In quel febbraio di 10 anni fa quando da Bra volai in America

Salimmo in auto. Eravamo tutti e tre eccitati. Come dirsi in cinque minuti un anno di lontananza? Guardavo Sara, sorridente, bella, con i capelli lunghissimi e appena un filo di trucco. Seduta dietro, ero sballottata, muovevo la testa come quei cagnolini di peluche che mettono sul lunotto posteriore. E' un continuo spostarsi da una corsia all'altra. Non esiste distinzione tra la carreggiata destra e quella sinistra. Esiste solo una delle cinque corsie, che scegli a seconda della tua velocità.

Sara parlava al telefono. Non capivo nulla, era come una straniera per me. Un intercalare di ia, ia che stava per si, si. E una cantilena che non pareva neanche inglese.

L'adrenalina mi teneva sveglia, ma il mio corpo reclamava pausa. Riposo. Erano circa le cinque del pomeriggio. Sara, ci propose di cenare al Trilussa, in Camden ave, in Bevery Hills, il ristorante dove lavorava. Mi sentivo come una frittella, ma come potevo rifiutare? Non mi capitava spesso di trovarmi in Bevery Hills. L'accoglienza che ci fece Augusto, il manager, e il suo staff, fu eccitante, quanto inaspettata. Mi apri la portiera e mi porse la mano per scendere. Rimasi di stucco. Sara  aveva parlato così tanto di noi, che era un avvenimento.

Che dire! Guardavo Sara, felice di averci portato in quel mondo, che diventò poi il suo, quando divenne cittadina americana. Il cibo, il vino, la tavola, il servizio, tutto eccellente. Spiluccai appena. Ero già sazia. Di gioia nel rivedere Sara, orgogliosa di mostrarci ciò che aveva fatto. Da sola. Da sconosciuta. In un paese straniero. Lontana dai suoi genitori.

Quella notte non dormii. Ero a casa di mia figlia in West Holliwood, a pochi passi da dove, qualche giorno dopo, ci sarebbe stata la consegna degli Oscar. Come furono i giorni seguenti? Tutti da raccontare. La prossima volta.

The week's best concerts: Feb. 10-16

Arguably one of the most prominent post-rock bands in the world, Godspeed You! Black Emperor put out three official records beginning in 1997 before going on an “indefinite hiatus” in 2003. Since a reunion in 2010, the Montreal group has released two albums — ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend in 2012 and Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, the latter of which made several prominent 2015 best-of lists. Godspeed’s longest and best record, 2000’s Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, clocks in at one hour and 27 minutes. Although their greatest commercial success was opening for Nine Inch Nails in 2013, the band gained a cult following through their epic, orchestral sequences put to loops of film at live shows. Godspeed currently has nine active members, with duties ranging from violin to keyboards to projecting the film. Greek/Australian lute-infused post-rock duo Xylouris White open. 18+. $25. 7:30 p.m. 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-8388. —Grace Birnstengel

Why Video Game Movies Are Often Bad and How to Fix Them, According to Hollywood Vets

Video game movies have a pretty lousy track record when it comes to quality, but it may not be that way forever. Speaking today at the DICE Summit, two veteran movie producers, Roy Lee (The Departed, The Lego Movie) and Adrian Askarieh (Hitman, Agent 47), talked about what it will take for video game movies to come out better in the future.

For his part, Lee stressed that working with the development team is important. Some changes will probably need to be made to adapt a game for the big-screen, but if the filmmaking process is a collaborative effort between the film producers and game-makers, the end result stands to benefit.

"It takes a balance to make sure that you appeal to a wide audience that has never played the game," Lee said. "T
he way I've done it is to include the original IP holders in the creation of the movie itself, so that you make sure that you have everything you can that appeals to the core gamer [while also helping them] accept the changes that are required to make it into a movie."

Askarieh added that he believes the number one problem with video game movies today is that in some cases, the original game developers are not involved. He cited Marvel as an example for how much better a production can be when the right minds come together.

"I would say that is the number one problem with video game based movies. The biggest problem is not having the creators involved," he explained. "Marvel became Marvel once they started creating their own movies. I think the way to do video game movies is, number one, have filmmakers that are
passi

onate about them and know them; they're fans, they're not just looking at it as a job. And also have developers and publishers involved."

Askarieh produced last summer's Hitman movie Agent 47, which was one of the worst-reviewed video game movies of all time. It is unclear if the team at IO Interactive was involved in the production, but it doesn't sound like it from what Askarieh said today.

‘WarGames’ and Cybersecurity’s Debt to a Hollywood Hack

Movies rarely influence public policy, but Washington’s policies on cyberattacks, computer surveillance and the possibility of cyberwarfare were directly influenced by the 1983 box-office hit “WarGames.”

