Rolling along on Farm Road 350 outside Livingston, Texas, past the billboard advertising Aqua Plumbing (for all your plumbing needs), and the plain white cross casting halfhearted shadows over the East Tempe Baptist Church, and the sign announcing “Grocery” where only broken-down nothingness and weeds currently exist, and the desultory sadness of the Lake Area Mobile Home Park, you eventually come upon the flattened, sandy-colored expanse of concrete buildings known as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Allan B. Polunsky Unit. Five gun towers, officially called pickets, help make sure its roughly 3,000 inmates stay put,...
- 2/10/2020
- by Erik Hedegaard
- Rollingstone.com
The death of a female corrections officer at an all-male Texas prison is being investigated as a homicide. According to a press release from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 55-year-old Correctional Officer Mari Johnson was found unresponsive near the kitchen area of the Robertson Unit in Abilene, Texas, around 5 a.m. Saturday. She was transported to the Hendrick Medical Center where she was declared dead. Public Information Officer Robert Hurst tells People that the investigation is ongoing and no suspect has been named at this time. The circumstances surrounding her death are also currently unclear. Texas governor Greg Abbott...
- 7/17/2016
- by Stephanie Petit, @stephpetit_
- PEOPLE.com
The death of a female corrections officer at an all-male Texas prison is being investigated as a homicide. According to a press release from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 55-year-old Correctional Officer Mari Johnson was found unresponsive near the kitchen area of the Robertson Unit in Abilene, Texas, around 5 a.m. Saturday. She was transported to the Hendrick Medical Center where she was declared dead. Public Information Officer Robert Hurst tells People that the investigation is ongoing and no suspect has been named at this time. The circumstances surrounding her death are also currently unclear. Texas governor Greg Abbott...
- 7/17/2016
- by Stephanie Petit, @stephpetit_
- PEOPLE.com
Toronto – Having been passed over to replace top CTV network news anchor Lloyd Robertson, Tom Clark has left the Canadian broadcasters after four decades.
Clark's sudden departure as the host of CTV News Channel's "Power Play with Tom Clark" follows rival Lisa Laflamme being chosen to replace Robertson as host of "CTV National News" in mid-2011.
Clark, a former CTV News bureau chief in Washington D.C. and China, was also passed over in a recent changing of the guard at rival Global Television, where former NBC foreign correspondent Dawna Friesen eventually replaced Kevin Newman as chief news anchor.
"CTV is extremely proud of its long association with Tom Clark, and wishes him well in his future endeavours," CTV News president Robert Hurst said in a terse statement.
Clark's sudden departure as the host of CTV News Channel's "Power Play with Tom Clark" follows rival Lisa Laflamme being chosen to replace Robertson as host of "CTV National News" in mid-2011.
Clark, a former CTV News bureau chief in Washington D.C. and China, was also passed over in a recent changing of the guard at rival Global Television, where former NBC foreign correspondent Dawna Friesen eventually replaced Kevin Newman as chief news anchor.
"CTV is extremely proud of its long association with Tom Clark, and wishes him well in his future endeavours," CTV News president Robert Hurst said in a terse statement.
- 9/7/2010
- by By Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet, Canada's two all-news specialty channels, are headed for another showdown after CTV Newsnet on Wednesday applied to the country's broadcast regulator for a change in the conditions of its license. CTV Newsnet, a division of Bell Globemedia, asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for the right to stray from its preprogrammed 15-minute headline-news format and provide more panel discussions, call-ins, news conferences and other live-event fare. CTV Newsnet was ordered not to break from its headline news format in 1999 after a complaint was lodged by CBC Newsworld. CTV Newsnet president Robert Hurst pointed to competing U.S. news channels allowed into the Canadian market since CTV Newsnet launched in 1997 as sufficient grounds for a format change.
- 8/26/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Writer-director Rick Famuyiwa makes a promising feature debut with "The Wood", a warm rite-of-passage comedy.
Nurtured at the Sundance Institute's screenwriters and directors lab, the ensemble piece is something of a hip-hop "Stand by Me" peppered with a little "Wedding Singer" 1980s nostalgia and "American Pie" raunch.
While the picture's shaping and pacing would have benefited from a more seasoned hand, Famuyiwa's richly written, exceptionally well-cast characters strike a pleasant chord.
"The Wood" should do well by its targeted young urban audience, although any significant crossover seems unlikely.
Set in Inglewood, Calif., (the "Wood" in question), the story concerns a trio of best friends from childhood who are experiencing some delayed emotional growing pains.
Just hours before his wedding, Roland (Taye Diggs) has gone AWOL with a bad case of prenuptial jitters, sending buddies Mike (Omar Epps) and Slim (Richard T. Jones) on his trail.
They track him down having a panic attack at the home of an old high school sweetheart (Tamala Jones), and while doing their best to get him sobered up, they begin to reminisce about their carefree lives back in the day when jheri curls, K-Swiss tennis shoes and Guess USA jackets reigned supreme.
