Latest news with #Depression-era
New Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Superman wasn't always so squeaky clean – in early comics he was a radical vigilante
Superman was the very first superhero. He debuted in Action Comics issue #1 which was released in June 1938. Over time, the character has been assigned multiple nicknames: 'The Man of Steel', 'The Man of Tomorrow' and 'The Big Blue Boy Scout'. However, in his first appearance in ravaged Depression-era America, the byline used to announce Superman's debut was: 'The Champion of the Oppressed'. Created by the sons of Jewish immigrants, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, Superman is an example of youthful male wish fulfilment: an all-powerful figure dressed like a circus strong man, who uses brawn to right wrongs. However, Siegel and Shuster's initial version of the character was a more flawed character. Appearing in a 1933 fanzine, Siegel's prose story The Reign of the Superman with accompanying illustrations by Shuster, featured a reckless scientist whose hubris is punished when he creates the telepathic 'super man' by experimenting on a drifter plucked from the poverty lines. Echoing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creator is dispatched by his creation. Siegel and Shuster had some early success selling stories to National Allied Publications, the forerunner of DC Comics. At this time, comic books were mainly collections of newspaper cartoons – the 'funnies' – pasted together to create more portable anthologies. They featured the escapades of characters like Popeye and Little Orphan Annie. Inspired by the heroic tales of derring do of pulp fiction adventurers such as Johnston McCulley's Zorro (1919) and Philip Wylie's 1930 science fiction novel Gladiator, Siegel and Shuster further developed their Superman character. They transformed him into a hero and added the now familiar cape and 'S' logo.
IOL News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
A weekend of captivating performances awaits Durban this weekend
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, founder of the Hare Krishna movement, came to South Africa with a bold message: love of God transcends race, nationality, and social barriers. Make Me Dance This production is a spectacular tribute to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, the inspiring founder of the Hare Krishna movement. Experience a beautiful fusion of dance, poetry, music and storytelling that celebrates the message of love that knows no barriers. Where: The Playhouse Loft Theatre. When: Saturday at 12pm. Annie The KZN Young Performers Project will light up the stage with their musical production of "Annie". The much-loved Depression-era musical tells the story of Annie, played by Kaitlyn Rex, who is a little girl with big dreams, and her faithful companion, Sandy, a show-stealing golden retriever, Lucy. Directed by Daisy Spencer, the production will see Daniel Mayiza as the billionaire Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, and his charming secretary, Grace Farrell, played by Chloe Marot. The cast comprises 120 performers, including a double cast of senior primary youngsters performing as orphans. Where: The Playhouse Opera Theatre. When: Currently on until Sunday. Show times differ, depending on the day. Upcoming show Esokuqala This play is set to make waves as it embarks on a three-stop tour across KwaZulu-Natal This production weaves together music, dance, and drama, telling the poignant story of a family of doctors caught in a spiritual conflict between traditional and contemporary belief systems. As they grapple with the ancestral powers that influence their newborn child, "Esokuqala" poses vital questions about spirituality in modern society. Featuring a 25-member cast of both established artists and emerging talent from the region, this performance promises to provoke thought and reflection on faith and family dynamics. Where: The Playhouse Drama Theatre. When: July 19 at 6pm.
Time Out
30-06-2025
- Time Out
Yet again, G train shutdowns are coming this summer—here's what to know
Brace yourselves, Greenpoint faithful: The 'Summer of G' is back—and not in a fun, alphabet-themed beach towel kind of way. Starting July 14 through Aug. 18, the G train will once again ghost riders between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues on select weeknights and weekends. It's all part of the MTA's ongoing effort to drag the line's Depression-era signals into the 21st century (1930s tech may be vintage-cool in fashion, but less so when you're stuck waiting in a dark tunnel). There will be no G service between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand from 9:45 p.m. to 5 a.m. on the following weeknights: July 14–18, July 24–25, Aug. 4–8 and Aug. 11–15. Weekend closures run from 9:45 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday on July 25–28, August 1–4, Aug. 8–11 and Aug. 15–18. If your summer social calendar includes Williamsburg dive bars or a late-night taqueria run in Fort Greene, plan to pivot. The MTA is deploying fare-free shuttle buses that will stop at every affected station, running every 3–4 minutes overnight and every 5–10 minutes on weekends. G service will still operate south of Bedford-Nostrand down to Church Avenue. It's all part of a $368 million signal modernization project that's installing CBTC (communications-based train control), which promises faster, more reliable trains once complete in 2027. This is the fourth phase of outages following last summer's sweeping shutdowns, which came with a few silver linings: 10 stations got deep-cleaned, lighting and tile upgrades were installed and yes, 5G is on the way (expected this fall). Even some of the new open-gangway R211T trains have begun rolling out on the G and when the CBTC is live, they'll be fully compatible, so while the summer detours are annoying, they're also paving the way for a smoother ride.
