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L&S: 1992 was your concert debut – talk about your experience of that, both good and bad.
AF: I think of my concert debut as when I was 11. It was in the Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy. That’s when I played a complete programme of my own music.
The Duke’s Hall was an incredible place. It’s huge. Everything about it even at the time is excellence.
I remember turning to a lady, who wasn’t even my teacher at the time, before I went on stage and I said to her that I was really nervous.
She said something that when any young person says the same thing to me, I repeat.
She said, ‘Stop being so selfish and thinking about yourself, think about the music’. I remember the comment going straight through me like a dagger and I thought that it was really quite harsh, but I knew exactly what she meant, immediately.
L&S: Piano Karma, Stolen Lullabies, Escape and The Piano Whisperer are all of your albums released since 2009 – you’ve stayed busy. Talk about finding inspiration for those projects and your own musical growth during that period.
AF: My albums tend to fall into two different camps I guess. One is the very free, metaphysical improvisatory sort of album which is where I might reflect on a word or a feeling.
Those are some of the most powerful moments for me, when I am just in a darkened room and there is no music, there is no plan, there is just perhaps words or something I want to meditate on, or something I’ve been thinking about.
For other albums that involve orchestras or people, things have to be written down, and that’s quite different.
My challenge then is to retain the purity and the essence of what I do when I am working in a free way so that it doesn’t become sanitised.
Those are the two camps but what I am always trying to do is retain the spirituality of my music.
L&S: Away from the classical stuff, what else is Alexis Ffrench into musically?
AF: That’s a big question. I’m interested in everything.
Personally, I like very stark, Estonian music – bleak, devoid of all hope.
That’s the music I love. If I’m running, being active then I’ll listen to Jon Hopkins. I always, love his stuff. But then I also love Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and I think there is really amazing, really innovative stuff happening in hip-hop.
L&S: You are set to perform at the Classic BRIT Awards, returning after five years – you must be looking forward to them?
AF: I’m going to be playing Bluebird, which may not be a surprise to many, but there are also going to be other ingredients, too.
I’ll be performing with a wonderful artist along the programme. It’s an organic programme so it starts with one thing and turns into another and the wonderful Pretty Yende is going to be joining and collaborating within that performance, so I am very much looking forward to that.
There are other elements, which I will leave until the night.
The Classic BRIT Awards take place at the Royal Albert Hall on June 13.
My views on assisting a terminally ill patient to die are not what they once were. They have been shaped by my experience as a general practitioner, where eventually I taught end-of-life care in the home to trainee GPs, my work in a palliative care service in Malawi and the impact of several hundred funerals I have conducted as a humanist celebrant.
My attitude has been slowly but surely influenced by continuing professional involvement in delivering care at the end of life.
Like most medical students of my generation, I received no training in how to look after dying patients. I had to learn on the job and still blush with shame when recalling the stumbling steps I took up the steep learning curve. My early cases suffered needlessly under my clumsy, ignorant hands.
My teachers shied away from terminal care. A silent nod to the sister during a ward round would be a consultant’s typical response to her query regarding the need to start morphine injections. Conversations with relatives or patients about what was happening were avoided. Euphemisms were commonplace, served only to camouflage stark reality, while ethical uncertainties remained unexplored.
Although there is still much to be done to ensure equity in its availability, palliative care has improved dramatically since those days. However, even in the best of hands, there remains a small but significant number of patients who, despite receiving appropriate care, suffer cruelly and unwillingly during their final illness. Their needs are unmet and their anguish unassuaged. At present one terminally ill patient in Scotland takes their own life every week, not infrequently resorting to violent means in the process.
My views on assisted suicide are not what they once were. In light of the evidence I have changed my mind. To paraphrase Keynes, if doctors acknowledged that they do not have all the answers and are failing some patients, they should be willing to change their minds. To legitimately allow that conclusion to then be put into effect, the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Act must pass into law.
WIRED enlisted the services of 23-year-old professional skateboarder Anna Kruse to test prototypes of the OneWheel and Scrooser in an urban environment. Overall handling and ease of use were assessed, as well as battery life and quality of design.
