Hasta La Gadget!

On the last day of shooting Lily of the Feast, a feature set in 1970s Williamsburg, Troy Garity, in a suit, sits on the edge of a bathtub, counting. The L.A. based actor, son of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden plays Santo Bastucci, a young man with a gift for memorizing numbers, a handy skill, and members of the mob are making offers he can’t refuse. The bathroom is minuscule in the soundstage clutter of Windmill Studios in Brooklyn, a set specifically designed for the movie by its director, Federico Castelluccio. We know him as Carmella’s heartthrob in HBO’s The Sopranos, when things are not going so great between this suburban mob wife and husband Tony, but here for Lily of the Feast, director Castelluccio, a known fine artist, extends his art to the screen. As many have told me, in making the feature length version of this story from a short, his artistic vision informs every frame. The film also stars Paul Sorvino and David Proval and is a passion project for screenwriter/producer Michael Ricigliano, Jr. who grew up in this neighborhood.

While this project is a far cry from The Sopranos, the atmosphere on set is similar, said Castelluccio: “It’s a family, and nothing less than great. Troy Garity is a phenomenal actor, giving a very nuanced and layered performance.” Castelluccio played the role of Santo in the short. “In the scene in question, he’s embroiled in a situation with his bungling father-in-law (Sorvino). His wife is calling him for breakfast. Santo is memorizing checks for something that’s going to happen later on. Did you notice that shot? I was thinking about it for a long time, starting from above and circling down on him.” Directing is very similar to painting: telling a story in a different medium. Said Castelluccio, “I thought this was going to be another mob story, but this one is about a banker. The screenplay is character driven. When I read the script, I started visualizing it right away.” He fought to cast Troy Garity as Santo, finding out Troy’s grandfather was a painter. When Castelluccio saw Henry Fonda’s painting of the three hats from On Golden Pond, he said, “Wow, he could paint.”

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.

Ello, the social media website that’s grown in massive popularity of the past week, is currently down. Whether for maintenance or more nefarious purposes, it isn’t outwardly explicit. According to its current status page, the site is investigating the cause but is leaning toward a possible denial of service (DDoS) attack.

Read more…

By Alistair Tait, Golfweek.com

AUCHTERARDER, Scotland – The European team left Gleneagles as 12 men unified in victory. The U.S. team left in disarray.

Phil Mickelson made sure of that.

The five-time major winner laid into Tom Watson’s captaincy during the team’s post-match interview. He accused Watson of ignoring the winning formula Paul Azinger had laid down in 2008. The awkward atmosphere in the interview room could have been cut with a plastic knife.

“There were two things that allow us to play our best, I think, that Paul Azinger did,” Mickelson said. “One was he got everybody invested in the process.

“He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with, who the picks were going to be, who was going to be in their pod.

“The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game plan for us, how we were going to go about doing this.

“I’m just looking back at what gave us the most success, because we used the same process in the Presidents Cup and we do really well. Unfortunately, we have strayed from a winning formula in 2008 and the last three Ryder Cups. We need to consider maybe getting back to that formula.

“Nobody here was in on any decision.”

Mickelson played the first two sessions with Keegan Bradley, but was benched for Saturday’s session. It’s the first time Mickelson has sat out an entire day in the Ryder Cup. He cut a lonely, despondent figure Saturday afternoon as he stood at the back of the 18th tee watching Justin Rose and Martin Kaymer play U.S. rookies Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth.

Needless to say, Watson disagreed. He placed the blame squarely on his players.

“I had a different philosophy as far as being captain of this team,” Watson countered. “It takes 12 players to win. It’s not pods. It’s 12 players. Yes, I did talk to my players, but my vice captains were very instrumental in making decisions.

“I did mix and match a little bit. You have to go with the evolution of playing the match and see who is playing the best and who to play with whom. That’s what I did.

“I felt that the assessment of the players was paramount from the standpoint of my vice-captains and me to see who is going to play with whom. My two most important jobs are to make the captain’s picks and then put the team together.”

The reverberations of Mickelson’s attack will last a long time. It remains to be seen how serious of a dent they could place in Watson’s stellar reputation within the game.

Europe’s message all week had been 12 become one. The U.S. seemed set to depart Gleneagles as 12 against one. Or at least one against one.

The rift between Watson and Mickelson might never be healed.

HONG KONG, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Riot police advanced on Hong Kong democracy protesters in the early hours of Monday, firing volleys of tear gas that sent some fleeing as others erected barricades to block the security forces in the heart of the former British colony.

Earlier, police baton-charged a crowd blocking a key road in the government district in defiance of official warnings that the demonstrations were illegal.

Several scuffles broke out between police in helmets, gas masks and riot gear, and demonstrators angered by the tear gas, last used in Hong Kong in 2005.

The unrest is the worst since China took back control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997. It poses a serious challenge to Communist Party leaders in Beijing, concerned that calls for democracy could spread to cities on the mainland and threaten their grip on power.

Thousands of protesters were still milling around the main Hong Kong government building, ignoring messages from student and pro-democracy leaders to retreat for fear that the police might fire rubber bullets.

Police, in lines five deep in places, earlier used pepper spray against activists and shot tear gas into the air. The crowds fled several hundred yards (meters), scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police they called “cowards.”

Riot police use tear gas against protesters after thousands of people blocked a main road at the financial central district in Hong Kong, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. Photo credit: AP

“If today I don’t stand out, I will hate myself in future,” said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police on the frontline. “Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one.”

Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule under a formula known as “one country, two systems” that guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. Universal suffrage was set as an eventual goal.

But Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city’s next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down the Central business district. China wants to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.

The protests later spread to the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay and across the harbor to Mong Kok, posing a greater challenge for authorities to contain, local media reported.

