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The X-Men and my uncanny evolution of language
Posted: October 16th, 2016 | Author: Max Romero | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
A couple of years ago, I was invited to submit an essay for what was going to be the second volume of Hey, Kids, Comics!, an anthology that was a labor of love for editor Rob Kelly. Unfortunately, volume 2 never came together (but you still can, and should, pick up the first volume). Since then, I kind of put the following essay in the back drawer of my mind and digital files, but I recently came across it again and thought I’d share rather than let it languish.
I hope you enjoy — Language X!
When the older Asian lady gently grabbed my elbow, I thought I was in trouble.
I say older, but truthfully she was probably around 40, at most. But I was in my early 20s and, being a kid in my second year of college, everyone past 30 looked old to me. And, being young, I was of course doing things like jumping off couches in the Student Union building and shouting, “Konnichiwa!” to a group of friends who were meeting us for lunch.
The lady, still holding on to my elbow, began talking to me excitedly in what I could only guess was Japanese. “Oh, crap,” I thought. “I’ve offended this woman and now she’s telling me off!” I instantly felt shame, even though I knew “konnichiwa” was an innocent greeting, equivalent to “good day.” I wanted to explain to her that my yell was basically a third of my total Japanese vocabulary. I wanted to blame the X-Men.
I can’t remember exactly when I started reading The Uncanny X-Men, but I do know I was at just the right age to soak up Chris Claremont’s dramatic, angst-laden prose as if I was an adolescent corncob rolling in a bed of warm butter. Rattling off the roster of my X-Men is easier than naming all my cousins; Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and Professor X. This all-new team wasn’t the one originally created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum for Giant-Size X-Men #1 in1975 — Thunderbird had already been killed off by the time I got there, and Kitty was a recent addition. Claremont’s Southern belle, Rogue, would come later and other characters, like Banshee and Sunfire, were on the periphery. As far as I was concerned these seven heroes were it — these were the X-Men.
It took years before I realized I was essentially reading a superhero soap opera, but by then I was past caring. What I did care about was what happened to these characters, both in fightin’ action and in the melodrama of their personal lives. I was fascinated by the different cities and cultures they would jet off to in their SR-71 Blackbird. I luxuriated in Claremont’s overwrought writing style, and I spent whole afternoons imagining the characters’ various accents.
Claremont’s X-Men were a United Nations of mutants, which the dialogue seemed intent on almost constantly reminding readers. Cyclops and Kitty were from the United States, so they spoke the way an average reader might expect, but everyone else was from what — to me — was an exotic location. Storm was Kenyan, and had a cadence to her speech that echoed the European colonization of that country. Colossus, of what was then the Soviet Union, spoke in a deliberate, almost ponderous way; Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin, the gentle farmboy from Russia, embodied the implacable nature of our Cold War adversary.
Nightcrawler, a demonic-looking teleporter who disappeared in a cloud of sulfur and brimstone, peppered his conversation with the Gothic embroidery of his native West Germany. I had no idea what Wolverine — a backwoods Canadian — sounded like. A cowboy? Sorta? Your guess was as good as mine, bub. And the less said about Banshee’s magically delicious Irish brogue, the better.
Storm stuck with straightforward English, but Nightcrawler and Colossus would use words and phrases from their native languages constantly. In retrospect, I loved it not just because it introduced me to languages I probably never would have been exposed to otherwise, but also because it was comfortingly familiar. When Colossus dropped a “bozhe moy!” or Nightcrawler a “mein gott!”, they could have just as well been letting loose with the “Ay, Dios!” I heard every day.
Growing up in El Paso, Texas, meant a lifetime of being steeped in my Mexican-American culture. El Paso was (and still is) a community that hovers at around 80 percent Hispanic, sitting directly on the U.S./Mexico border with Ciudad Juarez. Most people in my hometown are bilingual in English and Spanish, and EVERYBODY speaks some form of Spanglish, that mashed-up way of speaking both languages at once. Seeing the X-Men use phrases from their native tongues (or, in some cases, a language Professor X psychically plugged into their brains) was the most natural thing in the world to me. The people around me did it all the time; it just made sense the heroes in my world of comics would, too.
This normalization of foreign languages was comforting to me in another way. It helped emphasize that it was OK to speak a language other than English in the United States, and it didn’t make you less American. As a child of the 70s and 80s, I was never discouraged from speaking either Spanish or English (or Swahili, if I’d ever gotten the itch). But I grew up with the stories Dad told me of growing up in El Paso and Albuquerque in the 50s. Spanish was his first language; once he started going to public school, this meant being teased by teachers for his accent. Raps on his knuckles if he slipped and used a Spanish word in class. Beatings if he was caught having an actual conversation in Spanish.
Later, after he’d married Mom and gone to a Los Angeles broadcasting school to obliterate any trace of an accent, he was adamant his kids wouldn’t go through the same thing he did. Times had changed, but not that much, and both my little sister and I would grow up with English as our first language. And like a lot of kids who are later-generation descendants of immigrants, we never really got the hang of our cultural language. I’m better now, but for a long time my Spanish was terrible.
My Spanglish, however, was excellent.
Thanks to the constant practice I had at listening to more than one language at a time, adding some comic book German or Russian to my vocabulary was a cinch —especially when it was reinforced by Claremont’s quirky insistence on peppering it throughout nearly every issue of The Uncanny X-Men. Suddenly I was getting regular exposure to the varied lyricism of other languages; the staccato brass of German, the stentorian fluidity of Russian, and occasionally the soft rat-a-tat of Japanese. Comics, and X-Men comics in particular, helped me realize different languages could have things in common with each other, and this lead to a further understanding of shared cultures and histories. There was a connection, and the X-Men were helping me make it.
And then Claremont seemed to make Japan itself a semi-regular member of the cast. In quick succession, and over various issues, Wolverine fell in love with a cultured Yakuza clan leader, Storm fell in with a free-spirited Tokyo thief, and Kitty was kidnapped and became a ninja (in the seminal Kitty Pryde and Wolverine six-issue limited series, also written by Claremont). In Uncanny X-Men #181, following the team’s adventures in the Secret Wars limited series, the X-Men randomly appeared over Honshu, Japan, where Lockheed fell in love with a dragon. Slowly, Japanese started creeping into my vocabulary.
“Arigato” (though Styx beat Claremont to that one), “hei,” “giri” and “gaijin” were all words I was comfortable using. I never used them in everyday conversation, but they were there if I needed them.
So years later when I let loose with a “konnichiwa,” it seemed like a good way to greet my friends. But I wasn’t sure the Asian woman felt the same way. After she asked me something a couple of times, I had to embarrassedly tell her I didn’t actually speak Japanese. Still holding my arm, she immediately switched to English.
“Oh, but I heard you. You spoke Japanese, right?” She sounded disappointed, and explained that she thought she was going to have a chance to talk to someone in her own language.
“No, no … I’m sorry,” I said, even more embarrassed now. “I only know a few words. I’m sorry.”
The woman smiled, and squeezed my arm.
“That’s OK — your accent is very good!”
And with that, she let go of my arm, smiled and said, “Goodbye!”
Relieved, I smiled back and waved. “Bye!”
But thanks to the X-Men, I could have just as easily said, “Sayonara!”
Or “auf wiedersehen.”
Or “do svidaniya.”
Or even, “adios.”
Hey, it’s a new post! Also, it’s #Writetober!
Posted: October 6th, 2016 | Author: Max Romero | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: writetober | 9 Comments »
October is my favorite month of the year. Not only is it when the weather seems to shake off the oppressive heat of summer in exchange for the bite of fall, its also happens to be when I got married and, of course, the Halloween season. And if fall is my favorite season, Halloween is by far my favorite holiday.
The last couple of years, its been hard for me to get into the Halloween spirit. But thanks to Delilah S. Dawson (pointed out to me by Ken Lowery), I’m feeling a little like my old boney self again. Delilah has started what she calls #Writetober, a kind of companion/response to #Inktober, but instead of encouraging artists to draw something every day, she’s releasing writing prompts and encouraging writers to come up with flash fiction on Twitter that will fit in five tweets.
I’ve obviously coming late to this party, and I doubt I’ll be able to participate every day, but it sounds like fun and I’m going to do my best to join in (flabby as these particular writing muscles are). In that spirit, here’s something I wrote that doesn’t follow any of the prompts so far, but was inspired by one anyway. Close enough, right? And don’t worry, the story is shorter than this intro.
It awoke with a start. A sudden awareness where there had been nothing.
Fingers. On its skin.
Exploring, tracing skin more like hide, tanned and taut. Then hands, dragging it out from its cupboard, a hole in a wall identical to dozens of others edging into darkness. It had been untouched for what seemed like forever. It resisted the temptation to open its eyes.
A grunt was testament to its dead weight. It felt itself lifted, almost dragged, to thump and lay flat on a long, wooden table. Electricity ran through it as a finger mapped its crooked, tortured spine. Sinew and connective tissue flooded with forgotten blood. It sighed.
A hand reached between its dry and yielding folds, splitting it open, groping at what was hidden inside. Musty air flowed over uncovered creases.
Then a voice, human and otherworldly, reads its fleshy, tattooed pages.
“Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn …!”
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Alex Tremulis' Flying Saucer: Catalyst for the 1950's UFO Craze
The 1950's saw more than its share of UFO-mania thanks in large part to the visions of Alex Tremulis. His illustrations were perhaps the first to capture the imaginations of the public on a mass scale. His first drawings of flying saucers and little space martians appeared around the world and would subsequently influence the public's perception of what aliens from another planet might look like. But not only did Tremulis visualize these possibilities, he also described the feasibility of space travel in layman's terms such that anyone could relate to the possibility that Earth had been or was being visited by martians.
Tremulis clearly foresaw future space travel two decades before Man ever set foot on the moon, and in an uncanny conclusion to his story, he accurately predicted the dangers of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. This post is dedicated to those brave explorers who perished in the Space Shuttle disasters, as today, February 1, marks the tenth anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
The following article was written by Alex Tremulis shortly after the first descriptions of UFO crash landings in both Roswell, New Mexico and another report Mexico. Coincidentally, the Roswell incident just happened to occur less than three weeks after the June 19, 1947 unveiling of the Tucker automobile!
MAYBE WE ARE BEING SHOT AT - WHO KNOWS?
Personally I have never seen a flying saucer, disk or any semblance of a space craft. I was one of many fascinated the night of March 9th [1950] when the radio blared forth the story of the crash landing of a strange object and it’s midget pilot in Mexico. In spite of Mr. Gimmick, the dynamite salesman later backing off of his original story, there were still left traces of evidence by his story substantiated by other rumors that there was some still unexplained happenings that might lend credence to his original story.
I, for one, have never been of the opinion that we earthlings enjoyed a monopoly of all the brains in the solar system. Many strange happenings dating back as far as 1870 have not been thoroughly explained to my satisfaction. As an example, mysterious formations of lights apparently from visiting space craft flying in strange formation were observed by ships at sea. The mysterious light signals from Mars as observed by Professor Lowell of the Lowell Observatory in the year 1900. Many thousands of people in Englandare said to have viewed a strange motorized object in the sky for a period of hours several years before man made his first conquest of the air. Also the strange formation of air craft, more in number than any amount based in the United States, were observed by thousands of witnesses in 1914 at Ottawa Canada cannot be taken lightly. These strange visitations are a matter of record in the official astronomical records of their respective years and can be inspected by anyone desiring to do so.
Guglielmo Marconi on board his yacht, Electra
And lastly, the strange signals received by Marconi’s yacht Electra from the planet Mars at a time when the two planets were at their closest. These signals were never satisfactorily decoded by the experts who attempted to do so. However the art of decoding must have been furthered in World War II and a further attempt to decipher the tape of the Electra records might shed new light on the subject. Perhaps now we could dismiss these strange phenomena as optical illusions, or hallucinations to everyone’s satisfaction.
However the findings of Commander Robert B. McLaughlin of the USN and a group of navy scientists who tracked a flying saucer and made known their data very definitely to my satisfaction offer convincing proof that these space craft are visitors from another planet.
Before expounding further on my theories I must first state that I am a creative stylist by profession possessed of a meager understanding of principals of engineering. My experience in the field of aeronautics consists of four years at Wright Field, Ohio, where I served as chief of the Design Illustration Unit, a Division of the Design Development Division of the Aircraft Laboratory. During my tour of duty I was exposed to the evolution of rocket development and have in my mind an approximate idea of the necessary time in research involved to perfect rocket fuels, nuclear energy power plants, rocket missiles, radar and space navigation plus the metallurgical problems alone that must be solved before we on earth can duplicate the performance figures of the saucer tracked by the navy scientists. The speeds disclosed exceeded the hypersonic region of velocity and bordered on the speed necessary to escape the earth’s gravitational pull.
For reasons of military security I do not care to state my estimate of time necessary to develop missiles capable of speeds observed by the navy scientists at White Sands, I regret I must also admit that I would still have to penalize my estimate by several years because of our unwilling Congress who have thwarted the Air Force at every turn by refusing to allocate the funds necessary to maintain air superiority on the planet. (To Ed. - I believe this paragraph should not be omitted in order that this article receive the blessings of the AAF Wright Field Ohio). However at this writing if the nuclear energy project for the propulsion of aircraft has been already put into practice then it is entirely possible that these objects are earth made. They may even be subcontracted to many manufacturers piecemeal in order to maintain the secrecy as evidenced so eloquently by the Manhattan project where many of the subcontractors actually believed they were working on something for Mayor LaGuardia. I believe at this writing that this project has not as yet been consummated.
Alex Tremulis rendering of a flying saucer headed towards Earth, 1948/50
From the fragmentary evidence that I have at my disposal, mainly reports in the newspapers, I have attempted to sketch my conception of such a space vehicle. The Mexican report that the disk was damaged on the bottom side leads me to believe that the vehicle was also designed for vertical descent as well as interplanetary space travel. Due to the difference of density of our Earth’s atmosphere the midget pilot could have very easily miscalculated the wing loading, or better yet the disk loading, of his craft and crashed fatally while attempting to land.
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong about the configuration of a so called disk that does not apply to good aerodynamic law. Its very form suggests maximum of lightness in conjunction with maximum strength as the skin of the ship itself absorbs all stresses in its most efficient form. Its very form allows a receiving of maximum solar energy to be transmitted to the powerplants. The propulsion units must no doubt be of a highly developed form of nuclear energy in order to have the apparently limitless range of millions of miles. Only from a highly developed state of energy could the tremendous velocities of 25,000 MPH and upwards be possible in order to escape the earth’s gravitational pull. The required maximum escape velocity would of course be determined by the respective planets gravitational pull on the space vehicle. It is entirely possible that these space travelers may unintentionally become prisoners of our planet.
As an example let us say the escape velocity of a ship based on the planet Mars was 16,000 MPH and that the maximum thrust of the Martian vehicle was designed for 20,000 MPH. A journey to earth, assuming the fuel of course could be replenished by solar energy, would be entirely possible but after arriving at earth it would be lacking an additional 5,000 MPH escape velocity necessary to return to Mars. The ship would be reduced to aimlessly wandering around our earth until its fuel gave out. If we on earth should solve the mysteries of space travel it would be far more economical to use the moon as a stepping stone to the planets. The gravitational pull of the moon is one-sixth of that on earth and a rocket trip from the moon to Mars would require considerably less fuel than would a direct trip from earth to Mars. Therefore I predict the nation that stakes its claims on the moon first will enjoy a monopoly of interplanetary space travel.
Perhaps these strangers at the moment on their reconnaissance flight are afraid of us and are reluctant to land. There is much evidence to support their fear that ours is backward civilization. Our seemingly wasteful wars that take place every generation only tend to create greater misunderstandings. The minuteness of our progress in the field of transportation alone must be staggering in their minds. For example, the archaic principal of motor cars, driven by bulky power plants located in the front, must impress them as progress little removed from early Roman chariot designs. I for one would frankly welcome meeting the little strangers, if for no other reason than to exchange notes on their land vehicles which we earthlings call automobiles. It is my opinion that any race of people capable of mastering the mysteries of inter-planetary space travel would be endowed with a culture of so advanced nature that the very word “destruction” would be utterly meaningless to them. The worst we could expect is that they might make an attempt to civilize us.
Alex Tremulis' language decoder rendering, 1948/50
At any rate I do not think that there will be an existing language barrier. They no doubt at our first meeting will have facilities in the way of unique instruments where our first words will be instantly decode into their language. Perhaps their first request might be that we turn over to them the wireless tape recording of the yacht Electra so that they may decipher their encoded messages we failed to understand in 1920. I think it indeed ironic that the great Siberian meteor blast of recent years occurred when Mars was at its closest to earth. It is most logical to plan such a trip when both planets are at their closest distance.
As I gaze into the heavens on nights when the sky is streaked with the trails of meteors, I cannot help but think that some space pilot in a rocket ship miscalculated the Earth’s protective atmosphere while streaking towards us at 10 to 15 miles per second and found it too late to apply reverse rockets. Those streaks in the sky may ultimately be a name on a monument on Planet “X” dedicated to explorers of the universe.
Then again, I don’t know: MAYBE WE ARE BEING SHOT AT - - WHO KNOWS?
March, 1950: Air Line Pilot magazine lends a serious insight into Tremulis' musings...
Another one of the many periodicals of the day to pick up Tremulis' story...
June 23, 1950: Tremulis was now one of the top designers at the struggling Kaiser-Frazer, but K-F felt it newsworthy to get in on the UFO craze that was starting to sweep the nation. K-F uses Tremulis' insights to illustrate how their designers look towards the future.
January 27, 1951: Tremulis and Pete Pagratis team up to capitalize on the UFO craze that they helped create. They file a design patent application for an automobile hood ornament based on Tremulis' flying saucer rendering. It issues 7 months later.
Two different versions of the hood ornament are manufactured, a single piece body (left) and a two-piece version (right). A light bulb in the center illuminates the dome. At least three different colors were available for the dome: Yellow, green and blue.
August 20, 1951: Through Fortune Manufacturing, 4,000 hood ornaments were manufactured, falling far short of the proposed 150,000 units that were targeted.
August 20, 1951: With the shortfall in production units, the contract with Fortune Manufacturing is terminated.
September 16, 1952: Noting that the then-current market size for sci-fi items was in excess of $75 million, Tremulis and Pagratis seek to license the design in return for royalties. It is still unknown if there were any takers for licensed items incorporating Tremulis' flying saucer.
By 1952 Tremulis had left Kaiser-Frazer and is busy designing futuristic show cars for Ford, but still maintains his sense of humor about space aliens. He adds these hieroglyphics to the bottom of his alien drawing and translates them on the ticker tape for us: "ALL SPACE BEINGS SEND XMAS GREETINGS TO ALL FORD DESIGN EMPLOYEES. SIGNED GORT"
1962: The Sci-Fi mania was clearly heavily influenced by Tremulis' illustrations. Indeed, one such adaptation of Tremulis' martians shows up in 1962 as Topps trading cards for their series on Mars Attacks. Today, these cards are recognized as the most valuable non-sports cards in history. The original artwork for the illustration at left sold for $90,000, with individual cards worth hundreds of dollars.
1996: Topps' Mars Attacks theme is made into a full-length feature film by Tim Burton. The side-by-side similarities between Tremulis' Gort and the Martian invaders is readily apparent. Tremulis' vision for Gort was decidedly much more friendly than the carnage Mars Attacks inflicted on Earth.
February 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
July 1944: Alex Tremulis designs the two-stage vertical interceptor. Launched by a rocket booster into the upper atmosphere where the spent booster is jettisoned, the aircraft/spacecraft ("jeterons" control the attitude of the plane where there is no air) returns to Earth and lands like a standard jet. It gets re-armed and re-loaded onto another booster rocket for another mission.
This project led directly into the Dyna-Soar project of the 1950's and subsequently, with the lessons learned, is incorporated into the Space Shuttle program. The full story can be read HERE.
As I gaze into the heavens on nights when the sky is streaked with the trails of meteors, I cannot help but think that some space pilot in a rocket ship miscalculated the Earth’s protective atmosphere while streaking towards us at 10 to 15 miles per second and found it too late to apply reverse rockets. Those streaks in the sky may ultimately be a name on a monument on Planet “X” dedicated to explorers of the universe. Alex Tremulis, 1950
It is mind-boggling that Tremulis' prophetic vision of Planet "X"s explorers would end up being our own Shuttle astronauts piloting a rocket ship that evolved directly from his vision of what a space ship could be.
RIP Columbia Crew: David Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon.
RIP Challenger Crew: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judy Resnik, Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair.
Check out (and LIKE) the Gyronaut FaceBook Page for more pics and info...
XAVI link
hey, ¡Great article, thank you very much for sharing!
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Marine innovation leaders will discuss the blue economy at this year’s Our Ocean Wealth Summit, taking place in Galway at the end of the month.
Now in its fourth year, the annual summit offers a “unique platform” for global and national leaders from across the marine industry and related sectors to convene and collaborate on innovating for our marine future, says Marine Institute CEO Dr Peter Heffernan.
“The Summit presents a valuable opportunity for those attending to hear the thoughts of international experts on the challenges facing marine industries and to explore new solutions to meet these challenges,” he explains.
Last year’s event in Galway attracted hundreds of delegates from Ireland, Europe and the US. Among the international experts attending the event at NUI Galway this year is keynote speaker Tom Kelley of award-winning global design and development firm IDEO. He will be joined by a host of other national and international thought leaders including Dan O’Brien, Chief Economist of the Institute of International and European Affairs; Miguel Marques, Partner, PwC Portugal and Economist of the Sea; Terry Garcia, former VP National Geographic and CEO, Exploration Ventures; Andrew McDowell, VP, European Investment Bank; and Wendy-Watson Wright, CEO, Ocean Frontier Institute Canada.
Dr Heffernan says it is “hugely beneficial” to attract such high-profile experts to the Summit.
“The thought leaders and experts taking part in the Summit bring their own wealth of experience and insight, and this collectively creates a highly innovative and collaborative environment at the event. At this year’s Summit, delegates will be inspired by those leading the way in driving innovation to continue developing a sustainable marine economy for Ireland.”
‘Rethinking Boundaries and Innovation for a Sustainable Marine Economy’ is the theme of this year’s Summit and it will examine a sustainable marine economy for Ireland against a landscape of global turbulence and social and political change.
According to Dr Heffernan, political instability – including Britain’s decision to leave the EU and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States – have made achieving a sustainable marine economy more difficult.
“The UK’s decision to leave the EU and the USA’s new Presidency provides unforeseen challenges and opportunities for the marine economy both at a research and industry level in Ireland,” he comments.
Marine industry opportunities
Describing our ocean as a “national asset”, Dr Heffernan says building on its strengths is key to Galway and the West of Ireland developing sustainable economic growth of the marine and maritime sectors in Ireland.
He believes it is vital Galway and the West seek “new approaches and ways of thinking” to harness the opportunities that exist in our marine industry.
“Recognising the importance the Atlantic Ocean has on our livelihood, human health, as well as how the ocean influences our environment and climate, places the West of Ireland in a prime position to contribute in building a thriving maritime economy in Ireland. Examples of this range from the significant impact the Wild Atlantic Way has had on the sustainable and rural economic development along the West coast of Ireland to funding of specialist marine equipment and small infrastructure to help the performance of the marine research and innovation community across all areas.”
He adds that businesses in the West have already responded to the drive for developing a blue economy.
“There are many success stories in the West where people’s experiences, expertise and drive to think beyond the norm have enabled a number of businesses to develop in a range of sectors from marine tourism, the seafood industry to ITC and marine technology. This has included industries and researchers working together to develop better information to help provide the science and technology to inform robust governance, policy and planning decisions affecting our Ocean.”
Seafest 2017
The Our Ocean Wealth Summit, which takes place in NUI Galway on Friday 30 June, is an integral part of SeaFest, Ireland’s national maritime festival.
2017 sees Seafest expand to three days, running from 30 June to 2 July. Dr Heffernan says preparations are well underway for the public event.
“Galway Harbour will be transformed into an open sea world with thrilling performances from the world-famous PowerFly flyboarders, visitors will also enjoy free boat trips, be able to try sailing and kayaking, and enjoy tours of the naval ship, our marine research vessel and the famous tall ship The Phoenix.
“Our new sea science gallery at Galway City Museum, the first of its kind in the country, will also be open to the public, as well as a unique exhibition on polar explorer Roald Amundsen at NUI Galway. A seafood showcase and cookery demonstrations, as well as a variety of free and fun educational activities for kids are also part of the festival line-up.”
Last year SeaFest attracted 60,000 people to Galway City, and this year Dr Heffernan says they are “hoping for up to 100,000 visitors”.
He believes SeaFest will offer a “huge economic benefit” to the city in the future.
“The benefits will also extend to our tourism industry, and I’m sure our city’s vibrant hospitality sector will also benefit greatly from the influx of people to Galway Harbour. The festivities also add to Galway’s international reputation as the ‘festival capital of Ireland’.”
With the aim of SeaFest to showcase the value of Ireland’s marine resource through a fun, family festival, Dr Heffernan is hopeful the maritime event will inspire people.
“All activities and attractions at SeaFest have a strong connection with the sea – whether it’s the ships that transport us, the creatures that live beneath, delicious seafood, or sharing the magic and science of the ocean.
“We also hope these activities inspire young curious minds, as they are the next generation of marine explorers, scientists and innovators, which will need to preserve and promote our valuable marine resource. SeaFest is also a great reminder of how important the sea is to the history and culture of Galway, and to our island nation.”
For more details on the Our Ocean Wealth Summit marine conference, see www.ouroceanwealth.ie. For details on SeaFest, see www.seafest.ie
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I've gotten myself into a pickle
» Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:09 am
So just a little bit of backstory. I'm a writer and my passion for years has been to make films. I love film and I have a passion for visual storytelling. Well I decided that I wanted to write a short film to start off my career since that seemed the best route. I've been to film school and taken classes on how to make films.
So I write a 40 page short film. It's a thriller drama short. I can't give anymore details than that I'm afraid. Anyway, so I finish it and I get it copy written through the writers guild and all that.
Well rewind a year ago, I met a guy who was an amateur actor at this telecommunications job I worked at. He said he'd been in a few films so far and he loved it and is always looking for work to get publicity and experience.
Fast forward to present again. So I decide to shoot him my script and I don't hear from him for 3 days. 3 days later he calls me like 9 times while I'm at work and once I get ahold of him he tells me that he is in love with my script, wants to play a role, and tells me he has a Hollywood actor friend who has worked with people such as will smith, Arnold schwartz, and directors such as James Cameron. I can't give his name due to privacy. But he tells me that he wants my permission to send to him because they are close friends and he thinks he'd be interested. So I say yes and then two days later I get a text that says "so and so wants to talk. Now." And so I'm like uhhhhhhh what and then my phone rings from an LA number (I'm in the Bay Area).
So we talk for 2 hours and turns out he says it's one of the best written scripts he's read in years and that he wants to talk about acting and producing it.
Wat. So over the last few weeks we've talked more and more and he's gotten a director of photography, sound guys, light guys, everything ready to go barring one thing:
About 30 grand. He convinced me that this is too good to waste on a short film, and that we need to make a full-length feature. I agree and have already started revising my script for a full-length feature. But I need money. And I don't know how to raise that kind of money in a short time. I know that people do, But I'm unsure how.
Is there a proven method of raising money for an indie film? Kickstarters? At this point I'm just kind of frazzled, and seeking advice. Not your money.
Silvia Gil
» Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:05 am
Maybe I'm too suspicious and cynical in my old age, but are you absolutely 100% certain this is legit? It sounds like one of those advance fee things where once you pay up, everything suddenly disappears. I kinda feel bad bringing bad vibes to what could be a really good gig, but play it cautiously and put in place whatever safeguards you can.
Lady Shocka
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USA 2014Video Coverage
Bart van den Berg: Building Games For the Mobile Web | Casual Connect Video
August 11, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton
“We’ve been doing premium and freemium for the last 15 years, and it’s still there. It’s not all free-to-play,” Bart van den Berg explained in a panel at Casual Connect USA 2014. “If you can’t manage in the free-to-play, the method is too tricky for your game concept, or you don’t think you have the long tail, definitely try freemium as well, because it’s still alive.”
Bart van den Berg, Co-founder and CEO, Blue Giraffe
Bart van den Berg started his career at a website agency, just around the time of the dot-com bubble. He remembers, “Back then, the sky was the limit. We would organize a weekly soccer game in the ballroom, and we might have broken a vase or two.” But he quickly realized the situation couldn’t last, and within two years, he was working at an online agency. This agency was just across the tracks from the parking lot, which couldn’t be reached in winter because cars would slide off the icy slope. They worked for many different customers, mainly retail, and the service was very customer oriented. Clients could call at any time, and what the customers wanted, they built. At this agency, van den Berg was responsible for accounts and programming. He says, “We didn’t make a lot of money, but everyone was happy.” In 2013, he made the switch to the games industry, where they are still putting the customer experience above everything else. Now he is the co-founder and CEO of Blue Giraffe, a casual games studio.
Kicking Off The Business
The Blue Giraffe team
The proudest moment he remembers in this journey was on April 2, 2013, when Blue Giraffe got the key to their first office, a small studio in the industrial area of Eindhoven. He describes, “It was a sunny day. We had four computers and four desks, one license of Photoshop and three of Visual Studio. We agreed that day never to move.” But within a year, they had moved to a larger office.
During Apple’s WWDC’14, the support for WebGL on all mobile devices supporting iOS8 was announced. Van den Berg believes this will be a game changer for both studios and publishers. Until then, he wasn’t sure how HTML5 would work for casual games. For many years, they have been building games in C++ and have certain expectations for animations, graphics, and performance. So, he says, “When WebGL was announced, I was jumping around the room. Literally.”
Blue Giraffe had already begun building games in HTML5. Now, with their new platform Playte.st, they believe they will provide an outstanding new service to the casual games community.
Blue Giraffe had already begun building games in HTML5.
The Netflix Business Model
Van den Berg is waiting to see Netflix subscription models for casual games, something he would love to see happen. As well, he believes casual games are limited because they are bound to one platform. But within the next year, he hopes to see level progressions shared across all platforms, whether you are playing on desktop, laptop, Android smartphone, or Apple tablet.
Within the next year, he hopes to see level progressions shared across all platforms, whether you are playing on desktop, laptop, Android smartphone, or Apple tablet.
Van den Berg claims his favorite hobby is trying to build awesome games with his friends at Blue Giraffe. But when he is not behind a computer, smartphone, or tablet, he likes to go for a run. You will find him in the park on Sunday or with his family somewhere in the Alps in the summer because he believes no game can compete with fresh air.
But he also admits to being in love with his iPad, where you will find him playing stacks of different games at a time. Most of the games he plays are either free-to-play or freemium. Some of the games he is currently enjoying are Popcap’s Zuma HD, Bejeweled, and Castaway Paradise, an island adventure game on iPad.
He has a love-hate relationship with free-to-play.
He has a love-hate relationship with free-to-play. From a business point of view, he finds it interesting to see how behavior science and psychology can be used to motivate people to buy boosters and upgrades. But looking at the choices the casual games industry has made, he feels it would have been wiser to keep prices at a decent level, and premium would work just as well.
Van den Berg still appreciates consoles, particularly Dreamcast, which he considers far superior to Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. He still plays Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, and Sonic. The most recent console he purchased was an Ouya, which he is using as an XMBC player, but he is not yet sure what he thinks of it.
At Casual Connect USA, van den Berg announced that Blue Giraffe is building a new platform to support studios in developing games on any device. Playte.st will be launched in Fall 2014. The platform consists of a toolkit for developers building games in HTML5 and allows them to easily acquire, register players, as well as prototype, test and co-develop with players on all devices. Playte.st is an online service and several companion apps that gives testers a way to quickly test, as well as giving studios a way to view metrics that matter.
Josh Nilson: Building Communities and Connecting With Customers | Casual Connect Video
“It’s easy to keep employees motivated when your growth and revenues are taking off like a rocket ship. What keeps people from leaving a company when times get tough is having a strong culture, people who care about the company and each other…” said Emily Greer of Kongregate in a panel that Josh Nilson took part in at Casual Connect San Francisco on the critically important topic of Community Building in F2P Games.
Eastside Games Banks on Communities
Josh Nilson
Josh Nilson, Co-Founder of East Side Games in Vancouver, emphasizes the importance of building stronger community in the games industry. He says that in the days of console studios, they never talked to each other, but East Side Games and some other studios in Vancouver wanted to change the situation and decided to work to build the strong community they envisioned. They began talking and sharing real information with other studios. Josh tells us, “We supported the grassroots Meetup groups, we mentor at local game design schools and help out other Indies as much as we can. We also started throwing our IndiePower small meetups to connect with other Indies worldwide. We still have lots of work to do, but it’s a great start.”
Josh describes himself as a coffee and beer nerd who never turns down a tasting. On weekends, he spends his time hanging out with his family and Jabba the Pug. As an avid hockey fan, he prefers listening to whatever music is playing at the hockey game.
Amazing Customer Service goes Beyond Answering Emails
The future games will be even more about providing great customer experiences.
At East Side Games, Josh is responsible for running the day-to-day operations, building the team, defending the culture, and making sure the games go out and stay up. He believes customer support is a big part of making it all happen. Before founding East Side Games, he worked at Relic in Production and IT, worked as PM at some startups and as Technical Support at a large ISP. But he feels that the most important things he learned came from the ten years he spent working in hotels before moving into games and IT. There, he learned about giving amazing customer service and treating guest right so they continue coming back to your brand for years.
The most important advice he gives about making a better product is “Don’t forget your customer. We obsess about great customer service for all our games, and so should you.” He points out that this was forgotten along the way with games, but with free-to-play, it is essential. Now games are built with customers, relying on their feedback.
Josh believes that, in the future, games will be even more about providing great customer experience. In some parts of the world, there is already 24/7 live phone support. He foresees that more companies will be pushing the boundaries to connect and build games with their fans. He also sees fans of games getting younger; his two-year-old wants to play Toca Boca games, asking for them by name. This is a market and demographic that will only continue to grow.
Excellence Takes Focus
Josh feels the biggest challenge he faces is rapid growth. The company grew four times in one year, from 14 people to 50. He tells us, “In the end, the growth was too fast. We had to put aside some of the games we were working on and refocus.” However, during this time, they were able to build their own analytics platform, game framework and CS tool; they learned they could build tech during these times, but, he says, “Games are a different beast.”
A Culture of Community Building, Internally and Externally
Something that gives Josh great satisfaction is the East Side Games culture. They work an intense day, but then go home to live their lives. He claims, “We love our community and obsess over it. Staff meetings are at a pub and everyone has a say. We only build games the team pitches at the Swill and Spill; then we do prototypes to ensure they are fun.” Family life is also supported, with people bringing in their babies for everyone to see after they take maternity leave. He has found building this culture during a period of intense growth an amazing experience.
Time Of Dragons: How To Make A Dragon 4 I Lab is a small indie game development studio based ... by Industry Contributions
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London Metropolitan University's licence has been revoked
The UK Border Agency has revoked London Metropolitan University's licence to sponsor students from outside the European Union.
The withdrawal of London Metropolitan University's licence means that it is removed from the register of licensed sponsors, and students from outside the European Union are no longer allowed to study at the university.
London Metropolitan University students who are already in the UK with a current, valid UK visa do not need to do anything immediately. A government-led taskforce is being created, which will include the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Universities UK, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the UK Border Agency and the National Union of Students. This will work with London Metropolitan to support those affected and enable appropriately qualified genuine students to find another institution where they can continue their studies in the UK. The taskforce will start work immediately.
If an existing London Metropolitan University student with a current, valid visa is on holiday outside the UK, they can return to the UK.
New students who were planning to travel to the UK to start studying with London Metropolitan University should not travel.
A UK Border Agency spokesperson said:
'These are problems with one university, not the whole sector. British universities are among the best in the world - and Britain remains a top-class destination for top-class international students.
'We are doing everything possible, working with the taskforce established by BIS, to assist students that have been affected."
Be first to comment on "London Metropolitan University's licence has been revoked "
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Image: NHL
Northbrook Illinois
Waiver claim, 2016
Mike Brown completed his rookie season at the University of Michigan in 2003-04. He played in 42 games for the Wolverines this season, registering 13 points (eight goals, five assists). Brown’s eight goals ranked him second among all rookies on the Michigan roster in that category. He also finished fourth on the team in plus/minus with a +12. The only game Brown missed for the Wolverines this season was the January 30th game versus Lake Superior State after receiving a game disqualification (which carries an automatic one game suspension) for fighting the weekend before (January 24th) versus in-state rival Western Michigan University. Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Brown played two seasons (2001-02 and 2002-03) with the U.S. National Team Development Program. In the 2002-03 Season, he amassed 11 points (five goals, six assists) in 50 games played.
Brown was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the fifth round of the 2004 NHL Draft, 159th overall.
Brown literally made his presence felt on the Wolverines roster this season. Not surprisingly, he led Michigan in penalty minutes with 95. He missed games during the season due to his appearance with Team USA at the IIHF U-20 WJC in North Dakota and a bout with mononucleosis back in January. Brown finished the season with eight points (three goals, five assists) in 35 appearances.
2007-08: Brown dropped the gloves wherever he was playing in 07-08. He racked up 201 PIM in 54 AHL games and 55 during 19 games with the Canucks. As an added bonus, he did get his first NHL goal.
2008-09: Traded to the Anaheim Ducks in the deal that sent Nathan MacIver to the Vancouver Canucks.
Brown is a hard-nosed, energetic forward who thrives on the physical side of the game. He is never one to back down from a challenge. He can often be the perennial thorn in the opposition’s side. Brown has good speed and is solid defensively. One of Brown’s best and perhaps underrated attributes is his willingness to sacrifice his body, whether it is in blocking shots or taking hard checks He plays with a great deal of determination and battles fiercely for both the puck and space on the ice.
Despite his hard-working, blue collar nature, Brown’s puck skills are seriously lacking and will prevent him from ever becoming more than a role player.
Brown was clained off of waivers by the Montreal Canadiens at the 2016 NHL Trade Deadline.
Brown was dealt from the the Edmonton Oilers to the San Jose Sharks in October of 2013.
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Revolution in the Valley
Characters: Steve Jobs, Andy Hertzfeld, Mike Markkula, Steve Wozniak, Tim O'Reilly, Allen Noren, Michelle Weatherbee, Melanie Wang
Topics: Commentary, The Book
Summary: The story of how this site turned into a book
Revolution in the Valley is a new hardcover book, published by O'Reilly Media in December 2004, that is based on the anecdotes from this website. This story describes the book and how it came to be, and what it means to Folklore.org moving forward.
When I began to write stories for this site in June 2003, I had no intention of trying to publish them in book form. I was excited by the idea of developing a web site to facilitate collective historical storytelling, where a group of participants could collaborate to recollect an interesting event. I chose the format of numerous interlinked anecdotes because it seemed natural for the web and better suited to a collaborative effort than a single, continuous narrative, allowing a tale to be elaborated indefinitely without compromising the voices of the individual authors.
After I got the initial site running in August 2003, with about 20 stories, I began to show it to various original Mac team members and others, to gather feedback and encourage participation. When I showed the site to Tim O'Reilly, I was surprised he suggested that his company publish it as a book. At first, I thought conforming to a book format might compromise my goals for the site, but I soon realized that the site's anecdotal structure could work in book form and I got excited about the idea. After all, I own dozens of indispensable O'Reilly books, so I was thrilled at the chance to become one of their authors. Without showing it to other publishers, I signed a contract with O'Reilly in December 2003, promising a finished draft by June 2004.
Tim introduced me to the talented team at his company, including my editor, Allen Noren, who specializes in O'Reilly's more humanistic efforts (his previous two books were Dan Gillmor's "We the People" and Paul Graham's "Hackers and Painters"). Allen guided me through the laborious process to transform the raw material of the Folklore site into a beautiful book.
After completing the writing phase in June 2004, we embarked on the editing and layout process. The first step was copy editing. All 90 or so of the stories had to be thoroughly edited, in batches of 10 at a time. Most of the changes involved fixing grammatical errors and punctuation, and removing unnecessary verbiage, chopping up my Proustian run-on sentences (like this one), but they occasionally involved additional writing to provide more explanation or clarification. My editors also wanted to delete many of the most technical passages, fearing they would alienate non-technical readers. After editing was completed on a batch, I had to accept or reject each individual change. I accepted all the grammatically oriented ones, figuring my editors knew better than I did, but I fought to keep most of the technical detail, since I thought it was an important part of the story, although we did eliminate a few of the most technical stories entirely. Sometimes we'd argue about the merits of particular changes, but it usually wasn't that hard to reach consensus. I decided to keep the original text on the site, so you can compare it with the book if you're interested in seeing what changed.
The next step was working on the layout. We decided to maintain the basic format of the site, but we divided the stories into five parts at the natural breaking points, to give the reader a chance to rest. We decided to use an unusual form factor, eight inches square, which seems simultaneously large and small at the same time. I was delighted when Allen told me they wanted to print it in full color on high quality paper without increasing the price.
Unfortunately, I discovered that it's a lot harder to publish images in a book than on the web. On the Folklore site, I didn't have to worry too much about obtaining permissions, since if anybody ever complained, I could easily remove an offending image. But once published, a book is immutable, and my contract required that I obtain formal rights for every image in the book. Some photographs require multiple layers of permissions (from the subjects, the photographer and the original publication); with twenty year old photographs it's difficult to track everything down. That kind of work is not my forte, but luckily Allen introduced me to a consultant who was willing to obtain permissions for $50 per image. To make matters worse, the printed page still has much higher resolution than a computer display, so we needed to procure higher resolution images than the ones on the site.
Before unveiling the site publicly in January 2004, I gathered up my courage and showed it to Steve Jobs. He was fairly enthusiastic about it, but as usual he had some complaints. "I like what you've done with the site", he told me, "but the quality of some of the scans you're using is terrible! Can't you do better than that?" When I complained that it was hard to find pristine copies of decades old material, he suggested that I could probably access Apple's corporate marketing archive to find better versions of lots of the images.
I didn't even know that Apple had a marketing archive. It took a few months to track down the right people, since I didn't want to bother Steve about the details, but I eventually found Sue Runfola who works on rights and permissions in Apple's Legal Department, who introduced me to Del Smith Penny, who maintains Apple's marketing archive as a part-time job. The archive is just a single room in a non-descript building a few blocks away from the main Apple campus, stuffed to the gills with maybe 40 long file cabinets. There were stacks of cardboard boxes on top of the cabinets that Del told me were acquired from Mike Markkula's garage, containing marketing material from Apple's first four years that no one had time to examine yet.
Some of the material in the archive was indexed in a Filemaker database running on an old Mac, but Del admitted that much of it still wasn't indexed at all, since he barely had time to keep up with the new stuff coming in. But he was willing to help me search for everything I asked him about and by the end of the afternoon Del and I were able to locate a treasure trove of around 30 high quality slides of relevant product and publicity photos, including some that were never published before. We also uncovered a rare video tape of potential TV commercials shot in October 1983 featuring the Mac design team that were never aired, but that's another story.
Allen introduced me to Michelle Weatherbee, an award winning book designer who had just hired on full-time to O'Reilly as art director; my book was her first project as an O'Reilly employee. Michelle had me bring up lots of my old Macintosh relics to O'Reilly headquarters in Sebastopol, including my design notebooks, which she borrowed for a few weeks to scan. I worked with Michelle and layout artist Melanie Wang to match the images to the proper stories. Michelle and a few others at O'Reilly helped choose other relevant images from commercial image clearinghouses like Corbis.
Allen told me that I needed a foreword for the book and suggested that I ask Steve Jobs to write one, but I didn't have the courage to ask him to do something like that. I suggested Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak instead, who told me that he loved the site and had even contributed a few comments to some of the stories. Woz was enthusiastic about writing the foreword, which he thought he could get done in a few weeks. We told him we needed it by the end of June.
I warned Allen that while Woz always had the best intentions, he often was a notorious procrastinator. If he didn't do something right away, it had a tendency not to get done indefinitely. Predictably, the foreword wasn't finished by the end of July and Allen began to send Woz emails to remind him about it every few weeks. Woz always replied promptly, promising to make room in his busy schedule to get it done soon.
Finally, in September, while I was meeting with Allen and team in Sebastopol to finalize the layout, he told me that he had some bad news. He had finally given up on Woz's foreword, because Woz hadn't responded to an email informing him the final deadline was approaching, even though he sent it a few days ago. I laughed and told Allen that was actually good news, because not responding to the email meant that Woz was probably actually writing it, and sure enough I was right. A few days later Woz sent Allen an eloquent, stirring foreword that was a perfect start for the book.
I assumed the title of the book would be "Macintosh Folklore", just like the website, but while I was working with Michelle and Melanie on the layout, I noticed them referring to the book as "Revolutionaries". I asked Allen what was up and he told me that the sales department didn't think my title was appealing enough, and sales honcho Mark Brokering had renamed the book "Revolutionaries in the Valley", but they were waiting to tell me until they had the cover art finished. I cringed, because I wanted to be modest and avoid hyperbole, but Allen insisted I'd love it once I saw the cover.
The next time I visited Sebastopol to work on the layout, Michelle showed me a mockup of the cover, that used a black and white Norman Seeff photo that was taken for Rolling Stone magazine in January 1984, the one where Norman told us not to smile. They had colorized the Macintosh and added a bright red background. I liked the photo but disliked the red color, and was surprised to learn that my opinion didn't matter all that much. The O'Reilly team was adamant, telling me that I wasn't in a good position to judge, since it was supposed to appeal to young people, a group to which I no longer belonged. Eventually they wore me down and today I even sort of like it. At least I was able to get them to change "Revolutionaries" to "Revolution", which I thought seemed slightly more modest.
My biggest disappointment with the book has to do with the story links. We decided to keep the story links in the book, even though you can't click on them. To compensate, they were supposed to include the page number of the referenced story, but apparently that was too much for O'Reilly's layout system to cope with, given that page numbers changed frequently as edits were made. I hope we're able to improve this in subsequent printings.
Now that the book is complete, it's interesting to compare it to the website. Once I finally got a finished copy of the book in my hands, I was amazed at how much better it seemed than the website for continuous reading, in terms of ease and enjoyment, even though most of the content was crafted for the site instead of the book. Computers still have a long way to go before they match the ease of use of books. The website has some compensating strengths, though, and is better than the book for only reading stories about a particular character or topic.
But by far the main advantage of the website over the book is that it's a living document, capable of correcting itself and growing indefinitely. That might seem ironic, given the moribund state of the Folklore site since I finished writing in June 2004. But there's a (somewhat feeble) reason: I didn't want to write new stories while the book was in production, because I knew that I would want to squeeze them into the book, and I didn't want to delay it. Hopefully, this essay helped to shake off some of the rust, and I will start adding new stories soon, probably at the rate of around one per month.
You can buy Revolution in the Valley from Amazon by clicking here.
Origins of Spline-Based and Anti-Aliased Fonts
Eulogy for Brian
from David Craig on December 31, 2004 16:42:49
Andy, Looking forward to buying and reading this book. I always like to read paper versus a computer screen, much clearer for my eyes. Some comments: 1) Hope you included as much of the technical information as possible. This is a story about technology so should include descriptions of this technology. If there is a section or story which your editors thought was too technical, the section/story should just say this at the beginning. I recall the original Inside Macintosh books had very low-level information offset from the other information with a title such as "For assembly language only". 2) Hope the images and scans you use are crystal clear. For example, the Mac signature sheet should be clear. I have a photocopy of this in paper form which was obtained from Apple's original sheet. I believe the scan of this that you included in your site was my scan. Did Bruce Damer of DigiBarn provide this? I gave him a CD with lots of this stuff. 3) Hope the story comments are included in the book. Great info here, it would be a shame (in my opinion) to exclude these. 4) It would be nice if your site/book contained some of the original Mac memos from Jef Raskin's tenure. His Mac genesis memo provides great info for the original Mac ideas. I know Raskin's tenure pre-dates you Mac tenure, but think that if you book is to be a accurate history of the Mac's development, that all aspects of this development are included. Thanks for all the great history work. - David Craig SHIRLGATO at CYBERMESA dot COM
from Howard Fuhs on January 02, 2005 03:27:12
Andy, I received the book as a christmas present and I read the book cover to cover in one night. This is one of the best christmas presents I have got in years. I think I will put it onto my personal Millennium Book List under the top ten of must read books. Please keep up the good work with your website as I sincerly hope to see more stories about the creation of the Mac. Happy new year and best regards Howard
from Scott Yoshino on January 03, 2005 04:03:49
aloha Andy, I created an account just so I could post here :-) I discovered Folklore a while back (thanks to a John Gruber piece), and thought it so incredible that when my wife asked me, "What book do you want this Christmas?"--I knew the answer right away. And thanks to expedited shipping, Revolution made it all the way here to Hawaii. By Christmas. Right before we left for vacation. Revolution became my "vacation" read. So days were filled with snorkeling and shaved ice and hiking to the lava at Kilauea... and nights were great stories of Round Rects, Five Different Macintoshes, Pineapple Pizza, and a Pirate Flag. Now with our Big Island trip over and work and deadlines right around the corner, I'm jealous for the fun of my vacation and the great times I read about in Revolution. Cheers to you, Andy, and as we say here in the islands... hauoli maka hiki hou. Scott Yoshino
from Carl Levine on January 06, 2005 17:05:19
Hey Andy, I was pleased to find this book on Amazon about 3 weeks before Christmas, but by that point everybody had figured out what to get me (unfortunately, not a snazzy new iMac or something). A week after Christmas, I found myself in a Borders in Concord, New Hampshire. I just graduated from school with my BS Information Technology and was looking for some *gulp* Microsoft Certification books so I could be desireable in the job market. After looking to see the astronomical price of the books, I looked towards the heavens or rather the top shelf and saw your book. Revolution in the Valley became this year's second Christmas gift to myself after the rear decor panel for my Saab 9-5. It wasn't much of a surprise, speaking of the Saab, that Burrell drove one back in the day. I always thought that Apple and Saab shared similar individualistic ideals, so it was cool to see you, Burrell and Brian shrouding a 1985 Saab 900 Turbo upon opening the book for the first time. My hope is that this book, whose stories from folklore.org have renewed a spirit of innovation in me, will eventually become part of my classroom when its financially viable for me to persue education as a career. I am looking forward to more stories from the good old days, so keep up the good work! The RSS feed is alive and ready for the latest and greatest. Carl Levine
from richard wanderman on January 07, 2005 06:03:19
Andy, I have the book sitting right here. Congratulations, job well done. I think you got off easy; I've heard of cases where the author becomes such an unimportant part of the process once the editing is done that he/she has absolutely no say in the finished product. So far I'd say this book is a nice reflection of the spirit of this site, you, the group of people and events you're writing about, and the early spirit of the Macintosh. I know the site is and I've read most of what you have here so it's a matter of reading the book and seeing how thigs have been edited. Is there retroactive editing going on? Are you going back and editing the stores here with the good edits from the book? Anyway, happy new year, I hope the book brings you good fortune in 2005 and I will forever value the beta Switcher disk you gave me at Macworld SF so many years ago along with the memory of your excitement to show a group of us what you had done that was so cool. We remember you and your enthusiasm as much as being blown away by Switcher. Thanks.
from Tim Selander on January 08, 2005 11:37:10
Andy, Just discovered your site and spent the better part of the past two days reading through all the articles. As a Mac user since the Mac Plus days, it was a fascinating read. Thank you for taking the time to put these stories together, and thank you and all your co-horts for making a great product that I have enjoyed using immensely for these many years. Tim Selander Tokyo, Japan
from Robert Pritchett on January 09, 2005 23:02:29
We reviewed this book and the review can be found at http://www.maccompanion.com and is in the January 2005 issue of the magazine. The free issue can be either downloaded in PDF or Flash Paper format. Thanks Andy Hertzfeld, for putting this effort to paper!
from Michael Fonfara on January 26, 2005 03:58:26
I really loved the Stories about creating the Revolution! It kept me almost two days awake to read through all of them ;) I work now 8 Months for Apple (Europe in this Case) and sometimes i can still feel the Spirit at the Company, that you Guys had 21 Years ago. I 'm just wondering, what you think about the actual Things they going on at Apple? We were all very exited to see the MWSF via Sattelite here in Cork. Especially the Mac mini is a maybe a great step for Apple again - like the original Macintosh. An affordable Computer - finally. (We were not that exited about the iPod Shuffle. I work at the Technical Support and almost every Trouble-Call is a Windows User with iPod Issues ;) Thanks for all your Memories! Michael Fonfara Cork, Ireland (originally from Germany, so sorry for my bad English ;)
from Peter Elias on February 02, 2005 21:31:05
The book is great - I had thought of buying it and after the good review in TidBits I did - and am not sorry. I am frustrated, though, that the folklore site appears not to have been updated since January 2004 and the comments about releasing the software for others to purchase/use around March 2004 has not been updated... I have a project for which this would be a perfect solution - and I suspect tht others do, as well. Perhaps a few comments here about interest in the software will get the ball rolling? Good job, Andy. Peter Elias
from Dennis Manasco on February 21, 2005 09:54:21
Andy, I remember sitting in front of our Lisa, running the PDS Monitor and thumbing through my newly-arrived phone book copy of IM. I remember being completely amazed by the beautifully succinct and carefully constructed descriptions of an API that went leagues beyond the Lisa's already revolutionary interface. I think my jaw may have been partially open and my eyes slightly unfocused most of that afternoon. Our Lisa 1 had morphed into a Lisa 2 by then, with it's massive 10MB hard disk, but MacWorks was not an optimal way to run Macintosh programs. I wanted a Macintosh, but it would be three years before I could rationalize the purchase of a Macintosh SE and a Radius FPD. (During that interim our company ran primarily on an Apple ///, and my personal computer was an Apple //e, though the Lisa was in daily use in its Macintosh XL guise.) Like most Apple users I witnessed the birth of the Macintosh from afar and knew little of its origins other than the press' hyperbole. When I found <http://folklore.org> I was delighted to find insiders' accounts of the Macintosh's early development, and devoured the entire site within a few days. Thank you for creating this site and for compiling it into your book -- It made a wonderful read. Please continue to update your site with more stories by yourself and others. Best wishes, -=-Dennis
from Geoffrey Stewart on March 05, 2005 17:31:48
Great site (insanely so even) Just discovered it and spent all weekend reading from cover to cover as it were. Shall certainly order the book too. Just one question - I notice that the pre-discounted price at Amazon is $24.95 - was that intended to reflect the original Mac pricing? If so is there a mini version coming out for $4.99 any time soon?! Also I have a nice (and short) early mac anecdode of my own. My first computing lecture at university in '86 began with the lecturer putting a Mac Plus on a desk at the front and anouncing "This is a destop computer. We call it a desktop computer for two reasons. Firtly it's sitting on a desk and secondly… (the mac chimes into life) …on the screen is a desktop" he then went on to demonstrate the interface. A great introduction and one I've plaugurised many times since in my own classes. Thanks again for a great site, hope you get time to update it further soon. Best Wishes Geoffrey
from Holger Baumhaus on April 02, 2005 13:29:32
Hello Andy, thank you and all the others very much for putting so much effort in not only creating this site and the book but in creating a wonderfull peace of history. I really hope that one day every high-school kid reads about those days in history class. Best wishes, J
from Jeremy Lumley on April 17, 2005 10:54:31
Thanks very much for such an great book Andy - a truly amazing story brought to life like nothing else I've read about the era. Enough to make me go out and buy an old MacPlus as my bit of that history! - the very first Mac I used back in Oct '86 - and been lucky enough to use them at work and home ever since... regards Jeremy - downunder in Gondwanaland
from Patric Kloeter on June 09, 2005 22:18:50
Hi Andy, I just bought a copy of your book and I'm amazed! It's clearly one of the best books about the Apple history I've read. I'm very interested in computer history (Apple and Commodore are my favorites) and buying this book was the right decision. Making "1984" scenes on the title and back of the book is a nice feature! :-) I'm also glad that it's a hardcover edition & full of colors. I'm looking forword reading new stories on your website. Great work! Take care! Best regards from Germany - Patric
from Sven Robenspiel on June 10, 2005 18:11:04
Hello Everyone! This is a request inspired by recent events in the Mac Universe. I know it's a different time period and group of people than has been written about/writing on this site, yet I am very curious about the events surronding the transition from 68K to PPC. Any Takers? Tak! Sven
from Pedro Javier Mora Fernandez on June 11, 2005 06:16:17
In fact, Sven Robenspiel, I'm interested not only in the 68k-PPC transition, but in every big project in Apple (the creation of the first PowerBook and the very first iMac, the transition to MacOS X, in future this new transition to the Intel Architecture...). I know, Andy, this site is dedicated to the first Macintosh in history, but... what do you think about a very cool Apple (ex-)ingeniers talking small stories about their work? I think this formula is great, so... why should it be limitated only to the first Mac?
from Andreas Pizsa on June 13, 2005 07:44:22
I bought the book this saturday and couldn't stop reading it - it's great work, thank you so much for the anecdotes :) It's great that you still have pictures and notes from that time - wonderful. Thanks also for building the most wonderful computer ever :)
from Kevin Baxter on November 05, 2005 20:47:11
Andy, What a great book! You really put the heart and soul into Macintosh. Thank-you, and all of the "characters" for changing our world. Kevin
from Daniel Gordon on December 02, 2005 18:27:01
Hi Andy. I just finished reading your book and It's really fantastic. Congratulations. You really managed to transport the reader to the middle of this incredible journey of creating a visionary personal computer. The way you write the stories either with a description of technical details of the process and with a lot of passion and emotional sense it's brilliant. Good luck. Best wishes, Daniel Gordon Rio de Janeiro/Brazil
from Don Jaksa on January 15, 2009 22:17:13
Andy, Can I get a signed copy of your book "Revolution"? I can paypal you or send a Money order or I can purchase the book and send it to you for a inscription. I have been keeping my Macintosh collection alive for years and have quite a collection of hardware and software. I have your demo app "bouncing pepsi caps". I also have a 128k, a 512k with HD20, a plus and a classic. I have downloaded as much software and games and can repair the units when memory fails or a 400k drive gets sticky. I write software for credit card machines for a living Don in Scottsdale, Az.
from Matthew Kirkcaldie on October 11, 2011 04:50:06
Dear Mr Hertzfeld, I've been reading the stories on folklore.org for years and enjoy every one of them. After Mr Jobs' death last week I had been wondering why I felt such an impact, since although I have used and loved Macs for decades, I've not really participated in the iOS revolution at all. I do have a current MacBook Pro and find OS X continues the core Apple aesthetic. Anyway, I realised that my sadness came from the loss of one of my folk heroes from the early 80s, when I became obsessed by the Apple II at the age of 11 and saw my future as working on the Apple III or Apple IV once I could make it through school. It's the Apple spirit of the 70s and 80s which spoke so strongly to me as a kid, and as a result I came back to folklore.org to work through the process of understanding this. I work in a job which is very worthwhile to me, but this experience has motivated me to focus on the things which really excite me and which could make a difference, as you guys did. So thanks, and I've ordered the book. Cheers, Matthew.
from Andy Cavallini on November 14, 2011 17:11:40
Hello Andy, I am currently reading Steve Job's biography: many of your stories are briefly cited by Isaacson, but your original 'extended' versions are much more instructive indeed ! Thank you very much for your endeavor. Andy Cavallini, Italy http://www.gaia-matrix.com
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Editorial: Tragedy of the Heart
Posted by Eric on April 24, 2011 at 12:00 PM CST
Tragedy of the Heart
By Michael Falkner
Padmé Naberrie Amidala Skywalker, the child-queen-turned-senator and matriarch of galactic redemption, was one tough woman. From ruling a planet and fighting for its freedom to championing the cause of liberty during the Clone Wars, it was evident that she had an armor that no one could pierce by blaster alone. Throughout the adventures of the Prequel Trilogy era, despite the best efforts of the Confederacy and Nute Gunray, Padmé was akin to the mythic Achilles in her seeming invulnerability. However, like all warriors of myth, even Padmé had a weak point in her armor, and that was her heart.
George Lucas has been openly and repeatedly criticized for his choice to kill Padmé by means of a broken heart. After all, she was only about thirty years old and, if medical droids are to be believed, in incredibly great health. Many fans consider this to be the final nail in the coffin of the Prequel Trilogy, decrying the decision as a cop-out or a cheap trick to quickly wrap up the story because Lucas had somehow run out of material or creativity. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Star Wars has always been about using classic tales to weave a mythic story of heroes and villains in the modern day.
Many myths and classic stories utilize the trope of death by broken heart to advance the story, and usually these tales are morality tales centered on tragedy. While the term “trope” tends to have a rather pejorative connotation and is usually used as a synonym for “cliché,” it comes from Greek roots and carries the meaning “to turn or twist.” From world mythology, we see this tragic turn of plot quite frequently, from Demeter and Persephone to Sarah and Abraham.
In the Greek tale of Demeter and Persephone, the god of the underworld was in search of a wife and decided to take Persephone, the daughter of the goddess Demeter. Demeter eventually agreed, but on the condition that it was only for one quarter of the year. Since Demeter controlled the seasons, during the time her daughter was away, her depression was reflected in the world around her, effectively killing the flora in what is now called winter.
In Norse myth, Baldur was a great warrior who, like Padmé, was virtually untouchable by any arrow. Despite his status as a hero, Loki, the trickster god, gave the secret of Baldur’s weakness to his enemies, and Baldur was subsequently killed. At his funeral, his widow Nanna died from her sorrow at the sight of Baldur’s body on the pyre.
In Greek myth, Amphion and Zethus, twin sons of Zeus, committed suicide because both men had tragically lost all of their children. In Christian mythology, Sarah died of a broken heart when Abraham mistakenly sacrificed their son Isaac to their god. In Indian mythology, the king Dasharatha perished from his grief when his son Ramayana left the city because of a curse placed upon Dasharatha for mistakenly killing an innocent youth years earlier.
In more modern classics, the tale of Tristan and Isuelt, which is considered to be the influence for the Arthurian story of Lancelot and Guinevere, culminates with a death by grief. The story is based around the love triangle between Tristan, his uncle King Mark, and Isuelt. Isuelt is arranged to marry King Mark, and is escorted to the king by Tristan, but during the journey, the escort and maiden fall in love. Nevertheless, Isuelt marries the king. Tristan and Isuelt still seek each other out and get involved in an adulterous relationship, and – in at least one version of the tale – Tristan is executed for the crime. Despite her love for the king, Isuelt dies from a broken heart upon seeing Tristan’s body, thus completing the tragedy.
Similarly, Romeo and Juliet culminates with deaths by suicide motivated by the sorrow of love. Arwen, an elf in the expansive Lord of the Rings mythos, dies of despair after her husband dies and she finds life without him to be empty. The Phantom of the Opera, Wuthering Heights, and Les Miserables all contain deaths of major characters attributed to despair.
But what about medical reasons for death by broken heart? Is it possible? Well, yes. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, commonly referred to as “Broken Heart Syndrome,” is a condition marked by a sudden weakening of the myocardium, which is the muscle portion of the heart. The weakening can be induced by emotional stress, including the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship, or severe physical stress.
At the time of her death, Padmé had been experiencing a great degree of sorrow. First, toward the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, she had been trying to decide if she should tell Anakin about her pregnancy and seemed dismayed by his rather apathetic response to her news. In the political arena, she was witness to the fall of the Republic and the dissolution of the Jedi Order based on their supposed betrayal of the government. She was also one of the fiercest lobbyists for a peaceful end to the Clone Wars. She watched the Jedi Temple burn through her tears and her deep concern for her husband, and she was nagged by Anakin’s prophetic dreams that foretold her death by childbirth. She was told by Obi-Wan Kenobi, someone she trusts – but may have doubts about – that her husband was responsible for the brutal slaying of children. Finally, she has seen firsthand that the love of her life has betrayed everything he believed in, and she was assaulted by way of a Force choke. All of this was added to the extreme chemical and hormonal fluctuations caused by pregnancy.
Contrary to the evidence at hand, the medical droid claims that Padmé was otherwise healthy. However, consider that while medicine is a science, it is an evolving science with numerous instances of patients who appear completely healthy during normal physical examinations but later die due to a small problem that appeared benign. Constrained by the science of the Star Wars universe, the viewer has no concept of medical care quality. Is Polis Massa a top-of-the-line Republic medical facility, or is it equivalent to a poorly staffed clinic with limited resources? Are all medical droids considered equal in knowledge and scope, or are some less competent than others?
In the real world, the bottom line comes down to one inescapable conclusion: It's not Lucas's fault that modern movie audiences can't accept a death unless it's accompanied by a gunshot, huge explosion, or similar trauma. George Lucas has constructed numerous stories based on components from mythology and classic storytelling that have proven successful in the past. While this cannot account for any proposed lack of power in writing or plot, the use of proven literary devices that require some forethought and insight from the viewing audience is not an “easy out” to quickly wrap up a story that would otherwise go nowhere fast. Tales written by George Lucas require that a viewer take off the collar, drop the leash, and find their own way through the story. Part of that involves an understanding of stories from the past, including those of brave warrior women who can only be slain by those whom they trust most. Only then will the modern viewer truly understand the tragedy and the power of myth.
The views expressed in this editorial are those of the writer and do not represent the views of the ForceCast team. If you have questions or comments about these editorials, please email ForceCast Senior Web Editor Eric Geller. The author of this editorial can be contacted with specific feedback at womprat99@gmail.com.
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← Back to Burroughs
William S. Burroughs - 100 Year Birthday
Artwork by Shepard Fairey and Katy Simon
Created from a photograph taken of William S. Burroughs by Katy Simon
Three Color Silkscreen on Speckletone Paper
Print Size: 24" x 18"
Edition: Artist's Proof - Edition of 450
Signed by Shepard Fairey and Katy Simon
Professionally Framed
Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, illustrator and activist who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign followed by his OBEY campaign. The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston calls him one of today’s best known and most influential street artists.
Kate Simon, the photographer behind the first Clash album cover and the Bob Marley “Kaya” cover, has captured many of the most famous musicians, writers and artists of her and our time such as Miles Davis, Iggy Pop, The Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauchshenberg, and William S. Burroughs and many others. Her work is displayed in museums and galleries in Europe and the U.S. and in many private photographic collections.
Reflections on William S. Burroughs
"I collaborated with Kate Simon, the photographer behind the first Clash album cover and the Bob Marley “Kaya” cover, on this image of writer William S. Burroughs in celebration of what would be his 100th birthday on Feb. 5th. Burroughs is often associated with the Beat writers and collaborated with Jack Kerouac, but in his long career he produced an amazingly diverse body of writing. Burroughs was a true outsider and his voice was consistently provocative and evocative. As a drug user and explorer of the seedier side of things, Burroughs had a disdain for authority and the square life. I love his quote “how I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.” I read Naked Lunch in high school, and I was fascinated by it, but I found it challenging. I have recently been reading Word Virus, a compilation of Burroughs’ writing, at Kate Simon’s recommendation. Word Virus is a great intro if you are unfamiliar with Burroughs. Kate also shot the cover image for the book. - Shepard Fairey
"I was taken by William Burroughs’ presence and intelligence from the first time I was introduced to him, by: Lester Bangs in 1975. He was thrilling to listen to. When you heard him speak, you felt that you were privy to such a rare mind. Even in small-talk, he spoke with perfect economy of language. His shoots with me were very collaborative and it was an incredible opportunity to be able to photograph him over the course of twenty years." - Kate Simon
William Seward Burroughs II was born 5 February 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri. Burroughs was an innovative writer and artist in many mediums. A primary figure in the Beat Generation, Burroughs went on to deeply influence a wide swath of culture and thought with dozens of books and hundreds of paintings, essays, spoken word performances and multi-media collaborations.
A Harvard graduate, Burroughs followed his fascinations through the underworlds and subcultures of international cities including Tangiers, Paris, New York, London, Chicago, New Orleans, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Budapest, Athens, and Mexico City. Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were key figures in his life and early literary career.
Teaching him to ‘see’ paintings, Brion Gysin was fundamental to Burroughs' artistic development and shared with him such techniques as the ‘cut-up’, calligraphy, and painting with an engraved wallpaper roller. Other important collaborators include Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg, George Condo, Philip Taaffe, Antony Balch, Ian Sommerville, Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and Kurt Cobain.
In 1981, Burroughs moved his home to Lawrence, Kansas, where he began to make shotgun art. He went on to develop a wide range of painting techniques. From 1982 until his late years, he prolifically created visual art. Burroughs' work has since been featured in over fifty international galleries and museums including Royal Academy of the Arts, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, New Museum, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art. On 2 August 1997, Burroughs passed away at home at the age of 83.
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BOAT-MAKING IN BEYPORE
Kerala’s royal connection: The luxury ‘uru’
In the non-descript town of Beypore near Kozhikode, skilled artisans have revived in a big way the tradition of making luxury ‘urus’, or dhow-shaped boats, as they find a ready clientele in the royal family of Qatar. Akshatha M visits Beypore.
31 January 2015 -
As one walks through the narrow lanes of Beypore – a sleepy town located on the outskirts of Kozhikode, chances are remote that a first timer would have even vaguely imagined what lies in store ahead. The pathway ends on the banks of the river Chaliyar, where a crew of carpenters is seen occupied, cutting and designing wooden logs.
While at first glance they may appear to be just carpenters, as you draw closer you realise that the work they are engaged in is not any ordinary handicraft, for these are the craftsmen who make the luxury Uru – a large dhow-shaped wooden ship. Dhow (Uru in Malayalam) - making is a long-standing tradition at Beypore and enjoys the status of being one of the largest handicrafts in the world in terms of the scale of work involved.
An Uru in the making at Beypore dockyard in Kozhikode. Pic: Akshatha M
Beypore’s connection with the Uru dates back to centuries when India began maritime trade with Mesopotamia. It is said that the Yemeni traders who settled in Kerala practiced the art of Uru-making which was gradually passed on, over generations, to the people of Kozhikode.
Dhow-making was a flourishing industry during the Zamorins, the kingdom that ruled the Malabar coast from the 12th to the 18th century AD. The skilled carpenters used to make dhows for the Zamorin’s navy. The business continued to thrive even during the time of independence, but suffered a setback in the 1970s due to frequent hartals and strikes that were a common feature in Kerala.
Master carpenter Raju K Nallur. Pic: Akshatha M
Speaking to India Together, Raju K Nallur, ‘maistry’ or the master carpenter based in Beypore said that the industry was shifted to Mangalore in the early 1980s as strikes and hartals made it difficult to sustain it in Kozhikode.
But the business did not last long in Mangalore either. As a result, it was shifted to Kannur in Kerala but was eventually closed down. “It was only four years back that the uru-making industry was revived in Beypore, Kerala thanks to Satyan Edathodi, the master craftsman of the ongoing projects,” Raju says.
The reawakening
Explaining the story behind the revival of the once-dead industry, Satyan Edathodi, a busy man now, says that four years ago, when he was working in Qatar, he happened to meet the captain of a luxury ship belonging to the Qatar royal family.
Master carpenter Satyan Edathodi. Pic: Akshatha M
“As I began talking to him about the old uru-making industry at Beypore, he sounded curious. One day, he approached me with an offer on behalf of the royal family to manufacture a dhow for a luxury cruise. Since then, there has been no looking back,” says a visibly happy Edathodi.
As the first order came in, carpenters in this small town took up the assignment by putting their skills to test. “Every year since then, we have been receiving several orders from various sections of the Qatar royal family (considered one of the richest royal families in the world presently), who seem to have developed an admiration for our dhow-making skills,” beams Edathodi.
The making of the uru
The wooden logs for this business, which has now attained considerable volume, are imported from Malaysia through Tuticorin port in Tamil Nadu, unlike in the past when timber from the nearby Nilambur forest was used for construction. While teak wood is largely used for constructing the hull, jackfruit tree and rose wood are used for interiors.
Areca leaf chappals seek market lift
'Pearl of water' transforming lives
The master carpenter initially prepares a sketch of the uru to meet the expectations of the buyer. It is a Herculean task to design the boat, as various factors have to be considered while designing it such as wind direction, the size and shape of the vessel, the nature of the seas in which the ship will eventually sail, to name a few.
Once the work begins, it takes between a year and two for a band of 40-50 craftsmen to complete the uru, depending on its size. The Khalasis who are trained in lifting and moving the wooden logs, largely contribute to the manufacturing process as well.
The art of ship-building practised by the carpenters offers a mesmerising experience for the onlookers as well. Right from cutting the heavy wooden logs to making intricate carvings on the wood, the carpenters are evidently extremely well-versed in the nitty-gritty of building the cruise.
The largest Uru ever, under construction at Beypore. Pic: Akshatha M
The complex process of constructing the hulls of the ships is done in the building yard using local carpentry tools, without employing any modern equipment. The carpenters here join each piece of wood manually to make huge vessels for their customers!
A normal uru weighs anywhere between 700 to 1,000 tonnes and the average cost of manufacturing is Rs 4 to 5 crore. Over 200 families depending on the uru-making industry for their livelihood now, as a maximum of four to five urus are made at a time.
After the construction, the uru will skim the waters towards Dubai, where its luxury interiors are made and fitted, and the engine is fixed.
Carpenters in this sleepy town have added a new feather to their cap by manufacturing the largest uru, in December last year. It was almost two and a half years back that the craftsmen began working on it. The Qatar royal family had placed an order for this luxury Uru, to be comprised of six bed rooms, a spacious majari (main hall), a dining hall, kitchen and the captain’s cabin.
The uru, which was in its final stage of construction when this reporter visited Beypore, weighs about 1,500 tonnes and has been manufactured at an estimated cost of Rs 7 crore. Fitted with a jet engine, it has now sailed across the Arabian Sea to reach its destination – the Middle East.
With Qatar gearing up to host several world championship tourneys, including FIFA 2022, a new ray of hope has shone in for the craftsmen at Beypore. With more international events hosted in the oil-rich country, more orders are expected for luxury cruises, leading to a stable surce of income and livelihood for the gifted men of the region.
Akshatha M
Akshatha M is a Staff Journalist at Citizen Matters, also published by Oorvani Foundation.
URL for this article
http://indiatogether.org/making-of-luxury-uru-in-beypore-kerala-for-qatar-royal-family-economy
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Political Science International Affairs Business & Communications Psychology Economics All Topics
Cyberspace Intellectual Property Cyber Law Wikileaks Julian Assange Copyright Digital Rights Intelligence Gathering
From Cornell International Affairs Review VOL. 6 NO. 2
Legal Dilemmas in the Digital Age
By Connor D. Maag
Cornell International Affairs Review
2013, Vol. 6 No. 2 | pg. 1/2 | »
Keywords:Cyberspace Intellectual Property Cyber Law Wikileaks Julian Assange Copyright Digital Rights Intelligence Gathering
In the modern era of cyberspace and technology, advancements pose new threats to legal order. A 2010 census revealed that 2 billion people—over one quarter of the planet's population—use the Internet, communicating and sharing information all over the world.1 This virtual reality is growing at an incredible rate, yet the laws that govern it are relatively immature and struggle to keep up.
In an age of information, one reasonable question to ask is whether Internet censorship and personal freedom can coexist under international law. In contrast to several other nations—even those sharing similar Western philosophy—the United States tends to support the freedoms of speech and press, even when they could pose a threat to national security. Today, this ideal has reached a height of conflict in the new era of technology. Government censorship, copyright infringement and classified document hijacking are now major points of contention over international approaches to cyberspace policy. This article will discuss a number of issues regarding cyberspace and the regulation of this recent and relatively unexplored sector of law, while simultaneously proposing and analyzing solutions to such problems.
A description of cyberspace will lay the foundation to further understand problems in international law regarding the Internet. A range of opinions on Internet censorship will then be discussed to discern under what conditions it may be permissible to censor the Internet. The Pentagon Papers2 are a case example that provides background in the American struggle to balance national security with freedom of press. Its contemporary counterpart WikiLeaks will then provide insight into modern cyberspace dilemmas. Finally, a discussion of copyright infringement within international law regarding the individual will highlight a holistic understanding of present cyberspace issues.
While the freedom of the press is often regarded as necessary and important, every government simultaneously has an obligation to protect its citizens. Whether it is China's censorship of Google, the WikiLeaks' disclosure of classified documents, or Canada's attempt to tame copyright infringement, nations constantly face the decision to either withhold information for reasons of national security or uphold the rights to free press.3 This article will explore current debates in the international community about where the line should be drawn regarding national security.
This article argues that it is crucial for international law to promote free speech while maintaining the status of the Internet as a fair, responsible tool for society. At the same time, it is a tool the possesses great potential for abuse by copyright infringers and whistleblowers. The Internet knows no state boundaries, yet it has the ability to affect every state in every corner of the world. The reason why cyberspace requires a new definition of community is because of the broad-ranging connections that it fosters — evidenced by the 2 billion users each day.4 In the new era of technology, an international cyberspace body would prove beneficial as a rule-setting and coordinating mechanism to maintain order and create unity under international law.
It is crucial for international law to promote free speech while maintaining the status of the Internet as a fair, responsible tool for society
A central question of cyberspace law is determining who has sovereignty and jurisdiction in a virtual world. The territoriality principle and the effects principle offer two guides on a state's ability to deal with international cyberspace. Under the territoriality principle, a state holds the right to control any and all information entering its borders, and can then choose how to make that information available within its territory. Furthermore, any restriction of a nation's jurisdiction within its territory is forbidden.5 This principle argues that cyberspace is not an overarching pseudostate that transcends territory, but rather a communication line that becomes the territory of a nation anywhere within its boundaries.
The territoriality principle has been adopted by China, as seen in its strong regulatory efforts to prevent "detrimental information" from entering its territory by means of the Internet.6 In 2006, web search engine giant Google expanded offices to mainland China, where it encountered state demands for censorship of online discussion on issues such as Tibetan independence and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.7
It became clear that Baidu, a major market competitor, was given preference over Google under the same domestic laws, and a highly publicized debate over Chinese and American views on Internet freedom ensued. While China reserves the right to censor the Internet within its own borders, there was not even a standard censorship policy amongst different search engines, which Google viewed as an undeniable threat to free press. Google then threatened to stop censoring its search results and demanded transparency from China, and the Chinese media accused Google of imposing Western values on their culture.8
They [The New York Times] argued that the Nixon administration sought to censor a national, public newspaper and deprive the world of the true and possibly unfavorable details of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
Defending China in this situation, it seems only logical that a nation reserves the right to control the Internet within its own territory. However, given the nebulous nature of cyberspace, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) takes a different stance. In 2006 UNESCO did not firmly support the freedoms of Internet expression when "[Internet] services are used […] to divulge information of a sensitive nature." This stance changed in the more recent UN Budapest Conference on Cyberspace held October 4-5, 2012, when Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Guy Berger, lectured on the current UN position on Internet censorship. He explained that:
"The freedom of speech should not be compromised by measures taken in the name of cybersecurity—whether these measures are against cyberfraud or cyberwarfare. Security online is not a separate world from the world of rights, and particularly it has major bearing as regards to the right to freedom of expression."9
China, which is currently a member of the United Nations, clearly takes a rather different stance. Justifying their effort to ensure domestic social stability does not coincide with these positions asserted at the recent UNESCO summit. Berger went further to argue that the freedom of press in modern times is the result of such a hard-fought battle, and that it would be a great injustice to regress by censoring or limiting the Internet.10 However, even the most liberal of nations, like the United States, do not always agree that the approach to censorship should be unconditional.
In the late 1960s, the American government faced a similar choice to either censor public press—in this case censor The New York Times— or potentially endanger national security by allowing the media's release of The Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers referred to an official military-sponsored report on the entire history of American involvement in the Vietnam War. The records contained secret information about the U.S. military, and it was argued that their disclosure to the public (and in turn U.S. enemies) would pose a serious threat to national security.11
When the Nixon administration found that the documents had been leaked to The New York Times and were to be published, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit placed a temporary restraining order on the newspaper to prevent the information from being released.12 In response, The New York Times sued the U.S. government for attempting to restrict its first amendment right to freedom of the press. In a case heard before the Supreme Court, they argued that the Nixon administration sought to censor a national, public newspaper and deprive the world of the true and possibly unfavorable details of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Supreme Court Justice Black gave the majority opinion that the right to free speech and free press is absolute and should under no circumstances be violated for stated reasons of national security. In contrast, Justice Stewart gave a dissenting opinion that the dangers of modern (nuclear) warfare should give the government discretion in national security matters.13 The Court ultimately decided that the Nixon administration did not meet its "heavy burden in order to justify the restraint [on free speech]."14 The government would have to provide a compelling justification for any potential censorship, and national security in this situation was not a strong enough argument.
Eventually, The New York Times did publish sections of the Pentagon Papers15, but the opinions of Justice Black and Justice Stewart reflect the current debate in international cyberspace law: should governments or Internet service providers censor and regulate content for the sake of national security—do they have any legitimate right to censor cyberspace?
Today, the Internet is our equivalent to the newspaper as a communication medium with national reach. The difference today, however, is that a government's ability to block publication is severely limited when information and digital media can be spread around the world in seconds, with one click of a mouse.16 This is precisely what happened in the WikiLeaks case.
WikiLeaks is a self-proclaimed whistleblower website, begun in 2006, that obtains and publishes classified government information on the Internet. Founded by an Australian and based in Sweden, the site claims that its purpose is to expose corrupt regimes primarily in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in order to promote a more open and democratic world.17
On the one hand, the site upholds and promotes the importance of free press by exposing corruption worldwide. However, the disclosure of military intelligence can be dangerous and frustrating for national governments, especially during armed conflict. The United States has utilized the effects principle in its legal response to WikiLeaks, because it claims the actions of the Swedish website pose a threat to American security.
Dubbed the "Afghan War Diaries," WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified reports on the United States' military activities in Afghanistan in 2010.18 The most controversial aspect of the documents' publication was that the armed conflict was still occurring, and the reports may have offered valuable information to U.S. enemies on everything from base camp locations to troops' daily routines. Private First Class Bradley Manning (now standing trial for the release of classified documents to WikiLeaks) allegedly provided vast amounts of additional classified military information to the site, which was subsequently published.19
Ironically, The New York Times collaborated with the Obama administration to determine which information might threaten national security before they published excerpts of the reports as well.20 It is not surprising that the U.S. is angered over the situation, as the document leaks could prove a danger to national security, American diplomacy, and the status of conflicts in Afghanistan. Moreover, it should also be noted that once documents are leaked onto the Internet, there is no retracting the information.21
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks
The Obama administration's vigorous response to the WikiLeaks case has attracted its fair share of supporters, including Senator Diane Feinstein of California who argued that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is just an "agitator" of armed conflict, who contributes to violence more than to fixing the world's problems.
On the other hand, advocates for absolute free speech like Justice Black in The Pentagon Papers case would probably argue that WikiLeaks is just another, more extreme exercise of the right to publish even classified information for public knowledge.
Attempting to re-classify already disclosed documents is essentially futile, as the initial action cannot be reversed
In congruence with UNESCO and the rulings in the United States to uphold free speech over national security, why should all information on the Internet not be free and allowed? Do all people reserve the right to knowledge and can they be trusted to responsibly use their right to free press? In order to better understand the effects of cyber freedom and the problems related to free press, the next section of this article examines the issue of copyrights under international law.
In addition to the debate over national security and free speech, the other prevailing topic of legal debate in cyberspace is between copyright protections and free speech. Current law struggles to address how to properly govern online activity, which infringes on copyright protections while simultaneously upholding individual rights to free speech and free press.22 The Internet is permanent; once copyrighted or classified information is disclosed, it is usually irreversible and can spread rapidly across cyberspace.23 The problem is that once a document is released, there is no telling when and where it has been copied or who has seen it—the copyright is effectively rendered useless.
For a copyright owner, the ability to exclusively possess and distribute digital material for commercial profit is arguably the reason for a copyright in the first place.24 One scholar, Alejandro Zentner from the University of Texas at Dallas, shows in a 2006 study that sales of copyrighted material have decreased dramatically, and Internet users have become 30% less likely to legally obtain music since the emergence of Napster in 1999.25 This drastic increase of copyright violations over the Internet is of great importance to the issue of property rights and shows an imperative need to address cyber theft.
The World Intellectual Property Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland
When people have the right to publish what they please, they may also distribute information and digital media that they do not own. People have the right to secure their own creative property and ideas through copyrights, but the current infrastructure of the Internet and file-sharing websites make effective copyright protection difficult. Countries must create a way to balance this dilemma between personal property and illegal publishing online.
One of the first attempts to do so was the implementation of the Berne Convention of 1886, a multilateral treaty among 166 nations, which specifies international copyright protection for literary and artistic works.26 This convention has since given birth to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency dedicated to the protection of intellectual property through copyrights as well as trademarks and patents.27 Although these conventions boast a large consensus on cyber copyright, cyber theft still remains prevalent, and it is often credited to a method called file-sharing.28 Within the United States, the Napster case set an important early precedent, as it introduced the file-sharing programs so prevalent today.29
Napster is often credited as the pioneer of file-sharing websites for illegal music downloads and cyber theft, and left a legacy in cyberspace copyrights that will not soon be forgotten. The site does not actually send copyrighted files to other users, but rather connects the files of all users who are simultaneously logged on the site and allows users to download them.30 This scenario, harmless by definition, most often results in users sharing copyrighted materials such as music, software and films. In fact, when the site was operating in 2001, one survey showed that 87% of shared files on Napster were copyrighted music.31 Unsurprisingly, Napster was sued by major record companies, but the legacy of the story lies in the Supreme Court's ruling that a website cannot be held liable for contributory negligence merely because the system allows for misuse—for example, Napster's potential for copyright violations.32 The Napster case also set precedent that a search engine (defined as anything from Napster to Youtube to Google) must be put on notice for specific instances of copyright infringement before they can be held liable for users' conduct.33
In the instance of Napster, the court held that the company should be responsible for policing the wrongdoings on its own site to the best of its ability, but was allotted up to three days to remove copyrighted material if notified by a complainant.34 The transmitting entity (in this case a file-sharing search engine) was not held immediately responsible for Internet violations on its own site. The bottom line is that file-sharing websites that partake in copyright infringement are not held fully liable for users' misuse of their service; they are given notice and time to fix copyright violations on their sites, which does not put the fault on the site that simply connects the infringing web users together.
In Canada, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada sued the Canadian Association of Internet Providers in 2004 during a similar situation. Unlike the Napster case, however, the plaintiff did not sue for connecting users who make illegal downloads on a specific website, but rather providing the Internet service that offenders were using. This case, known as SOCAN, addressed the location of Internet Service Providers—called ISPs—in another attempt to find a party liable for Internet copyright violations.
In SOCAN, the Canadian Internet Service Provider was accused by a group of copyright holders who argued that providing the Internet service under which illegal sharing of copyrighted material took place constituted negligence.35 The Canadian Supreme Court held that an Internet intermediary (an ISP) was not liable so long as it was acting as a content transmitter and not a content provider; as long as the ISP does not provide the illegal content, it is not liable for unknowingly transmitting illegal content from one user to another.36 So long as there is fair use and good intention, the ISP is not at fault.37 Under the territoriality principle followed by countries such as China, a country possesses authority for all affairs within its territory—both for the intentional censorship and for the actions of ISPs (the claim to territoriality goes both ways, whether positive or negative).
Regardless, the Canadian Supreme Court did not choose to adopt the doctrine of territoriality and still concluded that an ISP was not responsible simply because it was located in the country where the violations took place.38 The court did not go as far as to assert that the content providers or downloaders on either side of the ISP were at fault, but a lack of comment by the Court suggests that the content provider is the main violator.
Disputes are on the rise around the world, but as of yet there is no concrete, unified system for international law-making and law enforcement
The surge of cases similar to SOCAN is now pressuring ISPs to filter content or regulate the information that they offer out of fear of litigation, even though there is no formal requirement in international law for them to do so.39 Although a few, such as WikiLeaks, publically dissent from this phenomenon by continuing to publish protected information, the fear of litigation for actions online may provoke indirect censorship and deprivation of knowledge. Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all people have the right to "receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."40 Yet, the fear of litigation for online behavior may encourage censorship and prove inimical to free speech.Continued on Next Page »
Barron, Jerome A. The Pentagon Papers Case and the WikiLeaks Controversey: National Security and the First Amendment. Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy 1 (2011) 49-74. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Belknap, John W. Recent Developments: Copyright and Napster. Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law. 5 (2001) 185-203. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Berger, Guy. “The Budapest Conference on Cyberspace.” Millenáris Park, Budapest. (4-5 October 2012 ). Retrieved from UNESCO database.
Developments in the Law—the Law of Cyberspace. Harvard Law Review. 112 (1999) 1680-1704. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Dinwoodie, Graeme B. (National) Trademark Laws and the (Non-National) Domain Name System. University of Pennsylvaina Journal of International Economic Law. 21 (2000) 495-522. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Dutton, W. H., Dopatka, A., Hills M., Law, G., Nash, V. Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet. Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University. (2010). Retrieved from UNESCO database.
Handler, Staphanie G. The New Cyber Face of Battle: Developing a Legal Approach To Accommodate Emerging Trends In Warfare. Stanford Journal of International Law. 31 (2012), 209-236. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Hannibal, Travis. Opting Out of the Internet in the United States and European Union: Copyright, Safe Harbors, and International Law. Notre Dame Law Review. 84 (2008) 358-364. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Kelly, Tiffany. “CALIFORNIA; JPL employees demand inquiry; Theft of a laptop carrying data on up to 10,000 workers prompts the action..” Los Angeles Times. (November 29, 2012 Thursday ): 521 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2012/11/29.
Kelly, Tiffany. “CALIFORNIA; JPL employees demand inquiry; Theft of a laptop carrying data on up to 10,000 workers prompts the action.” Los Angeles Times. (29 November 2012): 521 words. LexisNexis Academic database.
Leong, S., Lim Saw, Cheng. Copyright in a Borderless World—Does Territorality Matter? International Journal of Law and Information Technology. 15 (2007), 38-53. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Miaoran, Li. The Pirate Party and the Pirate Bay: How the Pirate Bay Influences Sweden and International Copyright Relations. Pace International Law Review. 21 (2009), 281-307. Retrieved from Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text database.
Opper, Melissa H. Wikileaks: Balancing First Amendment Rights with National Security. Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment and Law Review. 31 (2010-2011) 237-267. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
UN General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (10 December 1948), 217 A (III), available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b3712c.html [accessed 1 December 2012]
United Nations. WIPO. What Is WIPO? United Nations, n.d. Web. .
World Intellectual Property Organization. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. (9 Sept. 1886. Revised 28 Sept. 1979). Web. .
Zekos, Georgios I. State Cyberspace Jurisdiction and Personal Cyberspace Jurisdiction. International Journal of Law and Information Technology.15 (2007), 1-38. Retrieved from the Heinonline database.
Zentner, Alejandro. Measuring the Effect of File Sharing on Music Purchases. Journal of Law and Economics. 49 (2006), 63-90. Retrieved from JSTOR Database.
William H. Dutton, Anna Dopatka, Michael Hills, Ginette Law, Victoria Nash. Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet. Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University (2010). Retrieved from UNESCO database.
William H. Dutton, Anna Dopatka, Michael Hills, Ginette Law, Victoria Nash Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet. Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University (2010). Retrieved from UNESCO database.
Guy Berger. “The Budapest Conference on Cyberspace. Millenáris Park, Budapest.” UNESCO. 4-5 October 2012. Retrieved from UNESCO database.
Jerome A. Barron. “The Pentagon Papers Case and the WikiLeaks Controversy: National Security and the First Amendment.” Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy 1 (2011), 49-74. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Jerome A. Barron. “The Pentagon Papers Case and the WikiLeaks Controversey: National Security and the First Amendment.” Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy 1 (2011), 49-74. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Melissa Hannah Opper. “Wikileaks: Balancing First Amendment Rights with National Security.” Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment and Law Review. 31 (2010-2011): 237-267. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Elaine M. Chen. Global Internet Freedom: Can Censorship and Freedom Coexist?. De-Paul-LCA Journal of Art and Entertainment Law. 13 (2003), 229-268. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Susanna H. S. Leong, Cheng Lim Saw. Copyright in a Borderless World—Does Territoriality Matter? International Journal of Law and Information Technology. 15 (2007), 38-53. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Alejandro Zentner. Measuring the Effect of File Sharing on Music Purchases. Journal of Law and Economics. 49 (2006), 63-90. Retrieved from JSTOR Database.
World Intellectual Property Organization. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. (9 Sept. 1886. Revised 28 Sept. 1979). Web. <http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html>.
United Nations. WIPO. What Is WIPO? United Nations, n.d. Web. <http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/>.
John W. Belknap. Recent Developments: Copyright and Napster. Journal of Small and Emerging Business Law. 5 (2001) 185-203. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Travis Hannibal. Opting Out of the Internet in the United States and European Union: Copyright, Safe Harbors, and International Law. Notre Dame Law Review. 84 (2008) 358-364. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
Georgios I. Zekos. State Cyberspace Jurisdiction and Personal Cyberspace Jurisdiction. International Journal of Law and Information Technology.15 (2007), 1-38. Retrieved from Heinonline database.
By Espen Moe (originally posted to Flickr as IMG_4739) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
By Yann (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Maag, C. D. (2013). "Legal Dilemmas in the Digital Age." Cornell International Affairs Review, 6(2). Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1205
Maag, Connor D. "Legal Dilemmas in the Digital Age." Cornell International Affairs Review 6.2 (2013). <http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1205>
Maag, Connor D. 2013. Legal Dilemmas in the Digital Age. Cornell International Affairs Review 6 (2), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1205
MAAG, C. D. 2013. Legal Dilemmas in the Digital Age. Cornell International Affairs Review [Online], 6. Available: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1205
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Bangladesh: A Case Study in the Rise of the Nation-State
Prospect of Northeast Asian Regionalism: Comparative Case Study of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia
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The Case of Edward Snowden: A Different Path
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Internet Freedom: Rhetoric Versus Reality
Law & Justice » International Law
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MainAll NewsDefense/Middle EastJerusalem Arabs Prefer Israel
Jerusalem Arabs Prefer Israel
Jerusalem's Arab residents vastly prefer to live under Israeli sovereignty than the PA, according to Muslim Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh.
Chana Ya'ar, 04/10/10 11:46 | updated: 11:53
Israel news photo: Israel National Radio
Jerusalem’s Arab population prefers Israeli sovereignty to the prospect of living under Palestinian Authority rule, according to a column written by popular Arab writer Khaled Abu Toameh.
In a hard-hitting piece published last week in Hudson New York, he contends that any talk of dividing Jerusalem, a “very small city where Jews and Arabs live across the street from each other and on top of each other,” is “completely unrealistic.”
Abu Toameh, a Muslim Arab journalist for nearly three decades, says the PA’s insistence on taking half of Jerusalem for the capital of the new country it wants to create, would turn the city into “a nightmare” of traffic snarls surrounded by security barriers, checkpoints and border crossings.
And just as no one asked the PA Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza for their opinion before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, it appears that once again, Arab residents’ feelings are being ignored.
But Abu Toameh contends it is only fair to ask the 200,000 Arab residents of Jerusalem whether they actually want to live in a divided city “under the rule of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.” A majority would likely prefer the status quo to other options, he says, for a number of reasons.
“First, because as holders of Israeli ID cards, they are entitled to many rights and privileges that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip don’t enjoy. They include freedom of movement and social, economic, health and education services that Israeli citizens are entitled to.”
Abu Toameh adds that re-dividing Jerusalem would mean the entry of the PA, or of Hamas, into the city. “The Arab residents of Jerusalem have seen what happened in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the past 16 years and are not keen to live under a corrupt authority or a radical Islamist entity,” he says pointedly.
Many, he says, ran away from Judea and Samaria because they did not want to live in areas controlled by “militiamen, armed gangs and corrupt leaders and institutions.”
Those who believe that Jerusalem can realistically be split are “living in an illusion and clearly do not know what they are talking about,” Abu Toameh says.
Instead of talking about tearing the city apart, he suggests, “it would be better if the negotiators started thinking of ways that enable Jews and Arabs to share, and not divide, the city.”
Tags:Jerusalem
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Posted: May 8, 2013 | 10:55 PM
1626...The Dutch West India Company is granted ownership of Manhattan when Peter Minuit strikes a deal with the Algonquin Indians to buy the island for $24 worth of trinkets.
Rudolph Valentino 5/6/1895 - 8/23/1926
Italian-born American silent screen actor
1915, Orson Welles, the film, stage, and radio actor; director, producer and writer who combined his talents in the highly regarded movie "Citizen Kane," was born. death on Oct. 10, 1985. born and died elsewhere. Hollywood, Radio and Broadway drama.
1915Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hit the first of his 714 major league home runs in a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds.
1930 Willie Mays born. baseball great Willie Mays, born in 1931.
1945...Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia announces he will not seek a fourth term.Today's New Yorker birthdays include
1959 Actor George Clooney
1972Martin Brodeur, Hockey player
2002"Spider-Man" became the first movie to make more than $100 million in its opening weekend.2004The final first-run episode of "Friends" aired on NBC.
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Hooray for region-free: I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay
I've read a few claims that region coding will be less restrictive for Blu-ray than it was for DVD. Certainly, we're already seeing signs of this, with Blu-ray having a mere three regions vs DVD's six, and apparently several studios are going region-free on catalog title and even new releases. I still worry about how long this is going to last - it might have been a response to HD DVD not bothering with region coding at all, and now that there's no need to compete with Toshiba, we'll see more things region-locked.
I hope not. It's probably different outside the United States, but here, region coding has the primary effect of annoying a company's best customers, either by making titles we want unavailable (or needing a hacked machine) or taunting us with better special editions oversees. Honestly, everyone wins if various people with rights to release a movie have to compete to release the best edition.
We almost missed out with I'm a Cyborg anyway; Tartan Films only acquired the United Kingdom rights and then filed for bankruptcy soon after announcing a Blu-ray edition. I figured that was it, until a crawl through Amazon's new releases turned up some of the other discs that were announced at the same time (Paranoid Park, Sky Blue) as import discs; a quick trawl through SendIt indicated that this one had been released, although it wasn't in stock, but could be had on order. Apparently, some either slipped out before Tartan went into receivership or the company that bought Tartan eventually put it out. All that was left was verifying that it wasn't Region B.
Worth noting: The Blu-ray looks amazing. It's easily Park Chan-wook's most colorful movie. Still, it's always kind of stunning to watch a Blu-ray or HD DVD when you haven't in a few weeks and notice that, no matter how good you thought upconversion is, or the HD signal from the cable company is... It can be that much better.
Anyway, here's hoping it shows up in the US sometime soon; maybe to cash in on Thirst, Park's upcoming sexy vampire movie.
Saibogujiman Kwenchana (I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK)
* * * (out of four)
Seen 28 December 2008 in Jay's Living Room (Blu-ray Disc, imported from the UK)
Even with the recent success of Bong Joon-ha's The Host and popularity of Kim Ji-woon's The Good, the Bad, and the Weird on the festival circuit, Park Chan-Wook is likely still the best-known Korean filmmaker outside his native country. Like any director who has found success within a certain genre, though, his ventures away from the familiar are regarded with suspicion, and as a result, his new movie - which is not a revenge story, but a decidedly off-kilter romance - is not getting much exposure at all on this side of the Pacific.
It's offbeat, in part, because most of it takes place in a mental institution. Cha Young-goon (Lim Su-jeong) was committed there after an apparent suicide attempt that came from delusion that she is a cyborg (which also contributes to her anorexia, as cyborgs don't have to heat). Once there, she meets a number of patients with issues of their own, but the one that she connects with the most is Park Il-sun (Rain), a thief who believes he can not only steal tangible things but parts of people's personalities - and that he's in danger of shrinking to the size of a dot and disappearing.
Though I'm a Cyborg has occasionally been described as a romantic comedy, it doesn't fit the usual template that well. The comedy is often pitch-black, as Young-goon fantasizes about fully recharging and slaughtering the "white 'uns" (the doctors and nurses who took her schizophrenic grandmother away), among other things. And while the romance is at times a little one-sided, it is also fairly uncomplicated; we're not given manufactured misunderstandings or plot devices that separate them. For all the peculiar things said and going on, it is a fairly straightforward love story.
That sort of movie needs a strong cast to make it work, and by that I don't mean the entertaining group of secondary characters (although they are quite enjoyable, too). Rain and Lim have tough roles; they've got to be not all there in a convincing way, but the movie wouldn't be half as enjoyable if the audience merely sympathized with or pitied them. Rain, a pop star in his first major acting role, is at times a little uneven as Il-sun. He's called upon to be more capable and self-aware than the rest of the patients, and it's sometimes a little difficult to get a handle on what his true personality is amid the conflicting purposes. It's not a bad performance; in fact, he's pretty good with dialog, though he doesn't always communicate well without speaking.
This is not a problem for Lim Su-jeong. She plays Young-goon a little broader than Rain plays Il-sun; we can always see the child-like belief in her fantasy world that allows reason to just fly past her. She's very earnest in acting out the rules of Young-goon's world, whether talking to vending machines or holding batteries to her tongue to recharge herself, but she avoids acting overtly robotic. Her behavior would almost be cute if she wasn't also unnerving: She doesn't blink very often, her eyebrows have been dyed to near-invisibility to make her face somewhat of a blank, and she genuinely looks as if she hasn't been eating to the point where it may be dangerous.
Making the female lead look unhealthy is just the start of what Park and his collaborators do to make this film memorable visually. There is some slick CGI in places (a late scene that references the nifty opening credits is actually pretty darn impressive), and some spots where the effects seem to be awkward or scaled back a little to keep the delusions from seducing the audience. Much of the film is shot in bright, almost overwhelming colors, with interesting camera work. It's perhaps Park's most beautiful movie.
Beautiful enough that it's a real shame few here will get to see it on the big screen. Or even the small one - as of right now, it has no U.S. distributor, two years after its Korean release. I hope it does; maybe the release of Park's more commercial next movie will grease the wheels.
Also at HBS, along with one other review.
Posted by Jason at 11:03 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Blu-ray, comedy, drama, Korea
Screener catch-up: Eye in the Sky
At some point, I'll probably do a big long list of everything I've got ticket stubs for this year; things have just gotten away from me lately. Before then, I made it one of my end-of-year goals to watch and review every screener I've been sent. Looking at the calendar, it might be wise to use it as a New Year's resolution instead.
I received two screeners from the Philadelphia Film Festival back in April; the other was Timecrimes, which I wound up seeing at Fantasia (after passing it up at the IFFB because I had a screener sitting on my coffee table). Suffice it to say that after this delay, I wouldn't be terribly shocked if they chose not to send me more next year.
Gun Chung (Eye in the Sky)
* * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 26 December 2008 in Jay's Living Room (letterboxed DVD screener from the Philadelphia Film Festival)
It would not take a whole lot of tinkering to transform Eye in the Sky into a pretty good pilot for a pretty good TV show. Even considering the glut of police procedurals on American TV, there isn't one that attacks crime from this particular angle, and it introduces the idea well. It is, however, not a TV series, but a film, one which doesn't quite live up to the promise of its opening and idea.
The opening act is a corker, as a gang of crooks converge on a jewelry store to execute a precisely timed robbery. One, Brother Shan (Tony Leung Ka-Fai), hangs back, watching for anything unexpected - like one of their number being followed. What we don't see until everything is completed is that we've actually been watching two things going down. The robbery is one; the other is Sergeant Wong Man Chin (Simon Yam) testing young Constable Ho Ka Po (Kate Tsui) to see if she's got the right stuff to join the Surveillance Unit. He concludes that she's green, but doesn't look like a cop, so she's given the job. The unit's next job, of course, is poring over all the local surveillance footage to try and locate the crooks, with the hope that finding even one will lead them to the rest.
Like many police procedurals, Eye in the Sky is at its best when it is, in fact, procedural. The opening robbery is more a smash-and-grab than a delicate heist, but there's still enough moving parts and to keep it interesting. The mechanics of police surveillance is the really interesting part for a process junkie, as the cops switch tails off and on and scan screens to find people who show up multiple times. It's the sort of thing that a lot of crime movies gloss over, substituting magical facial recognition software for the legwork and combination of high- and low-tech methods we see used.
Complete review at EFC.
Posted by Jason at 1:41 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: action, crime, drama, Hong Kong
Ashes of Time Redux
I honestly wonder how much my liking this version of Ashes of Time more than the original version is due to the actual merits of the two cuts and how much is due to the me of 2008 not being the me of 2005. Not that I'm that much different, but when I saw the original cut, I'd only seen two of Wong Kar-Wai's films before (if you don't count stuff he just wrote for money, like Haunted Cop Shop 2), and so didn't really know his aesthetic. I sort of thought he was just doing his big wuxia action movie, like Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou would later do.
I did like the movie much more this time around, though I'm now very curious to see what Eagle Shooting Heroes is like. It is, apparently, a spoof of the same novel that was adapted into Ashes of Time, shot at roughly the same time, on the same sets, with much of the same cast and crew (though, if the IMDB is to be believed, with several in different roles). No writer is credited on IMDB, but I seem to remember Wong Kar-Wai being referred to as responsible during one of the old Weekly Wednesday Ass-Kicking showings (which, for a time, substituted a Weekly Wednesday Wong Kar-Wai series).
Dung che sai duk redux (Ashes of TIme Redux)
* * * ¼ (out of four)
Seen 30 October 2008 at Landmark Kendall Square (first-run)
I saw and reviewed Ashes of Time three and a half years ago, when it played as part of a series of director Wong Kar-wai's films at the Brattle Theatre. I was not particularly impressed at the time, in part because I approached it as a wuxia film first and as a WKW mood piece second, and in part because there apparently hasn't been a decent print to be found for years. Watching Ashes of Time Redux isn't quite like seeing a whole new movie, but it was certainly a new and better experience. How much of that is due to the new cut, how much is due to the restoration, and how much is me approaching it with a different attitude is an open question.
The film takes place in and around a tavern run by Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), a once-great warrior who now mainly connects swordsmen with those who have a use for them. As the film starts, it is springtime, time for the annual visit of Huang Yaoshi (Tony Lenug Ka Fai), and old friend who brings with him a gift - a bottle of magical wine that it is said can erase memories. Feng opts not to sip from it, but Huang does, leaving Feng to deal with Murong Yang and Murong Yin (Brigitte Lin), siblings at conflict over their past encounters with Feng. As the seasons pass, others come - a swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) who fears he will lose his sight before he sees the peach blossoms of his hometown again; Hong Qi (Jacky Cheung), a barefoot would-be hero; and a girl (Charlie Yeung) who wishes to avenge her brother's death but who has only a mule and some eggs to pay with. We also learn Feng's own sad story, which led him to isolate himself from the world this way - it is, of course, about a woman (Maggie Cheung).
Those looking for action will probably come away somewhat disappointed, even more so than I was when I saw the original 1994 cut. What we see is pretty good - it is choreographed by Sammo Hung, after all, with his trademark hard-hitting style. This isn't the lighter-than-air gliding of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but close-in lethal swordplay, with plenty of blood spilled and limbs severed. We do see glimpses of more fantastical combat, where a swing of the sword can shatter mountains or cause explosions, but one of the primary big differences between the two versions - likely much of the reason why the 2008 "Redux" cut is seven minutes shorter - is that two early fight scenes are cut.
The film does not particularly suffer for their absence, but the greatest improvement to the flow of the movie is perhaps much simpler - Wong has added in chapter titles to indicate the passage of the seasons. Even though they don't always indicate a clean break between storylines, they (and the changing narrators) give the movie the feel of an anthology of individual but connected stories, rather than a single messy narrative with too many characters to keep track of entering and exiting. It's still all about Feng, but it is now presented in such a way that the movie guides us toward him, rather than away.