WIRED's product editor, Jeremy White, was also drafted in to take both vehicles out for a test ride, despite his obvious lack of radness.
So wide and stable are those rubber rollers (each an impressive 450mm x 240mm) that WIRED found they are perfect for majestic carving at speeds of up to 25kph. The Scrooser even stays upright after you've dismounted. Front disk-brakes and rear engine-brakes made stopping simple, and the turning circle was smaller than expected, considering the size of the frame. An "impulse-drive" electric motor built in to the back-wheel hub -- which means there are no gear belts or linkages to break -- amplifies the force you generate when pushing off and kicks in automatically once you exceed 3.2kph. You can also run it on its electric motor, which will extend the maximum range the Scrooser can travel from 35km to 55km. WIRED found that standing was very comfortable and allowed a much greater level of control while negotiating small paths or weaving in and out of other pavement users. Acceleration is pleasingly predictable, and at no point did we feel out of control.
The OneWheel is effectively a hybrid of a skateboard and Segway.
Edgewood Manor of Greenfield employees challenged their executive director, Susan Michaelson, to donate Drinks for Dovetail. For every employee contribution, Edgewood Manor of Greenfield would match one-to-one cases of water donated to the children of KAMP Dovetail. As it happened, the generosity moved Michelle Shumate of Save-A-Lot grocery store in Greenfield to donate an additional 20 cases of water for a grand total of 75 cases. Pictured, from left, are Janice Shuff, KAMP Dovetail volunteer; Heidi Morris, EMG business office manager; Joy Polstra, KAMP Dovetail staff/group leader; Lydia Polstra, KAMP Dovetail volunteer; Michelle Shumate of the Greenfield Save-A-Lot; Elaine B. Williams, EMG social services director; and Rhonda Campbell, KAMP Dovetail donations coordinator.
https://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2018/06/web1_Dovetail-pic.jpgEdgewood Manor of Greenfield employees challenged their executive director, Susan Michaelson, to donate Drinks for Dovetail. For every employee contribution, Edgewood Manor of Greenfield would match one-to-one cases of water donated to the children of KAMP Dovetail. As it happened, the generosity moved Michelle Shumate of Save-A-Lot grocery store in Greenfield to donate an additional 20 cases of water for a grand total of 75 cases. Pictured, from left, are Janice Shuff, KAMP Dovetail volunteer; Heidi Morris, EMG business office manager; Joy Polstra, KAMP Dovetail staff/group leader; Lydia Polstra, KAMP Dovetail volunteer; Michelle Shumate of the Greenfield Save-A-Lot; Elaine B. Williams, EMG social services director; and Rhonda Campbell, KAMP Dovetail donations coordinator.
Lollapalooza 2014 at Chicago’s Grant Park is a wrap, but Samsung made its mark on the event. The VIP artist lounge the tech company hooked up left memorable impressions on the likes of Hip-Hop acts like Run The Jewels, Vic Mensa, Chance the Rapper and more, while Samsung users in attendance were also able to nab their own perks.
From naming rights to the main headline stage (Samsung Galaxy Stage) where legendary music acts like Eminem, Outkast and Kings of Leon performed to thousands of fans, to the Artist Lounge backstage where everyone from Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Chromeo, Jhene Aiko, Dot Da Genius and Killer Mike and El-P from “Run the Jewels” hung out and received the latest Samsung Galaxy line of products including the GS5, Gear 2, Tab S, and Level headphones.
Artists and band members who received the new Galaxy S 5 were excited to get the opportunity to test the water proof feature the device boasts during the wet and raining weekend. Samsung wasn’t content only giving artists and influencers the VIP treatment in their Owner’s lounge and Artist Lounge backstage, they rewards festival goers with a “glamping” (glamourous camping) themed consumer activation on site all weekend, where the brand created the perfect oasis for festival goers to relax in between sets and get rewarded with great perks like free lemonade, food vouchers from the local Chicago vendors, customized flags to wave throughout the weekend and a chance to mingle with artists and celebrities in the owner’s lounge.
