(7 min) This is an interview with Amy Jensen, Program Coordinator at the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault. It was recorded on April 15, 2009 at Men Can Stop Rape’s Men and Women as Allies National Conference on the Primary Prevention of Men’s Violence Against Women.
In this interview, Ms. Jensen talks about the important role that women have in creating a new culture of prevention for girls and young women that is not based solely on risk reduction.
Men Can Stop Rape, Inc. (MCSR) is an international organization that mobilizes men to use their strength for creating cultures free from violence, especially men’s violence against women. MCSR provides agencies, schools, and organizations with direct services for youth, public service messaging, and leadership training.
MCSR’s Men and Women as Allies National Conference on the Primary Prevention of Men’s Violence Against Women was held on April 14th and 15th, 2009 in Washington, DC. To learn more about the events at this conference, visit the conference website at http://mencanstoprape.org/conference.
The Emmys are over, but that doesn’t mean that Soaps.com didn’t come back empty-handed – no indeed! You won’t want to miss the exciting tidbits, actor quotes, red carpet photos and video clips – some with special messages to our Soaps.com readers, in our Coverage Section!
Stop by the Coverage Section today for all your Emmy Scoops!
Until next year, we’ll see you on the site with all the latest news, interviews, recaps and don’t forget to stop our message boards to chat with other fans!
“sometimes the best accessory a girl can have is a friendly smile and a kind word”
Lauren with Olivier Theyskens
Lauren Santo Domingo is a New York City-based fashion stylist and sittings editor. Born and raised in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, she attended the University of Southern California, graduating in 1998 with a bachelors degree in History. She immediately began a career in the fashion industry, first as a model, and then as a market editor at American Vogue. In 2004, Santo Domingo left Vogue to be the PR director at Paris-based furrier J Mendel, launching the line’s first acclaimed ready-to-wear colleciton, and then moved to the Puig Group to head up the PR division of Carolina Herrera. In 2006, she returned to Vogue as a contributing editor and freelances as a fashion stylist and consultant to designers, celebrities and retailers in Paris and New York.
CC: You started your fashion career as a model, tell me more about it, in which agencies were you? Did you do any of the fashion weeks? Some amazing photo shootings?
LSD:I enjoyed modeling but it was never more than a summer job I never missed a day of school and never expected it would be a full time job or career.
I started out with Elite in New York, modeling during my summer vacations from high school and college. The highlight was shooting a series of TV commercials for a Japanese denim brand with Brad Pitt.
CC: How was your life as a model? Did you enjoy it? Tell us about some great experiences.
LSD: It was a great way to travel and have new experiences and great independence at a young age. Most importantly, it allowed me to know from a young age what I wanted to be when I grow up- a fashion editor.
And who doesn’t love to wear fabulous clothes and be pampered on a set all day?!
CC: You are today for many girls a fashion icon, your style and wardrobe is more than wanted and you work for one of the most famous fashion magazine, the American Vogue. How did it all happen?
LSD: Vogue is great because it has a fabulous access. Working at Vogue I meet some of the best new designers before they’re big, and see some of the best clothing and accessories before they are in stores.
But I can’t say that I think of myself as a style icon! I love fashion, I love the idea of dressing for a mood and of looking and feeling great.
I came to work at Vogue through hard work and determination. I started as an assistant and worked my way up to where I am now.
CC: How is it to work with the most famous fashion editor Anna Wintour? What do you think made her so successful?
LSD: Anna is an Icon and she knows exactly what she wants. I admire her for her work ethic, her style and her unwavering commitment to the fashion industry and young designers.
CC: Tell us about your responsabilities for Vogue?
LSD: I wear many hats at Vogue: I am sounding board for many of the story ideas and enjoy the generating story ideas for the magazine. But mainly I am a stylist and editor of many shoots in each issue.
CC: So now, let’s talk about your wardrobe…as an editor of Vogue you have to be dressed up for every occasion:
- What is your favorite designer to go to pick up an outfit whenever you have an event?
LSD: Right now; Blamain, Proenza Shouler, Balenciaga and PHI
- How many pair of shoes do you hide in your closet?
LSD: I usually have about 4 or 5 pairs of shoes for the summer months.
- How many bags?
LSD: I have quite a few evening clutches but wear the same Proenza Shouler PS 1 bag every day for the last year.
CC: Any fashion tips for this summer?
