Sunset Boulevard Revisited :: Essays Papers

Sunset Boulevard Revisited When the film Sunset Boulevard premiered in Hollywood in 1950, the picture caused a riot in the theatre after the feature finished. Director Billy Wilder commented, â€Å"I’ve never seen so many prominent people at once – the word was out that this was a stunner, you see. After the picture ended there were violent reactions, from excitement to pure horror†(May 570). Wilder did whatever he could to keep the plot of Sunset Boulevard a secret outside of the walls of Paramount Studios because of its controversial subject matter. Today, Sunset Boulevard is hailed as one of the best films in motion picture history, so what was so controversial about it that made Hollywood so scared? The answer is that the film dealt with the truth about Hollywood and its stars. It scared people because it portrayed the life of a faded movie star in a realistic way, making members of Hollywood evaluate their careers and life after stardom. However, it was not only the plo t that terrified Hollywood, but also Wilder’s casting of Gloria Swanson and Erich Von Stroheim in two of the leading roles. Both had been film stars of the silent era back in the roaring twenties, but had fallen on hard times after their careers had fizzled. Therefore, the â€Å"stunner† that Wilder talks about is not the plot of Sunset Boulevard, but the terrifying realism demonstrated by the actor’s lives molding the characters they play in the film. The protagonist of the film is Norma Desmond, a washed-up actress who has delusions about reclaiming her fame again. At the end of the film, her sanity snaps when she loses her lover, Joe Gillis, and realizes that she will never return to the stardom that she once knew in her youth. On casting the role of Norma, Wilder knew that enlisting an actress from the early years of cinema would be ideal for the story he wanted to tell, rather than hiring a popular actress from the current Hollywood roster. Wilder discussed Mae West and Mary Pickford for the role, but finally decided on Gloria Swanson. Gloria Swanson had been very famous in the twenties, acting for such names as Sam Wood and Cecil B.

Major League Baseball

1. Briefly, what are the major developments in the history of the labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball?According to Lewicki, Barry & Saunders (2010), the major developments of labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball (MLB) started in the late 1960s and were characterized by the ongoing disputes between the owners and the players that resulted in the following hard bargaining agreements, work stoppages and lockouts: a)1st and 2nd Basic Agreement – was a contract that 1) significantly increased the minimum salary of all the players and 2) established a protocol that players could follow to air their grievances.The agreements came as a response mechanism that was used by U. S. owners who wanted to avoid the competitive pressure that had been created by the Mexican League in terms of U. S player salaries. In 1946, the Mexican Baseball League had begun hiring U. S. players and the U. S owners wanted to avoid a bidding war with the Mexican Lea gue essay writer help. In 1953, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) was formed to serve as the player’s main bargaining body and in response, the owners formed the Major League Player Relations Committee (PRC) to serve as their main negotiating body. )3rd Basic Agreement – the MLBPA was demanding that the pension fund surplus of $1 million should be used to offset the increased cost of living but the PRC declined to budge. It was evident that both parties could not come to an agreement on how much money the owners should contribute to the player’s pension fund. The players went on strike in 1972 forcing the two sides to compromise on a contribution amount of $500,000. c)4th Basic Agreement – was a contract that 1) annihilated the reserve clause and 2) paved way for free agency.The owners implemented the reserve clause into the players’ contracts to ensure that the players could not offer their skills and services to the highest bi dder. This basically meant that the players could not switch teams and/or make more money elsewhere and dishonoring the clause would cause a player to be blacklisted from the MLB. However, the clause was challenged in 1976 after two players went to arbitration and won, by a 2 to 1 vote, the right to offer their services to the highest bidder thus killing the reserve clause. )5th Basic Agreement – the MLBPA and the PRC could not agree on how a team that was losing a free agent could be compensated thus making the players to go on strike prior to the start of the 1980 season. This forced both parties to agree on studying the free-agent compensation issue for a year after which they would regroup to revisit the issue. In 1981, the players went on strike again after the two parties failed to agree on the terms of free-agent compensation. This forced the parties to eventually reach an agreement stipulating that the team that had lost a player would in return receive a player from the signing team. )6th Basic Agreement – the MLBPA and the PRC would once again butt heads over pension contribution levels that had been agreed on in the 3rd Basic Agreement and the free-agent compensation that was agreed on in the 5th Basic Agreement. However, the two parties reached an agreement within a day to avoid a strike. f)7th Basic Agreement – in 1990, the owners tried to institute another lockout because the lack of a salary cap made it possible for large market teams to attract richer television contracts from local networks and offer players higher salaries.The owners were proposing a revenue sharing program that would mandate the larger market teams to share a portion of their revenue with the smaller market teams. The two parties reached an agreement 32 days later and the revenue sharing issue was put on hold temporarily. g)8th Basic Agreement – the owners realized that competition and financial disparity was hurting their profits while salary arb itration was driving up salary levels. They wanted salary arbitration eliminated, the salary cap introduced, free agency eligibility standards lowered and television revenue split equally with the players.However, the MLBPA rejected these proposals and the players went on strike for 232 days. The 8th Basic Agreement was agreed upon in late 1996 and it introduced the revenue sharing program that was put on hold in the 7th Basic Agreement but did not offer the owners the salary cap they had sought. h)9th Basic Agreement – the Curt Flood Act was passed in 1998 to reduce the chance of future strikes by making it possible for players to sue the owners if labor negotiations stalled. The issue of contraction was also put on hold after owners tried to eliminate competition and financial disparity by contracting/eliminating two teams from the MLB.The 9th Basic Agreement was reached by the two parties to avert another strike and it introduced the luxury tax as a way to slow down the ra te at which the players’ salaries was rising as well as save the upcoming post season. i)10th Basic Agreement – the upcoming negotiations were to take place to due to the 2002 contract that was set to expire at the end of 2006. However, a dark cloud loomed over the upcoming negotiations due to the past history of labor relations in MLB that was characterized by strikes, lockouts, lost revenue from the strikes and lockouts and unfavorable clauses that had been implemented into the players’ contracts.

