The Sleep Styler entered the Shark Tank in Season 8 with its rollers made of yoga towel fabric and memory foam that dry and style hair curly or straight while youre sleeping.
We interviewed inventor Tara Brown who explained, I came up with The Sleep Styler because I have the worst hair in the world! Its half curly, half straight, and frizzy all over. An opthamologist by day, she enrolled in fashion school to learn how to sew in order to make the first prototype. Twenty variations later, she had her final product, and has sold 2,000 sets of rollers since launching last August.
As of now, they are available exclusively ontheir website.However, her dream retail partnerships are places like Target, Sephora, Bed, Bath & Beyond and CVS.
Her foray into the Shark Tank came after she was contacted by one of their casting agents a week into launching her Kickstarter campaign. (Their fundraising goal was $10,000 and they made an impressive $47,000.) As for her nerves while facing the Sharks, she said, I was so nervous, my teeth were chattering. Fortunately I had botoxed my armpits in preparation.
Heres what else she told us aboutRead all of Heavys Shark Tank coverage here.
How the Idea Came About From Taking a Braid Out of Her Daughters Hair
The idea behind The Sleep Styler came from taking a braid out of my daughters hair that I had put in wet the day before. I started thinking about how her hair still had the braid shape, and that wave stayed until she washed her hair again. I thought there has to be a way to use that property of hair that whatever position its in when it goes from wet to dry is how it will stay to passively dry the hair into appealing shapes. But when do people have hours to sit around with their hair in rollers waiting for it to dry? When theyre sleeping! so i knew whatever I created had to be comfortable enough to sleep in.
What Makes Her Product Different
No other product can do what The Sleep Styler does. There are absorbent towels and turbans, these will dry but not style the hair. There are rollers comfortable enough to sleep in, but these are meant for hair that is already dry. And nothing else out there gives a straightening option.
Her Customers & Their Feedback
Our customer demographic is anyone with a high hair-to-time ratio. The feedback is great! The people who benefit the most are those like me, whose air-dried hair is a big ol mess and they are tired of the damage caused by hot tools.
Their New Product for Short Hair-The Sleep Styler Mini
One piece of feedback we kept hearing again and again from our fans was that their hair or their friends/coworkers/moms hair is too short for our long hair rollers, and can we please come up with something for them. So we did! The Sleep Styler Mini is half the size of the original and works like a traditional roller, but is made with our luxe yoga towel fabric and memory foam. Its perfect for bobs and fine hair. The two rollers work great together for long, layered looks and extensions. The Mini is launching next month.
Balancing Motherhood With Running a Business
My two businesses take me away from the kiddos, and I have a lot of guilt when I have to miss something important. Two working parent households are so common these days, but the kids seem to manage, For me, making little efforts regularly add up to a lot. One day when my son was in second grade, I had an afternoon off so I surprised him by picking him up after school and taking him to the beach where we rented a stand up paddleboard for an hour. I paddled and he sat at the front and looked for fish in the bay. A year later I was looking through some writing assignments he had done and he wrote a story about the best day in his life being the time when his mom picked him up from school and took him paddleboarding.
More Shark Tank hair products: CreaProducts Enter the Shark Tank: Interview With CEO
CreaProducts, DIY beauty supplies, entered the Shark Tank in Season 7. Heavy interviewed owner Mai Lieu about the business and her novel creations.
Click here to read moreControlled Chaos Almost 10,000 Sold After Shark Tank: Interview With Owner
Controlled Chaos, a styling cream to manage curly hair, got a deal with Lori in the Tank"s Season 7. As the episode reruns, we interviewed owner Alanna York about their growth and future plans.
Click here to read morePete & Pedro on Shark Tank: A Look Inside the Company With Their Co-Founder
Pete and Pedro entered the Shark Tank with their hair styling products made especially with men in mind. Heavy interviewed its co-founder.
Golden State Warriors vs Chicago Bulls - Full Game Highlights | March 2, 2017 | 2016-17 NBA Season
More often than not in recent seasons, the Bulls haven"t fielded a full 15-man roster. They"ve done so for a variety of reasons lack of need, ability to take back more players in an unbalanced trade, cost savings.
but the bulls appear poised to keep their roster at 15 after letting pass the March 1 date to waive players and let them be playoff-eligible if they sign with another team. Either that or they"ll waive somebody and he won"t be playoff-eligible, which isn"t a good look around the league.
