Foster And Lloyd Version Of The Truth blog download Topher Grace Edited The ‘Star Wars’ Prequels Into One 85-Minute Movie and We Saw It. Last month I received a cryptic e-mail inviting me to a private screening of a new Star Wars film edited by Topher Grace — which is funny because I had no idea there was a new Star Wars film in the works, with or without Grace’s involvement. I was told the screening was a secret private event arranged only for friends only and was asked not to talk about it beforehand. The event was held somewhere in the Hollywood area in a a screening room filled with filmmakers, editors, actors, actresses and only a few press friends. I was told I could blog about it afterwards if I wanted, so here goes… For those of you who don’t know, Topher Grace is a film geek. He loves the Star Wars films, the Back to the Future movies and all the same signature titles of any film geek who grew up in the 1980s. He recently became interested in the editing process and wanted to learn more about the art form. Instead of cutting a short film, he wanted to use something he was more familiar with. His idea was to edit the Star Wars prequels into one movie, as they would provide him a lot of footage to work with. He used footage from all three prequels, a couple cuts from the original trilogy, some music from The Clone Wars television series, and even a dialogue bit from Anthony Daniels’ (C-3PO) audio book recordings. He even created a new opening text crawl to set up his version of the story. The result is an 85-minute movie titled Star Wars: Episode III.5: The Editor Strikes Back . It should be noted that the Star Wars prequel trilogy is almost 7 hours in total length, and the shortest film ( Episode 1 ) is more than 51 minutes longer than Grace’s fan cut. What this means is a lot of footage ended up on the editing room floor, and a lot of creative choices were made in the editing process. And the result? Topher Grace’s Star Wars film is probably the best possible edit of the Star Wars prequels given the footage released and available. Whats most shocking is that with only 85 minutes of footage, Topher was able to completely tell the main narrative of Anakin Skywalker’s road from Jedi to the Sith. While I know the missing pieces and could even fill in the blanks in my head as the film raced past, none of those points were really needed. Whats better is that the character motivations are even more clear and identifiable, a real character arc not bogged down by podraces, galactic senates, Jar Jar Binks, politics or most of the needless parts of the Star Wars prequels. It not only clarifies the story, but makes the film a lot more action-packed. UPDATE: The movie still isn’t online but Topher Grace has published a trailer of his Star Wars Prequel edit online, watch it here . The screening last night was a private gathering of Topher’s industry friends — a event that feels like it will surely become part of Hollywood quasi-urban legend. I wish you all could see Topher’s version of the Star Wars prequels, but we were told that this would be the one and only time he would screen his cut. Of course, there are tremendous legal issues which would prevent him from screening the edit in public. He has no intention of uploading the footage online, and doing a screening at, say, Comic-Con, would require uncle George’s permission — which probably would never happen. I will give you a rundown of what appeared and didn’t appear in Topher’s film below, but you’ll find that Grace was able to do a lot by removing just a few central aspects of the prequels: the politics, the clone storyline, and the majority of Phantom Menace . Scenes were also cleverly trimmed to get to the point and remove the fluff. The opening crawl establishes that assassins have been after the queen and Jedis have been sent to intervene. Topher’s version begins with Episode I’s climactic lightsaber fight between Darth Maul ( Ray Park ), Qui-Gon Jinn ( Liam Neeson ), and Obi-Wan Kenobi ( Ewan McGregor ), bypassing the majority of Phantom Menace completely. Starting the story in the middle of this fight was a brilliant choice. Qui-Gon’s dying request that Obi-Wan train Anakin perfectly sets up the story. Grace’s version of the film(s) centers on Anakin’s training and friendship with Obi-Wan, and his relationship with Queen Amidala ( Natalie Portman ). Gone are Trade Federation blockades, the Gungan city, the whole Padmé handmaiden storyline, the explanation of midichlorians, the galactic senate and the boring politics, Anakin’s origins (a backstory which never really needed to be seen in the first place), the droid army’s attack on Naboo, and Jar Jar Binks ( Ahmed Best ) appears only briefly for only one line of dialogue, used as a set-up to introduce us to the Queen. The first time we see Anakin, he is grown up and played by Hayden Christensen ( Jake Lloyd never appears in this version). Kenobi and Skywalker are assigned to protect Amidala from additional