Muestra por celebración del Centenario de Inmigración de japoneses provenientes de la Prefectura de Shizuoka, Japón.  Asociación Peruano-Japonesa, 2006.  Diseño publicitario, impresión y montaje de muestra.

Why S&B Intakes?

S&B diesel performance intake kits are all about improving airflow to your cars engine. Its just a matter of superior design. Better airflow translates into a noticeable increase in power, acceleration and most importantly…bragging rights.

Airflow:

S&Bs intake kits are engineered to improve the airflow to your cars engine. It starts with years of research and development, as well as the most technically advanced testing. S&B tests to the ISO 5011 Air Filtration Standard in a climate – controlled lab when designing and testing our intake kits. This is the same technology used by Ford, Chrysler and General Motors to design the original induction system that comes on your vehicle.

Thorough Research & Development:

During our ISO 5011 testing, we first measure the restriction of the airflow through your vehicles original induction system in order to establish a baseline. The goal of a Performance Intake Kit is to reduce the restriction of the airflow to your vehicles engine. In laymans terms, we want to make it easier for the engine to breathe. By reducing the restriction of the airflow, your engine will have better throttle response and produce more horsepower and torque. Since your engine will not have to work as hard to produce the required amount of power – the result is better fuel economy.

Back It Up – Certified Test Results:

S&B provides ISO 5011 Certified Test Results for its intake kits, so you can see exactly how much the airflow was improved (restriction decreased) as well as the efficiency of the filter. For example, the S&B intake kit for the 2002 Dodge Ram 5.9L Cummins Diesel improves the airflow 46.8% versus the OE Induction System while still stopping 99.90% of the dirt. Demand ISO 5011 Certified Test Results prior to purchasing your next Performance Intake Kit.

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My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I’ve told you my name: that’s the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there’s a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison…

– Dalton Russell

Considered Spike Lee’s most critically and commercially successful movie of his career, Inside Man is not your average bank heist movie. I own this movie on DVD for a while, but I never cracked it open and watched it. I have given it to former co-workers to watch, but I never did because it came out of a subscription I had with Columbia House a couple of years ago. Watching it now, I don’t know why I waited this long.

At first, you think that this would be a typical bank robbery, but it’s not. A masterful criminal, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) and his crew holds up a Manhattan Trust Bank disguising themselves as painters armed with AK-47s and smoke bombs.

Det. Fraizer, (Denzel Washington), a hostage negotiator that is in some hot water over a drug dealer, check cashing and $100 thousand missing dollars is assigned to the case with his partner, Det. Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor). They rendezvous with Capt. Darius (Willem Dafoe) to let the duo know about what is going on.

The robbers usher to the hostages to the bank vault level to confiscate their keys, cell phones and clothes. The hostages are asked to change into the identical painter coveralls the robbers have on. These are not your ordinary robbers.

With all the news coverage about the robbery spreads to the news, the chairman of the bank, Mr. Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) calls a “fixer” Madeline White (Jodie Foster) to protect special items in his safety deposit box.

They all come together to try to diffuse the situation. There are more layers to the movie when Dalton strings Frazier along like a puppet. He always stays one step ahead of him. It’s a cat and mouse game.

Nothing is what it seems to be when the purpose of the robbers is not about money, but it’s about a person getting their due justice. It’s a morality play that is reminiscent of the legend of Robin Hood.

The performances were solid across the board. The dialogue is quick and biting. The action keeps you on your toes with twists and turns.

The only gripe I have about the film is that the film wrapped up to nice and neat with any loose ends are solved. Nothing is left to the imagination of the audience to think about when the end credits begin.

Judgment: A solid psychological thriller that keeps you on your toes.