The Bulls discussed waiving a player to ease the logjam at point guard and unbalanced roster that resulted after last week"s trade with the Thunder. But ultimately the recent injury to Michael Carter-Williams and other unknown reasons convinced management to keep the status quo.
The situation creates an unnecessary daily headache for coach Fred Hoiberg, who will have at least one disgruntled guard from the group of Carter-Williams, Jerian Grant, Cameron Payne and Rajon Rondo at all times. Isaiah Canaan, who has been out of the rotation for a while, is the fifth point guard.
Rondo recently has taken the high road and settled in with the second unit but calmly dissected his demotion in late December and early January, saying he didn"t understand it. Similar to when he lost his starting job to Grant in late January, Carter-Williams expressed frustration over his limited role.
"I"ve been a little surprised," Carter-Williams said.
Carter-Williams is close to returning from left patellar tendinitis, but the point-guard situation has become even further muddied by Payne"s arrival.
"We"ll see how it plays out. It"ll be based on different matchups," Hoiberg said. "You just have to keep talking to them and keep them ready for when their name is called."
Memory lane: Steve Kerr missed the morning shootaround because he wasn"t feeling well but was typically engaged in his pregame media session, even lightheartedly quizzing reporters on who scored the first basket in United Center history.
"You think (Scottie) Pippen or (Michael) Jordan. It"s Larry Krystkowiak," Kerr said. "Apropos of nothing, there"s one of my memories."
There are others, of course, including championships.
"Going into that locker room and pouring champagne, that"s a memory that will last forever," Kerr said. "Those were some of the best times of my life."
Sigh of relief: The Warriors will be without Kevin Durant for at least a month after he sprained his medial collateral ligament Tuesday. But it could"ve been worse.
"At first, we thought he was done for the year," Kerr said. "That second prognosis was way better. He"s feeling a lot better about things now than he was at first."
Mike Pence: The Donald Trump I Saw Last Night Is The One I’ve Seen All Along | TODAY
I have some disturbing news to share: Republicans might not be as deeply committed to proper email management as you"ve been led to believe.
During the campaign, the entire Republican Party argued that despite Hillary Clinton"s copious qualifications for the presidency, it would be unconscionably dangerous to let her anywhere near the Oval Office because she had used a private email account while Secretary of State. Crowds at Republican events would chant "Lock her up!" whenever Clinton"s name was mentioned. In one debate, Donald Trump said to Clinton that if he were president, "You"d be in jail." With FBI director James Comey"s help, Trump and Republicans made Clinton"s use of private email the single most important issue of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Which is why this story from Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star is so interesting:
"vice president mike pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues.
"Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor"s residence to the state"s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence"s top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges.
"Cyber-security experts say the emails raise concerns about whether such sensitive information was adequately protected from hackers, given that personal accounts like Pence"s are typically less secure than government email accounts. In fact, Pence"s personal account was hacked last summer."
Well fancy that. When Mike Pence was debating Tim Kaine and said, "it"s important in this moment to remember that Hillary Clinton had a private server in her home that had classified information on it," adding that "her private server was subject to being hacked" and "we could put cybersecurity first if we just make sure the next secretary of state doesn"t have a private server," did he consider adding that he knew what he was talking about since he used an AOL account to talk about sensitive security matters and had himself been hacked?
The parallels don"t stop there. According to the article, "Pence"s office said his campaign hired outside counsel as he was departing as governor to review his AOL emails and transfer any involving public business to the state." Which was exactly what Hillary Clinton did and what Pence and Trump so vehemently criticized her for. When Trump invited the Russian government to hack Clinton"s email to recover what had been deleted, it was those personal emails he was talking about.
And Pence is not the only one: Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump"s Environmental Protection Agency administrator, not only used a private email account to conduct official business as attorney general of Oklahoma, he lied about it during his confirmation hearings.
Perhaps now that this has come out, Republicans will stop pretending that the email "issue" was anything more than a club to bludgeon Hillary Clinton with, and the deep concern they expressed for cybersecurity was utterly insincere.
But this actually matters beyond the question of catching Republicans in the act of hypocrisy.
That"s because there are strong reasons to believe that the Trump administration is leaving sensitive information vulnerable, and may not be complying with the Presidential Records Act, which mandates that White House staff retain their communications including their emails.