Also, the first 300 Galazxy users who downloaded the Milk Music app each day were granted access to the Owners Lounge.
Access to the Owners Lounge was available to the first 300 Galaxy users who downloaded Milk Music to their devices at the beginning of each day at the experience. These same winner were blessed with a private 45 minute set by Chromeo on Saturday afternoon.
Check out photos from the festivities in the following pages.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday urged political parties to let the budget session of Parliament function thereby allowing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to carry out its pending work.
“Our Parliament reflects the supreme will of the people. Democratic temper calls for debate and discussion, and not disruption or obstruction,” said Mukherjee, while delivering his speech to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament on the first day of the budget session 2016.
The government has prioritised 32 items for the budget session including 11 bills pending in Rajya Sabha and one in the Lok Sabha. The prominent ones include the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill and real estate bill. While the former is expected to remove barriers to trade between the states and economically unify the country, the latter will bring in the much-needed transparency in the unregulated real estate sector.
The budget session comes in the backdrop of the ongoing controversy at the Jawaharlal Nehru University wherein its student union leader has been arrested on charges of sedition bringing the opposition parties together. Also, the breakdown of law and order machinery in Haryana by Jat agitators demanding reservation in government jobs is expected to be discussed in the current session.
In the hour-and-fifteen-minutes long speech delivered at the central hall of Parliament, the President emphasized on the achievements of the government in the past one-and-a-half years after assuming office on 26 May 2014. Focusing on India’s infrastructure, Mukherjee mentioned various initiatives taken by the government to improve India’s economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has started various schemes in sectors such as roads, railways, ports, power and mining.
Mukherjee did not spell any expectation from the Union Budget to be presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley on 29 February. India’s economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das in an interview with DD News on Monday had said that given the fiscal constraints and other parameters under which the government has to function, the effort is to present a budget which is growth-oriented, maintains the momentum of growth and tries to develop on it.
“India is a haven of stability in an increasingly turbulent global economy. GDP (gross domestic product) growth has increased making India the world’s fastest growing economy among large economies. Inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit have all decreased,” Mukherjee said.
In the last budget, the government had targeted fiscal deficit at 3.9% for 2015-16 and 3.5% for 2016-17. It is also expecting a GDP growth of 7-7.5 per cent for 2015-16 at a time when the Index of Industrial Production and manufacturing growth data have painted contradictory pictures about the rate of growth.
In a pre-budget statement, Rohit Inamdar, senior vice-president with ratings agency ICRA Ltd, said that the infrastructure sector expects higher budgetary allocations towards specified large infrastructure projects such as bullet trains and dedicated freight corridors.
Talking about the NDA government’s aim to provide electricity to all and the country’s move towards clean energy, the President said that the government plans to reach a renewable energy capacity of 175 gigawatt by 2022. The President added that a majority of the 73 stalled road projects have been revived, 7,200 km of highways have been completed and 12,900 km of highway projects have been awarded---the highest ever.
Mukherjee also mentioned government’s initiatives such as houses being built for slum dwellers, increase in subsidized domestic cooking gas connections for below poverty line families, the smart cities programme, reduction in energy shortage, new scheme for the turnaround of the state-owned electricity distribution companies and financial assistance to domestic shipyards, among others.
Gore Verbinski to Direct The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
In April, it was reported that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a remake project that has been kicking around the studios for over a decade, had new forward momentum. 20th Century Fox had hired a new screenwriter: The Pursuit of Happyness scribe Steven Conrad. Now Risky Business is reporting that Pirates of the Caribbean series helmer Gore Verbinski is in talks to direct the film.
The film is to be based on James Thurber‘s 1939 short story and the 1947 film version starring Danny Kaye about “a guy whose extensive heroic daydreams are an escape from his humdrum life.” The project has been in development for years with a long list of writers which has included Babaloo Mandel & Lowell Ganz, Chuck Russell, Peter Tolan, Zach Helm, Richard LaGravanese, Jay Kogen, David Reynolds and Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant, and directors Steven Spielberg, Mark Waters and Chuck Russell developing the project to direct at various points and Jim Carrey, Owen Wilson and MIke Myers have been attached to star.
