagues questioned Gandhi about the cause of anxieties people in India are having regarding their children, he responded by pinning the blame on the RSS. Gandhi said that the entire education system in the country is under attack and that RSS is running schools the same as radical Islamic madarsas in Pakistan.
1 hour and 13 minutes into the interaction, Rahul Gandhi started speaking about schools run by RSS and claimed that the RSS is running schools like Islamist madarsas in Pakistan. He even enquired about the financial resources of RSS to run the thousands of schools.
“The entire education system in India is targeted. The rewriting of history, subtle rewriting of social norms, subtle attacks on the ideas of the Indian constitution, subtle attacks on the ideas of equality…These are ideas that modern India requires, you absolutely need to reclaim them. What is going on is an attack on the idea of equality. By the way, the RSS began the attack through their schools….much like the radical Islamists use their madrassas in Pakistan, the RSS uses its school to push a particular worldview,” Gandhi said.
In addition, Rahul Gandhi also raised aspersions on the funding received by the schools run by the RSS.
“Nobody questions where does the RSS gets the money for running hundreds and thousands of schools. These are not profit-making organisations. So nobody is asking the question. So absolutely, it is the capture of the Indian education system and the Indian education system is got to be taken back from the hands,” Gandhi added.
Durba Ghosh, the person asking the questions to Rahul Gandhi said that she has twenty cousins in India and all of them are worried about their children because current India does not have opportunities for those children like there once were. It is not clear what kind of opportunities she was referring to.
Rahul Gandhi rambles, resorts to lying and misinformation in his conversation with Kaushik Basu
Besides, Gandhi spoke on a host of issues with the Cornell University professor Kaushik Basu and provided enough instances for viewers to tickle their funny bones. Gandhi is undoubtedly a gift that keeps on giving, and on Tuesday night he demonstrated it once again why he is considered to be funnier than most of the unfunny comedians in the country.
Speaking on the geopolitics between the US and China and India’s role in it, Gandhi haphazardly threw the word ‘strategy’ multiple times in his response, presumably to appear as intellectual and clued-in about challenges facing India. Rahul also rambled on the ‘visions’ he had for the country but failed in articulating them in clear and precise terms. Subsequently, he resorted to his default ‘strategy’—lie unabashedly to attack the Modi government—and went about spreading misinformation and lies about the farm laws. You can read other amusing tidbits of Rahul’s conversation with Kaushik Basu here.
LEGO just revealed the details of the upcoming 2021 76390 Harry Potter Advent Calendar with 6 new minifigures featuring Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Dudley Dursley and Griphook. The set will be released come September 1, 2021 and priced at US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £24.99.
The set will also includes 2 random wizard card tiles of which there will be 16 in total to collect to be sourced from other Harry Potter sets that’s released this year.
I don’t know about all of you, but as soon as I heard about the Harry Potter New York store that will be opening on June 3 I was ready to buy a plane ticket ASAP! Now it has been announced that this flagship store will be New York’s only Butterbeer Bar, and we are all here for it!
Upon entering the Butterbeer Bar, fans will be greeted by a giant cascade of glowing Butterbeer bottles, each featuring a collectible MinaLima label. Nearly 1,000 bottles will rise from the floor and “float” over the bar as the iconic beverage moves magically across the ceiling through copper pipes.
Guests can enjoy a frothy cup of Butterbeer served in a souvenir tankard, a scoop of refreshing Butterbeer ice cream, or freshly-poured bottled Butterbeer — all alongside a range of other Wizarding World-inspired treats.
Source: Attractions Magazine
My imagination is going absolutely wild and it seems like this new store will be the answer to all our Wizarding dreams for all of us Muggles!
The bottled Butterbeer is made and brewed in the UK and will come in souvenir glass bottles. The bottles will feature an exclusive, collectible label designed by MinaLima, the duo behind the graphic design of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films. Starting June 3, fans will also be able to find a brand-new bottled Butterbeer label, exclusive to Harry Potter New York and only available in-store!
Source: Attractions Magazine
Currently the only places you can find this delicious magical drink from the world of Harry Potter is at Universal Studios Orlando, Universal Studios Florida, and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.
Harry Potter New York will open in a few weeks on June 3, so get your magical shopping lists ready!
Daryl Hall and John Oates are set to headline HoagieNation 2021 at the Mann Center this August.
The summer concert announcement was shared by the legendary duo and Live Nation Philadelphia on Wednesday morning.
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HoagieNation, described as a celebration of food, music and culture, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 7 at the Mann Center.