The film — starring Matthew Broderick as a tech-whiz teenager who unwittingly hacks into the computer of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and nearly sets off World War III — opened nationwide that June 3. The next night, President Ronald Reagan watched it at Camp David. And that is where this strange story — culled from interviews with participants and Reagan Library documents — begins.

The following Wednesday, back in the White House, Reagan met with his national-security advisers and 16 members of Congress to discuss forthcoming nuclear arms talks with the Russians. But he still seemed focused on the movie.

At one point, he put down his index cards and asked if anyone else had seen it. No one had, so he described the plot in detail. Some of the lawmakers looked around the room with suppressed smiles or raised eyebrows. Three months earlier, Reagan had delivered his “Star Wars” speech, imploring scientists to build laser weapons that could shoot down Soviet missiles in outer space. The idea was widely dismissed as nutty. What was the old man up to now?

After finishing his synopsis, Reagan turned to Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and asked: “Could something like this really happen?” Could someone break into our most sensitive computers? General Vessey said he would look into it.

One week later, the general returned to the White House with his answer. “WarGames,” it turned out, wasn’t far-fetched. “Mr. president,” he said, “the problem is much worse than you think.”

Reagan’s question set off a series of interagency memos and studies that culminated, 15 months later, in his signing a classified national security decision directive, NSDD-145, titled “National Policy on Telecommunications and Automated Information Systems Security.”

The first laptop computers had barely hit the market; public Internet providers wouldn’t exist for another few years. Yet NSDD-145 warned that these new machines — which government agencies and high-tech industries had started buying at a rapid clip — were “highly susceptible to interception.” Hostile foreign powers were “extensively” hacking into them already; “terrorist groups and criminal elements” had the ability to do so, too.

General Vessey could answer the president’s question so promptly — and national-security aides could compose NSDD-145 in such detailed language — because, deep within the bureaucracy, a small group of scientists and spies had been concerned about this looming threat for more than a decade.

In the 1960s, the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency undertook a program called the ARPAnet. The idea, a precursor to the Internet, was to let Pentagon labs and contractors share data and research on the same network.

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Just before the program’s rollout, in April 1967, an engineer named Willis Ware wrote a paper called “Security and Privacy in Computer Systems.” A computer pioneer dating back to the ’40s, Mr. Ware headed the computer science department at the RAND Corporation, the think tank in Santa Monica, Calif.

In his paper, he lauded the goals of the ARPAnet but explained some risks of what he called “on-line” networks. As long as computers sat in isolated chambers, security wasn’t a problem. But once multiple users could gain access to data from unprotected locations, anyone with certain skills could hack into the network — and, once inside, roam at will, pilfering unclassified and secret files alike. Mr. Ware’s warnings went unheeded for decades, though he remained a frequent consultant. (He died in 2013, at the age of 93.)

In 1980, Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes, former Yale classmates in their late 20s, were writing the screenplay for “WarGames.” (It would be nominated for an Oscar but would lose to Horton Foote’s “Tender Mercies.”) A hacker friend had told them about “demon-dialing,” in which a telephone modem searched for other modems by automatically dialing each phone number in an area code and letting it ring twice before proceeding to the next number. If a modem answered, it would squawk; the demon-dialing software would record the number, so the hacker could call back later. In their screenplay, this was how their hero broke into NORAD. But they wondered if this was plausible: Didn’t the military close off its computers to public telephone lines?

Mr. Lasker lived in Santa Monica, a few blocks from RAND. Figuring someone there might be helpful, he called the public affairs office, which put him in touch with Mr. Ware, who invited the pair to his office.

They’d come to the right man. Not only had he long known about the vulnerability of computer networks, but he’d also helped design the software for the real NORAD computer. And Mr. Ware proved remarkably open, even friendly. Listening to the writers’ questions, he waved off their worries. Yes, he told them, the computer was supposed to be closed, but some officers wanted to work from home on weekends, so they’d leave a port open. Anyone could get in, if the right number was dialed.

“The only computer that’s completely secure,” Mr. Ware told them with a mischievous smile, “is a computer that no one can use.”

Ware gave the writers the confidence to go ahead with their project. It’s fitting that the scenario of “WarGames” — which aroused Reagan’s curiosity and led to the first national policy on reducing the vulnerability of computers — owed a crucial debt to the man who’d first warned that they were vulnerable.

Meanwhile, Reagan’s directive hit a roadblock. It put the National Security Agency in charge of securing all of the nation’s computer servers and networks — government, business and personal. The agency had been established in 1952 to intercept foreign communications; it was expressly barred from spying on Americans. Representative Jack Brooks, a Texas Democrat and a fiery civil-liberties advocate, wasn’t about to let a classified presidential decree blur the distinction. He sponsored and got passed a law overriding that directive.

