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Tuesday 7 May 2013

Saul Bass's film titles celebrated in Google doodle

Designer of famed credits for Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese gets elaborate animated tribute

Saul Bass celebration animates Google's name in several different styles, playing on the designer's best-known credit sequences. Photograph: Google/screen grab
Google has marked the birthday of Saul Bass with one of the search engine's most elaborate "doodles" yet – an animated sequence based on his designs for film title credits, film posters and corporate logos.

Bass, who died in 1996, worked with film-makers including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese over the course of a 40-year career, approaching his commissions in the spirit of a graphic design problem to be solved.

Born into an immigrant family in New York's Bronx, he began working on print work for film adverts in Hollywood during the 1940s. A breakthrough came in the film industry when he was hired in 1954 by Otto Preminger to create an innovative title sequence for the credits of the film, Carmen Jones, which he did using an animated flaming rose.
 Until the 1950s, the normal method for film credits was to present names and titles on cards, or against an unmoving backdrop.

The following year, Bass's credit sequence for another production, The Man With the Golden Arm, played again with a strong graphic image – white lines rearranging themselves into a twisted arm – which was carried over into the film's publicity, prefiguring the corporate identity approach of modern film advertising.

Bass later worked for Alfred Hitchcock on North by Northwest and Psycho, once again using his favoured lines, which morphed into a vortex of whirling spirals in the opening credits of Vertigo.

After a lull in the 1960s, he made a comeback in the 1970s. His last completed credits sequence was for Casino, which featured Robert De Niro being blasted by a car bomb through a raging inferno of Las Vegas neon in Casino.

Thursday 20 December 2012

A Review of The Brothers Grimm

"I reached the point where I wondered 'Would I ever make another movie again?'"

These words were spoken by Terry Gilliam after a preview screening of his new movie "The Brothers Grimm" in New York City. During the Q and A with critic Joel Siegel, Gilliam looked a far piece from his shell-shocked appearance at the end of 2003's "Lost in LaMancha", which documented the collapse of his Don Quixote film a week into shooting. When "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" was shut down in 2000 following numerous on-set disasters, the director spent several years unsuccessfully trying to get another project underway, including an adaptation of the novel "Good Omens". Then in 2003 producer Charles Roven, who had previously shepherded Gilliam's "12 Monkeys" to the screen, presented him with ready-to-go-project "Grimm" and the maverick filmmaker was back in the saddle… almost.

"The studio said 'Anyone but Gilliam, 'cause he's trouble.'"- T.G.



Heath Ledger and Matt Damon as The Brothers Grimm
The "studio" in question was MGM, but after convincing the suits in charge that despite his recent setbacks he could turn out a commercial property with a large budget north of $80 million, Gilliam began pre-production in the Czech Republic. After MGM suddenly bailed on the film due to their merger with Sony, another set of brothers, Miramax mega-producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, came to the rescue by picking up the tab and agreeing to release the production through Dimension.

What followed was a series of clashes between the equally headstrong Weinsteins and Gilliam which included nixing a prosthetic nose star Matt Damon was to wear, firing Director of Photography Nicola Pecorini, and not allowing Samantha Morton to play the pivotal role of Angelika. Despite these intrusions on his vision, Gilliam completed principal photography and set to work finishing the picture, refusing to talk to the Weinsteins. "The Brothers Grimm" was set for release in November of 2004 and fans prepared themselves for the first Terry Gilliam film since 1998's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"… almost.

Suddenly Bob and Harvey Weinstein announced that they were leaving parent company Disney and they became embroiled in negotiating a protracted divorce from the Mouse House. Along with dozens of other Miramax/Dimension properties, "Grimm" was put on hold. This allowed Gilliam to take 6 months off and make a more personal project, an adaptation of Mitch Cullin's cult novel "Tideland", which lensed in Canada last fall and will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

Gilliam returned to post-production on "Grimm" with fresh eyes, and made several changes to the movie, which had so far not tested well with audiences. At the advice of fellow director Steven Soderbergh, he moved a flashback of the Grimm Brothers' childhood to the beginning of the film. He also entirely excised the most expensive scene, a battle with giant moving trees, because his Monty Python cohort Terry Jones told him it was too climactic, leaving the rest of the movie feeling dry. It will appear on the DVD. After the NY screening, which received a healthy round of applause, Gilliam appeared rejuvenated by the experience and hopeful that audiences would come to see what is certainly his most broadly commercial film. Now that the long wait is over and everybody involved, including purportedly the Weinsteins, are happy with the picture, what can audiences expect to find when they come to the theater on August 26th?