Rating: ****

O’boy ist ein schwedisches Kakaopulver aus dem Hause Marabou – was eigentlich in keinem Zusammenhang zu Miss Li steht. Nur dass der erste Song auf dem Album dieser jungen Dame “Oh Boy” heißt und Miss Li – eigentlich Linda Carlsson – ebenfalls schwedisch ist. Diese Herkunftsgeschichte scheint ihrerseits auch nicht in Zusammenhang zu dem zu stehen, was auf ihrem Debüt geschieht – außer vielleicht zu dem Gummistiefel auf der Coverrückseite. Und dieser tiefe Wunsch nach Fröhlichkeit, der mit Polkabläsern über die Verzweiflung und Traurigkeit gepumpt wird, die ebenfalls ins Miss Lis Liedern steckt: Vielleicht ist das das Schwedische an sich. Friska Viljor haben gezeigt, warum das Kindliche, das fröhlich vor sich Hinspackende unbedingt Teil der Musik sein sollten, auch wenn sie gar nicht so unbeschwert gemeint ist. Miss Li hat das in ihren klimperlichen Liedchen zwischen Jazz und Pop, Musical und Drogensoul berücksichtigt, auch wenn sie nicht ganz zum genialen Wahnsinn ihrer Landsleute aufschließen kann. (kab)

Oh boy
You make me feel like
Oh boy
You make me feel like
No boy
Can make me feel like you
I really really want you

Oh boy
You make me feel so
Oh boy
You really turned me
On boy
And I don´t know what to do
I really really want to..

..be with you
like I was before
This distance
between us makes me want you more

And I do mean
you are the cutest boy I’ve ever seen
and you’ve got that something
something that I want
something that I need
a dirty little young girls dream

I said that..
Oh boy
You make me feel like
Oh boy
You make me feel like
No boy
Can make me feel like you
I really really want you

Oh boy
You make me feel so
Oh boy
You really turned me
On boy
and I don’t know what to do
I really really wanna

..make me swirl
like a tiny little pearl
I will patiently wait
‘Til you’re done
with this other girl

and I don’t care
about your so damn good excuses
cus’ they’ve turned me on
They turned me strong,
turned me on,
you know just how to light my fuses

I said
Oh boy
You make me feel like
oh boy
You make me feel like
No boy
can make me feel like you
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
I really really want you

oh boy
You make me feel so
oh boy
You maybe turned me
on boy
and I don’t know what to do
I really really want you..

You!
Na na na na
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
You really really turned me on
Woah woah woah la la la la la
Yeah yeah yeah

I said
Oh boy
You make me feel so
Oh boy
You really turned me
On boy
and I don’t know what to do

I said
oh boy
You make me feel so
oh boy
You really turned me
on boy
and I don’t know what to do

I really really want you
Oh boy
You make me feel like
oh boy
You make me feel like
No boy
can make me feel like you
I really really want you

oh boy
You make me feel so
oh boy
You really turned me
on boy
and I don’t know what to do

I really really want you
Yeah!
Really really really wa-a-a-ant you
Really really want you
Yeah-yea-yea-yeah
really really want you
la la la la la la la la…la la la
…bo bo bo boo
la la… la la la la la la boo oho ho la la la oh
woah!
Really really want you!

NewYork NewYork #1

(Kool G Rap – Streets Of New York)

This week it’s all about NYC..The Big Apple. Why? because I’m going there on Friday to spend a few days with someone very special who is and has been an inspiration. Words don’t tend to do feelings justice so I’ll leave it at that…regular visitors to themusicologist will know that I have a tendency to wax lyrical and believe me I would like to continue in that tradition but being a dyed in the wool romantic the poetry could run away with me so I’ll do me best to rein it in before I get all 18th Century on yer arse and end up prancing about in velvet suits, curling up my ‘locks’ and spouting Wordsworth and Coleridge poems !!

