Chief Executive of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, in his first big move named Nelson Chai CFO. Mr. Chai was his former finance chief at NYSE.
Mr. Chai will start his new position new week.
The previous CFO Jeffrey Edwards will remain on with Merrill Lynch in a new executive position which is still unknown.
Most of these decision are directly related to management changes due to a reported almost $8 billion in credit costs only a few weeks after estimating them at $4.5 billion.
Former CEO Stan O'Neal was fired in November on the heels of many other Wall Street executive cuts due to the subprime mortgage debacle.
Thain expressed with confidence that Mr. Chai will be successful at Merrill Lynch.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sean Taylor Funeral, The Loss of a Hero
There were a few who shed tears for the athlete. Some more for the classmate and neighbor. But all mourned the hero.
Thousands were at the wake and vigil on Sunday during a large funeral for the murdered NFL star.
On the other side of the state, four men were taken into custody for killing the Redskins playeril cells on the other side of the state.
"We lost one of our best. The whole community feels it," said Khary Pestaina a former neighbor. A freshman in highschool Josh Persad said, "He's like my hero."
Taylor's jersey bearing the number 26 along with a photo of him in his Hurricanes uniform were on display.
His father Pedro Taylor said that he believes Sean is in heaven with God now. The family huddled together in prayer trying to stick to their faith.
The four men charge were all denied bond. One of the attorneys, Sawyer Smith for defendant Jason Mitchell said, "He looks like he's in shock." The other defendants include Eric Rivera, Charles Wardlow, and Venjah Hunte. All 4 are under the age of 20 and have now been charged with unpremeditated murder, home invasion with a deadly weapon, and burglary. It is unknown when they will be brought to Miami for trial.
Two confessed to armed burglary, Mitchell and Rivera. They also said that someone had a gun which was used on Taylor, who was unidentified. Police have also indicated that other confessions were made but had no comment.
Thousands were at the wake and vigil on Sunday during a large funeral for the murdered NFL star.
On the other side of the state, four men were taken into custody for killing the Redskins playeril cells on the other side of the state.
"We lost one of our best. The whole community feels it," said Khary Pestaina a former neighbor. A freshman in highschool Josh Persad said, "He's like my hero."
Taylor's jersey bearing the number 26 along with a photo of him in his Hurricanes uniform were on display.
His father Pedro Taylor said that he believes Sean is in heaven with God now. The family huddled together in prayer trying to stick to their faith.
The four men charge were all denied bond. One of the attorneys, Sawyer Smith for defendant Jason Mitchell said, "He looks like he's in shock." The other defendants include Eric Rivera, Charles Wardlow, and Venjah Hunte. All 4 are under the age of 20 and have now been charged with unpremeditated murder, home invasion with a deadly weapon, and burglary. It is unknown when they will be brought to Miami for trial.
Two confessed to armed burglary, Mitchell and Rivera. They also said that someone had a gun which was used on Taylor, who was unidentified. Police have also indicated that other confessions were made but had no comment.
Poughkeepsie Tapes
According to Shock Til You Drop, The Poughkeepsie Tapes will be hitting our theatres in the first part of 2008. The film, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on the 27th April 2007, sees a return to the Horror movies of yonder years.
This film is very much like Rosemary’s Baby, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, taking us back to the horror movies which seemed so real that you slept with one eye open for months after watching them.
The thing that makes this film totally different to the run of the mill horrors that have recently graced the silver screen is that it was shot in documentary style. This totally adds to the sheer horror and suspense. It’s a technique I find really exciting and provides a completely different viewing experience.
The film follows the story of the Water Street Butcher, a serial killer from Poughkeepsie for over ten years. The butcher’s slight mistake lead to SWAT team descending on his house only to find that the butcher was long gone. However, what the team found was just as horrific. A catalogued library of VHS tapes which he used to document his murderous career.
