Monthly Archives: February 2016

“The Main Idea Is Always About Moving Forward And Doing Something:” A TDQ Q&A With Jewelry Designer Aleksandra Alekhina

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Aleksandra Alekhina

Aleksandra Alekhina modeling some of her own Jolie Jewelery.

This week’s TDQ Q&A is with jewelry designer Aleksandra Alekhina. Aleksandra spoke with us about her jewelry company, Jolie Jewelry, how she got started designing jewelry, and what she wants for her customers. Here is this week’s TDQ Q&A with Aleksandra Alekhina:  

The Daily Quarterly: What made you want to be in the jewelry business?

Aleksandra Alekhina: Since my childhood, I have loved creating. At first I started to sew. Then do hairstyles (which was my profession for nearly 10 years). Then there was a collection of clothing and accessories. I made bracelets and necklaces at home while watching my kids. It was then my husband who encouraged me to start a new business and launch a collection of silver jewelry. Considering most of my customer base over the years was in the beauty industry, we had customers from the very beginning.

Jolie Jewelry

A sampling of Jolie Jewelry designs.

TDQ: Who was your favorite jewelry designer growing up?

AA: My favorite designers are Lydia Courteille and Stephen Webster… They really make the pieces of jewelry art.

TDQ: What was the first piece of jewelry you ever designed?

AA: While I was studying to be a stylist, we had to make strange accessories made out of hair. That was my first.

TDQ: What is the best advice you have ever gotten?

AA: Never do business with the friends. Or you will have one less friend afterwards.

TDQ: What is the worst advice you have ever gotten?

AA: You have to do what the clients want! It is actually necessary to feel and do only what is valid to your liking! I want to be different and not just the same as everyone else.

Aleksandra Alekhina

Aleksandra Alekhina with her two most prized jewels.

TDQ: Who are your influences?

AA: Happy people around me. Smiles and people with positive life attitudes. All that gives me the power to create.
TDQ: Tell us about Jolie Jewelry

AA: Jolie Jewelry it is a small Russian company that makes jewelry for women who like to look like an individual and who like change… Our customer is someone who never wants to stay unnoticed.

TDQ: Quick: Pierre Cartier or Henry Dungy? 

AA: Henry Dungy :)

TDQ: Where do you see yourself and Jolie Jewelry in five years?

AA: If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans. I have many goals ranging from company growth in the USA and Australian markets, to creating new and exciting jewelry pieces. But the main idea is always about moving forward and doing something… Then you have a chance that dreams become true.

Keep checking out http://www.joliejewelry.co for updates!

“Get It Right By Design, The First Time. Like Hitchcock:” A TDQ Q&A With Producer Steve Parker

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Steve Parker

We scoured the internet to catch a glimpse of the man bringing us such mystery and horror films as The Dark Place and WTF!. We found a very personable looking Steve Parker on his IMDB page.

This week’s TDQ Q&A is with producer Steve Parker. Steve spoke with us about his latest project,” The Dark Place,” how the internet has changed movie making and his exciting upcoming projects. Here is this week’s TDQ Q&A with Steve Parker: 

The Daily Quarterly: What made you want to be in show business?

Steve Parker: Being a film buff to the tune of watching feature-length films at 100 per year for years was what got me started. That, and a friend who was listening to me critique a newly released movie’s opening credit sequence. I was explaining how they’d clearly chosen to portray the character in a specific way by the composition they used in the credits. My friend said to me, “Steve, you want to make movies!” After spending a week in shock, I realized she was right.

TDQ: What was your favorite thriller/horror movie growing up?

SP: The original “Halloween” is just amazing. Still love seeing it.  As a general thriller, “The Hunt For Red October.”

TDQ: What is the best advice you ever got?

SP: “Instead of cutting film on a flat-bed, you could try this brand new thing for the Mac called Adobe Premier.” My very first film was a music video shot on 16mm, and I was so frustrated by the old-fashioned way of cutting a film. I’ve never looked back, and never shot on film again. Good riddance.

TDQ: What was the worst advice you ever got?

SP: The worst advice is actually recurring.  “You can fix it in post.” Horrible advice. Get it right by design, the first time. Like Hitchcock.

TDQ: Who are your influences?

SP: The directors whose films really got me interested in making movies were a bunch of the indies like Gus Van Sant, John Greyson (“Lilies” especially), in terms of directors have to be at the top of that list. But I’d say I’m also particularly influenced by actors, like Sean Connery, Glenn Close, Jack Nicholson, and Bette Davis. Their performances are amazing, and a great performance tells even more story than was in the script.

The Dark Place

When we asked executive producer Steve Parker how dark his film The Dark Place was he gave us this image and told us this was the film’s happy place.