Cancer Staging and Skilled Helper Model

OVERVIEW OF THE SKILLED HELPER MODEL Gerard Egan described 3 stages in his helping model, which he sees as a â€Å"map that helps . . . in your interactions with clients†. †  Each stage can support the helpee in asking a question of themselves. Stage 1: Current scenario: â€Å"What is here? † †¢ This is about building a trusting relationship with the helpee and helping them to explore and clarify their problem situation. †¢ It deals with what is happening now for the helpee. Stage II: Preferred scenario: â€Å"What do I want here? † †¢ This is about helping the helpee to identify what they want. †¢ It is about identifying what options are open to the helpee. Stage III: Action: â€Å"How might I help this to happen? † †¢ This is about supporting the helpee to look at how they might help themselves. †¢ It is about looking at possible outcomes Note: The stages do not necessarily follow this order – helping relationshi ps do not move in a straight line! Client-centred helping is fluid and flexible – and follows the helpee – perhaps moving in a spiral, round and down. This model is useful in helping us to look at the different ‘stages’ that we might experience with a helpee as our relationship develops. † Egan, G. (1994) The Skilled Helper: a Problem Management Approach toHelping. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company (361. 323) Overview of Skilled Helper Model, H Baker, 2009 ———————– Helper Skills: empathy; upr; congruence; making & maintaining contact; reflecting; attending(to behaviour & feeling); clarifying; paraphrasing. Helper Skills: Stage I + identifying themes; focussing; offering alternative perspectives; sharing helper experience/feelings; helping client move to Stage III. Helper Skills: Stage II + facilitate helpee in developing and choosing ways to help self; helping helpee to consider and e valuate their choices.