So to balance that out hold this piece of 21st Century hip-hop from one of New York City’s legendary lyricists, the trail blazing, Kool G Rap .. one of the greatest rappers to have ever graced the M.I.C whose legacy runs deep. Member of Marley Marl’s Juice Crew, (along with MC Shan, Roxanne Shante, Big Daddy Kane and BizMarkie), the Cat has influenced many a BIG name and is highly regarded and respected by those in the know as a progenitor of the style which now dominates. A man whose authenticity regarding street narrative is beyond doubt..one final piece of information..he was born in 1968 which seems to be a significant year for many reasons.

Download

Available versions:

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Actors: Mewes Jason,Dick Andy,Trejo Danny,Furlong Edward,Rodriguez Robert,Page Dallas,Faustino David,Nemec Corin,DeLorenzo Michael,Marsden Jason,Raimi Ted,Comedy,

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INTERPRET MY LONG REALISTIC DREAM? IT COULD HAVE BEEN ANY OTHER DAY?
but it was a dream, and i realized that when i woke up. i had this dream less than 1 hour ago so its pretty fresh. i hope i dont forget any important details.

anyway like i said this dream could have been any other day. nothing was too unrealistic about it. a guy that i sort of like in real life as of lately (who is the best friend of a former intense crush i had a few months ago, who liked me as well but got bored of me once he "got to know" me) was very nice to me, polite and cute. he was flirting with me whenever he could. we were basically at a cafeteria and i went to sit down across from him and his best friend (the guy i mentioned in parenthesis before). so we were al playing a card game. then we were at a more round table [i do not remember the transition from the cafeteria table to this smaller table]. and for a game we were playing, all of us at the table (there were other boys there who were friends of both of them, but i didnt even look at them, hear them, acknowelge they were there). so i put my left hand up to the guy i like [i will call him jorge from now on] and my right one to his best friend. what i remember from the dream was that jorge’s hand felt distinct and it stood out, it felt warm and the force of his palm when he put it against mine was very strong. i like how it felt and was secretly intrigued in the dream.

[before i go on i want to insert a part that i rememeber happening BEFORE all the above happened in my dream.... my guy friend who i always buy my weed from in real life sold me a rather large bag of weed for 5 dollars (it was a half a ziplock sized bag) in the dream. after i woke up, i realized how crazy that is, that he sold me such a huge amount of pot for just 5 dollars in cash. anyway...]

so next thing i know, we all went on some sort of vehicle, it was large and had others on it. im guessing now that it was a public bus? … well anyway we then arrived at some girl’s apartment. i never saw her face, i only remember seeing her body physique and hearing her talk at some points in the dream. she was hispanic. when jorge and i followed her into her apartment, the hallway/corridor was filled with tons of different colored high heel shoes. i made a comment like "wow thats a lot of shoes" to jorge and her, and she said that the shoes were mostly her mom’s who wore them when she went on dates with men. then jorge and i got to the big couch and we sat down maybe 2 feet apart. we had our heads proped back against the couch as if we just came from doing a sport or active activity that tired us (which we did not, we just came off a bus). then jorge got a shiny quarter from his pocket or somewhere near his pants and he flicked it at me while he said my name. he was sort of smiling and his voice showed he was happy being with me there.
just then his best friend (aka my old crush of a few months ago in real life) was standing nearby with his jacket on. i think he had seen jorge sort of flick the quarter at me in a flirty way, and he gave a strange look to jorge; i couldnt make out the look on his face –whether it was pure jealousy or indifference, but i know that it was sort of a "you’re taking the girl i used to be with" look and a HINT of jealousy was there.. just a hint.

then i woke up.

[extra info i forgot to mention:] –jorge was flirting with me the whole time and being very nice too. everything he did was with force, a sexy sort of force. like whenever he touched me physically, it was *with force*. maybe YOU know what this sort of means?

and in real life, this jorge guy does not do any of this, we dont even talk. but i felt like he liked me since 6 months ago… not sure if thats my intuition telling me that.

please tell me all you can about my dream, even if you can only give details about certain parts or symbols. i’ll appreciate it very much!

detail of a three part sculpture

media: dress making pins, cardboard

mengembalikan jati diri bangsa

Keterasingan Imigrasi amp amp Kewarganegaraan Act adalah bagian utama kelima peraturan perundang-undangan di bidang suaka dan imigrasi sejak .

