Year: 2024

Musicians Tegan & Sara, Open Mike Eagle, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and more have signed a letter organized by Fight for the Future demanding music labels drop their lawsuit against the Internet Archive, the online library and nonprofit best known for the Wayback Machine.
“We, the undersigned musicians, wholeheartedly oppose major record labels’ unjust lawsuit targeting the Internet Archive,” the Musicians for Fairness and Preservation Open Letter reads. “We don’t believe that the Internet Archive should be destroyed in our name.” Instead, the letter offers three alternative ways the lives of musicians could be materially improved: By partnering with organizations like the Internet Archive to preserve original recordings and music culture, allowing musicians to keep 100 percent of merchandise sales and ending vertical investments in streaming services like Spotify.
The advent of streaming services already made being a working musician highly unprofitable, but as the letter notes, things like the COVID-19 pandemic and Live Nation’s monopoly on ticket sales have made it nearly impossible to perform without some kind of extra expense.
The original lawsuit put forth by labels like Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group was specifically targeted at the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project, which aims to preserve music recorded on 78 RPM records. The project has over 400,000 recordings available to stream, including music from well-known artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra. If the labels win their lawsuit, the Internet Archive could be on the hook for up to $621 million dollars in damages to account for the music streamed through the Archive since 2006, Rolling Stone writes.
Music isn’t the only front where the Internet Archive is fighting. The organization recently lost its appeal in an ongoing lawsuit with publishers over digital book lending. The Internet Archive claims its digital book library can lend out eBooks under the fair use doctrine, but multiple judges have now disagreed.
PlayStation's Mark Cerny announced a new machine learning-focused partnership between AMD and Sony and explained the technical details of building the PS5 Pro.
The wireless TV can switch between transparent and standard modes with the push of a button.
Amazon workers are protesting low salaries, unsafe work condition and Amazon's refusal to recognize its union.
Starting today, if you add 1 (800) ChatGPT to your contacts, you can start using the chatbot over WhatsApp.
The news app Flipboard just launched something called Surf. This app allows users to browse the open social web, which includes services like Mastodon and Bluesky.
The court will arguments on January 10. The bill, signed by President Biden in April, requires ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban in the US.
The indie hit Pacific Drive is getting turned into a TV series. Director James Wan is on board with the adaptation.
Here are the best Christmas gifts you can get this year, as chosen by Engadget editors.
Shop our list of the best digital gifts to give to your loved ones, chosen by experts at Engadget.
Here are the best white elephant gift ideas, as chosen by Engadget editors.
You can get it for just $140 right now, which is still expensive, but better than $200.
Here are the best board gifts you can gift this year, including family games, tabletop games and everything in between.
These are the best last-minute Christmas gifts you can get this year, as chosen by Engadget editors.
TP-Link is being investigated by several US authorities as some of its routers have been linked to cyberattacks.
Amazon hit animated series Secret Level will get a second season, but details are scant for now.
After unveiling Exodus just over a year ago at The Game Awards, developer Archetype Entertainment has shown off the first gameplay for the sci-fi RPG.
YouTube is teaming up with the world's largest talent agency, CAA, to help its high-profile actors and athletes monitor their AI likenesses.
CarlinKit 5 does a solid job of turning a wired CarPlay vehicle into a truly wireless one.
LG has revealed the 2025 refresh for its QNED LCD TV lineup.
The biggest news stories this morning: Elon Musk is opening a preschool, Unofficial mod transforms the Playdate into a charming robot pet, Seagate teases its first HAMR-based hard drive.
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Life, the Alien meets Gravity horror-fest aboard the International Space Station, got a raw deal upon its initial release.
Since the release of Alien nearly half a century go, Hollywood has never failed to churn out a steady parade of clones in an attempt to recapture the game-changing cosmic horror unleashed aboard the Nostromo in Ridley Scott’s perennial science fiction classic.