The last script was by Frost/Nixon and The Queen scribe Peter Morgan, who updated the Mitty character to be a timid “mega-store owner” whose daydreams are given the chance to, in some way, come to life. We don’t know how many of Morgan’s ideas might retain, but it seems unlikely that Sacha Baron Cohen is still involved. Verbinski has worked with Johnny Depp on four of his films, and this project seems perfect for the duo to reteam.
Editorial: President Trump, show us the money for Lake O and the Everglades!
This dance is getting old.
Today, President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Lake Okeechobee to promote the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' work on the Herbert Hoover Dike and a reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area.
But two weeks ago, environmentalists and Trump supporters -- U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, and U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Naples -- wavered between frustration and disappointment when the president's proposed 2019-20 budget included just $63.3 million for Everglades restoration rather than the $200 million they had requested.
Politically, this was not a good look for these high-profile Florida Republicans; especially since Scott, DeSantis and Mast had all run successfully in 2018 on their cozy relationships with the president.
This may explain why, as of Thursday afternoon, that none of them had publicly committed to being with Trump in Canal Point on the lake's southeastern shore to "highlight the work".
We wouldn't blame them. This federal money, part of the $1.6 billion allocated for Everglades restoration in the omnibus Water Resources Development Act Trump signed in October, is crucial to helping reduce the number of damaging discharges from Lake O to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers by 63 percent.
Thus, when the White House budget request “failed to include sufficient funding for Everglades restoration” efforts -- a month after all-but assuring Floridians that it would -- the GOP lawmakers were a bit disheartened.
Not to mention, those toxic algae blooms are a health hazard.
Meanwhile, Florida has steadily increased funding for Everglades projects each year. In January, DeSantis recommended the state appropriate $360 million for Everglades restoration projects as part of his budget recommendations. And judging from the first round of budget talks in the state House and Senate, that number will be easily met.
Yes, the White House budget is only a recommendation. Congress is responsible for appropriating federal funding for projects.
“But Florida cannot continue to suffer through repeated outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae and red tide," Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg said in a statement. "The nation’s third-most populous state is undergoing a perennial environmental disaster and an economic catastrophe, and the federal government must fulfill its role in helping solve the problem of Florida’s waterways."
We don't need another premature victory lap. We don't need any more half-empty promises. We need you to show us the money, Mr. President.
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A plane crash that killed a student pilot and left his flight instructor with serious burns appears to have been a suicide attempt, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation said.
The two men had an altercation inside the cockpit of the small plane and the instructor was unable to regain control from the trainee before it crashed near the Connecticut headquarters of a military jet engine manufacturer, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.
The Piper PA-34 Seneca crashed with the two men aboard during a training flight Tuesday in East Hartford near the headquarters of Pratt & Whitney, while returning to Brainard Airport in Hartford, authorities said. The flight instructor was badly burned, but survived.
The instructor described the student pilot as disgruntled about learning to be a pilot, the U.S. official said.
The flight instructor is Arian Prevalla, 43, and the student was Feras Freitekh, said a law enforcement official, who wasn't authorized to disclose the information and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Prevalla's social media pages indicate he is president of the American Flight Academy and a managing member of the Hartford Jet Center, both based in Hartford. The pages say he originally is from Albania and now lives in Hartford. On LinkedIn, Prevalla said he received a bachelor's degree in Aviation Science from Mountain State University, a now-defunct university in Beckley, West Virginia.
Public records show Freitekh received a private pilot certificate last year from the Federal Aviation Administration. They also indicate he lived in the Chicago suburb of Orland Hills since 2013, but authorities there said that there was no record he ever lived in the village but that he received mail there at the home of a friend of his father, who worked for a container company in a nearby town.
The survivor told police detectives it was not an accident, according to East Hartford Mayor Marcia Leclerc.
