Speleologist Jelinic Arrives in Karlovac Hospital

[Croatia123]

It was the most demanding and lengthy rescue operation in modern history of speleology.

Croatian speleologist Igor Jelinic arrived in Karlovac Hospital last night after a ten-hour transport from the Torino hospital where his ankle was operated on, the Karlovac headquarters of the Mountain Search and Rescue Service said.

Jelinic on Wednesday fell into an inapproachable part of the Piaggia Belle pit in the Alps in the Italian region of Piemonte, breaking his ankle and dislocating his shoulder. More than a hundred Italian alpinists rescue workers were engaged in his rescue.

The Mountain Search and Rescue Service says it was the most demanding and lengthy rescue operation in modern history of speleology.

The speleologist said last night that he was tired and did not wish to speak about the circumstances of the accident or the rescue operation, but promised to explain everything later.

[Atom Bomb]

In part two of her tour of Auckland's gourmet retailers, Jennie Milsom finds the treats aren't limited to the city.

Jones The Grocer
Where: 143 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket.

Jones arrived in Newmarket from Australia last year, boasting a bright, spacious deli and cafe laden with pickles, preserves and pastas. The walk-in cheese room - a Jones' signature feature - has its own cheese expert and is crammed with local and international cheeses. Food and wine gift hampers can be designed to order and fresh goods - from colourful salads to slabs of Rocky Road by the kilo - are prepared on site. Doors open at 7am for weekday early birds in search of a decent coffee and fresh bite.

Kemp Rare Wine Merchants
Where: 143 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket.

This boutique wine warehouse - a temperature-controlled Aladdin's cave directly above Jones - boasts the best vintages and the country's rarest wine collection. Forget the usual supermarket suspects; if you fancy a change from your favourite chardonnay, there's helpful advice on matching your taste with your budget (bottles start at $20). Have a nosy in the panelled room with its splendid leather chairs and shelves showcasing their very finest bottles. Look out too for cheese and wine pairings in conjunction with Jones downstairs.

Didas Food Store
Where: 54 Jervois Road, Herne Bay.

European style oozes from this food emporium, owned by a Croatian family, behind Glengarry wines. Floor-to-ceiling shelves are crammed with interesting goodies from imported mustards and relishes to couscous, chocolate and rows of giant tins of tomatoes and artichokes.

The map on the back wall shows which part of Italy your cheese comes from and there's a cafe, too, with sorbets and gelati served at the back of the shop. Apple pie or tiramisu by the scoop is very appealing with spring in the air.

Sabato
Where: 57 Normanby Road, Mt Eden.

Opened 14 years ago, Sabato has become the gourmet destination for keen cooks and top chefs on the hunt for artisan food from Europe. It's nice to see plenty of home-grown produce, too - nuts, honey and syrups. Sabato's own-label pastas and sauces are big sellers, as are the imported cured meats. For breakfast treats, check out the freezers for flaky croissants and pains au chocolat filled with rich French Valrhona chocolate.

Check out the cookery demonstrations and tastings on Saturdays - and taste test chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven.

Nosh
Where: 133-135 Apirana Avenue, Glen Innes.

Auckland's largest gourmet food market - or so they claim - has plenty of helpful staff on hand to advise. Stuck for what to feed the vegan in-laws at the weekend? Consult the store manager for a menu. There's lots of European imports - Dutch, British and German - and the butchery and seafood section is a whole separate shop. Fish is fresh from the market and meat is bought in as whole carcasses and processed on site. Ready-meals are the kind of stuff you'd make yourself if you had time after a day at the office; we're talking navarin of lamb and fragrant chicken curry, which you could pass off as your own.

[Atom Bomb]

The 10th annual Indie Memphis Film Festival opens Oct. 19 with an appearance by one of the key figures in modern American independent cinema, John Sayles.

The acclaimed writer/director/actor, two-time Oscar nominee and Bruce Springsteen music video director will introduce the Memphis premiere of his new movie, "Honeydripper," a blues-based drama about an Ike Turner-like electric guitar innovator who galvanizes a rural juke joint in 1950 Alabama.

The 6-foot-4 Sayles also will participate in a question-and-answer session after the screening. He will be joined by his longtime professional and private-life partner, producer Maggie Renzi.

