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The works in the current exhibition are the result of a preparatory process of computer imaging, followed by gestural mark making. For this body of paintings, Ziegler has combined two visual languages which become indistinguishable in their polyphony. The computerised landscape forms an essential starting point, which all but disappears from view. The titles of works like Expansion Vessel, 2021 or Hard Water, 2021 evoke associations of movement and fluidity, as if the gestural, painted strokes are moving simultaneously into the same directions, on the backgrounds of their computerised bases. The more organic shapes in other works are more reminiscent of plants or forests. The underlying colours or grids structure the free strokes and hold the paintings together visually. The work-titles are not meant to pin down meaning in the work , but they all relate to memory, artifice, and the idea of remembering as a creative act. Paintings can be vessels full of ghosts: personal and collective phantoms, as well as those of the viewer; all the ghosts that creep in from the internet; the ghosts of paintings that came before, medieval, modernist and ones the artist has previously made.
This sounds like a job for Toby Ziegler
Emily Procter: Allison and I had this dance that we would always do. I had seen this weird clip of footage and I told her, "Allison, that dance, it's so bizarre. This is what the girls dance like." She was like, "What is that?" and I was like, "I don't know." Then in the last year, I was like, "That dance was twerking!" So Allison Janney and I had little twerking moments in our office. We were groundbreaking.
Thomas Schlamme: There were like fifteen of those goldfish, which Allison thought was the same one. It's like the first time you got a goldfish for your child, you run to the fish store and go, "Here's a dead fish. Can you give me one that looks exactly like this?" And then you put the fish back in the bowl. That's what happened. That fish would die constantly. To say that no animals were harmed in the production of the show was just not true. Those things just don't live that long! But honest to God, Allison still believes it was one fish the whole time she was there.
Rob Lowe: The Sopranos was the Manchester United to our Chelsea. It was great to have them there, because it inspired everybody. That show's extraordinary; it's my second favourite TV show ever made. Can you imagine what The West Wing could've been though if we had the same luxuries that David Chase and HBO had? If Aaron said, "I'd like to be in a villa for a year in Italy and then when I'm done eating pasta, I'm going to come back and we're going to start up again." Can you imagine? Or if they'd let Aaron write a script that was as long or as short as he wanted it to be? Or if they said, "Aaron, how many do you want to write this year?" "You know what? I think I'd like to write ten." They're like, "Great!" No, we made The West Wing under the creatively crushing stipulations of network television and that it not only competed but excelled against cable is amazing.
Danny Concannon : I thought it might do us good to see each other in the daylight. We're together from eleven to midnight or five to six a.m., we're both half asleep, leads to a lot of tension that I think is unnecessary, like this morning for example. I thought it might be a healthy twenty minutes. You could tell me about your day.
"The West Wing" is a bustling White House-as-workplace drama filled with busy, passionate people having busy, passionate Sorkinesque conversations (surely no one is this cleverly articulate in real life) about political moves that could affect the well-being of the country, if not the entire free world, all the while sprinting through the maze-like corridors of the White House's West Wing. The characters on "West Wing" have important, meaningful jobs that preclude them from having personal lives, but, hey, ask not what your country can do for you. They are proud to serve first-term President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), a folksy New Hampshire Democrat of founding-father stock. Squeaky clean and decent, Bartlet respects the office, doesn't waffle on the issues and shows no inclination to engage in thong-snapping in windowless corridors. Perhaps as Sorkin's little wish-fulfillment gift to the Hillary-weary, the first lady has yet to be seen. There's a rumor she's played by Stockard Channing.
The President of the United States. Originally intended as a Recurring Character, the writers rewrote the role after Martin Sheen's performance and he essentially became the protagonist. Bartlet started as a dark horse candidate who entered the race to keep the other Democratic contenders honest and wound up in the Oval Office. He's a very decent man who values his staff like family and sincerely tries to make the best decisions for the country; when these fail or come with a human cost, he's troubled deeply. He deliberately concealed that he has multiple sclerosis; in spite of the scandal this causes, he wins a second term. He holds a Nobel Prize in economics and is a devout Catholic.
Leo's Number Two, "the guy The Guy counts on." Josh is young, confident to the point of arrogance at times, and relentless in pursuing the Bartlet agenda with Congress. Sometimes this has great results and sometimes this backfires terribly. Leo is like a father to him. Josh eventually leaves the White House to run Matthew Santos as a dark horse candidate for President.
Unfortunately, the dialogue that follows isn't Bartlett. Maybe Martin Sheen's impact on the character was so strong that I can't believe them without hearing them from his voice, but on the page, I just see Sorkin's opinions on the current race. Perhaps that's why it was best that "The West Wing" shared our political reality but none of the players from the last generation. If anything, this sounds like a dialogue between Toby Ziegler and a lamp post.
And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.
On January 24, 2014, the Obama White House announced that in the spirit of both Andrew Jackson and this show, they would host a real version of the show's "Big Block of Cheese Day", in which White House officials would be available to answer questions from ordinary Americans (albeit online instead of in person, as the "cheese day" meetings were on the show). This announcement was kicked off by a video, posted on the White House's official website, that featured this show's stars Bradley Whitford and Joshua Malina, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. The first real Big Block of Cheese Day took place on Wednesday, January 29, 2014. On January 16, 2015, the White House announced that they would again be holding a Big Block of Cheese Day. This time, the video announcement (titled "Big Block of Cheese Day Is Back, and It's Feta Than Ever") featured White House Press secretary Josh Earnest and West Wing cast members Bradley Whitford, Joshua Malina, Mary McCormack, Dulé Hill, Richard Schiff, Allison Janney, and Martin Sheen. The video described the event as "like Reddit, but without the weird stuff." The third real "Big Block of Cheese Day" took place on January 13, 2016, the day after President Obama delivered the last State of the Union address of his Presidency. Various Senior White House staff, Cabinet officials, and members of Congress were available to answer public questions online at various times during the day, including such people as Vice President Joe Biden, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, First Lady Michelle Obama, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Senator Cory Booker, and many others.
During an episode of the "West Wing Weekly" podcast hosted by Joshua Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway, Aaron Sorkin told the story of how Marlee Matlin came to play the character Joey Lucas on The West Wing: "Actually, it was because of you [Joshua Malina]. After the 'Dear Louise' episode of Sports Night, in which Jeremy [played by Malina] is writing a letter to his sister who's hearing-impaired, Marlee asked if she could meet with me. She'd seen the show the night before and wanted to persuade me to write the sister into a future episode so that she could play the part. Marlee swept me off my feet in the meeting; she's abundantly charming, brainy, and funny, and her signing is like watching a world-class ballerina. I was never able to come up with an idea for a Sports Night story for Jeremy's sister, but a year later I asked her if she wanted to play a campaign manager whose candidate is being treated badly by the DNC. Her character's Deafness would only be incidental to the story. Marlee hit it out of the park, and so I always looked for opportunities to have her on the show." Matlin first appeared as Joey Lucas in the first-season episode "Take this Sabbath Day"; in all, she appeared in 17 episodes over the run of the series.
President Josiah Bartlet: She sounds like an incredible woman, Abbey. I'm particularly impressed that she beat a fictional record. If she goes down 21,000 leagues under the sea, I'll name a damn school after her! Let's have sex.
Josh Lyman: [about Navy pilot Vicky Hilton] I guess also, the thing is, that she isn't just any pilot. She's like Jackie Robinson - she's busted a lot of barriers. She's the first woman at Miramar, first woman to fly the F-14 Tomcat - she teaches on an F-14. I guess, at this point I don't have to give you her resume. 2ff7e9595c
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