"It's troubling," Leclerc said. "But I also know that stories change and information can be skewed. We're waiting for the facts to come out."
Authorities said the student and instructor were about to land at Brainard Airport in Hartford when the plane struck a utility pole and crashed onto the road at around 4 p.m. Tuesday, bursting into flames. The crash site is a short distance from the airport, across the Connecticut River and in line with the runway.
"The path that the plane took could have been much worse. So we're very fortunate in that sense," East Hartford Police Chief Scott Sansom said.
Shipping containers sailing across the oceans from Asia are 24% empty, according to research from DS Smith. This means that every year some 61 million 20-foot containers are shipped unnecessarily, costing tens of billions of dollars and emitting approximately 122 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That waste is further compounded once products make it to the shore and are sent from distribution centers to customers’ doors in e-com packaging. The recipients are often taken aback by the empty space in the packaging.
Despite the clear benefits of empty space reduction, such as cost savings and reducing the environmental impact, it does not seem to be a high priority on executives’ agendas. Thus, they are, in effect, forgoing a 24% reduction in their shipping costs. The following report presents research by DS Smith and Forbes Insights, which quantifies the amount of empty space and its results—the foundations of what we call the Empty Space Economy.
Warning: This video is frightening.
The bridge at Moulton Falls, a scenic, forested park in Washington state about 40 miles north of Portland, Ore., looms 60 feet above the water. Large rocks jut out along the river’s shore. A sign says that diving from the bridge is prohibited.
But that doesn’t stop many thrill-seeking teenagers from leaping into the cool river on a hot summer day.
On Tuesday afternoon, 16-year-old Jordan Holgerson and her friends prepared to do just that. In her swimsuit, Holgerson stood on the outer ledge of the bridge. One member of the group started filming a video.
Holgerson hesitates. “No, I won’t go in,” she says.
“She’s saying ‘no,’ ” a young man next to her says.
Holgerson does not have a chance to respond. She is facing the river but clearly not in a position to dive or jump properly.
Suddenly, a young woman shoves her from behind, with considerable force.
She falls through the air, her arms flailing. She plunges the equivalent of three stories for about three seconds before she hits the water below in a violent belly flop. Her friends shout. One of them curses.
At about 2:45 p.m. ambulance crews arrived and rushed her to the hospital. The dramatic fall left Holgerson with five broken ribs, an injured trachea, a bruised esophagus and air trapped in the lining of her lungs, her mother, Genelle Holgerson, told the Longview Daily News.
The Clark County sheriff’s office is investigating the incident, according to the Columbian.
Another sister told KOIN she confronted the young woman on social media. “She pretty much said that she was sorry for doing it and she wouldn’t have done it if she knew the outcome of it and that she knows it was an absurd thing to do,” sister Kaytlin Holgerson told the television station, adding that she thinks the woman should suffer consequences.
But when Jordan Holgerson and her family members spoke to reporters at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, they declined to comment on the woman who pushed her.
Surrounded by two friends and one of her sisters, Jordan Holgerson said she had never jumped off the Moulton Falls bridge before. But she had previously swum in the area and had seen people attempt the jump before. “They were fine,” she said.
LIVE: 16-year-old girl pushed off Moulton Falls Bridge in Washington speaks out from Vancouver hospital.
The teenager said she is still in a lot of pain, and cannot do “anything active” for about six weeks. Her surgeon, MaryClare Sarff, told KGW the outcome of the fall could have been far worse.
Injuries are not uncommon at the arch bridge in Moulton Falls Regional Park, which spans 387 acres and has two waterfalls. While swimming is allowed, there are no lifeguards on duty, according to the county’s public works agency.
Last year, a 47-year-old man was injured after leaping from the bridge and landing in a sitting position, authorities told the Columbian. Emergency crews rescued the man from the river by boat, finding him resting on a rock shelf along the shore.
Jordan Horgenson told reporters she does not advise jumping off the bridge at all. “Just stick to the rocks,” she said.
One reporter asked the teenage girl how she’s choosing her friends these days, after the fall.

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