Past shares screen time with the present as Young Roland (Trent Cameron), Young Mike (Sean Nelson) and Young Slim (Duane Finley) do impressive renderings of their hormonally driven, teenaged selves.
In fact, all the film's characters are credibly conveyed by the talented cast. In addition to Diggs, Epps and Jones and their younger counterparts, Malinda Williams does effective work as Alicia, the fine but fiery object of Mike's guarded affections, while De'Aundre Bonds is comically on the money as her delinquent big brother.
Writer-director Famuyiwa certainly has a lot of room to grow, as evidenced by the constant shifts back and forth in time, signaled by a close-up of a needle landing on a spinning record, don't always flow smoothly and can get a little old after a while. But he adeptly captures the camaraderie and has a gentle, unforced way with humor.
Production values are strong, particularly Steven Bernstein's ("The Waterboy") energetic camera work and some frighteningly familiar '80s touches from production designers Roger Fortune and Maxine Shepard, not to mention some of costume designer Darryle Johnson's cringe-inducing "period" finds.
Also making his feature debut here is jazz bassist Robert Hurst, who delivers a mellow, unobtrusive score that blends in well with those vintage Luther and Levert slow jams.
THE WOOD
Paramount
An MTV Films production
in association with Bona Fide Prods.
Director-screenwriter: Rick Famuyiwa
Story: Rick Famuyiwa and Todd Boyd
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, David Gale
Executive producer: Van Toffler
Director of photography: Steven Bernstein
Production designers: Roger Fortune and Maxine Shepard
Editor: John Carter
Costume designer: Darryle Johnson
Music supervisor: Pilar McCurry
Music: Robert Hurst
Casting: Mali Finn and Emily Schweber
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mike: Omar Epps
Roland: Taye Diggs
Slim: Richard T. Jones
Young Mike: Sean Nelson
Young Roland: Trent Cameron
Young Slim: Duane Finley
Young Alicia: Malinda Williams
Stacey: De'Aundre Bonds
Tanya: Tamala Jones
Running time -- 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Nurtured at the Sundance Institute's screenwriters and directors lab, the ensemble piece is something of a hip-hop "Stand by Me" peppered with a little "Wedding Singer" 1980s nostalgia and "American Pie" raunch.
While the picture's shaping and pacing would have benefited from a more seasoned hand, Famuyiwa's richly written, exceptionally well-cast characters strike a pleasant chord.
"The Wood" should do well by its targeted young urban audience, although any significant crossover seems unlikely.
Set in Inglewood, Calif., (the "Wood" in question), the story concerns a trio of best friends from childhood who are experiencing some delayed emotional growing pains.
Just hours before his wedding, Roland (Taye Diggs) has gone AWOL with a bad case of prenuptial jitters, sending buddies Mike (Omar Epps) and Slim (Richard T. Jones) on his trail.
They track him down having a panic attack at the home of an old high school sweetheart (Tamala Jones), and while doing their best to get him sobered up, they begin to reminisce about their carefree lives back in the day when jheri curls, K-Swiss tennis shoes and Guess USA jackets reigned supreme.
Past shares screen time with the present as Young Roland (Trent Cameron), Young Mike (Sean Nelson) and Young Slim (Duane Finley) do impressive renderings of their hormonally driven, teenaged selves.
In fact, all the film's characters are credibly conveyed by the talented cast. In addition to Diggs, Epps and Jones and their younger counterparts, Malinda Williams does effective work as Alicia, the fine but fiery object of Mike's guarded affections, while De'Aundre Bonds is comically on the money as her delinquent big brother.
Writer-director Famuyiwa certainly has a lot of room to grow, as evidenced by the constant shifts back and forth in time, signaled by a close-up of a needle landing on a spinning record, don't always flow smoothly and can get a little old after a while. But he adeptly captures the camaraderie and has a gentle, unforced way with humor.
Production values are strong, particularly Steven Bernstein's ("The Waterboy") energetic camera work and some frighteningly familiar '80s touches from production designers Roger Fortune and Maxine Shepard, not to mention some of costume designer Darryle Johnson's cringe-inducing "period" finds.
Also making his feature debut here is jazz bassist Robert Hurst, who delivers a mellow, unobtrusive score that blends in well with those vintage Luther and Levert slow jams.
THE WOOD
Paramount
An MTV Films production
in association with Bona Fide Prods.
Director-screenwriter: Rick Famuyiwa
Story: Rick Famuyiwa and Todd Boyd
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, David Gale
Executive producer: Van Toffler
Director of photography: Steven Bernstein
Production designers: Roger Fortune and Maxine Shepard
Editor: John Carter
Costume designer: Darryle Johnson
Music supervisor: Pilar McCurry
Music: Robert Hurst
Casting: Mali Finn and Emily Schweber
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mike: Omar Epps
Roland: Taye Diggs
Slim: Richard T. Jones
Young Mike: Sean Nelson
Young Roland: Trent Cameron
Young Slim: Duane Finley
Young Alicia: Malinda Williams
Stacey: De'Aundre Bonds
Tanya: Tamala Jones
Running time -- 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 7/12/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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