(meta data) TITLE: Beautiful Humans | Nomin Bold

(meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/beautifulhumansmagazine

Nomin Bold is a rising artist in Mongolia.

Trained in the traditional Mongol Zurag painting style, Nomin has become well known for her work mixing Buddhist imagery, which she uses as motifs and symbols of past traditions, and modernism.

Through her paintings, Nomin raises awareness on the cultural identity crisis and hopes to ignite a reflection on the importance of keeping tradition alive in the modern world.

Victoria Adelaide: Why did you start painting?

Nomin Bold: I've loved drawing since my childhood, so my parents encouraged me to become a painter.

This is what I love to do and I've never looked back.

"EARTH" (soil) 2019 – acrylic, canvas (245x145cm) | Painting by Nomin Bold.

You belong to the new generation of Mongol Zurag artists.

The Mongol Zurag style was pioneered in the aftermath of the 1921 Revolution when the social situation changed in Mongolia.

Consequently, it was impossible to recover the Buddhist thangka drawing techniques and to reconsider and show interest in past history as well.

Thus, artists were challenged to experiment in a restricted extent by themselves.

They practiced Western drawing techniques, then created many pieces of line drawings and became the main artists of their time.

However, those works were disregarded because they were judged as childish, poor, lacking in perspective, and shameful compared to Western paintings.

Today, it is recognized more explicitly that there is a strong truth, which is briefly stated in the Mongolian drawing style declaration: "Nomads represent the truth that will remain in the heart, instead of the truth observed by [the] eyes."

This is where the spirit of Mongolian drawing style lies.

Perhaps because art was perceived from different perspectives, the essence of Mongolian-style drawings was identified only when modernism was introduced to European art.

The singularity that makes Mongolian-style drawings so spectacular is their ability to make everything possible by representing any time and space on one canvas.

Ulaanbaatar, the city in which you live, has changed a lot over the past few years.

How do you feel about all those changes?

NB: Change and evolution are always welcome.

But when it's happening too drastically, as it is in this case, it makes life chaotic, uncomfortable, and this is not something I enjoy very much, I have to say…

VA: Female figures have an important place in your art.

NB: Female figures play an important role in what I do because I do not know men better than women.

Some say that in Mongolia, women and men have equal status.

However, I think the different genders cannot have equal status.

A man can never be like a woman and a woman can never be like a man.

Genders have been assigned to humans for a specific purpose, following the natural order.

VA: Combining tradition and modernism seems to be your trademark…

NB: I picture it through my work because globalization is an inevitable aspect of human society.

We may not like it—we may protest, object—but, in the end, it's impossible to stop it.

It is definitely the responsibility of every nation to preserve its traditions and heritage.

VA: What would you like viewers to reflect on when viewing some of your work?

My goal, and what I'd like to point out to people, is that they must respect the earth and Mother Nature.

I really would love for people to become more conscious about the need to take care of nature and our planet.

It is never too late to do the right thing; we can start now.

VA: Do you think art will always be used as a source of reflection?

NB: Not everyone is gifted with artistic abilities or a creative mind.

So, when we are, our art must be original to first catch people's attention then, later on, people will start becoming interested in its meaning.

VA: What is your creative process and how long does it take you to finalize a piece?

The longest piece I've ever had to do took more than a year to be completed.

I was working on it occasionally when I had the time.

It's important to keep in mind that every piece of art has its own processing rhythm.

NB: At the moment, I'm working on a piece called Love.

VA: What would you do if you were not an artist?

NB: I've asked myself that question a few times and I've never found the answer.

So, I suppose I must be involved in something that is so extraordinary, so precious to me, so great, that it makes it impossible for me to envision myself doing something different.

##### ...every piece of art has its own processing rhythm.

It's on a pulse and creates itself at its own pace.``

Nomin Bold (Mongolian: Болдын Номин; * 1982 in Ulaanbaatar) is a Mongolian painter. She is part of a new Generation of artists which uses the Mongol zurag. Nomin Bold was at the Mongol-Zurag-Class at the Art University in Ulan-Bator. Her painting was influenced by the Buddhistischen Thangka Technik.


Students are known to give speeches at Ivy Day.

(meta data) TITLE: Penn History-ICA Ivy Stone Brochure

Since June 7, 1873, every class graduating from the University of

Pennsylvania has placed at least one Ivy Day stone somewhere on the

Each class's stone is unveiled during a ceremony, held

a few days before Commencement, in which a sprig of ivy is planted, a

tradition whose origins are lost in the early history of Penn.

tradition, currently called Ivy Day, seems to have started as a modest

ceremony involving speeches and the planting of ivy by the graduating

class to commemorate its time at the university

these ceremonies paid tribute to the past and to lessons learned, while

hundred fifty-five Ivy Day stones embody the past and present as well as

by forming a visible, tangible continuum

continuing and ever-growing exhibition of one history of the university

that can be seen in the stones' content, design, and placement.

A typical Ivy Day stone is a piece of carved stone, approximately

one-by-two feet, placed slightly below eye level at a campus site chosen

Some are simple, with just the text Ivy Day, the

while others have designs that include intricate

carving, inscriptions, and Penn symbols.

the year of the class that placed it, and virtually all have some ivy

motif, to symbolize the planting of the ivy sprig at the stone's

The university's move from Center City to the new campus in West

Philadelphia, and the completion of College Hall, inspired the class of

1873 to make a permanently identifiable addition to the ivy-planting

This memorial on the north side of College Hall is the first

A passage from The University Record of 1873 gives an

explanation and description of the event:

The first class to graduate from her new abode, and associated with her in

old and new life, it seems peculiarly fitting that '73 should leave some

memorial to bear witness in the future to her devotion to the University.

With this idea in view, it was resolved early in the year to revive the

picturesque custom of planting an ivy upon graduation.

difficulty, the best spot about the building, on the front with northern

], was obtained, and, with a piece of ivy from

Kenilworth [Castle in Scotland], kindly supplied by Prof. Jackson, we

The situation of this highly interesting but at present insignificant

plant was further designated by a neat marble slab, in the form of a

shield, fixed in the wall directly above it, which bore the inscription:

"Ivy planted by the class of '73, June 7th, 1873...

The remark was frequently made that this festivity should be repeated in

succeeding years, and we cannot doubt that such a course would conduce to

the pleasure of all parties concerned, as well as redound to the

Not to be outdone, the class of 1874 placed a similar memorial on College

Hall next to the 1873 stone, and also gave a name to the occasion, Ivy

class of '74, June 13th, 1874, Nunc est laborandum [Now it is necessary to

This appears to be the first evidence of the event being called

The 1875 stone contributed an innovation of its own: although

its text is similar to the previous stones, the 1875 stone is carved not

the iconography of the Ivy Day stone; by symbolizing the act of planting

ivy, the stone itself--its appearance and placement--became the focus of

In fact, some later stones (e.g., 1889 and 1986) are far from ivy.

planting aspect diminished in importance, another took its place-that of a

memorial embodying and marking the ephemeral ceremony.

The next thirteen graduating classes all placed their stones on the front

Some of these stones (e.g., 1883, 1894, and 1910, and

the two of the fractious class of 1885) were remarkably designed, yet it

became clear that design alone could not call attention to a stone when it

and 1895 classes made a new contribution to the

Ivy Day stone tradition, choosing to place their stones on the two new

centers of undergraduate life-the University Library (later Furness

Building) and Houston Hall, respectively

placement as well as design could be a way for a class to demonstrate its

In most subsequent stones, placement has superceded

design as the primary means of showing these interests

these decisions of placement and design were made by the students

Currently, the Senior Class Board serves as a jury for the

design selection and, by informal consensus of its class, finds the

The issue of placement is important: placement allows the juxtaposition of

stones from different eras to show both similarities and differences among

classes. The placement of stones between 1911 and 1922 on the dormitories

in the Quadrangle demonstrates that undergraduate life during this time

included not only the intellectual pursuits of College Hall and Furness

Building but also the growing social aspect of university life.

trend first can be seen with the 1895 stone on

Houston Hall, the first student union in the United States, and the 1902 stone on Bodine Dormitory in the Quadrangle,

one of the first completed dormitories at Penn

stones are not placed can be just as telling as where they are: the

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has never held much

significance for undergraduates; it has no Ivy Day stones, even though it

is situated near many buildings with stones.

The use of the Ivy Day stone to reinforce and differentiate the interests

anniversary of Houston Hall, the men's class of 1945, wishing to

commemorate the still important role of the building, placed its stone

opposite the 1895 stone on the main entrance.

the 1895 stone's composition, but with important differences.

mortar board representing student life was changed to a 1945 GI helmet.

The Latin inscription taken from the 1895 stone, Vivere militare est [To

live is to campaign], took on a more somber meaning in an era of war.

