By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Feb 25, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET
The fall that launched a thousand applauses.
Jennifer Lawrence’s fall will become an Oscar trivia question and a perfectly defining moment for one of our greatest actresses.
What makes Jennifer Lawrence so appealing is her accessibility. What makes her so compelling is her naturalness. And what makes her acting so convincing is her authenticity.
No actress I can think of could fall as they ascend the steps to receive their Oscar without being embarrassed and lightly ridiculed. Because of the vanity quotient Hollywood demands.
But tonight we saw an exception. A lady who falls graciously and gracefully “up hill” –again. She fell….as we would fall (we relate) and she gets up for us naturally, authentically, and accessibly– and wasn’t acting at all. And brings this same transparency, energy and charisma to her acting roles.
Tomorrow I can even imagine a few young female fans practicing falling upstairs with the charming aplomb of their heroine.
The acting talent Jennifer Lawrence has isn’t something uniquely special or even uniquely extraordinary. It is, in my view, rather uniquely ordinary–and uniquely refreshing. It’s a realness and substantive lightness that is unaffected and vanity-free.
Here’s wishing her well and hoping she never loses the great gift that allows her to fall uphill. And that she keep doing so.
By Jonathan Miller, on Sat Feb 23, 2013 at 7:36 PM ET
Oh, no. First the Chinese. Now the Mexicans are attacking me. As you can see in the screenshot, UPI Espanol is calling me y “el ex director del partido, Jonathan Miller” which I am pretty sure is Spanish for a “former dictator who throws bad parties.”
By Patrick Derocher, on Fri Feb 22, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
Wilbur has taken flight. Not only to both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO support some manner of comprehensive immigration reform, but they have found at least a modicum of common ground on the matter, releasing a statement of principles yesterday afternoon.
This is a good thing—if organizations as ideologically divergent as the Chamber and AFL-CIO can agree on significant reforms of the American immigration system, maybe Congress can do the same. Their statement rests on three basic principles: American workers should have the first opportunity to fill American jobs, businesses that cannot fill all positions with American workers should be able to hire foreign-born workers through a streamlined process, and we need an accurate and transparent system to identify and address labor shortages to enable hiring foreign workers when it is needed. To fulfill these requirements, the Chamber and AFL-CIO suggest creating federal agency that would track the status and needs of the American labor market.
Apart from the incongruity of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calling for another organ of the federal government, there are some flaws with this plan. To be sure, the underlying goals of these principles, to protect both American- and foreign-born workers and optimize the labor market for them and their employers, are laudable. As, of course, is these organizations’ willingness to cross ideological boundaries and work together. From an economic and regulatory perspective, however, there are some problems.
In their statement, the Chamber and AFL-CIO call for a guest worker program, designed to respond to the needs of the labor market. In theory, this is a great idea—when they can, American business will hire American-born workers, and when they cannot, they will be able to hire foreign-born workers with a minimum of bureaucratic involvement. Therein lies the catch: the fact is, it is nearly impossible for a federal, top-down program to ascertain, let alone keep up with, the visa needs of a complicated labor market.
This sort of program has been tried before, most notably with the Bracero Program. A sort of predecessor to contemporary H-2A visas, the Bracero Program was a joint effort with the Mexican government between the 1940’s and 1960’s that brought agricultural and railroad workers into the United States to work for a set period of time before heading back to their homes (although a number stayed and received green cards). Even then, when the population of the United States was around half of its current level, federal regulations couldn’t keep up with demand levels in the labor market, and illegal immigration continued. Illegal immigration, as it turns out, almost perfectly meets labor market demands, and is really a complement to legal immigration under the current system. (This idea has been gaining currency and is not a new one.)
So, what of it? Just because a guest worker program as has been proposed is too cumbersome for a long-term solution does not mean we should abandon the notion altogether—allowing illegal immigration to continue as it does only contributes to degraded working conditions of both American- and foreign-born workers. This country can find a solution, and I will start exploring some of the specifics and (humbly) proposing some of my own ideas in the coming weeks.
By Garrett Renfro, RP Staff, on Fri Feb 22, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET
The Politics of Sequestration
Americans are bracing themselves for the impact of impending government spending cuts, also known as the sequester. The $85 Billion cuts are set to begin on March 1, barring congressional action to avert them. According to Linda Feldman in an article for The Christian Science Monitor, the old saying about fearing what you don’t understand is rather poignant. The article cites a poll which found that only 36 percent of voters actually know what the sequester is, another 38 percent said they knew but then picked the wrong answer. Though disappointing, this lack of clarity is understandable. Since this whole fiasco began we have seen a concerted effort on the part of power players in Washington to shift blame. Perhaps one of the more well-known if not effective strategies has been the roll-out of the phonetically awkward phrase “Obamaquester.” Feldman attempts to explain the origins of the sequester plan (The 2011 Budget Control Act) as well as determine which side of the aisle is to blame, spoiler alert… both sides. [CSM]
The “Average Joes” out there aren’t alone in their confusion. Conservative political commentator Byron York questions whether or not the GOP leadership can formulate a coherent stance on the sequester. York is admittedly perplexed by the Speaker of the House’s insistence that the sequester represents a threat to our national security but still seems to, at least tacitly, support them. [WE]
Though uniformed personnel are not subject to unpaid leave, the Defense Department officially notified 800,000 civilian employees of likely furloughs beginning March 1. The Pentagon is facing $46 Billion in budget cuts resulting from the sequester. With no solution in sight, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was compelled by law to warn Congress of possible furloughs. [WP]
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Feb 22, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Deep question. Even deeper than a Fortune Cookie fortune. Maybe.