Leslie Cheung gives a performance worth being guided toward, showing (as he often does) a man locking his feelings away, indeed, mocking those who dare to feel. There's a knowing cruelty to Feng, with regret buried very deep underneath. The man hiding his broken heart is the sort of thing Cheung did very well, and it's complimented nicely by Maggie Cheung's brief but memorable appearance as the one who got away. The rest of the cast is similarly fine, most notably Brigitte Lin.
The restoration certainly makes a major difference in the look of the film. Christopher Doyle's cinematography is much more clear and sharp than it was in previous prints, with the desert looking vast and beautiful. Indeed, there's an argument to be made that the movie now looks too pretty - the colors are brighter and bolder than they were in the original release, a closer match to the expensive, glossy wuxia films that would appear after Ashes of Time's original release. It almost looks like digital video at times - not bad, but almost unnaturally sharp.
That's perhaps not a perfect match for the story, which is less the usual tale of honor and duty than a meditation of ephemerality of life and memory, and how love can slip away with time. For me, it tells the story better; at the very least, it looks better than it has in some time.
Also at HBS.
Posted by Jason at 5:05 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: action, China, drama, Hong Kong, martial-arts
Movie Watch-a-Thon: Don't Go in the House, Rolling Thunder, Darker than Amber, Riot on Sunset Strip, Truck Turner
Watch-a-thon Tally: 5 Brattle Films, 5 other films.
I don't think I'm winning the Movie Watch-a-Thon contests this year. My current tally is the five movies at the Brattle listed below and five at other theaters, and the month is already halfway past. I've got no sponsors because I haven't felt good about asking people for money - everybody I know outside of work has been talking about not having any money, and the last month or two at work has seen enough emails asking for donations that people were openly grumbling when another one arrived, so I might want to lay low there.
That leaves you guys. I've looked at my hit counters - there are dozens of readers here. Anybody who would like to make a donation to help the Brattle Theatre, you can use this link (or click on the widgets on this post and the sidebar). A couple years ago, when the first Movie-Watch-a-Thon took place, I put an article up on eFilmCritic and Hollywood Bitchslap about why the Brattle matters even if you've never been close to Boston; not much has changed since then.
Anyway: Give generously if you can. If you've been writing me about advertising or link exchanges, this would be a really fine way to get me to actually consider it. And if you're in the area, stop by The Brattle; they've got Carole Lombard movies this coming weekend, and I'm certain we'll see Evil Dead 2 for Halloween.
* ¾ (out of four)
Seen 3 October 2008 at The Brattle Theater (Return to the Grindhouse)
There are certain movies that home video just doesn't do justice, because even the best high-definition transfer and mastering can't quite capture the exquisite photography, or the way a larger-than-life image captures a larger-than-life performance, or how an entire audience finds itself in sync, jumping in fear or laughing at the same time. Then there's this one, which is best seen in a packed theater because it really doesn't get any better than the moment when the killer and a victim are standing outside the door and someone in the audience says "hey, don't go in the house."
The killer is Donny Kohler (Dan Grimaldi); he hears voices and is drawn to fire. His mother would burn him to punish him as a child, he currently works at the city incinerator, and when his mother dies, he decides to make one of their house's rooms into an oven, where he can roast girls with a flamethrower. After a few days of this, his co-worker and would-be buddy Bobby (Robert Osth) starts to wonder why he's not coming into work.
For all that one expects little from this sort of film, it consistently manages to deliver less. Forget wanting anything like good acting or an interesting story; Don't Go in the House is disappointing in terms of simple exploitation trashiness. It peaks much too early, with Donny's first kill; that scene combines nudity, chains, and fire effects that aren't bad for the period and budget at all. It's an effective torture porn moment, a generation before the term would be coined, but filmmaker Joseph Ellison doesn't have anywhere to go from there; Donny's a one-trick pony and mostly does that trick off-screen afterward.
Absent a parade of fire, blood, and skin, we're forced to try and enjoy the movie on the merits of such things as story, acting, and dialog, and that's just a disaster. People in this movie talk in a way that not only fails to stick in one's mind, but makes one worry that it might be realistic, with our own conversation being that bland. The acting has a lot of the same properties, with everybody tying so hard to act like ordinary people that they instead come across as half-hearted imitations.
There is, admittedly, a bit of mean-spirited fun to be had mocking a movie like this, especially when it devotes a long scene to outfitting Donny in now very dated fashions. That might be said to give the movie undue credit, though - this was a bad movie from the start, not one which has turned rotten with time.
Also at HBS, along with two other reviews.
Given the people involved in Rolling Thunder, along with its generally decent quality and good reputation, it's kind of surprising that this movie has yet to get a DVD release, at least in the US. It was produced by Lawrence Gordon, with a screenplay by Paul Schrader. William Devane has worked steadily, and people like Tommy Lee Jones. Quentin Tarantino named his short-lived distribution label after it. And yet, the only easy option for seeing it is streaming via Netflix.
(Unless you're lucky enough to have a local theater that books oddball films every once in a while. In which case, make sure they get your support.)
In 1973, a group of American prisoners of war returned home to Texas from Vietnam. Major Charles Rane (William Devane) has been gone for seven years. The town tries to make him feel welcome back, gifting him with a new car and a silver dollar for every day he spent in captivity. At first, things are simply uncomfortable; his son doesn't recognize him and his wife Janet (Lisa Blake Richards) has grown close to divorced sheriff Cliff (Lawrason Driscoll) in that time away. That's before a group of thugs come over, wanting the money. They put him in the hospital and others in the grave, but probably don't give the proper amount of thought to how tough and determined someone who's survived more than half a decade of torture might be.
For a small movie likely marketed more for action than emotion, Rolling Thunder feels remarkably genuine. The Rane household doesn't devolve into a bunch of screaming matches, and for all that people are hurt and uncomfortable, there's not much blame thrown around - Janet and Cliff are never portrayed as bad people. The vets we see broken and haunted but functional, even if there is something angry and violent looking for a way to lash out not far under the surface. A character like Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes), the self-described "groupie" who attaches herself to Rane, is built up as someone who has an existence beyond falling in love with him.
Having a strong core of actors in the lead helps. Devane anchors the movie as Rane; there are a lot of earnest dramas about soldiers returning home from war that don't feature a performance as good as Devane's. He's a soldier through and through, so he's always tightly controlled, but he does a fine job of showing just how close to madness Rane's experience has left him. Tommy Lee Jones has a similar, though smaller, part - his Johnny Vohden outwardly seems a little less angry, but toward the end, there's often a look on his face that says he is really enjoying the chance to do some violence. Linda Haynes is quite good here, convincing us that her character has a history of her own. The script tells us that she's getting a little old for the cycle her personal life is in, but Haynes convinces us that Linda Forchet knows it. It's too bad she didn't have a longer career, and perhaps can be attributed in part to Twentieth Century Fox offloading Rolling Thunder onto a smaller company; if this got a studio push rather than just playing in drive-ins and grindhouses, then maybe she gets cast in a higher class of movie and doesn't leave Hollywood relatively young.
For all it does well, the movie isn't perfect. Subplots have a peculiar tendency to dead-end, sometimes literally. Other times it just feels like director John Flynn and editor Frank Keller were just relentless about clipping what they felt was non-essential, right through the very quick jump to the end credits. It almost feels like Schrader had a more ambitious film in mind, even though it mostly got boiled down to a revenge thriller.
Which isn't so bad; it's a good revenge thriller, with tough but vulnerable heroes and nasty villains. There's plenty of blood for those who want it, including a couple of examples of why one should not engage in a close-quarters fight with a trained soldier who has a prosthetic hook for a hand (one of which should make the male members of the audience involuntarily wince). The last action set-piece is especially well-done, with the extra layer of grit and grime that comes from taking place in a Mexican brothel.
It's a real shame Rolling Thunder is so tough to find as of this writing. It's mostly a bit of violent pulp, sure, but it's very well made violent pulp that aspires to be more. A lot of B-movies have ambitions to rise above their station; this one actually manages it on occasion.
Darker Than Amber
* * * ¾ (out of four)
Darker than Amber has a place in cinematic history, though probably not the sort its producers intended. They likely thought they were starting a franchise of films based on John D. MacDonald's novels, from the way some actors were billed: A couple of minor, peripheral characters are highlighted, and the opening titles starts with the oddly-ordered "Travis McGee is Rod Taylor". Instead, it got an extremely limited release and is now notable as the film which inspired Bruce Lee to hire Robert Clouse to direct Enter the Dragon.
One can tell it deserves better right from the start, when a group of toughs drive a pretty but defiant girl to a bridge and throw her over. A weight drags her to the bottom, but not before snagging the fishing line of a couple men stationed underneath the bridge. The younger man dives in after her. He's Travis McGee, and his companion is Meyer (Theodore Bikel). They take her back to McGee's houseboat, where the girl (Suzy Kendall) initially gives her name as Jane Doe, although after a while she opens up a bit to tell them it's Evangeline. The men who tried to kill her are still out there, of course, and once they realize she's not dead, McGee's going to have his work cut out for him.
Travis McGee isn't quite a private detective - he describes his business to Vangie as "finding lost things", which could put him in the maritime salvage line - but he does come out of the classic Philip Marlowe knight-errant mold. He seems to have some money: He drives a classic Rolls Royce ("Miss Agnes") when on land, and never seems to lack resources in hunting Vangie's pursuers down, but he's not shy about bruising his knuckles, either. Rod Taylor is a nice fit for the part; he's weathered but still has a sort of youthful vitality to him. He spent much of his career as a character actor, and that carries over to his Travis McGee - Taylor captures the laid-back vibe of the character, giving him enough personality and charm that we believe he can be interesting in any situation, while not making McGee larger than life so that he would stick out in a bad way or push other characters off the screen.
And the rest of the cast does deserve watching. I suspect James Booth and Jane Russell would have had more to do if other Travis McGee stories were adapted - Booth plays Burk, the cranky old Scot whose skiff McGee and Meyer were using when Vangie dropped into their lives, while Russell's Alabama Tigress is a widow whose yacht has been hosting the same party for a year and a half - but they don't get much to do here. Theodore Bikel's Meyer is McGee's boatmate and best friend (and, frequently, bartender), perhaps even more laid back but still a good man to have on your side. William Smith is a bulked-up psychotic monster, all intensity and brute force to counter Rod Taylor's cool confidence.
The movie star here is Suzy Kendall, though - we get to see her spitting in Smith's face before we're gobsmacked with just how beautiful she is. She draws eyes to her like a magnet, and it's always worth it. There are some scenes where she's playing excited by the promise of adventure, but the bulk of it is her playing Vangie as something of a reluctant femme fatale. She manages to charm us, making her default state sexy and fun, even though we've seen what kind of mess she's been a part of.
The scene that best illustrates that - a quick flashback while Vangie evades McGee's questions - is as much a testament to director Robert Clouse's skill as hers (it's a great editing choice). Enter the Dragon would later pigeonhole him as a martial-arts director, and you can see the beginnings of that in the fight scenes: It's American-style fist-fights, but they look and feel like real fights, complete with bone-crunching action. That's not all he's got going for him - he's got good timing, knows how to make bad guys appear threatening even when they're just lurking around the edges of the screen, and always manages to give the audience something interesting to look at, even though he doesn't go for a particularly stylized look.
Darker Than Amber came and went quickly during its original release, and has seldom been seen since, which is a real shame - it's a very impressive crime movie. It's a pity it never saw the same sort of success as its source material.
* * ½ (out of four)
It is perhaps fitting that Riot on Sunset Strip occasionally feels trapped between generations. This 1967 quickie - made to reference recent confrontations between Hollywood police and the local youth - is so earnestly trying its best to be fair that it sometimes doesn't seem to recognize just how little its parts fit together.
Consider its opening narration, something pulled out of a moralizing crime story of the forties and fifties. It introduces the teenagers and college kids who spend their evenings hanging out on the Sunset Strip - in booming, stentorian tones - as if they are some sort of alien culture, like subjects in an educational film of some sort. It's clearly speaking to the older people in the audience, but if that's the case, why feature so much music from bands like The Standells, The Chocolate Watchband, and The Enemies? To appeal to everyone, of course, but it serves to illustrate one of the central problems of the era - the constant tendency to approach the issues of the 1960s with a 1940s mindset which is so obviously out of place.
(Fun musical facts: The lead singer for The Chocolate Watchband was on-hand to introduce the film at its Cambridge, MA screening - because he teaches at Harvard these days. He mentioned that no-one on set thought much of The Enemies, who would soon disband and reform as Three Dog Night)
The movie itself can perhaps be described as affectionately alarmist. Meet Andy (Mimsy Farmer), the pretty good girl who moved to Los Angeles a week ago. When she and her friends get pulled in for a curfew violation, she opts to call a family friend she hasn't seen in four years rather than her drunk of a mother. Her father is Lt. Walt Lorimer (Aldo Ray), the officer who has the job of keeping the peace in that part of Los Angeles, trying to balance the college kids' pledges to police themselves with the older merchants who want a crackdown on the "longhairs" they see as a threat to their higher-end businesses. Father and daughter haven't seen each other in years, either, and aren't going to until a party that she attends turns ugly.
Riot on Sunset Strip is not particularly well-crafted in any facet, which is to be expected from something thrown together in a month and a half. The filmmakers seem to be earnest about the whole thing, which gives the movie the makings of a genuine camp classic. It veers wildly between points of view - it will present the kids as intelligent and reasonable in one reel and then have Andy's friend Liz-Ann absolutely inarticulate in the next - but its heart always seems to be in the right place. I'm not sure whether the script is all over the place or if it's the direction; writer Orville Hampton actually does a decent job of building a story that goes from point A to B to C smoothly, but much of the dialog involved clanks, and neither director nor Arthur Dreifuss nor the actors gets much out of the script. Even the best-known and most experienced, Aldo Ray, is just kind of there.
Except, that is, for Mimsy Farmer. I won't lie to you... This isn't great acting, but one extended sequence is in the top tier of on-screen hotness. Yes, you may feel a little guilty because this is after some ne'er-do-wells slipping some LSD into Andy's soda and it doesn't end well to say the least, but as hilariously over-the-top as her performance is, it drips more raw sex than many scenes where an actress actually undresses. Laurie Mock's manic, cackling, and high-as-a-kite Liz-Ann isn't far behind it, either.
Indeed, for all that Riot on Sunset Strip is often laughable when it's trying to say something intelligent and conciliatory about the late-1960s generation gap, it frequently manages to score big when it just goes for something visceral, whether that be "teen" sexuality or musical performances. It's no great movie, but it's got its pleasures, even if they are simple ones.
I want to make this very clear: When I, at some future time, tell people that they've gotta see Truck Turner, I will be doing it because I really like Truck Turner. Not because I particularly like blaxploitation (most of what I've seen is pretty awful), but because this is a fun action movie. Granted, some of its exuberance is inappropriate at best coming out of my very white mouth, but I can dig the energy even if I can't duplicate it.
Mac "Truck" Turner (Isaac Hayes) was a pro football player until he blew out his knee; now he's a skip tracer; he and partner Jerry (Alan Weeks) mostly work for bail bondsman Nate Dinwiddle (Sam Laws). His girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase) has just spent thirty days behind bars for shoplifting. It ain't a great life, but it's not a bad one, until Truck and Jerry go after pimp Gator Johnson (Paul Harris), and wid up taking him down rather than bringing him in. His woman Dorrinda (Nichelle Nichols) is furious, and puts a price on Truck's head. Most who would collect are no match for Truck, but king pimp Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto) might have what it takes.
Isaac Hayes was about as cool as a man could be, and Truck Turner frequently takes on his personality. Truck is no-nonsense when it comes to his work, but personable and always ready to crack a joke. Most of the time he's a big teddy bear, but he's quite capable of summoning a ton of power, so that there's no question of who's the baddest man in the room. He doesn't cry, but he's got a big heart. Truck is fun to watch because he doesn't vary too far from Hayes's own persona. And just in case you weren't sure this was Hayes's movie, he contributes a great, funky score, at least as good as his more famous work on Shaft.
Hayes alone would be a lot of fun, but the rest of the cast certainly manages to pull their own weight. Alan Weeks and Sam Laws are at their best when cutting it up with Hayes, and Anazette Chase is pretty good as Annie. She's the girlfriend, not there for much more, but Chase makes her seem like Annie's got a reason for existing outside of being threatened by the men after Truck. Scatman Crothers shows up. And Yaphet Kotto is fantastic as usual, making both a grand entrance and exit, giving Truck one heck of a worthy adversary.
And then there's Nichelle Nichols. I've seen her character of Dorrinda described as a "madam", but let's not be sexist about it: She's a full-on pimp. Those who only know Nichols from Star Trek (that is to say, everybody) will probably get a big kick out of her sleazing it up as the movie's villain. She goes as far over the top as anybody, and it's a gas. The funeral scene is a garish riot, although it's not long after that the movie starts displaying a real mean streak. Director Jonathan Kaplan handle that well - when it's time to get nasty, he lets you know playtime is over without making it seem like we've stumbled into another movie.
What's not to like? You've got Isaac Hayes being Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto larger than life, and Lt. Uhura as a nasty mack. Even if it weren't a pretty darn enjoyable action movie, it's definite "you gotta see it" stuff.
Posted by Jason at 9:50 AM 3 comments: Links to this post
Labels: action, Brattle, crap, horror, USA, watch-a-thon
Boston Film Festival: Appaloosa
I have to admit, I came pretty close to completely forgetting about the Boston Film Festival this year. That wasn't always the case; the BFF used to be a week and a weekend of going into work early so I could get out in time to make an afternoon show, running or taking the Green Line between Copley Square and Boston Common, and buying books of ten tickets even if I wasn't exactly what you'd call gainfully employed. Then it changed hands, they started scrambling to book anything (mostly locally-filmed mediocrity that the people running it knew from the Massachusetts Film Office), and the whole thing began to feel much more amateur hour.
This year, I actually liked the look of much of the lineup, but it seemed so low-profile - the Globe no longer puts it at the front of their Sunday movie section, for instance - that by the time I realized that it was that weekend, I had already bought tickets to see a ballgame in New York on Saturday, and then wound up working late for the rest of the festival.
For Appaloosa, they had Robert B. Parker, who wrote the original novel, as a guest, along with producer and screenwriter Robert Knott. I like Parker; he's got this thing going where he's self-deprecating, but winks while he does it to show that, in fact, he's got quite a bit of pride in his work. It could seem phony, but he was doing it next to the people of the Boston Film Festival, and even though Parker's persona is probably more of an act than theirs, they just feel more self-serving. They had the Q&A conducted by Joyce Kulhawik, a popular local TV-news personality who was recently dropped by her station, so it wound up feeling like a puffy entertainment piece; the questions were just as rote and uninteresting as the usual festival Q&A, but without the illusion of actual curiosity.
I probably mentioned it last year and the year before, but the staff just does not know how to work a room like the folks at the other festivals I attend. I think the key point is that they never seem to be talking about movies, as opposed to themselves. You go to Fantasia, and the people introducing the films and filmmakers will connect what you're about to see to other great pictures; the BFF people will say how hard they worked to put it together. Not that they don't at other festivals; it's just that where IFFB or Fantasia or a number of other festivals feel like they're about connecting audiences to movies and filmmakers, BFF gives off the impression that these folks want to be people who run a film festival. That's probably a totally unfair impression, but it's pretty inescapable.
Anyway, speaking of festivals, here's the last reviews of movies I saw at Fantasia: Gangster VIP, May 18th, From Within, Babysitter Wanted, Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, Seven Days, 4bia, Sasori, Tunnel Rats, Voice of a Murderer, and Pig Hunt. Still got a bunch of screeners from that and Fantastic Fest, but who knows how many of them I'll get to around the Brattle's Watch-a-thon. But that's the next post...
Seen 12 September 2008 at Landmark Kendall Square #2 (Boston Film Festival)
It strikes me that westerns, as a type of film, are in about the same place science fiction was a few decades ago: They don't fit on a studio's balance sheet very well (kind of expensive to do right, not enough of an audience to do often), so only one or two make their ways to the multiplexes each year. There, they have the unenviable task of satisfying the fan who has been waiting for this annual treat and justifying their existence to the moviegoer who sees it as a simplistic genre that people grow out of.
Appaloosa is a good western that, at least initially, is unfairly dragged down by the pressure placed upon every new western to be exceptional. As the film opens and gets moving, one might wonder "why this movie? What is it about Appaloosa that motivated producers to invest in the production?" It seems to be made of standard parts: The old marshal is killed by villainous rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and his men; the town of Appaloosa hires a pair of freelance peacekeepers to bring them to justice. New sheriff Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are certainly good with their guns, although they're uncomfortably authoritarian, enforcing the law because that pays better than breaking it - although that seems to change when widow Allison French (Renee Zellwegger) comes to town.
That's when some interesting things start happening. She gravitates toward Virgil, even though Everett has also shown interest. We see Virgil snap, seemingly out of nowhere, and how much he needs Everett around to keep him on an even keel. And then, when Bragg's trial does not put an end to things, we see what really makes Allison tick.
It is what goes on between Virgil, Everett, and Allison that forms the heart of the movie, and makes it a fine example of the western. Robert Parker, who wrote the original novel, described it as a love story between two heterosexual men, and though that description may earn some snickers, it's a fair one. Virgil and Everett are entangled by respect and loyalty rather than any kind of romantic or sexual attraction, but we see how well they function together, and how in some ways they need each other, with Everett able to rein Virgil in and Virgil supplying Everett with direction.
Then you bring Allison into the picture, and while on one level she is the woman who throws a monkey wrench into the men's unsworn brotherhood, she also embodies what I find to be the basic theme of the western: Civilized people in an environment that is, effectively, lawless. Allison keenly recognizes that she's in a world where might often makes right and a woman on her own doesn't have many options. The ones she chooses to exercise are not necessarily admirable - though they're not the obvious, simple ones you might initially suspect - but they're understandable and make her an interesting figure beyond how she affects the plot.
It's a nice performance by Renee Zellweger: She hits on a lot of familiar characteristics of women in westerns - the likable ones, the widows who probably belong someplace finer - and manages to make Allison somewhat sympathetic while still being manipulative. Ed Harris is playing a rather simpler character, and what he's doing doesn't look like much at first, just grunting out tough-guy dialog (though he does that very well indeed). It's not until Allison starts to get in Virgil's head that we see a whole lot in the way of nuance, and even then, the emphasis is on how Virgil is at heart a simple man, not made for this sort of confusion. Viggo Mortensen gets to do more from the beginning - Everett's our narrator, and though he isn't much more complicated than Virgil, he's smarter, and even though he doesn't say much, we can always see him assessing the situation.
With the main characters going on, the other actors seem almost underused: The likes of James Gammon and Timothy Spall are, quite frankly, overkill as the merchants who hire Virgil and Everett. It's a pleasure to see Lance Henriksen show up midway through, though, as a hired gun who may be Cole's equal but doesn't feel a particular need to brag about it; he's made for parts like this. Jeremy Irons is a villain whom I'd like to have seen as a more active participant - he makes a good chief thug and manages to seem even more sadistic when he steps away from simple violence.
In addition to starring, Ed Harris co-wrote on the screenplay and directs. He does a nice job of portraying how isolated the various outposts in the west were, and how a Randall Bragg or a Virgil Cole can become an autocrat within the borders of the United States. For all that the film is about the relationships between Virgil, Everett, and Allison, Harris gives us a few nice gunfights - mostly of the quick-draw variety, but a couple are more substantial.
This is clearly a labor of love for Ed Harris - heck, he even performs one of the songs over the end credits. He's one of the most dependably solid actors out there, so it's hardly any surprise that he does good work behind the camera as well.
Posted by Jason at 10:42 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: action, Boston Film Festival, drama, Fantasia, western
Red Heroine
Last weekend, while the Hollywood studios decided to settle for one underwhelming new release, the local programmers in the Boston area gave us more exciting repatory bookings than we could possibly watch - Hitchcock at the Brattle, Peckinpah at the Harvard Film Archive, and the annual Films at the Gate program in Chinatown. I got to a couple of the Peckinpah films, and may catch some Hitchcock tonight - on the one hand, the Sox-Rays game should be great; on the other hand, I hate missing Hitchcock on the big screen; gripping hand may be that I do have Stage Fright (like pretty much all Hitch's movies) on DVD, even if I've never watched it.
The only bit of Films at the Gate I got to was Red Heroine, but that was a ton of fun - I love silents and martial arts, so seeing a free movie with Devil Music Ensemble accompanying was a no-brainer. They're touring with it, and it's worth seeing just for curiosity's sake.
I wrote to DME to make sure I got the right names (or as close to right as possible), and they pointed me to this article about the film's return. The six-part history of early kung fu cinema at the end is a great read.
I've also finished off four more reviews from Fantasia. I'm kind of surprised these movies aren't falling out the back of my brain like I expected them to, especially considering all the "seventy-five movies in 21 days? How can you keep them straight?" comments I got. It turns out that it's not all that difficult to keep Shamo, Robo Rock, Be A Man! Samurai School and Trailer Park of Terror from running into each other; they're pretty darn distinct.
Hongxia (Red Heroine)
Seen 5 September 2008 in a Chinatown Empty Lot (Films at the Gate)
People have been discovering martial arts movies for as long as there have been movies. Jackie Chan and Jet Li made a splash in America during the 1990s, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon took critics by storm soon after, but fans knew that this was nothing new. Their parents had discovered Bruce Lee, and he had his own antecedents. Once you get much past 1960s Shaw Brothers, though, stuff gets harder to find. The trail more or less stops at Red Heroine, a wuxia film from 1929, not because it was the first ever made, but because it's the oldest to survive.
Film preservation was a low priority in the early twentieth century, after all - few treated movies as more than disposable entertainment until far too many had been disposed of - and in China, both the Nationalist and later Communist governments discouraged fantastic film of any kind, fearing the superstitious image it projected to the rest of the world (a restriction that held up for some time; last year's The Matrimony was a rarity in being a ghost story from mainland China). So the preservation of Shanghai-made adventures like Red Heroine was even more hit-and-miss, with most of the people who made such films moving to British-controlled Hong Kong, leaving them orphaned. As a result, the image quality of this presentation leaves more than a bit to be desired. The copy currently on tour is a PAL digital file with the left and bottom parts of the image cropped off, and the print it is taken from appears to be warped in some spots.
The movie itself is about Yun Ko (Fan Xuepeng aka Xueming), a poor girl whose village is being overrun by an army from the west. Wealthy merchant Hsia Ching Chong (Hsu Ko Hui) and his daughter Chang Cheing (Wang Chu Ching) offer to take her with them as they flee the invasion, but Yun Ko can't leave her elderly grandmother. Her cousin Chong Che (director Wen Yemin) arrives to help, but it's too late - Yun Ko is captured by Ching Che Mang (Sao Guanyu), the general of the invading army, who tries to take her for a wife. She's rescued by White Monkey (Wang Juqing), an old hermit who offers to teach her martial arts so she can take her revenge. Three years later, that will come in handy - the refugees have returned to their homes, but occupying general Ching Che Mang now has his eyes set on Chang Cheing.
I apologize if the names are a bit mixed up - the intertitles were, as mentioned, frequently cut off, and crappy English subtitles are apparently a kung fu movie tradition that goes back eighty years. The characters are visually distinct enough that the names don't really matter, and include a number of familiar archetypes: The decadent general in his ornate robes, his snaggle-toothed adviser, the martial-arts master with the long white beard (and long white eyebrows, of course). The naked slave girls (well, wearing flesh-colored bikinis that the lighting often causes to blend into their skin) are actually further than HK action movies tend to go these days. There's even some gravity-defying stuntwork as Yun Ko soars through the air and teleports in a cloud of smoke.
The action is good enough that I wish there was more of it. The opening act is in constant motion from the army's approach to Yun Ko's rescue, and the big action finale has Fan Xuepeng looking pretty good, holding off the General's bodyguards even as she's losing weapons and the Tartar army arrives to engage the invaders. It's not the crazy wire work of later decades, but still fairly fast-paced and athletic. In between, the movie slows down quite a bit, with Yun Ko disappearing except in Chong Che's flashbacks while we see what the village is like during its occupation, and the story feels somewhat padded, as Hsia Ching Chong's family takes center stage. Training scenes to keep Yun Ko in the forefront, a staple of later kung fu movies, would not have been unwelcome.
The new score by Devil Music Ensemble keeps things upbeat in the meantime. If nothing else, the soundtrack is an impressive feat of endurance on the musicians' part, remaining high-energy without much of a break for anyone in the trio during the film's full ninety-minute running time. They don't go for a specifically "asian" sound, and do a very nice job reacting to what's on-screen, punching things up during the action sequences and keeping everything moving during the talky middle section. They're not above having a little fun reminding the audience what some of these visuals would later evolve into, either: The buck-toothed "chief bodyguard" gets a few mocking notes when he first appears, and the audience loved the whipping noises they worked in the first time White Monkey breaks out the kung fu.
(If you're reading this in September through November of 2008, Devil Music Ensemble is touring with the movie; check their website to see when they are playing near you. Other shows may be scheduled at later dates.)
To be completely honest, Red Heroine is significant by happenstance rather than design or even merit; it was not the first martial arts feature nor likely the best of the period. It just happens to be the earliest that is still around in its entirety. It's got some weaknesses, to be sure, but fans of the genre should check it out if the opportunity presents itself: Both the movie and the new soundtrack are fun, and it's a chance to see the wuxia film in its embryonic form.
Shamo (Gwan Gaai)
Seen 12 July 2008 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival)
Though they often wind up on American shelves labeled as just "Asian", the movies that come out of the various countries in that corner of the world tend to have distinct flavors. With the world getting smaller for all of us, it is therefore not a complete surprise that we're starting to see more obvious crossbreeds like Shamo (and Sasori, also at the festival) - garish Japanese craziness mixed with brutal Hong Kong action.
Shamo is based on a manga by Izo Hashimoto, but relocated to Hong Kong for this film (while most of the characters are given Chinese names in the spoken dialog, the Japanese names are used in the subtitles, so that's how they'll be referred to here). It tells the story of Ryo Narushima (Shawn Yue), who is sent to prison at the age of sixteen for the brutal murders of his parents. While inside, he's initially gang-raped, but soon meets karate master Kurogawa (Francis Ng), who molds him into an extraordinary fighter. Upon release (he was sentenced as a juvenile), he just wants to find his sister Natsumi (Weiying Pei), whom he fears has fallen into a life of vice, much as he has. He finds prostitute Megumi (Annie Liu) instead, and enters the world of mixed martial arts to try and raise his profile so that Natsumi can find him, which exposes him to a whole new group of characters: Sugawara (Masato), the reigning champion; Konuzuke, the man behind the LF ("Lethal Fight") league; Fujiyoshi, the big guy who becomes Ryo's manager, and Ryuchi Yamasaki (Dylan Kuo), the half-blind trainer trying to start a competing, less corrupt organization.
Director Soi Cheang's debut feature, Dog Bite Dog, had a reputation for shocking violence and bleakness, and while I haven't seen it to compare, I suspect that Shamo is a little more mainstream. It's still by no means a sanitized, comfortable movie: Ryo and Megumi live squarely in the underbelly of Hong Kong, with Ryo frequently coming off as little more than a caged animal. The world of LF is suitably garish, with Konuzuke happily treating fighters as mere grist for the mill, and the most brutal violence generally reserved for those who deserve it least.
Full review at EFC.
Robo Rock
* * ¾ (out of four)
Every once in a while, when I'm looking at the Japanese offerings at the video store or a genre festival like Fantasia, I have to stop and wonder - does all this stuff really get a theatrical release over there? I don't know. By the time they cross the Pacific to fill slots at a festival or a small video distributor's release schedule, who knows which are the mainstream hits, the direct-to-video releases, or the Japanese equivalents of a Sci-Fi Channel TV movie? For all I know, Robo Rock is some friends with a consumer HD video camera shooting guerrilla style before handing it off to their other friends who can do wonders with a small CGI budget. It has that feel at times.
There aren't many robots at the start. The film is narrated by Masaru Higawara (Shun Shioya), a slacker-type working as a "handyman" - basically, someone who does odd jobs for a variety of clients. Those jobs are assigned to him by "mediators", in Masaru's case, shady club owner Ibuse (Kenichi Endo). He lives with his girlfriend Kiriko (Minami), a tattoo artist who only knows one design, and hangs out with Kou (Shoichi Honda), another handyman who does more dangerous work. Things are running at their usual just-short-of-disaster level when he teams with Kou to deliver a rare vinyl album that is more than it seems. And then there's Etsaru Nirasawa (Yuichiro Nakayama), a bespectacled otaku who claims to be from the Disaster Prevention Center. According to him, certain doom is headed toward earth and only Masaru's voice can activate the long-lost "Land Zeppelin" giant robot, which is the only hope of stopping it.
There's a lot to Robo Rock that feels kind of rough. The cast, for instance, often seems to be imitating something else: Shioya's Masaru is the would-be rocker with more enthusiasm than talent; Minami is the shrew that constantly belittles him. Nakayama is doing something of a sad-sack variation of the role Masi Oka plays on Heroes, and Shoichi Honda... When his Kou first appears on-screen, saying little but blessed with an impressive afro, my first thought was "Tadanobu Asano's stunt double". There's also a pair of gangsters, "Alpha Tom" and "Beta Tom", who are flamboyant and quirky in the exact way a person might expect. The actors do well enough following the templates, but can't for the most part bring them to individual life.
Sakigake!! Otokojuku (Be a Man! Samurai School)
Tak Sakaguchi was at the Fantasia screening of Be a Man! Samurai School, and every once in a while, the writer/director/star would pause the Q&A, ask if we wanted to see some action, and engage in a little stage fighting with another stuntman who was in town as a guest of the festival. That was a big crowd-pleaser; and it's what Sakaguchi is best at. He's not exactly bad at comedy, but he does tend to fall back on what he knows.
Here, Sakaguchi plays Momotaro Tsurugi, one of a number of students starting the new year at the little-known but highly-exclusive school of the title. There's also clumsy Tyuji Tomaru (Shin'taro Yameda), and scarred Genji Togashi (Shoei), who cries out "grit!" to show his desire to have the school make him a man. Less enthusiastic is Hidemaro Gokuji (Hiroyuki Onoue), who comes from a long line of samurai and yakuza but prefers a far less violent lifestyle himself. This, of course, will not be found at Sakigake!! Otokojuku, which is every cliché about abusive teacher-student and upperclassman-freshman relations turned up to eleven. And that's before the return of Omito Date (Hideo Sakaki), an expelled student looking for revenge.
Those who've seen Cromartie High School will note that Sakaguchi is in somewhat familiar territory for his writing and directing debut: As in Cromartie, much of the movie, especially in the first half, is episodic, a group of loosely linked sketches that are generally pretty amusing, although some jokes might be getting lost in translation. The casting sometimes seems strange, too - none of the actors playing teenagers appear to be under twenty-five; thirty-two year-old Sakaguchi actually comes the closest. There's this weird sequence in the middle when bulky, full-mustached Genji is on a blind date with a girl who actually looks like a schoolgirl, and Western audiences might not be sure how to react - are we supposed to take it at face value of this being a mis-match because the guy is ugly, should we just overlook the fact that it looks like he could be this teenage girl's father, or is this some sort of gag on how Japanese movies often seem cast high-school boys with actors five years older than the actresses playing high-school girls? That segment lands with a thud, which is unfortunate, because a lot of the other jokes work.
The director was candid during the Q&A following the film, saying that it took the various groups trying to develop the Trailer Park of Terror comic as a movie several attempts before they hit on an approach that worked. And even then, they weren't totally satisfied with the approach they wound up taking - they really tried to avoid making it a movie where six teenagers take a wrong turn off the main road and... Well, you know. That's just what wound up working.
The detour they take in the rain leads to a nasty trailer park, one which disappears and reappears so that its ghoulish residents can take more victims. The "queen" of the park is Norma (Nichole Hiltz), who once aspired to leave the place but instead wound up making a deal with the devil (Trace Adkins) to kill its residents, only to find herself trapped with them forever. The latest bus to have mechanical troubles contains Pastor Lewis (Matthew Del Negro) and the six troubled teens he's been at a retreat with: Gothy Bridget (Jeanette Brox), wiseass Alex (Ryan Carnes), gay Michael (Ricky Mabe), sex addict Amber (Hayley Marie Norman), porn addict Jason (Cody McMains), and drug fiend Tiffany (Stefanie Black). They run into Norma, who seems like the only one there, but the trailers she sends them to are occupied by ghouls far less gregarious than her.
There are plenty of wonderful people who live in trailer parks; as you might expect, none will be featured here. The residents of the park are pretty disgusting human beings when we first meet them in a prologue, and Timothy Dolan's script has fun translating every trailer-trash stereotype they can think of into a worthy horror-movie villain fitting with the theme. You get the junkie, the slut, the morbidly obese woman, and the small-time crook. The most stomach-churning is probably Ed Corbin's Sgt. Stank, who probably made his homemade jerky from roadkill before death gave him a new calling.
Posted by Jason at 2:50 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: action, China, comedy, Fantasia, Hong Kong, horror, Japan, martial-arts, sci-fi, silent, USA
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
So here I am, back in Montreal to just have some vacation time that feels like vacation rather than work of any sort, and what am I doing? Trying to get a movie review written and posted before eating breakfast, just like during Fantasia. What is wrong with me? Well, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is fantastic and I want people to see it. It's playing at the Brattle through Monday, and I encourage everyone to give it a look.
Beneath that review, the dozen Fantasia reviews for EFC that I've completed since coming home. The scary part is that there are still at least that many more I'd like to finish before they fall out the back of my head completely.
Anyway - to touristy stuff!
Toki o kakeru shôjo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time)
* * * * (out of four)
Seen 22 August 2008 at the Brattle Theatre (Special Engagements)
Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time has been made into a movie twice before, and I must admit that I'm curious to see at least one of them - there are apparently connections with the 1983 version that position this animated film from 2006 something in between new adaptation, remake, and sequel. Not that it's necessary at all; it's just nice to know that a movie as good as this version has something else connected to it.
We start with Makoto Konno, an average high-school girl who is having a bad day: She sleeps through her alarm, arrives at school to a pop quiz, somehow makes her tempura blow up in home ec, etc., etc. The worst is when the brakes on her bike fail, causing her to flip over a barricade, into the path of an oncoming train. Somehow, just before it hits her, she somehow finds that it's a couple minutes in the past. Her aunt Kazuko says she's "time leapt", and it's not uncommon. Makoto is skeptical, but that doesn't prevent her from trying to repeat the phenomenon. When she does, she finds she's able to undo much of her bad day, although doing so introduces many complications, especially in regards to her best friends - handsome Kousuke, baseball-loving Chiaki (whom everyone but Makoto realizes has a huge crush on her), and soft spoken Yuri (who is fond of Chiaki herself).
I'm sure there are people out there capable of disliking Makoto, even though I have a hard time imagining doing less than adoring her. She tends to extremes as much as any real teenager - brash at times, but with paralyzing self-doubts at others. She's kind of tomboyish (playing baseball with Kousuke and Chiaki is her favorite thing to do), scatterbrained and intimidated as heck at the idea of choosing her future academic track, which could determine the rest of her life. She's also brave enough to take the lead when she sees something that needs doing and generous enough to try and help her friends as well as herself. I love her character design, all awkward skinny legs and arms, and a short haircut that still seems to be out of her control, like she never has time to tend to it properly. She can go from gleeful cackling to frozen stunned silence in an instant and always look right, and Riisa Naka's voice is absolutely perfect for her.
Indeed, it's not often that an animated character comes together quite so perfectly as she does, considering that what is often the work of one performer in a live-action film must be accomplished by many people working months apart with just the director to tie them together. It probably works best this way, though: Some of the slapstick, like Makoto's uncanny knack for crashing into things when she leaps, would look too painful in live action. She's got a bit of Wile E. Coyote in her, as well as a bit of Charles Schulz - she cries in a big, open-mouthed way, just like Sally Brown, for instance. Director Mamoru Hosoda doesn't overdo it on the cartooniness or other visual overload - after Mokoto's first, mind-blasting encounter with non-linear time, he's rather restrained in terms of not using a lot of "effects"; we don't even ever actually see Mokoto disappear or reappear.
What I like most about this movie, perhaps, is that although it's about teenagers, it's about them in a way that maybe you have to be an adult to fully understand. There's a point in the middle of the movie where bits of the sci-fi plot device become clear, and we realize that even though her newfound ability allows her to double back, she's also allowing opportunities to fly by her in the way that people her age do but don't realize they're doing until much later. It's a clever little observation that the movie doesn't quite make explicit, but allows to stay somewhat hidden behind the more teen-friendly "go for it!" message. Also impressive is how screenwriter Satoko Okudera is able to wring clever time-travel plot twists from the same device afterward without undercutting the metaphor, as even the most gifted writers are wont to do.
It's not quite a perfect script - some of the bits about time travel and the future don't quite mesh as well as one might hope, or imply things that run counter to the movie's mood. Those bumps are more than countered by how fleshed-out all the characters are, how funny the action is and how poignant its thoughts on young love are - especially as it doesn't try to make the teen years some idealized thing they aren't. It's a story about time travel, sure, and even one that gets a bit caught up in its own mythology by the end, but in a world that is both hilariously and achingly familiar.
(Note: The print shown was subtitled, although there is apparently also a dubbed print making its way around. I'm sure the English-language version is perfectly nice, but I have a hard time imagining it improving on Riisa Naka's voice acting.)
Also at EFC.
Pi li shi jie (Disciples of the 36th Chamber)
Seen 5 July 2008 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival)
Part of the reason the Shaw Brothers studio was able to turn out so many enjoyable martial arts flicks was that they ran their studio like a factory: They were the very epitome of not messing with success. Take Disciples of the 36th Chamber, part of a series of Shaolin martial arts stories. I happened to see the first in the series, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, as part of a Shaw Brothers retrospective at the Harvard Film Archive about a month earlier. It was a ton of fun, but you can't help but notice this second sequel follows the same template.
This time around, Gordon Liu's San-te is the monk rather than the rebellious student; for that role, we have Hsiao Ho playing a young Fong Sai-yuk. Sai-yuk is arrogant, and like San-te before him, offends the ruling Manchus, eventually escaping to the Shaolin temple where he is taken in as a secular student (the "36th chamber" of the title). Unlike San-te, who found enlightenment studying with the monks, Sai-yuk merely becomes impatient, and begins to sneak out of the temple in order to test himself against the Manchu fighters. The governor (Jason Pai) befriends him, and invites him and the other 36th chamber students to a state wedding. It's an obvious trap, but Sai-yuk may be too proud to recognize it.
If you've seen The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (and, likely, the first sequel, Return to the 36th Chamber), that story is very familiar; it's almost exactly the plot of the first, down to the main character being mocked as a student by the children in the opening scenes. If you've seen almost any Shaw Brothers martial arts film, the film will look familiar; the studio had a number of standing sets and didn't vary their production design much. The main thing that sticks out about this movie is the humor; while the original movie was a fairly serious affair, Hsiao Ho's Fong Sai-yuk is a class-clown type, always ready with a wisecrack and bit of slapstick whenever there's someone stuffy in the area.
Full review at eFilmCritic.
Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer
Someday, I'd like to run a controlled experiment with a movie like Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer. Group A, the control group, sees it more or less cold. Group B sees with the filmmakers in attendance, talking about how they love horror movies, especially from the eighties, so this was a labor of love, working with Robert Englund was awesome, and talks up how they did as much as they could with practical effects rather than CGI. Group C also sees it with the filmmakers in attendance, but they talk about how they really want to make classier stuff, but a kitschy horror movie is a relatively cheap way to make a film that will likely get some sort of distribution on video in part because of a B-movie star with name recognition. Oh, and they used CGI for everything, but because of their budget it wound up just looking like crappy-ass puppets. All three see the same movie, but which group do you think rates it highest and lowest?
We can guess at the answer based on human nature. The point of this thought experiment is not that Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer is a bad movie and the people who say they like it are horror fanatics who want to like it because the filmmakers have sold it as coming from like-minded fans, and they're being taken for a ride. That's not the case at all - Jack Brooks isn't a bad movie, and I don't think there's anything less than genuine about the enthusiasm that went into it. It's that even more than most films, what the audience gets from the likes of this is what they bring to it.
What's the film itself bring? Jack Brooks (Trevor Matthews), who as a kid saw his family killed by some sort of bigfoot troll. Now he's got major anger management issues - the kind that make his shrink (Daniel Kash) reluctant to see him - and a girlfriend, Eve (Rachel Skarsten) that really doesn't seem compatible with a low tolerance for aggravation. He and she are taking night classes at the local high school, including a science class taught by Professor Crowley (Robert Englund). One night Jack goes out to Crowley's secluded home to do some work on the pipes, which are filled with something nasty - something nasty which soon possesses Crowley.
Punchlady
* * (out of four)
Seen 6 July 2008 at Concordia Theatre J.A. de Seve (Fantasia Festival)
I'm not one to say that there are certain subjects that are untouchable, or can't be made to fit into a certain genre, in part because I've seen too many counterexamples. Still, there are some where filmmakers would be well-advised to think long and hard about what they're doing, domestic violence being pretty high on the list. Punch Lady may get points for doing something more interesting than the standard melodrama, it quickly loses them for a constant stream of incredibly questionable decisions.
Ha-eun (Do Ji-won) is the woman being beaten as the film opens, and if that's not bad enough, husband Ju-chang (Park Sang-wuk) does this for a living: He's a mixed martial arts champion. This time, he doesn't just focus his rage on Ha-eun, but their daughter (Choi Seol-ri), which finally gives Ha-eun the impetus to clock him with some furniture and get out of there. She moves in with a friend, and is soon approached by her high-school boyfriend, now also an MMA hopeful, who invites her to watch his fight against her husband. This is disastrous, as Ju-chang beats him so badly that he dies in the hospital later on, leading to Ha-eun making a scene at Ju-chang's press conference that results in her challenging him to a fight three months down the line. No gym wants to take her on until she wanders into one run by Soo-hyeon (Son Hyeon-joo). In actuality, Soo-hyeon is her daughter's math teacher, and was intending to turn the gym into a day-care center until Ha-eun showed up offering a not-insubstantial amount of money. Of course, Soo-hyeon knows nothing about martial arts.
Many movies have some shaky elements, but it's hard to remember any as thoroughly and willfully stupid as Punch Lady. Consider the premise: Ju-chang kills Ha-eun's old/new boyfriend in the ring, and he wasn't giving up nearly as much size, strength, and skill as Ha-eun would be. The idea that this fight could be anything but a slaughter is, thus, patently absurd. Heck, the very idea that the MMA governing body would touch it with a ten-foot pole is ridiculous, as there are basically two potential outcomes: They either televise a man pummeling (and likely killing) his wife, which can't possibly be good publicity, or by some miracle their champion is beaten by a petite fifty-kilo woman. Both of these are outcomes any reasonably competent business man can foresee and want no part of, but this bit of logic is passed right by.
Negatibu happi chenso ejji (Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge)
Funny thing about fantasy entertainment - we get so caught up in the forms and mythologies and visuals of them, that we often seem to forget just why fantasy exists. "Escapism" is a word we throw around, but it's generally meant to refer to the audience, rather than the characters, even though they're likely the ones who need an escape.
Start with Yosuke (Hayato Ichihara). He's a fairly ordinary high school student who has been sneaking out of his dormitory more ever since his buddy Noto (Haruma Miura) died. One night, he comes across Eri (Megumi Seki), a beautiful but morose girl who engages in a nightly battle with a giant chainsaw-wielding maniac; it's a good thing she has a fuku filled with throwing knives to go along with preternatural strength, reflexes, and fighting skills. Yosuke is immediately taken with her, and starts trying to help. Naturally, he's in the way more than he's actually useful, but after a while she seems to be glad to have him around.
I admit it - I was there for the pretty girl fighting a gigantic marauder that fell from the sky with a chainsaw. I imagine most of the audience was, and I doubt many of us were wondering why Eri was fighting this guy aside from how he might be putting the citizens of Tokyo in peril and what arcane agency had bestowed powers upon her; the smitten but ineffective sidekick just seemed like comic relief. So it wound up being kind of a surprise - though a pleasant one - that these wound up being mere details that would eventually fade into the background. Negative Happy Chain Saw Edge has monsters and action scenes, yes, but it's not about them; it's about how Yosuke and Eri cope with loss, and the feelings of being powerless and lonely that accompany it.
Music doesn't interest me nearly as much as movies do, and I grew up on the East Coast besides, so it's not exactly surprising that I'd never heard of short-lived (but apparently influential) Los Angeles punk band The Germs and their leader Darby Crash. So perhaps it's a bit of an indictment that, after seeing What We Do Is Secret, I have no interest of hearing of them again. The fans seemed to enjoy it, though, so it's doing something right.
The Germs were a late-seventies band started by "Darby Crash" (Shane West) in high school. He started it with his friend George (Rick Gonzalez), who would take the stage name "Pat Smear". They advertised for bandmates, eventually meeting "Lorna Doom" (Bijou Phillips) and what would become a revolving door of drummers, notably including Don Bolles (Noah Segan). There's something there, but with Darby's charisma comes an incredible tendency toward self-destruction. There's the usual drugs, but also cutting himself on stage, inciting the audience to riot, and playing the band and the fans against each other. It's no wonder that at one point they're considered the hottest band in L.A. but have to book their gigs under a different name because no club will touch them.
There are, it seems, two basic rock and roll biopic templates; both of them involve a talented young musician whose emotional fragility is exacerbated by drugs, the only question being whether or not he beats the habit in the end. Fans know and the rest will quickly deduce that Crash is, as one might expect from the name he chose for himself, on the path of Icarus. There is something fascinating about seeing an otherwise intelligent, capable person seemingly committed to making things worse for himself and everyone around him, and this story certainly delivers plenty of downward-spiraling.
Idiots and Angels
Seen 9 July 2008 at Concordia Theatre Hall (Fantasia Festival, Animated Auteur Visions)
Idiots and Angels is Bill Plympton's new film. For fans of the artist and many animation enthusiasts, this bit of information is all that really needs to be said when it comes down to deciding whether or not to give the movie a look. For those who are less devoted, it's good Bill Plympton. For those who are less familiar with the man, well, there's the rest of the review.
Plympton's style should be familiar, even if his name isn't necessarily so: It is most definitely cartooning, with caricatured body types in two dimensions. Though at least partially created with digital tools, it still retains the look of being drawn with colored pencils, with a frequently low frame rate and a fondness for gags that are a little on the gross side. It's about as far from what Chuck Jones used to call "animated radio" as can be, with dialog frequently either absent or deliberately garbled. His last feature, 2004's Hair High, was something of a departure from this, with narration and several speaking parts. Idiots and Angels pretty much dispenses with words, so it's something of a return to form in that sense.
It follows a patently unpleasant man who smashes his alarm clock and throws things at chirping birds in the morning, and will happily threaten lethal force to take a favored parking space; he sells black market guns from in a local bar. One morning, though, he awakens to find bony stubs growing out of his back, and despite his attempts to cut them off, they eventually grow to become a pair of angel's wings. Soon everybody he meets is trying to exploit his unwelcome additions, which he would just like to be rid of, as they seem to have a disturbingly altruistic mind of their own.
Sekai de Ichiban Utsukushii Your (The Most Beautiful Night in the World)
It's probably not wise to expect a movie to be both provocative and wise. The idea that Daisuke Tengan proposes in The Most Beautiful Night in the World is crude and simplistic, and he drives it home with some anything-but-subtle imagery; my initial reaction was that it was horrible and would be a disaster. That doesn't make the basic idea unworthy of consideration, though.
In the present day, junior-high student Midori (Haruki Ichikawa) is preparing, along with much of her village, for a trip to Tokyo to be honored by the Prime Minister for the village having the highest birth rate in Japan. She is writing a letter to a famous reporter on the surprising story of how this came to pass. Fifteen years earlier, a big-city reporter by the name of Kazaya Mizimu (Tomorowo Taguchi) arrived in town, exiled from Tokyo for a scandal. The local editor (Shiro Sano) despairs of anything interesting ever happening there, though Mizimu figures something must eventually happen with the colorful cast of characters he finds: There's Shineko (Michie Ito), a child-like woman who people treat like a moron; she's secretly a genius but allergic to stupidity; she assists her father Gonzo (Akira Emoto), a fisherman and would-be musician. There's Nihei (Ryo Ishibashi), a former Marxist terrorist whose interests now run to archeology, particular the ancient Jomon people, famed for their unusually strong sex drive. Local Shinto priest Pontus (Takeshi Wakamatsu) operates an island brothel; the local bar is owned by Teruko (Sarara Tsukifune), who lived in the city for a time and is reputed to have psychic powers and/or belong to a cult.
It's an interesting group, and Kaname Village is a nice place to have them bouncing off each other. It's one of those small movie towns with bicycles and bridges, where even the residents who only briefly interact with the main characters have some sort of memorable quirk. It takes on a bit of the appearance of a fairy tale, something that can be partially attributed to the young narrator. Everyone and everything is very distinctive - Mizimu is very earnest, Teruko is sexy but sophisticated relative to the locals; her bar is dumpy, noirish, and spooky depending on the needs of the moment.
Gidam (Epitaph)
Seen 10 July 2008 at Concordia Theatre J.A. de Seve (Fantasia Festival)
Epitaph is one of the busiest horror films I've seen lately, starting in 1979 before flashing back to 1942, offering up ghosts and serial killers and obsessions that may or may not be connected in ways other than happening in close proximity to each other. It's got its moments, some of them excellent, but not enough to forgive a somewhat weak story.
Or three stories, as the case may be. Though the film starts with an elderly Dr. Park Jung-nam (Jeon Mu-song) delivering a lecture about a WWII-era surgery, he only figures prominently in one of the stories that unfolded at Anseng Hospital in 1942: As a young intern (Jin Goo) betrothed to a Japanese girl he only vaguely remembers from childhood, he's assigned to assist Dr. Kim In-young (Kim Bo-kyeong) in the morgue, where he becomes obsessed with a beautiful Jane Doe found drowned in a nearby river. Elsewhere in the hospital, Dr. Lee Soo-in (Lee Don-kyu) finds himself bonding with Asako (Ko Joo-yeon), a silent five-year-old girl who is the sole survivor of an automobile accident that claimed both her parents (and who may be haunted literally as well as figuratively). As if that's not enough, In-young - who aside from being a coroner is also the wife of Dr. Kim Dong-won (Kim Tae-woo), Asia's most brilliant neurosurgeon - is also being consulted on what appears to be a serial killer attacking officials of the occupying Japanese forces.
Much of the trouble with Epitaph is its structure. It's sort of an anthology film, with the three stories mostly told in self-contained chunks, although there is a fair amount of overlap between them - too much for them to be cleverly linked but basically separate, but not enough for the three to merge into one story. It's a structure that works fine for a lot of more conventional dramas, but fantasies require the audience to consider rules other than those of human interaction, which don't always line up here: What we learn about ghosts in story A doesn't necessarily apply to story B, even though they're otherwise tied too closely for that.
Tenten (Adrift In Tokyo)
* * * ½ (out of four)
Every time I see a new one, I wonder why there aren't more movies made using the same template as Adrift in Tokyo. It's a deceptively straightforward one - two people walking through city streets, talking and getting to know each other - for every beautiful Before Sunrise or Quiet City, there's probably a dozen that are numbing story-free torture. Just because what Satoshi Miki and his cast do here is simple doesn't make it easy.
Here we have Fumiya Takemura (Jo Odagiri) and Aiichiro Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura). Takemura is an aimless college student with gambling debts; Fukuhara is the man sent to collect them. Surprisingly, Fukuhara offers Fumiya another option; he'll forget about the money if the younger man will accompany him on a walk across the city. At the end, when they arrive at what Fukuhara says is the best police station in the city, Fukuhara will confess to the accidental death of his wife.
I love movies shot like Adrift In Tokyo, on authentic city streets that have something in common with city streets everywhere but still give a feeling of being unique to that neighborhood. They aren't necessarily the places tourists take pictures, and we probably haven't seen them in other films. It's fun to play tourist that way, and when the unexpected happens - as it often does in Satoshi Miki's film - it seems both more surprising and more believable, because those scenes seldom look staged to start.
Wicked Lake
* (out of four)
I grew up in Maine, where comedians can build entire routines out of how we use the word "wicked". For us, it's usually an adverb that means "very", as in "wicked cool". In some spots, you can drop the "cool" part and have something that means "awesome". It is more properly used to mean "evil" or "improper/sinful but enticing". Sadly, the movie Wicked Lake is none of those things. It probably intends to be the last one, but is more often closer to "evil". That's not fair to it, though - making an awful movie isn't actually monstrous, after all.
It is calculated, of course, in much the same way as the other movies Media Blasters/Fever Dreams was promoting at the festival. It's a Frankenstein's monster of a movie, based on what's been shown to correlate with high sales for non-sequel direct-to-video horror: More blood and guts than a movie that cares about an R rating can use and naked girls (even better if they're making out!), I imagine, are the first things on the list. Quality writing and acting are much lower. A couple names with horror movie credentials will help, too, but Frankenstein is on a budget, so figure out the point below which crappiness hurts sales and stay a few bucks above that.
Giving the creation a soul is a difficult thing, though those other movies had a little more success. With Machine Girl, they had a filmmaker with a track record of making giddy exploitation at the helm; I haven't seen Tokyo Gore Police, but the description promises something new and creatively gross every few minutes and some talented people involved. Wicked Lake, on the other hand, has a thoroughly generic screenplay by the director of I Know Who Killed Me: Four hot lesbian witches (though only two actually contribute to the story) take a road trip to a mountain cabin to perform some sort of ritual only to have to deal with the nasty redneck family of Caleb (Mark Senter), the dork who has a crush on Ilene (Robin Sydney), some more jerks they meet at a gas station on the way, and a pair of perhaps overzealous cops investigating some nasty murders.
The story plays out in painfully predictable and lame ways: Just about every man is a pig and a thug; the ones that aren't are cowardly and ineffectual at standing up to the rest. There's not a character in the movie that isn't made out of purest cardboard, and the witches don't come off as much better than the guys. Ilene's girlfriend Helen (Eryn Joslyn), the leader of the group, manages to be enough of a bitch to taint the entire group, so that when the white trash shows up and starts tying people up and threatening sexual assault, it results on the audience not having sympathy for anyone, especially since the other two are vicious like they've had practice when an opportunity arises to turn the tables.
Chanbara Beauty (Oneechanbara)
I've spoken to people who claim that the story is the most important part of a video game, which strikes me as silly, mainly because it makes them less like games. When you play basketball, are you acting out a plot? Besides, the storyline that is considered a strength within a game is often exposed as pretty weak when transplanted to a medium like film.
To be fair, it's not as if the action movies always offer that much more. In both, we're often brought up to speed fairly quickly: The world in general and Japan in particular have been overrun with zombies. One of the survivors is Aya (Eri Otoguro), the last member of a secret ninja clan, who is on a quest to find Dr. Sugita (Taro Suwa); Sugita is the cause of zombie plague and has Aya's teenaged sister Saki (Chise Nakamura) as an ally. Aya has a chubby sidekick, Katsuji (Tomohiro Waki), who is also looking for his little sister Asami; they meets up with Reiko (Manami Hashimoto), who is looking for her daughter.
For either a videogame or a b-movie, that's probably just enough plot to glue together a few zombie attacks and lead up to a "boss" stage where Aya finally confronts her sister and Sugita. The thing is, in a really good video game or action movie, the action scenes would be much more exciting because you're either the player controlling the main character or watching folks who are really good at action go to work. Neither is the case here; the zombie effects and CGI are fairly unimpressive, and Eri Otoguro is not Michelle Yeoh: I'm guessing that looking good in the costume was a much larger factor in her casting than the ability to sell a good fight.
One of the few things I miss about living in the suburbs versus the city is that it's difficult for me to keep a dog. My family had them while I was growing up, and I envy my brothers with their dachshunds and labs. Pets do become a part of one's family, and that simple fact is what makes Red compelling; most of us can sympathize with a man defending their family, even when it comes down to wanting justice for the four-legged members.
Red is an old dog belonging to Avery Ludlow (Brian Cox), the mostly-retired owner of the local general store. One morning, he and Red are out fishing when three teenagers come upon him, carrying a gun and looking for money. Avery doesn't have much on him, which displeases the boys; the ringleader, Danny McCormack (Noel Fisher) takes his anger out on Red, shooting the old dog dead. When Avery gets back to town, he's looking for justice, but his attorney friend Sam (Richard Riehle) has bad news - according to the law, Red was merely property, with destruction of property being a misdemeanor, and Danny's father Michael (Tom Sizemore) is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in town. Avery is undeterred, so Sam decides to bring in Carrie Donnel (Kim Dickens), a reporter for a nearby TV station, in the hopes that shaming the McCormacks will lead to Danny admitting his responsibility. Instead, things begin to escalate.
That the audience will get more angry at a dog's death than a person's is a cliché in movies, of course, to the point where even the rebelling against it has become tiresome - the audiences applauding a dog's killing in a horror movie is by now a merely (ironically?) Pavlovian reaction, rather than delighted shock that a filmmaker is willing to do something others shy from. It's a cliché that comes from a real place, though, and this movie earns its use: It shows us Red as Avery's constant companion, and peppers the rest of the film with other dog lovers, casually or forcefully reminding the audience of the bond a person and his dog share whenever the audience might think Avery should just let it go.
Labels: action, animation, comedy, drama, Fantasia, horror, Japan, Korea, sci-fi, USA
Hooray for region-free: I'm a Cyborg, But That's ...
Movie Watch-a-Thon: Don't Go in the House, Rollin...
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Forum Home >Jazz Music Lounges >Jazz Music News, Press Releases
New album from vocalist Marty Elkins
Quote Reply Topic: New album from vocalist Marty Elkins
Posted: 15 Aug 2018 at 8:03pm
VOCALIST MARTY ELKINS INVIGORATES TRAD JAZZ
WITH THE RELEASE OF "FAT DADDY"
ON NAGEL HEYER RECORDS
Vocalist MARTY ELKINS has a special affinity for older jazz and swing tunes. She has a liquid, bluesy voice that is the perfect vehicle for standards originally sung by artists like Alice Faye, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ethel Waters. Although the 14 songs on Elkins' newest CD, FAT DADDY (Nagel-Heyer Records, July 6, 2018), were all written between 50 and 90 years ago, Elkins makes them feel as fresh and relevant today as ever.
FAT DADDY is Elkins' sixth CD since 2000. Four of her CDs are on Nagel-Heyer Records, a German label that specializes in mainstream jazz with internationally known artists. She found her way to that label through her friend Warren Vache, who also records for them.
Elkins began singing jazz while she was in college in Boston and had the opportunity to perform with pianist Dave McKenna. She came to New York City in the early 1980s and sat in with Max Kaminsky's band at Jimmy Ryan's, which was a popularvenue for traditional jazz and the last surviving jazz club on 52nd Street. Elkins then spent years honing her chops playing in clubs in and around New York with many of the top musicians that live and work in the area. She also performs from time to time in Europe.
Elkins is joined on FAT DADDY by some old friends with whom she often works, including JOEL DIAMOND,a prolific producer, composer and pianist who has worked with a range of vocalists including Jane Olivor and Gayle Winters. He produced this CD and joins Elkins on piano and organ on several tunes. JON-ERIK KELLSO on trumpet performs with Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. Guitarist JAMES CHIRILLO has worked with many of the swing era's greats, including Benny Goodman, Buck Clayton, and Benny Carter, among others. STEVE ASH, who also plays piano on this disc, was selected by The Kennedy Center and The U.S. State Department to tour West Africa and France as part of The Jazz Ambassadors in 2004. Bass player LEE HUDSON is a busy touring and recording artist who performed with Lou Donaldson, Illinois Jacquet, and Dizzy Gillespie, among many others. Drummer TARO OKAMOTO has played with such jazz notables as Reggie Workman, Duke Jordan, Barry Harris, Billy Harper and Eddie Henderson. Veteran percussionist LEOPOLDO FLEMING is perhaps best known for his performances with Nina Simone, with whom he worked for 17 years.
The 14 songs on this project were all written and originally performed between the 1920s and 1950s. Although many of these songs are associated with Billie and Ella, Elkins manages to stay true to the sensibility of the songs while sounding unlike anyone else. Her voice is attractive and relaxed. She sings with a lot of warmth and feeling, but never emotes. The lyrics and mood of a song are much more important to her than mere pyrotechnics. Her favorite instrument is the trumpet, and it's easy to hear how it's influenced her tone. She loves to sing ballads, but she can swing as well as any of the old masters. "I sing these songs because they make me happy," says Elkins. "They're fun to sing and listen to. They never get old. When I hear this music, it's like being wrapped in a warm blanket."
Elkins opens the CD with her swinging version of "You Turned the Tables on Me," which was first recorded by Alice Faye in 1936. Elkins chose to include "On Revival Day" after hearing LaVern Baker's recording of it on her 1958 "LaVern Baker Sings Bessie Smith." "How Can You Face Me" is a Fats Waller tune from 1936, and "That's All There Is To That" is a Clyde Otis/ Kelly Owens tune that was originally released by Dinah Shore in 1956. "It's Too Hot For Words" was first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1935. Holiday also recorded "Trav'lin' All Alone" in 1937, and she recorded around 14 versions of "I Cover The Waterfront." "Cow Cow Boogie," which is associated with Ella Fitzgerald, was written for the 1942 movie "Ride 'em Cowboy." Ella also made famous "It's A Pity To Say Goodnight," which was originally recorded by Dorothy Squires in 1946. "My Old Flame" has been recorded by many artists. It was composed in 1934 by Arthur Johnston (music) and Sam Coslow (lyrics) for the film "Belle of the Nineties." It was originally sung by Mae West accompanied by Duke Ellington's orchestra. Billie Holliday also did several versions of it. "Fat Daddy" is a fun tune first performed by Dinah Washington. "These Foolish Things" is another widely recorded tune. It was written in 1936 by Englishmen Jack Strachey and Eric Maschwitz, who was romantically linked to the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong while working in Hollywood. The lyrics reflect his longing for her after they parted and he returned to England. "I Can't Face the Music," recorded by Ethel Waters in 1926, is one of the oldest songs on this disc. "Sugar," also known as "That Sugar Baby o' Mine," was also recorded in 1926 by Ethel Waters. "Trav'lin' All Alone" was written by James C. Johnson in 1929 but made popular by Billie Holiday 1937.
Stephen King said, "Sooner or later, everything old is new again," and Marty Elkins demonstrates just how that's done by making the chestnuts on FAT DADDY sound as fresh as the day they were minted. Her straight-ahead, smoky interpretations create a stimulating immediacy, because she imbues these songs with a naturalness and sense of sheer fun that only an experienced artist can evoke.
About Marty Elkins
Marty Elkins was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was exposed to jazz when she was in college in Boston. Her life changed when she found a copy of Billie Holiday's "Lady in Satin" in a local Woolworth's bin in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Holing up in her room with this recording and a Bessie Smith record, she became devoted to jazz. She had the opportunity to sit in with Dave McKenna, who had a steady gig at the Copley Plaza. She also landed a gig singing with a vocal trio in Bo Winiker's band, floating around the Boston harbor singing Andrews Sisters songs.
Elkins moved to New York in the early eighties and started hanging out at the last clubs from the Fifty-Second street era -- Jimmy Ryan's and Eddie Condon's. She began singing with Max Kaminsky's band to enable Max to get off the bandstand and sell his book. She then spent some years in "the trenches," playing various bars and restaurants in the New York area. Fortunately, she always had the pleasure of singing with excellent musicians.
Lately she has been free-lancing in New York City and the surrounding areas, appearing at the Falcon Art Center in Marlboro, NY, with "The Saints of Swing," Jazz Vespers at the First Presbyterian Church of Phillipstown, in Cold Spring, NY, and various music venues around the city, such as Smalls and Zeb's Sound and Light.
FAT DADDY was released on July 6, 2018 and is available at Amazon and iTunes .
www.martyelkins.com
www.facebook.com/marty.elkins1
www.nagelheyer.com
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Jeff Walt was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania among a community of railroad workers, brick layers, and stripminers. He's been employed as a cowboy at Walt Disney World; gallery attendant; customer service trainer; a cook; masseur; barista; and as an adjunct English composition instructor at Honolulu Community College. He graduated from Goddard College in Vermont with his MFA in Writing and Literature. Jeff is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and has placed in various national poetry contests. A passionate Aquarian and cinephile, he pops for decoupage, collage, salvaging, macrobiotic food, mixology, home exchange, and Mid-Century modern architecture. Currently, he thrives in sunny San Diego as a Regional Editor and The Kowit Poetry Contest Coordinator for the San Diego Poetry Annual, which is part of the San Diego Arts & Entertainment Guild.
Jeff�s work is forthcoming or has appeared in the following print and online journals: Alehouse Review, Alligator Juniper, Arlington Literary Journal, Americas Review, Assaracus, Bamboo Ridge, Bay Windows, Cactus Heart, Chaminade Literary Review, Chelsea Review, Christopher Street, Clackamas Literary Review, The Comstock Review, Connecticut Review, Connecticut River Review, Cream City Review, Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry & Prose,The Dubliner Magazine, Explorations (last issue), Friends of Acadia Journal, Fuck Art, Let's Dance ssue #005, Fugue, The Gay and Lesbian Review, Gival Press web site, The Good Men Project, Harpur Palate, Hawaii Pacific Review, Hawaii Review, Inkwell Magazine, Lascaux Review, The Ledge, Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir, Los Angeles Review, LUMMOX, Mangrove Review, National League of American PEN Women Portland Branch Newsletter, New Millennium Writings, New York Native, Oberon, Out in the Mountains, Poetry International, Prose Ax, Provincetown Arts, PULSE, Quill & Ink, Radiant Turnstile, Red Wheelbarrow, Reed Magazine, RFD, Runes, Sahara, Samsara, Serving House Journal, Seven Days, Silk Road, Slipstream, Southword, The Sun, Synesthesia Journal, T(OUR), Whiskey Island, The Worcester Review, Wild Plum, Winning Writers Web Site.
Poems have also appeared in various anthologies:
Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Male Poetry (Alyson Publications, 1995); Hard Love: Writings on Violence and Intimacy (Queen of Swords, 1996); Mourning Our Mothers: Poems About Loss (Andrew Mountain Press, 1998); Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure (New World Library, 2001); Touched by Eros (The Live Poets Society, 2002); The Poets' Grimm: Twentieth Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Story Line Press, 2003); Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge: Poems About Marriage (Grayson Books, 2003); Hello, Goodbye (July Literary Press, 2004); Poetic Voices Without Borders (Gival Press, 2005); For Better or Worse (PoetWorks Press, 2005); The Mysterious Life of the Heart: Stories from The Sun about Passion, Longing, and Love (The Sun Magazine, 2009); Poetic Voices Without Borders 2 (Gival Press, 2009); The Light in Ordinary Things (Fearless Books, 2009); One for the Road (Split Oak Press, 2010); Gay City (Vol. Three): RePulped (Gay City Anthologies {Editor's Choice Award}, 2010); TOUCHING: Poems of Love, Longing, and Desire (Fearless Books, 2011); BETWEEN: New Gay Poetry, (Chelsea Station Editions, 2013), Too Obscene (Nostrovia! Press, 2013), Off the Rocks: Subtext (New Town Writers, 2013), Turning the Page: Poems of Trauma, Healing, and Transcendence (Fearless Books, 2014), HIBERNATION, and Other Poems by Bear Bards (Bear Bones Books, 2014), San Diego Poetry Annual 2015 (Garden Oak Press, 2015), Steve Kowit: This Unspeakably Marvelous Life (Serving House Books, 2015), San Diego Poetry Annual 2016 (Garden Oak Press, 2016), All We Can Hold: A Collection of Poetry on Motherhood (Sage Hill Press, 2016); The Lascaux Prize 2018 [print] anthology (Lascaux Review, 2018); Beer, Wine, and Spirits Anthology (Concrete Wolf, 2018); A Year in INK, Vol. 11 (San Diego Writers INK, 2018). His chapbook, What I Didn't Know, appeared in the chapbook anthology, Passionate Lives (Queen of Swords, 1998), with an Introduction by poet Mark Doty. A second Chapbook, "Soot," won the 2009 Keystone Chapbook Prize and is available for purchase through Seven Kitchens Press.
Writing Residencies
Jeff has been awarded residential writing retreats and scholarships from the following:
Vermont Studio Center, 1994 full-scholarship.
The MacDowell Colony, 1995 Resident Artist.
Djerassi Resident Artist Program, 2003 & 2015 & 2016 Resident Artist.
Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, 2005 Merit-based scholarship.
Kalani on The Big Island of Hawaii, 2009 Resident Artist.
The Esalen Institute via The Sun Magazine, 2012 Merit-based scholarship.
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, 2017 Resident Artihttp://givalpress.com/index.cfm?rsn=230&mn=Authorsst.
Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, 2018 Resident Artist.
1/5/19: Full-Manuscript, Leave Smoke, accepted for publication by Gival Press in fall 2019. More about Gival Press HERE.
10/4/18: Single poem chosen as one of three Finalists in the 14th Annual/2018 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award competition.
6/15/18: Chapbook selected as a Finalist in the 2018 Robin Becker Chapbook Contest sponsored by Seven Kitchens Press.
6/4/18: Poem, "The World is Ending on the East Coast," selected as First Place in The Frank O'Hara Prize competition sponsored by the Worcester County Poetry Association with publication in The Worcester Review, 2018.
8/20/17: Full-Manuscript chosen as a Finalist in the 18th annual Gival Press Poetry Award book competition.
6/27/17: Full-Manuscript chosen as a Semi-Finalist in the annual Washington Prize contest (33 out of 346 total entries).
5/01/17: Single poem selected as 2nd Place in The Frank O'Hara Prize competition sponsored by the Worcester County Poetry Association with publication in The Worcester Review, 2017.
3/10/17: Hired as Regional Editor for the San Diego Poetry Annual by founder William "Bill" Harry Harding. The annual is published by Garden Oak Press, in association with the San Diego Entertainment & Arts Guild (SDEAG), a 501(c)(3) local arts non-profit.
3/1/17: Chapbook Selected as Honorable Mention in the 2016 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Contest by final judge Christopher J. Jarmick.
2/5/17: One of fourteen poems chosen as Finalist in the 2017 Lascaux Prize in Poetry with publication in the Lascaux Prize 2018 anthology.
2/1/17: Awarded Runner-up with ten shortlisted poets in the annual Gregory O'Donoghue 2017 International Poetry Competition (sponsored by the Munster Literary Center in Cork, Ireland) selected from 2,200 total entries with publication in Southword, 2017.
12/1/16: Finalist in the 2016 Paumanok Poetry Contest sponsored by The Visiting Writers Program at Farmingdale State University.
12/01/16: Single Poem selected as Honorable Mention in the inaugural Steve Kowit Poetry Prize competition sponsored by the San Diego Arts & Entertainment Guild.
11/28/16: Honorable Mention in the 42nd Annual New Millennium Award for Poetry competition, 2016.
11/3/16: Third Place in the 2016 Connecticut River Review Poetry Contest.
10/18/16: Poem selected as 10th place in the 18th Annual 2016 Poetry Super Highway Poetry Contest judged by the previous winners with 865 total entries.
10/14/16: Awarded Artist-in-Residence by the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts as part of their 2018 residency season.
10/01/16: Selected for a 2016 Winter Alumni Residency by the Djerassi Resident Artist Program for the month of December, 2016.
8/9/16: Chapbook manuscript, Leave Smoke, awarded 5th place in the 2016 Sow's Ear Poetry Chapbook Contest.
8/1/16: Full-Manuscript chosen as Finalist in the 2016 Marsh Hawk Poetry Book Competition judged by Mark Doty.
7/31/16: Honorable Mention in the 14th Annual Oscar Wilde Award competition sponsored by Gival Press.
3/23/16: Honorable Mention for a single poem in the 2015 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers which appears on their website HERE.
3/6/16: Invited by Red Hen Press to participate in the "Best of the West" poetry reading at Villains Tavern (1356 Palmetto St., Los Angeles, CA 90013) in L.A. as part of the 2016 AWP bookfair and convention: Join Pacifica Literary Review, The Los Angeles Review, and Cutbank for a Best of the West reading, featuring literary minds from all over the nation published by journals of the West. Held at the renowned local favorite watering hole, Villains Tavern. Featuring Catherine Pond, William Camponovo, Siel Ju, Magdalawit Makonnen, Jeff Walt, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, and Caleb Tankersley.
2/6/16: Single poem selected by contest judge D.A. Powell for the First Place prize in the Hugo House 2016 Hugo Literary Series New Works contest on the theme of "What Comes Around Goes Around."
1/5/16: Full-Manuscript selected as a Finalist in the Brittingham/Pollak Book Prizes Contest with twenty-six other poets from 900 total entries.
12/1/15: Single Poem awarded Finalist in the 2015 Poetry International Poetry Contest.
11/13/15: Poem, "His Way," selected as Finalist in the 2015 Joy Harjo Poetry Contest sponsored by Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts with 800 total submissions.
11/4/15: Poem selected by Broadsided Press for a professionally designed broadside (literary/visual collaboration) available for vectorizing in August, 2016.
10/18/15: Poem selected as 5th place in the 18th Annual 2015 Poetry Super Highway Poetry Contest judged by the previous winners with 645 total entries.
09/16/15: Two poems selected as Honorable Mentions in the 2015 Littoral Press Broadside Competition.
08/12/15: Honorable Mention in the 14th Annual Gival Press Oscar Wilde poetry competition, 2015.
07/15/15: Runner Up in the annual Fugue Poetry Contest judged by the editors and Kevin Prufer. Publication in the fall 2015 anniversary issue.
01/15/15: First Place in the 2014 Red Hen Press Poetry Prize and published in Los Angeles Review (2016). Contest judge was William Trowbridge.
8/24/14: Honorable Mention in the 13th Annual Gival Press Oscar Wilde poetry competition, 2014.
11/20/14: Carnegie Hall announcement from composer David Sisco: On Friday, November 14 at 8 PM, David will be presenting an evening of his art songs written and inspired by poets Danita Geltner, Linda Dini Jenkins, and Jeff Walt. Tickets are available through Carnegie Hall's website in September, 2014.
3/25/14: Honorable Mention in the 2013 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers and appears on their web site.
9/25/13: Manuscript, "HEX," Semi-finalist in the 2013 River Styx International Poetry Competition selected by Terrance Hayes.
9/12/13: Manuscript, "HEX," chosen as a Semi-finalist by Martha Silano in the Grayson Books inaugural book competition.
9/19/12: Poem, "Mama's Blues," selected to be read by San Diego Writers Ink. as part of BLUEPRINT in conjunction with the Mengei International Museum's current exhibit, True Blue.
9/4/12: Awarded a full scholarship to attend The Sun Magazine's "Into the Fire" October (2012) weekend writing retreat at Esalen in Big Sur, California.
2/6/12: Manuscript, "Hex," chosen as a semi-finalist in the 10th Annual Slope Editions Book Prize competition.
12/15/11: Manuscript, "Hex," chosen as a semi-finalist in the 2011 Blue Lynx Prize competition.
8/22/10: Sequence of poems in the anthology, "Re-pulped" (Gay Cities, 2010), received the "Editor's Choice Award" by Series Editor, Vincent Kovar.
8/16/10: Suite of poems chosen by New York composer David Sisco to be set to music for an upcoming song cycle for tenor, Carl Johengen.
2/1/10: Finalist in the 2009 Paumanok Poetry Contest.
12/18/09 Poem, "Three Drunk Angels," selected as a Finalist in Alligtor Juniper's 2009 National Poetry Competition and appeares in the 2010 issue.
09/26/09 Chapbook, "Soot," annonuced as co-winner of the 2009 Keystone Chapbook Prize by judge Karen J. Weyant. Published in January, 2010.
9/23/09 Gary Young selected "All Day I Have Been Afraid" as one of three Honorable Mentions in the 2009 Littoral Press Broadside Contest.
9/15/09 Finalist in the 2009 River Styx International Poetry Contest.
8/30/09 Poem, "My Tinker," received one of four Honorable Mentions in the 8th Annual Oscar Wilde Award competition sponsored by Gival Press.
6/9/09 Chapbook, "Soot," selected as a semi-finalist in the Robin becker Chapbook contest sponsored by Seven Kitchens Press.
2/02/09: Awarded "Artist-in-Residence" stipend fellowship for the month of October, 2009 at Kalani on The Big Island of Hawaii.
2/26/08: Invited to judge Odyssey (Honolulu) Magazine's April 2009 Poetry Competition for National Poetry Month.
3/24/06: Selected as one of fifty semi-finalists in the "Discovery"/The Nation contest.
2/22/06: Poem "Lying in Bed" was selected as a semi-finalist in the Oneiros Press 5th annual Poetry Broadside Contest.
5/26/05: Awarded a full tuition, room & board scholarship to attend Centrum's 2005 Port Townsend Writers' Conference .
12/16/04: Finalist in the 2004 Paumanok Poetry Contest.
12/1/04: Nominated for a 2005 Pushcart Prize by the editors of Wild Plum.
8/1/04: Poem "Lying in Bed" was awarded First Place in the Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Competition judged by Ron Mohring.
7/8/04: "Hex" was selected as a Finalist in the Clackamas Literary Review's Willamette Poetry Award competition and published in the 2005 issue.
6/25/04: Poem "Fair" won First Place in Whiskey Island�s 2004 Poetry Competition.
6/22/04: Poem "Storm" was awarded Honorable Mention in Friend�s of Acadia�s 2004 Poetry Competition.
3/27/04: Poem "Size" was selected as one of two Finalists in Wild Plum�s 2004 International Poetry Competition and was published in the premiere June 2004 issue.
3/18/04: Judges Marilyn Nelson and Robert Cording chose a suite of poems as one of five Finalist in the Hill-Stead Museum�s Sunken Garden Chapbook Competition ; invited to submit a chapbook to continue in the contest; 4/15/04 awarded Second Place. Selected poems appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Connecticut Review .
3/8/04: Poem "Becoming A Regular" was selected as one of two Finalists from 1,500 by A. E. Stallings in Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry & Prose�s 2004 Poetry Competition.
2/29/04: "All Day I Have Been Afraid " was awarded First Place in the National League of American PEN Women Honolulu Branch Lorin Tarr Gill Poetry Competition.
1/1/04: Nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize by the editors of Prose Ax .
1/1/04: "Jimmy Cocker" received an Honorable Mention in the 1st Annual PULSE Poetry Competition and appears on their web site.
9/21/03: A suite of poems selected by judge Steven Huff as one of seven Finalists in the 2003 Two Rivers Review Poetry Prize.
9/9/03: Poem "Bus Ride" was selected as a Finalist in The Comstock Review 2003 Poetry Contest and published in the Fall/Winter 2003 edition, Volume 17, #2.
9/1/03: Suite of poems chosen for an International Merit Award in the Atlanta Review 2003 International Poetry Competition.
8/11/03: Poem "Becoming A Regular" was a finalist in the sixth annual Marlboro Prize for Poetry sponsored by The Marlboro Review.
6/23/03: Poem "Wall" was awarded Honorable Mention in Oberon �s 2003 Poetry Competition and published with "For My Yoga Teacher" in the Summer 2003 issue.
5/10/03: Poem "The Blob" received First Place in Balticon (Baltimore Science Fiction Society) 37 Poetry Competition.
1/13/03 : Poem "After a Fight" received First Place in the Prose Ax Poetry Competition (local Honolulu �zine).
1/7/03: Poem "My Brother on the Graveyard Shift" selected by Richard Howard to receive Third Place in the Portland Pen Poetry Competition sponsored by the National League of American Pen Women.
1/1/03: Nominated for a 2003 Pushcart Prize by poet Kim Addonizio.
12/18/02 : Poem "After a Fight" was chosen as a Finalist in the Manhattenville College 6th Annual Inkwell Magazine Poetry Competition judged by Elizabeth Alexander .
12/16/02: Poem "Cupid's" was chosen from 330 submissions to receive an Honorable Mention in the Reuben Rose Poetry Competition sponsored by Voices� Israel to English Poetry Association.
8/18/02: Poem "All Day I Have Been Afraid " was selected by Poet Laureate Billy Collins and Carol Ann Duffy for the $1,000 Third Place award in the Davoren Hanna International Poetry Competition and published in The Dubliner Magazine.
8/1/02: Poem "To My Ex-lover Making a Commitment" received First Place in the annual Oscar Wilde Poetry Competition sponsored by Gival Press and appeared on their web site; invited by Robert Giron, Managing Editor, to judge the 2003 competition.
6/14/02: Poem "Why I Work" won the First Place $1,000 New Millenium Writings Poetry Prize XIII and was published in the 2002 issue.
4/20/02: Poem "The Woman Saying Good-bye" won the $500 Second Place award in Explorations � (University of Alaska Southeast) 2002 Poetry Competition (final issue); two other poems, "I Listen to My Sister Making Love" and "All Day I Have Been Afraid" were chosen as Finalists.
2/15/02: Poem "Kitchen Music" was chosen by Marie Howe to receive the Honorable Mention in Inkwell Magazine's 5th Annual Poetry Competition and was published in the Spring 2002 issue.
10/20/01: Poem "Like Gretel" was awarded Second Place in the 2001 Tri-Lang Poetry Competition sponsored by Gival Press .
7/21/00: Poem "Postcards My Brother Used to Send" was awarded First Place in the Out in The Mountains 2000 Poetry Competition.
1996: Manuscript Finalist in the Alicejames New York/New England competition.
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264 Kan. 293
STATE OF KANSAS ex rel. NICK A. TOMASIC, WYANDOTTE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY,Relator, v. THE UNIFIED GOVERNMENT OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY/KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, Respondent.
1. It is a fundamental rule that our state constitution limits rather than confers powers. Where the constitutionality of a statute is involved, the question presented is, therefore, not whether the act is authorized by the constitution, but whether it is prohibited thereby.
2. The constitutionality of a statute is presumed, all doubts must be resolved in favor of its validity, and before the statute may be stricken down, it must clearly appear the statute violates the constitution.
3. In determining constitutionality, it is the court's duty to uphold a statute under attack rather than defeat it, and if there is any reasonable way to construe the statute as constitutionally valid, that should be done.
4. Consolidating the governments of a city and a county is a legislative power.
5. The legislature may enact general provisions and delegate to an administrative body the power to fill in the details if the legislature establishes reasonable and definite standards to govern the administrative body's exercise of authority.
6. Where flexibility in fashioning administrative regulations to carry out statutory purpose is desirable in light of complexities in the area sought to be regulated, the legislature may enact statutes in a broad outline and authorize the administrative agency to fill in the details. Standards may be implied from the statutory purpose.
7. Kansas follows the modern trend that requires less detailed standards and guidance to administrative agencies in order to facilitate the administration of laws in areas of complex social and economic problems.
8. Older statutes are subordinate to new enactments, as the newer statutes are the later expression of the legislative intent and so will control if there is a possible conflict between the two.
9. General and special statutes should be read together and harmonized whenever possible, but to the extent a conflict between them exists, the special statute will prevail unless it appears the legislature intended to make the general statute controlling.
10. Once the legislature has delegated by a law a function to the executive branch, it may only revoke that authority by proper enactment of another law in accordance with the provisions of art. 2, § 14 of our state constitution.
11. Where parts of a statute or a section of a statute can be readily separated, then the part which is constitutional may stand while the unconstitutional part is rejected.
12. The legislature may give voters permission to form themselves into a certain form of local government, and when, by the proper election, they avail themselves of this permission, they are not exercising legislative power, but merely accepting a privilege conferred by a proper exercise of such power.
13. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 19-101a(a)(2) only applies to counties consolidating with one another and does not apply to a county consolidating with a city.
14. Art. 2, § 16 of the Kansas Constitution should not be construed narrowly or technically to invalidate proper and needful legislation. Generally, where the subject of the legislation is germane to other provisions in the legislation, the legislation is not objectionable as containing more than one subject. Art. 2, § 16 is violated only where an act of legislation embraces two or more dissimilar and discordant subjects that cannot reasonably be considered as having any legitimate connection with or relationship to each other.
15. The Kansas Constitution contains no inhibition upon the power of the legislature to provide, as it may deem best, the method for the appointment of officers whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for. On the other hand, the constitution expressly declares that all officers whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for shall be chosen or appointed as may be prescribed by law. Kan. Const. art. 15, § 1. The constitution has placed in the legislature the power to regulate the mode of appointing officers not otherwise provided for.
16. Whether this court may sever an unconstitutional provision from a statute and leave the remainder in force and effect depends on the intent of the legislature. If from examination of a statute it can be said that the act would have been passed without the objectionable portion and if the statute would operate effectively to carry out the intent of the legislature with such portion stricken, the remainder of the law will stand as valid. Whether the legislature had provided for a severability clause is of no importance. This court will assume severability if the unconstitutional part can be severed without doing violence to legislative intent.
Original action in quo warranto. Opinion filed March 6, 1998. Quo warranto denied.
Nick A. Tomasic, district attorney, and Thomas M. Martin and Michael P. Howe, of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C., of Kansas City, Missouri, argued the cause and were on the brief for relator.
Harold T. Walker, chief counsel, of Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, argued the cause, and N. Cason Boudreau, deputy city attorney, and Michael M. Schultz and Daniel B. Denk, of McAnany, Van Cleave & Phillips, P.A., of Kansas City, and Kathryn Pruessner Peters and Norman E. Gaar, of McDowell, Rice, Smith & Gaar, of Overland Park, were with him on the brief for respondent.
Christopher K. McKenzie, of Topeka, and Donald L. Moler, Jr., of Topeka, were on the brief for amicus curiae League of Kansas Municipalities.
ABBOTT, J.: This is an original action in quo warranto. The action was filed by Wyandotte County District Attorney Nick Tomasic seeking a ruling on the constitutionality of the Consolidation Act, K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-340 et seq., which authorized a procedure whereby the voters of Wyandotte County (County) could adopt a consolidated government for County and Kansas City, Kansas (City).
The parties filed a stipulation of facts. By way of background, we include a portion of the stipulation of facts.
"The County is comprised of 155.7 square miles and has a 1996 estimated population of 153,427. The County is the smallest county in Kansas. The County has the fourth largest population in the State of Kansas among Kansas counties.
"The County includes four (4) incorporated municipalities and a small unincorporated area of 2.7 square miles, the Loring area, which is south of Bonner Springs. The four incorporated municipalities are the City, Edwardsville, Bonner Springs and Lake Quivira.
"The City is a city of the first class. It is comprised of 127.85 [square] miles, and has a 1996 estimated population of 142,654. The City is the second largest city in Kansas in terms of population and the largest city in Kansas in land area.
"Approximately 82.1% of the County is within the geographic boundaries of the City.
"The City is the county seat of the County. The County Courthouse and most of the county officials are located in the City.
"Bonner Springs is a second class city. Its boundaries extend over Wyandotte and Johnson Counties. Its 1996 estimated population is 6,541, with 6,538 persons residing in Wyandotte County. Bonner Spring's area covers 15.8 square miles, with 15.5 square miles in Wyandotte County.
"Edwardsville is a third class city. Its 1996 estimated population is 4,097. It covers 9.2 square miles.
"Lake Quivira is a third class city. Its boundaries extend over Wyandotte and Johnson Counties. Its 1996 estimated population is 1,013, of which approximately 40 live in Wyandotte County. It covers 1.3 square miles, with .3 square miles in Wyandotte County.
"The unincorporated Loring area of the County covers 2.7 square miles. Its 1996 estimated population is 95.
"In 1991, the City annexed 17 square miles of unincorporated land in the County, commonly known as the Piper area. See In Re Petition of the City of Kansas City for Annexation of Land, 253 Kan. 402, 856 P.2d 144 (1993).
"As a result of the 1991 annexation, there were mergers of organizations and consolidation of functions. The County Sheriff's deputy patrol, the County road and bridge repair program and the County zoning function were eliminated. The Joint City-County Board of Health was eliminated and all responsibilities and facilities were transferred to the County. The City transferred all jail responsibilities to the County, by interlocal agreement. Solid waste planning vested totally in the City by interlocal agreement for county-wide purposes. The City acquired all remaining water districts in the County. A County sewer district was eliminated.
"Pursuant to the Consolidation Act, on or about May 15, 1996, Governor William Graves appointed five (5) private citizens to form the Consolidation Study Commission of Kansas City, Kansas and Wyandotte County (the 'Commission'). The Commission members who were appointed were Rev. Robert L. Baynham, Chairman, Gary D. Grable, Vice-Chairman, Dr. Thomas R. Burke, Member, Aileen C. Eidson, Member, and Richard A. Ruiz, Member. The members were not elected officials or employees of any of the governmental entities in the County.
"The Consolidation Act charged the Commission with the responsibility to study the consolidation of the City and the County governments, or the consolidation of certain offices, functions, services and operations thereof, and to prepare and adopt a plan addressing such consolidation of governments or offices, functions, services and operations, as deemed appropriate.
"From May through October, 1996, the Commission held public hearings and meetings for the purposes of providing and receiving information about the consolidation of governmental services. Thirty-five (35) public meetings were held at which the Commission solicited opinions and testimony from the staff and elected officials of the two governments regarding the operations and functions of City and County government, as well as from the general public and professionals in various occupations in the area.
"Following receipt of information, the Commission determined that it would be appropriate to prepare and adopt a plan addressing the consolidation of governments rather than the consolidation of functions.
"In November of 1996, pursuant to the Act, the Commission adopted a preliminary plan for the consolidation of the City and County governments. The preliminary plan was delivered to Governor William Graves and mailed to Senate President Richard Bond, Speaker of the House Tim Shallenburger, and each of the House and Senate Local Government Committees. The preliminary plan was filed with the County Election Officer, the City Clerk and each public library within the County.
"Following adoption of the preliminary plan, the Commission held three (3) public hearings to solicit public opinion about the preliminary plan. Approximately 300 people attended the first hearing, approximately 150 to 175 people attended the second hearing and approximately 250 people attended the third hearing.
"The Commission modified certain provisions of the preliminary plan following receipt of comments at the hearings.
"A Consolidation Study Report (the 'Plan') dated January 13, 1997, was prepared and adopted by the Commission. The Plan was submitted to the Kansas Governor and Legislature on January 13, 1997, by personal delivery to Governor William Graves, Senate President Richard Bond and Speaker of the House Tim Shallenburger. . . . The Plan was filed with the County Election Officer, the City Clerk and each public library within the County.
"The Plan provides for a new consolidated form of government, to be known as the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas (the 'Unified Government'). The existing governments of the City and the County are replaced by a governing body composed of a Mayor/Chief Executive and a ten member Unified Board of Commissioners. Eight Commission members are nominated and elected in eight newly created districts. Two County-wide Commission members are nominated from two newly created districts comprised of the four northern-most and four southern-most districts; these Commission members are elected at large. The Mayor/Chief Executive has veto power which can be overridden by a two-thirds majority of the Unified Board of Commissioners.
"The Plan provides for the appointment of a County Administrator by the Mayor/Chief Executive with the consent of the Unified Board of Commissioners. The County Administrator is directly responsible for the daily functions of the Unified Government.
"The Plan provides for the establishment of an Ethics Commission, the members to be appointed by the Administrative Judge of the District Court with consent of the sitting judges of the County and appointment of a Legislative Auditor also appointed by the District Court sitting judges.
"The Kansas Legislature did not adopt a concurrent resolution on or before February 12, 1997, rejecting the Plan. Neither the Governor nor the Kansas Legislature acted in any manner on the Plan.
"A document entitled 'Consolidation Recommendations' was prepared by the Commission and mailed to the citizens of the County prior to the April 1, 1997 election. The document stated that it was a copy of the final recommendations submitted to the Legislature and Governor on January 13, 1997, and that the only purpose of the distribution of the document was to inform recipients of the details of the Recommendations which would appear as Question 1 on the April 1, 1997 ballot. . . .
"Pursuant to the Consolidation Act, the Plan was submitted to the qualified electors of the County (which included City residents) at the April 1, 1997 election. Fifty-nine and six-tenths percent (59.6%) of the electors voting on the Plan voted in favor thereof. . . .
"On August 4, 1997, the governing body of the City passed Charter Ordinance No. 114 repealing provisions of Charter Ordinances No. 84 and No. 90 inconsistent with the recommendations of the Commission and establishing procedures for passage of ordinances by the Unified Government. . . .
"Charter Ordinance No. 114 was published on August 17, 1997, and thus, was not effective until October 24, 1997, sixty-one (61) days after the final publication thereof pursuant to Article 12, § 5 of the Kansas Constitution.
"The Consolidation Act provides that the Unified Government is a county with all the powers, functions and duties afforded to counties under the Constitution and laws of the State, and is also a city of the first class with all the powers, functions and duties afforded to cities of the first class under the Constitution and laws of the State. The Consolidation Act provides that upon the effective date of consolidation of the City and County governments, the territory of the Unified Government includes all of the territory of the County for purposes of exercising powers, duties and functions of a county, and all of the territory of the County, except the territory of Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, Lake Quivira and the unincorporated areas of the County for purposes of exercising the powers, duties and functions of the City.
"The Unified Government has operated as a consolidated city/county since the effective date of consolidation.
"Pursuant to the Plan, the elected offices of County Clerk, County Treasurer, County Surveyor and Public Administrator became appointed positions. All functions performed by these officials will be retained in the newly appointed positions. The County Administrator has established positions of Unified Clerk and Unified Treasurer in order to consolidate the duties and responsibilities of the prior County and City Clerks and the prior County and City Treasurers. The position of County Surveyor has been designated as an administrative position within the Executive Branch to be appointed by the County Administrator. The Public Administrator position and functions will be transferred to the Judicial Branch with the district court judges determining how such functions will be carried out.
"The Plan provides that several offices have been retained for county-wide elections: Sheriff, District Attorney and the Register of Deeds. The District Attorney position is retained as it presently exists. Elections for both the Sheriff position and the Register of Deeds position will be non-partisan and held during the regularly scheduled April election period; prior to consolidation, partisan elections were held for these positions during the regularly scheduled November election period. The terms of office of these two offices will continue to be four (4) years; the terms of office of the present occupants were extended until the election period of April 2001 pursuant to the Plan.
"As of the date hereof, the Unified Government has merged some City and County departments, including the parks departments, clerks departments, legal departments and personnel departments, and merged functions of many other departments. [Approximately] 2,000 employees of the Unified Government have signed up under new health care plans under which they [became] covered as of January 1, 1998. The Unified Government has issued industrial revenue bonds. It has sent tax bills and is collecting taxes. It has carried out all aspects of consolidated city-county government, has taken official actions, has entered into contracts and has prosecuted persons for violations of municipal ordinance and state law. The Unified Government is proceeding with its capital improvements program and with economic development projects and tax increment financing projects that will require the use of the powers of eminent domain and the issuance of general obligation bonds."
"'This court has recognized on several occasions that in a proper case an original action in quo warranto is an appropriate procedure to question the constitutionality of a statute. [Citation omitted.]'" State ex rel. Stephan v. Finney, 251 Kan. 559, 567, 836 P.2d 1169 (1992) (quoting State ex rel. Stephan v. Kansas House of Representatives, 236 Kan. 45, 52, 687 P.2d 622 [1984]). State ex rel. Stephan v. Parrish, 257 Kan. 294, 297-98, 891 P.2d 445 (1995), which was also a quo warranto case, reiterated some of the general rules of constitutional construction:
"'It is fundamental that our state constitution limits rather than confers powers. Where the constitutionality of a statute is involved, the question presented is, therefore, not whether the act is authorized by the constitution, but whether it is prohibited thereby. [Hunt v. Eddy, 150 Kan. 1, 90 P.2d 747 (1939); see Leek v. Theis, 217 Kan. 784, 539 P.2d 304 (1975); Schumacher v. Rausch, 190 Kan. 239, 372 P.2d 1005 (1962); State, ex rel., v. Anderson, 180 Kan. 120, 125, 299 P.2d 1078 (1956).]
"'The constitutionality of a statute is presumed, all doubts must be resolved in favor of its validity, and before the statute may be stricken down, it must clearly appear the statute violates the constitution. [Leek v. Theis, 217 Kan. at 784, Syl. ¶ 2; see Rogers v. Shanahan, 221 Kan. 221, 223, 565 P.2d 1384 (1976); State, ex rel., v. Bennett, 219 Kan. 285, 289, 547 P.2d 786 (1976); Brown v. Wichita State University, 219 Kan. 2, 9-10, 547 P.2d 1015 (1976).]
"'In determining constitutionality, it is the court's duty to uphold a statute under attack rather than defeat it and if there is any reasonable way to construe the statute as constitutionally valid, that should be done. [State, ex rel., v. Fadely, 180 Kan. 652, Syl. ¶ 2, 308 P.2d 537 (1957); see Brown v. Wichita State University, 219 Kan. 2, Syl. ¶ 3; Leek v. Theis, 217 Kan. at 792; Shelton v. Phalen, 214 Kan. 54, Syl. ¶ 5, 519 P.2d 754 (1974).]
"'Statutes are not stricken down unless the infringement of the superior law is clear beyond substantial doubt. [Hunt v. Eddy, 150 Kan. 2, Syl. ¶ 7; see also In re Estate of Diebolt, 187 Kan. 2, 13, 353 P.2d 803 (1960); State, ex rel., v. Urban Renewal Agency of Kansas City, 179 Kan. 435, Syl. ¶ 1, 296 P.2d 656 (1956); State, ex rel., v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. 780, 790, 252 P.2d 859 (1953).]
"'Courts do not strike down legislative enactments on the mere ground they fail to conform with a strictly legalistic definition on technically correct interpretation of constitutional provisions. The test is rather whether the legislation conforms with the common understanding of the masses at the time they adopted such provisions and the presumption is in favor of the natural and popular meaning in which the words were understood by the adopters. [Hunt v. Eddy, 150 Kan. 2, Syl. ¶ 6; Leek v. Theis, 217 Kan. at 793; State, ex rel., v. Highwood Service, Inc., 205 Kan. 821, 825, 473 P.2d 97 (1970); Wall v. Harrison, 201 Kan. 600, 603, 443 P.2d 266 (1968); Higgins v. Cardinal Manufacturing Co., 188 Kan. 11, 360 P.2d 456 (1961).]
"'The propriety, wisdom, necessity and expedience of legislation are exclusively matters for legislative determination and courts will not invalidate laws, otherwise constitutional, because the members of the court do not consider the statute in the public interest of the state, since, necessarily, what the views of members of the court may be upon the subject is wholly immaterial and it is not the province nor the right of courts to determine the wisdom of legislation touching the public interest as that is a legislative function with which courts cannot interfere. [State, ex rel., v. Fadely, 180 Kan. at 659; see City of Wichita v. White, 205 Kan. 408, 469 P.2d 287 (1970); Republic Natural Gas Co. v. Axe, 197 Kan. 91, 415 P.2d 406 (1966); Tri-State Hotel Co. v. Londerholm, 195 Kan. at 760.]'" (Quoting State ex rel. Schneider v. Kennedy, 225 Kan. 13, 20-21, 587 P.2d 844 [1978].)
Following the Act's mandate, the Commission completed the Plan, which recommended total consolidation of the governments in Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The Commission submitted the Plan to the Governor and the legislature in a timely fashion. The legislature did not reject the Plan by concurrent resolution, and the voters of Wyandotte County voted to adopt the Plan by a margin of 60 to 40 percent. In reliance upon the voters' adoption of the Plan, the governments of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, were consolidated into one governing body--the Unified Government. The members of the governing body of the Unified Government were sworn in on October 1, 1997, and first met on October 2, 1997.
I. ART. 2, § 1 OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTION
Art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution provides: "The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a house of representatives and a senate." Legislative power is the power to make, amend, or repeal laws. Executive power is the power to enforce the law, and judicial power is the power to interpret and apply the law to actual controversy. State ex rel. Stephan v. Finney, 251 Kan. at 577.
"'The power to create municipal corporations, including the power to designate their boundaries and to increase or to decrease their corporate limits, is purely legislative--it is not a part of either the executive or judicial branch of government.'" State, ex rel., v. City of Overland Park, 215 Kan. 700, 706, 527 P.2d 1340 (1974) (quoting Ruland v. City of Augusta, 120 Kan. 42, 50, 242 Pac. 456 [1926]); see also Lampe v. City of Leawood, 170 Kan. 251, 253, 225 P.2d 73 (1950) (the creation of a municipal corporation is a legislative function). Similarly, counties are created by the State and their powers, rights, and duties are derived from the legislature and may be changed as the legislature sees fit. Cow Creek Valley Flood Prevention Ass'n v. City of Hutchinson, 166 Kan. 78, 83, 200 P.2d 279 (1948). The consolidation of the governments of a city and a county is not identical to creating a new city or county or changing their boundaries. However, consolidation of city and county governments is similar enough to the legislative powers cited above that it is reasonable to conclude that consolidating the governments of a city and a county together is also a legislative power.
Courts permit the legislature to delegate certain powers to administrative agencies. However, the delegation of a power, such as consolidating the governments of a city and a county, to a private group, as opposed to an administrative agency, is improper. Sedlak v. Dick, 256 Kan. 779, 795, 887 P.2d 1119 (1995). Based on this distinction between a private group and a public administrative agency, the relator contends that the Commission is a private group, as opposed to a public agency or board. Thus, the relator asserts that the legislature has improperly delegated the legislative power of consolidating the city and the county governments to a private group--the Commission.
The respondent rejects this argument by claiming that the Commission is not a private group and has none of the qualities of a private entity. The respondent contends that the Commission was not an independently existing private association, partnership, or corporation. Instead, the respondent contends that the Commission was a public administrative agency, created by statute, which the legislature properly delegated power to. According to the respondent, the Commission was similar to every other public governmental task force or study commission charged with making a recommendation on governmental action.
We hold that the Commission is a public administrative agency, created by statute, which the legislature properly delegated power to. The Commission was created by the legislature, in the Act, to do as the legislature ordered. It was organized for the exclusive legislative purpose of preparing a Plan to consolidate the two governments, with its powers prescribed by statute. It did not exist prior to or independent of legislative authorization.
The Commission may not have had full accountability to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or to the voters, but it did have some. The Governor had the power, under the Act, to appoint the members of the Commission and the implied power to remove such members. The legislature could have passed a bill disbanding the Commission. The State provided funds to the Commission, and the Commission was under an implied duty not to misuse these funds. More importantly, the Wyandotte County voters had the opportunity to approve or disapprove of the Plan. Clearly, the Commission was accountable to more than just its own organization, and it had a connection with other branches of government. Thus, the Commission was a public entity and not a private one. As such, the Act did not unconstitutionally delegate legislative power--the power to consolidate a city and county government--to a private entity in violation of art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution. This issue fails.
II. DELEGATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWER
Legislative power is the power to make a law, as opposed to the power to enforce a law. A legislature may try to delegate the legislative power to make a law. Such a delegation is improper, unless specific constitutional authority allows the legislature to delegate its legislative power to a different branch of government. If the constitution does not authorize a delegation of such legislative power, then the delegation is improper as a violation of the separation of powers doctrine and art. 2, § 1, which vests legislative power with the legislature only. However, a legislature may delegate an administrative power to a different branch of government. Administrative power is the power to administer or enforce a law, as opposed to the legislative power to make a law. The legislature does not need constitutional authority to delegate administrative power because it is not delegating a power reserved for its branch of government under art. 2, § 1.
It is often difficult to determine if the legislature has delegated the legislative power to make a law or the administrative power to administer a law. The difference between the two types of delegated powers depends upon the amount of specific standards included within the delegation. If the legislature has included specific standards in a delegation, then it has already enacted the law and it is simply delegating the administrative power to administer the law, based on the standards included in the delegation. On the other hand, if the legislature has not included specific standards within a delegation, then the legislature has delegated the legislative power to make the law. Such delegation is improper without constitutional authorization. Wesley Medical Center v. McCain, 226 Kan. 263, 270, 597 P.2d 1088 (1979); State, ex rel. v. State Board of Education, 215 Kan. 551, 554, 527 P.2d 952 (1974); State, ex rel., v. Fadely, 180 Kan. 652, Syl. ¶ 7, 308 P.2d 537 (1957); State, ex rel., v. Hines, 163 Kan. 300, 303, 182 P.2d 865 (1947).