The results, which are often more miss than hit, ironically bring to mind the numerous foolhardy attempts of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to obtain, study, and reverse engineer the Xenomorph without fully understanding the subject in question. Even the Alien franchise itself (post-Aliens, of course) is guilty of indulging humanity’s never-ending desire to disregard logic and reason in the race to turn a quick profit.
While a film made in the vein of Alien can definitely take inspiration from the ’79 original (after all, it’s hard to outrun such lasting impact), the audience still needs something new, or else you end up with the entertainment industry equivalent of trying to pass off last month’s leftovers as a fresh meal. One movie that does succeed in rising above the noise of subpar rip-offs, however, is 2017’s Life (now streaming on Peacock), which got a very raw deal upon its initial release. Come on, the cast had Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Hiroyuki Sanada. How did it just come and go with very little fanfare?
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On the surface, Life (co-written by future Twisted Metal producers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) has all the trappings of warmed-over Alien hash: a strange life-form from another planet gets loose on a sophisticated space vessel, grows bigger by the hour, and gruesomely kills a bunch of humans. You’ve heard it all before, right? Well, that’s merely the skeleton of the story — it’s the little tweaks to the well-worn formula that make Life a worthwhile addition to the genre.
For one thing, the movie takes place not on some futuristic ship in the far-flung future, but aboard the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting above the Earth, thus killing two birds with one meteor. The inevitable danger posed by the extraterrestrial feels that much closer to home, and the viewer gets a litany of unique situations that can only happen in a zero-g environment.
“When Alien was made, it was the post-atomic age. When people looked to the future, it was this dystopian neo-punk view, and that was something people liked to speculate about and make movies about,” Life director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Child 44) remarked during a 2017 interview with Deadline . “If you ask a young person today what happens in a hundred years, he doesn’t have a clue. He couldn’t even take a picture even in his imagination of what will happen in 20 years. The world is so chaotic. If you ask him well what do you fear the most, he will say what happens tomorrow. This movie is what happens tomorrow, not in a hundred years.”
And then we have the circumstances surrounding the alien’s arrival on the ISS. The unknown specimen (innocently dubbed “Calvin” by school children) is not some unforeseen hitchhiker from the deepest reaches of the cosmos, but a welcome guest, willingly brought aboard in a soil sample from Mars. Rather than groping in the dark like the Nostromo crew, the astronauts in Life know exactly what the score is — at least initially — and set up a number of safety and quarantine measures to keep Calvin contained should anything go awry. The most terrifying part, however, is the way in which our most complex safeguards mean almost nothing to the creature. These characters do everything right scientifically and still end up paying the ultimate price for their curiosity.
Next, we have Calvin himself. The creature design is actually pretty great, bringing to mind the majestic, agile, and highly unsettling fauna one might come across in the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean. Unlike the Xenomorph, which takes on the attributes of its incubating host, Calvin has no humanoid attributes. He is an alien through and through, with his various forms more akin to that of a sea star, hydra, manta ray, or any one of the many tentacled horrors found throughout the Cthulhu Mythos.
“I decided to not go into the design process in the same way that you usually do, because I think that most creatures tend to look the same,” Espinosa told Interview Magazine. “I went in a scientific way instead. I hired a brilliant geneticist, and, the same way they build up the dinosaurs by just having one bone, I had him go through that reverse process. If you have a one-cell being that has these kind of traits and is capable of doing these kind of things, as we see in the script, and is raised and created in zero gravity, which assumptions would you make of how it would look?”
Finally, we have the finale, which savagely pulls the rug out from under the audience by flying in the face of traditional feel-good endings. Dr. David Jordan (Gyllenhaal) attempts a noble sacrifice by flying the creature away from Earth in one of the decaying space station’s escape pods. Dr. Miranda North (Ferguson), on the other hand, is to head for home and recount all that happened to the astronauts’ superiors.