Special guests Squeeze, Kool and the Gang, the Wailers, Craig Robinson and the Nasty Delicious, the Soul Survivors and Down North also will perform.
“Can’t think of a better way to kick off our summer tour than in Philly at the Mann Center in Fairmont Park for the third annual HoagieNation Festival,” Oates said. “The lineup is amazing and you know we will have the best local foods on the planet. I’m sure everyone will love the new location and it will be a blast to get out in front of that great Philly audience.”
The duo’s collection of No. 1 singles include “Rich Girl,” “Kiss on My List,“ “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.”
In 2003, Hall and Oates were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2014, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
HoagieNation will feature two stages of live music: the Presser Foundation Stage at the TD Pavilion at the Mann and the Skyline Stage at the Mann. At the Hoagie Pavilion there will be free hoagie tastings for all attendees, as part of Hoagie Happy Hour presented by Dietz Watson.
The event will have food trucks, local craft beer and spirit offerings, Philly personalities and other surprises, too.
HoagieNation will donate a portion of the proceeds to Philabundance and the Mann’s education program.
From July 30 to August 1, 2021, the Newport Jazz Festival (NJF) is returning live, after being closed down in 2020 due to the pandemic. One of the oldest in the world, the “Grandaddy of jazz festivals” will be once again held at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.
As always, the NJF is presenting a star-studded lineup that includes: Kamasi Washington, Andra Day, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Mavis Staples, Christian McBride, Makaya McCraven, Terri Lyne Carrington Social Science, Ledisi, Robert Glasper, Charles Lloyd, Catherine Russell, The Chris Potter Circuits Trio, Cory Wong, The Arturo O’Farrill Quintet, and The Jazz Gallery All-Stars Featuring Jaleel Shaw, Morgan Guerin, Joel Ross, Charles Altura, Gerald Clayton, Ben Williams, Marcus Gilmore, Renée Neufville, and more to be announced.
The NJF was first organized by impresario George Wein and funded by Elaine and Louis Lorillard in 1954. By 1958, the NJF had increased in popularity to the point that it was the subject of a documentary film, Jazz on a Summer’s Day. Over the years, numerous jazz icons and rising stars have appeared there, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Mann, Buddy Rich, Dave Brubeck, Benny Golson, Herbie Hancock, Jon Faddis, Dianne Reeves, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, Chick Corea, Anita O’Day, George Benson, Ray Charles, Sun Ra, Freddie Hubbard, Oscar Peterson, Lee Konitz, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Esperanza Spalding, Tony Bennett, Mel Tormé, Tito Puente, Pat Metheny, Cassandra Wilson, Frank Sinatra, Roy Hargrove, McCoy Tyner, Norah Jones, Dexter Gordon, Diana Krall, Joey Alexander, James Carter, Harry Connick, Jr., Dr. John, Wynton Marsalis, Carmen McRae, Wayne Shorter, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bill Charlap, Jon Batiste, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Vijay Iyer, Ambrose Akinmusire, Anat Cohen, Jazzmeia Horn, Gregory Porter, Helen Sung, Horace Silver, Emmet Cohen, Ravi Coltrane, Christian Sands, Joshua Redman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Hiromi, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jane Bunnett Maqueque, Ingrid Jensen, and so many more!
Many classic jazz albums were recorded at NJF, including Count Basie at Newport, Ellington at Newport, Nina Simone at Newport, and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday at Newport.
Two of the most famous performances in Newport’s history are Miles Davis’ 1955 solo on “Round Midnight” and the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s lengthy and renowned rendition of “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” which featured an extended saxophone solo by Paul Gonsalves.
Festival Endeavors
In addition to the upcoming NJF, the Newport Festivals Foundations has many other endeavors, including being the recipient of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Leadership Grant. On the website, it says:
“Over its six and a half decades, the Newport Jazz Festival® has been committed to providing artists a platform to showcase their mastery and innovation to the public, students and educators.
The Jazz Festival has been preserving and expanding Jazz’s legacy and impact by igniting interest in new generations of Jazz lovers through their Jazz Assembly programs and educational initiatives. Now, the Newport Jazz Festival and the Newport Festivals Foundation will be able to continue their work as a recipient of a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Leadership Grant. “As a foundation that believes and invests in the vitality of jazz, the Newport Jazz Festival is an important partner for us,” said Ed Henry, president of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). “For more than 65 years, the festival has presented jazz legends, offered platforms for promising emerging artists, and created an artistic space that showcases to global audiences the deep roots and evolution of this music. DDCF is pleased to provide this grant to recognize the leadership role the festival has played in the field and to help it continue to support artists and the music into the future.”
