John Pogue's newest movie . . .

From superherohype.com:

John Pogue to Helm Ciudad

by Silas Lesnick

September 24, 2013

Sierra Pictures announced today that they are set to finance and produceCiudad, a big screen adaptation of the upcoming Oni Press graphic novel by Captain America: The Winter Soldier helmers Joe and Anthony Russo and Ande Parks and Fernando Leon. John Pogue (The Quiet Ones) is attached to direct with Joe Russo himself providing the adapted screenplay. Production is targeting a spring 2014 shoot in Columbia. The story follows a weary mercenary, who is hired by a Brazilian drug lord to extract his daughter from one of the world’s most dangerous and corrupt cities: Paraguay’s Ciudad del Este. Dwayne Johnson was said to be eyeing the leading role in the film last year, but he appears to no longer be involved. Eric Gitter and Peter Schwerin are producing the project through the Closed on Mondays Entertainment banner. Joe and Anthony Russo and Closed on Mondays’ Joe Nozemack will executive produce with David Guillod of Intellectual Property Group. Sierra’s Nick Meyer and Marc Schaberg will also executive produce the project. Closed on Mondays’ James Lucas Jones and Steven V. Scavelli will co-produce with Kelly McCormick, Sierra/Affinity’s Senior Vice President of Production and Acquisitions, overseeing. Read more about: Ciudad

Here is a recent interview with our classmate, Claire Messud:

In conversation with Claire Messud

The author of ‘The Woman Upstairs’ on middle age, adages and why being likeable will cost you dear

• By Alex Clark
• Published: 21:30 September 26, 2013
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The nature of Claire Messud’s novels — the elegance of their construction and prose, the wry, precise sentences, her powerfully accurate descriptions — makes it somehow unlikely that she would tell me about a twee sign in a bakery near where she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass,” the sign reads, “it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” It just doesn’t seem very Messud in either sentiment or delivery, and indeed she remarks that it is the kind of thing she would once have “scoffed at”. But we have been talking about middle age (she is 46), and about how its consolations — a certain kind of relaxation with oneself, or an improvement in material circumstances — are offset by such harrowing milestones as parental illness and death.

Once those kinds of experience have entered your life, adages start to seem slightly less objectionable on mere aesthetic grounds; as Messud puts it, “super-tacky, but not wrong”.

Messud uses the verb “scoff” at one other point, when she recalls a first-person piece she read in a magazine, some years ago, while killing time in a waiting room. It was about a woman who had only just realised that you weren’t graded at the end of your life. At first it seemed a ridiculous notion but as she read on, it began to dawn on Messud that she half-identified with it. Now, she says, “I still believe on some level that at the end somebody will say: you get an A-minus for your life. And it’s not true. It’s not true.”

LOVE IS STRANGE

Our classmate, Ira Sachs, has been busy.  Check out how he is shooting his new movie

LOVE IS STRANGE

The official Tumblr for Ira Sachs' upcoming film Love is Strange starring Alfred Molina, John Lithgow, Darren Burrows and Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei.

MUST READ: Want a behind-the-scenes look at how movies are made? Read Ira Sachs’ compelling production blog for insight on the filming of Love is Strange: http://loveisstrangemovie.com

LOVE IS STRANGE

A Review of ‘Red Grooms - Larger Than Life,’ at Yale University Art Gallery - NYTimes.com

Saw this recently at the Art Gallery.  Very cool.

Yale University Art Gallery/Red Grooms/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Courtesy of Marlborough Gallery 

“Cedar Bar,” a 1986 work of colored pencil and crayon on five sheets in a wood frame, now on display at the Yale University Art Gallery.
By SYLVIANE GOLD 

There’s a wild, wild party going on at the Yale University Art Gallery these days. And I don’t mean the happy celebration of painting that can be ascribed to most any art museum. This particular bash — calling it wild is probably understating things — rounds up Rembrandt and Leonardo, Picasso and Stravinsky, cancan girls and the New York Knicks and lets them all loose in a big room with plenty of booze, cigarettes and a large, extremely entertaining bowl of grapes.

Mining for Potential in West Virginia | Constance Spencer

Check out this blog post by Connie Spencer about the Yale Alumni Service Corps trip to West Virginia:

I watched with compassion as a girl dropped her head to hide tears spilling down her face after reading her 10-minute writing exercise to other high school students, and the Yale Alumni Service Corps volunteers who had come to West Virginia to coach them on college applications. The girl's story was a description of anguish and love between a child and her alcoholic mother -- a mother who did not want her child to go to college and leave her behind. The next student nervously read her story which featured the most influential person in her life, her grandmother, a woman who had been a shut-in for 20 years. Another student wrote of a beloved uncle who died young of a drug overdose, leaving behind confusion and grief. These stories represented some of the obstacles that the students in Western Appalachia face when considering their futures, and our task was to help them overcome these roadblocks in order to understand their value and extraordinary potential -- in only four days!

YaleNews | Inauguration weekend Oct. 12–13 to build on tradition and unite community

Check out the Salovey inauguration weekend . . .

