Latest news with #Stoker
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why oil wealth hasn't fueled West Texas prosperity
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – Beneath the dirt roads and pumpjacks, lies one of the richest oil producing regions in the world. With all that wealth underneath, many residents have wondered why more money hasn't been poured back into Odessa. The Permian Paradox is a three-part series that examines the reality of life in West Texas from historical identity to infrastructure gaps to commercial stagnation. In Part I, Odessa Mayor Cal Hendrick explained Odessa's deep roots in cattle ranching and hard work. Hendrick, a fifth-generation Odessan, described the city as one originally built by ranchers and not developers. Furthermore, he said that legacy of self-sufficiency still shapes the city's culture and policies. '100 years ago, Odessans were cattlemen, and they wanted the town to reflect that. Which was good for then but it has cost us now,' said Hendrick. The independence helped Odessa thrive during oil booms but without long term planning, it left infrastructure behind. Roads, water systems and zoning laws to this day continues to have lingering issues. In Part 2, City Council At Large, Craig Stoker, spoke about the food desert and inconsistent infrastructure. Basic needs require a commute; some drive more than 20 miles to reach a full-service grocery store, and Councilman Stoker, who formally worked with the food bank, pointed to Odessa's outdated infrastructure as a key obstacle to development. 'We're out here on an island,' said Stoker. 'Most development happens along the I-35, I-45 corridors. Trucks don't come here daily like they do in places where there is real estate for it.' Stoker mentioned that the closest cold storage facility is in Lubbock, which makes it a 'nightmare' for retailers and grocery store chains. Stoker said, national brands like H-E-B are focused on metro expansion and not West Texas growth which forces residents to rely on smaller chains or even drive to Midland for weekly necessities. Meanwhile, Odessa's Development Corporation focuses on attracting manufacturing and industrial warehousing, not neighborhood amenities. Some have argued that while those investments bring jobs, they don't always improve residents' day-to-day quality of life. Part 3, addressed where the money is going. Despite Odessa's wealth in oil, many new developments are popping up in Midland County, instead. According to Kevin Dawson, a local development tracker and Founder of Maybe in Midland/Odessa, most of the area's commercial growth is funded by private investors and families who already live in the region. 'Development here is local,' said Dawson. 'Its about who's within a 1-3-5 mile radius. Daily traffic, income levels, population, and its not just oil production that drives whats built.' This means areas with higher population density like parts of Midland, get more attention from developers. Meanwhile many Odessans continue to wait for the basics. There is hope. The mayor says long term projects like a new sports complex and much improved water infrastructure are in the works Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Scotsman
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Matthew Goode: Everything you need to know about the actor
Known for roles in shows such as Downton Abbey and The Crown, Matthew Goode will led the cast of Dept. Q. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Now the star of Netflix's Edinburgh-set detective drama Dept. Q, Matthew Goode has been appearing on our screens for the last twenty years. Whether you know him from films such as Leap Year, Stoker and The Imitation Game, or are more familiar with his appearances in shows including Downton Abbey, The Crown or A Discovery of Witches, the English actor has made himself known in a variety of supporting roles. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Matthew Goode and Jamie Sives in Dept. Q. | Netflix But with the arrival of Dept. Q on Netflix this week, Goode will be leading the cast as the brilliant but frustrating detective Carl Morck. Ahead of the show's release on May 29, here is everything you need to know about Matthew Goode. Who is Matthew Goode? Matthew Goode was born in Exeter on April 3, 1978. His father was a geologist while his mother was a nurse, who also directed amateur theatre. The youngest of five children, Goode's half sister is TV presenter Sally Meen. He grew up in the village of Clyst St. Mary, and studied at the University of Birmingham as well as the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Goode said: 'I'm a guy from a little village called Clyst St Mary near Exeter, and I didn't even know I wanted to be an actor before I went to university.' What TV shows and movies has Matthew Goode been in? Goode's debut screen role came in 2002, when he appeared in the made for television film Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, directed by the late Scottish director Gavin Millar. Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode arrive at the premiere of "Chasing Liberty" in 2004. | Getty Images Since then Goode has enjoyed a steady career, with roles in romcoms such as Chasing Liberty (2004), Match Point (2005) and Leap Year (2010), as well as appearances in films such as Watchmen (2009), A Single Man (2009), Stoker (2013) and The Imitation Game (2014). More recently, Goode has starred in movies such as The King's Man (2021), Freud's Last Session and Abigail (2024). As for his television roles, he is likely most familiar to Downton Abbey fans for his role as Henry Talbot. He has also appeared in series such as the 2013 adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley, American legal drama The Good Wife, season 2 of The Crown – in which he starred as Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon – and British fantasy series A Discovery of Witches, in which he played a vampire. Matthew Goode | Getty Images for Paramount Pictu Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Matthew Goode Dept. Q As for his role in Dept. Q, Matthew Goode stars as Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck. Based on the books by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, the Netflix series is set in Edinburgh instead of Copenhagen. Matthew Goode stars in Netflix's new Edinburgh-set drama Dept. Q. | Jamie Simpson/Netflix Living in the Scottish capital following his divorce from his wife, Goode's character is described as a brilliant detective but a difficult colleague having recently been appointed as the head of a new cold case unit following an on-duty tragedy.