This somber intention is accentuated further by the absence of an ivy

motif, something also omitted in the 1944 stone

The role of women at Penn is another aspect of university life found in

For each year between 1926 and 1961, there are two

stones, one placed by women and one by men

after Mary Alice Bennett, the first woman to receive a doctorate from

Penn) was completed, and the women's classes from 1926 to 1958 placed

Bennett Hall was to the early campus life

of women what College Hall had been to the newly relocated, male

The women's stones from 1959 to 1961 were placed on a

new center of women's life, Hill House, then a dormitory for women.

The men's and women's stones of the 1926-61 period are so similar that

their placement is the primary means of distinguishing them.

stones are located on what were at one time the centers of women's life,

while the men's stones are spread out over the campus on such then-new

edifices as the Chemistry Laboratories (1942) and 'Dietrich Hall (1952).

Additional means of distinguishing between the stones of this period are

include the date of Ivy Day and are generally vertical in orientation; the

women's stones are virtually a horizontal and do not include the date of

These differences in the women's stones subtly suggest a

complementary but discrete identity for women undergraduates during this

The subsequent, improved integration of women in

campus life can be recognized by the single 1962

stone placed on the newly completed Van Pelt Library.

stone (along with the 1964 and 1969 stones) currently resides in Physical Plant

Storage due to another aspect of university life, building and renovation.

And, in fact, from 1962 to 1975, the placement of Ivy Day stones on the

many buildings constructed or renovated in this period reflects the

consolidation and growth of the present campus.

In the 1980s, two trends became evident in the placement of stones.

was to locate stones at sites of significant events that occurred during

the just completed school year, such as the 1983 stone marking the

twenty-seven yard line at Franklin Field where Dave Schulman's field goal

won Penn its first Ivy League championship since 1959.

a renewed interest in the placement of stones to display ties to the past.

One example is the 1987 stone on Junior Balcony, the site of another

prevented the class of 1987 from celebrating its Hey Day on Junior

Balcony, so the class placed its stone there to commemorate the renovation

and also to link the class of 1987 to previous and subsequent Hey Days,

just as the stone itself links the class to previous and subsequent Ivy

Unlike moribund traditions such as the Bowl

Fight, the Ivy Day stone tradition has remained an active part of Penn

because its original purpose is as valid for each graduating class as it

was for the class of 1873 "to leave some memorial to bear witness in the

future to her devotion to the University."

the Ivy Day stones function as effective public art can: to foster a sense

by using a visual vocabulary of design, text,

Thus, each class remembers and is remembered in the

greater context of the University of Pennsylvania.

This pamphlet has been produced by ICA in celebration of the University of

Pennsylvania's 250th anniversary, May 1990.

The author wishes to thank the following people for their help and

support: the University of Pennsylvania's 250th Anniversary Celebration

Committee, Albert Moore, James Mann, Sandra Markham, Christina Moxham,

Gerald Zeigerman, Alice Norris, Frances and David Robb, Sara Yorke, Susan

Nitzberg, Joshua Lott, Joanna Sadowska, David Taylor, Julia Null, Greg

Adams, Eric Lidman, Robert Shapiro, Mary Burke, the advisory board and

staff of ICA, Director Patrick Murphy, and especially Assistant Director

Judith Tannenbaum without whom this project would never have been

Some institutions announce members of Phi Beta Kappa and specialized honor designations for students. Some classes donate to the college, in the form gates, facades, and door outlines, by inscribing or creating their own version of symbolic icons of the college's seal or other prominent insignia. The ivy stones are usually decorated with the graduation date and a symbol that represents the college as a whole or the class as a whole. The most common ivy stone is one-by-two feet and is usually made out of workable stone.
 On occasion students have featured prominent alumni on their class ivy stones or have selected to feature an engraving of a member of their graduating class. Since 1873 at the University of Pennsylvania and since 1879 at Bates College, students have unveiled class ivy stones at the annual ivy day preceding commencement. Students may also have a selective procession prior to the official commencement walk to honor each stone being placed on the buildings. On some occasions students plant ivy in front or on the side of their ivy stones. Princeton University also places class ivy stones on the walls of its buildings, a few days prior to their commencement.


The speeches commemorate their time and work at the college.

(meta data) TITLE: Penn History-ICA Ivy Stone Brochure

Since June 7, 1873, every class graduating from the University of

Pennsylvania has placed at least one Ivy Day stone somewhere on the

Each class's stone is unveiled during a ceremony, held

a few days before Commencement, in which a sprig of ivy is planted, a

tradition whose origins are lost in the early history of Penn.

tradition, currently called Ivy Day, seems to have started as a modest

ceremony involving speeches and the planting of ivy by the graduating

class to commemorate its time at the university

these ceremonies paid tribute to the past and to lessons learned, while

hundred fifty-five Ivy Day stones embody the past and present as well as

by forming a visible, tangible continuum

continuing and ever-growing exhibition of one history of the university

that can be seen in the stones' content, design, and placement.

A typical Ivy Day stone is a piece of carved stone, approximately

one-by-two feet, placed slightly below eye level at a campus site chosen

Some are simple, with just the text Ivy Day, the

while others have designs that include intricate

carving, inscriptions, and Penn symbols.

the year of the class that placed it, and virtually all have some ivy

motif, to symbolize the planting of the ivy sprig at the stone's

The university's move from Center City to the new campus in West

Philadelphia, and the completion of College Hall, inspired the class of

1873 to make a permanently identifiable addition to the ivy-planting

This memorial on the north side of College Hall is the first

A passage from The University Record of 1873 gives an

explanation and description of the event:

The first class to graduate from her new abode, and associated with her in

old and new life, it seems peculiarly fitting that '73 should leave some

memorial to bear witness in the future to her devotion to the University.

With this idea in view, it was resolved early in the year to revive the

picturesque custom of planting an ivy upon graduation.

difficulty, the best spot about the building, on the front with northern

], was obtained, and, with a piece of ivy from

Kenilworth [Castle in Scotland], kindly supplied by Prof. Jackson, we

The situation of this highly interesting but at present insignificant

plant was further designated by a neat marble slab, in the form of a

shield, fixed in the wall directly above it, which bore the inscription:

"Ivy planted by the class of '73, June 7th, 1873...

The remark was frequently made that this festivity should be repeated in

succeeding years, and we cannot doubt that such a course would conduce to

the pleasure of all parties concerned, as well as redound to the

Not to be outdone, the class of 1874 placed a similar memorial on College

Hall next to the 1873 stone, and also gave a name to the occasion, Ivy

class of '74, June 13th, 1874, Nunc est laborandum [Now it is necessary to

This appears to be the first evidence of the event being called

The 1875 stone contributed an innovation of its own: although

its text is similar to the previous stones, the 1875 stone is carved not

the iconography of the Ivy Day stone; by symbolizing the act of planting

ivy, the stone itself--its appearance and placement--became the focus of

In fact, some later stones (e.g., 1889 and 1986) are far from ivy.

planting aspect diminished in importance, another took its place-that of a

memorial embodying and marking the ephemeral ceremony.

The next thirteen graduating classes all placed their stones on the front

Some of these stones (e.g., 1883, 1894, and 1910, and

the two of the fractious class of 1885) were remarkably designed, yet it

became clear that design alone could not call attention to a stone when it

and 1895 classes made a new contribution to the

Ivy Day stone tradition, choosing to place their stones on the two new

centers of undergraduate life-the University Library (later Furness

Building) and Houston Hall, respectively

placement as well as design could be a way for a class to demonstrate its

In most subsequent stones, placement has superceded

design as the primary means of showing these interests

these decisions of placement and design were made by the students

Currently, the Senior Class Board serves as a jury for the

design selection and, by informal consensus of its class, finds the

The issue of placement is important: placement allows the juxtaposition of

stones from different eras to show both similarities and differences among

classes. The placement of stones between 1911 and 1922 on the dormitories

in the Quadrangle demonstrates that undergraduate life during this time

included not only the intellectual pursuits of College Hall and Furness

Building but also the growing social aspect of university life.

trend first can be seen with the 1895 stone on

Houston Hall, the first student union in the United States, and the 1902 stone on Bodine Dormitory in the Quadrangle,

one of the first completed dormitories at Penn

stones are not placed can be just as telling as where they are: the

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has never held much

significance for undergraduates; it has no Ivy Day stones, even though it

is situated near many buildings with stones.

The use of the Ivy Day stone to reinforce and differentiate the interests

anniversary of Houston Hall, the men's class of 1945, wishing to

commemorate the still important role of the building, placed its stone

opposite the 1895 stone on the main entrance.

the 1895 stone's composition, but with important differences.

mortar board representing student life was changed to a 1945 GI helmet.

The Latin inscription taken from the 1895 stone, Vivere militare est [To

live is to campaign], took on a more somber meaning in an era of war.

