Latest news with #Embers
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Beloved restaurant Embers in Peshtigo announces closure, business listed for sale
PESHTIGO, Wis. (WFRV) – After years of serving the community, Embers, a beloved local establishment in Peshtigo, has announced it is closing its doors and is officially for sale as of today. In a heartfelt message shared with patrons, the owners expressed deep gratitude and sadness, noting that the decision was made after 'many tough conversations and thoughtful consideration.' 'We've come to the conclusion that stepping away is what's best for our families at this time,' the statement reads. Intersection lanes in Allouez close, expected to last 10-15 days Embers has been known for its welcoming atmosphere and strong community ties, built through years of hard work and local support. The owners thanked the community for its loyalty and kindness, calling it 'what makes this farewell so difficult.' Though their journey with Embers is coming to a close, they remain hopeful for the future of the space and the town. 'We hope it's just the beginning for someone new to step in and bring fresh vision and energy to this space,' they wrote. 'We believe in Peshtigo and are excited for what the future holds for this wonderful town.' The business is now listed for sale, and the owners say they are looking forward to seeing what's next, both for Embers and for the community they've served. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
5 days ago
- General
- Newsweek
Nagasaki Book Tells Survivor Stories and US Thinking 80 Years After Bombing
In August of 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan—the only time in history that nuclear weapons have been used in combat. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 led to the end of World War II the following month. The effects on both cities were devastating. In Nagasaki alone, "Fat Man" killed an estimated 40,000 civilians almost instantly, with the number reaching around 70,000 by January 1946 from the effects of radiation poisoning. On the 80th anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses by M.G. Sheftall, a historian at Shizuoka University in Japan, remembers the lives lost and the world forever changed by nuclear warfare. The two-part series features firsthand accounts from hibakusha—the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors—to give personal accounts of the aftereffects of this unprecedented weapon. In this excerpt from his second book in the Embers series, Sheftall recounts how young Nagasaki civilians unwittingly went about their mornings before their lives changed forever. (Original Caption) 09/13/1945-Nagasaki, Japan: A Japanese civilian pushes his loaded bike down a path which has been cleared of rubble. On either side of the path debris, twisted metal, and gnarled tree stumps fill the... (Original Caption) 09/13/1945-Nagasaki, Japan: A Japanese civilian pushes his loaded bike down a path which has been cleared of rubble. On either side of the path debris, twisted metal, and gnarled tree stumps fill the area. This is in the center of the devastated area. More Bettmann / Contributor/Getty On Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean at 0030 hours on August 8, 1945, 33 hours after its roaring return to North Field, Enola Gay sat empty and crypt quiet on its macadam hardstand. The whirring movie cameras and cheering crowds of its August 6 mission-accomplished celebrations had been long since replaced by the ambient buzz of insects and the occasional passing sentry jeep. Fifteen hundred and fifty miles to the northwest, in the harbor city of Nagasaki, 16-year-old Gunge Norio was walking home after working a night shift at a Mitsubishi ordnance plant. Roughly 1.2 miles southeast of this factory, in Nagasaki's central business district, two of Norio's Mitsubishi coworkers, 15-year-old Kiridōshi Michiko and 14-year-old Ishida Masako, were catching their last few precious hours of sleep ahead of another day shift of thankless toil for Japan's rapidly collapsing war effort. So was 13-year-old Tateno Sueko, who, later that morning, would be helping to dig bomb shelters with other members of her neighborhood association. In the northern Nagasaki suburb of Urakami, a 21-year-old Catholic novice named Itonaga Yoshi would soon rouse in her convent room for matins prayers with her fellow sisters in the chapel of Junshin Girls' School. Around and amongst these five adolescents, 40,000 men, women and children were a few hours away from waking up to the last full day of their lives. Thirty hours later, they would be casualties of history's second (and hopefully last) nuclear weapon dropped in anger. Across the Sea of Japan from Nagasaki, Kiridōshi