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Slade in Flame review – Midlands glam rockers offer A Hard Day's Night meets Get Carter
Here is Slade's movie musical satire from 1975, a film with all the pungent historical presence of a pub ashtray, about an imaginary band called Flame which looked and sounded a lot like Slade, fronted by Stoker, played by Noddy Holder. It came out a year after the film's soundtrack album was released, and now gets a rerelease for its 50-year anniversary. Slade in Flame – which is to say, Flame, starring Slade – is regarded by fans and non-fans alike with enormous affection and regard, and it certainly has a weird, goofy energy: the audio mix sometimes surreally privileging ambient sounds such as doors closing and glasses chinking, with the dialogue way in the background. It's about an innocent working-class Midlands band getting taken up by creepy adman-type smoothie Robert Seymour, played by Tom Conti, who exploits their raw talent for cash and takes them on a rollercoaster ride of fame, the action regularly suspended while the band sing their various tracks. But then their former manager, dodgy cockney mobster Mr Harding (Johnny Shannon) reappears – a man who never gave a hoot about them in their early days and contributed nothing to their career – demanding his share of the action. So it bizarrely mixes the madcap comedy of A Hard Day's Night – or a late-period Carry On – with the brutal nastiness of a crime thriller like Get Carter. The effect is striking, in its way, but finally somehow depressing in a way that isn't entirely intentional, and depressing in a way that actually listening to Slade is not. It also shows the unexpected influence of a particular kind of Brit social realism with a generic loyalty to unhappiness. Flame is the amalgam of two sparring local bands, one fronted by tricky geezer Jack Daniels, played by Alan Lake, always conning his fellow band members out of their share of the fee, and the other a comedy combo called Roy Priest And the Undertakers, the lead singer being Holder's irrepressible Stoker. They have a monumental fight which lands them all in the cells, where a grim-faced custody sergeant is shown walking down the corridor, flushing each of their lavatories in turn with a chain that dangles outside. (It's this kind of brutal touch which makes the film a vivid guide to the tough 70s.) They join forces and Daniels is dispensed with. Flame then enjoy the fruits of the Faustian bargain that they don't remember making: packed crowds, screaming girls, lots of money. There's a thoroughly bizarre interview aboard a pirate radio ship in the Thames estuary which is interrupted by gunshots which Seymour may or may not have staged for publicity purposes. But there's a creeping sense that it's all going to come crashing down. The best bits are always the band performing, with Holder's compelling rock'n'roll growl. Slade in Flame is in UK and Irish cinemas from 2 May, and on Blu-ray and DVD from 19 May.