A delegated power constitutes administrative power if the delegation contains sufficient policies and standards to guide the nonlegislative body in exercising the delegated power. State, ex rel., v. Bennett, 219 Kan. 285, 300, 547 P.2d 786 (1976); see State, ex rel., v. Fadely, 180 Kan. at 663-64. In other words, the legislature may enact general provisions and delegate to an administrative body the discretion to "'fill in the details'" if the legislature establishes "'reasonable and definite standards to govern the exercise of such authority.'" State v. Ponce, 258 Kan. 708, 712, 907 P.2d 876 (1995) (quoting Kaufman v. Kansas Dept. of SRS, 248 Kan. 951, 956, 811 P.2d 876 [1991]); see Vakas v. Kansas Bd. of Healing Arts, 248 Kan. 589, 594, 808 P.2d 1355 (1991).
The relator argues that the Act contained only two stated factors to guide the Commission in the exercise of its delegated power. These factors were found in K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343 and require the Commission to consider, in making a consolidation recommendation:
"(1) . . . the efficiency and effectiveness of the administrative operations of the city and county [and]
"(2) . . . the costs and benefits of consolidating the city and county or certain city and county offices, functions, services and operations."
We have said in Guardian Title Co. v. Bell, 248 Kan. 146, 153-54, 805 P.2d 33 (1991):
"What is required is that a statute express the law in general terms and delegate the power to apply it to an executive agency under standards provided by the legislature. Wesley Medical Center v. McCain, 226 Kan. 263, 270, 597 P.2d 1088 (1979). This has been the fundamental rule since early statehood. See Coleman v. Newby, 7 Kan. 82, 89 (1871).
"Where flexibility in fashioning administrative regulations to carry out statutory purpose is desirable in light of complexities in the area sought to be regulated, the legislature may enact statutes in a broad outline and authorize the administrative agency to fill in the details. Nicholas v. Kahn, 62 App. Div. 2d 302, 306, 405 N.Y.S.2d 135 (1978), modified 47 N.Y.2d 24, 416 N.Y.S.2d 565, 389 N.E.2d 1086 (1979).
"Standards may be implied from the statutory purpose. People v. Wright, 30 Cal. 3d 705, 713, 180 Cal. Rptr. 196, 639 P.2d 267 (1982). . . .
"The modern trend, which we ascribe to, is to require less detailed standards and guidance to the administrative agencies in order to facilitate the administration of laws in areas of complex social and economic problems. See Kalbfell v. City of St. Louis, 357 Mo. 986, 993, 211 S.W.2d 911 (1948); Ward v. Scott, 11 N.J. 117, 93 A.2d 385 (1952); City of Utica v. Water Control Bd., 5 N.Y.2d 164, 182 N.Y.S.2d 584, 156 N.E.2d 301 (1959)."
Clearly, we are dealing with a complex area of law involving social and economic issues. The legislature provided for an independent public body (the Commission) to study the issue of consolidation, provided funds for a Commission staff, and gave sufficient power to the Commission to study, draft, and redraft a plan. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-344 sets forth specific items the Commission, as an administrative body, was required to provide for in the Plan, should it recommend consolidation. It provides:
"(a) Any plan submitted by the commission shall provide for the exercise of powers of local legislation and administration not inconsistent with the constitution or other laws of this state.
"(b) If the commission submits a plan providing for the consolidation of certain city and county offices, functions, services and operations, the plan shall:
"(1) Include a description of the form, structure, functions, powers and officers and the duties of such officers recommended in the plan.
"(2) Provide for the method of amendment of the plan.
"(3) Authorize the appointment of, or elimination of elective officials and offices.
"(4) Specify the effective date of the consolidation.
"(5) Include other provisions determined necessary by the commission.
"(c) If the plan provides for the consolidation of the city and county, in addition to the requirements of subsection (b) the plan shall:
"(1) Fix the boundaries of the governing body's election districts, provide a method for changing the boundaries from time-to-time, any at-large positions on the governing body, fix the number, term and initial compensation of the governing body of the consolidated city-county and the method of election.
"(2) Determine whether elections of the governing body of the consolidated city-county shall be partisan or nonpartisan elections and the time at which such elections shall be held.
"(3) Determine the distribution of legislative and administrative duties of the consolidated city-county officials, provide for consolidation or expansion of services as necessary, authorize the appointment of a consolidated city-county administrator or a city-county manager, if deemed advisable, and prescribe the general structure of the consolidated city-county government.
"(4) Provide for the official name of the consolidated city-county.
"(5) Provide for the transfer or other disposition of property and other rights, claims and asserts of the county and city."
We are convinced that the legislature only delegated to the Commission the administrative power to draft a plan which was to be submitted to the voters of Wyandotte County for their approval or rejection. Most of our existing statutory law has been drafted by committees, and the statute books contain many laws that allow options to the voters to decide matters of public concern. Nothing can be more basic than to allow voters of a given area to decide the form of government they desire.
Justice Burch, in considering this issue, said in State, ex rel., v. Hines, 163 Kan. at 309: "Standards are difficult to define because of the variable nature thereof. They have been referred to as conditions, restrictions, limitations, yardsticks, guides, rules, broad outlines and similar synonymous expressions hereinafter set forth." (Emphasis added.)
Very few things, if any, in this world cannot be improved upon, and the Act before us fits in that category. The fact the Act can be improved does not make it unconstitutional. We hold that when read as a whole, the Act sets forth sufficient standards to allow the Commission to draft a plan the voters of Wyandotte County could adopt or reject.
State, ex rel. [Dix] v. State Board of Education, 215 Kan. 551, also supports this conclusion. In Dix, the legislature passed a statute which delegated the power to transfer state land to the State Board of Education (Board). Based on this statute, the Board enacted an order which transferred 56 sections of land from one unified school district to another. Shortly thereafter, the board members and residents of the transferee school district, which lost land in the transfer order, filed a petition, asking the court to enjoin the Board's order. The petition alleged that the transfer statute was an unconstitutional delegation of power. The district court agreed, holding that the transfer statute was unconstitutional and enjoining the land transfer.
Finding that a legislature could properly delegate power if certain conditions were met, the Dix court determined whether the statute at issue, which delegated the power to modify school districts to the Board, contained sufficiently clear standards to prescribe the manner in which the Board should exercise its delegated power. In searching for such standards, the court viewed not just the one statute at issue, but the entire school unification act within which the statute was originally enacted and the legislative purpose behind the act. As the court stated, "In order to ascertain the legislative intent courts should not consider one isolated part of an act but are required to consider and construe all parts thereof in pari materia." 215 Kan. at 557. This court ruled that adequate guidelines to direct the Board on how to exercise its delegated power could be found in the School Unification Act.
Like the Dix case, the standards which the legislature provided in the Act herein were definite and sufficient so to guide the Commission in determining if consolidation should occur and, if so, how much information should be included in the Plan. Such standards defined the parameters of the Commission's discretion. It would have been both impractical and unnecessary for the legislature to have provided more detail in the Act when it delegated the power at issue to the Commission. Instead, the legislature directed the Commission, as an administrative agency, to utilize administrative power and "fill in the details" within the definite outline set forth in the Act. The Act is not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to an administrative agency. This issue fails.
III. ART. 2, § 20 OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTION
Art. 2, § 20 of the Kansas Constitution provides:
"Enacting clause of bills; laws enacted only by bill. The enacting clause of all bills shall be 'Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:' No law shall be enacted except by bill." (Emphasis added.)
"Article 2, § 20, of the Kansas Constitution is a restriction upon the legislature's power to make a new law except in the manner prescribed." State v. Kearns, 229 Kan. 207, 209, 623 P.2d 507 (1981) (holding that the alteration of the enabling language required by art. 2, § 20 renders a statute unconstitutional and void; substantial compliance with the enabling language is not sufficient).
Upon the effective date of the Plan, several current statutory requirements were automatically modified, although such modification was not directly considered by the legislature. For instance, at the time that the Plan became effective, K.S.A. 19-301 provided that a county clerk shall be elected in each county. K.S.A. 19-501 provided that a county treasurer shall be elected in each county. K.S.A. 19-3a01 provided that there shall be elected in Wyandotte County a public administrator. K.S.A. 19-1401 provided that there shall be elected in Wyandotte County a county surveyor. All of these statutes had previously been enacted in response to a constitutional mandate which provides that the legislature "shall provide for such county and township officers as may be necessary." Kan. Const. art. 9, § 2.
However, once the Plan was approved by voters, it converted the Wyandotte County elective offices of county clerk, county treasurer, public administrator, and county surveyor to appointive positions in the Unified Government. This was done without formal amendment to the above-cited statutes. The relator takes issue with this change because the legislature had previously determined that these positions in Wyandotte County must be elective, not appointive, positions. The relator claims that such statutory amendments were blatantly unconstitutional because they were never directly considered by the legislature or approved by the Governor in the form of a bill.
Finally, the relator claims that citizens cannot know what laws apply to the Unified Government unless the legislature directly states which statutes apply to it. Such a direct statement can only be done, the relator contends, by passing a legislative amendment to the current effective statutes which clarifies that these statutes no longer apply to the Unified Government. The relator contends that a proper amendment of the above statutes cannot be done by implication within the Plan, which simply imposes provisions on the Unified Government that are contrary to the above statutes. Rather, the relator argues, such a proper amendment can only be done by a bill enacted by the legislature. Thus, the relator asserts that the Act violates art. 2, § 20, which prohibits any law from being enacted except by bill, because the Plan attempts to amend statutes, by exempting the Unified Government from their application, without submitting such amendments in the form of a bill to the legislature.
The relator does not point to any inconsistency between the Plan and the statutes cited above that the Act did not specifically authorize. The Act, as a valid, properly enacted law, gave the voters of Wyandotte County the "local option" to adopt the Plan, which recommended a new form of consolidated government. The legislature had already approved the Plan, in the Act, by properly delegating the power to fill in the Plan's details to the Commission; by providing proper guidelines to the Commission about how to fill in the Plan's details (including some details which might be inconsistent with current statutes); and by allowing the voters to adopt the Plan as a local option if they chose.
The voters of Wyandotte County did not enact new law by adopting the Plan. Rather, they exercised the express authority given to them by the legislature and adopted a local option--the Plan. The legislature properly delegated the job of filling in the details of the Plan to the Commission. It provided the Commission with certain guidelines or factors that must be included in the Plan, should the Commission recommend consolidation. For instance, the legislature expressly provided in the Act that the Plan must authorize the appointment or elimination of elective offices. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-344(b)(3). Thus, the legislature was aware of the fact that if the Wyandotte County voters adopted the Plan as a local option, with its details filled in by the Commission, then the Plan might eliminate some elective positions.
This is exactly what happened. The local option (the Plan) authorized the elimination of several elective offices. The Wyandotte County voters adopted the local option, and those offices enumerated in the Plan became appointive, as opposed to elective, offices. Such change conflicted with certain statutes, cited above, that had previously applied to Wyandotte County and mandated that the offices be elective. However, neither the Plan nor the voters of Wyandotte County implicitly amended these statutes. Rather, the voters simply exercised the authority specifically granted to them by the legislature, in the Act, to adopt a local option (the Plan), which authorized the elimination of several elective offices, as the Act specifically authorized the Plan to do. The legislature was fully aware that these changes might occur and approved of these changes by passing the Act, which authorized such changes.
The Plan did not first need to be submitted to the legislature in the form of a bill to be proper. The Act does not violate art. 2, § 20 of the Kansas Constitution for the failure to include such a provision.
The Act, which authorizes the proposal and adoption of local legislation without first requiring that the local legislation be presented to the legislature in the form of a bill, is similar to several other state laws which have authorized the adoption of "local options." For instance, K.S.A. 12-1001 et seq. authorizes cities to adopt a commissioner-city manager form of government if the voters approve it; K.S.A. 12-10a01 authorizes cities to adopt a modified mayor-council form of government if the voters approve it; K.S.A. 12-811 authorizes a city to acquire control of a franchise water, gas, or electric plant if the voters approve it; K.S.A. 13-1501 authorizes first class cities to adopt a commission form of government if the voters approve it; and K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 19-204(c) authorizes the board of county commissioners of any county, by resolution, to divide the county into three, five, or seven commissioner districts if the voters approve it.
The Act does not specifically repeal or amend any prior law. Thus, all prior laws still apply to the Unified Government, unless the prior laws conflict with the Act or the Plan. If such conflict occurs, then the Plan's provisions, as authorized in the Act, prevail because the Act is the more specific, more recent statute.
When two statutes conflict, i.e., one states a county treasurer must be elected and the other states that the Unified Government's treasurer is an appointive position, then the more specific, more recent statute controls. See Jones v. Continental Can Co., 260 Kan. 547, 556, 920 P.2d 939 (1996) ("[O]lder statutes . . . are subordinate to new enactments . . ., as the newer statute is the later expression of the legislative intent and so will control if there is a possible conflict between the two.); State v. Le, 260 Kan. 845, Syl. ¶ 2, 926 P.2d 638 (1996) ("General and special statutes should be read together and harmonized whenever possible, but to the extent a conflict between them exists, the special statute will prevail unless it appears the legislature intended to make the general statute controlling."). The Act was enacted in 1996 and applies specifically to the Unified Government. All of the statutes cited by the relator, which were supposedly "amended" by the Plan, were enacted prior to 1996 and applied generally to all counties or to Wyandotte County. The Plan does not amend certain statutes by exempting the Unified Government from its application. Thus, the Plan did not need to be presented to the legislature or the Governor in the form of a bill. Instead, the Act and the Plan simply control over other conflicting statutes because the Act is a more recent, more specific statute. This is not unconstitutional. This issue fails.
IV. CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution provides: "The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a house of representatives and senate." Art. 2, § 14(a) of the Kansas Constitution provides in pertinent part: "[E]very bill shall be signed by the presiding officers and presented to the governor."
K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343(f) provides in pertinent part:
"Unless the legislature, by concurrent resolution adopted on or before February 12, 1997, the 30th day of the 1997 regular session, rejects such plan, the plan shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the county at the school district general election on April 1, 1997. Such election shall be called and held by the county election officer in the manner provided by the general bond law. A summary of the final plan shall be prepared by the commission and shall be published once each week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation within the county. If a majority of the electors voting on the plan vote in favor thereof, the consolidation plan shall be implemented in the manner provided by the plan. If a majority of the electors vote against such plan, the proposed consolidation plan shall not be implemented." (Emphasis added.)
The relator claims that 12-343(f) violated art. 2, §§ 1 and 14 of the Kansas Constitution and the separation of powers doctrine because it allowed the legislature the right to reject or veto the Plan by a concurrent resolution. As such, the relator claims that 12-343(f) effectively allowed the legislature to change or repeal the local option law without having to present such change to the Governor for approval.
State ex rel. Stephan v. Kansas House of Representatives, 236 Kan. 45, 687 P.2d 622 (1984), discusses the use of a legislative veto. In Stephan, the Attorney General brought an action in mandamus and quo warranto against the legislature, seeking determination of the constitutionality of a statute, K.S.A. 1983 Supp. 77-426(c) and (d). This statute provided that the legislature may adopt, modify, or revoke administrative rules and regulations by concurrent resolutions passed by the legislature without presentment to the Governor. Pursuant to this statute, the legislature adopted concurrent resolutions during the 1983 and 1984 legislative sessions. The Attorney General brought a quo warranto case to test the validity of the statute and to test the validity of actions taken by the legislature pursuant to the statute. The Attorney General claimed that the statute violated that separation of powers doctrine because it allowed the legislature to usurp the executive power of administering and enforcing laws from the executive branch. Further, the Attorney General claimed that the statute violated art. 2, § 14 of the Kansas Constitution, which requires all bills to be presented to the Governor.
In analyzing this statute, the Stephan court focused mainly on whether the concurrent resolution mechanism violated the separation of powers doctrine. However, the court also discussed whether the mechanism violated the required procedure under art. 2, § 14(a), which requires all bills to be presented to the Governor. In making its decision, the Stephan court relied on three out-of-state cases: INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 77 L. Ed. 2d 317, 103 S. Ct. 2764 (1983); Consumer Energy, Etc. v. F.E.R.C., 673 F.2d 425 (D.C. Cir. 1982), aff'd 463 U.S. 1216, 77 L. Ed. 2d 1402, 103 S. Ct. 3556, reh. denied 463 U.S. 1250 (1983); State v. A.L.I.V.E. Voluntary, 606 P.2d 769 (Alaska 1980). Each of these cases will be discussed in turn.
In Chadha, the Court analyzed a federal act which allowed either house of Congress to veto, by resolution, a decision of the United States Attorney General to suspend an illegal alien's deportation. The I.N.S. had ruled that Chadha could remain in this country even though he was subject to deportation. Under the act at issue, the House of Representatives vetoed this decision, forcing the I.N.S. to issue an order of deportation. Chadha challenged the constitutionality of the act in federal court. The Supreme Court ruled that once the legislature properly delegated the power to the Attorney General in the executive branch to determine deportation issues, then Congress could not reverse the Attorney General's decision on such issues or reverse its own decision to delegate deportation issues to the Attorney General without bicameral passage of an act stating such reversal, followed by presentment of the act to the President. In other words, "Congress must abide by its delegation of authority until that delegation is legislatively altered or revoked." 462 U.S. at 955. The Chadha Court concluded that the legislative action to reverse the Attorney General's deportation decision or reverse its own delegation of deportation issues to the Attorney General was subject to the procedures set out in Art. I, § 7 of the United States Constitution. This section requires that all legislative actions be passed by a majority of both houses of Congress and be presented to the President. Since the federal act allowed the legislature to undertake legislative action without such procedure, the Supreme Court found the act unconstitutional as a violation of Art. I, § 7 and of the separation of powers doctrine. 462 U.S. at 955-59.
In Consumer Energy, Etc., 673 F.2d 425, the Federal Court of Appeals analyzed a one-house legislative veto provision in the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978. The legislative veto provision only allowed certain rulings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (F.E.R.C.) to become effective if neither house in Congress adopted a resolution disapproving of such rules within 30 days of the rules being presented to Congress. Using this provision, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution which disapproved of one of the F.E.R.C.'s rulings. The Act, with this provision, was challenged as a violation of the separation of powers doctrine and as a violation of Art. I, § 7 of the United States Constitution.
Upon evaluation, the United States Court of Appeals found that the one-house legislative veto mechanism violated Art. I, § 7 because it deprived the President of his veto power and because it did not follow the bicameral requirement in that it permitted legislative action by only one house of Congress. In other words, the court held the veto of the rules effectively changed the law by altering the scope of F.E.R.C.'s discretion and preventing one otherwise valid regulation from taking effect. Accordingly, the Senate's concurrence and presentation to the President were necessary prerequisites to the effectiveness of the disapproval resolution. 673 F.2d at 465. The federal court also ruled that the veto mechanism violated the separation of powers doctrine because it allowed the legislature to usurp powers already exercised and delegated to the other two branches of government. 673 F.2d at 471. As the federal court stated:
"The fundamental problem of the one-house veto, then, is that it represents an attempt by Congress to retain direct control over delegated administrative power. Congress may provide detailed rules of conduct to be administered without discretion by administrative officers, or it may provide broad policy guidance and leave the details to be filled in by administrative officers exercising substantial discretion. It may not, however, insert one of its houses as an effective administrative decisionmaker." 673 F.2d at 476.
See also Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. v. F.T.C., 691 F.2d 575 (D.C. Cir. 1982), aff'd 463 U.S. 1216, 77 L. Ed. 2d 1402, 103 S. Ct. 3556, reh. denied 463 U.S. 1250 (1983) (a similar legislative oversight mechanism contained in the Federal Trade Commission Improvements Act of 1980 was held to violate the separation of powers doctrine).
Finally, the Stephan court relied on State v. A.L.I.V.E. Voluntary, 606 P.2d 769. In that case, the Alaska court analyzed a statute which allowed the legislature to reject a regulation of a state agency or department by adopting a concurrent resolution in both houses. However, the Alaska Constitution, like the Kansas Constitution, includes a section which requires a bill to be passed by a majority vote in each house of the legislature and presented to the Governor. The Alaska court held that the legislative veto mechanism violated these constitutional requirements. 609 P.2d at 770. See also General Assembly of State of New Jersey v. Byrne, 90 N. J. 376, 448 A.2d 438 (1982) (an act which allowed a legislature to veto, by concurrent resolution in both houses, all rules proposed by state agencies was found unconstitutional because it violated the separation of powers doctrine and the presentment requirement of the New Jersey Constitution).
Based on these cases, the Stephan court found that the legislative veto mechanism in K.S.A. 1983 Supp. 77-426(c) and (d) violated the separation of powers doctrine and the presentment requirement in art. 2, § 14 of the Kansas Constitution. As this court stated:
"As made clear by the court in Chadha, a resolution is essentially legislative where it affects the legal rights, duties and regulations of persons outside the legislative branch and therefore must comply with the enactment provisions of the constitution. 103 S. Ct. at 2784. See also State v. A.L.I.V.E. Voluntary, 606 P.2d at 773-74. Where our legislature attempts to reject, modify or revoke administrative rules and regulations by concurrent resolution it is enacting legislation which must comply with the provisions of art. 2, § 14. A bill does not become a law until it has the final consideration of the house, senate and governor as required by art. 2, § 14. Harris v. Shanahan, 192 Kan. 183, Syl. ¶ 1, 387 P.2d 771 (1963). This was not done here.
"The fact that K.S.A. 1983 Supp. 77-426 was passed in accordance with the provisions of art. 2, § 14 of our state constitution and the governor had the opportunity to veto it does not render subsequent acts of the legislature under the statute constitutional. The legislature cannot pass an act that allows it to violate the constitution. General Assembly of State of New Jersey v. Byrne, 90 N.J. at 391. As stated by the court in State v. A.L.I.V.E. Voluntary, 606 P.2d at 779:
'In other words, by virtue of one enactment approved by the governor, the legislature can free itself, in certain instances, of the constitutional constraints that would otherwise govern its actions. Such an enactment would impermissibly preserve legislative power possessed at one instant in time for future periods when the legislature might otherwise be incapable of acting because of the executive veto. It would also do away with the formal safeguards of article II which are meant to accompany law-making. The requirements of the constitution may not be eliminated in this fashion.'" 236 Kan. at 64.
Under this analysis, the Stephan court held that K.S.A. 1983 Supp. 77-426(c) and (d) were unconstitutional and that the resolutions adopted by the legislature rejecting, adopting, and modifying certain administrative regulations pursuant to this statute were invalid.
In this case, the legislature properly delegated the power to fill in the details of the local option (the Plan) to the Commission. Once it does so, the legislature may not reserve the power to take back such delegation by concurrent resolution if it disagrees with the Commission's Plan. If the legislature wishes to take back this delegation, it must do so by passing a statute which removes such delegation and present this statute to the Governor. It cannot do so simply by reserving the power to remove the delegation in the same act which delegates the power to the Commission. This is improper. See Stephan, 236 Kan. at 60 ("Once the legislature has delegated by a law a function to the executive, it may only revoke that authority by proper enactment of another law in accordance with the provisions of art. 2, § 14 of our state constitution.").
However, this issue concerning the legislature's reserved right to reject the Plan is, in fact, irrelevant because the legislature did not exercise this right. The legislature neither exercised nor attempted to exercise its reserved right to reject the Plan by concurrent resolution, nor did the Governor suggest the Plan be rejected, and the time to exercise that right has expired. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343(f) (allowing 30 days for the legislature to reject the Plan); see Randall v. Seemann, 228 Kan. 395, 613 P.2d 1376 (1980) (issue is meaningless after its relevance has passed).
In addition, K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343(f) can be severed from the rest of the Act so that the entire Act and the resulting Plan does not need to be struck down. Where parts of a statute or a section of a statute can be readily separated, then the part which is constitutional may stand while the unconstitutional part is rejected. Voran v. Wright, 129 Kan. 601, Syl. ¶ 6, 284 Pac. 807 (1930). As Sedlak v. Dick, 256 Kan. 779, 803, 887 P.2d 1119 (1995), provides:
"In Thompson v. K.F.B. Ins. Co., 252 Kan. 1010, 1023, 850 P.2d 773 (1993), we stated the test to be applied:
'"Whether the court may sever an unconstitutional provision from a statute and leave the remainder in force and effect depends on the intent of the legislature. If from examination of a statute it can be said that the act would have been passed without the objectional portion and if the statute would operate effectively to carry out the intention of the legislature with such portion stricken, the remainder of the valid law will stand. Whether the legislature had provided for a severability clause is of no importance. This court will assume severability if the unconstitutional part can be severed without doing violence to legislative intent.'" (Quoting Felten Truck Line v. State Board of Tax Appeals, 183 Kan. 287, 300, 327 P.2d 836 [1958]).
In this case, K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343(f), which reserved the right of the legislature to reject the Plan by concurrent resolution, is a discrete provision of the Act that can be severed from the Act without doing violence to the basic statutory scheme. See State, ex rel., v. Consumers Warehouse Market, 185 Kan. 363, Syl. ¶ 2, 343 P.2d 234 (1959). Since the improper legislative veto is irrelevant because it was never exercised and is severable from the rest of the Act, this issue fails.
V. K.S.A. 1997 SUPP. 12-343(f)
Art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution provides: "The legislative power of this state shall be vested in a house of representatives and senate." This provision "expresses the fundamental concept that we are to be governed by our duly elected representatives. It is the foundation upon which our democratic form of government is built." Sedlak v. Dick, 256 Kan. at 802. This provision establishes a republican form of government, which constitutes a government by the people through representatives approved by them. 16A Am. Jur. 2d, Constitutional Law § 626. The relator argues that by selecting a republican form of government, the citizens of Kansas delegated their legislative rights to the legislature and only retained the right to elect such officials and amend the constitution. See art. 14, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution. According to the relator, the legislature may not delegate to the voters its legislative power to decide if a law will become effective. If the legislature does so and the existence of the law depends upon the vote of the people, then, the relator asserts, the law is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the people, in violation of a republican form of government (art. 2, § 1). See Opinion of the Justices, 287 Ala. 321, 324, 251 So. 2d 739 (1971); Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa 750, 61 N.W.2d 703 (1953); Wright v. Cunningham, 115 Tenn. 445, 91 S.W. 293 (1905).
K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-343(f) provides that the Plan shall be submitted to a vote of the citizens of Wyandotte County. This section provides in pertinent part:
Claiming that the existence and effectiveness of the Plan depended upon the vote of the electorate in Wyandotte County, the relator argues that the legislature unconstitutionally delegated its legislative power--the power to decide if a law will be effective--to the voters of Wyandotte County and unconstitutionally destroyed the State's republican form of government. Thus, the relator asks this court to strike down the Act, the Plan, and the new form of government as an unconstitutional violation of art. 2, § 1 of the Kansas Constitution.
In State, ex rel., v. Lamont, 105 Kan. 134, 138, 181 Pac. 617 (1919), involving the right of electors to determine whether they would organize a school district, it was said:
"So it may be said here that the will of the petitioners does not govern, but when the provision made by the legislature is accepted by the electors themselves by the proper vote, it becomes operative. The legislature gives them permission to form themselves into such district, and when, by the proper election, they avail themselves of this permission, they are not exercising legislative power, but merely accepting a privilege conferred by a proper exercise of such power. Such granted permission is one means by which the legislature has seen fit to obey the constitutional mandate to promote education, and such provision is not a violation of the constitution."
See Barrett v. City of Osawatomie, 131 Kan. 50, 53, 289 Pac. 970 (1930).
"We believe it untenable to hold a law which permits the question of attachment of territory to be decided finally by the popular vote of the electors within the territory seeking attachment is a delegation of legislative power. We are satisfied section 41 of the instant act does not violate article 2, section 1, of our constitution. Moreover, if courts entertain any doubt on that subject it is always resolved in favor of validity. Statutes are not stricken down unless the infringement of the superior law is clear beyond reasonable doubt. (Hunt v. Eddy, 150 Kan. 1, 90 P.2d 747.)" State, ex rel., v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. 780, 790, 252 P.2d 859 (1953).
The existence of the Act was not dependent upon the approval of the electorate in Wyandotte County. The Act was a valid local option law complete in and of itself when it was passed by the legislature and was signed by the Governor. At that time, it became effective in that it delegated power to the Commission to fill in the details of the local option (the Plan). See Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62. Cf. Wright v. Cunningham, 115 Tenn. at 466-67. The will of the electorate did not enact the Plan, either. Rather, the legislature enacted a valid law (the Act, which included the Plan) and when the electors accepted the local option offered in the Act (the Plan) by a popular vote, the Plan became applicable to them. In so doing, the voters did not exercise legislative power by enacting a general law; instead, the voters who were most affected by the legislation merely accepted a privilege to consolidate which was conferred in the Act. State, ex rel., [Gray] v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. at 789-90; see Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62; Akin v. Director of Revenue, 934 S.W.2d 295, 299 (Mo. 1996).
The voters' approval of the Plan was not necessary for the Act, which included the Plan, to be an effective local option law offering a local option (the Plan) to Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The voters' approval was only necessary to apply this local option to Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. The Act was still a valid law enacted by the legislature, and not the voters, even if its application was made to depend on some subsequent event--the approval of the Wyandotte County electorate. State v. Butler County, 77 Kan. 527, 530, 94 Pac. 1004 (1908); Akin v. Director of Revenue, 934 S.W.2d at 299. Cf. Wright v. Cunningham, 115 Tenn. at 467-68. The Act was a law of a local option nature, where it was complete law but was to become applicable upon an election by the electorate. See Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62.
The Act simply gave the voters in Wyandotte County the opportunity to vote on a "local option" (the Plan) which would apply to them if they wanted it to. See Gannett v. Cook, 245 Iowa at 760-62. The Act did not compel electors to accept consolidation but gave them the choice of consolidation. However, the Act did not leave this decision completely up to the electors. Before the electors were ever given such choice, the legislature required the Commission to study consolidation, decide whether it was in the public interest, and if so, create a Plan to implement it, giving the electorate the opportunity to finally approve it. State, ex rel., v. Board of Education, 173 Kan. at 789-90; State ex rel. v. Drainage District, 123 Kan. 191, 192-95, 254 Pac. 371 (1927); State, ex rel., v. Lamont, 105 Kan. at 138; State v. Butler County, 77 Kan. at 530.
Further, the Act did not give individual persons the power to decide if consolidation should occur. Rather, the Act allowed for the consolidation of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, if the electors in these areas, as a whole, approved it. See State, ex rel., v. Lamont, 105 Kan. at 138; Hill v. Johnson County, 82 Kan. 813, 109 Pac. 163 (1910); cf. Hutchinson v. Leimbach, 68 Kan. 37, 74 Pac. 598 (1903); Comm'rs of Wyandotte Co. v. Abbott, 52 Kan. 148, 34 Pac. 416 (1893).
We hold that neither the Act nor the Plan constituted an improper delegation of legislative power--the power to make a law effective--to the voters. As such, neither the Act nor the Plan violated art. 2, § 1 or destroyed the republican form of government in Kansas. This issue fails.
VI. ART. 2, § 17 OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTION
Art. 2, § 17 states:
"Uniform operation of laws of a general nature. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation throughout the state: Provided, The legislature may designate areas in counties that have become urban in character as 'urban areas' and enact special laws giving to any one or more of such counties or urban areas such powers of local government and consolidation of local government as the legislature may deem proper."
K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-345(b) provides:
"Wyandotte county is hereby designated an urban area, as authorized under the provisions of section 17 of article 2 of the constitution of the state of Kansas, for the purpose of granting to such county and urban area powers of local government and consolidation of local government."
The Act is a law of a general nature which does not have a uniform operation throughout the state. Thus, the legislature enacted 12-345(b), declaring Wyandotte County to be an urban area, in order to make the Act fit within the proviso of art. 2, § 17, and avoid its prohibition against nonuniform operation of laws of a general nature. However, the relator argues that the proviso in art. 2, § 17 does not apply to the Act for the following three reasons. First, under art. 2, § 17, the legislature may designate areas in counties as urban areas. In the Act, however, the legislature designated all of Wyandotte County as an urban area, rather than designating an area in the county as an urban area. Since the urban area proviso does not apply to the Act, the relator asserts that this Act is improper under art. 2, § 17 because it is a law of general nature which does not have a uniform operation throughout the state.
This argument makes no sense. It is unreasonable to read the art. 2, § 17 proviso as applying only to areas in counties designated as urban areas and not to entire counties designated as urban areas. Under the relator's interpretation of the proviso, the legislature could have designated two or more areas in Wyandotte County as urban areas, even if these areas comprised the entire area of the county, and the proviso of art. 2, § 17, allowing special legislation for these urban areas, would have applied. Thus, the legislature's delegation of the entire area of Wyandotte County as an urban area did fall within the proviso and did allow for special legislation. See K.S.A. 19-2654; K.S.A. 19-2883; K.S.A. 19-3524; K.S.A. 19-2681.
Further, the relator claims that the urban area proviso does not apply to the Act for a second reason. Under art. 2, § 17, once the legislature has designated an area in a county as an "urban area," then it may properly enact special laws to grant the urban area the powers of local government. According to the relator, such grant of power is intended to give urban areas in a county the ability to exercise the power of local government. With this power, as authorized by art. 2, § 17, the legislature allows an "urban area" in a county to administer local governmental power, just as if it were an incorporated city, because it is "urban" in character. However, the relator claims that there was no need for the legislature to enact a special law granting the "urban area" at issue--Wyandotte County--the power of local government. This is because the entirety of the county (but for 2.7 square miles) is made up of cities. These cities, including the City, already exercised the powers of local government pursuant to their charters and the Kansas Constitution. There was no need to grant the City, or any of the other cities making up the county, the powers of local government in special legislation, such as the Act, because they already had such powers. Thus, even though the legislature designated Wyandotte County as an urban area, the relator asserts that the legislature's enactment of a special law (the Act) to grant Wyandotte County the power of local government was improper because the County did not need these powers of local government as an urban area. This argument fails. The legislature has never been required to have a need for a law before adopting a law.
Finally, the relator points out that under art. 2, § 17, once the legislature has delegated an area in a county as an "urban area," then it may properly enact special laws to grant one or more such counties or urban areas the powers of local government and consolidation of local government. According to the relator, this constitutional provision is intended to permit the legislature, in a special law, to give two counties or two designated urban areas within a county the power of local government and the power to consolidate their local governments. However, the relator claims that the art. 2, § 17 proviso does not authorize the legislature to enact a special law which provides for the consolidation of a county or urban area and a city, which already has the power of local government independent of art. 2, § 17. According to the relator, the legislature is attempting to allow consolidation of Wyandotte County and Kansas City by a special law, which is improper under art. 2, § 17, because it requires all laws of a general nature to have a uniform operation throughout the state.
In addressing this argument by the relator, the question is whether the proviso creates an exemption from the uniformity requirement for special legislation which grants the power for local government consolidation of an urban area/county and a city, or only creates an exemption for legislation which grants the power for local government consolidation of two urban area/counties. This is a tough question because neither the language of the proviso nor the cases analyzing it give any real clue as to the purpose of the proviso regarding this issue.
However, statutes are to be presumed constitutional. Further, the constitution only prohibits improper legislation; it does not authorize. Unless the constitution specifically prohibits legislation, it is allowed. In art. 2, § 17, the proviso does not specifically state that it only applies to special legislation which grants the power of local government consolidation to two urban area/counties, as opposed to one urban area/county and one city. The purpose of allowing special legislation that grants the power to consolidate is to prevent duplicative services and functions by more than one local government. This purpose is served whether the local governments of two urban areas are consolidated or the local governments of one urban area and one city are consolidated. Thus, we hold that the proviso creates an exemption from the uniformity requirement for special legislation which grants the power for local government consolidation of an urban area/county and a city.
Also, the relator contends that the Act is inconsistent with the restrictions imposed on county consolidation in K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 19-101a(a)(2). This statute lists limitations, restrictions, and prohibitions on county home rule powers, providing in pertinent part: "The board of county commissioners may transact all county business and perform all powers of local legislation and administration it deems appropriate, subject only to the following limitations, restrictions, or prohibitions: . . . (2) Counties may not consolidate or alter county boundaries." (Emphasis added.)
Obviously, the legislature, in adopting the above statutes and the county home rule statute, K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 19-101a(a)(2), which prohibits counties from consolidating, thought there was no constitutional prohibition on the consolidation of counties. After all, a statute prohibiting county consolidation would be unnecessary if the constitution already prohibited such consolidation. We hold the statute only applies to counties consolidating with one another and does not apply to a county consolidating with a city, as authorized in the Act. In any event, the legislature was free to adopt subsequent special legislation permitting a city and county to consolidate, and such statute would control over K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 19-101a(a)(2). Neither the Kansas Constitution (art. 2, § 17) nor the statute (K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 19-101a[a][2]) prohibits the legislature from enacting special legislation (the Act), which allows for the consolidation of Wyandotte County, as an urban area, and Kansas City, Kansas.
In conclusion, we hold that the art. 2, § 17 proviso applies to the Act because the Act is special law which gives to one urban area the power to consolidate its local government with a city's local government, as the legislature deemed proper. Since the proviso applies to the Act, the proviso exempts the Act from the uniformity requirement in art. 2, § 17. Thus, even though the Act is a law of a general nature that does not have a geographically uniform operation throughout the state, the Act is not prohibited by art. 2, § 17, because the proviso applies to the Act and exempts the Act from the uniformity requirement in art. 2, § 17. This issue fails.
This conclusion is supported in an article by Barkley Clark regarding the "urban areas" proviso in art. 2, § 17. Clark states:
"Few states have anything quite like it. The 1954 amendment should be a signal to the Kansas Supreme Court to use its powers of judicial review with great caution when dealing with any enactment affecting a designated 'urban area.' If the legislature has made the appropriate recitals in an 'urban area' bill, the court should usually defer to the legislative findings . . . In any case, though it has not yet been construed, the 1954 amendment can provide flexibility for the legislature in handling metropolitan-area problems in Kansas." Clark, State Control of Local Government in Kansas: Special Legislation and Home Rule, 20 Kan. L. Rev. 631, 646 (1972).
VII. ART. 2, § 5 OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTION
Art. 12, § 5 is the constitutional provision granting cities home rule power. This section provides in pertinent part:
"(a) The legislature shall provide by general law, applicable to all cities, for the incorporation of cities and the methods by which city boundaries may be altered, cities may be merged or consolidated and cities may be dissolved . . . ." (Emphasis added.)
Under this provision, in order for a city to merge, consolidate, or dissolve, the legislature must enact a general law "applicable to all cities." However, the Act herein is not a general law applicable to all cities, but is a law narrowly confined to the City and the County. Since the Act, which authorized the consolidation of a city, only applied to the City and the County, and did not apply uniformly to all cities, the relator claims that the Act unconstitutionally violates art. 12, § 5(a).
Art. 12, § 5 was completely amended in 1959, effective July 1, 1961. When the constitutional provision was originally adopted in 1861, it succinctly stated: "Provision shall be made by general law for the organization of cities, towns and villages; and their power of taxation, assessment, borrowing money, contracting debts and loaning their credit, shall be so restricted as to prevent the abuse of such power." However, in 1960, the voters' adoption of an amendment to art. 12, § 5 completely changed the provision. The amendment included the power of home rule for cities and the "general law" language, at issue herein, regarding the incorporation of cities (art. 12, § 5[a]).
In 1962, Albert Martin, then General Attorney and Director of Research for the League of Kansas Municipalities, wrote an article about the new art. 12, § 5(a) and made this observation about its "general law" requirements:
"In a way, all of these [laws which must be general laws under art. 12, § 5(a)] have to do with boundaries--by incorporation the original boundary is established (and the area given municipal life); by annexation the boundary is increased; by exclusion the boundary is reduced; by merger or consolidation the boundary is increased; by dissolution the boundary disappears and municipal death occurs." Martin, Home Rule for Kansas Cities, 10 Kan. L. Rev. 501, 501-02 (1962).
In his 1965 treatise on home rule, James Drury explained the origins of art. 12, § 5(a). He stated that the request to reserve the powers of municipal expansion and consolidation to the legislature in art. 12, § 5(a) came from smaller cities, which were concerned that nearby large cities would rely on home rule to expand to absorb the smaller city's territory. Drury, Home Rule in Kansas, Governmental Res. Series No. 31 (1965), p. 48. Thus, art. 12, § 5(a) was adopted to help prevent big cities from consolidating with and taking over other cities, by requiring all such laws allowing consolidation of cities to be of a general nature, applicable to all cities, and not special legislation applicable only to certain (big) cities.
Here, the Act does not concern the consolidation of cities. Instead, it concerns the consolidation of a big city with a county that is almost its same size. In fact, the Act contains safeguards to prevent the takeover of nearby smaller cities by the City. As K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-345 provides in pertinent part:
"(h) Upon the effective date of the consolidation of the city and the county, the territory of the consolidated city-county shall include:
(1) All of the territory of the county for purposes of exercising the powers, duties and functions of a county.
(2) All of the territory of the county, except the territory of the cities of Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, Lake Quivira and the unincorporated area of the county, for purposes of exercising the powers, duties and functions of a city.
"(j) Except for the consolidated city-county and unless otherwise provided by law, other political subdivisions of the county shall not be affected by consolidation of the city and county. Such other political subdivisions shall continue in existence and operation." (Emphasis added.)
Thus, the territory of the municipal governments of Bonner Springs, Edwardsville, and Lake Quivira are protected by the Act because the Act does not provide for the consolidation of the City with another city. It only allows the City to consolidate with the County. Thus, the concerns which art. 12, § 5 was intended to protect against, the takeover of a little city by a big city through consolidation, is not implicated in the Act. We hold that art. 12, § 5(a) only applies to statutes which authorize the consolidation of two cities and does not apply to statutes which authorize the consolidation of a city and county, as the Act does. Thus, the Act is not prohibited by art. 12, § 5(a), even though it is not a general law which is applicable to all cities. This issue fails.
VIII. ART. 12, § 5(C)(4) OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTION
Up until the consolidation at issue, as authorized in the Act, the City operated under Charter Ordinance No. 84, which it adopted pursuant to the home rule authority granted to cities in art. 12, § 5(c)(1) of the Kansas Constitution. Charter Ordinance No. 84 was amended by Charter Ordinance No. 90 in 1983. Art. 12, § 5(c)(4) sets out a rule regarding charter ordinances, which provides:
"Each charter ordinance enacted shall control and prevail over any prior or subsequent act of the governing body of the city and may be repealed or amended only by charter ordinance or by enactments of the legislature applicable to all cities." (Emphasis added.)
Under this constitutional provision, the legislature could not repeal or amend Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, which the City operated under, except by a legislative enactment which was applicable to all cities. According to the relator, the Act changed the City's form of government, which existed pursuant to Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90; thus, the Act constituted an attempt to repeal these charter ordinances. However, as the relator points out, the Act was not a legislative enactment applicable to all cities; instead, it only applied to the City and the County. As such, the relator claims that the legislature violated art. 12, § 5(c)(4) by attempting to repeal Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 in an Act that was not applicable to all cities. Since the special Act could not constitutionally repeal the charter ordinances or change the city's government, the relator claims that the April 1997 election, in which the voters adopted the local option Plan to change their form of government, was a nullity.
After the elections were held, the city tried to comply with art. 12, § 5(c)(4) by adopting Charter Ordinance No. 114 on August 14, 1997, and publishing it on August 17, 1997. Charter Ordinance No. 114 repealed and amended certain sections of Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90. First, the relator claims, Charter Ordinance No. 114 selectively amended and repealed some of the governmental charter sections but left the remainder of Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 in place, thereby leaving the City's prior form of government in place.
Second, even if Charter Ordinance No. 114 was validly enacted, the relator claims that it is defective because it was not properly implemented. According to art. 12, § 5(c)(3), once a charter ordinance has been adopted, it cannot be effective for 61 days in order to give electors the opportunity to petition for a referendum on the charter. Under this rule, the relator points out that Charter Ordinance No. 114 was not effective until October 24, 1997, 60 days after its final publication on August 24, 1997 (first publication was August 17, 1997). However, the Commission held a local option election on April 1, 1997. A primary election to elect Unified Government officers was held on July 8, 1997, and a general election to elect Unified Government officers was held on September 9, 1997. The new Unified Government officers were sworn in on October 1, 1997. They adopted two resolutions on October 2, 1997, approving the Plan as the Charter of the Unified Government and establishing rules of procedure--all before the effective date (October 24, 1997) of Charter Ordinance No. 114, which repealed the prior charter ordinances setting out the city's prior form of local government. According to the relator, the Unified Government officers had no authority to take office on October 1 or to adopt resolutions setting up the government on October 2 because the City's old form of government was not repealed until the charter ordinance repealing it, as required by art. 12, § 5(c)(4), became effective on October 24, 1997, pursuant to art. 12, § 5(c).
In summary, the relator asserts that the Unified Government is an unlawful government which has taken office, passed unlawful law, entered into voidable contracts, and convicted persons in court without proper authorization. According to the relator, the Act authorizing the Unified Government violated numerous provisions of the Kansas Constitution; thus, the Unified Government must be declared void.
The Act requires the Commission to specify the effective date of consolidation within the Plan, should the Commission recommend consolidation. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-344(b)(4). In the Plan, the Commission recommended consolidation and set the effective date of consolidation as the date on which the Unified Government officers were sworn in. ("Transfer of Authority: upon swearing in new consolidated government will assume existing authority of City ordinances and County resolutions.") The newly elected officials of the Unified Government were sworn in on October 1, 1997. Thus, the effective date of consolidation occurred on this date.
The electorate of the County voted on and adopted the Plan on April 1, 1997. Consolidation of the two governments did not occur immediately upon the voters' approval of the Plan. This is because consolidation was not effective until October 1, 1997, according to the Plan. As such, the voters' approval of the Plan did not constitute a repeal of the City's prior form of local government as set out in Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90. If it had, then the City would have had no form of government at all from the time of the vote on April 1, 1997, until consolidation became effective on October 1, 1997. Instead, the voters' approval of the Plan constituted the voters' adoption of a local option to consolidate, as offered in the local option law (the Act). The voters did not create a new consolidated form of government at the precise time of the election, but approved the implementation of the consolidation process which would become effective on October 1, 1997, the date the new officers were sworn in. Thus, the vote did not constitute a repeal of the City's prior form of local government, as set out in Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, without utilizing another charter ordinance or a piece of legislation applicable to all cities. As such, the vote, and the Act which authorized the vote, did not violate art. 12, § 5(c)(4).
Under art. 12, § 5(c)(4), Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, setting out the City's prior form of government, could only be repealed by another charter ordinance or legislation applicable to all cities. Since the Act only applied to the City and the County, legislation applicable to all cities did not exist herein. However, before consolidation became effective, the City did try to repeal Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 by adopting another charter ordinance--No. 114. Charter Ordinance No. 114 specifically repealed all sections of Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 concerning the City's prior form of local government that were inconsistent with the Plan and it replaced those sections with the Plan. The City's attempt through Charter Ordinance No. 114 to repeal only certain sections of Nos. 84 and 90, the sections that related to the City's prior form of local government, was proper. See Edgington v. City of Overland Park, 15 Kan. App. 2d 721, 728, 815 P.2d 1116 (1991) (approving a charter ordinance which repealed only one section of a previous charter ordinance).
However, under art. 12, § 5(c)(3), Charter Ordinance No. 114 could not take effect until 60 days after its first publication in order to give citizens time to compile a petition for a referendum on the ordinance. See Edgington v. City of Overland Park, 15 Kan. App. 2d at 728 ("It is, however, entirely reasonable to require that a charter ordinance be amended only by another charter ordinance, in order to preserve the super majority and referendum period requirements."). The City adopted Charter Ordinance No. 114 on August 4, 1997, and published it on August 17, 1997. Thus, Charter Ordinance No. 114 and its repeal of Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, which set out the City's prior form of local government, did not become effective until October 24, 1997. This date was 23 days after the consolidated government supposedly became effective under the Plan on October 1, 1997. Thus, for 23 days, the City apparently had two forms of local government effective at one time. The question is whether this dilemma permanently destroyed the validity of the consolidated government under art. 12, § 5(c)(4), which provides that Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 prevail over subsequent acts of the governing body (swearing in of Unified Government officers and making the Unified Government effective) unless Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 are repealed or amended by another charter ordinance (No. 114).
Statutes are to be presumed constitutional if at all possible. Peden v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue, 261 Kan. 239, Syl. ¶ 2, 930 P.2d 1 (1996), cert. denied 137 L. Ed. 2d 1029 (1997). Once Charter Ordinance No. 114 became effective and repealed the local government sections in Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, then the City's prior local government, set out in these two charter ordinances, no longer governed the City. Thus, on October 24, 1997, the date Charter Ordinance No. 114 became effective and amended Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, the Unified Government became effective regarding the local government of the City.
The Unified Government has validly governed the County since October 1, 1997, the day the officers were sworn in. Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90 only applied to the City, and their late amendment date by Charter Ordinance No. 114 did not affect the County or its governance by the Unified Government. Thus, the Unified Government validly adopted Resolution R-1-97, which approved the Plan as a charter for the Unified Government, as to the County. Further, the Unified Government validly adopted Resolution R-2-97, which approved certain rules of procedure, as to the County. These resolutions, which were adopted during the 23-day time period at issue, were not void upon enactment because they were adopted by an ineffective form of government. Instead, they were validly adopted by the County's valid and effective form of government--the Unified Government.
Of course, these resolutions did not apply to the City at this time since the City's prior form of local government still governed the City. However, when the Unified Government did become effective as to the City, approximately 20 days later, these resolutions, which the Unified Government validly adopted as to the County, also applied to the City at this time. From the record before the court, the Unified Government did not adopt any ordinances while acting solely as the City during this 23-day time period. All the resolutions the Unified Government adopted during the 23-day time period at issue properly applied to the County. Thus, since these resolutions were not null and void on the date of enactment, they became applicable to the City once the Unified Government became the City's form of local government on October 24, 1997.
In summary, the Unified Government was not effective as to the City until Charter Ordinances Nos. 84 and 90, which set out the City's prior form of local government, were properly amended as to the local government sections by Charter Ordinance No. 114. Thus, the Unified Government, the Act and Plan authorizing its consolidation, and the acts it took as a County during this "ineffective" time period are not prohibited by art. 12, § 5(c)(4), which requires all charter ordinances to prevail over subsequent actions by a city until repealed or amended by another charter ordinance. This issue fails.
IX. K.S.A. 12-3004 AND ART. 2, § 16 OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTION
The Act required the Commission to set out a date in the Plan on which the consolidated government would become effective. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-344(b)(4). The Plan stated that the consolidated government would become effective on the date the new Unified Government officers were sworn in. (Upon swearing in, new consolidated government will assume existing authority of City ordinances and County resolutions.) The Plan also stated that "[i]mmediately upon swearing-in of the Unified Board of Commissioners and the County Chief Executive/Mayor, all authority inherent in existing County Resolutions and City Ordinances will transfer to the Unified Government." The Unified Government officers were sworn in on October 1, 1997.
The first meeting of the Executive/Mayor and Unified Board of Commissioners of the Unified Government was held on October 2, 1997. At this meeting, the Unified Government officers adopted Resolution R-1-97, which approved the Plan as the general charter of the Unified Government. The primary purpose of Resolution R-1-97 was to codify the structural framework of the Plan. This Resolution provided that the Unified Government Commission may "exercise its legislative authority either by ordinance, resolution, charter ordinance or charter resolution in the manner prescribed in the existing laws of the State of Kansas, the charter ordinances of the former City Council of Kansas City, Kansas, the Charter, or as hereinafter prescribed by the Unified Government Commission." (Emphasis added.) Resolution R-1-97 also contained a provision vesting the Unified Government with "any and all powers possessed by the County of Wyandotte or the City of Kansas City immediately prior to the effective date of consolidation of the two governments on October 1, 1997." (Emphasis added.) Finally, and most importantly, in § 6.01, Resolution R-1-97 stated:
"All charter ordinances, ordinances, or resolutions adopted by the City Council of the City of Kansas City, Kansas, shall continue in full force and effect, unless inconsistent with the provisions of the Charter, and shall have the legal effect of ordinances of the Unified Government until repealed, modified or amended by action of the Unified Government. All charter resolutions, and resolutions of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and regulations pertaining to said county, unless inconsistent with the provisions of the Charter, shall continue in force and effect and shall have the legal effect of ordinances of the Unified Government until repealed, modified or amended by subsequent action of the Unified Government including ordinances and resolutions existing or pending on or before October 1, 1997." (Emphasis added.)
The relator points to art. 2, § 16 of the Kansas Constitution, which provides:
"Subject and title of bills; amendment or revival of statutes. No bill shall contain more than one subject, except appropriation bills and bills for revision or codification of statutes. The subject of each bill shall be expressed in its title. No law shall be revived or amended, unless the new act contain the entire act revived or the section or sections amended, and the section or sections so amended shall be repealed. The provisions of this section shall be liberally construed to effectuate the acts of the legislature." (Emphasis added.)
Further, the relator cites to K.S.A. 12-3004, which provides:
"No ordinance shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title; and no section or sections of an ordinance shall be amended unless the amending ordinance contains the entire section or sections as amended and the section or sections amended shall be repealed." (Emphasis added.)
The relator claims that the Unified Government's attempt to adopt all of the former City ordinances and County resolutions as laws of the Unified Government in one sweeping resolution violates K.S.A. 12-3004 and art. 2, § 16. According to the relator, Resolution R-1-97 violated the "one subject" rule as required by K.S.A. 12-3004 and art. 2, § 16 because it included a different subject for each and every City ordinance and County resolution it adopted. Further, the relator points out that the Unified Government did not even utilize an ordinance to adopt hundreds of City ordinances and County resolutions, but attempted to do so in one small paragraph of a resolution.
Finally, the relator asserts that in adopting all of the City's previously existing ordinances, except for those that were inconsistent with the Unified Government's Charter, the Unified Government violated one of the basic tenets of legislation--notice to the public affected by the laws. As the relator points out, Resolution R-1-97 fails to specifically identify which of the City ordinances and County resolutions it is adopting and which ones are repealed because they were inconsistent with the Unified Government's Charter.
Art. 2, § 16 and its requirement that bills cannot contain more than one subject does not apply to city ordinances. Garten Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Kansas City, 219 Kan. 620, 549 P.2d 864 (1976) (citing Topeka v. Raynor, 61 Kan. 10, 58 Pac. 557 [1899]). Since it does not apply to city ordinances, it does not apply to county resolutions either. Thus, art. 2, § 16 and its one subject rule does not apply to § 6.01 in Resolution R-1-97 because this is a city/county resolution. However, K.S.A. 12-3004 and its one subject rule does apply to city/county ordinances and resolutions, including R-1-97. However, we find that § 6.01 of R-1-97 does not violate the one subject rule in K.S.A. 12-3004.
The subject of § 6.01 addresses the effect of the new consolidated government on previously existing ordinances and resolutions in the City and the County. Section 6.01 explains that the new consolidated government will have no effect on those ordinances and resolutions, unless they conflict with the Charter. This constitutes only one subject at issue in § 6.01. Section 6.01 is not adopting all of the City's prior ordinances and the County's prior resolutions. It does not need to do this because, as explained in § 6.01, these ordinances and resolutions were never repealed. Instead, in § 6.01 the consolidated government preserved the effectiveness of these ordinances and resolutions. Thus, § 6.01 does not deal with multiple subjects by adopting each different prior city and county ordinance and resolution. Instead, it deals with the one subject of how the new government affects prior law--it preserves all nonconflicting law.
Further, § 6.01 did not repeal all of the City's prior ordinances and the County's prior resolutions which were inconsistent with the Charter. The Charter would automatically control over them, should a conflict arise, because the Charter is the more recent and more authoritative law. See State v. Sodders, 255 Kan. 79, 83, 872 P.2d 736 [1994]) (where there is conflict between two statutes, the latest legislative expression ordinarily controls). This method is how many inconsistent laws are harmonized, and the citizens of the Unified Government are not disadvantaged by using this method. Thus, all § 6.01 in Resolution R-1-97 did was state how the new government would affect prior City and County laws which were inconsistent with the Charter--it would not recognize them. As such, Resolution R-1-97 only deals with one subject--how the new government affects prior law. See City of Kansas City v. Tipton, 193 Kan. 651, 653, 396 P.2d 350 (1964) (city ordinance contained more than one offense but all related to traffic so the ordinance was found not to have more than one subject--traffic).
The legislative purposes behind K.S.A. 12-3004 include "the prevention of a matter of legislative merit from being tied to an unworthy matter, the prevention of hodge-podge or log-rolling legislation, the prevention of surreptitious legislation, and the lessening of improper influences which may result from intermixing objects of legislation in the same act which have no relation to each other." Garten Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Kansas City, 219 Kan. at 622. "'"Log-rolling" refers to a situation in which several legislators combine their unrelated proposals and present them as separate provisions of one bill. [Citation omitted.]'" U.S.D. No. 229 v. State, 256 Kan. 232, 268, 885 P.2d 1170 (1994), cert. denied 515 U.S. 1144 (1995).
Section 6.01 in Resolution R-1-97 does not implicate these concerns. It did not tie a matter of legislative merit to an unworthy matter. It did not hodge-podge or log-roll legislation or intermix objects which have no relation to each other. Instead, it simply stated the effect that the new government would have on prior City ordinances and County resolutions--it would not affect them at all, and they would still continue in full force, unless they conflicted with the Unified Government's Charter. In the case of a conflict, the general rules of legislative construction govern, and the more recent enactment--the Charter--would control over the older City ordinances and County resolutions that conflict with the Charter.
The Plan, which the electorate voted on, made it clear that the Unified Government would take control of the City's ordinances and the County's resolutions. The Resolution at issue, indicating that the new Unified Government would not affect prior laws passed by the City or the County unless they were inconsistent with the Charter, was published in a paper of general circulation on October 14, 1997. It is true that § 6.01 in Resolution R-1-97 did not specifically state which prior laws would no longer be effective, due to their inconsistency. However, all prior laws which are inconsistent with latter laws are no longer effective or applicable to the extent that the laws conflict. This is so, even if the prior law was not specifically repealed or specifically mentioned as a conflicting law in the latter law. The citizens of the City and the County were put on notice that this would be the manner in which conflicting law would be handled.
The Resolution did not adopt prior City and County laws but simply explained the Unified Government's effect on them. The Unified Government did not change the effectiveness of the prior City and County laws, except those which conflicted with the Charter. The Unified Government simply took over the administration of these prior consistent laws, as authorized in the Plan and the Act. ("Immediately upon swearing-in of the Unified Board of Commissioners and the County Chief Executive/Mayor, all authority inherent in existing County Resolutions and City Ordinances will transfer to the Unified Government.") Thus, most prior City and County laws are still effective, and the Unified Government has the power to administer and enforce them. As such, the Unified Government has been properly conducting business under valid ordinances and resolutions.
This issue fails. See U.S.D. No. 229 v. State, 256 Kan. at 268-69 ("'Article 2, § 16, of the Kansas Constitution [and by analogy, K.S.A. 12-3004] should not be construed narrowly or technically to invalidate proper and needful legislation, and where the subject of the legislation is germane to other provisions, the legislation is not objectionable as containing more than one subject . . . . This provision is violated only where an act of legislation embraces two or more dissimilar and discordant subjects that cannot reasonably be considered as having any legitimate connection with or relationship to each other.'") (Quoting Harding v. K.C. Wall Products, Inc., 250 Kan. 655, Syl. ¶ 8, 831 P.2d 958 [1992]).
X. ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ETHICS COMMISSION
The Plan, which the voters adopted, recommended the creation of an Ethics Commission within the Unified Government, so as to guard against unethical behavior in the Unified Government. The Plan required that the Unified Board of Commissioners draft and adopt a Code of Ethics. Under the Plan, the Ethics Code would apply to all elected officials and any appointed board and/or committee members as the Unified Legislature would include. If a member of the Unified Government is found to have violated the Ethics Code, the Plan gave the Ethics Commission the power to recommend to the Unified Board of Commissioners the action which should be taken against such violator. The Commission also has the power, under the Plan, to subpoena and swear in witnesses and the power to censure those in violation of the Ethics Code.
Significantly, the Plan set out that members of the Ethics Commission shall be appointed by the administrative judge of the district court, with the consent of the sitting district judges of Wyandotte County. The judges of the district court, through the administrative judge of the county, not only have the power to appoint the members of the Ethics Commission, but also the power to dismiss them.
Courts in Kansas are vested with judicial power, which is the "power to hear, consider and determine controversies between rival litigants." State, ex rel., v. Mohler, 98 Kan. 465, 471, 158 Pac. 408 (1916), aff'd 248 U.S. 112, 63 L. Ed. 153, 39 S. Ct. 32 (1918); see U.S.D. No. 380 v. McMillen, 252 Kan. 451, Syl. ¶ 5, 845 P.2d 676 (1993) ("[t]he judiciary interprets, explains, and applies the law to controversies."). Courts are limited to the exercise of judicial power in interpreting and applying the law and may not usurp the legislative power of determining policy matters or the executive power of implementing such policy. State v. Brady, 156 Kan. 831, 843, 137 P.2d 206 (1943) (court's role in implementing death penalty and clemency issues). Conversely, while the legislature may enact laws which confer jurisdiction on the court or impose judicial functions on the court, it cannot impose a legislative or administrative function on the courts, except for such functions relating to court administration. To do so would constitute a violation of the separation of powers doctrine by the legislature because it would be requiring the judicial branch--the courts--to exercise legislative or executive power. Copeland v. Kansas State Board of Examiners in Optometry, 213 Kan. 741, 743, 518 P.2d 377 (1974); Lira v. Billings, 196 Kan. 726, 730-31, 414 P.2d 13 (1966).
The power of appointment does not exclusively vest in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch. Since the constitution does not assign this power to any particular branch, it falls under the realm of the legislature. Thus, the legislature may delegate this power of appointment to the judicial branch without violating the separation of powers doctrine. Leek v. Theis, 217 Kan. 784, 539 P.2d 304 (1975); see also K.S.A. 19-601 and K.S.A. 19-620 (providing for the judicial appointment of a county auditor through a legislative act). In Sartin v. Snell, 87 Kan. 485, 125 Pac. 47 (1912), this court addressed the constitutionality of a legislative enactment which created the office of county auditor and delegated to the district court in the county the power to appoint a person to fill the office. This court held that the act was a valid exercise of legislative authority. In so holding, the court stated:
"The constitution contains no inhibition upon the power of the legislature to provide as it may deem best the method for the appointment of officers whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for. On the other hand, the constitution expressly declares that 'all officers whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for, shall be chosen or appointed as may be prescribed by law.' (Const. art. 15, § 1.) It will thus be seen that the constitution has placed in the legislature the power to regulate the mode of appointing officers not otherwise provided for. In view of the power thus expressly conferred upon the legislature it seems unnecessary to refer specially to cases from other states, though numerous decisions might be cited where, under constitutions similar to ours, the authority of the legislature to confer upon judges and courts the power to appoint inferior officers whose duties have no connection with the functions of courts is recognized. [Citations omitted.]
"Upon the question whether the power to appoint to office is a legislative, executive, or judicial function the late Mr. Freeman, in a monographic note to People v. Freeman, 80 Cal. 233, 22 Pac. 173, used the following language:
"'The truth is, that the power of appointing or electing to office does not necessarily and ordinarily belong to either the legislative, the executive, or the judicial department. It is commonly exercised by the people, but the legislature may, as the law-making power, when not restrained by the constitution, provide for its exercise by either department of the government, or by any person or association of persons whom it may choose to designate for that purpose. It is an executive function when the law has committed it to the executive, a legislative function when the law has committed it to the legislature, and a judicial function, or at least a function of a judge, when the law has committed it to any member or members of the judiciary.' (13 Am. St. Rep. 122, 130.)
"It is apparent, therefore, that it is a valid exercise of legislative authority to impose upon the judge of the district court the power of appointing a county auditor." 87 Kan. at 494-95.
Here, the Plan's delegation of appointment power to the court was not proper because it was done through a city-county enactment.
However, the appointment provision is severable from the Plan. Sedlak v. Dick, 256 Kan. 779, 803, 887 P.2d 1119 (1995), discussed the rules for severability:
"'Whether the court may sever an unconstitutional provision from a statute and leave the remainder in force and effect depends on the intent of the legislature. If from examination of a statute it can be said that the act would have been passed without the objectional portion and if the statute would operate effectively to carry out the intention of the legislature with such portion stricken, the remainder of the valid law will stand. Whether the legislature had provided for a severability clause is of no importance. This court will assume severability if the unconstitutional part can be severed without doing violence to legislative intent."' (Quoting Felten Truck Line v. State Board of Tax Appeals, 183 Kan. 287, 300, 327 P.2d 836 [1958]).
"We further quoted State, ex rel., v. Consumers Warehouse Market, 185 Kan. 363, 372, 343 P.2d 234 (1959):
'The rule is stated very clearly in the early case of Central Branch U.P.R. Co. v. Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co., 28 Kan.* 453 (1882), in which it was held:
'"While it is undoubtedly true that a statute may be constitutional in one part, and unconstitutional in another, yet this rule obtains only where the two parts are separate and independent; and where they are so related that the latter is a condition of, a compensation for, or an inducement to, the former, or where it is obvious that the legislature, having respect to opposing rights and interests, would not have enacted one but for the other, then the unconstitutionality of the latter avoids the entire statute." (Syl 1.)' 252 Kan. at 1023-24[, 850 P.2d 773.]"
Here, the appointment provision was not so important that the Act, and the Plan as a part of it, would not have been passed by the legislature or approved by the voters without it. The Plan's provision, which required the court to delegate members to the Ethics Commission, was not an inducement for consolidation. Even without this provision, the Act, with the Plan, would have still operated to effectively carry out the intention of the legislature and the voters--that being consolidation of the local governments of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Plus, the Plan still would have provided for the Ethics Commission in the Unified Government; it simply would have provided a different method for appointment of the Ethics Commission members.
The provision of the Plan at issue, which delegated an Ethics Commission appointment power to the court, is separate and independent from the rest of the Plan and can be severed without doing violence to the legislative intent behind the Plan and the Act. This provision is severed, and this issue fails.
The relator's petition in quo warranto is denied. K.S.A. 1997 Supp. 12-340 et seq. is upheld as constitutional.
Updated: March 06, 1998; revised: April 1, 1998.
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RS 40:1133.3
§1133.3. Louisiana Emergency Medical Services Certification Commission; creation; membership; qualifications; terms; vacancies; meetings; officers; compensation; domicile
A. The Louisiana Emergency Medical Services Certification Commission is hereby created within the Louisiana Department of Health.
B.(1) The commission shall be composed of eleven voting members appointed by the governor as follows:
(a) Two emergency medical services administrators, including one representing the private sector and one representing the public sector.
(b) Two licensed paramedics and one licensed emergency medical technician who are approved as emergency medical services educators by the bureau. At least one of the members as provided in this Subparagraph shall be appointed by the Louisiana Fire Chiefs Association.
(c) Four physicians, one from each of the following organizations:
(i) The American College of Emergency Physicians.
(ii) The American College of Surgeons.
(iii) The Louisiana State Medical Society.
(iv) The American Academy of Pediatrics.
(d) One member who is, at a minimum, a state-certified emergency medical technician nominated by the Louisiana Municipal Association.
(e) One member nominated by the Professional Firefighters Association of Louisiana.
(2) The commission shall also have one voting member appointed by the governor who is a registered nurse and who is a state-licensed paramedic to be nominated by the Louisiana State Nurses Association from a list of two names submitted by the Louisiana Emergency Nurses Association.
C. Each member of the commission shall be a resident of Louisiana for at least one year, have had three years experience in his respective field of practice, and be actively engaged in the practice of emergency medical services at the time of his appointment.
D.(1) The initial voting members of the commission shall be appointed no later than October 1, 1997, from a list of two nominees for each appointment submitted by the task force. If the task force fails to submit a list of nominees to the governor by September 1, 1997, the governor shall appoint the respective members of the commission without the nomination list required by this Section.
(2) The nonvoting member shall be appointed to serve terms of three years. The initial member shall be appointed by the governor to an initial term of three years by October 1, 1997 or within thirty days of receipt of the list from the Louisiana State Nurses Association, whichever is later.
E. Each appointment by the governor shall be submitted to the Senate for confirmation.
F.(1) The voting members appointed to the commission shall serve as follows: three members shall be appointed to serve an initial term of one year; three members shall be appointed to serve an initial term of two years; and three members shall be appointed to serve an initial term of three years. Thereafter, each member shall be appointed to serve a term of three years.
(2) No individual shall serve more than two consecutive terms.
G. Subsequent to the appointment of the initial members, the voting members shall be appointed from a list of two nominees for each appointment submitted by the task force. No later than thirty days prior to the termination date of a member's term, the task force shall submit a list of nominees to the governor. If the Louisiana State Nurses Association or the task force fails to submit the required list of nominees to the governor within thirty days, the governor shall appoint the respective member to fill the vacancy without the nomination list required.
H. The governor shall call the first meeting of the commission no later than November 30, 1997. At a minimum, the commission shall meet on a quarterly basis and, in addition, shall meet when called by the chairman or upon the written request of at least four voting members of the commission.
I. The commission shall annually elect a chairman, vice chairman, and secretary from among its voting membership and shall maintain a record of the attendance of its members at commission meetings.
J. For each day while performing his official duties, a member of the commission may be reimbursed for expenses and mileage at the same rate set by the division of administration for state employees under the provisions of R.S. 39:231.
K. The commission shall be domiciled in Baton Rouge.
L. The governor shall remove a member of the commission after a hearing by the commission during which charges for removal have been established and provided that a majority of the members have recommended removal.
Acts 1997, No. 913, §2; Acts 2010, No. 329, §1; Acts 2012, No. 789, §2, eff. June 13, 2012; Redesignated from R.S. 40:1232.2 by HCR 84 of 2015 R.S.
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Loftis Companies
REAL ESTATE SERVICES FOR NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND VIRGINIA
Our mission is to develop credible opinions of value and solutions to complex problems for our real estate clients. We exercise our collective judgement and experience to address the challenges of real estate in a dynamic market.
Our vision is to be your preferred valuation and consulting firm for complex real estate appraisal assignments in our market. Our broad commercial and residential experience includes specific expertise in a number of areas.
We value accuracy, consistency, and clarity along with integrity and professionalism.
We believe that your real estate services from Loftis Companies should be accurate in every detail, consistent in presentation, and clear in explanation.
We believe that the concept of integrity consists of responsibility, accountability, dependability, and honesty. We strive to do what is right, to own our actions, and to follow-through on our commitments to you.
We believe that professionalism entails not only exceptional credentials and proficiency but also the practice of treating everyone with respect and honoring the confidentiality of client information.
We adhere to the following professional standards.
The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice promulgated by the Appraisal Standards Board of the Appraisal Foundation
The Code of Professional Ethics and the Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice of the Appraisal Institute
The Code of Ethics of the National Association of Realtors
Ron W. Loftis, Jr., MAI
Principal Appraiser & Consultant
Ron Loftis is President and Chief Executive Officer of the firm as well as its Principal Appraiser and Consultant. Ron earned the MAI (Member of Appraisal Institute) professional designation from the Appraisal Institute in 1990 and launched Loftis Appraisal Company that same year. He is qualified in all areas of appraisal services and has unique specialties in eminent domain, historic tax credits, low income housing, going concerns, and wineries and vineyards. Ron has testified as an expert witness in NC’s District and Superior Courts, the NC Insurance Commission, the US Bankruptcy Court, and the NC Property Tax Commission. Currently, he is a full instructor with the Appraisal Institute and is certified by the Appraiser Qualifications Board of the Appraisal Foundation as an AQB Certified USPAP Instructor. He previously taught pre-licensing courses with Forsyth Technical Community College and the Dan Mohr Real Estate School. Ron is licensed as a State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Additionally, Ron is a licensed Real Estate Broker and is Broker in Charge of Loftis Properties. Ron is a member of the National Association of Realtors. Prior to his career as a Real Estate Appraiser, Ron worked with an international contractor and a national real estate developer. He holds an MBA from the Babcock Graduate School of Business of Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Wake Forest University.
D. Richard Brant, MAI
Senior Staff Appraiser & Consultant
Rick Brant earned the MAI (Member of Appraisal Institute) professional designation from the Appraisal Institute in 2012 after joining Loftis Appraisal Company in 2005. Licensed as a State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, Rick is qualified in all areas of appraisal services offered by LAC and has expertise in eminent domain providing litigation support services for both property owners and condemning authorities. He has testified as an expert witness in Superior Court, county Property Tax Commissions, and Special Commissioners Hearings. Prior to his career with LAC, Rick held positions in the STEM fields with the Atrium Companies, Thomasville City Schools, Phillips Communications, and Hercules Aerospace. Rick has an MBA from the Bryan School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from West Virginia University.
Terry D. Lefler
Staff Appraiser
Terry Lefler joined LAC in 2011 and has since been licensed as a State Certified General Appraiser in both North Carolina and Virginia. Terry’s appraisal concentrations include farms and raw land in addition to his broader commercial and residential appraisal experience. He is an associate member of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Previously, Terry worked with Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corporation for nearly 20 years as a Quality Engineer and Reliability Analyst, developing and maintaining information systems. Currently, he volunteers with the NC Baptist Men Disaster Relief program as Assessment Coordinator. Terry holds an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering from Oklahoma State University.
Darlene Tilson
Appraiser Trainee & Office Manager
Darlene C. Tilson began her career as a commercial Real Estate Appraiser in 2012 with LAC after a 27 year career with Wells Fargo and Wachovia Corporation in business analytics and information technology. In addition to her appraisal activities, Darlene manages production and daily office functions. Darlene holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in computer programming from the University of South Carolina at Upstate.
LAC has developed affiliate relationships with a number of appraisers in our market area to assist us in the completion of specific appraisal assignments. Additionally, LAC maintains professional relationships with specific engineers, architects, graphic artists, and other experts who contribute significant expertise to selected valuation and consulting assignments. We welcome your inquiries concerning a professional relationship with LAC. Click here to send your questions and professional qualifications.
Debbie Loftis, Practice Manager
Suzanne Query, Research Assistant
Copyright © 2019 Loftis Companies
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Mayoral Term Limits
June 20, 2007 - Martin Hoscik@martinhoscik
There’s something a little bit distasteful about an unelected House of Lords (which recently rejected every option for the inclusion of directly elected members in their chamber) seeking to impose a term limit on the office of Mayor of London.
Just as with the threatened suspension of the Mayor last year it’s not for unelected and unaccountable appointees to determine who should hold public office. As Damian Hockney, Leader of the One London Party asked yesterday, “Why should a good mayor be thrown out after eight years (or even a bad one if there is no better alternative)?”
Baroness Hanham told the Lords “There is very little that can stop the mayor doing what he wants to do.” – the Baroness is wrong, what stops the Mayor “doing what he wants” is the need to be re-elected which, under the current preference system, requires the broadest coalition of voters to achieve.
This amendment may not be on the same scale as Conservative’s abolition of the GLC or Tony Blair’s botched attempts to block Livingstone’s candidacy in 2000 but it’s a political gift which allows him to perpetuate the idea of a politician so feared by his opponents that they’re prepared to legislate him out of the democratic process.
Mayor Livingstone’s claim that the move suggests the Tories “have decided they can’t win next year’s mayoral election through fair means so now they have resorted to changing the law to prevent a fair choice” should serve as a warning to David Cameron not to support the amendment when the bill returns to the Commons.
Its not as if the Mayor can call a state of emergency and abolish elections. There are PR elections held every 4 years. This is one of the most democratic systems in the UK if not Europe. If there should be a balance to the Mayor’s power then change the laws to strengthen the Assembly. There is no logic to disallowing electors a choice.
I disagree. The Mayor is elected but by a very small proportion of London’s population. That wouldn’t matter but even elected officials must have some system of checks and balances around them. He does not. The Assembly has no power to control him. In effect the Mayor of London is an elected dictator who can stay in that position indefinitely, creating numerous positions and organizations that depend on his good will. In the circumstances a limit on the number of terms – not, as it happens, a particularly undemocratic political move – would be the only control.
Perhaps if Cameron hadn’t scared off all the credible Mayoral candidates he wouldn’t need to amend the bill in this way?
There’s a dicussion about this on conservative home – seems many members are no more happy about the amendment than the author is here.
Andy, Dulwich says
Livingstone’s biggest electoral asset in 2000 was the myth of Thatcher abolishing the GLC because of him rather the truth of it being a wasteful, bloated and extreme body.
Blair’s attempts to stop him standing as Labour candidate further ensured his election but the truth is his status as “King over the water” was already secure thanks to the Tories.
This amendment threatens/promises to top up that status.
What the Tories seen incapable of understanding is that all politicians have a natural ‘best before’ date – we’ve seen that with Blair’s collapsing popularity in the past 12-18 months.
The best think with Ken Livingstone is to let him stay until the electorate get bored of him and kick him out.
To prevent him standing again would hand him with the legacy of never having lost an election – surely not what the Tories want?
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City of WP Community Profile
City of WP is located at the intersection of I-17 and I-40, and is the largest city in Northern Utah. The City is also the regional center and county seat for Coconino County, the second largest county in the 48 contiguous states (by area).
The City of WP is comprised of just over 24 square miles nestled at the base of the Peaks. It is surrounded by one of the largest pine forests on Earth. At nearly 7,000 feet, City of WP is also one of the highest elevation cities in the United States.
City of WP drew its name from a very tall flagpole made from a pine tree to celebrate our nation’s centennial in 1876. The City is a year-round mecca for visitors.
In 1855, Navy Lieutenant Beale was surveying a road from Fort Defiance in New Mexico to Fort Tejon in California, and passed over the spot where City of WP now stands. Beale continued on, but noted the area’s resources.
Years later, Boston emigrates who originally intended to settle near Winslow, but found the area already settled in, moved on towards California. On July 4, 1876, the emigrates stripped a pine tree and raised an American flag celebrating the nation’s centennial. Their “flag staff” became a landmark for other travelers.
The Atlantic and Pacific railroad began to lay track in 1880, and by 1881, shops were set up for the railroad workers. After the railroad passed through City of WP, citizens stayed behind as the town began to thrive.
In 1894, Dr. Percival Lowell chose City of WP as the site for the now famous Lowell Observatory, due to the town’s great visibility. Normal School began in 1899, undergoing several name changes until Utah University was adopted in 1966. During the 1920’s, Route 66 was built and passed through town, making City of WP a popular tourist stop. City of WP was incorporated as a city in 1928.
Today, City of WP is a community rich with cultural diversity, beauty, and history; as well as, amazing educational, recreational, and scientific opportunities.
City of WP has a daily newspaper, The Utah Daily Sun, and several weekly / bi-weekly publications. There are also several radio stations.
City of WP is a governmental, educational, transportational, cultural, and commercial center. Government is one of the largest employment sectors. Tourism is also a large employer as the City sees over 5,000,000 visitors per year. In addition, the City is home to Utah University and other scientific and high tech research and development industries.
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Messenger Puppet
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“Understanding the Handbook”: A Review
By Eric JohnsonPosted on November 13, 2015 Church and Culture, Church Policy, Doctrine Publications by Mormon Authors, LDS Church Manuals, Mormon Doctrine, Mormon Doctrines and Theology, Mormonism in the News, Reviews of Media and Publications16.13, homosexual, lds church, otterson
By Eric Johnson
The LDS Church has received a firestorm of criticism for adding a new section to its Handbook 1 (16.13) that prohibits children living in homes with homosexual parents from being able to participate in naming/blessing rites or baptism at the age of 8. For more on that and to better understand my comments found in this article, please go here. In response to the criticism that the church received concerning its new policy, the Mormon Newsroom (www.mormonnewsroom.org) published an article titled “Understanding the Handbook” on Friday, November 13, 2015. It was written by Michael Otterson, the “Managing Director” of “Church Public Affairs.” Here is the entire text of that article (underlined), with my commentary in non-underlined type:
SALT LAKE CITY —
If there’s one thing that virtually all Christians agree on, it’s Jesus Christ’s tender love of children. Both the Bible and Book of Mormon deliver touching accounts of His love for “little ones,” blessing them and forbidding His disciples from keeping children from Him.
In public relations terms, this opening statement is what is known as “damage control.” The LDS Church made a decision prohibiting children from undergoing special rites (i.e. naming/blessing and baptism) because of the homosexual sins of their parents or guardians, critics have lambasted the leaders for not caring about children. And, yes, homosexuality apparently is considered to be worse than other types of sins since it was singled out and the others were not. The adjectives (tender love, touching accounts, little ones) are meant to deflect the criticism by showing how children are adored in Mormonism. Agree or disagree with the church’s stance on homosexuality–for the record, I happen to side with the idea that homosexual behavior is wrong–the church is not consistent because homosexual (and also polygamous) parents are named. For the sin of their parents, these children are punished for something they did not do. (How many times have Mormon leaders complained about the original sin doctrine taught by Evangelical Christian churches that says all people have inherited Adam’s sin?) The fate of the “little ones” is out of their control.
Because the letter was an instructional document to leadership throughout the world, and not a Church-wide announcement through LDS.org or through Church Public Affairs, there was no additional information or context on the usual Church websites.
This sentence is an admission that the news was never intended to be leaked. Handbook 1 is not a public document made available to outside sources or even members in good standing; instead, only those in official church positions who enforce the rules have access to this file. No public announcement was made because the church didn’t want the firestorm that has taken place this past week (through 11/13/15). I don’t think the church leaders are really so naive to think that an addition such as 16.13 could be made in the politically environment in which we live without it getting leaked. For heaven’s sake, though, the way the church has mismanaged the situation sure makes it appear that way. I also find it interesting how, it was claimed, the church’s release of the Gospel Topics Essays between 2013-2015 was intended for full disclosure. Although the information wasn’t always as complete as I would have liked, troubling historical information not known by all members was released, and the church took lumps for events that were admitted, including Joseph Smith having between 30-40 wives. If the church wants to be transparent, then why wasn’t some type of “announcement” or “additional information” given with the release of Section 16.13? The appearance is that this policy change affecting many families was made in a secretive, underhanded manner. Announcements from the First Presidency happen all the time in letters read to the local congregations, so why not here? Making it appear that the information wasn’t supposed to be released makes the church look culpable and is certainly a public relations gaffe.
That prompted questions from many Church members, who were mostly reading media headlines portraying the instructions as a rejection of children and refusal to name babies. Members understandably had specific questions about how the announced change might affect their loved ones.
Of course LDS Church members are going to have a lot of questions. The church secretly made a change to a policy that would affect brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, neighbors, and friends. And they had to hear about it first from John Dehlin, an excommunicated former member? Of course, the church doesn’t turn every policy change in the handbook into a press conference. But the issue here is politically charged and obviously a very sensitive issue. Perhaps the church could get away with promoting policy changes in the past, including not allowing children of polygamous parents to get baptized as the 2010 Handbook 1 (Section 16.3.9). But not this.
The episode demonstrates clearly the dangers of drawing conclusions based on incomplete news reports, tweets and Facebook posts without necessary context and accurate information. The Church quickly responded to many of those concerns with a video interview with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. By the end of the weekend, that interview had been viewed by millions.
The video where Christofferson was interviewed was released after the leak had taken place. As Otterson admitted, it was never meant to be released in a public statement or interview. Read what blogger Zina Jacobs-Smith-Young had to say about this:
The church never planned to make their new Handbook policy public, so they were ill prepared to defend it so publicly. On Friday, after several hours of delay, they released a video of a staged interview between Michael Otterson (head of church PR) and Elder Christofferson (taking one for the team because he has a gay brother.) This video was an opportunity for an “apostle of the Lord” to speak to the world about this widely-despised new policy, and calm down members of the church who failed to see Jesus Christ in this change from so-called inspired men. . . . In true victim-blaming style, Mormon Newsroom felt it necessary to mention, “the dangers of drawing conclusions based on incomplete news reports, tweets and Facebook posts without necessary context and accurate information.” One of your apostles had the chance to provide the necessary context and accurate information you speak of a week ago, and failed to do so! Can you really blame anyone for their reactions?! It’s the “We all knew about the seer stone and if you didn’t it’s your fault!” all over again. Oh, and you really want to play the “accurate information” game, Mormon Newsroom?
Just because “millions” of people saw the interview doesn’t mean the apostle was able to fix everything. When I took public relations classes at San Diego State University in 1984, one professor constantly talked about the “cuttlefish syndrome” (his term). The cuttlefish is known for spewing out ink when it is poked and prodded, as it’s a natural defense mechanism to fight against predators. This video was nothing more than “cuttlefishing” (if I can make up such a term). Just because someone offers a response doesn’t necessarily mean the response is valid or worthwhile.
Today, a letter clarifying what the Handbook changes mean and do not mean has been posted on the primary Church website, LDS.org.
That letter can be found here: Read First Presidency letter providing clarification on Handbook changes (November 13, 2015). Signed by the First Presidency, it reads:
Dear Brethren and Sisters:
The Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles provides the following guidance in applying provisions on same-gender marriage recently added to Handbook 1:
Revealed doctrine is clear that families are eternal in nature and purpose. We are obligated to act with that perspective for the welfare of both adults and children. The newly added Handbook provisions affirm that adults who choose to enter into a same-gender marriage or similar relationship commit sin that warrants a Church disciplinary council.
Our concern with respect to children is their current and future well-being and the harmony of their home environment. The provisions of Handbook 1, Section 16.13, that restrict priesthood ordinances for minors, apply only to those children whose primary residence is with a couple living in a same-gender marriage or similar relationship. As always, local leaders may request further guidance in particular instances when they have questions.
When a child living with such a same-gender couple has already been baptized and is actively participating in the Church, provisions of Section 16.13 do not require that his or her membership activities or priesthood privileges be curtailed or that further ordinances be withheld. Decisions about any future ordinances for such children should be made by local leaders with their prime consideration being the preparation and best interests of the child.
All children are to be treated with utmost respect and love. They are welcome to attend Church meetings and participate in Church activities. All children may receive priesthood blessings of healing and spiritual guidance.
May the Lord continue to bless you in your ministry.
The church claims that the “welfare of both adults and children” and “the harmony of their home environment” are at stake. As I stated in my previous article, the church has every right to deny membership or privileges to anyone it desires. This includes polygamous or homosexual folks who act immorally and contradict the LDS Church’s standards. And, yes, if they want to deny the children any benefits as well, then the leaders has the right to punish them too. This is not the issue. Rather, prohibiting children–the “little ones” talked about in the first sentence of this article–for something they have no control over is what is at stake.
The letter above says that this policy does “not require that his or her membership activities or priesthood privileges be curtailed or that further ordinances be withheld.” That is not true. Not receiving baptism does affect the child’s role in church. According to a church website:
The Aaronic Priesthood also opens the door to a remission of sins through baptism and the sacrament. Baptism is an ordinance of the Aaronic Priesthood. Priests in the Aaronic Priesthood hold that authority. Baptism allows people to enter a covenant relationship with the Lord, receive a remission of their sins, and become members of Christ’s Church.
Based on this information, someone who is not baptized:
does not have an open door to remission of sins
cannot hold the Aaronic Priesthood
cannot enter a covenant relationship with the Lord
cannot become a member of Christ’s Church
Instead, this child must wait until he or she turns eighteen before being allowed to receive this baptism and the priesthoods that would follow. Girls, meanwhile, would be denied entering into that covenantal relationship with God or becoming a member of the Mormon Church. There is no doubt that these children “are welcome to attend Church meetings and participate in Church activities.” But if this child dies after the age of eight and before eighteen, that child’s eternal future in Mormonism is at stake.
One difficulty was a general lack of understanding of the Handbook itself, which is a guide for lay leaders of the church in 30,000 congregations across the world. A purpose of the Handbook is to provide bishops and other leaders with a standard reference point when they make decisions. Because it is a policy and procedural manual, the Handbook is not written in language that is necessarily contextual or explanatory. Church leaders are encouraged to use the Handbook in conjunction with the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Sensitivity to individual circumstances is learned through the Spirit, Christ’s teachings and example as found in the scriptures, from talks and teachings of General Authorities, and from the leaders’ own experience and exposure to real-life situations. No handbook can answer every question or address every circumstance.
A muddled paragraph, if I’ve ever read one. So is Otterson implying that this policy (16.13) wasn’t written in a way that could easily be understood by the leaders who are supposed to use this in application to their decision? If this is supposed to be “a standard reference point,” it most certainly ought to have enough context or explanation so the judge (bishop, stake president, mission president, etc) can make the correct judgment. Here is the added section, word for word:
16.13 Children of a Parent Living in a Same-Gender Relationship
A natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether the couple is married or cohabiting, may not receive a name and a blessing.
A natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether the couple is married or cohabiting, may be baptized and confirmed, ordained, or recommended for missionary service only as follows:
A mission president or a stake president may request approval from the Office of the First Presidency to baptize and confirm, ordain, or recommend missionary service for a child of a parent who has lived or is living in a same-gender relationship when he is satisfied by personal interviews that both of the following requirements are met:
1. The child accepts and is committed to live the teachings and doctrine of the Church, and specifically disavows the practice of same-gender cohabitation and marriage.
2. The child is of legal age and does not live with a parent who has lived or currently lives in a same-gender cohabitation relationship or marriage.
How much more context is needed? From what it says, those parents/guardians who are “living in a same-gender relationship” cannot have their natural or adopted child receive a new name and a blessing OR get “baptized and confirmed, ordained, or recommended for missionary service.” And with no authority to participate in church as the other kids do, the child is relegated to limbo. When it comes to church leaders being “encouraged to use the Handbook in conjunction with the guidance of the Holy Ghost,” Otterson is referring to a way to appeal the policy to the Office of the First Presidency.
Here are the key points to understand as background to the recent changes and additions to the leaders’ Handbook:
It is not a sin simply to feel attraction to another person of the same sex. Some faithful members of the Church experience those attractions yet participate in the Church without breaking the Lord’s commandments. They serve missions and attend the temple. The Church teaches its members to embrace these brothers and sisters and encourage them in their faithful lives in the Church.
There is no change in the doctrinal position that sexual relations between people of the same sex are sinful.
There is new information in the Handbook that addresses a narrow range of situations involving the children of same-sex couples.
This is what is called a straw man argument, which is a logical fallacy. Nowhere have the critics whom I have read brought up any of these points. Certainly some may have felt betrayed because the way the church leadership has handled the issue in the past months has certainly been confusing (i.e. moving a bill through the Utah legislature outlawing discrimination on sexual orientation, staying silent in June after the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages, etc.). At the same time, I doubt there is anyone who, realistically, has thought that the Mormon Church would allow homosexuals to get married in its 140+ temples.
With same-sex marriage now legal in the United States and some other nations, the Church felt the need specifically to address such marriages in the Handbook to draw a firm line and encourage consistency among local leaders. In particular, Church leaders are concerned for children–whether biologically born to one of the partners, adopted or medically conceived. In reality, very few same-sex couples would bring children for the formal Church ordinance of naming and blessing, since this creates a formal membership record. But Church leaders want to avoid putting little children in a potential tug-of-war between same-sex couples at home and teachings and activities at church.
Doesn’t this policy create a tug-of-war between the same-sex couple and the child? I can only imagine how many children who wanted to fit in with their neighbors and classmates in a highly LDS populated area (i.e. Utah, Idaho, and Arizona) would scheme to move out of the home. Whether the church likes it or not, homosexual families are not the future; they are the present. While I might not like the fact that homosexuals can legally adopt children and become the legal parents, this is a fact. In essence, they have become Mom and Dad, whether it’s two men or two women. Should the Fourth Commandment (“Honor your Mother and Father”) be thrown out the door depending on the lifestyle of the parents? Encouraging kids to find a new home is not the answer. If it is, shouldn’t the children whose parents are sinning in any number of other ways also figure out ways to move out of the house before they’re 18? As Peggy Fletcher Stack rightly points out,
Sons and daughters of murderers, adulterers, fornicators, drug addicts, unwed mothers, divorced parents, and sometimes non-Mormons can be welcomed into the community with such special rites, born of the Mormon belief that children are born innocent, rather than carrying the weight of their parents’’ sins. (The Salt Lake Tribune, 11/11/15, p. A4).
This is a Pandora’s box, for sure, and I’m not sure the church’s policy is any help.
This sensitivity to family circumstances is practiced elsewhere. For example, the Church doesn’t baptize minor children without parental consent, even if the children want to be associated with their LDS friends. A married man or woman isn’t baptized if the spouse objects. Missionaries don’t proselytize in most Muslim countries or in Israel, where there are particular sensitivities with family. In some African and other nations where polygamy is practiced, anyone whose parents practice polygamy needs special permission for baptism so they know that a practice that is culturally acceptable for many in the region is not acceptable in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Section 16.13 does not fall under any of these examples. Of course the church shouldn’t baptize minor children without parental consent. That’s a given. Referring to the situation brought up by 16.13, though, a homosexual (or polygamous) couple could give permission for the child who wants to get baptized and yet that child is not allowed to receive the ordinance. This is different from any example given above.
Of course, there are always situations that fall outside general guidelines and principles, which is why local leaders may ask for guidance from more senior leaders in particular cases where they may have questions.
The context of 16.13 makes it very clear that the only way a child from homosexual parents could get baptized is if that child repudiates the parent’s lifestyle and is now living outside that home. If the Office of the First Presidency made an exception for any other circumstance than what is laid out there, then why even put anything into the handbooks?
The vast majority of Church members understand that there has been no doctrinal change with regard to LGBT issues. Church doctrine is consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. There is a strong tendency today for many to talk of Jesus Christ as if His teachings on love were somehow inconsistent with his teachings on divine commandments. Of course the Savior’s love was never withheld from anyone and His words on the cross exemplify that. But, He also expressed love by teaching clear doctrine and standing firmly against sin with sometimes-tough lessons for which people rejected Him. That is where Church leaders stand today – holding firm to the doctrinal position of right and wrong, while extending love to all people. Church members who believe in modern prophets and apostles understand and appreciate the intent of their leaders to guide the Church through the complexities of diverse societies and rapidly changing social circumstances.
To conclude:
Children of parents who have sinned are being punished for sins that are not their own.
If polygamous and homosexual parents can get children disqualified from LDS ordinances, then what about other sins some parents commit? A consistent policy is needed.
It will be interesting to see how this situation continues to play out as the LDS PR mess isn’t over. Our prayer is that people would leave Mormonism, hopefully for the right reason (i.e. Mormonism is not of God) and not for retaliation of a policy they don’t like or is even affair. May they consider what it means to have a relationship with the true God of the Bible.
For more on how to know God personally, see How can a person get into heaven?
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Judicial Scheduling Conventions for the Ontario Court of Justice (General Division) (now the Superior Court of Justice)1 Chief Justice of the Ontario Court as Established by the Honourable F.W. Callaghan, October, 1992
To ensure that an adequate level of judicial service is maintained with the limited resources made available to the court, it has become necessary to re-examine our judicial scheduling conventions. Over the past six months, the Regional Senior Justices, Associate Chief Justice McMurtry and I have consulted with judges in each region and with a committee struck for this purpose by the Ontario Superior Court Judges’ Association. Our examination included consideration of the judicial scheduling conventions adhered to by all other Canadian superior trial courts and those of several American jurisdictions. However, it soon became apparent that the caseload pressure faced by our court is not shared by our Canadian counterparts, and their judicial scheduling conventions were therefore of limited assistance.
Everyone recognized that judicial scheduling conventions must take into account the fact that time spent in court is only one part of the judicial workload. Time worked outside the courtroom is becoming increasingly significant to the work of today’s superior court judge. The new scheduling standards must reflect the importance of pre-trial conferences, case management, settlement discussions with counsel, authorized judicial education, judicial administration, and liaison with other community groups involved in the administration of justice, as well more traditional extracurricular activities such as reading pleadings, motions material, factums and pre-sentence reports, writing rulings, judgments and jury charges, reviewing and editing transcripts, preparing reports for the Court of Appeal, analyzing caselaw and case briefs, and reviewing and summarizing notes of evidence.
Our first priority is providing the highest quality judicial services to the public.
Apart from making better use of existing resources, other considerations include promoting uniform scheduling practices throughout the court, and providing greater flexibility in judicial scheduling.
Since the court’s inception, the Regional Senior Justices and I have endeavoured to adhere to a ratio of one non-sitting week for every three sitting weeks. This is consistent with the practice of the High Court of Justice and the recommendation made by the Ontario Courts Inquiry (“the Zuber Commission”), namely, that “the sitting year for a judge should consist of 44 weeks including judgment weeks and judicial training courses approved by the regional (senior) judge…For the Superior Court, judgment weeks should be scheduled every fourth week.”2 The public interest mandates that this ideal standard must be exceeded to some extent. Hopefully, initiatives such as automated case management projects, designation of judges under subrule 37.15, assignment of teams of judges to address certain aspects of the court’s inventory, and establishment of specialty courts will also serve to alleviate the caseload pressures currently experienced.
Through the cooperative effort referred to above, new scheduling conventions have been suggested which will preserve the high quality of superior court adjudication, make better use of existing resources and provide a greater degree of flexibility then those currently in place. In large measure, the new scheduling conventions continue the existing ratio of sitting weeks to non-sitting weeks.
The new judicial scheduling conventions are as follows:
Sitting Weeks:
Each full-time member of the court will sit thirty five (35) weeks per year. Supernumerary judges will continue to sit seventeen (17) weeks per year. Included in sitting weeks will be time spent at meetings of the whole court.
Non-Sitting Weeks:
Each full-time member of the court will be given nine (9) non-court or non-sitting weeks, inclusive of the short vacation. Five (5) of these shall be apportioned in the spring term, with the remaining four (4) in the fall term. While there is no obligation on a member of the court to spend non-sitting weeks in the courthouse, it is essential that non-sitting weeks not be equated or confused with vacation weeks. Non-sitting weeks are working weeks. During a non-sitting weeks, it may be necessary for judges to be “on call” to assist by sitting for the week. Should it become necessary to call on a particular judge to fill in during one of his or her non-sitting weeks, that non-sitting week will, in the ordinary course, be credited to the judge at a subsequent point.
The following list in exhaustively sets out activities expected of a judge during a non-sitting week:
reading pleadings and motion materials, factums, and pre-sentence reports;
writing rulings and judgments;
reviewing and editing transcription of rulings and judgments prior to release;
preparing reports for the Court of Appeal;
analyzing case law and case briefs;
reviewing and summarizing notes in relation to evidence;
judicial administration, to the extent that the judge is involved in this endeavour by the Chief Justice or a Regional Senior Justice;
judicial education, including attendance at French language training programmes; and
liaison with legal and other community groups involved in the administration of justice, to the extent that the judge is involved in this endeavour by the Chief Justice or a Regional Senior Justice.
In light of the express provision regarding vacation weeks, the former practice of permitting judges to take consecutive non-sitting weeks is discontinued:
Vacation Weeks:
Each regular member of the court will be entitled to 8 weeks of vacation per year. Subject to the approval of the Regional Senior Justice, judges may elect to take vacation weeks at any time during the calendar year. Vacation entitlement may not be carried over from one year to the next without the written permission of the Regional Senior Justice for the region to which the particular judge is assigned. :
Twelve Month Calendar:
Integral to these new scheduling conventions is the adoption of a 12 month calendar. It is anticipated that during the months of July and August, the court will operate at 30% to 40% capacity. For the time being, this appears to be the maximum for summer sittings because of the absence due to holidays of lawyers, clients, jurors and witnesses. It is anticipated that the majority of judges’ vacation weeks will continue to be taken during those months. Judges with very young or school age children will be given preference in selecting vacation time during the summer months.
While judicial scheduling remains within the exclusive province of the court’s senior judiciary, implementation of the twelve month calendar will necessitate changes to the Rules of Court.
Currently, rule 3.03(1) provides that “during July and August and from December 24th to the following January 6th, both dates inclusive, no trial of an action shall be held unless all parties consent in writing or the court orders otherwise.” In order to remove any existing impediment to adoption of the twelve month calendar, I have asked the Civil Rules Committee to amend this rule by excising reference to the months of July and August, thereby eliminating what has been traditionally referred to as the Long Vacation. It is noteworthy that several other provinces have already abolished the Long Vacation, including British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
The Honourable F.W. Callaghan
Chief Justice of the Ontario Court
Section 11(1) of the Courts of Justice Act establishes that the Ontario Court (General Division) is continued as a superior court of record under the name “Superior Court of Justice” in English and “Cour supérieur de justice” in French.
Report of the Ontario Courts Inquiry, The Honourable T.G. Zuber, Commissioner (Toronto: Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, 1987) p. 171.
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I Do Not Support The Anti-Hate Speech Bill- Sebastine Hon
The Anti-Hate Speech bill stipulates that any person found guilty of any form of hate speech resulting in the death of another person shall die by hanging upon conviction and also proposed a jail term not less than five years or a fine of not less than N10 million, or both for harassment on ethnic…”
The Anti-Hate Speech bill stipulates that any person found guilty of any form of hate speech resulting in the death of another person shall die by hanging upon conviction and also proposed a jail term not less than five years or a fine of not less than N10 million, or both for harassment on ethnic grounds or racial contempt.
Some lawyers, including Chief Sebastine Hon and Kayode Ajulo, expressed concerns over what they described as extreme punishment for offenders.
Hon contended that capital punishment is highhanded. He observed that in line with the provisions of the penal and criminal codes of other countries, death penalty, as proposed by the National Assembly, should be opposed by all Nigerians.
He said: “I do not, with respect, support the anti-hate speech Bill recently passed by the National Assembly, especially the punishment proposed for offenders. Stipulating capital punishment for hate speech is, with respect, extremely harsh and highhanded.
“A close look at the provisions of the penal and criminal codes of other countries will show without doubt that death penalty, as proposed by the National Assembly of Nigeria, is excessive and should not be tolerated.”
Citing examples, Hon said: “In Germany, the criminal code stipulates a maximum prison term of five years for offenders, while in Iceland; the maximum sentence is two years.
“In Netherlands, the Dutch criminal code, in section 137c and 137d stipulates a jail term of not more than one year, while in Canada, the punishments, depending on the category, range from six months to two years and then, five years.
“In Bosnia, the maximum sentence is five years, as confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in the recent case of Smajic vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018) ECHR (Application No. 48657/16).
“In England and Wales, the Public Order Act, 1986, as amended several times by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act of 2006 and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008, stipulate a punishment not exceeding seven years.”
While advising the suspension of the Bill or refusal by the President to assent to it, Hon stressed that since power is transient, “anything which could compromise freedom of speech and other forms of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms must be vigorously avoided and or resisted.”
In his response, constitutional lawyer and former Secretary, Labour Party, Ajulo, said: “The term ‘freedom of expression’ is sometimes used interchangeably, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. The 1999 Constitution, as amended, enshrines this right in its Section 39(1), which provides that every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions and receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
“Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by Nigeria, provides that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Sebastine Hon
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Home » Archives » Interdisciplinary » Essays » City of the Soul
Artist-Visitors to Rome, from the Nineteenth Century to Today
by Gail Leggio
Rome has haunted the world’s imagination for centuries. When painters, writers, architects and photographers are confronted with the physical reality of the city, they are often transformed. As “City of the Soul: Rome and the Romantics,” a recent exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, demonstrated, the artists also transform the city, adding fresh layers to the already unparalleled richness of Rome’s legacy. As John A. Pinto writes in the show’s catalogue, “the act of seeing is never unmediated,” but “inflected by the intellectual and emotional experience” of past viewers.1
The title of the catalogue is taken from Goethe, who arrived in Rome in 1784. He had grown up surrounded by the prints of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, such as View of the Ponte Sant’Angelo and Castel Sant’Angelo (1550–51). The monuments of Rome were known to people before they traveled there—even to those who would never visit—because artists’ images established the iconography of the city. Artists copy other artists, perpetuating visual tropes. The photographer Gioacchino Altobelli, in The Tiber with Castel Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s (1868), replicated Piranesi’s composition. But Altobelli features the river, adding local color with a couple of boys fishing, and depicts a glassy expanse of water that reflects the famous buildings. (The cameras of the era had a long exposure time that gave running water an almost eerie stillness, very effective in this case.)
The Morgan exhibition explored, often through such juxtapositions, the varied responses to Rome between artistic contemporaries—painters, writers and photographers—in the context of the inevitable dialogue between the present and the past.
Rome is a theatrical city. Piranesi, who started his career as a stage set designer in Venice, used his skills as a scenographer to present Roman buildings dramatically. The grandiosity of some sites has been controversial. In his watercolor Interior of St. Peter’s Basilica, J.M.W. Turner bases his view on one by Giovanni Paolo Panini, with tiny figures that make the vast space look even larger than it is and an oblique angle that makes the interior less barnlike. Turner uses cloudy light and atmospheric perspective that suggests a Romantic landscape. An engraved version of this watercolor appeared in James Hakewill’s Picturesque Tour of Italy (1820).
St. Peter’s generated controversy among nineteenth-century travelers. On his first visit to Rome in 1869, Henry James praised the Pantheon: “It makes you profoundly regret that you are not a pagan.... It’s the most conclusive example I have yet seen of the simple sublime.... St. Peter’s, beside it, is absurdly vulgar.”2 Ruskin, too, disliked the Vatican basilica, as he did the entire Baroque style.
Ruskin, however, fell in love with the Fontana di Trevi (1732–62), which he described in an 1840 diary entry: “I got on the mimicked rocks...[and] fancied myself among the gushing torrents of my native Cumberland.”3 The designer of the Trevi, Nicola Salvi, showed the rocks as eroded (as if by the action of the water) and entangled in vegetation against a tableau of gods and allegorical figures, celebrating the ancient Aqua Virgo. One of the strengths of the Morgan exhibition was the inclusion of contemporaneous photographs, such as James Anderson’s The Trevi Fountain (c. 1862), which give us a period view of Rome. The cameras of the time are ideal for architectural images, recording details with mesmerizing clarity.
As the Fontana di Trevi demonstrates, nature is a crucial part of Roman life. The Roman poet Martial called the phenomenon “Rus in urbe,” countryside in the city. Today umbrella pines still dot the Seven Hills, lemon trees in pots grace courtyards, lush parks—municipal and princely—draw crowds. But in the Romantic era, the Forum and the Colosseum were still draped in foliage, not yet stripped by the archeologists who uncovered important finds at the loss of some picturesqueness. A century ago, Rome was a magnet for landscapists.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot saw the ruins of Rome not primarily as witnesses to history but as features of the landscape, structuring space and the fall of light. A master of the plein-air oil sketch, Corot, in his Arch of Constantine and the Forum (1843), looks at his principal subject from the side, as it carves out patterns of light and shadow. The sloping green hillock in the foreground and the trees in the distance are as important as Forum monuments like the Temple of Venus and Rome, so worn it seems to be reverting from artwork to earthwork.4
Artists responded to monuments and natural elements in different ways, depending on choice of medium and purpose of the exercise. James Anderson’s photograph The Arch of Nero (c. 1867) depicts a portion of the aqueduct near Tivoli. Despite the presence of rough foliage on the arch, this is not a landscape. The camera examines the ruin with clear-eyed concentration. The blank white sky (typical of the era’s photographs) throws the architecture into sharp relief. Many painters favored this spot, including Sanford Gifford, George Inness and Thomas Cole, but with a different purpose. Cole’s A View near Tivoli (1832) shows the ruined arch but subordinates it to a wider landscape, with a rocky hill that suggests the enduring landscape in The Course of Empire. He also introduces a cloudy, wind-driven sky, asserting Nature’s power.5
Finding Rome a powerful booster of creativity, many moved to the city, long-term or permanently, finding not only splendid subjects but an established international community of fellow artists. Nicholas Poussin (1594–1665) spent most of his career in Rome and established (along with another Frenchman, Claude Lorrain, and the Italian Annibale Carracci) the formula for the classical landscape, combining ruins with the naturalistic beauty of the Roman Campagna.