Michiko's uncle, Tetsurō, was one of the million-odd soldiers defending the northwestern frontier of Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Along the border of this territory, the Red Army was using the cover of darkness to move more than 5,000 tanks, 26,000 artillery pieces and 1.5 million men into final jumping-off points. Thirty minutes later, these forces would spring into action, fulfilling Joseph Stalin's Yalta Conference promise to Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill that the Soviet Union would officially join the war against Japan three months to the day after the capitulation of Nazi Germany. About 2,500 miles southeast of Stalin's massing armor, and several hundred feet from Enola Gay's hardstand, scientists and engineers from the Manhattan Project's "Project Alberta" technical team were pulling an all-nighter in a purpose-built air-conditioned assembly shed. Here, they were readying a second atomic bomb—a "Fat Man" (so called because of its rotund shape) plutonium device of the same type first ground-tested in the New Mexico desert barely three weeks previously. In a little more than 24 hours, this second Fat Man would be dropped from a B29 on a Japanese city—either Nagasaki or the arsenal town of Kokura. While the "sure thing" and technologically much simpler one-off uranium device that had been dropped on Hiroshima had gone off, as expected, without a hitch, none of the Project Alberta team members were as confident about the odds of this far more complex and mechanically sensitive Fat Man device functioning as designed in the inherently chaotic conditions of a combat mission. Moreover, the probability of malfunction was further increased as the technicians were being forced to race against the clock; the second atomic strike was being timed to take advantage of the last remnants of a patch of favorable weather over the target area of western Japan. If the August 9 window of good drop weather were missed, it would be nearly a week until the weather cleared enough for the 509th to get its next chance to drop a visually aimed second atomic bomb on Japan. The Americans' meteorological urgency was a direct consequence of the strategic imperative to exploit the psychological shock value of Hiroshima. It was hoped that dropping a second bomb so soon after the first would lead the Japanese to believe that there were many more of these weapons in the American arsenal than there actually were, and that these would continue to be dropped on Japan until that country either surrendered or—as per Harry Truman's July 26 Potsdam Declaration threat (which the Japanese so far were refusing to acknowledge)—ceased to exist. To ramp up the political and psychological pressure on Japan's national leadership, as well as its general populace, Twentieth Air Force B29s—in between incendiary raids—had been dropping over Japanese cities in the wake of the Hiroshima bombing leaflets featuring a photo of Little Boy's mushroom cloud and bearing a message translated into Japanese threatening to use "the most destructive explosive ever devised by man." The leaflet continued: "We have just begun to use this weapon against your homeland. If you still have any doubt, make inquiry as to what happened to Hiroshima when just one atomic bomb fell on that city. Before using this bomb to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging this useless war, we ask that you now petition the Emperor to end the war.... You should take steps now to cease military resistance. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ this bomb and all our other superior weapons to promptly and forcefully end the war. EVACUATE YOUR CITIES." View of the atomic bomb, codenamed 'Little Boy,' as it is hoisted into the bomb bay of the B-29 Superfortress 'Enola Gay' on the North Field of Tinian airbase, North Marianas Islands, early August, 1945.... View of the atomic bomb, codenamed 'Little Boy,' as it is hoisted into the bomb bay of the B-29 Superfortress 'Enola Gay' on the North Field of Tinian airbase, North Marianas Islands, early August, 1945. The bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6. More PhotoQuest / Contributor/Getty But even if the Americans' bombing schedule were met, and despite these air-dropped appeals to popular fear, there was still a possibility that the second bombing would prove as unconvincing to the Japanese leadership as the first apparently had been. In this case, the unlimited-bombs bluff would lose its teeth (assuming it had ever had any in the first place) long before a third bomb became available, which would be some time around August 19 to 21. As a matter of military prudence, the Americans could not dismiss out of hand official crowings that had featured