The main author of Reagan’s NSDD-145 was Donald Latham, the Pentagon’s liaison to the National Security Agency — and a former N.S.A. analyst himself. General Vessey had assigned him to answer Reagan’s question on “WarGames” (Could something like this really happen?). Mr. Latham answered as he did (The situation is much worse than you think.) because he knew that the N.S.A. had long been hacking into the communications systems of the Soviet Union and China — and what we

were doing to them, they could someday do to us.

Mr. Ware had been among the first to draw this conclusion. Mr. Latham knew about it early on because the two were longtime friends, Mr. Ware having served on the N.S.A.’s scientific advisory board. The N.S.A. was the most secretive branch of the American intelligence community. Reagan’s screening of “WarGames” brought Mr. Ware’s concerns into high policy-making circles for the first time. And it sparked the first public controversy over the tensions between security and privacy on the Internet, as well as the first public power struggle about the subject between the N.S.A. and Congress — a debate and a struggle that persist today.

Bridal Extravaganza to turn arena into one-stop bridal shop Sunday

Originally set for last weekend, the snow pushed the Bridal Extravaganza  ahead one week to noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan.31. Celebrating its 25th year, the KEE-100 Bridal Extravaganza will be packed with booths showcasing everything from DJs and photographers to reception halls and honeymoon options.

There will also be a fashion show of the latest in bridal fashions by The Rose Tree Boutique & Lara's Bridals & Formals at 4 p.m.

Three grooms will have the chance to dig into a three-layer Paula Vega cake and win some other prizes for their brides. There will also be a special "Groom Room," sponsored by Big Sandy Superstores, Texas Roadhouse, 7-Up of South Point, and Herr's Potato Chips, where football fans can watch the games on the big screen.

Thousands of dollars in door prizes will be given away throughout the event using the main bridal registration, including a three-night couple's cruise from Florida or California on either Carnival Fun Ship, Norwegian or Royal Caribbean International.

Admission is $6, and the event is open to the public.

Participating Vendors Include:Participating Vendors Include: Elder Beerman, Donnie's Tri-State Formal Wear, Rose Tree Boutique, Skeffington's Formal Wear, Camayo Arcade/ The Wedding Shop & Reception Room, David's Bridal, Texas Roadhouse, B & E Menswear, Lara's Bridals & Formals, Classy Limousine, Old Colony Reality, Travel Dreamz, A to Z Rentals Special Events, Jos A Banks, AAA Entertainment, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Paula Vega Cakes, Men's Warehouse, Big Sandy Superstore Conference Center, Sodexo Catering, Lavender Photography, Big Sandy Superstores, Bravo-Live DJ, Don's Formal Wear, Little Tennessee Event Farm, YMCA Kennedy Center, Mark Webb Photography, Picture Perfect Photo Booth KY, Younique Cosmetics, Academy Travel, National Direct Registry, A Southern Company, Herald Dispatch, Pullman Plaza Hotel, HIMG, Sweet Confections, 4:19 Media, The Black Horse Farm, One Way Septic/Rent A Kann, Formals by Runway Couture, Sheetz, 7-Up, Herr's Food, Pure Romance, Herot Hall, It Works! Tish Evans, Sun Tan City, Holliwood Socials, Garrison Designs and McComas Video Production.

'Krishnashtami' movie review by audience: Live update

"Krishnashtami" is a romantic comedy entertainer with a good dose of action. The movie has been written and directed by Vasu Varma and produced by Dil Raju under Sri Venkateswara Creations. Dinesh Kanagaratnam has composed music for the songs and background score, while Chota K Naidu cranked the camera for the movie.

The story of "Krishnashtami" is about a video game designer (Sunil), an NRI settled in America, who is not interested in arranged marriage. The first half of the movie has a family story, but lacks the entertainment quotient. Viewers found it slow and boring. The second is also said to be average with nothing interesting.

‘Deadpool’ Strong With Second Weekend Of $55M; ‘Risen’ Takes $11.8M, ‘Witch’ At $8.7M – Sunday AM Update

6TH WRITETHRU, Sunday AM: Refresh for updates.“It’s a Deadpool world and we’re just living in it,” beamed 20th Century Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson this morning. The Marvel anti-hero movie hasn’t calmed down with weekend 2 of $55M and a 10-day total of $235.4M, with a big assist from star Ryan Reynolds, who continues promoting. Yesterday, his satirical Deadpool Kanye-esque rant against Saturday Night Live exec producer Lorne Michaels went viral, clocking 2.4M YouTube views.  ComScore’s PostTrak shows an updated demo breakdown with men comprising most of the audience at 64% and females at 36%. Women love Deadpool almost as much as the guys do, with an 86% positive score to 90%. PLF and Imax contributed 23% of the weekend’s gross.