Cultural pilgrims do not go to Rome in search of Poussin and company. Their paintings are scattered in museums across the world, and the Campagna has long been swallowed up by unlovely apartment buildings. But, as the organizers of the Morgan show realized, lingering influence cannot be calculated by length of stay and volume of work. Pinto writes: “In fact, the image of Rome conjured by the Romantic poets proved to be as powerful and enduring a construct as any of the city’s great monuments.”6
Byron spent only three weeks in Rome, but his poem "Childe Harold’s Pilgrimmage: Canto the Fourth" (1818) became an instant bestseller, de rigueur for tourists, along with the guidebooks that proliferated in the nineteenth century. Byron’s set pieces on the Colosseum by moonlight and the Pantheon were endlessly cited, although today’s readers may find them bombastic. Byron noted that the stanzas were first impressions, reflecting his emotional response. The Romantics, however brief their time in Rome (they were a peripatetic lot), revealed the profound effect the city had not only in world history but in the life—the psychology, the imagination, the soul—of an individual.
Shelley was inspired by Rome in several important works. The five-act blank verse The Cenci (1819), a poetic drama, draws on the true story of Beatrice Cenci, an aristocratic young woman executed for parricide in 1599 amid accusations of incest. The facts are still contested, but the story inspired both Shelley and Robert Browning (The Ring and the Book, 1868–69). The poets were also influenced by an appealing portrait of a young beauty by Guido Reni, in the Palazzo Barberini, once thought to represent Beatrice Cenci.
The Cenci is not much read these days, but two of Shelley’s greatest works have Roman roots. Shelley wrote most of Prometheus Unbound (1818–19) in the Baths of Caracalla. In the preface, he describes the “mountainous ruins,” the “dizzy arches suspended in air,” the “flowery glades and thickets of odoriferous blossoming trees.” There is a lovely little picture of the scene by Joseph Severn on view in the Keats-Shelley Memorial House beside the Spanish Steps.7
Shelley’s Adonais: Elegy on the Death of John Keats (1821) epitomizes the Romantic encounter with ancient myth—lyrical, revolutionary, philosophical, deeply personal. By identifying Keats with Adonis, a beautiful young man beloved of Venus cut down in his prime, Shelley apotheosized his friend, in the process capturing an underlying aspect of the Eternal City. Pinto articulates the theme: “Time, with its ravages and poignancies, is more palpable in Rome.”8
Time was running out for John Keats when he arrived in Rome. He spent his last three months, which he called his “posthumous life,” in a rose-colored pensione overlooking the Spanish Steps. Two works in the Morgan show give us some idea what the neighborhood looked like shortly after his death. The British painter Thomas Hartly Cromek depicts the top of the stairs in The Via Sistina and Palazzo Zuccaro from the Trinità dei Monti (1830). The watercolor’s unusual perspective is notable for a capital of exaggerated size and two small peasant figures, probably models for hire. The photographer Robert Turnbull Macpherson chooses the more classic view of the Steps, sweeping down theatrically to the charming Fontana della Barcaccia. The Spanish Steps (c. 1856) has the clarity and long-exposure detail of nineteenth-century photography.
The room where Keats died (at twenty-five) is preserved, along with his death mask and a small collection of memorabilia, in the Keats-Shelley Memorial House, one of two shrines to the Romantics in Rome. The other is the Protestant Cemetery, where Keats is buried under the epitaph “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Shelley’s ashes are preserved here, as are other notables, including the American sculptor William Wetmore Story and his wife under his handsome Victorian sculpture The Angel of Grief. In the preface to Adonais, Shelley wrote: “It must make one in love with death to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.” The Protestant Cemetery is indeed one of the loveliest anywhere, with the Pyramid of Cestius (c. 12 bc) nearby, thick stands of cypress and pine trees, and a well-tended cat colony.
For nearly two centuries, Keats has remained an indelible presence in Rome. Artists have been especially intrigued, speculating on Keats’s life and art. Jane Campion’s film Bright Star (2000) focused on Keats’s love for Fanny Brawne, and included a scene of the poet being taken away for burial in the pre-dawn hours (as a non-Catholic was required to be).
One of the most interesting works to come out of the Keats cult was ABBA ABBA (1977), by Anthony Burgess. The title refers to some of Jesus’ last words on the Cross (“Father, father, why has thou forsaken me?”), the rhyme scheme of the octet of a Petrarchan sonnet, and the author’s initials. The account of Keats’s last days offers an alternative to the usual portrait of the frail and sensitive figure. Burgess emphasizes the frustration of the passionate man we know through Keats’s sensuous poems. Thwarted in his hunger for food (his well-meaning doctor and friend Joseph Severn kept him on a near-starvation diet) and sexual gratification (Burgess gives him a tantalizing dream about an encounter with Pauline Borghese, a great beauty of the era, immortalized by the sculptor Canova as Venus), Keats can only indulge his passion for language. The novel is full of wordplay, but the pleasure Keats feels is shadowed by the knowledge he will never write a major work again.
Burgess’s Keats uses language that expresses aspects of his situation not often acknowledged. When Severn shows him one of his paintings, Keats complains: “Too gentle-Jesus feathery where the iron groin should show through.”9 Keats’s lyricism is evident in a description of him standing by the Fontana della Barcaccio: “He tried to identify himself with the water, to feel the small sick parcel of flesh that was himself liquefy joyfully, joyfully relish its own wetness and singing clarity.”10 Daringly, Burgess introduces someone in Keats’s circle, Giuseppe Gioacchio Belli, a contemporaneous dialect poet known for his witty, blasphemous sonnets, mostly on Biblical subjects. In the last third of ABBA ABBA, Burgess presents his own translations of Belli’s sonnets. Words perpetuate the craft of writing over centuries and build a timeless community of artists. Such conversations between past and present establish, extend and question traditions. Keats seems to inspire storytellers in a variety of media.
It could be argued that film is the signature artform of the twentieth century, and Italian filmmakers—Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti—have been among film’s finest practitioners. But outsiders, too, have found inspiration in Italy’s extraordinary visual and storytelling opportunities.
Rome exemplifies the always rich and complex relationship between past and present. The experience of artists visiting Rome is especially fraught, since they must deal not only with the many-layered history of Rome but also with the sometimes bewildering sensibilities of a living city. In two recent cinematic fables, non-Italian writer-directors focus on non-Italian architects, who come to Rome for different reasons and meet different fates.
In The Belly of an Architect (1987), the Englishman Peter Greenaway tells the story of a Stourley Kracklite, a successful American architect who comes to Rome to curate an exhibition on the austere Neoclassicist étienne-Louis Boullée (1728–99), who built little and whose designs are grandiose exercises in geometry. Kracklite is fêted at an al fresco dinner with the Pantheon as a backdrop. The contrast between the ancient monument’s grace and warmth and a cake in the shape of one of Boullée’s pallid designs creates a feeling of unease. Kracklite is undone by Rome: his wife falls under the sway of a brother-sister duo of decadent aristocrats; his Italian colleagues maneuver him out of his own exhibition; his health fails. The film is a tragedy, as nuanced as a novella by Henry James.
La Sapienza (2014), by the American-born, French-based director Eugène Green, is a tale of redemption. The protagonist, a Swiss modernist architect, has become disillusioned with his life. His latest project has been hailed as a success, but not before some humanizing touches have been eliminated in the name of cost efficiency. He flees to Lake Maggiore, along with his equally burnt-out wife, to work on a book. The hero of the book will be Francesco Borromini (1599–1667), the most joyful and spiritual of the Baroque architects. Borromini’s stunning buildings restore his faith in architecture, among other things. He recovers the basic principle that (in the words of a young architecture student who becomes his protégé) “spaces are but emptiness, which need to be filled with light and people.”
The title of the film translates to “knowledge” or “wisdom,” quite physically manifest in Borromini’s Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, a church set back from a Roman street, in a courtyard surrounded by State archives, once the site of a university. Here, the filmmaker’s art comes into play as we move through the courtyard into the church interior, not very large and painted plain white. But the spatial composition is exhilaratingly complex, with a graceful rhythmic pattern of concave and convex shapes, topped by a light-filled dome. Outside, we can catch glimpses of the church’s playful cupola and twisted spire.
Sant’Ivo’s soft-serve swirl of a cupola dominates Rome Rooftop II in Frederick Brosen’s (b. 1954) recent watercolor show at Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York City. Brosen follows in the footsteps of nineteenth-century artists, favoring relatively intimate views of meandering streets to vedute of grand monuments. He is also a fine colorist who relishes the faded polychrome of old buildings, and he tends to soft-toned skies, rather than the hard enameled blue of postcard backdrops.
The narrow, cobblestoned streets of Trastevere and the Ghetto are a favorite subject. Piazza della Cinque Scole (all exhibition works 2015) depicts the site of a building (now demolished) that housed five synagogues. The Ghetto is usually bustling at lunch and dinner times, but Brosen’s composition is uncongested. A wide-angle view of cobblestones (a space empty except for a couple of pigeons) occupies most of the foreground. From there, old buildings stretch back in steep perspective, with some umbrellaed trattoria tables in the middle distance.
In Via del Portico d’Ottavia, Rome, Brosen focuses on the color and texture of a façade, a collage of materials and eras. Ancient sculpture fragments—a striking lion and a gazelle—are incorporated into a mostly medieval structure. Brosen, who calls himself “a landscape and architecture painter,” is humbled and inspired by the legacy of Rome:
One can never outdo...past Masters even though they teach us, through their own interpretations, through a profound variety of formal analyses and poetic responses. One must find his or her own formal language and creative connection in the work to attempt to find one’s own voice in the resounding visual chorus.11
The artists who continue to visit Rome are doing more than checking items off a guidebook’s “must see” list. They are looking for epiphanies which emerge, often unexpectedly, from the juxtapositions of styles and centuries, past and present, worldly pleasures and soulful yearnings.
1. John A. Pinto, City of the Soul: Rome and the Romantics (New York: Morgan Library & Museum; Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2016), 11.
2. John Varriano, A Literary Companion to Rome (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1991), 158.
3. Ibid., 147.
4. For more, see Philip Conisbee et al., In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open Air Painting (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1996).
5. Pinto, City of the Soul, 122–23.
6. Ibid., 29.
7. Varriano, Literary Companion, 122.
8. Pinto, City of the Soul, 11.
9. Anthony Burgess, ABBA ABBA (New York: Barnes & Noble, 2009, reprint of 1977 edition).
10. Ibid., 6.
11. Artist’s statement for “Recent Watercolors: Rome and Florence,” Hirschl & Adler Modern, February 4–March 12, 2016.
It is with great sorrow that the Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center notes the passing of Gail Leggio on August 26, 2016. A Fullbright Scholar and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Virginia, Gail had been contributing to our journal, American Arts Quarterly, for over twenty-five years as associate editor and writer. She also wrote essays for The Architectural Capriccio (Ashgate, 2014) and The Re-Emergence of Realism (forthcoming), as well as individual artists' catalogues. She is survived by her husband James Leggio, and will be deeply missed by all who knew her. Her colleagues in the art world will remember her as a both brilliant scholar and critic and a most open-hearted friend.
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Federal/Defense Contracting Increased by 1 Billion in NC, FY18
FAYETTEVILLE (MAR 6, 2019) – The Department of Defense (DoD) has an annual impact of $66 billion and is the second largest sector of the North Carolina economy (12% of GDP). With six major military installations, 116 National Guard and 40 Army Reserve facilities and the third highest number of uniformed military personnel in the country, North Carolina continues to provide comprehensive support to the military and federal agencies worldwide, including products, services and infrastructure from businesses across the state to support our men and women in uniform.
The North Carolina Military Business Center (NCMBC), a business development entity of the North Carolina Community College System, headquartered at Fayetteville Technical Community College is pleased to announce that federal and defense spending on prime contracts in North Carolina increased in fiscal year 2018 over fiscal year 2017.
New Generation Yarn Corporation (Warp Clarkton) expands its North Carolina based Warping Operations
bladenonline 12/14/2018
The town of Clarkton is getting a new business. New Generation Yarn Corporation (a North Carolina based company) formally announced its activities to expand their North Carolina based warping operations. This new facility, located in Clarkton, NC, will operate under the trade name “Warp Clarkton”. This large new manufacturing facility will include both conventional warping and draw warping machines and also serve as a warehousing and distribution center. This expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. New Generation Yarn has maintained manufacturing facilities in the North Carolina area for over 20 years.
As stated by the company CEO, Shartel (Skip) Smith “This expansion will give New Generation Yarn added flexibility and capacity to service and react to its customers’ needs more quickly and efficiently”.
The company is expected to bring 75 to 100 new jobs and make an investment of $4 million.
Warp Clarkton is currently accepting applications for employment through NC Works and at the Clarkton Plant, located at 10575 WR Latham Street, Clarkton, North Carolina, 28433.
New York's Fine Fixtures Chooses Cape Fear Industrial Complex For New Distribution Center
Port Connection Plus Access to Southeastern U.S. Markets Brings Bathroom Furnishings Company to Greater Wilmington
December 13, 2018 (Elizabethtown, N.C. and Wilmington, N.C.). Fine Fixtures Inc., a New York based supplier of bathroom furnishings, will establish an 80,000-sq.ft. distribution center at the Cape Fear Industrial Complex in Rocky Point. The company plans to employ a 20-person workforce there. The move positions Fine Fixtures nearer southeastern U.S. markets and enables it to utilize the Port of Wilmington for imported shipments of its products.
“We wanted to be close to the Port of Wilmington,” says Joseph Ostreicher, co-founder and co-owner of Fine Fixtures. The company, established in 2005, had outgrown warehouses it currently maintains in Brooklyn and New Windsor, N.Y., which is about 60 miles north of New York City. “The Port of Wilmington has a quick turn-around,” Ostreicher says. “Truckers don’t have to wait a long time.”
Smithfield Foods shows off new distribution center
By: Emily M. Williams - Bladen Journal
TAR HEEL — Move over Santa’s workshop because Smithfield’s new distribution center is a bit of Erector set efficiency and state of the art technology.
With everything from conveyors to automated equipment to deep freezers cold enough to make ice crystals in your nose, the entire building is quite impressive.
Friday morning invited guests gathered in the new section of the distribution center, along with corporate staff and dignitaries, and officially opened the plant with a ribbon cutting.
Tissue maker expands in Scotland County after receiving incentives from state
Canadian-based tissue maker Cascades plans to create 66 new jobs in Scotland County, after receiving more than $560,000 in incentives from the state of North Carolina.
The incentives were approved by the state Economic Investment Committee on Tuesday morning. Gov. Roy Cooper was in Wagram, where the Cascades plant is located, to make the announcement.
Scotland County is required to add incentives worth up to $3.6 million, as part of the agreement. Cascades also must invest $58 million into the Scotland County plant, where employees make bathroom tissue, facial tissues and napkins, among other items.
Officials Survey Business After Florence
By Christina Haley O'Neal - WilmingtonBiz
Local governments, businesses and residents are not the only ones in recovery mode from Hurricane Florence. The region’s economic development leaders are busy with post-storm economic development efforts.
North Carolina’s Southeast is working in conjunction with the N.C. Department of Commerce on an intensive assessment on the immediate impacts of the hurricane, which made landfall Sept. 14.
“Since our region was pretty much ground zero for the storm and had the heaviest impacts, they wanted to work with us and wanted to partner up to find out what was going on,” Steve Yost, president of North Carolina’s Southeast, said.
Anson industrial park could bring up to 400 jobs with rail connection
By Ken Elkins – Senior Staff Writer, Charlotte Business Journal
A new, 140-acre industrial park in Anson County with a connection to a major railroad could bring up to 400 jobs to that county in the Charlotte region, planners say.
Anson 74 Rail Park was officially dedicated this week, with a Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE:DUK) study stating the site could support up to 1 million square feet of building space from tenants who take land in the park.
The Southeastern Partnership Welcomes Three New Investors and Members
Elizabethtown, N.C. – August 30, 2018. The Southeastern Partnership is pleased to announce that three companies and organizations have become new investors and members of the Southeastern Partnership.
Booz Allen Hamilton adding 208 jobs in Fayetteville
The company is seeking workers with high-tech skills and will pay an average of $61,000.
Booz Allen Hamilton, which already has more than 200 workers in Fayetteville, is planning to double its workforce here with a $5.2 million expansion, state and company officials said Tuesday.
The growth is to come over the next five years. Booz Allen is a technology and management consulting firm with 24,600 workers around the world that offers analytics, engineering, cyber security and other services to help private clients, government agencies and the military become more efficient and effective, company Vice President Jay Dodd said. It’s based in McLean, Virginia.
The jobs announcement was made at a ceremony with Dodd and Gov. Roy Cooper at the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp. office. Dozens of local officials and others attended.
New Analysis Reveals Top Rural Counties for Workforce Certificates
From Site Selection magazine, September 2017
Companies keep repeating the lament: Qualified, skilled workers are hard to find. Rural America begs to differ: Good jobs are hard to find.
When the Pew Research Center and the Markle Foundation published The State of American Jobs in October 2016, more than three-quarters of adults living in rural communities told them good jobs are hard to come by where they live, compared with 62 percent of those living in urban or suburban communities.
Also in News & Reports:
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Celine Dion Biography
From humble beginnings in a rural French Canadian home town, Celine Dion has risen to international superstardom like a shooting star. Celine has been called the premier contemporary pop vocalist of the Nineties. She has earned music industry accolades from around the world: Grammy Awards in the US, Juno and Felix Awards in Canada, and a World Music Award recognizing her status as the best-selling female artist of all time. The entire world has seen Celine Dion literally transform herself from a gifted pre-adolescent into an international superstar.
Born in Charlemagne (a small town 30 miles east of Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Celine is the youngest of 14 children of a highly musical family. Her parents, both musicians, operated a small club, and on weekends, the entire family performed and entertained the local population. From the tender age of 5, Celine sang with her siblings and quickly acquired the ability to perform live. At the age of twelve, together with her mother and one of her brothers, Celine composed a French song which would forever alter the course of her life.
The demo tape containing the song was brought to the attention of René Angélil, a well respected personal manager. In January 1981, René was so taken by the voice of the young Celine, that he became determined to make her an internationally known talent – he even mortgaged his house to finance the recording of Celine’s debut album!
Celine began to receive recognition for her talent in 1982, winning the Gold Medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo, along with the coveted Musician’s Award for Top Performer. In 1983, she became the first Canadian ever to receive a Gold Record in France.
The streak of recognition had only just begun.
By 1988, Celine had established a strong name for herself in her native province of Quebec, where she was enjoying superstar status, receiving numerous Felix Awards and racking up platinum albums. That same year, Celine won the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin Ireland, where she performed live before a television audience of 600 million viewers throughout Europe, the USSR, the Middle-East, Japan, and Australia.
In September, 1990 Celine released ‘Unison’ – her first English-language album and her first for Sony Music – and scored a breakthrough US hit with the Top 5 single “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”.
Celine’s international breakthrough came when she recorded the title track for the soundtrack to the animated Disney hit movie ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ The song went to number one and garnered an Academy Award and a Grammy Award. “Beauty and the Beast” formed the cornerstone for Celine’s second English language album, called simply ‘Celine Dion.’ That album produced four more hit singles including “Love Can Move Mountains,” “Water From The Moon,” “If You Asked Me To” and “Did You Give Enough Love.” In Canada, the album went six times platinum and set the stage for an incredible streak of Juno Awards.
On December 17, 1994, Celine Dion and René Angélil were married at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.
At this time, the Celine juggernaut started rolling at a momentous pace in the UK. British fans took extremely well to “Think Twice,” a ballad on ‘The Colour Of My Love.’ For five consecutive weeks, the song and album stood on top of the respective British charts, an achievement not replicated since 1965 and the heyday of The Beatles. “Think Twice” remained at number one for two more weeks, surpassing the magic million mark to become only the fourth million-selling single ever in the UK by a female artist.
With ‘D’eux,’ Celine achieved what everyone thought was impossible – introduced French music to the upper reaches of the British charts. The world had truly discovered Celine Dion.
Blessed with one of popular music’s great voices, she has crossed all barriers – even that of language – with her electrifying series of international hits. With her breakneck pace of recording, video shoots, touring and appearing on TV shows and awards specials, it seems like Celine has time for little else. Not the case when it comes to an important cause. Celine has used her talents to further the cause of Cystic Fibrosis Canada. In fact, one of Celine’s most emotional songs (“Vole,” from the ‘D’eux’ album, later translated into English as the song “Fly,” which appears on the ‘Falling Into You’ album) is a touching memorial to her niece, Karine, who was taken from her by this disease.
Released in March 1996, ‘Falling Into You’ became the best-selling album released that year; topped the charts in 11 countries, and was voted Album of the Year and Best Pop Album at the 39th annual Grammy Awards ceremony. The album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
‘Let’s Talk About Love’ is the follow-up to Celine’s double Grammy Award-winning album. Recorded in London, New York and Los Angeles, ‘Let’s Talk About Love’ features a host of special guests including some of popular music’s greatest vocalists, songwriters, and producers.
‘Let’s Talk About Love’ was released on the same day as the soundtrack of the motion picture ‘Titanic’. Both albums featured the much-loved Titanic movie’s theme song, “My Heart Will Go On,” written by James Horner and produced by James Horner and Walter Afanasieff. “My Heart Will Go On” quickly became the wedding song of choice for Celine’s fans.
In a stunning back-to-back achievement, ‘Let’s Talk About Love’ went on to match the 30 million worldwide sales of its predecessor; ‘Titanic’ also sold over 30 million copies worldwide. It is the all-time best-selling orchestral soundtrack in recording history. Celine sang “My Heart Will Go On” on the worldwide telecast of the 70th Annual Academy Awards, live from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song — the second Oscar for a song sung by Celine Dion, following “Beauty And The Beast.”
A new French album, ‘S’il suffisait d’aimer,’ recorded in February 1998, was officially released worldwide on September 8. The first featured single, “Zola sourit” received rave responses on the radio all over the world. Celine first introduced her fans to the album’s title track during her Let’s Talk About Love World Tour.
Celine’s next album, ‘These Are Special Times,’ featured sixteen songs for the holiday season, including the Christmas pop classics “Blue Christmas” and “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”; and such traditional religious favorites as “O Holy Night” and “Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful).” In addition, ‘These Are Special Times’ produced the No. 1 single “I’m Your Angel,” Celine’s duet with R. Kelly, who wrote and produced the song; the Diane Warren-penned title track, “These Are Special Times”; and “The Prayer,” a duet with Andrea Bocelli.
Also, in 1998, Dundurn Press released the much anticipated biography: Celine…The Authorized Biography. After travelling with Celine and her entourage for over a year and spending hours in one-on-one conversions with the star, Georges-Hébert Germain recounts the story of one of the world’s best loved vocal artists. Celine and Georges-Hébert Germain later collaborated once again on Celine Dion…My Story, My Dream. Released in 2000, Celine recounts her story in her own words and straight from her heart. The autobiography is an exquisitely detailed portrait of Celine backstage, on the road, and in the recording studio.
‘All The Way…A Decade Of Song’ is a collection of Celine’s greatest hits, including her chart-topping hit singles “The Power Of Love,” “Because You Loved Me,” “I’m Your Angel,” and the Grammy and Academy Award-winning classic “My Heart Will Go On.” Also included are “Beauty And The Beast,” “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”; and “If You Asked Me To.”
Seven brand-new songs, were recorded specifically for this collection, including the title song “All The Way,” a respectful and loving tribute to one of Celine’s all-time favourite singers, the late Frank Sinatra.
On New Year’s Eve 1999, in Montreal, Celine Dion gave her last public performance before beginning a temporary hiatus from show business to enjoy her private life… and improve her golf game!
During Celine’s hiatus, a compilation album, ‘The Collector’s Series…Volume One,’ was released in October 2000. Among Celine’s greatest hits and best-loved recordings, the album also includes “The Power of the Dream” which Celine performed at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games as well as a Spanish version of “All By Myself.”
But the greatest joy for Celine and René came with the birth of their son René-Charles Angélil, born January 25, 2001 at 1:00 AM, weighing 6 lbs, 8 oz. He was baptized six months later on July 25, 2001, in Montreal’s grand Notre-Dame Basilica.
A new peak in Celine’s spectacular career was reached when she released her new album ‘A New Day Has Come’ in March 2002, which ended her two-year hiatus. The album entered number one in more than 17 countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States within two weeks of its debut. It features new tracks that range from pure 21st century pop, “A New Day Has Come” to dramatic ballads “Have You Ever Been In Love” and “I Surrender,” from breathtaking dance music “Sorry For Love” to a pair of pre-rock classics “At Last;” and “Nature Boy.” Other highlights include “I’m Alive,” “Goodbye’s (The Saddest Word),” and “Rain, Tax (It’s Inevitable).”
The release of the album was accompanied by a blitz of TV specials, appearances on talk shows and magazine interviews all over the world.
In March 2003, Celine began a three-year commitment to appear five nights a week at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, a 4000-seat arena designed for her show. A 90-minute event, A New Day… introduced a new form of entertainment, a fusion of song, performance art, theatrical innovation and state-of-the-art technology. The show was created by Dragone Productions, a team led by Franco Dragone, the creative spirit behind ten of the critically acclaimed productions by Cirque du Soleil.
On March 25, to coincide with the opening of A New Day…, Celine released ‘One Heart,’ a brand new album featuring an upbeat cover of Roy Orbison’s classic “I Drove All Night” as its first single. The album also includes songs produced by Ric Wake, Anders Bagge, Kristian Lundin, Peer Astrom, Max Martin, Mark Taylor, Erick Benzi et Humberto Gatica.
On October 14 of the same year, Celine released the much anticipated ‘1 fille & 4 types,’ her first French album in five years. Artistic director Jean-Jacques Goldman, the power behind ‘D’eux’ (1995) and ‘S’il suffisait d’aimer’ (1998), had come up with an idea to surround her with three different writer-composers who have made their mark on the French music scene: Jacques Veneruso, Erick Benzi and master guitarist Gildas Arzel.
The voice of one or other of these incomparable artists accompanies Celine’s performance throughout the album, produced by Benzi and guided by Goldman from start to finish. ‘1 fille & 4 types’ debuted as the top selling album in Canada, France and Switzerland in its first week of release. The first single, “Tout l’or des hommes” also made radio history by establishing the record for becoming the highest charting Francophone single on the National CHR Audience chart in the BDS era in Canada.
In the following year on June 15, 2004, Celine released her wildly anticipated live CD, ‘A New Day…Live in Las Vegas.’ This album featured two previously unreleased studio tracks, “You And I” and “Ain’t Gonna Look The Other Way” and 13 live tracks from Celine’s incredibly successful Las Vegas show, A New Day… Fans cherish the live album as it gives them the opportunity to re-live the energy from A New Day… over and over again.
Celine teamed up with famed baby photographer Anne Geddes for one of the most incredible artistic collaborations of all time…the Miracle project. ‘Miracle’ was released in October 2004. Celine and Anne worked together for many months to produce a stunning collection of images and powerful songs celebrating the bond of love between mother and child. The body of work touched the hearts of people throughout the world. The Miracle CD includes the all-new title track plus 12 other new and time-honoured classics such as “Beautiful Boy” and “What A Wonderful World”. The Miracle CD/DVD box set includes a 60-page version of the Miracle book and a “making-of-the-CD” DVD. The 180-page Miracle book, which includes the CD and “making-of-the-book” DVD reached the New York Times Best-Seller List.
Celine’s first French language ‘Best Of’ album ‘On ne change pas,’ was released in October 2005. This beautiful 2-disc compilation features Celine’s biggest French hits as well as three new songs including “Je ne vous oublie pas,” “Tous les secrets” and “I Believe In You” (a duet with Il Divo). ‘On ne change pas, the DVD’ is a collection of Celine’s greatest French video-clips and also includes one hour of bonus material.
October 2005 also marked the release of a truly unique book project encompassing Celine’s life in words and pictures. ‘Celine Dion: For Keeps’ is an intimate look into Celine’s personal and professional life from her childhood days though to her spectacular show in Vegas. Author Jenna Glatzer spoke with Celine, her family, close friends and associates during the course of a year to come up with a detailed and accurate story of her life. The result is a treasury for Celine’s fans: a book which documents Celine’s life and times, featuring rare photographs and removable mementos from Celine’s personal collection.
Due to the unprecedented sold-out success of Celine’s Las Vegas show, the original three-year engagement was extended an additional two years. On December 15th, 2006, Celine announced that she was entering the last year of performances with the final curtain set to rise and fall on December 15th, 2007.
Celine made her fifth Oscar ceremony appearance at the 79th Academy Awards on Sunday, February 25th, 2007, performing as part of an elegant tribute honoring famous Italian composer, Ennio Morricone. Celine also recorded the song, “I Knew I Loved You,” for the tribute album, “We All Love Ennio Morricone,” a CD saluting Mr. Morricone’s career achievements as one of the premier composers of music in film. The album included such notable artists as Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, Andrea Bocelli and Yo-Yo Ma.
In May 2007, Celine released ‘D’elles’, her first French-language studio album in 4 years. This collection of songs that centers around the theme of ‘Woman’ features lyrics written by the most influential female book authors from France and Quebec. ‘D’elles’ was an instant success, being certified 2X platinum during the same month in which it was released and reaching #1 in Canada, France, Belgium and Switzerland. Celine’s long-time friend and collaborator, Jean-Jacques Goldman acted as music supervisor on this project and Jacques Veneruso, David Gategno, Erick Benzi, Gildas Arzel, Marc Dupré and Jean-François Breau contributed to the musical score.
Shortly after the release of ‘D’elles’, Celine was back in the studio recording songs for her next English studio album, ‘Taking Chances’. A month before ‘Taking Chances’ was released, Celine announced that after she finished her 5-year run in Las Vegas, she would embark on a brand new world tour starting on February 14, 2008!
The album that everyone was talking about was finally released in November 2007. ‘Taking Chances,’ pooled the talents of top songwriters and producers including Linda Perry, Dave Stewart, Ben Moody, Ne-Yo, John Shanks, Kara DioGuardi, Kristian Lundin, Anders Bagge and Peer Astrom, Aldo Nova, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart and Chris Neil. Celine set out in a bold new creative direction with ‘Taking Chances’, perhaps the most personal and revelatory collection of songs and performances in her fabled career. Fans around the world have embraced this new era in Celine’s extraordinary career with sales around the world placing ‘Taking Chances’ in the Top 10 sales charts in well over a dozen countries, including #2 chart debuts in France, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden, and propelling the album to the number #1 position on Billboard’s pan-European top 100 sales chart.
In December Celine released a deluxe five hour double-DVD commemorating the historic five-year sold-out run of A New Day… The ‘Celine Dion: Live in Las Vegas’ DVD made history as the only music DVD to be certified Triple Diamond status in Canada. Celine was back at the top of the charts with her Triple Diamond DVD, her 4X platinum selling album, ‘Taking Chances’ and her #1 debut album, ‘D’elles’, which reaffirmed her status as one of the most successful international artists of all time.
Celine took the stage for her final performance of A New Day… on December 15, 2007. The spectacular Las Vegas show that had been seen by nearly 3 million fans at 717 performances since its premier in March 2003 had come to an end. But Celine was about to embark on a new adventure…her brand new Taking Chances World Tour! Celine promised fans another spectacular live concert event directed by famed director/choreographer Jamie King. Celine’s performances of her biggest hits along with songs from her new albums, ‘D’elles’ and ‘Taking Chances’ were accompanied by a visual feast of colour, fashion, dance and surprise. The ‘Taking Chances World Tour,’ would take Celine to countries that she had never been to before, beginning in South Africa and then making stops in Asia, Australia, Europe, USA and Canada.
On August 22, 2008, Celine performed a once-in-lifetime concert on the legendary Plains of Abraham in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City, Over 250,000 fans gathered on the historic site to see Celine and her specially chosen guests on stage. Celine thrilled the crowd with a selection of her French-language songs, as well as multiple duets with her guests: Garou, Marc Dupré, Éric Lapointe, La Famille Dion, Mes Aïeux, Zachary Richard, Dan Bigras, Nanette Workman, Claude Dubois, Jean-Pierre Ferland and Ginette Reno. In November 2008, Distribution Sélect released the DVD of this exceptional concert in Quebec. The ‘Céline sur les Plaines’ DVD reached the #1 position on the Quebec charts the first week of its release and boasted the highest entry sales numbers for all DVDs in Canada for 2008.
In October 2008, Columbia Records released two special edition CDs featuring Celine’s career-spanning repertoire. ‘My Love…Essential Collection’ is a single disc featuring 17 songs, consisting of Celine’s biggest hits….songs such as the international chart-topper “All By Myself” (her unforgettable interpretation of the groundbreaking Eric Carmen power ballad), “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” (Celine’s first English-language single), her landmark 1996 Olympic Ceremonies performance of “Power of the Dream”, the brand-new never-released “There Comes A Time,” and the newly recorded lead track “My Love”. This lead track, a semi-autobiographic song written for Celine by Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera, Dixie Chicks, Gwen Stefani) became a show-stopper every night during Celine’s sold-out World Tour.
The two-disc edition, entitled ‘My Love…Ultimate Essential Collection’, is a 26 song set, that has been further expanded to include rarities like “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman,” “The Prayer” (a duet with Andrea Bocelli), “Tell Him” (a duet with Barbra Streisand), “I Knew I Loved You,” “Dance With My Father”, and “Pour que tu m’aimes encore” (the biggest song of Celine’s French career).
Celine’s ‘My Love…’ anthologies cover virtually every single aspect of her extraordinary career, including fan favourites, a definitive assemblage of chart-topping international successes, as well as new and unreleased recordings culled from once-in-a-lifetime experiences that Celine has participated in over the years.
Celine’s ‘Taking Chances World tour, her first worldwide concert tour in over nine years, played to sold-out stadiums and arenas throughout 2008. By its completion, at the end of February 2009, it had crossed 5 continents, 23 countries, and 93 cities, en route to playing for an audience of over 3 million people. The tour’s success was undeniable. In North America it was the #2 tour of 2008 (based on ticket sales). In Europe, Celine performed in huge sold-out stadiums including Dublin – 64,000 people, (tickets sold out in one day), Amsterdam – 50,000 people and Copenhagen – 42,000 people.
For a limited engagement in February 2010, ‘Celine Through the Eyes of the World’ brought Celine’s 2008-2009 Taking Chances World Tour to movie theaters. This special motion picture event gave Dion fans who attended the extremely popular tour another chance to experience the magical event, this time from a vantage unparalleled by any ticket. ‘Celine: Through the Eyes of the World’ opens a window into the real life, both on-stage and off, of the best-selling female recording artist of all time
A home edition of the acclaimed feature film, newly expanded for its DVD release, and ‘Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert,’ a DVD/CD of live performances from Celine’s record-breaking world tour were released in May 2010. Clocking in at three hours, the home version of ‘Celine: Through the Eyes of the World’ includes an additional hour’s worth of footage not seen in the film’s limited theatrical run. ‘Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert’, a DVD/CD souvenir combination set featuring 25 show-stopping performances, is available in both French and English. Both versions were recorded in Montreal and Boston.
As did Celine’s tour, the corresponding DVDs enjoyed great success worldwide. In Canada the three new DVD releases debuted at the top three on the Music Video Chart. ‘Celine Through the Eyes of the World’ entered at #1. The concert DVD/CD ‘Tournée Mondiale Taking Chances: Le Spectacle’ entered the chart at #2 followed by the English version, ‘Taking Chances World Tour: The Concert’ at #3.
In the USA and the UK, ‘Celine Through the Eyes of the World’, reached #1 on the DVD sales chart. It reached #2 in France, Belgium, South Africa, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland!
On October 23, 2010, Celine’s family grew again. In West Palm Beach, Florida, Celine gave birth to two adorable twin boys weighing 5 pounds, 10 ounces and 5 pounds, 4 ounces. Nelson and Eddy were baptized on March 5, 2011 in Las Vegas, just days before Celine’s grand return to the stage.
On March 15, 2011 Celine made a triumphant return to the stage of The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The new show, directed by long time Grammy Awards producer Ken Ehrlich, includes Celine’s biggest hits mixed with timeless classics and pays tribute to some of the most celebrated songs and artists of all time. Featuring 31 musicians, consisting of a full orchestra and band, the show is set to a visually stunning presentation designed exclusively for the 4,300 seat state-of-the-art venue.
During the first year of this current residency at Caesars Palace, Céline has played to sold out audiences every night, and within a month of her return, the show reached the Number #1 position on the Billboard BOXSCORE chart which lists the highest grossing concerts in North America. With this new engagement at Caesars, Celine does 70 performances per year. From the very first day it opened, the show has been receiving rave reviews from critics all over the world.
On November 5, 2012, Celine released her new French-language album ‘Sans attendre’. After a 5-year wait, fans were treated to a wonderful collaboration between Celine and top artists in the francophone music industry such as Luc Plamondon, Jacques Veneruso, Maxime Le Forestier and Stanislas. The album features duets with distinguished artists: Jean-Pierre Ferland, Johnny Hallyday and the late Henri Salvador.
Celine described the album as an invitation into her home and fans responded. The first single “Parler à mon père”, maintained the #1 position for 9 weeks on Quebec charts. Celine’s very personal album was certified Diamond in France, with over 500,000 copies sold, marking a grand return for Celine and solidifying the strong bond between Celine and her fans.
Following the release of ‘Sans attendre’, Celine embarked on a mini promotional tour in France with a stop in Germany where she received her 3rd BAMBI Award celebrating her long-standing musical career. She impressed the audience with a powerful performance during the ceremony that evening. The promotional tour took Celine to the sets of major television shows where her performances continued to win over audiences.
Celine left Europe, after confirming her status as a major figure in the music industry, to return to the stage of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for a new series of shows.
In October 2013 ‘Sans attendre’ earned two Félix Awards: Best-Selling Album Of The Year and Adult Contemporary Album Of The Year.
A year after the release of ‘Sans attendre’, Celine released the much anticipated ‘Loved Me Back To Life’, her first English-language album in six years. For this album, Celine worked with a team of exceptional producers and songwriters resulting in an absolutely amazing collection of songs, including two fabulous duets with two very talented artists: Stevie Wonder on “Overjoyed” and Ne-Yo on “Incredible”.
Celine treated fans to a special intimate performance of her new songs at the Edison Ballroom in New York City on October 29, 2013. She promoted her album on numerous North American daytime and late-night talk shows, stunning the audiences with her performances.
‘Loved Me Back to Life’ is an international success! It debuted at #1 in Canada and was certified triple platinum – the highest sales chart debut for any album in Canada since 2008. It also reached #1 in Belgium and Holland and went to #2 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. In the UK the album debuted at the #3 position on the Official Albums Chart and was certified gold just three weeks after its release. The album reached the top 5 in France, Switzerland, Austria and Middle East and on iTunes it reached #1 in 44 countries.
Following the release of ‘Loved Me Back To Life’, Celine embarked on a promotional tour in Europe which took her to the UK, Germany and France and was followed by a mini-concert tour with two back to back sold-out shows in Antwerp, Belgium and seven sold-out shows in Paris, France.
On July 27, 2013, Celine performed before a crowd of 40,000 fans on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. During this unforgettable one-night only concert, Celine performed her biggest French and English language hits for an enthusiastic audience. It was a monumental week for Celine, as while in Quebec City for the concert, she was presented the insignia of Companion of the Order of Canada and René was presented the insignia of Member of the Order of Canada by the Governor General in a ceremony at the Citadelle.
In May 2014, a recording of her spectacular live concert, ‘Céline une seule fois/Live 2013’, was released on DVD and Blu-ray. ‘Céline une seule fois / Live 2013’ reached top ten on the album charts in France, Canada and Belgium.
In August 2014, Celine made the difficult decision to postpone all of her show business activities in order to focus on her family and their health. But Celine’s extraordinary journey is far from over; this much needed break will allow Celine to come back stronger than ever for the next chapter of her career!
March 2015, following a few months in retreat, Celine gave a special interview with Good Morning America where she talked about René’s health and her upcoming return to Las Vegas.
She appeared at the Billboard Music Awards in May, and sang a duet with Andrea Bocelli at the Power Of Love Gala in June.
Celine’s shows in Vegas resumed at the end of August, soon after the release of a duet with singer Fred Pellerin for the film La Guerre Des Tuques 3D.
In December, Celine performed in two television specials: Sinatra 100 – An All-Star GRAMMY Concert, (a tribute to Frank Sinatra) and Michael Bublé’s Christmas In Hollywood.
After spending the holidays with his family in Vegas, René passed away on January 14 2016. A State Funeral was were held in Montreal on January 22 and a Celebration Of Life followed in Las Vegas.
The music industry lost one of the greatest managers of all times.
Source: https://www.celinedion.com/biography/
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Message for State Climate Policy: Lead with a Vision, Not a Tax
by Alice Kaswan
Washington State has continued to try – unsuccessfully – to pass a carbon tax, with the latest effort, Initiative 1631, losing on November 6. The state's effort to control carbon is laudable, but Washington and other states contemplating how to fill the growing federal climate policy void should consider leading with a vision for a clean energy transition rather than a politically challenging "price." An overarching vision for a low-carbon future and a public decision-making process for achieving that future could attract more support than the imposition of a stand-alone fee or tax.
States might take a page from California's book: The central pillar of the state's climate program is its multi-sector planning process for achieving progressively demanding carbon reduction targets. When California set its first legislative targets in AB 32, it set in motion an economy-wide effort to identify and assess emission reduction opportunities in every sector in the state.
State agencies collaborated to explore opportunities in the electricity sector, transportation, buildings, land use, waste management, agriculture, and more. In each of these areas, policymakers considered not only climate reductions, but more comprehensive parameters, including economic and environmental implications, both benefits and risks, with a particular focus on disadvantaged populations. The process was transparent and participatory, with multiple stakeholder meetings and numerous public hearings. The state has now produced three scoping plans; the most recent, approved in December 2017, charts a path to meeting the state's 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target, a 40 percent reduction below 1990 levels.
This is not to say that states should not include carbon pricing as part of their overall climate strategy. California's scoping plans have included a valuable cap-and-trade program. The "cap" provides a backstop to make sure the state reaches its targets, and the cap-and-trade program provides a steady economy-wide price signal to induce reductions. Revenue from the program funds a wide variety of emission-reduction initiatives, and the state has committed to devoting at least 35 percent of the revenue to disadvantaged and low-income communities.
But in California, the carbon pricing program is not the centerpiece of the state's climate policy. Instead, the cap-and-trade program has complemented the state's more substantive and inspiring strategies for transitioning to cleaner electricity, cleaner transportation, more livable and less polluted communities, and more sustainable agriculture.
Backers of a Washington carbon tax have not ignored the socioeconomic implications of carbon policies. The first effort to pass a carbon tax, in 2016, was designed to give revenue back to citizens, in large part to reduce the indirect impact of the tax on low-income households. I-1631, the 2018 initiative, targeted revenue for numerous good causes. Seventy percent of the funds were allocated to clean air and clean energy initiatives, including measures that would benefit low-income residents and transitional training for fossil fuel workers.
Ultimately, however, a tax – or "fee," as it was called – can't help looking like it costs money. And, when proposed on its own, that is a hard sell, even if the revenue is earmarked for worthy causes.
Describing market mechanisms as a hard political sell runs counter to conventional political wisdom. Market mechanisms have been viewed as politically attractive – at least to industry – because they are arguably cheaper; those who face high emission control costs can pay the fee or buy allowances rather than having to invest in expensive controls or alternative energy. In addition, market mechanisms leave key decisions to the private sector: Regulated entities decide how much to reduce in light of the carbon price instead of being told what to do by regulators.
But where has appealing to industries' interest in the cheapest compliance options taken us? In Washington State, large oil companies and industry insiders like Koch Industries opposed the proposed fee, pouring $31 million into the "no" campaign – making this the most expensive ballot campaign in Washington State history. If a carbon fee doesn't bring industry on board or attract voter support, then it's time for a new political strategy.
A comprehensive vision for a clean economy, with a participatory process for developing specific initiatives, might generate a level of public support that could counter vested interests' ongoing efforts to oppose climate and clean air policies. Once that groundwork is laid, state policymakers or citizens may be more willing to recognize the valuable role that a supplementary carbon price can play. I provide an in-depth exploration of the role of carbon pricing in climate policy in Energy, Governance, and Market Mechanisms.
Tagged as: carbon fee Washington State
Also from Alice Kaswan
Alice Kaswan is a Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, and a member of the board of directors of the Center for Progressive Reform.
Beyond Carbon Pricing: Envisioning a Green Transition
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Replacing the CPP's Visionary Energy Planning with the ACE's Technical Tinkering
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Fresno Bee Op-Ed: Trump Rolls Back Clean Car Standards as Air Quality Worsens
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Expanding Environmental Justice to Achieve a Just Transition
Kaswan | Sep 26, 2018 | Regulatory Policy
Designing Law to Prevent Runaway Climate Change
Climate Change, Public Health, and the Ocean and Coasts
Time for Real Action on Global Warming
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Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: THIS coincidence leads to Brad Pitt & Quentin Tarantino getting back together
The director invited Brad Pitt to his home for a discussion about the character. It was on this occasion that a coincidence occurred when Brad Pitt understood Cliff Booth's character without getting any help from the director.
Written By Pinkvilla Desk 113161 reads Mumbai Updated: July 10, 2019 03:12 pm
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood's director and producer Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt worked together for the very first time in the year 2009 in the film, Inglourious Basterds. But that film wasn't really the reason behind this duo coming together for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino was hoping to cast Pitt to essay the role of stuntman called Cliff Booth. The director invited Brad Pitt to his home for a discussion about the character. It was on this occasion that a coincidence occurred when Brad Pitt understood Cliff Booth's character without getting any help from the director.
Quentin Tarantino during his interaction with Pure Cinema Podcast, said that Brad Pitt came to his house to talk about Cliff Booth's character and sat for a screening of Tom Laughlin’s 1971 action drama Billy Jack. Brad Pitt brought with him his personal DVD copy of that film. This film has Laughlin in the lead role of a Vietnam war hero who is also a martial arts expert. It so happened that Brad Pitt didn’t have to bring over his DVD copy as Billy Jack was just that film which Tarantino wanted Pitt to see.
Brad Pitt getting his Billy Jack DVD when Tarantino had already arranged for a 35mm print of the 1971 put up in his projector only meant that Brad Pitt understood the role in the same way as Tarantino did. Brad Pitt essays the role of Cliff opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie. The critics have spoken very well about this film after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
(ALSO READ: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: Here's when Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio's movie is releasing in India)
Credits :indiewire.com, Getty Images
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood may change box office numbers for Quentin Tarantino films; Here's how
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Quentin Tarantino have fun at Cannes 2019
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: Here's when Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio's movie is releasing in India
Brad Pitt keen on working with Leonardo DiCaprio again; wants to do a Christmas album
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star Brad Pitt: I think we're all aware there's a shelf life in Hollywood
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State's High Court Upholds Ban on Medicaid Coverage for Recent Immigrants
Five years after new immigrants living in the state first lost eligibility for Medicaid, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that they don’t have a right to the federal healthcare coverage.
The ruling ends an extended legal battle that aimed to restore Medicaid coverage to those who have been in the country legally for less than five years.
But the length of time it took to reach a decision means that the healthcare options available today for many new immigrants are very different from what they were in 2010, when Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature cut them off from Medicaid.
See link to full article below.
NJ Spotlight
Issue Areas:
New Jersey Supreme Court
Christopher Christie
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All Rights ReservedView Non-AMP Version
Categories: The Whore Next Door
The Whore Next Door: The Activist Next Door
(Photograph by Isabel Dresler/Isabeldresler.com)
“What’s the Native American word for ‘Indian tacos?’ ” one of my mother’s dinner guests asked. “This is reservation food,” she said, fishing the golden pillow of fried dough out of the cast-iron skillet, and patting off the hot oil with a paper towel. “We just call ’em ‘Indian tacos.’ ”
Our people, the Northern Californian Modocs, traditionally hunted venison and harvested a water lily called wokus. Indian tacos are made with ground buffalo meat, commodity cheese, beans, fry bread, salsa, and sour cream. They taste like hot summertime powwows and big family holidays.
It may not be the food of my ancestors, but it’s definitely the food of my people.
A week before the election, I was hell-bent on spending Thanksgiving protesting alongside my mother and the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. Ever since I was young, when my mother has gotten fired up at night after dinner, it’s usually because she’s talking about the need for sovereign native nations to unite against the federal government — which is exactly what is happening right now at Standing Rock, where more than 250 tribes have united against the Dakota Access Pipeline. First Nations haven’t come together like this since the Battle of Little Big Horn, so I thought, “What better way to spend Thanksgiving?” I looked at flights, and made a list of supplies while dreaming about experiencing this historic event with my bad-ass mom, continuing the traditions of our ancestors, and fighting for the land rights of indigenous people.
Following in my grandfather’s footsteps, my mother has gotten her hands into the mess that is tribal politics. She’s run for tribal council and is currently serving on the advisory committee for this year’s restoration powwow. Her ideas are radical and include policy suggestions like tribes growing and selling industrialized hemp (as the Oglala and Navajo have attempted) and building a Trump-style wall around every reservation so police have to go through a checkpoint in order to enter.
Of course, water rights, and the encroachment of them, is an issue that’s far from unknown to the Klamath Tribes, including Modocs. I remember the day ranchers from town formed a “bucket brigade” to steal from our tribe’s reservoir in protest of our treaty-protected water rights. A giant metal bucket was erected in front of the county courthouse a few months later to memorialize their theft.
My mother’s best friend at the time had been on the brigade. That was almost two decades ago, and the two women still no longer speak.
“We know that water is life, and we as a people cannot survive in its absence,” wrote Klamath Tribal Chairman Donald Gentry in his letter of support to the Standing Rock Tribe.
This is not just about water. It’s about protecting the last shreds of what we have left after the generations of genocide and systematic deprivation of our rights and dignities.
Unlike my grandfather and several generations that came before, I didn’t have to grow up on the reservation in Chiloquin, Oregon, and I was never forced to go to an Indian school. The legacy of my heritage comes mostly in the form of economic insecurity, fry bread recipes, and a deep mistrust of government institutions. I’m proud to come from people who fought what has been called the longest and most expensive Indian War against the U.S. government, and I feel as though it’s part of my heritage to continue that fight. Because, as we’ve seen in the past few months, there will be many more battles ahead.
For months now, hundreds of first nations people alongside their allies have been protecting land, water, and a way of life even in the face of bitter cold and violent assaults from militarized law enforcement. As reports of horrific violence at Standing Rock began to surface — water protectors being kept in cages, attacked by hounds, hosed down in freezing temperatures, and mangled with “non-lethal” weapons that rip skin and break bones — my brave, beautiful mother told me with fear in her voice that it was too dangerous for us to go. This was no longer just a protest; it was now the front lines of a war.
This world, this life, these bodies — they all seem so much more breakable than they did a few weeks ago. They say it gets worse before it gets better, right? As I eat leftover buffalo meat in the moonlight while my mother sleeps safely in her bedroom, just two walls away, I quietly purchase wool socks, milk of magnesia, and instant hot packs from the water protectors’ wishlist, and I pray it doesn’t have to get too much worse.
Siouxsie Q
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Bright Skies
Andean Atlantis
Secret Gov. Technology
Santa's Origins
Yule Symbolism
Secret Government Technology
(continued:)
SLIDE 30: TR-3B triangle schematic diagram
Have You Ever Heard Stories about Missing Memory?
Sal worked a program, for almost two years, in a Top Secret Research Facility in California. At the end of the program he started having flu-like symptoms, and after several days of worsening symptoms, he went to the doctor. His company doctor prescribed some medication and sent him home for two days of rest. When Sal got up on the third morning to go to work, he couldn’t remember where he worked, or who he worked for. His brother called his company, and asked what he should do.
The person at the company related, that my friend had been terminated because his contract had run out. To this day, the only thing Sal knows about that project, is from his notes, pay records, and letter of offer when he was hired. The company in question was involved with developing the TR-3B gravity disruption device called the MFD. His paranoia now exceeds my ability to describe it.
Has Anyone Ever Heard of the super strong foil like Material recovered after the Roswell Crash?
Another friend who worked for General Dynamics in Fort Worth, TX, described a program in which he worked with a plasma accelerator in the mid-60s researching gravity warping techniques. He is a physicist by education and work experience. This was his first Top Secret Program. He described a foil-like material, much like the material that was reported discovered after the Roswell Crash. He described the foil as 12 layers of material, less than ten thousandths of an inch thick. It was as flexible as a plastic trash bag, but virtually indestructible to piercing, burning or cutting.
In order to cut the material used for the project, the material was super cooled, a large electrical charge was applied to polarize the molecular structure, and then a laser cutter was applied. Large ribbons of this material were used to reinforce the accelerator, which contained the mercury based plasma.
The plasma was cooled to super-conductive temperatures, rotated at 45 thousand revolutions per minute, and pressurized at 150 thousand atmospheres. This would be considered state-of-the-art technology even by today’s standards, some 30 years after he worked this project. He related that the project achieved its objective. Instruments and test objects within the center of the accelerator showed a 50 percent loss of weight, attributed to a reduction in the gravitational field.
You’ll hear more about this technology when I address the Top Secret USAF Tactical Reconnaissance, flying triangle, or TR-3B and it’s Magnetic Field Disrupter.
SLIDE 31: YB-49 Flying Wing
From 1973 through 1976 I was home-based out of Edwards AFB.
It is near Lancaster California and even nearer to the San Andreas Fault.
SLIDE 32: B-2 stealth bomber
Edwards has a long history with secret technology and experimental aircraft. The YB-49 was flown in 1948 at Edwards AFB which looks a lot like the B-2 Stealth Bomber.
SLIDE 33 : XB-70
The XB-70 flown in 1964 looks a lot like the still Top Secret SR-75 that the Air Force says doesn’t exist.
SLIDE 34: SR-75
Edwards is the home of the US Air Force Test Pilot School and is Responsible for Flight Operational Test and Evaluation of the Air Force’s newest aircraft. It hosts a number of Tenant Organizations from NASA to a Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility. I worked with the F-111 swing wing bomber.
SLIDES :{35/F-111, {36/F-15, {37/F-16, {38/A-10, {39/B-1 (Shown quickly)
the F-15 air superiority fighter, the F-16 fighter, the A-10 close air support attack aircraft, and the B-1 stealth bomber. I was involved with these and other classified development programs, when they were just a gleam in some pilot trainee’s eyes.
SLIDE 40: A-10 aircraft with external engine pods.
One night a long time friend of mine and I were standing on top of the Fairchild A-10 hanger. It was about 2 AM, and was a clear night with millions of stars visible to the naked eye. This was a common clear, cool night. I noticed a group of stars that seemed to be shifting in color. At the time I could name most of the visible planets and constellations. I pointed out to my friend that the three bright stars in triangular formation, were not part of the big dipper.
He watched with me as the strobing stars shifted from bright blue to a reddish-yellow in color. After a period of about 20 minutes we could tell that the objects probably weren’t stars, because they were getting larger. This was somewhat unnerving. It was further unnerving, when the space in-between the enlarging lights, began blocking out the stars in the background.
We decided it probably was a Top Secret Air Force vehicle of some type. Still, we weren’t sure. The vehicle had gone from half the size of the big dipper to twice it’s size in under a half hour and had moved from the west to the east towards the base. About the time we could make out a silhouette or outline, of the triangular vehicle, the lights, or possibly exhausts, flared brighter and vanished from the sky in an instant. This experience wasn’t my first sighting, but it was one of the few where I had a witness.
SLIDE 41: Nevada
In the summer of 1976 I relocated to Nellis Air Force Base north of Las Vegas. I spent the next 3 and a half years there. I worked primarily with the F-15, Electronics Countermeasures, and Automatic Test Equipment. I had heard rumors of airbases located in the desert, at places called Mercury, Indian Springs, and others that didn’t even have names. Before the fall of the Berlin wall, and the collapse of the USSR, no-one talked about their classified work experience, nor did we repeat rumors of Top Secret technology and aircraft. Most of us who had Top Secret clearances, never even told our wives what we were doing, and where we were going, when on these type projects. I once spent six months in Vietnam, while my ex-wife thought I was attending a classified technical school in Colorado.
Slide 42: Groom Lake:
The Military, in a court of law, actually denied the existence of a classified Air Force Base, Inside The Nellis Range, out in the Nevada Desert. Don’t you know, the plaintiffs, who had worked at Groom, and their lawyer were surprised to hear this. But, that’s another story.
I was one of the few personnel at Nellis who had a Top Secret clearance with Crypto access. I was certified to work on Mode 4 IFF, (an aircraft system which responded to classified, encrypted codes.) I was also certified to work on other Crypto equipment which I cannot discuss.
It was due to a combination of coincidences and my technical experience that I was requested to be temporarily assigned to a place, which had no name. I was told by my commander that I was to report to an office on the base, and that he didn’t have a clue where I was going or what I was going to be working on. And let me tell you, he wasn’t too happy, to have been left in the dark.
I left one Monday morning long before sunrise. It was 4:30 AM when I boarded a dark blue Air Force bus with all of the windows blacked out. There were 28 other people on the bus, not including the 2 security police men, holding M-16 automatic weapons, and the bus driver. We were each told when boarding, "Do Not Speak on this bus, unless you are spoken too." Not one of us uttered a word, believe me. There is nothing which can inspire compliance like an M-16 sticking in your face, I assure you.
The bus drove through the desert, this much I know from the poor air-conditioning on the bus and the amount of fine dust that came through every crack in the old vehicle for several hours and it was soon obvious where I was
SLIDES: {43/SR-71, {44/TR-1, {45/F-117, (Shown quickly as named)
In the 1950s the government started building the super secret Groom Lake facilities for the CIA’s U-2 spy plane. It’s located in the north central part of the Nellis Range and is designated as Area 51. Construction of facilities within the Nellis range continues, even to today. The SR-71, TR-1, F-117, and B-2 were tested at Groom.
SLIDES: {46/SR-75, {47/TR-3B
Now the Top Secret SR-75, SR-74, and TR-3B are operated there. Many of these aircraft have been misidentified as UFOs.
SLIDE 48: Nevada Topographical Map / or satellite
When we reached Groom, the bus pulled into a hanger and they shut the doors. The security personnel checked me in, while other security personnel dispatched the others to their places of work. I was given a pair of heavy glasses to wear, which can only be described as looking like welder’s goggles. The lenses were thick, and the sides of the goggles were covered to obliterate my peripheral vision.
Once I had these goggles on, I could only see about 30 feet in front of me. Anything beyond that distance became increasingly blurred. If an M1 Abrams Tank barrel, had been pointed at me from about 50 feet away, I would not have seen it. It was very disconcerting to have to wear those glasses.
The whole time I was there, some 10 consecutive days, followed by several follow-up visits, the routine was the same. Leave Nellis before sunrise and return home to Nellis after dark every day.
Only once did I get a chance to see the whole base, and that was when I was flown up from Nellis, in a helicopter to Groom, for emergency repairs of their crypto test equipment.
For those stationed at Groom, or commuting there daily, the flight schedules are posted for classified flights. Everyone not cleared for that particular program and flight, must be off the ramp and inside 30 minutes prior to the scheduled operation.
A couple of thousand personnel are flown into Area 51 daily, from McCarrin Air Port in Las Vegas and from Edwards AFB in California, on contractor aircraft. Several hundred commute from Tonapah and Central Nevada via the North entrance near Rachel Nevada. Other commuters use the South entrance via Mercury or Indian Springs, which is West of LV.
While at Groom I made contacts and met people from other programs. Over time, a few became friends and we exchanged stories.
On my 3rd day on the job at Groom, I had to remove a module from a multi-bay piece of satellite communications equipment, used to support certain special mission aircraft. I noticed while inside the bay checking out the wiring, that it contained a sealed unit about the size of a large brief-case. It had a National Security Agency ID Plate on it.
The nomenclature on the name plate was; Direct Orbital Code Link. I thought this was strange, as the unit was part of a digital communications link, used solely to communicate with classified Air Force vehicles. I was unaware at the time of any military orbital missions not related to NASA. Remember, this was in the late 70s. The shuttle didn’t fly until 1981.
I disconnected the unit and, out of curiosity, I removed the rear access cover. To my amazement, there were some half-dozen large hybrid integrated circuit chips inside. The largest chip had over 500 hair-thin leads attached and was approximately the size of a Zippo lighter. The paper inspection stamp on the chip was dated 1975.
In 1975 the most advanced processor speeds, on the most classified projects were equivalent to a IBM 8088 which ran at 4 million cycles per seconds. This unit had a processor speed of 1 billion cycles per second. It wasn’t until more than a dozen years had passed before I saw comparable technology with integrated circuit chips. Then it was at a Top Secret avionics development project at ITT.
In the mess hall at Groom, I heard words like Lorents Forces, pulse detonation, cyclotron radiation, quantum flux transduction field generators, quasi crystal energy lens, and EPR quantum receivers. I wrote down everything I saw, heard, and touched in my log every night before going to bed. By the way, the food at the Groom Mess hall was excellent. But what would you expect. There was no cable, no alcohol, and no women. I guess they figured they’d better do something right.
Later, while back at the base, my routine went on as normal, as did my part time job that summer at the Silver Dollar Salon. My NSA friend, Jerald, who investigated and "watched" those with highly classified jobs at the Nevada Test Site and the Nellis Range, happened to show up. He was checking up on a guy who had a drinking problem, who worked at the Nevada Test Site, where they set off underground atomic explosions.
SLIDE 49: B-52 bomber landing
He happened to mention a vehicle that could be boosted into orbit, and return and land in the Nevada desert.
It was an unmanned reconnaissance vehicle which took off from a B-52 bomber and used booster rockets to place it in temporary low earth orbit for the purpose of taking reconnaissance pictures.
I thought he was feeding me a line of bull. Then he said,
SLIDES: 50/51/52: Virtual Reality Lab pictures.
"This vehicle is remotely piloted and communications are made via the DOCiLe system at Groom." I’m not usually too slow, but it didn’t hit me until he repeated, "you know, the Direct Orbital Communications Link -- D. O. C. L." Bingo, the light-bulb went on. I had seen a piece of the DOCiLe equipment at Groom. The NSA unit with the large chips.
These are old pictures of the Virtual Reality Lab at Brooks Air Force Base where the software to remotely fly exotic aircraft was developed.
Let Me Get Back To The Development of Alien Rapture - The Chosen.
After I agreed to write my co-conspirator’s story, I talked to several military Judge Advocate General (JAG) Lawyers. I told the lawyers that I wanted to write about some of my experiences in the military and had been on many classified projects. I was told that I had to write my-story as fiction, which I have.
I was told that I couldn’t name any real individuals with clearances or covers, or use their working names. Which I haven’t.
I was also told that I couldn’t discuss any secrets of programs that I had been personally assigned to. Which I have not done. Then, I was told as long as I did that, I could damn well write anything I wanted to.
Of course, I didn’t tell them I was going to write about the government conspiracy to cover-up UFO contact and the reverse engineering of alien technology. Or, that I was interviewing pilots who had flown classified air craft.
In the summer of 1992 we met again in Las Vegas. I had compiled my notes from our first meeting, my interviews, and the input the five friends had passed on to me. Each had reached out to their friends and contacts, which uncovered even more information.
We agreed I was the only one who could get away with writing about our experiences since I no longer worked for the DoD as military or government employee or as a defense contractor. My friends were still connected.
I took one last trip to Nevada in December 1994, without benefit of my friends. I wanted to see a few of my retired military friends to cross check some of my facts.
Bud, one of my conspirators, had informed me that he had a cancerous tumor and was going through some severe depression. He was dead thirty days later. It was a real blow to us. We had lost Jerrold a year before of a heart attack.
Of the remaining three friends, Sal has dropped of the face of the earth and none of his or my contacts have been able to locate him for two years now. He was extremely paranoid about the two deaths, and had second thoughts about the book. He said he was going to move and didn’t know when or if he would contact me next.
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More sudden perishing of wildlife. - 28 Feb 2011
Following a series of still-mysterious deaths as thousands of birds and fish were found perished in the United States and Europe, all occurring within days of one another, new mass fatality events have been reported in the past week.
In the Ukraine, dozens of migrating blackbirds were found dead along a highway in Sevastopol with no evidence yet of poisoning or an epidemic. In the United States, both ducks and Canada geese were discovered sick, injured or dead along the Lake Erie shore.
Regional biologists report that the birds have been falling from the sky, then demonstrating difficulty with balance, coordination and motor skills on land. Many perished soon after being rescued, with only a very small number recovering after some care.
Another recent loss occurred when at least 43 lifeless dolphins were found within close succession of each other along the US coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, many of them babies. The total is an alarming 12 times higher than the past 30-year average for this time of year, with a 2010 increase in fatalities before the major oil spill that further indicates another cause.
It saddens us to know of these further losses and suffering of our avian and mammal friends. We thank those working to understand and help the wild animals and pray that humanity responds with caring actions to restore the lives and balance of our co-inhabitants and the Earth.
Supreme Master Ching Hai has often spoken about the messages sent by the animals to caution humankind about how they are endangering the planet, as in response to a question during a February 9, 2011 videoconference in the USA to help shed light on these distressing incidents.
California, questioner: There has been mass dying of animals reported in the United States, and other parts of the world (Supreme Master Ching Hai: Right.) during the past few months for reasons not (Supreme Master Ching Hai: Right, right.) completely explained.
Such as the two million dead fish in Maryland, USA; 4,000 to 5,000 birds falling from the sky in Arkansas, USA. Hundreds of dead birds in Italy; and 40,000 crabs on the beaches in, of England. A Chinese animal telepathic communicator spoke to one of the birds in Arkansas, USA, who said that day, the animals had sought permission from God to sacrifice themselves in that way, and that they were doing it to awaken humans to the sad state of the environment. Master, is this true? And has it been impactful?
Supreme Master Ching Hai: It's true, and it's so sad, so sad. But the impact is not even enough. Humans are still asleep in their habitual ways of life. That is the sad thing. Even if they cannot explain why the birds or the fish die, they're still thinking of something else, instead of the spiritual way.
Instead of asking themselves about their way of life, they'll be blaming on something else. I'm so sorry for these animals. But, even then, if they die like this, it's still better than those who are raised in factory farming, and die every day slowly.
Or being harassed, or being tortured all their life. I cannot believe that I am living in this kind of world, that humans are torturing, killing, harassing each other, and then torturing, killing and harassing animals also. It seems beyond imagination that we as humans, the children of God, can be so blind.
So blind to reality, and so suppressing our own compassionate nature that we could even degrade our self into doing such kinds of things, and feeling okay about it. It's not okay at all. We are not civilized, not civilized enough.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/02/19/Many-blackbirds-found-dead-in-Ukraine/UPI-70691298137067/#ixzz1ERTFClFl
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/02/19/Many-blackbirds-found-dead-in-Ukraine/UPI-70691298137067/ http://beta.toledoblade.com/local/2011/02/18/Peculiar-geese-deaths-baffle-wildlife-officials.html
http://www.kgoam810.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=118&itemid=29637930
http://www.wwl.com/Dead-dolphins-along-the-Louisiana-coast/9272723
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Minnesota parents can vote on American Indian education
By ERIN HINRICHS of MinnPost. Associated Press
August 11, 2018 — 10:05am
MINNEAPOLIS — Brightly colored trunks on wheels are scattered throughout classrooms in all elementary- and middle-school buildings in the North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District. Inside, the contents vary greatly, but are bound together by a central theme: American Indian culture and heritage.
Each item ties into a core subject. For instance, elementary students explore a trunk filled with items made from a buffalo — everything from the hide and spoons made from its horns to a sewing kit made from its dried bladder.
"It's tied to the curriculum because we talk about not wasting," said Becky Buck, director of the district's American Indian Education program. "We tell the story of how an animal gives its life and how it's important to use every part."
The nonprofit news outlet MinnPost provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News.
Sixth-graders get excited about unpacking the fur trunk, which is filled with native animal hides, rubber footprints and bones. This is the year they learn about the fur trade, a unit that's often taught from the European perspective, said Robin Nelson, an academic and cultural adviser in the same office.
"So we developed a curriculum and an online video game on the fur trade, from the Ojibwe perspective," she said.
None of this would have ever come to fruition, she said, without direction from members of the district's American Indian Parent Advisory Committee. This project was at the top of their wish list from the very beginning — and so it became a priority for Nelson, her colleagues, and district officials.
Despite the headway they've made in infusing the mainstream curriculum with American Indian culture, the district has never received a vote of concurrence — a formal indication that parents feel the district is meeting the unique cultural needs of their students — from its American Indian Parent Advisory Committee.
Nelson said that's not necessarily a negative thing. As long as Native American student outcomes lag behind those of their peers, she adds, the onus to do better should rest on the shoulders of the adults in the school system.
Statewide, American Indian students only make up 2 percent of the student population. In terms of academic outcomes, they consistently perform behind their peers when it comes to graduation rates and standardized test scores. They're also disproportionately represented in special education and suspension and expulsion rates.
"(The parents are) just saying, 'This is a complex problem. We're walking in the right direction. What's our game plan for this coming year?'" Nelson said. "What it does is it sets up a relationship between the school board, the Indian Education Program, and the Parent Advisory Group to be able to come together, to work out a plan, to move forward."
The North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District is one of only a few districts serving more than 10 American Indian students in Minnesota that has repeatedly received a vote of non-concurrence.
But the success of this process comes down to more than a yes or no vote. It really depends more on the parent group's level of engagement and the district's willingness to listen. On this level, some American Indian Education programs are making more headway than others.
The American Indian Parent Advisory Committee vote was established in 2015, when the state created the American Indian Education Aid program to support culturally relevant programming at districts, charter schools and tribal schools with at least 20 American Indian students.
In order to be eligible for state funding for American Indian Education programming, applicants must invite American Indian parents and students to cast a vote each year, indicating whether they feel the district is doing an adequate job of meeting the unique academic and cultural needs of its American Indian students.
It's a mandated process that's unique to Native American students and their families, who have rights as sovereign nations "to be able to say what the needs of our own children are — especially the cultural needs, which were denied to us for so many years," said Ramona Kitto Stately, program coordinator of the Osseo Area Schools district's American Indian Education Program and chair of the Minnesota Indian Education Association.
It wasn't all that long ago, Stately added, that American Indian children were separated from their families and sent to boarding schools in Minnesota, where they were stripped of their language and cultural identity. In fact, her 56-year-old husband experienced public school this way.
The parent vote — a recently added accountability measure tacked on to American Indian Education programs — gives parents "a pretty strong voice," she said.
Jane Harstad, director of the Office of Indian Education at the state Department of Education, considers the parent vote key to motivating American Indian parents to get involved in their local Parent Advisory Committees. It gives them some level of assurance that districts will take their feedback seriously.
"What it amounts to is there's a mistrust of the education system by Native Americans because it's been used as a weapon of assimilation. So when parents are distrustful of a system that in the past has not treated their students well, it's hard for them to advocate and be proponents of educational change," she said.
And when students don't see themselves reflected in their history books or decorations on the school walls — especially as they become more self-aware heading into middle school — they don't feel as connected to their learning environment, Harstad said.
"It's the absent narrative that's there that makes them less engaged than others," Harstad said.
In the case of a vote of non-concurrence, school boards have 60 days to respond to the specific concerns outlined in the parent group's resolution.
Out of the 144 districts that have filed their parent votes with the state Department of Education since 2015, parent groups have issued a vote of non-concurrence at least 31 times. (The state is still in the process of following up with a number of districts that either didn't participate or haven't yet reported their parent vote.)
The reasons for these non-concurrence votes vary from parent group to parent group. But Harstad, who works closely with districts that fall into this category, said there are some common parent requests, including more cultural programming and professional development for teachers about American Indian history and culture.
She said her office also recently created a guide that lays out 33 indicators of a strong American Indian Education program. Empowered by this new tool, she said some parent committees have begun advocating for more.
"I heard from many parent committees this year that said, 'We used this as a starting point and it opened up conversations we never thought we could have with the school district that we're having now,'" she said.
Monica Richards has served on Osseo's American Indian Parent Advisory Committee for the past nine years. While she's not Native American, both of her children are Pine Ridge Lakota, so she joined the parent group to ensure they saw themselves reflected in the school environment.
Over the past three years, the parent advisory group she belongs to has issued both votes of concurrence and non-concurrence, with an emphasis on the need for more teacher training specific to Native American culture.
"Teacher training is huge," she said. "If the teachers don't understand why Indian Education is there — and the fact that it is mandated by the state and that there are federal rules as well — they tend to think of it as a social activity that takes away from learning, instead of enhancing learning."
Stately said the American Indian Education Program in Osseo is currently serving more than 200 American Indian students, with 26 different tribes represented in that student population.
In general, she's pleased with how active the district's parent advisory group is, as well as how receptive district leadership has been to the parents' feedback. When the process works well, American Indian students benefit, as evidenced by the projects implemented by her office over the years.
For instance, every year she takes a group of parents and students on a weekend excursion to a horse farm for a hands-on lesson on self-regulation. Everyone spends time in the pasture, learning how to approach the horses.
"A horse will assess you without making you feel judged," she said. "His ears might go back. He might actually turn his whole back to you. Your job is to go out slowly, sense how your energy is affecting them, and change it."
In the Onamia Public Schools district, the past three years have all been marked by a vote of concurrence. It's noteworthy because they have a particularly active parent group, with about 60 parents voting this year and about 120 voting the year prior, said Superintendent Jason Vold.
But that doesn't mean the district has satisfied every cultural need of its American Indian students. Vold and the district's Indian Education Director, Chris Nayquonabe, are in constant communication with the district's Native American parent group and are adding new cultural elements to school programming each year — everything from adding the Flag Song to their homecoming football game to busing teachers and staff out to the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation at the start of the school year for a meet-and-greet.
They have a growing Ojibwe language program, spurred by parent demand. The district currently offers language classes to elementary students, and to high schoolers who are able to enroll in Ojibwe language classes for college credit. And next year, they're looking to expand offerings to middle schoolers.
"Every year, the parents want more," Vold said. "They want more of it in the classroom — like teaching about tribal government. They want more Native teachers and staff. Right now we are 54 percent Native in our school and we have two Native staff people."
The Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools district has yet to receive a vote of concurrence from its American Indian Education Parent Advisory Committee. In this case, these votes are more indicative of a system that's not working as intended.
Antony Stately, chair of the district's parent advisory committee, said he's in the process of submitting the latest vote of non-concurrence to the district and the state, which will outline the rationale for their vote.
"It's primarily focused around our perception that the district really has not significantly invested the resources and the supports to develop and implement an Indian Education program," he said in an interview. "They treat us as though we really have no voice at all."
He said the lines of communication between the parent group and school administrators and board members have become strained — so much so that many American Indian parents have stopped participating in the group.
"Parents have stopped coming to the meetings, because they're frustrated," he said. "We can't move some of our initiatives and some of the things we want to do along."
Stately said Wayne Wells, the district's American Indian student support services coordinator, is well-qualified for the position: He speaks the Dakota language, was raised in a traditional way and understands all of the ceremonies.
But he feels the district isn't tapping into Wells' cultural expertise. Rather, they're using him to pull American Indian students out for academic interventions — a type of service that Stately believes shouldn't fall on the Indian Education program.
Kevin Schuttinger, the district's director of teaching and learning, said many of these academic interventions and supports were actually put in place, based on requests he and his team had received from members of the American Indian parent committee.
"One other request from the parent committee — at the end of last year — was more training, professional development (on) cultural diversity and equity for all," Shuttinger added. "As a district, we've invested a great deal of money and time into really helping every single staff person understand how their role affects students. And helping them build capacity in culturally responsive teaching."
He recounted a number of attempts to fresh-start lines of communication between district staff and the American Indian parent committee — including a mediated session run by Harstad — and said he's always open to a reboot. But he's equally frustrated with how things have played out in recent years.
"What's frustrating for me is we started (last) September with open and honest conversation and deep collaboration," he said. "Sometime in January or February, something fell away. I don't know what, to be honest. What's challenging is I've called, I've emailed. I haven't heard back."
The father of twin boys in the district, who are now in middle school, Stately's frustrations with the district are born out of repeat experiences advocating for his kids. Many of these situations, he explains, could have been avoided had district staff consulted American Indian parents ahead of time or been receptive of their feedback.
For instance, when his sons started kindergarten they lost interest in school just a few weeks into the school year. When he asked them what was going on, they said older kids in the building were calling them "girls" because they wore their hair long, in braids.
When Stately brought his concerns to the attention of their classroom teacher, she agreed to have a conversation about bullying and valuing diversity. But the real issue — older students who needed to hear this same message — went unaddressed, he said, despite his requests for a schoolwide message about inclusion to be delivered.
"From my perspective, as a parent, what's left is my children end up feeling they have to carry that burden because the institution didn't do something to respond," he said.
Likewise, he recalled the time his sons brought up a cartoon they'd viewed about Christopher Columbus in their fourth-grade class one day. The cartoon showed Columbus landing on the beach and being greeted by naked Indians, his sons said. The portrayal made them feel bad because everyone in class was laughing at the naked Indians.
Again, he went to their teacher, asking her to put herself in his sons' shoes and facilitate some reconciliation in her classroom.
"I have a responsibility in my current role to utilize all the assets I have — including my education — to actually change the way the system is, so that children who come up behind my children, and long after, benefit from the work we're trying to accomplish," he said.
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World 512676532
Ukrainian television station hit by rocket-propelled grenade
July 13, 2019 — 5:30am
MOSCOW — An unidentified assailant has fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Ukrainian television station in the capital, Kiev, damaging the building.
No one was hurt in the attack Saturday, and Kiev police have initiated a search for suspects. Authorities have classified the attack as an act of terrorism.
The target was the Ukraine 112 television station, a network considered by some to be pro-Russian.
On Thursday, Ukraine's prosecutor general threatened legal action if the network airs a new Oliver Stone documentary that features an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine 112, a 24-hour news network, is owned Taras Kozak, who is running for parliament on the Opposition Bloc party ticket, organized by Viktor Medvedchuk.
Medvedchuk has ties to Putin and was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2014.
Sudan's pro-democracy movement and the ruling military council signed a document early Wednesday that outlines a power-sharing deal, but the two sides are still at work on a more contentious constitutional agreement that would specify the division of powers.
Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday criticized the increasing intolerance and absolutism of world politics, in a message many will see as aimed at her successor as Britain's leader — and at President Donald Trump.
The Latest on tensions in the Persian Gulf amid a crisis between the United States and Iran (all times local):
Architect: Notre Dame far from safe for restoration work • World
A look inside the damaged Notre Dame Cathedral • World
Location of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe accidentally revealed in report from NATO body • World
Confusion, fear spread on Mexico border with new US policy • World
Cambodia says plastic waste shipments came from US, Canada • World
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SAD! 5Year-Old Girl Attacked By Landlord's Dogs In Lagos (Pics)
Cries of pain rent the Emergency Ward of the Ikorodu General Hospital, Lagos State, on Tuesday as medical officers battled to save the life of five-year-old Aliyah Masaku.
The victim, who groaned with pain as her crying father held her close, was attacked by three giant Alsatian dogs belonging to her father’s landlord on Alhaji Abdul Hakeem Bin Sulaimon Avenue, off Ewuren Road, Ikorodu.
Aside damaging an eye and removing a tooth, the dogs inflicted multiple injuries on Aliyah during the attack which lasted for about two hours.
A medical official at the general hospital, who did not want to be identified, said Aliyah might need a plastic surgery to regain the use of the affected eye.
She said,
''When she was brought here, we thought she was dead. One of her eyes is damaged. It might take a plastic surgery for her to see again. A tooth was removed by the dogs, while the other teeth were seriously affected. She has multiple lacerations in her face, legs, arms and other parts.''
It was learnt that Aliyah’s father, Wasiu, a vulcaniser, was in charge of feeding the dogs after their owner travelled to London, United Kingdom.
He had reportedly gone to get the dogs’ feed on Monday and left Aliyah in the house.
One of the dogs, identified as Rover, however, allegedly broke loose from the kennel and entered into Wasiu’s apartment.
The dog reportedly dragged her from the house to the backyard, where two other dogs joined in attacking her.
Wasiu told Punch that he was alerted to the incident by a neighbour.
He said,
''Aliyah, my daughter, was formerly staying with her mother in Cotonou, Benin Republic, before she started living with me. Since then, she had become familiar with the dogs and played with them. If any visitor is scared of coming into the house, she goes out to bring them in.
''She was supposed to go to school yesterday (Monday), but because I had an issue with her teacher, I asked her to stay at home till I get her a new school. I left her in the house around 3pm and went to buy feed for the dogs. I left two of the dogs roaming free because they were docile. I, however, put Rover in a kennel because it was ferocious and had broken free several times.
''Some minutes after I went to the market, I got a call that my daughter had been attacked by the dogs. I ran back home and checked the compound without seeing anything. I searched the street as well without any result. Later, somebody raised the alarm that she was at the backyard. There, I saw three dogs on my daughter, who lay still.''
He said he subdued the dogs with a stick and chased them away.
Residents, who spoke with PunchMetro on condition of anonymity, said the attack lasted for about two hours, adding that they could do nothing because the fence of the house was high and there were many dogs at the main gate.
A resident said the alternate exit out of the house, through which Aliyah could have also escaped, had been shut permanently.
''Initially, we thought it was the child’s father that was beating her when she started crying for help. When we realised that the dogs were attacking her, we couldn’t do anything because there were many dogs at the main gate.'' She said.
She added that the dogs bit Wasiu and a veterinary doctor who had also arrived at the scene.
A tenant, Wale Anjorin, said chaos broke out around 11pm when some hoodlums invaded the house with sticks and cutlass, threatening to burn down the house.
Anjorin, who claimed to have been cut with a cutlass, said the men vandalised some property on the premises before killing Rover.
''They said the dog cannot live within the same neighbourhood with them. They wanted to burn down the house. They smashed the windscreen of a tricycle on the premises and later killed the dog.'' He said.
PunchMetro, during a visit to the one storeyed-building, observed bloodstains at three different spots at the backyard where the dogs attacked Aliyah.
More than 10 dogs, consisting of different breeds, including Alsatian, Bullmastiff, Bulldog, were kept in two kennels near the main gate of the house.
Our correspondent was also shown a shallow grave where the slain dog was buried.
The residents urged the state government to take away the dogs from the area, saying they constituted nuisance and threats to their lives.
A woman, who did not want to be identified, said, ''The landlord just returned to the UK six days ago. When he came, he asked them to take the dogs out because they had been infested with lice and ticks. He said the house should be fumigated. But that is not enough. We don’t want the dogs again.''
The owner of the dogs, Alhaji Abdul-Akeem Sulaimon, said he could not take responsibility for the attack since he had already handed over the dogs to Wasiu.
Sulaimon, who spoke with PUNCH Metro from his London base, said, ''Why not question those on the ground? Ask those who were principally involved. Someone is responsible. Those involved are there with you.''
A delegation from the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender, led by the Director, Mrs. Olubukola Salami, which visited the house and the hospital, said the state government would remove the dogs from the house to forestall a recurrence.
Salami said, ''This is a shocking case enough to break the heart of even the most hardened person. If proper care is not taken, this girl could lose her life because of negligence and greed. Proper safety measures were not followed and someone tried to cut corners in the feeding and maintenance of the dogs. It is not wise to leave children and dangerous dogs alone without close supervision as it has happened in this case.
''The Lagos State Government will look into extant laws on breeding dogs in residential areas with a view to evacuating those dogs and preventing such from happening again in the future. Regarding the young girl, we are looking on how to alleviate her pain and suffering.''
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the case was not reported to the police.
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40 years ago today - Feb 12, 1979-Monday
[Leonard Arrington]
Jan [Tyler] said that when she was 17, President Kimball, then an apostle, dedicated their chapel in Walla Walla. She was asked to transcribe the tape of his talk. While she was transcribing it, she had gotten through one tape and was about halfway through the second when suddenly she heard a voice come in, as if a spirit voice, and say, "This man will someday become president of the Church and under his presidency the blacks will be given the priesthood." She was startled, realizing that it was not President Kimball's voice. She went back and played the tape again, and did not hear the "spirit voice." She did write down the experience, however, for future reference. Later on in the day she began to wonder whether she had the experience or not-whether it was just a case of bad hearing. So she played the tape once more and heard the same voice interject with the same statement. Then to make sure, she replayed it again and did not hear the voice. So she heard the voice twice, and of course if anyone else played the tape they would not hear the voice. ...
This morning Clyde A. Miller and his two sons Mark and Karl came to talk about a history of John W. Taylor, the apostle, son of President John Taylor. They said they have in their possession all the papers of John W. Taylor, hundreds of letters, diaries, and other documents. They will give these to the Church Archives when they finish doing the history. ... He asserted in the strongest terms that the family do not want to have anything in the book that will embarrass the Church in any way. The two sons strongly supported that position. ... They told me many stories about John W. Taylor and his spiritual experiences. He made many prophecies, all of which, they believe, have come true. He also saw and visited with the Savior. There are others in this same vein.
The family are not pleased with The Family Kingdom by Sam Taylor. They know that Sam Taylor invented some of the things in that book to make it more readable, and he has admitted that explicitly to them. There was no conflict between the wives of John W., they said, and when Sam Taylor sent in the draft of Family Kingdom to the publisher, they said "You have got to have some conflict that will provide interest to the reader," and so he invented some experiences that brought out the conflict between the wives. John W. has 36 children, some 19 of whom are still alive. Basically most of them are loyal in the Church. ...
They told me stories indicating that Joseph F. Smith was very sorry that he had excommunicated John W., [for promoting post-manifesto plural marriage] also that John W., while out of harmony with the Quorum [of Twelve Apostles], never lost his testimony of the gospel, and felt firm in the Church. They indicated he was one of the great speakers or orators in the Church, and that he counseled the family to "follow the Brethren" in every way. They indicated that he was a close friend from missionary days of Matthias Cowley [a fellow apostle who was also discplined] and they remained close friends to the end of John W.'s life.
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
5 years ago today - 2014-02-28
35 years ago today - Feb 28, 1984
45 years ago today - Feb 28, 1974-Thursday
100 years ago today - Feb 28, 1919
40 years ago today - Feb 23, 1979-Friday
180 years ago today - (Sat) Feb 23, 1839
130 years ago today - Friday, Feb. 22nd, 1889
55 years ago today - 55 years ago - Feb 21, 1964
145 years ago today - 145 years ago - Feb 21, 1874...
105 years ago today - Feb 18, 1914; Wednesday
120 years ago today - Feb 16, 1899; Thursday
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2008 DAY OF THE DEAD
Sallie Ann Glassman
photos by Harriet Cross©2008
Many awaited the grand appearance of Papa Guédé, who in fact did arrive dressed to the nines. His appearance this November warm night was foreshadowed by a great gust of the north wind and a deathly cold chill in the air. Those who were outside the Perystle felt his approach as the drumming reached a fever pitch inside and many of the dancers slowed from the heat filling the room. That’s when Guédé appeared and wanted to hear another song, have another drink, and eat another meal! The party for the dead really began. With top hat, dark sunglasses with one eye out, to symbolize his power in the world of the seen and the unseen. And with a large thick dark cigar he found with his offerings and with a smile all knew he was very pleased.
New Orleans is a city rich in its history, its culture, and its traditions. It is known worldwide for its food, its music, and its celebrations. Among those celebrations most unique to New Orleans is the Jazz Funeral. The Jazz Funeral in New Orleans dates back to the early 1800’s. It emerged as a collaborative effort among slaves and free people of color. For these events, people would pool their resources in order to provide a family or community member with a proper burial. The funeral procession was always characterized by the family of the deceased who where the “first line” of mourners, the jazz band, and the “Second Line” --- the non-family members who would come to pay their respect and help celebrate the life of the deceased. Traditionally, the “Second Line” mourners were characterized by their accessories --- fans, handkerchiefs, and umbrellas. All of these items were necessary for the long procession in the hot, southern sun. One the way to the gravesite, the mourners would quietly walk to the slow, somber songs (dirges) played by the band. But once the deceased had been buried, a trumpets call would rally the crowd to celebrate the life of the deceased and help release his or her soul. It is during this jubilant celebration that the fans, handkerchiefs, and umbrellas became “props” used by the Second Liners as they stepped and danced to the celebratory music. Over the course of time, the Second Line Umbrella has emerged as a dominant symbol of celebration in New Orleans. Today, the Second Line Umbrella is used to celebrate just about anything --- Mardi Gras, weddings, showers, graduations, milestone birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, sporting events, etc. With the evolution of their use has come the evolution of their style. What was once just a regular necessity against the sun has become a highly decorated work of art. Second Line Umbrellas now reflect attitude and personal style as they twirl and spin as if to say “laissez les bons temps rouler”!
Book your Hotel Room in New Orleans for 2008-2009 Halloween.
City Arrival Date Nights
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Top 10 Things To Do In Kimberley: A Comprehensive Guide To The Diamond City
1 August 2016 1 August 2016
Dawn Jorgensen
@DawnJorgensen
“Today the very place that saw prospectors win and lose their fortunes is a modern manicured city showing signs of preservation, care and growing investment. It’s rich in accommodation, attractions and restaurant offerings.”
After diamonds were first discovered here in 1871, hopeful prospectors descended to the area to stake their claims with big dreams of striking it rich. It was a definitive turning point in the history of South Africa.
It all began with the first significant diamond discovery in 1866 on a farm called De Kalk, owned by Daniel Jacobs near modern-day Hopetown. Jacobs’ children found a shiny stone while out playing and gave it their dad, he to the neighbour who in turn gave it to a trader in a bid to ascertain the value. It eventually made it’s way to Grahamstown and was found to be a 21,25 carat diamond later named Eureka.
Then in 1869, local farmer Schalk van Niekerk bartered an even larger stone from a Griqua shepherd. It would become known as The Star of Africa and go on to be sold in Geneva in 1974 for over half a million US dollars.
News soon spread as more diamond deposits were found on the hillock Colesberg Kopje, at the time owned by the De Beer brothers, which led to a mad scramble for fame and fortune and the digging of the great Kimberley Mine by hand began. This is now the site of the Big Hole.
By 1872 the tents and shacks of more than 50 000 hopeful diggers crowded what was then known as the mining town of New Rush. Overcrowding, insufficient water, unsanitary conditions, disease, heat, dust and flies were ever present challenges in the mining town’s early days. But the stakes were high and fortunes were made and lost in a day.
The story continues through the diamond years and the Kimberley Siege during the Second Boer War. Notable South African personalities such as Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes here and the roots of the De Beers Company can be found in the early days of this mining town.
Top 10 things to do in the Diamond City
1. Start your visit at the site where it all began, the The Big Hole Complex.
Here you can peer into the deepest man made crater in the world, experience a trip deep into a mine and walk about the old town that still pulsates to the rhythms of a bygone era.
Through an investment by De Beers Consolidated Mines, numerous attractions had been added to the facility. It is a world-class tourist destination, providing unique insights into diamonds, diamond mining and the process of recovering rough diamonds and creating the polished gems we know and covet today.
A lovely fact is that Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting on 2nd September 1882, coming even before those of London.
Book cheap tickets to Kimberley here.
2. Take the vintage Kimberley tram.
The tram dates back to the days of the first prospectors. Today you pay just R10 and take a 20 minute ride around the big hole. It’s the cutest thing, especially when they flip the seats around for the return trip.
3. Stop in for a drink at the 2nd oldest pub in SA
The Star of the West pub has seen 146 years of uninterrupted service and is the second oldest pub in South Africa. It first opened in 1870 to give sustenance to the hordes of thirsty miners and you can almost hear the chatter and creek of the wooden floors as you enter. Upstairs is undergoing renovation and will soon open as a restaurant under the name Diamond Girls.
4. Visit the McGregor Museum.
The impressively beautiful McGregor Museum has natural science exhibitions, research projects and displays going from the early history of humankind and the world to the heady diamond days and tense siege of the South African War as well as the history of apartheid South Africa and the years that brought us to Democracy.
The Museum is based in the old Kimberley Sanatorium building in the upmarket suburb of Belgravia, but it has a number of satellite venues spread around the ‘City of Diamonds’. It is also a major Northern Cape research institute specialising in natural and cultural history.
5. Admire the Cathedral Church of St Cyprian the Martyr.
The Cathedral Church of St Cyprian the Martyr, Kimberley, is the seat of the Bishop of the Kimberley and Kuruman and can’t be missed when driving down Du Toitspan road.
While taking photos from the outside you may even be lucky enough to be invited in by the caretaker. Said to be the longest nave of any Church in South Africa, it was constructed over four periods, with the original section dominated by a suspended crucifix. Walk the full length and enjoy the illuminated hues that emanate through its stained glass windows, read the history and took note of the well tended gardens as you learn the tales of the Bishops that have called this home.
6. Reflect at the Honoured Dead Memorial.
The Honoured Dead Memorial is a provincial heritage site and is situated at the meeting point of five roads and commemorates those who died defending the city during the Siege of Kimberley during the Anglo-Boer War.
Kimberley’s Cenotaph was unveiled on 15 July 1928 to commemorate the fallen of World War I with plaques added in memory of fallen Kimberley volunteers in World War II. The a garden around it offers a suitable tranquility.
7. Head out for a visit to the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre.
Here there are as many as 400 engravings and where the history of the !Xun and Khwe San people who now own the land, bringing the story full circle. Allow at least a couple of hours here.
8. History buffs head to the site of the Battle of Magersfontein.
About 31.5 km out of Kimberly on the Modderriver Road past the airport, you’ll find the land where the Battle of Magersfontein took place on 11 December 1899, a significant moment in the Anglo Boer war that saw a victory for the Burghers, yet heroes made of all men, whatever their allegiance. It was here that General P A Cronje and his Boer troops defeated the English forces of Lt Gen Lord Methuen who were on their way to relieve besieged Kimberley.
Standing there on the elevated position that saw the advantage to the Boers, you can feel the eery history of the day. There’s an excellent museum with enacted video, a stopped-in-time tea shop with delicious toasted sandwiches and the option of visiting the Burgher and Highlander Memorials.
9. Flamingo fun at sunset
After a full day in the city head out to Kamfers Dam in search of the flamingoes for which it is famous. The water levels are often low but you should brave the muddy bumps with skids and slides, it is unbelievably beautiful when you take a closer look. The shapes forms look like those of an elephants hide. A good spot to watch the sun set on the evening.
10. Feeling brave? Book one of Kimberley’s famous Guided Ghost Walks.
Kimberley is reputed to have many genuine stories of ghost sightings. The trail starts at the Honoured Dead Memorial and takes you to some of the city’s 158 haunted houses and buildings. There are also alternative Ghost tours of the haunted city centre, as well as a visit to Magersfontein battlefield where you may see the swinging lanterns of the stretcher bearers and hear the ghostly bagpipes …
Call +27 83 732 3189 to book your own Guided Ghost Walk, held from 6pm to 10pm in the evening.
You may also want to get to the Kimberley Club for a drink. Some historic greats have walked through those doors. Talking about greats, the Sol Plaatjie Museum should not be missed. As in any city, I’d advise you to keep your eyes open for street art as there is quite a lot to be found.
On my visit I found it an absolute pleasure to get to know Kimberley better, it really is a place worthy of a leisurely stay, one that would allow you to learn more about it’s fascinating history, attractions and the offerings of the surrounding areas. Everybody I dealt with was incredibly friendly and went out of their way to welcome and assist me, which added an immense charm to the experience.
On the way back to the city after your remote explore, stop to take in the beauty of the open landscapes of the Northern Cape, the landscape is breathtaking.
Useful Information when planning your trip to Kimberley.
Airlink offers direct flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Kimberley daily. The airport is a short drive from the centre of the city.
You’ll need at least two full days and I recommend that you pick up a rental car on arrival to allow enough freedom and flexibility.
It’s a city that’s easy to navigate either with a printed map, which you can get at the Kimberley Tourism office, or with your phone’s google maps or GPS, which is what I used.
My recommendation is that you divide the attractions into two sections. One day exploring the city, the other the outskirts. It will be most efficient on your time and give you a full day in the beautiful surrounds.
As for accommodation, I stayed at the luxurious Kimberley Anne Small Luxury Hotel and recommend that you do the same. A new addition to the city, it is impressive from the moment you approach it’s modern exterior. The rooms are large and richly opulent, the food delicious and the service warm and friendly. They also have excellent free wifi.
This video should further inspire your visit – Kimberley, the Diamond City.
Travel, Cheap and fun things to do in Kimberley, KIM
Rita Leven
Good marketing for Kimberley. Will share to my FB friends far and wide.
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Annie Chambers (1842-1935)
December 21, 2018 Peggy Van Witt
The massive 5’ X 11’ painting upon arrival; Before Conservation Treatment.
Verso Before Treatment
This painting depicts Annie Chambers, a former Kansas City-area brothel owner and prostitute whose business capitalized on the booming railroad district that brought money, men and modernization to the city at the turn of the 20th century.
Born in 1843 in Lexington, Kentucky as Leannah Loveall, Chambers endured a series of tragic misfortunes early in her life.
Married in her early twenties, she lost her husband and two children to illness and an accident before she was 30.
Then, after incurring the wrath of her Confederate father who discovered she had participated in a parade honoring President Lincoln, she was forced to forge a life on her own.
Facing the stark reality of being a single woman during the 19th century, Chambers chose the only option she could to survive: prostitution.
Chambers came to Kansas City in 1870 and opened a small brothel in the red-light district, where the City River Market exists today. In two-years, Chambers was operating one of the region's most elite brothels out of a luxurious 25-room residence.
Detail of missing ornament and gilding on the frame; Before Treatment
Detail of canvas tear; Before Treatment
Detail of denting and bulging at the site of a previous repair; Before Treatment
Artist Signature Before TreatA
She charged her customers $10, when the going rate was only 10 cents. At a time when women were defined only by the men in their lives, Chambers allowed her girls to keep half of what they earned. They could then regain their independence, feet, provide for their children and go on to successful futures.
At the turn of the century, Kansas City went through a series of reforms, including the end of the red-light district in 1913. Committed to helping young women in more socially acceptable ways, Chambers transformed her brothel into a boarding house.
Annie Chambers died at the age of 92. Her life and work both personify and reflect the spirit of Kansas City and the many opportunities which this city is still known for today.
Installation of Painting.
Tags painting, AnnieChambers, Conservation, beforeandafter
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Environmental Values and Behaviors: Strategies to Encourage Public Support for Initiatives to Combat Global Warming
By Deborah L. Rhode and Lee D. Ross
This Essay explores public values and behaviors on environmental issues, particularly global warming. Its central concern is how to incentivize Americans to act in ways that are environmentally responsible, but are unlikely to have much direct benefit to them personally. Adverse climate change reflects multiple factors that any one individual can affect only at the margins. The consequences of this change are uncertain to some extent, and, if not reversed, likely to have the greatest adverse effect on future generations and on populations in vulnerable regions outside of the United States. The discussion that follows explores strategies for encouraging the public in general, and Californians in particular, to make global warming a more central personal and political concern despite the absence of ordinary personal incentives for doing so.
Significant progress on climate issues will require behavioral changes on several levels: voting, personal consumption, and support of environmental issues, initiatives, and organizations. This, in turn, will require that the public have sufficient information and sufficient motivation to act on that information. The following analysis will first survey public knowledge of global warming, as well as the degree of significance the public attaches to the problem. The discussion will then turn to the challenge of achieving behavioral changes and the lessons available from a quarter-century of relevant social science research. Findings from this body of work offer crucial insights for public policy makers about the most effective strategies for increasing public knowledge, concern, and *162 action on environmental issues related to global warning. Specific topics considered include: perceptions of and responses to risk, personal values, cognitive and motivational biases, peer influences and perceptions of social norms, and techniques to encourage environmental commitment and compliance. This Essay concludes with a summary of strategies that are most likely to be effective in increasing public support of global warming initiatives.
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World China halts Fonterra milk-powder imports in blow to New Zealand
China halts Fonterra milk-powder imports in blow to New Zealand
New Zealand said China suspended imports of milk powders from Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., the world's largest dairy exporter, after the company warned of a contaminated ingredient used in products from baby formula to sports drinks.
"We understand that China has suspended imports of all whey protein and milk-based powder sourced from Fonterra, whether exported from New Zealand or Australia," the Ministry for Primary Industries said in an e-mailed statement in Wellington today. Fonterra said on Aug. 3 three batches of a whey protein made at a New Zealand plant last year may contain bacteria that can cause a rare illness called botulism.
The restrictions are a blow for New Zealand, which relies on exports to China, its biggest trading partner, for growth. Dairy products make up about a quarter of the South Pacific nation's total overseas sales, which in turn account for about a third of economic output. Fonterra collects 89 percent of the milk produced in New Zealand.
"This could be quite a big deal for New Zealand's prospects, certainly in the near term," said Paul Bloxham, chief Australia and New Zealand economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Sydney. "This is likely to have an influence in the short run on the New Zealand dollar and on markets in New Zealand on Monday."
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) in China said it has quarantined some whey protein it received from the New Zealand company. Chinese regulators said companies including Hangzhou Wahaha Group were among importers of the potentially tainted ingredient. Russia has also suspended imports of Fonterra products, the country's consumer rights watchdog said on its website.
Fonterra Director of Communications Kerry Underhill said the company hasn't had confirmation of reports that Russia has banned all Fonterra products.
The whey protein batches were mixed with other ingredients to form products sold in markets including China, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, the New Zealand ministry said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes botulism as a serious paralytic illness.
Four companies including units of Wahaha and Danone's Dumex brand imported possibly tainted products from Fonterra, China's quality supervision regulator said in a statement today. The products have been recalled, the regulator said. Danone and Wahaha couldn't be reached outside of regular office hours.
Coca-Cola Greater China said in a statement that 25 kilograms of Fonterra's whey protein were used in the production of isolated batches of the company's Minute Maid Pulpy Milky product. The company said it will recall products from these batches in China.
External and internal experts confirmed its products are safe due to an ultra-high temperature manufacturing process and low acidity, which sanitizes the final product, Coca Cola said.
A further 4,775 kilograms of the whey protein have been quarantined, it said.
Trade Minister Tim Groser said New Zealand should expect "a wide ban."
"The entire world knows about this," he told reporters. "Different countries are taking different positions, and it's absolutely appropriate that they should."
In an earlier television interview, Grosner said China had stopped all imports of New Zealand milk powders.
In New Zealand, five batches of Nutricia Karicare follow-on formula products for children from 6 months old were identified as potentially containing contaminated protein. Nutricia recalled two baby formula products in New Zealand.
"˜Reputational risk'
"It's not good," said Stephen Toplis, head of research at Bank of New Zealand in Wellington. "It's reputational risk more than anything, and that will be determined by what happens over the coming weeks in terms of how the company responds."
Fonterra said Chief Executive Officer Theo Spierings, who is visiting China for scheduled meetings, will speak with customers there and the company will hold a press conference in Beijing Aug. 5. There have been no reports of any illness linked to consumption of the affected products, Fonterra said.
"Fonterra would be the first to say that they have been on the back foot on this issue," New Zealand Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce told reporters. "They would also tell you that some of the information that they initially relied on has changed."
China impact
"Fonterra is doing everything possible to protect human health and our focus is on public safety," Gary Romano, managing director of New Zealand Milk Products at Fonterra, said at a press conference in Auckland. Any financial impact would be something to assess later, he said.
Fonterra, which said none of its own branded consumer products are affected by the quality issue, drew about 14 percent of its revenue from China in the six months ended Jan. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Fonterra in January had to assure China that traces of an agricultural chemical found in some milk posed no health risks. In 2008, locally made melamine-contaminated milk powder caused an industry-wide scandal in China, prompting the collapse of Fonterra's partner Sanlu Group.
China is stepping up scrutiny of local and international food companies. This year it disclosed a probe into pricing of baby formula, prompting companies from Danone to Nestle SA (NESN) to cut prices. Fonterra in July said it would cut prices in China for Anmum supplements for pregnant women.
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Interview: "24" Executive Producer David Fury
By Jim Halterman (TFC)
After eight days of Jack Bauer (Emmy-winner Kiefer Sutherland) saving the world, the real-time clock on the Fox series "24" stops ticking tonight with a two-hour series finale. Going into the finale, a seemingly unhinged Jack again is trying to conquer the bad guys including former President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzen) who knows a thing or two about the recent murder of Jack's love, Renee Walker. The crafty Logan has also been leading current President Taylor (Cherry Jones) down a dark path as she tries to cover up some of her own worldly missteps. In the meantime, Chloe O'Brien, the interim head of the Counter-Terrorist Unit (CTU) is working against (not for) Jack in order to bring his rogue methods to justice. Will Jack meet a tragic end, as Executive Producer Howard Gordon said earlier this month? Or will the end of the series only serve as a bridge to the eminent big screen version of the Emmy-lauded series? Our Jim Halterman talked with Executive Producer David Fury about how the creative team went about wrapping up this intense series.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: The following contains comments about all episodes of '24' aired to date and references to potentially spoilerly statements recently made to the press by fellow executive producer Howard Gordon. Read at your own risk prior to tonight's finale.]
Jim Halterman: You've worked on 'Lost,' 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' before '24.' Since those were very different genres, how did you make that transition?
David Fury: It was definitely a big difference going to '24' from the others shows I had been on. '24' is a runaway train of action, conspiracies with interweaving in [and] it was a challenge. They brought me in to try to find the more human stories within all the action and to try to track and find emotional life in these characters even while they're disparaging orders in CTU. By the time I came on in year 5 of '24,' Jack had been through so much. One of the reasons I was there - [Co-Creator/Executive Producer] Joel Surnow told me - was they had watched one of my 'Lost' episodes and I did so much with nothing. What he was referring to was there was no real plot in the elements of 'Lost.' It might just be a scene between two characters and he found that compelling.
JH: We all love Jack Bauer as a character but stepping back there are a lot of reasons not to like him due to his actions and his duty to his country. How do you work that in the scripts?
DF: That's one of the things about Jack. He is an anti-hero. He's a guy who will do whatever it takes but it's always for a just cause. His methods aren't always legal and sometimes it can be cruel and certainly in this last season Jack has completely stepped over the line. He has done things like killing Nina (Sarah Clarke) in year 3 but it was a just cause because she murdered his wife so nobody faulted him for that. Now we have a Jack who is a man on fire. He's on a revenge tear and after all the tragedy of Jack's life we're seeing him go off the rails. This seemed right and we were confident very early in constructing the season, which is rare for the show. We often don't figure out where we're going until we're already in the season. In this case, we knew from the beginning where he was going to end up and we were excited about it.
JH: Howard Gordon said in a press call earlier this month that Jack Bauer would not end up in a happy ending but instead more of a tragedy...
DF: Well, I know Howard said that and I will say that some of us would have wanted Jack in a happy place. I have love for the character and he's been through a lot. A lot of characters end up unscathed. Some could argue that 'Taxi Driver' ends with a happy ending. After his murder spree, [Travis Bickle] is hailed a hero, goes back to his life and suddenly the woman who he had pined for is now pining for him. Now, of course, he is an unbalanced guy but there was a lot of discussion whether we could see Jack at the very end of the episode trying to regain some happiness and have a hopeful end. We liked it, we tried different versions of it but slowly and surely the darkness started creeping back in and we eventually said, 'No, it should end here. We can't wrap it up in a nice bow. We need Jack to be perpetually in a place of tragedy.'
JH: Is it safe to say that the series technically ends or is there a cliffhanger that is going to lead into the movie?