"We live in an age where everything [for children] is sanitized, but these stories are meant to prepare kids for the big bad world… there may not be a gingerbread house, but there's plenty of pervs out there."- T.G.
Jonathan Pryce as Delatombe
"The Brothers Grimm" is a richly textured, highly intoxicating potion composed of one part magical whimsey, one part historical adventure, and altogether fun but weightless. The film centers around the world famous Grimm Brothers, Jake and Will, played by Heath Ledger and Matt Damon, who are con-men traveling from village to village holding fake exorcisms and vanquishing witches created using cheap tricks and stagecraft. Damon's Will is the dominant one of the two, the consummate charmer who sells snake oil to the simple townsfolk while looking after Ledger's meek, sensitive Jacob, his partner in Crime. The brothers are captured by the Napoleonic Army and sent to a small village to expose similar hoaxes, only to discover a bona fide curse involving 11 kidnapped girls, an axe-wielding lycanthrope, and a haunted forest ruled by a malevolent Queen.

In real life the brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were academics who traveled through a fractured 19th Century Germany unified only by its language, and recorded the traditional folk tales that had been passed down orally through generations. They were cultural preservationists, whereas in the film they are presented as hucksters who happen to get caught up in a situation that resembles not one but several of the stories in the Grimm canon. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Elements of Cinderella, Hansel and Grethel, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, and Snow White, all tales the Grimm brothers recorded for posterity, are woven into the fabric of the story as if these were the events that inspired the authors. These homages are clever and adhere closer to the dark tone of the original stories than to watered-down candy-colored iterations of Disney or "Shrek". For good measure there is also a subtle homage to The Princess and the Pea (the Queen has 20 mattresses) and a welcome cameo from the Gingerbread Man ("I taste good!") who you'd want to hug if he didn't resemble the tar baby from Brer Rabbit on acid.

There's an unmistakable similarity in look and feel to Tim Burton's 1999 "Sleepy Hollow", another twist on a dark fairy tale, but "Grimm" is far more charming and less reliant on fetishistic violence. Thankfully the CGI is not overdone as in past offenders like "Van Helsing", since all the sets including the vast forest were built practically, and in most scenes with computer imagery it is blended with these real surroundings. The production design by Guy Dyas, who did "X-2" and the upcoming "Superman Returns", is breathtaking, and places him in the same level of film design as other masters of the macabre like Bo Welch, Rick Heinrichs, and Alex McDowell. From ridiculously elaborate torture devices to a baroque French dinner table with guests extending to infinity, there would be so much to marvel at if the viewer wasn't so engrossed in the amount of detail and texture that has been created to subdue the more fantastical elements.

Lena Headey as Angelika
An able cast does a great deal to ground the fantasy in its own skewed reality. Damon does a 180 on his usual introverted loner persona by playing Will as the dashing scoundrel, leaving Ledger to play the oddball half of the duo. Ledger's Jacob is in many ways the heart of the film, as he is less concerned with making money than in keeping detailed journals of his observations and imagination. He's the fantasist who is looked down upon and ridiculed, a staple of Gilliam's films such as the Baron in "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" or the young boy in "Time Bandits". Much of the fun comes when Jacob becomes more and more in his element as the situation becomes stranger and stranger. "It's like being in Jacob's head!" exclaims Will as his inability to come to grips with the magic unspooling around him mounts.