LSD: Besides sun-screen? I think this is the season to spend less! Other than one great look for any summer wedding I will attend I don’t need more than some casual pants and skirts, a stack of flimsy t-shirts in black, grey and white and a lightweight summer dress or two.
CC: What are for you the must-haves of the moment?
LSD: Great skin ( Pat Wexler M.D has the best skin care regimin available at Bath & Body works)
, great hair ( keep it moisturized with new Nexxus Shampoo and conditioner for colored hair) and a great attitude: sometimes the best accessory a girl can have is a friendly smile and a kind word.
Since my post from yesterday, “Why Saturday Was A Fantastic Day To Be A Gooner,” really didn’t deal with the actual match itself, but rather dealt with the dive and the ramifications of the match, I’d like to take this wet and gloomy Monday morning to briefly discuss the match. Obviously, there were a few flashpoints, as there almost always are when we play United…
It’s telling that many people, including Rooney, came out after the match praising Darren Fletcher as United’s best player on the day. Fletcher did nothing but freely commit fouls with the absolute approval of Mike Dean. In a match which saw 8 yellow cards, how can Darren Fletcher not have received one of them? But never mind yellow cards, Fletcher’s two-footed lunge at Arshavin should’ve been a penalty and a sending-off. It is possible that only a matter of millimeters meant the difference between Arshavin getting up to then rip one into the United net or lying on the ground writhing in agony and missing 3 months of the season. It was a cynical and desperate challenge by a player whose technical inferiority forced him to commit fouls regularly and Dean let him get away with that while showing Arsenal yellow cards for breathing.
Arsene has come out in the press now today criticizing United’s tactics and Fletcher’s “performance.” I think he may not be giving his own team enough credit. I highly doubt United came out with the intent to play the way they did, they were forced into it by an Arsenal side that pinned them back in their own half for long stretches of the game, an Arsenal defense that easily cleared almost every ball sent in to them, an Arsenal midfield that pressed United so high up in their own half that United’s central midfield was useless. For long periods, Rooney was left up top alone and chasing onto balls Bolton-style.
Fletcher’s “attack” on Arshavin was inexcusable and could have easily been a sending-0ff anywhere else in the world but Old Trafford with any other referee in the world except Mike Dean. Only the combination of Old Trafford and Mike Dean could not give something so blatant. And some people have said that the non-call did not matter because Arshavin scored immediately afterward. But that is hardly the point. The point is that the non-call was everything wrong about the entire match in a microcosm.
To speak about Rooney’s dive for a final time, I would like to say that what he did is absolutely no different than what Eduardo did or what every player does. Every player goes down in anticipation of contact, it’s just a natural, instinctual reaction. In Eduardo’s situation, Boruc had just barely gotten his arms out of the way whereas Almunia did not. But in both cases it was not the contact that made the player go to ground but the anticipation of it. Rooney was obviously already falling down before any contact was made. It only became cheating for Eduardo because the referee was out of position and made the wrong call. Why is THAT Eduardo’s fault? I believe that if it had not been given that Eduardo would not have argued about it, like Wenger said.
Can the same be said about Rooney yesterday? Of course, Almunia has no business coming out for that ball. That said, Rooney was obviously looking for the penalty as the ball was already out of play by the time he made contact with Almunia and he was already looking back at the ref screaming for a penalty before he’d even finished his slide. I just don’t understand how the same offence is worth a yellow card if charged on the pitch but a two-match ban if charged after the fact. It makes the punishment dependent on whether or not the referee gets the call right. If you want to have a ban, it has to be strictly based on the player’s actions and NOT on whether or not the referee made the right or wrong call.
I would also like to reiterate one point from yesterday’s piece. It has seemed obvious to many of us that there is a different team spirit this year than last. I expect this match to have the same catalytic effect that our early-season trip to Old Trafford in 2003/04 had. I believe that, especially coming on the heels of the Eduardo vilification, it will further insulate the side and draw them even closer together. If the Eduardo situation wasn’t enough, this should foster that “Us vs. the world” attitude that so many of Arsenal and Wenger’s greatest sides have had. I believe that it will have been increased by Wenger’s outright defence of Eduardo in midweek and, especially, by his refusal to leave the pitch by going into the stand on Saturday rather than just heading back to the changing room with the match still not over.