Telegraph
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Rare Bram Stoker letter reveals what he really thought about Dracula
Bram Stoker's Dracula was not the immediate success one might have expected for such a haunting gothic horror. While critics gave the novel positive reviews at the time, it was not until after Stoker's death in 1912 that it became a bestseller, and has never been out of print since. The discovery of a rare letter has revealed Stoker himself was confident his novel would grab the public's attention and go on to stand the test of time. The letter was recently discovered by a rare books dealer among a private collection acquired from a buyer in the United States. It was written by Stoker to a friend weeks after its initial publication in 1897. In it, he describes his confidence that Dracula will be regarded as 'high' literature and not just a piece of pulp horror. Writing to the friend, referred to only as Mr Williams, Stoker states: 'I send you Dracula & have honoured myself by writing your name in it.' He adds: 'How is enclosed for high? Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless. Yours ever, Bram Stoker.' Letters by Stoker are rare and, according to experts, those in which he mentions his novel Dracula by name are virtually unheard of. Fewer than a handful are known to exist, and those are typically formal acknowledgements. By contrast, this letter is informal and prescient, making it one of the earliest and most candid authorial commentaries on the novel, according to Oliver Bayliss, the rare book dealer who acquired it. 'This letter gives us something we've never really had before: Stoker's own voice, responding to Dracula around the moment it entered the world, not as an icon of horror but as a new, uncertain work,' he said. 'Stoker clearly, and with just cause, felt it was a high watermark in his writing. However, early reviews were mixed and Dracula didn't become the legend it is for many, many years thereafter.' Stoker's letter is expected to fetch thousands when it goes on sale in the next few weeks. In the world of literary collecting, letters by authors commenting on their most significant works, especially so close to publication, are among the most sought-after artefacts. When those letters contain the title itself, in the author's own hand, and offer some flavour of personality or insight, they are considered exceptionally rare, says Mr Bayliss. 'Stoker's humorous aside – 'Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless' – has the ring of an artist knowingly pushing the boundaries of the gothic and enjoying it. It's theatrical, cheeky, and utterly authentic. That tone simply doesn't appear in his other known correspondence on the subject,' he adds. Mr Bayliss said Mr Williams was probably a friend or colleague in the London theatre world, where Dublin-born Stoker worked at the time. 'It's rather special for me to bring the letter back to London, the city where Dracula was first published and where the letter was, in all likelihood, written while Stoker was managing the Lyceum Theatre,' Mr Bayliss said. Dracula was published while Stoker worked at The Daily Telegraph in London as one of this newspaper's literary staff. In 1890, he had travelled to Whitby, where the North Yorkshire coastal town provided him with the setting for Count Dracula's arrival in England. After coming ashore at Whitby, the Count, transmogrified into the shape of a black dog, runs up the 199 steps to the graveyard of St Mary's Church in the shadow of Whitby Abbey's ruins.
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rare letter offers glimpse into Bram Stoker's early thoughts on Dracula
He had just unleashed one of the most famed gothic horror books on the world, a blood-curdling classic that chilled readers and has inspired countless authors, film-makers and video game developers ever since. But a rare note that Bram Stoker wrote just weeks after Dracula was published in 1897 gives a glimpse into the playful fun he must have had with the novel. In the letter – addressed to an unidentified 'Williams' – Stoker writes: 'I send you Dracula & have honoured myself by writing your name in it … Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless. Yours ever, Bram Stoker.' Oliver Bayliss, of Bayliss Rare Books in London, who is selling the letter, said the note was personal, informal and revealing. Stoker was better known for his reserved and professional tone in the few letters that have survived but this one suggested an awareness of his book's gothic extravagance and, perhaps, a playful pride in its dark theatricality. Bayliss said letters by Stoker were rare and ones in which he mentioned Dracula by name virtually unheard of. 'Less than a handful are known to exist, and those are typically formal acknowledgments. By contrast, this letter is informal, insightful, and dated just weeks after the book's publication, making it one of the earliest and most candid authorial commentaries on the now-legendary novel. 'This letter gives us something we've never really had before: Stoker's own voice, responding to Dracula around the moment it entered the world – not as an icon of horror, but as a new, uncertain work. 'Stoker's humorous aside, 'Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless' has the ring of an artist knowingly pushing the boundaries of the gothic and enjoying it. It's theatrical, cheeky, and utterly authentic. That tone simply doesn't appear in his other known correspondence on the subject.' Bayliss, who sells to institutions and private collectors, said: 'Given the extraordinary rarity of this letter, it will have strong appeal to both. There's also crossover with film and pop culture collectors, especially those with an eye on iconic 20th-century monsters. 'I could also see investor interest. Dracula is one of the most sought-after first editions in rare book collecting, and a letter signed by Stoker, directly referencing the vampire and revealing his early thoughts on the novel, is essentially one in a billion. Rarer than seeing a vampire in daylight.' Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The letter came from a seller on the west coast of the US, who had acquired it from a private collection where it had been since the 1970s. Bayliss said: 'It's rather special to bring the letter back to the city where Dracula was first published – and where the letter was, in all likelihood, written while Stoker was managing the Lyceum Theatre.'
