Eastman Kodak Company(NYSE: EK) announced the speaker lineup for its interactive, in-booth stage K-Zone at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Bringing together the minds and opinions of the people most influential in challenging standards and re-shaping technology, Kodak continues to honor its commitment to innovation and smart technology.
Kodak’s K-Zone will feature compelling discussions from the show floor and streaming live online at ThePulseNetwork.com during the first three days of CES from January 6 through January 8. CES attendees and those tuning in from home will be invited to contribute to the discussions and engage with session panelists on the forefront of the technology revolution.
Mirroring Kodak’s dedication to creating intuitive products and business solutions, K-Zone will feature today’s industry leaders as they discuss emerging technology trends, groundbreaking marketing techniques and what they believe the future holds in store. Panels will explore a new generation of consumer – one affected by an ever-expanding social media landscape – and educate attendees on reaching this consumer. Show visitors and those tuning in remotely will hear from leading women who have successfully impacted the technology industry, as well as teen tech-enthusiasts and early adopters eager to make their mark.
“K-Zone is bringing together a group of iconic individuals who serve as today’s leading voices in technology and represent Kodak’s commitment to the marriage of consumer insights with smart technology innovation,” said Leslie Dance, Director, WW Brand Marketing and Communications Vice President, OCMO, Eastman Kodak Company.
“Through interactive panel discussions surrounding today’s most talked about trends, K-Zone becomes the vehicle through which businesses are able to continue to innovate and evolve, extending beyond the technology itself and into smart solutions tailored to an evolving consumer.”
- K-Zone commences on January 6 at 11:30 a.m. PST. Panel sessions will be moderated by Leslie Dance and will feature a range of guests, including: * Joseph Jaffe, Chief Interrupter, Powered and author of Flip the Funnel * Scott Kelly, Digital Marketing Manager, Ford * Jared Eng, JustJared.com * Danny Seo, CBS Early Show * Telle Whitney, CEO, Institute for Women in Technology - Jane Aldridge, SeaOfShoes.com
http://whatgetsmehot.posterous.com/38765601 Jane Aldridge January 6, 11:30 a.m. (seaofshoes.com) live Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) announced the speaker lineup for its interactive, in-booth stage K-Zone at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Bringing together the minds and opinions of the people most influent ... Dogmeat
- I once again caught up with Ed Hunt's excellent 1981 shocker Bloody Birthday this weekend and as this nifty little film has not really been discussed on these forums since the halcyon days of the old Anchor Bay UK Forum's, I felt that now was as good a time as any For those of you who have yet to see it, the plot of Bloody Birthday begins in 1970 with three babies Debbie, Curtis and Steven being born during a total eclipse. Ten years later and the young trio, who all live in the same small, sleepy American town, are inseparable friends who are rarely, if indeed ever, seen apart. However, the approach of Steven, Curtis and Debbie's tenth birthday coincides with a string of brutal murder's which leave the normally peaceful community shocked, frightened and baffled. - As it turns out the eclipse on the day of Debbie, Curtis and Steven's birth led to the sun and moon blocking out Saturn, the planet that purportedly governs human emotion. As a result the three children have grown up into cold-blooded, remorseless killers who mercilessly slaughter anyone foolish enough to cross swords with them. Despite their odd behaviour Debbie, Curtis and Steven attract no suspicion due to their tender years and are left free to continue their killing spree. However, things go awry when on of their classmates Timmy and his older teenage sister Joyce see a little too much and finally start to become suspicious of the trio's murderous activities, leading to a terrifying final confrontation as the evil pre-pubescent threesome seek to silence Timmy and Joyce forever.