This somber intention is accentuated further by the absence of an ivy

motif, something also omitted in the 1944 stone

The role of women at Penn is another aspect of university life found in

For each year between 1926 and 1961, there are two

stones, one placed by women and one by men

after Mary Alice Bennett, the first woman to receive a doctorate from

Penn) was completed, and the women's classes from 1926 to 1958 placed

Bennett Hall was to the early campus life

of women what College Hall had been to the newly relocated, male

The women's stones from 1959 to 1961 were placed on a

new center of women's life, Hill House, then a dormitory for women.

The men's and women's stones of the 1926-61 period are so similar that

their placement is the primary means of distinguishing them.

stones are located on what were at one time the centers of women's life,

while the men's stones are spread out over the campus on such then-new

edifices as the Chemistry Laboratories (1942) and 'Dietrich Hall (1952).

Additional means of distinguishing between the stones of this period are

include the date of Ivy Day and are generally vertical in orientation; the

women's stones are virtually a horizontal and do not include the date of

These differences in the women's stones subtly suggest a

complementary but discrete identity for women undergraduates during this

The subsequent, improved integration of women in

campus life can be recognized by the single 1962

stone placed on the newly completed Van Pelt Library.

stone (along with the 1964 and 1969 stones) currently resides in Physical Plant

Storage due to another aspect of university life, building and renovation.

And, in fact, from 1962 to 1975, the placement of Ivy Day stones on the

many buildings constructed or renovated in this period reflects the

consolidation and growth of the present campus.

In the 1980s, two trends became evident in the placement of stones.

was to locate stones at sites of significant events that occurred during

the just completed school year, such as the 1983 stone marking the

twenty-seven yard line at Franklin Field where Dave Schulman's field goal

won Penn its first Ivy League championship since 1959.

a renewed interest in the placement of stones to display ties to the past.

One example is the 1987 stone on Junior Balcony, the site of another

prevented the class of 1987 from celebrating its Hey Day on Junior

Balcony, so the class placed its stone there to commemorate the renovation

and also to link the class of 1987 to previous and subsequent Hey Days,

just as the stone itself links the class to previous and subsequent Ivy

Unlike moribund traditions such as the Bowl

Fight, the Ivy Day stone tradition has remained an active part of Penn

because its original purpose is as valid for each graduating class as it

was for the class of 1873 "to leave some memorial to bear witness in the

future to her devotion to the University."

the Ivy Day stones function as effective public art can: to foster a sense

by using a visual vocabulary of design, text,

Thus, each class remembers and is remembered in the

greater context of the University of Pennsylvania.

This pamphlet has been produced by ICA in celebration of the University of

Pennsylvania's 250th anniversary, May 1990.

The author wishes to thank the following people for their help and

support: the University of Pennsylvania's 250th Anniversary Celebration

Committee, Albert Moore, James Mann, Sandra Markham, Christina Moxham,

Gerald Zeigerman, Alice Norris, Frances and David Robb, Sara Yorke, Susan

Nitzberg, Joshua Lott, Joanna Sadowska, David Taylor, Julia Null, Greg

Adams, Eric Lidman, Robert Shapiro, Mary Burke, the advisory board and

staff of ICA, Director Patrick Murphy, and especially Assistant Director

Judith Tannenbaum without whom this project would never have been

Some institutions announce members of Phi Beta Kappa and specialized honor designations for students. Some classes donate to the college, in the form gates, facades, and door outlines, by inscribing or creating their own version of symbolic icons of the college's seal or other prominent insignia. The ivy stones are usually decorated with the graduation date and a symbol that represents the college as a whole or the class as a whole. The most common ivy stone is one-by-two feet and is usually made out of workable stone.
 On occasion students have featured prominent alumni on their class ivy stones or have selected to feature an engraving of a member of their graduating class. Since 1873 at the University of Pennsylvania and since 1879 at Bates College, students have unveiled class ivy stones at the annual ivy day preceding commencement. Students may also have a selective procession prior to the official commencement walk to honor each stone being placed on the buildings. On some occasions students plant ivy in front or on the side of their ivy stones. Princeton University also places class ivy stones on the walls of its buildings, a few days prior to their commencement. Students are known to give speeches at Ivy Day.


In December 2017, The Walt Disney Company agreed to a 52.4-billion-dollar deal to acquire 21st Century Fox.

(meta data) TITLE: Disney buys much of Fox in megamerger that will shake world of entertainment and media - The Washington Post

(meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost

The Washington Post logo Democracy Dies in Darkness My Post My Reading List Newsletters & alerts Gift subscriptions Contact us Help desk Business

# Disney buys much of Fox in megamerger that will shake world of entertainment and media

Add to list On my list By Steven Zeitchik Steven Zeitchik Reporter covering the business of entertainment in the U.S. and beyond December 14, 2017

NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Company announced Thursday that it will acquire the majority of assets from rival 21st Century Fox, a megamerger that aims to reset the balance of power in an industry under siege from Silicon Valley.

The merger pairs Disney, the No. 1 studio at the box office and company behind massive hits like "The Avengers" and "Star Wars" reboots, with the No. 3 studio, Fox, which has produced the "X-Men" and "Avatar" franchises as well as a range of mid-budget crowd-pleasers and critically acclaimed films.

It also brings brands such as FX, National Geographic and "The Simpsons" into the same fold as ESPN and ABC — all part of Disney's gamble that only a company of this size could effectively thwart a furious charge into the business of entertainment by well-financed technology giants like Netflix, Apple and Google.

Disney will pay $52.4 billion for Fox, which for its part will spin off Fox broadcast networks, the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel, the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles and several national sports channels, leaving them in the hands of 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch and his family.

Robert Iger, the chairman and chief executive of Disney who had been discussed as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, will continue with the combined firm through 2021.

The deal takes two media and entertainments titans and, after a period of negotiating chess, essentially divides up territory between them.

Iger will lead the legacy-entertainment charge against the new competitors, while Murdoch will attempt to make gains as the business of news and live programming face challenges from digital upstarts.

Disney has watched as viewership to its one-time powerhouse ESPN and other cable channels has shrunk as consumers have cut the cord on pricey cable bills.

Instead, many consumers have opted for subscriptions to the likes of Netflix or Amazon, which offers a wide swath of video content at a fraction of the cost.

(Amazon's chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)

The conglomerate is building up an arsenal of programming in the hope of fending off those firms' forays into the content market.

With enough material, it hopes, it can develop a streaming service that will win over customers who've cut the cord on its products.

"We're excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings," Iger said in a statement Thursday morning.

Murdoch, meanwhile, is confronting similar challenges in the news business.

Fox News and Fox Business come as part of most basic cable bundles and are susceptible to the same cord-cutting challenges.

The thorn in his side are free platforms like Facebook, which have become increasingly central to how many Americans consume news.

A focused news company with its own scale, Murdoch hopes, can help defeat these rivals — potentially one reason Murdoch is reportedly interested in buying CNN.

"The new Fox will draw upon the powerful live news and sports businesses of Fox, as well as the strength of our broadcast network," Murdoch said in a statement.

The new Fox will own 25 percent of the newly combined entity, but it's not yet clear what representation the Murdochs will have in the new company.

One of Rupert Murdoch's sons, James, is chief executive of 21st century Fox, and it's common for studio heads to remain after acquisitions.

Iger on Thursday said he "look[s] forward to talking to him about it" in the coming months, referring to James.

As part of the all-stock deal, Disney will also acquire Fox's 30 percent stake in Hulu, a group of U.S. cable stations, several powerhouse international satellite channels such as Star India and Sky Italia, and a host of U.S. regional sports outlets.

The deal takes Murdoch out of much of the scripted television game and all of the film business, ending a Hollywood association that began more than three decades ago when Murdoch bought Twentieth Century Fox from industrialist Marvin Davis and crested as recently as 2014 when Fox led all studios by market share for the first time this century.

Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's son and the executive co-chair of 21st Century Fox, noted that "while the merged business is about scale, the new Fox is about returning to our roots as a lean and aggressive brand."

The family said there had not been talk yet of recombining with the print media-driven News Corp., owner of the Wall Street Journal and other publication.

"If we do, it's well into the future," Rupert Murdoch said.

But close observers said Murdoch wants to remain involved in entertainment and simply saw a Disney combination as the best way forward.

"Rupert doesn't see this as much as selling as he does buying," the Los Angeles-based investment banker Lloyd Greif said in an email to The Post.

"He's buying Bob Iger and his Midas touch when it comes to filmed content," Greif said.

Greif added, "It's a vote of confidence by Rupert in Iger and his management team over his own.

He sees troubled waters ahead and wants the best ship and crew to navigate them."

For Iger, Thursday's deal amounts to another success after earlier efforts to buy Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.