It seems that Wenger is to be issued a public apology for being forced to go into the stands where he has been viciously chanted at for a decade. That’s all well and good but that decision is in no way nearly as significant as the decision to assign that match to Mike Dean. United did not expect the match that Arsenal brought to them on Saturday especially without Cesc in the lineup. Simply put, this is not the same old Arsenal of the last three years. Don’t let the spin from the press fool you. How anyone can write that United’s performance “emphasised [their] claims on a fourth consecutive title” is beyond me. They never looked like scoring a goal on their own except on a few counterattacks in the stoppage time when Arsenal were bombing forward in search of an equalizer and they only won the match on a dubious call and two individual errors. Yesterday, my article stressed that the positives from Saturday far outweighed the negatives and I feel far better about our title chances after Saturday than I did last week.
ARSENE WENGER POST-MATCH INTERVIEW
what Eduardo did is no different than what Rooney did yesterday or what every player does… EVERY player goes down in anticipation of contact, it’s just a natural reaction. Anyone who plays football will tell you that. In Eduardo’s situation, Boruc had just barely gotten his arms out of the way whereas Almunia did not. But in both cases it was not the contact that made the player go to ground but the anticipation of it. Is THAT cheating? It only became cheating because the referee was out of position and made the wrong call. Why is THAT Eduardo’s fault? I believe that if it had not been given that Eduardo would not have argued about it, like Wenger said. Can the same be said about Rooney yesterday? He was already looking back at the ref screaming for a penalty before he’d even finished his slide. If you want to have a ban or whatever it has to be strictly based on the player’s actions and NOT on whether or not a referee made the right or wrong call. And it also can’t start being implemented in the middle of a tournament.
Alexander Skarsgård has gotten his final breakthrough in the States by playing a Viking vampire in the TV-series “True blood” DNs Erik Ohlsson has met the new born Hollywood star that is still picking up his own laundry.
“There are 600 churches here,” Alexander Skarsgård informs us, while folding his long body into a purple-red Toyota Prius and taking us sightseeing in the town that will be his home for the next seven weeks.
Shreveport’s central parts are strange. The town, which is situated in northern Louisiana and is the size of Malmö, has a central core where decayed store houses are mixed with shiny polished sky scrapers. In addition the town consists mainly of churches and casinos. A merciless sun is burning the dusty roads. We see some occasional cars but not one single pedestrian.
This part of Louisiana is heavily struck by unemployment. To improve the economy, the state rulers have decided to give movie companies big reductions in taxes if they record in Louisiana.
Alexander Skarsgård has one of the leading roles in a new version of Sam Peckinpahs drama “Straw Dogs,” that right now is being recorded in and outside of Shreveport. The original movie came out in 1971 and was heavily debated due to its content of heavy violence. The new version of “Straw Dogs” will also turn bloody, Alexander lets us know.
Alex, as everyone calls him, wants to eat lunch and we drive towards the town’s house blocks where green gardens mix with strip malls.
On the radio, tuned into the local country station KXKS, Justin Moore sings about the benefits of living in an American small town, “Smalltown USA.”
Skarsgård had to work hard with his accent for the role and thinks it is useful to listen to country “but sometimes it gets painful, some songs are really bad,” he says.
“I have a dialect coach to get the right “twang.” The movie will take place in Mississippi. I am a hillbilly and speak with an accent, but I have been to the university for a year or so and gotten rid of the worst part.”
Alexander Skarsgård has simple but good looking casual clothes: white shirt, narrow gray jeans and black shoes. In addition, he has straggling stubble and trendy Japanese sunglasses that he puts on and off.
When we sit down by a table in the dining hall at La Superior, which is mainly crowded by family weekend lunch guests from Mexico, Alexander Skarsgård continues to tell us about his ongoing movie project with great enthusiasm.
“I play Charlie that grew up in a small town in Mississippi. He is the star of the school’s American football team, somewhat king of the town. Charlie gets a scholarship to study at the University of Louisiana to play football. The road to NFL seemed to be wide open. But then he suffers from a knee injury and has to go home after a year.”
He earns his living as a carpenter in his old hometown. One day he gets the assignment to renovate a house bought by his old girlfriend from the prime time of his youth. She is working to get a Hollywood career going but has temporarily returned to town with her husband, a peaceful scriptwriter.
“It really hurts Charlie to see their relationship. He looks upon his ex-girls husband as a real wimp, says Alexander Skarsgård.”
The youth sweetheart is played by Kate Bosworth, famous from “Superman Returns” as Lane while James Marsden is her meek husband.