This film is very much like Rosemary’s Baby, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, taking us back to the horror movies which seemed so real that you slept with one eye open for months after watching them.
The thing that makes this film totally different to the run of the mill horrors that have recently graced the silver screen is that it was shot in documentary style. This totally adds to the sheer horror and suspense. It’s a technique I find really exciting and provides a completely different viewing experience.
The film follows the story of the Water Street Butcher, a serial killer from Poughkeepsie for over ten years. The butcher’s slight mistake lead to SWAT team descending on his house only to find that the butcher was long gone. However, what the team found was just as horrific. A catalogued library of VHS tapes which he used to document his murderous career.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Brad Pitt Announcement, See The Video
Brad Pitt will no longer be stripping for the camera, according to a report made by the National Enquirer. The 43 year old actor is no longer interested in baring his body for the camera, as he did in such films as "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Thelma and Louise" for fear it would upset his children. He had a biological child with his wife, Angelina Jolie, and has adopted her adopted son, Maddox, as well as two other children with the actress who also proclaims to be a humanitarian.
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Pitt's announcement that he will no longer "get naked" in front of the cameras is bound to upset his legion of loyal fans. The 43 year old actor is one of the highest paid in Hollywood and a major box office draw. In addition to his previous film nudity, Pitt also appeared in several risqué male modeling magazines before landing his first Hollywood film role. After "Thelma and Louise" shot him to stardom, Pitt became a movie idol of sorts and there are hundreds of fan clubs devoted to him on the Internet.
Who Died On Desperate Housewives, Find Out
Overturned cars, splintered trees and wrecked furniture fill the once picture-perfect street at the center of "Desperate Housewives." Windows and roofs are smashed and Mrs. McCluskey's house, oh my, has been reduced to rubble. Death is in the air.
The aftermath of a hissy fit by a stressed homemaker or jealous lover? No, it's a tornado that has savaged suburbia -- and series creator Marc Cherry is reveling in the destruction and, of course, the drama.
"Causing all sorts of havoc, that's when I'm at my happiest," a mischievous Cherry said of the two-part episode that brings the ABC drama its cruelest crisis yet, for viewers as well as characters.
The first hour airs Sunday, with a cliffhanger ending (Who died? Who lived?) that won't be resolved anytime soon: The following episode is completed but has yet to be scheduled.
Filming wrapped just as the screenwriters' strike began November 5, shutting down "Desperate Housewives" and other network dramas and comedies. ABC and Cherry want the second hour to kick off a run of new episodes -- which would require the strike to wrap before the season does.
Meanwhile, fans will have to live with agonizing uncertainty. That's something most cast members, aside from stars Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria, are accustomed to.
"With the exception of the four women, I don't know that anyone can ever take their job completely for granted," Cherry told The Associated Press. "Good heavens, I killed off Mary Alice in the pilot, Mrs. Huber in episode seven of the first season. My attitude is, that's life. People come and go."
Inspiration for the big-ticket episode came, in part, from the success of last season's hostage crisis, in which Lynette (Huffman) was shot and other characters were killed.
"It taught me the value of doing something exciting," Cherry said. "Very often, if you're just trying to show the lives of ordinary women and trying to make the small events of their lives interesting or big, you get in trouble. Sometimes you can overwrite, sometimes people get too silly."
A natural disaster, on the other hand, provides "a perfect backdrop so that the stakes are high for everyone on every single level," he said.
As they were for production designer Thomas Walsh and the crew, who had the job of pulling off a big-screen sequence with a small-screen budget and time constraints: Although there was an extra $500,000 or so for production (an average hourlong TV episode costs roughly $2 million), the usual nine-day shooting schedule was unchanged.
Organization and planning were key in the transformation of the Universal Studios make-believe neighborhood.
A few miles away, a parking lot in an industrial section of Glendale was designated as a collection site for debris -- and the scavenging began. When Steven Spielberg finished with a set for the Indiana Jones sequel also being shot at Universal, "truckload after truckload" of lumber was carried away, Walsh said.
