Tag: shopping

Savory Salmon Veracruz

Cooking, Family, Party

Try this delicious Salmon Veracruz Recipe that is loaded with peppers, onions and tomatoes!

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 10 sliced fresh tomatoes
  • 1 peeled and sliced yellow onion
  • 1 each seeded and sliced red and green bell pepper
  • 1 seeded and sliced jalapeño
  • 2 tablespoons capers
  • 1 cup pitted and sliced green olives
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil + more for glazing
  • 8 4-ounce fresh fillets of salmon
  • salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1

Preheat the oven to 400°.

STEP 2

Add tomatoes, onion, peppers, capers, olives, lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper to a Reynolds® Lasagna Bakeware Pan or similar bake-ware.

STEP 3

Set the salmon fillets over top of the vegetables and glaze each piece of fish with olive oil and season them with salt and pepper.

STEP 4

Bake at 400° for 35 to 50 minutes or until the salmon is lightly browned and cooked through out.

STEP 5

Optional garnish with fresh cilantro leaves.

STEP 6

Serve hot alongside white rice.

 

 

http://www.reynoldskitchens.com/recipes/salmon-veracruz/

 

I love cajun spice. It is all it takes to create a totally flavorful, chicken dish.

Cooking, Current Events, Family, Insights, leadership, Party

An instant favorite!

Everything came together so well in this one pan meal, quickly and easily, and a sure for wow your entire family!

 

 

blackenedcajunchicken

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts
  • 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
  • 2 cups long grain rice
  • 3 cups chicken broth
  • 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
  • 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice (I used fire roasted)
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon paprika
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin
  • fresh chopped parsley for garnish
  • sliced avocado for serving (optional)

 

Optional Homemade Cajun Seasoning

downloadcsIngredients

  1. 2 tablespoons garlic powder.
  2. 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning.
  3. 2 tablespoons paprika.
  4. 2 tablespoons salt.
  5. 1 tablespoon black pepper.
  6. 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper.
  7. 1 tablespoon dried thyme.
  8. 1 tablespoon onion powder.

 

INSTRUCTIONS

    1. In a large skillet add the olive oil. Rub the chicken in the cajun seasoning. Cook over medium high heat until cooked throughout. Remove and set aside on a plate covered in foil.
    2. Add the rice, chicken broth, black beans, tomatoes, chili powder, paprika, and cumin. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover for 20-25 minutes until all of the liquid is absorbed. Add the chicken back to the pan and cover until the chicken is heated thought to 165 degrees. Garnish with fresh parsley and sliced avocado if desired.

 

 

https://therecipecritic.com/one-pan-southwest-blackened-cajun-chicken-with-rice/

Aretha Franklin Fought 46 Years to Keep This Film From Release. We’ve Finally Seen It.

Art, Current Events, Family, Insights, music, psychology

By KEVIN FALLON

11.12.18 6:51 PM ET

Forty-six years ago, Aretha Franklin delivered what is widely regarded to be the greatest vocal performance in her career. Now we finally get to see her do it.

As far as holy grails go, they don’t come much holier than this.

As far as holy grails go, they don’t come much holier than this.

This isn’t a secret recording. In fact, it may be one of the most famous concert recordings in music history, then made infamous by how hard Franklin worked to ensure it would never see the light of day. Now, after her death and years of legal battles to block its release, Amazing Grace, the 1972 documentary shot by the late Sydney Pollack, premiered Monday night at the 2018 DOC NYC festival in New York.

It is a transcendent, religious experience as far as these things go: an hour and a half of Aretha Franklin in top voice singing gospel music at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. She performed the songs—“How I Got Over,” “Precious Memories,” and a legendary 11-minute “Amazing Grace”—over the course of two days, which were recorded for a live album that marked her return to gospel after a string of 11 No. 1 pop and R&B hits. It became the best-selling album of her career.

Watching her sing those album cuts that would, for the five decades that followed, soundtrack so many Americans’ spiritual existence is exactly as moving as you’d expect.

For much of the documentary, Franklin merely stands at the pulpit and sings, sweat soaking her face from the vocal gymnastics tumbling through her soul, out of her mouth, and into the church those two nights. There’s little camera trickery, no particularly visual stage work, and few guests. (The Rev. James Campbell, a gospel legend in his own right, emcees and occasionally duets.)

From the way she purposefully and patiently purrs out just the first “ah…” sound of “Amazing Grace” to the wall of sound coming from the backing Southern California Community Choir, somehow lifting Franklin’s voice up even higher, your body crawls with goosebumps. As congregants are moved to their feet by her various runs and inflections, your heart leaps in time.