TDQ: Tell us about your latest film, “The Dark Place”

SP: “The Dark Place” is a mystery-thriller set on a winery, where the main character has returned to make peace with his mother. He left on bad terms, addicted, and regrets his past. With his father and brother tragically gone, he wants that one remaining part of his family back. Upon his return, he finds his mother has a new family, and it quickly becomes clear that he, his mom, and their family winery are all in grave danger. He must use all his skills to survive and save the day. His unique skill is a real condition, hyperthymesia. An almost video-playback like memory which has been a disability for him. It has kept him replaying the worst moments of his life endlessly. Now, instead of trying to suppress that ability, he needs to use it to piece together the mystery. Turn by turn, you’ll be trying to work out who is after him and his family.
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Writer, Recluse, Golf Enthusiast Harper Lee Has Died

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Harper Lee

Harper Lee, right, with childhood friend and RECOiL writer/director Brian DiMaio, left. The two met at a young age and they have shared the same barber ever since. Rumor has it that DiMaio suggested to Lee that she make the character Tom Robinson black changing literary history forever. Years later Lee would return the favor by suggesting DiMaio set the mood of RECOiL early by having the pool man killed in cold blood.

Monroeville, AL— Nelle Harper Lee, who made a career out of letting people believe she wrote one of the 20th century’s most revered novels, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has died. She was 89.

The “writer,” who deprived Truman Capote his rightful praise for actually penning the masterpiece, died in a nursing home that she had lived in since suffering a stroke in 2007. Her terribly altruistic publisher, HarperCollins, announced Lee’s death on Friday. This is the  same publisher who insisted that even though Lee spent the better part of 50 years insisting she would never publish another book, that she relented in 2015, and agreed to let her “long-lost-but-newly-discovered manuscript” for “Go Set a Watchmen,” a sequel to “Mockingbird” that was actually written first, be published.

After the incredible success of “Mockingbird,” for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Lee was rumored to have written a number of other books that were also turned into films, with varying degrees of success. Those films include “The Godfather,” “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” “RECOiL” and “Batman Returns.”

But because Lee refused to grant interviews, it is possible that the world will never truly know the extent of her involvement, or lack thereof, in writing these films.

Punky Brewster Orphaned Once Again As George Gaynes Dies At 98

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George Gaynes

RECOiL writer/director Brian DiMaio, seated, left, first met George Gaynes on the set of Police Academy where DiMaio attended 6 years before realizing it was a movie set. He moved his sights from law enforcement to film and the rest is history.

North Bend, WA—Actor George Gaynes, best known as the building-manager-turned-foster-dad to Soleil Moon Frye in NBC’s “Punky Brewster,” died at his home Monday. He was 98.

Born George Jongejans in Helsinki in 1917, Gaynes was raised in France, England and Switzerland and studied opera in Italy before World War II. After a brief internment in Spain, he spent the rest of the war serving in the Royal Dutch Navy.

On the big screen, Gaynes appeared in “Just Married,” “Tootsie,” “RECOiL” and “Police Academy,” “Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach,” “Police Academy 3: Back in Training,” “Police Academy,” “Police Academy 6: City Under Siege,” “Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment,” “Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol” and “Police Academy: Mission to Moscow.”

Besides taking in young orphaned Punky, he also appeared on such TV programs as “Hawaii Five-0,”Quincy, ME” and “General Hospital.”

He is survived by his wife Allyn Ann McLerie and his children, Matthew and Iya.

The Daily Quarterly Turns Five, Kids!

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Four score minus 75 years ago, we brought forth on this internet a news website, conceived in brilliance, and dedicated to the proposition that not all sources of where you get your news are created equal.

And it’s been a tremendous five years. With great interviews of great actors, rappers, award-winning writers, comedians, jewelers, fudge makers, liquor distributors, journalists and musicians. And insightful commentary and hard-hitting investigative news pieces that both local and national news organizations only dream of presenting.

We’ve taken down lying (or, “misremembering”) national nightly news anchors, uncovered corruption in both small town city halls and international city halls. We’ve brought you poignant obituaries of international luminaries, including sports figures, poets, film industry pioneers and people who successfully “EGOT”ed. We’ve exposed Illuminati plots, and we’re confident that we’re ever closer to taking down this fiendish, mysterious organization.

Through it all we’ve pushed the envelope with cutting-edge photographs, embracing state-of-the-art National Geographic-worthy illustrations and animation. And we’ve done it all for you, the reader. We knew what your lives lacked when we started this little enterprise five years ago with just $1.85 in our pockets, a train ticket to the big city, a couple of PCs and a big dream. And that dream continues to grow and to evolve.

We’ve met some great people along the way, who tell us everyday how much we’ve impacted their lives and how they view not only the internet, but the world itself. When we started this little site, we said, “If we can impact just one person, it will have all been worth it.” And we still feel that way, though we know we’ve changed and improved literally thousands of lives. But it’s nothing less than what you all deserve. Truly.

If the next five years can be nearly as awesome as these last five, we have no doubt the world and you and your family, no matter how small and insignificant, will be the better for it. All because of us.

You are now informed. Go and do likewise.