assassination attempts. This leads us quickly into the chase to capture the assassin in the skies of Coruscant. Anakin is assigned to accompany Padmé to her home planet of Naboo. Unlike George’s version, Obi-Wan doesn’t discover an army of clone troopers on Kamino, but instead stumbles upon Count Dooku’s motives. While the Clone troopers make a couple short appearances in this version of the film, the word “clone” is only used once, and the whole storyline is almost completely cut from the story. Jango Fett makes only a small appearance, and his son Boba Fett is left on the cutting room floor. Anakin returns to Tatooine and finds his mother tortured to death by the Tusken Raiders, but gone is the laughable aftermath. Padmé and Anakin’s love story is given more of a central spotlight, incorporating a deleted scene of a dinner with her family on Naboo. While the dialogue still sucks, and the romantic scenes are still a bit cheesy, I was left caring way more about this relationship than I was in the original prequels. The arena scene is still included, but shortened. And just like that, we’re already into episode 3. In this section, Topher has removed General Grievous. Padme tells Anakin that she’s pregnant. The Jedi Council orders Anakin to secretly monitor Palpatine and denies him the rank of Jedi Master. Anakin is frustrated with the Jedi and gets closer to Palpatine. He tells Anakin that the Dark Side of the force has the ability to prevent death. Anakin reports him to the Jedi Council, who doesn’t trust him to come along for the arrest. Palpatine/Sidious battles Jedi Master Mace Windu ( Samuel L Jackson ), Anakin shows up and turns on his old master to become an apprentice to Darth Sidious. Sidious issues Order 66 across the galaxy, and almost all the Jedi are killed. Obi-Wan informs Padmé that Anakin has joined the dark side. She travels to Mustafar to confront him, and realizes that Obi-Wan was telling the truth. Obi-Wan was able to hide aboard her ship, but Anakin believes that she brought him there to kill him. Anakin and Obi-Wan have their lightsaber battle in the middle of a lava flow, ending with Vader diced and burnt. Yoda and the Emperor have their lightsaber duel. Sidious finds Vader in time to save him, and Padmé gives birth to twins — but not intercut. The twins find their respective homes, Yoda goes into exile on Dagobah, the droids’ memories are erased, and the film ends with Anakin being turned into Darth Vader. The last shot features Vader’s helmet being lowered down onto Anakin, creating the most iconic villain. And we are left on that dark note. Yoda doesn’t teach Obi-Wan how to return from the netherworld to see Qui-Gon, and we don’t see Darth Vader learn of Padmé’s death — which also means we don’t see the resulting infamous laughable temper tantrum “Nooooooooooooooooo. ” Topher Grace’s Star Wars fan edit is an interesting experiment. You have to understand that Grace can only use the footage available to him, so some of the same problems exist that plagued the original films: some of the dialogue remains laughably bad, and you can’t change some of the stilted performances and stiff framing. I have seen a few of the other fan edits that have been online, including the famous Phantom Edit — and this is probably the best of the bunch. I’m not sure if it turns the saga into a great film, but its certainly a lot more entertaining. Before the film screened a trailer for another film Topher Grace is remixing — Steven Spielberg ‘s Close Encounters of a Third Kind . I’m not sure that film needs a remix, or could even benefit from a remix, but am interested to see what the experiment will look like. After that, Grace hopes that other actors, editors and filmmakers will run with the ball, produce and showcase remixed films on a annual basis within this private community. Jason Reitman has been directing live stage reads of classic film screenplays at LACMA, showing how a filmmaker can make different choices with an interesting cast can completely change a written screenplay. This seems like the next evolution of that, but also an exercise in storytelling with the use of crafty editing. I’m not sure I completely understand Grace’s motives in creating this film, but I enjoyed it regardless. After the screening, I recorded a video blog reaction with Frosty from Collider, Alex from FirstShowing and Fanboys director Kyle Newman . Frosty and Kyle get into a fun spat over the overall quality of the Star Wars prequels: ""Foster And Lloyd Version Of The Truth"" blog download. Single View Geocentric Pose in the Wild (PyTorch) The master branch represents the code used in our CVPR EarthVision 2021 paper that will serve as the baseline solution for an upcoming public competition. We made improvements over our CVPR 2020 paper retained in the cvpr20 branch. Pre-trained models for both versions are provided. We developed the Overhead Geopose Challenge in collaboration with DrivenData