Until the very last moments, we’re led to believe the plan was successful… until we see that Jordan has unintentionally brought the alien to our planet’s surface, wrapped up in cocoon-like goo. North spends her last moments onscreen screaming helplessly (a chilling nod to Alien‘s famous marketing tagline) as her malfunctioning pod careens off into space. It’s the old switcheroo, and it works spectacularly, capping off Life with a nihilistic flourish more in line with John Carpenter’s The Thing than the bittersweet optimism found at the end of Alien.
So what are you waiting for? Go give Life another chance. Stream it on Peacock now!
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JT hails from Columbus, Wisconsin and has proudly called the Badger State home his entire life. He graduated from UW-Milwaukee in 2017.JT enjoys covering stories that impact people where they live and work. He focuses on labor, local government, the environment and water quality.
Church hopes prayer leads to healing
MONONA, Wis. (WKOW) – The pastor for a Spanish language church in Monona is helping heal his congregation’s emotional and spiritual pain in the wake of the school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison.
Casa de Fe (House of Faith) is located along Femrite Drive in Monona. Several families in its congregation have children that attend the school. Among them is Pastor Pedro Jruiz whose three sons are enrolled.
Just after 11 a.m. on Monday, Jruiz was on his way to see one of his children at Abundant Life during a recess period. However, as he approached the school he saw ambulances and police cars blocking his path. For a moment, he assumed it was a bad crash.
That illusion evaporated when he took a phone call from a friend.
“He calls me and he tells me, ‘Hey, are your kids OK?’” Jruiz recalled to 27 News. “And I say, ‘What are you talking about?’ And he’s like, ‘Well, there was a shooting.’”
Trapped in traffic, he tried calling one son, but school policies requiring phones be kept in lockers prevented him from getting through.
What Jruiz did not yet know was that a 15-year-old girl had opened fire with a handgun minutes earlier.  Another student, a teacher and the girl had died. Six more people were taken to area hospitals, two of whom remain in critical condition.
Jruiz’s phone soon rang again. Another friend had managed to get inside the school before the lockdown went into effect. The friend said he would try to get to Jruiz’s sons. He did not need to wait long before the friend sent him photos of his sons, unharmed. The pastor sent the photos along to his wife who was out of the country.
To endure the moments waiting in fear, Jruiz said he leaned into his faith.
“You have to put in practice what you preach,” the Casa de Fe pastor said. “And it hit home. Not close, it hit home. It was my kids.”
He took time to pray.
“I said, ‘God, you’re in control,’” Jruiz recalled. “You’re taking care of my kids. and you’re taking care of [all] the kids, not only mine, because this is a community thing.”
To help address his own faith community, the pastor’s congregation organized a prayer service for Tuesday evening to support those who had been impacted by the shooting.
The faith community at Casa de Fe welcomed all, regardless of denomination.
The church held the event in Spanish, to offer a place for Spanish speakers to gather in the wake of the tragedy.
“We got to do something for the Spanish community and for the parents of the school and the kids that do not speak the language or will prefer something in Spanish,” Jruiz said of his thoughts when coming up with the concept of the service.
The proceedings focused on togetherness, a concept the pastor said would be important in the wake of Monday’s tragedy. He cautioned his congregation against focusing on blame, saying it would lead only to division and more pain.
“We are one community, and this community was hurt, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay down,” Jruiz said. “This is [the] time for us to pick each other up, lift each other up.”
Reporter

JT hails from Columbus, Wisconsin and has proudly called the Badger State home his entire life. He graduated from UW-Milwaukee in 2017.JT enjoys covering stories that impact people where they live and work. He focuses on labor, local government, the environment and water quality.
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Northern lights blazing over lake Thingvellir national park in Iceland are caused by “space … [+] weather.”
A startup is forecasting space weather with publicly-available data now, and plans to launch a constellation of 24 weather-checking satellites by 2028. The goal: protect billions if not trillions of dollars worth of ground-based infrastructure, plus the lives of space tourists and astronauts as we increasingly move off-planet.