But Fox will provide the greatest integration challenge yet, with many of the newly acquired company's divisions overlapping with Disney's existing operations.

And greater scale, while valuable in negotiating traditional distributor deals with cable operators and movie theaters, is no guarantee of direct-to-consumer success.

Wall Street was bullish on the announcement, sending Disney's stock up nearly three and Fox almost seven percent.

Regulators and shareholders must still approve the Disney-Fox deal, but most analysts do not expect it to face problems.

In a very different scenario, the Justice Department is currently suing AT&T to stop its acquisition of Time Warner, noting concerns about the marriage of a distributor and content provider.

A few experts dissented, though, and said the sheer volume of creative assets could give regulators pause.

"The scrutiny could be very close and the new antitrust leadership is unpredictable at this point, as witnessed by Time Warner-ATT," said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school.

"I expect DOJ and Congress will be most interested in what this combination will mean for consumers and whether it concentrates too much power in the new entity."

Combined, the new Disney could boast as much as $75 billion in revenue, with nearly a third coming from Fox assets.

On the Disney call, Iger said that he envisions Disney's new service, set for 2019, coexisting with Hulu, the former in a "family vein" and latter as "adult-oriented."

Analysts, however, have questioned what the long-term future of Hulu will hold now that Disney owns a controlling 60 percent stake (Comcast Universal has 30 percent and Time Warner 10 percent).

Would executives shelve the service and shift their resources to Disney's proprietary platform?

Or would they actually try to maintain both Hulu and a separate streaming service?

"I think it's going to be tough — I don't understand how you would segment it," said Aaron Shapiro, the founder of Huge, a digital marketing agency that has done work for Hulu.

He said he eventually saw one Disney entry point for consumers, under one brand, whatever it was called.

"I think they need to put all their eggs in one basket and go for it," he said, noting the challenge of attracting many of the 100 million Netflix subscribers.

The Disney acquisition hints at a further industry consolidation, analysts say, that could see Viacom, CBS, Lionsgate and Sony seek large buyers too, and leave just a few large legacy conglomerates such as Disney-Fox, Comcast Universal and a potential AT&T Time Warner.

Insiders said they believe Disney will be a test for other content providers as they seek to launch direct-to-consumer businesses — if the world's largest media conglomerate is unable to successfully do so, it might make them reconsider whether they should even try.

The news provides a bookend of sorts to a 1995 merger that also saw Disney combine with a television giant — Capital Cities/ABC — setting off a wave of entertainment-industry consolidation.

Coincidentally, it was that deal that brought Iger into the Disney fold: he was the president of Capital Cities/ABC at the time.

In the call, Iger alluded to that past, saying he was a "product" of that merger, which in turn makes him "respect and appreciate the talent" that comes with the Fox acquisition.

Disney's potential Fox acquisition shows radically different responses to Hollywood's Silicon Valley threat

Fox had a massive day at the Golden Globes.

Steven Zeitchik covers the business of entertainment for The Washington Post, examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas.

Before joining The Post, he covered entertainment for the Los Angeles Times for eight years.

He also did reporting tours for The Times in places including Ukraine, Egypt, Germany and the Bill Cosby trial.

Follow Market Watch Dow 26,202.73 Today 0.93% S&P 2,924.43 Today 0.82% NASDAQ 8,020.21 Today 0.9% Last Updated:08/21/2019 Subscriber sign in

Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker.

Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on.

Questions about why you are seeing this?

 "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" (also known as "Percy Jackson") is a feature film series based on the novel series of the same name by the author Rick Riordan. The series is distributed by 20th Century Fox, produced by 1492 Pictures and currently consists of two installments. The first film, "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" (2010), was directed by Chris Columbus, and was released on February 12, 2010. The second installment, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters", was originally intended to be released in March 2013 but was instead pushed back to August 7, 2013, and was directed by Thor Freudenthal. The series has grossed nearly $430 million at the worldwide box office.
 The films follow the adventures of demigod Percy Jackson and his comrades at the demigod training ground of Camp Half-Blood. In the first film, Percy must go on a quest to save his mother from the underworld and prove his innocence when he is accused of stealing lightning from Zeus. The second film revolves around Percy’s escapade as he must retrieve the legendary golden fleece from the sea of monsters, or the Bermuda triangle, which is the only thing that will save the camp from the forces of darkness.


The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire the film rights for "Percy Jackson & The Olympians."

(meta data) TITLE: Disney buys much of Fox in megamerger that will shake world of entertainment and media - The Washington Post

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The Washington Post logo Democracy Dies in Darkness My Post My Reading List Newsletters & alerts Gift subscriptions Contact us Help desk Business

# Disney buys much of Fox in megamerger that will shake world of entertainment and media

Add to list On my list By Steven Zeitchik Steven Zeitchik Reporter covering the business of entertainment in the U.S. and beyond December 14, 2017

NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Company announced Thursday that it will acquire the majority of assets from rival 21st Century Fox, a megamerger that aims to reset the balance of power in an industry under siege from Silicon Valley.

The merger pairs Disney, the No. 1 studio at the box office and company behind massive hits like "The Avengers" and "Star Wars" reboots, with the No. 3 studio, Fox, which has produced the "X-Men" and "Avatar" franchises as well as a range of mid-budget crowd-pleasers and critically acclaimed films.

It also brings brands such as FX, National Geographic and "The Simpsons" into the same fold as ESPN and ABC — all part of Disney's gamble that only a company of this size could effectively thwart a furious charge into the business of entertainment by well-financed technology giants like Netflix, Apple and Google.

Disney will pay $52.4 billion for Fox, which for its part will spin off Fox broadcast networks, the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel, the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles and several national sports channels, leaving them in the hands of 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch and his family.

Robert Iger, the chairman and chief executive of Disney who had been discussed as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, will continue with the combined firm through 2021.

The deal takes two media and entertainments titans and, after a period of negotiating chess, essentially divides up territory between them.

Iger will lead the legacy-entertainment charge against the new competitors, while Murdoch will attempt to make gains as the business of news and live programming face challenges from digital upstarts.

Disney has watched as viewership to its one-time powerhouse ESPN and other cable channels has shrunk as consumers have cut the cord on pricey cable bills.

Instead, many consumers have opted for subscriptions to the likes of Netflix or Amazon, which offers a wide swath of video content at a fraction of the cost.

(Amazon's chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)

The conglomerate is building up an arsenal of programming in the hope of fending off those firms' forays into the content market.

With enough material, it hopes, it can develop a streaming service that will win over customers who've cut the cord on its products.

"We're excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings," Iger said in a statement Thursday morning.

Murdoch, meanwhile, is confronting similar challenges in the news business.

Fox News and Fox Business come as part of most basic cable bundles and are susceptible to the same cord-cutting challenges.

The thorn in his side are free platforms like Facebook, which have become increasingly central to how many Americans consume news.

A focused news company with its own scale, Murdoch hopes, can help defeat these rivals — potentially one reason Murdoch is reportedly interested in buying CNN.

"The new Fox will draw upon the powerful live news and sports businesses of Fox, as well as the strength of our broadcast network," Murdoch said in a statement.

The new Fox will own 25 percent of the newly combined entity, but it's not yet clear what representation the Murdochs will have in the new company.

One of Rupert Murdoch's sons, James, is chief executive of 21st century Fox, and it's common for studio heads to remain after acquisitions.

Iger on Thursday said he "look[s] forward to talking to him about it" in the coming months, referring to James.

As part of the all-stock deal, Disney will also acquire Fox's 30 percent stake in Hulu, a group of U.S. cable stations, several powerhouse international satellite channels such as Star India and Sky Italia, and a host of U.S. regional sports outlets.

The deal takes Murdoch out of much of the scripted television game and all of the film business, ending a Hollywood association that began more than three decades ago when Murdoch bought Twentieth Century Fox from industrialist Marvin Davis and crested as recently as 2014 when Fox led all studios by market share for the first time this century.

Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's son and the executive co-chair of 21st Century Fox, noted that "while the merged business is about scale, the new Fox is about returning to our roots as a lean and aggressive brand."

The family said there had not been talk yet of recombining with the print media-driven News Corp., owner of the Wall Street Journal and other publication.

"If we do, it's well into the future," Rupert Murdoch said.

But close observers said Murdoch wants to remain involved in entertainment and simply saw a Disney combination as the best way forward.

"Rupert doesn't see this as much as selling as he does buying," the Los Angeles-based investment banker Lloyd Greif said in an email to The Post.

"He's buying Bob Iger and his Midas touch when it comes to filmed content," Greif said.

Greif added, "It's a vote of confidence by Rupert in Iger and his management team over his own.

He sees troubled waters ahead and wants the best ship and crew to navigate them."

For Iger, Thursday's deal amounts to another success after earlier efforts to buy Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.