Commencement

Keterasingan Imigrasi amp amp Kewarganegaraan Act yang diterima Royal setuju pada Maret dan berdasarkan urutan dimulai kedua ketentuan-ketentuan utama mulai berlaku pada tanggal Agustus oleh kebajikan Imigrasi Asylum dan Undang-undang Kewarganegaraan Commencement No. order .

Banding

Bagian menyisipkan bagian baru A ke Imigrasi Kewarganegaraan dan Asylum Act untuk memperkenalkan hak untuk naik banding baru bagi orang-orang yang tidak lagi diakui sebagai pengungsi tapi yang diijinkan untuk tinggal di Inggris pada beberapa dasar lain. Bagian maaf bagian g UU tahun untuk memberikan hak untuk naik banding terhadap keputusan untuk menghapus bagian bawah b Undang-undang tahun . Ini akan memberikan orang yang terpisah hak untuk naik banding pada masing-masing dari kedua tahap keputusan yang pertama pada tahap pencabutan dan yang kedua pada tahap keputusan untuk menghapus diambil. Bagian maaf bagian dari UU tahun . Ini menyatakan bahwa banding di bawah bagian baru A hanya dapat dibawa atas dasar bahwa penghapusan akan melanggar Kerajaan Inggris kewajiban di bawah Konvensi Pengungsi. Bagian substitusi satu ketentuan untuk Bagian A dan tahun Undang-undang yang membatasi semua permohonan terhadap penolakan ijin masuk ke mengembalikan jati diri bangsa dasar Kebangsaan terbatas hak asasi manusia dan diskriminasi ras dengan pengecualian yang tercantum di dalam kategori. Oleh bagian orang mungkin tidak mengajukan banding atas penolakan izin untuk memasuki Kerajaan Inggris kecuali jika pada kedatangannya di Kerajaan Inggris ia ijin Bangsa masuk dan tujuan masuk ditentukan dalam ijin masuk sama dengan yang ditentukan dalam permohonan izin untuk masuk. Bagian dari Undang-undang tahun membatasi hak-hak banding terhadap penolakan izin masuk di pelabuhan kedua pengunjung dan siswa yang tidak memegang ijin masuk.

Bagian memberikan kekuatan untuk hanya Bangsa mendengar hak asasi manusia aspek keamanan nasional banding kasus di negara Jati Diri Bangsa dengan aspek keamanan nasional dari kasus.

Ketenagakerjaan

Pasal menetapkan sipil dan bukan kriminal hukuman dalam bentuk denda pada majikan dari orang-orang di atas usia tahun tunduk pada kontrol imigrasi dalam keadaan didefinisikan. Seseorang tunduk pada kontrol imigrasi jika dia memerlukan izin untuk masuk atau tetap di Inggris Raya di bawah ketentuan Undang-undang Imigrasi . Keadaan yang ditetapkan bahwa

karyawan tidak memiliki izin untuk masuk atau tetap atau

-Nya meninggalkan tidak sah telah kadaluarsa atau mencegah dia dari menerima pekerjaan.

Ketentuan ini dibuat dalam Bagian dan untuk keberatan di pihak majikan untuk pengenaan denda dan untuk mengajukan kasasi ke Mahkamah County melawan pemaksaan seperti itu.

Pasal menetapkan kewajiban pada Sekretaris Negara untuk mengeluarkan Kode Etik majikan menentukan apa Mengembalikan Jati Diri yang harus dilakukan untuk menghindari

kewajiban kepada hukuman sipil

komisi pelanggaran di bawah bagian dan

diskriminasi yang Kebangsaan akan bertentangan dengan peraturan perundang-undangan hubungan ras.