- While as a general rule of thumb, so-called "killer kid" movies, in my experience at least, tend to be pretty hit and miss, generally provoking either deeply seated chills or unintentional amusement, Bloody Birthday is certainly a superior example of its ilk. Although the film starts out in pretty ponderous fashion, with token distinguished name star Jose Ferrer putting in a brief supporting appearance as the doctor responsible for delivering the three cherubic killers during that fateful solar eclipse, once Hunt's picture hits it stride it really does develop into a class act. Above all Bloody Birthday succeed's in conjuring up an effectively unnerving sense of a previously sleepy, insular and sedate small town being paralysed in the grip of grief and fear as the trio of pre-adolescent culprits scheme and kill with impunity as their tender years and angelic outward demeanour see's them sneak under the radar of suspicion whilst the bodies mount up. As such it really is a testament both to Hunt's direction and to Hunt and co-writer Barry Pearson's surprisingly level-headed script that Bloody Birthday doesn't sacrifice anything in the way of tension or suspense, even though the identities of the killer's are readily established more or less from the films outset. - Of course it goes without saying that this would all be for nought if Bloody Birthday did not feature memorable child villain's, but fortunately the film delivers more than adequately on this front too. Although the youthful trio of Elizabeth Hoy, Billy Jacoby and Andy Freeman who portray the murderous youngster's Debbie, Curtis and Steven respectively, deliver performance's which fluctuate at times between the coldly diabolical and the merely brattish this is to be expected given their tender years, and the sheer nonchalance with which they set about killing their adult victims, including their own parents and siblings, proves to be genuinely chilling. What is more, Bloody Birthday also provides this deadly, morally ambivalent trio with two sympathetic and likeable foils in the shape of their streetwise classmate Timmy and his wholesome, protective teenage sister Joyce (played by the lovely Lori Lethin) who ultimately find themselves pitted directly against the three seemingly angelic killer's. This eventually culminates in a tense and exciting finale in which an increasingly fearful Timmy and Joyce, having been cornered by the homicidal trio, are forced to use their quick thinking and ingenuity in order to escape with their lives intact. - Following Bloody Birthday the pretty and capable Lethin would go on to appear prominently in both Nicholas Meyer's famed nuclear holocaust themed TV movie The Day After (1983) and the Edwin Brown's backwoods slasher yarn The Prey (1984) (which was actually shot in 1978 but not released until six years later) before settling down into a fairly prolific career as a television character actress making appearance's in numerous high profile American series'. - Elsewhere on the acting front, famed veteran actress Susan Strasberg also puts in a strong cameo appearance as the deadly youngster's unduly stern and prim schoolteacher Miss Davis.
- Although it has a reputation as something of a shocker, Bloody Birthday is actually more restrained than you might imagine in that regard, with Ed Hunt largely avoiding graphic bloodshed, instead preferring to hinge the effectiveness of the films murder set-piece's upon the detached, smirking, ambivalent reactions of the 10 year old murderers to the cold-blooded slayings they are perpetrating. This approach really does work and the intermittent scene's of the youngster's sizing up then matter of factly slaughtering their victims pack a genuine punch. - Hunt doesn't need to throw buckets of gore everywhere, the sight of ten year old children killing with such chilling, detached satisfaction is shocking enough as it is. However, even though Bloody Birthday is far from awash with gore, there is still a playful, almost darkly comic sense of sadistic relish to the violence as the terrible trio utilise baseball bats, hand guns and even a bow and arrow to bring their grown up victims down to size. Meanwhile sleaze hound's and celebrity skin spotter's alike will also no doubt enjoy the scene in which the evil Debbie's precocious older sister Beverly (portrayed by future singer/songwriter and comedienne Julie Brown) performs a raunchy striptease, unaware that the pre-pubescent killer's are illicitly observing her through a secret peephole.
- In conclusion Bloody Birthday, perhaps rather surprisingly, emerges as a genuinely superior example of the killer kid sub genre. Indeed, if we are going to compare like for like then Hunt's film is much closer in terms of quality to the likes of Sean MacGregor's delectably exploitative Devil Times Five (1974), Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Spanish horror classic Who Can Kill A Child? (aka - Island Of The Damned) (1976) and Robert Voskanian's delightfully creepy and offbeat The Child (1977), than it is to the disposable likes of Fritz Kiersch's muddled Stephen King adaptation Children Of The Corn (1984) and its many interminable sequel's. So while I would not go quite so far as to proclaim Bloody Birthday as some sort of unsung classic, it is certainly an underrated, effective, alternately disturbing and darkly funny early eighties horror film which makes a solid impression thanks to its winning combination of panicked, grieving small town atmosphere, memorably malevolent pre-adolescent killers, vicious set-piece deaths , some well sustained tension and, arguably above all else, an admirable refusal to soft pedal it's depiction of angelic looking ten year olds as cold-blooded, scheming, murdering, amoral psychopath's for reasons of "good taste". Therefore, both the more and the less discerning of horror aficionado's alike owe it to themselves to give Hunt's entertaining effort a second glance. Recommended.