Set dressers raided thrift stores for household goods that were destined to be trashed, while tree cuttings from the studio lot and elsewhere were added to the pile.
"We were good stewards. We actually recycled," Walsh said.
The designer debris ultimately was carted back to the lot and attached to 4-by-8-foot wood pallets to allow for repositioning during filming and quick removal in case of emergency (there was none, Walsh said, and no injuries during filming).
When it came to simulating the tornado and its destructive path, the approach was strictly old school since computer-generated effects would be costly and time-consuming. Wind machines created impressive gusts; cranes lifted and dropped cars and air mortars sent flotsam flying.
The house occupied by Karen McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten) fell victim to an earth excavator. It was the only one destroyed; other damage, such as apparent gashes in roofs, was largely simulated.
There was Hollywood history attached to the demolished house, which was featured in "Father Knows Best," and to others: Gabrielle's (Longoria) home was seen in the movie "Harvey," while "The Munsters," "Marcus Welby, M.D." and "The Hardy Boys" -- "depending on what generation you are," Walsh said -- also used the structures that once occupied another part of the lot.
Was Walsh at all troubled by wiping away a bit of TV's past?
"Sets are amazingly disposable; that's a fact of life," he said. Besides, he said, "we're visual storytellers, not architects."
Cherry admitted to a pang when he saw the tattered set.
"I thought, 'Oh, my God, what have we done?' It really kind of hurt my heart a little bit to see my street so banged up," he said.
But he's more sanguine about erasing remnants of TV tradition.
"To me, it's kind of like my street to destroy at this point," Cherry said. "Even if we shut down production tomorrow, it's Wisteria Lane now. That street is Wisteria Lane."
The aftermath of a hissy fit by a stressed homemaker or jealous lover? No, it's a tornado that has savaged suburbia -- and series creator Marc Cherry is reveling in the destruction and, of course, the drama.
"Causing all sorts of havoc, that's when I'm at my happiest," a mischievous Cherry said of the two-part episode that brings the ABC drama its cruelest crisis yet, for viewers as well as characters.
The first hour airs Sunday, with a cliffhanger ending (Who died? Who lived?) that won't be resolved anytime soon: The following episode is completed but has yet to be scheduled.
Filming wrapped just as the screenwriters' strike began November 5, shutting down "Desperate Housewives" and other network dramas and comedies. ABC and Cherry want the second hour to kick off a run of new episodes -- which would require the strike to wrap before the season does.
Meanwhile, fans will have to live with agonizing uncertainty. That's something most cast members, aside from stars Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria, are accustomed to.
"With the exception of the four women, I don't know that anyone can ever take their job completely for granted," Cherry told The Associated Press. "Good heavens, I killed off Mary Alice in the pilot, Mrs. Huber in episode seven of the first season. My attitude is, that's life. People come and go."
Inspiration for the big-ticket episode came, in part, from the success of last season's hostage crisis, in which Lynette (Huffman) was shot and other characters were killed.
"It taught me the value of doing something exciting," Cherry said. "Very often, if you're just trying to show the lives of ordinary women and trying to make the small events of their lives interesting or big, you get in trouble. Sometimes you can overwrite, sometimes people get too silly."
A natural disaster, on the other hand, provides "a perfect backdrop so that the stakes are high for everyone on every single level," he said.
As they were for production designer Thomas Walsh and the crew, who had the job of pulling off a big-screen sequence with a small-screen budget and time constraints: Although there was an extra $500,000 or so for production (an average hourlong TV episode costs roughly $2 million), the usual nine-day shooting schedule was unchanged.
Organization and planning were key in the transformation of the Universal Studios make-believe neighborhood.
A few miles away, a parking lot in an industrial section of Glendale was designated as a collection site for debris -- and the scavenging began. When Steven Spielberg finished with a set for the Indiana Jones sequel also being shot at Universal, "truckload after truckload" of lumber was carried away, Walsh said.