But Fox will provide the greatest integration challenge yet, with many of the newly acquired company's divisions overlapping with Disney's existing operations.

And greater scale, while valuable in negotiating traditional distributor deals with cable operators and movie theaters, is no guarantee of direct-to-consumer success.

Wall Street was bullish on the announcement, sending Disney's stock up nearly three and Fox almost seven percent.

Regulators and shareholders must still approve the Disney-Fox deal, but most analysts do not expect it to face problems.

In a very different scenario, the Justice Department is currently suing AT&T to stop its acquisition of Time Warner, noting concerns about the marriage of a distributor and content provider.

A few experts dissented, though, and said the sheer volume of creative assets could give regulators pause.

"The scrutiny could be very close and the new antitrust leadership is unpredictable at this point, as witnessed by Time Warner-ATT," said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school.

"I expect DOJ and Congress will be most interested in what this combination will mean for consumers and whether it concentrates too much power in the new entity."

Combined, the new Disney could boast as much as $75 billion in revenue, with nearly a third coming from Fox assets.

On the Disney call, Iger said that he envisions Disney's new service, set for 2019, coexisting with Hulu, the former in a "family vein" and latter as "adult-oriented."

Analysts, however, have questioned what the long-term future of Hulu will hold now that Disney owns a controlling 60 percent stake (Comcast Universal has 30 percent and Time Warner 10 percent).

Would executives shelve the service and shift their resources to Disney's proprietary platform?

Or would they actually try to maintain both Hulu and a separate streaming service?

"I think it's going to be tough — I don't understand how you would segment it," said Aaron Shapiro, the founder of Huge, a digital marketing agency that has done work for Hulu.

He said he eventually saw one Disney entry point for consumers, under one brand, whatever it was called.

"I think they need to put all their eggs in one basket and go for it," he said, noting the challenge of attracting many of the 100 million Netflix subscribers.

The Disney acquisition hints at a further industry consolidation, analysts say, that could see Viacom, CBS, Lionsgate and Sony seek large buyers too, and leave just a few large legacy conglomerates such as Disney-Fox, Comcast Universal and a potential AT&T Time Warner.

Insiders said they believe Disney will be a test for other content providers as they seek to launch direct-to-consumer businesses — if the world's largest media conglomerate is unable to successfully do so, it might make them reconsider whether they should even try.

The news provides a bookend of sorts to a 1995 merger that also saw Disney combine with a television giant — Capital Cities/ABC — setting off a wave of entertainment-industry consolidation.

Coincidentally, it was that deal that brought Iger into the Disney fold: he was the president of Capital Cities/ABC at the time.

In the call, Iger alluded to that past, saying he was a "product" of that merger, which in turn makes him "respect and appreciate the talent" that comes with the Fox acquisition.

Disney's potential Fox acquisition shows radically different responses to Hollywood's Silicon Valley threat

Fox had a massive day at the Golden Globes.

Steven Zeitchik covers the business of entertainment for The Washington Post, examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas.

Before joining The Post, he covered entertainment for the Los Angeles Times for eight years.

He also did reporting tours for The Times in places including Ukraine, Egypt, Germany and the Bill Cosby trial.

Follow Market Watch Dow 26,202.73 Today 0.93% S&P 2,924.43 Today 0.82% NASDAQ 8,020.21 Today 0.9% Last Updated:08/21/2019 Subscriber sign in

Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker.

Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on.

Questions about why you are seeing this?

 "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" (also known as "Percy Jackson") is a feature film series based on the novel series of the same name by the author Rick Riordan. The series is distributed by 20th Century Fox, produced by 1492 Pictures and currently consists of two installments. The first film, "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" (2010), was directed by Chris Columbus, and was released on February 12, 2010. The second installment, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters", was originally intended to be released in March 2013 but was instead pushed back to August 7, 2013, and was directed by Thor Freudenthal. The series has grossed nearly $430 million at the worldwide box office.
 The films follow the adventures of demigod Percy Jackson and his comrades at the demigod training ground of Camp Half-Blood. In the first film, Percy must go on a quest to save his mother from the underworld and prove his innocence when he is accused of stealing lightning from Zeus. The second film revolves around Percy’s escapade as he must retrieve the legendary golden fleece from the sea of monsters, or the Bermuda triangle, which is the only thing that will save the camp from the forces of darkness.
 In December 2017, The Walt Disney Company agreed to a 52.4-billion-dollar deal to acquire 21st Century Fox.


It's unknown if Disney (the owners of Disney Hyperion) will continue the series or reboot it.

(meta data) TITLE: Disney buys much of Fox in megamerger that will shake world of entertainment and media - The Washington Post

(meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpost

The Washington Post logo Democracy Dies in Darkness My Post My Reading List Newsletters & alerts Gift subscriptions Contact us Help desk Business

# Disney buys much of Fox in megamerger that will shake world of entertainment and media

Add to list On my list By Steven Zeitchik Steven Zeitchik Reporter covering the business of entertainment in the U.S. and beyond December 14, 2017

NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Company announced Thursday that it will acquire the majority of assets from rival 21st Century Fox, a megamerger that aims to reset the balance of power in an industry under siege from Silicon Valley.

The merger pairs Disney, the No. 1 studio at the box office and company behind massive hits like "The Avengers" and "Star Wars" reboots, with the No. 3 studio, Fox, which has produced the "X-Men" and "Avatar" franchises as well as a range of mid-budget crowd-pleasers and critically acclaimed films.

It also brings brands such as FX, National Geographic and "The Simpsons" into the same fold as ESPN and ABC — all part of Disney's gamble that only a company of this size could effectively thwart a furious charge into the business of entertainment by well-financed technology giants like Netflix, Apple and Google.

Disney will pay $52.4 billion for Fox, which for its part will spin off Fox broadcast networks, the Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel, the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles and several national sports channels, leaving them in the hands of 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch and his family.

Robert Iger, the chairman and chief executive of Disney who had been discussed as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, will continue with the combined firm through 2021.

The deal takes two media and entertainments titans and, after a period of negotiating chess, essentially divides up territory between them.

Iger will lead the legacy-entertainment charge against the new competitors, while Murdoch will attempt to make gains as the business of news and live programming face challenges from digital upstarts.

Disney has watched as viewership to its one-time powerhouse ESPN and other cable channels has shrunk as consumers have cut the cord on pricey cable bills.

Instead, many consumers have opted for subscriptions to the likes of Netflix or Amazon, which offers a wide swath of video content at a fraction of the cost.

(Amazon's chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)

The conglomerate is building up an arsenal of programming in the hope of fending off those firms' forays into the content market.

With enough material, it hopes, it can develop a streaming service that will win over customers who've cut the cord on its products.

"We're excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings," Iger said in a statement Thursday morning.

Murdoch, meanwhile, is confronting similar challenges in the news business.

Fox News and Fox Business come as part of most basic cable bundles and are susceptible to the same cord-cutting challenges.

The thorn in his side are free platforms like Facebook, which have become increasingly central to how many Americans consume news.

A focused news company with its own scale, Murdoch hopes, can help defeat these rivals — potentially one reason Murdoch is reportedly interested in buying CNN.

"The new Fox will draw upon the powerful live news and sports businesses of Fox, as well as the strength of our broadcast network," Murdoch said in a statement.

The new Fox will own 25 percent of the newly combined entity, but it's not yet clear what representation the Murdochs will have in the new company.

One of Rupert Murdoch's sons, James, is chief executive of 21st century Fox, and it's common for studio heads to remain after acquisitions.

Iger on Thursday said he "look[s] forward to talking to him about it" in the coming months, referring to James.

As part of the all-stock deal, Disney will also acquire Fox's 30 percent stake in Hulu, a group of U.S. cable stations, several powerhouse international satellite channels such as Star India and Sky Italia, and a host of U.S. regional sports outlets.

The deal takes Murdoch out of much of the scripted television game and all of the film business, ending a Hollywood association that began more than three decades ago when Murdoch bought Twentieth Century Fox from industrialist Marvin Davis and crested as recently as 2014 when Fox led all studios by market share for the first time this century.

Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's son and the executive co-chair of 21st Century Fox, noted that "while the merged business is about scale, the new Fox is about returning to our roots as a lean and aggressive brand."

The family said there had not been talk yet of recombining with the print media-driven News Corp., owner of the Wall Street Journal and other publication.

"If we do, it's well into the future," Rupert Murdoch said.

But close observers said Murdoch wants to remain involved in entertainment and simply saw a Disney combination as the best way forward.

"Rupert doesn't see this as much as selling as he does buying," the Los Angeles-based investment banker Lloyd Greif said in an email to The Post.

"He's buying Bob Iger and his Midas touch when it comes to filmed content," Greif said.