“Imagine you are traveling in space, and then the sun emits this invisible burst of radiation, energy, charged particles, which can be absolutely destructive,” Alex Pospeckov, CEO of Mission Space, told me in a recent TechFirst podcast. “This is what we call space weather. And when something like this happens, it affects assets in space, on earth, and of course endangers the life of astronauts and space tourists.”
Space tourists have to be one of the newest new things, but 69 private individuals have traveled to space so far: 46 above the Kármán line at 62 miles (100 kilometers) plus another 23 at least above the U.S. Air Force’s threshold at 50 miles (80 kilometers). With SpaceX and Blue Origin in full swing plus additional competitors in the wings, that number is only going to increase: up to 13,000 by 2028, by one rather optimistic estimate.
But right now space weather impacts far more people on earth than it does in space.
The prototype Mission Space satellite
Geomagnetic storms powered by coronal mass ejections from the Sun can damage transformers and lead to widespread power outages. Airplanes can suffer avionics problems, and GPS-guided equipment can malfunction. Also, satellite operations, which increasingly underpin our information, entertainment, and communications industries, can be disrupted or even shut down.
The classic example, the Carrington Event in September 1859, knocked out telegraph systems across Europe and North America, created auroras that were seen as far south as the Caribbean and Hawaii, and lit up the night sky so brightly that people reportedly thought it was dawn.
If we had a similar event today, it would do much more damage to our significantly more electricity-reliant economies.
Even much smaller space weather events have major economic implications, says Pospeckov, especially because existing prediction models are not localized, even though geomagnetic storms are.
“It’s a huge problem because in May one of the power plants on the northern island of New Zealand, they switched off the power grids because it there was an alarm about space weather events,” he said. “They spent four days without full capacity.”
In reality, however, the storm missed us, or at least New Zealand, and it turned out that the partial shutdown was unnecessary.
A constellation of 24 satellites would help Mission Space pinpoint which areas of the earth are at risk, reducing unnecessary disruptions, says Pospeckov. Current accuracy of forecasts is just 7.5%, he adds, making them not useful for day-to-day operations.
“The more precise forecasting you have, the more time in advance you have for planning,” he says. “You either can switch off, use the backup systems, switch off different radio channels or ground stations, and then you have some level of control of the events that are going to happen.”
Space Weather prediction screens
The 24 satellites that Mission Space is building will be deployed in multiple layers at different altitudes to see the difference of data between the layers. At least some of them will be in polar orbits, not equatorial, in order to capture data at the poles, where the earth’s magnetic field channels charged particles from the ongoing solar wind, as well as more energetic events caused by coronal masse ejections or solar flares.
Interestingly, the satellites won’t be hardened against radiation. Instead, Mission Space intends to make them as cheap as possible, making them quickly replaceable if any wear out or get damaged by the very weather they are intended to monitor. This contrasts with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) approach, which recently handed 340 million Euros to Airbus Defence and Space UK to develop the Vigil satellite for space weather forecasting.
“Vigil will be Europe’s first 24/7 operational space weather satellite, providing valuable time to protect critical infrastructure such as power grids or mobile communication networks on Earth as well as valuable satellites in Earth orbit, including the International Space Station ISS,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General, said in a statement at the time. “Vigil will drastically improve both the lead time of space weather warnings as well as their level of detail from its unique vantage point in deep space.”
Pospeckov isn’t impressed with that approach: one storm or other space event could take out that satellite, he says, whereas he can build a new Mission Space satellite in just a month and launch it cheaply into space via the next SpaceX bus to the sky.
“We use just a totally different approach,” he says. “Let’s do it as cheap as we can.”
Potential customers for space weather notifications include aerospace companies, satellite operators, power grids, airlines, space tourism companies, space stations and farmers relying on GPS-guided equipment.