The director wanted a legible contrast between the ex-athlete Charlie and the book-loving script writer. Thus, Alexander is training extra in the gym in order to put on extra muscles.
“ I put on about 17lbs before filming. But I am built rather lightly, so I will never turn into a real muscle man,” he states.
Except for building muscles he has also learned how to do carpentry – or at least how to fake it, and has experienced how it is to work outside when it is over 100 degrees hot and the sun is shining as Gods worst interrogation lamp. It is hot, hot in Louisiana in August.
“ It is only something you have to get used to. You get soaking wet, but I am playing a sweaty carpenter so that is ok.”
Skarsgård is at the moment in a schizophrenic situation since he is recording two movies on two continents. Simultaneous with “Straw Dogs” he is also working in Sweden with the last shots of Johan Kling’s “Puss.” The recordings started on the same day, so it took an effort to make both schedules work.
“ Last weekend was messy. I flew from here via Atlanta to Stockholm. And then a domestic flight to Visby and taxi to Fårösund, where the last scenes were recorded. The travel took 23 hours. But all fatigue was erased when we started to record. It is wonderful to work with Johan, very secure, he has every detail under control.”
Johan Kling attracted attention after his director debut “Darling.” “Puss” is a relationship drama revolving around some young adults in Stockholm that operate a theatre. Alexander Skarsgård’s describes his character as “slippery as a fucking eel.”
“A city guy that drives vintage sport cars and is interested in design from the 60s. He deceives his closest friends and is always in trouble. Pretty far away from Charlie in “Straw Dogs.” Since the characters are so different it makes it easier for me to keep them apart.”
Yes, things are going well for Alexander Skarsgård right now. He has gotten lots of good criticism for his performance in the TV-series “True Blood,” the most popular show on HBO at the moment. “True Blood” is a real cock and bull story that revolves around modern vampires that “ravage” in the fictive town Bon Temps in Louisiana. Alexander plays the 1000 year old Viking vampire Eric Northman, with white makeup, long hair and with sharp teeth. Sometimes he spice things up by using Swedish dialogue. Funnily enough Viking-Erik also has a connection to Shreveport: in the series he owns the vampire bar in town, Fangtasia.
The first season of “True Blood,” started this week on Swedish television. In the States it has reached cult status among young people. New episodes will start being recorded right before Christmas.
How does Alexander Skarsgård explain the series immense popularity?
“Alan Ball, the director, is extremely talented. He uses all the tricks in the book, but he is never stepping over the line when things gets too obvious or silly. I think that is why ‘True Blood’ appeals to so many.”
Alexander Skarsgård got a big raise when he signed up for season 3. He doesn’t want to reveal how much, but is enough for him to seriously start looking for a house in Los Angeles. For the last five years he has lived without a real home in LA. Five pretty scrawny years of test castings, meetings, roles that he “almost” got and regular trips home to Sweden to work and get money.
“ I want to live in Venice Beach. That is one of few places in Los Angeles where things are at walking distance. Los Angeles is a weird town and it has taken some time to adjust. And I will always have at least one foot left in Sweden. But last time I landed in LA, in the beginning of August after spending some weeks in Sweden, I felt as if for the first time that this was home to me.
If “True Blood” has filled up Alexander Skarsgård’s bank account, it is another TV-series, “Generation Kill,” that is helping him to get the film offers he is now receiving. During the recording breaks of “Straw Dogs” Alexander is reading and pondering manuscripts that his agent has sent forward.
And Viking vampires in all due respect. But it is pretty obvious that the role as sergeant Bradley Colbert in the TV-series “Generation Kill” is what Alexander Skarsgård feels most strongly about.
“What makes “Generation Kill” so intense is that it doesn’t make any attempts to squeeze in a love story or any other main Hollywood themes,” says Alexander Skarsgård, that got a lot of good criticism for his interpretation of Sergeant Colbert.
“The best reward is that lots of men and women that have been to Iraq have contacted us and think that we are telling a truthful story of what is going on down there.”
It probably also helped that Alexander is a real sergeant – he did his military service in the Swedish marines, one of the toughest trainings in the Swedish military.
“I was a restless 19-year-old that wanted to do the service, I wanted something challenging and that would give me something in return. And it felt as if I needed a break from the safe and comfortable life in Söder, Stockholm.”
Alexander Skarsgård adds that he has nothing positive to say about the political game behind the war, “the invasion was an obvious mistake and based on lies.”