Informasi

Bagian berkaitan dengan ketentuan tentang penahanan dan pemeriksaan paspor dan dokumen lain yang dihasilkan oleh penumpang atau yang ditemukan pada mereka ketika sedang diperiksa di bawah Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa Jadwal . Hal ini juga memberikan kekuatan baru untuk memungkinkan petugas imigrasi untuk meminta penumpang yang diperiksa di bawah Jadwal untuk menyediakan Jati Diri informasi biometrik seperti sidik jari dengan tujuan untuk memastikan apakah penumpang yang bersangkutan merupakan pemegang sah paspor atau dokumen lainnya yang menghasilkan. Bagian menetapkan batas waktu ketat pada orang-orang mencari suaka untuk menghadiri untuk sidik jari dari pada orang-orang di kategori yang lain.

Bagian memberikan kekuasaan polisi untuk maju membutuhkan informasi tentang penumpang dan awak atau kargo kapal dan pesawat tiba diharapkan tiba meninggalkan atau diharapkan untuk meninggalkan Inggris Raya. Kekuasaan yang ada H.M. Pendapatan dan Bea Cukai untuk mendapatkan informasi seperti itu oleh Pasal yang diperluas untuk kapal dan pesawat terbang tiba atau diharapkan untuk tiba di Inggris Raya.

Bagian memperluas Jati Diri Bangsa klausa pengecualian dalam F c dari Konvensi Pengungsi. Menyatakan bahwa di mana Menteri Luar Negeri menolak klaim rumah sakit jiwa seluruhnya atau sebagian berdasarkan Pasal F yang Asylum and Immigration Tribunal atau Imigrasi Khusus Komisi Banding SIAC harus dimulai dengan pembahasan pada aspek suaka dari setiap banding dengan mempertimbangkan apakah maupun Pasal F berlaku dan jika hal itu harus mengabaikan daya tarik Jati Diri sejauh hal itu bergantung pada Konvensi Pengungsi.

Ketentuan mengenai kewarganegaraan

Bagian Undang-undang Kewarganegaraan Inggris memberdayakan Sekretaris Negara untuk melucuti kewarganegaraan orang Inggris jika ia puas bahwa orang itu telah melakukan sesuatu yang merugikan kepentingan vital dari Inggris Raya atau wilayah luar negeri Inggris. Perintah semacam itu tidak boleh dilakukan jika orang yang bersangkutan dengan demikian diberikan tanpa kewarganegaraan. Bagian dari Undang-undang tahun kata-kata maaf sehingga Sekretaris Negara harus yakin bahwa pencabutan kewarganegaraan yang kondusif untuk kepentingan publik Bagian dari Undang-undang Imigrasi mendefinisikan amp quot hak mengembalikan jati diri bangsa untuk menetap di Inggris Raya amp quot sebagai warga negara yang memanjang hingga ke Inggris dan untuk warga negara Persemakmuran yang diperoleh bahwa tepat sebelum dimulainya Inggris Undang-undang Kewarganegaraan . Dengan bagian Menteri Dalam Negeri diberi kekuasaan untuk menghalangi seseorang dari hak untuk menetap jika dia berpikir bahwa akan lebih kondusif untuk umum baik bagi orang yang bersangkutan untuk dikecualikan atau dikeluarkan dari Kerajaan Inggris.

Berbagai ketentuan Undang-undang Kewarganegaraan Inggris berurusan dengan pendaftaran orang sebagai warga negara Inggris atau sebagai warga negara wilayah luar negeri Inggris. Bagian sekarang tidak memungkinkan pendaftaran sebagai warga negara dari deskripsi apapun dari setiap orang yang jatuh dalam kategori yang bersangkutan kecuali jika Sekretaris Negara puas bahwa orang yang bersangkutan adalah karakter yang baik.