Since its inception, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Arts Program has recognized that substantial support to exemplary arts organizations plays an essential role in supporting the creative lives and livelihoods of artists. The Leadership Grants were designed to enhance organizations’ abilities to adapt to a complex, evolving environment that often obstructs their ability to plan and achieve long-term institutional goals and business plans. The grant will expand Newport’s Jazz-specific music education programming through content capture and curriculum development as well as provide artists with additional revenue streams.
“Doris Duke, who had a home in Newport, was often in attendance at the Newport Jazz Festival,” says founder George Wein. “I’m sure Miss Duke would be happy to see that DDCF is giving such meaningful support to Newport Festivals Foundation and what it means to the cultural life of Rhode Island, America and the world.’”
In recent years, Newport Festivals Foundation has participated in several community outreach efforts, including Instruments for Puerto Rico, Guitars for Vets, Commitment to Newport Schools, and Instruments for Portland.
The NJF brings artist ambassadors to connect, share, and inspire students. This includes the traveling Newport Jazz Assembly Bands that present assembly programs on the history of Jazz for schools in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Michigan. The organization also identifies and funds after-school programs across the country. Newport Festivals Foundation established The Newport Festivals Musician Relief Fund, to provide financial relief to musicians in the Folk Jazz communities experiencing a loss of income, as a result of COVID-19.
Sponsorship
Sponsors for the 2021 Newport Jazz Festival include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Lagunitas Brewing Company, Cox Business, and Conn-Elmer Division of Education.
Safety
This year, for the safety of all attendees, people will have to show either proof of vaccination, demonstrating that you were fully vaccinated at least two weeks in advance of the event, OR a negative Covid-19 test administered within 72 hours before you attend. The Newport Jazz Festival website has instructions on how to fill out the short application for the pre-screening process, and ticket buyers will receive an email with instructions. You will need to do this ahead of time, and it will result in a Crowdpass, which will get you entrance into the NJF.
For more information about ticket sales and discounts, Covid protocols, where to stay, and what is allowed to be brought into the NJF, go to www.newportjazz.org.
For Melissa Richmond, her dorm room feels brightened by “Harry Potter” decor and a stack of the new illustrated editions on the standard-issue bureau, a colorful addition to the room.
The Weinberg junior has been an avid Potterhead since she was in fourth grade, just before “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” came out. The relatable characters and vivid descriptions made the world come to life before her eyes, and she immersed herself in it, she said.
The “Harry Potter” franchise has even made quarantine more bearable for Richmond, as rewatching the movies has provided comfort during a difficult time.
“(I’ve been) watching the movies almost nonstop, not even in a way where I sit down and watch them but if I am going to have something on in the background, it will be the movies. I’ll fall asleep to them if I need background noise,” she said. “It’s been one of my favorite things to do, just to be able to watch something where you sort of know everything that’s going to happen in such an unprecedented time.”
For many fans of “Harry Potter,” the books provide comfort while whisking readers away to another world full of magic, centaurs and spells. Communication sophomore Natalie Rarick has been engrossed by the Wizarding World since she started reading the books in elementary school. She credits the books for her love of storytelling and career goal of creating children’s media for the stage and screen.
“Something I love about ‘Harry Potter’ is how it matures with its audience and it becomes more complex and dark and deep as it progresses, which I don’t think many children’s books do,” Rarick said. “It taught me the importance of and how to develop a world that is creative and beautiful and expansive, but also deals with important issues in our world and is not afraid to shy away from the darkness and complexity around us.”
But as the protagonist, Harry Potter, celebrates his 40th birthday on July 31, the creator of the series finds herself mired in controversy. While the books deal with topics such as prejudice and ethnicity in the books, with Death Eaters viewing pure-bloods as the superior group and Muggles and Muggle-borns as less than deserving of being wizards, author J.K. Rowling has expressed transphobic beliefs multiple times. Earlier this summer, she retweeted an article about menstruation and questioned the phrase “people who menstruate,” implying that all women menstruate and everyone who menstruates is a woman.
‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?
Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate https://t.co/cVpZxG7gaA
In December, Rowling also posted in support of Maya Forstater, who lost her job due to transphobic tweets, including one that stated “men cannot change into women.”
Hundreds of “Harry Potter” fans replied, angry that a beloved author would invalidate the existence of members of the transgender community. Richmond was disappointed by Rowling’s tweets, especially after admiring her for many years.
“It’s something that’s so ingrained into people’s lives where it’s so horribly upsetting for such a large group of people, especially for the transgender community who have been using Harry Potter as a form of comfort for so many years,” Richmond said. “It’s hard to wrap your head around how to continue to love this story in these books and movies while not loving the person who created them.”