Business Times
16-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Warner Bros discovers it can't be everything
IN WHAT is quickly becoming a pattern, Warner Bros Discovery is making headlines for taking a mulligan. Less than a month after reversing its inexplicable 2023 decision to drop the valuable HBO branding from its streaming service, HBO Max, the entertainment conglomerate is following up on its three-year-old merger of two separate companies them into two separate companies. The specifics of this and similar recent shake-ups make clear a troubling trend: Media giants attempt to be every kind of entertainment company at once, and then struggle to do much of it particularly well. Ultimately, the audience is left with the short end of the stick. To be fair, the split isn't quite a full-blown reversal like the HBO Max to Max back to HBO Max branding backflip. The 2022 merger brought together WarnerMedia's assets (including Warner Bros, DC Entertainment HBO, CNN and TNT) with Discovery's holdings (Discovery Channel, TLC, Discovery+ to name a few). The new proposal will separate Warner Bros Discovery's offerings into two companies: one for its streaming assets and film studios, and another for its legacy cable TV channels. Or at least that's one way to delineate the divergence of its holdings. Another, more blunt, version would be: For the most part, the company has put its profitable pieces (streaming and film) in one pile and the non-profitable pieces (the TV networks) in another. Few who were paying attention to the 2022 deal would be surprised by its ultimate failure. Warner has a long and chequered history of ill-advised mergers. Its previous ownership, AT&T, is a noteworthy example. As part of the deal with Discovery, AT&T spun off WarnerMedia with tens of billions of dollars in debt, which Warner Bros Discovery then assumed. The resulting company has managed to pay down about US$20 billion, which would be impressive were it not for the remaining US$34 billion still owed (plus an estimated US$40 billion in lost value). Still, we're not talking about some fly-by-night operation – Warner Bros recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and has become shorthand for excellence in film and television. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Within that century, it released 1927's The Jazz Singer, an industry disrupter that was the starter pistol for the 'talkies' revolution. The studio was praised for its gritty, socially conscious Depression-era dramas and crime pictures and released legitimately iconic movies such as Casablanca, Rebel Without a Cause, Bonnie & Clyde, The Exorcist, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Redemption, the Harry Potter franchise and (of course) the Looney Tunes shorts and features. And let's not forget Warner Bros produced smash TV shows such as Friends and ER. All of which prompts the question: If a company with that kind of pedigree can't stay afloat in a media landscape that's perpetually hungry for entertainment (or, to put it less artfully, 'content'), who can? The bleak current outlook of the industry indicates that perhaps the answer is 'no one'. Even the Walt Disney Co, which has managed to couple a keen eye for valuable properties with a cultural influence and brand recognition that most other studios can only dream of, may not be infallible. Between the decreased dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the chinks in the armour of its Disney+ streaming service, it's seen better days. Universal Studios, America's oldest surviving film studio (founded in 1912) and still the go-to image of motion picture production thanks to its popular tours, is in the midst of its own sorting-and-separating process. Its parent company, Comcast, announced plans last year to split the oversized NBCUniversal into two groups. Like Warner Bros Discovery, it separated into profitable assets (such as NBC, Bravo, Peacock and theme parks) and less profitable ones (the likes of USA, Syfy, E!, Oxygen, MSNBC and CNBC). Only time will tell if the less lucrative group can survive on its own. The uncertainty is an unfortunate symptom of a fractured media landscape that has been saturated with more viewing options than audiences can (or want to) keep track of. One thing that is not a mystery is that if executives want to compete in a crowded field, they have to be willing to think outside the boxes they've so carefully constructed. Warner Bros did that in a big way at the end of the 1940s. When profits had fallen by more than 50 per cent (due to multiple factors, including the Paramount Decrees and the looming threat of television), Jack Warner tightened belts at the studio. He ended long-term contracts with several of its most expensive stars. It was painful and difficult, but it kept the doors open and the lights on, and the studio reconfigured how they made movies for the changing times and trickier landscape. One could argue that these spin-off solutions are roughly equivalent to Warner's cuts, but solving contemporary problems requires executives to fixate on more than mere numbers as measures of success. As in past moments when audience attention has wavered (in the face of such threats as radio, television and home video), the best solution lies not in bookkeeping but in creativity – empowering filmmakers, showrunners, writers and actors to produce entertainment that genuinely excites audiences and compels them to seek it out. BLOOMBERG The writer is a film critic and historian whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Vulture, The Playlist, Slate and Rolling Stone. He is the author, most recently, of Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend.