for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). Developers from DrivenData contributed software improvements for reducing file sizes and run times for submission evaluation and documentation below for working with the competition data. They also produced a blog post with a tutorial describing how to use our code as a benchmark for the contest. The original Urban Semantic 3D (US3D) data used in our CVPR 2020 paper is available on DataPort. Competition data associated with our CVPR EarthVision 2021 paper is available for download at the Overhead Geopose Challenge web site and will be archived in the US3D DataPort repository when the contest is complete. The original data includes RGB images in TIFF format and above ground level (AGL) height images in floating point TIFF format with units of meters. To reduce file sizes, the competition RGB images are J2K, and the AGL images are integer TIFF format with units of centimeters. Our dependencies can also be installed as follows: conda install gdal cython opencv gdal tqdm scikit-image pytorch torchvision cudatoolkit -c pytorch (select an appropriate version of cudatoolkit) pip install segmentation-models-pytorch. python cythonize_invert_flow.py build_ext --inplace. The following subsections describe the training process using the original and competition data. Note that we used a batch size of four images when training with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 11 GB VRAM. Training with original data. The training process consists of two stages. Downsampling Training. First, the data is downsampled by a factor of two for training our model. We note that the downsampling save process always saves in units of meters . This means that the second stage, actually training the model on the downsampled images, will be in units of m for both the original and competition data. For the original data, the first stage downsampling arguments specify that the input AGL and VFLOW data are in units of meter, and the RGB data is a .tif filetype. The second stage command looks generally the same as its original counterpart. The biggest differences in the original data is the units of m (vs cm in the competition data) and the RGB filetype of tif (vs j2k in the competition data). The --unit and --rgb-suffix arguments allow the user to specify these contexts. In this case, the --indir argument specifies the path to the unconverted, uncompressed training data directory and may need to be changed based on your data paths. As in the original version of this training process, all required RGB, AGL, and VFLOW files are assumed to live in the same directory. Training with competition data. Training with the competition data means the all input files --AGL, VFLOW, and RGB-- are in units of cm rather than m , and RGB files are .j2k extensions, rather than .tif . The downsampling procdedure converts and saves in units to m . So the training command is still essentially the same as above. The evaluation process consists of two stages. Generating predictions Running the evaluation script. Currently, both the predicition and ground truth files MUST be in the same units on load, and units are converted to to meters before evaluation. The model training process is configured to learn regression in meters. Even if the input files were originally in cm , they will be converted and learning will occur in m . However, we have added an argument, --convert-predictions-to-cm-and-compress , which converts to cm and compresses the data as specified in the function utilities.misc_utils.convert_and_compress_prediction_dir . The defaults are consistent with the requirements for submission to the DrivenData platform (except that the function does not perform the final submission step of creating a tar.gz of the dir). Evaluation with original data. Here we do not need to run utilities.misc_utils.convert_and_compress_prediction_dir , so set --convert-predictions-to-cm-and-compress to False . Evaluation with competition data. Here we do need to run utilities.misc_utils.convert_and_compress_prediction_dir , so set --convert-predictions-to-cm-and-compress to True . Rather than overwriting the uncompressed/converted prediction directory, or converting on the fly, currently utilities.misc_utils.convert_and_compress_prediction_dir creates a new directory with suffixes describing the conversion and compression. So if we specify --predictions-dir="../data/processed/competition_preds" , the unconverted/compressed preds will be generated and live in competition_preds . But a compressed/converted dir competition_preds_converted_cm_compressed_uint16 will be generated along side competition_preds . To evaluate against the production test data, we use the converted directory, competition_preds_converted_cm_compressed_uint16 . Foster and Lloyd – It’s Already Tomorrow. Reuniting bands can be an iffy proposition; either they work (The Jayhawks), they don’t (Stone Temple Pilots, Poison) or they don’t really count (Guns ‘N Roses, Smashing