Inauguration weekend Oct. 12–13 to build on tradition and unite community

September 16, 2013 

Yale’s long history, current vitality, and future aspirations will all be showcased at the inauguration of Peter Salovey as the university’s 23^rd president, with a series of events in the days leading to the formal installation ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m.
The fellows of the Yale Corporation selected Salovey, who began work in Woodbridge Hall on July 1, as Yale’s new president in late November 2012, following extensive consultations with the Yale community. The trustees and Salovey aim to include all of the Yale community, New Haven residents, and friends around the world in the inauguration events this fall.
The festivities include a campus-wide open house on Saturday, Oct 12 for all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and New Haven residents. Sunday’s Inauguration Ceremony will be viewable live online via the Yale YouTube channel. The weekend will conclude with a festive “block party” on Hillhouse Avenue, open to all.

"Yale grew from an institution chartered on Oct. 9, 1701, by a visionary group of men who shared one region, race, and religion,” notes Kimberly Goff-Crews, vice president and secretary of student life, co-chair of the Inauguration Planning Committee with Daniel Harrison, the Allen Forte Professor of Music Theory. “Their collegiate school has been transformed over the centuries into our global university, comprised of women and men with many aspirations and ideas, representing many experiences and beliefs, hailing from many cultures and backgrounds. 

“This inauguration provides an opportunity to celebrate the best of today’s Yale and its traditions, made anew by each successive generation,” she adds.

“President Salovey asked us to conceive a series of events that would highlight the many facets of Yale, its people and their pursuits, and the spirit of inspiration that unites us,” Harrison says. “There is much to celebrate, so the inauguration includes many parts, building to Saturday and Sunday activities accessible by all. We hope everyone in the Yale family will participate and will join us in sharing information about the inaugural celebrations with their colleagues, neighbors, and friends.”

Campus-wide open house on Oct. 12, to focus on “inspiring connections”
In keeping with Salovey’s commitment to make Yale even more unified and accessible, this inauguration will feature an innovation on tradition, with a campus-wide open house that encourages people beyond Yale to connect with the campus and the people at Yale to connect with parts of the university they do not already know.

Alumnae Weekend Includes Visits from Harvard, Vermont - Yale Bulldogs

Attention all Field Hockey players!

 

Alumnae Weekend Includes Visits from Harvard, Vermont

The Yale field hockey huddle. (photo by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity)
Ceremonies Recognize New Coaching Endowment
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – What promises to be a memorable Alumnae Weekend for the Yale field hockey team centers around two games at Johnson Field, as the Bulldogs host Harvard on Saturday and Vermont on Sunday. Saturday's game, the Ivy League opener, includes ceremonies recognizing the program's new coaching endowment -- Pam Stuper is now Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey. It is also Yale's chance to notch a fifth straight win in the series against Harvard, something that the Bulldogs have never done before.

Alumnae Weekend Includes Visits from Harvard, Vermont - Yale Bulldogs

Foodtober: Taste of New Haven, 10/1 | Yale Alumni Association of New York

New Have has some terrific restaurants.  Check them out during the upcoming YAANY Foodtober event  . . .

Foodtober: Taste of New Haven, 10/1

Photo (cc) flickr.com/altopower

Come eat up some of the tastiness New Haven has to offer! Taste of New Haven brings six of the Elm City’s most delicious and innovative restaurants here to the Big Apple, where we’ll sample their cuisine at a convivial open-to-all event at the Yale Club (you do not have to be a Yale Club member to attend!). The evening will be peppered with some of New Haven’s cultural institutions and sporting events to ignite conversation as we enjoy our taste of New Haven.

Your ticket price includes savory and sweet food samplings (more than a bite, smaller than an appetizer) from all six restaurants, and a donation for our Foodtober beneficiaries. Reserve yours before the September 24th early bird discount cutoff!

Foodtober: Taste of New Haven, 10/1 | Yale Alumni Association of New York

Why music? An overture to the Yale School of Music

This video celebrates the Yale School of Music’s mission of cultivating and sharing great music. It was written, directed, and scored entirely by graduates and current students of Yale University, and features musicians from a variety of YSM Ensembles. (Visit music.yale.edu for more information)

Yale Alumni Recognition Awards

Alumni Awards and Recognition

The Association of Yale Alumni applauds the outstanding dedication and accomplishments of Yale’s many volunteers. Volunteers give of their time and their talent in so many ways, demonstrating that the best of Yale can be the best for Yale.

While Yale volunteering - whether for your Yale College Class, regional club, graduate or professional school association, shared interest group or other group - is its own reward, the Yale Alumni Association seeks to honor and recognize those individuals and alumni group whose service stands out.

Yale Medal - Yale’s highest honor for individual service

AYA Leadership Awards for Volunteer Innovation and Service for outstanding individual service to the Yale Alumni Association

AYA Board of Governors Excellence Awards for superior accomplishment among AYA-affiliated alumni associations

Yale College Class Awards - awarded by class leadership for distinguished service