Greif added, "It's a vote of confidence by Rupert in Iger and his management team over his own.

He sees troubled waters ahead and wants the best ship and crew to navigate them."

For Iger, Thursday's deal amounts to another success after earlier efforts to buy Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.

But Fox will provide the greatest integration challenge yet, with many of the newly acquired company's divisions overlapping with Disney's existing operations.

And greater scale, while valuable in negotiating traditional distributor deals with cable operators and movie theaters, is no guarantee of direct-to-consumer success.

Wall Street was bullish on the announcement, sending Disney's stock up nearly three and Fox almost seven percent.

Regulators and shareholders must still approve the Disney-Fox deal, but most analysts do not expect it to face problems.

In a very different scenario, the Justice Department is currently suing AT&T to stop its acquisition of Time Warner, noting concerns about the marriage of a distributor and content provider.

A few experts dissented, though, and said the sheer volume of creative assets could give regulators pause.

"The scrutiny could be very close and the new antitrust leadership is unpredictable at this point, as witnessed by Time Warner-ATT," said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond law school.

"I expect DOJ and Congress will be most interested in what this combination will mean for consumers and whether it concentrates too much power in the new entity."

Combined, the new Disney could boast as much as $75 billion in revenue, with nearly a third coming from Fox assets.

On the Disney call, Iger said that he envisions Disney's new service, set for 2019, coexisting with Hulu, the former in a "family vein" and latter as "adult-oriented."

Analysts, however, have questioned what the long-term future of Hulu will hold now that Disney owns a controlling 60 percent stake (Comcast Universal has 30 percent and Time Warner 10 percent).

Would executives shelve the service and shift their resources to Disney's proprietary platform?

Or would they actually try to maintain both Hulu and a separate streaming service?

"I think it's going to be tough — I don't understand how you would segment it," said Aaron Shapiro, the founder of Huge, a digital marketing agency that has done work for Hulu.

He said he eventually saw one Disney entry point for consumers, under one brand, whatever it was called.

"I think they need to put all their eggs in one basket and go for it," he said, noting the challenge of attracting many of the 100 million Netflix subscribers.

The Disney acquisition hints at a further industry consolidation, analysts say, that could see Viacom, CBS, Lionsgate and Sony seek large buyers too, and leave just a few large legacy conglomerates such as Disney-Fox, Comcast Universal and a potential AT&T Time Warner.

Insiders said they believe Disney will be a test for other content providers as they seek to launch direct-to-consumer businesses — if the world's largest media conglomerate is unable to successfully do so, it might make them reconsider whether they should even try.

The news provides a bookend of sorts to a 1995 merger that also saw Disney combine with a television giant — Capital Cities/ABC — setting off a wave of entertainment-industry consolidation.

Coincidentally, it was that deal that brought Iger into the Disney fold: he was the president of Capital Cities/ABC at the time.

In the call, Iger alluded to that past, saying he was a "product" of that merger, which in turn makes him "respect and appreciate the talent" that comes with the Fox acquisition.

Disney's potential Fox acquisition shows radically different responses to Hollywood's Silicon Valley threat

Fox had a massive day at the Golden Globes.

Steven Zeitchik covers the business of entertainment for The Washington Post, examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas.

Before joining The Post, he covered entertainment for the Los Angeles Times for eight years.

He also did reporting tours for The Times in places including Ukraine, Egypt, Germany and the Bill Cosby trial.

Follow Market Watch Dow 26,202.73 Today 0.93% S&P 2,924.43 Today 0.82% NASDAQ 8,020.21 Today 0.9% Last Updated:08/21/2019 Subscriber sign in

Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker.

Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on.

Questions about why you are seeing this?

 "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" (also known as "Percy Jackson") is a feature film series based on the novel series of the same name by the author Rick Riordan. The series is distributed by 20th Century Fox, produced by 1492 Pictures and currently consists of two installments. The first film, "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" (2010), was directed by Chris Columbus, and was released on February 12, 2010. The second installment, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters", was originally intended to be released in March 2013 but was instead pushed back to August 7, 2013, and was directed by Thor Freudenthal. The series has grossed nearly $430 million at the worldwide box office.
 The films follow the adventures of demigod Percy Jackson and his comrades at the demigod training ground of Camp Half-Blood. In the first film, Percy must go on a quest to save his mother from the underworld and prove his innocence when he is accused of stealing lightning from Zeus. The second film revolves around Percy’s escapade as he must retrieve the legendary golden fleece from the sea of monsters, or the Bermuda triangle, which is the only thing that will save the camp from the forces of darkness.
 In December 2017, The Walt Disney Company agreed to a 52.4-billion-dollar deal to acquire 21st Century Fox. The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire the film rights for "Percy Jackson & The Olympians."


The Commercial is one of at least 5,000 pubs in England.

(meta data) TITLE: Are these England's most beautiful pubs? - BBC News

(meta data) AUTHOR: https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

# Are these England's most beautiful pubs?

Biggin Hall Hotel, Coventry - now Grade II listed

They may not have a historical pedigree stretching back centuries, but 20 pubs across England built between World War One and World War Two have just been deemed important enough to be granted listed status.

In his 1946 essay Moon Under Water, writer George Orwell described his ideal fictional pub.

He wrote that it would be "uncompromisingly Victorian" - offering "no glass-topped tables or other modern miseries... no sham roof-beams, inglenooks or plastic panels masquerading as oak".

The latest list of pubs to be granted listed status may not have been to Orwell's taste.

Certainly, there's a decent sprinkling of mock Tudor beams.

Built in 1935, The Daylight Inn at Petts Wood in south-east London was named after a local resident - William Willett - who campaigned for daylight saving.

The mock Tudor look was very popular at the time - adorning the exteriors of three-bed bay-windowed semis and parades of shops.

When this next photograph was taken The Daylight Inn was only a few years old.

At least 5,000 pubs were built in England during the inter-war years.

This is the lounge bar at The Berkeley Hotel, Scunthorpe.

The pub actually opened just after the start of World War Two, in 1940.

Historic England, which recommended that the government list these pubs, describes The Berkeley as a fine example of a "roadhouse" inn - with a large car park to attract passing customers.

The 1920s and 30s saw the growth of the "improved" pub movement.

Breweries were eager to widen their customer bases, and cut the perceived links that many establishments had with drunkenness and debauchery - a hangover from the Victorian era.

When it was rebuilt in 1929 - in addition to the curved wooden bar pictured below - the Duke William in Stoke-on-Trent featured ladies' toilets for the first time.

Improved pubs were generally built on a bigger scale - and often tried to offer activities beyond drinking.

At Alum Rock in Birmingham, the Brookhill Tavern had a large garden to try to attract families.

The Mitchells and Butlers Brewery - which was built in 1927 - was at the forefront of the improved pub movement in the Midlands.

Staying in Birmingham, and with mock Tudor in spades, the Black Horse was built in 1929 by Davenports Brewery.

Situated on the busy A38 south of the city centre, it has a grand black-and-white frontage.

Davenports tried to offer customers a real sense of occasion and escapism.

It was already listed, but has now been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.

The White Hart at Grays in Essex was built in 1938 by Charringtons Brewery - one of the most prolific improved pub builders of the time.

Inside the White Hart there is an impressive oak bar that stretches through five rooms.

The image below shows The Wheatsheaf, at Sutton Leach near St Helens on Merseyside.

On day the pub opened in 1938 - according to local Frank Baumber - a big crowd of people had gathered to collect a promised pint of free beer.

But they were met by campaigners warning them against entering the "house of the devil".

In Norwich, the Gatehouse - pictured below - was built in 1934 in the Arts and Crafts style.

There is a chequered pattern on its curved wall - made of flints alternating with pressed concrete blocks.

The building has changed little over the years - the chequered pattern is still there today.

Inside the Gatehouse, the bar has the feeling of a small-scale baronial hall.

Many pubs in the inter-war years were designed in what became known as Brewer's Tudor-style - intended to evoke romantic notions of "merrie England".

This wood-panelled inglenook fireplace is in the bar of the Biggin Hall Hotel in Coventry.

At Brixton in south London, The Duke of Edinburgh was built in 1936 by the Truman Brewery.

Compared with the mock Tudor style, it has a relatively plain, red-brick facade.

North of the Thames in Hoxton, the fairly plain 1935 exterior of The Stag's Head belies the beautiful surviving features inside.

With its curving roof, The Rose and Crown at Stoke Newington in London was built in 1930.

It is one of only a few pubs to still have a special ceiling made of Vitrolite - an opaque pigmented glass used to try to defy the notion that pubs were dingy.

Just a mile or so away, The Royal Oak has the famous Columbia Road Flower Market on its doorstep - and it too has a Vitrolite ceiling.