Pumpkins). In the case of late 1980s rockabilly/alt-country wonders Foster and Lloyd, it has definitely worked out. The duo’s latest release It’s Already Tomorrow , their first since 1990’s Version of the Truth is a wonderful return to the sounds that keep me even marginally interested in country during my punk rock teenage years. The joy Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd feel about being back together is all over It’s Already Tomorrow. Fans of hits like “Crazy over You,” “Sure Thing,” “What Do You Want from Me This Time” will be knocked out by the tunes that make up this revival. There’s Roger Miller like humor (“That’s What She Said”), surrealist discussions on a master artist painting, of all things, a mandolin (“Picasso’s Mandolin”), a straight up rocker (“Don’t Throw It Away”) classic Foster and Lloyd (“You Can’t Make Love Make Sense”) and a heart touching lament on what could be taken as a father giving away his daughter to a new life (“When I Finally Let You Go”). While the funny numbers are good on It’s Already Tomorrow , the real power of the pair’s writing prowess comes from the ballads like “When I Finally Let You Go” and “If It Hadn’t Been For You”; it’s clear that, though both Foster and Lloyd had success in their solo careers, the real spark for their songwriting comes from one another. When I listen to “new country” like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, I hear the heavy influence of Foster and Lloyd looming in their guitars, melodies and whip smart lyrics. But, there has been something lacking; something that didn’t make it seem genuine, like a voice unheard looming between the lines and fretwork. Now, those voices are no longer just memories. Foster and Lloyd are back and hopefully It’s Already Tomorrow isn’t that last we hear of them. DOWNLOAD: “When I Finally Let You Go”, “Don’t Throw It Away” “You Can’t Make Love Make Sense” DANNY R. PHILLIPS. Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth The Form and the Way. Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth: The Form and the Way. Shopping Cart Summary. What are VitalSource eBooks? Routledge & CRC Press eBooks are available through VitalSource. The free VitalSource Bookshelf® application allows you to access to your eBooks whenever and wherever you choose. Mobile/eReaders – Download the Bookshelf mobile app at VitalSource.com or from the iTunes or Android store to access your eBooks from your mobile device or eReader. Offline Computer – Download Bookshelf software to your desktop so you can view your eBooks with or without Internet access. » » » Most VitalSource eBooks are available in a reflowable EPUB format which allows you to resize text to suit you and enables other accessibility features. Where the content of the eBook requires a specific layout, or contains maths or other special characters, the eBook will be available in PDF (PBK) format, which cannot be reflowed. For both formats the functionality available will depend on how you access the ebook (via Bookshelf Online in your browser or via the Bookshelf app on your PC or mobile device). Book Description. The current study argues that different cultures can coexist better today if we focus not only on what separates them but also on what connects them. To do so, the author discusses how both Aristotle and Confucius see rhetoric as a mode of thinking that is indispensable to the human understanding of the truths of things or dao -the-way, or, how both see the human understanding of the truths of things or dao -the-way as necessarily communal, open-ended, and discursive. Based on this similarity, the author aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of differences to help foster better cross-cultural communication. In making the argument, she critically examines two stereotyped views: that Aristotle’s concept of essence or truth is too static to be relevant to the rhetorical focus on the realm of human affairs and that Confucius’ concept of dao -the-way is too decentered to be compatible with the inferential/discursive thinking. In addition, the author relies primarily on the interpretations of the Analects by two 20th-century Chinese Confucians to supplement the overreliance on renderings of the Analects in recent comparative rhetorical scholarship. The study shows that we need an in-depth understanding of both the other and the self to comprehend the relation between the two. Wilfully Obscure. Originally seeing the light of day in 1995, Amazing Disgrace is the latest in Omnivore's expanded reissue series of the Posies early catalog. It's gotten the reputation of being a particularly 'difficult' album, if only for the band themselves. Lacking the comparatively quaint romantic naivety and niceties of their first two installments, Failure and Dear 23, and even to a certain extent the pop braininess infiltrating their breakthrough Frosting on the Beater, Disgrace added more than a modicum of musculature to the mix, albeit not