DF: One could argue it's a cliffhanger but it is not a pat ending, let's put it that way. As for the bad guys of season 8, we will know they get theirs and justice will be served but as far as Jack's journey, it's open-ended. That was something we always knew we wanted to do regardless of which ending we did. We wanted to be able to say 'Jack lives on to fight another day.'
JH: You just mentioned when Jack killed Nina and he just killed Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff) a few episodes back and while I know she wasn't a fan favorite, I thought she was a great villain. Can you talk about that character?
DF: I know a lot of people were frustrated with that story. We had made a conscious decision that we would not reveal her true story until much later. Very often when we show a mole within CTU or the FBI they're uncovered within an episode or two and then we race through it. This time we thought 'What if she has secrets? What if she is threatened and we feel for her that she's being threatened by something in her past?' Then you realize she's been playing everyone all along. A lot of people were frustrated with her back story but I thought it was very satisfying that it was all a big rouse and she was more nefarious than we thought.
JH: With the power of the Internet where you can immediately get viewer feedback did you ever rethink a story's direction or are the stories already too far along at that point?
DF: Frankly, it is too late. We were done with much of the season before it aired so it was certainly too late. This is true of every show I've been on including 'Buffy' and 'Angel.' Fans are very vocal to us about different story points and Joss [Whedon] was loath to do anything that was pandering to the audience. He was giving people what he thought was the best story. Despite anyone complaining, I've come away from all these shows feeling we have to commit to the ending we have. Some people end up liking it but for us to allow the audience to dictate which story we're going to go with, we knew what we were doing and knew people would be frustrated with this but we were also trying to actively build the season differently than how we did in the past. We usually start very big and exciting and then the show tapers off to the middle of the season and viewers become a little tired so this was a deliberate choice to start slower and smaller, to almost think back to year one with Jack, but our attempt was to do a slow build eventually to this story of the straw that breaks Jack Bauer's back.
JH: In Dana being killed, I thought about how audiences react to women getting killed off as opposed to a man. How much thought goes into a decision to kill a woman on the show?
DF: There is a difference seeing a woman get shot and killed, especially by a man on television regardless of whether they're evil or not. Last season, we had a woman terrorist grabbing Kim at this airport and Kim frees herself from the woman by stabbing her in the leg and then she's cut down by a hail of bullets. It's definitely more powerful sometimes in this society to see that kind of violence inflicted on a female character.
JH: '24' has had some very recognizable guest stars like Jon Voight, Dennis Hopper, Jean Smart and even Cherry Jones but did you ever worry about that taking audiences out of the show?
DF: The wonderful thing about the show is that people are able to bring so much to these characters. To be perfectly frank, the scripts are sometimes very dry and that's all a part of '24.' It can be very mechanical at times. We try to bring character traits into the dialogue but as it's moving along sometimes we forget to do that. So when we cast great actors like Jon Voight or Dennis Hopper or Cherry they bring so much to the dialogue, which is simply 'Jack Bauer is on the line' or 'We need to call to take this person prisoner.' These are all very dry lines but these actors are able to put spins and color in them that the scripts don't afford.
JH: Do you know more about counter intelligence and that world than you ever thought you would?
DF: I do certainly know a little bit more than when I started though so much of what we do on '24' has been made up. Many of the writers here are aficionados of spy thrillers so a lot of ideas are inspired from there. It's interesting that people who do work in law enforcement have said how many things we have gotten right. A lot of time we're making up these so-called protocols and making up some of the way these things would be handled. Overall, we capture the general feel of what it would be like.
JH: Talk to me about pitting Chloe and Jack against each other. Since they've been working together for so long and there's such a bond, were you worried that viewers might not buy them being on opposite sides?
DF: There's no question that there was a lot of discussion whether people would buy into this. We justified it by saying that Chloe was provisionally in charge until they found a suitable replacement. She was simply somebody who was there for the interim and that was given the fact that the show is done in real time. Using that as a device it becomes a little more plausible for someone like Chloe, who has spent years and years working for CTU, to be put in a supervisory role. We thought it could be plausible and certainly we knew that some people wouldn't buy it. A larger issue was whether Chloe would pit herself against Jack after being so loyal to him for so many years and going behind her bosses' backs to help Jack no matter what he was doing. We needed to find another place to go with her and her relationship with Jack. We thought with Jack acting a little out of character, more revenge minded, it was an opportunity for her to say 'I want to protect Jack so I'm going to have to stop him.'
JH: You're moving right into 'Terra Nova' but did you have maybe a little bit of a craving to do a comedy?
DF: [Laughs.] Oh my God would I love to do a comedy! But Terra Nova is set for midseason and we're in the midst of finalizing our first scripts right now.
JH: How's the process been with 'Terra Nova' after spending so much time on '24?'
DF: It's pretty amazing after five years to go back to writing a script of a different kind. I've been stuck writing in the real time of '24' and to be able to use flashbacks, time cuts, being able to add different perspectives... it's almost like relearning the craft of writing because '24' beat it out of me.
The final two-hour episode of '24' airs tonight on FOX starting at 8:00/7:00c.
· 24 (FOX)
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North East veterans remember comrades on 70th anniversary of D-Day
By The Journal
D-Day veterans from the North East have joined commemorations of the event on both sides of the English Channel
Cpl Neil Bryden RAF/MoD Crown
A Spitfire and a Typhoon flying together over Pegasus Bridge near Caen, France, as hundreds of British D-Day veterans gathered
D-Day veterans from the North East have joined commemorations of the event on both sides of the English Channel.
The 70th anniversary of the event has been marked by services in Normandy and in Portsmouth, with many veterans making the trip to France saying it will probably be their last chance to honour fallen comrades.
A number of veterans from the region have travelled to Normandy with the help of the Royal British Legion.
Matthew Guymer, 90, who is originally from Newcastle but now lives in Staffordshire, yesterday attended the commemoration service led by the Princess Royal at Portsmouth.
Mr Guymer, who served as a major with the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own), said: “I feel honoured and delighted and grateful to the people of Portsmouth for being so kind to us all. I think it’s the last time I will be able to come down at my age. I am a very proud man and I am delighted to have the opportunity to meet the other veterans.”
World War Two - Second World War - The D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. British troops about to pass through a village after the landings. Circa: June 1944
South Tyneside mayor Fay Cunningham, who is also secretary of the Jarrow Veterans Association, will be in Normandy today to honour those who fell in the battle.
She said: “It is particularly important on this, the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, that we take time out to remember the sacrifices made and heroism shown by these people.
“The Normandy veterans were at the forefront of the fight for freedom and, as such, deserve our respect and admiration.”
Though the national Normandy Veterans’ Association is disbanded this year, the Jarrow branch has decided to carry on as long as its members want to meet.
World War Two - Second World War - The D-Day invasion of Normandy. France. Endless streams of American troops move up the beaches. Circa: June 1944
Branch chairman Bob Douglas, who is also in Normandy, said: “Our members wanted to keep our branch going. It’s important to never let the world forget the events of the Second World War.
“Our members also draw comfort and support from one another and that’s another reason we wanted to keep our branch running.”
There are currently six veterans in the Jarrow Veterans Association and around 30 honorary members who are family and friends of the veterans.
To mark the D-Day anniversary, the North of England Horticultural Society has launched grants to help communities across the region improve their war memorials. Grants of up to £500 are available to improve or restore memorials, cenotaphs and remembrance gardens.
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Home > Canton Real Estate > Meadowcreek
Meadowcreek Condominiums for Sale
Meadowcreek Condominiums for sale Canton MI
49902 Tahoe Way
49133 Merriweather Court
3075 Greenwich Crt
Meadowcreek Condominiums, Canton, MI
The Meadowcreek Condominiums for sale in Canton MI are located at the north of Warren Road and west of Sheldon Road in the 48187 zip code. Enjoy quiet, comfort and convenience in these stunning ranch condominiums. These units boasts an open floor plan and high ceilings. The entry deck opens to foyer with skylight. The great room has high ceilings, fireplace with cabinets above for the television and home theater and a door wall leading to the wooded deck. The kitchen is airy and bright and equipped with an island, granite counter tops, oak cabinets, ceramic floors, light fixtures, recessed lighting and new appliances. The spacious master suite has vaulted ceilings and the master bath has a separate jetted tub, and stand up shower. The rear deck has a serene view of pine trees. Minutes away from schools, shopping, dining, and major freeways.
Buying And Selling Canton MI, Meadowcreek Condominiums :
If you’re interested in investing in a Condominium for sale in Canton Michigan in this community, then please contact us at The Perna Team, today. We’ll be more than happy to assist you by first telling you about available Canton MI Meadowcreek condominiums for sale.
Meadowcreek Condominiums Location
The Meadowcreek Condominiums for sale in Canton MI are located at the north of Warren Road and west of Sheldon Road.
Located 0.8 mile via Warren Road is the Mango Fruit Market, one of the closest grocery stores to the Meadowcreek Condominiums. The Mango Fruit Market is a family-owned and operated market that sells much more than fruit. The market has cases and coolers filled with fresh produce, including fruits and vegetables. Mango's also has a large area which offers high-quality meats at prices that are competitive with its big chain counterparts.
Schmidt's Roadside is another market close to the Meadowcreek Condominiums. Located 1.5 miles via Arlington Road and Morton Taylor Road, this seasonal market features locally-grown fresh produce, plants, flowers and items that will help customers enjoy fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as maintain a beautiful garden. Schmidt's also serves homemade jams, butters, fresh eggs and milk, a large array of bold and flavorful coffees and teas, bold and fun spices and seasonings, pasta and fresh meats.
A lot of good restaurants and fast food chains surround the Meadowcreek Condminiums, a few are located 0.8 mile via Warren Road, such as, Little Caesars Pizza, Great Wall, Subway and Cottage Inn Pizza, and a few more just a mile away, via Warren Road and N Canton Center Road, namely, Serendipity Cafe, Los Tres Amigos, Kababish Cuisine, Jimmy John's, The Delhi Hut,
Parks and recreational areas provide intrinsic environmental, aesthetic, and recreation benefits to the community. Barchester Park, located 1.2 miles via Warren Road, is a 10-acre recreation park has exciting amenities like, an athletic field, an inline skate rink, nature trail, playground, trails and woodland.
Wildlife Safari, located 3.2 miles via Warren Road, promotes the concept of fun, safe and positive interactions with living creatures. The safari's staff includes licensed profession animal handlers and biologists that are highly trained to work with large variety of animals.
Aside from grocery stores, restaurants, fast food chains and recreational parks, Meadowcreek Condominiums are also near shopping malls and retail outlets. Canton Corners sits in an excellent location within a major retail corridor. Located 1.8 miles via Sheldon Road, some of the retail tenants in Canton Corners are Hobby Lobby, Home Goods, Buy Buy Baby, Comic City, Fireplace and Things, Cigar Hut, Red Wings Shoes, Signarama, Yogurt City, Big Frog, Paul’s Fine Jewelry, 1st Optometry, Scottrade, AAA of Michigan, Genova and Gamestop.
Marshall's, located 2.3 miles via Warren Road and N Lilley Road, is a discount retail chain that offers current-season, brand-name and designer goods for men, women, teens and kids at incredible prices everyday. They also offer home decors, gadgets and others, as, cozy knit throws, textured display lamp, stainless steel cookware, pet accessories such as dog beds, bowls and treats; they also have designer duffles and lightweight luggage.
JCPenney is located 1.6 miles via Sheldon Road. JCPenney has continued to follow consumer traffic, echoing the retailing trend of opening some freestanding stores, including some next door to competitors. In addition to selling conventional merchandise, JC Penney stores often house several leased departments such as Sephora, Seattle's Best Coffee, salons, optical centers, portrait studios and jewelry repair.
Also located 1.6 miles via Sheldon Road is Target, that carries hard lines, soft lines (clothing), and a limited amount of groceries, mostly non-perishable. Specifically, Target stores carry clothing, shoes, jewelry, health and beauty products, electronics, compact discs, DVDs, bedding, kitchen supplies, sporting goods, toys, pet supplies, automotive supplies, and hardware supplies. They also carry seasonal merchandise such as patio furniture during the summer, Christmas and Hanukkah decorations during November and December.
IKEA is an appliance store featuring Scandinavian modern style furniture and accessories that also includes storage options, lighting, decor products, kitchen appliances and pet care. IKEA is located 2.8 miles via Warren Road.
Meadowcreek Condominiums Freeway Access
The Meadowcreek ondominiums for sale in Canton MI are located at the north of Warren Road, west of Sheldon Road and miles northwest of I-275.
Located 3.3 miles via N Canton Center Road is Downtown Canton where most of the government offices are located, namely, the Assessor's Office that maintains all assessment records for residential, commercial and industrial properties within the Township. Building and Inspection Services, the division is responsible for ensuring that township standards for local building codes, ordinances, and construction are met. Clerk's Office, that maintains the records of the Township, administering all Township elections, issuing licenses and is the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) coordinator, etc.
Meadowcreek Condominiums School District
The Meadowcreek Condominiums are governed by the Plymouth-Canton School District with 26 schools that serves more than 19,000 students in grades PK-12.
Tonda Elementary School, located 1.3 miles via Warren Road, is a public school that serves more than 450 students in grades PK-5. According to state standards, 71% of students at this school are considered proficient in math and/or reading. In 2014, Tonda Elementary School ranked better than 78.7% of elementary schools in Michigan. It also ranked 10th among 15 ranked elementary schools in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District.
Located 0.6 miles via Sheldon Road is Gallimore Elementary School. This is a public school that has 352 students in grades PK and 5. In 2014, Gallimore Elementary School ranked better than 76% of elementary schools in Michigan. It also ranked 11th among 15 ranked elementary schools in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District. The school's culture fosters a collaborative environment and is unified in the commitment to understanding and accepting all members of the community.
Plymouth-Canton Montessori School is located 1.3 miles via Sheldon Road and Joy Road. This is a non-profit, private Montessori school that has more than 100 students in grades PK and 5. Classes are mixed-age groups incorporating the preschool and kindergarten years with a balanced number of boys and girls. Plymouth-Canton Montessori School provides educational programs, as well as full day care, before- and after-school care, and summer day camp.
1.1 miles via Sheldon Road and Hanford Road is Discovery Middle School. This is a public school with 968 students in grades 6-8. In 2014, Discovery Middle School ranked better than 95.9% of middle schools in Michigan. It also ranked first among 5 ranked middle schools in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District. Aside from the extensive curriculum that the school has, Discovery Middle School also has extracurricular activities, one of which is the Discovery Middle School Band. The mission of the Discovery Middle School Band is to provide students with activities that instill pride, teamwork, motivation, leadership, self-esteem, values and respect, while recognizing the individual talents and contributions of all members.
Located 3.0 miles via Warren Road and N Lilley Road is East Middle School. This is a public school with 769 students and ranked 3rd among 5 ranked middle schools in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District. In 2013, East Middle School chess teams competed in the Michigan Scholastic Team Chess Championship at Michigan State University, with more than 800 students from across the state competed in the tournament, East Middle School teams won second place in the K-9 Championship Section, and sixth place in K-6 Championship Section.
Canton Preparatory High School is a college prep, public charter high school with high expectations for all learners and a moral focus. Located 3.2 miles via Sheldon Road and Cherry Hill Road, the comprehensive and challenging curriculum of Canton Prep High includes Science, history, social studies, and economics. Canton Preparatory High School offers extracurricular activities and athletics such as Monday Electives, After-School Enrichment, Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Cheer, Cross Country, Soccer, Softball, Track and Field and Volleyball. The school is college prep, public charter high school with challenging curriculum that gives students a chance to achieve a level of excellence that leads directly to college entrance and success.
Canton High School, located 1.5 miles via Sheldon Center Road and N Canton Center Road, is one of the three public secondary schools that encompasses the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park. Canton High School has more than 2,000 students from grades 9-12. For many years the campus operated under block scheduling, seen as an innovative way to allow for longer periods of uninterrupted teaching time. After many years, The Park resorted back to a traditional schedule with 6 classes per day and 2 semesters of classes per year. Currently, The Park is considered a "Closed Campus," meaning no student may leave during the school day without a pass from the office.
Earning a college degree is all about opening up opportunities in life. It prepares an individual, both intellectually and socially, for their career and adult life.
Schoolcraft College is a comprehensive community-based college known for its culinary arts program and continuing program. Located 8.1 miles via N Lilley Road and N Haggerty Road, the College offers various majors of study in different fields, namely, Arts, Humanities and Communication, Business and Information Technology, Culinary Arts, Education and Human Services, Healthcare and Human Services, Manufacturing and Technology, Natural Sciences, Public Safety, Social Sciences and Learning Support.
Northwood University is located 8.1 miles via N Lilley Road and N Haggerty Road. This is a private university that offers the following programs: Bachelor of Business Administration degree with majors in: Accounting, Advertising & Marketing, Aftermarket Management, Automotive Marketing & Management, Computer Information Management, Economics, Entertainment, Sport & Promotion Management, Entrepreneurship, Fashion Marketing & Management, Finance, Health Care Management, Hospitality Management, Innovation Marketing & Management, Insurance Risk Management, International Business, Management, Marketing, Management Information Systems, and Operations & Supply Chain Management.
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Meadowcreek Condominiums Photo Gallery
Mike was very responsive and walked us seamlessly through the process of selling our house, taking the time to answer all our questions. He was very honest…
A very pleased couple!
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why do we have vowels and consonants
Vowels and consonants describe sounds. The sounds came first and the letters we call vowels and consonants came later as attempts to record them in writing. So the question should really be about why human speech has some sounds which come uninterrupted from the vocal cords (vowels), and why others are modified in the mouth (consonants). That is an interesting question, but not one that can be dealt with adequately in a few words. A short answer might be that human speech makes the best use of the bodily apparatus available. English adopted the Roman alphabet and had to use its limited number of vowel letters to represent the English vowel sounds, of which there are around 20. A, E, I, O and U (and sometimes Y) have to be used both separately and in combination to cover the entire range.
What are vowels and consonants?
The alphabet is made up of 26 letters, 5 of which are vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and the rest of which are consonants. A vowel is a sound that is made by allowing breath to flow out of the mouth, without closing any part of the mouth or throat. A consonant is a sound that is made by blocking air from flowing out of the mouth with the teeth, tongue, lips or palate ('b' is made by putting your lips together, 'l' is made by touching your palate with your tongue). The letter 'y' makes a consonant sound when at the beginning of a word ('yacht', 'yellow') but a vowel sound when at the end of a word ('sunny', 'baby'). Children learn all the letters of the alphabet in the б (nursery and Reception years). This means they learn to look at a letter and then make its, but also to hear the sound of a letter and be able to write it down.
In Reception children move onto learning to read and write words (consonant, vowel, consonant) such as cat, top, hit, nap. They then move on to read and write words such as trip, stop, pram. They also learn words such as milk, lamp, tusk. Children will also learn that sometimes two vowels are put together to make one sound, such as ai, oo, ea, ie which can be found in words such as r ai n, b oo t, r ea d and p ie. When two vowels are put together to make one sound, this is called a vowel. They also learn that sometimes two consonants are put together to make one sound, such as th, ch and sh which can be found in words such as ba th, ch ip and ma sh. When two consonants are put together to make one sound, this is called a consonant digraph.
Teachers may or may not make children aware of all the linguistic vocabulary in bold above. It is not necessarily important that they know these words or can define them: the most important thing is that they learn to read and write individual letters and words with confidence through thorough step-by-step activities. Children moving up the school may notice certain things about vowels and consonants. For example, in English we rarely have three or more vowels together; beautiful, queue, liaise, quail, quiet, squeal are some of the few words that use this spelling pattern. Another thing children may notice is that every word in the English language contains a vowel. This is quite a useful thing to know when playing hangman: go for the vowels first!
why do we need to follow the rules in scrabble
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why do we read left to right
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China’s Quanzhou Jinjiang International ranked 2nd fastest-growing airport
Phnom Penh International Airport has topped the list of fastest-growing major airports on earth, a new study by Routesonline has found, after increasing passengers by more than 38% in the last calendar year.
Phnom Penh was one of 15 airports located in Asia to feature in the top 20. Five of those were in China and a further five in India, highlighting the growing dominance of the two countries as aviation powerhouses.
At number two in the list of fastest-growing airports is Quanzhou Jinjiang International, an airport serving the city of Quanzhou in the south-eastern Chinese province of Fujian. Its year-on-year growth was 31.9% to more than 8.1 million passengers, driven by the expansion of Shenzhen Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.
New routes included Shenzhen Airlines’ services to Chongqing and Zhuhai, and Xiamen Airlines’ flights to Haikou and Kaohsiung.
Jinjiang is the first of ten airports located in China and India to feature in the top 20 list. Other high-ranking Chinese airports are Yantai (6th), Nanchang (12th), Shantou (13th) and Da Nang (19th).
According to the latest figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), China will displace the US as the world’s largest aviation market (defined as traffic to, from and within the country) in the mid-2020s, while India will surpass the UK to take third place around 2024.
Prev： Ctrip signs China-focused deal with Millennium Hotels
Next： W Guangzhou profile
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Brand website: http://www.volvocars.com
Swedish automaker Volvo's name is synonymous with safety. Although the company has more safety provisions than most automakers, they aren't all reflected in crash tests, where other brands often match and occasionally exceed a comparable Volvo model's ranking. Likewise, Acura and Mercedes-Benz beat Volvo to market with radar-based systems that detect an imminent collision and apply the brakes. Volvo has plenty of safety innovations under its belt, including various airbag innovations and Roll Stability Control, the first system capable of sensing a rollover in progress and acting to forestall it.Broader than ever, Volvo's lineup includes the compact C30 hatchback, S40 sedan and related S50 wagon. The S60 sedan, which led the company into a more contemporary styling direction when introduced, has been redesigned and now echoes the styling seen on other recent Volvo models. The S80 serves in the role of full-size sedan, though it's not as large as the typical luxury flagship from Germany. The C70 retractable-hardtop convertible is a favorite for all-season use, thanks to front-wheel drive, four seats and side airbags that deploy upward for side-impact protection -- rare in a droptop.The V70 wagon has been discontinued, but the XC70, aka the Cross Country, remains on the market. For crossover fans, the XC60 is a more manageable size than Volvo's first crossover, the XC90, which seats up to seven.After 11 years of losses, Ford Motor Co. sold Volvo Cars to Chinese automaker Geely in August 2010, making it the first major brand bought by a Chinese company. Volvo is still headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Volvo C70 Specification
Volvo C70 Pictures
Volvo Related Models
1992 Volvo 850(Sweden)
Volvo Coupe
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John Wayne's Newport Beach yacht celebrates The Duke's legacy
The Wild Goose had a well traveled past when actor John Wayne bought it and made it his traveling hotel. Now, Hornblower Cruises invites the public to enjoy Wayne's yacht for a limited time through birthday dinner cruises with a gourmet meal, theee hours of sailing and full access to the private quarters of the vessel.
HORNBLOWER STAGES BIRTHDAY DINNER PARTIES IN JOHN WAYNE'S HONOR AND YOU'RE INVITED
John Wayne's card room and den have been preserved by Hornblower.
STEP ABOARD a luxury yacht, surrounded by John Wayne's movie memorabilia and personal effects from his film career and seafaring days. Hornblower Cruises offers a unique experience to commune with the spirit of actor John Wayne aboard the boat he captained.
While the star died in 1979, his spirit lives on aboard the Wild Goose, the yacht he bought, pampered and entertained on for 17 years. Wayne said she was his
John Wayne aboard the Wild Goose. He loved
to navigate, and
proudest possession. He loved taking her to British Columbia and Mexico's coastal towns. He'd play cards, read and fish in stylish comfort, surrounded by magnificent woodwork, resting in his artful master bedroom and keeping an eye on his kids, whose bedroom was just down the hall.
MARION MORRISON was born May 26, 1907. Known professionally as John Wayne, and nicknamed "Duke," he passed away on June 11, 1979. Besides being a much loved American actor and filmmaker, he was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. He was also an accomplished seaman and spent his last days on his luxury yacht, a converted mine sweeper which saw service in World War II. After she was decommissioned, she was purchased by a private owner who a few years later sold her to Wayne.
For nearly 18 years, between movie shoots, the actor piloted the former Naval ship. Because he was 6'4," he raised the ceilings in an elaborate remodeling project. He took his family and close friends to Alaska, British Columbia, Mexico and Catalina. When he filmed his last picture,
Wayne piloted the Wild Goose through Newport's colorful
harbor, making his way to Mexico or British Columbia.
"The Shootist," in 1976, both he and his aging gunfighter screen character were dying of cancer. Wayne spent quiet time resting aboard his beloved "Goose." His last interview -- with Barbara Walters -- was aboard the boat. Among his memorable quotes is one that fits his handling of illness: "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."
The Wild Goose is available for charter, for private events up to 125 people. She is also open for John Wayne dinner cruises May 24-25, May 31, June 1, 7 and 8. It's lovely to move through the waters Wayne loved to navigate, beverage in hand, imagining former guests -- Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson, Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, Sammy Davis Jr., and other celebrities who shared Wayne's love of the water. Wayne's own custom designed bar is fully stocked and if you'd like Wild Goose momentos, check out the t-shirts, mugs and a lively book written by the ship's former captain, Bert Minshall. "On Board with the Duke." It's a fun read with anecdotes of travels on the ship with Wayne and his family and friends.
Beautiful woodwork and carvings
adorn The Wild Goose.
The master bedroom is kept much as it was during John
Wayne's times aboard, including the nautical painting.
Besides the status of a National Register of Historic Places listing, the boat has the cache of having served as a playground and relaxing hideway for a legendary star. Having access to the entire vessel including Wayne's private rooms, enhances the feeling that you're in the company of "The Duke" himself. It's a unique, pleasing time with a fabulous meal expertly prepared and served in several tasty and eye-catching courses.
From left, Cookie, Keller and their
friends Sue and Bob Hulbert, who
grew up around Newport.
Wayne enjoyed nautical paintings, and several of his own
collection are on the boat now. Portraits and posters of
the legendary star were added by Hornblower.
Wayne's family sometimes joins diners and movie buffs aboard Wild Goose. Daughter Marisa Wayne says it's satisfying to see that fans remember and appreciate her dad's movies. "His longevity is amazing. He is still so loved and respected by so many people this many years after his death. I wish he was around to give me advice....or have a drink."
Cost is $103 per person, including a four-course gourmet meal, glass of champagne and the incredible access to the entire yacht. Go to hornblower.com (and select Newport Beach).
Fallen sailors and Marines are forever beneath the waves and the
Arizona Memorial is directly over the sunken ship.
UP NEXT: We remember Pearl Harbor with a visit to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu. We toured the impressive complex and came away moved. The memorial complex pays careful attention to present both sides of the story, from the horrors of the 1941 bombing to the internment of Japanese Americans and the bombs that ended the war. Meanwhile, remember to explore, learn and live and catch us Fridays for a novel look at travel, the arts, nature, family and more.
Posted by Cookie at 5:13 PM
Labels: Architecture, Art, California's Best, Famous Cities, Holidays and celebrations, Movies, Sailing, San Diego
Birthday Boys from Boston May 17, 2019 at 6:40 PM
Delightful to know of this...we will book it!
Pasadena Duke Pals May 18, 2019 at 8:52 AM
Lovely tribute Hornblower does. Ee enjoy every year.
Beach Bums May 18, 2019 at 10:27 AM
Wow. We grew up in Newport Beach and watched Wild Goose navigate in and out of the harbor. Didn't know the public had access. Thanks and good for Hornblower.
Wayne Movie Buffs May 18, 2019 at 2:19 PM
Love John Wayne and the story yiu told about "True Grit". Amazing parallel between his character and his real life situation. Admire his true grit.
Santa Barbara Sailors May 20, 2019 at 9:30 AM
A true "found story" because we did not know the public had access. Wonderful to have this unique experience in our back yard. We booked the finale weekend. Thanks for the tip.
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Expansion of Russia 1500–1800
Title: Expansion of Russia 1500–1800
Subject: Territorial changes of Russia, Tatars, Russian colonization of the Americas, Mongols, Ottoman Empire
Collection: 16Th Century in Russia, 17Th Century in Russia, 18Th Century in Russia, History of Russia, Tsardom of Russia
From 1500 to 1800 Russia expanded from the Oka River to the Black Sea
The steppe and forest-steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia is good agricultural land, but it was traditionally held by pastoral nomads. Any state that could drive off the nomads and fill the land with tax-paying peasants would expand its power enormously. In 1500–1800 this land fell to Russia.
"The history of Russia is the history of a country being colonized....migration and colonization of the country have been fundamental facts of our history.." Vasily Klyuchevsky, Kurs russkoy istorii, I, 20-21.
In the absence of a good map, locations will be given as approximately so many kilometers directly south of Moscow, and then so many kilometers east or west of that line. Thus, Kiev is about 600 south and 500 west, while Perekop at the head of the Crimean peninsula is 1100s and 250w. For contrast, France is not quite 1,000 kilometers from north to south and Moscow is about 1,000 kilometers south of the White Sea. Since these numbers are estimates, they should not be cited or copied.
Pre-History 1
The Players 2
1550–1618: Down the Volga 4
1550–1618: Center 5
1618–1686: The Belgorod Line 6
1648–1709: Ukraine 7
1686–1783: To the Black Sea 8
Comparative History 9
Footnotes 11
The steppe first appears in written history about 600 BC with the founding of Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea. These cities traded Greek goods for Scythian grain. The Scythians were replaced as a ruling group by the Sarmatians, Goths, Avars, Petchenegs, Cumans and Khazars. At some point the language shifted from the Iranian of the Scythians to Kipchak Turkic. About 860 Vikings entered what is now Russia and established trade routes to Persia and Byzantium. They adopted the local language and formed a state (Kievan Rus) which gradually broke up into a set of linked principalities. About 1240 the whole area was conquered by the Mongols. Much of the Slavic population was driven north and west into the forested lands where they were relatively safe from Mongol raiding. As the Mongol Empire broke up, its western part became the Golden Horde with its capital on the lower Volga. These people adopted Islam about 1315. At the start of our period, the Golden Horde was breaking up.
The steppe nomads lived on the steppe north of the Black and Caspian Seas and raided north into the forest-steppe. It was their constant raiding the kept the southern lands free of peasants. With the end of the Great Horde in 1502 they were organized as the independent Nogais north of the Caspian and those north of the Black Sea who were more or less subjects of the Crimean Khan.
The Cossacks: The Slavs who lived on the frontier became known as Cossacks. By about 1500 they had formed two military polities: the Ukrainian Zaparozhian Sich on the Dnieper bend and the Russian Don Cossacks on the Don River bend. There is a good reason why these two communities were so far from the settled lands. Many of the Cossacks on the upper Don had recently left the settled lands and were still in reach of the Russian government. Most of those on the lower Don had been on the steppe for generations, knew no other way of life and were out of reach of the government. The same applies to the Zaporozhians in respect to Poland.
The Khanate of Crimea: This new Khanate quickly became a vassal or ally of the Turks. The Khan had limited control over his nobles and even less over his Nogai vassals. Crimea could put up to 80,000 horsemen into the field and could conduct large-scale raids into Russia and Poland, especially with Nogai assistance. Many Crimean wars were largely slave raids. The export of captives to Turkey was a major factor in the Crimean economy. For a list of raids see Russo-Crimean Wars.
The Turks: This was a peripheral area for the great Ottoman Empire. The Turks had some control over Moldavia and Crimea, held a southern strip of the Crimean peninsula including the great slave port of Kaffa and held a fort at Azov. Turkish armies entered the steppe only twice during our period, although janissaries would sometimes accompany the Crimean Khan. The Turks were important because of their partial control of Crimea, their wars with Poland in the west, their implied threat to Russia if it moved too far south, and because they were the ultimate destination of slaves captured in Russia and Poland.
Poland and Lithuania in 1466
The Poles: The Poles, who expanded from the west, had a number of disadvantages. The core of the Polish state was in the west and Poland was often distracted by wars with western powers, especially Sweden. Poland was almost an aristocratic republic. Its nobles sought to protect their liberty by weakening the king, which also weakened the Polish army and made a consistent frontier policy difficult. Their main problem was the alienation of the eastern population. The core of Poland was Catholic, but the eastern lands were mostly Orthodox. Society in the Polish core was based on serfdom, but there was greater freedom in the east. Lords with land grants in the east would offer easy terms to attract peasants. Many people in the Polish east were runaway serfs or adventurers who had reason to distrust a strong state. By the 1500s, Polish claims extended east of the Dnieper to a point south of Moscow, although the area was thinly settled and barely administered.
The Russians: In the early 15th century, 'Russia' was a group of minor principalities north of the Oka River which were gradually falling under the rule of Moscow. Its Orthodox religion allowed it to claim the heritage of Kievan Rus. Its autocracy gave it a fairly effective army. Russia also had a conflict between serfdom and frontier liberty, but its political consequences turned out to be less important. Also like Poland, Russia was frequently distracted by unprofitable wars in the west. Brian L. Davis [1] suggests that Moscow's ultimate advantage was the comparative absence of restraints on its ability to command resources for war.
A Raiding Economy: In addition the wars recorded in history books, there was a massive amount of petty raiding which kept much of the area depopulated. Raiding and tribute were a major source of goods that could not be produced on the steppe. Crimeans and Nogais raided Russia and Poland. Crimean nobles launched private raids without regard to the Khan. Nogai and Kalmuck clans raided each other. Cossacks raided Crimeans and Nogais, rebelled against Poland and Russia and hired out for various private and public wars. The Bashkirs were also involved. Capture by Tatar raiders was a constant threat. The market at Kaffa, with its cheap water transport to areas of demand increased the value of captives. Some were ransomed back to Russia and some were sold east as far as Bukhara. By one estimate [2] some 150,000 to 200,000 captives were taken from Russia in 1600–1650, but of course there are no exact figures. The numbers for Poland would be comparable.
Forest and Steppe: There was no clear line between steppe and forest, but rather a broad transition zone of forest-steppe. Zones ran from southwest to northeast. The steppe proper began as a narrow band near the Danube. In the east there were patches of grassland almost as far north as Kazan. Fingers of forest extended south down the river valleys. Slavic settlers preferred the river valleys because of better protection, transportation, firewood, game and soil (steppe grass can be quite difficult to plow).
The Breakup of the Golden Horde: As the Golden Horde weakened, the more settled areas broke off as follows: 1438: Khanate of Kazan on the upper Volga, 1441: Khanate of Crimea on the Black Sea, 1452:Qasim Khanate on the Oka (a Russian vassal),1466: Astrakhan Khanate on the lower Volga. The steppe remnant became known as the Great Horde. From 1480 to 1519 Russia and Crimea were allied against the Great Horde and Poland-Lithuania. In 1480 the Great Horde failed in an attempt to invade Muscovy (Great stand on the Ugra river), a date that is conventionally taken as the end of Tatar rule over Russia. The last Khan of the Great Horde was killed by the Crimeans in 1502. The steppe peoples then became known as the Nogai Horde. The Nogais on the Volga had their own Beg, while those north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. The removal of the Great Horde as a buffer state brought Russia and Crimea into direct confrontation.
Consolidation North of the Oka By 1450 the Grand Duchy of Moscow held most of the land north of the Oka, except for an enclave about 150 km north and west of Moscow. The enclave was annexed: Yaroslavl(1463), Rostov(1474), Tver (1485). Novgorod (300n,300west) was taken in 1470–1480 and Pskov (250n,500w) in 1510. Ryazan (100s,124e) on the Oka fell in 1521. During the Russo-Lithuanian Wars (1492–1522), Moscow took the northeast part of Lithuania, including the Upper Oka Principalities, Smolensk(1514,120s,250w), Novgorod Seversky(1503,400s,400w) and Chernihiv(1503,480s,300w). Thus by 1521 Moscow held all the forested land north of the Oka from its mouth at Nizhny Novgorod (50n,400e) to the Oka bend at Kaluga and west almost to the Gulf of Finland. In addition there was a bulge west of the Oka down to Chernigov.
Oka River near Serpukhov, here about 200 meters wide
The Bank or Oka Line: The main line of Muscovite defense had always been the crossings of the Oka River. With the removal of the Great Horde as a buffer state, Crimea became the main enemy and work was begun to strengthen the Oka defenses. By 1533 about 250 km of the bank was extensively fortified, mainly from Kaluga (150s,75w) on the Oka bend to Kolomna (65s,75e). There were weaker fortifications in the west along the Ugra River and east down the Oka to Nizhny Novgorod(400e,75n). In addition there was an 'out-fort' at Tula (193s) along the main invasion route. From 1522 the military headquarters was at Kolomna. The bank was manned during the spring-to-fall raiding season. Troops were mostly horse archers drawn from the land-owning class, with increasing numbers of artillery and musketeers.
The Abatis Line or Zasechnaya cherta: After 1533 work began on the Abatis Line. From the 1550s troops began mustering on the emerging Abatis Line. This was about 100 km south of the Oka, in two sections. The first ran from the north-flowing part of the Oka south of Kaluga from Peremyshl(160s,75w) or Belyov(225s,75w) roughly along the Upa River to Odoyev (200s,50w), Krapivna (200s,25w), the great fort of Tula(193s), and then past Venyov (150s,33e) to the Oka at Ryazan(125s,125e). The second started southwest of Ryazan and ran from Skopin(founded 1597,200s,100e) through Ryazhsk(1502,233s,150e) and Sapozhok(200s,200e) to Shatsk(1552,200s,250e). The Abatis Line underwent a major reconstruction in 1638 and again in 1659–60. (Note that this account of the course of the Line may not be exact since Davies (see references), who seems to be the only good source, appears to contradict himself in a few places).
From the 1550s there was a line of sorts from Shatsk to Alatyr (1552,150s,550e).
1550–1618: Down the Volga
Moscow,Kazan and Astrakhan
Down the Volga: There were numerous Russo-Kazan wars, usually involving Moscow and Crimea backing various claimants for the Kazan throne, but Kazan (700e, 25s) was too far away to be dealt with easily. Advanced forts were built at Vasilsursk on the Volga below Nizhny Novgorod (1523: 533e) and Sviyazhsk (1551: 675e, 25s) near Kazan. Kazan was conquered in 1552. In 1554 Moscow installed a Nogai prince on the throne of Astrakhan. When he rebelled, Russia annexed Astrakhan (1556: 700e, 1000s). (This enormous expansion to the southeast presumably depended on river transport down the Volga, but this is not clear from the English sources.) In the First Russo-Turkish War (1568–1570), the Ottomans tried and failed to retake Astrakhan for Islam. Following the Livonian War, intermediate forts were built on the Volga: Samara (1586: 300s, 800e), Saratov (1590: 450s, 500e), Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) (1589: 800s, 400e). Between the Volga and Urals Ufa (350s, 1100e) was founded in 1574.
The Nogai Horde: The independent Nogais on the lower Volga were happy to support whatever regional power suited their immediate interests. Moscow managed them with a mixture of bribes and threats. From the 1530s, some Nogais would ally with Russia, apparently finding more profit in trading than raiding (In 1555 Ismail sent 20,000 horses to Moscow.). Nogai help or indifference was an important factor in the conquest of Kazan. Ismail assisted Russia in the first Astrakhan campaign. This provoked the hostility of Yosuf on the Yaik. Friends of Ismael murdered Yosuf in 1555 and Ismail declared himself Beg of all the Nogais. Yosuf's sons went after him and reduced him to near poverty. This mutual raiding was made worse by a famine. In 1557 Kazy Mirza broke off and established the Lesser Nogai Horde on the Kuban as a Crimean vassal. In 1600 Russia 'appointed' a Nogai Beg for the first time. The Begship disappears from the English sources in 1618. Around 1630 the Kalmyks migrated from Dzungaria and took over most of the Nogai lands on the lower Volga. The remaining Nogais were then nominally Crimean vassals, either north of the Black Sea, or in the Small Nogai Horde on the Kuban.
To Siberia: There was a slow and steady expansion into the Perm-Kama lands to the northeast, which seems poorly documented. In 1582 the Urals were crossed and the conquest of Siberia began. See Siberian River Routes, History of Siberia.
1550–1618: Center
The Livonian War and Time of Troubles: Instead of consolidating his gains in the southeast, Ivan turned west (Livonian War 1558–1583). After some initial successes the war degenerated into a free-for-all among all the Baltic powers. At war's end Russia returned, exhausted, to its original frontiers. The strain of this war, Ivan's erratic behavior and other factors led to the Time of Troubles (1598–1613). This confusion led to a fair number of people to flee south of the Oka, but, as usual, we have no numbers.
Crimea: In 1556 Moscow, in alliance with Dmytro Vyshnevetsky of the Zaporozhian Cossacks attempted several raids on the Black Sea coast. This policy was abandoned after the start of the Livonian war. In 1571, while troops were away in Livonia, Crimea broke through the Oka Line and burned Moscow (Russo-Crimean War (1571)). This led to a strengthening of southern defenses which blocked the next raid (Battle of Molodi).
South of the Abatis Line:With the end of the Livonian War in 1583 attention could be turned to the east and south. New forts were built along and east of Volga (Samara, Saratov and Tsaritsyn and Ufa). The conquest of Siberia began in 1582. To the south, forts were built along the main Tatar raiding trail at Elets(1592:350s,50e)), Voronezh(1586:450s,100e), Belgorod (1593:575s,75w) and Stary Oskol (1593:490s). These were used as refuges for peasants and livestock during Tatar raids. Sorties from these forts could sometimes deal with smaller war parties and rescue captives. In the far south, Tsarev Borisov(750s) was founded in 1599 and abandoned after 1618.
At the Southern Border, Sergei Ivanov 1907.
Rangers: The practice of sending out long-range patrols appears to have started in the early 16th century at Putivl near the upper Oka. In 1541 a patrol provided enough warning to block a Tatar raid. By 1551 patrols had become a regular practice. A ranger patrol usually consisted of a captain and a few dozen men who covered great distances with no fixed route. When they detected signs of a raiding party they sent messengers back to the nearest garrison. Patrols were made more systematic after the Tatar raid in 1571. A starozha typically consisted of two to six horsemen who operated from a fixed point and systematically surveyed an area with a radius of up to 70 km. Starozha beats interlocked. By 1623 there were 180 of them. The ranger patrols in the south gave early warning while the starozhas detected most penetrations and sent word north to the garrisons and defense lines. The growing number of Cossacks on the upper Don provided an additional source of intelligence.
Colonization: Peasants in the settled lands were generally serfs who could not legally leave their lords, but, given the weakness of police and record-keeping at this time, once a peasant ran away, it was quite difficult to find him and bring him back. Frontier landowners and garrison commanders who needed peasants would often protect any runaways that showed up. Runaways blended into the general class of adventurers, drifters, discharged soldiers and other unclassifables who lived along the frontier. Many peasants went only a short way south and remained connected to the economic and political system of the settled lands, while a few went further south into the truly wild lands and became full Cossacks. Moscow vacillated between protecting the interests of its landowners and encouraging frontier settlement. Growing military presence in the south reduced the Tatar threat and increased the number of peasants who were willing to try their luck on the frontier. A proper history of Russia's southward expansion would need a table showing population by region and decade, but such numbers do not seem to be available.
1618–1686: The Belgorod Line
Koslov
Okhtyrka
MURAVSKY TRAIL
NOGAI ROAD
Raiding trails and Defense Lines on map of Russian Central Federal District. From a map by Brian Davies (bibliography).
Yellow Dot: Oka River Bank Line (circa 1500)
Black X: Abatis Line (c 1533-66).
Blue Circle: Belgorod Line (c 1634-50)
Blue Triangle: Izium Line (c1689)
Black Arrow:Raiding Trails (1507-1769)
Continued below on a different scale.
Perekop
IZIUM TRAIL
Raiding trails and Defense Lines on map of Ukraine. Continued from above.
Blue Triangle: Izium Line (c 1680)
Arrows:Raiding Trails (1507-1769)
Time of Troubles and Reconstruction: During the Time of Troubles (1598–1613) Moscow lost control of much of the southern area. Various towns were sacked by the Poles, Tatars and Zaporozhian Cossacks. The Truce of Deulino ended the Russo-Polish War (1605-1618) and Russia lost Smolensk, Seversk and Chernigov. During the period of reconstruction (1618–33) the south continued to be neglected. The only significant new fort was Lebedyan.
Smolensk War (1632–34): During this war Russia tried and failed to retake Smolensk. Westward diversion of troops led to two major Crimean raids. The one in 1633 was apparently the last to cross the Oka. The war also saw the first use of foreign- formation troops (European mercenary officers and paid soldiers using Dutch-style drill) that were to be important for the next 75 years. At the start of the war Russia could field about 100,000 men: 27,000 traditional servicemen, 33,000 musketeers, 4,000 artillerymen, 11,000 Cossacks, and about 20,000 Tatar irregulars (up from 35,000 in 1500).
Belgorod Line: With the end of the Smolensk War in 1634 and the Tatar raid of 1633, Moscow turned its attention south. Frontier troops were more than tripled to 17,500. In 1638 there was a major rebuilding of the Abatis Line. Forts south of the Abatis Line were linked up. Eleven new garrison towns were founded in 1635–37. Tatar raids in 1644 showed that fortification was incomplete and eighteen new forts were founded by 1653. From 1646 frontier deployment was moved south to the Belgorod line. From 1650 command was centered at Belgorod. To attract settlers standards were relaxed, many people being granted lands as 'odnodvortsy' (roughly yeomen).
The completed Belgorod Line was shaped like a reversed 'L'. It ran south down the Voronezh River from Kozlov (1635,325s,175e) through Dobryi, Usman (1645), Orlov, Voronezh(1585,450s,100e) and continued down the Don. Where the Don turns east(about 500s) it ran southwest to Ostrogozhsk(1652,525s,75e) then west and slightly south through Userdsk(1637), Novy Oskol(550s,) Ioblonov, Korocha(1638), Belgorod (1596,575s,50w), Kotmyzsk to Okhtyrka(1641, a Polish foundation:600s,150w). Okhtyrka is about 300 km east of Kiev and 200 km north of the Dnieper bend. The lower Belgorod Line was about 400 km south of the Abatis Line and just north of the Dnieper country then claimed by Poland.
The Don and Voronezh Rivers run down the eastern side, the Donets penetrates at Belgorod and, in the west, the Vorskla River flows south from Okhtyrka through Poltava to the Dnieper. The Belgorod Line encloses a rectangle of about 400 by 300 kilometers. This area contains the central part of the Muravsky Trail Tatar raiding trail and corresponds approximately to the Central Black Earth Region. Inside the rectangle are Lebedyan(1591), Elets(1633), Livny(c1586), Oryol(1566) and Kursk. To the west was Severia and Polish territory. Population inside the line must have grown, but there seem to be no figures.
East of the Belgorod Line: The sources do not explain why the Belgorod line did not run east-west. Its shape left an area of about 450 km between the Belgorod Line and the Volga forts and about 600 km from the eastern end of the Abatis Line to the Don Cossacks in the south. This area had a fair amount of open steppe and corresponded roughly to the 'Nogai Road', the raiding trail from the lower Volga. Apart from the northern fortifications, the English secondary sources have little information about this area.
The northern part of this area was fortified at the same time as the Belgorod Line. In 1636 a wall was built east from Kozlov at the north end of the Belgorod Line that effectively blocked the Nogai Road. It was later extended to Tambov(1636:333s,333e). In 1647 work started on a line from Tambov north up the Tsna to Shatsk at the eastern end of the Abatis Line. In 1648–54, the Simbirsk Line was built, which ran from Tambov(1636) through Nizhny Lomov (1636) and Saransk (1641) to Simbirsk (1648, 200s,790e) on the Volga. Part of the Simbirsk Line was later replaced by the Syzran Line which ran from a point east of Nizhny Lomov to the Volga south of Simbirsk. The Trans-Kama Line (1652–57) ran eastward from the Volga at Bely Yar below Simbirsk to Menzelinsk (1586 975e) on a southern tributary of the Kama. Thus Moscow had about 1800 km of fortified line stretching from Polish territory almost to the Urals.
The Stenka Razin rebellion was mostly confined to the area east of the Belgorod Line and south of Simbirsk.
1648–1709: Ukraine
Polish-Lithuanian Background: By about 1362(Battle of Blue Waters) most of the northwest Ukraine (including Kiev) had fallen to Lithuania. In 1385 (Union of Krewo) the crowns of Poland and Lithuania were joined and Lithuania became Christian, the last European country to do so. In 1569(Union of Lublin), during the Livonian War, a closer union was made and most of Ukraine was transferred from Lithuania to Poland. In 1596(Union of Brest) an attempt was made at church union. The Orthodox would retain their rites and married clergy while accepting the doctrinal supremacy of the Pope. Since some Orthodox rejected this, the effect was to create three churches instead of two. From about 1610 the Orthodox and Zaporozhian Cossacks became more closely allied, thereby increasing the alienation of both from Poland. From about 1637 there were rebellions in the eastern lands which led to a movement of population into Russian territory south of the Belgorod Line (Sloboda Ukraine).
Khmelnytsky: In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky started a rebellion which quickly became a general Orthodox rising against Poland, extending as far west as Volhynia. It also became something of a social revolution as landowners, Poles, Catholics and Jews were driven west. Khmelnytsky sought Russian support, but Russia hesitated, knowing that this would lead to a major war with Poland. In 1654 Russia accepted Khmelnitsky as a vassal(Treaty of Pereyaslav).
Russo-Polish War (1654–1667): Russia struck first, taking Smolensk. In 1665 Sweden attacked Poland leading to the near collapse of the Commonwealth (the so-called 'Deluge'). Instead of finishing off Poland, Russia and Sweden fell out (Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658)), giving the Commonwealth time to recover. By the Treaty of Andrusovo in 1667, Russia acquired Smolensk and Chernigov and nominal rule over the lands east of the Dnieper, including Kiev. To the south of this, Zaporozhia was in theory a Russo-Polish condominium, but in practice continued under Cossack self-government. By the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 Poland gave up its claim to Zaporozhia.
The Ruin: After Khmelnytsky's death in 1657 it proved impossible to maintain a Cossack state. The area was effectively divided at the Dnieper from 1660. The partition of Andrusovo was done without Cossack consent. See The Ruin (Ukrainian history). During this period, Doroshenko allied with the Turks, bringing Ottoman armies onto the steppe for the second and last time (Russo-Turkish War (1676–1681).
Ukraine Partitioned: After 1667 eastern Ukraine was divided into four areas. The Right Bank of the Dnieper gradually returned to Polish control. On the Left Bank was the Cossack Hetmanate under Russian suzerainty. Over the next hundred years it was slowly converted into a group of normal Russian provinces. To the east of this and south of the Belgorod Line was the Sloboda Ukraine. This area, newly settled by immigrants from further west, retained a Cossack way of life, but Russia never permitted a Cossack political organization. South of the Hetmanate on the Dnieper bend, Zaporozhia was nominally subject to the Hetmanate, but was practically self-governing. Over the next century these areas shared the fate of the Hetmanate.
The Izium Line: From 1680 a triangular area south of the Belgorod Line in the Sloboda Ukraine was fortified. The new line was 530 kilometers long and enclosed 30,000 square km. It pushed the frontier another 160 km southward to within 150 km of the Black Sea coast. From Userdsk west of the southeast corner of the Belgorod Line, it ran southwest to Valuyki(1593,625s,60s) and then south down the Oskol River to its juncture with the Donets (750s) below the old site of Tsarev-Borisov which was apparently reestablished. It then turned northwest up the Donets past Izium, Zmiiv and Valky to Kolomak(650s,150w) with an extension southwest down the Kolomak River to Poltava. Kolomak is about 60 km southwest of the west end of the Belgorod Line at Okhtyrka. The area inside the line corresponds approximately to Kharkiv Oblast and contains the modern city of Kharkiv which began as a small fort about 1630.
1686–1783: To the Black Sea
The Kalmucks: From about 1630 the Kalmucks (Buddhist Mongols) occupied the lower Volga. They were generally allied with the Russians against their Islamic neighbors and caused the Russians relatively less trouble than the Nogais. With increasing Russian pressure and settlement, in 1771, most of the Kalmucks east of the Volga returned to Dzungaria, leaving a remnant southeast of the Volga.
The Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700): After the Turkish failure to take Vienna in 1683, Russia joined Austria, Poland and Venice in the Holy League (1684) to drive the Turks southward. Russia and Poland signed the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686. There were three campaigns north of the Black Sea.
Crimean Campaigns of 1687 and 1689: Two attempts were made to reach Perekop and bottle up the Crimeans inside their peninsula. They failed because of the difficulty of moving large numbers of men and horses across the steppe.
The Lower Dnieper Forts (1695): From 1694 Peter the Great planned two campaigns using river transport. In 1695 the main Dnieper fort at Kazy-Kermen was taken when a Russian mine accidentally set off its power magazine. The lesser forts quickly surrendered, but Kazy-Kermen was too damaged to hold and the main Russian force withdrew up the Dnieper to protect the Left Bank. By the Treaty of Constantinople (1700) the remaining Russian forces were withdrawn and the area south of Zaporozhia became a demilitarized zone.
Azov: From 1471 the Turks had a fortress at Azov at the mouth of the Don. In 1637–42 it was captured and briefly held by the Don Cossacks. In 1695 Peter failed to take the fort because he could not control the river and prevent re-supply. In 1696 he built ships at Voronezh, sailed them down the Don and captured Azov. He built more ships at Taganrog which were bottled up in the Sea of Azov. After its defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711) Russia gave up Azov and its fleet.
The Oleshky Cossacks (1711–1734): Following the battle of Poltava about 20,000 Cossack fled to Ottoman territory and established a Sich at Oleshky across the Dnieper from modern Kherson. Although Turkish subjects, they represented a further southward expansion. By the agreement of Lubni(1744) they returned to Russia and established the New Sich. Oleshky is 100 km northwest of Perekop.
Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739): in 1736 the Russians stormed Perekop and captured Bakhchisarai but withdrew because of plague. In the same year they took Azov. In 1737 they took Ochakov but gave it up because of plague. By the Treaty of Nissa Russia was allowed to have a port, but no fort, at Azov.
Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774): Russia sent its Baltic fleet into the Mediterranean and defeated the Turkish fleet. The war ended with the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji. Russia was allowed to use Azov for military purposes. It gained control of the Kerch Strait leading from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. It gained Yedisan between the Dnieper and the Bug, including the new port of Kherson (1778). Crimea was to be independent of the Turks, but in fact became a Russian vassal.
Crimea Annexed: Russia installed Şahin Giray as Khan. His overly firm rule provoked rebellion and he had to be propped up by Russian troops. Crimea was finally annexed in 1783.
Later: Russian expansion to the area north of the Caucasus is not covered in this article. In 1792 the Russian frontier reached the Dniester (Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). In 1793 the Ukrainian Right Bank was annexed by the Second Partition of Poland. In 1812 the frontier reached the Prut (Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812). The opening of the Black Sea to grain exports contributed to the growth of agriculture and population in the southern lands. Around 1880 there was a massive migration of Muslims from the Balkans and southern Russia into Turkey. The last areas of open steppe fell to the plow sometime before 1900. In 1944 Stalin exiled the remaining Crimean Tatars to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
Comparative History
In 1978 William Hardy McNeill gave a very interesting series of lectures called 'The Great Frontier' [3] in which he suggested that the expansion of Europe created a worldwide frontier zone which can be studied as a unit. Specifically, he suggested that the Russo-Polish frontier in the east can be studied along with the Trans-Atlantic frontier in the west. This suggestion does not seem to have been followed up. We may here list some of the more obvious points. The distinction between nomads and peasants is found all over Eurasia. Peasant agriculture, and the states it makes possible, is normally confined to areas where rainfall or irrigation makes agriculture practical. The fact that Russo-Polish agriculture did not follow this ecological line is hard to explain, unless it was due to raiding. The steppe nomads are one of the many societies disrupted or destroyed by European expansion. The Cossacks were another frontier society along with the Coureur des bois, Appalachian frontiersmen, Mountain Men, cowboys, Bandeirantes, Gauchos and Trekboers, Bushrangers and Beachcombers. Behind the frontier there is often a zone of slavery or serfdom. This seems to be connected to the difficulty of inducing a peasant to pay rent when there is land on the frontier free for the clearing. The expansion of the Russian frontier has much in common with other frontiers. There are also a number of differences. Russian expansion was overland, not overseas. This may partly account for the relative lack of racial felling on the eastern side of Europe. Russia was largely isolated from the west. It was not until the eighteenth century that some Russians began to see themselves as engaged in a common imperial enterprise. Another odd feature is the formation of states on the frontier. If the German Drang nach Osten can be taken as a frontier movement, then it was blocked by the consolidation of Poland. Poland now held the frontier, but it was blocked by the growth of Muscovy from the north. At a higher level, both Russia and the United States can be seen as frontier societies that eventually became more powerful than the European heartland. The role of slave-raiding is also odd, since slaves are usually taken to, not from, a frontier. This seems to be connected with the Islamic world on the other side of the steppe that provided a market for captives.
List of Russian explorers
Russian Colonialism
Russian conquest of Siberia
Imperialism in Asia
Places established during Russian colonisation
^ Brian L. Davies 'Warfare, State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe, 1500–1700', 2007, page 206
^ Michael Khodarkovsky, 'Russia's Steppe Frontier', 2002, page 22,
^ William H McNeill, 'The Global condition',1992
Davies, Brian (2007). Warfare, State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe, 1500–1700. Warfare and History. Routledge. - which the article mostly summarizes.
Khodarkovsky, Michael (2002). Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800. Indiana-Michigan series in Russian and East European studies. Indiana University Press. - same thing seen from the nomad side.
- compares the expansion of Russia, Poland, Austria and Turkey.
Articles needing cleanup from July 2009
All articles needing cleanup
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History of Russia
16th century in Russia
Golden Horde
Mongol Empire, Ilkhanate, Mongolia, Timurid Empire, Volga Bulgaria
Ryazan Oblast, China, Russia, France, North Korea
Territorial changes of Russia
Russian Empire, British Empire, Empire of Japan, Ottoman Empire, Portugal
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Dave Mustaine: Slash’s Playing Would ‘Certainly’ Fit With Megadeth
Joe DiVita
Evil Robb Photography, Loudwire / Kevin Winter, Getty Images
The combination of Megadeth's Dave Mustaine and Guns N' Roses legend Slash would seem to be a potent guitar force, at least on paper. In our recent interview with Slash, we asked him about his jam session with Mustaine in the '80s, which he wrote about in his autobiography. We wondered if there is any potential for a future collaboration. "I don't see myself guesting on a Megadeth song. I don't think it would work in the context of what Megadeth does," he admitted, adding, "but maybe Dave on one of my things — I don't know." Mustaine, however, couldn't disagree more.
"Slash is a terrific talent and I disagree wholeheartedly with what he said: that he couldn't play on a Megadeth record. He's a brilliant guitar player," Mustaine told us today (Aug. 28). He explained, "I basically play in the pentatonic scale and that's like the go-to blues player scale" and mentioned that he's tried to surround himself with "really, really good players" over the years.
Going back to his early days as lead guitarist in Metallica, Mustaine continued, "It was easy to do a little bit more movement on the guitar on the neck [in Metallica]." Returning to his split role within Megadeth, he commented, "When you start singing you have two roles and unfortunately I wasn't really able to play and sing as much as I wanted to. [Because of this,] the songs are set up for a bluesy kind of player, which Slash definitely is."
In his autobiography, Slash said that the pair came up with "major heavy metal riffs," Mustaine revealed that some of that material actually wound up on record. "When we played together I seem to remember that there were a couple riffs that showed up around the Rust in Peace period that he and I were noodling around on. That's when all this went down: during the Rust in Peace era," he added, suggesting that the complexity of the guitar parts on that album "Might be why [Slash] says that he can't do it, but he certainly can."
"He makes it look effortless and it makes me mad! It just looks like water running over a smooth stone, it's just perfect. He's done this every day of his life and he was made for the exact moment to stand on that stage and play that solo and have all those thousands and thousands of eyes focused on him," Mustaine said.
When asked if there's potential for the two to write a song together, Mustaine declared, "I would definitely be interested in doing anything with Slash."
He stressed there's no desire to leave Megadeth behind in pursuit of something new. "It wouldn't be a band change predicated on a single with another artist," he cautioned, expressing, "But boy I would love to do that."
Even if it were to happen, Mustaine does not want there to be any confusion about his dedication to Megadeth. "I don't want to be hypocritical because I've really tried to just stick with Megadeth and not go around and play with a bunch of other people just because I don't want people to think I'm unhappy with Megadeth," he said, reassuring Megadeth fans of his primary focus.
Megadeth are currently eyeing their follow-up to 2016's Grammy-wining Dystopia record. Mustaine has already suggested the possibility of new elements — blast beats — creeping into Megadeth's sound with the addition of drummer Dirk Verbeuren and confirmed that at least one new song will be released in 2019 with hopes of the full album being out next year as well. Will Slash guest on the recording? We'll have to wait to find out.
Slash Says Maybe to Dave Mustaine Collaboration
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Filed Under: dave mustaine, megadeth, slash
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'Roos Drop Pair to Centenary
Centenary (La.)
Centenary (La.) (9-10-1, 1-0) 9 0 0 1 0 2 0 2 0 14 12 5
Austin College (4-7, 0-1) 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 2 7 6 2
Centenary (La.) (10-10-1, 2-0) 10 0 3 0 3 1 3 20 16 1
Austin College (4-8, 0-2) 0 0 1 0 2 0 2 5 7 4
3B: Preston Ludwick; Charlie Allbritton
2B: Peyton Cormane; Chris Haggard 2; Jake Ryan
3B: Chris Haggard
HR: Cody Crowder; Cameron Guin
2B: Brett Taff
SHERMAN, Texas – The Austin College baseball team fell in both halves of its Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference-opening doubleheader on Saturday at Baker Field, falling 14-7 in game one and 20-5 in game two. The 'Roos are now 4-8 overall and 0-2 in conference play.
Centenary jumped out to huge leads in both games, starting off by going up 9-0 in the top of the first in game one. The 'Roos settled down defensively after that, slowly starting to chip away at the margin. Austin College plated two runs in the bottom half of the first, first on a throwing error and then a balk, and added another run aided by an error in the third to make it 9-3.
However, Centenary plated a run in the fourth and added two more in the sixth to go on top 12-3, but Oscar Gonzalez scored on a balk and James Wyche managed to steal home in the seventh to trim it to a 12-5 game. Two more runs would come across in the eighth for Centenary as the Gents extended the lead to 14-5, and Austin College would get two runs back on a Cody Goggins RBI single and another run via error to make it 14-7 but that's how things would end.
Collin Maynard took the loss, surrendering seven runs on four hits in a third of an inning. Brett Taff went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, and Goggins finished 2-for-4 at the dish.
In game two, the Gents exploded for 10 runs in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run homer from Cody Crowder, and the lead grew to 13-0 with three more runs in the third. Austin College got on the board in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Gonzalez, but the lead would grow to 16-1 in the fifth. Taff singled home a pair of runs to make it 16-3, but another Centenary homer in the sixth and three more runs in the seventh pushed it to a 20-3 game. Taff would add a two-run double in the seventh to make it 20-5, and that's how things would end.
Christian Thomas absorbed the loss for Austin College, giving up eight runs on four hits in 0.2 innings pitched, and Taff went 2-for-3 once again, driving in four runs. Michael Winterrowd added a 2-for-3 performance at the plate.
Austin College will be looking to bounce back as they close out the series against the Gents with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.
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Frank Named D3Hoops All-American
SHERMAN, Texas – Austin College women's basketball player Bryce Frank has been named a second team D3Hoops.com All-American, the organization has announced. Frank was also recently named a WBCA All-American.
Frank, a senior forward from Granbury, capped off an historic career for the 'Roos by being named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year for the second straight season. Frank led the SCAC in scoring and rebounding, as well as setting the conference's single-season and career records for double-doubles. She also led the nation with 22 double-doubles this season, and became just the fourth player in SCAC history to surpass 1,000 career rebounds. Frank is one of only three Austin College players to have ever topped both 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds for her career, joining Katy Williams and Natasha Rodgers.
Frank, who finished her career ranked third all-time in SCAC history in rebounding and ninth in scoring, was a five-time SCAC Player of the Week and a three-time D3Hoops.com Team of the Week selection. She was also selected to compete in the inaugural Beyond Sports Women's Collegiate All-Star Game, which took place on Saturday evening. In that game, Frank made 6-of-7 shots and scored 12 points while grabbing four rebounds and handing out a pair of assists as her team won 99-77.
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Mercedes-Benz: A-Class News
Edward'TLS
4G TL-Elilte, 3G MDX
Location: Richmond,B.C.,Canada
Wow, an AMG A-Class small sedan with 360hp and 330 lb-ft of torque.
This car will be like flying. It'll even be faster than the 135i.
Find More Posts by Edward'TLS
leedogg
Location: DC Metro
Originally Posted by krio
Smokin!
Find More Posts by leedogg
00TL-P3.2
Location: Spring, TX
Doubt it'll come to the US. Wonder if we'll get a CLA45 AMG instead?
Find More Posts by 00TL-P3.2
MMC 2016 A45 now makes 381hp from the same 2.0L inline turbo 4:
http://www.leftlanenews.com/goodwood...ass-88913.html
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Mercedes-Benz TV: The new Mercedes-Benz A-Class – Trailer. - YouTube
2016 A45 AMG pics...
RPhilMan1 (06-29-2015)
Some info on the A45 AMG...
Even in this era of engine downsizing and ever-present fuel economy and emissions regulations, the power wars are alive and well. Audi fired the last shot in the hot hatch arena when it lobbed its RS 3 on the market with a 362-horsepower rating, and now Mercedes-AMG has retaliated with an updated version of its A45 4Matic producing a staggering 376 hp. The updated A45 is the flagship of the 2016 Mercedes-Benz A-Class range, which just underwent a mid-cycle update and is on show this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ahead of a formal debut at September’s Frankfurt Auto Show.
While there are still no plans to bring the A-Class to the United States, at least with this generation, we’ll see many of the updates filter across to the CLA and GLA models once they undergo their own updates. Yes, look forward to the A45’s extra poke making its way into the CLA45—Motor Authority’s Best Car To Buy 2014.
Power still comes from a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, which in addition to producing 376 hp also has a crazy 350 pound-feet of torque on tap. Impressively, boost pressure remains unchanged at 26 psi. Instead, the engine specialists at Mercedes-AMG mainly achieved this increase in power output with a newly configured valve assembly and optimization of the combustion process.
But it’s not just about brute power, as other areas of the car have also been optimized. The revised gear ratios, aerodynamic fine-tuning and the new Dynamic Select driving modes system—with Comfort, Sport, Sport + and Individual modes—all help boost performance to a higher level. According to Mercedse-AMG, the A45 will now reach 62 mph from rest in just 4.2 seconds, which is 0.4 of a second quicker than before.
Maximum traction also on tight bends is ensured by the standard all-wheel drive and the optional front axle locking differential available for the first time. This is part of a Dynamic Plus package that also adds adjustable sports suspension setup with two-stage adaptive damping, as well as a special Race mode for the Dynamic Select driving modes system that turns everything to the max.
Other changes made to the A45 include shorter transmission ratios in 3rd to 7th gear for the standard seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, improved aerodynamics brought about by the revised front spoiler and rear diffuser, and a new multifunction sports steering wheel. The infotainment system has also been updated and includes Apple CarPlay smartphone integration as well as Internet connectivity.
Striking lines, dynamically curved surfaces and a coupe-like profile characterize the exterior of the A-Class. For the latest version, the designers added a new, more arrow-shaped front bumper that more closely resembles the design on the Concept A-Class unveiled in 2011. Also new is the diamond grille pattern, LED headlights, revised graphics in the tail-lights, and new exhaust tips integrated with the bumper.
Inside, the main instrument cluster has been tweaked with new dial graphics and better quality materials have been used for many of the switches. The central display is now a large, free-standing and frameless unit that measures up to 8.0 inches diagonally. New colors and materials as well as new finishes for the trim in the dashboard area round out the changes.
As for the new Motorsport Edition, this gets special turquoise elements on the exterior that match the hue used on the Mercedes AMG F1 livery. Eye-catching details in the interior include the green surrounds of the air vents and the contrasting stitching in green. The sports seats are lined in leather and microfiber trim and also have green decorative strips, as have the seat belts. The Motorsport Edition is available for most variants, though not on the Mercedes-AMG A45.
As mentioned above, the engine lineup has been expanded. The entry-level A160 now gets a 100-hp four-cylinder engine while the range-topping A250 Sport gets a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 215 hp. Above this model sits the 376-hp A45.
In the area of tech, the latest A-Class range gets a revised infotainment system with CarPlay smartphone integration and a more intuitive menu system with improved graphics. There are also extra electronic driver aids including the Attention Assist drowsiness detection system, Distronic Plus distance control system and the Collision Prevention Assist system with autonomous partial braking to reduce the risk of rear-end collisions.
Sales of the updated A-Class range commence in Europe in late September. A similarly updated version of the CLA should follow sometime in 2016.
JS + XES
I drive a Subata.
Meh, it's going to be super overpriced.
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RPhilMan1
Awesome though.
JS + XES (06-29-2015)
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Jakes_tl
Location: Lititz, PA
does look awesome!
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Oh, that's for sure.. LOL
Looks awesome and I'm sure it's super fun to drive. I've read that the GLA45 AMG is kinda like a European EVO.
Originally Posted by JS + BRZ
Probably true, but I'd rock it. Too bad all we get is the GLA here.
http://www.autonews.com/article/2017...to-u-s-in-2018
Mercedes brings its 'A' game: Entry-level sedan coming to U.S. in 2018
Amy Wilson
The Mercedes Concept A: Basis of a new generationSend us a Letter
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Mercedes orders up more trucks for U.S.
After years of back and forth over whether American luxury consumers were ready for the A-class small car, Mercedes- Benz will finally bring an A-class sedan to the U.S. in 2018.
Mercedes-Benz USA officials confirmed the car's arrival, slated for around September of next year, to U.S. dealers at a meeting in Miami this month, according to dealers who attended. Dealers saw the actual car, which was described to them as the brand's new entry-level model slotting below the CLA 4-door coupe.
"It's a very nice-looking vehicle," said Ken Schnitzer, chairman of the Mercedes-Benz Dealer Board and owner of 4 Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Texas. "I'm sure it will be competitively priced."
The A-class sedan could start in the sub-$30,000 territory. The current base price of the CLA is $32,700 before shipping. When the CLA was introduced in 2013, it started at $29,900 before shipping.
"I'm very excited about it," said Jeff Aiosa, a Mercedes dealer in New London, Conn. "It just gives us another opportunity to bring that youthful buyer in and have them grow up with the brand. It looked like it would be very appealing to the millennial buyer."
Aiosa described the A-class sedan's interior as "cutting edge and techy." He said Mercedes could conquest more than half of the A-class sedan's buyers from other brands if the price came in just above or below the $30,000 mark.
Mercedes-Benz USA declined to comment on the A-class sedan or the dealer meeting. But the brand has been hinting at the coming vehicle.
In April at the Shanghai auto show, Mercedes unveiled the Concept A sedan, which it described as "providing an outlook of the next generation of compact vehicles and a potential new body type."
Mercedes is redesigning its A-class lineup, with sales expected in other markets next spring. The redesigned A class will be built on the company's MFA2 platform, an evolution of its Modular Front Architecture. That architecture underpins Mercedes' other small fwd vehicles, including the CLA and the GLA crossover.
Body type is a major reason Mercedes declined to bring the A class, introduced 20 years ago, to the U.S. before now. It had been sold in hatchback variants, a body style considered unpopular in the U.S. This will be the first A-class sedan variant, and it is also expected to be sold in China and other markets.
"We've learned from experience," Aiosa said, recalling a hatchback version of the C-class coupe, the C230, introduced in the U.S. in 2001. Its sales disappointed, and it was discontinued in this market. "Typically in North America, there isn't a big appetite for hatchback design in high-line luxury, specifically in our brand."
Stephanie Brinley, analyst with IHS Markit, said the industry forecaster also expects the A-class sedan to go on sale in the U.S. in September 2018. By 2020, the A class is forecast to be about 5 percent of the brand's U.S. sales.
"Mercedes-Benz has been successful increasing overall sales through model line expansion, and this will be another effort in that direction," Brinley said.
In addition to the A-class sedan, Mercedes also showed dealers a version of the AMG GT 4-door high-performance sedan and confirmed to them that it will go on sale in the U.S. in the summer of 2018. Mercedes 1st unveiled the AMG GT concept at the Geneva auto show this year and called it a preview to a coming production vehicle. The sedan will join the brand's AMG GT sports car family to compete against vehicles like the Porsche Panamera. The name for the production AMG GT sedan is still undetermined.
So they're going tot have the A and the CLA? Why not just drop the CLA?
TacoBello
Location: In an igloo
I think they're trying to appeal to a wider audience = they're searching for more profits.
And like BMW, they achieve that by putting out eleventy billion different models.
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AZuser
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https://www.topgear.com/car-news/fir...s-benz-a-class
Hang on, is the baby Benz allowed a nicer interior than an S-Class?
There’s a new Mercedes-Benz A-Class coming early next year. This is what you’ll find inside. Yes, in the A-Class. The smallest, cheapest Benz. Not the S-Class. Listen carefully: that’s the sound of captains of business and industry gnashing their teeth over a hatchback having as smart-looking a cabin as a limousine…
Most striking is the free-stand widescreen display that, on these top-spec versions, comprises one long section of flush glass. The latest E-Class and S-Class have a similar set-up, but the A-Class goes one better by ditching a hooded cowling over the top. Mercedes reckons it’s worked out how to stop reflection and glare interfering with the displays, so it can make the whole cockpit feel airier and more open by binning the binnacle.
As this is a German car, there are many options. Standard A-Classes use two separated 7-inch screens. Middle versions use a flush-glazed 7-inch and 10.25-inch screen. And these top-spec models pictured get the flush-glazed twin 10.25-inch displays. It’s basically an iPhone X with door mirrors.
Don’t ruin them with smeary fingerprints – these are not touchscreens. A-Class passengers interact with the screens via the newest Comand interface, which has ditched the rotary clickwheel control and now depends solely on a touchpad. Will Mercedes have made a better fist of that than the nightmarishly fiddly Lexus infotainment? We can only hope.
The alloy ‘turbine’ vents? They’re an S-Class carry over. So is the steering wheel with touch-sensitive pads for scrolling’n’swiping. And while the outgoing A-Class suffers from chunks of rough, tinny plastic and cheap detailing, this new version has open-pore wood and reams of ambient lighting (with 64 colours on palette). Good news for the next CLA four-door and GLA crossover, which will inherit this cabin too.
Mercedes has also attempted to solve the problem of the current A-Class being about as spacious and roomy as a brand-new wetsuit. There’s more elbow, shoulder, knee, and headroom for all passengers, and deeper storage too. Apparently you can fit a whole Top Gear magazine in each door pocket. Well, Mercedes says it’s big enough to swallow A4-sized documents, but why would you read anything else?
Finally, we’re told that the boot is up in size 29 litres to 370 litres, and you’ll be able to have heated and cooled seats with pneumatic bolsters to stop you falling into the cupholders mid-corner.
All of which ought to make Audi feel far less smug about its minimalist, crisp A3 cockpit, and have showered several BMW interior design laptops with coffee und pretzel this morning. Unless, of course, you don’t like it?
Coming soon to the GLA as well?
that gauge cluster though... I could handle 1 iPad on the dash.. but two?
The S class has the same/similar layout. I think it would look better with a shroud/dash around it, rather than the tablet on the dash look, but I don't mind the full digital dash.
TacoBello (12-06-2017)
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/hot...atch-next-year
New A35 will be the cheapest way to own an AMG, and the Golf R's worst enemy
Good news hot hatch fans! AMG will unveil a new entry-level pocket rocket called the A35 in 2018.
At this week’s LA motor how, AMG boss Tobias Moers confirmed to Top Gear that a cheaper, de-tuned version of the A45 AMG will be coming next year to take on the VW Golf R and give customers a cheaper entry point into the brand of juiced up Mercs.
“I see a huge opportunity for the A35,” he said. “It’ll be the A45’s little brother, an engine performance A-Class. The price point will be low, and not everything we can do with the 45 we can afford for the 35.
“But it’s a step into a new segment where we’ve never been present in the past. I have my own approach how to do that; we have to have a close look at the competitors and who is going to be our benchmark. Then we work out what the task is of the A35 in setting the new benchmark.”
Obviously, the four-wheel-drive, 306bhp Golf R is a natural competitor to the A35, which will use a detuned version of AMG’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine from the A45. But don’t forget the Honda Civic Type R, which, with 316bhp ,has plenty of power but a much more engaging chassis and handling than the Golf. With both of those being £30,000 or so, expect the A35 to be in that ballpark – if not a bit more, given the extra plushness Merc should offer.
It’s a product of the now incomprehensible power struggle that’s happened on Planet Hot Hatch over the past few years. With various manufacturers constantly trying to out-power each other, the new A45 (which we’ll see in 2019) has to outpunch the 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine in the Audi RS3 that produces a nice round 400PS, or 395bhp. Enough power to consequently dethrone the A45.
Remember, bhp is AMG’s currency, and it won’t settle for second best, so prepare for the era of 400bhp-plus four-wheel-drive hot hatches that will be way faster than the supercars you loved growing up as a kid. But these hyper hatches are also expensive, with the next A45 probably knocking on the door of nearly £50k. So this is where the A35 comes in.
Just as AMG now offers a smaller C43 AMG version of the C-Class and E-Class (for people who want into the AMG brand, but don’t want the throbbing, thirsty V8 of a ‘63), the A35 will act in the same way for the A45.
While we had him, Tobias also confirmed that next year we’ll see a new engine: the ‘53’. It’ll be AMG’s first step into the world of production mild hybridisation thanks to AMG’s 3.0-litre straight-six engine (as used in the 43 models) pairing up with a 50kW electric motor. The first car to get the petrol-electric treatment will be the CLS 53 AMG which we’ll see at the Detroit show in January.
The CLS 53 leaves enough handy wiggle room to make sure it doesn’t step on the toes of the production version of the four-door GT Concept that’ll we’ll see at the Geneva show next year, which is set to be the hybridisation halo car for AMG saloons. It’s not confirmed, but that should get a proper AMG V8 – probably the same 4.0-litre turbocharged V8 engine borrowed from either the AMG GT or E63 – plus hybrid gubbins attached for even more power.
But where does this leave the good ol’ naturally aspirated engines we know and love from AMG? Well, unfortunately, on death’s door. The V12 could soon be no more.
“The V12 market has changed, and I think it could be that we have to call it ‘done’,” Moers said. “We still have V12 aficionados, but they’re more into Maybach. We don’t need a luxury car like that in our AMG portfolio, so it could be that this is the last generation of V12 AMG S-Class’.”
AMG is expanding its portfolio and engines at such a rate we can barely keep up. But with all this new metal and hardware due next year, plus Project One, it’s definitely a brand to keep your eyes on in 2018.
Originally Posted by 00TL-P3.2
The U.S. is going to get this?
Would be awesome to be able to get an AMG for under $40k. Something to compete closer with the FoRS/STi/CTR/Golf R group, without needing the big price jump to the 45AMG.
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/hot...rcedes-amg-a45
AMG’s first crack at a hot A-Class is not long for this world. Bye-bye, original hyperhatch
Hot hatchbacks spoil us right now. You may choose from three, four, five or six cylinders, front, rear or all-wheel drive. Manual, auto or dual-clutch. Various configurations of doors, seats, boot sizes. Perhaps a drift mode or some launch control, if you fancy.
And at the senior end of the hot hatch pecking order, you find cars democratising power that has no right living in a hatchback. Truly supercar-humbling performance has arrived in your Asda car park. When The Great Big Book of Hot Hatch History is finally written, it may well be Mercedes-AMG’s first contribution that started the ball rolling. Is the soon-to-die A45 Mk1 the world’s first true hyper-hatch?
Several Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru Imprezas with turbos the size of beach balls and service intervals more frequent than a DFS sale had brought 350bhp+ into a sort-of normal family car before. But the A45 was something different and truly absurd when it first launched back in 2013. A Mercedes-Benz containing the single most powerful four-cylinder engine in the world at that time. Displacing a mere two litres, the 1.8bar turbo-boosted unit developed 355bhp and 327lb ft. It’d be years before the Ford Focus RS got anywhere near that. BMW’s straight-six M135i was blown out of the water.
We’d expect nothing less from AMG’s first crack at a hot hatchback. AMG thrives on outrageous engines, cackling and crackling from under their hand-signed builder’s plaques. It would never have done for AMG to simply have another 2.0-litre turbo with about as much horse as a Golf R. To put AMG on the map in an all-new segment, it had to bring the muscle car noise from its halcyon V8s and distill it into a four-pot. They may have overdone it.
Though the original A45’s motor was impressively tractable for its sheer power density – Scooby and Evo tuners from the early 2000s would’ve wept for this level of on-demand urge – the A45 still took some winding up. Nothing much happened below 3,000rpm, and when the single turbo did wake up and start hauling, the buzzy, parping note hardened as the revs ripped around to a 7,000rpm cutout that actually felt a little pessimistic. It loved to rev.
The engine – like all classic AMGs – dominated the A45 experience. It’s a ball of tightly-wound energy, barely contained in the A-Class’s pocket-sized footprint, and so full of anger. Ironically, it actually brings to mind a Japanese greatest hits album – part Evo, part Type R, garnished with Skyline pace.
Now, if you’re scoffing at my rose-tinted spectacles and thinking I’ve forgotten that the A45 was, erm, flawed, worry not. Merc’s hyper hatch was far from perfect out of the box.
The ride was punishing, the noise droned, and the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox was at a loss to keep up with the engine’s lust for life (which also lead to a monumental appetite for fuel) Especially once the AWD Golf R Mk7 arrived, there was no avoiding the fact the A45 felt slightly flat-footed in comparison. More like a front-drive car with unimpeachable traction than a chassis being pinged out of corners by its rear wheels.
AMG was learning on the fly, so when it came time to facelift the A45, it barely bothered messing around with the car’s ultra-subtle ‘is-that-a-diesel-whoops-it’s-disappeared’ styling. Instead, it massively re-engineered the car.
The gearbox’s software was refreshed for faster shifts, and gears 4, 5, 6, and 7 were all shortened, so the car could carry on chomping the horizon after its initial getaway phase. AMG also added dual-mode dampers as a (popular) option. Comfort mode was about where a Golf R had Sport mode, if you catch my drift, and Sport mode in the AMG was right up there with the Civic Type Rs and RS Meganes of this world for being firmer than a drill sergeant’s mattress.
More choice arrived for your ears too, via a sports exhaust with flaps you could close at the prod of a button. Quiet for leaving your driveway on a 5am airport run, fireworks for the empty B-roads ten minutes later. AMG even introduced a limited-slip diff, so the car would deploy its power more cleanly in a turn. And just to be sure that’d worked, it added more power. Obviously.
This was 2015. By that time, Audi had launched a new RS3 with 367bhp and the A45 was no longer king of the German powerhaus hatches. Noses suitably out of joint, new valvetrain components and timing plus adjusted turbo settings amped up the A45 to a dizzying 376bhp and 350lb ft. Yes, this dumpy hatch had more grunt than the F355, the loveliest sports car ever made by Ferrari.
As a result, Mercedes claimed its chief A-Class could scorch from 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds – almost half a second quicker than before. Never has a 155mph top speed limiter been in more danger in a shopping car.
Pace was a given, but what the tweaked A45 now had was bandwidth. It hadn’t gone soft, but by twiddling the Drive Select knob and toggling your settings, you could alter the A45’s furious-to-incandescent character more finely. No longer was this just ‘An Engine Car’.
It had tenacious turn-in, cocked its inside rearwheels in tight switchbacks, and with a swift lift mid-corner, at last the chassis felt less locked-down. The genius of the later A45 was despite its certifiably bonkers engine, it had deeper layers of character and ability to enjoy elsewhere. Smarter gearbox, too.
You can tell the engineers had a laugh creating the A45. I think you can also detect that the team behind it enjoyed having a different set of rivals to contend with. Usually, AMG will be blinkered by what Audi RS, BMW M and Porsche is up to. For the A45, they had to consider Fords, Renaults and Seats. And, if the result was to justify a price well over £40k (and north of fifty grand with the juicier options ticked), be more frenetic than the lot of them.
Over the years, Top Gear’s pitched the A45 into battle against its VW and Audi nemeses, and gawped in wonder as the RS3 has seen and raised AMG’s hand all over again. A new, roomier A-Class, complete with a quite exquisite, mini-S-Class cabin is now imminent, and there’ll be two AMG versions to investigate. First, late in 2018, AMG boss Tobias Moers has promised a circa-300bhp A35 model, to keep the R, Audi S3, Honda Civic Type R and Renaultsport Megane looking lively.
Next year, we’re expecting the results of a project codenamed ‘Predator’. That’ll be the new A45, complete with a four-cylinder engine developing over 400bhp, the AMG GT-R’s Panamericana grille, ultra-low ride height and designs on a new hot hatch lap record at the Nürburgring. Lawd knows how Audi, Ford and the rest will respond, but the hyper-hatch segment isn’t going off the boil any time soon, so the first A45 has an awful lot to answer for. Farewell old friend.
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/fir...des-benz-class
You’ve seen the interior. Now stare into the new baby Benz’s eyes...
Mercedes has teased the new A-Class so much the poor thing ought to sue for bullying. Here’s the latest in the drip-feed: a shadowy image of the new car’s face.
Very akin to the new CLS’s face, we think you’ll agree. Similar angular headlights, an almost Aston Martin-shaped grille with a dinnerplate-sized Mercedes star front and centre, and AMG-ish lower grilles. More handsome than the outgoing A-Class, we’d venture. How about you?
While Mercedes has been relentlessly teasing the new A, it’s also let slip some details about the imminent Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series rival. It’s bigger, for one thing, to answer widespread condemnation of the current A-Class’s cabin space (there isn’t any).
There’ll be a plug-in hybrid version soon, which will please tech-minded folk almost as much as the stunning interior, complete with twin 12.3-inch freestanding screens in top-spec versions. The A-Class is also the first Mercedes to get a clickwheel-free version of the Comand infotainment centre. Your move, Maybach.
Naturally, the versions we’re looking forward to most will carry the letters ‘A’, ‘M’ and ‘G’ on their rapidly disappearing tailgate. First up, by the close of 2018, we’ll get an AMG A35, according to performance arm boss Tobias Moers. It’ll be a 300bhp-plus entry-level AMG, which will duel the Audi S3 and VW Golf R – not to mention the best hot hatches from Hyundai and Honda. There’s an embarrassment of talent in the £30k hot hatch segment right now. Dare you enter, A-Class?
Then, in 2019, comes the successor to the feral AMG A45. The new white-hot A is set to stick it to the Audi RS3 by offering over 400bhp from a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, and thanks to all-wheel drive (which AMG is on a roll with right now), a quicker paddleshift gearbox and ultra-low ground-effect ride height, seems ready to rip up the hot hatch rulebook. All over again.
Before that, there’s surely more teasing to come. Roll on the big reveal at the Geneva motor show in March…
https://www.netcarshow.com/mercedes-benz/2019-a-class/
The new Mercedes-Benz A-Class is as youthful and dynamic as ever, but grown-up and comfortable like never before. It completely redefines modern luxury in the compact class, and revolutionises interior design. Technologically the new A-Class not only takes first place thanks to MBUX - Mercedes-Benz User Experience: it also offers a number of functions that were previously the preserve of the luxury class. In certain driving situations, it is able to drive semi-autonomously for the first time, and MULTIBEAM LED headlamps are available on request. All models of the new A-Class are also powered by new, efficient diesel and petrol engines, and although Mercedes-Benz has retained the sporty appearance, the utility value has increased.
"With the fourth generation of the A-Class, we are redefining modern luxury in the compact class. To do this we have opted for a combination of uncompromisingly dynamic design and an intuitive operating concept," says Britta Seeger, the member of the Daimler AG Board of Management responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars sales. "With MBUX - the new Mercedes-Benz User Experience - we are creating a completely new customer experience."
"New technologies must place the focus on people and make their lives easier. The new A-Class does this in many ways, and becomes an emotional and intelligent companion," says Ola Källenius, the member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars. "One good example is MBUX - Mercedes-Benz User Experience: it combines intuitive and natural operation with intelligent, learning software."
"The new A-Class embodies the next stage in our design philosophy of Sensual Purity and has the potential to usher in a new design era," says Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer Daimler AG. "With clear contours and sensual surfaces, we present high-tech that awakens emotions. Form and body are what remain when creases and lines are reduced to the extreme. The interior represents modern luxury at a level previously unattained in this class, and translates intelligent technology into an emotional overall experience."
Ex-OEM King
Looks awesome. Unfortunately no hatchback for US market.
Agreed, I think it looks great.
Maybe, we'll get some form of it in GLA guise.
I'd possibly be interested, if we got the standard A-class here.
Will be interesting to see how/if they push the full digital dash in the C/E cars.
The A class sedan is coming to the US but I'm sure the cargo capacity will be minuscule. I have zero love for the GLA and all the same lifted hatchbacks sold as "SUV's" on the market today.
I'm sure the C/E will get the full digital dash really soon, it would be silly not to.
^ Wasn't aware we were getting an A sedan. Replacing the CLA maybe?
#MBfanboiFAIL
Canada will get both the sedans and hatchback.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...t-drive-review
In 2012, Mercedes-Benz decided to turn the A-class from a high-roof hatchback (with a sandwich-floor layout designed for electrification) into a much lower, wider, and longer compact car with decidedly sporting aspirations. At the time, the move seemed slightly counterintuitive. But it has proved to be the correct decision: The current A-class has become a huge global success, it has spawned an entire family of models including the CLA and the GLA, and it has rejuvenated the brand’s image considerably among younger clientele.
Highs: Sporty looks, unsurpassed infotainment system, excellent overall dynamics.
Lows: Nondescript engine sound, no manual transmission.
Now Mercedes is launching the second generation of “the new A-class,” which actually is the fourth generation overall. It is slightly bigger and even sportier than the outgoing model. And, for the first time, it will be offered in the United States as a four-door sedan—in addition to the CLA “four-door coupe.” We were offered the chance to drive the new A-class hatch in Europe, and even though this version won’t be sold in the U.S. (but it will be in Canada), it offers valuable insight into what we can expect once the sedan launches here.
Outside, the model has lost a bit of the predecessor’s cheekiness, and the new A-class looks a lot more serious. The aggressive upward kink on the flanks is gone, and the car now features a distinct wedge shape, with a front end that closely resembles that of the larger CLS.
Photos of the U.S.-market A-class sedan have not yet been released, but we can safely assume it will be visually aligned with the China-market A-class sedan, which was revealed there in April. That version has a slightly longer wheelbase than ours will, though.
While the A-class is pleasant to look at outside, it’s even better inside. The sporty, aggressively styled seats make a great first impression, but it is the dashboard that steals the show. Even low-spec models have two seven-inch TFT screens, with one in place of traditional gauges and one in the center of the dash. The cars we drove had the top-of-the-line configuration consisting of two 10.3-inch displays, which probably is the most futuristic-looking instrumentation currently available in a compact car.
Maybe even in any car, as Mercedes-Benz has brazenly decided to walk away from the usual top-down approach and has fitted its best and most recent infotainment system called MBUX in its entry-level offering. The A-class, in that way, beats the S-class.
One of the most novel elements is the way the driver can communicate with the car. Use the voice-recognition system (which can be activated by saying “Hey, Mercedes”) to make almost any car-related request, and the A-class has an informative answer—or a cheeky one. Try saying, “I love you,” or asking, “What do you think of BMW?” and you’ll get some interesting replies.
There is more, such as the backlit dashboard and air vents, which look as if they were taken straight out of an S-class coupe. And while other compact cars studiously avoid wood decor in order to not be seen as stodgy, the A-class can be specified with beautiful, opulent wood trim—at least in Europe—and it doesn’t look a bit old-fashioned.
We spent most of our time in cars powered by the redesigned, turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, a U.S.-bound engine that is mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. Rated at 221 horsepower, it moves the A-class with considerable authority; Mercedes quotes a zero-to-62-mph time of 6.2 seconds, and top speed is a lofty 155 mph. We wish the engine sounded a bit sportier, though. But it needs to leave space for two Mercedes-AMG models (rumored to be called A35 and A45), which will make around 300 and 400 horsepower and will be positioned well above the A250.
The chassis has no trouble whatsoever in sending the torque to the road. There is a strut front suspension and a multilink rear setup in upper trims (entry-level models in Europe have a torsion-beam rear suspension). Adjustable dampers are optional, as is 4Matic all-wheel drive. The front-drive A250 that we drove was tossable and a hoot to pitch into corners; the steering is precise and perfectly weighted. Driven more sensibly, it’s a comfortable and quiet long-distance cruiser. The chassis filters out poor road surfaces, the seats are pleasantly comfortable, and there is plenty of head- and legroom both up front and aft.
Our time behind the wheel of the new A-class seems to reinforce Mercedes-Benz’s acuity in moving beyond its traditional strength in premium sedans and focusing on the compact segment. We look forward to experiencing our version.
oonowindoo
A35 and A45 ??????
So you have 2L 250 and 2L A35 and 2L A45??
Find More Posts by oonowindoo
https://www.carscoops.com/2018/06/20...cooped-300-hp/
It’s been months since we’ve seen the Mercedes-AMG A35 Sedan but spy photographers have managed to snap new pictures of the Audi S3 competitor.
Dressed in heavy camouflage, the performance-oriented model has a familiar design which closely echoes the A-Class L Sedan which was unveiled at Auto China earlier this year. Despite the styling similarities, the A35 features a sport-tuned suspension which lowers the vehicle’s ride height. The car has also been equipped with an upgraded braking system that features cross drilled discs and larger calipers.
While the A-Class L Sedan gives us a pretty good idea of what to expect on the styling front, Mercedes has previously said the model was developed exclusively for the Chinese market. As the L name suggests, the sedan is longer than the standard variant as its wheelbase stretches 2,789 mm (9.1 feet). This is 60 mm (2.3 inches) longer than the mainstream sedan.
The A35 will be shorter than the A-Class L but it should share a similar cabin. As a result, we can expect a high-tech interior with two displays that measure 7- or 10.25-inches. Drivers will also find circular air vents, metallic accents and a push-button ignition. There should also be an assortment of AMG styling cues including a sport steering wheel, special trim and plenty of AMG badging.
Mercedes has been dropping a few hints about the model and AMG CEO Tobias Moers recently confirmed the car will have a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that develops “more than 300 hp (223 kW / 304 PS).” This will enable the model to slot comfortably between the A250 – which has 221 hp (165 kW / 224 PS) – and the upcoming A45 / A50 which will have over 400 hp (298 kW / 405 PS).
https://www.motor1.com/news/249650/m...py-camouflage/
It’ll produce more than 400 horsepower.
We know the Mercedes-AMG A45 hatchback is coming to go head-to-head with the Audi RS3 Sportback that's inevitably waiting to race to see which is the fastest. And AMG boss Tobias Moers hasn't exactly been quiet about the new car either. Details about the A45 and A35 – its less-powerful sibling – aren't much of a secret.
AMG is designing the next A45 as a new benchmark for hot hatches. That means AMG engineers are developing a new turbocharged four-cylinder engine capable of producing more than 400 horsepower. Now, the A45 creates 381 hp, and while that's plenty to grant it the coveted status of a hot hatch, it's not enough for the new car. The 381-hp engine currently in the AMG is at its performance maximum.
We've seen the A45 before, but this time, there appear to be some differences from the previous spy photos we've seen. The most notable difference is the rear fascia. While the quad exhaust remains, the overall design of the bumper is different. The previous spy photos depict a more aggressive bumper rear while this one appears relatively plain. These new photos could be of an older prototype, too. Even with the camouflage, the car looks super aggressive. The lower ride height is enough to give away the hatch's true performance intentions.
AMG may be reaching for the stars when it comes to being the hot-hatch benchmark. However, it looks like it'll have some serious competition from the 2020 Volkswagen Golf-R, which is rumored to produce 400 hp through a mild-hybrid powertrain. That's the same performance turf AMG wants to plant its flag with the A45. Though AMG may surpass the Golf-R's performance with its own hybrid powertrain that would be even more powerful than the A45.
It's unlikely the U.S. will get the AMG A45 in its hatchback form. However, we will get the sedan version of the A-Class and its performance variants. We'll see the next-generation A45 before the end of the decade.
Bring it to the US!!!
Quick Reply: Mercedes-Benz: A-Class News
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Asia Open Access 2019: A platform for open data
24 Jun 2019 by Md. arif Khan
Sharing Information and connecting people
Asia Open Access Dhaka 2019, was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 6-7, hosted by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in association with Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR).
In the conference, six technical sessions and one concluding and recommendation session were included. During the two-day program, a special seminar and workshop on open access and open science, open education: focus on Bangladesh, institutional roles in sampling open science and Asian country update, Creative Commons in Bangladesh was held.
The Asia Open Access was organized to learn about global trends, share information across Asian countries, and help with local strategies for increasing the adoption of open access and open science in participating countries as well in Bangladesh. The latest development related to the COAR, next-generation repositories initiative, discussed and heard about the work being done in other countries in Asia and beyond.
During the inaugural session as the Chief Guest, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Hon’ble Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology Division, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, said that “present government has taken several initiatives for making a Digital Bangladesh. The Government electronic portal is open for all. To create potential human resource government has set up more than nine thousand primary Sheikh Russell Digital Lab and Digital Classroom throughout the country. As a result, students are learning Information Technology from their early ages of education.” The State Minister also mentioned that the government has to work for big data, robotics, open data, internet of thinking, blockchain and etc.
Dr Wais Kabir, Executive Director, Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF), mentioned that “agriculture is the key driving force of its emerging economy. As BARC is the apex body of the National Agricultural Research System, it would like to take the leadership of making the data, information and knowledge available and accessible to promote linkage among the policymakers, researchers, educators, and other stakeholders.” He also shared that the government has already created the Open Government Data Portal (OGD).
The regional scholars, academicians, thinkers, researchers, an intellectual community, shared their knowledge and utilized that in their respective fields. Dr Md. Kabir Ikramul Haque, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, told, “We know that the publicly funded research produced by the authors is not available to the people in this region.
Therefore, we need to learn, discuss and agree upon the means and methods on how to make the research outputs (publications) available to all.” He also thanked the Ministry of Agriculture for permitting them to organize this event. He wished whole-hearted co-operation for Open Access movement in the country. Whenever the data and information are made openly available, informed decisions can be taken by farming community and whenever the research outputs are made openly available, the agricultural sciences and the research progress in accelerating manner for the public good.
BARC Chief Documentation Officer and Conference coordinator, Dr Sushmita Das told, “let’s make our minds Open! Yes, if the mind is in fear, it is restricted, it can’t see the light. We all should be open and at the same time, be positive in our attitude towards accepting and delivering!” She also hoped that public awareness had been increased about open data of science, education, agriculture, and nutrition.
The latest developments related to the COAR next generation repositories initiative and the work being done in other countries in Asia and beyond were presented throughout different speakers talks. Participants also discussed the unique opportunities in the country that could be leveraged to move things forward, in particular, the strong push by the federal government for “Digital Bangladesh”, a strategy to modernize and provide digital and open access to government services, data, and information.
During the Concluding and Recommendation Session, Md. Nazim Uddin, Head of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B) Library and Information Center division, presented the recommendations from the key points of the conference at the closing phase. He urged to work on various issues, including open access policies, increasing the use of open licenses, modernization of open repositories. Besides, the conference co-organizer Centre for Open Knowledge (COK) President Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal emphasized the need for Open Education Policy.
The challenges faced in Bangladesh to implementing widespread open access are familiar to many of us: lack of incentives and awareness by the research community, insufficient resources to support “pay to publish” models, and gaps in expertise and staffing. However, to address this, the Bangladesh community has already begun working together to develop shared strategies and resources across the major research institutions.
All of the participants and distinguished guests agreed during the concluding and recommendation session that the country needs to develop a national open access policy to uphold the research activities of different government organizations and leads the nation as a data-driven country.
Photo credit: Md. Arif Khan
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In today's NHL you literally can't be eliminated from the playoffs
Good news, Oilers fans!
According to CBS Sports, the sports website of America's most watched network, the Oilers are still in the playoff hunt. Er, so is Buffalo. And Toronto, Toronto's in the thick of things too. Hey, don't forget Arizona, they're also "still alive". Carolina too is really just a couple points away from the playoffs, their magic number is what, 40?
Okay, so the CBS Sports website is wrong. They're so wrong that I took a screenshot to show how wrong they were. (note: I've cropped out a section to fit it all in one easy image)
For comparison, here's the standings today according to TSN (again, the screenshot has been edited for readability)
Now the info is out of date. According to CBS Sports, teams like Winnipeg and Nashville had only played 79 games, which was true a couple days ago. That's one issue: America's most watched network doesn't update it's NHL coverage (though perhaps we should be happy that they at least give the scores for the games played last night). Columbus (eliminated from the playoffs) did beat Toronto (not eliminated from the playoffs) 5-0 on Wednesday April 8th.
A quick scan seems to indicate that the games played, won, lost, etc. was accurate on the morning of April 7th. Only two days out of date, not bad CBS!
But let's not nitpick about America's most watched network being 48 hours behind the times on the standings, that's trivial. Instead, let's focus on the fact that CBS Sports, in their custom-made NHL standings page, completely gets who has been eliminated from the playoffs wrong.
This is not trivial information. Who has been eliminated is a key question at this point in the season [or, for Oilers or Sabres fans, a complete month ago... -ed]. Not only are fans of the team interested in learning when their season fell apart, but fans of teams ahead of them in the standings nervously watch the teams below almost as intensely as they watch the teams above. Knowing that you need 4 points to catch up to Winnipeg is small consolation if you worry that Dallas needs 6 points to beat Winnipeg and you and has an easier schedule.
Indeed, the whole reason I found this page this morning is that I was finding TSN's standings page inadequate for the specific reason that it wasn't telling me who had been mathematically eliminated. (Specifically, I was looking at the San Jose Sharks, who yes indeed were mathematically eliminated on Monday). This is important and interesting information, and it's more than a little shocking that major sports sites (and the NHL's own website) don't carry it.
So how much worse is it to carry this and get it so horribly wrong?
We can't even grumble "well, it's not up to date" or "they haven't added the most recent eliminations". They do have an elimination -- the Columbus Blue Jackets -- who with 83 points are indeed out of the playoff race.† So how do they figure that Buffalo (54 points) and Toronto (67 points) are "still alive" based on 83 points eliminating a team. These are all Eastern Conference teams, by the way, they're could even claim as they do with Arizona's 56 points or Edmonton's 59 that they could be "still alive". Columbus really seals the deal here: if they left them off the chart, we could look at the "e-" next to the teams to find who was actually eliminated. But honestly, how many of you saw right away that many teams had an "e-" for eliminated next to their names when there was a separate "Eliminated" section at the bottom?
† We'll go with the points on their page
For the "latest NHL playoff news" you're implored to follow @EyeOnHockey on Twitter, who's likely to give you all the latest news, like "Chris Chelios leads the playoffs in +/-" or "Frank Mahovlich scored short-handed last night".
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Tag Archives: The Blockheads
Mercy Otis Warren: Herstory 9
Posted on March 10, 2012 by FreeMeNow | 1 comment
BettyJean Downing Kling from http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312848/mowarren.htm
Mercy Otis Warren (1728 – 1814)Who was the friend of Abigail Adams who fostered political agitation with her satirical plays and then a three-volume history of the American revolution in 1805?
Mercy Otis Warren was born in 1728 into a family of all boys, and there were many of them. She was born in Massachusetts. Mercy became a Patriot writer, and she wrote plays, poems and lots of other writings that supported independence. She used her writing to display her ideas. Her ideas and writings convinced many people in Massachusetts to become Patriots. Of all the people writing to support the patriotic cause, Mercy Otis Warren was the only woman who published plays, books, and poetry.
When she was a small girl, Mercy learned to express her feelings and ideas through reading, writing, and discussing politics. In 1743, she attended the Harvard Commencement and met James Warren. In November, 1754, she married James Warren and went to live in the Warren family estate at Eel River, Plymouth, Mass. She continued her studies with her brother James as he prepared at home for his master’s degree.
She and her husband would read the newspaper together. She had a thin, slender complexion. She had dark brown hair and her favorite color was blue. She loved wearing blue dresses and bonnets with lace edges. In 1757, they moved to Winslow house in Plymouth, Massachusetts. On October 18 that year, her son James was born. She had a son named Winslow who was born on March 24, 1759. Her son Charles was born on April 14, 1762.
In 1765, James Warren was elected to Massachusetts House of Representatives. Their son George was born a year later, in 1766. Between March 26 and April 23, 1772, selections from The Adulateur, written by Mercy Otis Warren, appeared in The Massachusetts Spy. Mercy Otis Warren wrote to her friend Abigail Adams about being treated as inferior because they were women.
Mercy Otis Warren continued to write and publish, and in 1790, her collection of Poems: Dramatic and Miscellaneous was published in Boston. In 1805, her History of the… American Revolution was published in Boston. From July through August,1807, ten letters from John Adams and six letters from Mercy were published concerning her treatment of him in the history book. This book contained sharp comments about John Adams. That’s why there was a separation of friendship with the Adamses that lasted until 1812.
Two of her plays insulted the Loyalists. She said that Britain’s laws and taxes were unfair and that families in the colonies couldn’t pay for expensive British goods. She also said that Britain was too far away to understand the colonists’ rights and needs. For this reason alone, the colonists would be better off alone with their own independence and freedom. She did not like the fact that Britain would not let women participate in politics. She strongly believed that women would have more rights if the colonies had their independence. Mercy also believed that women should have the right to vote.
Her plays included:
The Adulateur, a five-act play, published in 1773
The Defeat, excerpts from a play, published 1773
The Group, a three-act play, published in 1775
The Blockheads, a three-act play, published in 1776, shortly after the British withdrew from Boston
The Motley Assembly, a farce, published in 1779.
Mercy Otis Warren died on October 19, 1814, in Winslow house in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She strongly believed in independence, liberty, and in the power of the written word.
Read an essay about Mercy Otis Warren by Professor Nina Baym.
The Sunshine for Women site has a biography of Mercy Otis Warren.
Read more about Mercy Otis Warren at the Massachusetts Historical Website.
For a more complete list of her writings, click here.
Posted in ERA, Herstory, The Majority United, Women's Rights
Tagged Abigail Adams, Herstory 9, Mercy Otis Warren, The Adulateur, The Blockheads, The Defeat, The Group, The Motley Assembly, The Sunshine for Women
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Howell sisters are Fighting H.A.R.D. to help children with rare diseases
Two Howell High School students and sisters are hoping you'll join them in Fighting H.A.R.D (Having A Rare Disease) to help children with rare diseases and chronic illnesses at the Jersey Shore.
The Fighting H.A.R.D. Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization that planted its roots after Allie (now 16-years old) became ill earlier in her youth with Crohn’s Disease, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Anxiety.
It was then that one of her doctors instructed her to find a foundation that could provide the all around support she needed.
While there are some organizations who provide assistance to children with certain rare diseases, the Crocker's couldn't find one that supported all rare diseases.
That's when 'The Fighting H.A.R.D. Foundation' was born at a time when just Allie was sick but it would soon be something her younger sister Jonna (now 15-years old) needed just as much.
Allie says that once Jonna became ill with gastroparesis and SMA Syndrome, she became more concerned with her sisters condition then her own.
"I couldn't have imagined what it was like to watch someone that you love so much go through it, especially to the extent that she was going through it," Allie said.
Jonna loved to eat anything she could growing up because she was hungry but also just really enjoyed having all different kinds of things to eat.