Skarsgård doesn’t match the twisted image of the polished vain and self-centered Hollywood star. He does his own laundry, doesn’t expect VIP treatment at the restaurant and now when he meets a Washington correspondent it almost seems as if he is more interested in discussing President BarackObama’s troubles with reforming the healthcare system than his own career.
“Yes, of course I try to be updated with the news, as much as possible, even though I travel a lot. And I try not to miss “Meet The Press” (NBC),” he says.
He is much more reluctant to evolve how it is to be part of the Skarsgård clan in actor-Sweden. But it is hard to dismiss, when your dad is called Stellan and one of few Swedish internationally established actors, and with a brother (Gustaf) that frequently appears in leading roles in big Swedish movies.
“I have nothing to compare with, I have always been a Skarsgård, isn’t that so? Sure, I have grown up with theatre and movies, but I never looked upon acting as a career choice when I grew up. And I feel that where I am now, I have gotten by my own force.”
We are in a hurry to the hotel, because the film crew is supposed to participate in the event of the year in Shreveport; the guitar hero James Burton has arranged an international gala dinner to collect money for music education for school children. The 70 year old Shreveport son, has enticed names such as Albert Lee, Steve Lukather and Al di Meola.
The event will take place in Municipal Hall, the arena in music history was created on October 15th, 1954 when Elvis Presley did his first performance here.
Alexander Skarsgård mingles behind the stage with aged guitar heroes, his six-foot-four height makes him constantly noticeable in the crowd. When the guitar idols take the stage and start to entertain the audience, Skarsgård sits in the front among his acting friends, apparently happy with life. In random intervals he collects a cold beer from the bar – tomorrow is a free day from shooting.
When I take a taxi back to the hotel I ask the driver Bren if he knows who Alexander Skarsgård is.
“Mr. Skarsgard, oh yeah. Is he Scandinavian, Danish, oh Swedish! He has made Shreveport better known in the world and he is a fine young actor. Tell him that!”
Click here to read it. (This is John’s promise us). The interview is succint; Brueggemann’s answers are thought-provoking, imaginative, and of course, post-modern as his approach to OT and Theology Of The Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. For example, he responds
The Old Testament invites the church to a narrative reality that is open, pluralistic, and beyond all codifications. The God to whom it witnesses continues to break open our best ideologies. In worship the church needs to hear and think through much, much more text, especially the parts we find implausible and unacceptable. But that depends upon interpretation that takes seriously the complex refusal of the text to be ‘explained.
This ‘problematic’ presentation of God testifies against all of our ‘cozy’ notions of faith, liturgy, piety, doctrine, and morality. The Old Testament and its God is to be received only in dispute and contestation. It constitutes a wake-up call against complacency, easy conclusions, and dumbing down in faith.
A post-modernist or post-colonial reading of Scripture is profitable to combatt all non-sensical hermeneutics and fixed interpretations and meanings which often defer the Text to speak in its voice. I remember reading Brueggemann’ Theology Of The Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy in an OT theology course in seminary my understanding of God and his Word were about to look different and evolved as it is today . I was convinced Brueggemann was right in most of his theological-imaginative assessment and interpretation of Scriptures.
From an interview with Donald Westlake, author of the Parker series of crime novels:
Question: Other than Richard Stark, you have also published books under the names Samuel Holt, Tucker Coe, and Curt Clark, as well as under your given name of Donald Westlake. Why all the pennames?
Westlake: When you’re first in love, you want to do it all the time. I loved writing, and I was just pushing out too much stuff for a rational marketplace to contend with. I first started putting pen names on short stories because magazines wouldn’t publish the same byline twice in the same magazine.
With the novels, Westlake had a contract to do a book a year for Random House, so if I added a second publisher I would need a second name. By the time Tucker Coe came along, both Westlake and Stark had some reputation of their own, and an emotionally-grieving disgraced ex-cop, an open wound, didn’t belong to either of them.
Some years later, I had reached that point known by a lot of writers: What if I were starting now? In this changed market, would I succeed? So I tested the waters the same way Stephen King did with his Richard Bachman novels: throw it out there under cover of darkness, and see what happens. That’s where Samuel Holt came from. (King told me once that, when his agent said they absolutely needed the pen name now because they were printing the cover, he was reading a Richard Stark and listening to Bachman-Turner Overdrive. It really is all incestuous.)