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Research shows link between socioeconomic status and cancer life expectancy  News-Medical.Net
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The California Walnut Board (CWB) Produce December 18, 2024
Folsom, CA – The California Walnut Board (CWB) and California Walnut Commission (CWC) are pleased to announce the selection of Billy Ng as its new vice president, industry and government affairs. In this newly created role, Billy will lead activities related to issues management, research and regulatory issues to ensure the industry’s ability to compete globally in the marketing of walnuts. The CWB and CWC represent more than 4,600 California walnut growers and 73 handlers that produced more than 1.64 billion pounds of walnuts in 2023 that shipped to more than 50 countries around the world.
Billy has extensive experience in engaging with government agencies, regulatory bodies, and industry coalitions to overcome technical trade barriers and advocate food policy changes. His strong understanding of regulatory procedural policies, FDA & USDA food programs, and global trade dynamics affecting agriculture will help CWB and CWC fulfill its mission of cultivating industry prosperity by increasing worldwide demand for California walnuts, providing critical market information, and providing leadership for the walnut industry on regulatory concerns. Combined with his experience in Food Safety and Quality Assurance and an understanding of the supply chain from grower to final product, Billy has a strong foundation to help implement our strategic objectives in Quality Assurance, Global Market Access, Innovation, Sustainability, Production & Post-Harvest Research and more.
“Billy’s activities will be an integral part of our efforts to proactively monitor and protect the industry’s ability to produce, trade and mitigate risks at state, federal and international levels.” said Robert Verloop, executive director and chief executive officer for the CWB and CWC. “His expertise in regulatory issues will be essential in providing leadership and solutions on key issues and challenges facing the CA walnut industry.”
Prior to joining CWB and CWC, Billy worked for 16 years at Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) in Sacramento, CA, where most recently he was the senior manager, global regulatory affairs. Earlier in his career at Blue Diamond, he served as the manager, R&D regulatory and assistant manager, technical services. He also worked for a large tomato and canned fruit producer where he led the Quality Assurance department.
Billy holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Corporate Leadership from California State University, Sacramento, a Master of Jurisprudence in Global Food Law from Michigan State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Food Science & Technology from University of California, Davis. He was co-chair of the USA Export Group regulatory committee and vice-chair of the Global Technical and Regulatory Affairs committee for the Almond Board of California.
“I am excited for the opportunity to support California walnut growers and their ability to produce, sell and distribute this nutrient dense food to markets around the world, “said Ng.  “Walnuts have the potential to grow in global consumption and I look forward to taking part in these new opportunities.”
About the California Walnut Board and Commission
The California Walnut Board (CWB) and California Walnut Commission (CWC) represent more than 4,600 California walnut growers and 73 handlers, grown in multi-generational farmers’ family orchards. California walnuts, known for their excellent nutritional value and quality, are shipped around the world all year long, with more than 99% of the walnuts grown in the United States being from California. The CWB, established in 1948, promotes usage of walnuts in the United States through publicity and educational programs. The CWB also provides funding for walnut production, food safety and post-harvest research. The CWC, established in 1987, is involved in health research with consuming walnuts as well as domestic and export market development activities.
To explore recipes and learn more about California walnut growers, industry information and health research, visit walnuts.org.
High-Impact Omnichannel Shopper Insights: SymphonyAI Research Reveals How AI Boosts Grocery E-commerce Revenue by 8% 
Ahold Delhaize USA Retail & FoodService December 5, 2024
Ahold Delhaize USA has announced that Meg Ham, president of Food Lion, plans to retire on May 2, 2025, after more than 35 years with the organization. She has been at the helm of Food Lion for more than a decade and has been part of the brand’s unprecedented growth, grounded in Food Lion’s heritage of customer service and convenient locations. A successor for Ham will be announced before year-end. …
Misionero Produce November 10, 2024
With over two decades of experience in accounting, finance, and business management, Brandi brings a wealth of expertise in supporting complex agricultural organizations and driving financial insights that fuel business growth and innovation. …
Nature Fresh Farms Produce November 21, 2024
Patrick Criteser, former president and CEO of Tillamook County Creamery Association, will guide Nature Fresh Farms as it expands its team, products and distribution to meet the fast-growing demand for its fresh, Greenhouse Clean™ fruit and vegetables.    …
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General Jennie Carignan, the Chief of the Defence Staff and Robyn Hynes, Interim Ombud, recently announced a new collaboration between the Office of the DND/CAF Ombudsman and the Canadian Armed Forces.
