HANGING UP (Columbia) Starring: Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Adam Arkin, Cloris Leachman. Screenplay: Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the novel by Delia Ephron. Producers: Laurence Mark and Nora Ephron. Director: Diane Keaton. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 92 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
That irritating sound you'll be hearing for the first 20 minutes of HANGING UP -- more or less non-stop-- is the ringing of phones. They ring on walls, in cars, in purses and on fax lines. They ring for calls from business associates and family members. Then they ring again on call waiting. In the context of the film, you could say the ringing phones represent the distractions that keep us from focusing on what really matters. Or maybe they stand for the way we can talk and talk and talk without ever really communicating. And in the context of the film, either message would be painfully ironic.
From the film's marketing campaign, you'd probably expect HANGING UP to be the story of the semi-dysfunctional Mozell family: aging and ailing former Hollywood screenwriter Lou (Walter Matthau) and his daughters Georgia (Diane Keaton), Evie (Meg Ryan) and Maddy (Lisa Kudrow). In fact, it's essentially the story of Evie, a woman juggling responsibility for her business, her own family and the ever-more-dependent Lou. While Georgia publishes a glossy women's magazine in New York and Maddy works as a soap opera actress, Evie is left with the growing burden of an alcoholic father she has cared for since her mother left.
The bulk of the film finds Evie becoming ever more flustered as she prepares a women's business conference for her event planning company, worries that Lou is going to die at any moment, frets over whether her latest fender-bender can be settled without going through her insurance and tries to get some support from Maddy and Georgia. It's all about Evie, and Ryan does her perky, weepy best trying to make Evie's plight matter.  Every scene feels aborted in mid-thought, leaving little but the spectre of Matthau trying to give some hammy charm to a character that's alternately eccentric-annoying and creepy-annoying.
Eventually, perhaps out of sheer boredom with Evie's story, HANGING UP turns to the interaction between the three sisters once they're finally brought together by Lou's most recent turn for the worse. By that time it's far too late to make that interaction convincing or endearing, since both Keaton and Kudrow are playing gross caricatures of self-absorption. Georgia and Maddy exist basically as props for Evie's self-realization, appearing only when Evie needs to become aware that she's the only one working at preserving family relationships. It's inevitable, then, that every moment between the sisters feels false, every grating attempt at bickering, bittersweet reconciliation or playful kitchen food-fighting serving as a reminder that you were expecting a movie about the ties that bind. What you get instead is a movie about people who all signed up to be in the same movie.
There are so many things wrong with HANGING UP -- the stilted script by Delia and Nora Ephron, the wretched editing, Matthau's depressing shtick -- that it seems absurd to pick out one moment of epic miscalculation. Nevertheless, that dubious distinction goes to a flashback scene between Evie and her estranged mother (Cloris Leachman). Evie tracks her mother down several years after she has left the family, and finds a less than enthusiastic welcome. It's a pivotal moment, one that will explain any number of issues in Evie's life ... and it's dispatched in a matter of seconds, with Leachman delivering about a half-dozen lines of dialogue. That sort of incomplete, abrupt storytelling defines HANGING UP, a film that becomes such a fragmented collection of life moments that it's virtually impossible for the whole thing not to give you a headache. That irritating sound you'll be hearing after the phones finally stop ringing in HANGING UP is the dissonant buzz of movie that never has a point.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 phone-y baloneys: 3.
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Preparation time
1-2 hours
Cooking time
10 to 30 mins
Serves
Serves 4
These summery tarts are perfect for a light lunch. Make ahead and pack for a picnic on a sunny day.
For the rough puff pastry, place the flour in a mound on a clean work surface and make a deep well in the centre using your fingers. Place the butter cubes and salt into the well and, using the fingertips of one hand, work the ingredients together, gradually drawing more flour into the well with the other hand. Work in the flour until the mixture is loosely but well combined and still with lumps of butter visible.
Gradually add the iced water and mix until you have a rough dough. (You may not need all of the water. Take care not to overwork the mixture.) Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.
When the dough has chilled, roll it out on a lightly-floured work surface into a 40x20cm/16x8in rectangle. Fold the rectangle into three and give it a quarter turn. Repeat the process, giving the folded pastry another quarter turn. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for a further 30 minutes. Once chilled, repeat the process of rolling, folding and turning two more times, making a total of four turns. Wrap the pastry in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
For the pesto, place the basil, pine nuts, Parmesan and garlic in a pestle and mortar and grind, while gradually adding the extra virgin olive oil until a paste is formed.
For the tarts, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Roll the pastry out on a lightly-floured surface to a 2mm/1/8in thickness. Cut out six discs using a 12cm/5in pastry cutter. Score around the edge of the circle about 2cm from the edge. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and brush with a little cold water. Transfer each of the pastry discs onto the tray using a palette knife.
Brush the inside ring of the tarts with the mustard, sprinkle over the cheese and top with the two types of tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and brush the pastry with egg yolk around the edges.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown.
To serve, garnish the tarts with the pesto and some fresh rocket.


Overview
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Benefits over Firebug Lite
Firebug Lite for Google Chrome is basically the same you'll see
when using the bookmarklet, or including a script
tag
in your page. There are, though, some benefits by using the extension
for Google Chrome, including:
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Limitations
The main limitations of the Firebug Lite version are:
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- Won't work well on pages with frames
- JavaScript debugger isn't available
- Net Panel isn't available


🎄Christmas!
Story
Songs
Christmas Songs
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Jingle Bells
Twelve Days of Christmas
Deck the Halls
O Come All Ye Faithful
O Christmas Tree
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
more ...
Amazing Grace
Angels we have Heard on High
Away in a Manger
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Go Tell it on the Mountain
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Joy to the World
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Little Drummer Boy
Silent Night
In courtesy of
Christmas Songs & Carols
by Love to Sing and
Pentatonix
©.


WITNESS LIST Insurance Committee April 28, 1997-10:30A HB 2024 For: Dutton, Harold (Sponsor of bill) Roan, Forest (Amer. Ins. Assn.) On: Durden, David (TDI) HB 2097 For: Uher, D.R. (Sponsor of bill) Against: Jean, James (Texas Assn of Counties) Korioth, Tony (Tex Muni League Group B) Lemens, Robert (Texas Assn of Counties) HB 2140 For: Price, Rayford (Credit Ins. Companies) HB 2814 For: Danburg, Debra (Sponsor) HB 2887 For: Fisher, Nancy (Independent Title Assn) HB 2941 For: Damstra, Glenn (The Hartford) Howden, Robert (Nat'l Fed Indep Bus Tex) Huxell, Robert (TAIA) Kouba, Keith (Himself) McCall, Brian (Sponsor of bill) Roan, Forest (Amer. Ins. Assn) On: Durden, David (TDI) HB 3364 For: Gilbert, Robert (Natinowide Ins.) Primera, Linda (Nationwide Ins.) Wise, Miguel (Sponsor of bill) Against: Schneider, Rob (Consumers Union) Watkins, Robert (State Farm) On: Bayless, Linda (TDI) Bordelon, Rod (OPIC) McGehee, Jack (Tex Trial Lawyers) SB 258 For: McCall, Brian (Sponsor of bill) On: Myron, Rhonda (TDI) SB 1106 For: Averitt, Kip (House Sponsor) Smith, Pat (Texas Farm Bureau Ins C) Thompson, Jay (AFACT) On: Bordelon, Rod (OPIC) Durden, David (TDI)