In a move certain to unnerve authorities in Beijing, media in Taiwan reported that student movement leaders had occupied the lobby of Hong Kong’s representative office on the island in a show of support for the democracy protesters.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying had earlier pledged “resolute” action against the protest movement, known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.

“The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law,” Leung said, less than two hours before the police charge began.

“NEVER GIVE UP”

Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up protests by South Korean farmers against the World Trade Organization in 2005.

“We will fight until the end … we will never give up,” said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they may have to make a temporary retreat through the night.

Police denied rumors that they had used rubber bullets.

Police officers stand guard during clashes with pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. Photo credit: XAUME OLLEROS/AFP/Getty Images

A spokesperson for China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said the central government fully supported Hong Kong’s handling of the situation “in accordance with the law.”

Such dissent would never be tolerated on the mainland, where student protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square calling for democracy were crushed with heavy loss of life on June 4, 1989.

In mainland China, the phrase “Occupy Central” was blocked on Sunday afternoon on Weibo, the country’s version of Twitter. It had been allowed earlier in the day.

Later, a Hong Kong government statement urged the Occupy organizers to bring an end to the “chaos,” for the overall good of the city. The government said some public transport may be disrupted on Monday due to the protests, while some schools in affected areas would be closed.

A tearful Occupy organizer, Benny Tai, said he was proud of people’s determination to fight for “genuine” universal suffrage, but that the situation was getting out of control, local broadcaster RTHK reported. He said he believed he would face heavy punishment for initiating the movement.

Inside the cordon, thousands had huddled in plastic capes, masks and goggles as they braced for a fresh police attempt to clear the area before Hong Kong re-opens for business in the morning. The city’s financial markets are expected to open as usual on Monday.

“WE WILL WIN WITH LOVE AND PEACE”

Publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, a key backer of the democracy movement, said he wanted as big a crowd of protesters as possible, after a week of student demonstrations, to thwart any crackdown.

“The more Hong Kong citizens come, the more unlikely the police can clear up the place,” said Lai, also wearing a plastic cape and workmen’s protective glasses. “Even if we get beaten up, we cannot fight back. We will win this war with love and peace.”

Pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said three fellow legislators were among a small group of activists detained by police, including democratic leaders Albert Ho and Emily Lau.

Organizers said as many as 80,000 people thronged the streets in Admiralty district, galvanized by the arrests of student activists on Friday. No independent estimate of the crowd numbers was available.

A student protester is overcome by pepper spray from riot police as thousands of protesters surround the government headquarters in Hong Kong Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. Photo credit: AP Photo/Wally Santana

A week of protests escalated into violence when student-led demonstrators broke through a cordon late on Friday and scaled a fence to invade the city’s main government compound. Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. The Hong Kong Federation of Students extended class boycotts indefinitely.

Police have so far arrested 78 people, including Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old leader of student group Scholarism, who was dragged away after he called on the protesters to charge the government premises.

Wong was released from police detention without charge on Sunday evening. He told reporters that he planned to return to the protest site after resting. (Additional reporting by Donny Kwok, Charlie Zhu, Venus Wu, Diana Chan, Kinling Lo, Stephen Aldred, Farah Master, Twinnie Siu and Bobby Yip; Writing by Greg Torode and Anne Marie Roantree:; Editing by Nick Macfie, Alex Richardson and Mark Trevelyan)

CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Sunday that he will seek an investigation into how a contract employee was able to sabotage a regional control center and bring Chicago’s two international airports to a halt.

The Illinois Democrat told The Associated Press that he will ask inspectors general at the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate whether there was a security breach when the employee entered the building early Friday with a suitcase without causing suspicion. He then started a fire in the basement telecommunications room before attempting to commit suicide by slashing his throat. Brian Howard, 36, of Naperville, who had access to the control center in suburban Aurora via a swipe card, entered around 5 a.m. Friday, and about 30 minutes later posted a suicide note on Facebook, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Minutes later, someone at the facility called 911 to report the fire. A relative who saw the Facebook post also alerted authorities. Paramedics followed a trail of blood past a gas can, two knives and a lighter and found the suspect slashing his throat, the complaint said. He also had cuts to his arms.

Durbin said he is grateful that the FAA was able to get all planes on the ground safely. He said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told him that 23 of 29 computer racks were damaged, and the FAA said Sunday that it decided to replace the entire central communications network at the center.

“Thank God nobody lost their lives, but it could have happened in this circumstance,” Durbin said.

Sen. Mark Kirk said Saturday that he wanted an immediate review of the FAA screening process at the site, and a report within 30 days outlining future changes.

On Sunday, 550 flights were canceled at O’Hare and 50 at Midway. At the height of the travel misery Friday, more than 2,000 flights in and out of the airports were canceled, disrupting travel nationwide.

FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said improvements were expected on Monday, although the system would not be fully functional.

The facility in Aurora, about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago, handles planes cruising at high altitudes through the air space as well as those just beginning to approach or completing a departure from airports in the Chicago area. Its responsibilities have been transferred to centers in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Minneapolis.

Cory said the FAA has been able to increase air traffic and reduce delays by improving direct communication between the centers now handling Chicago’s air traffic, and by developing new ways to automatically file and transfer airline flight plan information.

The FAA said it conducts employee background checks on contract workers like Howard who have access to FAA facilities, information or equipment. Contract employees, like other staff at the Aurora facility, also must have their identification inspected by a perimeter guard and must swipe their cards to gain access to the building.

Howard worked at the facility for eight years and was involved with the facility’s communications systems. He was recently told he was being transferred to Hawaii.

Durbin said it’s possible that Howard’s suitcase did not cause concern because security believed he was retrieving personal belongings in preparation for his move.

Howard was charged with destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities, a felony. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

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Follow Tammy Webber on Twitter at https://twitter.com/twebber02