Frequent Gilliam collaborator Jonathan Pryce ("Brazil") plays French General Delatombe, a fairly cardboard villain who is a militaristic rehash of the same soulless bureaucrat Pryce played in "Munchausen". Delatombe proves only a minor threat compared to the evil sorcery of the Mirror Queen. Played with relish by love goddess Monica Bellucci, who as Persephone provided the only two watchable things in the otherwise loathsome Matrix sequels. The Mirror Queen is a vain centuries-old witch who needs the blood of virgins to restore her beauty still visible in her "mirror mirror on the wall."

Angelika, the trapper who guides the brothers through the forest, is played by lovely newcomer Lena Headey. She's got the rugged edge of her character down, but unfortunately fails to ignite any sparks in an undercooked romantic triangle with the boys. One can't help but wonder the extra dimension an actress of Samantha Morton's caliber could have brought to the film, much as she did to her small but effective role in Speilberg's "Minority Report", but what's done is done. Making up for the imbalance is standout Peter Stormare ("Fargo"), who steals the show as the trigger-happy Cavaldi, aide to Delatombe, who is there to make sure the brothers do their job. His watchdog character oozes so much sleaze and depravity that you can feel the brutishness in every off-kilter step he takes, yet every time he refers to Will and Jake as "the Grimmys" you can't help but find him endearing. Stormare is like a small Swedish boy trapped in an unruly Italian battering ram!

Devoid of boring scenes showing thousands of CGI soldiers or creatures to barrage our senses into oblivian, the film is large without being epic, clever without being cute, and smart without ever apologizing for it. There are many plot points in Ehren Kruger's script that could have been clarified, such as the ultimate fate of Angelika the female warrior's father, and many characters that could have been fleshed out more, including a little more depth to the squabbling relationship between the titular brothers. The film makes the brave assumption that the viewer is smart enough to fill in the blanks and allow it to get on telling its story, which it does kinetically at a ferocious pace.

"Adults react [to fantasy] more cause they know more, and it resonates with the real world."- TG


"The Brothers Grimm" is certainly a quality fantasy film, which remains a gutter genre despite all the piles of money and Oscars being thrown at it of late. "Grimm" has all the trappings of great fairy tales but doesn't hold back and keeps the tone dark and spooky throughout, occasionally punctuating it with Python-esque humor and funny musical cues. The only issue I had was that it didn't have much weight to it. Gilliam made the similar "Baron Munchausen" in '89 and that film had a more powerful message about the power of dreams and dealing with old age. This film is much more about sound and fury than with imparting any real point, but Gilliam-lite is way better than no Gilliam at all, and most genre films wish they were this smart.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Human Life Issue\ AT A GLANCE

 AT A GLANCE:
Although her life was short, she only lived 36 years, Augusta Ada Lovelace anticipated by more than a century most of what we think is brand-new computing. Her work with Charles Babbage and his Calculating Engines produced what she called "the plan". In hindsight what Ada had proposed was a program stored on punch cards for use on an early computer, The Analytical Engine in 1843


Inventor:     Augusta Ada Lovelace    
Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace image courtesy Criteria:     First to invent. First to patent. First practical. Entrepreneur.
Birth:     December 10, 1815 in London, England
Death:     November 27, 1852 in London, England
Nationality:     British
Invention:     computer programming in 1843    
Punch card deck courtesy www.ibm.com
Function:     noun / computer program in punched cards
Definition:     In computer science, a sequence of instructions that a computer can interpret and execute; "the program required several hundred lines of code"



Who Was Ada Lovelace?:

Ada Lovelace wrote a scientific paper in 1843 that anticipated the development of computer software, artificial intelligence and computer music. Daughter of the poet Lord Byron, Lady Ada Lovelace was known as the "enchantress of numbers" who collaborated with Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical thinking/calculating machine.


Ada Lovelace's Role In The History of Computers:

Ada Lovelace devised a method of using punchcards to calculate Bernoulli numbers, becoming the first computer programmer. In her honor the U.S. Department of Defense named its computer language "Ada" in 1980.