In late January, we learned that top White House officials, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, and Sean Spicer, were using email addresses from the Republican National Committee with a private server! Once the story broke their addresses were deleted, but presumably had it remained secret, they would have continued to use them.
That"s not the only cybersecurity issue we still have to worry about. At the end of January, the New York Times reported that Trump was still using his old, unsecured Android phone, which is unbelievably reckless for the president of the United States. As Wired magazine put it , "All it takes is clicking on one malicious link or opening one untoward attachment either of which can appear as though it were sent from a trusted source to compromise the device. From there, the phone could be infected with malware that spies on the network the device is connected to, logs keystrokes, takes over the camera and microphone for surreptitious recording, and more."
According to some reports , the phone is a Samsung Galaxy S3, which is five years old and is no longer supported with security patches.
Now maybe steps have been taken to secure Trump"s phone, though the White House hasn"t said anything to that effect. And maybe his aides are in full compliance with the Presidential Records Act, though we do know that some staffers were using a messaging app called Confide, which deletes messages after they"ve been read (Sean Spicer was reportedly angry about the use of this app, since it could be used to leak to reporters without leaving any trace). Maybe this White House is taking both its legal obligations and the security of its communications with the utmost seriousness, and there won"t be any problems from this point on.
But have they given us any reason to believe that?
Paul Waldman is a contributor to The Plum Line blog, and a senior writer at The American Prospect.
Related articles:
Trump"s Russian connections: What if it were Obama?
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the world"s most forgettable man
INDIANAPOLIS -- The 2017 NFL Combine continued Friday in Indianapolis with more player media availability, including quarterbacks.
With the Browns owning 11 draft picks, and eight Ohio State players invited to the combine, cleveland.com dispatched six reporters to Indianapolis to cover the event.
This blog kept readers up to date with what"s going on. Check out the developments below. We"ll have more coverage throughout the combine on cleveland.com/browns and cleveland.com/osu.
5:55 p.m.
While the combine blog is done, the coverage of the combine and Ohio State"s draft hopefuls never ends. Keep an eye on the Browns and Buckeyes blogs throughout the weekend for the latest.
5:52 p.m.
With the stadium clearing out, let"s finish today"s blog with an update on Ohio State"s talented Curtis Samuel, who"s facing a familiar problem with pro teams.
Where exactly will he play? Bill Landis got some thoughts on that topic from Samuel.
"Ohio State had another kind of positionless player here last year when Braxton Miller got invited as a receiver. He was a quarterback, obviously, then an H-back without much experience at either receiver or running back.
"Miller has elite-level athleticism, but had to answer questions about his ability to settle into one position in the NFL. He did, and ended up being a third-round draft pick at receiver by the Houston Texans. Samuel isn"t quite as raw postionally as Miller was, but he admitted to seeing some similarities.
""I spoke to Braxton about the process," Samuel said. "He was a little bit like me. We both went to a position that we both didn"t know too much about, so it was different for both of us. He"s doing a great job with the Texans, and I"m hoping I can have impact such as he did or even more.""
5:23 p.m.
Beware of fast-moving objects in the elevator lobby...
5:04 p.m.
The Mysterious Case of Noah Brown is a tale of surprise: The four-touchdown game vs. Oklahoma (the only scores he had this season), the Buckeyes" inconsistent passing attack and the certainty that if he returned for 2017, he would be the team"s No. 1 target.
Yet he filed for the draft. Friday, he explained why.
"Brown is aware that a lot of people were confused by his decision, that most thought he"d be best-served coming back to be Ohio State"s top receiver in 2017. That stuff didn"t matter to him.
"Because unlike most players who come and go on Ohio State"s football roster, Brown is familiar with what it"s like to suffer a major injury [a broken leg in 2015], to have to consider that there"s a chance that his football career is over.
""That was one of the biggest parts of my decision," Brown said of his leg injury. "When I was hurt, I realized how quickly football can be taken away. This is the dream of my childhood, so I decided (to go for it). With everything I did last year and being injured the year before that, this is the best opportunity right now.""
4:46 p.m.
Repeat after me: "Nothing is hyped at the combine, everything is true..."
How does he compare to ... oh, say Clark Kent?
4:26 p.m.
Oh, the fickle winds of rumor season...
On Thursday there was buzz that Hue Jackson and the Browns front office might be coming together over Mitch Trubisky. By Friday morning, our Doug Lesmerises suggested that Jackson and Sashi Brown might have found a common target who might be worth the first pick in the draft.