Free Essays on Animal Farm Character Analysis

In Animal Farm there is an instersting cast of characters. Each character or group of characters has a political representation. However, Orwell is more concerned with political psychology than with individual characters. As Jenni Calder states: â€Å"The allegory is very precise in its use of the major figures and incidents of the Russian Revolution. It expresses quite nakedly and with a complete lack of intellectual argument those aspects of Stalinism that most disturbed Orwell. At the same time the humbleness and warmth of the narrative give an attractive obliqueness without turning the direction of the satire. We can feel compassion for Orwell's creatures in a way that we cannot for Winston Smith, for the stark narrative of 1984 stuns our capacity for reaction. But Animal Farm is equally relentless in its message.† -Jenni Calder, Chronicles of Conscience, 1968 Remember, this is a fable, not a novel. The animals are meant to represent certain types of human beings and ideas, not complex individuals. Some of them are even group characters, without any individual name: "the sheep," "Napoleon's dogs," "the hens." The "main character" of Animal Farm is actually all of the animals taken together as a group. It's what happens to the group as a whole- whether their Rebellion succeeds or fails, and why- that really matters. Still, it is important to notice the distinctions between certain types and individuals. To start with, we have the pigs. The pigs lead the Rebellion from the start and progressively take on the same power and characteristics as the human masters they helped overthrow. They represent corrupted human leaders, in particular, the Bolsheviks, who led the overthrow of the capitalist Russian government, only to become new masters in their turn. Old Major, makes a stirring speech to the animals to help set the Rebellion in motion- t... Free Essays on Animal Farm Character Analysis Free Essays on Animal Farm Character Analysis In Animal Farm there is an instersting cast of characters. Each character or group of characters has a political representation. However, Orwell is more concerned with political psychology than with individual characters. As Jenni Calder states: â€Å"The allegory is very precise in its use of the major figures and incidents of the Russian Revolution. It expresses quite nakedly and with a complete lack of intellectual argument those aspects of Stalinism that most disturbed Orwell. At the same time the humbleness and warmth of the narrative give an attractive obliqueness without turning the direction of the satire. We can feel compassion for Orwell's creatures in a way that we cannot for Winston Smith, for the stark narrative of 1984 stuns our capacity for reaction. But Animal Farm is equally relentless in its message.† -Jenni Calder, Chronicles of Conscience, 1968 Remember, this is a fable, not a novel. The animals are meant to represent certain types of human beings and ideas, not complex individuals. Some of them are even group characters, without any individual name: "the sheep," "Napoleon's dogs," "the hens." The "main character" of Animal Farm is actually all of the animals taken together as a group. It's what happens to the group as a whole- whether their Rebellion succeeds or fails, and why- that really matters. Still, it is important to notice the distinctions between certain types and individuals. To start with, we have the pigs. The pigs lead the Rebellion from the start and progressively take on the same power and characteristics as the human masters they helped overthrow. They represent corrupted human leaders, in particular, the Bolsheviks, who led the overthrow of the capitalist Russian government, only to become new masters in their turn. Old Major, makes a stirring speech to the animals to help set the Rebellion in motion- t...

Helpful Discussion Questions for The Necklace

Helpful Discussion Questions for 'The Necklace' ​The Necklace is a favorite French short story by  Guy de Maupassant. A tragic piece about vanity, materiality, and pride, its definitely a humbling story that will get rid of any little girl or boys princess complex. Although short, Maupassant packs many themes, symbols, and even a surprise ending into The Necklace. Here are some discussion questions helpful for teachers or anyone looking to talk about the story.   Lets start from the very beginning with the title. By titling his work, The Necklace, Maupassant is immediately notifying readers to pay special attention to this object. What does the necklace symbolize? What theme does the necklace convey?  What other themes exist in the story?   Turning towards the setting, this story takes place in Paris.  Why did Maupassant decide to set this story in Paris? What was the social context of life in Paris at the time, and does it relate to The Necklace? Although Mathilde is at the center of the story, lets consider the other characters as well: Monsier Loisel and Madame Forestier. How do they advance Maupassants ideas? What role do they play in this story? Speaking of characters, do you find the characters likable, or detestable? Does your opinion of the characters change throughout the story? Finally, lets talk about the end. Maupassant is known for springing twist-endings on his readers. Did you think the ending to The Necklace was unexpected? If so, why?   Lets take this discussion beyond just analyzing the story; did you like The Necklace? Would you recommend it to your friends?