Ada Lovelace Biography:
Ada Lovelace was born Augusta Ada Byron in December 1815 to the Romantic poet Lord George Gordon Byron. Her mother was Anne Isabella Milbanke, a mathematician known as “the princess of parallelograms.” Byron and Milbanke were separated five weeks after Ada Lovelace was born. At the time most women received a home education that was inferior to that of a man's. However, Ada's mother was able to provide her daughter with superior education that included science and math.

 STORY:

Although her life was short, she only lived 36 years, Augusta Ada Lovelace anticipated by more than a century most of what we think is brand-new computing. Her work with Charles Babbage and his Calculating Engines produced what she called "the plan". In hindsight what Ada had proposed was a program stored on punch cards for use on an early computer, The Analytical Engine in 1843

Ada Byron Lovelace was a British mathematician and musician, born in London in 1815. Her father was the British poet, Lord Byron. Her mother, Annabella Milbanke, encouraged her to study mathematics. Ada married Lord William King, Earl of Lovelace, and had three children. She died of cancer in 1852 at the age of 36.

Ada Lovelace is best known as the first computer programmer. She wrote about Charles Babbage's "Analytical Engine" with such clarity and insight that her work became the premier text explaining the process now known as computer programming.

Lord George Gordon Byron and Annabella Milbanke Noel were married in 1815. She was the self-proclaimed "Princess of Parallelograms" and he was a popular poet. When his mood swings became too much for her to handle, Annabella left her husband. The union produced one child, Byron's only legitimate one, Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815.

On 25 April 1816 Lord Byron went abroad and Ada never saw her father again. Lord Byron never returned to England and died in Greece when Ada was eight years old. Lady Byron was given sole custody of her daughter Ada, who was declared a Ward in Chancery in April 1817, and she tried to do everything possible in bring up her child to ensure that she would not become a poet like her father.

 Lady Byron considered mathematics a good subject for training the mind to ensure that her daughter took a disciplined approach. Music, Lady Byron believed, was a topic that provided a girl with the right social skills so this was also emphasised in Ada's education. However although Lady Byron devoted much energy to organise Ada's upbringing she herself seems to have spent very little time with her.

A number of tutors were employed, often for only a short period, to direct Ada's education. At age about six she had a Miss Lamont as a tutor and, despite her mother's emphasis on mathematics, Ada's favourite subject was geography while arithmetic she only studied reluctantly in order to please her mother. On discovering that Ada preferred geography to arithmetic, Lady Byron insisted that one of Ada's geography lessons be replaced by an arithmetic lesson and shortly after this Miss Lamont was replaced as Ada's tutor.

Ada's mathematical education was undertaken by a number of private tutors. William Frend, who had tutored Lady Byron in mathematics, was involved in Ada's mathematical education but by this time he was an old man who had not kept pace with mathematical developments. Dr William King was also engaged as a tutor to Ada in 1829 but his interest in mathematics was not very deep and he confessed that he had studied mathematics by reading it rather than by doing it.

Some members of the family feared that Lady Byron was insisting that her daughter be driven too hard. Lady Byron ignored the family concerns and kept a constant pressure on her daughter to work hard and long at her lessons. Some rewards were offered but pressure was usually applied by giving Ada punishments like solitary confinement, making her lie motionless, and demanding that she write apologies..

Few can have done more to mould the character of their child than Lady Byron did! The young Ada, however, had long suffered some health problems and in 1829 contracted a mysterious illness (possibly of hysterical or psychosomatic origin) and was unable to walk for almost three years. During this time, she pursued her studies with tutors. She excelled at mathematics and became an accomplished musician and linguist.

Friday 2 November 2012

Guys, tips to spice up your sex life!



There are so many tips that are available to make your sex life better than it is now! The moment the stress of everyday life starts to affect your sex life, it would have a negative effect on the level of intimacy between you and your wife.
At the beginning of your relationship, I'm sure you could not keep your hands on your wife. Now, maybe you're in a situation where you both feel as if you are simply not interested in sex more. If this happens in your relationship and you are willing to back those exciting moments. It is up to you to change things and spice up your sex life.
When it comes to sex, you do not have to limit your bedroom. You can be intimate in many ways and once you and your wife realize, both of you can create a desire to always be together in bed all the time. A simple and common to do is hold your hand. It seems innocent at first and thought it might look something only for teenagers, but it can help to increase the intimacy between you and your wife.
Whenever you are near your wife, reach out to hold her hands. It tell him how you want to be with her and he also tells her that you still find her attractive and sexy. Kissing is one other thing that you should do often. Simply give your woman an unexpected sweet and passionate kiss from time to time can do wonders for your sex life. It would suddenly become more willing to have sex with you.