It’s a profound cinematic experience. The question is whether we should be having it at all. At the very least, if Franklin would want us to be watching.

The 46-year wait for the film’s first screening may actually be Sydney Pollack’s fault.

It was Warner Bros’ idea to film the concerts. It was a big deal and a major investment at the time. Mick Jagger sat in a back pew one of the nights. According to Indiewire, the company initially planned to release the footage as a double bill with Superfly!.

Pollack led a team of four men, shooting over 20 hours of raw footage across the two nights Franklin performed. But he screwed up, failing to use clapper boards, a filmmaking necessity used to help sync up picture and sound. Post-production editors were left with an impossible task.

Both Warner Bros. and Pollack eventually moved on. In 2007, one year before Pollack passed away, music executive Alan Elliott purchased the reels from Warner Bros. with the goal of finishing the film. It actually became feasible when digital technology was developed in 2010 that made syncing the footage and sound possible.

Franklin first sued to block its release in 2011 by arguing that the film uses her likeness without her permission, kicking off years of legal battles. This in turn sparked rumors about what Franklin might be hiding from the public, or what she may have disliked about it. (One theory, reported by The New York Times, is that footage of Franklin at age 30 singing “Never Grow Old” may have been too hard for her to confront in the sunset of her life and career.)

After attending Monday’s first-ever press screening of Amazing Grace, we can confirm there’s nothing scandalous in the film.

Franklin barely speaks. The small amount of rehearsal footage edited in reveals no diva behavior. In fact, you learn little about her personality or even her process at all. No, there’s nothing untoward here that Franklin was trying to keep from being revealed, let alone self-consciousness over an abundance of close-ups showing her perspiration while singing. (And there’s no evidence of that kind of vanity, let alone why anyone should be judgmental of that, throughout Franklin’s career.)

At least one reason emerged in 2015 when she successfully blocked the Telluride and Toronto International Film Festivals from screening the film, arguably interpreted along the lines of singer Brandy’s “But we need the audience to buy the album” meme after a talk show giveaway. “The film is the functional equivalent of replaying an entire Aretha Franklin concert without her consent,” Franklin’s attorneys wrote in a complaint.

The Colorado court agreed, ruling in 2016 that the film, in its recreation of a concert experience, doesn’t constitute “fair use” of Pollack’s footage. In an interview last year with Variety, Telluride’s executive director said frankly, “(Franklin’s) resolve for it not being shown is so intense, and I don’t think any us really understand it all the way.”

That mystery, as the film screens finally for the first time, seems to be clearing up a bit.

Franklin had said publicly before she died that she “loved” the content of the film. It appears to have been deals and compensation that prevented her from allowing her likeness to be used. That all seems to have been settled between Elliott and Franklin’s estate following her death.

“Her fans need to see this film, which is so pure and so joyous,” Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece and the executor of the Franklin estate, told The New York Times.“And the world needs to see it. Our country, it’s in such a state right now.” 

Owens had invited Elliott to her aunt’s funeral, after which Elliott offered to show her and her family the film, restarting talks for a possible release. Neither has revealed what the terms of this new deal is but, following the film’s DOC NYC premiere Monday, it is assumed that Amazing Graceis going to, 46 years later, get its theatrical run.

There’s no denying the power of the film, compounded by viewing it while still in mourning over Franklin’s death. It’s testimony to the talent and the soul of the greatest singer and most spiritual performer there ever was. Not that we needed more proof, but it’s a wonder to bear witness to.

If only Franklin’s wishes didn’t cast an immovable shadow over the production. Her estate may have worked out a deal and consented to its release. But Franklin herself never did, at least not publicly. Should that matter?

The documentary ends with Franklin directing the backing choir herself as she sings her last song, taking control of the proceedings to orchestrate the perfect, rousing grand finale to the landmark event. Here we are, all these years later with the fraught journey to Amazing Grace’s release. All this time, it seems she’s been doing the same.

Kevin Fallon is a senior entertainment reporter at The Daily Beast.

thebea.st/2zQW9gv

She Quit Her Victoria’s Secret Job Over Exec’s Trans Insult

Advertising, Current Events, Enviroment, Illustration, psychology

Jocelyn Ratzer had just finished her second day at Victoria’s Secret when she got the news that would make her quit.

Leaving her morning shift at an Orlando shopping center on Saturday, the 24-year-old salesperson spotted an interview with Ed Razek—the chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret’s parent company—that made her feel sick. In an interview with Vogue, the executive dismissed the idea of casting trans or plus-size models in the company’s annual fashion show, saying the controversial procession of scantily clad models was meant to be “a fantasy.”

“It’s a 42-minute entertainment special. That’s what it is,” Razek said. “It is the only one of its kind in the world, and any other fashion brand in the world would take it in a minute.”