Given today’s “cancel culture,” Rarick questioned if future generations will read “Harry Potter,” or abandon it due to Rowling’s tweets.
Despite the recent controversy, the books have remained popular. Melissa Thorkilsen, the co-manager and children’s book buyer at Elm Street Books in New Canaan, Conn., noticed that not many people bought the books when she started working there nine years ago. However, there has been a resurgence of popularity in recent years, which she attributes to parents and siblings passing down their enthusiasm for the series, as well as the detailed descriptions, memorable characters and witty prose.
“There’s now a whole new generation of kids who’s getting hooked on it. I think that the movies have helped with that, and I think she’s just such a household name,” Thorkilsen said. “I don’t think that the enthusiasm has dwindled.”
For fans of the “Harry Potter” movie franchise, subscription streaming options are surprisingly hard to track down.
The series tends to jump back and forth between two primary streaming services: HBO Max and Peacock. Though the movies are usually available on one platform or the other, right now you can actually watch the entire series on both streaming services.
The popular fantasy films take place in the Harry Potter Universe, where wizards and people without magical abilities (muggles) coexist. Throughout the series, viewers follow the protagonist, Harry, and his two friends, Hermione and Ron, as they progress through their formative years at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Along the way, Harry meets allies and enemies, hones his magic, and unlocks his destiny.
If you’re an existing fan or just someone who wants to watch the movies for the first time, we’ve detailed all the “Harry Potter” streaming options below.
The “Harry Potter” movies are now available to stream on Peacock for a limited time. Typically, the movies move between HBO Max and Peacock but we did see them available on both streaming services in June.
The films frequently come and go off streaming services throughout the year, so they won’t remain there indefinitely. Peacock, for instance, hasn’t revealed when the movies will be removed.
Until then, the first four “Harry Potter” films are available to watch with Peacock’s free, ad-supported plan. To stream all eight films, however, fans will have to get a Peacock Premium plan ($5/month) or a Peacock Premium Plus plan ($10/month).
The Peacock Premium plan still includes commercial interruptions during movies and shows but, for an extra $5 a month, Peacock Premium Plus offers ad-free streaming. Both plans come with a seven-day trial. Xfinity cable and internet subscribers can get Peacock Premium for free with their subscriptions, as well.
In addition to streaming on Peacock, fans can also rent or buy every “Harry Potter” film on a per-movie-basis through digital rental services. Some of these services include Amazon, RedBox, FandangoNow, Vudu, Google Play, and iTunes.
Pricing for the series varies by service, but most of the movies start at $4 to rent or $15 to buy.
The ninth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise has just hit theatres in the US. In time with its release, the internet has been flooded with memes about the movie and the franchise’s notorious physics and reality-defying antics.
Few would have guessed that a car movie like The Fast and the Furious (2001) would become one of the most bankable Hollywood movie franchises, particularly at the dawn of the superhero movie era.
Yet despite its early stumbles, particularly with its sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and the forgettable The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), the franchise has managed to build a surprising fanbase around its vehicular costars and the movie’s found family theme.
At a time when big budget franchises like Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, Warner Bros’ Harry Potter saga, and Marvel’s Cinematic Universe have become tentpoles for large movie studios, Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise has endured. It’s not for lack of trying as we’ve seen with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, which attempted to launch Universal’s Monster Universe. The only other movie franchise that has managed to reach a ninth installment is the Star Wars saga, itself fraught with inconsistences and memes.
As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the screening of Fast 9 has been met with a barrage of memes, often ridiculing the series’ emphasis on “family” and how, by working together, they can beat insurmountable odds… in their cars.
The memes focus mainly on franchise lead, Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel), taking down various villains, often from competing franchises with the power of “family.”
Of course, the whole point is to illustrate just how over the top, unbelievable, and downright hilarious “the power of family” is portrayed. After all, this is a movie franchise that has seen their cars rob trucks, banks, trains, all while taking down helicopters, airplanes, and even a submarine.
With the latest trailer depicting the heroes swinging cars from a cliff or even attaching rockets and wings to car, who knows where we’ll see the franchise going next.
With that in mind, here are some of the best Fast 9 Family memes the internet has offered as “spoilers” or perhaps possible ideas for the next installment.
We see Dom Torreto crossing over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe…
The beauty of this latest meme trend is how it doesn’t rely on a standard meme template. Rather, it hijacks existing memes about other movies with the only requirement being the insertion of Dom Torreto over confidently taking on any villain thanks to the power of “family.”