Built in 1923, it was used as a backdrop in BBC TV comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart - and played a starring role in the British gangster film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

The Golden Heart at Spitalfields in east London was built in 1936 - just down the road from Truman's Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane.

Emblazoned with a rare Truman's neon-lit sign, the pub became associated with the artistic vibrancy of the area in the 1980s and 90s.

It was the chosen local of artists such as Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas.

All the pubs featured have been listed at Grade II - except the Black Horse, Birmingham, which has been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.

There are now 93 listed pubs in England built during the inter-war years.

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The rural environs of pub in the latter part of the 19th Century, are indicated by a Sporting Life report in March 1889 of The Surrey Fox Terrier and Rabbit Coursing Club adjourning to The Commercial Hotel, Herne Hill, ""where the stakes were paid over, and with musical evening"".
 A case of counterfeit coinage is reported in September 1908 concerning Joseph Coombs, general dealer, who in company with his friend Boon, entered The Commercial Hotel, Herne Hill, where Boon put down a bad florin payment for drinks, which was immediately recognised by David Torr, a barman at the house, as counterfeit.
 A 1912 photograph from the Lambeth Council Archives shows the name 'W. Colmer' displayed above the entrance to The Commercial Hotel, and a sign proclaiming ""Bass on draught and in bottles"". At the Lambeth Police Court on 19 December 1918, William Colmer, licensee of the Commercial Hotel, was summoned for refusing to sell certain whisky to a person duly authorised by the Lambeth Food Control Committee. On a second summons the defendant was proceeded against for serving whisky without having a label on the bottle from which it was served, stating the strength and maximum price.
 A 1921 photograph taken looking down Railton Road, with Herne Hill railway station on the right, shows a large sign advertising bottled Worthington beer on the side of The Commercial pub.
 In 1936, the pub is shown in the Burton upon Trent Bass Museum archive, as being a Licensed House of Wenlock Brewery Co. Ltd of Shoreditch. The current frontage and historic interior of the pub dates from its enlargement in 1938 to incorporate number 210 Railton Road.


The pubs were built or rebuilt by breweries during the inter-war years.

(meta data) TITLE: Are these England's most beautiful pubs? - BBC News

(meta data) AUTHOR: https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews

# Are these England's most beautiful pubs?

Biggin Hall Hotel, Coventry - now Grade II listed

They may not have a historical pedigree stretching back centuries, but 20 pubs across England built between World War One and World War Two have just been deemed important enough to be granted listed status.

In his 1946 essay Moon Under Water, writer George Orwell described his ideal fictional pub.

He wrote that it would be "uncompromisingly Victorian" - offering "no glass-topped tables or other modern miseries... no sham roof-beams, inglenooks or plastic panels masquerading as oak".

The latest list of pubs to be granted listed status may not have been to Orwell's taste.

Certainly, there's a decent sprinkling of mock Tudor beams.

Built in 1935, The Daylight Inn at Petts Wood in south-east London was named after a local resident - William Willett - who campaigned for daylight saving.

The mock Tudor look was very popular at the time - adorning the exteriors of three-bed bay-windowed semis and parades of shops.

When this next photograph was taken The Daylight Inn was only a few years old.

At least 5,000 pubs were built in England during the inter-war years.

This is the lounge bar at The Berkeley Hotel, Scunthorpe.

The pub actually opened just after the start of World War Two, in 1940.

Historic England, which recommended that the government list these pubs, describes The Berkeley as a fine example of a "roadhouse" inn - with a large car park to attract passing customers.

The 1920s and 30s saw the growth of the "improved" pub movement.

Breweries were eager to widen their customer bases, and cut the perceived links that many establishments had with drunkenness and debauchery - a hangover from the Victorian era.

When it was rebuilt in 1929 - in addition to the curved wooden bar pictured below - the Duke William in Stoke-on-Trent featured ladies' toilets for the first time.

Improved pubs were generally built on a bigger scale - and often tried to offer activities beyond drinking.

At Alum Rock in Birmingham, the Brookhill Tavern had a large garden to try to attract families.

The Mitchells and Butlers Brewery - which was built in 1927 - was at the forefront of the improved pub movement in the Midlands.

Staying in Birmingham, and with mock Tudor in spades, the Black Horse was built in 1929 by Davenports Brewery.

Situated on the busy A38 south of the city centre, it has a grand black-and-white frontage.

Davenports tried to offer customers a real sense of occasion and escapism.

It was already listed, but has now been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.

The White Hart at Grays in Essex was built in 1938 by Charringtons Brewery - one of the most prolific improved pub builders of the time.

Inside the White Hart there is an impressive oak bar that stretches through five rooms.

The image below shows The Wheatsheaf, at Sutton Leach near St Helens on Merseyside.

On day the pub opened in 1938 - according to local Frank Baumber - a big crowd of people had gathered to collect a promised pint of free beer.

But they were met by campaigners warning them against entering the "house of the devil".

In Norwich, the Gatehouse - pictured below - was built in 1934 in the Arts and Crafts style.

There is a chequered pattern on its curved wall - made of flints alternating with pressed concrete blocks.

The building has changed little over the years - the chequered pattern is still there today.

Inside the Gatehouse, the bar has the feeling of a small-scale baronial hall.

Many pubs in the inter-war years were designed in what became known as Brewer's Tudor-style - intended to evoke romantic notions of "merrie England".

This wood-panelled inglenook fireplace is in the bar of the Biggin Hall Hotel in Coventry.

At Brixton in south London, The Duke of Edinburgh was built in 1936 by the Truman Brewery.

Compared with the mock Tudor style, it has a relatively plain, red-brick facade.

North of the Thames in Hoxton, the fairly plain 1935 exterior of The Stag's Head belies the beautiful surviving features inside.

With its curving roof, The Rose and Crown at Stoke Newington in London was built in 1930.

It is one of only a few pubs to still have a special ceiling made of Vitrolite - an opaque pigmented glass used to try to defy the notion that pubs were dingy.

Just a mile or so away, The Royal Oak has the famous Columbia Road Flower Market on its doorstep - and it too has a Vitrolite ceiling.

Built in 1923, it was used as a backdrop in BBC TV comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart - and played a starring role in the British gangster film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

The Golden Heart at Spitalfields in east London was built in 1936 - just down the road from Truman's Black Eagle Brewery on Brick Lane.

Emblazoned with a rare Truman's neon-lit sign, the pub became associated with the artistic vibrancy of the area in the 1980s and 90s.

It was the chosen local of artists such as Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas.

All the pubs featured have been listed at Grade II - except the Black Horse, Birmingham, which has been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*.

There are now 93 listed pubs in England built during the inter-war years.

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The rural environs of pub in the latter part of the 19th Century, are indicated by a Sporting Life report in March 1889 of The Surrey Fox Terrier and Rabbit Coursing Club adjourning to The Commercial Hotel, Herne Hill, ""where the stakes were paid over, and with musical evening"".
 A case of counterfeit coinage is reported in September 1908 concerning Joseph Coombs, general dealer, who in company with his friend Boon, entered The Commercial Hotel, Herne Hill, where Boon put down a bad florin payment for drinks, which was immediately recognised by David Torr, a barman at the house, as counterfeit.
 A 1912 photograph from the Lambeth Council Archives shows the name 'W. Colmer' displayed above the entrance to The Commercial Hotel, and a sign proclaiming ""Bass on draught and in bottles"". At the Lambeth Police Court on 19 December 1918, William Colmer, licensee of the Commercial Hotel, was summoned for refusing to sell certain whisky to a person duly authorised by the Lambeth Food Control Committee. On a second summons the defendant was proceeded against for serving whisky without having a label on the bottle from which it was served, stating the strength and maximum price.
 A 1921 photograph taken looking down Railton Road, with Herne Hill railway station on the right, shows a large sign advertising bottled Worthington beer on the side of The Commercial pub.
 In 1936, the pub is shown in the Burton upon Trent Bass Museum archive, as being a Licensed House of Wenlock Brewery Co. Ltd of Shoreditch. The current frontage and historic interior of the pub dates from its enlargement in 1938 to incorporate number 210 Railton Road. The Commercial is one of at least 5,000 pubs in England.


(meta data) TITLE: Interview with Chris Fleming at Phenomenology 107 - News Article - Supernatural Magazine

Alien AbductionCrop CirclesExtra-terrestrialTime Travel

# Interview with Chris Fleming at Phenomenology 107

When asked what sort of medium he is, Chris Fleming's reply is "I'm really a large, not a medium."

Jeffrey B. Roth, a reporter and journalist and I attended Phenomenology 107, in York PA on Saturday, June 20, where we conducted our interview with Chris Fleming.

Chris, who appears much younger than his 48 years, has a quiet and contained presence and a dry wit.

Chris spent most of his childhood in the suburbs of Chicago.