SLAP THAT NAUGHTY BODY/ MY FATE / 2nd Single / Release Date: [2006.03.23]

Credit: Anna Tsuchiya & Olivia Lufkin

With an increasing number of holiday festivities being held in the home this year, we’re all looking for creative and cost effective ways to spruce up our table settings and create a look that will impress our guests. When it comes to setting your Thanksgiving table, options for the adventurous host are limitless. What are the hottest trends for you to bring to your table this year? Here are a few ideas that will take your Thanksgiving table from ordinary to extraordinary:

Color, Texture and Mix – Match:

In table linens and accessories, this year we are seeing rich, saturated colours. We are also seeing a lot of texture and the mixing and matching of patterns with solids. There are a lot of options out there to do something warm and inviting.

Color Trends

Warm tones have always been popular for Fall and that continues with some of the biggest trends in colour combinations this year. Some of those include:
- Deep Spice and Aubergine with muted Gold accents – Dark Chocolate with Blues and Gray accents – Olive Green, Aubergine and softer greens as accents – Dark Chocolate, Taupe and Natural

Tabletop Decor

- Use things that you already have in your home – pull out your 3 or 4 of your favourite vases of different heights. Use complementary colors of fresh flowers for a simple and stunning arrangement. Fill three or four vases and/or glass bowls with different colors and sizes of ornaments, fruits, leaves – anything with color and texture that will create visual excitement.

- Your guests are all unique – why not celebrate their individuality? Use different patterns and/or colors of napkin rings that match their unique personalities. Are they simple or sophisticated? Fun or formal? Unpredictable or conservative? Show them you care with a little customization to complement your table linens.

- Candles are always a dramatic and cost effective way to make a statement – use votives at each place setting with a name card and emphasize beautiful table linens for a classy and simple look. Or go more dramatic and cluster your favourite candle sticks of varying heights and looks as a centerpiece. Use colors that complement or match your dishes, glasses and table linens.

- Nothing brings subtle sophistication to your table like a well-selected runner. Use one the length of the table plus 12 inches to hang over the edge (usually a 90″ or longer) as the perfect centerpiece. If you are using a solid tablecloth or placemats, make sure to jazz it up with a festive pattern. If you have a patterned look already, use a vibrant solid runner that picks up on one of the colors in your runner.

- Use 2 napkins instead of one with a napkin ring. With a solid napkin inside, and a more decorative napkin on the outside.

When setting your table, just remember: do what feels right for the mood. A casual gathering calls for a relaxed setting. A formal meal should feel that way at the table. Either way, it doesn’t take much to elevate your in-home dining experience. Replacing an old tablecloth with something fresh an exciting, and adding a few simple table accessories can go a long way to impressing your guests. It’s that time of year when family gatherings abound and everyone spends countless hours congregating around the dinner table. With the hours spent preparing the perfect meal, make sure you don’t forget to finish it off with the perfect setting.

This week’s number is a year, like last week. But unlike that gloomy year, 2006 seemed to be a pretty good time, at least in hindsight. It may also provide some insight into why there is so much union activity at a time when most people seem to just be happy to have a job.

2006 marks the end of a half a decade of falling union membership in Pennsylvania. Incidentally, it also marks the end of an almost equally long drop in unemployment.

From 2001, union membership in Pennsylvania dropped (check off all the boxes in the Pennsylania row, and click “retrieve data” at the bottom) from 910,000 to 745,000. Then, it rose in 2007, and jumped a hundred thousand members – to 847,000 – by the next year. Union membership rises and falls because of many factors, obviously. Unionized plants close down, or entrepreneurial activity increases, and the rate will rise or fall. But there is another explanation, and it’s fairly simple: safety.

Unions offer a defense against pay cuts and layoffs. And when the economy turns bad, they look pretty good. During a similar period as the drop in union membership, from 2001 to 2006, unemployment  in Pennsylvania fell overall along with membership, from 5 percent to 4.5 percent. In other words, the job market looked pretty good, and safety wasn’t much of a concern. In 2007, unemployment dropped – barely. The next year, it jumped 1.2 percent. The year after that, 2009, it jumped 3.2 percent.