According to a news release, they’re introducing the newly expanded Military Benefits Browser, which now incorporates CAF Offer, an interactive tool for CAF members and their families.
CAF Offer and Military Benefits Browse provides 24/7, comprehensive access to information for CAF personnel and their families regarding benefits and services available throughout their careers, from recruitment to release, and their transition into civilian life.

Noted as a comprehensive resource, the CAF Offer features details regarding compensation, benefits, and support available to CAF members and their families throughout their military careers.
“It provides tailored information on various aspects,” including:
“The CAF Offer serves as an open-source platform, empowering members and their families to understand and access the full range of entitlements and support available to them throughout their military journey.
For more detailed and personalized information, CAF members and their families are encouraged to explore the CAF Offer online.
“We are pleased to announce that this partnership has resulted in the creation of an innovative, user-friendly online tool designed to better support CAF members, their families, and those who are considering a career in the CAF,” announced Gen. Carignan, CDS. “This tool will provide a tailored list of programs that’s available to users depending on their career status, service type, medical status and more. It is convenient and informative to our members who are serving, retired, or supporting.”

Launched in 2018, the expanded Military Benefits Browser is available on both the CAF Offer and Ombud’s websites.
The Military Benefits Browser is designed to:
“This initiative reflects our shared commitment to enhancing the well-being and success of the Defence Community,” stated Robyn Hynes, Interim Ombud. “More information on how to access and use the portal will follow in the coming weeks.”

Together, the Military Browser and CAF Offer allow CAF members and aspiring members to now “tailor a search for the most current information on military pay, allowances, leave, family support, healthcare, career options, education support, professional development, relocation, transition, pensions, and other benefits, specific to their personal situations and needs,” the website noted.
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Gustin Law Firm Honored for #1 Drunk Driver Settlement in Harris County  Morningstar
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Attorney Charlie Gustin Aims to Make Houston Roads Safer for Families During the Holidays
Gustin Law Firm Honored for #1 Drunk Driver Settlement in Harris County (Graphic: Business Wire)
Gustin Law Firm Honored for #1 Drunk Driver Settlement in Harris County (Graphic: Business Wire)

HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Gustin Law Firm has been recognized by TopVerdict.com for securing last year’s #1 settlement against a drunk or impaired driver in Harris County, Texas. The case involved a college student severely injured by a drunk driver whose Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) was over twice the legal limit. The impaired driver caused at least three wrecks on the same night, and Gustin Law Firm’s client was the unfortunate victim of the final crash. The drunk driver served jail time for his crimes.

“Drunk drivers put us all at risk of serious injury or death. Although intoxicated drivers usually face criminal penalties, their injured victims must rely on the civil justice system to recover their past and future medical bills, lost earnings, physical impairment and mental anguish,” said Charlie Gustin, managing partner of Gustin Law Firm. “When our clients are hurt by drunk drivers, we advise them to accept nothing less than every dollar of the insurance money available.”
TopVerdict.com recognizes law firms and attorneys who have obtained one of the highest jury verdicts, settlements or bench awards in a particular jurisdiction. Gustin Law Firm was also recognized for securing a Top 100 Texas Injury Settlement in 2023. The full list of honorees can be found here: https://topverdict.com/lists/2023/texas/number-1-settlements-counties
About Gustin Law Firm: We are an experienced civil litigation law firm with a demonstrated history of success in personal injury and first-party property insurance disputes. Our skills in litigation, motion practice, case strategy and settlement negotiation ensure our clients receive top-notch legal representation and client service. To learn more, visit: www.gustin.law.