center stage in Japanese propaganda content since the fall of Saipan a year earlier about possessing the ultimate strategic weapon of a populace that was prepared to die en masse in a final decisive battle—a so-called hondo kessen—to defend its homeland rather than dishonor it with surrender. Until the Americans began hitting the invasion beaches of Kyushu later that fall, they would not know if all of this Japanese talk about "a hundred million balls of fire," and flaming mass suicide was a sincere declaration of national resolve or mere propaganda bluster. The Americans, then, were not the only players in this strategic standoff in which bluff and resolve were indistinguishable. The Japanese played their hand by raising in the American imagination the specter of a ground-combat and kamikaze-plane apocalypse that, if the Americans went ahead with their plans for a land invasion of the Home Islands, could have been akin in degree of ferocity to the bloodbath the Allies had just endured on Okinawa (where they had suffered some 50,000 casualties and up to twice as many Japanese civilians might have perished), but potentially multiplied by orders of magnitude in terms of scale. The Japanese aim here was to get the Americans to blink first and cut a peace deal more generous than the unconditional surrender they had been demanding since the Casablanca Conference of January 1943. In the early days of August 1945, Emperor Hirohito and his most trusted advisors—unaware not only of what was about to happen in Manchuria, but also of what the Soviet leader had promised in Yalta six months earlier—held out pipe-dream hopes that the still technically Japan-neutral Stalin might help to broker such a deal. In what can only be considered either a gross lapse of foresight or a fatal case of wishful thinking, no one at the highest levels of strategic decision-making in Tokyo seems to have advised the emperor—the only person in Japan capable of ordering an end to the war—of the possibility that a solemnly sworn threat of imminent Armageddon, rather than halting in its tracks the American juggernaut then headed for the Home Islands, might instead spur that enemy to deploy ever more effective means of indiscriminately slaughtering Japanese soldiers and civilians in their millions. Although American field commanders at the in theater operational level were contemplating using a third atomic bomb on Tokyo, higher-echelon decision-makers in Washington were coming around to the idea that there would be little strategic value in dropping another very expensive bomb just to rearrange the rubble in the imperial capital and kill another hundred thousand or more civilians, especially if the hearts of Japan's leaders were already inured to such sacrifice. Instead, the third bomb and the rest of the next production run of plutonium Fat Man devices could be put to better use as tactical battlefield weapons for the upcoming invasion of Kyushu, prepping the landing sites and neutralizing Japanese command and logistic centers farther inland when the Allies began hitting the beaches there on November 1, by which time, General Leslie R. Groves assured Washington, the Manhattan Project organization would have 10 or more such devices ready to go. In the meantime, the Allies would press on with their systematic dismantling of Japan's economy and infrastructure by conventional means and spare no collateral damage in the process. A passage from an official intelligence briefing for the Fifth Air Force succinctly encapsulated the operant mindset of this strategy: "[T]he entire population of Japan is a proper Military Target.... THERE ARE NO CIVILIANS IN JAPAN. We are making War and making it in the all-out fashion which saves American lives, shortens the agony which War is and seeks to bring about an enduring Peace. We intend to seek out and destroy the enemy wherever he or she is, in the greatest possible numbers, in the shortest possible time." Toward this end, the country's sea-lanes, harbors, and inland waterways would continue to be blockaded and strangled by submarines, aerial mining ("Operation STARVATION") and air attack. The Far East Air Forces would hit tactical targets and immobilize the national railway network—an effort that would interdict enemy troop and supply movement as well as prevent the vitally important autumn rice harvest from reaching the main population centers on the Tokyo–Osaka urban corridor, a development that would result in mass famine in the Home Islands by year's end. Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses book jacket Nagasaki: The Last Witnesses book jacket Dutton Adult HC 2005 From Nagasaki by M. G. Sheftall, published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2025 by M. G. Sheftall.