Boston Globe
13-06-2025
- Boston Globe
First light to last light: The arc of a perfect summer day in Gloucester
There's no shame in settling down on either beach for the morning, then packing up your beach chairs and following the sun. But if you're feeling more ambitious, Gloucester has plenty to fill the day. By the time you've walked the length of Good Harbor Beach, Cape Ann Coffees will be opening at 6 a.m. At the other end of the harbor, Mom's Kitchen starts dishing pancakes and eggs at 5 a.m. What can we say? Fisherfolk start early. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A trail map to Dogtown stands at the parking lot on Dogtown Road. David Lyon While the rest of Gloucester is waking up, walk off the breakfast carbs by hiking the trails in Dogtown. Every town deserves a mysterious, spooky wood, and Dogtown is Gloucester's. Site of the 17th-century settlement, the ghost town sits atop a glacial moraine. Trees and shrubs have overgrown the vast boulder field since this inland village was abandoned about 200 years ago as Gloucester sought its living from the sea. Yet cellar holes and patches of ornamental flowering plants and fruit trees persist as silent witnesses to lives once lived here. The 'Babson Boulder Trail″ is the most popular way to explore Dogtown. Look for massive stones inscribed with inspirational words — 'Truth,″ 'Kindness,″ 'Prosperity,″ and so on. They are the work of Depression-era unemployed stone cutters hired by Gloucester native Roger Babson. Advertisement This contemporary wetu sits next to the 1710 White-Ellery saltbox on the Cape Ann Museum Green campus in Gloucester. David Lyon Gloucester may be one of America's oldest European settlements, but the English were hardly the first to live here. At the Cape Ann Museum Green campus, located between Dogtown and the Route 128 traffic circle, a contemporary art wetu (a traditional Indigenous dwelling) and a stone mush8n (a stone version of an Indigenous dugout canoe) nod to earlier occupants of the land. The brightly painted wetu contrasts with the weathered clapboards of the adjacent 1710 White-Ellery saltbox house. Although the downtown location of the museum remains closed for renovation until 2026, CAM Green offers tours of the White-Ellery House and mounts changing exhibitions in its soaring, light-filled gallery building. Carvings on the "Babson boulders" in Dogtown exhort passersby to admirable actions. David Lyon By now you've probably caught on that Gloucester is a pretty special place. So it's no surprise that the glorious light has long drawn artists to town. Starting in the mid-19th century, artists have flocked to Rocky Neck, a small peninsula poking out into Gloucester Harbor. It claims to be 'one of America's oldest working art colonies.″ Rocky Neck in Gloucester is a well-established art colony. David Lyon Rocky Neck is a compact spit, easily walked from the municipal parking lot on Rocky Neck Avenue. Check out the former studio of Marsden Hartley at 9 Rocky Neck Ave., now a private home. He spent summers here in the 1930s and often painted the glacial moraine of Dogtown. The former studio of A.W. Buhler at 17 Rocky Neck Ave. is now a gallery. Buhler is best remembered for his painting 'Man at the Wheel,″ the inspiration for Gloucester's iconic Fisherman's Memorial statue. Take a short detour to 2 Clarendon St. to see the house that Edward Hopper painted as 'The Mansard Roof.″ Or just wander the galleries and shops, including the sleek gallery and wine bar called Salted Cod Arthouse, and pop into any open studios. You will see a lot of paintings of boats, harbors, and broader seascapes. Gloucester is, after all, also America's oldest working fishing port. Advertisement Edward Hopper modeled the image in "The Mansard Roof″ on this Rocky Neck home. David Lyon Downtown knits together Gloucester's maritime and artistic histories. As you wrap around the head of the inner harbor, you'll pass the site where Hopper painted 'Tall Masts″ in 1912. Hopper was hardly the first artist to be entranced by Gloucester's waterfront. One of your first stops on a walking tour along the harbor will be a three-story Gothic