International Commodities Index Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International Commodities Index - Article Example The supply chain of most products in initiated in the production or manufacturing stage. During this stage engineers and managers make purchase orders to obtain key raw materials needed to create the goods or services. In the power tool industry, two essential raw materials are metals and plastics. Plastics are a raw material which is considered a petroleum derivative. Crude oil and metals are categorized as commodities in the stock market. Their prices are very volatile and fluctuations in price occurred on a daily basis. Good indicators which analyst in the power tool industry must pay close attention to are commodity price indexes. For example, the Rogers International Commodity Index (RICI) aims to be an effective indicator of the price of raw material in the United States and around the world (Rogersrawmaterials, 2007). When the prices go down on these materials it is good idea to realize bulk purchases. Another strategy the can be utilized to lock the price of the commodity is to acquire future contracts. A future contract obligates a trader to sell an asset at an agreed upon price at some point in the future (Bodie & Kane & Marcus, 2002, p.982). Power pools are products which need energy in order to function. The energy industry is another key industry with has a great impact on the power tool industry. The designers of power tools must consider what type of platform will provide energy into the system. Two possible alternatives are battery and electricity power tools. Trends in the capacity and prices of batteries must be considered since the overall cost of the unit rises after the purchase of the batteries. If the power tools depends on electricity the executives of the companies could analyze trends in the electricity market by utilizing regression analyzes in which the monthly price of electricity over the last 10-20 years in particular country or city are inputted into the equation to determine price trends.  

Paul Gauguins illusion In The Paint Where Do We Come From What Are We Essay

Paul Gauguins illusion In The Paint Where Do We Come From What Are We Where Are We Going - Essay Example Paul Gauguin had presumably referred to this soul. In his painting â€Å"WE† does not refer to material world that are unreal and that which our mind personifies.This paper is trying to establish intellectual and philosophical aspect of gauguin’s painting on this ground. The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in it’s publication â€Å"Aspects of Vedanta† has said: Sankara is not alone in drawing our attention to the illusory nature of empirical life. Plato, Kant, and Hegel adopt the same view, and in recent times, Bergson, equipped with all the knowledge of modern science, arrives at the same conclusion. The intellect,he says, disguises reality, misrepresents it, and presents to us a static world, †¦ The painting of our topic very much reflects this illusion suffered by the artist, though, it seems, he very much understood that â€Å"real† is different from this illusion. Also, Paul Gauguin relflects the illusion suffered by this world. Ingo F Walther in his book â€Å"Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 The Primitive Sophisticate† has mentioned: The spectrum of human activity encompassed by the painting spans all of life, from birth to death, in all its wondruous diversity. The new-born child lying in the grass, seeing the light of day for the first time, marks one boundary of Gauguin's stage, and the careworn old woman who looks so downcast as she meditates upon the past marks the other. Between the two lies the copious adult world of fears and joys. The exotic idol in the background, and the two people walking (possibly lovers), are there for atmospheric effect, and bridge gap between Man and the natural setting. Gauguin reveals considerable ambition in the way in which he placed some favourite subjects in his panorama - the relaxed reclining nude, the figures sitting lost in the thought, the cult statute. The figures are there to evoke associative meanings, rather to explain or illustrate. Gauguin was not concerned with being understood: rather, he was interpreting life as a great mystery. The world's lack of understanding, which was pushing him towards suicide, was obliquely expressed in his emphasis of the impenetrable and incomprehensible.# Footnotes: **Page 45 and 46 in "Aspects of Vedanta" #Page 80 in "Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 The Primitive Sophisticate" By Ingo F Walther The painting by depicting the various stages of life, in effect has carried the message that life is full of changes and life is nothing but an illusion. Even the animals and birds found in tha painting undergo the changes of life which is an illusion. The blue sky found in the painting is also an illusion. The painting depicts the convulsions of his mind and his yearning to show the world the difference between the 'real' and 'unreal'. The other side of illusion But, interestingly, illusion is having another side. Swami Lokeswarananda in his translation of Mandukya Upanisad has said: Even to