But nationally, most writers aren"t buying it. Consider this take from The Ringer"s Danny Kelly.
"Of course, it could all be a smokescreen, but between his official press conference at the podium in Indy and his informal huddle-up right after, Jackson repeated the same thought three times: He"s a big believer in assembling a strong support system (which the Browns do not have) before throwing a young quarterback into the fray."
Remember ... throw enough opinions into the ether, and you"re going to be right sometime!
4:16 p.m.
The criticism of Mitch Trubisky for not playing more than one season as a North Carolina starting QB has always had a flaw -- some college coaches are extremely partial to upperclassmen, especially for someone in charge of a program that isn"t a national power. If you"re going to pin your professional future on a bunch of young men, you may well default to the most experienced players if you have the opportunity.
But the topic has followed Trubisky since the end of his season at the Sun Bowl -- and Doug Lesmerises was interested in the answer.
"Trubisky didn"t bite on questions about becoming the next quarterback of the Browns, the team he grew up rooting for. He"s been coached away from that question. His message is to prove he"s ready for any team, though he"s seen less action than quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson and DeShone Kizer.
""I"m a student of the game," Trubisky said. "I"ve seen a lot of defenses. I think that"s going to help me. I feel like I"m in a really good spot to take my game to the next level. I feel really confident."
"He said waiting his turn with the Tar Heels even helped him prepare for this.
""Not everything is going to go your way," Trubisky said. "Being on the bench taught me to be a better teammate. I found other ways to get better, I found other ways to push my teammates and be a leader even though you"re not in that starting position.""
3:58 p.m.
Still determined to be angry by Deshaun Watson"s comments about wanting to be a Cowboy? Turns out that it was an inside joke between Watson and Dallas coach Jason Garrett during the first of two Davey O"Brien QB awards won by the Clemson star.
Dan Labbe got the explanation Friday during Watson"s press interview.
"When he won the [O"Brien] award the year prior, he promised [Jason] Garrett that he would come back and win it again and they would have to draft him. This was, of course, before the Cowboys had uncovered Dak Prescott.
""We laughed, had a good time, so what the Davey O"Brien people wanted me to do was bring that back up and say, hey, I kept my promise and now you"ve got to keep yours and draft me," Watson said."
"So, what if the Browns did end up drafting him?
""I"d really be excited to go up there and play for those guys and Hue Jackson," Watson said."
3:43 p.m.
I really think Texas A&M coach Kliff Kingsbury was trying to compliment Cal (and former Aggie) QB Davis Webb on 92.3 The Fan this afternoon. I"m just not sure he thought it out all that well.
Ouch.
3:37 p.m.
OK, so you"re excited by the results of 40-yard dashes by football players not worrying about tacklers or wearing pads. So this probably makes your day.
OK, so debate who"s the better choice. Go.
3:29 p.m.
From the "Kinda Important (but really not) File...
Feast your eyes on the fastest running back at the combine.
Context: A four-year player at North Carolina, Logan averaged 5.4 yards a carry -- but never ran for more than 650 yards in a season. He had 29 receptions as a senior, totaling 244 yards with seven touchdowns.
Chris Johnson, this isn"t. Right?
3:01 p.m.
Interesting note about how the NFL is looking at this year"s Swiss Army Knife player ...
2:40 p.m.
Picture"s worth a thousands words. My photographic look at the throng of reporters listening to Deshaun Watson during his podium session:
2:37 p.m.
Clemson"s Deshaun Watson provided a reason for why he skipped the Senior Bowl, where he would have been able to work with Browns coach Hue Jackson and his staff for a whole week.
2:35 p.m.
Mitch Trubisky isn"t the only quarterback who says he"d be fine with playing for the Browns:
2 p.m.
North Carolina quarterback and Mentor native Mitch Trubisky has met with the media. We"ll have more from him shortly, but by way of a quick summary:
He says he"s confident he can be a franchise quarterback in the NFL.
He says his mobility is underrated.
He says he believes he can start right away but knows it"s not his decision.
1:49 p.m.
Here are NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock"s top running backs in this year"s draft.
1:37 p.m.
No doubt, a question is nagging at you: How fast did running backs weighing 240 pounds-plus run at the combine through the years? Look no further:
1:34 p.m.