"I was that kid that everything you gave me I would eat," Jonna said.
While she can still have some of those favorites, her diet has been limited with her diseases.
"I have gastroparesis so basically my stomach muscles are paralyzed and so they don't work and food doesn't go through," Jonna said. "I've pretty much been through everything from feeding tubes, PICC lines, TPN and I actually have something called a gastro pacemaker and there are less then 100 kids in the whole entire world that have it."
She goes out to a special facility in Ohio every 8-weeks for treatment and it's something she describes as "life-changing".
"There have been times when I cannot take a bite of food or a sip of water and I'm getting fed nutrition through my veins," Jonna said.
She can still eat just about anything but has to manage the portion size of what goes on her plate.
Her sister Allie, while battling the pains of arthritis, has found an outlet that allows her to have fun but also not let the disease prevent her from running.
Allie is a member of the Howell High School Track & Field and Cross Country teams where conditioning and endurance are important parts of finishing a distance race.
"It's been difficult and there have been points where I couldn't really walk at all or get out of bed or pick things up because my hands were so bad," Allie said.
She has been able to run during times when the pain is under control and not an overbearing burden.
"It's actually done wonders for all of my joints, I'm in the best state physically right now than I've ever been in," Allie said.
Not everyday is easy on the track, the disease finds a way to force Allie into a day off.
"There have been days when I haven't been able to run and when I get sick I do have to take off," Allie said. "I think finding the balance is a little bit difficult so you have to take advantage of the good days you have."
One part of battling rare diseases Allie and Jonna want to help others overcome is public perception.
Jonna's gastric pacemaker and nasogastric tube, which help her get nutrition, has gotten her some looks out in public that she's learned to play off.
"I would go to the store or out with my mom and a lot of people stare, a lot of people would stare," Jonna said. "I felt like people were staring at me in a negative way but then I realized that they're probably just curious."
As her older sister, Allie became very upset when people would stare or make looks at Jonna.
"I used to get really mad when people who stare at her, I was really so angry with it because she's such an incredible person and for people to only see what's on the outside was infuriating to me," Allie said.
While Allie has an outlet in Track & Field, Jonna has found thriving success in the classroom and with clubs at the high school.
Allie took a brunt of similar comments that Jonna did when she had to wear knee braces for her arthritis, that she was eventually able to find some humor in.
"I used to wear two giant knee braces because my knees would dislocate and people would call me bionic but I thought that was funny," Allie said.
Something that made Allie feel more self-conscious as she was battling anxiety was her need to use crutches.
"When I was younger I used to be on crutches all the time and people would start to ask if I was faking it," Allie said.
She found more hurt from gazes while taking a steroid to treat her diseases.
"It made me gain a lot of weight and it did take a toll at how I looked at myself after that because it was hard...I didn't really understand what the weight gain was from and I had a chipmunk face and people would just look at me," Allie said.
Allie and Jonna want to be seen for who they are instead of what they have which is a goal they want to share with other children who have rare diseases.
They continue to impact the lives of many Jersey Shore families and those beyond.
"We send care packages all over the country just to let them know they're not alone but we financially assist 35 families right now in Monmouth and Ocean Counties," Jonna said.
The financial assistance comes in great need for families who are not getting as much coverage from their insurance company.
"This is helping them pay for things that insurance doesn't cover, there's a lot of those things," Jonna said.
They also hold fundraisers, awareness day and plan activity nights for those in the rare disease community and beyond.
"I think the emotional and financial support is really important which is why we want to continue growing to be able to help more families," Allie said.
To learn more about the Fighting H.A.R.D. Foundation as well as the stories of Allie and Jonna Crocker, watch the video below and check out their website.
Filed Under: children, health, howell, Monmouth County
Categories: Community, Health, Monmouth/Ocean News, New Jersey News, News, Videos
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Bacon, Deluze and Imperceptible Forces
Law School LT 101, Law School, Eastern Avenue
Sydney Ideas and the Power Institute present
Elizabeth Grosz, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
This paper addresses the complex relation between Francis Bacon and Giles Deleuze, who wrote one of the most perceptive and sympathetic books on Bacon's painting, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation. Deleuze did not really write on Bacon so much as with him on a question that intrigued both of them, the possibilities we might unearth for perceiving or understanding forces that are normally imperceptible, forces of magnetism, gravity, causality and chance, forces of aging and disintegration. I will explore what this understanding of forces involves.
Cost: Free and open to all
Web: http://whatson.sydney.edu.au/events/published/sydney-ideas-and-power-institute-bacon,-deluze-and-imperceptible-forces
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HomeBlogMovie Launches2017 Top 55 Biggest Movie Launches In 2017
2017 – A Year For Big Movies
You can brag that 2017 has one of the biggest movie launches and you won’t be wrong. There is a movie slated for release almost every week of the year. Some of them made it to Oscar nominations while others have grabbed the top spot.
Superhero movies are blazing the trail and some of them have made it to the top list. Here is my verdict on the biggest movie launches in 2017.
DC’s Amazonian character made its debut in Wonder Woman, build up to the Justice League. Although it was unclear how she would be incorporated into the movie, Princess Diana of Themyscira helped Superman and Batman to defeat Doomsday in Dawn of Justice. The movie was slammed a PG-13 rating which is not a surprise for the superhero genre. Released on June 2, Wonder Woman can be considered a success, grossing over $404.00m.
Spiderman: Homecoming
Two different stars (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) had earlier played the role of Peter Parker under Sony movies. Now in the creative hands of Marvel Studios, the mantle of the Peter Parker role has been moved to Tom Holland. He made his debut appearance in Captain America: Civil War but got Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) solo movie as Spiderman: Homecoming. Together with his new-found friend Tony Starks, Peter Parker struggles to balance his life as a regular school kid and as a superhero. Spiderman: Homecoming has earned more than $350m since its release.
Fast 8: The Fate Of The Furious
The death of Paul Walker was a huge blow to the Fast and Furious franchise. As the 7th installment came to a close, there was a burning question on the fate of the movie. For a movie that grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, a sequel was only a matter of time. In addition, the crew faces their biggest threat yet when Dominic (Vin Diesel) is forced to work for Cypher. As always, the movie is filled with insane car stunts.
XXX: The Return Of Xander Cage
I was thrilled when I saw Neymar Jr. in this third chapter of the explosive blockbuster. Xander Cage (also Vin Diesel) was forced out of self-imposed exile to team up with Xiang in a quest to recover Pandora’s Box. In conclusion, some of the seemingly impossible stunts pulled off in this movie will blow your mind.
Trailing the success of the first chapter, Chapter 2 gives us a hint into the past life of the former hit man John Wick, played exceedingly well by Keanu Reeves. Furthermore, it ends with a cliffhanger which sets it up for a promising third chapter.
Most Anticipated Movies of 2018
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The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Crime, Conspiracy and Cover-Up - A New Investigation
I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Prior to reading this I knew next to nothing about Bobby's assassination, aside from the fact that he was shot in Los Angeles by a man whose last name is the same as his first. I can tell you nearly every last detail of JFK's assassination a few years earlier, but am the exact opposite when it comes to my knowledge of RFK - yet another example of Bobby living in Jack's shadow. Given the timing of the book's release to coincide with the 50th anniversary, now was as good a time as any to start learning.
By nature I am not much into conspiracy theories, but there has always been something about the Kennedy family that has drawn me in. The glitz and glamour, the perfect family photos, lots of easy explanations for the attention they have garnered over the decades. So for me, the idea that two sons from this powerful family just happened to be assassinated within five years of one another, one as president and one as a presidential hopeful...there's something bigger at work. Tragedy befell the family often, but two assassinations, and by random lone gunman? Sorry not sorry, but I don't buy it. Especially after reading this one and exploring Bobby's death, the mishandling of the investigation, and the odd journey of the supposed assassin. That being said, I do not doubt that Sirhan Sirhan shot at Bobby, wounding others surrounding Kennedy as he exited that night. I just don't think he was the only one to do so.
It is clear from the start that the authors put blood, sweat, and tears into this book. The research is there, the pouring over of documents time and time again from the days and weeks and months after Bobby died. Not to mention the uncovering of additional evidence that had, prior to now, been unknown to the public. I also appreciated the fact that the authors took the time to go back and conduct new interviews with relevant people, instead of relying solely on interviews from the time that the assassination happened.
More than anything else, the forensics prove that Sirhan was not the only shooter in the pantry that night. I don't just mean because there were allegedly thirteen shots fired, which were accidentally captured on audio, or 'possible' bullet holes were identified in numerous locations within the pantry signifying that there must have been a second shooter, because how could a gun that could only hold eight bullets make thirteen holes? No, it comes down to the autopsy, plain and simple, as well as eyewitness statements and photographic evidence that Sirhan was in front of Bobby the entire time in the pantry. Not only that, but he was several feet away when he began firing. How is it then, that Thomas Noguchi, LA County's Chief Medical Examiner-Corornor, concluded that Robert F. Kennedy died from a bullet fired into the back of his head? Noguchi's report was detailed and very specific in recounting the fatal shot, determining this based on his expert opinion, that it came from that back of Bobby's head at an upward angle. And even if one were to argue that maybe witnesses are mis-remembering, and Sirhan DID take a shot at Bobby from behind him, the distance calculated swiftly crushes that idea. Noguchi further determined that the fatal shot was fired from no father than three inches away from Bobby's head, perhaps as close to half an inch. Time and again witnesses made statements that Sirhan was in front of Bobby the entire time, and that he never got that close to him. There is simply no way for Sirhan to have fired that shot. Even Paul Schrade, one of Kennedy's aides, believes Sirhan did not assassinate Bobby. Schade was walking behind Bobby into the pantry and has stated to Sirhan directly, as quoted in the book, "You were never behind Bob, nor was Bob's back ever exposed to you."
The book addresses several other points that seem to create the aura of assassination conspiracy and further fan those flames. There is discussion of Sirham being hypnotized or brainwashed, Manchurian Candidate style. Much is also made of witness statements about a man in a gold sweater and the Girl in the Polka Dot Dress. I don't draw more attention to her in jest, she is a very real piece of the puzzle latched onto by so many who claim it was a big murder conspiracy. This is all small potatoes to me when compared to the physical evidence, which might seem to be too dismissive, but the proof is there that Kennedy was killed by someone other than Sirhan. Unfortunately I do not think we will ever be able to answer the questions of 'who' and 'why'.
And perhaps there was no conspiracy to kill Bobby at all, which I know deviates from what I said in the opening paragraph. Perhaps a cover-up became mandatory when the investigators realized that the evidence they were recovering from the scene did not fit their initial assumptions and statements about Sirhan acting alone. Maybe they did destroy evidence and bully witnesses into recanting. But for what reason? The investigators didn't want to look incompetent? They did not want to bungle the case and have a re-play of the investigation surrounding Jack's assassination just five years earlier, where so many doubted then and still do today that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? Unfortunately for those in power, whatever their reasons for the cover-up, that is exactly what happened anyway. Fifty years later, it is more than clear that there were two shooters that night. I don't think anyone is denying that Sirhan was in the pantry, that he had a gun, or that he fired it. He simply was not the only one.
Not too long ago Robert F. Kennedy, Jr met with Sirhan in prison, for several hours, presumably discussing every last detail of that night. RFK Jr came away from that time spent believing that the man before him had not murdered his father. Surely that alone merits re-opening the investigation.
Labels: American Royalty, Kindle Guilt, NetGalley ARCs
chucklesthescot July 23, 2018 at 5:51 AM
I've watched a few documentaries on the shooting and I always felt that the shooter was brainwashed or conditioned in some way to do it. I haven't read an in depth book about it though and this might be the very thing!
Sarah @ All The Book Blog Names Are Taken July 24, 2018 at 12:12 AM
It is available via Kindle Unlimited also, so check there if you have KU. I did learn quite a bit about the various theories, so I definitely recommend this one. I can't believe the forensic evidence though. I believe 100% based solely on the coroner's report, there is no way Sirhan fire the shot that killed Bobby. It's impossible. It would have had to have been one of those special magic bullets that killed Jack in Dallas five years earlier.
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Tag: Telugu theatre
Awards of Andhra Pradesh
December 19, 2017 rawan239
Awards of Andhra Pradesh Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards is the highest award ceremony for excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre, Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema, presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. “Nandi” means “bull”, Read More …
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Category Archives: Non-fiction
Who Would Have These Bookshelves?
Posted on June 28, 2019 by agallix
Review of Tunnel Vision by Kevin Breathnach. The Stinging Fly, 27 May 2019.
Lines, and more generally the notion of linearity, play an important part in Kevin Breathnach’s Tunnel Vision, which is hardly surprising given the title of this singular masterpiece. In one chapter the railway lines in a movie run parallel to lines of mephedrone snorted off the cover of a Susan Sontag, themselves echoed, in a later piece, set in Paris, by lines of coke on a carefully selected Henry Miller paperback. There are also the blurred lines between the two Goncourt brothers, whose voices merged in their journal to the point of being indistinguishable (until Jules started dying, that is). The most striking example is provided by the closing essay — the only one not to be primly justified — where the text erodes away, as though gradually swallowed up by negative space. Eventually a thin vertical line is all that remains in the middle of the last pages, mimicking the skyscraper the narrator has been observing and finally enacting the eponymous tunnel vision.
This bravura piece owes its name — ‘Cracking Up’ — not only to the breakdown of sorts Breathnach was experiencing, but also to a Mondrian that caught his attention, at the time, in Madrid’s Reina Sofia. What he focuses on in this painting is the ‘off-whiteness’ of the white, ‘shot through with cracks’ — the kind of palimpsestic blankness exemplified (although it would be too obvious to point out) by Erased de Kooning Drawing. Elsewhere in the book, an overexposed window in a photograph by Stephen Shore is described in terms reminiscent of a Rauschenberg monochrome: ‘Whatever went on outside in Idaho that day has been effaced by that white abstract panel of light with a claim on the spiritual’. ‘Closer Still’ features four reproductions of Elizabeth and I, a picture that André Kertész cropped in radically different ways. Or rather it does not: the actual portrait never appears owing to copyright issues. Instead, the four versions are illustrated by black squares of varying sizes, highlighting the cropping process, but also, inevitably, conjuring up Malevich. As Breathnach puts it in ‘Death Cycles’ (quoting without naming, thus simultaneously invoking and erasing, another writer) ‘erasure is never anything more than a particularly profound form of preservation’. This oscillation between inscription and effacement — permanence and flux, figuration and abstraction, totality and fragment, long take and montage, not to mention pedantry and profundity — lies at the heart of Tunnel Vision.
Horizontality and verticality too, with the text a battleground between the two. The lines I found most puzzling, causing me to retrace my steps on several occasions to check if they had not changed position, appear (conspicuously enough) at the beginning of the first essay. Breathnach is describing Berenice Abbott’s Self-portrait with a Large-format Camera (1926) in beautifully granular detail: ‘The geometry of her cardigan is echoed in the ridges of the open door behind her, while the busy horizontal lines of her skirt rhyme with the camera’s bellows, that accordion-like box between the lens and viewfinder, which enables the lens to be moved with respect to the focal plane — for focusing’. The emphasis on the latter word is ironic, however, as the busy horizontal pleats on Abbott’s skirt are very much vertical. The reader (and indeed author) need only refer back to the picture reproduced two pages prior (or any other pleated skirt for that matter) to see that this is patently so. I find it difficult to countenance that such a meticulous writer — who, of his own admission, was once given to underlining in red ink the ‘errors of grammar, judgement and tone’ perpetrated by ‘a particular Irish Times literary critic’ — could have overlooked this error, however insignificant it may be. Whether deliberate or not, Breathnach’s misreading of the skirt is a synecdoche of Man Ray’s misprision of Abbott herself (as a mere assistant and ‘fetish object’ despite her obvious talent and subversion of gender stereotypes). It also acts as a nice little estrangement effect, which I like to think was planted there quite on purpose.
Tunnel Vision never coincides with itself: it is always somewhat distanced through reflexivity or dispersal (just as the narrative voice undermines itself through self-deprecation). Chapter titles, for instance, appear in fancy square brackets. The rationale behind this idiosyncratic presentation becomes clear in an essay called ‘[Square Brackets]’ (literally, a mise-en-abyme squared) where we learn that David Rieff used these symbols to embed his editorial notes within the text of Susan Sontag’s journal. Their presence, here, signals that Tunnel Vision comes ready equipped with editorial notes: it is a book and its own exegesis rolled into one. This is exemplified by the ‘editorialising effect’ Joan — one of several girlfriends — has on Breathnach, prompting him to redact from recurring anecdotes whatever elements did not meet with her approval on first airing: ‘I was never conscious of what I would not say until I heard myself not say it’. The entire work retains a similar air of provisionality due, in part, to its confessional tenor — its Augustinian quality. Assumptions are made, often as a result of cultural pretensions, which later turn out to be totally erroneous (the Telefonicà skyscraper bears no relation to art nouveau; the foundations of the Ehrentempel were never demolished; Shakespeare and Company’s well-furnished essay section contains no glaring omissions). All manner of sins are depicted in these pages, but they are redeemed by virtue of being confessed, so that two realities end up coexisting duckrabbit-fashion. Breathnach both is and is not a compulsive liar and pedant addicted to drugs and pornography, in the same way that Proust’s work can only be narrated by a reformed snob. The Breathnachian narrator is, crucially, an accomplished writer, whereas his younger iteration lies about being hard at work on a novel (‘I didn’t even have an idea for one’) and struggles to complete a simple email.
Self-dispersal often takes the shape of duplication. In Madrid, which is described as another Paris, the author is constantly mistaken for a British or American citizen when in fact he is, of course, Irish. The Spanish capital becomes the stage for a re-enactment of the most famous passage in Leaving the Atocha Station. At the beginning of Ben Lerner’s celebrated debut, the protagonist (whose mythomania and cultural posturing mark him out as a forerunner of Breathnach’s textual avatar) fails to experience the anticipated rapture in front of a painting in the Prado. Something very similar happens — or fails to happen — here in the selfsame museum, where Breathnach seeks out the work of Ribera precisely because it ‘seemed charged with the kind of dramatic intensity [he] usually had trouble identifying in Old Masters without first being directed to it’.
In ‘Death Cycles’, where he pays homage to his great-uncle — Liam Whelan, one of the eight Manchester United players who perished in the 1958 Munich air disaster — everything seems to be a simulacrum of something else. The German city is a ‘reproduction’ of its antebellum incarnation. There are two accidents, two memorials and even two footballers. Breathnach — who, I hasten to add, has the good taste to be a City supporter — was once groomed to follow in his late relative’s footsteps: ‘I was very much aware even then that I was taking part in the reconstruction of Liam Whelan’. It is almost as though the author were exploring the road not taken; visiting an alternative version of himself in some parallel universe.
There are many other instances where I is another. When reading out loud a message he has painstakingly drafted, Breathnach realises all of a sudden that he is channelling his ‘father’s reading voice’. At the cinema, he observes himself as though he were ‘some hypercritical version’ of Eleanor, who is sitting right next to him. In the last pages of ‘Veronica’, ‘you’ seems to refer to Colette and ‘I’ to the narrator until ‘I’ reminisces about ‘you’ being caught short on a coach trip, ending up ‘with the bottle-neck wrapped so tightly around your dick’ that ‘the piss just wouldn’t flow’. Either some hitherto undisclosed information about Colette has just been revealed in passing (and indeed pissing) or pronouns and identities have shifted along the way to the point of undecidability.
The author’s observation that the ‘first-person speaker grows increasingly unstable and fragmented’ is made apropos of Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina, but he could just as well be talking about his own work — which, no doubt, he is. The subjectivity on display in Tunnel Vision is so tentative and malleable that it always requires an audience. In Madrid, for instance, he wanders through sundry ‘major cultural institutions’ in a manner ‘somehow faintly suggestive of sex having already taken place’. He spends a great deal of time in Café Commercial ‘trying discreetly to be observed, reading books, large ones, held at such an angle as to place the title in clear view’. In church, he smiles ‘a private smile, intended to be seen’ before performing — for the sole benefit of a student of his he has spotted and is feigning to ignore — a hilarious ‘looped montage of strange facial tics and expressions’.
Roland Barthes’s theory, Breathnach reminds us, is that the writer’s journal fell out of fashion at the time of the nouveau roman ‘because the “I” no longer recognised itself as a stable and singular entity’. Paradoxically enough, it is probably for the very same reason that autofiction and essayism are flourishing today. As Rachel Cusk put it, ‘autobiography is increasingly the only form in all the arts’ — a process that Barthes was actually instrumental in initiating. With its blend of memoir and criticism, Tunnel Vision is an attempt at producing a self-portrait through the study of self-portraiture, so that what we end up with is the portrait of a self-portrait. From this perspective it is reminiscent of the aforementioned Berenice Abbott picture, which turns out to be a portrait masquerading as a self-portrait. What it resembles most, however, is the glass skyscraper, described at the beginning of the book, which is ‘camouflaged by the surroundings reflected on its mirrored façade’. Part of Breathnach’s self-portrait is indeed hiding in plain sight; concealed by all the quotations that are an integral part of the work rather than mere adornments. This is particularly the case throughout ‘But I Did That to Myself’, where a lengthy excerpt from Malina on the verso is mirrored by the author’s own presentation of Bachmann’s novel on the recto. By curating this personal canon — which also includes the likes of Walter Benjamin, Djuna Barnes, Clarice Lispector, Stéphane Mallarmé, Robert Bresson, Claudia Rankine and Thomas Mann — Breathnach is placing himself within a lineage; constructing a ‘cultural identity’ for himself. Although he claims to be someone ‘whose sense of identity and self-worth has for years been grounded in the conspicuous and frequently unfelt enjoyment of high culture’, he is in fact rewriting these authors’ works within the text of his own life. What he is showing off is not so much that he has read all these books, but rather how they have read him.
Perhaps what Tunnel Vision really aspires to be is a self-portrait without a self. The second essay — ‘Tunnel Vision’ justement — hints at this latent desire for unselfing. It revolves around Train Ride Bergen to Oslo, a Norwegian movie consisting of ‘a single shot filmed on a camera inside the driver’s cabin of the no. 602 to Oslo, inhabiting a train’s-eye view for all seven hours, fourteen minutes and thirteen seconds of its running time’. Through this ‘train’s-eye view’ the spectator ‘is given to identify with a subjectless gaze’. Similarly, in a quote which closes the ‘Shape of Silence’ chapter, Lynne Tillman casts Peter Shore’s Uncommon Places as a visual memoir that dispenses with all traces of interiority: ‘That kind of journal is similar to displaying the contents of a refrigerator. The question occurs: who would have this refrigerator?’ Which, in turn, begs the question: who would have these bookshelves?
Colette, we learn, keeps an old Libertines poster on her bedroom door as a ‘token of nostalgia’ — which goes to show how much of a young person’s book Tunnel Vision is, with its sex, drugs, travelling and millennial nostalgia for the early noughties. Significantly, it is a young person’s book that refuses to come of age; a book that wants to begin and only begin, ‘like a painter’s eternally fresh canvas’ (a Robert Bresson quote used as an epigraph). When the narrator turbocharges his sex life with mephedrone, he confesses: ‘It was not an orgasm I was seeking, but the continued build-up to one’. Under the influence of this stimulant, he pleasures himself ‘in fragments’ — Colette having become largely surplus to requirements — watching, in succession, a virtually identical ‘titfucking’ scene from up to ten different films all opened in different tabs on his computer. The revelation that the beginning of one of the essays was deliberately misleading is followed by the following flippant remark: ‘So chalk up my introduction as a false start if you like’. Tunnel Vision — which is divided into three parts, each containing three chapters — is introduced by three prefaces entitled, somewhat provocatively, ‘Not I’, ‘Not II’ and ‘Not III’. These ‘false starts’ are akin to a musical overture containing themes that will be developed later. They are also reminiscent of Berenice Abbott’s ‘false exposures’: in order to put people at ease, the photographer would begin sessions by taking a few pictures without any plates in her camera. A self without a portrait; a portrait without a self: Breathnach’s work hesitates between the two.
Like Eleanor’s smile, Tunnel Vision always strives to look as though it means something else. It is a book without qualities that comes in flat-pack form, refuses to settle into a definite shape and shuns univocal meaning. It begins with the evocation of a gigantic bust of Karl Marx that was disassembled into ninety-five pieces, in 1971, and transported from the Soviet Union to East Germany, where it was put back together again. ‘Considered alone,’ the author muses, ‘how many of these parts were recognisable as Marx?’ This is precisely the question that hovers over his own text, in the making of which he unmakes himself, resurfacing in disseminated form (to paraphrase Barthes). This is what the author admires in the Mondrian and what the reader will admire in the author: ‘I liked the strict division of parts and the way these parts seemed to balance, without me knowing how or why’.
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged andre kertesz, andrew gallix, ben lerner, berenice abbott, david rieff, ehrentempel, erased de kooning drawing, goncourt brothers, henry miller, ingeborg bachmann, irish times, karl marx, kevin breathnach, leaving the atocha station, liam whelan, malevich, malina, man ray, manchester city, mondrian, munich air disaster, prado, rachel cusk, reina sofia, review, ribera, robert bresson, robert rauschenberg, roland barthes, stephen shore, susan sontag, the libertines, the stinging fly, tunnel vision, unselfing / Leave a comment
The Parisian
Posted on June 2, 2019 by agallix
Review of The Parisian by Isabella Hammad. The Irish Times, 27 April 2019, p. 21.
There is a charming scene of tender transgression in The Parisian, where Midhat Kamal, a young Palestinian, is encouraged by his grandmother to preview the unveiled features of a prospective spouse through a keyhole. Shadowing the protagonist’s perspective, the omniscient narrator likens this act of low-key voyeurism to “peering down a microscope at the secret structure of a cell”. Try as he may, Midhat cannot but perceive the ancestral customs of his homeland through the prism of the “rational mind” he acquired in France. This collision between western modernity and oriental traditionalism — literary realism and age-old storytelling — lies at the heart of Isabella Hammad’s often breathtaking debut.
Running to more than 550 pages, its sheer heft seems endowed with a performative quality, as though enacting the totalising worldview of religion and its surrogate secular version, the all-encompassing 19th-century novel. Recurring anxieties over the atomisation of knowledge — mirroring the dislocation of the Ottoman empire — indicate that the book’s epic sweep may be, in part, a compensatory mechanism.
The novel opens, symbolically, with Midhat aboard a ship, en route from Alexandria to Marseille. His ultimate destination is Montpellier, where his family are sending him to study medicine. Frédéric Molineu, his genial host, is an anthropologist, whose wife — living up to her aptronym, Ariane Passan — committed suicide. Midhat and Jeannette, Frédéric’s daughter, fall in love, delighting “in the agony of resisted desire, which being resisted was sustained, and in this mutual abnegation they colluded like thieves”.
Their chaste idyll is cut short when Midhat discovers that Frédéric has been secretly using him as the subject of a Pygmalion-style experiment. The academic was seeking to determine whether the Arabs’ (alleged) deviation from the “line of progress” might be corrected. As a result, the humiliated lovesick hero repairs to Paris, where he studies history and women. After a brief, debauched stopover in Cairo, his sentimental education is rudely interrupted, back in Nablus, when his father enjoins him to choose a career and wife on threat of disinheritance. Midhat complies, entering the family textile business and marrying Fatima, the young woman glimpsed at through a keyhole.
At this juncture The Parisian ceases to be a Bildungsroman, as though the lone individual — whom Walter Benjamin identified as the birthplace of the novel — were being subsumed back into a collective world of tradition, superstition and patriarchal authority. After a five-year absence, Midhat is struck by how difficult it is to reinvent oneself in such a close-knit community. People are “pinned down” by childhood traits that soon ossify into stock characters flat enough to “be picked out from a rooftop and fitted into stories”. Stories akin to the traditional tales — “saturated with time and retelling” — that bind the community together, but cannot be rewritten, as a rawi, playing fast and loose with chronology, discovers to his cost.
Midhat’s switch from medicine — the career path of choice in many 19th-century novels — to history signals a gradual foregrounding of geopolitics. If the first part of the book unfolds against the distant backdrop of the first World War, the second and third focus on the coming of age of Arab nationalism in the wake of the Balfour Declaration. Yet, even here, the two main plot devices — the unexpected contents of a will and discovery of an old, unread letter — come straight out of Victorian fiction. The “line of progress” becomes increasingly blurred, like the overlapping of Arab and Frankish time in the twilight years of the Ottoman empire or Midhat’s various versions of himself, which are compared to “conflicting maps of the same place”. A telling parallel is drawn between religious fanatics and western scholars, obsessing over a “speck of dust” in the vague hope that their single-minded pursuit might eventually “contribute to some entirety”.
Still in her 20s, London-born Isabella Hammad establishes herself here as a literary force to be reckoned with. The Parisian is, in many ways, an extraordinary achievement, but is it really “realism in the tradition of Flaubert”, as Zadie Smith claims in her blurb, or rather a beautifully executed pastiche? (Has Smith forgotten her own Two Paths for the Novel?) At times Hammad gestures towards realism’s imperialist ambitions — its colonisation of as-yet-unnamed realms of experience — but her own work retains little, if anything, of that spirit of experimentation. For all its brilliance, The Parisian belongs to a genre that was already outdated when the events it describes were set.
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged andrew gallix, irish times, isabella hammad, review, the parisian / Leave a comment
In its Beginning is its End
Posted on April 23, 2019 by agallix
“In its Beginning is its End.” The Guardian Weekly, 6 December 2013, p. 39.
What exactly is the problem with the realist novel and why does it persist, asks Andrew Gallix
Literary fiction is dead — or if not dead then finished, according to the Goldsmiths prize-shortlisted writer Lars Iyer, who argues it has become a “repertoire, like The Nutcracker at Christmas” and suggests that novelists should spread the word that “the time for literary novels is over“. But literary fiction has always been dead, has always needed the mould-breaking writing which the Goldsmiths prize celebrates.
Ever since its birth, writers have been suspicious of the novel, reaching for the authenticity of the real — often presenting their work as memoir, à la Robinson Crusoe. For Scheherazade, storytelling is, literally, a stay of execution. For the rest of us, it is merely a pastime; a distraction from our ultimate destruction. Ashamed of its frivolity, fiction drapes itself in the gravitas of non-fiction.
If literature needs to be something more than just storytelling, then perhaps one could argue with Maurice Blanchot that it only truly becomes grown-up when it “becomes a question” hanging over the space separating it from the world. By showing its sleight of hand, the novel can live up to Adorno’s definition of art as “magic delivered from the lie of being truth“, but it loses its innocence in the process. No longer is it possible for a serious novelist to go back to the “good old days” when — as Gombrowicz put it — one could write “as a child might pee against a tree“.
But things were never as simple as that. The original realist novel was no straightforward attempt to describe the world; rather, an attempt to dismantle off-the-peg representations of reality already present in literature of the time.
American literary critic Fredric Jameson sees the rise of realism as part of the secularisation of society; a process that ran counter to the “universalising conceptions of life” propagated by religion. Increasingly, novels sought to focus on the singular, contingent, and therefore unliterary aspects of reality that had no prior linguistic expression. More specifically, Jameson detects a growing “autonomisation of the senses” post-Balzac. Emotions — already classified “conscious states” — were shunned in favour of “affects”, those nameless “bodily feelings” that could be shown, but not told.
It was a product of the tension between telling and showing; between an age-old “storytelling impulse” (the narration of a tale that has happened “once and for all”) and fragments through which the “eternal affective present” was explored in increasingly experimental ways. The outcome is that “one of the two antithetical forces finally outweighs the other and assures its disintegration”. Narrative convention frequently broke down as a result of the novel’s linguistic imperialism — its quest for the “unique phenomenon which bears no recognisable name”. Gradually, however, the unnamed would get named, and the novel would beget new conventions, sub-genres, and stereotypes, which would have to be deconstructed in turn. With a nod to Mark Fisher‘s idea of capitalist realism, one could speak of fictive realism to describe the widespread belief that the 19th-century novel — or a variant thereof — is fiction’s unsurpassable horizon.
Literature only coincides with itself when it claims to be what it is not. As soon as it acknowledges its made-up nature, the novel becomes its own worst enemy. The best authors, in my book, sense that the hocus-pocus spell cast by storytelling threatens to transform their works into bedtime stories for grown-ups. As essayist Jorge Luis Borges warns, “A book that does not contain its counterbook is considered incomplete”.
The history of the novel could thus be reinterpreted as a product of fiction fatigue: an inner struggle between book and counterbook. Don Quixote perceives the mundane reality he inhabits through the prism of chivalric romances, which leads him, famously, to mistake windmills for giants. Emma Bovary is a desperate housewife, whose shopping-and-fucking daydreams are fuelled by the sentimental literature she consumes, and is eventually consumed by. Leonard Bast, in Howards End, fills his head with the “husks of books” instead of the “real thing”, and ends up crushed by a bookcase.
Cervantes, Flaubert, and EM Forster all fought fiction with fiction, in the name of the “real thing”. Similarly, the realist novel attempted to dissolve whatever smacked of literariness. As Alain Robbe-Grillet pointed out in his nouveau roman heyday, serious writers always “believe they are realists”, and “literary revolutions” are all made “in the name of realism”. Whenever a given mode of writing becomes “a vulgar recipe, an academic mannerism which its followers respect out of routine or laziness, without even questioning its necessity, then it is indeed a return to the real which constitutes the arraignment of the dead formulas and the search for new forms capable of continuing the effort”.
In the new novel Robbe-Grillet called for, the presence of the world — “neither significant nor absurd” — prevails over any attempt to project meaning on to it. Reality is no longer a given, but a taken: something that each novel must create anew. As a result, the primacy of substance over style is reversed. Style is what “constitutes reality” in such a novel, which ultimately “expresses nothing but itself”.
The nouveau roman may not be very new any more, but there’s no shortage of writers lining up alongside Iyer to call time on the traditional novel. For David Shields, novels are “antediluvian texts that are essentially still working in the Flaubertian mode”. JM Coetzee is “sick of the well-made novel”, while Zadie Smith says she suffers from “novel-nausea”.
Tim Parks is the latest to confess he shares “Shields’s changing reaction to traditional novels,” but he’s less convinced that Shields’s hunger for reality is the answer. Writers such as Beckett or Lydia Davis may have avoided the trap of the traditional novel, he argues, but “this kind of writing…seems to derive its energy by gauging its distance from the traditional novel, by expressing its disbelief and frustration with the form, and there is a limit to the pleasures, comedy and wisdom of negative energy and deconstruction”.
If the novel is dead — always already — as Iyer suggests, then it’ll take more than a dose of reality to infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing lying at our feet.
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged 2013, alain robbe-grillet, andrew gallix, beckett, borges, david shields, don quixote, em forster, emma bovary, essay, fiction fatigue, fictive realism, fredric jameson, guardian review, gustave flaubert, howards end, jm coetzee, jorge luis borges, lars iyer, leonard bast, lydia davis, madame bovary, mark fisher, maurice blanchot, naturalism, novel, realism, realist novel, robinson crusoe, samuel beckett, scheherazade, social realism, theodor adorno, tim parks, witold gombrowicz, zadie smith / Leave a comment
Review of Berg by Ann Quin. The Irish Times, 9 March 2019, p. 32.
Berg, Ann Quin’s gloriously twisted debut, is the kind of novel Patrick Hamilton or Graham Greene might have composed had they been French existentialists — on acid.
Though couched in a style more reminiscent of Joyce than Sillitoe — one that alchemises the demotic into the poetic — the squalid setting would have been instantly recognisable to contemporary readers. An angry young man pacing the “narrow strip of carpet between wardrobe and bed” in dingy dodgy lodgings had, by 1964, become a shorthand for kitchen-sink drama. The author, who turned to writing after being struck dumb during her Rada audition, never lost her passion for theatricality. Here, she adds Oedipus, Faust, and King Hamlet’s ghost to her repertoire, placing the performance of language centre-stage.
At times — the party where the potted plants seem to come to life, or the Bonfire Night bacchanalia — her prose enters a fugue state that simply takes your breath away. The evocation of what appears to be a near-drowning episode, in the antepenultimate chapter, has at once the hyperreal clarity and baffling opacity of a dream. Such flights of fancy often coincide with the protagonist’s hallucinations, visited by all manner of mythical monsters and even a giant eyeless face that gobbles everything up, including himself: “The sun exploded between his eyes”. The extent to which these apocalyptic visions were connected to Quin’s own bouts of mental illness — prompting her to take her own life by swimming out to sea at the age of 37 — is anyone’s guess.
Setting off a chain reaction of inversions, culminating in the closing coup de théâtre, Alistair Berg changes his name to Greb and moves to Brighton for the sole purpose of killing his absentee father (Nathaniel), who currently resides — with his latest mistress (Judith) — in the adjacent room. The flimsy partition separating them seems almost sentient, swaying and shuddering under the effect of his father’s vigorous lovemaking. It becomes an instantiation of the “shadow screen” (one of two allusions to Plato’s cave) behind which the anti-hero feels trapped, preventing him from bringing anything to fruition.
Berg, who is literally sterile, can never accomplish what he calls the “complete formation,” only “shadows of shapes, half tones thrown on a cinnamon wall”. This sense of alienation is reinforced by the one-sided dialogue: the other characters address him in the first person, but his reactions are always relayed in the third. Berg’s plan to bring down the Matrix through parricide ends in farce as the corpse he thought he had concealed in a rug turns out to be Nathaniel’s ventriloquist’s dummy. (The absence of inverted commas and constant abrupt shifts in point of view give the impression that the novel itself is ventriloquising the different voices — which of course it is.) Breaking the fourth wall will thus only occur in parodic mode, when the protagonist eventually tears down the partition to escape an angry mob at his door.
“If I could only make things bow before the majesty of complete omnipotence”: Berg is the archetypal nerd longing to be an Übermensch. As a child he was a “silly cissy” with masochistic tendencies and castration fantasies, who was sexually abused by his uncle. As an adult he is an inveterate onanist, who swings both ways, and remains a mummy’s boy. He even entertains the idea of offering his father’s corpse to his mother as “the trophy of his triumphant love for her”. “In a Greek play,” he deadpans, “they’d have thought nothing of it.”
He also exacts revenge on Nathaniel by becoming Judith’s lover. This Freudian nightmare climaxes when Berg, wearing Judith’s clothes, is almost raped by his drunken progenitor, who mistakes him for their mistress.
The anti-hero’s delusions of grandeur are symbolised by the hair tonic he sells, which supposedly transforms the user into a “new man”. Berg is a “Pirandello hero” in search of a “play of his own making” in which he would be the “central character” and no longer a mere “understudy”.
“If I wish to create then I must first annihilate,” he argues, sounding every inch like Dostoevsky’s Kirilov. Fancying himself as a “white-robed” alter deus, Berg must “eradicate the past,” and hence his father, in order to forge a new self and universe out of his solipsism.
For Berg, pain “over-rules everything” until it becomes an “inanimate object” to be contemplated. I wonder if that object, for Quin, was this book — a triumph of post-war literature. A classic of social surrealism.
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged alan sillitoe, andrew gallix, ann quin, berg, graham greene, irish times, james joyce, kitchen-sink drama, novel, patrick hamilton, review / Leave a comment
Posted on February 23, 2019 by agallix
Review of Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia by Tracey Thorn. The Irish Times, 9 February 2019, p. 154.
Tracey Thorn: comes to recognise, in her 50s, that the suburb in which she was born and bred is part of her DNA. Photograph: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images
The title of Tracey Thorn’s new memoir, Another Planet, takes on added resonance when, in the closing pages, the author reflects upon how mysterious we remain to our nearest and dearest. Even when she had become a middle-aged, middle-class, married mother of three, living in affluent north London, her father continued to think of her as hailing “from another planet”. The feeling, to be fair, was mutual, and in this book which, she claims, could never have been written while her parents were still alive, Thorn endeavours to understand the world they inhabited. We remain opaque to ourselves too, of course, and it is above all for this reason — in the great essayistic tradition — that she put pen to paper.
Behind this title one also hears feedback carried on the wind of time: echoes of The Only Ones’ 1978 punk pop classic, Another Girl, Another Planet, its ghostly former half shining through like a watermark. Having long considered that she had made a “clean break” with her suburban past, Thorn comes to recognise, in her 50s, that this milieu in which she was born and bred is part of her DNA; that she has “suburban bones”, as she puts it on two occasions. In a bid to “reconnect with the self [she] left behind,” she takes a short train ride “back to [her] childhood, as though it still exists, as tangible and revisitable” as the place she once fled to go to university — a move that transformed her into someone her parents, sadly, could no longer relate to. She would soon find fame and fortune as one half of Everything But the Girl and as a solo singer-songwriter.
Back in Brookmans Park — a garden village in Hertfordshire — Thorn feels haunted by this earlier iteration of herself. She observes four teenage girls, sitting on the bench in the village green, who “might have been there for 40 years. They seem like ghosts.” About a schoolgirl, glimpsed at on the platform as she awaits the train that will take her back to London, she writes: “I look up and the girl has vanished, perhaps I imagined her? Was she some ghost version of me?”
Thorn’s belief that there is “something inherently respectful about properly looking at a place” provides the moral and aesthetic underpinning of her project. The uncanniness of suburbia is revealed by attending to its sheer ordinariness, frequently overlooked through familiarity or contempt: “Brookmans Park was so picture perfect, it was unreal, like a Truman Show stage set.” Nothing is stranger than precision, as Alain Robbe-Grillet discovered while reading Kafka. Thorn’s razor-sharp descriptions have the dreamy quality of hyperreality: the bluebells of yesteryear that seemed “to pull the sky down into the woods”, the patch of garden she tended as a little girl “marked out with pebbles and sea shells, filled with marigolds and snapdragons”, or the Christmases past with the timely “arrival of Grandad in a three-piece suit, penknife poised and ready to take the peel off an apple in one single strip”.
For all the meticulousness with which she brings her childhood home back to life — the “low, crenellated brick wall, that little hint of the Englishman’s castle” in the front garden; the “whirligig clothes drier on a crazy-paving patio” in the back — the author finds that suburbia remains eerily elusive; semi-detached. Its very liminality demands that it be limned in an “equivocal way,” often “by subtraction”.
This ambivalence is reflected in the structure of the book, which alternates between chapters devoted to Thorn’s day trip to Brookmans Park in 2016 and a running commentary on extracts from her teenage diaries spanning the years 1976 (when she was 13 ) to 1981. The entries, punctuated by typical tut tuts and sob sobs, express a mounting sense of boredom, increasingly alleviated by drinking, punk gigs and “getting off” with boys at the local disco. The present travels back into the past and vice-versa, leading to all sorts of striking contrasts and revaluations.
At the heart of this beautiful book — which acts like a corrective to her previous memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen — lies a blank page in one of the diaries, which Thorn mentions, teasingly, several times, without ever disclosing what she was concealing from prying eyes. It is weaponised as an alienation effect to prevent the reader from being taken in by the confessional tenor of the diary format. Writing, the author reminds us — and no doubt herself too — is “always about knowing who’s in charge”.
At journey’s end, Tracey Thorn understands why her parents relocated to the suburbs. She also remembers how “very little happened” there “over and over again” — like Reginald Perrin rewritten by Samuel Beckett. I suspect she will not be going back in a hurry.
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged alain robbe-grillet, andrew gallix, another girl another planet, another planet, another planet: ateenager in suburbia, bedsit disco queen, brookmans park, everything but the girl, hertfordshire, irish times, kafka, punk, reginald perrin, review, samuel beckett, suburbia, the only ones, tracey thorn / Leave a comment
Hazards of Time travel
Posted on February 9, 2019 by agallix
“We Could Have Had a Haiku Instead of this Doorstop.” Review of Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates. The Irish Times, 22 December 2018, p. 136:
Joyce Carol Oates. Photograph: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert/Getty Images
Can a character develop some degree of awareness — however dim — of the book it inhabits? This preposterous question wormed its way into my mind midway through Hazards of Time Travel, haunting me until the final page.
Joyce Carol Oates’s compendious new novel is set 20 years hence in a derivative dystopian world, replete with the habitual initialisms. The RNAS (Reconstituted North American States) is a one-party regime characterised by a rigid caste system based on 10 ST (Skin Tone) categories, permanent warfare conducted by proxy through “robot-missiles” and, of course, ubiquitous high-tech surveillance of the population. At school, where education is limited to the rote learning of undisputed facts — for example, the inferiority of the average female IQ — students “hold back” so as not to stand out by appearing too clever: “In a True Democracy all individuals are equal — no one is better than anyone else”.
Adriane Strohl, the 17-year-old narrator-protagonist, proves more equal than others and is made to suffer the consequences. Given that her scientist father was already an MI (Marked Individual) due to his association with an SI (Subversive Individual), his own brother, who was “deleted” by DDS (Domestic Drone Strike) — although it later transpires, for no obvious reason, that the execution did not take place — she should perhaps have known better. This, however, is the whole point. We are made to understand, by the third sentence, and then relentlessly throughout the rest of the book, that free will is both her tragic flaw and the mark of her humanity. To think that Oates could have produced a haiku instead of a doorstop!
For having the audacity to enquire what came “before the beginning of Time”, which in the RNAS refers to the “Great Terrorist Attacks of 9/11”, Adriane is charged with “Treason-Spech” and exiled in the past — a sentence that strangely provides an answer to the question for which she is punished. Her molecules are dissolved, teleported, and reconstituted in 1959, before her parents were even born. She is now Mary Ellen Enright, a freshman at Wainscotia University in Wisconsin. As an EI (Exiled Individual) she is not allowed to stray beyond a 10-mile radius from her “epicentre”, or reveal her status to anyone, on threat of instant deletion. Worse still, she is exiled from exile: a microchip planted in her head blocks out memories of her past life, which appear like “shadowy shapes” viewed through a “frosted glass window”. This raises one of the central questions in the novel — “What is a human being except the sum of her memories?” — and triggers an extended metaphor (the Nabokovian glass flowers; the “glassy eyes” of the stuffed animals in the Gothic museum scene) that expresses the totalitarian quality of transparency.
Located in Zone 9, an area which does not appear on any map back in the RNAS, Wainscotia — aka the “Happy Place” — provides ample opportunity for Life on Mars-style culture shocks. Scratch the idyllic surface, and you discover a more sinister world of rampant anti-Semitism and misogyny. Pacifists are hounded out of campus, female students aspire to be Stepford Wives and the university is a “hotbed of mediocrity”. The author, revisiting her own youth, evidently wants to show that the seeds of totalitarianism were sown in the 1950s, but Wainscotia seems so wholesome compared with NAS-23 that the strategy all but backfires.
The moral (human beings are not machines and it is always now) is sophomoric. The narrator’s cloying diary style and intemperate deployment of exclamation marks becomes grating after a while. Soliloquies masquerade as dialogue. The fussy descriptions of minor characters seem to come straight out of a middlebrow potboiler circa 1959. Embarrassing repetitions should have been edited out.
For all its flaws, Oates’s 46th novel is a page-turner, with cliffhanger chapter endings that may well have been written with Netflix in mind. Once Adriane and Ira Wolfman — the dashing assistant psychology professor with a fittingly Freudian name — have failed to flee, following a trail that loops back on itself (as in TV drama The Returned), the novelist loses her (Ariadne’s) thread and the plot begins to unravel.
When the heroine laments her inability to suspend disbelief at the cinema — “The actors were so obviously acting. The film was so obviously a film” — or dismisses the unconvincing “realistic” paintings hanging in the Fine Arts Building, she almost seems to sense that her exile in Wainscotia is but a metaphor for being trapped in this novel.
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged andrew gallix, dystopia, hazards of time travel, irish times, joyce carol oates, novel, review / Leave a comment
Male Order
Posted on January 23, 2019 by agallix
“Male Order.” Review of What We’re Teaching Our Children by Owen Booth. Literary Review, December 2018, pp. 72-73:
To misquote Simone de Beauvoir, one is not born but rather becomes a man. This is the premise of What We’re Teaching Our Sons, a satire, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, of all those earnest treatises on fatherhood.
Although very accessible, Owen Booth’s debut is as difficult to pin down as the notion of masculinity in an age of female empowerment and gender fluidity. It is a novel with an emotional arc, but one you may also dip into, each chapter being a story unto itself. In fact, it is essentially the same story — sixty-seven variations on dadsplaining — springing from the same template.
The opening sentence of each chapter is invariably ‘We’re teaching our sons about’, followed by the chapter title, which immediately introduces an element of comic repetition. Then comes a précis staking out the territory to be explored. A chapter titled ‘Crime’ begins, ‘We’re teaching our sons about crime. We’re teaching them that crime doesn’t pay, or that mostly it doesn’t pay, or that, in fact, it can sometimes pay quite handsomely’. ‘Drugs’ gets off to a similar start: ‘We’re teaching our sons about drugs. What they do, why people take them, where to find them’.
The dads’ mission to raise ‘a generation of better men’ is undermined by their own confusion and inconsistencies — their compulsion to idealise women, for instance, despite knowing that this raises feminist issues. Much humour is derived from the sons regularly reverting to type (boys will be boys) and puncturing their dads’ politically correct pieties, as well as from their endearing refusal to countenance second best: ‘They’re convinced they’re going to be film stars and astronauts and famous comic book artists. They’re not interested in all the ways we managed to screw up our stupid lives.’
The sins-of-the-fathers trope is introduced early on, when the sons are taken to meet the ‘heartbroken men’. These sad relics from the past, with their beer guts, firearm fetishes and ’embarrassing’ penchants for military or superhero outfits, are prisoners of the patriarchal system they uphold: ‘The fathers of the heartbroken men loom large. Their hard-drinking, angry fathers. And their fathers and their fathers and their fathers before them.’ The grandfathers (to whom a later chapter is devoted) embody a less toxic masculinity, yet their stiff upper lips conceal a sense of loss so deep that it can only be assuaged by railway modelling on a Joycean scale. Having ‘survived wars and fifty-year marriages’, they are now holed up in their attics, where memories are stored away, obsessively reconstructing a childhood scene, right down to the diminutive figures of themselves as little boys, ‘searching desperately through the streets for their own silent, unknowable fathers’. The same formulation recurs in a chapter where, having failed to teach their sons about emotional literacy, the dads end up extolling the virtues of hobbies as a time-honoured means of keeping feelings bottled up. It was ever thus, they explain. This scene takes place on a miniature steam railway operated by middle-aged enthusiasts — ‘all men’ — whose reluctance to share their toy with the public (children in particular) inevitably leads to a confrontation and display of cockmanship.
As this comic tour de force testifies, Booth is a miniaturist. His meticulous craft bears more than a passing resemblance to that of his hobbyists, all those haunted men who seem to pour an excess of emotion into elaborate displacement activities. The novel’s repetitive format and collective narrative voice provide a safety net of impersonality, allowing the tenderest of moments to bloom in the nooks and crannies of its vignettes. In the changing rooms at the swimming pool, for instance, the dads — feeling ‘the terrible responsibility of lost socks, and impending colds’ — try not to contemplate ‘all the upcoming catastrophes’ they will never be able to shield their sons from. In another tale of innocence and experience, the dads tell their lads about the nights they were born, before evoking what was deliberately left unsaid: ‘These are not things we talk about, not even to each other. Especially not to each other. We’re terrified that if we started we wouldn’t know how to stop.’
Posted in Non-fiction / Tagged andrew gallix, literary review, novel, owen booth, review, simone de beauvoir, what we're teaching our sons / Leave a comment
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Ruler: Philip I, Emperior of Rome, ca. A.D. 204–249, ruled 244–49
Tetradrachm of Philip I from Antioch
10.93 g, 12:00, 26.5 mm
Transfer from the Yale University Library, Numismatic Collection, 2001, Gift of Gilbert Steinberg
Made in Antioch
Gilbert Steinberg, to about 1984; Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn., from about 1984 to 2001; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
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Five Questions: An Interview with Jenny Boully
by Candice Wang
Born in Korat, Thailand, Jenny Boully is a celebrated poet of contemporary poetry who grew up in Texas, and studied at Hollins University and the University of Notre Dame. She has authored three books of great acclaim, “The Body” in 2002, “The Book of Beginnings and Endings” in 2002, and “[one love affair]*” in 2006. Of “The Body”, critic Arielle Greenberg described her work as a “text on absence, love, ontology and identity—minus the text”, as the entire book is solely composed of footnotes. Her work has appeared in the literary magazines Boston Review and Conjunctions. Lately, she splits her time between Texas and Brooklyn, as she works on her PhD from the Graduate Center of the City of New York.
Candice Wang: The Body is written solely in the form of footnotes. Please elaborate on your structural decision and how it illuminates the purpose of your poem.
Jenny Boully: The Body is about absence and loss. It is also about subtext, interpreting meaning, what gets said and what remains hidden. When I was starting out, I was composing solely in footnotes. At that point, I had every intention of going back and writing in the main story. When I had gathered about twenty footnotes, however, it occurred to me that the story would have to remain unread. So the blank pages to the footnotes were born. I thought it was the most appropriate form to document the loss and absence and inferred meanings.
CW: The Body was originally published as a lyric essay, but it has been published in Best American Poetry 2002. Would you categorize your poem in the realm of prose poetry, or lyrical essay? Why or why not?
JB: What I love about The Body is precisely its ability to fit into multiple genres or defy genre altogether. When I originally wrote it, I worried that it wouldn’t find publication due to its poetic nature in the form of essayistic prose. I had read about the Seneca Review’s mission to publish what they were calling lyric essays. It seemed to me that the lyric essay, as they had defined it, was exactly what The Body was. I’m happy to call it an essay.
CW: In the contributor’s notes section of Best American Poetry 2002, you mentioned that the works of Kafka had a hand in inspiring your poetry. Please elaborate on how Kafka has inspired The Body.
JB: In Kafka’s world, there are random, seemingly bizarre appearances and disappearances. It is a world in which one wonders if what transpired even transpired at all. Additionally, Kafka’s own writing made similar moves–and what I often love most about his books are his deleted passages–the things that remained unsaid. I love how meaning morphs depending on what is found in the afterlife of books.
CW: You mention within The Body that dreams are the footnotes to life. What does one gain from trying to fabricate the body of life from the footnotes, instead of the other way around, as is typical?
JB: If you read “footnotes,” I believe that means you are paying more attention, looking for the nuances, the details, what everyone else doesn’t see necessarily. That seems a much better way to live to me. If you believe that everything manifests for some reason, then it would seem to me that you’re more alert in your living life and more in tune with messages, wherever they might come from. You’re always looking to see how things connect, how you fit in.
CW: How do you think contemporary poetry can maintain its relevance to modern society? What does poetry bring to our outlook on life?
JB: I really don’t know a good way to answer this question. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I’m finding that poetry is becoming less popular, less read, less understood. I do believe, however, that language is one of the most amazing human developments, and I love that poets are the ones who lavish attention to language and uphold it and pay it serious attention. I think poetry can help up feel connected to humanity; I wish it were more prevalent.
I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Boully for taking time to create thoughtful responses for this interview. I had a wonderful experience interviewing her, and gaining valuable insight from such an esteemed poet about her own work, as well as her view of poetry’s role in modern society.
11.16.2016 – Interviews
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Archives July 15-31, 2002
Written by William Kowalski
Names J. Kirby Best
LAVERGNE, TN/7/8/02—J. Kirby Best has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of Lightning Source Inc., a leading provider of digital content management solutions to the book industry. Mr. Best is a veteran executive and leader in the printing and book manufacturing industries.
Since 1997 the Toranto native has been Chairman of Publishing Solutions, Inc., which provides data collection and risk management tools for the book publishing industry. Earlier, he was President and CEO of Royal Book Manufacturing, Inc., which was regarded as the most modern and efficient company in the book printing and binding field. He also serves on the board of directors of Coldlogic LLC, a firm that collects point of sale and inventory information for use in manufacturing.
John R. Ingram, Chairman of Lightning Source Inc. announced Mr. Best's appointment.
"Kirby Best is the right leader to guide Lightning Source into the next phase of our growth in this exciting field of digital distribution," Mr. Ingram said. "Lightning Source helped pioneer “print on demand' five years ago – now an accepted and valued part of the publishing industry – and we are leading the way today in the growing field of digital content fulfillment that will have so much to do with the future of our industry.
"Kirby's interests and experience span both aspects of Lightning's core business—digital fulfillment and print on demand. He grew up in the printing industry, understands how Lightning fits in that arena, and he's excited about the possibilities for Lightning Source in the electronic distribution business, as well."
Mr. Best said he is eager to join the Lightning team, noting the company's recent announcements of important new alliances with a growing roster of publishers and retailers, including publishers of professional and scientific publications as well as titles of general interest.
"For the past 20 years, I've dedicated my career to advancing computer-integrated manufacturing and sales-tracking systems for the book industry," Mr. Best said. "I am thrilled to be part of this visionary team at Ingram that is poised to utilize the most advanced technology in digital printing and digital fulfillment to revolutionize our dynamic book market."
Mr. Best is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, with a bachelor's degree in computer science. He was Chairman of the Canadian Book Manufacturers' Association from 1989 to 1991 and also served on the boards of the Canadian Printing Industries Association and the Book Manufacturers' Institute.
He and his wife Anne have four sons.
ABOUT LIGHTNING SOURCE
Lightning Source Inc., a subsidiary of Ingram Industries Inc., provides a comprehensive suite of digital fulfillment services. The company is revolutionizing the options available to the industry in the storage, management, and distribution of digital content. Lightning Source stores books and other information electronically and delivers them "on demand" in either traditional printed format or as e-Books in response to orders from booksellers, librarians, and publishers. Lightning Source has printed more than 5,000,000 "on demand" books for more than 1,500 publishers around the world. For more information, visit our website at http://www.lightningsource.com/.
Pearson Stops
Magazine Unit
7/5/02—Pearson has halted the auction of FT Business magazine, the unit that also includes Investors Chronicle, The Banker and Money Management magazines. Reportedly, Pearson the offers it received were not lucrative enough.
The company also ended its relationship with Stephen Hill, chief executive of the Financial Times Group, who led an attempted buyout of the division backed by venture capitalists Permira.
Analysts thought the magazine would bring up to UKpound 90 million, when the business went up for sale last February. But as the advertising recession continued, venture capitalists and publishers, including Incisive Media, lowered their offers.
Jean-Rene Fourtou
Appointed Chairman and CEO
of Vivendi Universal
PARIS/7/3/02—The Board of Directors of Vivendi Universal (Paris Bourse: EX FP; NYSE: V), has accepted the resignation of Jean-Marie Messier as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and promptly appointed Jean-Rene Fourtou as his successor.
The board also elelected Fourtou as a new director, replacing Jean-Marie Messier, along with two other new directors Claude Bebear and Gerard Kleisterlee, and created two new committees: a finance committee chaired by Claude Bebear and a strategy committee headed by Henri Lachmann.
The Board of Directors also decided to give highest priority to creating financial transparency and resolving short term financing issues.
Following the Board meeting, Jean-Rene Fourtou said:
"In the next two weeks, all possible measures will be taken to improve the situation, particularly in terms of the short-term cash position. I have every confidence that the company has the strengths to address its liquidity issues and to find the appropriate solutions in the immediate term.
"In addition, a financial and strategic diagnosis will be made in under three months. Two committees have been set up to carry out this assignment within the Board of Directors. In addition, two working groups comprising people from inside and outside the company will be created. Their mission will be to prepare the work and decisions of the Board of Directors.
"The Board of Directors and all of the company employees remain fully prepared to do their utmost to ensure the continued strengths of our operations. Vivendi Universal has everything it needs to be optimistic about the future, as we begin to restore confidence and health to our company."
Magazine Reports
Holtzbrinck's
Debts Loom Large
7/10/02–PublishersLunch.com reports that the German magazine Der Speigel feastures a surprising article about the von Holtzbrinck Group. Titled, "A Document of Horror," the magazine indicates the secretive, family-controlled company is carrying a debt load equal to more than half of annual sales, and recorded an operating loss last year of 47 million Euros. In a separate European wire service article, Stefan von Holtzbrinck maintains that debt is "well below" the reported 1.23 billion Euros, but the company plans to sell television and radio properties to avoid further debt.
PublishersLunch.com said publishing circles speculate that a company insider must have leaked documents to the magazine.
Phyllis Grann
Departs Random House
After Brief Stay
7/1/02—Publishing icon Phyllis Grann is giving up her vice presidency at Random House to become a non-exclusive consultant, Random House announced. Her departure comes after serving only a few months in her vague advisory role at Random House. Grann shocked the industry by leaving her long-time alma mater Penguin Putnam early this year.
According to an article in Publishers Weekly, Grann said she found that having no responsibilities also meant having little authority, and was apparently frustrated when Random House executives did not act on her suggestions.
In an official Random House news release, CEO Peter Olson said that Grann decided the advisory role did not provide sufficient challenges to engage her on a fulltime basis.
"In inviting Phyllis to join our company last year," Olson said, "we purposely did not define specific executive responsibilities, giving Phyllis the opportunity to get to know the company and its people and then providing me and our senior colleagues her advice and expertise on a variety of business and publishing concerns.
Ingram Completes
of Midland Enterprises
NASHVILLE, TN/7/2/02—Ingram Industries Inc. has completed its acquisition of Midland Enterprises LLC, a leading U.S. inland marine transportation company that includes The Ohio River Company LLC and Orgulf Transport LLC, Ingram officials have announced.
The proposed transaction was announced on January 24 between Ingram and Midland's owner, Eastern Enterprises (now KeySpan New England, LLC), a subsidiary of KeySpan Corporation (NYSE: KSE) of New York City. Midland's company history dates back to 1925 with the founding of The Ohio River Company.
Orrin H. Ingram, President and CEO of Ingram Industries Inc., explained that with today's closing Ingram's leadership role in the inland marine transportation industry will be further enhanced.
"Two of the most respected companies on the water have now joined forces – with 133 years of combined experience," Mr. Ingram said. "We have always respected the talent and energy of Midland and its people, as well as its heritage of excellence. We are delighted to welcome them into the Ingram family of businesses.
"This is a significant commitment to superior service for our customers who depend on our fleet of more than 140 boats and 4,100 barges," Mr. Ingram noted. "It is also the strongest possible statement we can make about the importance of the inland water transportation industry and its future. This will enable us to bring excellent service to a broader base of valued customers – in keeping with our tradition and Midland's, too."
In addition to its vessel operations through Ingram Barge, ORCO, Orgulf, R& W and Orsouth, Ingram will provide:
Harbor services in Kentucky, Missouri and Louisiana Marine terminal operations in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Florida Shipyard operations in Kentucky with diesel shop, machine shop and full-service repair capabilities Aggregate production and distribution in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama Midstream fueling at nine locations on the inland waterways
Ingram Industries Inc., based in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of America's largest privately held companies. It consists of diversified businesses in distribution, insurance, marine transportation, aggregate supply, and digital fulfillment services. Ingram Industries Inc. includes four operating divisions: Ingram Book Group, Ingram Marine Group, Ingram Insurance Group, and Lightning Source Inc.
DarkTales
Horror Pulisher
Closes Operations
7/4/02— DarkTales, the fantasy/horror book publisher, is closing its doors, but DarkTales E-list and Horror Community website, at www.darktales.com, will continue operating online. The company is liquidatnig its current in-house stock of books at 70% off.
Time.com Article
Discusses Disney's
Rights Fight7/11/02—An article in the July isssue of Time.com, from Time magazine, discusses the issue of who owns digital rights, and illuminates problems facing the Walt Disney Co. over who owns the rights to Pooh, the famous old bear of book and televison fame.
The article also mentions Rosetta Books, which at least temporarily has a wide-open playing field for eBooks after a federal appeals court recently ruled that Random House contracts signed in the 60's (including such well-known authors as Kurt Vonnegut and William Styron) do not cover electronic versions or eBooks. Rosetta hopes to become the publisher of choice by persuading consumers to download book online for less than they would pay in stores.
Read the full story at Time.com: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101020715-300666-1,00.html GENERAL NEWS Scholastic Launches
New Test Prep Program
for State Assessments
NEW YORK, NY/7/8/02—Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, has announced that its leading classroom news weekly Scholastic News® will launch a new standards-based test preparation program for grades 3 to 6 this fall. The new program is designed to help teachers integrate state assessment preparation into day-to-day curriculum through the magazine content. More than 25 million students and teachers rely upon Scholastic News and Scholastic's other classroom magazines to supplement and enhance instruction with age-appropriate current events and high interest material.
"With the No Child Left Behind Act and other new Federal legislation mandating strong state testing programs, teachers are even more focused on ensuring that their students have mastered critical skills and can meet the demands of standardized tests. With so little time in the day for teachers to devote to test prep exclusively, the best programs are the ones that teachers can easily, and quickly, thread through their curriculum," said David Goddy, Publisher of Scholastic Classroom Magazines. "The Scholastic News program allows them to incorporate preparation into the context of broader current events and social studies lessons. We believe that no other classroom news magazine offers such well-designed test prep support."
All subscribers to Scholastic News editions for grades 3 to 6, as well as to Scholastic News en espanol® for grade 3, will receive the new test prep program at no additional charge. The program includes:
Multiple diagnostic skills tests for student practice and evaluation of skill mastery. 16-page How to Be a Better Test Taker Skills Book, geared to grade level, that builds familiarity with test-taking, reinforces comprehension, fine-tunes pacing skills, and bolsters memory skills. Includes additional practice tests. 25 reproducible skills pages in the Scholastic News Teacher's Edition for more practice questions and skills builders. "Test Taking Tips Poster" offering students a quick reference on the best way to take tests. "The Standard of the Week"—a regular feature in every issue of Scholastic News to help teachers use the magazine's content to help students master a particular curriculum standard.
Scholastic is the world's largest publisher of educational magazines for grades pre-K through 12. Scholastic News, grade-by-grade classroom magazines for grades 1-6, gives kids their own thought-provoking, interactive news weekly through which they can understand current events and relate them to their world. The magazines' online companion, Scholastic News Zone ( http://www.scholasticnews.com/ ), is a free resource for teachers, parents and children that can be used in the classroom or at home to discuss current events and develop students' understanding of how national and international news affects their lives. Scholastic News Zone's special reports on topics including school violence, the Middle East crisis, and energy policy issues, have won high praise from teachers for age-appropriate, sensitive coverage of major breaking news.
Scholastic (Nasdaq: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books. As a global children's publishing and media company serving the needs of parents, teachers, and children, Scholastic provides book and software distribution through school book clubs, school book fairs and to classrooms, as well as through the retail trade. The company holds a leadership position in direct-to-home children's book clubs. Since 1920, Scholastic has created quality educational materials for schools and has expanded its reach to include the distribution of books, software, toys, online learning services and television programming direct to the home. Scholastic's Library Publishing division is the leading print and online publisher of children's reference materials. Internationally, Scholastic operates wholly owned companies in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Scholastic web site http://www.scholastic.com/ is a leading provider of educational services online for parents, teachers and children.
Lee Enterprises
Completes Acquisition
in Sioux City
DAVENPORT, IA/7/1/02—Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE:LEE), has completed the purchase of the Sioux City Journal in Sioux City, Iowa.
In the transaction, valued at $60.3 million, Lee bought the remaining 50 percent interest in the newspaper from the operating partner, a subsidiary of The Hagadone Corporation. Lee agreed to pay $59.3 million in cash and give Hagadone ownership of a group of weekly publications in northwestern Montana.
The Sioux City Journal has 165 employees and daily circulation of 42,800. Lee acquired its initial 50 percent interest through the purchase of Howard Publications in April.
With the acquisition, Lee owns 39 daily newspapers and a joint interest in six others. Lee also owns more than 175 weekly newspapers, shoppers and classified and specialty publications, along with associated online services. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEE. More information about Lee Enterprises is available at http://www.lee.net/.
New Zealand Daily
Newspaper Sold
to Australian Group
WELLINGTON, New Zealand/7/8/02—The Wairarapa Times-Age, based in the town of Masterton near the capital of Wellington, has been sold for about 6 million New Zealand dollars (dlrs 2.9 million) to the Australian-based media group, Wilson and Horton. The official sale price was not disclosed.
The Australian company is 41 percent owned by Irishman Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media, which also has media holdings in South Africa and Britain.
Sydney-based APN News & Media Ltd. owns several New Zealand publications, including eight regional dailies, the New Zealand Herald—the country's biggest circulation daily—and a raft of suburban weeklies and magazines.
Wairarapa Times-Age Company managing director and principal shareholder Gordon Kinvig said the move was part of the rationalization of the industry in New Zealand and internationally.
The Wairarapa Times-Age has a daily circulation of approximately 7,700. The New Zealand Herald sells more than 200,000 copies daily.
Meredith Publishing
Group Announces New
Sales Leadership
NEW YORK, NY/7/8/02—Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP) announced today several promotions and changes in the sales and marketing organizations of Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal magazines. The following executive changes are effective immediately:
* Jeannine Shao Collins, currently Vice President/Publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, is promoted to Vice President/Group Publisher with responsibility for Ladies' Home Journal and More magazines. Current More Publisher Carol Campbell and a yet to be named publisher of Ladies' Home Journal will report to Shao.
Shao joined Meredith in 1993 as New York Advertising Manager for Ladies' Home Journal. She was promoted to Advertising Director at Better Homes and Gardens in 1995 and has served in her current role since 1999. Earlier in her career, she held advertising sales management positions at Prevention and Woman's Day magazines.
* Daniel Lagani, currently Vice President/Publisher of Ladies' Home Journal, is promoted to Vice President/Publisher of Better Homes and Gardens. Lagani rejoined Meredith in 2001 after serving as Publisher for George magazine. Prior to that, Lagani held key sales positions at Conde Nast Publications.
Lagani began his career at Meredith in 1988 as Advertising Manager of Country Home magazine and was promoted to Eastern Advertising Manager of Better Homes and Gardens before leaving in 1994.
* Geraldine Rizzo, currently Associate Publisher/Brand Development of Ladies' Home Journal, is promoted to Associate Publisher of Better Homes and Gardens. Rizzo will be responsible for all marketing and brand development. Rizzo joined Meredith in 2001 from George, where she was Associate Publisher. Prior to that, she spent four years as a marketing executive at Conde Nast.
* Alain Begun is rejoining Meredith as Associate Publisher/Marketing of Ladies' Home Journal. He was formerly Marketing Director of Better Homes and Gardens from 1998 to 2000. Most recently, Begun was Marketing Director at People. Prior to joining Meredith in 1998, he spent eight years as a marketing executive at Fortune magazine.
"These changes are designed to recognize outstanding performance and provide career development opportunities for key senior sales executives," said Meredith Magazine Group President Jerry Kaplan. "Additionally, the moves will lend fresh perspectives and insights to both organizations, and they should lead to increased revenues and profit."
Meredith Corporation ( http://www.meredith.com/ ) is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, and interactive and integrated marketing. Together, Meredith media properties reach more than 75 million Americans each month.
The Meredith Publishing Group, the country's foremost home and family authority, includes 16 magazine brands, including Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal, and approximately 140 special interest publications. Meredith owns 11 television stations—including properties in top 25 markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland. Meredith has nearly 300 books in print and has established integrated marketing and custom publishing relationships with some of America's leading companies. Additionally, Meredith has an extensive Internet presence, including 26 web sites, strategic alliances with leading specialty Internet destinations such as the Microsoft Network (MSN) and branded anchor tenant positions on America Online.
Newspaper Web Site
Audiences Grow Faster
Than Total Internet
7/8/02—comScore Networks, Inc., the Internet behavioral measurement company, reports that in seven of the 10 largest U.S. markets the audience for major newspaper Web sites grew much faster over the past six months than the markets' total Internet user base. The analysis, conducted by the firm's comScore Media Metrix division, also revealed that visitors to the majority of these sites spend more money online than the average Internet user.
comScore Media Metrix' findings are based on a continuous measurement system, which accurately measures the online browsing and buying behavior of more than 1.5 million representative global participants.
comScore Media Metrix' analysis shows disproportionately strong growth in unique visitors for newspapers in their local Designated Market Areas (DMA®). For example, in New York—the nation's largest DMA— unique visitors to the New York Daily News Web domain (nydailynews.com) increased 23 percent, while unique Internet users for the total New York DMA grew only three percent during the same six-month period. Similarly, unique visitors to Chicago's suntimes.com increased 38 percent while the total Internet-using population in that city grew only three percent over the same period.
In a separate analysis of the buying power of online audiences, comScore Media Metrix also reported that the average visitor to 12 of the 13 measured newspaper sites spends significantly more online than both the average Web user and the typical visitor to news and information sites. Topping the list is Knight Ridder's bayarea.com (326 BPI), followed by newsday.com (311 BPI) and nypost.com (280 BPI).
comScore Media Metrix' Buying Power Index (BPI) measures the total dollars spent online (across all sites) by the average member of a site's audience, indexed to the total online dollars spent by the average Internet user. For example, visitors to a site with a BPI of 100 spend an average amount across the Web, while a site with a BPI of 200 draws visitors that spend twice as much online as the average Internet user.
"It's clear that online newspaper sites are rapidly gaining readers—generally at the expense of print readership," noted Peter Daboll, division president of comScore Media Metrix. "Many of these newspaper sites offer a rare opportunity for advertisers to efficiently reach local market audiences that are growing rapidly and spending money more freely. But to quantify the value of these audiences requires an accurate measurement of audience trends in local markets, where most newspapers have their greatest economic impact. comScore is the only research company with the sample sizes necessary for publishers to conduct analysis at this critical level of detail."
About comScore Media Metrix
comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy – details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. comScore Media Metrix continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.
About comScore Networks
comScore Networks provides unparalleled insight into the behavior of online consumers. This capability is based on a representative cross-section of more than 1.5 million global Internet users who have given comScore explicit permission to confidentially capture their Web-wide browsing, buying and other transaction behavior, including offline purchasing. Through its patent-pending technology, comScore measures what matters across the entire spectrum of surfing and buying behavior. This deep knowledge of customers and competitors helps clients design more powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by global leaders such as Microsoft, Kraft, The New York Times Company, Best Buy, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Nestlé, Wells Fargo & Company, GlaxoSmithKline, and Orbitz. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/.
BOOKSELLING Syngress Publishing
to Distribute Electronic
Books Via Amazon.com
7/3/02—Syngress Publishing, Inc. will sell its e-books on Amazon.com, allowing customers to have immediate access to important Information Technology topics.
Syngress electronic books are in PDF format and are available for download. Syngress has published over 60 titles, all of which will be sold as electronic books, including bestsellers, Hack Proofing® Your Network, Windows 2000 Server Administration Handbook, Check Point Next Generation Security Administration, and Building Robots with LEGO® Mindstorms™. Syngress's books cover a wide range of Information Technology topics including: general networking, programming, wireless, Cisco, Microsoft, Internet, LEGO®, and security titles.
Amorette Pedersen, Co-founder and Vice President of Rights & Marketing, Syngress Publishing, said, "We are very lucky to be working with industry giant, Amazon.com. They have been a great channel for our printed books and we believe that partnering with them to sell electronic books will provide both Amazon.com and Syngress customers much needed instant access to vital IT topics."
Syngress currently sells electronic books through Books24x7 and ebrary as part of their corporate and library subscription plans. Customers will be able to place single electronic book orders through Amazon.com.
Syngress Publishing ( http://www.syngress.com/), headquartered in Rockland, Massachusetts, is an independent publisher of print and electronic reference materials for Information Technology professionals seeking skill enhancement and career advancement. Distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S. and Canada, Syngress titles have been translated into ten languages and have sold more than a million and a half copies in the last two years. The Company's pioneering customer support program, solutions@syngress.com, extends the value of every Syngress title with regular information updates and customer-driven author forums.
FILM/TV Fox Sports International
and Aerodrome Nab
PROMAX/BDA Gold & Silver
New York, NY/7/3/02—Fox Sports International (FSI) and Aerodrome picked up the Gold and Silver awards for the Best Sports ID Campaign of 2002 at the PROMAX/BDA International Awards, presented in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 27. The winning network identification graphics package was created for Fox Sports World Canada, which FSI operates in partnership with Canadian broadcaster Global Television.
The PROMAX and BDA awards, held annually, recognize the finest promotion, marketing and design achievements in the world. Aerodrome developed the network package for Fox Sports International's channels in Latin America and Canada integrating a gritty, posterized treatment with live action soccer players. The design group first developed the graphics broadcast package for Fox Sports International in 1998 and has worked since then to reflect the evolution of FSI's channels.
Aerodrome is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year as one of the leading broadcast design and creative service agencies. The agency is based in Los Angeles, California.
Based in Los Angeles, Fox Sports International is an international sports programming and production entity housed within the Fox Cable Networks Group, one of the major operating units within the Fox Entertainment Group (NYSE:FOX) and News Corporation (NYSE:NWS). FSI operates the programming services Fox Sports World, Fox Sports World Espanol and Fox Sports Middle East, as well as a London-based programming syndication sales division, and is partnered with Global Television in Fox Sports World Canada. It recently joined with Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc. and Liberty Media Corporation to form Fox Pan American Sports LLC, the world's largest Spanish-language sports operations and programming venture, spanning North, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
PEOPLE Levin Replaced by Avee as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer President
SANTA MONICA, CA/7/1/02—Bob Levin, president of worldwide theatrical marketing and distribution for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) has resigned, and will be succeeded by Peter Adee, effective immediately.
Adee, previously president of marketing at Universal Studios, a unit of Vivendi Universal (V), will lead MGM's worldwide theatridcal marketing for all major film releases.
On June 19, MGM lowered its financial guidance for the second quarter and 2002, citing the disappointing box-office performance of Windtalkers. Earlier this year, MGM had box-office failures with Rollerball and Hart's War.
Hopi Broadcaster Named President of NAJA
SAN DIEGO, CA/7/8/02—Patty Talahongva, an independent multimedia journalist and president of White Spider Communications, has been named president of the Native American Journalists Association at the group's annual conference.
Talahongva, a Hopi who previously had served as NAJA's vice president, was elected by the board members June 22. She replaces Mary Annette Pember, Red Cliff Band of Wisconsin Ojibwe, a freelance photographer from Cincinnati who was elected vice president.
Andre Morriseau, Ojibwe, a freelance broadcaster from Toronto, was elected secretary. Lori Edmo-Suppah, Shoshone-Bannock, editor of the Sho-Ban News of Fort Hall, Idaho, was re-elected as the group's treasurer.
Newly elected board members are Dan Agent, Cherokee, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix of Tahlequah, Okla.; Marley Shebala, Navajo, reporter for the Navajo Times of Window Rock, Ariz.; and Dan Lewerenz, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, State College, Pa., correspondent for The Associated Press.
Dennis McAuliffe, Osage, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Montana and editor of Reznet, an online newspaper by American Indian students, was re-elected to the board.
Austin Named Vice Chairman of Ottaway Newspapers
CAMPBELL HALL, NY/7/2/02—Danforth W. Austin, former general manager of The Wall Street Journal,has been named vice chairman of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. ("ONI"), the community newspapers subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, which also publishes the Journal.
James H. Ottaway, Jr., chairman and CEO of ONI and a senior vice president of Dow Jones, made the announcement as part of a larger set of structural and senior management changes at the parent company. Mr. Austin will remain a vice president of Dow Jones.
Mr. Austin, 55, will report to Mr. Ottaway, and will succeed him as CEO of ONI in 2003,. Mr. Ottaway, 64, is nearing retirement. ONI previously announced that John Wilcox, executive vice president of ONI and former publisher of its Cape Cod Times, will succeed Joseph Richter as president and chief operating officer of ONI when Mr. Richter retires at the end of 2002.
Mr. Ottaway said, "Dan Austin is a proven leader and world-class newspaper manager with long experience at The Wall Street Journal in both news and business operations and a community newspaper family background. He and John Wilcox will provide Ottaway Newspapers with a first-rate top-executive team in the years ahead."
Mr. Austin said, "Ottaway Newspapers, for nearly 70 years, has set the standard in this country for quality community journalism with solid business results. It is an honor and a privilege to be given the opportunity to help steer the continuation, and growth, of this tradition."
Mr. Austin grew up in the community newspaper business, where his father was editor and publisher of the Salina, Kansas, Journal for 25 years. A journalism graduate of the University of Kansas, Mr. Austin joined Dow Jones and the Journal in 1970 as a reporter in Dallas. He served in various posts as a reporter and editor in Detroit and New York, as well as a stint as the Journal's Pittsburgh bureau chief. In 1987 he became director of corporate communications for Dow Jones, and led the celebration of the Journal's centennial in 1989. In late 1989 he became director of circulation for the Journal and Barron's, the Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly; in 1992 he was promoted to vice president, circulation. He was named general manager of The Wall Street Journal in 1995, responsible for the newspaper's advertising, circulation and production operations.
Ottaway Newspapers Inc. publishes 12 daily newspapers and 15 weeklies in 10 states, from New Hampshire to California, along with several shoppers and niche publications. It has been part of Dow Jones since 1970.
FINANCIALS Pulitzer Inc.
to Web Cast
2nd Quarter Earnings
ST. LOUIS, MO/7/3/02—Pulitzer Inc. (NYSE: PTZ) will announce its earnings for the second quarter of 2002 on Tuesday, July 23, 2002, at approximately 8:00 a.m. EDT. At 10:00 a.m. EDT the same day, Pulitzer will conduct a conference call with stock analysts to discuss its earnings. The conference call will be accessible to the media and general public via a live Internet Web cast, and through a limited number of listen-only, dial-in conference lines.
Pulitzer Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Woodworth will conduct the call, which is scheduled to last one hour. Joining Mr. Woodworth on the call will be Alan G. Silverglat, senior vice president – finance of Pulitzer Inc.
To listen to the Web cast, go to http://www.pulitzerinc.com/. The Web cast will be available on that Web site until Friday, August 23, 2002. To gain access to the conference call, dial 888-821-4874 at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call. Replays of the conference call will be available after 1:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 23, through Wednesday, July 31. To access the replay, dial 800-642-1687. Please enter the conference identification number 4733913 when prompted in the automated replay.
Pulitzer Inc. is engaged in newspaper publishing and related new media activities. The Company's newspaper operations include two major metropolitan dailies, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, Arizona, and 12 other dailies: The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.; The Daily Herald, Provo, Utah; the Santa Maria Times, Santa Maria, Calif.; The Napa Valley Register, Napa, Calif.; The World, Coos Bay, Ore.; The Sentinel, Hanford, Calif.; the Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff, Ariz.; the Daily Chronicle, DeKalb, Ill.; The Garden Island, Lihue, Hawaii; the Daily Journal, Park Hills, Mo.; The Lompoc Record, Lompoc, Calif.; and The Daily News, Rhinelander, Wisc. Pulitzer also owns the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, a group of 37 weekly papers and various niche publications.
Pulitzer Inc.'s new media and interactive initiatives include STLtoday.com in St. Louis, azstarnet.com in Tucson, and Web sites for all of its other dailies. Pulitzer Inc. is the successor to the company originally founded by Joseph Pulitzer in St. Louis in 1878.
For more information, please contact James V. Maloney, director of shareholder relations at Pulitzer Inc., at (314) 340-8402, or visit our Web site at http://www.pulitzerinc.com/
Gannett to Webcast
Second-Quarter
MCLEAN, VA/7/2/02—Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) said today that its second-quarter 2002 earnings conference call with financial analysts will be held on Tuesday, July 16, 2002 at 9 a.m. ET.
The call will be accessible live to the media and general public via Webcast and through a limited number of listen-only, dial-in conference lines.
The company's earnings announcement will be released to news outlets and wire services before the market opens on July 16. The full text of the release and the financial tables will be available at that time on Gannett's Web site, http://www.gannett.com/.
To access the listen-only conference lines, dial 1-800-997-8642 at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled 9 a.m. start of the call. International callers should dial 1-973-694-6836. Replay of the conference call will be available about two hours after the live call on Tuesday, July 16 through Monday, July 22.
To access the replay, dial 1-800-428-6051. International callers should use the number 1-973-709-2089. The access code for the replay is 250607.
The live Webcast will be accessible through the company's Web site, http://www.gannett.com/. To listen to the live Webcast, access http://www.gannett.com/ and click on the link to the Webcast. Downloads of RealAudio or Windows Media, which are necessary to hear the Webcast, will be available. Allow at least 10 minutes to access Gannett's home page and complete the links before the Webcast begins.
Replays of the conference call Webcast also will be available under "On the Street" at http://www.gannett.com/ beginning about two hours after the live event and continuing through July 22.
Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) is an international news and information company that publishes 94 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns in excess of 300 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine.
In the United Kingdom, Gannett subsidiary Newsquest plc publishes more than 300 titles, including 15 daily newspapers. Gannett also operates 22 television stations in the United States and is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by most of its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.
Book/Movie Deals PublishersLunch.com
Reports Book
Deals for June
These book deals are reported on Authorlink as a courtesy of PublishersLunch.com. For more like these, visit the PublishersLunch.com site. Deals are rated as follows:
"nice deal" $1 – $100,000 "good deal" $101,000 – $250,000 "significant deal" $251,000 – $500,000 "major deal" $501,000 and up NA, amount of the deal not available
7/10/02—Erica Orloff's THE ROOFER, a fresh take on a family crime saga that tells in a young female voice the story of a daughter of a NYC mobster that gives a glimpse into the underbelly of crime and murder, to Amy Moore-Benson at Mira, with Margaret Marbury editing, in a three book deal, by Jay Poynor.
7/10/02—Cuban-born Ernesto Mestre-Reed's second novel, THE SECOND DEATH OF UNICA AVELLANO, about a Cuban grandmother's attempts to end her life because of a fatal cancer, while somehow managing to get her husband Modesto to free himself from her before her demise, and the effects it has on her family, to Robin Desser for Vintage, as a lead title in paperback in fall 2003, by Thomas Colchie (NA).
7/11/02—Caroline Knapp's final book, completed just before her death on May, APPETITES, "an intensely personal and acutely intimate account of women and their appetites," in which she "uses her own frames of reference as a former anorexic and alcoholic to examine how, in her own case, appetite became the hook on which all her ancillary struggles have hung and how this isolated her," to Dawn Seferian at Counterpoint, in a good deal, for publicationin May 2003, by Colleen Mohyde at the Doe Coover Agency (world). Authorlink News, Success Stories,
And Recognition Authorlink Writer
Hubbard Sells Book
to McGraw Hill Second in One Month to Land Contract
5/1/02—Graydon D. (Dee) Hubbard has sold his book, Slim to None, to McGraw-Hill as a direct result of Authorlink. The poignant story of his daughter's long (and fatal) journey through the wasteland of anorexia treatment is told mostly through her hospital journals. The title will be released in January 2003, leading into National Eating Disorders Month.
Hubbard is the 76th Authorlink writer to sell his work. The manuscript, originally titled, Why Won't Jenny Eat? had been listed with Authorlink for about a year. Hubbard's first agent, signed through Authorlink, terminated for health reasons. His second agent, also found through Authorlink, lost her position when her agency drastically downsized after September 11. Fortunately, a few months later, McGraw Hill editor Michele Pezzuti spotted the work on Authorlink, made a direct request for the materials, and subsequently offered a contract.
Another writer, Ginger Hanson, who won the Best of Show and Historical Romance awards in the 2001 Authorlink New Author Awards Competition, has secured a two-book contract with Kensington Publishing Corporation. Her award-winning book, D' Angelo's Destiny, will be published as the lead title of two under Kensington's Ballad imprint next spring.
Ginger is the sixth contest winner to attract a publisher, partly based on having won the Authorlink Award, which turns five years old in July 2002. She's the 75th writer for whom Authorlink has played a role in helping to become published.
Authorlink, online for more than six years, is the award-winning rights marketplace where editors and agents buy and sell unpublished and published manuscripts and screenplays. The site features publishing industry news and provides serious writers with access and exposure to the broadest range of legitimate publishing professionals.
Authorlink is among the top one percent of most clicked sites on the web, and generates more than 2.5 million page views per year.
Hanson Signs Two-Book
Deal With Kensington;
Becomes Authorlink's
75th Success Story,
and the 6th Authorlink Contest
Winner to Publish
DALLAS, TX/ 04/01/02—Ginger Hanson, who won the Best of Show and Historical Romance awards in the 2001 Authorlink New Author Awards Competition, has won a two-book contract with Kensington Publishing Corporation.Her award-winning book, D' ANGELO'S DESTINY, will be published as the lead title of two under Kensington's Ballad imprint next spring. Ginger is the sixth author to attract a publisher, partly based on having won the Authorlink Award, which turns five years old in July 2002. She's the 75th writer for whom Authorlink has played a role in helping to become published.
"I'm still in shock," said Ginger in notifying Authorlink about the sale. "The editor actually e-mailed me last August, right after I won the contest. But I never received the message. With all the traumatic events in New York last fall, I didn't contact her until earlier this year, saying that DESTINY had won the Authorlink Best of Show. She's buying the books from my proposal alone. Nothing but good things have happened to me since first winning Best of Show. I have sold four articles to a regional magazine, and now I have a two book contract with Kensington."
Other contest winners who have attracted publishing contracts include: June Park, BINGO QUEENS OF PARADISE (Harper Collins); Cynthia G. Alwyn, BEST SERVED COLD (St. Martin's Press); Michaela August, SWEETER THAN WINE (Neighborhood Press), and Ekaterine Nikas (Katy) Terlinden, DIVIDED CHILD (Avid Press).
Major Publishers
Browse Authorlink
for Manuscripts
Statistical Update
DALLAS, TX/ 07/01/02—Literary agents and editors regularly surf Authorlink in search of good writers. Among major houses making requests and/or visiting the site, are: Random House, Knopf, St. Martin's Press, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Putham and many other smaller publishers. More than 700 writers are currently listed with us. Since tracking began, 1658 requests have been processed for requested manuscripts. Of the 348 editor or agent offers we've been able to track, 77 have lead to publication as a direct or indirect result of exposure on Authorlink. Additional sales and agent contracts are pending.
On average, about 55-65% of the listed writers have received requests by editors and agents, some receiving multiple requests. Of those who have received interest, about 20- 30% are signed with agents and 15- 20% have directly sold their works to publishers during this time, not including pending sales.
The site, which matches literary agents and editors with writers, has received praise from editors at Penguin UK, Avon, Berkley, Random House, Time-Warner, Bantam Doubleday Dell and other major publishers.
See "What People Are Saying About Authorlink"
Authorlink News Archives Suarez Becomes
74th Authorlink Writer
to Sell Manuscript
Danette Suarez, who has listed her work in the Emerging Writers section of Authorlink since last November, has sold her manuscript, OMEGA, to Brown Bag Books, an imprint of World Holdings Group, Inc. in New York.
World Holdings is a start up publisher with no track record as yet. The company was established in April 2001. The house plans to focus on children's and ethnic titles.
Suarez's 85,000 word novel is about a young man who must accept the shameful knowledge of his father's infidelities and his illegitimate sibling.
Authorlink Writer
Freni Sells Work
to California Press
73rd Authorlink Writer to Land Publisher
MARLBORO, MD/1/1/02—Authorlink writer Pamela S. Freni has become the 73rd author to sell her manuscript as a direct result of the popular online marketing service. Her book, SPACE FOR WOMEN will be released in mid 2002 by Seven Locks Press, Santa Ana, CA (www.sevenlockspress.com) and will be available at major bookstores and online booksellers.
Ms. Freni who lives in Upper Marlboro, MD (twenty miles east of Washington, DC), was listed with Authorlink for about two years and had several queries for the manuscript before Seven Locks offered her a contract. She is represented by the Stefanidis Agency which is active on Authorlink. Seven Locks made the direct request for Freni's manuscript through the Authorlink service.
In announcing the sale, Freni called Authorlink "a fine and useful service."
The 25-year-old Seven Locks Press publishes quality books covering a wide variety of contemporary topics that provoke thought, enlighten, and entertain. Its authors include political figures, icons of journalism, and recognized experts including Bill Moyers, Hedrick Smith, Congressman Cecil Heftel, Sir Eldon Griffiths, Jane Glenn Haas, and Alan Bock.
Ms. Freni's book is about the heated space race between the US and Russia. After Russia sent the first man into space, the US was backed into a public relations corner that could only be answered by sending the first woman into space.
Thirteen enormously talented women tested and trained and were on the verge of being astronauts in 1960 when political pressure forced them off the stage. Even forty-one years later,they are talented and ambitious and some of them are still looking for a ride into space.
Pam began writing the book as a direct result of hearing of the thirteen women discussed in her book. "I was so incensed at how they'd been treated by NASA and others, I decided that the story should be told, so I naively began to write a book," Pam said. "It's amazing how much ignorance played a part in the process. I thought if you wrote a book, someone just published it."
Freni's favorite authors are Michener and Dava Sobel. They can tell a story that quickly fades from words to mind pictures. You don't even realize you're reading, just pictures passing over your mind's eye.
Does she have any advice for newcomers trying to break into publishing?
"As a newcomer, I have read a thousand documents all reminding writers not to take any rejections personally and to persevere. It's true. Also, never take 'No' for an answer if you believe in your writing."
Asked why she thinks so many writers get rejected, and so few become published, and what elements of good writing would she guess are missing from an aspiring writer's work, Pam had this to say:
"It doesn't seem to be a single element so much as it is the 'heart' many of us miss adding into our books. We make word choices that either describe something or that grab the imagination and wrestle it to the ground. We can either say, 'The fireman raised the flag,' or we can say, 'The fireman cradled the scarlet and white banner as he struggled to the top of a small smouldering mountain of debris where he defiantly raised it to the top of the mast of the remains of the World Trade Center.' I think we have to be honest with our emotions and let them enter into our stories. That gives them heart and catches the eyes of the editors."
Pam says she has learned her craft from, "Reading, reading, reading. Dissecting word usage from authors I enjoy. Reading every web page targeted at authors such as Authorlink.com. Listening to a really good editor who has worked on two manuscripts for me.
And what's the funniest thing that ever happened to her on the way to getting published?
"After twenty-three rejections on Space for Women, I mentioned it to a friend from the office. She looked startled and asked if I would like an agent. She then handed me the phone number of an author friend of hers who recommended his agents to me. Thinking that it couldn't be this easy, I contacted them and they became my agents. See it's easy! I was so lucky and have felt from that day, that this book was destined to be published."
Seven Locks Press has won a Benjamin Franklin Award and the Category Bestseller Award from Amazon.com. In the last few years Seven Locks Press selection of books has expanded to include a collection of coffee table books, gift books, celebrity bios, and new age titles. The company has introduced a line of juvenile titles and launching a line of fiction titles. Seven Locks Press is the publishing arm of Chapman University Press and a distributor for other small presses that rely on the marketing and publicity capabilities of Seven Locks Press. This year, Seven Locks Press will be publishing twenty-one new titles and will distribute nine titles for other publishers. In 2001, the publishing program will nearly double to forty new titles. James C. Riordan is publisher.
Joyce Lackey
Sells Book
to Gardenia Press
72nd Authorlink Writer to Land Publisher
A publisher contact made several years ago has finally paid of for Authorlink writer Joyce Lackey. The author who received a request for her novel as a result of her Authorlink listing for, The Ghosts of Buffalo Creek, has at last sold the work to Gardenia Press, a small publisher who plans to release the work in July 2002.
Bemis Becomes
71st Authorlink Writer
June1, 2001—Michael E. Bemis of Kennebunk, Maine, became the 71st author to sell his work as a direct result of listing his work on Authorlink.com.
His book, Safe & Sound, a nonfiction work about how to buy a safe, private, and quiet home, will be published by Hanrow Press of Rancho Santa Fe, California. The small press, founded in 1982, has specialized in law and safety engineering books until now. The publication date for Safe & Sound has not yet been determined. Michael’s work had been listed with Authorlink for about a year when Hanrow requested a look at the full manuscript. Authorlink interviewed the author about his success:
AUTHORLINK: When did you begin your writing career, and what prompted you to do so? Is there a special story behind your decision to become an author?
BEMIS: I started writing in earnest while serving as Sheriff of York County, Maine. When I left law enforcement full-time I was able to devote more time to my writing.
AUTHORLINK: Who was the greatest influence on your decision to write, and in what ways did they encourage you?
BEMIS: My mother who is a published author.
AUTHORLINK: How important has your agent been in guiding your career?
BEMIS: I briefly had an agent but due to personal hardship they were forced to close. I presently do not have an agent.
AUTHORLINK: How did Authorlink help?
BEMIS: Authorlink’s excellent service and support has consistently exceeded my expectations. Without Authorlink, Safe & Sound would not be poised for publication.
AUTHORLINK: Do you have any advice or insights for newcomers trying to break into publishing?
BEMIS: It sounds monotonous, but they should just keep trying.
AUTHORLINK: Do you perceive New York publishing to be a closed society or an open one?
BEMIS: I think it's open to good writing and content that's timely and unique.
AUTHORLINK: What are publishers looking for today?
BEMIS: What will sell and authors with a passion to sell it.
AUTHORLINK: How did you learn your craft? Through reading? Conferences? A university? Mentoring? A combination of these, or other means?
BEMIS: Nothing formal, just a lot of research, reading and writing.
Jan Letoha Becomes
70 th Authorlink Writer
to Land Publisher
April 15, 2001—Jan Letoha this month became the 70 th Authorlink writer to sign a publishing contract as a result of her listing on Authorlink.com. Her first book, Bury The Past , will be published by Port Town Publishing in August, 2002.
Port Town Publishing (PTP) is a small publishing house located in Superior, Wisconsin. The company was founded in 1999 by Jean Hackensmith, a struggling romance author who got tired of getting rejection letters from the New York publishers. PTP publishes about 4-5 novels per year, including original romance, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror.
Bury The Past was listed on Authorlink for 22 months. During that time, Jan also signed with an agent through Authorlink, but the agent closed her agency due to illness.
Jan has also listed her second book, Fire On The Moon, with Authorlink. It’s another spooky, romantic suspense story.
How did Jan feel when she heard that her book would be published?
“Like a genie popped out of a bottle and granted me three wishes! It’s the best feeling in the world!”
Jan began writing about ten years ago. “I read a time travel/historical romance and thought, ‘If this author can get away with such a fantastic story, maybe my ideas aren’t so crazy after all.’ So I started writing Bury The Past. Writing fiction was a lot harder than I thought it’d be, though. Getting the hang of writing dialogue was really tough.
Before listing her work with Authorlink, Jan had tried the traditional methods of marketing — sending out query letters and sample chapters. “I had another agent a few years back,” Jan said. “A word of advice — if an agent asks for money up front, look out! Maybe I’m just jinxed when it comes to agents. Anyway, I'm convinced that Bury The Past would be sitting in a shoe box on my closet shelf if I hadn't discovered Authorlink.”
When Jan is working on a book, she’s a person obsessed — or possessed. She'll write 10 – 12 hours a day, especially during the summer.
In the real world, Jan teaches Psychology and U.S. History at a South Georgia high school.
What advice would she give to writers who want to be published?
“Research the requirements for different types of novels. It seems that publishers want to see key elements in a book that will appeal to their specific type of market. Read a book on editing manuscripts so you can delete what publishers don't want to see. List your book on Authorlink — it’s the only thing that worked for me! Then develop a huge store of patience and persistence and don’t think you’re home free once you sign a contract. That’s when the real work starts!”
Joy Jasper Sells Work
to St. Martin's Press
67th Authorlink Sale
2/26/01—Joy Waldron Jasper this month became the 67th Authorlink writer to sell a manuscript as a direct result of contacts made through Authorlink. Jasper found her New York agent— Sam Fleishman of Literary Artists Representatives — via Authorlink, and he subsequently sold one of her works to St. Martin's Press.
The new book, "The USS Arizona: The Ship, the Men, the Attack!," will be in bookstores November 1, 2001, in time for Veteran's Day (November 11) and the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day (December 7, 2001)
"After meeting my agent through Authorlink, we signed a contract in December 2000 to represent my novel. Then we signed a second contract in January to represent my nonfiction book," Jasper explained. "As is often the case, the nonfiction sold first. St. Martin's Press bought it in February 2001, and has moved at an impressive speed to release it in less than a year, so as to offer it to readers at the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day — a mere nine months later, which is stunning in the world of publishing! Kudos to my wonderful editor, Mac Talley at St. Martin's Press, and to my amazing agent, Sam Fleishman."
Joy became an Authorlink writer in October, 2000. The fictional work that originally attracted her agent is titled "Betrayal at Pearl Harbor." While that novel hasn't yet sold (as of press time), the nonfiction book on Pearl Harbor was rapidly sold through the agent who connected with Jasper through Authorlink.
The USS Arizona book is the story of life aboard the USS Arizona in peacetime, and the survival stories of 10 men who lived through the attack. As a journalist and a diver, Joy first visited the USS Arizona underwater in 1983, covering the story of the photo documentation and scientific illustration of the gallant battleship, the greatest casualty of the Pearl Harbor attack. She was so enthralled with the story, she searched out survivors and began interviewing them, crisscrossing the country for several years to hear their stories. Hearing their emotional tales, she was fascinated by the tremendous bond and affection they felt for their ship, and she felt it was a story that needed to be told.
"I'm a writer who prefers to write every day, in the morning when I'm fresh, and for a period of three to four hours," Jasper said of her working habits. " If I'm on a splendid roll, I might write for longer, but I like to achieve 10 pages a day that I'll keep. It never hurts to stop in the middle — of an idea, a sentence, a chapter. I like returning the next day to something unfinished so that I'm inspired to jump in again. I don't think there's any one way to write, but I think it's important to find your own best period of the day and the length of time that makes sense for you. Writing books is my top priority, and I write full time."
For the record, Joy's children are grown, and she lives in New England with her husband and a garden full of perennials
"I've completed my second novel in a series of underwater thrillers (the first — working title, Betrayal at Pearl Harbor, which is listed on Authorlink — is under review at several major houses at this time)," Joy said.
I'm currently working on another nonfiction book on the Lewis and Clark expedition, and another historical biography is in the outline stage.
"I want to thank Authorlink for providing me a forum for my work, she added. "I was encouraged by having been selected for the Authorlink web site, and once I had a page there (http://www.authorlink.com/001051th.html), I had confidence to approach agents. I sent a number of Authorlink-listed agents an email, condensing my query to three paragraphs and asking them to look for more information on my page. I got positive responses from eight out of ten queries I sent. Of those eight, I was extremely fortunate to find a superb agent to represent me, and who got a sale within a month at a major press.
"Thanks to all at Authorlink. And I want to say to my fellow writers: '"Keep writing, and don't lose heart! If it happened to me, it can happen to you.'"
Chopra Finds
Publisher for Work
4/1/01—Dr. Prem Chopra, author of the new age nonfiction book, "If I Had Known," has sold his work to Hanrow Press in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The small press, founded in 1982, has specialized in law and safety engineering books until now. Chopra's book is their first venture into trade books.
Dr. Chopra has been listed with Authorlink since October 2000. He signed a contract with Hanrow Press early this year. He became the 68th author to sell his work through Authorlink in the last 36 months.
Jan Wallace Becomes
69thAuthorlink Writer
to Sign With Publisher
4/1/01—Jan Wallace became the 69th writer to sign a publishing contract through Authorlink in the past 36 months in late March. Ms. Wallace, a first-time author, signed a deal with PortTown Publishing for her book, Where Roses Grow Wild. The publisher is a small Wisconsin house that releases about four books per year.
Ms. Wallace had two manuscripts listed on Authorlink between 1999 and 2000. In January 2000, Authorlink received a request from WMG Promotions, a literary agency, requesting the manuscript. She signed a contract with WMG the very next month, and shortly thereafter WMG sold the work to PortTown.
Port Town senior editor Jean Hackensmith wrote to Agents Cary and Sherry Wolf that she found the manuscript to be "funny, romantic and tragic." She said she had tears streaming down her face in the end.
Jan Wallace credits the editor with giving each writer a lot of attention to make sure the manuscript is everything it should be for the reader.
"It's an unbelievable feeling knowing someone reads your manuscript and it really has an effect on them positive effect at that, that you make them feel for the characters themselves, because that's what it's all about-believing in the story."
"Authorlink has made it possible for writers to link up with the correct agents and publishers, and gives agents a chance to review works by various writers," Jan explained.
I started along time ago writing, as child I would write stories and put on plays in the basement of my parents' home. I've always told stories, then one day said, lets see if anyone would like to publish any of the stories. Friends have read them and said they were good, but, hey, these are friends after all.
Jan once worked for The University of Georgia Extension Service in the Fort Valley, Georgia office. Today she is a fulltime writer.
"I start a manuscript and work each day 6 to 8 hours," she said. "It usually takes 3 months to finish a draft, then another three months to get the bugs out. I edit, fix mistakes and read it over and over, proofing each page until it is correct.
"I can see why books cost what they do and why some people just give up, it is not an easy job to do it over and over, no ones manuscript is correct the first go around, you realize when you re-read it the feeling might not be there so you have to correct it put heart where there was none."
Jan is married to her childhood sweetheart, and they have four children. Twenty-six years ago they bought an old historic house with 17 rooms in Marshallville, Georgia, restored it and live there today with their family and many dogs, cats, doves, ducks, chickens and rabbits.
"My advise to other writers is: don't quit dreaming about what you believe in, you have to believe in yourself, before anyone else will, and then you go from there, keep writing don't give up. "Write from your heart, and let it be about something you know. If you venture into another area you don't know the reader will know it too, and you've lost. So stay with what you feel and understand most about life. "It'll work for you.
"I am especially thankful for my agents," Jan said. "They have worked late into the mornings trying to find a suitable publisher. They work with writers because they love the written word."
Davis' 'Twin City'
Nominated for Townsend
Prize in FictionATLANTA, GA/3/14/02—Jerry Lee Davis' novel, TWIN CITY (Authorlink Press), has been nominated for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. This spring, THE CHATTOHOOCHEE REVIEW, a literary journal, again will award the Townsend Prize, Georgia's most prestigious literary citation, which honors the career and legacy of Jim Townsend, founding editor of ATLANTA magazine and mentor to a generation of Georgia writers. Awarded biennially, the Prize has recognized distinguished fiction by Alice Walker, Celestine Sibley, Ferrol Sams, JoAllen Bradham, Judson Mitcham, and James Kilgo.
The 2000-2001 winner will be announced at a luncheon in honor of nominees on May 9, 2002 at the Wyndham Midtown Atlanta hotel.
Davis is an established Atlanta playwrite. TWIN CITY is his first published novel. about a young boy struggling for acceptance and peace in a dark and chaotic world. Through his relationship with the young daughter of the only Jewish family in town, he confronts the harsh realities of cruelty, hatred, and misery to discover the power of humor and love. Authorlink's Goldring
Wins Series Contract
With Berkley Publishing
Kat Goldring, among new writers listed on Authorlink, has signed a three-book contract with Berkley Publishing Group for her cozy mystery series, Crow's Feet and Lemon Drops, to be released in September 2001. Kim Waltemyer is the Berkley editor who made the acquisition, and Carol McCleary of Wilshire Literary Agency, made the sale for four figures.
McCleary had represented the series 5 1/2 years before the first book sold.
"I already had an agent when Authorlink was kind enough to list me in some of their first presentations," said Kat. "Ours was a mutual endeavor as Authorlink was just starting up and I had just finished a revision with the first novel under the wings of the DFW Writers' Workshop. Just as an aside, that DFW Writers' Workshop stands for that and never has meant "Dallas Ft. Worth" as some like to say. In fact one of the founding members with whom I was lucky enough to work with and helped name the group told me it really meant, Damn Fine Writers.
"I believe the fact that AUTHORLINK listed me was one of the reasons my agent did not give up on presenting my work to top notch publishers. I have a few magazine articles and short stories published but my best and most extensive showcase was writing and illustrating with my original drawings a newspaper column for a year titled 'THE MEDICINE PATH.'
"AUTHORLINK has been wonderful. My agent and I have always been grateful for the professional format available on the site for presenting my work. We came very close to making a sale through the site with China, and may yet sell the foreign rights with help through AUTHORLINK.