The takeaway seems to be that when the economy does well, unions don’t. When the economy tanks, everybody runs to unions. This may seem like a fairly obvious conclusion, and it probably is. But it helps explain why unions aren’t afraid to rear their heads, even when the economy is not doing well. Simply put, they represent safety, and that’s worth public disapproval during strikes and labor negotiations.

Editor’s Note: Sunday Numbers is a weekly feature highlighting a statistic in the news or an unexpected number. Enjoy it with your coffee!

Stranger than Fiction (2006) by Marc Forster is the epitome of self-reflexive postmodernism. The film revolves around an accountant, Harold Crick (played by Will Ferrel), who leads a very boring, ritualistic and steady life. His life is disrupted when he starts to hear a female voice that narrates what he thinks or does. With the help of literary Professor Jules Hilbert (played by Dustin Hoffman) he establishes that he is not going mad, but is in fact the creation and protagonist of one of the latest novels of award-winning author Kay Eiffel (played by Emma Thompson). Kay is still in the process of completing her novel and when Harold discovers that she has a history of killing off her protagonists, survival becomes a race against time. Especially since his boring life has been pleasantly disturbed by Ana Pascal (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal), a baker he meets on one of his IRS investigations and falls in love with.

The film is scattered with self-reflexive references which constantly remind the viewer that he/she is indeed watching a film, a fictional piece of art. Yet the director succeeds to breathe so much life into the protagonist, just like novelists often do with their main characters, that the viewer cannot help but regard Harold as more than just a fictional character. Harold becomes a real person to the viewer who empathises with him and secretly hopes that he will not be killed off. Forster ingeniously blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction, literature and film, tragedy and comedy. Even though Harold’s life seems to be a tragedy from his own viewpoint, the viewer regards the film as a comedy – therefore the dramatic irony.

Harold is the typical sad and weak anti-hero (like Winston Smith in Nineteen-Eighty-Four or Lester Burnham in American Beauty). Will Ferrel gives a somewhat unexpectedly impressive and subtle performance as the serious Harold Crick.

SPOILER WARNING: The viewer knows and expects that Harold has to die for the sake of art and for the sake of staying true to what would make the story more literary and powerful. But director Marc Forster goes against these principles, as does novelist Kay Eiffel, and Harold also breaks the mold of being an anti-hero. The act of surrendering his life into the hands of his makers, which ironically is his maker Forster’s choice anyway and might be construed as the ultimate example of weakness, makes him a hero in the eyes of the viewers and his makers. His life is spared, and even though the end is not as literary or as powerful as it could have been, the viewer is not bothered for he/she rejoices in Harold’s new lease on (a more exciting) life. SPOILERS END HERE.

The film makes one think about the issues regarding the creation of art: Do these characters, created by novelists or filmmakers, have a life apart from the artwork they are a part of? Do they only exist when the novel is read or the film is watched? Or do they exist as a separate entity within the artwork as soon as they are created by a writer, even though no one has ever set eyes on the artwork? I believe they exist from the moment they are read about or viewed, when the world of the characters and the world of the viewer collide, and that they then live on in the memories of the readers or viewers. But still, if no one hears or sees a tree falling, does that indeed mean that the tree does not fall? Something can exist apart from being observed, can it not?

Genre: Comedy-Drama / Romance
Running time: 113 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Marc Forster
Writing credits: Zach Helm
Producers: Lindsay Doran
Cinematographer: Roberto Schaeffer
Editor: Matt Chessé
Editor:
Britt Daniel
Brian Reitzell
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Main Cast:
Harold Crick – Will Ferrell
Prof. Jules Herbert – Dustin Hoffman
Kay Eiffel – Emma Thompson
Ana Pascal – Maggie Gyllenhaal
Penny Escher – Queen Latifah