Vance may refer to:
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in country music. She signed to the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift's self-titled debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest sole writer and singer of a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 50th Grammy Awards.
Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in late 2008. Buoyed by the chart success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", Fearless attracted a crossover audience and became the top-selling album of 2009. The record won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Fearless also received Album of the Year plaudits at the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and Country Music Association Awards, making it the most awarded album in country music history. In 2010, Swift released her third album, Speak Now, which sold over one million copies in its first week. She then embarked on the 111-date Speak Now World Tour, which was attended by over 1.6 million fans and has become one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The album's third single, "Mean", won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance. Swift is currently recording her fourth studio album, due for release in the fall of 2012.
Ashlee Vance (born 1977) is an American business columnist.
Born in South Africa, Vance grew up in Houston, Texas and attended St. John's School. He now works in Mountain View, California.
Vance is primarily known for writing for The Register from March 2003 to August 2008, but moved to the New York Times in September 2008 and then to Bloomberg BusinessWeek in January 2011. Vance covered companies such as IBM, HP, Intel, and Dell, and also writes about a wide range of technology topics, including robots and Segway scooters.
Vance has written a book, called Geek Silicon Valley, on the history of the Silicon Valley. His writing often also appears in such publications as The Economist, Chicago Tribune, CNN.com, the Globe and Mail, the International Herald Tribune, and CNET.
Vance hosts an audio podcast called Semi-Coherent Computing, in which he discusses enterprise computing topics such as Datacenter cooling and blade servers, and interviews notable guests including chip pioneer David Ditzel of Transmeta, Sun Microsystems, and Bell Labs.
Plot
"The Lost Coven" begins in ancient Rome, where a cursed coven of witches seeks to destroy mankind. When they are trapped by the forces of good, the curse doesn't die, it only lies in wait... In the present day, a skeptical archaeologist (Marcus Rush) has been on a quest to find evidence of the supernatural so he can use modern technology to analyze and debunk it. His search has depleted his life savings, and made him a laughing stock in academic society. But he has finally found hard evidence giving him the location of an island where he will find a centuries-old, dead-and-buried coven of witches. Before he can even leave for the island, devious individuals who want the Coven for themselves try to stop him. Marcus cons a group of hard-core mercenaries into joining him for protection, with promises of an easy gig and easy money. Not long after arriving, Marcus and his team are assaulted by a group of soldiers intent on getting to the Coven first. The action builds through firefights all over the island, followed by an even more disturbing revelation... have the witches been revived...?
Plot
When a 17-year-old girl, Candace, runs away from home to look for her biological mother Callie, she meets a young man, Toby, who helps her in her search. When Candace doesn't return home, her adoptive mother Shawna desperately begins to look for her. Candace finds Callie and also discovers she has an older brother Vance but Callie doesn't give her estranged daughter the warm welcome the girl was hoping for. As Candace unknowingly gets pulled deeper and deeper into danger through Toby's criminal lifestyle while trying to connect with her biological mother, Shawna eventually joins forces with Callie and Vance to rescue Candace.
Plot
Free-spirited party girl Brooke Porter and her wife Chloe are celebrating their recent wedding, when they meet Vance, a handsome, lady-killing drifter at a bar. But a drunken night of debauchery will lead them all down the road to terror. Pursued by a vicious, psychopathic madman, Brooke is propelled into a struggle for survival, one that will push her to the limits physically and emotionally.
It was meant to be a day she'd never forget. Now it's become a night she may never survive.
Vance: I'm not a fan of pudding. I think it's for pussies.
Dagget Spade: How we supposed to play the game if you don't know the rules?
Darla Spade: She's just so, so pretty.
Dagget Spade: Goddamnit!
Plot
A young couple, Amanda (Natalie Ryan) and Dave (Nick Afanasiev), witness a home invasion on the first day of their summer vacation. Instead of calling the police, Dave decides to secretly follow the burglar and teach him a lesson himself. He starts out by scratching his car and egging his house to, "balance out the universe," as he puts it. When he starts getting obsessed with this revenge scheme, Amanda disapproves, but Dave tells her that he has just one more idea on how to teach him a lesson. His plan turns into something a lot more than what he bargained for, and he learns the hard way, that it is not his job to punish anyone.
Keywords: apostrophe-in-title, burglar, contraction-in-title, directed-by-star, murder, produced-by-actor, produced-by-director, punctuation-in-title, revenge, teenager
Two wrongs don't make a right... Neither do two, or three, or four.
If they are not your children, it is not your duty to punish them.
Plot
David (Kazy Tauginas) is a hit-man with a crisis of conscience. The final words of his most latest mark linger in his mind and cause him to question his lifestyle. When David is sent after another target, his new conflict pits him against his best friend and partner, Silver (Michael Simmons).
It's never too late to do the right thing.
Plot
A fledgling filmmaker returns to his hometown to make a documentary about flowers and their significance at the major stages of human life. Obsessed with capturing reality, he is none too pleased when a sudden zombie uprising threatens his artistic vision. Unwilling to compromise, he resolves to shoot around the walking dead as if nothing unusual is actually happening.