Set dressers raided thrift stores for household goods that were destined to be trashed, while tree cuttings from the studio lot and elsewhere were added to the pile.
"We were good stewards. We actually recycled," Walsh said.
The designer debris ultimately was carted back to the lot and attached to 4-by-8-foot wood pallets to allow for repositioning during filming and quick removal in case of emergency (there was none, Walsh said, and no injuries during filming).
When it came to simulating the tornado and its destructive path, the approach was strictly old school since computer-generated effects would be costly and time-consuming. Wind machines created impressive gusts; cranes lifted and dropped cars and air mortars sent flotsam flying.
The house occupied by Karen McCluskey (Kathryn Joosten) fell victim to an earth excavator. It was the only one destroyed; other damage, such as apparent gashes in roofs, was largely simulated.
There was Hollywood history attached to the demolished house, which was featured in "Father Knows Best," and to others: Gabrielle's (Longoria) home was seen in the movie "Harvey," while "The Munsters," "Marcus Welby, M.D." and "The Hardy Boys" -- "depending on what generation you are," Walsh said -- also used the structures that once occupied another part of the lot.
Was Walsh at all troubled by wiping away a bit of TV's past?
"Sets are amazingly disposable; that's a fact of life," he said. Besides, he said, "we're visual storytellers, not architects."
Cherry admitted to a pang when he saw the tattered set.
"I thought, 'Oh, my God, what have we done?' It really kind of hurt my heart a little bit to see my street so banged up," he said.
But he's more sanguine about erasing remnants of TV tradition.
"To me, it's kind of like my street to destroy at this point," Cherry said. "Even if we shut down production tomorrow, it's Wisteria Lane now. That street is Wisteria Lane."
Don Rickles, Mr. Warmth
Eighty-one-year-old Don Rickles is the subject of “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project,” an HBO documentary premiering Sunday directed by John Landis. Read about it in the Times arts coverage here and watch this clip (left) with Ed McMahon looking back at the comedian’s relationship with Johnny Carson and “The Tonight Show.”
Sam Vasquez Last Martial Arts Fight, Dies
Sam Vasquez of Houston may have become the first fighter to die from injuries sustained in mixed martial arts competition in North America.
A report by The Fight Network cited the Harris County (Texas) medical examiner’s office confirming Vasquez’s death at 8:15 p.m. Friday. The cause of death was not released.
Vasquez had been battling for his life since taking a hard right to the chin from 21-year old Vince Libardi on Oct. 20 during a Renegades Extreme Fighting show at the Toyota Center in Houston. The blow knocked Vasquez out and he was rushed to St. Joseph Medical Center, where he stayed until moving to hospice care on Monday.
The 35-year-old Vasquez was competing in the featherweight division (145 pound weight class) in the third match of a 12-match card promoted by Saul Soliz, the longtime boxing coach of Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar Tito Ortiz. The show was overseen by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Calls to the department on Sunday were not immediately returned.
After taking a flurry of punches from Libardi, Vasquez collapsed in the ring and the fight was waved off at 2:50 of the third round. Emergency medical technicians worked on him in the ring for several minutes until he suffered what appeared to be a seizure and was rushed to the hospital.
Vasquez’s condition worsened from there. On Nov. 4, two weeks after being admitted, he underwent the first of two surgeries to relieve the pressure of a large clot in his brain, then had a massive stroke on Nov. 9 and was placed in a medically induced coma.