LSU running back Leonard Fournette surprised many by showing up at the Combine weighing 240 pounds, and then claiming that the extra 5-8 pounds was "water weight." Today he went out and did this:
12:55 p.m.
The Eagles got the 14th pick in the draft Friday by winning a coin toss over the Colts. But the toss wasn"t the real story. The real story was the journey to get there.
12:24 p.m.
The Eagles and Colts will have a coin flip today to determine draft order. The 14th pick never meant so much, apparently.
12:07 p.m.
When you"re almost flattened by LeBron James while sitting courtside, you realize that nothing should be taken for granted. Not even lunch.
12 p.m.
A big headline on Thursday was news that the Patriots don"t want to trade Jimmy Garoppolo. But Mary Kay Cabot did a little digging and found that the door probably isn"t closed. Everybody has a price.
From Mary Kay"s story:
But the source insists coach Bill Belichick will part with Garoppolo if the compensation is right. One preliminary "offer" has already been floated and another is expected to come soon from a second team.
11:56 a.m.
Marvin Lewis was almost certainly happy about that. Why else would you be the only coach/GM talking on Friday morning, before most media arrives for afternoon player interviews?
11:46 a.m.
Zach Berman of Philly.com wrote today about the Vikings, Browns and Eagles figure they all came out winners on their 2016 trades. Or, at least they can all still potentially be winners, as Sashi Brown pointed out on Wednesday.
"We do like the trade," Browns general manager Sashi Brown said. "It positioned us, understanding where we were as a roster, understanding that we were passing on the opportunity to take a player, whether it"s [Joey] Bosa or Wentz, and you tip your hat to Carson. I think he came in and played well for Philadelphia and seems to be a quarterback with a high upside.
"I think this is a trade when you probably look back at it that will work out for both teams. It allowed us to be in the position today where we have two firsts, two seconds, and had two thirds as well. So we do like the trade for our side, and I think time will tell how all these guys that came out of that trade will develop."
11:43 a.m.
You can play along at home.
11:31 a.m.
Joe Thomas ran a 4.92 in 2007.
11:13 a.m.
If you want to get caught up with where the Browns stand on their QB search (or just be somewhat confused), here are two stories you should check out.
1. Mary Kay Cabot wrote about Hue Jackson"s role in the team"s QB search.
2. Doug Lesmerises wrote about how Mitch Trubisky could be a uniting force.
3. Finally, there"s the video below (which goes with another Doug story).
11:05 a.m.
Before the flood of QB news takes over this blog, here"s a look at how the Browns are approaching player interviews, via Bill Landis" story on Indiana offensive lineman Dan Feeney.
It includes this quote:
"You expect to go in there and talk about your offense, or learn their offense, and here"s a guy with a deck of cards and you"re like, "Hey man are we playing blackjack or something?" It"s definitely something different," Feeney said Thursday.
11 a.m.
We"re underway on Day 3 in Indy. Running backs and offensive linemen have on-field workouts today, and quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends and specialists will talk to the media from 2-5 p.m.
That means Mitch Trubisky, Deshaun Watson, DeShone Kizer and Patrick Mahomes will likely drive the news of the day.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA BREATH OF THE WILD GAMEPLAY - NINTENDO SWITCH | PART 2 |
Enter the Switch. With Nintendo (NTDOF)"s latest platform, I don"t have to make that choice.
Nintendo has always sold two types of consoles: one for at home and one for on the go. But the Switch is a hybrid of the two. Put it in the dock and play on your TV. Or attach the controllers to the sides of the console, and play on the way to work. You can also set it up on a table and play with friends. And you can toggle between the different modes pretty easily without much interruption to your game play.
CNNTech got the chance to play with the Switch this week. Despite having a bit of a learning curve, the system showed it can open up the worlds that Nintendo has created without shuttering you from the real world.
Though the Switch is launching with only a few big name titles, it"s that seamless experience -- rather than any particular game available right now -- that makes the Switch feel like the future of gaming. And that ultimately makes it worth the $300 price tag.
Now, as a kid my parents gave me the option: I could have either a TV console, with the better graphics and more impressive games, or a mobile system like a Game Boy that offered me a smaller experience but the chance to move around and have, well, a life.
With the Switch I can do both.
The Nintendo Switch has its flaws but allows for a seamless mobile and at home gaming experience.