Ratzer, who is queer and plus-size, said the comments left her “disgusted.”

“I was incredibly uncomfortable,” she told The Daily Beast. “I felt like I was in a compromising position to be working in a place that didn’t want somebody like me representing their brand, or somebody like my trans allies.”

She wasn’t alone. Hundreds of women posted about their disappointment and anger with the company over the weekend, using the hashtag “Boycott Victoria’s Secret.” Trans models took to Twitter and Instagram to share their dismay, and one fashion editor even called for Razek’s firing. The frustration extended to former Victoria’s Secret models like Lily Aldridge and Karlie Kloss, who posted on their Instagram stories about respecting trans rights.

Razek quickly released a statement apologizing for the comments, saying he would “absolutely” cast a transgender woman in the show. (He made no such comments about plus-size women.)  But to many, the damage was already done. 

“We know that models have had concerns about Victoria’s Secret, particularly with respect to lack of diversity and inclusion for a long time, and I think these comments really just added fuel to the fire,” said Sara Ziff, a former model and founder of the advocacy group The Model Alliance. “I think that [Razek’s] comments were revealing.”

Ratzer, meanwhile, walked into her store Saturday evening and told her manager she was quitting. She said the manager was sympathetic, and offered waive the usual two-week notice period if Ratzner wrote a resignation letter explaining her reasoning. (The manager declined to comment to The Daily Beast.)

“I was fighting with my heart and my head thinking, ‘I really need a job right now, but is it worth it to work for a company that puts out these kinds of statements?’” Ratzer said. “And for me it wasn’t.”

“When I was hired for Victoria’s Secret it was under the impression that it was about making every woman I feel sexy,” she added.

The lingerie giant has been hit with claims of cultural insensitivity in recent years, and has largely resisted calls for greater size diversity. (When plus-size model Ashley Graham posted a picture of herself photoshopped onto the Victoria’s Secret runway during the 2017 fashion show, the post got nearly as many likes as many images from the show itself.) Meanwhile, sales have been declining since 2016, and ratings for the fashion show have dropped more than 30 percent.

In other areas of fashion, however, representation for trans women is skyrocketing. This year’s New York Fashion Week saw a record-setting 53 trans or non-binary modelswalk the runway—including one show that cast exclusively trans models. Designers across the world cast more trans and non-binary models than any fashion season in history this year, in every city except Milan.

And when trans model Leyna Bloom tweeted earlier this year that she wanted to be the first-ever trans woman cast in a Victoria’s Secret fashion show, her post received more than 30,000 retweets and 100,000 likes. 

On Saturday, she shared her disappointment with Razek’s comments.

“This is the moment, the masks have fallen down. This brand has revealed their true faces and thoughts,” she posted on Instagram. “I’m disappointed, because I thought you were the leaders and now I know [you’re] the problem, and I’m thankful for you for revealing your secret.”

This article originally appeared in The Daily Beast. EMILY.SHUGERMAN@THEDAILYBEAST.COM

Emily Shugerman is a gender reporter for the Daily Beast.

thebea.st/2PllIB0

The Artist and the Millionaire

Art, History, Marriage, psychology, Writing

How Bette Davis made an affair with Howard Hughes work for her.

Excerpts from an essay adapted by Karina Longworth, November 12 2018 2:00 PM, from  Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, out now from Custom House. 

 

Shortly after his 1938 flight around the world, Howard Hughes was an honored guest at a Hollywood benefit dinner for the animal rescue organization the Tailwaggers Society. The host of the event was the president of Tailwaggers, actress Bette Davis.

The night of the Tailwaggers ball, Bette took a cue from her Jezebel character and dressed to impress, in a pale pink gown with a brocade bow sewn into the chest, below a very low sweetheart neckline. This dress couldn’t have been better designed to attract the attention of Howard Hughes, whose interest and expertise in costuming for cleavage remained consistent throughout his Hollywood career. He took notice of Bette and approached her. “He seemed reserved, even shy,” Davis later said. “He spoke softly, and I had to lean close to hear him. When he introduced himself, he looked into my eyes, not down my dress. That really impressed me, though if I didn’t want men looking, why didn’t I wear a higher-necked dress?”

Before the night was through, Hughes asked Davis if he could see her again. “I was flattered,” Davis recalled. “I was married. I was bored. I accepted.”

This event was heavily photographed, and one of the images, showing the pair standing next to one another, with Howard’s hand on a table apparently inching toward Bette’s hand, was published internationally. Davis kept clippings of the photos of her and Hughes at this event in a scrapbook, which she would at some point label “DIVORCE.”