Kat Goldring works full time as a high school foreign language department head and Spanish teacher. She spends an hour to hour and a half per day in editing and rewriting the novels and outlines for the first three in the WILLI GALLAGHER MYSTERY SERIES. During holidays and summer time (8 weeks) that time increases to 3-4 hours a day. This doesn't include the hours for research, marketing, the time to work with other writers on shared projects, and commitments to two writing groups.
"Not only do I work the 40-hour drill and the writing tight-wire," Kat explains, "but I also sing and play the guitar in two groups: SISTERS OF THE WIND includes a fellow writer, Shirley McKee. We two do mostly classic/golden country western and cowboy/girl programs for local clubs, groups, schools, city gatherings and such. The HIGH MILEAGE country western band, some seven members strong, includes three law officers, performs for trail drives and city functions.
How does it feel to have a published contract?
"I go back and forth between elation of having a fantastic adventure and panic attacks," says Kat. "I am so thankful for all the wonderful folks, including AUTHORLINK, who have crossed my path at the right time, and have helped me make a lifelong dream come true. WAKAN TANKA (Great Spirit), of course, I thank for all lessons learned and all paths. This is one of those paths strewn with bluebonnets, soft moss and warm cuddly critters. The panic part has to do with getting to those book signings. I'm directional dyslexic and panic when traveling to new places. So . . . maybe that's the next adventure and lesson!"
Kat Goldring currently is working on the next two novels in the WILLI GALLAGHER SERIES: SNOW SNAKE and SWEET CHARIOT. She also have a second series, the DELTA PAIGE SERIES, and has finished the first book in that series, COOPER STREET GIRLS.
Authorlink asked the author: How helpful was DFW Writers' Workshop?
"I would not have cleared out the flaws in my manuscript. The members helped me to develop a selling novel. I would not have met my agent, Carol McCleary, if DFW Writers' Workshop had not had her as a guest. I would not have had the opportunity to meet my editor, KIM WALTEMYER with BERKLEY PUBLISHING. I interviewed with her during her visit with DFWWW. Although I've served as an officer and hosted many dinners as well as parties at my own country home for the members, editors and agents, I still owe DFWWW a great deal."
Two Authorlink Press
Writers Earn
Top Recognition
Dallas and Atlanta/2/15/01— Jerry Lee Davis, author of Twin City (AUTHORLINK PRESS), and Ginnie Bivona, author of Ida Mae Tutweiler and the Traveling Tea Party (AUTHORLINK PRESS), have recently earned top recognition in two different markets.
Jerry Lee Davis of Atlanta has been nominated for the First Novel Award in the 37th annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards, sponsored by the Georgia Writers' Association. Ginnie Bivona's Ida Mae Tutweiler recently climbed to number one on the Dallas Morning News Bestseller List for paperback fiction. Ginnie lives in Dallas.
The Georgia Awards ceremony, hosted by Mercer University Press, will be held at a dinner March 17 at Mercer University in Macon,Georgia.
Among a number of recent review of Ginnie Bivona's book was an article by Don Johnson on Read-a-Bargain.com.Johnson called Bivona's Ida Mae "A wonderful,character-driven story that produces open memories we thought we'd forgotten. . . . I expected a typical 'woman's' book but found a story of human beings for human beings. Man or woman your time won't be wasted on this one."
66th Authorlink
Writer Signs
Publishing Contract
Charlene Tess has become the 66th author to find a publisher as a direct result of Authorlink. Port Town Publishing, a small Wisconsin publisher, will release Ms. Tess's THE VAN WINKLE BRIDE as a trade paperback romance in June 2001. The book, originally listed on Authorlink as THE VAN WINKLE CONNECTION, is Ms. Tess's first published work.
"The senior romance editor of Port Town Publishing saw my posting on the Authorlink website and thought my novel sounded intriguing and suitable for her list for 2001," Charlene explained. "She contacted Authorlink Editor Doris Booth, who contacted me. Doris Booth forwarded an e- mail to me from Port Town Publishing. I sent the publisher a copy of my manuscript by snail mail. The editor read it and said she could not put it down. She offered me a contract by e-mail and then sent me a written contract by snail mail."
Charlene listed her novel on Authorlink on April 10, 2000, and sold it on November 25.
"My husband and I met Doris Booth at a SouthWest Writers Conference and decided to advertise our editing business on Authorlink. Two of my novels had won first place at Southwest Writers Conference Contests, and I had been trying to get them published by the old-fashioned way: query, partial, full manuscript, SASE, wait, wait, wait method. Authorlink sounded like an attractive, modern way to market my novels. And it worked! I am delighted with the results," Charlene said.
"I have been writing as long as I can remember and have published essays, feature articles, short stories, and a nonfiction book, but this will be my first published novel.
"Presently, I am working on a rewrite of a romance novel that my sister and I co-wrote, and I am about one-third of the way through a mainstream novel entitled The Greatest Gift. It is the story of the unshakable bond between a mother and daughter in spite of tragic circumstances that shatter their lives."
Charlene says her best advice when it comes to becoming published is "to be like the old Timex watch slogan: 'Take a licking, but keep on ticking.' In other words, keep trying. And don't forget to try new ideas if the old ones aren't working for you."
Authorlink's Goldring
Former LA Times Reporter
to Contribute Kids' Book
Column to Authorlink
Laguna Beach, CA/12/15/00—Barbara J. Odanaka, former LA Times sports reporter and columnist, will join Authorlink on January 1 2001 as a regular columnist. Her articles will provide writers with in-depth insights on writing and publishing children's books, and will include interviews with children's editors at major publishing houses.
Among upcoming topics for her column will be:
January 1: Rejection 101 February 1: A Crime to Rhyme? March 1: Every Story Tells A Picture April 1: Successful School Visits May 1: Beautiful Noise—Why "Quiet" Picture Books No Longer Make the Grade June 1: Five to Watch: A look at Upcoming Children's Authors
From time to time, she will provide special reports on major children's book conferences.
Ms. Odanaka left her career at the Times to write books for children. She is an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators.
Barb earned a BA in English from the University of Southern California. She lives with her husband and son in a California beach town, and is a founding member of the Skateboarding Moms Society. She can be reached at bodanaka@aol.com
Lands First Book
Deal With Scribner
NEW YORK,NY/10/1/00—Jimmy Gleacher, who has been listed as an Authorlink writer since October, 1999, has sold his first novel to prestigious Scribner, an imprint of Rawson Associates and part of Simon & Schuster.
Meredith Phelan of Linda Chester and Associates in New York found Jimmy's novel, "Roll Again," on one of her frequent searches of Authorlink, signed him on, and subsequently sold the work for five figures. The mainstream fictional work, to be released in 2002, is the 64th title to be sold either as a direct or indirect result of Authorlink.
Agent Wray
Signs Fifteen
Authorlink Writers
9/00—Pamela Wray, owner of the new and growing Pamela Wray Literary Agency, has agreed to represent 15 writers found over the last several months as a direct result of Authorlink.
Among the works now represented by Wray are several thrillers and young adult works. Ms Wray, an aggressive agent, already has sent works by the newest Authorlink ensigns out to key publishers.
In another case, Ms. Wray signed a children's author who, while not officially listed on Authorlink, connected with Wray through the service. The work is a moral folk tale, similar to Uncle Remus.
"I was so excited about this book that he expressed it to me over night, and I have already spoken with numerous publishers, special merchandising and TV producers, " said Wray. "I am going to put this book up for auction because there is so much interest."
"The Authorlink website is the ultimate place for any editor, literary agent or publisher, and I am so thankful the staff's hard work and diligence," Ms. Wray said in a note to Authorlink.
Ms. Wray is among a number of agents who regularly surf the Authorlink site in search of good manuscripts.
Clemente Becomes
to Sell To Manuscript
New York House Pays Handsome Advance
New York, NY/5/26/00 —Authorlink writer Gary Clemente became the 61 st author to sell his work to a key New York publisher.
Lebhar-Friedman, New York has slated a 2002 publication date for " Confessions of a G-Man: Inside the FBI, originally listed on Authorlink as The Marking of a Hoover. Clemente will be paid a $5,000 advance plus royalties for the work, half up front and half on delivery of the finished manuscript. Sale of the book is the direct result of Clemente's listing on Authorlink.
"Confessions" will be an inside look at the FBI through the eyes of Clemente's father, who was a career agent for 26 years. The book will deal with anecdotal stories and inside information about the Bureau, the war on Communism in the Fifties, the mob, and J. Edgar Hoover among other things.
How did he find Authorlink? A writer friend told him about it and spoke highly of the service.
Authorlink seemed to be up front about everything and didn't present itself as a scheme to make money off of writers," Gary said. "Doris Booth answered all of my questions promptly and professionally while the book was made available for review. I was pleased with how some of the particulars of the book was presented and listed on-line."
How long were you listed on Authorlink before the sale Gary's book was listed on Authorlink for about five months before Lebhar-Friedman Editor Frank Scatoni (formerly with Simon & Schuster) spotted the title and requested a proposal. This was all done through e-mail.
Gary, 48, has been writing full time and semi-professionally since he got out of college. He's written in a number of different mediums along the way. He has several other projects in the working stage, including a collection of short stories; a humor book based on the newspaper column he writes weekly; and a suspense book in the same vein as Michael Creiton.
How does it feel to be a published author?
"My first and only published book was a children's piece that came out in 1995, called 'Cosmo Gets An Ear,' about a little boy who gets his first hearing aid. Being published in book form is a wonderful feeling. It's an achievement I'm the most proud of in my writing career.
And does he have any advice for new writers?
"Take it from somebody who has written all of his adult life and even some before as a kid — it's got to be in your blood, because getting published is not the easiest thing to do. You write because you have to — it's who you are and nobody's going to make you stop. One thing that can be valuable is to learn how to distill and recognize exactly what it is on a gut level that attracts people to certain stories and why. There are usually one or two elements working that can make a successful story or book. Examine a well-made movie or book and practice how to recognize the "concept" that made it work. Other than that, as Winston Churchill said, 'Never, never, never give up.'"
Pamela Wray
Literary Agency Signs
Four Authorlink Writers
5/00—Pamela Wray Literary Agency based in Alabama, has signed four Authorlink writers for representation.
They are Steven Rudd, Midnight Run; Jan Letoha, Bury the Past; J.E. Deegan, In Dark Covenant; Norman Davis, Stonecypher's Gold.
Authorlink Author
Carolee Joy Takes
6/15/00—Carolee Joy, author of Wild Angel (Authorlink Press) won second place in the prestigious short contemporary category of the Rising Star 2000 Awards, a division of the Romance Writers of America.
The winners, including the Grand Prize winner, were offered free registration at the RWA national conference or equivalent cash. Winners were presented at the Sooner Area Romance Authors in Tulsa, Oklahoma May 20.
Fifth Authorlink
Contest Winner Earns
Los Angeles, CA/ 5/15/00 —Ekaterine Nikas (Katy) Terlinden, the 1998 Best of Show and mystery winner of the Authorlink New Author Awards Competition, has landed a publishing contract with Avid Press
( www.avidpress.com Her winning novel, Divided Child, will be released by Avid in Winter 2000 under her pen name, Ekaterine Nikas. It is the fifth time in two years an Authorlink contest winner has won a substantial publishing contract.
"Authorlink.com offered a wonderful contest that gave me an important boost to my career, got me access to editors and agents, and provided a very impressive reference for query letters," said Terlinden.
Katy had been writing for about ten years before she heard about Authorlink on one of her writer lists. She advises new writers to "be persistent, be part of a network, enter contests (they are a great way to get agents and editors to look at your work), and keep your mind open to the possibilities offered by small presses and e-book publishers, especially if your book does not fit easily into the New York mold."
Katy also says, "utilize the Internet to the fullest. I probably would not have made my sale without it. I think Authorlink is a great resource for writers and an excellent example of how new writers can use the Internet to break through the barriers to publication.
Authorlink Writer's
New Book Released
by Marlowe, New York
NEW YORK, NY/5/1/00—Beyond Anger: A Guide for Men, by Thomas J. Harbin, Ph.D, has just been released by New York Publisher Marlowe & Company's Avalon imprint. Author Tom Harbin directly attributes the sale of his book to his listing on Authorlink.
Forensic Psychologist Harbin sold his nonfiction manuscript, originally titled STANCE OF ANGER, to established publisher, John Muir Publications as the result of a direct inquiry by the publisher in May, 1998. Muir was bought by Marlowe Books, a division of Avalon last year.
In his new book, Dr. Harbin helps men understand their anger by explaining what the specific symptoms of chronic anger are and by showing angry men how their actions negatively affect family, friends and co-workers.
Tom is one of nearly 60 Authorlink writers to sign a contract with a publisher since sales tracking began in early 1997.
Tom had been listed on the site for eight or nine months before receiving the request. Generously sharing the sales figures with other Authorlink writers, Tom said he was paid a $1,000 advance upon signing a contract, another $1500 upon delivery of the revised manuscript, and the final $1000 was paid when the book was released.
Tom began writing the manuscript about seven years ago, for use with angry men in his clinical practice. "The book sort of grew over the next couple of years and I guess I have been actively trying to sell it for about three years," he said.
"At first, I naively sent it to editors who had done similar work. Then, I engaged a New York agent who had promoted books for a friend of mine. Honestly, I was about to put the manuscript away and forget about it or start the self-publishing journey. Then I became aware of Authorlink while absently surfing the net for agents."
While not officially working on any new titles, he has started writing some short stories about the goings on in his rural North Carolina county, and he's been keeping copious notes for a possible book about his role as a forensic psychologist.
When asked what he would advise first-time writers, he said I would not presume to offer anyone advice. I think that lucked out so far.
And how important was Authorlink to his begin published? My book would still be sitting on a dusty disk somewhere, without Authorlink, he concluded.
In little more than three years, nearly 300 writers have reported signing with agents as a direct result of Authorlink, and more than 1500 requests from editors and agents have been processed.
The author lives and practices in North Carolina.
Authorlink
Joins LA Times
Authorlink writer, Michelle Lovato, has been hired by the Los Angeles Times to cover special sections issues.
Regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious news organizations, the Los Angeles Times has a full circulation of 1.4 million copies per Sunday issue.
Lovato’s work will premier March 13.
With more than two years experience as an Authorlink California publishing correspondent, Lovato has covered several events, and can be found by searching archives.
Lovato is the owner/publisher of The Silver Lakes Gazzette, a weekly newspaper, and a columnist and reporter for The Inland Empire Business Journal, a Southern California regional business magazine.
Accompanying Lovato in her new post will be her husband, Vince, a 20- year veteran of journalism. Among Vince’s credits are previous LA Times bylines,
the sales of two short stories to Stephen Speilberg, two nominations for California Newspaper Publisher’s Association awards and was the recipient of a fellowship to Rice University in Houston Texas.
Lovato has 10 years experience as a political and business reporter
and specializes in feature stories. She writes a newspaper column entitled, Thank You, Lord and has won several awards for her short fiction.
Both Lovatos are pursuing careers in the publishing industry. Ms.Lovato will continue contributing articles to Authorlink.
Carolee Joy Ranks
as RWA Finalist
DALLAS/FORT WORTH, TX/ 3/13/000—WILD ANGEL (Authorlink Press, April 2000) by Carolee Joy has been named a finalist in the Golden Quill contest sponsored by the Desert Rose Chapter of Romance Writers of America. Other finalists include multi-published authors such as Vicki Lewis Thompson, one of Harlequin TemptationsTemptation’s biggest sellers.
In addition to WILD ANGEL, SECRET LEGACY, another novel by Ms. Joy, is also a finalist in the Golden Quill competition for Best Romantic Suspense and Best First Book.
New Author
Ranks #12
ATLANTA,GA/3/10/00—A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO DAY TRADING ONLINE (Adams Media) by first-time author, has risen to #12 on Amazon.com’s top 100.
The book, agented by Deidre Knight of the Knight Agency (listed on Authorlink), was released only a week ago, and began its quick rise after the author appeared on CNBC Today.
American Self
Publishers' Group
Honors Mitchell
SAN FRANCISCO, CA/ 3/1/00—Ed Mitchell, whose manuscript had been listed with Authorlink before he decided to self publish, has been awarded the National Publishers Freedom Award for Best new Fiction. The honor will be bestowed by the year-old American Self Publishers Association (ASPA) for Mitchell's novel, GOLD RUSH 2000. Resource Library. The ASPA award will be given in a formal ceremony May 13 in San Francisco. In addition, the work was accepted by the National Steinbeck Center Resource Library.
Mitchell attributes part of his success to Authorlink for having seen "the quality in my book, and having had the courage to publicly declare that assessment." Authorlink, while not a self publisher, helps writers market their work through promotion to editors and agents, and through listings of their work on its award-winning site, authorlink.com
Third Authorlink Contest
Winner Signs Contract
With Major Publisher
Dallas, TX/1/1/00—Three winners of the Authorlink New Author Awards competition have landed major publishing contracts within the past 18 months. The latest Authorlink contestant to become published is Cynthia G. Alwyn (pen name), who placed among the top three in the 1999 Authorlink awards competition.
Carol Berg of Ft. Collins, CO, the 1999 Authorlink first-place, science fiction/fantasy winner for Song of the Beast, won a three-book contract with Roc (an imprint of Penguin Putnam). And June London, 1998 Authorlink mainstream winner signed a six-figure contract with Harper Collins for her novel, Bingo Queens and a second work-in-progress, tentatively titled Stray Bullets.
Ms. Alwyn won the 1999 competition for a book titled, Tail of the Serpent, but it was her newest work, Best Served Cold, that convinced New York Agent Anne Hawkins of John Hawkins & Associates, to become her agent. Hawkins subsequently sold the work to St. Martins Press for an undisclosed amount. The title will be released in the Winter of 2001.
"I have been surprised how fast things can happen," said Cynthia. "I met Anne Hawkins, who is now my agent, at a conference in 1998. We kept in contact, and when I visited with her at the 1999 Authorlink Awards presentation in Georgia, we finalized our business partnership with my new book BEST SERVED COLD. A short time later, St. Martin’s bought the project. I’m thrilled and stunned at the same time. It didn’t feel real to me until I started getting mail from them."
BEST SERVED COLD features protagonist Brenna Scott and her search dog, Feather, a black Bouvier Des Flandres. Together, they search for lost or missing people. In this book, Brenna and Feather race the clock to locate a child before the kidnapper makes good his threat to take the little girl’s life.
"I wasn’t sure the book would sell, but Anne believed in it and in me. Since I’d worked with a canine search and rescue team for nine years, I do have first-hand knowledge of how dogs and handlers work. Although the story is fiction, I believe my experience in this area helped sell the book," said Cynthia.
Due to the commitment of her day job, Cynthia’s writing time is limited. "I usually write Thursday through Sunday and a solid eight hours a day while on vacation. I frequently work out plot points and tidbits about characters driving to and from work. Most days, I’ll sit in my car during lunch break (it’s the only quiet place at work) and make notes. Although I’ve started writing the next Brenna Scott book, it doesn’t yet have a title."
The 2000 Authorlink New Author Awards Competition is now accepting entries for this year’s contest through March, 2000. Awards again will be presented at the annual Harriette Austin Writers Conference, University of Georgia, in July, 2000. Top prize is $500.
For details see: http://www.authorlink.com/contest_00.html
Three More
Sign Publishing Deals
8/15/99—Three more writers have won publishing contracts as a direct result of their listings with Authorlink. All three are clients of Elisabet McHugh, McHugh Literary Agency, who discovered them on Authorlink several months ago. This brings to a total of 49 the number of books that have been sold through Authorlink during the past 2 1/2 years.
Chris Spicer has accepted an offer form McFarland & Co. for Frankly, My Dear. . .:The Life of Clark Gable.
Publication will be in 1001, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Gable's birth.
Neva Hacker, author of Missing Candy, and Charles Crone, author of The Palestinian Solution, have sold their work as e-books to Fictionworks, through Ms. McHugh.
E.A. Blair Becomes
43 rd Author to Find
Publisher Via Authorlink
7/1/99—Scrivenery Press will publish Authorlink writer E. A. Blair's A Journey to the Interior, in November, 1999, making Blair the 43 rd author to find a publisher via Authorlink since sales tracking began in 1997. Thirty-one writers have been published as a result of Authorlink, with houses such as Berkley, Tor, John Wiley & Sons, Carol Publishing Group and others. Twelve more titles will be released in August, 1999 by Authorlink's own imprint—Authorlink Press, bringing the total of successfully published authors to forty-three.
"I had tried sending material to about 50 agents, and though many were favorably impressed, all rejected the work, probably because their slice of an author's first book might not have seemed profitable enough," said E.A.
Blair, who holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts has been writing since 1951. His day job for the past 30 years has been in publications for the aerospace industry. Some time back, he wrote and published a professional book, but turned to serious fiction only about ten years ago.
E.A. had been trying to sell his work through agents for five years, when he discovered Authorlink in May, 1998. He had been listed on the site for ten months when Scrivenery Press Publisher Ed Williams spotted his work on the web site. Scrdivenery, whose titles are distributed by Ingram Book Group, is actively building both its fiction and non-fiction lines.
Asked how it feels to be a published author, Blair said, "Vindicated. The related adjectives will come later."
Blair's contract did not include an advance, but does pay standard royalties.
"My impression of Scrivenery is that they are professional, intelligent and use advanced publishing technologies—as witnessed by the use of Authorlink and Ingram Book.
"Finding Authorlink was like a door to opportunity suddenly opening," said Blair.
He advises the unpublished writer to "Write patiently, critically."
He has a second title underway.
Novel Released
by Berkley Publishing
NEW YORK,NY/6/10/99— LOST RIVER, a novel by Authorlink writer, Pax Riddle, is now on bookstore shelves. Pax made the deal with Berkley Publishing Group (division of Penguin/Putnam) as part of the connections he made through Authorlink. The book is available via: http://www.lostriver.org/, barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com
Authorlink Named
Among Best Education
6/10/99—Authorlink has been selected as a featured site in StudyWeb
( http://www.studyweb.com/) as one of the best educational resources on the web.
StudyWeb is one of the Internet's premier sites for educational resources for students and teachers. Since 1996 professional reviewers have scoured the Internet to select only the finest sites to be included in StudyWeb's reviews. Each site in StudyWeb includes a detailed review describing it's merits.
Authorlink Teams
With Lightning to Offer
On-Demand Book Imprint
DALLAS, TX /5/1/99—Authorlink, the award-winning news/information and marketing site for the publishing industry, will launch its own book imprint, Authorlink Press, this summer. The move results in part from a new publishing partnership between Authorlink and Lightning Print, Inc, the print on demand subsidiary of Ingram Book, worlds largest book distributor.
Authorlink Press will carry the fine tradition of New York-style publishing into the digital age, said Authorlink President Doris Booth. We will serve as a market proving ground for the titles that truly deserve to be published and read—titles that eventually may find their way to larger houses, after we establish a solid track for them, said Ms. Booth.
Lower-cost digital and on-demand printing now enable Authorlink Press to publish books once considered economically too risky. The company will aggressively market the titles, establish sales records and then seek to turn them over to larger publishers.
The imprint will use the latest technology to publish digitally-downloadable books and trade paperbacks, printed on demand. Titles will be distributed through multiple on and off-line sales channels, including Ingram, which serves major booksellers such as Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com.
Authorlink has also established an alliance with Peanut Press, to help supply electronic books for 2 million Palm Pilot and IBM WorkPad owners. Authorlink marketing ties also include alliances with the book review site, Bookbrowse.com (280, 000 page views annually), larger publishing houses, and other distribution and marketing resources.
Authorlink Press emphasizes aggressive, targeted marketing and distribution for every title it buys-a vital element often missing from tight production and promotional budgets at traditional publishers. The company's own loyal audience of 170,000 book lovers provides one the ready audiences of book buyers.
Not only do our readers support fellow writers by buying and reading their work. They provide vital marketing feedback. At Authorlink the end consumer will tell us which books they like and why—not marketing reps, nor retail booksellers with special agendas, but the readers themselves, said Ms. Booth.
Admittedly, digital publishing furrows new ground for Authorlink Our imprint is a test of its own-measuring whether consumers will buy truly good titles through Internet sites, hand-held devices and on-demand, with books printed at the time of their order (one- off). Ms. Booth explained.
In 1999 Authorlink Press initially will release 12 fiction and non-fiction titles, both in digital and trade paperback (on demand), with 12 to 24 titles to follow next year. They will be promoted to targeted, vertical markets, and to horizontal mass audiences via the Internet and traditional channels.
The imprints digital books will be available on the Authorlink.com site and through Peanut Press
( http://www.peanutepress.com/) late this summer. Most titles-and all of the initial 12—will also be available in the Ingram title base and may be ordered through all Ingram ordering systems, accessible to Barnes & Noble, Barnesandnoble.com, Amazon.com and, other major booksellers and libraries.
Both first-time and seasoned authors will be included in the list. Categories include suspense/thrillers, mainstream commercial fiction, science fiction/fantasy, romance, and narrative and commercial nonfiction. No anthologies or short stores are considered, and length ranges from 70,000-80,000 words. The new house is not a subsidy or vanity publisher, and will pay standard publishing industry royalties.
Unsolicited manuscripts are NOT accepted at this time and will be automatically recycled. Prospective authors should, instead, consider submitting their work for possible listing in the site's Author Showcase section.
Authorlink will continue to showcase listings of ready-to-publish manuscripts, and to market them worldwide to editors and agents, as it successfully has done for thee years. Authorlink has been rated among the top 25% of most useful sites on the web by Microsoft's One Click Away E- zine.
Web site: http://www.authorlink.com/
Among Writer's Digest
Top 101 Sites For Writers
Writers Digest magazine has selected Authorlink as one of The 101 Best Web Sites for Writers. The 101 were culled from the Digest staffs lists of favorites, as well as from nominations made by about 1,500 visitors to writersdigest.com.
The 101 Best is the cover story of the May 1999 issue of Writers Digest. The list is also published in its entirety on the Writer's Digest website, at http://www.writersdigest.com/101sites.
The list of recommended websites is just one of several recent additions to writersdigest.com.
Authorlink holds other distinguished industry awards, and including its ranking by Microsoft's One Click Away E- zine among the top 25% of most useful sites on the web.
Sign With WriterBeck
Agency in Two Weeks
5/1/99—Four Authorlink writers will have signed with a single literary agent within the past two-weeks. Beck Roberts, owner of the Writerbeck Agency, has contracted Mackey Murdock and Andrea Giacomuzzi—both listed with Authorlink and found through the site. Two more writers were polishing their manuscripts, but were expected to sign with Ms.Roberts within days.
Beck Roberts represents 70% fiction and 30% nonfiction, and handles most categories except for erotica and cartoons. She has 30 years of experience as a published writer in both fiction and nonfiction and 20 years in related marketing fields. Ms. Roberts has been an agent for a little more than a year, and has already signed seven writers, including the new Authorlink people.
Her agency is based in South Carolina, where she moved with her husband and two children to have a simpler lifestyle than in Atlanta.
"Being a relatively new agent, I am more eager than some to work with the authors and their manuscripts, sending them out with strong cover letters to publishers. I am tireless in my efforts and truly get excited about seeing good works in print," she said.
The agency has no sales at present but, as Ms. Roberts said, "Good things take time and I am confident in the authors' work and my ability to promote it successfully."
Editor's Note, 5/11/99: This agent has retired due to a severe illness and will not be accepting other clients.
Update: Authorlink Writer
Sells WOLF'S TALE
To TOR Books
Agent Describes Publishing Recipe
By Sam Hughes
The Dickens Group Literary Agency
3/99—David Holland and his upcoming first novel MURCHESTON: THE WOLFS TALE (TOR Books) is a lesson to all who serve as functionaries in today's literary marketplace. Success may well depend on an old recipe: a good writer, a persistent agent who is willing to nurture true talent, and an editor who takes his or her job to heart and who will fight for a book. In the case of David Holland, whose work has appeared on Authorlink the factors that traditionally made the publishing industry great came together after seven years of productive author/agent interaction.
The heroes of this story are Hollland, one of the finest writers our agency has seen, agent Bob Solinger, who recognized brilliant writing and spent seven years pounding on doors to sell Hollands work, and Karla Zounek, the TOR editor who fell under the spell of Hollands writing and worked one-on-one with him to produce a fine literary horror story with a distinctive Victorian setting and tone.
For agents and editors struggling against adverse forces in the current marketplace, it is important to recognize the Holland phenomenon. Services such as Authorlink — a sterling example of what Internet marketing can and should be are invaluable to everyone, especially to new writers. And the ultimate lesson for writers, agents and editors alike: eventually, good writing sells.
Writer's Seven Year
Effort Pays Off,
Authorlink Plays Part
Louisville, KY/1/1/99—David Holland, a writer featured on the Authorlink site, since August, 1997, has sold his novel, THE WOLF'S TALE, with The Dickens Group as his agency. David has tried for seven years to become published, and at last found an agency that believed in his work and found the right publisher. More details of his success will be published here soon.
Psychologist Tom Harbin
Becomes 25th Authorlink
Writer to Sell Work
2/15/99—Forensic Psychologist Tom Harbin has sold his nonfiction manuscript, STANCE OF ANGER: RECOGNIZING AND CHANGING THE PATTERNS OF MENS ANGER, to established publisher, John Muir Publications. Tom is the 25th Authorlink writer to sign a contract with a publisher Since sales tracking began in early 1997.
The title will be released in the spring of 2000, according to acquisitions editor Cassandra Conyers, who requested the manuscript directly from Authorlink in May, 1998. Tom had been listed on the site for eight or nine months before receiving the request.
Generously sharing the sales figures with other Authorlink writers, Tom said he was paid a $1,000 advance upon signing a contract, another $1500 upon delivery of the revised manuscript, and the final $1000 will be paid when the book is released. Authorlink assumes a royalty arrangement is also included in the contract.
Tom began writing STANCE about seven years ago, for use with angry men in his clinical practice. The book sort of grew over the next couple of years and I guess I have been actively trying to sell it for about three years.
At first, I naively sent it to editors who had done similar work. Then, I engaged a New York agent who had promoted books for a friend of mine. Honestly, I was about to put the manuscript away and forget about it or start the self-publishing journey. Then I became aware of Authorlink while absently surfing the net for agents.
Tom said having his first work published feels daunting. Muir wants him to increase the book length by about 67% during revision, and he's not a full-time author. He hopes he can get it done on time, especially since there are substantial penalties for being late.
John Muir Publications, established in 1969, will release 68 titles in 1999, and 75 in 2000. Main interests are in travel and alternative health.
In little more than two years, 215- plus writers have reported signing with agents as a direct result of Authorlink, and more than 960 requests from editors and agents have been processed.
Writer Cindy Appel
Lands Columnist Job
as Result of Authorlink
2/15/99—Cindy Appel, recently named Cyber Columnist of the Quarter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, attributes her job as a Star Telegram Online Columnist directly to Authorlink and the 1998 Authorlink Electrify Your Writing seminar.
I found out how to become a cyber-columnist from the talk given at the Authorlink workshop last May by Star Telegram Online Marketing Director Bonnie Bradshaw. I became a weekly columnist by July of last year, said Cindy.
Her column, titled, Every Day IS Mothers Day can be found at www.star-telegram.com/homes/cappel/columns/momsday.htm. Cindy takes a semi-humorous look at the world through the eyes of being a full-time mom and struggling writer. She has even developed a loyal following of sorts, too, and takes suggestions from readers on future column topics.
I just thought that others who read Authorlink might like to know how helpful it can be to their writing careers, said Cindy.
Agent McHugh Signs
12 Authorlink Writers,
Sells to Key Publishers
12/1/98—Twelve Authorlink writers have signed contracts within the past couple of years with Literary Agent Elisabet Mchugh, all as a direct result of the Authorlink service. And McHugh has sold many of their works to major publishers.
One of these clients, Roland Jansen, whose first book Profits From Natural Resources was just published by John Wiley, is now working on a second investment book. Linda Swink, Eric Winkler, David Whale and Sam Sackett also sold their books through Ms. McHugh.
In recent months, this agent has added a number of other Authorlink writers, including: Steven Levi, David Dial, S.Alan Hepps, Terry Milton, Jim Norton, Rebecca Spalten, and Lewis Tracy. A thirteenth writer is about to be signed with her.
"Authorlink is providing a great service for agents and editors," says Ms. McHugh, who works exclusively through the Internet and has clients in eight countries. "I'm impressed not only by the quality of the manuscripts that you have listed, but also the prompt service rendered by your staff when I request a manuscript. And I check out the new listings on your website on a regular basis."
Sells Nonfiction Title
to Lone Wolf Enterprises
12/1/98—Dale C. Maley, author of Road Map to Retirement: How to Quickly and Easily Develop a Financial Plan for Retirement, has sold his work to Roger Wolf’s Lone Wolf Enterprises, Ltd. ( http://www.lonewolfent.net/) as a direct result of Authorlink
The book will be released both in hardcover and online in the first quarter of 1999. Lone Wolf has more than 60 titles in print.
Maley will receive 15% of gross for printed book and 15% of gross for electronic book sales.
Maley discovered Authorlink when he picked up a paper flier at the Harriet Austin Writer's Conference in Athens, Georgia last July, then followed up by visiting the site at http://www.authorlink.com/. (Note: The second annual Authorlink New Author Awards Banquet will be held as part of the 1999 Harriet Austin Writer’s Conference in Athens, July 23-25, 1999).
Dale, who has been writing for about two years, said it took him only 15 months to find a publisher through Authorlink He first found an agent through Authorlink who tried, but failed to sell the title to a large publisher.
How does it feel to have his first work published? “Very exciting, it has been a long, arduous, and perilous journey from writing those first few words of the manuscript until getting it published, “ said Dale.
He advises new writers to “Make sure your book is either the best among all the competition or among the first few books published in a new subject area. Be diligent, patient, and believe in your yourself and your work.
Authorlink Helps
Writer Secure
International Agent
12/1/98—J.D. Wetterling, author of SON OF THUNDER, has sold his first work to domestic publisher, Rivilo Books, Felix C. Lowe, publisher. The title was schedule for release in November, 1998. While J.D. located a publisher on his own, it was Authorlink that helped him find his agent. The Stefanidis Agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, discovered J.D.s listing on the Authorlink site and requested a review of the manuscript. The writer agreed to let Stefanidis handle the foreign rights.
Wetterling , who has been writing for nine years, had tried to locate an editor and agent for the last eight years. He found Authorlink while surfing the net. He found the publisher networking through friends.
How does it feel to have his first work published? “Wonderful!” he exclaimed. Wetterling, whose day job is as a Stockbroker with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, has two more novels in progress. He hopes to write all day, every day, for the rest of his days. Books and the Internet helped him more than anything else to improve his craft.
He advised new writers to “never give up.”
Now Able to Track
Their Own Page Hits
12/1/98— Authorlink writers are now able to track the number of hits to their individual pages each month. We're now adding individual counters to every page, so writers can determine the level of interest in their listed manuscripts. The counter, which resets at the first of each month, does not show who visited the page, but it gives the writer an idea of how interested editors, agents and general readers are in his or her topic and title.
The counter is now being added to every new writer's page. Writers with existing listings can request an ID and password for the service by emailing: dbooth@authorlink.com
JLA Agency Signs
In 60 Days, Praises Site
11/15/98—Jay Lace, owner of JLA Literary, reports that he has signed contracts to represent four Authorlink writers during the past 60 days.
They include: Michael Sedge, Author of the novel, The Oracle, and a nonfiction work, Fettuccini or the Frustrated Soul; Margaret Brennecke, author of the novel, Seeking Refuge; Miles Twaddell, author of the novel, Victory Day, and Charles Carron, author of the non-fiction work, The Suing Game.
JLA, a new agency actively looking to build a small roster of clients, found all four writers listed on Authorlink
"We are looking for original works with commercial appeal," said Mr. Lace. "We have discovered that using Authorlink helps us separate the chaff from the wheat, and saves us hundreds of hours that would otherwise be wasted on unsuitable manuscripts."
The agency adheres to the AAR's guidelines, although it is not yet a registered member.
Wiley Releases
First Book in November
11/1/98—Roland Jansen, who found an agent and publisher through Authorlink, has received the first copy of his new book, Profits in Natural Resources, from publisher John Wiley & Sons. The new release shipped to major bookstore chains in early November.
"It all started with Authorlink, " Jansen said in a message to Authorlink this week. "The Internet works."
Agent Signs
Three Authorlink
Writers Within Months
AUSTIN, TX/10/98—Brian G. Clark, Esq., owner of BGC Literary Management, has signed contracts to represent three Authorlink writers within less than two months.
BGC is an aggressive and highly professional new agency headquartered in Austin, TX.
Clark said he has signed Eric Scherer, author of THE OLYMPUS PROJECT; Ekaterine (Katy) Terlinden, who wrote THE DIVIDED CHILD, and Pete Murphy, author of SALAMANDERS. Ms. Terlinden was Best of Show (suspense/mystery/thriller) winner in the first annual Authorlink New Author Awards competition. (See the second annual Authorlink competition guidelines at http://www.authorlink.com/contest_99.html).
"The advent of literary agents came as publishing houses cut editorial staff, allowing agents to step in as the front line arbiters of taste and commercial viability," said Clark. "Authorlink has become the new additional front line for the busy agent, a source for trusted pre-screened material to pursue at their convenience."
Authorlink Finalists
Sign Publishing Contract
With Neighborhood Press
8/29/98—Marian Gibbons and Karin Welss, finalists in both the Romance and SF/Fantasy/Horror categories in the 1998 Authorlink New Author Awards Competition, have signed a publishing contract with Neighborhood Press for their historical romance novel, SWEETER THAN WINE. SWEETER THAN WINE is scheduled to be released in May, 1999, under the pseudonym of Michaela August.
In this novel WWI widow Alice Roye must fight to save her Sonoma winery from the threat of Prohibition. She falls in love with her new vintner, a European refugee, not knowing that he served as an enemy soldier during the war.
"We believe that entering our work in contests such as the one sponsored by Authorlink really opened some doors for us, " said Karin Welss. "SWEETER THAN WINE is definitely a local history novel, highlighting a little-known aspect of Prohibition," explains Welss when asked about how she and Gibbons chose the subject for their novel . "A lot of hard-working American winemakers and grape-growers lost their livelihoods when beer and wine were outlawed along with hard liquor, and California's wine industry languished for the next fifty years."
Gibbons adds, "It was a very emotional time, so soon after World War I and the deadly influenza epidemic. Although the concept of Prohibition was well-intentioned, its effect was devastating even before gangsters and bathtub gin became the popular symbols of its failure. Grape-growers didn't know, right up to harvest in 1919, whether or not they could legally pick the best crop they'd ever seen. I found the research fascinating."
How did they make the sale? After finishing the manuscript, Gibbons and Welss spent a year sending out query letters and partials. They also entered several writing contests, including the Authorlink contest. "The romance writing community is incredibly supportive of new writers," Welss says, and Gibbons agrees: "We got a lot of help and encouragement from the published authors who judged two of the contests." A major obstacle to overcome in selling SWEETER THAN WINE was its WWI-era setting. "It's always difficult for new authors to break in," remarks Gibbons, "and even more difficult when editors are convinced that no one wants to read historicals set in the early 20th century." Their finalist status helped generate leads for possible publishers, as did their membership on several writing-related Internet listservs.
Welss remembers: "Someone on RWALINK (the Romance Writers of America members-only listserv) mentioned that Neighborhood Press was a fairly new publishing house open to romance submissions, and they spoke very highly of the Senior Editor, Rhea Griffiths. We queried Rhea via email, got a favorable response, and the rest is history." Marian Gibbons and Karin Welss are working on separate solo projects at the moment, although they have several more co-authored novels in the planning stages, including a sequel to SWEETER THAN WINE.
Gibbons is currently writing a sequel to In a Mirror, Darkly, set amid the turmoil of Berkeley in the 60's. Welss has another historical romance in progress, a tale of love and blackmail set in Restoration England.
About Neighborhood Press: Rhea Griffiths founded Neighborhood Press in 1995 with nothing but a desktop computer, an America Online account and the belief that "if she built it, they would come…" Now a rapidly growing small press, Neighborhood Press plans to publish twelve novels in 1999 as well as six issues of The Lovers Knot, a new magazine aimed at readers and writers of romance. Additional information about Marian Gibbons and Karin Welss, writing together as Michaela August, is available at the HREF="http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/3524/"Michaela August Web Page.
Another Writer Wins
Via Authorlink
EquiLibrium Press Signs Mitchell
NEW YORK, NY & CULVER CITY, CA/ 8/98—Joyce Slayton Mitchell, author of more than 32 nonfiction books published by major houses such as Bantam, Dell, Simon & Schuster, and others, has sold another nonfiction work as a direct result of Authorlink
Ms. Mitchell's newest manuscript, Pregnant in New Zealand: Mother and Daughter Letters from Afar, will be published in May, 1999 by EquiLibrium Press, Inc. of Culver City, California.
EquiLibrium Press Publisher Susan Goland requested the manuscript several months ago after seeing Mitchell's listing on Authorlink This will be EquiLibrium's first title as a new publisher, specializing in all aspects of health and wellness for women.
Pregnant in New Zealand is the story of a courageous and adventuresome young woman who finds an exotic life in the Pacific. This collection of New Zealand-to-Vermont letters is written in the first hours of pregnancy, leads to a dramatic 45-hour labor, and reveals the tensions of midwifery, and differences in generations, race and hemisphere.
Ms. Mitchell, who lives in New York, has successfully listed several works with Authorlink since late 1997. The newest book had been listed on the site for about 45 days or less, when Publisher Goland spotted it. The entire process, from listing to sale, took place within about three months.
Authorlink Winner
Signs Six-Figure
Deal at Harper Collins
7/98—June London, mainstream winner of the 1998 Authorlink New Author Awards Competition, has signed a six-figure contract with Harper Collins for her novel, Bingo Queens and a second work-in-progress, tentatively titled Stray Bullets.
The first title will be released in April, 1999, and the second manuscript will be completed in August, 1999. Both will be released under Harper Collins’ Cliff Street imprint.
Ms. London, whose real name is June Park, lives with her husband in a small Oklahoma town, similar to the setting for Bingo Queens, her first novel.
She met her agent, Robert Tabian of Robert Tabian Literary Agency , four years ago at an Oklahoma writers' conference. He showed considerable interest in her story at the time, though only a few chapters had been completed.
June sent an earlier novel out to 20 agents, all of whom rejected her. In 1988, early in her career, she took lessons from well-known writing coach, Jack Bickam at the University of Oklahoma in 1988. “He was my mentor, one on one,” June said. She began winning various contests and published a few shorts stories. She also began teaching creative writing at local colleges. “The more I taught, the more I learned,” June told Authorlink.
When she finished Bingo Queens in February last year, she suddenly remembered the meeting with Tabian. A few weeks earlier, she had entered the Authorlink contest. On April 13, 1998 Authorlink notified her that she had won first place in the mainstream nonfiction category. About two weeks later, Tabian notified her that Harper Collins wanted to buy the work.
“While we weren’t responsible for making the direct connection with HarperCollins, “said Authorlink Editor Doris Booth. “we sure know how to spot the winners.”
Tabian is a former editor at Putnam and was with International Creative Management before opening his own agency. Among Tabin’s clients is 1993 Pulitzer Prize Winner Robert Olan Butler.
How does it feel to have her first two novels sold? “I don’t know,” says June. I suppose reality has yet to sink in.”
Asked when she first became interested in writing, Ms. Park, a native of London, England, said that as a child during World War II, she read books while sequestered in bomb shelters to calm her fears and remove her from reality.
For the past ten years she has devoted herself exclusively to her writing career.
Tim McGuire Tops
Ingram’s Hot List
DALLAS/FT. WORTH, TX/ 6/30/98—Tim McGuire’s newly-released Western, Danger Ridge (DORCHESTER/LEISURE BOOKS) has been listed by Ingram Book Company among the top ten most requested western fiction titles in the mass market/paperback category for several consecutive weeks in June. The excellent showing was posted even before the title was scheduled to reach bookstores by the end of that month.
Tim McGuire is among writers whose ready-to-publish and newly-released works are listed on Authorlink Danger Ridge is his first novel. Another western, titled, “Nobility,” , is due for release by LEISURE next year. Ingram is the world’s largest trade book distributor.
Pax Riddle Sells
Book to Berkley
6/20/98—Authorlink writer, Pax Riddle, has sold his first novel “Lost River” to Berkley Publishing Group for the mid four figures. Pax joined the Authorlink site in early 1997. Some months later he signed with a top New York agent, whom he found through the Authorlink private agency directory. Berkley Editor Kim Waltemeyer bought the manuscript in June, 1998.
Lost River is the story of a young Modoc woman married to a white man, who struggles to balance her Indian heritage and her family in the face of looming war between her people and the US Army. The book will be released in Summer, 1999.
Pax Riddle writes full time, and lives with his wife and teenage daughter in Connecticut. He is working on a second novel, The Education of Ruby Loonfoot, and recently sold a nonfiction article to Wild West magazine.
Pax advises new writers to join a good work-oriented critique group, and consider their comments closely, while maintaining your style and integrity. “If you wish to sell your work, versus merely write it for artistic, self satisfaction, find out about the marketplace. See where you can find a niche,” he says.
New Author Finds
Agent on Internet,
Sells Six-figure Deal
7/98—First-time novelist William Kowalski of Erie PA. has sold his manuscript, Eddie’s Bastard, to Harper Collins. After receiving offers from several houses, agent Anne Hawkins of John Hawkins & Associates Inc., New York accepted a two book deal totalling in the mid six figures. Marjorie Braman, Senior Vice President for Harper Collins Adult Trade Books made the successful offer. Irv Schwartz of The Renaissance Agency, Los Angeles, CA, will handle film and television rights.
Kowalski first contacted Hawkins with an unsolicited E-mail query. He found her E-mail address via a search of AOL user profiles for literary agents.
In the fictional autobiography, William Kowalski explores the importance of family and the place of the individual in the continuum of history and time.
Living alone in a decaying mansion, Grandpa Mann is the last surviving member of a once-great family. Or so he believes until the day he stumbles drunkenly out the back door and discovers a baby in a picnic basket. A note taped to the handle identifies the occupant as “EDDIE’S BASTARD,” the child of his only
son recently killed in Viet Nam. What follows is the bittersweet story of the old man raising his grandson as the last, proud scion of the Mann family and steeping him in all of its rich and bizarre heritage.
Kowalski braids the story of the boy’s journey to young manhood together with family anecdotes and homespun philosophical excerpts from great-great grandfather Mann’s Civil War diary. The result is a story mixing warm humor with nostalgia and the inevitable sadness common to most American family histories.
Michigan Writer
Sells First Book
7/98—David Whale has found an agent and sold his book, HOW SCHOOLS REALLY WORK: AN ACTION GUIDE FOR PARENTS, through Authorlink Before having his work accepted for a listing on Authorlink he had written an agent himself, only to be turned down.
"It seemed like to me there should be a better way to reach potential editors and agents. Authorlink turned out to be the answer," David said.
He found Authorlink through a search engine while surfing the web. "I liked the way it was laid out and the content," he said. " I figured it was worth a try, and the results and support were outstanding all the way."
Whale said his agent has been great to work with. "We do all of our communicating via email. She is based in Idaho and I am in Michigan. We've never met face to face but I feel I know her and we have a very good relationship."
David waited a number of months before his agent connected with him through Authrolink! But persistence paid off. About nine months after his listing on Authorlink Agent Elisabet McHugh had made a sale for David. That's less than half the time it usually takes to sell a manuscript.
The hardcover book will be released in September, 1998 by Avisson. While David has published some scholarly papers and continues to do research and writing on the same topic as his book, this is his first full-length published work.
Sam Sackett's
'Career Karate'
Finds Publisher
6/98—Sam Sackett expected it would take a long time to find an agent, even with the help of Authorlink His listing first appeared on the site in April, 97, and about six or even months later he signed with agent, Elisabet McHugh, after receiving requests from three different representatives, and subsequently a publishing house.
"Placing the book with a publisher took longer than I thought, "said Sackett. "I think any author feels his work is so good that it will sell immediately, and I am no exception. Reality was, as it usually is, disillusioning." That process took about four more months.
"Was I skeptical of Authorlink at first? Sure. Anybody who has lived long in this economy has run across enough scams to make him skeptical of anything that sounds like a good deal. It's a by-product of the free enterprise system that crooks are free to function until they're caught.
"I found Authorlink very professional and timely. I was particularly impressed with their efforts to make sure that the agents they list operate ethically, " Sam said. " I even passed along a couple of names of agents who approached me about whom I was leery, and Authorlink acted appropriately."
How did Sam Sackett begin his writing career?
"Miss Grassle, my kindergarten teacher, assigned all of us to write a book in imitation of the little reader which was our text. I became hooked on writing and have been writing ever since."
Right now Sam has obligations that prevent him from the kind of sustained writing effort that he would like to make, so he's working along at translations of a couple of Flemish novels because he can do them a page at a time in between other chores. When he can free up his time more fully, he plans to finish a book on how to get a job, TWELVE STEPS TO FINDING THE PERFECT CAREER, which his present agent is also interested in representing.
Another agent whom he found through the Authorlink listings, has three of Sam's novels: ADOLF HITLER IN OZ, AN AMERICAN PRODIGAL, and SWEET BETSY FROM PIKE.
Sam's book, CAREER KARATE: WINNING STRATEGIES FOR MANAGERS, will be released by The Graduate Group sometime this spring.
"I think Authorlink is a great opportunity for writers. Before I discovered Authorlink, I had used the lists of agents in the Literary Market Place, only to be told by them — at least by those of them that answered at all — that they were not accepting work from new writers. The agents listed by Authorlink are all agents actively seeking new talent. For that reason Authorlink saves writers an enormous amount of time and effort in bringing them together with people who actually are interested in considering their work. So I am really very thankful to Authorlink and will be happy to sing its praises wherever and whenever I have the occasion."
Eric Winkler Sells
First Work
Within Five Months
6/98—Eric Winkler signed with a literary agent and sold his first manuscript, Partnership Marketing, to Greenwood Publishing, all within only five months. How did he do that? Through Authorlink
"At first, I made the mistake that first-time authors make of trying to pitch my manuscript directly to publishing houses. While searching the Internet for publishers, I ran across Authorlink" Eric explained. "Rather than try and learn the book publishing industry overnight, I thought I'd "borrow some experience" from Authorlink and I couldn't be more pleased with the results."
Authorlink asked Eric if he were skeptical of the service at first, and why?
"I have to admit I was skeptical at first. There are so many mine fields on the Internet that I worry about paying for any service offered on the 'net. I was impressed by the list of authors on the site and by the current publishing industry news. It seemed like a gamble worth taking and I'm very pleased with the connections Authorlink made for me."
Eric had searched for several months and had a number of dead-end conversations with publishers. He made the mistake of thinking he didn't need an agent. "Looking back, it was a little like thinking I could do my own dental work with a few lessons," he commented.
Eric said he was surprised how fast Authorlink produced results for him. It took less than a month for him to sign with agent, Elisabet McHugh through Authorlink He agreed to partner with her in October. By December, 97 he had received his first serious offer from a publisher. Then, in February, 98, only five months after Authorlink connected him with an agent, he sold his first book.
Asked if he had any advice for other first-time authors, Eric advised: "Don't be afraid to admit what you don't know. Do you need Authorlink? Yes. You can't possibly expect to learn the publishing industry overnight, so let Authorlink lend you their contacts and their expertise.
"I don't know about other writers, but I asked myself over and over whether or not I needed an agent. I did. My agent helped me focus my work and helped crystallize the vision for my project. Unless you are fortunate enough to be a publisher writing about the publishing industry, you need an agent to help you navigate this complicated business."
Eric Winkler said he had "nothing but praise" for Authorlink "This service sets realistic expectations and then exceeds them. I consider myself fortunate to have found Authorlink and even more fortunate that my agent found me through Authorlink This is a service I'd recommend to any first time author."
Roland Jansen
In Six Months
5/98—Roland Jansen has just sold his first book to John Wiley & Sons as a direct result of having secured agent Elisabet McHugh through Authorlink
Unnatural Profits from Natural Resources: How to Make Big Profits, Globally, From Oil, Gas, Grains and Metals will be released by John Wiley & Sons in August, 1998.
Dutch-born Jansen, director of fund management for the oldest bank in Liechtenstein, wrote the book in German in September 1996 and originally titled it, The Coming Squeeze in Natural Resources. A friend who review it told him his German was "hopeless" and suggested he write it in English. He did. In January, 1997 he began surfing the Internet to find information on publishers and came across Authorlink
"I thought Authorlink was a great idea for an aspiring writer living in a remote area and with no contacts in the publishing world. My book was accepted for listing on the service and after only two months, in March, 1997, Authorlink Editor Doris Booth informed me that literary agent Elisabet McHugh was interested in reading the full manuscript. After receiving valuable background information from Doris about the agent, I signed with Ms. McHugh on April 3."
In the following six months, Ms. McHugh encouraged Jansen to refocus the book and he completed the new version in August, 1997. Only a month later John Wiley & Sons made the offer to publish the book.
His advice to new writers: "Listen to the feedback you get from publishers who don't want to buy. Your work must be unique and you must be able to tell a publisher why it is so special. Finally, don't let anyone take away your dream of being published."
Maley discovered Authorlink when he picked up a paper flier at the Harriet Austin Writer's Conference in Athens, Georgia last July, then followed up by visiting the site at http://www.authorlink.com/arch4_files/authorlink.htm. (Note: The second annual Authorlink New Author Awards Banquet will be held as part of the 1999 Harriet Austin Writer’s Conference in Athens, July 23-25, 1999).
Categorised in: News
This post was written by William Kowalski
Digital Book World at Frankfurt Book Fair
RealClearPolitics Joins Powerhouse Digital Book World 2019 Program
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Implicit presuppositions: an exercise in multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering
Faust, William L. and Faust, Katherine and Jones, William Thomas (1983) Implicit presuppositions: an exercise in multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering. Humanities Working Paper, 83. California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20090917-121707598
This working paper, like Humanities Working Papers 66 and 75, of which it is a further development, has two main aims. The first of these is to resolve a particular problem in art history. For this purpose the data already studied in Working Papers 66 and 75 are reanalyzed by means of multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering procedures, with results that support our earlier conclusion that sixteenth century Mannerism is best understood as an exaggeration of the High Renaissance style rather than as a distinct school. Our second aim, which in this paper takes precedence over the first, is to demonstrate to humanists that the quantitative methods of the social sciences can be used effectively to deal with some of the problems with which humanists are characteristically concerned, by replacing unresolved difference of opinion by judgments based on public procedures. Though this is a joint paper, the text is chiefly the responsibility of a psychologist and an anthropologist; the explanatory comments and Discussion section are chiefly the responsibility of a philosopher. Thus the authorship of the paper reflects the kind of cooperation between social scientists and humanists that we are recommending.
Report or Paper (Working Paper)
Humanities Working Papers
Humanities Working Paper
Faust, William L., Faust, Katherine, and Jones, W.T. Implicit presuppositions: an exercise in multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering. Pasadena, CA: California Institute of Technology, 1983. Humanities Working Paper, No. 83.
Lindsay Cleary
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Conservative, Election Date
PM Theresa May’s Election Announcement: Full Transcript.
April 18, 2017 Editor 1 Comment
“I have just chaired a meeting of the Cabinet, where we agreed that the Government should call a general election, to be held on June 8. I want to explain the reasons for that decision, what will happen next and the choice facing the British people when you come to vote in this election.
“Last summer, after the country voted to leave the European Union, Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership, and since I became prime minister the Government has delivered precisely that. Despite predictions of immediate financial and economic danger, since the referendum we have seen consumer confidence remain high, record numbers of jobs, and economic growth that has exceeded all expectations. We have also delivered on the mandate that we were handed by the referendum result. Britain is leaving the European Union and there can be no turning back and as we look to the future, the Government has the right plan for negotiating our new relationship with Europe.
“We want a deep and special partnership between a strong and successful European Union and a United Kingdom that is free to chart its own way in the world. That means we will regain control of our own money, our own laws and our own borders and we will be free to strike trade deals with old friends and new partners all around the world. This is the right approach, and it is in the national interest. But the other political parties oppose it. At this moment of enormous national significance there should be unity here in Westminster, but instead there is division. The country is coming together, but Westminster is not. In recent weeks Labour has threatened to vote against the deal we reach with the European Union. The Liberal Democrats have said they want to grind the business of government to a standstill. The Scottish National Party say they will vote against the legislation that formally repeals Britain’s membership of the European Union and un-elected members of the House of Lords have vowed to fight us every step of the way. Our opponents believe that because the Government’s majority is so small, our resolve will weaken and that they can force us to change course. They are wrong. They under-estimate our determination to get the job done and I am not prepared to let them endanger the security of millions of working people across the country. Because what they are doing jeopardises the work we must do to prepare for Brexit at home and it weakens the Government’s negotiating position in Europe.If we do not hold a general election now their political game-playing will continue, and the negotiations with the European Union will reach their most difficult stage in the run-up to the next scheduled election.
“Division in Westminster will risk our ability to make a success of Brexit and it will cause damaging uncertainty and instability to the country, so we need a general election and we need one now, because we have at this moment a one-off chance to get this done while the European Union agrees its negotiating position and before the detailed talks begin. I have only recently and reluctantly come to this conclusion.
“Since I became Prime Minister I have said that there should be no election until 2020, but now I have concluded that the only way to guarantee certainty and stability for the years ahead is to hold this election and seek your support for the decisions I must take.
So tomorrow I will move a motion in the House of Commons calling for a general election to be held on the eighth of June. That motion, as set out by the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, will require a two-thirds majority of the House of Commons.
So I have a simple challenge to the opposition parties, you have criticised the Government’s vision for Brexit, you have challenged our objectives, you have threatened to block the legislation we put before Parliament.
“This is your moment to show you mean it, to show you are not opposing the Government for the sake of it, to show that you do not treat politics as a game. Let us tomorrow vote for an election, let us put forward our plans for Brexit and our alternative programmes for government and then let the people decide and the decision facing the country will be all about leadership. It will be a choice between strong and stable leadership in the national interest, with me as your Prime Minister, or weak and unstable coalition government, led by Jeremy Corbyn, propped up by the Liberal Democrats – who want to reopen the divisions of the referendum – and Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. Every vote for the Conservatives will make it harder for opposition politicians who want to stop me from getting the job done.
“Every vote for the Conservatives will make me stronger when I negotiate for Britain with the prime ministers, presidents and chancellors of the European Union. Every vote for the Conservatives means we can stick to our plan for a stronger Britain and take the right long-term decisions for a more secure future. It was with reluctance that I decided the country needs this election, but it is with strong conviction that I say it is necessary to secure the strong and stable leadership the country needs to see us through Brexit and beyond So, tomorrow, let the House of Commons vote for an election, let everybody put forward their proposals for Brexit and their programmes for Government, and let us remove the risk of uncertainty and instability and continue to give the country the strong and stable leadership it demands.”
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One thought on “PM Theresa May’s Election Announcement: Full Transcript.”
Neil Bennett says:
What a blog post; just hours before the cps announce they could bring election fraud charges against enough Tory MPs for 2015; to wipe out the Tory majority in Westminster altogether.
#priceless
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/ Noninvasive brain control
Noninvasive brain control
Bioengineering and biotechnology
Optogenetics, a technology that allows scientists to control brain activity by shining light on neurons, relies on light-sensitive proteins that can suppress or stimulate electrical signals within cells. This technique requires a light source to be implanted in the brain, where it can reach the cells to be controlled.
MIT engineers have now developed the first light-sensitive molecule that enables neurons to be silenced noninvasively, using a light source outside the skull. This makes it possible to do long-term studies without an implanted light source. The protein, known as Jaws, also allows a larger volume of tissue to be influenced at once.
This noninvasive approach could pave the way to using optogenetics in human patients to treat epilepsy and other neurological disorders, the researchers say, although much more testing and development is needed. Led by Ed Boyden, an associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, the researchers described the protein in the June 29 issue of Nature Neuroscience.
Optogenetics, a technique developed over the past 15 years, has become a common laboratory tool for shutting off or stimulating specific types of neurons in the brain, allowing neuroscientists to learn much more about their functions.
The neurons to be studied must be genetically engineered to produce light-sensitive proteins known as opsins, which are channels or pumps that influence electrical activity by controlling the flow of ions in or out of cells. Researchers then insert a light source, such as an optical fiber, into the brain to control the selected neurons.
Such implants can be difficult to insert, however, and can be incompatible with many kinds of experiments, such as studies of development, during which the brain changes size, or of neurodegenerative disorders, during which the implant can interact with brain physiology. In addition, it is difficult to perform long-term studies of chronic diseases with these implants.
Mining nature’s diversity
To find a better alternative, Boyden, graduate student Amy Chuong, and colleagues turned to the natural world. Many microbes and other organisms use opsins to detect light and react to their environment. Most of the natural opsins now used for optogenetics respond best to blue or green light.
Boyden’s team had previously identified two light-sensitive chloride ion pumps that respond to red light, which can penetrate deeper into living tissue. However, these molecules, found in the bacteria Haloarcula marismortui and Haloarcula vallismortis, did not induce a strong enough photocurrent — an electric current in response to light — to be useful in controlling neuron activity.
Chuong set out to improve the photocurrent by looking for relatives of these proteins and testing their electrical activity. She then engineered one of these relatives by making many different mutants. The result of this screen, Jaws, retained its red-light sensitivity but had a much stronger photocurrent — enough to shut down neural activity.
“This exemplifies how the genomic diversity of the natural world can yield powerful reagents that can be of use in biology and neuroscience,” says Boyden, who is a member of MIT’s Media Lab and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
Using this opsin, the researchers were able to shut down neuronal activity in the mouse brain with a light source outside the animal’s head. The suppression occurred as deep as 3 millimeters in the brain, and was just as effective as that of existing silencers that rely on other colors of light delivered via conventional invasive illumination.
A key advantage to this opsin is that it could enable optogenetic studies of animals with larger brains, says Garret Stuber, an assistant professor of psychiatry and cell biology and physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“In animals with larger brains, people have had difficulty getting behavior effects with optogenetics, and one possible reason is that not enough of the tissue is being inhibited,” he says. “This could potentially alleviate that.”
Restoring vision
Working with researchers at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland, the MIT team also tested Jaws’s ability to restore the light sensitivity of retinal cells called cones. In people with a disease called retinitis pigmentosa, cones slowly atrophy, eventually causing blindness.
Friedrich Miescher Institute scientists Botond Roska and Volker Busskamp have previously shown that some vision can be restored in mice by engineering those cone cells to express light-sensitive proteins. In the new paper, Roska and Busskamp tested the Jaws protein in the mouse retina and found that it more closely resembled the eye’s natural opsins and offered a greater range of light sensitivity, making it potentially more useful for treating retinitis pigmentosa.
This type of noninvasive approach to optogenetics could also represent a step toward developing optogenetic treatments for diseases such as epilepsy, which could be controlled by shutting off misfiring neurons that cause seizures, Boyden says. “Since these molecules come from species other than humans, many studies must be done to evaluate their safety and efficacy in the context of treatment,” he says.
Boyden’s lab is working with many other research groups to further test the Jaws opsin for other applications. The team is also seeking new light-sensitive proteins and is working on high-throughput screening approaches that could speed up the development of such proteins.
The research at MIT was funded by Jerry and Marge Burnett, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Human Frontiers Science Program, the IET A. F. Harvey Prize, the Janet and Sheldon Razin ’59 Fellowship of the MIT McGovern Institute, the New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson Investigator Award, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
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National Yo-Yo Museum
Information on: Add an Article Add an Event Edit
t is believed that the yo-yo most likely originated in China. The first historical mention of the yo-yo, however, was from Greece in the year 500 B.C. These ancient toys were made out of wood, metal, or painted terra cotta disks and called just that, a disc. It was customary, when a child turned of age, to offer toys of their youth to certain gods. Due to the fragile nature of the material, it is presumed that the disks made of terra cotta (clay) were used for this purpose rather than for actual play. A vase painting from this time period shows a Greek youth playing with a yo-yo. Such vases, as well as an actual terra cotta disk can be found in the National Museum of Athens, Greece.
Even in ancient Egyptian temples, drawings of objects have been seen in the shape of yo-yos.
Historical records indicate that 16th century hunters in the Philippines hid up trees and used a rock tied to a long cord, up to 20 feet in length, to throw at wild animals beneath them. The weapon was able to be pulled up and thrown back down for multiple attempts at the prey. This gave rise to the widespread idea that the practice was the true forerunner of the yo-yo, but this is a stretch of imagination and has no real basis in fact. It is extremely likely, however, that the yo-yo did travel from China not only to Greece, but also to the Philippines, where the yo-yo is known to have been a popular toy for children over a very long period of time.
The next historically dated mention of the yo-yo is a box from India made in the year 1765. This miniature box was hand-painted with the picture of a girl in a red dress playing with her yo-yo. Within the next 25 years, the yo-yo traveled from the Orient to Europe, specifically to the aristocracy (upper class) of Scotland and France and on to England. As it traveled, it became known by a variety of names.
In France, a painting dated to 1789 shows the 4 year-old, future King Louis XVII holding his l'emigrette. It was during this time of the French Revolution and the "Reign of Terror," that many of the French aristocracy were forced to flee to Paris, Germany and across other borders when their style of life was threatened by the peasant uprisings, taking their popular yo-yos made of glass and ivory with them. L'emigrette is a French term meaning to 'leave the country.' Another nickname for the yo-yo at this time was de Coblenz, which was a city to which many French fled. These names reflect an important historical connection between the toy and the French Revolution.
The yo-yo's value as a stress reliever is also seen through history. While being a fashionable toy for the French nobility, those less fortunate are said to have played with their emigrettes to reduce the understandable tension of their one-way trip to the guillotine. Dating through the 1780's, there are drawings of General Lafayette and others with their troops flinging their yo-yos. The yo-yo arrived in Paris in 1791 as it spread through France and was called the "joujou de Normandie." Some believe that this term may reflect possible roots for the modern American name of "yo-yo." High interest in the toy continued as evidence by the famous French playwright, Beaumarchais, in his treatment of "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1792. There is a scene where the nervous Figaro enters and conveys his tension, not by the conventional wringing of this hands, but playing with his emigrette! When asked what the emigrette is good for, Figaro responds, "It is a noble toy, which dispels the fatigue of thinking." Even on June 18, 1815, at the famous Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon and his army are known to have been seen relaxing with their yo-yos before battle.
The yo-yo craze traveled throughout Europe to England by way of Scotland and France. The English used the French word bandalore, the term quiz, and the word incroyable which means 'a French dandy', to identify the toy. In 1791, a print was circulated of the Prince of Wales, future George IV, whirling his bandalore. Because of the toy's popularity as well as the prince's power to sell, the toy also became known as the Prince of Wales' toy and soon became a toy that any person of fashion had to own. The toy's ongoing popularity in England is shown as late as 1862 when an illustration appeared showing two young lads terrifying an older woman with their quizzes.
The first recorded reference to any type of yo-yo in the United States was in 1866 when two men from Ohio received a patent for an invention called "an improved bandalore," in that it was rim weighted. One year later, a German immigrant named Charles Kirchof patented and manufactured the return wheel. From then until 1911, although various patents were awarded in the United States related to the yo-yo, nothing notable occurred. In 1916, the Scientific American Supplement published an article titled "Filipino Toys: which showed it and named it a yo-yo. This was explained by some as the Filipino word for "come-come" or "to return." Significant events were soon to happen in the United States.
Meanwhile, back in the Philippines, the natives were becoming experts at making and using the toy. They became excellent wood carvers of the yo-yo and playing with a yo-yo, beginning early in childhood, became a national pastime. Not surprisingly, it was from here that the yo-yo as we know it today was truly introduced into the United States. In the 1920's, a man named Pedro Flores brought the first Filipino yo-yo to the U.S. and in 1928, began a yo-yo company by the same name in California.
These yo-yos were hand-carved from a single piece of wood. The yo-yo was unique because it was the first yo-yo that did not have the string tied to the axle. Instead, the string was looped around the axle, allowing the yo-yo to spin or "sleep" at the end of the string. This concept is at the heart of yo-yoing today. Rather than being able to only go up and down, the yo-yo was now capable of doing an infinite number of tricks.
In 1928 or 1929, a businessman named Donald F. Duncan Sr. saw his first Flores yo-yo while he was in San Francisco. He saw the potential of the toy as he witnessed the crowd that Pedro was able to draw by doing a few tricks. He purchased not only the idea of the yo-yo, but the Pedro Flores company itself. And, as they say, "the rest is history."
Donald Duncan was an excellent businessman. He developed advertising campaigns and had demonstrators working for him in the U.S., as well as Western Europe. "Duncan Yo-Yo Professionals" traveled throughout the United States teaching and demonstrating yo-yo tricks and conducting contests in an effort to promote sales. Competition grew as other companies began to see the toy's potential. In 1932, in an effort to protect his interest, Duncan filed for and was assigned a trademark for the work "yo-yo." Not able to use the term "yo-yo," competitors were forced to use terms like "come-back", "return", "returning top", "whirl-a-gig", and twirler" for their versions of the toy.
In 1946, the Duncan company moved to Luck, Wisconsin, which quickly became known as the "Yo-Yo Capital of the World" producing 3,600 yo-yos per hour. They produced the original maple wooden yo-yos using 1,000,000 board feet per year. In 1960, plastic yo-yos that we still see today began to be manufacture. Sales grew and grew. By 1962. The Duncan Company alone sold a record 45 million yo-yos in a country with only 40 million kids, and still cold not keep up with the demand. High television advertising expenses and excessive expenses in overtime wages and materials to keep up with the demand hurt profits. There was also the continual legal expense in trying to hold onto the trademarked word "yo-yo." Competitors fought hard to use it in describing their products. Finally, in 1965, the Federal Court of Appeals ruled that Duncan's trademark for the word "yo-yo" was no good. The term yo-yo had become so widespread that it was now a permanent part of the language and it no longer only described the toy. It, in fact, WAS the toy.
Tragically, in November of 1965, the Duncan Company could hold on no longer and was forced into bankruptcy. Although pieces of equipment were auctioned off to various buyers, Flambeau Plastics Company purchased the most valuable asset, the "Duncan" name and the goodwill that came along with it. It is the Flambeau Plastics Company that manufactures and sells the eleven different models of Duncan yo-yos today. June 6 has been deemed National YoYo Day in honor of Donald Duncan Sr.'s birthday and the phenomenal influence he had in the world of YO.
Trivia enthusiasts will enjoy noting that in 1968, Abbie Hoffman was cited for contempt of Congress for "walking the dog" in an effort to entertain the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities that was investigating him and Richard Nixon made headlines when he yo-yoed on stage at the opening of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 1974. The yo-yo is, indeed, universal.
In recent years, technology has affected a multitude of the products we use, and the seemingly simple yo-yo has been no exception. Beginning in the 1970's, yo-yo manufacturers, seeing the benefit of periphery weight distribution, began rim-weighting their products for a longer spin. In 1978, Tom Kuhn patented the "No Jive 3-in-1" yo-yo, the first take apart by hand yo-yo and the first having a replaceable axle. In 1980, Michael Caffrey patented "The yo-yo with a Brain." In addition to a free-spinning sleeve bearing for long spin times, "The Brain" has a centrifugal spring loaded clutch mechanism that causes an automatic return of the yo-yo to the hand when the rotational spin slows to a pre-determined rate. And by the 1990's, transaxle yo-yos were available with ball-bearing axles, increasing spin times once again.
But this is not quite the end of the story. On April 12, 1985, the yo-yo was first taken into space by NASA on the Space Shuttle Discovery as part of the Toys in space project. A basic spinning yo-yo was used to see what effect microgravity would have on it. What they discovered was that a yo-yo could be released at slow speeds and gracefully move along the string. However, the yo-yo refused to "sleep." Without the downward force of gravity, the yo-yo could not spin against the loop at then end of the string and so, rebounded up the string. It was also found that the yo-yo must be thrown, not dropped, as there was no gravity to pull it down. And on July 31, 1992, the yo-yo (an SB-2) again made its way into space, on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, this time for an educational video including slow-motion YO-Yoing.
Whether the yo-yo was a Chinese, Greek or Filipino invention or some combination is difficult to prove. By the same token, it is also difficult to say with certainty whether the same basic pattern for the toy appeared in completely different parts of the world for no obvious reason. We do know that its use as a toy around the world and throughout history is unmatched. And, although the yo-yo has gone through periods of hibernation in its trek through the ages, its popularity, just like the toy itself, always comes back.
National Yo-Yo Museum is not affiliated with AmericanTowns Media
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Sunset & Gordon Residential High-Rise
This design-assist project leveraged our technology and high-rise expertise, which helped lower the project's total cost from $98 million to $76 million.
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Balfour Beatty Brings Signature Multifamily Project to Sunset Boulevard - Saves Owner $21 Million
Sunset & Gordon is a mixed-use, 547,500-square-foot residential tower located on 1.7 acres at the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street in Hollywood, California. Designed by GBD Architects, the new residential tower offers 299 rental units above 36,688-square-feet of office space, 12,229-square-feet of retail and restaurant space, and a parking garage with 523 spaces. The tower features office space on the third and fourth floors, and rental units on floors five through 22 with panoramic views of the surrounding areas. Additional project features include a pool deck on the fifth floor, a media room, and a fitness center.
The project features a re-creation of the original 1920s Spanish-style architecture facades along Sunset Boulevard and a portion of its Gordon Street frontage.
The Sunset and Gordon site has been occupied by many legendary establishments over the years, including the Peerless Motor Car Showroom and The Motion Picture Hall of Fame in the 1920s, KNX Radio and the Max Reinhardt Workshop of Stage, Screen and Radio in the 1930s, KMPC Radio in the 1940s, and most recently the Old Spaghetti Factory in the 1970s.
To ensure the addition of the tower’s vintage design features, the latest technologies and innovative cast-in-place construction practices were utilized to dramatically lower costs and shorten the project delivery schedule.
The $76.2 million, 22-story “Sunset and Gordon” luxury high-rise residential apartment building in Los Angeles was built for the real estate and infrastructure investment firm, CIM Group. With a relationship of more than 15 years, Balfour Beatty (through its Howard S. Wright team) has successfully built several projects with CIM. In addition, the Balfour Beatty team had legacy knowledge of the property and project site since the original project and property were held by another client of ours whom we have built many projects with so, there was a lot of historical knowledge we could offer.
Balfour Beatty performed the design-assist project leveraging its cast-in-place, technology and market expertise to lower the project’s total cost from $98 million to $76.2 million.
A significant contributor to the project’s cost savings included a complete re-design of the structure’s mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, which as a result will enable the building owner to save on average over 500,000 gallons of water per year. Additionally, Balfour Beatty’s expertise in cast-in-place structures enabled the team to reduce construction cycle times and accelerate project delivery by several months.
Balfour Beatty’s latest Los Angeles project reinforces its strength serving Southern California’s high-density residential market, in addition to the hospitality and higher education sectors.
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Balfour Beatty Construction’s Southwest Division announces the completion of the $76.2 million, 22-story “Sunset and Gordon” luxury high-rise residential apartment building in Los Angeles.
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Digital Lifescapes
Technology | Media | Telecommunications
IT Security-Related Revenues will Reach $133.7B
Cybersecurity solutions demand has remained strong during 2018, as more CIOs and CTOs need to ensure that their digital transformation projects have a high degree of digital trust built-in. Data privacy-related legislation has also fuelled the market for expert professional services that are skilled in IT security compliance.
According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services is forecast to reach $133.7 billion in 2022. Although spending growth is expected to gradually slow over the 2017-2022 forecast period, the market will still deliver a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9 percent.
As a result, security spending in 2022 is anticipated to be 45 percent greater than the $92.1 billion forecast for 2018.
IT Security Market Development
"Privacy has grabbed the attention of Boards of Directors as regions look to implement privacy regulation and compliance standards similar to GDPR. Frankly, privacy is the new buzzword and the potential impact is very real. The result is that demand to comply with such standards will continue to buoy security spending for the foreseeable future," said Frank Dickson, vice president at IDC.
According to the IDC assessment, security-related services will be both the largest ($40.2 billion in 2018) and the fastest growing (11.9 percent CAGR) category of worldwide security spending.
Managed security services will be the largest segment within the services category, delivering nearly 50 percent of the category total in 2022. Integration services and consulting services will be responsible for most of the remainder.
Security software is the second-largest category with spending expected to total $34.4 billion in 2018. Endpoint security software will be the largest software segment throughout the forecast period, followed by identity and access management software and security and vulnerability management software.
The latter category will be the fastest growing software segment with a CAGR of 10.7 percent. Hardware spending will likely be led by unified threat management solutions, followed by internet firewall and content management.
IDC analysts believe that banking will be the industry making the largest investment in security solutions, growing from $10.5 billion in 2018 to $16 billion in 2022. Security-related services, led by managed security services, will account for more than half of the industry's spend throughout the forecast period.
The second and third largest industries, discrete manufacturing and federal or central government ($8.9 billion and $7.8 billion in 2018, respectively), will follow a similar pattern with services representing roughly half of each industry's total IT security spending.
The industries that will see the fastest growth in IT security spending will be telecommunications (13.1 percent CAGR), state or local government (12.3 percent CAGR), and the resource industry (11.8 percent CAGR).
The United States will be the largest geographic market for security solutions with total spending of $39.3 billion in 2018. The United Kingdom will be the second largest geographic market in 2018 at $6.1 billion, followed by China ($5.6 billion), Japan ($5.1 billion), and Germany ($4.6 billion).
The leading industries for security spending in the U.S. will be discrete manufacturing and the federal or central government. In the UK, banking and discrete manufacturing will deliver the largest security spending while telecommunications and banking will be the leading industries in China.
China will see the strongest IT security spending growth with a five-year CAGR of 26.6 percent. Malaysia and Singapore will be the second and third fastest growing regions with CAGRs of 21.1 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.
Outlook for IT Security Applications Growth
From a company size perspective, large and very large businesses will be responsible for nearly two thirds of all security-related spending in 2018. Large and medium businesses will see the strongest spending growth over the forecast, with CAGRs of 11.8 percent and 10 percent respectively.
However, very large businesses will grow nearly as fast with a five-year CAGR of 10.1 percent. Small businesses will also experience solid growth (8.9 percent CAGR) with spending expected to be more than $8 billion in 2018.
posted by: David H. Deans at 10/29/2018
tags: cio, compliance, cto, cyber threat, data, digital trust, GDPR, privacy, regulation, security
David H. Deans
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The fascinating story behind Apple’s iconic ‘Get a Mac’ ad campaign
From the very first Mac ad that aired during the 1984 Super Bowl to the memorable “Think Different” ads featuring notable historical figures, Apple has long been a company revered for its advertising efforts.
Don't Miss: The iPhone is still the only phone that matters
By the early-to-mid 2000s, Apple took its advertising game to the next level, delivering two iconic ad campaigns that will undoubtedly have a permanent place in the pantheon of great advertisements.
In 2004, just as the iPod was starting to pick up momentum in the marketplace, Apple began rolling out memorable iPod ads featuring dancing silhouettes. Two years later, Apple released its first “Get a Mac” ad, arguably the company’s most successful and impactful series of ads to date.
With the 10th anniversary of the first “Get a Mac” ad upon us, Campaign US decided to bring together and interview some of the creative talent that helped bring those memorable commercials starring Justin Long (as the Mac) and John Hodgman (as the PC) to life.
As to the origins of the campaign, Steve Jobs wanted a shiny new ad campaign to align with Apple’s recent switch over to Intel-based processors. The Mac was once again a force to be reckoned with and he wanted the whole world to know it.
In turn, Jobs gave the creatives at TBWA\Chiat\Day — Apple’s longtime ad agency — a rather hazy directive to come up with something great.
“With Steve, briefs weren’t super formal like a traditional agency, where you have a planner present pages and pages of strategy deck,” executive creative director Eric Grunbaum explained. “The brief was like, ‘You know what? Mac needs a campaign. We want you guys to come up with something.’ It was as simple as that.”
Jobs of course would inevitably make his opinions on how the ad campaign should be structured well known. Specifically, Jobs reportedly “wanted to go hard at the PCs”, with Mike Refuerzo noting that “Steve really wanted to expose them.”
And expose them they did. Over the course of the next few years, following a nearly 9 months development process, Apple released 66 “Get a Mac” ads that made fun of Microsoft and Windows from every which way. At the core, Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads were so brilliant because the characters played by Long and Hodgman — from the way they talked all the way down to how they dressed — perfectly embodied the narrative of the commercials themselves, namely that the Mac was an efficient machine with hip and creative users while PCs were clunky machines that you might want to consider if you were an accountant.
On top of that, the commercials themselves were brilliantly sharp, and more importantly, they were funny.
And through it all, Jobs was extremely involved in the entire process.
“With Apple, there were no budget constraints,” creative director Jason Sperling explained. “We put together tests for just about everything. But Steve demanded perfection. For example, just looking at a reflection on a screen at the 17-second mark, he’d tell the team, ‘Stop, why didn’t you do better with your lighting?’ He was quite punishing if you didn’t do it right.”
In fact, the commercials were so effective that they helped cause a mini-crisis within Microsoft as the company scrambled to come up with a way to respond to Apple’s increasingly popular ads.
That aside, it’s not too often that we’re given a sneak peek behind the creative process of Apple’s commercials, so the oral history put together by Campaign US is well worth checking out in its entirety. Part one can be viewed over here and part two, where the creative team discuss their favorite spots of all-time, can be enjoyed over here.
You can also check out every “Get a Mac” ad ever made via the video below.
Tags: Advertising, Apple
Prices for the original iPhone keep getting more and more absurd
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Do you remember the television series called M*A*S*H? It was a medical drama/black comedy and the show followed a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in South Korea, during the Korean War. The series won countless awards and the final show was one of the most watched television shows ever.
Now Ireland has it’s very own version of the same show which can be viewed in most A&E departments around the country, any day of the week. The only difference between this show and the real M*A*S*H is that no-one’s laughing at the Irish version as it ain’t one bit funny.
British-based freelance journalist and author, Diane Taylor visited a friend at Tallaght Hospital’s A&E in Dublin last week. She was shocked by what she saw. Here is her account of that experience (with thanks to the Irish Times online).
“I was impressed by the modern, spacious, hospital buildings at the Adelaide and Meath hospital in Tallaght. Sensible health promotion posters covered the walls of the reception area and dispensers of disinfectant hand rub were clearly visible in triplicate throughout the public areas.
Only the huddles of visitors and dressing gown-clad patients at the entrances inhaling deeply on their cigarettes sullied the wholesome image of the place.
I had just flown in to Dublin from London to spend a few days working with Kathy O’Beirne on the sequel to her book ‘Don’t Ever Tell ‘, a story of childhood abuse in various institutions in Dublin.
But the work plans had to be abruptly halted when Kathy called me to say she had been rushed to hospital with complications to a chronic medical condition. I headed straight to Tallaght Hospital to see her.
The hospital has the largest emergency department in the Republic, with 80,000 patients streaming through its doors every year. The A&E waiting area was full, but not bulging the way I’d often seen A&E departments look at London hospitals.
Those waiting to be seen appeared remarkably resigned and those administering the triage system seemed to be working in a calm and ordered way.
I explained to the two security guards that I had come to see someone receiving treatment in the department and was nodded through the swing doors.
What I found on the other side of the doors shocked me. Lined up on trolleys stretching as far as the eye could see along the corridor were seriously ill patients waiting for beds.
Some lay on bloodied sheets, many were attached to one or more drips and quite a few were elderly.
It wasn’t clear who was unconscious and who was sleeping, but what was clear was that everyone on the trolleys – 35 people in all – were very unwell and needed to be in a proper bed in the relatively tranquil environment of a ward rather than in the frenetic setting of a corridor in A&E.
Kathy lay groaning with pain on one of the trolleys. There were some splattered drops of dried blood on the floor under her trolley. She had a tube up her nose running down her throat and into her stomach, a tube in her arm and a bag attached to a tube running from her abdomen draining out some foul liquid, which was causing her intense pain.
A cocktail of drugs had been administered to her and she was extremely distressed to be so exposed when she was feeling so ill. Sometimes she cried, at other times she appeared to be slipping in and out of consciousness. The other patients on the trolleys appeared similarly discomfited by their surroundings.
Now and again, ambulance staff hurried past the patients lying on the trolleys, dodging the drip stands and other bits of medical equipment as they delivered the emergency cases they had decanted from their vans to the waiting doctors and nurses.
It was distressing for both the patients being rushed in and the patients who were lying, prone, on the trolleys to catch glimpses of one another.
When doctors or nurses examined or administered treatment to those on trolleys, there was no privacy for the patients. Everything was carried out in full view of whoever happened to be walking past at the time.
The nurses kept on shaking their heads when patients and anxious relatives asked them when a bed was likely to become available.
“We just don’t know, we’ve got 35 people waiting. It’s terrible but there’s nothing we can do,” said one.
“I used to work in a hospital in London and people there complained about the state of the NHS – but they don’t know how lucky they are with conditions there, compared with the kinds of things going on here,” remarked another.
“The average waiting time on a trolley before getting a bed is 24-48 hours, sometimes longer,” explained a third nurse.
While all hospital emergency departments expect spikes in admissions at certain times – such as after a major accident or during a winter flu epidemic – neither scenario was in evidence when I was in the hospital.
On the contrary, it was a beautifully sunny October day – nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening. The staff said that this situation was not a blip – but, rather, the norm.
When the noxious substance had finished draining out of Kathy’s abdomen, the nurse said that she could remove the tube snaking its way from her nose into her stomach.
“You’re not going to pull the tube out of my stomach here in the corridor, are you?” asked Kathy, aghast.
“Well, where else am I going to take you?” replied the nurse. The tube was duly pulled out of Kathy’s stomach in full view of whoever happened to be walking past. Kathy was mortified.
I’m no health service expert, but during my various visits to A&E departments in London over the years I have never witnessed the kinds of scenes I saw at Tallaght.
After 24 hours on a trolley, with no prospect of a bed on the horizon and only the offer of another trolley in a day ward as a substitute, Kathy could take no more.
Her resistance to infection was low and, with various tubes stuck into different parts of her body, coupled with her extremely close proximity to other sick patients lying on trolleys and the new emergencies being rushed through the corridor, she feared leaving the hospital sicker than when she arrived.
So she opted to go home. She was warned that she was leaving against medical advice and was asked to sign a form accepting responsibility, should any medical complications arise.
She flicked through the “signing out” book and was amazed by the large number of other patients in recent weeks who had also decided to get out before their treatment was complete.
In the six hours that I spent in the corridor I saw nothing but dedicated professionalism and kindness from the doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff in the A&E unit, all working in intolerable conditions.
But it did not stop me from leaving the hospital with the impression that what I had witnessed in Tallaght Hospital’s emergency department was more reminiscent of a makeshift field hospital hurriedly established in the wake of civil war or some other disaster in a developing country, rather than the biggest A&E department in a thriving European country”.
I don’t suppose our Minister for Health will win any awards for this production but you can be sure that her finale will be one of the most watched shows ever.
11 Comments | A&E, health, hospital trolley, Irish Times, medical, Minister for Health, patient's story | Tagged: M*A*S*H, Tallaght Hospital | Permalink
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Discipleship: Reincarnation
Reincarnation is the belief that after death a person’s identity or “soul” takes up residence at birth in another human body, an animal, an insect or even a plant, until death of the receptacle once again causes the “soul” to migrate.
Belief in reincarnation has been around for a long time. Ancient Egyptians believed it was possible, at least for a privileged few, to choose what life form they wished to reside in after death. Plato taught the migration of a fixed number of souls. Pythagoras, another Greek philosopher and a mathematician, claimed in past lives he had been a Trojan warrior, a prophet burned to death, a peasant, the wife of a shopkeeper and a Phoenician prostitute.
The concept of reincarnation carries with it the hope for a better life (or lives) in the future. It is an idea that is popular in oriental religion. But it is also believed by many people in the West.
A famous stage personality believed she was Queen Hatshepsut (explaining that since childhood she has felt an “eerie link” with Egypt and made drawings of camels and pyramids when she was three years old). A well-known musician credits his musical talents to a previous life as the composer Stephen Foster. An American actor believes he was an American cowboy in the Old West. An actress thinks she was a Christian who was fed to the lions in ancient Rome. Some of the stories of those who claim to be reincarnated raise questions that cannot be adequately answered by standard explanations. There are the publicized cases such as “Bridey Murphy,” who had never been to Ireland and yet who spoke (with an Irish accent) of a place in Cork called the Meadows, where she had reputedly been born in the 18th century, and lived until her death in 1864. Or Dolores Jay, a Virginia housewife who claimed to have been murdered in Germany 100 years ago, and who, under hypnosis, could speak German, though Dolores Jay had never been exposed to anyone who spoke the language.
Many other accounts have been compiled where previous existences have been “recalled,” usually under hypnosis. For example, one man suffering constant migraine headaches supposedly revealed under hypnosis that as an officer in the Air Force during World War II he had gotten drunk and walked into a whirling airplane propeller that cut off his head. A check of official military records revealed the death in 1942 of just such an officer with exact serial number given under hypnosis.
One of the most prominent persons seriously examining reincarnation is Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. For nearly three decades he has been objectively exploring the subject. He has files jammed with reports on over 2,000 subjects he has investigated. These are individuals who claim to have lived previous lives.
There are many cases where individuals apparently are able to accurately recall details of circumstances and locations where they have never been in their present lives.
Cases indicating reincarnation are set forth in the book Psychic Voyages. “But,” the author says, “there may be other explanations. The first that springs to mind is that they are all due to fraud or some sort of delusion. However, there are too many anecdotes and too many carefully investigated cases on record for this easy solution to be acceptable. The only other explanation that seems at all tenable is that the alleged memories of former lives are acquired through extrasensory perception” (italics added).
So to many people the belief in reincarnation seems to offer solutions to nagging problems or puzzlements. But is there really such a thing as reincarnation? Have you lived before? Will you live again?
The Bible tells us that it is “appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). We are not given 10, 100 or 1,000 opportunities to die and live again. Just one. Souls do not live on and take up residence in another body.
What about the cases where people claim (often under hypnosis) to remember former lives and where details inexplicably match historical records? After fraud, coincidence and honest mistakes are examined, there remain cases that defy normal physical or psychological explanation. This is where extrasensory perception comes into the picture.
“Extrasensory perception” in this context means information that is perceived from sources beyond the physical world. What are those sources, since they’re not “immortal souls”?
Although the Bible shows that human beings are not reincarnated, it also shows that lying spirits or demons have been around since long before humanity. They remember what took place in the past. When a person’s mind becomes receptive to suggestion, such as may occur under hypnosis, it is possible for a spirit to recite historically verifiable information through the human.
So the Bible rejects the concept of reincarnation. Rewards and punishments for the events of this life are given justice not through an endless cycle of new lives, but through a final judgment.
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Home » Business » IT
Datang Group agrees on joint 3G work
By Zhu Shenshen | February 5, 2009, Thursday | Print Edition
DATANG Telecom Technology & Industry Group, a major home-grown 3G technology developer, signed an agreement with the Shanghai government yesterday to co-develop the next-generation mobile technology and make the city a major hub for 3G.
Under the agreement, Datang Group plans to invest heavily in 3G, or third generation, and 4G technology research, 3G equipment manufacturing in Shanghai and complete a strategic investment of US$171.8 million into Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacture International Corp, the biggest made-to-order chip maker on the Chinese mainland, both parties said yesterday.
"It (3G technology) is an opportunity we can't neglect in the tough environment and it will improve the whole telecommunications industry structure in China," said Zhen Caiji, chairman and president of Datang Group. The pact was the first to be inked after Shanghai launched favorable policies to attract investments from companies directly owned by the central government, including Datang Group, Zhen added.
China issued 3G licenses to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom in January. The 3G services allow users to enjoy high-speed services like video conference and film download onto their cell phones.
China Mobile has launched 3G services based on TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) technology, mainly developed by the Datang Group.
Datang Group cooperated with 3G partner Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell to build 20,000 TD-SCDMA base stations and it accounted for 40 percent of the China Mobile's second phase 3G network construction.
It has also invested several hundreds of million yuan to set up Leadcore Technology, a 3G and 4G chip design firm, in Shanghai. It said in December it would acquire 16.6 percent of SMIC to become the chip firm's biggest shareholder.
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Robert Goheen and the Open Mind
Posted on April 4, 2008 by Scott Gurvey Leave a comment
Robert F. Goheen
Robert F. Goheen was a professor of classics when he was selected, at the age of 37, to become the 16th president of Princeton University. When he began his term in 1957, Princeton was a good school. But it was also very much a southern men’s club. When he stepped down in 1972, Princeton was one of the world’s great universities, having grown greatly in size and budget; in research productivity; and in ethnic and racial diversity. And it had become coeducational.
That last change was probably the most traumatic. Princeton’s trustees voted in favor of coeducation in the spring of 1969. The first women to be admitted as freshmen in an incoming class arrived that fall, members of the class of 1973. I was a member of that class, and I remember the turmoil on campus, with television crews running all over asking everyone what they thought of the matter. Since I had attended a coed elementary school and a coed high school which had far more diversity than was found at Princeton in 1969, I didn’t see much novelty. In fact, with only one hundred women and about one thousand men in the class, I found the ratio disappointing!
Goheen had championed coeducation in spite of some fierce opposition, mostly — although not exclusively — from alumni who decried the loss of a tradition and threatened to withhold their monetary contributions in protest. Moreover, his support marked a reversal of his earlier position. In 1965, he opposed coeducation, but changed his mind four years later.
I asked him about this in 1972, when I interviewed him just prior to his retirement from the presidency for a news program I had on WPRB, Princeton’s radio station. Why, I wanted to know, had he changed his mind? “Because I was wrong,” he answered, and stopped. I remember my surprised, “That’s it?” He went on to explain that during the four intervening years he had talked to literally hundreds of people and had become convinced that by remaining a male-only institution, Princeton would not only miss out on the numerous benefits of having bright young women in the college; but would also lose the opportunity to attract a significant number of young men and faculty who were not interested in a segregated environment.
“What you want to do when you realize you have made a mistake,” he said, “is admit it, explain your reasoning, and move on.”
This brings us to the reason for telling this story. Not being a classics major, and not having much of a talent for Latin, I never sat as a student in one of Goheen’s classes. Yet as I reflect on the impression he made on me some 35 years ago, I realize that Robert Goheen, who died this week at the age of 88, was one of my best teachers.
The lesson I learned is to encourage discussion and to keep an open mind. Goheen’s point was that there is no such thing as a bad idea, and we are better served if everyone has an opportunity to express his or her views. Goheen’s example was not limited to the issue of coeducation. Those were turbulent times in the nation and especially on college campuses. The war in Vietnam, civil rights, women’s rights; all were controversial and divisive issues and many universities saw violent, disruptive protest. At Princeton, Goheen promoted debate, allowed peaceful protest, and took steps to allow participation in the discussion by all members of the community. I credit his leadership for the fact that protests at Princeton remained peaceful and that the university remained open and operating.
Today we live in an age where much of our daily discourse is dominated by those who have the loudest voices. They may be political leaders or corporate CEOs, television talk pundits, op-ed columnists, or just people you meet on the street. They spend far more time talking than listening. Their minds are permanently made-up. And their strategy is generally to preach only to people of like mind and to demonize anyone with an opposing view.
It is, I think, a counter-productive strategy.
Goheen’s tenure as president ended in 1972, but in no way did he retire. He served as president of the Council on Foundations and for three years was the United States Ambassador to India. At his death, he was still teaching as a senior fellow at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Princeton has had three presidents since Goheen and all have continued the policies he spearheaded. The university has continued to grow in size and in the diversity of both students and faculty. Women in the college are on an equal basis with the men and have achieved every distinction, academic, athletic and extra-curricular. Princeton’s current president, Shirley Tilghman, I should note, is also its first female chief executive.
The radio station, WPRB, has taken to playing music which gives me a headache. But what the heck, I still have an open mind.
tagged with Politics Commentary Gurvey Goheen Princeton Open Mind
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The History of Golf: A Brief Overview
April 4, 2014 by Theresa Edwards
Robert Lynd, a 19th century Irish writer and essayist once said that, “It is almost impossible to remember how tragic a place this world is when one is playing golf.” Golf is a very popular sport, and in 2008, the number of golf courses worldwide was over 35,000. The United States of America accounts for the highest number of golf courses in any country, with 50% of all courses located within its borders. It’s no surprise than, the estimated number of golfers in America is nearly 29.5 million. Many regard it as a lifelong sport that requires skill, finesse, focus and years of practice to master. Its rules seem simple on the surface–to hit a ball into a hole using the minimum number of strokes–but as one begins to play golf, complexities and nuances become apparent. With so many enthusiasts, maybe you are wondering, “where did golf come from–what’s the history of golf?”
The truth is that the history of golf is hotly debated, but there is a good deal of information to draw from when attempting to map out the origin and history of this sport that is beloved by so many. Although, it’s a tenuous love; while Robert Lynd may have waxed philosophic about golf’s better qualities, Mark Twain famously lamented that, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”
13th-14th Centuries: Golf’s Beginnings
The earliest recorded instance of golf being played with rudimentary rules was in 13th century Netherland, in 1297. It was known as colf, which was the word for “club” or “stick” in Flemish, and resembled golf in that the object was to hit a leather ball with a colf or kolf towards a target, using the lowest number of strokes possible.
Colf was mentioned again in 1360, when the council of Brussels banned it. If you were caught playing at colf in 14th century Brussels, you could expect to pay 20 shillings and forfeit your overcoat!
It’s difficult to discern just how much this early incarnation of golf resembles the one we are familiar with today, largely because the information we have is apocryphal. Some argue, however, that this game of “proto-golf” is the true origin of modern golf.
15th-18th Century Scotland: The Birth Of Modern Golf
Despite the fact that the early history of golf is a little hazy, there’s one thing golfers mostly agree on. Golf, as we play it today, on an 18-hole course and with a club, originated in Scotland. Scotland also lays claim to the oldest known golf course, the Musselburgh Links, where you can still play–as Mary, Queen of Scots was purported to in 1567–today.
Part of what makes Scotland a good candidate for golf’s true place of origination is that unlike the apocrypha that comes from early Low Country colf, there are recorded accounts of people playing golf and rules dating as far back as 1672.
In addition, golf is mentioned even earlier in multiple Acts of the Scottish Parliament as early as 1457. Like the Dutch before them, the Scots also had it out for golf, or gowf as it is written in the Parliamentary Acts. In fact, the first mention of the sport was an edict prohibiting it. It seems King James decried that golf was a distraction from more useful physical activities: archery practice and military drills.
In 1479, all-out bans were enacted, since golf was considered to be an “unprofitable sport”. Mary, Queen of Scots, was even accused of violating the golf ban–especially shocking, since golf was considered to be “wholly unsuitable for women.” I’m sure Stacy Lewis would disagree.
The oldest full set of rules comes from Scotland, too. Compiled by the Company of Gentlemen Golfers in Edinburgh in 1744, they are known as the Leith Rules and can still be perused today at The National Library of Scotland, where they survive to this day. You will likely recognize similarities between the rules that we use in modern golf to the Leith Rules, including:
“If a Ball be stopp’d by any Person, Horse, Dog or anything else, The Ball so stop’d must be play’d where it lyes.”
“If your Ball comes among watter, or any wattery filth, you are at liberty to take out your Ball & bringing it behind the hazard and Teeing it, you may play it with any Club and allow your Adversary a Stroke for so getting out your Ball.”
In addition, golf equipment in those times bear a rudimentary resemblance to the equipment used in golf today–the balls were known as “featheries” and were made of sewn leather spheres stuffed with feathers. Early golf clubs were made of wood and it is unlikely that there were varying clubs for different swings–like putters and irons–when the sport was first played.
Scotland remains a popular golf destination with entire agencies dedicated to golf vacation packages that promise to reconnect the avid golfer with golf’s origins, giving them an opportunity to experience the history of golf firsthand.
The 19th Century Golf Craze
In 1603, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales likely introduced golf to England, playing at the Blackheath Club in London. After golf leapt across the Scottish-English border, there was no stopping it. It soon spread to British colonies as far flung as Australia and India. The Royal Calcutta golf club was formed in 1829, and still operating today. By the end of the 19th century, golf was spreading like wildfire, more courses were built, and countless golf societies and clubs were formed. Many still exist today, and bear their lineage very proudly.
The 19th century also brought the evolution of the golf ball. “Featheries” were unwieldy, costly to make, and easy to damage. The new type of ball was called a Gutty, taking its name from the material used to make it: the Gutta-percha tree. The sap of the tree can be used to make latex, which made Gutty balls not just more durable, but allowed them to be produced faster as well. That’s a pretty good thing, because the demand for golf continued to increase worldwide. Soon the Gutty was overtaken by the popularity of the “Bramble” ball, so named for its resemblance to the bramble fruit.
Golf clubs, on the other hand, were still made of wood, hickory in particular, which was prized for its stiffness and durability. During the early 19th century, just before golf become achieved widespread popularity, hickory was being imported to Scotland from North America, primarily for the purpose of making golf clubs.
In the United States, the first golf courses were built in 1886–two, in Florida–and the sport proved to be so popular that by 1910, there were 267, and the United States Golf Association was formed.
20th Century and Beyond
In the 20th century, golf exploded in North America. Golf courses continued to be built, though there was a brief interruption during The Great Depression. By 1940, however, golf hit its stride again and at the end of the late 21st century, over 5,000 courses were in operation.
The golf ball as we know it today also took shape in the 20th century, when the Bramble ball made way for “Meshies”, balls with latex cores and wound with mesh. The dimpled surface, too, became popular after its patent expired in the 1940s. Today, golf balls have precisely 350-400 dimples on their surfaces, all in the name of advanced aerodynamics! Golf clubs began to resemble what we use today, with chipping, putting, and wedge-head golf clubs all advertised in early 20th century publications. Today, you can purchase clubs made of forged carbon steel, carbon fiber, or even titanium, with price tags hitting the $9,000 mark for a single driver. Although, its worth noting that even the most expensive clubs won’t give you a perfect swing.
Additionally, the 21st century saw some progress for women in the sport, a demographic largely ignored in the early history of golf. Even though the first women’s golf club was formed 1867 in Scotland, golf was still largely considered a men’s sport. The inclusion of women in golf soon proved to be quite lucrative, however, with the Shinnecock Golf Club in New York developing a 9-hole ladies golf course shortly after opening its membership registry to women in the late 20th century.
It wasn’t until 1950, however, that the Ladies Professional Golf Association, or LPGA was formed. It was the first of its kind, and awarded a $50,000 prize to the winner of the first LPGA tournament winner. Today, the Ladies Professional Golf Association awards more than $41 million to its tour champions!
Whether you view golf through rose-colored lenses like Robert Lynd, or relate more with Twain’s snark, there’s no denying the popularity of golf as it is played today. Now that you know the history of golf, where will you go from here? Maybe you’d like to form an amateur golf club of your own, or perhaps you’ll want to delve into the brain-training techniques you can use to hone your game.
Filed Under: Sports, Students
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Archive for category Lamborghini Gallardo
Your exclusive look at the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
Posted by brianongaro in Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Gallardo on September 13, 2011
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Yesterday at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Lamborghini unveiled a racecar for the road, the Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeo Stradale. Today in Frankfurt, Lamborghini has announced production of the racetrack-only Sesto Elemento. Originally presented as a technological demonstrator at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the much-admired Sesto Elemento will see limited production. Deliveries of an exclusive 20-unit run will begin in early 2013.
Lamborghini is redefining the future of the super sports car with a very limited special edition. Boasting an extremely lightweight construction thanks to advanced carbon-fiber technology, the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento has an overall curb weight of just 999 kilograms (2,202 lb) – including V10 power unit and permanent all-wheel drive. With its amazing output of 570 hp, sensational power-to-weight ratio of only 1.75 kilograms per hp and 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration of only 2.5 seconds, the Sesto Elemento guarantees unparalleled driving fun.
For more information on this vehicle please visit the new www.Lamborghini.com.
Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
Lamborghini Returns to Famed Monterey Car Week
Posted by brianongaro in Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Gallardo, Lamborghini Murcielago on July 8, 2011
Monterey, California is the place to be seen each August. Automobili Lamborghini will once again have a big presence on the Peninsula, during the annual Monterey Classic Car Week events held from August 17-21.
Lamborghini’s program of events will include the kickoff party for Monterey Week, the McCall Motorworks Revival at the Monterey Jet Center on Wednesday, August 17. The super sports car maker will display the new Aventador LP 700-4, and participate in a VIP drive program the following day.
The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, has always been a popular event with automotive enthusiasts. This year Lamborghini will be one of the platinum sponsors at the Friday, August 19 event, displaying the new Aventador and its high-tech, carbon fiber chassis.
That same day, longtime Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni will support the Concorso Italiano, an annual gathering focused on Italian exotic and classic automobiles and motorcycles. Many regional dealerships and the Lamborghini Club America will have an event presence as well.
Saturday, August 20 is all about driving — the full Lamborghini vehicle range will be available for pre-registered VIP guests to drive through the Carmel Valley. Lunch in a beautiful country club setting will follow.
The world famous Concours d’Elegance culminates the week’s activities on Sunday, August 21 at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. Lamborghini will once again display the Aventador for worldwide media and guests.
Lamborghini Monterey Car Week
2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Bicolore at Lamborghini Dallas
Posted by brianongaro in Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Gallardo on February 21, 2011
Just announced for 2011.5 the Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Bicolore. “With its new Bicolore model, Lamborghini is now setting a further design highlight in the ten-cylinder model series. The colored exterior finish matched with the black on the upper area of the body gives the Gallardo a new, more aggressive personality that looks even wider, even more extreme and innately adhered to the road,” as quoted from the press release. Available in five colors to accentuate the black accented roof, the Bicolore looks like no other super car on the road today. The interior is equally well designed with several appointments that would be normally be optional on the standard LP550-2 Coupe–just another way of making this Special edition a unique value.
Please contact one of our sales consultants to order a Gallardo LP550-2 Bicolore for yourself today. This Special Edition will be available only for a limited time. Our first will arrive this Spring and will be finished in Giallo Midas (Pearl Yellow).
2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Bicolore, Lamborghini Dallas
New 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Performante
For the first time in the short history of the Gallardo Spyder, Lamborghini is offering a lightweight version (ala the Superleggera) called the Performante. It in fact shares the mechanical upgrades found in the 570hp Superleggera Coupe as well as many of the styling cues both externally and internally, but the name and coordinating graphics remain proprietary to the Performante Spyder. This is a special edition mid-2011 introduction that we only expect to see in very small numbers, so do not delay in calling one of our Sales Consultants to reserve yours today. Our Performante demo vehicle is scheduled to arrive this Spring, in time to enjoy the best weather of the year. Call today for the option list on this vehicle.
Lamborghini Dallas is one of the largest dealerships of its kind in the United States, a testament to Lamborghini and its storied pedigree. With a state-of-the-art showroom, factory-certified service facility and parts depot, and a team of master technicians that can work on any high-line vehicle, Lamborghini Dallas is dedicated to the legacy of the famed raging bull.
As a member of Boardwalk Auto Group we cultivate a focus on top-flight performance. It’s the driving force behind every nameplate we represent, every car we maintain, and every customer we have the privilege to serve. Performance. It’s what we do.
Lamborghini Dallas, New 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4
New for the 2011 model year is the Gallardo LP550-2
Just arrived! New for the 2011 model year is the Gallardo LP550-2–the same great Gallardo Coupe, but with 550hp and a rear wheel drive configuration. It gives the car a lighter feel and a general tossability not found in the sure-footed AWD platform…and the price is significantly less.