So when I"m in the middle of Nintendo"s latest installment of Zelda, "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" (which, of course, is sold separately), and I need to get off the couch to meet up with friends or head to work, I hardly even have to pause the game to take it with me.
Other than its poor battery life in portable mode (Nintendo says it should range from 2.5 hours to 6 hours depending on the game) the mobility of the Switch feels seamless.
It also helps that the Switch boasts Nintendo"s greatest asset: Its intellectual property. Look out for for everything from Mario to Pokmon down the line. And as with summer"s "Pokmon Go" craze, which sent hordes of people rushing to Central Park to find a Charizard, we"ve seen what the mobile future of Nintendo"s series of games and characters could look like.
much like it did with its last great innovation, the Nintendo Wii (let"s not even talk about the Wii U), Nintendo has thrown out the standard conventions of gaming for something completely new. This is what makes the Switch great, but also what makes it a bit of risk.
Take, for example, the Switch"s fun-for-the-whole-family game "1-2 Switch." The game sets up in the console"s tabletop mode and allows a group of people to play all types of games, from "Quick Draw," a Wild West duel shoot out, to even milking a cow (seriously).
Most of the "1-2 Switch" games are undoubtedly fun, but most require you to look at your opponent rather than the screen. This goes against years of video game muscle memory, and, let"s be honest -- looking at someone with extended direct eye contact while milking a virtual cow is just plain weird.
Still, these sorts of oddities don"t dent the Switch"s appeal. And that"s important because the launch of the Switch is big for gamers, but arguably even bigger for Nintendo.
The video game company has lost some of its luster over the years thanks to more powerful systems like Sony (SNE)"s PlayStation and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30)"s Xbox nabbing hardcore gamers, while smart phones and tablets have grabbed the casual gamer market.
The company needs the Nintendo Switch to find a place in between the two markets to rule the video game kingdom once again. Whether it will is yet to be seen, but the Switch is a step in the right direction -- and possibly one into the beginnings of a new gaming world.
CNNMoney (New York) First published March 2, 2017: 8:09 PM ET
Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss Read Aloud Photo Melania Trump, the first lady, at the Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington last month. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
WASHINGTON Melania Trump made her first solo foray in public as first lady on Thursday, visiting a hospital pediatric wing to read to sick children.
Mrs. Trump, who has been reluctant to embrace the high-profile and ill-defined role of presidential spouse, began with a brief and simple outing: an afternoon reading of a Dr. Seuss book in honor of the authors birthday and National Read Across America Day.
So you know what is today? she asked the children, who wore hospital gowns and gathered in a playroom in the pediatric wing of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan to see Mrs. Trump. Its a reading day. So I came to encourage you to read, and to think about what you want to achieve in life.
Mrs. Trump, whose aides had arranged for a small pool of reporters and photographers to cover the visit, then proceeded to read Oh, the Places Youll Go!, a dr. seuss classic with an inspirational message that she said was a favorite of hers.
Youll be as famous as famous can be, Mrs. Trump read from the book. With the whole wide world watching you win on TV.
Mrs. Trump has stayed mostly out of the spotlight since President Trump took office. She has appeared at her husbands side for a handful of official events, most recently accompanying him to the Capitol on Tuesday for his address to a joint session of Congress. But she has avoided the press and done nothing in public to carve out her own priorities or initiatives as first lady.
Michelle Obama made outings with young people a staple of her time as first lady, often making unscheduled stops to spend time with them. On Tuesday, the former first lady was back at it, surprising students in a vocational program at a Washington public school, where she spent more than an hour discussing the importance of pursuing higher education. Mrs. Obama posted a photograph of her visit on Twitter.
A photograph of Mrs. Trumps hospital story time appeared in her Twitter feed on Thursday.
Mrs. Trump has said she is interested in working to combat cyberbullying, but has yet to start such a program. And while she has named a chief of staff and a social secretary, the White House has not announced the hiring of other key players in the East Wing, such as a communications director, a press secretary or other senior staff members. Mrs. Trump has made it known she does not intend to be much of a presence in Washington at least in the short term; she has opted to reside in New York while the couples 10-year-old son, Barron, finishes his school year.
On Thursday, she donned large black sunglasses and stepped into a car that was part of a small motorcade waiting outside Trump Tower to take her to the hospital about a mile and a half away.
I hope youre all feeling well, Mrs. Trump told the assembled children. After she finished reading the book, Mrs. Trump gave it to a young girl who had been listening, saying, I encourage you all to read a lot to get educated.