Bloody Birthday is available on a rather spiffing UK Region 2 DVD from Anchor Bay UK which presents the film itself uncut in an unexceptional yet nevertheless pretty decent 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer which fluctuates in quality at times, particularly during darker, nighttime sequence's, but on the whole makes for a more than watchable viewing experience. Although there is no mention of it on the packaging, the Anchor Bay UK release also contains a video interview with the films executive Max Rosenberg, who for what it's worth is actually pretty dismissive of the actual film itself. As - I write this the Anchor Bay UK DVD can still easily be picked up online for less than £5 and at that price is frankly impossible to pass up. For the record the Anchor Bay UK DVD is predated by a slightly older US All Region's DVD from VCI which looks to be of very similar specification's and can also still be picked up dirt cheap online. However, some may still find the Anchor Bay UK disc preferable as it include's both Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack options, whereas VCI's release contains only the former. Bloody Birthday (Anchor Bay UK - UK R2 DVD):amazon.co.uk
http://whatgetsmehot.posterous.com/bloody-birthday-1981 Bloody Birthday (Ed Hunt, 1981) - I once again caught up with Ed Hunt's excellent 1981 shocker Bloody Birthday this weekend and as this nifty little film has not really been discussed on these forums since the halcyon days of the old Anchor Bay UK Forum's, I felt that now was as good a time as any ... Dogmeat
Steven or Little Stevie is a good friend and great influence in my life so I thought I would dedicate my first entry to him. He was just on the Jimmy Fallon Show with Bruce Springsteen so he’s on my mind.
Here we are at a rehearsal hall in Los Angeles, I think. Stevie was coaching me as usual.
When a person with his experience and track record offers to help you you accept it gladly and without question.
This picture is from a night he practically dragged me to Clive Davis’s party. Stevie didn’t tell me why we had to get all dressed up and do the red carpet thing and all that but when we got to our table he introduced me to the Sirius Satellite Radio team. I should have known he had something up his sleeve or should I say under his bandana.
The next thing I knew I had a radio show!
Here we are at Sirius Satellite studios in New York.
This was taken a couple of years later. Those frames on the wall contain some of the logos of the channels on Sirius XM.
Stevie chatting with my brother Frank in Los Angeles.
Stevie and my drummer Clem Burke. We borrowed him from Blondie for a few years. I always used to tease him about his view of the stage, always looking at the back of a blonde.
NS-and-Steven-@Patsys2-copy1.jpg" height="374" alt="" width="500" /> At Patsy’s reading a set list, I think. Looks like we’re reading in Italian!
Here we are at Jilly’s with the wonderful Phoebe Snow. She was such a delightful person with a rather sad life. I miss her.
When I played the Bottom Line in New York Steven introduced me on stage. He didn’t have to do that, obviously, because people knew who was going to perform. He did it because he knew what would happen when he just casually sauntered out from the wings – the audience was thrilled as though he had done a ten minute warm-up. He said something like, “Her new album is called California Girl but she’s really a Jersey girl.” Very sweet.
As if that weren’t enough, he even brought Dominic Chianese (Junior Soprano) to one of the shows.
When Dom, with guitar stage left of the bass player, was appearing at a local club Steven took me to see him and they got me up on the stage for their rendition of Boots. It was a hoot. Al Pacino and some of the Sopranos wise guys were there too.
On one of my other trips to New York, Steven invited my daughter, AJ and me to visit the set of the Sopranos. We met so many great people including Michael Imperioli.
And a few months later guess what happened…
Yep, there we were on the set again but not visiting this time.
AJ and Tony Sirico aka Paulie Walnuts.
AJ and I perform with Southside Johnny and his band in this scene and look who’s coaching us…
A few pictures of the cast and crew.
In the background Jim Gandolfini is being interviewed as the series is about to come to a close. The beautiful sunshine girl, AJ, Steven and me on a break outside. It was a beautiful day.
My mentor and me.
A James sandwich.
A goodbye hug from one of the sweetest men I’ve ever met, James Gandolfini.
A few tears. Everybody on the set was aware of the fact that this brilliant series was winding down and the emotions were high as nobody wanted to see it end.
For me it was about three generations of my family being part of it, my father, my brother, my daughter and me. I honestly believe Stevie made David Chase and Brad Grey see how much that would mean to us.
This is my favorite picture of Steven and me. FRIENDS FOREVER.
A few weeks later there was a wrap party for the series and my cousin Michele and I went with Stevie and his gorgeous wife, Maureen. She is another person in my life who gives with the same generosity of spirit as her husband… but that’s another story… for a new page…
Thank you, Steven for always being there for us. There is no way we will ever be able to repay you – not in a million years.
Oh! By the way, that fabulous jacket I’m wearing was a gift from the Sopranos wardrobe people.
Weird Celeb Blogpost 2011! Nancy Sinatra is Sopranos Groupie « Steven Van Zandt nancysinatra.com
http://whatgetsmehot.posterous.com/nancy-sinatra-sopranos-groupie-weird-celeb-bl My friend Steven Van ZandtFile under First Weird Celeb Blogpost 2011"I’m wearing a gift from the Sopranos people."--Nancy Sinatra Weird Celeb Blogpost 2011! Sopranos Groupie nancysinatra.com Steven or Little Stevie is a good friend and great influence in my life so I thought I woul ... Dogmeat