Vasquez, who had a seven-year-old son, came into the match with a 1-1 record, and had not fought in 13 months. Libardi, 14 years Vasquez’s junior, entered the match with seven pro fights and 10 rounds of action over three fights in the time since Vasquez had last fought in Sept. 2006.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary,” Paul Erickson, who was at ringside taking photos, said in an interview with The Fight Network. “They scrambled and hit the cage. Sammy stood up and looked a little wobbly. Then he went down and the referee called the doctor in. It didn’t seem like anything was out of the ordinary. Sammy was winded and looked exhausted, but he wasn’t unconscious when they carried him out. Everyone was puzzled at the time because no one could tell when or where he was injured.“
MMA had until recently been considered highly controversial, and a group of critics led by Sen. John McCain caused it to be banned in several states in the mid-to-late 1990s and pressured cable companies to not air its pay-per-view events.
In the past two-and-a-half years, though, the sport exploded in popularity due to television exposure of UFC, the sport’s major league franchise. UFC’s success has spawned hundreds of smaller promotions around North America with many states now holding more MMA events than boxing events.
Mixed martial arts officials and fans have long noted that there had never been a death in a sanctioned MMA match, a statistic no other combat sport could claim.
The only confirmed death prior to government oversight came when 31-year-old Douglas Dedge of Chipley, Fla. passed away on March 18, 1998, from severe brain injuries suffered in a match two days earlier at a non-sanctioned event called World Super Challenge in Russia. Dedge had passed out in a training session leading up to the fight, but went through with the match anyway.
A report by The Fight Network cited the Harris County (Texas) medical examiner’s office confirming Vasquez’s death at 8:15 p.m. Friday. The cause of death was not released.
Vasquez had been battling for his life since taking a hard right to the chin from 21-year old Vince Libardi on Oct. 20 during a Renegades Extreme Fighting show at the Toyota Center in Houston. The blow knocked Vasquez out and he was rushed to St. Joseph Medical Center, where he stayed until moving to hospice care on Monday.
The 35-year-old Vasquez was competing in the featherweight division (145 pound weight class) in the third match of a 12-match card promoted by Saul Soliz, the longtime boxing coach of Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar Tito Ortiz. The show was overseen by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Calls to the department on Sunday were not immediately returned.
After taking a flurry of punches from Libardi, Vasquez collapsed in the ring and the fight was waved off at 2:50 of the third round. Emergency medical technicians worked on him in the ring for several minutes until he suffered what appeared to be a seizure and was rushed to the hospital.
Vasquez’s condition worsened from there. On Nov. 4, two weeks after being admitted, he underwent the first of two surgeries to relieve the pressure of a large clot in his brain, then had a massive stroke on Nov. 9 and was placed in a medically induced coma.
Vasquez, who had a seven-year-old son, came into the match with a 1-1 record, and had not fought in 13 months. Libardi, 14 years Vasquez’s junior, entered the match with seven pro fights and 10 rounds of action over three fights in the time since Vasquez had last fought in Sept. 2006.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary,” Paul Erickson, who was at ringside taking photos, said in an interview with The Fight Network. “They scrambled and hit the cage. Sammy stood up and looked a little wobbly. Then he went down and the referee called the doctor in. It didn’t seem like anything was out of the ordinary. Sammy was winded and looked exhausted, but he wasn’t unconscious when they carried him out. Everyone was puzzled at the time because no one could tell when or where he was injured.“
MMA had until recently been considered highly controversial, and a group of critics led by Sen. John McCain caused it to be banned in several states in the mid-to-late 1990s and pressured cable companies to not air its pay-per-view events.
In the past two-and-a-half years, though, the sport exploded in popularity due to television exposure of UFC, the sport’s major league franchise. UFC’s success has spawned hundreds of smaller promotions around North America with many states now holding more MMA events than boxing events.
Mixed martial arts officials and fans have long noted that there had never been a death in a sanctioned MMA match, a statistic no other combat sport could claim.
The only confirmed death prior to government oversight came when 31-year-old Douglas Dedge of Chipley, Fla. passed away on March 18, 1998, from severe brain injuries suffered in a match two days earlier at a non-sanctioned event called World Super Challenge in Russia. Dedge had passed out in a training session leading up to the fight, but went through with the match anyway.
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