gratuitously. But how exactly did , that extra oomph and heaviness factor in to the Posies fourth record? Some speculated that Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow were pressured to compete with the Soundgardens of the world, but if that were the case Bellingham, WA's finest wouldn't have drizzled "Hate Song" and "Song #1" with so much melody one would think their very lives depended on it. In fact, 'downcast' or even 'fraught" might be the more apropos nomenclatures to attach to Disgrace, then say, 'outraged' or 'cumbersome.' Truth was, going into the project the Posies dual architects were beginning to feel jaded by the mechanisms of the major label politics they were now keenly a party to on Geffen Records. There had also been significant infighting that ultimately brought the departure of the band's longtime rhythm section, Mike Musburger and Dave Fox . Make no mistake, the boys cut and angsty, amped-out swath over the course of Disgrace like no record of theirs before or since. Yet even songs with pointedly bitter titles as "Everybody is a Fucking Liar," and "Daily Mutilation," can still ooze barrels of saccharine and stay etched in your short term memory for days. "Fight It (If You Want It)," "Please Return It" and the boppy power-pop reprieve of "Ontario" are worth their weight in hook-addled gold, even in spite of the Posies having seemingly ditched their affection for Big Star - at least on this album anyway. And I'd be remiss if I failed to say a few words about "Grant Hart," the Ken Stringfellow penned tribute to then-alive and well Husker Du drummer/songsmith. In addition to the clever, spot-on plaudits, the Posies really nail the aforementioned trio's singular aesthetic, veritably mimicking the Husker's Zen Arcade -era guitar sprawl, rendering the song just as much an homage to co-conspirator Bob Mould as Hart. The original incarnation of Amazing Disgrace numbered a relatively generous fourteen tracks, but the addition of 22 supplemental numbers on Omnivore's reboot reeks of joyous overkill. A plethora of the bonus cuts are demos that overlap with the now out of print At Least At Last Posies rarities box, but there's a total of nine songs exclusive to this reissue. As was the case with the demos that cropped up on the expanded versions of Dear 23 and Frosting on the Beater, the early sketches of soon-to-be-Posies classics are stunning and damn near revelatory in themselves. And you get most of A/D's attendant b-sides, including album worthy stunners "Sad to be Aware," "Limitless Expressions," as well as preview of "Every Bitter Drop" which would appear on the band's subsequent Success album. The CD version of Amazing Disgrace is available now thru Omnivore and Amazon, with the vinyl set to drop mid-December. You may know him from the bygone country duo Foster and Lloyd , but I know Bill Lloyd from his more pop-centric solo endeavors like Feeling the Elephant and Set to Pop circa the late '80s and into the Clinton-era. I would have surmised that he totally dropped off the radar, but in fact he's still mining that plaintive guitar pop muse of his, and has a new record, Working the Long Game to show for it. Most notably it features songwriting collaborations with the likes of Tom Peterson (yes the Cheap Trick alum). Freedy Johnston and even 1 0cc's Graham Gouldman . These pairings don't always make for songs that are as captivating as they might appear on paper, yet the further you burrow into Long Game, things begin to catch fire especially when you hit the second half. You get the notion that Lloyd might be leaning his ears into recent Teenage Fanclub not to mention Wilco circa Summerteeth. Not a bad place for one's creative juices to being stewing. Best of all, if you dig the vibe here, Lloyd hasn't been so invisible of late at all, having released a covers record, Lloydering, just two years ago that you can check out as well. As for Working the Long Game, it's available straight from Spyderpop Records, Amazon, CD Baby and iTunes. Hot Nun . The name conjures up images of an over- clothed old bitty standing adjacent to a cactus in Death Valley or Bakersfield, or something. In reality, it's the side-hustle of one Jeff Shelton , who you may know from the more renown Well Wishers , and formally. Spinning Jennies . Even more so than Hot Nun's 2013 debut, his latest, a bruising but cruising half dozen tunes, Born to Blaze, splatters even more gasoline on the inferno in question, with careening doses of unremitting power chords. Think power-pop with barreling riffs a la Judas Priest on the introductory "Livin a Dirty Mind," and how 'bout a bona fide hardcore punk outburst in the guise of "It's Just Right?" Blaze is more aggro than just about anything in Shelton's arsenal to date, just don't expect anything quite in the mold of Motorhead or Maiden. Let the flames lick ya over at CD Baby, Bandcamp and Amazon. PS: As a bonus, Hot Nun recently posted a primo Black Sabbath cover on Soundcloud.