Saudi Gazette
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Saudi Gazette
Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending
DELHI — Fifty years after it first exploded on Indian screens, Sholay (Embers) — arguably the most iconic Hindi film ever made — is making a spectacular return. In a landmark event for film lovers, the fully restored, uncut version of Ramesh Sippy's 1975 magnum opus will have its world premiere at Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy, on Friday. This version includes the film's original ending — changed due to objection from the censors — and deleted scenes. The screening will take place on the festival's legendary open-air screen in Piazza Maggiore — one of the largest in Europe — offering a majestic setting for this long-awaited cinematic resurrection. Crafted by writer duo Salim-Javed and featuring an all-star cast led by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and the unforgettable Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh, Sholay draws cinematic inspiration from Western and samurai classics. Yet, it remains uniquely Indian. The 204-minute film is a classic good-versus-evil tale set in the fictional village of Ramgarh, where two petty criminals, Jai and Veeru (Bachchan and Dharmendra), are hired by a former jailer, Thakur Baldev Singh, to take down the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh — one of Indian cinema's most iconic villains. When it first released, Sholay ran for five uninterrupted years at Mumbai's 1,500-seater Minerva theatre. It was later voted "Film of the Millennium" in a BBC India online poll and named the greatest Indian film in a British Film Institute poll. Half a million records and cassettes of RD Burman's score and the film's instantly recognisable dialogues were sold. The film is also a cultural phenomenon: dialogues are quoted at weddings, referenced in political speeches and spoofed in adverts. "Sholay is the eighth wonder of the world," Dharmendra, who plays a small-town crook and is paired up with Bachchan in the film, said in a recent statement. Shooting the film was an "unforgettable experience," Bachchan said, "though I had no idea at the time that it would become a watershed moment in Indian cinema." This new restoration is the most faithful version of Sholay, complete with the original ending and never-before-seen deleted scenes, according to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation. In the original version, Gabbar Singh dies — killed by Thakur, who crushes him with spiked shoes. But the censors objected. They balked at the idea of a former police officer taking the law into his own hands. They also found the film's stylised violence too excessive. The film faced unusually tough censors because it hit the theatres during the Emergency, when the ruling Congress government suspended civil liberties. After failed attempts to reason with them, Sippy was forced to reshoot the ending. The cast and crew were rushed back to the rugged hills of Ramanagaram in southern India — transformed into the fictional village of Ramgarh. With the new, softened finale — where Gabbar Singh is captured, not killed — in place, the film finally cleared the censors. The road to the three-year-long restoration of the epic was far from easy. The original 70mm prints had not survived, and the camera negatives were in a severely deteriorated condition. But in 2022, Shehzad Sippy, son of Ramesh Sippy, approached the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation with a proposal to restore the film. He revealed that several film elements were being stored in a warehouse in Mumbai. What seemed like a gamble turned out to be a miracle: inside the unlabelled cans were the original 35mm camera and sound negatives. The excitement didn't end there. Sippy Films also informed the Foundation about additional reels stored in the UK. With the support of the British Film Institute, the team gained access to archival materials. These were carefully shipped to L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, one of the world's premier film restoration facilities. Despite the loss of the original 70mm prints and severely damaged negatives, archivists sourced elements from Mumbai and the UK, collaborating with the British Film Institute and Italy's L'Immagine Ritrovata to painstakingly piece the film back together. The effort even uncovered the original camera used for shooting the film. Interestingly, Sholay had a rocky start when it first hit the screens. Early reviews were harsh, the box office was shaky, and the 70mm print was delayed at customs. India Today magazine called the film a "dead ember". Filmfare's Bikram Singh wrote that the major problem with the film was the "unsuccessful transplantation it attempts, grafting a western on the Indian milieu". "The film remains imitation western — neither here nor there". In initial screenings, audiences sat in silence — no laughter, no tears, no applause. "Just silence," writes film writer Anupama Chopra in her book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic. By the weekend, theatres were full but the response remained uncertain — and panic had set in. Over the next few weeks, audiences warmed up to the film, and word of mouth spread: "The visuals were epic, and the sound was a the third week, the audience was repeating dialogues. It meant that at least some were coming in to see the film for the second time," writes Chopra. A month after Sholay hit screens, Polydor released a 48-minute dialogue record — and the tide had turned. The film's characters became