If you were at a Chinese restaurant and your Fortune Cookie didn’t have a slip of paper in it revealing your “fortune,” would you complain to the manager and ask for a new cookie that has an actual “fortune” inside it?
Or say nothing and enjoy the cookie realizing your future probably has little to do with what’s inside a Fortune Cookie, and hence not feel cheated?
Or some other option….like refuse to eat the cookie while Googling on your iPhone about the meaning of receiving a barren Fortune Cookie?
I have a feeling your answer will say a lot about you in some weird “psychology test” way. I have nothing to back me up except a gut feeling.
And mild depression for being cheated out of my fortune with my last Fortune Cookie and a sense of defeatism for not saying anything about it–and worry that the cookie was trying to tell me something important about an impending terrible event that I am ignoring at my peril.
I don’t even want to know my real Fortune Cookie fortune now! ; )
Newly confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry joked today that he is a “recovering politician,” relating a funny story about the occasional perils of being such a widely recognized public figure.
Watch the clip:
Are there any intellectual property lawyers who want to represent me in a lawsuit?
UPDATED: February 22, 2012
From today’s Washington Post, writes Al Kamen in an article titled, “John Kerry, a ‘recovering politician’“:
Back when he was running for president in 2003 and 2004, then- Sen. John Kerry was giving speeches ripping into President George W. Bush for spending money overseas and allowing “a preparedness gap” in terms of the fight against terrorism.
“We should not be opening firehouses in Baghdad,” he told a crowd in a Roanoke fire station Feb. 9 2004, “and shutting them in the United States of America.”
But at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville on Wednesday — about a two-hour drive from Roanoke — Kerry made a pitch for not cutting funds for foreign policy and overseas aid, noting that it’s only a bit more than 1 percent of the overall budget.
And “every embassy, every program that saves a child from dirty drinking water, or from AIDS, or reaches out to build a village, and bring America’s values, every person” comes out of that “one penny plus a bit, on a single dollar.”
So why do people criticize foreign aid spending and think it’s a quarter of the budget?
“Well, I’ll tell you,” he said, according to a State Department transcript, “It’s pretty simple. As a recovering politician (laughter) … I can tell you that nothing gets a crowd clapping faster in a lot of places than saying, “I’m going to Washington to get them to stop spending all that money over there.”
The before and after section is the most visited part of my site, so this week I’m lifting the hood to show you how it came together for my client in the images above: John Bailey. John is a Management Consultant, and he was looking to create a more appealing image for speaking and presentations. Here’s how he described what he wanted to accomplish:
“Take the package that is me – height, build, bone-structure, baldness and all – and create an image that says ‘authority, approachable’”.
John is located in Oregon, so we did all our work via Skype and email. Here’s how it went down:
Color
The black and silver color combo is too aggressive for business. In addition, because John’s head is bare, the black shirt is overly intense and stark on him – almost making him look like a floating head. Overall, he was coming off too strong in his before look. In contrast, the lavender shirt is more flattering, and in combination with the sportcoat, it’s friendly but authoritative.
Proportion
John is 5’ 8” and slightly stocky, so a main goal was to make him look longer and leaner. The diagonal lines of his sportcoat’s opening “V” are slimming and elongating, and pull him in at the waist. Paired with dark jeans, the jacket creates an overall monochromatic look that also makes him look taller and thinner. We had his jacket cut on the short side to make his legs appear longer.
Detail
The peak lapel on John’s jacket draws the eye up toward his broad shoulders and his face in a flattering way. He looks sharp but approachable with his open collar.
Hair
John had already ditched the moustache pre-Rath. Good call, John! The shaved head is a confident look (studies have been done on this – here’s a great article on the topic). Making the move from contacts to glasses made sense, as it adds dimension to his face so that he doesn’t look so bare.
With no head or facial hair, John’s look was vulnerable. He was attempting to strengthen that, but he was doing it in the wrong way. The end result was “trying too hard.” John says, “Men hate to ask for directions – and I think even more so about their appearance. It’s an admission of helplessness – and perhaps seems a bit vain as well. I think that holds lots of guys back from success … [Now] when I present professionally, the difference in how I feel – and therefore, how I carry myself – and the depth of the confidence I can project – is very significant.”
You can read more about John’s work here. A very warm thank you to him for participating in this article!