A documentary about a documentary about flowers . . . and zombies.
Plot
Led by John Bridger ('Donald Sutherland (I)' qv) and Charlie Croker ('Mark Wahlberg (I)' qv) a team is assembled for one last heist to steal $35 million in gold bars from a heavily guarded safe in Venice, Italy. After successfully pulling off the heist, a team member, Steve ('Edward Norton (I)' (qv)), driven by greed and jealousy, arranges to take the gold for himself and eliminate the remaining members of the group. Thinking the team dead, he returns to L.A. with the gold. Charlie and the survivors of this betrayal follow Steve L.A. to exact revenge against the traitor. Charlie enlists the help of John Bridger's daughter, Stella ('Charlize Theron' (qv)) - a professional safe cracker, to get revenge. With Stella and the hacking skills of Lyle (Seth Green), the explosives skills of "Left Ear" ('Mos Def' (qv)), and the driving skills of "Handsome" Rob ('Jason Statham' (qv)) this new team plans and executes a daring heist that weaves through the freeways and subways of L.A.
Keywords: 1990s, ak-47, armored-truck, axe, bare-chested-male, basketball, betrayal, binoculars, blood, boat
Steal The Day 5.30.03
Get in. Get out. Get even.
It's not about the money. It's about the money.
Chiisana YATSU hodo, karei ni kimeru [Japan]
Nusume! [Japan]
Charlie Croker: You've got no imagination. You couldn't even decide what to do with all that money, so you had to buy what everybody else wanted.::Steve: Try this on your imagination, okay. That gold is already gone.
Steve: Still don't trust me?::Stella: I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust.
John Bridger: I feel so optimistic. How do you feel?::Charlie Croker: [shrugging] I'm fine.::John Bridger: Fine? You know what "fine" stands for, don't you?::Charlie Croker: Yeah, unfortunately.::John Bridger: Freaked out...::Charlie Croker: Insecure...::John Bridger: Neurotic...::Charlie Croker: And Emotional.::John Bridger: You see those columns behind you?::Charlie Croker: [looks behind him and sees the pillars] What about them?::John Bridger: That's where they used to string up thieves who felt fine.::Charlie Croker: After you.
Lyle: I am The Napster.
[Lyle isn't answering Charlie's calls]::Handsome Rob: He only answers to "The Napster" now, Charlie::Charlie Croker: Oh, no. I am not calling you The Napster.::Lyle: Why not? You call him Left Ear.::Left Ear: Well, I am.::Lyle: And him Handsome Rob.::Charlie Croker: Well, that's because he is Handsome Rob!::Lyle: Well you can call me The Napster.
[timing the getaway to Union Station]::Handsome Rob: It's either bad traffic, peak traffic, slit-your-wrist traffic... you know, five people died from smoking in between traffic lights today.::Left Ear: You know, they do have the Metrorail, Rob, you could always use that.::Handsome Rob: Yeah, that'd be ideal for carrying a ton of gold now, wouldn't it, genius?::Charlie Croker: What's your guesstimate?::Handsome Rob: The last twenty times I done this journey, you've got an average of thirty two minutes and a top time of fifty, but if we had green lights all the way, we could do it in fourteen minutes.::Stella: [poking fun] What? Couldn't get through traffic?
[Lyle arrives on his motorcycle. He has trouble on the bike, though]::Charlie Croker: That's Lyle. He's my computer genius. You know he's who really invented Napster? At least that's how Lyle tells it. Said Shawn Fanning was his roommate in college and stole his idea. [We see a flashback of Fanning stealing a hard disk from a napping Lyle] I think it's his first time riding that bike, though.::Lyle: Hey.::[Lyle falls over]::Charlie Croker: You okay?::Lyle: Yeah.::[a car drives up behind him]::Charlie Croker: That's Left Ear. Demolition and explosives. When he was ten, he put one too many M-80s in the toilet bowl. [Cuts to the exterior of a toilet stall. Suddenly the door bursts open from an explosion. The toilet is spraying a fountain of water up]::Kid On Left: Damn, that was cool. How did you do that?::Young Left Ear: What?::Kid On Right: How did you do that?::Young Left Ear: WHAT?::Kid On Right: I said, "how did you do that?"::Young Left Ear: What? [Flashback to present]::Charlie Croker: Lost the hearing in his right ear. He's been blowing stuff up ever since.::[a car zooms in from behind Charlie and Stella]::Charlie Croker: Handsome Rob. Premier wheel man. Once drove all the way from Los Angeles just so he could set the record for longest freeway chase. [Cuts to Rob being chased down the freeway by a massive armada of police cars] You know he got 110 love letters sent to his jail cell from women who saw him on the news? [We see two women hanging a banner on a bridge saying "We heart you, Rob."]
Lyle: And then he's just the media darling... He's on the cover of all the magazines, I should of been on the cover of Wired Magazine. You know what he said? He said he named it "Napster" because it was his nickname because of the nappy hair under the hat. But he, it's because I was NAPPING when he STOLE it from me! He didn't even graduate!::Handsome Rob: I think it's time to move on, don't you? They shut him down, I wish they would do the same to you.