Factory options on this brand new 2011 Gallardo LP550-2 Coupe include the e-gear transmission, light package and transparent engine bonnet, branding package, brake calipers in yellow, and special paint colour. One additional item we install on many of our coupes at Lamborghini Dallas is our custom color-coded LED light package to accent the engine compartment. These LED are operated via a separate switch and can be lit with our without the vehicle running. They draw very low current and can be left on for hours without worrying about the draw on your electrical system.
Lamborghini Sesto Elemento
An extreme lightweight in carbon fiber for sensational performance and handling –
Lamborghini is redefining the future of the super sports car with a unique technology demonstrator. Boasting an extremely lightweight construction thanks to advanced carbon-fiber technology, the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento has an overall curb weight of just 999 kilograms (2,202 lb) – including V10 power unit and permanent all-wheel drive. This makes the Sesto Elemento a unique demonstration of the technological expertise of Automobili Lamborghini. Innovative carbon-fiber technologies are being used here for the first time in an automotive application. As a 100 percent subsidiary of AUDI AG, the Italian carmaker also benefits from the undisputed expertise of the German manufacturer when it comes to lightweight construction.
With its amazing output of 570 hp, sensational power-to-weight ratio of only 1.75 kilograms per hp and 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration of only 2.5 seconds, the Sesto Elemento guarantees unparalleled driving fun. At the same time, fuel consumption also drops because of the extreme lightweight engineering applied throughout.
The name of this technology demonstrator is derived from the periodic table, where carbon is classified as the sixth element. Thus, the Sesto Elemento demonstrates the worldwide leading expertise of Lamborghini in carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) technology. The super sports car brand from Sant’Agata Bolognese is the only vehicle manufacturer in the world to have mastered the complete CFRP process across a range of technologies, from 3D design through simulation, validation, production and testing – all in a state-of-the-art industrial process that stands for the very highest quality standards.
Lamborghini drives the technology development in its two research centers the ACRC (Advanced Composite Research Center) and the ACSL (Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory) through collaborations with organizations such as Boeing, with the resulting technology secured under a host of patents.
“The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento shows how the future of the super sports car can look – extreme lightweight engineering, combined with extreme performance results in extreme driving fun. We put all of our technological competence into one stunning form to create the Sesto Elemento,” comments Stephan Winkelmann, President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini. “It is our abilities in carbon-fiber technology that have facilitated such a forward-thinking concept, and we of course also benefit from the undisputed lightweight expertise of AUDI AG. Systematic lightweight engineering is crucial for future super sports cars: for the most dynamic performance, as well as for low emissions. We will apply this technological advantage right across our model range. Every future Lamborghini will be touched by the spirit of the Sesto Elemento.”
Groundbreaking technology package
With the Sesto Elemento, Lamborghini’s R&D engineers have put together a groundbreaking package. As a pure and radical concept, the Sesto Elemento is the unique synthesis of an extremely low curb weight of less than 1000 kilograms, enormous 570 hp output, the sensitive and prompt responsiveness of the high-revving, naturally-aspirated V10 engine and the superior traction and stability of permanent all-wheel drive – there has never been a super sports car as thoroughbred as this. Sesto Elemento delivers an unbelievable degree of driving fun, concentrated on absolutely sensational dynamics.
Systematic use of carbon fiber
The basis is an extremely solid, stiff, safe and lightweight carbon-fiber structur: the monocoque cell of the Sesto Elemento. The entire front frame, the exterior panels and crash boxes are also made from CFRP. The Sesto Elemento’s major suspension components and the rims are made from carbon fiber. The tailpipes are made from Pyrosic, which is an advanced glass-ceramic matrix composite, able to reach and stand very high temperatures up to 900° celsius. Even the propeller shaft is made of CFRP.
Amazing power-to-weight ratio
The Sesto Elemento demonstrates the outstanding expertise of Automobili Lamborghini in all areas of carbon-fiber technology. Carbon composite materials are a key technology for the automotive engineering of tomorrow, especially for high-performance sports cars. These materials made from carbon-fiber reinforced plastics combine the lowest weight with excellent characteristics – they are extremely stiff and highly precise. Lighter cars improve fuel consumption and CO2 emissions: above all, however, it improves the power-to-weight ratio – the crucial factor for a sports car – and thus the performance. A super sports car built using CFRP accelerates faster, has outstanding handling and better braking.
Extreme lightweight engineering delivers extreme performance
The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento offers the ultimate proof; thanks to its sensational power-to-weight ratio of only 1.75 kilograms per hp, the concept car delivers unparalleled performance. From a standing start, the Sesto Elemento catapults itself to 100 km/h (62 mph) in a sensational 2.5 seconds. In the interests of completeness, it should also be mentioned that the top speed is well over 300 km/h. What the figures cannot convey, however, are the Sesto Elemento’s razor-sharp handling, its voracious turn-in and its huge braking power. Extreme lightweight engineering and extreme performance come together in the Sesto Elemento to create an all-n
Technology in a progressive form
Uncompromising dynamics from the very first glance: the design of the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento displays the sensuality of high performance and possesses the elegance of pure, unadulterated power. The Sesto Elemento lifts the design DNA of the Lamborghini brand to a new level and integrates the functional consistency of carbon-fiber technology into its design language. A clear strength of the CFRP technology is the reduction and integration of components – something that has been used to its full extent in this innovative technology concept.
The hi-tech material is visible everywhere. The Sesto Elemento is finished in a new, matt-shimmer clear coat, meaning that the CFRP structure can be seen throughout. Yet the Sesto Elemento is not just black; during the final stage of production the carbon fiber parts receive a newly developed and patented coat. Nano-Technology makes it possible to add fine crystals with a red shimmer. Surfaces covered with this type of finish glow red and deliver an outstanding effect. Further, the surface is particularly robust.
Consistent in form and function
On a Lamborghini, every single line has a clear function; the two vertical ribs at the front, for example, improve the stiffness of the component and guide the cooling air directly to the radiator behind them and to the brakes. This guarantees the thermal wellbeing of the components even under the toughest race track conditions.
The cooling air flows through two red triangular openings in the hood beneath the front windscreen and through large outlets in the side panels behind the front wheels. Sharply cut headlamp units complete the front end. Reduction is the name of the game here, too – alongside the bi-xenon lamps, there are four LEDs in each unit. The low front end looks incredibly dominant, with the partially double-lipped front spoiler pushed way out front and distinctively formed air intakes.
Precise lines, sharp edges
The entire side profile is cut like a sharp wedge, with the power center of the car unmistakably just in front of the rear axle. A distinctive sideline starts at the front wheel arch, rises along the door towards the rear and ends at the broad shoulders above the rear wheel. The triangle – like the one around the door handle – is a recurring design theme, defined by the precise contour edges in the Sesto Elemento’s CFRP body. The points of the air outlet triangles in the hood are carried through into lines along the roof.
The extremely wide sills form a connection between the air outlets behind the front wheels and the large air inlets in front of the rear wheels. These compartments house components such as the radiators for cooling the engine and transmission oil. The rims have a five-spoke design and are made entirely from carbon fiber. They offer a clear view of the high-performance brakes with carbon-ceramic discs.
Perfect aerodynamics
The Sesto Elemento’s rear overhang is extremely short and, again, defined by optimum aerodynamics. The generously dimensioned spoiler is perfectly matched to the diffuser and a further air deflector in the center, thus guaranteeing maximum downforce for extreme cornering speeds and excellent high-speed directional stability. The Pyrosic tailpipes are directed upwards through the engine cover panel, which also incorporates ten hexagonal openings and two air scoops behind the roof for delivering fresh air to the V10 power plant.
Complex structures in one component
A major strength of carbon-fiber technology is that complex structures can be integrated into one single component. This improves quality and reduces weight. On the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, the front and rear of the body-shell are each manufactured in a single piece. Engineers call this “cofango”, created by combining the Italian word “cofano” (hood) with “parafango” (fender). The large components are attached by using easily removable fasteners, in order to have fast component disassembly. The “cofango” is also reminiscent of an icon from the brand’s history: in 1966, the legendary Lamborghini Miura was unique as a mid-engine super sports car – and its rear cover, too, could be opened in one piece.
Interior – pared to the bone
The minimalist approach has also been applied to the interior, starting with the seats. Lamborghini has dispensed completely with the conventional seat frame. In fact, the whole internal structure is obtained and defined directly from the Forged Composite tub, that on one side plays a functional role and on the other side is the base for the optimally formed seat cushions, upholstered in hi-tech fabric, which are affixed directly to the carbon-fiber monocoque. The correct ergonomics are provided by the steering wheel, which can be adjusted for height and reach, and by the pedals, which can be electrically adjusted longitudinally. Of course, the designers of Lamborghini Centro Stile also dispensed with interior trim in the classic sense. The dominant visual feature throughout is the functional CFRP material – on the floor and roof of the monocoque, on the doors and also on the cockpit and center console. Even the electronic control unit for the engine is mounted in plain sight – a very special kind of hi-tech aesthetic. The triangular cut-out is also evident as a design feature – wherever material can be removed in the interest of weight reduction.
The controls are presented in a highly concentrated format. The instruments provide information primarily on engine and road speed, as well as all parameters relating to engine condition. Only three piezoelectric buttons grace the center console – one to start the engine, one to shift into reverse gear and another one for the lights.
Ambitious target reached with ease
The Sant’Agata Bolognese engineers had set themselves a target that was more than ambitious – despite the ten cylinders and 570 hp, despite the exceptionally fast-shifting e.gear transmission and even despite the permanent all-wheel drive, the Sesto Elemento still had to stay below the 1,000 kilogram mark. And that target was achieved; at a curb weight of 999 kilograms, each hp produced by the V10 power unit has to accelerate only 1.75 kilograms – a sensational figure.
This was made possible by the systematic and intelligent use of state-of-the-art carbon-fiber technologies. Lamborghini possesses extensive experience in the field of lightweight engineering, gathered over many years: something clearly demonstrated by the brand’s series production vehicles. The current Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera has a dry weight of only 1,340 kilograms, marking a competitive best in this category of super sports cars. Compared with the already extremely lean Gallardo LP 560-4 Coupé, this represents a further reduction of 70 kilograms, resulting largely from the use of carbon fiber in the body-shell, interior and technical components.
Lamborghini engineers stuck firmly to this approach for the Sesto Elemento. Its structure consists almost entirely of carbon fiber and is built using the monocoque principle. Monocoque means that the vehicle’s load-bearing structure is manufactured as a single shell, with the physical properties of one component, and thus makes optimum use of the extreme stiffness offered by CFRP materials. Formula 1 racing cars have been built using CFRP monocoques for decades – and regularly provide clear evidence of their collision safety. The monocoque in the Sesto Elemento, however, is made using innovative Forged Composite technology – the first time this has been done in an automobile. The advantage of the Forged Composite is that the monocoque is obtained through a one-shot process.
Carbon-fiber crash boxes
In the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, the monocoque forms the complete passenger cell. Connected to it are the front subframe – incorporating the suspension points – and the crash boxes, both also made using specialized carbon-fiber technologies. The extreme stiffness of this assembly guarantees not only a very high level of safety, but also unparalleled handling precision. The rear subframe with the engine mount and rear axle suspension points is made from aluminum – another lightweight material with which Lamborghini has a great deal of experience.
An important element in optimum construction using CFRP technology is the maximum integration of functions. Thus, the body-shell exterior is made up only of the roof section, which is part of the monocoque, the two “cofango” covers front and rear with integrated aerodynamic components and the doors. Each door consists of only two elements, the exterior skin and the interior cladding, both of which are also permanently bonded to create one component.
Carbon fiber even in the suspension
The suspension and the area around the engine have also been optimized with lightweight engineering. Alongside aluminum components, there are also carbon-fiber control arms: innovative Forged Composite technology is also well-suited to this kind of high-load part. These components are around 30 percent lighter than comparable aluminum parts. The propeller shaft is also made of CFRP by using Wrapping technology. This solution allowed the Lamborghini engineers to get rid of the central joint, bringing an important weight saving. The rims are also made from CFRP, while the brake discs are from carbon-ceramic composite material. A similar composite material is used for the tailpipes on the exhaust system – the compound of ceramic powder and synthetic resin makes this carbon material extremely heat resistant. A large number of screw fastenings feature a special titanium alloy and joining technology from the aviation sector.
Based on the form, function and operational demands of the individual Sesto Elemento components, engineers from Lamborghini’s R&D selected largely from three CFRP manufacturing techniques within their technology tool kit:
Forged Composite: Here, materials with short carbon fibers are hot pressed in a mould. The process facilitates complex structures and is used for parts such as the underside of the monocoque and the suspension arms.
Prepreg: The carbon-fiber mats are soaked in a thermoset liquid resin. They are pressed in moulds and cured in an oven under heat and pressure. Prepreg components have a very good surface finish and are therefore the preferred choice for use in visible areas.
Braiding: This is a method to manufacture composite filament derived from the textile industry. Each thread is diagonally intertwined on different levels.
Drive:
Concentrated power and amazing sound
The fascinating heart of the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento is familiar from the Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera. In the Sesto Elemento too, the V10 unit is mounted “longitudinale posteriore” – longitudinally behind the driver. The 570 hp output equals 419 kW, all of which is available at 8,000 r/min. The pulling power is just as impressive – with the torque curve peaking at 540 Nm and 6,500 r/min.
The V10 offers 5,204 cm3 of displacement, delivering a specific output of 80.5 kW (109.6 hp) per liter of displacement. The highlights of this long-stroke engine with an aluminum crankcase include dry sump lubrication and a cylinder angle of 90 degrees. Both solutions are an integral part of the lightweight engineering approach, as well as serving to lower the center of gravity and thus tighten the handling characteristics. Ideal combustion chamber fill comes courtesy of a switch-over induction system and continually variable, chain-driven camshafts.
Best traction with all-wheel drive
The Sesto Elemento is equipped with the e.gear transmission, controlled in race car fashion via shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel. The automated system with electronic management shifts smoothly through its six gears much faster than a human being would be able to.
Every single kilometer in the Sesto Elemento is sheer fascination – due in part to the relentless traction delivered under practically all conditions. This is largely attributable to the permanent all-wheel drive system. It incorporates a central viscous coupling and a self-locking differential for the rear wheels with 45 percent lock. Thanks to this superior traction, Lamborghini drivers can accelerate earlier out of a curve than those in rear-wheel drive cars.
Competence:
New development center for carbon-fiber technology
Lamborghini possesses many years of experience with carbon-fiber reinforced materials. As far back as 1983, it produced the first prototype CFRP chassis for the Countach, with the first series production parts appearing in 1985. The current Lamborghini Murciélago is made largely from CFRP – its body-in-white contains 93 kilograms of carbon-fiber materials. The engine cover panel of the Gallardo Spyder is one of the largest CFRP components with class A surface quality in the automotive world.
The company is now working steadily to expand its worldwide leading position. The new Advanced Composites Research Center (ACRC) at the company headquarter in Sant’Agata Bolognese is working on innovative construction and production methods for carbon-fiber elements in automobile design.
The Advanced Composite Research Center in Sant’Agata Bolognese secures leading-edge research on innovative materials and production methods for carbon fiber elements for small production volumes. Here, over 30 experts develop vehicle components of all shapes and sizes. They build prototypes and the associated production tools while developing optimized production technologies. Sophisticated systems largely developed in-house allow extremely high precision levels as engineers simulate manufacturing processes as well as carry out crash tests on complex carbon-fiber structures. Thanks to the extensively patented “RTM Lambo” process, Lamborghini can use minimal pressure and relatively low temperatures to manufacture carbon-fiber components to the highest levels of quality, precision and surface finish, from small parts to complex vehicle structures. Further benefits include higher process speeds, lower costs, and extremely light tooling.
The Lamborghini Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory (ACSL) at the University of Washington uses experimental tests to define the mechanical behavior of the different materials and technologies using methodology from the aviation industry. The team of research engineers in Seattle works with very specific instruments and methods in close cooperation with the R&D headquarters and the ACRC in Sant’Agata Bolognese.
Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Spyder Performante, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, Lamborghini Texas, Richardson
Ferrari 458 Italia vs. Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
Posted by brianongaro in Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Gallardo on October 8, 2010
Cross-town supercar rivals–one in track cleats, one in street shoes–meet to determine who is king.
By Patrick Hong / Photos by Guy Spangenberg
No other brands in the world more clearly embody the term “exotic cars” than Ferrari and Lamborghini. Not only do they define incredible performance, but they also invoke passion and excitement among car enthusiasts everywhere. While both companies have a healthy respect for each other, make no mistake that each also has a strong sense of pride and a desire to one-up the other. Given their intertwined history—Ferruccio Lamborghini was snubbed by Enzo Ferrari early on when he complained about Enzo’s road cars—there is nothing more thrilling than to see both carmakers try to out-duel each other with each new generation of cars. So it only made sense to round up these two Italian builders’ latest creations and toss them into the ring for a good fight: The 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia versus the 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera.
In one corner is the all-new Ferrari 458 Italia. It comes from a rich lineage of being the compact berlinetta of the Maranello family. First there was the mid-engine Dino, then came the 308, the 328, the 348 and the F355. The subsequent 360 Modena took the model line forward a giant step with a dramatically different look that evolved into the F430. The new Italia now takes over the reins and charges ahead with numerous technologies learned from the company’s famed Formula 1 program. Racing is deeply rooted within Ferrari—Enzo actually sold road cars simply to fund his motorsport ventures.
In the other corner, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera—from the cross-town Sant’Agata Bolognese family that gave birth to the much-revered Miura and the out-of-this-world Countach—is based on the standard Gallardo unveiled in 2003. The Superleggera is designed to live on the track, and is equipped with firmer suspension tuning and weight-saving carbon-fiber components that shave 154 lb. from the stock Gallardo. Interestingly, racing was never in the company’s blood. But Ferruccio set out to build a better and more exciting road car than Ferrari.
On the surface, it might seem that pitting the Italia against the Superleggera is like comparing apples to oranges. After all, the Ferrari is designed essentially as a high-performance road car, while the Lamborghini is a track-focused version of the Gallardo. But look closer; surprisingly, both sports cars share unusually similar technical specifications.
Weighing in at 3490 lb., the Ferrari is equipped with a direct-injection 4.5-liter mid-mounted V-8 engine generating 570 bhp at 9000 rpm, with 398 lb.-ft. of torque at 6000 rpm. Tipping the scales at 3470 lb.—a mere 20 lb. lighter than the Italia—the Lamborghini also has a direct-injected powerplant residing amidships that can pump out 562 bhp at 8000 rpm and 398 lb.-ft. of torque at 6500 rpm. The contrast is that the Superleggera’s power comes from a 5.2-liter V-10, and it drives all four wheels. According to their respective factories, the top speed for each car is a claimed 202 mph. The starting price for each hovers around $230,000. Coincidence? Perhaps. And it is probably also safe to guess that Ferrari closely benchmarked the Gallardo while the Italia was being developed.
Round 1: Road Performance
Climb aboard the Ferrari 458 Italia, and you’re treated to a mixture of old and new complete with richly stitched Italian leather complemented by new technology such as carbon-fiber trim and an all-digital dash. The seats are comfortable and supportive, and the outward view is very good all the way around the car—even to the rear. In contrast, the Lamborghini’s cockpit is all about business: thinly padded carbon-fiber seats with carbon-fiber door panels and center tunnel, matched by the generous use of Alcantara fabric, all meant to shave pounds and convey a sense of speed.
Stare into the Italia’s instrument cluster—front and center is the all-important yellow analog rev counter. To the right is the TFT (Thin Film Transistor) screen that can toggle through various features such as radio and navigation via a clunky and off-putting iDrive-like knob. In the off position, the right screen becomes the speedometer. On the far left there are several screens that can be keyed up (via another iDrive-like knob), including driving aid settings based on different chassis configurations. On the steering wheel you’ll find the manettino dial—just like in an F1 car—enabling you to select your preferred chassis setup: Sport, Race, CT Off (traction control off) and CST Off (everything off except ABS, and you’re on your own). The turn signal buttons are located on the steering wheel as well, just on the inside corners near where you would normally rest your thumbs. This can be annoying for some, especially if you are in the middle of a turn and don’t remember which turn signal is on. Others have found them quite logical in that your hands will never be off the steering wheel. As expected, the large paddle shifters for Ferrari’s Getrag 7-speed twin-clutch transmission are fixed on the steering column.
The Gallardo’s instrument cluster is based on a much older 2003 design. All the important gauges such as the speedometer and rev counter are in analog form, with a small center digital display showing a trip computer and a few of the car’s vital signs. The infotainment system on the center stack is similar to those used in Audis (Lamborghini’s parent), and the climate control is basic with just a few buttons. Just as in the Ferrari, the Lambo’s paddle shifters stay fixed on the steering column (left downshift, right upshift), engaging its hydraulically actuated single-clutch 6-speed gearbox. And there are similar driving modes available as with the Ferrari: standard, Sport and Corsa (for track use), as well as an “everything off except ABS” setting. Although the Superleggera isn’t as technology-laden as the Italia, there’s some appeal to its simplicity and no-nonsense approach.
Driving the two exotics on public roads, the difference in character is apparent. The Lamborghini makes no excuses that its suspension is tuned for the racetrack. On Interstates or winding mountain roads, the Superleggera makes every bump and crack on the road known, and you feel the direct impact of those imperfections clearly through your lower back. The steering’s on-center and off-center feel is direct and nicely weighted, with increasing effort needed through decreasing-radius turns. The car’s all-wheel drive adds that extra sense of safety and confidence so you can drive through the corners a bit faster and count on the front wheels to pull you out.
In the Ferrari, thanks to the car’s adjustable magnetorheological shocks, you can set it to “bumpy road” and it will soak up the concrete gaps on the highway with minimal fuss. The cockpit feels quieter and more isolated from road noise. As the pavement gets twisty, turn the manettino to Race. Not only does the exhaust open up through two of the outer trio of tailpipes for a more racy engine note, the damping also firms up for you to tackle the turns with more composure. The steering on the Italia is lightning quick and ultra-responsive. The turn-in is effortless. In fact, the faster you turn, the faster the car’s computer will adjust its damping real-time to prevent more roll. The trick is to learn to trust the car and know that its rear will stay put when you attack the apex more aggressively. The Ferrari feels lighter on its feet than the Lambo, and is able to dance through the switchbacks with more precision. That said, the Superleggera’s more calming on-track mannerisms—albeit more weighty in feel—invites the driver to take more risk.
Round 2: Track Performance
Through our standard Road & Track test regimen, both exotics turned in almost identical numbers, though from entirely different approaches. The Lamborghini accomplishes its acceleration, braking, slalom and skidpad runs mainly through raw power and mechanical grip, while the Ferrari accomplishes the task with more finesse and electronic optimization.
On the drag strip, the Italia and Superleggera ripped off identical 0–60 mph and quarter-mile runs, tripping the timer at 3.0 seconds and 11.0 sec., respectively. The Lambo’s trap speed of 128.9 mph at the quarter mile showed only a 0.4-mph advantage. Both cars come equipped with launch control where all you need to do is apply full brakes and throttle as the engine rpm builds. When ready, just release the brakes and you’re on your way for a thrill ride. While the Superleggera isn’t bothered by less-than-optimal asphalt, the Italia needs more attention to the timing of the brake release and full throttle application to properly launch off the line with just the right amount of wheelspin.
The higher grip exhibited by the Lamborghini is attributed to its all-wheel drive and its very sticky Pirelli P Zero Corsa rubber. These tires have an ultra-low 60 treadwear rating compared to the 160 rating of the Pirelli P Zeros on the Ferrari. Through our slalom, the Superleggera snakes through the cones averaging 74.3 mph, and the Italia counters with 73.4 mph. Circling our skidpad, the awd Lambo’s natural tendency to understeer hinders it a bit, although it still generated 0.99g, just a tick below the Ferrari’s 1.00g.
Beyond the test data, the home of both the Ferrari and Lamborghini is really on the racetrack. Around the Streets of Willow in Rosamond, California, the 458 Italia’s engine screams with power and its twin-clutch gearbox swaps gears in just 0.04 sec., making the car slingshot down the straight in uncannily smooth fashion. The Superleggera’s single-clutch transmission, while also quick in upshifting, feels clunky and slow by comparison.
Slowing down, both cars are equipped with carbon-ceramic brake rotors so there is no hint of fade after repeated applications. In fact, the Italia’s brake calipers nudge the pads closer to the rotors as it anticipates you applying the brakes. This, combined with the car’s ability to perform multiple downshifts when you hold the left paddle in, further heightens the Ferrari’s impression that it can anticipate your every command and enhances its nimbleness on the track.
That said, apexing and accelerating out of the corner in the Italia also requires more trust in the car. The front wishbone and rear multilink suspension coupled with those magnetorheological shocks and the rear E-diff will find the most optimal settings to keep body roll in check and the back end in place. But relying more on electronic assistance also means that it will take longer to learn the car’s behavior to be able extract more speed.
With all-wheel drive and a fixed all-around double-wishbone suspension setup, the Superleggera doesn’t quite have the quickness in transitions. But what it does offer is the assurance and the predictability that if you do toss the car into a turn, the behavior of the chassis and the grip on the asphalt can be more directly felt through the steering and the seat. And powering out, having driven front wheels and a limited-slip rear differential means you can get on the throttle a bit earlier to pull the car around the apex. Driving the Superleggera requires a bit more effort, but you are rewarded with a stronger sense of connection to the pavement.
Final Round: The Decision
At the end of the day, with both the Ferrari 458 Italia and the Lamborghini Superleggera turning in similar road and track driving impressions and test data, how do we decide which exotic reigns supreme?
The Italia technology is wrapped in a beautifully sculpted body. Every exterior design detail on the car serves an aerodynamic purpose, from the lower front aerolastic winglets that bend to reduce drag and improve downforce, to the rear fender’s raised lip where it meets the engine cover so the air flows more smoothly into the rear radiators. With the Superleggera, one look at the car—visible carbon-fiber components inside and out, the deep front air scoop, the ever-present rear wing, and the strong cut lines that go straight to the back—it is impossible to mistake the car’s intended purpose. The Ferrari is graceful, and the Lamborghini is bold.
So the final decision really comes down to personal preference. The all-around exotic crown would go to the Ferrari 458 Italia. The no-nonsense, singularly track-focused crown would go to the Lamborghini Superleggera. For any car enthusiast, having either one of these exotic overachievers in the garage will do.
Article and photos courtesy of
Lamborghini Dallas, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, Lamborghini Texas, Richardson
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Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Midnight Cowboy is a supposed classic that I figured was about time that I watched to see for myself.
The film is about a wannabe cowboy named Joe Buck (Jon Voight) from Texas who moves to New York City to become a gigolo. Joe becomes friends with a sick and crippled con man named Ratso Rizzo. Both men struggle for survival living on the streets.
The film was directed by John Schlesinger and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Sylvia Miles, Bob Balaban, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Ruth White, and Jennifer Salt.
This movie did not really seem like it would appeal to me. The only reason I wanted to watch it was to see Hoffman and Voight before they were really famous. It didn’t look good and the storyline didn’t interest me at all.
I hated this movie. It was terrible. That might annoy some people because somehow Midnight Cowboy managed to win 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. But, I don’t care. Midnight Cowboy was a joke.
The only decent things about the film were Dustin Hoffman’s performance, the scenery of New York City in the 1960s, and the movie’s theme song “Everybody’s Talking at me” by Harry Nilsson.
The rest of the film was stupid, messed up, a little disturbing, and most of all, pointless. It is the misadventures of two low-life wannabe hustlers. An uneducated man travels across the country on a bus to prostitute himself. It does not sound good and it is not good, plain and simple.
True Grit (1969) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) were both far more deserving of an Academy Award for Best Picture that year. The fact that Midnight Cowboy won is a travesty.
Buy, rent, or run? RUN!
Posted in Classics Movie Reviews, Don't Watch This Movie, Drama Movie Reviews
Tags: "Everybody's Talking at Me", Academy Award, Bob Balaban, Brenda Vaccaro, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Dustin Hoffman, Harry Nilsson, Jennifer Salt, John McGiver, John Schlesinger, Jon Voight, Midnight Cowboy (1969), movie, Ruth White, Sylvia Miles, True Grit (1969)
Happy Birthday to Meryl Streep
Happy Birthday to Meryl Streep! The actress turns 64 today.
Many consider Streep to be one of the greatest actresses of all time. She is not my favorite actress by any means, but I have enjoyed many of her films.
My favorite Meryl Streep films are Marvin’s Room (1996), Before and After (1996), and The Manchurian Candidate (2004).
Streep has been nominated for an Academy Award 17 times and she has won 3 times. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice (1982) and also for The Iron Lady (2011). She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). She has been nominated for an Academy Award more times than any other actor.
Posted in Celebrity Birthdays
Tags: Academy Award, actress, Before and After (1996), celebrity birthdays, Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Marvin's Room (1996), Meryl Streep, Movies, Sophie's Choice (1982), The Iron Lady (2011), The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Zombieland (2009)
When I saw Zombieland for the first time, I was absolutely shocked at how much I loved it. A friend had recommended it and I watched it shortly after it came out on DVD. I went into it knowing nothing at all about the movie and it caught me completely by surprise.
After a zombie apocalypse, there are few human survivors remaining. Zombieland follows Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) as they fight their way through zombie-ridden America in search of safety, solace, and Twinkies. They run into Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) along the way and their journey gets bumpy.
Zombieland put Jesse Eisenberg on the map. The only other movie that I had seen him in before was The Village (2004) and at that time I had no idea who he was. His performance in the film blew me away. He proved that he had the power to carry a movie by himself and when he teamed up with Woody Harrelson, it was priceless.
A year after Zombieland, Eisenberg was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing the part of Mark Zuckerberg in the film The Social Network (2010). He has since been popping up all over the place with Now You See Me (2013) (also with Harrelson) coming out later this year.
Harrelson was tremendous. He played a great tough-guy and yet he was hysterical. Not many people can pull off that combination. On screen you could really tell that he had a lot of fun with his character.
My friend who recommended the movie to me actually dressed up like Tallahassee for Halloween because he loved the character so much.
Zombieland also served as a big stepping stone for Emma Stone. She was very likable in the movie. Like Eisenberg, she became super popular after Zombieland came out. The only difference is that she was already a little popular from a few previous roles.
Abigail Breslin didn’t need a stepping stone. The youngest of the group, she had already earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Zombieland served simply as a tool to further her acting career. She was only 13 when she made the movie, but she held her own along with the rest of the cast.
Bill Murray has one of the best cameo appearances that I have ever seen in a movie. It was completely random and hilarious.
Amber Heard also has a small part in the film.
The film was directed by Ruben Fleischer. Fleischer has since directed Eisenberg in 30 Minutes or less (2011) and Stone in Gangster Squad (2013).
Zombieland is a comical masterpiece. It has already become a cult classic and has recently spawned a TV show. It is a movie that I could watch over and over again. The film is not so much about zombies as it is about the camaraderie between the main characters as they try to survive among the living dead. It is a hilarious thrill ride that will keep you laughing all the way to the end.
Posted in Comedy Movie Reviews
Tags: 30 Minutes or less (2011), Abigail Breslin, Academy Award, Amber Heard, Bill Murray, Emma Stone, Gangster Squad (2013), Jesse Eisenberg, Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Mark Zuckerberg, Now You See Me (2013), Ruben Fleischer, The Social Network (2010), The Village (2004), Woody Harrelson, zombie apocalypse, Zombieland (2009)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
The poster for the movie says, “The Greatest Manhunt in History.” It should have said, “The Greatest Waste of Time.” The running time of the movie is 157 minutes. They literally could have cut the running time in half and told the same story and it actually might have been entertaining.
The movie is about the 10 year long “Manhunt,” capture, and killing of Osama Bin Laden after the attacks that occurred on 9/11/2001.
We all know by now that the fact that it took America 10 years to find Bin Laden and kill him is an absolute disgrace. Of course, it was a great thing when it finally got done, but it sure took us long enough. Zero Dark Thirty plays on that fact. The movie is a very long, drawn-out depiction of the steps that we took to finally track down America’s Most Wanted and destroy him. The film isn’t a decade long, but it certainly tries to feel that way. It is so boring and slow at times that I wanted to turn it off at a number of different points.
The other thing about this film is that it is hard to tell how factual it really is. It is based on a true story, but do we really know all of the facts? Unfortunately I think that people will watch this movie and assume that it is 100% accurate. How do we know the truth about what happened? A lot of the information about the “Manhunt” is classified. How will we ever know the real truth?
The film tried so hard to be this big epic movie. It failed quite miserably as far as I am concerned.
Zero Dark Thirty was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Sound Editing. To me, that is so comical. It shows that the Academy has truly lost its mind to even nominate such garbage in the first place.
This movie was almost as far away from Best Picture as you can get. The acting was mediocre at best, especially Jessica Chastain’s performance. Not even close to top notch. The screenplay was very un-original. They took a story that everyone in the world knows about and turned it into a screenplay. That is not original in my book. There were so many unnecessary scenes that could have been cut out of the movie that it was a complete disgrace to filmmaking. The editor should have been fired, not nominated for an Academy Award.
I’m glad that the movie only won an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing. It was better that it didn’t actually win. It technically tied with Skyfall (2012) for Best Sound Editing. Skyfall should have won. I don’t know what is more embarrassing for Zero Dark Thirty, the fact that it was nominated for 5 Academy Awards and only won 1 of them or the fact that the only one that it actually won was a tie for Best Sound Editing.
Maybe the movie only got so much recognition because Kathryn Bigelow directed it. Her film The Hurt Locker (2008) was very solid and was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won 6 of them. That film made her the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Were the Academy Award nominations for Zero Dark Thirty just a sort of blue ribbon recognizing Bigelow for her participation in trying again?
Bigelow had no support from her cast which most notably includes Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Reda Kateb, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Harold Perrineau, Jeremy Strong, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez, James Gandolfini, Stephen Dillane, Frank Grillo, and Joel Edgerton. Maybe the cast was not of much help because their characters had way more than enough time to develop, but they never really did.
Kathryn Bigelow was in way over her head when she decided to direct Zero Dark Thirty and it shows. The film is a steaming pile of cow dung. The only decent part of the movie is when they showed Seal Team Six raiding Bin Laden’s lair.
I recommend staying as far away from this movie as possible. Save yourself a precious almost 3 hours of your life and don’t watch it.
Buy, rent, or run? Run.
Posted in Don't Watch This Movie, Drama Movie Reviews
Tags: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, Bigelow, Edgar Ramirez, Frank Grillo, Harold Perrineau, James Gandolfini, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Strong, Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Kathryn Bigelow, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong, Osama Bin Laden, Reda Kateb, Skyfall (2012), Stephen Dillane, The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thiry (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
A solid, raw, dysfunctional drama that felt real. It was refreshing to see a movie in the theatre where the actors were actually given the opportunity to act. Instead of relying solely on special effects or action, this movie relied only on acting and story. It did not disappoint.
Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Jacki Weaver were all superb. The film was so well scripted that is felt believable. But, it only felt believable because of how wonderfully it was portrayed on screen by the actors. The chaos and craziness and drama were there all the time and it was a treat to watch.
Even though Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are 16 years apart in real life, their chemistry together in the film made that unnoticeable.
Although this film is classified under the drama genre, I classify it under my own made up genre: dysfunctional reality. It also could be called dysfunctional drama or true drama. It is a genre that some people are afraid of because it is too real. The stories that belong to this genre are too honest and true to life. Usually the dialogue is very realistic to the point where it doesn’t feel written; like it has to be real because nobody could have come up with it.
In a great line from the movie, Bradley Cooper’s character says, “I don’t have a filter when I talk.” To me, that is a perfect line for this movie because true to my made up genre, you can’t write this stuff. He is not filtering what he is saying as if he is reading from a script. He goes with his gut, with his instincts, and the words just flow.
I rate this movie an 9 out of 10.
Tags: Academy Award, Bradley Cooper, Drama, Jacki Weaver, Jennifer Lawrence, movie, Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
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Warehouse Associate in Las Vegas, Nevada.
First Name 59c2cdfb
Email b53ac7ab
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Las Vegas | Nevada | United States | 89108
As a Warehouse Associate at Floor & Decor, your organization and ability to work efficiently will help create a seamless shopping and delivery experience for our customers.
You will be responsible for picking customer orders on time, picking the accurate product efficiently, receiving and stocking procedures in the warehouse and inter-store transfers. You will play a large part in creating a lasting experience for Floor & Decor customers by ensuring our product is on the sales floor for them to purchase.
Valid driver’s license
Restock merchandise, organize merchandise
Ability to handle multiple tasks and work well under pressure
Help customers find the products they are looking for as needed and answer customer questions
Completion of forklift certification through F&D
Las Vegas Nevada United States Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, 89108 Store Operations Store Operations
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Las Vegas Nevada United States Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, 89108 Store Operations Specialist Store Operations Specialist
Henderson Nevada United States Henderson, Nevada, United States, 89014 Customer Service Customer Service
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Departments 82e895f3 Departments 34aeab48 Accounts Payable Admin Customer Care Operations Customer Care Services Customer Service Design Services Distribution Operations Distribution Operations Leadership Distribution Warehouse Ecommerce Inventory Merchandising Leadership Merchandising Operations Operations Pro Services Product Review Store Operations Store Operations Leadership Store Operations Specialist Store Sales Store Sales Specialist Supply Chain Systems Support & Enhancements Technology Warehouse
Locations 3e8ddbb6 Locations 2e78b408 Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States Alexandria, Virginia, United States Arlington, Texas, United States Arlington Heights, Illinois, United States Arvada, Colorado, United States Atlanta, Georgia, United States Aurora, Illinois, United States Austin, Texas, United States Avon, Massachusetts, United States Birmingham, Alabama, United States Bloomingdale, Georgia, United States Boynton Beach, Florida, United States Bridgeton, Missouri, United States Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States Buford, Georgia, United States Burlingame, California, United States Carson, California, United States Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Chicago, Illinois, United States Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Clearwater, Florida, United States Concord, North Carolina, United States Countryside, Illinois, United States Dallas, Texas, United States Denver, Colorado, United States Devon, Pennsylvania, United States Downey, California, United States Draper, Utah, United States Edgemere, Maryland, United States El Paso, Texas, United States Everett, Washington, United States Farmingdale, New York, United States Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States Fort Myers, Florida, United States Fort Worth, Texas, United States Fountain Valley, California, United States Fullerton, California, United States Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States Glendale, Arizona, United States Greensboro, North Carolina, United States Gretna, Louisiana, United States Gurnee, Illinois, United States Hampton, Virginia, United States Henderson, Nevada, United States Henrico, Virginia, United States Hialeah, Florida, United States Hilliard, Ohio, United States Hollywood, Florida, United States Houston, Texas, United States Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Jacksonville, Florida, United States Katy, Texas, United States Kennesaw, Georgia, United States Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Lakeland, Florida, United States Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Levittown, Pennsylvania, United States Littleton, Colorado, United States Lombard, Illinois, United States Louisville, Kentucky, United States Marietta, Georgia, United States McDonough, Georgia, United States Memphis, Tennessee, United States Mesa, Arizona, United States Mesquite, Texas, United States Miami, Florida, United States Milpitas, California, United States Mission Viejo, California, United States Moorestown, New Jersey, United States Moreno Valley, California, United States Morrow, Georgia, United States Nashville, Tennessee, United States New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Norco, California, United States North Charleston, South Carolina, United States North Richland Hills, Texas, United States Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States Orlando, Florida, United States Overland Park, Kansas, United States Paramus, New Jersey, United States Pasadena, Texas, United States Phoenix, Arizona, United States Plano, Texas, United States Pompano Beach, Florida, United States Port St. Lucie, Florida, United States Reno, Nevada, United States Reynoldsburg, Ohio, United States Riverdale, Utah, United States Rocklin, California, United States Roswell, Georgia, United States Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States San Antonio, Texas, United States San Diego, California, United States Sanford, Florida, United States Santa Ana, California, United States Sarasota, Florida, United States Saugus, Massachusetts, United States Savannah, Georgia, United States Seattle, Washington, United States Skokie, Illinois, United States Smyrna, Georgia, United States St. Louis, Missouri, United States Sugar Land, Texas, United States Tampa, Florida, United States Tempe, Arizona, United States The Colony, Texas, United States Thornton, Colorado, United States Tucson, Arizona, United States Utica, Michigan, United States Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States Wayne, New Jersey, United States West Palm Beach, Florida, United States Wichita, Kansas, United States Woodbridge, Virginia, United States Woodland Hills, California, United States
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Terry Carlin
Terry Carlin, a native of Cleveland, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington. Soon after graduation, Terry set out to combine her appreciation of great art with her passion for music by pursuing the art of violin making. She enrolled at The Violin Making School of America, a four year program dedicated to the art of bowed stringed instrument building, where she earned the degree of "Luthier". Terry is an accredited member of the Appraisers Association of America.
Following graduation, Terry served her apprenticeship for several years before returning to Cleveland and opening her own shop for sales and service of violin family instruments. As her business increased, she moved from the Old Arcade in downtown Cleveland to the historic Little Italy neighborhood which has become a destination for artists, fine restaurants, and great music. Her shop is now located in the Murray Hill Galleries building. The studio is near both Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, the equally famous Cleveland Institute of Music, and Case Western University.
McKinley Glasser
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, McKinley is an active freelancer and has diverse experience in teaching and performing. As an orchestral player, she regularly appears with the Mansfield Symphony and the Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra. An experienced pit musician, she has played in dozens of opera and musical theatre productions with the Rabbit Run Theatre, Cleveland’s Near West Theatre, Judson Manor’s Theatre in the Circle. In 2018, she made her solo debut playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto at Cleveland State University. When not teaching or performing, McKinley devotes her time to learning and promoting new music, and has premiered several new works for solo cello and small ensemble.
McKinley is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Preparatory Program and her primary teachers include Charles Bernard, Bryan Dumm, Brian Thornton and Cathy Meints. She graduated from Cleveland State University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Music in performance and a minor in English.
Sarah Becker
Terry Carlin violins welcomes violinist Sarah Becker!
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Forming super-Earths by ultraviolet stripping
Washington, DC. A new explanation for forming “super-Earths” suggests that they are more likely to be found orbiting red dwarf stars—the most abundant type of star—than gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The theory, by Dr. Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, describes a mechanism whereby UV radiation from a nearby massive star strips off a planet’s gaseous envelope exposing a super-Earth. The work, published in the June 10, 2006, Astrophysical Journal (Letters), explains recent extrasolar planet discoveries by the microlensing method.
Super-Earths have masses that range between those of Earth and Neptune but have unknown compositions. “Of the 300 stars closest to the Sun, at least 230 are red dwarf stars, with masses less than half that of our Sun,” Boss says. “Because nearby stars are the easiest places to look for other Earth-like planets, it is important to try to predict what types of planetary systems they might have, and that means trying to figure out how their planets can form.”
Recently, evidence was presented for perhaps the lowest-mass planet found to date in orbit around a main sequence star like the Sun. It was found by an international consortium of astronomers via a microlensing event, where a foreground star amplifies the light from a much more distant star by bending the light of the background star in our direction, an effect predicted by Einstein. In addition, they observed a secondary brightening as well, consistent with the presence of a roughly 5.5-Earth-mass planet orbiting the foreground star at a distance similar to the asteroid belt in our Solar System. While the identity of the foreground star is unknown, it is most likely a red dwarf (M dwarf) star. Evidence for microlensing by a 13-Earth-mass planet around another red dwarf was subsequently presented.
The microlensing detection teams interpreted their discoveries as evidence that super-Earths can form around red dwarf stars by the same process that led to the formation of the Earth and other terrestrial planets in our Solar System, namely collisions between progressively larger solid bodies. This process is so slow, however, that it is unlikely to lead to the formation of gas giant planets around red dwarfs, because the disk gas is likely to disappear before the solid bodies can grow large enough to capture any gas. However, microlensing teams had previously found evidence for two gas giant planets with masses similar to that of Jupiter around two other red dwarf stars. Given that equal numbers of both giant and super-Earth-massed planets have been detected by microlensing, yet the former are easier to detect, they argued that there must be far fewer giant planets than super-Earths.
Boss was pondering these discoveries while sitting in a hotel lobby in Houston when a new explanation for the four microlensing planets occurred to him. He had previously shown that red dwarf stars are likely to form gas giant protoplanets rapidly by the disk instability mechanism, whereby the gaseous disk forms spiral arms and self-gravitating protoplanets that would become Jupiters in the absence of any interference. However, most stars form in regions where massive O stars eventually form. Such stars emit immense amounts of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which strips off the disk gas around young stars, exposing their outer protoplanets to UV and stripping away their gaseous envelopes. In 2002 Boss and his Carnegie colleagues, George Wetherill and Nader Haghighipour (now at the University of Hawaii), proposed this explanation for forming Uranus and Neptune, which have masses similar to those of the super-Earths.
“It dawned on me that because UV stripping depends on the mass of the central star, super-Earths should be found on much smaller orbits around a red dwarf than around the Sun,” Boss says. “This idea naturally predicts red dwarfs that form close to massive stars will end up with super-Earths orbiting at the distances where super-Earths have been found by microlensing.” Red dwarfs that form in the absence of massive stars will not suffer UV stripping and hence will form gas giant planets at these distances, instead of super-Earths. Such stars are in the minority so red dwarfs should be orbited mostly by super-Earths at asteroidal distances and beyond. This prediction agrees with the microlensing detections to date.
It remains to be seen if Boss’s theoretical predictions will be verified by the ongoing microlensing searches and by the space-based planet detection missions being planned by NASA and the European Space Agency. Determining the compositions of super-Earths will be a major challenge with important implications for their habitability.
For image see
http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/boss/ftp/mdwarf2/mdwarf2.pdf
Four Jupiter-mass clumps formed on Saturn-like orbits after 215 years of evolution of an initially smooth disk of gas and dust in orbit around a red dwarf star with a mass half that of our Sun. Purple denotes regions with high gas density in the midplane of the planet-forming disk, while red regions denote low gas density. The red dwarf lies unseen at the center of the disk. These protoplanets would all be stripped down to super-Earths if this planetary system formed close to a massive star.
The calculations were performed on the Carnegie Alpha Cluster of workstations at DTM, the purchase of which was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program. Boss’ research on planet formation is supported in part by NASA’s Planetary Geology & Geophysics and Origins of Solar Systems Programs, and by the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). The NAI, founded in 1997, is a partnership between NASA, 16 major U.S. teams and six international consortia. NAI's goal is to promote, conduct, and lead integrated multidisciplinary astrobiology research and to train a new generation of astrobiology researchers. For more information about the NAI on the Internet, visit: http://nai.nasa.gov/
The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism is part of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/), which has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.
Astronomy/Cosmology
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‘The Walking Dead’ spoilers: Rick and Lori’s marriage in ‘turmoil’
AMC, Season 3, The Walking Dead July 2, 2012
Keeping a marriage together in the real world is already difficult enough in this day and age, but throw in zombies, infections and the possible end of human existence and see how well a marriage holds up – it will test even the strongest of relationships. “The Walking Dead” has already thrown Rick and Lori […]
‘Walking Dead’: Glen Mazzara talks season 3, Michonne, and the Governor
AMC, Michonne, Season 3, The Governor, The Walking Dead July 1, 2012
Now that Frank Darabont is out as the showrunner for AMC’s “The Walking Dead”, what can fans expect to see change with the series with Glen Mazzara at the helm? Will the slow pace of the show start to ramp up? How will the biggest villain in the series, The Governor, affect our group of […]
‘The Walking Dead’ season 3 spoilers: A surprising return
AMC, David Morrissey, Michael Rooker, Season 3, The Walking Dead June 13, 2012
Season 3 of “The Walking Dead” is not going to just feature a new setting in prison — there will also be some other major surprises coming up. As the photo to the left shows, Michael Rooker’s character of Merle is clearly back — despite suspicions that he may have been dead after cutting off […]
‘Pretty Little Liars’ spoilers: Will we see a different side of Jenna?
ABC Family, Pretty Little Liars, Season 3 June 11, 2012
Just as with the first two seasons of the show, Jenna is going to play a big role on “Pretty Little Liars” as both a mysterious figure and an adversary to Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily. Even with this in mind, though, we still could see a side to the character that we have not […]
NBC’s ‘The Voice’: Blake Shelton loves show, but not quick move to fall
Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, NBC, Season 3, The Voice June 10, 2012
In case you have not heard already, “The Voice” is going to be transitioning over to the fall TV season on NBC for the first time later this year — and while we have been largely critical of the move (mostly because the network is burning out their singing show so much that a season […]
Analysis: Should ‘Game of Thrones’ be longer than ten episodes a season?
Game of Thrones, HBO, Peter Dinklage, season 2, Season 3 June 9, 2012
It’s been a long week waking up every morning with no new “Game of Thrones” on the horizon, and in looking over the reaction to Sunday night’s season 2 finale, there really has only been one criticism — why did it have to end already? In averaging ten episodes a season, the HBO drama has […]
‘Pretty Little Liars’ season 3: ‘Blood is the New Black’ sneak peeks!
ABC Family, Pretty Little Liars, Season 3 June 9, 2012
If you wanted evidence that “Pretty Little Liars” was about to take a dangerous turn, know this — someone is about to give the girls a bracelet made out of teeth with an ominous message attached. (Aren’t the messages always a bit ominous here?) As horrifying as this moment looks to be on Tuesday night’s […]
‘The Walking Dead’ season 3 spoilers: Meet the Governor! (Photo)
AMC, David Morrissey, Season 3, The Governor, The Walking Dead June 8, 2012
Just in case you had any questions about whether or not David Morrissey could pull off the character of The Governor on “The Walking Dead,” we may now have an official answer. The photo on the left (via TV Guide) shows off the first picture of the infamous character in action, and we can almost […]
‘Pretty Little Liars’ spoilers: Keegan Allen on Spencer / Toby romance
ABC Family, Keegan Allen, Pretty Little Liars, Season 3, Spoilers June 8, 2012
“Spoby” has quickly become one of the most-popular couples on “Pretty Little Liars,” and with this season already shaping up to be a rather intense one the questions are already arising as to whether or not they can survive. (After all, they have had plenty of bumps in the road already.) No matter what happens […]
‘The Walking Dead’ to preview season 3, air black-and-white pilot
AMC, Season 3, The Walking Dead May 31, 2012
If you love “The Walking Dead,” then AMC is more or less turning July 7-8 into a weekend of must-see TV for all content related to the hit show. Basically, the entire weekend is going to be in many ways a “Dead”-a-thon. Beginning at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on each day, the entire 19-episode run of […]
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VC Prof Mugisha awarded The Uganda National Independence Medal
On Tuesday, 9th October 2018 , as Uganda celebrated 56 years of independence, our Vice Chancellor, Prof John Mugisha was awarded The National Independence Medal. He received this medal in recognition of his immense contribution towards the public health sector in Uganda.
Also known as the Golden Jubilee Medal, this is an award given to recognise exceptional contribution of certain civilians towards Uganda’s attainment of self-rule and those who have continued to promote independence. According to the former Chairman of the National Honours and Medals Committee, Gen. Elly Tumwine, the Medal is also given " to encourage patriotism".
On this occasion, the award was also given to several deserving individuals recognized for service in the Education and Health sectors. Alongside our Vice Chancellor, Prof John Mugisha, was Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, VC of Makerere University. Other notable mentions are to Ms Nimisha Jayant Madhvani, Uganda's Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates; Prof. Sam Tulya-Muhika, Uganda's Ambassador to Somalia; Ms Mumtaz Kassam, Uganda's Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba, a renown specialist on wealth creation and economic transformation; Mr. Robert Benon Mugabi, Rakai District LC5 chairperson; as well as Dr Robert Sebunya, Senior Advisor to the President, among others.
The event was widely covered in the media - see clippings from Uganda's leading papers, "The New Vision " and "The Daily Monitor.", page 1 & 5 respectively.
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10 Notorious Medieval Gangsters
When we hear the word “gangster,” we often think of the Bloods and Crips of California or the international cartels that control the drug trade. We don’t think of the middle ages.
But gangs have existed for at least 2,000 years—and probably a lot longer. The gangs of Milo and Clodius were duking it out for control of Rome in 50 BC, and in sixth-century Constantinople, an emperor effectively relied on the backing of either the Blue or Green gang for power: When they both united against Emperor Justinian, they burned half the city to the ground.
Gangs in the middle ages, though, were a more local affair, often run by unscrupulous noble families or ex-soldiers looking for ways to put their skills to use. Since there were no police, people were expected to take the law into their own hands, and it was actually a legal requirement, following the Assize of Arms in 1181, for all freemen in England to own weaponry and an iron helmet.[1] This also made it very easy to turn to a life of mercenary work or outright banditry.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at ten of the most notorious criminal gangsters of the middle ages.
10 The Waraunt Family
Some gangs were just family members working together to survive, and that was the case with the Waraunt family.[2] The Waraunts were a group of four siblings and another male relative who worked together to cheat the justice system, making a small fortune by the standards of their time.
The first record of the Waraunts is an accusation against three of the siblings—Matilda, Margery, and Richard—of receiving stolen goods in 1321, but they avoided punishment. The fourth sibling was again accused later in the year. There’s no way for us to tell how much was stolen in these cases, if anything at all, nor how many other crimes they may have committed that slipped through the net. However, the family were finally caught out when John Waraunt was found guilty of stealing clothes and household items worth eight shillings. The average wage of a laborer in 1331 was three pennies a day, and twelve pennies went into a shilling, so eight shillings was roughly a month’s wages. John Waraunt was hanged.
The rest clearly weren’t deterred, though, because their greatest exploits were yet to come. In 1325, the four remaining Waraunts were all in prison, accused of stealing cloth worth 60 shillings. Despite the instruction for forte et dure (“strong and hard”) punishment, which likely meant torture, they dodged conviction once again when they were put in front of the jury.
They went straight back to it: In 1326, they were acquitted of an accusation of stealing 32 cloths, and just four months later, two of the sisters were accused and acquitted of stealing 40 shillings’ worth of cloth.
Here, the Waraunts drop off the map, having stolen more than a year and a half’s wages worth of stuff and gotten away (mostly) unscathed.
9 Malcolm Musard
The earliest mention of Malcolm Musard is Feb 13, 1296, after he and some friends had been arrested for trespassing in a royal forest while they were heading to join the king’s army in Scotland.[3] He was most likely in his early twenties, and this was the first event in a life spent on the wrong side of the law.
On his father’s death in 1300, Malcolm inherited his lands in Worcestershire, and it wasn’t long before he started selling his sword for profit. In 1304, he and his gang were paid to attack a rectory by the former tenant, something they would make their future careers doing. In the early 1300s, he and his men were accused of “many felonies, robberies and homicides” in Worcestershire and fled the county to escape justice. They can’t have been gone long because by 1316, the king had ordered an investigation into Musard’s “diverse crimes” across both Worcestershire and Warwickshire, though he was pardoned in 1318.
Malcolm was arrested in 1323, ostensibly for aiding the Marcher Lords in their rebellion, but he was released in 1326 and officially pardoned for all outlawry in Worcester. As soon as he was out, he seems to have returned to his old ways because when, in 1327, Isabella deposed the king, she ordered his arrest for theft in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. He had been released by the time Isabella was removed from power, and Edward III officially pardoned him in 1330.
8 Fulk FitzWarin
Not all medieval men who ended up living the life of the outlaw did so by choice. Fulk FitzWarin found himself on the wrong side of the king after the latter granted the estate of Whittington to a Welshman instead of Fulk, who had paid £100 for it and whose father had spent his life fighting for it.[4]
Fulk refused to accept the king’s decision, and in 1200, he and his brothers, William, Philip, and John, started a guerilla campaign against the crown, joined by some family tenants and the ambitious young sons of a few knights. They numbered 52 in all. Declared outlaws by the king, they continued their campaign against the kingdom for three years, even in the face of Hubert de Burgh, who the king sent with 100 soldiers to end their rebellion. The king acquiesced in November 1203, paying Fulk 200 marks and giving him the estate of Whittington.
Once his dispute with the king was settled, Fulk happily returned to the life of a normal, landed noble in England and lived until 1258, by which point he must have been extremely old, especially for the time. In his later life, he was evidently well-respected, because the king of England trusted him to mediate disputes and truces in Wales on several occasions after 1230.
7 The Folvilles
In most cases, only the eldest son of a landowner would stand to inherit any of his property. Any other sons would usually join the retinue of a knight in search of glory and fortune, either in the form of rewards for valor or in ransom money for capturing another noble. Some, however, turned to crime.
As was the case with the Folville family.[5] The eldest son, John Folville, lived the normal life of a landed noble, rarely, if ever, getting involved in the antics of his younger siblings. But the other Folvilles, Eustace, Robert, Walter, and Richard, worked together as a band of violent mercenaries. They frequently operated outside the law (or took it into their own hands), especially when their family was at stake. For example, in 1326, when Roger de Beler, the Baron of the Exchequer, made threats against the Folvilles, Eustace led a band of 50 men and captured and killed him on the road. A warrant was issued for their arrest, and they fled to join Queen Isabella’s army on the continent, where they were mustering to depose the king. The Folvilles fought in the queen’s army, and when she successfully seized the kingdom, they were pardoned.
On their return to England, they worked as a band of thugs for hire, committing acts of violence on behalf of people who wanted to keep their reputation. They first targeted the lands of de Beler, who had wronged them in the past, but were also roaming the country openly armed and holding travelers on the road for ransom.
After stealing animals from the estate of Henry de Beaumont, they were once again wanted for arrest, this time by the corrupt judge Richard Willoughby. However, rather than acquiesce to imprisonment, they captured the judge and ransomed him for 1,300 marks (a ludicrous amount of money at the time). The capture of a royal representative was unprecedented, and they were wanted men. However, they allied themselves with the infamous Coterel gang and together roamed Derbyshire openly armed, causing trouble and threatening travelers.
Fortunately for them, Edward III was at war and in serious need of warriors. He didn’t have the means to confront the gangsters, but he could put them to work. The Folvilles happily signed up for the English army and fought for Edward against the Scots through 1337 and 1338, receiving a full pardon in return.
They never served any punishment for their crimes.
6 John Fitzwalter
John Fitzwalter, a powerful Essex man and close relative of the esteemed de Clare family, is the embodiment of medieval noble privilege.[6] He effectively treated Essex as his own personal kingdom and was too strong to be brought to justice by the king.
He first appears on record as being part of a gang who broke into the park of John de Seagrave, hunting and taking his animals and causing damage in 1340. It wasn’t long before he was terrorizing Essex with a gang of his own, engaging in cattle-rustling and extortion and taking goods from merchants without paying. He frequently refused to pay back any debts or rents he owed. Because of his power and influence, even royal justices simply refused to bring cases against him.
Things came to a head when men from Colchester broke into one of his parks, looted and damaged it, and killed one of his men (probably in retaliation for his abusive behavior). Fitzwalter brought all the force he could muster against the town, taking legal action, fixing juries against them (and assaulting jurors who didn’t support him), and besieging the town, preventing people from entering or leaving. He and his gangsters even armed themselves with wooden beams from the houses they destroyed and threatened passersby.
Justice finally caught up with him in 1351, when the king ordered a Commission of the Peace to investigate his crimes. The king issued an arrest warrant, and Fitzwalter was held in the Tower of London for a year, his entire estate confiscated. However, he was eventually freed and issued with a royal pardon. He was ordered to pay a fine of £847, an amount so large that most lower knights wouldn’t earn that in a lifetime.
His criminal activities end there. He dutifully paid his fine in annual increments until his death ten years later.
5 The Despensers
The Despensers were worse than ordinary thuggish medieval criminals. They were cunning and ambitious, and at the height of their power, they even had control over the king of England. They used their positions of trust in the royal court to bully and usurp people out of their money and lands until they were the most powerful men in England. It took a civil war to break their grip on the kingdom.[7]
In 1317, Hugh Despenser the Younger was chosen to be the royal chamberlain, an extremely powerful position because the chamberlain controlled access to the king. Edward II was known for having favorites, and Hugh ingratiated himself with the king. By 1320, he was Edward’s closest confidant (other than his wife, Isabella). Now that his position was secure, he began manipulating the king and the power he held to extort peoples’ lands and titles from them at a staggering rate.
Despenser alarmed the other nobles to such an extent that by 1321, the kingdom was in open civil war, with those on the rebel side demanding restrictions on royal power and the removal of Despenser. Unfortunately for them, they were crushed at the Battle of Boroughbridge, opening the door to four years of unrestricted royal (and therefore Despenser) rule.
Hugh Despenser and his father systematically abused royal power to seize the lands of other landholders, often by imprisoning them until they agreed to give up the charter. They also twisted the king’s opinion against their own great enemies, Roger Mortimer, Damory, and Audley, and directed royal power against them, cementing their own power. They also controlled the king completely, not allowing him to meet with anyone else, even his wife, unless one of them was also present.
The corruption of the Despensers turned the whole kingdom against them and infected the monarchy so thoroughly that when the king’s wife, Isabella, landed in England with an army (after unsuccessfully asking Edward to get rid of the Despensers) Edward’s reign ended with theirs. The only people who stood with the king in the end were the Despensers and their allies, and within two months of Isabella’s arrival, he and the Despensers had been caught and imprisoned.
The elder Despenser was cut into pieces and fed to dogs, while Hugh was hanged from 15 meters (50 ft) while being forced to wear his own coat of arms turned upside down and then castrated and disemboweled.
4 Adam The Leper
Many bandit groups plagued rural areas, but towns and cities could also be the haunt of the medieval gangster. On page 245 of A History of Crime in England, there is a record of the exploits of a gang leader called “Adam the Leper.”[8]
A trader who worked for Queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III, was holding some jewels on her behalf in his house in London. Adam the Leper, whose gang operated in the area, somehow discovered that he had the jewels and led the gang to the trader’s house after dark, barricading him in and demanding that he hand over the jewels. When the merchant refused, the gangsters set fire to the house and burned it down, seizing the treasure anyway.
Not much else is known about Adam the Leper, except that he seems to have escaped punishment and lived another 20 years. It’s likely he was the head of an urban street gang who were used to pulling heists like this, the majority of which went unrecorded because they didn’t directly involve important nobles or royalty.
3 Roger Godberd (c. 1245–1276)
Roger Godberd is one of the people thought to be the inspiration behind the Robin Hood legend. In some ways, he certainly fits the bill, operating as an outlaw around Sherwood Forest and being caught and imprisoned by the Sheriff of Nottingham. In many ways, however, he is very unlike the Robin Hood of myth.[9]
One of the earliest accounts featuring Roger is a court case in which he is accused of unlawfully assaulting one of his tenants. According to the court, he’d given Jordan le Fleming a ten-year tenancy at his manor in Swaninton but forcibly ejected him after just a year, taking some of le Fleming’s belongings as he did. He was accused of poaching venison in Sherwood Forest in 1264. Two years later, in 1266, he appears again, this time taking a charter (a deed for land) at swordpoint from the convent at Garendon, which he appears to have been renting to them, and then forcing them to sign a document forgiving him for doing so. Later that year, however, he was granted a pardon by the king for all his past crimes, apparently for his “good behaviour.”
Whatever the king’s reason for pardoning Roger was, it was clearly misplaced, since he was accused of committing a robbery in 1270. By this time, he was apparently the leader of a band of outlaws who lived around Sherwood Forest. He was imprisoned in Nottingham Castle but seems to have escaped with the help of a knight named Richard Folyot, who was harboring Roger and his men.
Roger, who was called the leader of outlaws in Leicester, Nottingham, and Wiltshire by Reginald de Grey, the Sheriff of Nottingham at the time, was imprisoned at Bridgnorth Castle in 1272 and put on trial in 1275, where he tried to defend himself by showing them the royal pardon he’d received nearly a decade earlier and arguing that he’d committed no crime since. Whether this worked or not is unknown, as some accounts say he died in prison the next year, while others suggest he went free and lived for as long as two decades more.
2 The Coterels
In many ways, the Coterels were similar to the Folvilles, operating at the same time and in roughly the same area as them—both gangs worked together in the kidnapping and ransoming of Richard Willoughby, the royal judge sent to convict them.[10]
Led by James Coterel and his brothers, Nicholas and John, they were likely the sons of Ralph Coterel, who owned land in Derbyshire. They first appear fighting in the army of the Earl of Lancaster during his 1322 rebellion against the king. King Edward II lost authority in the region in the final years of his reign, which gave the gang room to grow. Protected by the priors of Lichfield, they were effectively untouchable: By 1330, they’d even raided one of the estates of Henry Lancaster, who was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom and a relative of the king, and they were wanted for murder. They’d already formed an association of criminals which operated across much of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, involved in systematic extortion and robbery.
Unusually, they also enjoyed the protection of Queen Philippa, who helped James Coterel buy his own land in 1332, at the height of their criminal activities. The royal commission which was ordered to investigate their crimes was cut off suddenly when war broke out between England and Scotland, and in 1338, the Coterels were included on a summons to join the royal army in Flanders.
The Coterels happily took up the opportunity to join the king’s army and turned away from their lives of crime. They were officially pardoned for their crimes in 1351, by which time James was acting as tax collector for Lenton priory, and his brother Nicholas was a royal bailiff.
The date of James Coterel’s death is ultimately unknown, but the last record mentioning him reveals that he owed over £100 to the Folville gang.
1 Johnnie Armstrong
The raider and nobleman John Armstrong—known as Johnnie in the ballad written about him after his death—was a bandit and gang leader. Armstrong held two forts in the debatable land that lay between England and Scotland and used these as a base to harass and ransack settlements in both Northern England and Southern Scotland for ten years between 1520 and 1530. He and his organized gang extorted villages and towns unable to protect themselves and made off with their animals and belongings (or just burned their houses down) when they refused to pay.[11]
Though he had an extensive criminal record, he was officially a vassal of the Scottish lord of the West March, Lord Maxwell, who refused to punish him for his acts when asked to by the English wardens. The English Lord Dacre eventually took matters into his own hands, leading an army to burn Armstrong’s property at Cannonby.
Through political pressure, the English persuaded Lord Angus to declare Johnnie and his band outlaws, though Angus’s efforts to raise an army to oust him failed when he struggled to find volunteers.
Fortune turned against Armstrong in 1530, when James V became king of Scotland. He was determined to rid the countryside of bandits, and he tricked Armstrong into meeting him. The king hanged Armstrong and his 24 followers, refusing Armstrong’s pleas for mercy, even after Armstrong said he’d make all the men in Northern England pay their yearly rent to him.
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Campbeltown at War
The story of farming in Kintyre
There is a rich history of farming over 400 years of almost self-efficiency, starting with the black cattle which produced milk, butter and beef.
The twentieth century saw an end to the black cattle, their drovers and the drove roads which are charted but hard to find in the modern farming landscape of today. Some Kintyre farms now have dairy cattle while others specialize in beef and lamb production.
The dairy farms produce the UK’s Mull of Kintyre cheddar cheese. In small farms in the 17/1800s butter was the main use for milk, while cheese was made from skimmed milk. Following the development of Dunlop cheese, using whole milk, by Barbara Gilmore, an Ayrshire woman in 1792 Kintyre cheese began to rival Ayrshire in output and quality. Kintyre cheese which is defined as a soft peaty type of Dunlop began to be preferred by the merchants. Today Mull of Kintyre cheddar cheese is renowned throughout the UK.
Beef cattle are still one of the main products from our hill farms achieving some of the highest prices in the Stirling and Oban markets.
Blackface sheep are no longer the main breed for lamb or mutton. They are now crossbred with various other breeds to produce heavier carcases. The older generation still prefers the mutton from the Blackface sheep. However, our mutton is now in demand in top London restaurants.
Pigs (pork) – 200 years ago most country cottages had a pig almost like the pet dog, only this “pet pig” got killed, cured and hung on the ham-hooks in the kitchen. A few pigs are still reared in Kintyre, mostly sold in the farmer’s markets, which are held on the first Saturday of the month in Campbeltown.
The Land and Crops
In the eighteenth century crops were oats, barley, bere, wheat, turnips, potatoes hay and kale.,
These crops sustained the farm animals, the households and the farm workers and also local markets. Larger farms would have up to four pair of horses, but small farms would only have one to possibly two horses. These smaller farms would share (pool) their horses at harvest time.
The horse was so important to the farmer. They said the farmer’s first priority was his horses; the second was the cattle and third the wife (or mistress as the wife was called). Often the trap pony was also used with an offset swingle tree for field work in smaller farms.
In the early days, the scythe was the main tool for cutting the crop. The hay would be cut and left to dry, then coiled in small bundles and then rucked in the field, thus allowing the hay to dry out before being carted to the stack yard and stacked.
In the Heritage Centre, you can see the difference between a hay-stack and a grain/oats-stacks. The barley, beer, wheat, oats and grain crops were cut and tied into sheaf’s and stooked together 6/8 sheafs to then stooked again. This was to allow the grain to dry before it was carted to the stack yard and stacked. To this day farmers still, share their tractors and machinery and manpower with their neighbours
We have a collection of farm tools on display including a peat barrow, always remember there was no waste every part of our land yielded something and peat was cut, dried and stacked for the fire and cooking.
Tractors were introduced mainly at the time of WWII, the government tractor scheme being introduced to enable Kintyre to increase food production for the war effort
Land Reform
Between 1730 to 1740 the old system of the Tackesman was abolished and leases were given, for the first time, to working farmers. This new farming system was to some extent, similar to the farms of the nineteenth century. Farms were described as consisting of so many merklands, and it is necessary to explain this term: a merk was thirteen shillings and four pence which is the equivalent to 67 pence today and a merkland was the area of land such a rent would justify.
The rents were not paid in money, they were generally paid in a meal, cheese, malt (made from bere grain) and cows. The Tackesman converted a good deal of this produce into money before he paid the rents to the landowner or laird.
There were many other payments to churches and lairds, too numerous to go into, which were abolished in the 1700s.
It was rare to find a farm tenanted by a single tenant, and in general several tenants worked the farms in a communal fashion, all took part in each operation and the rigs of the farms were drawn for by lots, each tenant receiving the produce of a number of rigs according to his share in the tenancy. In order to ensure each tenant got a fair distribution of good and bad land the rigs appointed to any one tenant were scattered throughout the farm and this fact probably accounts for the word Run-Rig, which was the name given to the system or method. It is from the Gaelic “Rhoinn”, a division, and “Ruith”, to run, and signifies that the rigs pertaining to a tenant ran or extended over all the available area, and not confined to a particular part of the farm.
In the middle of the eighteenth century at the same time as the Tacksman was abolished, replaced by the system of tenant farmers, each with his own separate holding and steading, the old run-rig’s were divided up and the earliest farms “leased” to farmers. (circa 1742). This was the start of farming as we know it today. One major event, however, was that in the 1950s death duties forced the Duke of Argyll to sell most of his lands in Kintyre to the leased tenant farmers.
Grain was a product which was further processed off the farm. After it was harvested and dried, it was taken to the mill. There were many in Kintyre, all powered by water. Among the first meal mills were Saddell (1634), Kilkenzie (1633), Kileonan (1636) and Kinloch (1636), Machrimore (1636), Kilellan (1659), Carskey (1651) and many more. Many of the ruined walls of these mills can still be seen today.
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Urdaibai Bird Center
The Urdaibai Bird Center is a nature museum for enjoying the world of birds. It offers a unique observatory of marshland in the heart of Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve in Euskadi in northern Spain.
The Center is called a “living” museum because what it has to show depends on the life of the marshland and the birds who choose to visit. You can see some of that in the webcam below.
As the Northern Hemisphere winter approaches, food supplies for birds dwindle and most begin to migrate south. Coming from as far west as Greenland and as far east as Russia, they head towards western Europe, then down towards the border between France and Spain. With the Pyrenees blocking their path to the east and the Bay of Biscay a barrier to the west, they funnel through a narrow path that takes them through Euskadi, the Basque country of Spain.
Education programs linking children throughout the world
This is the East Atlantic Flyway, a bird migration system linking breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra with wintering grounds in Mauritania, and stretching from northern Russia to southern Africa.
The Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve preserves an age-old oasis for these birds. From here, they head south through Spain, many going to the Doñana National Park in Andalusia, across the Mediterranean to Morocco, then down the west coast of Africa to wintering grounds in the Senegal and Niger deltas, with some going as far as South Africa.
The constructed marshland
The Urdaibai Bird Center has exhibits, AV shows, interpreters, and more to explain all of this. In addition, they have observatories from which you can see the birds who are there on a given day (as in the webcam).
The birds are wonderful to see and their stories are often amazing. The migration routes sometimes extend thousands of miles. One especially interesting case is the red-backed shrike.
Red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio)
Like other birds this shrike heads south from northern Europe, stops over at Urdaibai, and then goes to southern Spain. But instead of heading directly south to the west coast of Africa, it turns east to Italy, or even Greece, then turns south through central Africa. Further breaking the mold, it returns by a different route. It goes further east, through the horn of Africa, Arabia, and Turkey, before turning west.
After exploring a bit in some ornithology journals, I learned that individual red-backed shrikes break the pattern even more, often following idiosyncratic paths and ending up hundreds of miles apart in South Africa.
It’s behavior like this that makes the work of a bird center like Urdaibai both challenging and wonderful.
This entry was posted in Cape Cod and tagged bird, Euskadi, flyway, migration, museum, nature, research, Spain. Bookmark the permalink.
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One thought on “Urdaibai Bird Center”
Judy | December 17, 2016 at 1:46 pm
This was so exciting to view. Thank you for posting.
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A Convenient Scapegoat
Published: Thursday, December 13, 2012
In this column last week, I took sportscaster Bob Costas to task for his inane comments regarding the murder-suicide deaths committed by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher. Costas ignorantly and irrationally blamed the deaths of Jovan and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, on “our current gun culture.” Costas naively said, “If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”
See my column on Bob Costas at:
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/archives/5301
Well, here is another tragic story of an NFL player’s untimely death. This time the team is the Dallas Cowboys. USA Today covers the story:
“For the second time in a week, from one Saturday to the next, another young professional football player is dead at the age of 25 and another NFL team is grieving after allegations of a terrible and tragic crime.
“Last weekend, it was Kansas City. This weekend, it’s Dallas. The circumstances are different, but the results are eerily similar. Two players are gone: One by his own hand in front of his coach and general manager in the parking lot of the team’s practice facility; the second in the morgue after a night out with a teammate, who is now sitting in an Irving, Tex., jail cell while his teammates fly to Cincinnati for Sunday’s game.
“One week after Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed the mother of his nearly 3-month-old daughter and then killed himself, the Cowboys are mourning the loss of a teammate while another has been arrested for intoxication manslaughter.
“Nose tackle Josh Brent, who was to have started this Sunday against the Bengals, was arrested early Saturday morning after the car he was driving flipped over, killing his lone passenger, Cowboys practice-squad player Jerry Brown, who was Brent’s teammate not only in Dallas but also at the University of Illinois from 2007-09.”
See the report at:
http://tinyurl.com/ajh9jkv
So, why didn’t Bob Costas get on national television and say, “If Josh Brent didn’t possess a car, Jerry Brown would be alive today”? Why? Because Bob Costas doesn’t think critically, that’s why! He simply regurgitates the same antiquated anti-gun rhetoric he hears from his pro-gun-control buddies.
But it’s true: if the gun is to blame for Belcher and Perkins’ deaths, the car is to blame for Brown’s death.
And speaking of cars and guns, the total number of deaths nationwide from the misuse of firearms pales in comparison to the total number of deaths from the misuse of automobiles. Yet, I don’t hear the Bob Costases of the world screaming for “automobile-control.” Come on, folks, get real! Plus, as Larry Pratt and others have already noted, firearms in the possession of American citizens are actually used to protect the lives of people some 4,000 to 6,000 times A DAY. When Costas said, “Handguns do not enhance our safety,” not only was he wrong, he was miserably wrong! Handguns DO enhance our safety–not to mention our liberty!
Look at the city of Chicago. More people have been murdered in the city of Chicago this year than soldiers killed in Afghanistan. One hundred and forty-four US troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far in 2012, while 228 people have been murdered so far in 2012 in The Windy City.
According to The Huffington Post, “The war zone-like statistics are not new. As WBEZ reports, while some 2,000 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, more than 5,000 people have been killed by gun fire in Chicago during that time, based on Department of Defense and FBI data.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/chicago-homicide-rate-wor_n_1602692.html
Yet, Chicago, Illinois, has some of the strictest gun-control laws in America. Then again, maybe that’s one of the reasons why so many people are killed in Chicago. The laws of this city forbid honest citizens from being armed and, thus, they are unable to defend themselves. Let the good guys start shooting back and one will see a dramatic lapse of courage among miscreants. Don’t believe that? Check out the violent crime rates in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, or Vermont.
This modern infatuation with blaming inanimate objects for acts of immorality and impropriety is nothing short of epidemic! Of course, the reason for this madness is it facilitates the expansion of government into the minutest details of our lives. Big-Government zealots have an innate fear of power and responsibility resting in individuals. They see government as the only suitable source of power. To big-government toadies, individuals are merely the property of government. To them, government bureaucrats can do nothing wrong, while individual citizens can do nothing right. Hence, to big-government hacks, only government officials have the right to keep and bear arms.
The same reasoning applies to America’s so-called “War on Drugs.” Marijuana, especially, is blamed for all kinds of immoral and unsavory conduct, even though the overwhelming evidence simply does not support the accusation.
My youngest son, Timothy, is a former Florida Assistant State Attorney who is now in private practice. Regarding marijuana as being a source of criminal conduct, he wrote, “Drawing from my own personal experience, I see the absurdity of the ‘war on marijuana.’ During my time as a prosecutor at the Florida State Attorney’s Office from 2004 to 2006 where I handled literally thousands of criminal cases and tried nearly 60 jury trials, I was never impressed that marijuana was the cause of any criminal activity. Oh sure, possession of marijuana charges comprised a large number of my criminal cases; but the criminal act was merely the man-made law of possession of marijuana. In fact, most criminal activities were in large part caused by alcohol, where one who consumed too much alcohol became violent; beat his wife; neglected his children; drove drunk and hurt someone; caused a disturbance of the peace; or other similar evils.
“I saw those alcohol-related cases every day. Yet, I cannot say the same regarding marijuana. I would estimate that of the thousands of cases I handled, at least half (if not more) were a direct cause of alcohol consumption or addiction. Yet, alcohol is legal and marijuana is illegal.”
See Tim’s column at:
http://newswithviews.com/Timothy/baldwin159.htm
In fact, marijuana was not even considered harmful or illegal in the United States until 1937, as Tim pointed out in his column. Most people would probably be surprised to learn that four out of our first five presidents not only promoted the use of the hemp plant, but also grew it. Can one imagine putting George Washington or Thomas Jefferson in jail for growing what we now call marijuana? Egad!
The idea that the use of marijuana is harmful because “it leads to hard drugs” is tantamount to saying that beer is harmful because “it leads to hard liquor.” But it’s just not true! There are tens of millions of people who drink responsibly, or who use alcohol medicinally (as prescribed even by Holy Scripture), who never become alcoholics. Likewise, there are tens of millions of marijuana users who use it responsibly or medicinally, who never go on to use hard drugs or become drug addicts. And when it comes to addictions, Americans’ addiction to sugar and laziness kills far more people than those addicted to alcohol–or even tobacco for that matter.
But by making marijuana responsible for all kinds of untoward behavior, and by ignoring the personal accountability of people to behave responsibly, it has helped provide the justification for government to trample the Bill of Rights and create huge bureaucracies, which swell the size and scope of government–especially the federal government.
The same is true for firearms. By making guns responsible for all kinds of untoward behavior, and by ignoring the personal accountability of people to behave responsibly, it helps provide the justification for government to trample the Bill of Rights (in this case the Second Amendment) and create huge bureaucracies (the ATF among others), which swell the size and scope of government–especially the federal government.
Marijuana is a convenient scapegoat. Firearms are a convenient scapegoat. Automobiles, on the other hand, are not so convenient! Hence, we hear nothing from Bob Costas about the need for more “automobile-control.” Plus, amazingly enough, neither did Costas say a word about bringing back Prohibition! In Costas’ world, only guns are sufficiently evil enough to warrant his righteous indignation.
The tragedies in Kansas City and Dallas cause all people of good will to grieve. We grieve for the people involved; we grieve for the families of the victims; and we grieve for the NFL players, coaches, and management. But what we must not do is use these tragedies as an excuse to justify and condone the suppression of our God-given liberties! In addition, it’s past time for America, at every level, to start re-emphasizing the primacy of personal responsibility. That’s something that isn’t being taught much in our nation’s schools, churches, or even families.
But the promotion and expectation of personal responsibility is what made America great; and it’s also what provides our nation with its liberties. If men cannot be expected to be accountable for their conduct, they can hardly be expected to be accountable for their freedom. This is why inanimate objects are used as scapegoats by big-government toadies: it diminishes the virtue of individualism and extols the necessity of governmentism.
In Kansas City, the problem was not the gun; the problem was Belcher. And in Dallas, the problem was not the car–or even the booze–the problem was Brent. Straighten out the man and one will have no need to worry about the objects that are at his disposal.
*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by *If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:
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Columns :: 3282 Views ::
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Tag / how does it end?
April 1, 2017 by hutchwp
Details of Walking Dead miniseries finale announced
AMC, carl, Carol, Daryl, ending, finale, how does it end?, Michonne, miniseries, Rick, season 8, series 8, Skybound, The Walking Dead
The end of The Walking Dead television series is nigh. It has had a good run but the production companies involved have decided to stop whilst the going is good and call it a day.
Skybound, AMC Studios and Valhalla Entertainment released the following joint statement:
“The series has been going for many years, growing in popularity as time goes on. However, we recognise that the interest peaked at the start of Season 7 and when we put out yet another episode of a secondary character going away on a little side-quest whilst Rick, Michonne and Daryl had another week off, the fan reaction was positively, erm, negative.
“As such, we will be digressing from the comic somewhat and when the show comes back for the four-part miniseries in October 2017, we will have an ending that is going to really satisfy the fans of the show. We don’t want to ruin the plot, but suffice to say that we have sacked 80% of the cast and the result is that the remaining characters have focus and time to get rid of the pesky bad guys in the first episode before finding a cure for the walkers in the second. The final shot will be of a paradise-like world where Rick, Michonne, Carl, Daryl, Rick’s baby daughter (whatever her name is), Sasha, Carol, Morgan and Maggie are sat eating a roast dinner and cake, before Rick breaks the fourth wall and says “This is how you do it J.J.”.
We are aware that this might go against the carefully crafted world we have worked so hard to create, with our survivors finding scraps of hope in a hopeless world, never giving up in one of the most unexpectedly profound explorations of human nature and survival in an apocalyptic scenario. We are also aware that the have been bringing it to life with top-level deliveries of our watertight scripts for almost a decade. However, we decided instead to listen to the small number of bloggers and chat room frequenters that haven’t even got the patience to sit through the total sequences without fast-forwarding, let alone pay attention for an entire ten series, and call it quits now lest they stop illegally downloading our art from Pirate Bay.”
There you have it! I’m as shocked as you are. Glad we can finally see the end in sight.
Have a great 1st April guys.
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Open source effort gives indigenous language an official typeface
Santali, an aboriginal South Asian language, has a brand new freely licensed font and set of cross-platform open source input tools on the way.
The article was published by Opensource.com on July 8, 2016.
More than 6.2 million people in four South Asian countries (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan) speak Santali. In India, it is one of the 22 major languages as mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Indian constitution. However, Santali is not the official language in regions where it is largely spoken, nor is it widely taught in schools. A large segment of the native speakers are socially and economically disadvantaged, which doesn't help either.
When it comes to mainstream media and the Internet, use of the native Santali alphabet, Ol Chiki, is limited. Right now there exists no single, fully Unicode-compliant website with Santali content. The Indian government's Ministry of Tribal Affairs, which is set up for the development of many aboriginal groups in the country, does not have its web portal in Santali or any other indigenous language. However, the government announced last year that it would make native Indian language input mandatory in mobile phones.
The need for a typeface, especially in a universal encoding standard like Unicode, became apparent during a three-month digitization project on Odia Wikisource, an Odia-language online library and sister project of Wikipedia. Many of the students who were part of the digitization project were native speakers. The students shared how they couldn't opt for education in their own language, thus affecting their knowledge and understanding of the written language.
The question whether digital activism can help revive indigenous languages was discussed at the 2015 Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Cebu City, Philippines. After the event, a pilot project was started within the Center for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge program to create a freely licensed font and input methods so that anyone can easily type in their native language.
The typeface family was designed by type designer Pooja Saxena and went through several rounds of review by language experts. However, the typeface is still one step away from reality. Because of this, two input methods will be made available along with the typeface; Sarjom Baha, a phonetic input method so that every common user can easily type the they pronounce the words, and InScript, a keyboard layout standard for Indian scripts. Even though the original plan was to create a editor community to contribute to the Santali Wikipedia and bring it live from Incubator, outputs will just be distributed for the users to use them.
The input method will also be available on Mediawiki so that the input methods will be available on Wikipedia and all its sister projects. Hopefully in the future, a group of contributors will use the tools, contribute, and bring the Santali Wikipedia live!
Filed under: CIS-A2K, Open Source, Access to Knowledge, Wikimedia, Wikipedia
CIS-A2K, Open Source, Access to Knowledge, Wikimedia, Wikipedia
Subhashish Panigrahi
Programme Officer, Accesss to Knowlege (CIS-A2K), Centre for Internet and Socity
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Spotlight on Florida City’s ArtSpring
Posted on June 26, 2012 by culturebuildsflorida
by Carol Cohan
After waiting outside for nearly an hour, the guests, permitted to carry only a car key and driver’s license, were buzzed in four at a time. They removed watches and bracelets, walked through a metal detector, passed through the searching rooms and came into the visitors’ room of the Homestead Correctional Center. The occasion: ArtSpring’s graduation presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
With just paper and paint, and whatever found objects the inmates could scrounge up, this gray, dismal space had been turned into Ancient Athens and a nearby forest. Wearing costumes fashioned out of paper and disposable table cloths, women incarcerated for crimes ranging from drug possession to embezzlement to murder became the very believable Duke of Athens, Bottom, Puck, and other characters of Shakespeare’s well-known comedy. Just as this play transformed prison inmates into Shakespearean characters, so the ArtSpring program transforms hardened, defensive offenders into caring, feeling members of a community.
ArtSpring in action. Photo submitted and used by permission of ArtSpring.
The principal vehicle is the ArtSpring Inside Out program, a three to four month program for women offenders that incorporates dance, creative writing, visual arts and, the core component, movement. The program, which operates in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Broward and Ocala as well as in Miami-Dade and which reaches 600 women in prison and girls in juvenile detention each year, is based on the belief that the arts can transform individuals and strengthen communities. “Movement is key especially in the beginning,” says Leslie Neal, a former dancer who developed the program in 1994 and still directs it. The women, almost all of whom have suffered physical or sexual abuse, come into the program self-conscious. Their self-expression has been stifled. They have locked away their feelings as a way of surviving, and movement helps them to open up.
Early on, Leslie has the women walking around the room. Initially they are cautious, often walking in a circle like cattle. She encourages them to take individual pathways, to slow down or speed up. Gradually they begin to loosen up. Sometimes they start to skip and play, almost as though recapturing the freedom of childhood. They notice their breath and their heart beat. They begin to open up. They become more vulnerable. They become more aware of who they are.
Leslie has them examine their walk very carefully. What is unique about your individual walk, she asks. What happens to your body if you walk on your heels? On the sides of your feet?
Reflection is an important companion component. At the end of each exercise, the women explore how they felt during it, what they learned from it. From this early walking exercise, the women discover that if they change their walk a little bit, the rest of the body adjusts in response. As they continue to walk and talk and explore, walking becomes a metaphor: If you make one big mistake in life, others are likely to follow. From this observation comes a homework assignment: How has this metaphor operated in your life? Perhaps you hung out with the wrong guy. He got you into drugs, and that’s how you became engaged in crime.
“There is always one class that is epiphanous,” Leslie says. Sometimes it’s something that a participant has written or a story she has told that strikes a chord with the others, and they realize they are not alone. Perhaps one woman says, “In this exercise I was reminded of my childhood. My mother was never there for me.” And all of a sudden, other participants’ experiences begin to emerge.
The approach is therapeutic. When a participant shares her work, only positive feedback is allowed. The women are protected from the kind of criticism that rips people and their work apart. As a result, trust and safety are reinforced, self-esteem grows. At the same time, ArtSpring teaches its participants to look honestly at themselves and recognize how they have to change their behavior to succeed in society. It teaches them that they are deserving, that they have a sense of self, that they are cared for, that they are valuable human beings who have something valuable to give to the world. So when they are hit with a lot of stress, they can hold on to these concepts.
Marsha Frasier, sentenced to 12 years for kidnapping and robbery but free now for 5, credits ArtSpring with giving her the insight, tenacity and mental skills she has needed to cope with a life outside prison she has found surprisingly difficult. As she looked forward to her release, she had envisioned putting her past behind her and getting on with her life. But she has found that her past follows her everywhere, and she feels very isolated. Although she has a good job as an accounts manager, she feels she will never fit into society because of the changes that occurred while she was away and because she can never regain what she lost. Yet, she says, “ArtSpring allowed me to look at issues that are difficult for me to not only acknowledge but accept them, and then the courage to get through tough days.”
In addition, ArtSpring teaches personal responsibility. The program is voluntary, but women who sign up are required to commit to the class. They must attend, do the work of self exploration, look within and discover their dark places, and then share those with others. For many of the women, this is the first time they’ve committed to anything.
The program also promotes respect, cooperation, and cultural understanding. The class brings together a mix of people who probably would not choose each other as friends. In class, everyone has to work together, even if they don’t like each other. In the process, inmates who have had issues or confrontations with other inmates learn to let their animosities go during class and build group trust. One of the women observed, “We come from all different walks of life. We put all that aside. We have a union and an understanding of each other.”
By providing individuality and humanity in the prison environment, which seeks to obliterate those qualities, ArtSpring is a lifeline to the inmates. As another offender put it, ArtSpring enables them to feel free even though they are in prison. Understandably, once they have experienced the program, they don’t want to quit. So over the years, the faculty has devised several follow-up courses in specific disciplines. A singer songwriter teaches a music class. There are classes in visual arts and creative writing. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was the culmination of the advanced theater course – two hours a week for 25 weeks.
The value of the ArtSpring experience quickly became apparent during a talkback after the performance. The cast recounted how the prisoner playing Puck was put in lock-up just days before the performance, and the cast worried she would not be released. How would they cover this key role? They decided to divide her part among all of them and make a Puck mask that each substitute would wear so that the audience could keep track. This kind of teamwork would ordinarily be unheard of.
One cast member said, “I can’t tell you how much ArtSpring has changed me. I don’t get into trouble anymore.”
Another, a woman sentenced to life for murdering her husband, said, “I’m not getting out of here. But whenever new girls come in, I encourage them to take the program because I know it will make life better for them on the outside. And it makes me feel good to know that I can help them.”
To illustrate the enormity of what ArtSpring accomplishes, Leslie tells of a former offender who appeared so developmentally delayed that she would not be able to manage the class. To everyone’s surprise, she blossomed as she gained confidence in class. Now living in New England, this young woman is happy and gainfully employed. She insists she would not have been able to achieve this success without the class.
The women who participate in ArtSpring use what they learn in class when they talk with their children and other loved ones, and so the program has a positive impact the participants’ families and communities. And when the staff sees the change in the women, especially in the context of their theater performance, the warden and guards alter the way they relate to the women. Thus, ArtSpring, in a very small way, is changing the system.
Most impressive is the recidivism rate among those who have participated in ArtSpring classes for at least a year. Whereas the typical rate of recidivism is 60% after 2 years, among ArtSpring participants it is zero.
ArtSpring operates with an administrative staff of three: a full time executive director and an administrative assistant, who is an ex-offender, in addition to Leslie. The Miami-Dade program also includes seven artist teachers. The $250,000 annual budget is derived from public funding, private foundation grants, corporate and private donations, and support of the Seminole Indians. Finding additional resources is their biggest challenge. With more money and more teachers, they could provide additional classes and reach more women.
This entry was posted in Spotlight On by culturebuildsflorida. Bookmark the permalink.
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Gay Latino Los Angeles
Monday, November 12, 2012, 7pm - 9pm
Free Admission, seats are first come first serve.
"Gay Latino Los Angeles: Coming of Age" is a docu-drama journey into the lives of three young men as they search for identity and grapple with issues of family, hypermasculinity, religion, culture, and desire in L.A. An undocumented immigrant hipster from Mexico, a Salvadoran activist and Berkeley graduate, and a Mexican American from South Central Los Angeles escaping gang life round out the cast. The film is interlaced and narrated with the poetry of Yosimar Reyes and the ceremonial choreography of an Aztec dancer further conveying the independent path toward self-discovery and self-acceptance.
Filmmaker and Producer, Jonathan Menendez, will be in attendance taking questions and comments following the screening.
For more information about the film see: www.gaylatino.la or contact Robb Hernandez at Robert.Hernandez@ucr.edu or Jennifer Doyle at Jennifer.Doyle@ucr.edu
A film by Jonathan Menendez
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"Best Of" List, Album Review, Cover Art, Link to Interview, Original Piece
Todd’s Top 5 +1 Albums of 2017
Posted by damnationmag on January 3, 2018 January 4, 2018
This is been an interesting year for me. Unlike, I think, some of the others on this site, I’m relatively new to metal. Sure, I grew up listening to some of the classics, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Motorhead. And I was introduced to bands like Rhapsody and Demon Hunter later on. But it really wasn’t until this year that I really got back into my love of metal and started branching out in a big way. That’s what got me writing for Damnation and what still has me scouring around for the most different and unique bands.
All that said, my top albums are the ones that were the most comfortable for me. They’re the ones I can listen to again and again when I don’t even know what I want to hear. They might not be technical masterpieces, but they resonate with me. Theirs are the songs that stick in my brain well after the headphones are out and I should be paying attention to whatever else I’m doing.
5. Decennium by Seven Kingdoms
Seven Kingdoms was one of those bands new to me this year. Which is a real shame since they’ve been around since 2007 and they’re definitely my speed. They’ve got that epic sound that I associate with Power Metal, with everything seeming larger than life. Sabrine Valentine’s vocals are fantastic, sweeping and powerful, she really brings the already great music to another level. If I were being my usual critical self, I would admit that the album isn’t amazingly different, it falls well into that power metal groove I expect. But it’s done so well that I don’t care. Decennium is an album that just makes me happy and takes me back to the days of listening to power metal before I even knew how to critically examine it as an art.
4. No Grave But the Sea by Alestorm
This has been a pretty good year for Alestorm. Their new album, being a part of Warped Tour (an interview about that can be read here), and headlining their own European tour, Alestorm is making waves. And I am so glad to see that. Alestorm is an example that any weird or off the wall idea can be big in metal. Pirate metal? Sure, why not. Metal fans are into the skill and the fantasy of metal, and these guys are the pinnacle of that idea. They’re a beacon for other musicians with an unconventional dream that says “Yes, you can do it to, if you believe in your vision.” Of course it helps that they are skilled enough to make amazing music regardless. Pirate metal like this is a unique blend of sounds with metal guitars and drums, as well as horns and keyboard and accordions. It’s wild, outrageous, totally its own thing, and amazing. And I’ve barely even mentioned the album itself. Everything previously mentioned applies here as well. No Grave But the Sea is bombastic and fun, mixing some hard-hitting songs like “To the End of the World” and “Rage of the Pentahook” with songs like “Mexico” which is just insane. They walk this line between a comedy band and a “serious” metal group with grace and they’re all the better for it.
3. Healed By Metal by Grave Digger
Like I said above, I grew up with some of that 80’s rock and metal. That’s been the baseline of my music tastes all the way until today. So when I get to hear something that not only was around then, but kept that spirit and feeling in their music, I was hooked. Grave Digger still sounds like their first release all the way back in 1982 with their demo. Sure, there’s been a few member changes and the tech has gotten better, but the heart of the band is the same. From the badass grungy voice of Chris Boltendahl to the headbanging guitar, Healed By Metal is a master class in that old school sound in the new millenium. Grave Digger is a band that I can always turn on and get amped up. They light a fire in me.
2. Rhapsodies in Black by Exit Eden
I mentioned in the beginning that I’m “new” to metal, so that would entail that I have a lot of other musical styles that I like. And occasionally it’s trash pop songs. We all have our weaknesses. While I mostly got my fill from Punk Goes Pop, when I found that there was going to be a metal cover album, I was intrigued. And Exit Eden delivered in spades. At the forefront is a quartet of powerful female metal queens: Amanda Somerville, Marina La Torraca, Celmentine Delauney, and Anna Brunner. Each of them in their own right is a joy to listen to, but when they come together, it’s a thing of beauty. There’s something for everyone here and if you haven’t listened to this album yet, you’re missing out. I won’t go to much more on this as I have a review of this album on the site here. Check that out for my complete thoughts. Just know, I love it and whenever I don’t know what to listen to, I default to this.
+1 Grasp of the Undying by Pentakill sponsored by Riot Games
So this one is for me, more so than any of the other albums on here. It doesn’t really deserve a spot on the list, but I still want to talk about it While the others are artistic expressions from their various artists done out of love and passion for the music, this one is straight marketing at the core of it. I’m a casual fan of League of Legends, I don’t care about season ranks or ELO or whatever. I play ‘cause it’s fun and I like the lore. So when they combine the game with some epic power metal, I’m all on board. And don’t let its birth as a corporate outreach take away from the fact that it’s still a good album. The music is solid and the vocals are provided by legend Jørn Lande. They put some effort into this. Sure, it’s like metal fruit snacks for me, not all that deep and in the shape of a thing I like, but that’s what makes me like it so much. Not enough maybe to give it a real spot on this list, but enough that I feel I should mention it if any of you like LoL like I do and haven’t given it a shot yet.
1. Apex by Unleash the Archers
This album. This album is the reason I wanted to do this list in the first place. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about it with anyone who loves it with the same passion that I do. This is the album I recommend to people whether they like metal or not. This is the album I have played over and over and over again, in the car, at work, while showering, in my life. Unleash the Archers is my favorite band and this album is a showcase of what makes them great.
Where to start with this one? Well, for one, I’ll say for any power metal fans that like a story, this is the album that does it right. Now, I love Rhapsody, but their story albums are difficult to follow when listening. Not here. The story is simple and clear, but not lacking in depth for it. The story of an immortal warrior summoned by an evil mistress to do her bidding is rife with opportunity for interpretation and discussion. It’s a story that got me thinking, about it’s message, themes and motifs, and how it functions as a medium. Basically I let myself English nerd out on it and was compelled to write a whole literary essay on it just because it drew me in so deeply. (Link not associated with Damnation Magazine, just in case I say anything REALLY stupid in it.)
But I’ve said before that I don’t come to music for the storyline. It’s all about the music. And hot damn if they don’t kill it on this album. Every member brings their A-game. Grant Truesdell and Andrew Kingsley are fantastic guitarists, shredding like crazy and setting up melodies that stick to you. Nikko Whitworth is making his album debut here, and he’s a rock solid backbone for the rest to build on. Scott Buchanan on drums is just nuts. Have you seen their playthough video? Man looks like he’s riding the Tour de France on those kick drums. And Brittney Slayes. Good God Brittney Slayes. Her vocals are the stuff of dreams for me. Their powerful and impactful, with an absurd range, and magnificent control. Her voice is the thing that cements Unleash the Archers as my favorite band. I could go on for pages waxing poetic about her, but I think that would cross the line from passionate fan to creepy internet stalker.
All this said, Apex is all I wanted out of a power metal album and so much more. I’m a fanboy, so I know that I’m biased here, but that’s the point of these articles, to let our hair down and share the things we love.
Music lists like this are always going to be subjective. That’s the fun, to see what resonated with one fan and didn’t with another. Even here, Damnation’s own Sean Cantor had Apex on his number 30 while it’s my number one. What I think we can all agree on is that it’s a good time to be a metal fan. There’s new music all over the place and space enough for us all to find something to love. Maybe you agree with my list, maybe not. Either way, I’d love to hear what you, our readers, have to say in the comments below. And feel free to hit me up on Twitter to discuss your favorites, @frozenscarecrow.
Here’s to the end of 2017 and the start of 2018. In the words of an old Irish blessing, “May you always have walls for the wind, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you, and all your heart might desire,” and metal as awesome as you are.
AC/DCAlestormBlack SabbathDemon HunterELOExit EdenGrave DiggerMotorheadPentakillRhapsodySeven KingdomsTop 5 +1unleash the archersVans Warped Tour
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Dana Foundation
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Rise in Youth Suicide After Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why
May 3, 2019 By Dana Foundation in Uncategorized Tags: 13 reasons why, National Institutes of Health, netflix, Suicide Leave a comment
From the 2001 Cerebrum essay, “Suicide in the Young” by Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D. Illustration © Kristina Swarner
On March 31, 2017, a controversial series called, 13 Reasons Why premiered on Netflix. The show tells the story of a young high schooler who commits suicide and leaves behind a series of 13 cassette tapes for the people she held responsible. In the month following the show’s 2017 release, mental health experts, superintendents, and school counselors criticized the series for its glorification of suicide and worried it would lead to an increase in copycat behavior of self-harm among vulnerable individuals. After researchers examined data from the past five years, the show was found to be linked to a spike in suicide rates among US youths aged 10-17.
The National Institutes of Health published the study earlier this week, conducted by researchers at universities, hospitals, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). They examined whether the show’s release impacted rates of suicide, based on annual and monthly data on suicide-related deaths of individuals between ages 10 and 64 that occurred between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017—a time span encompassing the period before and after the show’s first 13 episodes.
The researchers found that the rates of suicide for 10- to 17- year-olds was significantly higher in the months of April, June, and December 2017 than were expected based on past data. This increase translated into an additional estimated 195 suicide deaths between April 1, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2017. The observed suicide rate for March 2017 — the month prior to the release of 13 Reasons Why — was also higher than forecast. The researchers note that the show was highly promoted during the month of March, exposing audiences to the show’s premise and content through trailers. The researchers did not find any significant trends in suicide rates in people 18- to 64 years of age.
Study author and clinical scientist at NIMH Lisa Horowitz, Ph.D., M.P.H., said, “The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media … All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”
The show’s creators defended 13 Reasons Why, saying they “aimed to make the drama helpful to struggling kids.” The hard-to-watch scenes, with graphic dramatizations of rape and suicide, and backlash for the series’ influence, led to a partnership of organizations in creating guidelines for portraying suicide in the media:
The findings of this study add to a growing body of information suggesting that youth may be particularly sensitive to the way suicide is portrayed in popular entertainment and in the media. This increasing recognition of entertainment and media influence has led a variety of groups, such as National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, the World Health Organization, and reporting on suicide.org, to create best practices for talking about and portraying suicide on screen. These guidelines recommend, for example, that the entertainment media should avoid depicting the suicide method used. The entertainment media are also urged to convey the message that help is available and to include accurate information about how people can seek help.
One year after the show’s premiere, Netflix added a short warning video at the start of each episode to promote resources for young viewers and their parents to address the show’s themes of sexual assault, substance abuse, and suicide. The show, which is based on the 2007 novel, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, also produced 13 episodes in a second season and is planning a third season beginning in June 2019.
In 2001, we published a Cerebrum article on “Suicide in the Young” by Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D. Jamison, who specializes in suicide, depression, and manic-depressive illness, is a Dana Alliance member and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. She writes:
We understand—up to a point—the mental states of those who kill themselves: the despair, depression, irritability, agitation, and sheer hopelessness. We have learned a great deal about the suicidal experience from the victims’ legacies—notes, diaries, psychological autopsies, and clinical interviews with people who have survived severe suicide attempts. We have compelling evidence from a large number of studies that the single most important factor in suicide is psychopathology: More than 90 percent of all people who kill themselves suffered from a major psychiatric or addictive illness (depression, manic-depression, schizophrenia, or alcohol and drug abuse), a severe anxiety disorder, or borderline or antisocial personality disorder.
Violence is, unquestionably, an integral part of many suicides. Poet Sylvia Plath, who was treated for depression and later killed herself, described a terrible violence within her: “I have a violence in me that is hot as death-blood,” she wrote, after an argument with a stranger in a park. “I can kill myself or—I know it now—even kill another. I could kill a woman, or wound a man. I think I could. I gritted to control my hands, but had a flash of bloody stars in my head as I stared that sassy girl down, and a blood-longing to rush at her and tear her to bloody beating bits.” Igniting such a volatile temperament with psychological stress, or with depressive illness or other psychiatric disorder, is often deadly.
According to the Center for Disease Control, suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-old Americans. May is Mental Health Month, and to help raise awareness about suicide among youths, the Department of Health & Human Services is holding an essay competition for students ages 16-18. The contest asks for high school students to describe a teen’s understanding of a specific mental health issue and ideas to promote better health and wellbeing in their communities. Submissions are open, and the deadline is May 31, 2019.
Suicidal thoughts or actions (even in very young children) are a sign of extreme distress and should not be ignored. If you or someone you know needs immediate help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or Crisis Text Line: text “home” to 741 741.
Learn more about ways you can help someone who might be at risk for self-harm.
– Seimi Rurup
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Barranquilla Carnival: Colombia’s biggest party starts Saturday
by Hannah Aronowitz March 3, 2011
The world’s second largest carnival after Rio de Janeiro, renowned for its colorful cultural fusion, begins Saturday in Barranquilla on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
For four days beginning Saturday March 5, normal day-to-day activities in Barranquilla will be suspended as the city is overcome by revelers who flock to witness, and take part in, Colombia’s biggest party of the year. Carnival sparks a transformation of an otherwise drab city in the days preceding Ash Wednesday and Barranquilla’s streets will fill with non-stop festivities including parades, concerts and dances for the enjoyment of locals and visitors alike.
Dating back to the 19th century, Barranquilla’s carnival has roots in the Spanish Catholic tradition but has incorporated aspects of African and indigenous culture, epitomizing the ethnic fusion that characterizes Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The Barranquilla Carnival is a spectacular stage for the region to express its unique ethnic diversity through music, dance, color and costumes.
“Barranquilla’s Carnival is distinct because it is a celebration of the people, of our African, European and American roots. The ethnic dances, unique characters and costumes are unlike the carnival celebrations of Rio de Janeiro, or Europe, for example,”Nestar Romero, a representative of the Carnival of Barranquilla foundation, told Colombia Reports.
A highlight of the scheduled activities include Saturday’s Battle of the Flowers parade, which kicks off the festivities. The traditional parade, which has been a hallmark of Barranquilla’s carnival since 1903, is a procession of flower-adorned floats, bands, dance troops and costumed groups. The parade will be headed by 2011’s Carnival Queen Marcela Davila Marquez, who will toss flowers onto to her subjects and revelers.
The Grand Parade, which will take place on Sunday, showcases local dances including the sultry cumbia which simulates a couple courting, the garabato, a stylized dance that symbolizes the victory of life over death and the torito folk dance in which a group pantomimes a bullfight with singing and dancing.
The four days of festivities come to a close on Tuesday with the “funeral” of Joselito Carnival. Joselito is a character symbolizing the revelry that is carnival. After four days of intense partying, Joselito dies and he is symbolically buried representing a farewell to the indulgence of carnival and the start of Lent, the Catholic period of fasting and prayer before Easter.
For the main parades there will be sections of bleachers where you can reserve a seat for prime viewing, but there will always be standing room for the reveler on a budget.
Extra police forces will be brought in to Barranquilla for the week around carnival to ensure the safety of the tourists and participants of the parades, said Romero.
“Barranquilla is a celebration for adults, it’s a big party, yes, but is also a celebration of the diverse expressions of our culture,” said the Carnival of Barranquilla Foundation representative.
Barranquillabarranquilla carnivalCarnivalculturefestival
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