As a child, he had encounters with ghosts, unexplained entities, angels and a variety of dark forces.

He has also felt the presence of the divine.

I wonder how different my life would be if I had not had these encounters as a child with entities and ghosts.

Would I now have a successful business or a family?

You become very compassionate towards others."

"As a child I alienated myself from others.

Old friends reach out to me now who remember who I was then and tell me that they believe in the supernatural now, because they have had their own paranormal experiences.

It's comforting to know that and it's a relief."

Chris holds a degree from Beloit College in fine arts, with a minor in psychology and music.

He also has a gift for technology and innovation when it comes to paranormal investigative tools.

Chris introduced his K-II meter and innovative ways of communicating with intelligent spirits on the TV show Ghost Hunters.

This innovation changed how investigating is done with EMF devices and electronic equipment.

Chris named this technique the "Direct Response Method".

On Ghost Adventures he introduced yet another device, the SB7 Spirit Box, which he co-developed with Gary Galka.

Paranormal investigators now use this device as the standard in the field of spirit communication.

Chris worked as a graphic designer for a newspaper for six years.

In 1997, he used his design experience to publish his own magazine and document his spiritual experiences in Unknown Magazine: Real Experiences of Unusual Phenomena, which he published from 1997 to 2001.

Regarding his mediumship, Chris has learned to trust his own instincts.

"You have confidence that the universe will support you.

As he receives confirmation of his abilities it gives him increased confidence as a medium.

"When (his readings) becomes true I gain confidence.

I know that feeling when I get a message.

Chris describes the feeling he gets when he is doing a reading and is receiving messages from "they".

He refers to the spirits he communicates with as "they".

"I get an overwhelming sense of awareness that this is of a higher quality and sense of knowledge different or other than what I was thinking a moment before or a moment after.

I get a sensation of a cool static electricity sensation up through my head and down my back and in the back of my neck."

In a car accident in 2009, Chris's neck was injured.

"I don't feel that (the sense of tingling in his neck when receiving messages) anymore because I have pain there.

I'm thinking that there were other forces at work.

I will hear a voice in my head to tell me to do this or not do that, a yes or no."

Chris describes his style of mediumship as often very spontaneous, reading people on flights, in hotels, on the street.

Chris is a frequent speaker at colleges, universities, and paranormal conferences, speaking about the paranormal and his experiences as a medium.

Sometimes the message Chris gets is very strong.

Sometimes he tells someone and they do not accept it and will walk away or get upset.

"There is a girl here today who is very shy.

I approached her and asked her if I could tell her something…tell her to do something.

She thanked me, and told me I was right.

" I will be in an airplane and I will get a message for someone next to me.

The messages will often come sporadically.

He doesn't always have control over when they come, but he does control the messages during a formal reading.

"At the conference during my lecture, they told me to have everyone hug each other because someone needed to feel love, so, without warning, I stopped everything and told everyone to hug the people around them because someone was in need of feeling loved, and they did that. "

"If I do readings for people, I will ask for and receive messages.

Sometimes a message will give me confidence.

By telling me someone has a black cat, for instance, and they confirm that I am right, it gives me confidence to continue and helps me to know I'm getting correct information, that I'm connected.

Now "they" are ready to give me the good stuff.

When asked if he ever receives messages that are negative, Chris admits that, yes, he does receive negative messages.

"It's part of being a medium since I have to be so open.

Yes, stuff will come into my head, negative stuff, even violent stuff, telling me to do something negative, like hit someone.

I didn't understand what was going on when I was younger.

I recognize negative messages and voices and have learned to ignore

or do the opposite, like "Step on your cat. "

"You have to pay close attention to and control your own thoughts at all times."

Chris read a book by Napoleon Hill, titled, Outwitting the Devil.

The author describes the experience of what he believed to be the Devil putting thoughts into our heads.

"It is our responsibility to control thoughts at all times, and prevent bad thoughts.

Some people are not able to tell the difference between their own thoughts and these outside thoughts telling them to do bad things.

Criminals, serial killers, will claim to hear voices telling them to do terrible things.

They get these negative thoughts and do not recognize that they are not coming from their own mind, but from an outside negative source.

That is when you get into the possibility of psychological disorders."

Chris believes that there are certainly psychological, mental and emotional disorders and illnesses, which can cause voices and negative thoughts.

However, weak or ill people who are not balanced will be attacked by negative spirits, or get attachments due to their psychological weaknesses.

"In most possessions you rarely hear of someone that is of sound mind and body getting possessed.

The Roman Catholic Church gave classes on exorcisms.

One-hundred-twenty-seven people signed up; teachers, doctors, psychiatrists, engineers, scientists.

They have decided that there are outside forces that are affecting their field that they cannot explain.

They now believe that there are evil, outside forces that they need to understand.

This is an amazing admission from the professional community.

Chris feels that we are seeing more evil forces manifesting today than ever before.

He believes it to be caused by demonic influence.

The experts deny that it is evil spirits.

"Then you tell me why they (kids with guns) are doing it?

They cannot tell the difference in the voices telling them to do things.

No one can prove how or why this happens or explain why people do these things, or where these voices come from.

These voices are coming from somewhere. "

In 2001 Chris co-hosted a popular TV show out of the UK called Dead Famous, which ran for three years.

After Dead Famous, Chris made guest appearances on Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, and Zak Baggin's Paranormal Challenge.

He was also a member of the cast of the TV show Psychic Kids.

During the filming of Dead Famous, Chris was to try and talk to celebrity ghosts.

To hone his skills, he would leave and walk around the streets of New York City and talk to homeless people, go into bars (he does not smoke and rarely drinks) and read strangers.

In NYC, he read a woman who does not believe, so he read her and she hit him in the face really hard and stormed away.

"Oh my God that hurt, that really hurt."

She came back and apologized and told him he was right.

I want to see what I can do, hone my skills, not get smacked in the face.

Sometimes people need to get their feelings out. "

During a Ghost Box reading Chris talked to a woman who was told she could not let go of her boyfriend, who was killed in a drunk driving accident in which she felt responsible and suicidal.

She recognized his voice on the Ghost Box.

He told her that he is not OK and that she would not let go.

He had not crossed over because she was thinking of suicide.

He told her it was his fault, not hers and she needs to let go of him.

She broke down crying and admitted to thinking of killing herself.

Chris advised her to get into counseling immediately.

Chris will do formal follow up of his readings when there is something very dangerous going on.

Then he will email and ask how they are doing or keep in touch over social media.

"If it is a house haunting, yes, I will follow up because it is an actual place I can go visit to help.

But when I tell someone they need to do ssomething it is up to them to do it.

When asked what he thought of so many people claiming to be psychics today, he responded with a quick "It's ridiculous."

"I personally know of psychics who are amazing.

They have strengths in certain abilities."

But those who loudly claim, "I'm psychic now.

I do readings and I'm great, I'm so accurate."

I would say to them, "What are you talking about?

So, what you are saying is, I really want attention, and you are getting confirmation to make yourself special?"

" If they say they are special or always accurate, run away from them.

If anyone says they are accurate all of the time, run away from them. "

"To use myself as an example, I will ask someone if they have a brother.

I have to have three correct hits in a row.

If I am not accurate, I tell the client this is not going well.

I often have to reschedule because I am not getting anything."

"Some things people are not ready to hear, or not meant to know.

For instance, a psychic told someone they were going to get very rich publishing a book.

This person spent all of his money and was so busy doing other things and spending money that he didn't yet have, that he was not at the right place at the right time to get the money, so he went broke."

"If you expose too much to people you may prevent someone from doing something they need to do."

A woman asked Chris if her sick dad was going to die soon.

Chris received a message that her dad had about eight months to live, but he didn't tell her.

He told her to spend more time with her dad, go on a picnic.

Go do something you used to do as a child.

Talk about your wonderful memories, reminisce.

Now, because she did what was important and was living in the moment she was allowed to enjoy the moments he had left.

"I tell people you must do this, this, this, and this.

I cannot be responsible if people do not."

When asked if he could recognize psychic abilities in others, he told us he can see "untapped potential" in people.

As a young student a teacher told him to develop his writing ability.

This teacher gave him a low grade in her class and sent him to summer school.

He now realizes that 30 years ago she told him to do what he needs to do now, which is learn to write well so he can write his book.

So, sure, I am having a few problems now with my writing.

Why didn't I work on that when she told me?

Chris has a book coming out, which is planned for release sometime this fall.

The title is Caught Between Heaven And Hell.

Go to Chris's website is www.christopherfleming.com for more information.

He can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Interview conducted by Jeffrey B. Roth and Pam Wellington.

Biographical information from www.Christopherfleming.com.

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Son of Chicago Blackhawks hockey player Reggie Fleming and Patricia Fleming, Chris Fleming was born in Chicago, Illinois, and is the oldest of two children.