Director Peter Farrelly’s Loudermilk Season 3 Released on Amazon Prime

Fans of Loudermilk are thrilled by the return of the show for a third season, now with a new home on Amazon Prime. Previously aired on Audience Network, the show is created in its entirety by director Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort for Sony Pictures Television. The show’s first two seasons were met with much enthusiasm, and Season 3 was launched as a total surprise. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of this show,” Peter Farrelly said of Loudermilk. The third season “features some of the best performances you’ll see on television this year. Hopefully Ron Livingston, Will Sasso, Anja Savcic and Brian Regan will finally start getting some serious Emmy consideration, because it’s long overdue.”

See the Season 3 trailer here:

Fashion Forward Thinking: Tom Florio & BoF

Today, as the world changes so many more people are working from home and keeping their travel plans to a minimum. But that doesn’t mean that fashion isn’t still center stage. BoF (Business of Fashion) understands the desire to continually try to improve yourself, to want to look your best and to put your best foot forward. And even in these days where we are more home-focused, we can still be fashion-focused. With BoF Board of Directors like Tom Florio, the organization serves members in more than 125 countries and works to create positive change in the fashion world.

They have many tools at their disposal for that change including a vast array of online educational courses. One section of the online course directory offers video programs that are actually only from 2-7 minutes in length, and there is a BoF Certificate that you can obtain when you make your way through the course offerings. They have courses entitled “Fashion History for Today” with Colin McDowell, “Fashion Styling and Image Making with Lucinda Chambers”, “The Art and Science of Buying and Merchandising with Susanne Tide-Frater and more.

In addition, as Tom Florio and other Board of Directors can explain, they have case studies that allow users to understand exactly how a company has achieved the success they have. They have a case study entitled, “How Lululemon Built Athleisure’s Leading Brand” and another one entitled “How Levi’s Is Navigating the Purpose and Profit Trade-Off.”

There are also programs about fashion legends throughout history, about college courses that focus on fashion and even about how to sew and create your own fashion. The BoF is the go-to location for fashion content and the online learning platform is just one of the many aspects of their offerings. The Business of Fashion, and influential people involved in it such as CEO and Editor-in-Chief Imran Amed; Vikram Alexei Kansara, Editorial Director; Tom Florio, Board of Directors member; and Olivia Howland, the Head of Studio is all worth watching as they set the stage for our fashion future.

Eating Healthy During COVID-19

Most of us have heard of the freshman 15. But what about the COVID 20? Today, so many people have had a hard time maintaining a healthy lifestyle while dealing with the ramifications of COVID-19. This includes the stress we are all under, the lack of movement and exercise, the need to stay indoors more and so many other factors. Here is a short, informative video that can be helpful in redirecting your eating during this stressful time.

Is Your Lack of Sleep Making You Fat?

We all know how important sleep is for our mental health and productivity. But did you know that not sleeping enough might actually be part of why you’re fat? And not just fat, but generally unhealthy with heart disease problems, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and more.

Many researchers have shown the link between poor sleep habits and a greater BMI, but these studies have often relied on how the participants said they slept. Now, with the ability to track sleep with smart watches and more, we have even more in-depth research tying these issues. A new study that was published in JAMA Internal medicine looked at 120,000 people for two years. One of the take aways from their study was that people with BMIs over 30 had shorter sleep durations and more variation in their sleep patterns.

Certainly, there are some extenuating factors and more research needs to be done. But the findings were intriguing. When you sleep less, you activate the hormone called ghrelin, while pushing down leptin. This creates hunger – and hunger means more eating and snacking. Of course, we all know, as well, that when you are sleep deprived you don’t make choices that are always the best for your wellbeing.

Learn more here and make sure to get enough sleep tonight!

 

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With Broadway Dark, What Are Actors to Do?

We all know that the entertainment world has been completely devastated by COVID-19. Broadway has been closed for almost a year, and there isn’t much light in sight. As reported in a recent CNN article, New York City benefits from the close to $15 billion that the entertainment industry generates each year – and 97,000 people rely on Broadway for their livelihood.

But one place where the lights are still on is Australia – and it’s fascinating to hear from performers who have gone there to continue their trade and their dreams.

One actress, Gabrielle McClinton, explains how she has been in Australia for the last few months playing a leading role in “Pippin.” She explains how they managed to make it work in Australia:

“It definitely had its challenges, but we got through the season. People came to the show wearing their masks and we would get Covid-19 tested every week. When we (weren’t) on stage, we were in our masks and everybody obeyed all the rules and we did our due diligence. And when we were outside the theater we made sure we weren’t putting other people at risk.”

She offers hope for the revitalization of the industry in New York.

Time will tell when such benefits will return stateside, but for now we can read about what’s happening in Australia, and hope.

Does Empathy Make a Difference in the Classroom?

In a fascinating new study from the University of Cambridge, empathy was found to be a factor in enhancing creativity. Students were asked to design an asthma treatment kit for young children, and the researchers found that those who had integrated empathy into their learning and their design challenge were more creative than were those who had not.

Bill Nicholl and Helen Demetriou have conducted the study and have created an initiative called Designing Our Tomorrow.

As Demetriou explains in an interview with CNN,

“Empathy is a form of creativity in its own right — it involves imagination. Broadly speaking, there are two types of empathy: cognitive, or thinking about things from another’s perspective; and emotional/affective, feeling along with the other person. With creativity you also have this cognitive side and emotional side, and if you are designing a product with someone else’s needs in mind, it is important to project yourself into the other’s world. The two really go hand in hand.”

Later in the interview he explains that:

“We need to keep reminding children to always think about things from someone else’s perspective. How are they feeling? What are they thinking that made them behave like that?

Reading helps, too. There is lots of research that shows that books can elicit empathy, and conversation about the characters and stories helps children see what it is like to experience life as another person.”