The Shack (2017 Movie) Official TV Spot – ‘Audience Reactions’
Hollywood is hoping that a movie focusing on restoring faith will make big bucks at the box office this weekend when the adaptation of the best-selling New York Times best-selling novel The Shack opens countrywide. Starring Octavia Spencer, Sam Worthington and country singer Tim McGraw, The Shack shows a father (Mr. Worthington) on a spiritual journey after suffering an immense family tragedy.
The Christian novel by Canadian author William P. Young has seen its share of controversy as well as fostered discussion about the nature of what part G*d may play in lifes tragedies. Furthermore, the film casts African-American actress and Oscar-winner Miss Spencer as G*d, Jesus is portrayed by Israeli actor Avraham Aviv Alush Also, and the Holy Spirit called Sarayu in the film is portrayed by Asian actress Sumire Matsubara.
Miss Spencer and Mr. McGraw who also recorded a song with his wife, Faith Hill, for the movie called Keep Your Eyes On Me discussed the faith-based film bowing this weekend in the District.
Question: Are you drawn to roles that have a spiritual angle?
Octavia Spencer: This is actually my first one. It has to resonate with me on some level.
I love the message [of The Shack], I loved the fact that [William] Paul wrote this book where a regular man has a conversation with G*d and asks him some very hard-hitting questions. I like the way G*d answered them.
I thought it was a unique way to look at religion and for regular people to look at their role and how they influence their [own] environment.
Q: Had you read the book?
Tim McGraw: When I read the script, I hadnt read the book. My wife actually had the book on her nightstand, and we had heard about it and knew what the story was.
About a week later I got the phone call that they were sending me a script to read. I was completely [in] emotional meltdown after reading it. I told Faith about it, and we had a lot of conversations about whether I had time to be involved as they were shooting in Vancouver.
Q: What did you take away from the book when you read it?
OS: My friend gave me a copy and told me it had forensic thriller aspects to it with a big surprise. I thought I was going to be reading something very different than the life lesson I was bound to get. I was deeply moved because it felt organic.
The questions asked of G*d somehow felt like every mans journey, including my own. I have experienced loss in my life, but the thing that brings you back is your faith, so I understood Macks journey in a lot of ways.
Q: What about the representation of the divine in the story?
OS: What I like about this presentation is that it dispenses with the conventional images of G*d and what we have in our minds as G*d. It also represents this time in Macks life where the only person that showed him any kindness was a woman like myself. She is pure love and wisdom, and she is trying to impart that in him while hes trying to reconcile all his grief, his anger and all the losses in his life.
Its only when he walks back and asks those questions and confronts all those issues in the shack that hes able to find redemption and fill that hole that loss has created within him.
For me, when you have to prepare to play G*d, and then walking away from that, you realize just how tough Gods job is. I dont want that job.
Q: It seems like you have done many family and faith-based films. What kinds of movies do you like to make?
TM: Even in my music, I am always searching for big, universal things ways that you can sort of reach outside the norm of what you are doing.
I have always been very family-oriented. I came from a dysfunctional, broken family growing up, and its probably instilled in me the need and the want to have a strong family and a great foundation. So I think that is something that I naturally gravitate toward.
Q: What drew you to Shack specifically?
TM: I was looking for a great story that moves and inspires [people]. Music, movies, books when you see [or] read through it, you want to be literally moved.
I do everything in a way that I want to be impacted viscerally.
Q: What lessons have you learned?
TM: The older you get, you always learn more. Sometimes its a process of learning about yourself and what your journey is. Sometimes the process moves forward at a rapid pace in a short amount of time or moves backwards. And youre like, Man, I thought I had made so much progress, and now all of a sudden, Im 10 steps further behind than when I started.
I dont think you learn as much about yourself when you are moving forwards as when you have fallen backwards. Thats when you really learn who you are. And reach for the things that have propelled you forward and made you a better person.
Q: What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?
TM: The universal themes of love, compassion, forgiveness, constantly searching for the next level of your spirituality, the next consciousness of who you are as a human being, what you contribute to society and what G*d means to you. I think its always a search that everyone goes on.
What I think this movie does regardless of what your belief system is is offer a view and a perspective that can open the door a little bit to think about what in your life has broken you, propels you forward and what allows you to forgive other people and accept forgiveness.
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