iconic, and Gabbar Singh — the "genuinely frightening, but widely popular" villain — emerged as a cultural phenomenon. Foreign critics called it India's first "curry western". Sholay ran for over five years — three in regular shows and two as matinees at Mumbai's Minerva. Even in its 240th week, shows were full. Sholay hit Pakistani screens on April 2015, and despite being 40 years old, it outperformed most Indian films over a decade old — including the 2002 hit Devdas starring Shah Rukh Khan. As film distributor Shyam Shroff told Chopra: "As they used to say about the British Empire, the sun never sets on Sholay." Why does Sholay still resonate with audiences, half a century later? Amitabh Bachchan offers a simple yet profound answer: "The victory of good over evil and... most importantly, poetic justice in three hours! You and I shall not get it in a lifetime," he told an interviewer. — BBC
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Second Concert on the Commons series set for Thursday night
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — The Inner Banks Media Concert on the Commons concert series returns to Greenville this week on Thursday, May 22. On April 24, the concert featured The Dave Matthew's Tribute Band. This week, the concert will feature beach legends, The Embers, and Craig Woolard at the Greenville Toyota Amphitheater. The Embers will perform their huge hits 'I Love Beach Music' and 'Far Away Places' plus some of the songs Woolard has recorded including 'Love Don't Come No Stronger' and 'What You Do To Me'. They will also perform other recognizable hit songs. 'We are excited to have Craig and the Embers back,' Managing Partner of Inner Banks Media, Hank Hinton said. 'Craig is such an amazing showman, and everyone can sing along to all those great songs'. The show starts at 6:00 p.m. and is free of charge. There are no coolers allowed, but beer and wine will be available for purchase. Food trucks will also be lined up along First Street. 'The shows are free again this year, but we are reminding people not to bring coolers', said Hinton. 'One of the ways we keep the shows free to the public is by working with the Greenville Junior League on beverage sales'. Don't miss out on the next three shows happening on June 5, June 26, and July 10. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Metro
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
This country has finished last the most at Eurovision (and no, it's not the UK)
With the Eurovision Song Contest set to air on BBC1 tonight in Switzerland, fans are keen to know who is favourite to win the iconic competition… and who risks scoring the dreaded Nil Points. All eyes will be on pop group Remember Monday tonight, in the hope that they can buck the recent trend of the UK finishing toward the bottom of the leaderboard. The band, consisting of Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele, will be taking to the stage to perform a rendition of What the Hell Just Happened? for juries and audiences worldwide. This comes after last year's UK representative, Olly Alexander, finished in a disappointing 18th place, receiving a blistering 0 points in the public vote – with only 46 jury votes saving him from a humiliating last-place finish. The UK has finished in last place a total of five times (so far!), with James Newman most recently receiving Nil Points for the song Embers, back in 2021. But which nation has been the most unsuccessful in Eurovision history? Those who remember last year's competition may recall that Norway finished in last place, with 16 points. This marked the 12th time they have finished bottom of the table, making Norway the country which has come last the most in Eurovision history. During last year's competition, Norwegian folk rock and metal band Gåte performed their rendition of Ulveham, earning the country its most recent last-place finish. Before then, Norway had finished in last place for their 2012 entry, Stay by Tooji (but we'll forgive you if you don't remember that particular performance). Since making its debut in the contest in 1960, Norway has also come in last place in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001 and 2004. But it isn't all bad news – as the Scandinavian country has also won the contest three times and scored the biggest victory ever in 2009, winning by a huge margin. The UK has finished last in Eurovision a total of four times. These were in 2008 with Andy Abraham (14 points), in 2010 with Josh Dubovie (10 points), in 2019 with Michael Rice (11 points), and in 2021 with James Newman (0 points). Last year, Olly Alexander narrowly missed coming bottom of the table, placing 18th out of 25 in the Grand Final. The UK's Eurovision performance was considerably better in the 20th century, having won the contest a total of five times in 1967, 1969, 1976, 1981 and 1997. Bookmakers currently have Sweden as the favourite to win Eurovision 2024, with most giving the nation 40% odds to take home the trophy. More Trending Also in the running are Austria and France, with a respective 20% and 13% chance of winning Meanwhile, the UK's own Remember Monday are dark horses in the competition, with current odds putting them in 11th place, with a mere 1% chance of winning. View More » The Eurovision 2025 Grand Final airs tonight at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: The 17 biggest controversies in Eurovision Song Contest history after Israel protest disruption MORE: UK Eurovision icon reveals secret to winning contest and it doesn't involve singing MORE: Which country has won Eurovision the most?