When it comes to sex, try changing environment. I know that you and your wife must have sex only limited to your bedroom. It is now time to make some changes. Go to a motel, have sex in the kitchen or anywhere asides your bedroom. How about taking a bath or shower with your wife? 

This is an interesting way to put a little more heat in your sex life.

One thing you should keep in mind is this - the moment of your sex life starts to suffer your relationship suffers. It's as simple and as easy as that! It is not too late to rekindle the fire in your sexual life. Start looking for other tips and techniques that you can use to give your woman more pleasure. In this way, it always come back to you for more. And also that it would begin hiring sex more often than before.Are you satisfied with your woman during sex? A major problem that prevents men from giving their women orgasm during sex is the issue of a small penis. A big penis feels much better for women than small or medium. In a 2008 survey, 91% of women surveyed said they prefer big penises to small or medium. This is because women know that big penis gives more sexual pleasure than small ones.

Are you interested in getting a bigger penis? 

Using a combination of natural penis exercises and herbal penis enlargement pills penis will give you a stronger and bigger after a few months.
Temitayo Olatunde is passionate about educating couples young, middle aged and old on how they can enjoy a great sex life and enjoyable.

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Astonishing images of the moment apocalyptic 'derecho' superstorm battered New York killing two


One man was killed in Brooklyn, New York, and a woman died in Genesee, Pennsylvania

  • Richard Schwartz, 61, an assistant New York State attorney general, was killed after being hit by scaffolding and bricks falling from a church steeple that was struck by lightning
  • 32 million people in path of severe storm and New York City has 'unusually high risk' of tornado
  • State of emergency issued after tornado touched down in Elmira, NY at 4.15pm with fires, building damage and motorists trapped in cars
  • Flights delayed up to 2 hours at JFK, La Guardia and Newark airports
  • Campsites evacuated in Allegany and Niagara regions


Two people were killed and more than 100,000 homes and businesses in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania were without electricity Friday morning after ferocious thunderstorms swept through the region.
A state of emergency and curfew were in effect in Elmira, New York, this morning after a suspected tornado toppled power lines and trees and hospitals were placed on disaster alert.
Only emergency vehicles allowed on the streets until 8 am while the damage was cleared, Chemung County Office of Fire and Emergency Management spokeswoman Karen Miner said.
Scroll down for video
Frightening: Two people were killed after the storm ravaged parts of the East Coast, including New York City
Ferocious: The moment the storm moved across New York City, grounding hundreds of flights and leaving tens of thousands of residents without power
Ferocious: The moment the storm moved across New York City, grounding hundreds of flights and leaving tens of thousands of residents without power
Unpredictable: Dark clouds loom over New York City as thunderstorms and torrential rain batter the U.S.'s East Coast
Skyline: The storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across New York City on Thursday
Skyline: The storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across New York City on Thursday
Bolt: Lightning strikes over Manhattan yesterday evening, in the wake of a huge thunderstorm which passed through the Tri-State area
Gloomy: This dramatic image taken by photographer Ryan Brenizer shows the storm's path across Manhattan
Gloomy: This dramatic image taken by photographer Ryan Brenizer shows the storm's path across Manhattan
The severe weather, which has been described as the summer's second 'derecho', claimed the lives of two people. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.
A prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office was killed after he was hit by scaffolding and bricks that fell from a church steeple that was struck by lightning in Brooklyn, New York, according to the New York Post
Richard Schwartz, 61, was taken to Long Island College Hospital in Brookyn where he was pronounced dead.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a statement about the tragic death. 'I send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Assistant Attorney General Richard Schwartz who was tragically killed last night as a result of the storm,' Schneiderman said in a statement. 
 