Revival stone house on a high hill above the working port. Looking almost like a waterfront watchtower, it was designed by Fitz Henry Lane, the Gloucester-born artist whose radiant images of glowing sky and restless seas first drew other painters to the seaport. He lived and worked here from 1849 until his death in 1865. Just feet away, Alfred Duca's evocative 1996 bronze statue shows the painter perched on a rock, sketchbook in hand, looking out on the harbor. Advertisement The Fisherman's Memorial, often called ‶Man at the Wheel,″ stands on Western Avenue in Gloucester. David Lyon Also on Harbor Loop, just below the Lane House, Maritime Gloucester is a living museum of the city's saltwater history. In the Dory Shop, Geno Mondello continues to build historic Gloucester fishing dories when he's not tending his 200 lobster traps. One of the founders of Maritime Gloucester, Mondello says it takes five to six weeks to build a boat. Just below the shop, the oldest operating marine railway in the country still hauls ships out of the water for repairs, just as it has since 1849. At an adjacent pier, the pinky schooner Ardelle offers daily public sails until October. The Ardelle offers daily harbor sails from the Maritime Gloucester wharf. David Lyon A little farther west along the harbor, Seven Seas Wharf has served the fishing industry for more than 350 years. It's still used to stow and repair nets, fuel up for offshore trips, and unload lobsters and fish. The Gloucester House Restaurant dominates the wharf. Enjoy seafood in the rough from the takeout window of Blue Collar Lobster Company while looking out at the fishing vessels and Cape Pond Ice. Poignant tributes are cut into the blocks at the base of the Fishermen's Wives Memorial. David Lyon Continue west to 18 Western Ave., the building that Hopper painted in watercolors in 1926 as 'Anderson's House″ (owned by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston). The dwelling sits just above the Town Landing at the end of Pavilion Beach. It's a short walk along Western Avenue to the 'Man at the Wheel″ statue based on Buhler's painting. It's the focus of the Fisherman's Memorial, where bronze plaques list the names of those lost at sea. Keep walking across Blynman Bridge (also painted by Hopper) to the more recent statue of the Fishermen's Wives Memorial, which notes the sacrifices of fishermen's wives and families. This side of the bridge is planted with striking flower beds that flourish in the diffuse seaside light. Advertisement The family depicted in the Fishermen's Wives Memorial looks out to sea, waiting. David Lyon Be sure to return to Pavilion Beach for sunset. It doesn't face perfectly west, but the setting sun illuminates the wet beach with a shimmering slick of color. Clouds above the city blaze with red and gold. The opposing horizon beyond the Eastern Point Light glows rosy pink. Suddenly, darkness falls. Then you can call it a day. Patricia Harris and David Lyon can be reached at . Sunset lights the sky and glistens on the sands of Gloucester's Pavilion Beach. David Lyon If you go … Cape Ann Motor Inn 33 Rockport Road 978-281-2900, Double room $295 Cape Ann Coffees 86 Bass Ave. 978-282-1717, Mon.-Sat. 6 a.m.-1 p.m. Baked goods, sandwiches $3.50-$10.75 Mom's Kitchen 29 Commercial Ave. 978-282-4444, Thu.-Tue. 5 a.m.-noon. Eggs, griddle fare, and sandwiches $4-$13 Salted Cod Arthouse 53 Rocky Neck Ave. 978-282-0917, Open daily 11:30 a.m-10 p.m. Wine bar menu of small plates, soups, flatbreads, and panini $6-$16 Blue Collar Lobster Company at Gloucester House Restaurant 63 Rogers St. 978-283-1812, Open daily 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Chowder, snacks, and seafood $8-$42, lobster market price Dogtown Park at access lot on Dogtown Road off Cherry Lane and follow Dogtown Babson Boulder Trail Map: Rocky Neck Art Trail map: CAM Green 13 Poplar St. 978-283-0455, Open Wed.-Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., free Maritime Gloucester 23 Harbor Loop 978-281-0470, Gallery and aquarium open Fri.-Mon. 10 a.m.-4 p.m., adults $15; seniors, military, students, teachers $10 David Lyon can be reached at