Charlie Gustin
Phone: (713) 491-4792
charlie@gustin.law
Gustin Law Firm Honored for #1 Drunk Driver Personal Injury Settlement in Harris County, Texas
Charlie Gustin
Phone: (713) 491-4792
charlie@gustin.law

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PORTSMOUTH – The extraordinary love story of Fyodor Dostoevsky and the woman who became “the architect of his life,” will be on stage at the Players’ Ring Theatre from Jan. 3 through Jan. 19, written and directed by Richard McElvain.
When his unscrupulous publisher had a gun to his head to complete a book in a month, Fyodor Dostoevsky reached out to a school that taught a new science called stenography. The woman he hired, Anna, would soon become his indispensable collaborator, his lover, his wife and eventually his publisher.
Together they survived his bouts with epilepsy, gambling addiction, dreadful debt, and the death of two children. Throughout it all, they remained hopelessly in love as Dostoevsky climbed to become one of the greatest novelists of all time.
McElvain was in Saint Petersburg performing his one-person-play “The Chess Player,” at The Bolshoi Drama Theatre, a high point in his theatre career. One day after the show was up, and he had some time, he visited Dostoevsky’s home with his partner Lynda Robinson.
“His place has been turned into a museum, and I am a fan of his works,” McElvain said. “It was a thrill walking up the stairs he walked up every day and seeing the desk where he worked. There were cards you could read in each room and in the dining room the card read ‘In this room Dostoevsky dictated his novels to his second wife Anna’”.
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McElvain said he “was shocked.”
“I never knew he dictated his works,” he recounted. “I later found out that he was an amateur actor. He would do spellbinding readings of his works and Tolstoy’s. So, I suddenly got this image of him ‘acting out’ his work as Anna took it down. With a little more research, I found that she became his collaborator in the process – and that they were hopelessly in love. So, it was easy to imagine this as a crackling two hander play.” 
McElvain said everyone loves a good love story.
“Isn’t it a little astonishing that the story of Fyodor and Anna is one of the great love stories?” he asked. “The appeal to fans of his work is obvious. If you don’t know his work it is a very audience friendly journey into the life of one of the greatest writers who ever put pen to page.
McElvain said the story is action packed and often very funny. The couple fought great battles with his epilepsy, gambling addiction, bullying publishers and crushing debt.  She enters his life as his scribe and the audience has his brilliant works today because of Anna and their indefatigable love. 
The style of the production is very theatrical, often daffy, lots of delightfully shocking devices. Jocelyn Duford and Tomer Oz are the two superb actors who took on the challenge of playing about 20 roles, including allegorical characters like his Epilepsy and his Gambling Addiction. Expect fabulous masks and costumes, puppets and a dramatic soundscape that underscores the whole show. 
Set, lighting, and projections are designed by Billie Butler; costume design by Jennifer Greeke;
sound design by Larry Buckley and Noah Kammer; prop design by Annie Stone; and dance
choreography by Leslie Gallagher and Adele Jones. The production’s stage manager is Emily Andrews. This is a Players’ Ring Production in collaboration with Theatre Omnibus.
“The Players’ Ring feels like a good place to give my wacky play a first full production. Whenever I read the play with my partner, it overwhelms us emotionally. It’s a ‘big play’. At the readings audiences gave it standing ovations with tears in their eyes. I’m very curious to see if that will be the case with a full production,” McElvain said.
McElvain has been working professionally as an actor, director, playwright and teacher for 45 years, mostly in the Boston area. He has won the Elliot Norton Award and the IRNE award for his performance in “Saint Nicholas,” a monodrama by Conor McPherson. For the last several years he has been touring “The Chess Player” internationally, mostly in Europe and the Middle East. 
“Whispering to Dostoevsky” – written and directed by Richard McElvain will be shown at the Players’ Ring Theatre, 105 Marcy St., Portsmouth, Jan. 3-19: Thursdays at 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. General Admission: $29; Students / Seniors (65+): $26; Military / First Responders: $26. This show is included in our subscription packages. Information on how to purchase and redeem these can be found at www.playersring.org.

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