    'For over 25 years, Richard served the people of New York State with integrity as an expert antitrust lawyer in the Office of the Attorney General's economic justice division. New York is a better place because of Richard's commitment to fairness and legal excellence. Richard's loved ones are in our thoughts and prayers as we mourn the untimely loss of one of our own.'
    Governor Andrew Cuomo also paid tribute to Schwartz, saying: 'His commitment to placing the needs of New Yorkers above all else will be remembered and cherished. His work ethic and his passion were an inspiration to all who had the privilege of knowing him. 
    'Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and colleagues with whom he worked during his many years in State service.'
    A woman who was camping in Genesee, Pennsylvania, near the New York State line, was also killed when she took refuge from the storm in her car and a tree then fell on it, John Hetrick, director of emergency services for Potter County, said.
    Path of destruction: Gary Dunning surveys the damage to his business after a tornado struck in Elmira, New York on Thursday
    Elements: Downed power lines and trees are pictured in Elmira, New York State after a tornado hit at 4.15pm local time
    Elements: Downed power lines and trees are pictured in Elmira, New York State after a tornado hit at 4.15pm local time
    Uprooted: An enormous tree is torn up by the force of a tornado which touched down in Elmira as the east coast was battered by severe weather
    Aftermath: A resident cleans up the morning after the town of Elmira was hit by a tornado on July 27, 2012
    Aftermath: A resident cleans up the morning after the town of Elmira was hit by a tornado on July 27, 2012
    Damage: A bent stop sign is pictured the morning after the town was hit by a tornado in Elmira, New York July 27, 2012
    Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared an emergency for Chemung County after a tornado touched down in the city of Elmira, in north-west New York State, at 4.15pm to allow the state to mobilize state resources to assist local governments.
    'This state of emergency declaration will help the state get critical resources to communities that were hit the hardest,' Cuomo said.

    WHAT IS A 'DERECHO'?