Davis entered into a relationship with Hughes believing that her marriage was all but over, though neither she nor her husband had made moves toward a separation. Bette and Howard attempted to be discreet, renting a cottage in Malibu for their dinner dates. Eventually Ham found out about their secret hideaway, and by early October the papers were reporting that Davis was on “vacation” from her marriage. These were Davis’ actual words, which she wired to journalists directly. On Oct. 3, Walter Winchell breezily led his column with the news that Davis “finally admitted the separation from her groom, [and] will probably make it permanent—to wed Howard Hughes, who Certainly Gets Around.”

Bette kept this clipping in her DIVORCE scrapbook, too, although when asked directly about Hughes by Louella Parsons, she demurred. In an article sympathetic to Bette, Parsons noted that the actress “laughed heartily over the fable pulled out of thin air that she would marry a millionaire. ‘I don’t know any millionaires,’ she said, ‘but if I happen to meet one who asks me to share his millions I’ll tell you first.’ ”

What Louella didn’t print was that Ham had asked to be paid to go away, and Bette was annoyed that Howard had not offered financial help. She would have to borrow money from Warner Bros. in order to get out of her marriage, and no marriage to Hughes would follow.

In late November, Ham filed for divorce, presenting a narrative that Bette was so focused on her career that she had become frigid. “I think that Bette is a grand actress—the best on the screen,” Ham told reporters at the courthouse, “but she has become the best to the detriment of her home life.” Nelson’s filing complained that Davis “had become so engrossed in her profession that she had neglected and failed to perform her duties as a wife,” and that she “would become enraged and indulged in a blatant array of epithets and derision when asked to exhibit some evidence of conjugal friendliness and affection.”

Ham’s statements on the marriage would have been terribly unflattering to some actresses, but for Bette Davis, they were both on-brand and an apparently negotiated act of protection. It was popular perception that working women ceased to be “real” women, meaning that they were apt to neglect their husbands, lose all desire for men, and rebel as if compulsively from their “duties as a wife.” So to say that Bette Davis, an extremely successful career woman, had done these things was to say nothing that her critics had not thought before. And of course, the truth was that Davis may have neglected her husband, but she was not frigid. In fact, as she later put it, “I liked sex in a way that was considered unbecoming for a woman in my time.” Indeed, she was so wantonly sexual that she had defied her marriage by uncorking her passion in a cottage in Malibu with America’s most famous flying millionaire. To blame the divorce on Bette’s career protected her by obscuring her infidelity and sexual appetite and left the door open for Hollywood columnists to empathize with the tragedy of her failure to balance stardom and marriage. Other actresses may be able to “have it all,” but Bette Davis, this incident proved, was not like her peers. She was an artist before she was a woman, the consummate actress of her generation, and she sacrificed the joys and responsibilities of womanhood to her calling.

Years later, Davis looked back on Hughes with a mixture of pride and cattiness. “You know, I was the only one who ever brought Howard Hughes to a sexual climax, or so he said at that time,” Davis bragged. “It’s true. That is to say, it’s true that he said it. Or, let’s say, I believed it when he told me that. I was wildly naive at the time. It may have been his regular seduction gambit. Anyway, it worked with me, and it was cheaper than buying gifts. But Howard Huge, he was not.”

 

Excerpts from an essay adapted by Karina Longworth, November 12 2018 2:00 PM, from  Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, out now from Custom House. 

slate.com/human-interest/2018/11/bette-davis-howard-hughes-seduction-excerpt.html

Six Benefits of Internet Marketing — ELEVATE TO NEW HEIGHTS

Advertising, Art, Current Events, Illustration, Insights, Writing

“Internet marketing enables you to be open for business around the clock without worrying about store opening hours or overtime payments for staff. Offering your products on the Internet is also convenient for customers. They can browse your online store at any time and place orders when it is convenient for them.”

Six Benefits of Internet Marketing — ELEVATE TO NEW HEIGHTS

via Six Benefits of Internet Marketing — ELEVATE TO NEW HEIGHTS

https://pixabay.com/en/internet-marketing-digital-marketing-1802610/

Inspiring Insight From Women CEOs — Forbes – Leadership

Advertising, Cooking, Current Events, Family, History, Insights, Marriage

In 2012, Ashley Merrill decided that women’s sleepwear needed a style refresh. After working in online media and venture capital, Merrill transitioned to women’s retail and started brainstorming improvements for nighttime attire options, turning to high-end fabrics like cashmere and alpaca while focusing on comfort and body-flattering designs. In 2014, she founded Lunya to reinvent women’s sleepwear by offering a curated collection for every type of sleeper.

via Inspiring Insight From Women CEOs — Forbes – Leadership