Lyle: [typing into his computer] They are about to hit a major detour and be sent your way. [presses a button. A traffic light at one intersection turns green. Lyle then presses another button, turning the opposite light green. With both directions having greens, one car ends up sideswiping the back of another one. Lyle watches the crash, and says] Oops. [He presses a different button. Another light turns green. Two cars collide and pancake together, sliding into a parked car. Lyle types into his computer] You'll... never... shut down... the *real*... Napster. [At the traffic control center, the message "YOU'LL NEVER SHUT DOWN THE REAL NAPSTER" appears across all of the video monitor screens. The scene changes to various clips of gridlock across the city]
Left Ear: [observing the front gate to Steve's house. He sees guard dogs] Shit. [Speaks into his wire] This dude got dogs. I don't do dogs... I had a real bad experience, man.::Charlie Croker: [from their Netcom Cable van] What happened?::Left Ear: I had. A bad. Experience. Damn it. "I'm" deaf!
Plot
In 1923, Gregory Vance, a widower with two children, is a former scholar who has turned from book-to-bottle. He works, slightly, as a night-watchman and his children, who know him for what he is and what he isn't, are his only admirers. Then, it is discovered that he is the only registered voter in a key precinct and the politicians, from both parties, arrive in droves bearing inducements. What he does about this situation, and the relatives who want to take his children away from him make up the story.
Keywords: 1920s, americana, attorney, bribery, brother, bully, cement-mixer, child-custody, construction, construction-site
A MAN WITH A HOLE IN HIS PANTS (original print ad - all caps)
OUT OF HOLLYWOOD has come something so fresh, so joyful, so gloriously human and sincere that it cuts a new pattern for the screen. We believe it will sweep to success over-night!
WHAT MAKES A GREAT PICTURE?...In this case it's a man with a hole in his pants and an empty heart...and two loyal kids who just knew their dad was a great man...and that wonderful, intangible something that makes blood pound faster, brings a lump in the throat, a laugh of gladness, and a precious tear to the eye! Come expecting one of the best pictures you've ever seen!
Miss Billow: I never thought a meringue pie could make so lovely a speech.
Gregory Vance: My dear lady, I seem to detect in you perspicacity only too rare these days.::Miss Billow: Mr. Vance, you astonish me.::Gregory Vance: At times madam, I astonish myself.
Gregory Vance: Gregory Vance, magnified briefly, by a kindly destiny, in a kindly land where... where greatness is within a people, not within a man; and where any man who calls himself great, is only looking at his shadow, from the shoulders of those who have lifted him up. Today, his own feet must carry him. Side by side we walk today, the big and the little, and, those we sometimes call: the down and out. A voter, by the name of Mr. Whittier, once spoke of that. Today, of all the weary year, a king of men am I. Today alike are great and small, the nameless and the known. My palace is the people's hall, the ballot box, my throne. Tomorrow, I will be quite forgotten - a bit of shadow glory, who, like the rest of you, left his mark only in a ballot box. But I will be no less a part of that total greatness because being even the least in a land where strength is so generous, is greatness in itself.
He was born one mornin' it was cold and it was snowin'
And from the start he never had a chance
And though the doctors said he couldn't live his mama had some faith to give
And they brought him to her and his mama named him Vance
He was sick a long time then I used to sit by him
I'd rub his head he would squeeze my hand
But he never cried he'd grit his teeth and smile at me cause he couldn't speak
And that's when I began to respect the little man
And I think Vance was three right about then
He started school and one day he came home and at the doorway
I could tell the little man didn't want to come inside
He'd met a girl but her boyfriend Smitty
Had caught him walkin' home with her and nearly killed Vance
But then Vance never cried and the only thing that Smitty hurt was pride
And he said papa do you become a man when you're twenty one
And I said age doesn't make a man a man my son
He looked at me so puzzled with eyes so young and kind
And I think Vance was seven about that time
[ strings ]
I guess they say that first love is the very best
At least it was with Vance cause he'd scratched Becky on his desk
But Becky went with Smitty and Vance was very small
And he used to dream what it'd be like to be tall
And then a few years later Vance came in one day
And told me and his mama that he had to go away
To be fitted for a uniform and though his mama shed a tear
He kissed her and said he'd see us in two years
And he looked at me and said papa I'm gonna be a man
Well two years to the day Vance came walkin' in the driveway
And I didn't recognize him from his size till he got near
He came in and he hugged his mama
And said hey papa little man wanna go with me somewhere and grab a beer
So we're sittin' at this table when this fella at the bar started buggin' Vance
Callin' him soldier but Vance kept his cool
And he said papa that guy is Smitty and he's to be pitied now
Cause that's the same guy that used to bully me in school
Then Smitty said the wrong thing when he brought up Becky's name
And Vance finally stood and said boy what did you say
And it did my heart so much good when Vance hit ole Smitty
And it took two of Smitty's friends to carry him away
Well Vance left the very next mornin' and it was cold and it was snowin'
And from the first life hadn't been much fun
But he had finally made a stand and he'd become a self made man