    A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.
    It can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, while the damage typically is directed in one direction.
    As a result, the term 'straight-line wind damage' issometimes used to describe the phenomenon.
    To be classified as a derecho, the line of storms must travel at least 240 miles and include wind gusts of at least 58 mph.
    In one four-block neighborhood in Elmira, most homes had trees toppled upon them, street signs were bent in half and tree trunks had debris wrapped around them. Several cars were crushed by downed trees, while one two-story brick building had most of the second story torn off in the storm.
    On Friday morning, most power remained out for the city's 29,000 residents.
    As the storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across Midwest and Northeast, hail ranging from the size of a dime to a quarter fell in some areas of Pennsylvania, AccuWeather.com said.
    Meteorologists said 70-mile-per-hour (113-kph) winds were reported in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
    Hundreds of flights were cancelled and at least 300,000 homes suffered power cuts in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut after warnings of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, hail and hurricane-strength winds along the East Coast.  
    More than 900 flights in the U.S. were grounded with LaGuardia Airport in New York the worst affected with 162 planes unable to take off.
    Around 32 million people were directly in the path of the storm yesterday including those in and around New York City, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
    Skies darkened over Manhattan around 6pm with heavy downpours on the island and in the Bronx first, then rolling across Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn.
    Crushed: A crushed automobile is seen the morning after the town was hit by a tornado in Elmira, New York July 27, 2012
    Violent: Downed trees cover a car and reach across the street the morning after the town was hit by a tornado in Elmira, New York July 27, 2012
    Fatal: A prosecutor with the state attorney general¿s office was killed after he was hit by scaffolding and bricks that fell from a church steeple that was struck by lightning in Brooklyn, New York
    Lightning strikes the antenna on the top of the Empire State Building yesterday
    Dark and stormy: Clouds rumble over New York as severe weather broke along the East Coast yesterday
    Intense: The sky darkened and thunder rumbled Thursday evening as a severe thunderstorm blew through New York City
    City slickers: Pedestrians rush through a torrential downpour in Times Square, Manhattan
    Running in the rain: A young woman dashes through the torrential downpour in Manhattan's theater district in Times Square
    Blowing a gale: Tourists laugh as high winds catch their umbrellas in the center of Times Square
    Can't rain on my parade! Are Kjeldsberg-Skauby, 12, of Norway, dances in a torrential downpour
    Winds of up to 60mph were being reported on the Hudson's Tappan Zee Bridge but the worst was expected to be over by 10pm.
    Westchester County and parts of Connecticut were hardest hit with downed trees and damaged power lines. 
    Forecasters upgraded the tri-state area to 'moderate risk' today, with New York City having 'unusually high chance' of tornadoes. 
    The outbreak threatened to be as bad as the derecho which left millions without powers for days in Washington, D.C. last month.
    Authorities evacuated campsites across New York State. The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation encouraged those in trailers, recreational vehicles and cabins to leave ten sites in the Allegany and Niagara regions of western New York and the Taconic and Palisades regions to the east.
    Conservation officials were also advising campers in the Catskills and southern Adirondacks to seek shelter.
    Threatening: Rolling storm clouds and torrential rain over Brooklyn last night
    Ominous skies: Derecho looms over Long Island City as the East Coast faced severe weather
    Batten down the hatches: The sky darkens over Arnot Mall in Big Flats, New York
    Here it comes! The storm system can be seen on the weather map edging its way towards New York City and surrounding area
    Utilities report about 10,000 customers with power outages in Steuben and Allegany counties. 
    The severe weather pattern made its way across the Midwest with forecasters predicting adverse conditions in Columbus, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
    Towns across eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and upstate New York also reported downed trees, according to the Storm Prediction Center. 
    Tornado warnings were in effect for most of New York State, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, including areas surrounding New York City. 
    JFK International Airport was already redirecting flights to nearby Newark. 
    Flights were currently delayed up to 90 minutes at JFK with Newark also reporting two-hour delays.
    New York’s LaGuardia Airport is experiencing delays of 90 minutes. Travellers in Philadelphia were being delayed one hour
    Winds of 60 miles an hour, large hail, isolated tornadoes and torrential rain was expected in the next few hours in the mid-Hudson Valley region.
    Dark skies: The storm builds over New York City as residents headed for shelter
    Brewing: New York City was braced this evening for the unusually high threat of a tornado
    Derecho: Severe thunderstorms are predicted for Chicago and Philadelphia, with tornado watches along the Eastern Seaboard
    Battered: Torrential rain hits Broome and Tioga counties in New York

    EYE OF THE STORM: WHO WILL BE AFFECTED BY TONIGHT'S TEMPEST?

    It is estimated that 63million people from Iowa to New England will be hit by the storm.
    Thunderstorm warnings were issued in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The storm will also effect Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut and Vermont.
    There were tornado warnings for Ithica, New York and severe thunderstorm warnings for New York City.
    The storm system has put a major wrench in travel plans, with up to two hour delays reported at New York airports - JFK, La Guardia and Newark.
    Across New England and the Midwest, up to five inches of rain was expected.
    New York City was hit by a freak storm two weeks ago which brought flash floods and booming thunderstorms. 
    Subway stations were shut down as water submerged tracks leaving many commuters  stranded.
    Severe thunderstorms threatened Ohio and the lower northeast while areas from the upper Great Lakes and the Mid-Mississippi Valley northeastward to southern New England were at risk for severe weather development.
    Elsewhere, hot and humid conditions coupled with continued instability led to chances of showers and thunderstorms along the eastern and central Gulf Coast. 
    Monsoonal moisture and daytime heating will kick up areas of showers and thunderstorms in the Central and Southern Rockies through the afternoon and evening. 
    Temperatures in the Lower 48 states yesterday ranged from a morning low of 35 degrees at Stanley, Idaho to a high of 107 degrees at Olney-Noble, Illinois.
    While the Eastern Seaboard and much of the Midwest is being drenched, the rest of the country is suffering a debilitating drought. Many areas of middle Georgia are suffering exceptional drought conditions.