Sayles -- whose more popular movies include "Eight Men Out" (1988), about the Chicago "Black Sox" scandal of 1919, and "Lone Star" (1996), a Texas murder mystery -- is probably the most significant filmmaker ever to attend Indie Memphis, which is devoted to "The Soul of Southern Film."

As a pioneer of personal, independent cinema and a sometime studio screenwriter-for-hire, Sayles, 57, has found success in the mainstream and on the margins of Hollywood. His projects as a writer-director have dealt with labor disputes, Latin American politics and the environment, while his scripting duties have included such commercial features as "The Clan of the Cave Bear" (1986) and the upcoming sequel, "Jurassic Park IV."

"Honeydripper" will screen at 8 p.m. Oct. 19 on two screens at Malco's Studio on the Square, 2105 Court at Overton Square. Tickets are $8.50 each, and will be available in advance starting Friday at malco.com or the Studio on the Square box office.

Tickets for all other Indie Memphis screenings also go on sale Friday at the Malco Web site and the Studio box office.

Also Friday, "six-packs" good for admission to any six screenings (excluding the Sayles premiere) will be available for $40 at Indiememphis.com. Also at the Indie Memphis Web site, festival passes good for all screenings and events will be available for $80 each (or $70, if bought before Oct. 18).

Passes also can be bought at a free public Indie Memphis preview party to be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at Otherlands, 641 S. Cooper.

All proceeds from ticket sales go to Indie Memphis, a project of Delta Axis, a nonprofit organization that promotes the visual arts.

The festival runs Oct. 19-Oct. 25 on three screens at Studio on the Square, with a lineup that includes close to 120 shorts, documentaries, narrative features, locally produced movies, music videos and other films. The event returns to Midtown after six years Downtown, including five at Muvico's Peabody Place 22.

Among the special programs are a "Global Lens" series devoted to international cinema from Algeria, Indonesia, Iraq, Croatia, China, Chile and other countries; and a "Back in the Day" series showcasing such early independent Memphis productions as "I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I.," Ira Sachs' "The Delta" and Steve Ross' Negro Leagues baseball documentary, "Black Diamonds, Blues City: Stories of the Memphis Red Sox."

"Honeydripper" stars Danny Glover as juke joint proprieter Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Austin guitar prodigy Gary Clark Jr. co-stars as Sonny Blake, a T-Bone Walker/Ike Turner/Johnny Watson-like guitar slinger.

The typically Sayles-esque ensemble cast also includes Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach, Lisa Gay Hamilton and former Ray Charles backup singer and Stax recording artist Mable John, remembered for her 1966 hit "Your Good Thing Is About To End."

Indie Memphis director Les Edwards said some actors and musicians from "Honeydripper" may join Sayles at the Memphis screening.

Sayles has described "Honeydripper" as a story about the crossroads moment when the new technology of electric guitar intruded upon jump blues and other more traditional music forms.

"There is tension and harmony in almost every song, and wars are fought within music without a word being uttered," Sayles writes, in his "Filmmaker's Statement" about the movie. "One of these battles for dominance that was waged in the early '50s was between the guitar and the piano... When Chuck Berry started blasting piano chords on his guitar and duck-walking across the stage (Jerry Lee did his best, but the piano is not a mobile instrument), the course of popular music was set."

Sayles is admired by fans of both art films and "B" movies.

Early in his film career, Sayles earned money writing clever, low-budget monster movies, including such classics of their type as the Roger Corman-produced "Piranha" (1978), Lewis Teague's "Alligator" (1980) and Joe Dante's masterpiece of Looney Tunes-influenced lycanthropy, "The Howling" (1981).

At the same time, he was developing his own distinctive, character-driven features, beginning with 1979's "The Return of the Seacaucus 7," an "indie" milestone produced on a budget of $40,000.

Sayles also directed the videos for such hit Bruce Springsteen songs as "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days," which share with Sayles' directorial efforts a sympathy for the downcast and disenfranchised.

Sayles earned Best Orignal Screenplay Oscar nominations for "Lone Star," with Chris Cooper and Kris Kristofferson, and "Passion Fish" (1992), about the friendship that develops between an injured soap opera star (Mary McDonnell) and her drug addict nurse (Alfre Woodard).

Last year's Indie Memphis opening night movie was "Come Early Morning," written and directed by Joey Lauren Adams, who attended the festival. This year's John Sayles appearance was arranged in part by Memphis moviemaker Craig Brewer, who has met with Sayles in Los Angeles. Brewer described himself as "a huge John Sayles fan."